Greetings Disruptors!
I’m bored. You’re bored. Time to scour the internet for good reads in bed with my super-bright phone an inch from my face while I am in theory trying to sleep. Do as I say, not as I do. Anyway, here is what we’ve been reading and watching this week. Let us know what feminist articles / videos have been keeping you up at night in the comments below!
- A mental health clinic in Mississippi put this ad on the air. For a terrible, glorious month or so, it was running on television and everything. Imagine what they *could* have done with that money and air space instead. Smh. Content note for slut-shaming.
- California becomes the first state to officially ban the “gay panic” defense to reduce murder charges. And it seems trans-inclusive!
- Also California passed affirmative consent bill on college campuses!
- Jessica Williams from The Daily Show kicks catcalling apologist’s ass.
- A great article on parallels between the problems with the “born this way” narrative and rape culture.
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Oh man we do not want to be that girl in a country song. This song and its video are amazing.
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In other news, Emma Watson stood up for feminism and was threatened with sexual violence. This is a great article on what that means for all of us and why it matters. Content note for rape culture.
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Aaaaaaaaand still can’t read Time without feeling like I’m going to vomit. Content note for rape culture, victim-blaming, the works. Normally I would leave this trash in its heaping pile of trash, but it’s too awful to not call out.
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Also this woman’s response to a street harasser is AMAZING.
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Last but not least, a really interesting discussion on the depictions of gender, same-sex couples and race in Television. No seriously read this: there are fascinating thoughts in here.
This is excellent. Also, how can I go about becoming Jessica Williams’ best friend?
These are all very good articles, although the one by Zach Howe might be controversial. I mean sure, there are probably a number of men and women who feel that they are not born to be a certain sexual orientation. But there will still be TONS of gays and lesbians who will disagree with him. Or they will question him and others like him about being gay and yet having sex with someone of the opposite sex in the past. And by the end of the article, it seemed like that was in fact what happened, as he was confronted about it by some gay men. 😦
Agreed; I would have liked that article a lot better if it had acknowledged the problems in requiring people to have been “born that way” in order to respect their choices, but without denying (the way it seems to me that he did) that there are people whose experience is that their sexual orientation is innate and has been with them their whole lives. You make a great point there.