What have you been reading/writing/watching/learning this week?
Weekly Feminist Reader: Open Thread
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14 Comments
I started reading The Purity Myth, but one chapter in I decided to go back to Full Frontal Feminism so that’s the main text I’m reading this week. I’ve also come across a lot of interesting bloggers active right now, so I’ve been reading some really insightful and interesting pieces on feminism, violence against women (and men), sexuality, race, and gender.
So much to read, so little time!
I wrote Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Guilty Witness [note: domestic violence] on an episode that uses the possibility of intimate partner violence as a pretense for a plot line, all while conveniently ignoring the realities of such violence out in Reality Land.
And about the time my dad took down the swing set in our backyard. Yes, even though I was in college at the time, it was still a big deal.
Also, Eating Inquisition, on relative strangers and food policing.
Finally, an asana post detailing seated wide angle forward bend for the hips and low back.
The Feminist Peace Network is excited to be participating in the 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence, check out our blog post on ways to learn more and become involved, http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2012/11/25/the-16-days-campaign-shining-a-light-on-the-urgent-need-to-end-gender-violence/!
I recently read Ke$ha’s memoir and wrote a review of it here: http://ipgcounseling.com/blogs/courtney-zehnder/kehas-feminist-memoir
saw at huffpo, and while it’s good to have conversations about sex and sexual health i’m not sure i’d want to happen via a government mailer for a doctoral student project…especially an unsolicited government mailer.
also, has anyone seen a lot of contradicting info about the black friday walmart walk-outs? major news outlets seem to be reporting that it wasn’t a big deal, but salon.com is reporting about it as though the walk-outs had a major turnout
I am reading “Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation ” by Leora Tanenbaum. On Netflix I have been watching “Commander in Chief” (the show where Geena Davis is president), “Futurama”, and “The Twilight Zone”.
A Suzanne Venker recently wrote this little gem for Fox News about how if women go around being all feminist they’re never going to get a good man — gee, what an original (and helpful, and accurate) thought, right? Would be more fun if there was a place for comments on the article, but there is none, and no way I can find to contact Venker. Still good for a laugh though.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/24/war-on-men/#ixzz2DHFLHPII
Reading ‘Man Up’ by Carlos Andres Gomez. I saw it, thought it would turn out to be garbage, opened it to a random page in the middle and the author talks about how he realized how hyper-masculine culture derides women or anything feminine, and how wrong that is.
It was a matter of paragraphs. Chapter 3. Page 81. I was sold.
I saw “The Silver Linings Playbook” on Friday. It’s not the most progressive movie ever, but I thought it did a great job of presenting people with mental illness without either demonizing or fetishizing them.
(Spoilers, TW: mental illness)
I really appreciated the portrayal in the film of the different kinds of mental illness and the degrees to which they affect people’s lives. Even the people with seemingly perfect lives– Ronnie and Veronica, for instance– have issues that they try to ignore. Even though Pat and Tiffany are supposed to be the “crazy” ones, they understand themselves much better than most of the other characters do.
And, if nothing else, it was an incredibly diverse movie. Very little was made of the fact that Dr. Patel was Indian (except for the fight scene in which– gasp– a group of football fans DEFEND people of a different race), or that Danny was Black. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was colorblind casting on a lot of these roles, and that makes me very very happy.
Also, Jennifer Lawrence for ALL the awards.
I created this blog for one of my women’s and gender studies classes. It was a lot of fun and I think it turned out pretty well.
http://critiquingadvertising.wordpress.com/
I’ve been reading The Abortion Myth which is really interesting and insightful academic perspective on the subject.
I’ve been writing about “The War on Men” post that went live on the Fox News website yesterday, that is getting a lot of heat http://scenariosusa.tumblr.com/post/36541292226/the-war-on-men
I’ve also written a list of 25 reasons as to why sexism is real http://fearlessfeminism.tumblr.com/post/36547504096/25-ways-women-are-still-unequal-to-men
One thing I looked at was the sexual assault / weird rape apology of Jenny McCarthy for “violating” Justin Bieber at the AMAs. I guess I’d just pass it off as a publicity stunt, but the explanation gets weird.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/gossip/la-et-mg-mccarthy-kisses-bieber-amas-justin-bieber,0,3577726.story
Just some quotes.
“”Wow. I feel violated right now,” said Bieber, laughing off the slurp-stravaganza as he collected one of his three AMAs. “Wow.”"
“She told reporters backstage that yes, the whole thing was indeed spontaneous. “It better be, ’cause that’s just weird if it isn’t.”"
“”It was a little cougar scary,” she said, “but I took the opportunity in the window, considering I’ll never get to do it again, and kind of molested him.”"
“”I want some Bieber fever — and I want a Bieber rash. It’d be like cougar rape.”"
The first thing that popped into my head was this is too rapey to go without response. The second thing was why do MRAs always expect feminists to initiate the pushback? The third thing I thought of was that I had no freaking idea how to generate pushback and the last thing was does pushback need to be generated. If her career is already toast, would it be better to leave it alone?
I read a not so great article from the Atlantic called What to Make of the Rape Accusations at Amherst College here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/what-to-make-of-the-rape-accusations-at-amherst-college/265522/#
So, I decided to write an open letter to the author, Wendy Kaminer here:
http://endrapeculture.com/2012/11/23/an-open-letter-to-wendy-kaminer-author-of-what-to-make-of-the-rape-accusations-at-amherst-college/
Anything that’s not pro-choice and pro-voice is anti-feminist in my opinion, in that vein I’ve been reading through http://everysaturdaymorning.net/ Every Saturday Morning is a blog about being a Abortion Clinic Escort in Kentucky where there are no bubble laws protecting the clinics, patients or providers. In particular Oubli’s experience at a CPC with a wanted pregnancy is a must read – http://everysaturdaymorning.net/2011/12/17/if-it-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/ and the videos of how crazy anti-choice side walk harassers molest women going into the clinic is heartbreaking.