spiffy-mcbang

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By spiffy-mcbang • 13 years ago

98-year-old woman becomes first female 10th-degree judo black belt

Quite a story here. Keiko Fukuda, 98, recently became the first woman to earn the highest rank in judo. While that’s a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself, I can’t recommend enough that you follow this link and watch the video about her. It’s a bit older- made once she reached the 9th dan in 2006- but she speaks openly about the way overt sexism derailed her ascension through the ranks and forced her to make a choice between marriage and judo (which I’m pretty sure didn’t happen to men).

By spiffy-mcbang • 13 years ago

Swedish pre-school fights gender bias

Pretty interesting stuff.

The whole place is set up to put all kinds of stereotypically gendered behavior on equal footing, e.g. putting the Legos next to the kitchen set. They’ve got comments from ye olde concern trolls- a UC Berkeley psychologist is quoted as saying, “The kind of things that boys like to do — run around and turn sticks into swords — will soon be disapproved of. So gender neutrality at its worst is emasculating maleness,” which ignores possibilities like the girls might want to run around with stick-swords too- but they seem to be handling what’s a fairly radical idea (relative to what’s already in existence) as well as they can.

I’m not sure about the whole removal of ...

Pretty interesting stuff.

By spiffy-mcbang • 13 years ago

Swedish pre-school fights gender bias

Pretty interesting stuff.

I’m not sure about the whole removal of ...

Pretty interesting stuff.

By spiffy-mcbang • 13 years ago

10 ways to not rape someone- can’t find it!

Feministers! A while back- quite a while, I think- someone posted a list of ten things guys can do to make sure they don’t rape anybody. It was snarky and smart; I’m trying to find it again, but the Googles are failing me. I think the list was posted here with a link to a small blog where it was also put up, but I’m not 100% on that. Since this was where I saw it, though, I’m hoping somebody here knows where I can find it again.

Help?

Feministers! A while back- quite a while, I think- someone posted a list of ten things guys can do to make sure they don’t rape anybody. It was snarky and smart; I’m trying to find it again, ...

By spiffy-mcbang • 13 years ago

Types of victim blaming

I’m writing a little something about victim blaming with regards to sexual assault and domestic violence, and the main thing I want to focus on is the basis someone might use to victim blame rather than how they do it. But I’m not coming up with too many.

-Style of dress (this seems by far the most common, but I’m open to evidence that I’m wrong)

-Slut-shaming (this can be split into two- behavior at the time of the assault and references to past behavior designed to cast doubt on a current allegation)

-Not working around someone else’s violent triggers, as opposed to holding a violent person accountable for their actions

The first two seem like they would ...

By spiffy-mcbang • 14 years ago

20-year-old woman new Mexican police chief

Marisol Valles Garcia, a 20-year-old criminology major, is the new police chief in Guadalupe, Mexico; she was the only applicant. Located near Ciudad Juarez, one of the hot spots of the drug war, the town’s mayor was killed in June. Even if some of her drive to do this is due to youthful naivete, serious props are in order for the spine she’s showing.

Don’t read the comments unless you want to see a bunch of people talk about how doomed she is.

By spiffy-mcbang • 14 years ago

“Clearly Obsessed”

I’m guessing many of you know about the Cee-Lo song “Fuck You”. If not, Amanda Marcotte has a few things to say about it here. The video is embedded. It’s catchy, and… yeah, that’s about all the positive.

But, fun times- there’s a response video! The artist’s name is Whitney Avalon. She drops the woman’s perspective on the song, does it in a smart and succinct way, and is a very good singer to boot.

Check it out.