Links Round-Up

This week at ShoutOut!:

HannahGrace points out that history was made this week, as two same sex marriages were hosted at West Point, a prestigious military academy. The act that was made possible by two events last year, the lifting of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and the legalization of gay marriage in New York. The marriages are an emblematic victory of the long battle homosexuals have fought to be accepted within the military.

With the holiday season upon us, you might have noticed the many gendered toys filling the aisles of you local stores – pink kitchen sets, “for boy’s only” science sets, the list goes on and on. One blogger shared her frustrations with this and other misogynistic aspects of Christmas , including an interesting feminist reading of holiday classic ”Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

Classifiedsarcastic  sent in this article, which details how the feminist movement is still plagued by stereotypes and some of the negative impacts that these still have.

And this one, which argues that feminism’s work is done, that women have in fact won and the so-called “war on women” is irrelevant. Is this true??

Visionsofourfuture sent in the following:

I remember when I was younger and I used to read Seventeen magazine, so I was shocked when I heard about their new online BMI Calculator — that specifically tells teenage girls that being underweight is healthy. By telling a 17-year-old that the BMI of a 15-year-old is healthy, Seventeen Magazine is perpetuating a terrifying image standard to their young readers who are still trying to come to grasp with their own bodies.

And, if you read Fox News’ oped piece on ‘The War on Men’, you were probably just as frustrated as me to hear how women only need to surrender to their “natural femininity” to allow men to “provide and protect” for us. But don’t worry! Suzanne Venker, the author of the piece, came out and explained what she really meant by arguing that she should have written about “husbands and wives” instead of “men and women” — apparently that makes all the difference in making sweeping, harmful generalizations about genders.

JGrand50 enjoyed an article detailing how the latest Toys R Us catalogue in Sweden depict swapped gender roles for the first time ever. The advertisement shows girls playing with “boy toy” Nerf guns and shows a boy playing with a pink dollhouse. Trivial? Or an interesting sign of societal progress?

In more somber news, the Ugandan government is yet again voting on a “kill the gays” bill– legislation that would punish homosexuality with life sentences or death. Various groups are petitioning to end this idea once and for all.

Eszenyme sent in this article, which summarizes why supermodel and former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is definitely NOT a feminist, namely, because this generation doesn’t need feminism any more….Thoughts?

And this article (comically) discusses the sexualization of young girls through Elizabeth Hurley’s swimsuit line. How young is too young for leopard? Thoughts?

Links Round-Up

This week:

Visionsofourfuture recommends this powerful video put together by Project Unspoken at Emory University asks both men and women what they do in their daily lives to avoid sexual assault and harassment.

Following the re-election of President Obama, this article argues that our country is not the “traditional America anymore” — and good riddance.

Jgrand50 and eszenyme wants you to check out this website that tracks the use of homophobic language on Twitter. It also shows the posts in real time in an attempt to get people to realize the implications of their word choice.

A great opinion piece about the failure of GOP voter suppression legislation. This election showed that no matter what, minority groups will express their rights at the polls.

Link Roundup!

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Here are this week’s link roundups!

eszenyme wants us to read this really great article on how the “world’s ugliest woman” not only deals with judgment from her condition, but how she’s used that judgment to become a motivational speaker and writer about body image.

She also likes this article that discusses feminism in action.  It specifically focuses on male favoritism in the New York Times and whether we can expect a change soon with their new editor.

JGrand says, “In news that shouldn’t surprise any reasonable person, scientists have concluded that HPV vaccinations do not, in fact, cause increased promiscuity in girls.”

He also finds this a great breakdown of Mitt Romney’s repeated sidestepping when it comes to women’s issues. The article sheds light on the truth of his claims.

HannahGrace was not able to attend the Toni Morrison celebration at Virginia Tech this weekend, but many of her friends did and had an amazing experience! Toni Morrison has been writing about women, gender, and race issues since the early ’70′s, and she is still writing today. If you have never read one of her AMAZING novels, start today – our President didn’t honor her for nothing.

Speaking of the President, HannahGrace really can’t wait to have Mitt Romney out of her life. The “binders full of women“ was her last straw in a long, long, long string of comments that turned a good day into a bad one. If you have forgotten the candidates words of wisdom, please visit the tumblr eszenyme found for us earlier in the semester.

Femistorian is thrilled to hear that an 8-year old girl has found an amazing way to share her love of women’s history. Conversely, she’s less than thrilled to hear about the treatment of Hillary Clinton received following a speech regarding the attack on the Libyan embassy. People need to lay off Hils, she has proved her capabilities as a politician and leader time and time again.

visionsofourfuture says, “If you’re like me, when watching this week’s presidential debate, you were more than a little peeved when Gov. Romney said that the solution to our culture of violence was more marriages. There are a lot of reasons why him saying this has me frustrated, and here’s a great article laying it all out!”

