This Week in People Saying Monstrously Stupid Things About Your Ladybits
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan suggested that rape is just another “method of conception” as far as he is concerned. Swell guy. Really makes an effort to understand his constituents.
Also not actually spending one fraction of a second thinking about what rape really means? Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith (Yes, R) said that a pregnancy from a rape is “similar” to a pregnancy out of wedlock “if you put yourself in a father’s situation.” I’m assuming that he can’t possibly mean that a rapist is the same as a father in a consensual pregnancy outside of marriage… So is he saying that most dads would just as soon have their daughters raped as get pregnant in another way? I believe I know one or two dads who disagree. The really astonishing thing is that Smith was talking about a member of his own family who became an unwed mother. That’s got to be a hell of a Thanksgiving dinner table.
Governor Bob “Ultrasound” McDonnell (R – VA) dismissed a rape exception as a “detail” in the GOP’s new aggressively anti-choice platform. Governor McDonnell would be the platform chair, yes.
And Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (Do I really need to say R?) started off OK, and then…
Gawker has been kind of great about keeping an eye on all this, and ran a treasury of jaw-dropping clips from the last month.
Yikes. I’m less and less convinced that the “War on Women” phrasing sums up this phenomenon accurately. It seems much more like a calculated decision that women are disposable.
Zerlina Maxwell pointed out that Mitt Romney‘s views on abortion seem to be shifting around rather conveniently. If you always have a uterus (or love someone who does), that sliding moral scale isn’t a comfort. Nor is the claim that Mitt Romney and the GOP platform don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other.
Thank you, Samantha Bee.
This Week in Faint Slivers of Hope for Republican Women
BuzzFeed ran a story on Jackie Curtiss, a 22-year-old Republican delegate who took on her party to oppose a platform banning the morning-after pill. She lost that fight, but at least she stood up and had it.
Joan Walsh of Salon reminded us of the existence of Republicans who support Planned Parenthood. How sad that they’re an oddity now.
And The Jane Dough took a thorough look at Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison‘s (R-TX) claim that the GOP hasn’t taken an anti-woman turn. I don’t think I’m buying it. Hit the comments and tell me whether you are.
This Week in Things to Think About
Two members of Pussy Riot have left Russia to avoid prosecution for the anti-Putin protest that landed three other members of the punk rock collective in jail for two years. Bjork is currently selling Pussy Riot T-Shirts through her website, with all profits going to the Pussy Riot legal fund.
Gawker notes that the three strikes policy for prostitutes in Texas may not be working out as awesomely as everyone thought it would.
Over at The Frisky, Lauren Hunter has an essay on how Doctor Who handles its female characters that I almost couldn’t make myself read because I didn’t want to detract from my own enjoyment of the show. I know there are some fellow nerds over here. Do you agree with Hunter?
This Week in General Bad-Assery
The female members of the Let’s Save Togo party announced a sex strike this week, hoping to generate enough momentum to oust president Faure Gnassingbé – who essentially inherited the presidency from his dad, making Being the President of Togo the family business for about 40 years. Technically, Gnassingbé has won a couple of elections since then, but those wins may have been the teeniest bit shady. CNN ran a summary of the situation and an interesting history of female sex strikes.
Kym Worthy, a Detroit prosecutor, was appalled at the 11,000 untested rape kits in the city’s backlog. She got a federal grant to help get the kits logged and to start the long and very expensive process of testing them – and has already identified 21 serial rapists. 20 of those identifications were from just the first 153 kits tested. If you live in a major city in the U.S., odds are there is a rape kit backlog in your town. There are worse things to bug your state and national reps about.
Nils Pickert‘s five-year-old son prefers to wear dresses, but avoided doing so in public because of the teasing he faced. So Nils bought a skirt so he and his son could go hang out together. Way to be a cool dad who doesn’t force his kid into boxes and doesn’t knuckle under to teasing, Nils. This next piece is from back in December, but since it’s awesome and along those same lines, I’ll link to another cool account of defusing gender-normative teasing. Thanks to Bisera for the link.
While she was at it, Bisera also hipped me to this article on Erin Dimeglio, a Florida high school senior who’s set to start quarterbacking for her team this year. The article has a few of those “But she’s a girl!” touches that you’d expect from an article from the ’80s, but that doesn’t change the fact that Erin seems really cool.
(What’s that? You want to be just as amazing as Bisera? Message me with Feminist Friday tips or tweet them to me @Ali_Davis. You know you want to.)
An NBC affiliate in Utah is refusing to air the gay-friendly show The New Normal. Ellen Barkin? Is not having it.
– Ellen Barkin (@EllenBarkin) August 25, 2012O hai, remember a few weeks ago when a certain breed of geek men were soiling their batbriefs over women who they thought were just faking interest in nerd culture to get attention? The Mary Sue gave us the joyous news that nerdy girls have taken back the meme. I love me some ladies who counterstrike with humor.
Have a great weekend. Get out there and pursue what you love exactly the way you want to.
