This Week in Blogs: August 16-22

Happy Sunday! As you may have noticed, I have started posting some link love on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as Sundays now. Sunday's link love posts will be slightly different now. I will include some of my favorite posts since Thursday, but I will also feature some of my favorite posts from the week overall, including posts that were already loved previously. Just a disclaimer: I have been kind of lazy about my reading this week, so the list is not as long as it normally is. I'm always looking for new posts and blogs to read, so don't forget to leave your links in the comments!

New link love:
The Girl on page 194 - Below the Belt
A look at how we judge women's bodies by examining the "real woman" picture in Sept's issue of Glamour magazine.

Sex is scary (at least to some journalists) - Clarissa's Blog
How our fear of sex is a result of the patriarchal culture.

But men aren't pretty - o filthy grandeur
Challenging gender norms through language.

Today's WTF: Fragoli - The Undomestic Goddess
About how lesbianism is portrayed in advertising

Thomas Jefferson: The Face of a Rapist - Womanist Musings
Thomas Jefferson was an integral part of the development of our country, but should we forget that he was also a rapist? Also posted at Feministe.

Weekly Link Love:
Attn. Straight Women: Gay men are not your accessories - Feministing
"Perhaps the more subversive act today is to decline to preface the term "friend" with a description of that person's sexuality."

Michelle O.: "Intellectual Lightweight"? - Salon Broadsheet
Apparently Michelle Obama is not as smart as she thinks she is...

"Blinded by privilege": ableist language in critical discourse - Deeply Problematic
A reflection on how the language we use contributes to the oppression of others.

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The blog is run by Leftunder Books and focuses on indie publishing, writing, reading, feminism, illustration, and some other stuff. Check it out!

This Week in Blogs: August 9-15

I'm thinking of having a post like this more than once a week since the list of amazing posts from other blogs is getting to be really long. Look for a post along these lines on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as Sundays from now on. Sorry for the late posting time today. I was at my cousin's wedding this weekend and didn't get home until Sunday afternoon. I'm always looking for new blogs to read! Leave your links in the comments!

Victim's don't "get raped": on blaming, passivity, and verbs - Deeply Problematic
A great post on the language we use surrounding rape. No one "gets raped," they "are raped." Also don't forget to check out RMJ's ongoing 50 Books for Problematic Times.

5 Reasons We Still Need Feminism - Appetite for Equal Rights
Some people think that feminism is no longer needed (not me!), but here are at least 5 reasons why we still need it!

They tried that in the 90's - FBomb
Where are all the shows that accurately represent the lives and worries of teenagers?

Nonmonogamy and Feminism: A Happy Couple - Feministe
How do "open relationships" and nonmonogamy fit into feminist values?

Kelly Clarkson should consider moving to the UK - Feministing
On the use of photoshopping in the US and the UK and more on the Kelly Clarkson Self cover.

The "Sixteen Candles" date rape scene - Salon Broadsheet
I love John Hughes and "Sixteen Candles" but don't forget about that date rape scene...

So, why do we blog, anyway? (I am deeply disturbed) - Small Stokes
Ashley takes on some of the trends that she sees in feminist blogging that worry her.

Filament magazine and the female gaze - Swimsuit Issue
There's a new magazine out geared towards women that features smart stories and hunky men.

What We Can Learn From the French - The Undomestic Goddess
What do the French have that we don't?

A "feminist wedding" is an oxymoron - Womanist Musings
I've been thinking a lot about weddings recently as I just attended my cousin's. How do feminist values fit into the patriarchal norm of weddings?

Portraying Motivation Behind Sodini Killings

This morning I received an email from my friend who lives in Pittsburgh containing a link to this cartoon:


This is an editorial cartoon from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Rob Rogers. I think it does a good job at portraying the motivations behind the shooting at LA Fitness last week.

I have chosen not to write a lot about this horrible event because I feel like other people have done a better job at summarizing and analyzing the event than I could. So here, I will provide links to some articles that I find particularly interesting about the event:

Once more with feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation for Mass Shooting [WIMN's Voices]
Women At Risk [New York Times]
George Sodini: Misogynist and Racist [Womanist Musings]
Men's Rights Activists, Anti-Feminists, and Other Misogynists Comment on George Sodini [Alas, a blog]
The Sodini Killing [FBomb]

This Week in Blogs: August 2 - 8

My has this been an eventful week. On the good news, Judge Sotomayor was finally confirmed to be a justice on the Supreme Court. A definite piece of history. Then there were the misogynistic and racist shooting in Pittsburgh. Horrific. And the loss of one of my favorite 80s icons, John Hughes. Bloggers have been busy this week, reporting and analyzing this news as well as creating fantastic blog posts. Honestly, posts from everywhere this week were fantastic (not that they aren't always). I had a hard time choosing posts to feature here. The list is especially long this week, but these are some really great posts, so make sure to read through them! And leave links to what you have been writing and reading this week!

