By Louise Livesey | 15 January 2009, 12:43

Apologies all for my absence from this blog for a month - did you miss me? Festive seasons and the like over I’m back and today bring you some things of interest to read….

First up Chay magazine is a publication from Pakistan looking at gender and sexuality issues. Run by women and with mostly female contributors it’s a fascinating read. Maryam Arif’s article on the Gender Spectrum calls for debate about how and why gender is constructed in certain ways and Ponni Arusu’s looks at transgender issues in Pakistan (hijras in Hindi and aravanis in Tamil).

Next up is Womanist Musing’s piece on white privilege and changing the world. All I can say is “Yes!”.

Don’t refer to me as articulate, or tell me that I don’t sound black. I went to school just like you did and believe it or not they teach blacks to read, write, and do math…Yeah I know who would have thought eh? It is further unnecessary to continually refer to the color of my skin. I own a mirror and I am not shocked when I look in the mirror and see a black face looking back at me.

I am not beautiful for a black girl. I am a damn gorgeous black woman. This does not mean you get to go on about how exotic I am, or question were I am really from. My birth certificate says Canadian and that makes me just as Canadian as you. Not all blacks got off a boat from somewhere, or are looking to find someone to marry for the sake of citizenship

When you see me with my children, don’t assume that they don’t have a father awaiting our return. I know that the media projects the idea that we are all single mothers, but some of us are in happy faithful relationships. Just because I am a black woman do not assume that I have an open for business sign on my underwear. Whiteness has taught you that you are irresistible and that all black women crave dick continually, but I will shut you down and publicly shame you, so please for the sake of your own self pride, stick to stroking one out over a porn mag, you will find no satisfaction here.

In a different vein, Women’s Space has a review of the International Museum of Women, for which The F Word also got publicity. And WS is right, it is amazingly interesting, you could get lost for hours amongst the content there, so go and enjoy!

And finally two pieces from Screaming Into the Void - first up one calling time on evolutionary psychology as an explanation for the oppression of women, and about time too. It neatly faces down, through use of evidence, all the ridiculous claims made by Evo-Psych patriarchy-apologisers. Second is the article on why Fat Acceptance campaigns which only focus on the beauty and attractiveness of fat women are massively problematic.

Meanwhile in other news - why is it this site has to stretch to a journalist as one of the top sites on Women’s Studies? No disrespect but there are surely more than enough good Women’s Studies sites out there with the activist-academic link that subject demands? If not then maybe, just maybe, we need to start one! Similarly their Men’s Studies list absolutely misses the point - Men’s Studies isn’t a way of getting MRA attittudes taught, Men’s Studies is about the systematic and critical analysis of the construction of masculinity and related issues. Don’t take my word for it - Wikipedia agrees!

And finally, because I obviously can’t manage an entry without a mention of sexual violence - hard on the heels of this comes Fritzl the musical. Yes an Austrian “stand up comedian” has decided to spin some press coverage by creating a musical based on the imprisonment and multiple rapes of a woman and her children. The theatre bills it as “satirical” - I say stop hiding behind descriptions such as “irony” and “satire” and admit you’re just making a buck out of woman-hating.

Note - no I don’t believe Wikipedia is the font of all knowledge but even if the relatively conservative Wikipedia agrees then I’m not saying anything outlandishly outre!