2012 August Archive | Feministing

A quick note on our new contributor contest

The good news: We’ve had a ton of submissions this week (wheee!) and are super excited about the incredible content y’all have been bringing to the contest.

The bad news: The very high number of submissions have resulted in a bit of a backlog as every post has to be reviewed, edited and published. But don’t worry; we’ll make sure to get them all up and published by the end of the weekend!

Thanks for your patience, and stay tuned for news about round two next week…

The good news: We’ve had a ton of submissions this week (wheee!) and are super excited about the incredible content y’all have been bringing to the contest.

The bad news: The very high number ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

What We Missed

A cool photo history of abortion rights in America.

Laurie Penny on her rape and the recent spate of victim-blaming in the media: “Non-consensual sex is rape, real rape, and good guys do it too, all the time, every day.”

An epic #longread by Ta-Nehisi Coates on fear of a black president and Barack Obama’s conservatism about race.

Lack of funding and a hostile political environment forces pro-choicers to engage in abortion exceptionalism, too.

“To put it crudely, feminist progress right now largely depends on the existence of the hookup culture.”

Gawker published hundreds of documents from Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital which contradict his public statements.

Go see SOMEWHERE BETWEEN, a documentary about four Chinese-American adopted ...

A cool photo history of abortion rights in America.

Laurie Penny on her rape and the recent spate of victim-blaming in the media: “Non-consensual sex is rape, real rape, and good guys do it too, ...

By Gwendolyn Beetham • 11 years ago

The Academic Feminist: Lesbians in Space

Welcome back, Academic Feminists! Our back-to-school edition features an interview with two scholars, Maria Rodó-de-Zárate and Jen Gieseking, whose work explores the production of lesbian space and identify, though from opposite sides of the pond. Maria is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Geography of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, where her work examines the uses and experiences of young people in public space from an intersectional approach. Jen is a Ph.D. Candidate in the environmental psychology program at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and you can read more about her research at her website. I got the two of them together – first over email and then for a live ...

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Did Akin “legitimate rape” doctor meet with Romney?

This is certainly interesting. It appears that Dr. John Wilke and Mitt Romney have a history. Even though the Romney camp is claiming a Romney administration would not ban abortion in all cases with no exceptions, Romney might have some explaining to do in terms of just how connected he is to the “doctor” that told Rep. Todd Akin that women can’t get pregnant from rape.

During the 2008 presidential election cycle, Wilke was an official surrogate for Romney. Here is the official press release welcoming to the Romney campaign back in 2007 as an “important surrogate.” Wilke also claims that just last year he met with Romney who said, “we agree on almost everything.” Now whether Romney ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: Lidia Yuknavitch on the pervasiveness of male violence

*Trigger warning*

Lidia Yuknavitch, whose wonderful new book I just finished reading (review forthcoming), has a must-read piece at The Rumpus on how women “travel through male violence like it’s part of what living a life means.” It begins:

In a bar, with friends, listening to a man I’ve admired for years saying this: “Enough with the sob stories, ladies. We get it. If I hear one more story about some fucked up sad violent shit that happened to you, I’m going to walk. You win! You win the sad shit happened to me award! On behalf of my gender, I decree: We suck!” Laughter. The clinking of glasses. Again the secret crack in my heart. Stop telling.

The first time ...

*Trigger warning*

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

A pro-choice cover of “Call Me Maybe” takes on Virginia’s attempt to shut down its abortion clinics

I know, I know. You thought the “Call Me Maybe” cover trend was blessedly over. But I’m the only person in the world who actually isn’t sick of the song yet. And a group called Cooch Watch 2012 has an important message for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli–which all anti-choice lawmakers could stand to hear.

“I’ve never met you and this is shady.” Indeed.

Cuccinelli has been nothing if not persistent in his attempt to shut down Virginia’s 23 abortion clinics. A few months ago the health board voted to exempt all of the existing clinics from onerous new TRAP regulations that could force most, if not all, of them to close. But Cuccinelli said the board didn’t go ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

What we missed

Can I get pregnant? The flowchart via Mother Jones.

And another thing about Todd Akin… he’s not so much as sorry about what he said as much as he’s sorry it threatens his political aspirations, Sarah Posner’s post earlier this week explores the deep religious roots to his thinking.

Eve Ensler writes a letter to Todd Akin.

Rebecca Solnit’s “Men tell me things,” is this week’s must-read, a re-release of an old essay.

Erin Ryan Gloria on this week’s rape-apologooza, “I am at full rape capacity. I am officially in the throes of rape fatigue.”

Williamson’s piece in the National Review was a little like erotica, wasn’t it…

Can I get pregnant? The flowchart via Mother Jones.

And another thing about Todd Akin… he’s not so much as sorry about what he said as much as he’s sorry it threatens his political aspirations, Sarah Posner’s

By Samhita • 11 years ago

Five reasons Mitt Romney is totally not a #bawse

According to the National Review–100% of women should vote for Mitt Romney because he is a “boss” and not for Obama, because he had daughters (and that like makes him gay and stuff). But in our new diverse, innovative and creative economy, traditional ideas of being a “boss” are changing. For one thing, women actually have jobs now, some of us are even bosses!

So, departing from the mythologies of the right like–the uterus has powers to make rape-sperm blocking patronuses or that all women want to marry rich assholes and produce their male progeny–let’s deal with the real world, where women actually have to get jobs and stuff.

There are certain fundamental qualities that make people good bosses and ...

According to the National Review–100% of women should vote for Mitt Romney because he is a “boss” and not for Obama, because he had daughters (and that like makes him gay and stuff). But in ...