Fifty Shades of Sexual Assault: Y’all, I told you.
[Trigger warning for rape]
A University of Illinois student is facing charges for sexual assault after, he says, trying to re-enact a scene from — yup — Fifty Shades of Grey. Mohammad Hossain is accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student in his dorm room Saturday night, Christian-Grey-with-a-belt-in-the-Red-Room-of-Pain style.
...read moreThe Oscars: A Twitter-Eye View
I didn’t watch the Oscars because nobody was paying me to, but I did follow my friends watching them on Twitter, and here is what I gather: 1) Patricia Arquette made the stupidest white mainstream feminist plea for equal pay ever, claiming that “gays” and people of color need now to step up and fight […]
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Open Thread with Rainbow Lorikeets
These two rainbow lorikeets having a little rest in one of Sydney’s Botanical Gardens are the hosts for this week’s Open Thread. Please natter/chatter/vent/rant on anything* you like over this weekend and throughout the week.
* with a few netiquette exceptions
Conversations: Rape, documentary filmmaking and triggers…
Millennials, social media and damning federal investigations are reshaping rape culture’s topography, as more women push back against a culture that loves protecting rapists and vilifying victims. One survivor of childhood slut-shaming opted to make her experience public, posting her diary from childhood online. And after hearing from other women their harrowing encounters with rape culture and victim-blaming, she decided to try making a documentary about rape culture itself. This post stems from Feministe’s interview with the accidental feminist filmmaker behind Slut: A Documentary Film…
...read moreSeasalt & Co. advertises Photoshop tools using lynching imagery and only gets more offensive from there
[Content note for lynching imagery]
Now, some might see an eerie, atmospheric black-and-white shot of a tree with a noose hanging from it, titled, “The Hanging Tree,” and think, “Oh, God, lynching.” Accompany that image with an all-caps, italic COMING SOON, and some might think, “Wow, that’s verging on threatening.” But if you look at those things and think, “I bet there’s a new Photoshop action pack coming out, and I for one can. Not. Wait,” then either you work for Florida creative tool company Seasalt & Co. or are a friend of theirs and need to step in and tell them to get a grip.
...read moreYou can’t possibly be crying?
Guest Post by Malinda: “It wasn’t long into my adult life when I lost my daughter to Spina Bifida, very unexpectedly. Not only was the pregnancy unexpected, but so was her death. And I found myself thrust into a completely different part of life, in uncharted waters. At 20-years-old I had an immense amount of grief to learn to cope with; but at the same time I needed to find my way back to “normal” life, whatever that may be.”
...read moreIt’s really about ethics in food journalism
Uh-oh. Someone better warn the “Food Babe” aka Vani “there is no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest, ever” Hari about that scarily ubiquitous chemical molecule dihydrogen monoxide and the evil conspiracy to make the world believe that DHMO is totally safe for us to ingest.
...read more![A portrait of Darwin taken in his home circa 1880, by Elliott & Fry [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://web.archive.org./web/20150225181507im_/http://www.feministe.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Darwin_restored2_wikimedia-150x150.jpg)
Open Thread with Charles Darwin’s Beard
It was Darwin Day this week, so Chas’ beard features for this week’s Open Thread. Please natter/chatter/vent/rant on anything* you like over this weekend and throughout the week.
* with a few netiquette exceptions
Just a few reminders before you buy those “50 Shades” Valentines
[Trigger warning for sexual violence and emotional abuse]
Valentine’s Day is coming up! That day of romance, of togetherness, of coupledom, of… domestic abuse… Valentine’s Day is the release date of 50 Shades of Grey, that sensationalistic movie based on the “How to Spot an Abuser” pamphlet in your college guidance counselor’s office. Women and men who have read the book and know perfectly well what the story is about will flock to theatres, either a) dreaming of the day that they’ll be stalked and violated by someone as dreamy as Christian, or b) hoping to score on Valentine’s night with the person they took to the movie. And while people are free to get their rocks off to whatever they want (within certain limits), it’s important to acknowledge that what may (for some reason) come across as sultry and sexy on the page would, in real life, be a Razorbacks halftime show’s worth of red flags.
...read morePoliceman arraigned in murder of Akai Gurley
So, finally a police officer has been indicted in the shooting death of an unarmed black man: Peter Liang is being indicted on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of official misconduct. This is of course “good” news. But I can’t help but notice that the one cop […]
...read moreThree young Muslim students murdered
I’ve been trying to find a good link for this story on and off all morning, but I can’t. I’m pulling together what I’m reading off my Twitter feed. If anybody has a good link, please leave it in comments and I’ll add it to the post. Update: here’s a link, with thanks to Pseudonym. […]
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