Weekly Feminist Reader

a male marine kissing his boyfriend“No matter who you are, love is love.”

The Hairpin talks to the makers of the Desire Project–“a website about what women want and how they get it.

Elizabeth Mendez Berry and Salamishah Tillet say the Rihanna/Chris Brown story “was a teachable moment without the follow-through.”

The trial over Egypt’s forced virginity tests has been postponed yet again.

Happy blogiversary to the Crunk Feminist Collective!

An interesting Times article about how young women are linguistic trend-setters.

Ebony looks at some of the transgender pioneers throughout African-American history.

Virginia may have dropped the transvaginal part, but remember that regular old mandatory ultrasound laws still suck. Plus, Texas currently has a transvaginal one.

Gender Across Borders and CARE are teaming up to host the Third Annual Blog for International Women’s Day on Thursday. Sign up now.

IWD will also mark the release of The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights, a new collection of essays from 30 writers, activists, policymakers and human rights experts.

18 Senators support adding a marriage equality plank in the Democratic Party platform.

In response to the recent ever-present attacks on reproductive rights, the National Women’s Law Center has launched a new campaign to say “My Health is NOT Up for Debate.”

Lucy Liu is going to play Dr. Watson in the new adaptation of Sherlock Holmes!

THIS. “Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut” because she asserted her right to speak publicly about and make publicly thinkable a set of experiences and problems that he has a very direct and personal interest in excluding from public space.”

Emily Rapp on absolute truths: “I’m so grateful that Ronan is my child. I also wish he’d never been born.”

I am super excited to learn about the Sex Diaries Project.

In response to the VIDA numbers on the byline gender gap, Alyssa Rosenberg lists ten women writers you should be reading.

An interview with Rachel Lloyd of the Girls Education and Mentoring Service (GEMS).

On the sexism evident in the buzz around Pinterest.

New York is considering a much-needed bill to keep the possession of condoms from being used as evidence of prostitution.

“That’s when I was given three choices: terminate the pregnancy now, do nothing and likely miscarry, or induce and deliver vaginally a baby who will die or be dead.”

What have you been reading/writing/watching/learning this week?

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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