Weekly Feminist Reader

Sadaf RahimiAfghan female boxer Sadaf Rahimi wasn’t allowed to compete in the Olympics but she’s still awesome. “I want to deliver a message to the world through my fighting that Afghan girls are not victims,” she says.

AIDS activists march in Washington, DC to demand an end discriminatory police tactics and the criminalization of HIV transmission.

After being sexually assaulted on her solo circumnavigation of Lake Michigan to raise money for breast cancer survivors, Jenn Gibbons is continuing her journey.

This Reddit thread of rapists telling about their assaults is disturbing and interesting.

Keelin Godsey was the first out American transperson ever to be a serious Olympic contender.

Donate and help Autostraddle get a new website!

The Dominican Republic is weighing whether to allow a 16-year-old girl who is dying from cancer to get treatment even though it will terminate her nine week pregnancy.

Jimmy Kimmel defends Adam Carolla’s comments about how women aren’t funny.

“It is not our community’s responsibility to pay our exorbitant medical bills, to prevent our lives from being annihilated by the cost of illness. It is our government’s responsibility.”

Watch comedian Sasheer Zamata’s video about getting flashed by a stranger on the street.

Badass: Malaysia Olympic shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi is competing while eight months pregnant.

Yet another reason to love Tami Taylor Connie Britton: “My whole mantra from the beginning is this is not a catfight! I’m not doing a catfight!”

Amanda Hess on Marissa Mayer and the divide between women in media and tech.

Surprise! Here’s yet another victim-blaming anti-rape campaign.

Good: The Obama administration has given new federal family planning grants to Planned Parenthood clinics in three states that have cut the organization’s funding.

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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