Weekly Round-Up And Open Thread, 10 January 2011
by Helen G // 10 January 2011, 08:59
TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains hyperlinks 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.
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.
- New Yorker Boycotted For Lack of Female Writers (Jezebel)
- Middle-aged actresses are Hollywood's new hot properties (The Providence Journal)
- Women Laughing Alone With Salad (The Hairpin)
- The Takeback (Blog: "meditations on masculinity, politics and culture")
- Women Directors Improve Corporate Performance, but Remain Underrepresented (Social Funds: Sustainability Investment News)
- Women in London's economy - Update 2010 (GLA Economics)
- Filipina Feminists, Firebrands and Freedom Fighters (Ms. Magazine blog)
- Joan Smith: How about telling men, not women, to stay indoors? (The Independent)
- Twitter plea missing girl Serena Beakhurst found (following criticism of lack of media coverage of the case) (BBC News and Voice Online)
- Myth-Making and the "We Can Do It!" Poster (Sociological Images)
- Hundreds pregnant in UK despite contraceptive implant (France24)
- Why Jim Needs to Remain Huck Finn's "Nigger" (ColorLines)
- Kanye West and his sexy, dead bitches in "Monster" video (A B O U T - F A C E)
- Curiouser And Curiouser. Or the Media Bias About Gender (ECHIDNE of the snakes)
- Regrets of a stay-at-home mom (Salon)
- Education offers exciting future for ambitious Afghan girls (British Council blog)
- Black Feminist Book Club: When and Where I Enter (What Tami Said)
- Kenya: No Easy Path for Disabled Women with Political Dreams (IPS News)
- Name discrimination: the formal case to answer - and update, here (Sex Matters)
- Nicki Minaj: 1st Female Platinum Rapper in 8 Years (Feministing)
- Rants of a Gamer Girl: Playstation Is My Least Favorite Console (Feminist Fatale)
- Why I Didn't Delete Tiger Beatdown (Tiger Beatdown)
- Beyond the Panel: An interview with Dorothy Gambrell of Cat and Girl (BitchMedia)
- Salon's Broadsheet Sadly Shuttered (Jezebel)
- My first day as an abortion doula (Radical Doula)
- The Conservative Party and 'discredited feminist myths' (LabourList)
- Grooming and our ignoble tradition of racialising crime (The Guardian Comment Is Free)
- Sperm and oocyte donors' experiences of anonymous donation and subsequent contact with their donor offspring (Human Reproduction journal, abstract)
- Two Episcopal Lesbian Leaders 'Marry' in Boston Cathedral (Catholic Online)
- Tears as chemical signals - smell of female tears affects sexual behaviour of men (Discover Magazine blog) - perhaps the most succinct response to this story that I've seen is at Feministing: "For Serious?" News of the Day: Women's tears are a boner-killer, while Ms Magazine has a lengthier analysis
- Perception of Our Heartbeat Influences Our Body Image (Science Daily)
- Vogue Paris thinks it's chic to sexualize young girls (A B O U T - F A C E)
- Appeal- The Suffragettes' Tree (Feminist Memory)
- MSF Treats Victims of Mass Rape on New Year's Day in Democratic Republic of Congo (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders)
- Black Fridays: What's Race Got to do With it? (Yoruba Girl Dancing)
- Disability benefit cuts 'could breach law' (BBC News)
- Joanna Fateman (of Le Tigre) reviews a biography of The Feminine Mystique (bookforum)
- Female Protagonists: A "Risk" Worth Taking (The Border House)
- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona, was on Palin's infamous "target" map (Updated) (Boing Boing)
- White girls seen as 'easy meat' by Pakistani rapists, says Jack Straw (The Guardian)
- Rise in rape incidents in Delhi due to low conviction and poor policing say experts (womensphere)
- Domestic violence kills one Russian woman an hour says report (womensphere)
- Inexplicable Edits on Sarah Palin's Facebook Page (Obama London)
And finally... for this week's closing video, I've chosen I'm Gonna Have My Cake (And Eat It Too) by Teena Marie from her 1979 debut album Wild and Peaceful.