She also says, “Last weekend at the New York Comic Con, one female cosplayer who went as Black Cat was sexually harassed during a spontaneous interview by a Stan Lee fan club. This article discusses the incident as well as the overall acceptance of objectifying women who cosplay and how con’s should go about fixing it.”

 

classifiedsarcastic recommends this article about celebrity weight loss for movie roles, but specifically for women. It’s short but does a good job addressing the harm that women in such public setting can have as role models and the danger it causes for women battling eating disorders.

If you need a little pick me up after that, classifiedsarcastic has also found you a hilarious but eerily true article from cracked.com highlighting stereotypes in moves and society. It hits on stereotypes surrounding, women, minorities, and more. check it out

Summer Hiatus/Final Links Round-Up

Hello good readers! We have reached that time of the semester in which regular blogging will temporarily cease for the break between semesters. But do not fear! Come Fall you will have some new bloggers, some returning bloggers, new co-editors and a new feature! This new feature will be titled “I am a Feminist Because…” and in the column the writer will either parse out why they identify as a feminist or interview someone on why they are a feminist. It is sure to be an exciting new series! Sadly, this means that The Bitchin’ Table will be retired in order for this new feature to take its place. While we all have a found place in hearts for the table that we bitched at, we found that the feature had ran its course and that it was time to freshen things up around here. We hope that you join us next semester! And stay tuned for graduating seniors to post their farewell posts this week!

With that out of the way, this week’s links round-up!

Aliasmitch was: “fortunate enough to have a fellow feminist blogger comment on his post on cisexism and share her own post that is much better in exploring how bodily organs are gendered and how cisexism functions. This is a MUST read.”

Eszenyme found: “this article that talks about Brangelina’s recent engagement.  Pitt claimed he would never marry Angelina Jolie until marriage was possible for all couples….He seems to be reneging on his end of the bargain but GLAAD doesn’t mind? Hmm…”

Femistorian was excited to find: “finally, Jezebel delivers a complete guide to Hipster Racism! I’ve been trying to explain this to people for years. Just because you think that cultural appropriation is cute, doesn’t mean it’s okay. And just because you think it’s fun to play at being poor in college doesn’t mean that’s how it is for the rest of us. Not everyone lives paycheck to paycheck ironically.”

Internationalcupcakebandit discovered: “this article from the Hindu.com references a Jezebel blog post about an Indian skin whitener. As an Indian women myself, I see these products everywhere in retail stores all over the South, where women are generally darker skinned. I think both this article and Jezebel’s blog post comment on a very frightening reality, that not only does society pressure women to be skinny and “model-like,” but also to be the whitest they can be. Weird. It’s also intriguing that women in America ironically try to be the tannest possible.”

Katie O. uncovered that: “Sweden continues to be better than everyone else with a national push for using the gender neutral pronoun hen for all people. Advocates propose it so that children can be raised to be good people without being gendered into a hierarchy of difference like every where else. Also, apparently in Sweden the national school curriculum pushes people to ”counteract traditional gender patterns and gender roles.” Amazing. Of course, there are those who do not support this, but the fact that this is a national conversation at all shows how ahead Sweden is in terms of acceptance.”

Kaycorbs444 read “this post on Feministe about the degradation of contraception, both in politics as well as in popular slang used by men AND women. The author analyzes the damage done by referring to oral contraceptives as “whore pills” in a society that demeans women for having a sexuality (cough cough Rush Limbaugh).”

Parklena found that: “we get to see some progress now that the discrimination policy has expanded to include the transgender community. Hopefully it will be enforced well and we can see more big decisions made for equality.”

Wednesday Link Round Up!

So this is the last Wednesday round up of the semester! I really hope that round ups have been beneficial in some way, and anyone has suggestions for improvement or anything, just leave a comment!

Aliasmitch was tickled to know: “that the Genderbread Person is still around, and is now new and improved. If you don’t know about the Gingerbread Person, check it out! It’s a pretty neat activity that breaks down the binaries we place on gender and sexual identity. Fun for the whole family!”

Eszenyme shared: “This article gives a great (and snarky) account of just how much money (and time and obsession) families are spending on prom these days. According to Jezebel, the average family spends over $1000 on one prom for one person alone. Outrageous!”

Femistorian rolled her eyes at this story: “As if we needed further proof that our education system is failing, here’s this wonderful article from Jezebel. Apparently poor Texanna was banned from attending her prom because all she wanted to do was wear a dress fashioned to look like the Confederate flag. Because of course that isn’t racist or historically inaccurate. That poor, poor girl.”

Internationalcupcakebandit is fed up with Florida Governor Rick Scott: “Feministing features an article about Florida’s governor who has apparently used a line item veto to defund the Florida’s legislatures proposal of 1.5 million to rape crisis centers… in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.. Disgusting.”