50 Books for Problematic Times - Deeply Problematic
There has also been some other great things going on at Deeply Problematic this week, so I suggest that you just go on over there and read through her posts. If I had to pick one to display here, I guess I would pick her feminist defense of Megan Fox. But seriously, just go over there

Movie Posters: A Bitch Flicks Verbal Beatdown - Bitch Flicks
Stephanie R looks at how women are represented in movie posters.

Am I a"good woman"? - Choice Campus Blog
Ellen asks what it means to be a "good woman" and why people can't just be "good people."

Girl Politics - Small Strokes
A new series examining why girls (and women) often "turn on" the most successful one of their peers.

The 20 Life-Changing Lessons in September's Cosmopolitan - Glossed Over
What you can learn from reading Cosmo.

Esquire Writer Explains It's Okay To Watch Chick Flicks - Jezebel
While I have objections to the term "chick flicks," do you think that men can enjoy them? Esquire and Jezebel do!

Race and the White Man - Womanist Musings
All about racism

Breastfeeding doll will lead to horny 5 year olds, pregnancy - Feministing
Because about caring for a baby can lead to 5 year olds having sex. Have these people ever played with a doll, that's what they're all about.

EWW! Is That Period Blood? - Jump Off the Bridge
About the creation and beauty that can come from menstrual blood.

Another magazine another photoshopped woman - Feministe
Self magazine photoshopped Kelly Clarkson to make her more skinny.

On Hollywood's Strong, Self-Hating Women - NPR
Strong business women in movies still hate themselves because they are unsuccessful in their love lives. Heaven forbid a woman succeed in business and be happy in her personal life.

Once more with feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation for Mass Shootings - WIMN's Voices
Some more on the misogynistic shooting in Pittsburgh.

Who's your favorite John Hughes heroine? - Salon Broadsheet
Pretty self-explanatory and and read through her posts.

Books for the Anti-Princess Girl-Feminist - Bitch Blogs
A list of children's books for the feminist-minded girls.

New Hosts for At the Movies - Another Couple of Guys - Women & Hollywood
Why is that movie critics are generally male? Women know stuff about movies too!

The Right to Feel Safe

The other week, I read this post about street harassment. I have never really been exposed to a lot of street harassment. Like the author of that post,

I grew up surrounded with contradictary views on strangers: you could smile at them, wave back at them, because in a small town you probably know them and just don’t remember, but never get in their car.

Then I went to college in a small city where I spent most of my time on campus or in the "downtown" area that was often frequented by college students. The amount of time that I spend in big cities, where I feel like street harassment is more popular, is very limited (hopefully that will change soon as I hope to someday move to a city like Chicago). So I just wanted to clarify that this post is not necessarily coming from personal experience but from observation.

This post states,

Street harassment is a display of power, a public forum for letting women know that they should be avoiding the realm of sidewalks and “staying safe” by sacrificing life at large.

Street harassment is all about power of the harasser over the harassed. And while men can certainly be harassed, street harassment victims are generally women. Therefore street harassment is another example of men exercising their power over women.

As a result of this exercise of power, women are made to feel unsafe. Women are constantly made to feel unsafe in our society in subtle ways. In the previous post "Women in Home Security Commercials," I discussed how advertising for home security system uses women's "vulnerability" to sell systems and increases women's fear within their own home.

Street harassment is just another example of how women are made to feel unsafe. Many may think nothing of it, or just write it off as an everyday occurrence. But it's not. Like the motivations behind rape, street harassment is not sexually motivated, it is an expression of power. And this expression of power contributes to the culture of violence against women.

Women should feel safe in their homes and in their neighborhoods. While a health sense of caution can be beneficial, if women are constantly made to feel unsafe they lose their power. And maybe this is the goal of harassers. But a society where at least half (because it's not just women who face harassment) are made to feel unsafe by society in general is a broken society. Part of living in a democratic society with all of the rights that we have should be the right to feel and be safe.

Is Vegetarianism a Feminist Issue?

I have been a vegetarian my whole life. I have always thought (or liked to think) that it was a quirky personality trait (I don't like the taste/texture of meat) as opposed to a political statement. But recently, the past four years to be exact, while I was at college, I started to think more about what it meant to eat meat and to not eat meat. I have friends who are vegetarians as a political statement and those who are vegetarians to promote a healthy diet.

As a feminist, I started to think about how being a vegetarian was not only a political statement, but how it could also be a feminist one. Part of vegetarianism is protesting the unethical treatment of animals in order to serve human purposes. Part of feminism is about protesting the oppression of women in order to serve white male purposes and about the interlocking forms of oppression. You can see the connection here. The unethical treatment of animals and the oppression of women can be linked in connection to the privilege of (white) males.

