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Feminist Friday: Oh, Just Skip to the Fantastic Broad on the Drums

This Week in Ladybits

A federal judge has blocked North Dakota’s six-week abortion ban, illustrating exactly why those separate branches of government are so crucial. Only about eleventy-kazillion radical anti-choice laws to go… Rachel Maddow elaborates. Ugh. Ross Douthat, who perhaps is not a huge fan of ladies, let us know that Texas will be totes OK, in part because, he argues, women with means will just leave the state for abortion care, just like they do in Ireland. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that “Hey, don’t worry, it’s only going to hurt the poor — not our kind, dear” is an appalling piece of reasoning. Probably because that’s the tacit argument the GOP has been using for quite some time.

Melissa Harris-Perry, as you might imagine, has a different take. She also added her own bit of protest to the Stand with Texas Women demonstrations — complete with very special earrings to protest one of the strangest bans in legislative history. And, finally, a version of “Blurred Lines” that’s actually enjoyable. Thanks to the lovelies at Full Frontal Freedom for this fun, pro-choice tribute to the fine, bold women of Texas. This Week in Thinky

This week we lost journalistic pioneer Helen Thomas. She unfortunately ended her career with some distressingly anti-Semitic remarks, and there is nothing that makes that acceptable. But the 50-some year career before that is, taken on its own, impressive.

This long piece on Comic-Con has some interesting insights on sexism in Hollywood in general and from the “Women Who Kick Ass” panel in particular. (Thanks, RustyPatti!)

National Treasure Dahlia Lithwick explained why North Carolina is suddenly going so legislatively crazy. And it gets pretty damned scary.

And Samantha Geimer, better known as director Roman Polanski‘s rape victim, is releasing a book this fall, in part to take the story back. The book’s cover features a picture of Geimer at 13 years old, taken by Polanski just weeks before Polanski drugged and attacked her. Would Hollywood luminaries still be talking about what a wronged genius Polanski is if he had drugged and raped a 13-year-old boy? I’m guessing not.

This Week in Resistance

A Norwegian woman in Dubai reported her rape to authorities… and was charged with the crime of having extramarital sex and initially sentenced to 16 months in prison. She was later pardoned for the crimes of drinking, having (consensual) extramarital sex, and falsely reporting a rape. She admitted to the drinking, and of course denied the other two charges.

BuzzFeed ran an upsetting photoset from gay rights marches in Russia. These activists are incredibly brave. And Nada Al-Ahdal, an 11-year-old from Yemen, fled her arranged marriage — really a sale — and recorded this video condemning the practice of child marriage. She’s quite the young bad-ass. (Via Gawker) This Week in Awesome

The conventional wisdom among marketers and studios that “women aren’t interested in science fiction, fantasy and comics” took another hit this week. The Mary Sue reported that women engaged in more conversations about San Diego Comic Con than men did across social media platforms this year.

Our own Grace Chu alerted me to this video of Sami Grisafe, who in her spare time from quarterbacking the world champion U.S. Women’s tackle football team belted out what is seriously one of the best renditions of our National Anthem that I’ve ever heard.

The Google doodle celebrated crystallographer (and unsung heroine of discovering the structure of DNA) Rosalind Franklin on Thursday.

I don’t know if you heard, but Britain quietly welcomed a new heir to the throne this week. No, really. Google it. Rachel Maddow reassured us that, even though this one was a boy, he could have been born Georgina and still gotten all she deserved. We also learned a great deal about the Royal Easel. Let’s call it the Royal Sheasel to keep things relevant. Lauren Morelli wrote about getting her first writing job — on Orange Is the New Black.

The Mary Sue ran a fun gallery of genderswap (and other fun twists) from Comic-Con. Oh, HELL, yes. Melissa McCarthy will be teaming up with director Paul Feig again — this time for a spy comedy. If you need me, I’ll be camped outside my local theater.

And finally, this mysterious drumming woman is about to rock your face off. There is so much I want to know about her. But until we do, just enjoy. Have a great weekend. Get out there and rock someone’s world.

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