Kaycorbs444 stumbled upon: “this article from The Huffington Post about the war on women. The author discusses positive effects from the recent publicity of modern feminism. She observes that activity and involvement on college campuses has shown a dramatic increase and postulates a proactive future for our generation in gender equality.”

Katie O. loves “this campaign called 4000 years of choice. The intention is to show that women have been using birth control and having abortions for thousands of years (you know, as long as women have been getting pregnant). In a world where these rights are constantly under attack, it’s amazing to see such positive, affirming language about abortion, not negative, misleading, harmful jargon we usually hear.”

 Parklena couldn’t believe: “Another issue with “fetal rights” in Tennessee where a bill is being passed regarding the idea of miscarriage as murder. It is truly unfair and ridiculous that someone could be charged for murder for what usually is a terrible accident and could cause undue stress on expectant mothers.”

Wednesday Links Round Up

Eszenyme thinks: “This link is great! It features a discussion of what is patriarchy by Ashley Judd. I think it’s great that she takes a more general definition of patriarchy instead of just labeling it men v. women.”

Femistorian uncovered: (TW: Discussion of rape and sexual violence) “quite possibly the best article I have found regarding The Hunger Games. Not only does it discuss the realistic portrayals of female strength in the novels, it also tackles the debate about whether or not young adult novels should contain dark themes such as death and violence. As a fellow rape survivor, this article truly resonated with me, and also helped me understand even further why I am so in love with Suzanne Collins’ best-selling trilogy.”

Internationalcupcakebandit discovered this: “Shocking break through! (Found through feministing.com) Apparently Michelle Bachaman is pro-choice now?? HAH.. NOT. She just wants to crap all over Obamacare.”

Katie O. loves “Busty Girl Comics, a series of comics about issues that busty girls (like myself) deal with. Big boobs are idealized in our cultural standard of beauty, but most people have a seriously unrealistic idea of what (natural) big boobs are like. (Hint: they’re not super round and perky). The comics do a great job of actually talking about issues related to big boobs — back aches, impaired vision, exorbitantly expensive bras (more so than bras for smaller breasts), and difficulty finding clothes.”

Kaycorbs444 found “this article in the LA Times as a follow up to the Romney campaign’s struggle with women’s issues. This segment discusses the larger conflict for the Republican’s election prospects as the author analyzes his wife Ann Romney’s credibility as a feminine voice for working American women.”

Parklena “completely agrees with the writer of this post. Students need to be given a more comprehensive sex education or issues such as teen pregnancy and the rates of STIs will get so much worse. Abstinence-only education does nothing to teach teens about the dangers and protecting oneself from those dangers.”

Wednesday Link Round-Up

Happy Wednesday, everyone! First of all, in excellent news for all of us, internationalcupcakebandit linked to the news that Rick Santorum has bowed out of the presidential campaign. Those of us who shuddered in fear and disgust at the phrase “President Santorum” can all breathe a little bit easier now. But just because (one of) the worst contenders is out, doesn’t mean we should get complacent in this presidential race.

Eszenyme thinks “this blog is amazing! This post is one of many that discuss what it’s like to be a woman in grad school, specifically a woman in philosophy. As a philosophy major, it is super refreshing to hear about someone else’s experiences in the field.”

Femistorian was “thrilled that the New York Times did a profile of Chilean activist Camilla Vallejo, but I’m extremely disappointed (though not surprised) that they chose to focus on her looks. The title describes her as ‘The World’s Most Glamorous Revolutionary’ and within the first 2 paragraphs, she’s described as ‘hot’ and a ‘Boticelli beauty.’ Personally, I’d rather hear her activism described as the most attractive thing about her.”

FemOnFire really enjoyed this article, which reminds us that even though many popular figures are laying claim to feminism, being a feminist simply but unequivocally requires one basic belief. Merle Hoffman explains it wonderfully.

Katie O. learned more about African-American women’s hair in this piece, All Locked Up, by Jamia Wilson. She chronicles her journey from loving her hair to hating it, and from chemically straightening to transitioning to dreads. It’s a fascinating read about how our culture constructs beauty (the whiter looking the better) and about African-American women’s hair, a topic many white people are ignorant about.

Kaycorbs444 found this article from blogger Jason Stanford at the Huffington Post about the war on women in relation to the prospects for Obama and prospective Republican candidates for the 2012 election. Stanford provides a sense of humor as he analyzes the necessary measures Republicans will have to take to win the battle, paying particular attention to Obamacare and birth control.

Parklena discovered a blog article about how men’s reassurances to women insecure about their bodies does not help. It, in fact, makes things worse because they are still seeing women’s bodies as something to be judged and saying things like, “I prefer small boobs” objectifies us, reducing us to our body parts. We also shouldn’t care whether men love our bodies but whetherwe love our bodies.

