By Jess McCabe | 25 April 2008, 13:49

Hoyden alerts us to the ridiculous “Open-Source Boob Project”. What is such a thing, you ask? Well, a couple of men distributed badges to women attending a sci-fi con. If you take the green badge, it signals you’re happy for one of these blokes to come up and ask if it’s OK to touch your breasts. A red badge marks you out as not in the market for being felt up.

And, because they’re generous like this, if you don’t wear a badge, they’ll just assume you’re not to be approached.

Quoting machineplay on LJ:

This whole thing is framed and executed so incredibly badly, I can’t even begin to entertain it as valid activism. Why didn’t women get Green for “I have autonomy over this space, don’t even ask to touch me.” and Red for “I’m ready for contact.”? It’s framed totally from the possessor’s point of view. Green, go ahead, means ‘I can possess this’ and Red, stop, means ‘I can’t’. It automatically puts the weight, as always, of denial or submission of on the subject of the question.

The most galling thing about this case, is that the men conceived of this as some kind of progressive project to break down barriers between humans (only in as much those barriers prevent men from feeling up random women, of course).

Lisa at Questioning Transphobia posts the rough-cut trailer for Still Black, a documentary “that explores the lives of six black transgender men living in the United States. Through the intimate stories of their lives as artists, students, husbands, fathers, lawyers, and teachers, the film offers viewers a complex and multi-faceted image of race, sexuality and trans identity.”

The Bilerico Project links up a children’s drawing competition which “serves to put a face on too-often invisible lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) headed families in communities around the country [US]”.

Black Women in Europe profiles Mary Prince, an abolitionist who was enslaved in the late 18th century and went on to write a book about her life.