The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams (which I haven't read, but it is definitely going on the list) is all about this connection. The Amazon.com description of the book says...

Building upon these observations, feminist activist Adams detects intimate links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women. She ties the prevalence of a carnivorous diet to patriarchal attitudes, such as the idea that the end justifies the means, and the objectification of others.

By connecting the oppression of women to the oppression of animals, we can then see the connection between the slaughter of animals and violence against women. The unethical treatment of animals by (white) males due to the patriarchal society is also linked to violence against women due to the patriarchal society.

And no one shows the connection between slaughtering animals and violence against women (by promoting violence against women) like PETA. The PETA ads are old news, but still relevant. Using women as a way to promote animal rights activism, PETA equates slaughtering animals to violence against women, but not in a good way. These ads are sexist and rather than stopping the unethical treatment of animals (like I'm assuming its intention is), it is making women a piece of meat, ready to be consumed by men.

PETA has been creating these kinds of ads for while, but nothing seems to change despite outcry from feminist communities. You would think that PETA would be more sensitive to the oppression of women because of the connection between vegetarianism and feminism. But PETA is all too aware of this connection, but does not use it productively. PETA uses this connection to further their cause at the expense of women.

So, is vegetarianism a feminist issue? Yes. Should all feminists be vegetarians? No. Being a vegetarian is a personal choice. And what is feminism all about? The freedom for women to make their own decisions about their life, their body, and what they do to or put into their body. I chose to be a vegetarian. Well, chose out of personal preference, but if I liked meat today, I would probably still choose to be a vegetarian. But not everyone has to be. It's all about the personal decision. While I do believe in the connection of these forms of oppression (as with all forms of oppression), being a vegetarian is such a personal decision that I believe that whatever someone decides to do, it is the right decision for them.

Anti-Abortion Violence Deserves It's Own Registry

I was looking through The Huffington Post today and came across this article about the need for a registry of people who have committed violence against abortion clinics or providers. I found the article really interesting and it definitely made me think.

The author, Jacob M. Appel, compares the anti-abortion violence registry to the sex offender registry.

Much as we do not permit convicted pedophiles to teach kindergarten or convicted hijackers to board airplanes, common sense dictates that individuals who have been imprisoned for plotting violence against abortion clinics should never again be permitted anywhere near such facilities.

While I was intrigued of the idea of this registry and could definitely see the benefit of it, I was a little weary while reading the first part of the article just because of the restrictions against free speech. But Appel later addresses this concern.

While shouting at female patients during their most vulnerable moments may be a Constitutionally protected right, doing so does not contribute to a robust marketplace of ideas. Nor does the legality of such demonstrations make them any less distasteful. Civil society would benefit greatly if anti-abortion activists took their protests to state capitals or to the steps of the United States Supreme Court instead.

I think that this idea merits serious consideration. It has benefits for both sides. One the pro-choice side, it helps promote the safety of clients and employees of abortion clinics. On the anti-choice/pro-life side, it further supports their nonviolence mission.

Doing so would lend convincing credence to the anti-abortion movement's claims to nonviolence and would prevent dangerous ex-felons from infiltrating its ranks.

Appel doesn't make any claims that this registry is going to solve the debate over abortion, because we all know it won't. But what it will do is ensure safe access to abortions for women who need them while also stopping violence within the "pro-life" movement.

This article spoke to me on a personal level as well. I recently started volunteering at my local Planned Parenthood. While this clinic does not provide abortion serives, there have still been protests there (because heaven forbid women get basic health care). As Appel asserts, people who committed crimes against abortion clinics in the 80s and 90s are just now starting to be released from jail and it is unlikely that they have shifted their political beliefs.

And this is the case at my local Planned Parenthood. A man was recently released from prison where he was serving time for crimes he committed against this clinic. When he was released, this office strengthened their security measures to prevent any future protests and/or crimes. While I still feel completely safe there, these security measures could turn off people going to the clinic. If this type of registry was in place and there were laws that legally kept this man away from the clinic, these measures would not have to be in place and it could potentially be a safer place for women to come to receive health care.

One More Step Towards Ending Violence Against Women

Today the White House announced the appointment of a new White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, Lynn Rosenthal.

In this new position, Ms. Rosenthal will serve as an advisor to the President and Vice President on domestic violence and sexual assault issues; be a liaison to the domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy community; coordinate with the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) on implementation of Violence Against Women Act programs; coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services on implementation of Family Violence Prevention Act services (including the National Domestic Violence Hotline); coordinate with the State Department and USAID on global domestic violence initiatives; and drive the development new initiatives and policy aimed at combating domestic violence and sexual assault with advocacy groups and members of Congress.

This new office is just one more step towards ending violence against women. While the battle is still far from over, by giving the issue the importance that this office does, more people will become aware of the seriousness of this issue.