By Maya Dusenbery • @mayadusenbery • 11 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

Lashinda Demus
Lashinda Demus of the US Olympic track and field team. More awesome Olympic portraits here. h/t Shakesville.

“My mother died of femininity.”

Interesting profile of the founder of Jimmyjane vibrators who’s aiming to make vibrators as well-designed as iPods.

Conservatives have it backward: “Teen motherhood is much more a consequence of intense poverty than its cause.”

Laurie Penney talks to Mona Eltahawy about her controversial Foreign Policy article.

On Tim Burton’s vamps, auteur theory, and the male gaze.

What does a feminist look like? (According to Shuttershock.)

Jennifer duBois on writing across gender: “I don’t think it’s terribly controversial to note that women, from a young age, are required to consider the reality of the opposite gender’s consciousness in a way that men aren’t.”

Nate Smith’s “hot rom comedy white guy” impressions are hilarious.

Maybe don’t take advice about HPV from Girls, ok?

Sci-fi author John Scalzi tries to explain straight white male privilege to dudes who have it without using the word “privilege.” Plus, a good follow-up interview with Scalzi at Colorlines.

This is important: new federal guidelines for prison rape prevention include protections for LGBT and gender non-conforming people.

Anna Breslaw slams comedians like Tina Fey, “whose ‘nerdy’ onscreen persona and adamant faux feminism masks a Thatcherite morality and tendency to slut-shame.”

Iranian female soccer fans have been banned from attending live men’s games since 2006, but there’s hope that may change.

Melissa says, “I like fatties.”

What have you been reading/writing/learning/watching 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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