2012 December Archive

Holiday conundrums: What does a feminist gift look like?

That’s not a set up for a joke. It’s a serious question.

There’s a lot to be said about conspicuous and excessive consumption, about the push to buy buy buy before the holidays, and then right after, in grotesque “door buster” sales. There’s a lot to be said about buying from businesses and corporations that are or are not responsible and ethical. There’s a lot to be said for allocating resources – the money you’d use to buy stuff for people – elsewhere, like giving to a charitable organization or cause in their name. I’m aware of all of that, and every time this time of year rolls around, those thoughts roll around in my head.

Like you, I want to ...

That’s not a set up for a joke. It’s a serious question.

There’s a lot to be said about conspicuous and excessive consumption, about the push to buy buy buy before the holidays, and then right after, ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Quick hit: Kate Harding has a message for Men’s Rights Activists

It’s a short one, just two words, and it’s not suitable for work. Luckily – for us, because Kate is a gorgeous writer and I’d happily read a shopping list that she scrawled in eyeliner on the back of a bus pass – she expanded on those two words a little in her entry to Jezebel’s “Fuck You Week”:

Fuck you for showing up every time women speak, especially about rape and abuse, and trying to make it all about you. Fuck you for derailing threads about the victims of Marc Lépine, a man who screamed about his hatred for feminists as he murdered fourteen women and injured many others, because you also hate feminists and ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

“I’m not a gynecologist, but…”

No shit you’re not a gynecologist. No one with any real knowledge of or expertise in the functioning of the female anatomy would think what you just had the mindlessness to say what this guy just said out loud.

Derek Johnson, a California judge, has been sanctioned by the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance for being a time traveler from a previous and less enlightened age. He’s been reprimanded for saying, in a judgment in a rape case, that the victim didn’t put up enough of a fight against her attacked, going on to say,

“I’m not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

What We Missed

Amanda Marcotte recounts an evening of feminist writing, and the sort of vitriol we put up with doing this work.

A same-sex spouse was excluded from a military spouse group despite DADT repeal.

Elizabeth Warren was appointed to the Banking committee, as well as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which is a BFD.

The Senate finally dedicated some time to thinking about the school-to-prison pipeline.

In 2012 “absurd comments about rape almost became the equivalent of political suicide.”

Jill Filipovic on the Good Men Project and their recent e-fight.

Infographics explain how opinion trends on same-sex marriage vary regionally.

From Editor Emeritus Ann Friedman: “To succeed, [Hillary Clinton] needs to be liked, but to be liked, she needs to temper her ...

Amanda Marcotte recounts an evening of feminist writing, and the sort of vitriol we put up with doing this work.

A same-sex spouse was excluded from a military spouse group despite DADT repeal.

Elizabeth Warren was appointed to ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

The Good Men Project thinks men are bad, easily confused

*Trigger warning*

I wish I didn’t have to follow the current rape apology fustercluck with Alyssa Royse and the Good Men Project (which, admittedly, I never paid much attention to anyway). I do think we need to call out defenders of rape culture who go around calling themselves feminists, but also I’m exhausted from having to do just that way too much.

Something about the Good Men Project’s basic concept, and their name, has always bugged me, though. Last night, Jaclyn Friedman posted something that crystalized the problem for me. In this piece about a Facebook status where Royse basically admits GMP is trolling for traffic, Jaclyn offered some brief commentary:

Something that hasn’t been said enough about ...

*Trigger warning*

I wish I didn’t have to follow the current rape apology fustercluck with Alyssa Royse and the Good Men Project (which, admittedly, I never paid much attention to anyway). I do think we need ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Desmond Tutu writes in protest of Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bills

Yesterday South African anti-apartheid activist and former archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote an op-ed urging members of the Uganda parliament to reject the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. While the new legislation no longerseeks to punish “offenders” with the death penalty, jail terms up to life in prison will await those found guilty of engaging in queer sex or “promot[ing] gay culture.”

Tutu’s piece, published in the Daily Monitor, utilizes a religious argument against discrimination and compares contemporary homophobia to colonial racism. While he places a conservative emphasis on tolerance—a far cry from true acceptance or celebration of queer life—Tutu still presents a pretty radical idea of interdependency. He writes:

One thing that Ugandan legislators should know is that God does not discriminate ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

Matt Lauer is gross, Anne Hathaway kicks slut shaming’s ass

Anne Hathaway went the Today show yesterday to promote Les Miserables (which I am ridiculously excited about like the big nerd I am). And Matt Lauer took the interview as an opportunity to be a disgusting, patronizing pig.

Hathaway had a “wardrobe malfuction” while getting out of a car at the New York premiere of Les Mis. Because our culture is gross like Matt Lauer, photographers quickly snapped shots of Hathaway’s crotch and then spread them all over the internet. And then Lauer treated the photos like they were news. He opened the interview with “Seen a lot of you lately,” which Hathaway gracefully tried to laugh off. But Lauer kept pushing, leaning towards her with a knowing look of paternalism *shiver*: ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

Michigan’s lame duck Senate passes legislation that would effectively ban abortion

Remember Michigan’s Chubby Hubby of anti-choice legislation that Chloe wrote about in June?

Except instead of a whole bunch of delicious things rolled into one yummy ice cream, it’s a whole bunch of shitty anti-choice measures rolled into one awful bill.

At the risk of sounding like Stefon, this bill has everything: state-mandated scripts for doctors that masquerade as faux concern for women who are being coerced into abortion, new TRAP laws to make insurance more complicated and expensive for providers, stricter regulations for clinics, new rules about the disposal of fetal remains that would affect women who have miscarriages as well as abortions, and a new measure requiring the presence of a doctor for a medical abortion in a state ...

Remember Michigan’s Chubby Hubby of anti-choice legislation that Chloe wrote about in June?

Except instead of a whole bunch of delicious things rolled into one yummy ice cream, it’s a whole bunch of shitty anti-choice measures rolled ...