Tag Archive for "Harassment"

Posts Tagged Harassment

Lose-lose situations in which misogyny always wins and sometimes kills

*Trigger warning*

There seems to be no shortage of advice for women about how best to deal with the constant barrage of harassment we’re expected to put up with for the privilege of existing in public spaces. Generally, it tends to fall into two categories: 1) ignore it or 2) very firmly and unambiguously make it known that it’s not welcome. Tellingly, despite being pretty much opposite approaches, both are supposed to ensure that you do nothing to “encourage” it.

A woman in Queens apparently tried the first tact. When an unknown man approached her in the lobby of a building and tried to talk to her, she ignored him. It was just after 5 AM, ...

*Trigger warning*

There seems to be no shortage of advice for women about how best to deal with the constant barrage of harassment we’re expected to put up with for the privilege of existing ...

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 9 years ago

Are we listening to Syrian women?

In the ongoing crisis in Syria, we’ve rarely heard from mainstream media sources about how Syrian women have been experiencing this violence, and the ways that gender-based violence is impacting their lives in this time of crisis.

By Katie Halper • 9 years ago

Media manages to make Senator Gillibrand’s teachable moment about sexism all about her mistakes

The media never ceases to amaze me. Its victim-blaming knows no bounds. Whether its Ray Rice’s then-fiancé who got herself attacked by not taking the stairs, or female celebrities responsible for getting hacked because they had naked photographs of themselves, the women who are assaulted and/or violated are always the focus.

This victim-shaming is so egalitarian and so equal-opportunity, it applies to extremely powerful people — like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Yet again, as Senator Gillibrand tries to raise the issue of sexism within the Senate, the media responds by blaming her for the way she’s doing it. Because… it’s a Tuesday.

By Syreeta McFadden • 9 years ago

Releasing a creepy, stalkerish video is not how you “get her back”

Last night, Zerlina tweeted the most important hashtag of the year to date: #stoprobinthicke2014.

Robin Thicke’s very public heartbreak and estrangement from his high school sweetheart and wife of 11 years, Paula Patton, continues to skeeve out a weary public. A video of his upcoming single “Get Her Back” from his new album, Paula–which has an eyebrow-raising and cringe-worthy tracklist–shows the singer bloody-browed and bare-chested with images of a woman favoring Patton drowning in water. There are flashes of face masks that border on erotic and nightmare. Aesthetically, the video appears to be a mashup of D’Angelo’s “Untitled” meets Rihanna’s “Roulette” and Jay Z’s “On To The Next One.” The video concludes with a text that reads, “This is just ...

Last night, Zerlina tweeted the most important hashtag of the year to date: #stoprobinthicke2014.

Robin Thicke’s very public heartbreak and estrangement from his high school sweetheart and wife of 11 years, Paula Patton, continues to skeeve ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Photo of the Day: Restaurant’s awesome response to customer’s demand that servers “show more skin”

Recently, a customer at the Atomic Grill in Morgantown, West Virginia complained on UrbanSpoon that the restaurant’s servers should “show more skin.” Because, obviously, as everyone knows, when you go out to eat, you are paying not just for the meal but also the chance to ogle the women whose job it is to serve it to you.

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Misogynistic gun extremists are harassing women speaking out for gun reforms

Mother Jones has an important and disturbing piece about how gun extremists are harassing women speaking out for gun reforms.

Ever since the Sandy Hook massacre, a small but vocal faction of the gun rights movement has been targeting women who speak up on the issue—whether to propose tighter regulations, educate about the dangers to children, or simply to sell guns with innovative security features. The vicious and often sexually degrading attacks have evolved far beyond online trolling, culminating in severe bullying, harassment, invasion of privacy, and physical aggression. Though vitriol flows from both sides in the gun debate, these menacing tactics have begun to alarm even some entrenched pro-gun conservatives.

The women featured in the piece — ...

Mother Jones has an important and disturbing piece about how gun extremists are harassing women speaking out for gun reforms.

Ever since the Sandy Hook massacre, a small but vocal faction of the gun rights movement ...

By Katherine Cross • 10 years ago

Out From Privacy’s Penumbra: What the “Peeping Mike” Case Tells Us About Women and Law

In her peerless analysis of privacy’s social construction, feminist legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon pointedly observed in Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws that,

“The realm in which women’s everyday life is lived, the setting for many of these daily atrocities [rape, battery, sexual assault], is termed ‘the private.’ Law defines the private as where law is not, that into which the law does not intrude, where no harm is done other than by law’s presence. In everyday life, the privacy is his.”

This dramatic reframing of women’s experience was one that forced us to consider what our cherished notion of “privacy”—that evanescent constitutional right that Supreme Court Justice William Douglas found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the 1789 document—actually ...

In her peerless analysis of privacy’s social construction, feminist legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon pointedly observed in Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws that,

“The realm in which women’s everyday life is lived, the setting for many of ...