Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s get started.
This Week in Ladybits
It’s like some states are having a Jerk Derby lately.
The South Dakota Senate passed a bill that would give their state the longest waiting period in the nation — and assumes that women’s brains and uteruses don’t function on weekends and holidays. I shudder to imagine where these doofuses think mail comes from.
The Minnesota House voted to eliminate safe abortion care for low-income women and restrict abortion coverage in the state’s insurance exchanges.
Mississippi defeated a personhood bill a little while ago, but the personhood folks have decided that voters weren’t really opposed to it, they were just too stupid to know what they meant. So there’s another attempt to get it on the ballot.
Two Texas legislators have introduced a “fetal pain” bill that flies in the face of science.
The Arkansas legislature, apparently enraged by years of people mispronouncing the state to sound like Kansas,* overrode a second freaking veto this week to pass the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation. The bill was vetoed (in two different forms) because it’s clearly unconstitutional, so the law is, with luck, eventually going to get overturned. Which doesn’t do pregnant women who can’t afford to get out of the state a hell of a lot of good right now.
Republicans: Even if you are a lady and even if you are talking about how Todd Akin was an idiot, please, for the love of Shesus, read a freaking biology textbook before you say something stupid suggesting that rape equals birth control.
And ladybits will be on billboards at the University of Cincinnati today, thanks to the school’s LGBTQ Alliance and UC Feminists. The art project is called “Re-envisioning the Female Body,” and is a direct response to the UC Students for Life, who have been driving trucks around campus with huge pictures of aborted fetuses on them. Wonkette has a trenchant summary of the situation.
This Week in Thinky
In response to last week’s article about the perils of being a journalist while female, Gawker provided some helpful tips for dudes on how to talk to female journalists. They also linked to the occasionally jaw-dropping Said to Lady Journos tumblr. The Lady Journos tumblr, in turn, linked to this Columbia Journalism Review piece on dealing with harassment and sexism. It’s geared toward journalists, but there’s some good all-around advice.
Melissa Harris-Perry asked if she could get a side of context with that Harlem Shake.
Anyone feeling the Lean In campaign?
Sasha Weiss wondered in The New Yorker if all the hate that gets thrown in Anne Hathaway‘s direction is because she’s happy, and, more to the point, girlish. Amanda Marcotte unpacked that a bit in Slate’s XX column.
College Humor wondered what it would be like if people talked about Seinfeld the way people talk about Girls.
And The Verge ran a frustrating article on women trying to get venture capital in Silicon Valley.
This Week in Ugh
Iowa State Representative Ted Gassman wants no-fault divorces to be illegal in his state, because divorce might cause his teenage granddaughter to have sex.
And even though we JUST HAD an election, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) and the GOP are awfully nervous about the challenge McConnell might get from actress Ashley Judd. So noted trashbasket The Daily Caller tried to undercut her run by essentially saying “We Saw Your Boobs.” Charming. (No, that link is not to the Caller. Please.)
This Week in Progress
Hell, yeah Carly Rae Jepsen. She (and Train) dropped out of headlining the national Boy Scout Jamboree because they won’t let gays in. Call her maybe when you stand up for tolerance, Scout leadership.
Only 6 of President Obama‘s 35 judicial nominees are straight white men. Now if he can just get one of them confirmed.
This Week in Not Having It
Zerlina Maxwell does not care for Sean Hannity telling women to do one more thing (this time carry handguns) to prevent rape. Way to not listen to a damn thing she’s saying, Hannity. (Trigger warning)
Also, major props to Maxwell for gracefully weathering an appalling storm of vile and threatening tweets for the crime of speaking her mind ever since the segment aired.
This Week in Awesome
Rugby player Phaidra Knight is using Indiegogo to try to fund her Olympic bobsled dreams.
Karen Hallion showed us a glimpse of an adventure I’d really like to see. (Hat tip to The Mary Sue.)
The New York Times Magazine featured reminiscences from Nora Ephron‘s son on her last days.
io9 ran a swoony list of 10 great fictional female scientists.
And Carrie Brownstein reminded us that just because you’re a feminist doesn’t mean you have to eschew cooking.
Now that I can no longer get my horse meat fix at Ikea, anyone know any good homemade recipes?
– Carrie Brownstein (@Carrie_Rachel) February 25, 2013
Have a great weekend. Get out there and whip up some mischief yourself.
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*Including my third-grade reading teacher, who gave me an “unsatisfactory” for insisting on pronouncing it correctly in spite of her trying to get me to say it the wrong way, and who wins that argument NOW, Mrs. Name Withheld?!