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
Rachel // Posted 10 January 2011 at 12:00
Can I just say re: the contraceptive implant story, that you should probably also link to Ben Goldacre's analysis of what the statistic really means: http://www.badscience.net/2011/01/putting-a-number-in-its-context/
Another example of the media reporting things completely out of context.
Josie // Posted 10 January 2011 at 16:52
LOVE that Joan Smith article. That's all!
Laurel Dearing // Posted 10 January 2011 at 17:15
I've never had a problem with the idea of suggesting men be treated as women in terms of possible victims being women meaning possible perpetrators being men, however, in Bristol they are actually looking at taking DNA samples of all the men in the area so I feel at this time it isn't great to note so flippantly that men be treated as badly as us. It's less funny and makes less of a point when the govt actually starts taking that advice :/ no to victim blaming, and no to police states. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-12145602 like I say, I'd usually support an article looking at why we wouldn't expect men not to leave the house but this country is scaring me at the moment!
Ludi // Posted 10 January 2011 at 18:16
Why on earth are you platforming this ridiculous and irresponsible contraceptive implant story? Why not a link to an analysis of the statistics and some words on the number of young women who have been turning up terrified to contraceptive clinics, convinced they're about to become pregnant and asking for their implants to be removed?
Have a read of this - http://emanix.livejournal.com/23595.html
Sarah // Posted 10 January 2011 at 23:29
Yeah Joan Smith is great :) Shame about the usual misogynist crap in the comments...
sohcahtoa // Posted 11 January 2011 at 08:56
The Implanon story was indeed a fine example of statistics being misrepresented. But it was still unfortunate (to say the least) that those 600 women got pregnant when they had taken steps to avoid this. I'm all for hormonal contraception, and hugely grateful for its development, but sometimes I do wonder whether we are vocal enough in demanding research into better and more reliable forms of it (it's often said that if men took the pill - as indeed they might in future: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10514490 - no expense would be spared in reducing its side effects and so on).
Or is human biology too complex to make the development of a 100% contraceptive impossible? Should manufacturers recommend more actively the use of a barrier form of contraception too (to prevent pregnancy, not STDs)? I'm genuinely interested by these problems and wonder if anyone else had any thoughts or relevant links.
Beth R // Posted 11 January 2011 at 14:41
re. Implanon - Part of the case is the accusation that the doctors weren’t being properly trained - that the training budget was being misused to plug other budget shortfalls. The implant is incredibly effective - if anything this story only emphasises that - but it does actually need to be in you to do you any good. Not in the medical waste bin at the clinic because someone without the specialist training thought they had done the insertion correctly, and the design of the thing meant that if it couldn’t be felt through the skin there was no way of checking if it was in place without digging it out (it doesn’t show up on scans, unlike the newer version).
Whilst the scaremongering media coverage is obviously awful, I am finding some of the attempts to counter it a big insulting to these women (I do usually love Ben Goldacre, but I don’t think he’s done his homework on this one on a number of points). Yes, no contraceptive is 100% effective, and sadly a lot of women who become pregnant despite their best efforts have to just accept that. But no surgery is 100% safe - you know you are running a risk - but knowing that wouldn’t stop you complaining if you suffered negative consequences that resulted from the incompetence of a surgeon. Some (not all, but some) of these women didn’t get pregnant because that was just bound to happen to a small proportion, but because someone who should have been able to do better messed up. I don’t think those women are being unreasonable.
amy // Posted 11 January 2011 at 17:32
i can not say that i am suprised at the kanye west music video, but i can't help but feel sad about it, tthe same with eminem and most other rappers music videos.
oh and i also agree with Laurel Dearing's comment.
Vicky // Posted 12 January 2011 at 18:47
I would like to add a link to a blog post that I have just read. It's by a woman with severe and enduring mental health problems, who is trying to explain what the changes to the benefit system might mean to her:
http://purple-noise.blogspot.com/2011/01/beginning-of-end.html
(Warning: it's a chilling read. But I think it ought to be read by anybody with an interest in protecting the rights of people who are already extremely vulnerable.)