Here’s this week’s open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we’ve noticed over the last week or so, but not had time to post about.
If you have a link or comment that doesn’t fit anywhere else and would like to share it, feel free to drop it in the comments here.
TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains links to external websites and blogs, some of which have comment threads and other material which some people may find triggering. The links here are posted in good faith but, as The F-Word has no control over the content of external sites, readers are advised to use their discretion and approach them with due caution.
DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER CLAUSE: The inclusion of any link in this post should not be construed as agreement or disagreement with its content by anyone at The F-Word. Links are posted for information and/or discussion purposes only and do not reflect any form of “official TFW party line” on any subject because there is no “official TFW party line”.
- Move over macho man… Meet the union leader who is young, Muslim and female (Wales Online)
- Incredible UK Newspaper Front Page Tackles Low Rape Conviction Rates (Business Insider)
- This Is A Thing? Fake Braces A Deadly Trend Among Teens In Thailand (The Jane Dough)
- Opening Frida’s Closet: An Exhibition of Kahlo’s Clothing Reveals Fierce Feminism (Bitch Magazine)
- 84% rise in child trafficking in UK (Yahoo! news)
- Syrian war refugees flee sexual violence: aid agency (Reuters)
- Jodie Foster ‘comes out’ in opaque Golden Globes speech (Guardian, Film)
- Gamifying Beauty (The Beheld)
- Through film and life, rural women address poverty and early marriage in Egypt (Say no to violence)
- England women footballers secure central contract increase (BBC Sport)
- The Best and Worst of the Golden Globes (Feministing)
- On Feminism, Transphobia and Free Speech (Penny Red)
- Startling chart illustrates success of LGBT movement (Liberal Conspiracy)
- Restorative justice in domestic violence cases is justice denied (Guardian, Cif)
- Women At Work In The 1940’s (Bored Panda)
- Rape. And how men see it (Tehelka)
- Fat Woman Falls Through New York Sidewalk And It’s HIGH COMEDY To A Bunch Of Jerks (xoJane)
- I Was a Misogynist Comedian (The Skinny)
- Meet the real Jane Austen, the prototype Guardian gal (Guardian, Cif)
- Somali journalist arrested after interviewing rape victim (Guardian, Media)
- An Oil Town Where Men Are Many, and Women Are Hounded (NYTimes)
- Solidarity and intersectionality matter (The writings of Mxs Phoebe Queen)
- What Say You Now, Suzanne ‘Brazilian Transsexual’ Moore? (The Transadvocate)
- The High Price of Being Single in America (The Atlantic)
- United Kingdom Pledges To Ensure Abortion Access For Women Raped In War (AWID)
- Girl was ‘sold’ aged 11, drugged and raped by child sex ring, court told (Independent, News)
- Atos comes under attack in emotional Commons debate (Guardian, Society)
- Transgender rights protest at Guardian and Observer offices over Burchill row (Guardian, Society)
- Lives of destitution (Inside Housing)
- A (Goodbye) Letter from the Editor, Cate Sevilla (BitchBuzz)
- Getting Things Done With a Newborn – Part 1 and Part 2 (My Latest Obsession)
- PCC to investigate Julie Burchill column (Guardian, Media)
- Eight reasons why victim-blaming needs to stop: Writers, activists, and survivors speak out (Women Under Siege Project)
- What If We Responded to Sexual Assault by Limiting Men’s Freedom Like We Limit Women’s? (Wronging Rights)
- Jimmy Savile Did Not “Groom the Nation” (My Elegant Gathering of White Snows)
- Desperate girl, 13, fell to her death in ‘ghastly accident’ as she begged boy to delete sex tape (London Evening Standard)
- Rosa Parks Statue to Be Added to the Capitol (NYTimes)
- Unhappy With Your Gross Vagina? Why Not Try ‘The Barbie’? (Jezebel)
- The anti-abortion student group and its links to intolerance (Student Rights)
- The Audacity of Lena Dunham, And Her Admirable Commitment To Making Us Look At Her Naked (xoJane)
- First-grader creates mobile app video game (New Pittsburgh Courier)
- Chemical castration: the soft option? (Guardian, Society)
- Feminism shouldn’t be about telling trans women they’re not female enough (Guardian, Cif)
- Letter: Help Afghan Women (No Women No Peace)
- Guy Talk: Why A Straight Man Like Me Cares About Transgender Rights (The Frisky)
- Julie Burchill and the Observer (Observer, Cif)
- Prejudice: trans people shouldn’t have been subjected to such abuse (Observer, Cif)
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This week’s closing video is “Don’t Want To Know” by John Martyn from his seminal 1973 album Solid Air. There’s quite a nice early 1990s prog-house cover by Spill (Beth Orton & William Orbit) here, but I’ve gone with the original for no other reason than that it’s an ideal soundtrack to a(nother) sleepless night and an almost overwhelming sense of world-weariness:
Image attribution and description: The image at the head of this post is called Blinkenlights and was taken by Helen on her cellphone telephone. It’s a photo of a darkened computer room illuminated by the green and blue lights of active network connectivity devices.