And, to close, I’d like to include Hillary Rodham Clinton’s great contribution to the blog textsfromhillary.tumblr.com. Apparently the Secretary of State found out about the blog (which is hilarious) and loved it. 

Image via.

Wednesday Link Round Up

Aliasmitch shared this link to a Jezebel post: “In light of the really racist reactions some of the casting in the Hunger Games film caused, Jezebel has written a pretty neat article about cultural whitewashing and how white is perceived as the neutral (hence “everyone” can “relate” to it) race.”

Eszenyme watched a 2 part video series from CNN that features an interview from Nujood Ali. It elaborates on Saturday’s post and includes more stories like that of Nujood.

FemOnFire read “an interesting post about the way we view women and marriage today. It highlights the ways that we’ve changed our expectations, and how we are in some ways stuck in the past.”

Internationalcupcakebandit was outraged by this post, also from Jezebel: “Wow wow wow is what I have to say. Allegedly, in the Miss Universe Canada pageant kicked a FINALIST transgender contestant out of the competition in March. They claim that because she was born with a penis, even though she currently has a surgically constructed vagina, she was “lying” on her application when she stated she was a women. Oh and this pageant is owned by Donald Trump. Im tired of heterosexist America being so freaking intolerant. Disgusting.”

Katie O. watched this powerful video (by way of Colorlines Magazine) by men from Howard University, deconstructing racial profiling and the belief embedded into our white supremacist society that Black men are inherently suspicious.

Kaycorbs444 came across this article about the sudden rise in feminist Mormon women bloggers. The post describes the recent push for equality that still holds true to traditional values of the Mormon faith, such as keeping a journal, etc. It was interesting to see how other Mormon readers responded to the new bloggers’ pages, as several followers clearly dispute topics discussed on the webpages, while others fully support the movement in both gender equality, as well as modernization of their religion.

Parklena also shared an article about the reactions of white Hunger Games fans to Black characters: “As The Hunger Games seems to be talked about recently due to the movie coming out, I found this blog article about the racism from fans regarding casting. It’s disappointing to know that racism is still prevalent in this day and age. “

Wednesday Links Round Up

Hey ya’ll, welcome to your Wednesday links round up!

Aliasmitch wanted to share “this amazing piece of Jazz poetry. I was fortunate enough to see the great Jane Cortez perform about a month ago, listening to her performances afterwards has proven to me that this a voice we need to hear now. This piece is titled “Maintain Control/Economic Love Song 1.”

Eszenyme read this post from feministing discussing a recent ruling that will continue to enforce virginity tests in Egypt. She found the news to be surprising given the recent transition to democracy Egypt has undertaken since ousting Mubarak from power last year.

FemOnFire found this post detailing how male privilege can permeate all different interests, and explains how wrong it is to hold female fictional characters to different standards than their male counterparts.

Internationalcupcakebandit read a post from the blog “feministing”  which accurately reports on a really scary invasion of privacy. A bill in Tennessee could allow access to abortion providers and patients which should be medical records that are always kept private.

Kaycorbs444 found this blog since she’s been obsessed with hating Rush Limbaugh after his negative comments about Sandra Fluke and birth control in the U.S. It does a great job of analyzing just why this scenario is such an issue for American women and their rights with the healthcare system.

Parklena discovered an article about how women’s reproductive rights are not respected in so many different states. It was very informative but very sad that so many women have to jump through so many different bans to get abortions.

Sunday Links Roundup

Yet again, we have another roundup of what we have been reading this week for your consideration and enjoyment.

Aliasmitch found this article about the history of Queer Cinema particularly interesting because: “It not only gives you a pretty amazing rundown of must-see Queer films and why, it also shows the need for members of the LGBTQIQ community to know our cinematic legacy and that only we can make sure that it continues to persevere through our collective remembrance.”

Eszenyme thought that “This link is an interesting follow up to a previous blog post on sexism in video games. Recently, there has been a debate on whether or not gamers can “control” sexist language over the voice chats.  On this post, you can see varying gamers’ opinions on the issue.”

Femonfire found this post interesting because it was “a post on a conservative, religious blog that addresses women’s desire to look good and not receive unwanted attention, and how the two are not in conflict. It was refreshing to read something from a conservative perspective that told women they were not at fault for the actions of others.

Internationalcupcakebandit thinks that ”this article puts the reproductive rights issues in perspective and shows geographically where rights are given and not given to women in the United States. It’s sad that between 2000 and 2011, rights have decreased substantially. Isn’t the future supposed to be progressive?”

Katie O. read a very comprehensive look at a new UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination report detailing serious racial discrimination in Israel. It’s a great post for those who want to better understand the fundamental issues in the Israel/Palestine conflict and better understand Israel and it’s policies.

Parklena found “This article on how Wisconsin passed a bill which will limit abortion coverage as well as imposing an abstinence-only sex education in schools.”