feminist blogs

The folks in charge of the casting of the newest Real World season, set in Washington, D.C., picked a real winner when they cast Andrew Woods. Since I'm a Real World junkie, I was excited to watch the recently aired pilot episode of D.C., only to discover that I'm repeatedly going to have to throw objects at my television every time he talks. I said, "Uh oh, I'm going to have problems with this guy" when he admitted that he got fired from a newspaper for "trying to offend women and lesbians and stuff like that." Don't be fooled: this Real World cartoonist is by no means similar to the lovable and adorable cartoonist cast in Real World: San Francisco, Judd Winick.

The Sexist published some of Andrew Woods' cartoons, and they're horrifying, to say the least. Woods is clearly a fan of rape jokes.

Text: Seducing women doesn't have to be some expensive ordeal, just funnel some cheap vodka into half a bottle of sparkling cider... as long as it looks like champagne, she'll drink it!

The above entry and the post I linked to on The Sexist aren't meant to be celebrity gossip. It's important to publish Woods' illustrations as a reminder that joking about rape makes you an insensitive asshole. Maybe (and by "maybe" I mean "undoubtedly") Andrew can't understand the reality of rape because his chances of actually being raped or sexually assaulted are significantly lower than they are for a woman, but his ignorance is no defense.

I suppose people like Andrew Woods are willing to sink to the lowest of the low for a cheap laugh, but the rest of us have something that these soulless morons lack: morale.

Watch Rachel Maddow take on one of those "gay people can become straight with therapy!" nuts. It's awesome.

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There's no other way to introduce this story than Tracy Clark-Flory's (of Salon.com) way:

It's official: Pornography doesn't affect men's view of women. This breaking news comes by way of 20 young men who ... just say so, OK? Stop asking so many questions, gosh!

Basically, a researcher in Montreal conducted a study, funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, on how pornography shapes how men view women. The researcher determined that since less than two dozen 20-something hetereosexual guys say that "they don't want their partner to look like a porn star," porn has absolutely no affect whatsoever on how the rest of the male population views women!

Wow. Wow. The researcher, Simon Louis Lajeunesse, even says:

If pornography had the impact that many claim it has, you would just have to show heterosexual films to a homosexual to change his sexual orientation.

Wait a minute. Last I checked, sexual orientation was something that we can't change, and ideas/beliefs/perceptions are things that we... can change... right? So, wait, why are we comparing them? Oh right, because this study is crap. I'm glad Tracy Clark-Flory points this out.

I don't doubt that most young men do not want their partner to look like a porn star and that X-rated flicks can be part of an innocuous -- and even healthy -- private fantasy life. It's just -- this isn't science. You don't determine the impact of porn by merely asking a small sampling of typical dudes whether it changed their view of women. If it's all they have known (since the age of 10 for most of the study participants), how the heck are they supposed to evaluate how it changed their view of women?

Not buying it.

If you need your daily dose of disgust, head on over to Men's News Daily to check out Paul Elam's charming article, "The Myth of Women's Oppression." In it, he so ignorantly compares women's oppression to the oppression faced by people of color, deducting that since women were never lynched or made into actual slaves on plantations, clearly our lives are a walk in the park.

Women were never oppressed to begin with. Not even close.

I’m no historian, but I did attend some history classes before I finished middle school. So, by the time I was 13, I knew what oppression was. And lucky for me I was 13 in a time when people still knew what it wasn’t.

Oppression has some pretty obvious tell tale signs. Like torture and death; like bullwhips and chains; gas chambers and death camps. Oppression is a roadmap of scars on the back of a field hand that was purchased at an auction. It is the rope that gets strung over a tree branch in broad daylight and used to choke the life out of someone convicted of being the wrong color.

Getting through the rest of this steaming pile of garbage was a task for me, as my stomach began churning and I thought I was going to vomit all over Paul Elan's sickening words.

Go post your comments and tell Pauly that he needs to actually meet a feminist before publicly trashing them. My comment went something like:

Are you serious? You base "oppression" solely off of whether or not someone was PHYSICALLY abused? You have an extremely warped view of oppression.

But if we want to go by your definition, let's look at the grossly high rape statistics. Yes yes, men are raped too, but not nearly as often as women are. Why is this? Because of deeply embedded stereotypes that women are weak playthings to be used and abused.

And let's pan out a bit and look at women globally. If you are a woman in the Middle East or in Africa, you have a shitload to worry about. Perhaps you were forced to live underground after surviving a rape because your family was so ashamed of you that they kicked you out, or maybe you have no choice but to undergo genital cutting, in which your clitoris is cut or removed or your entire vagina is sewn shut to ensure that you do not experience any type of sexual pleasure until you are forced into marriage. Or maybe you live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where you constantly have to worry about you or your daughters or your sisters or your friends being raped endlessly and left with unwanted pregnancies, STDs, or a torn vagina. For these women, I'd say feminism is pretty damn important.

And as far as the "the older rules for men" go... do you honestly believe that all men follow these "rules"? Touch her in the wrong way and you're a dead man? That's a nice rosy picture... but let's get back to reality.

You have such an incorrect view of what feminism is. Methinks you have never experienced an ounce of oppression in your lifetime, unless you count the big bad feminists stomping all over poor little you.

Governor Carcieri, of Rhode Island, has decided that "domestic partners" can't be buried next to each other, i.e. same-sex couples.

"This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue," said Carcieri.

Are you serious?

Yesterday, in a move that resembled the famous Prop 8 debate in California, voters in Maine decided to repeal the state's new law that allowed same-sex marriage.

I was horrified when I heard this. It's to the point where I'm so hesitant to celebrate any small victories or any states gained or rights earned because part of me knows that there is a good chance that someone will take it away from us.

A friend of mine who was particularly upset about this said, "We're supposed to be moving forwards, not backwards." Unfortunately, the process of gaining equality is a painstakingly slow one. While we are pushing forwards, there will always be people trying to shove us backwards. We have so many battles to fight.

The only comfort I can take is in the fact that I know we are the ones who are right in this situation. I know that technically, opinions can't be wrong, which is true... but this is so much more than just, "I have this opinion, and you have your opinion." Opponents of same-sex marriage promote hatred, close-mindedness, and discrimination. That is wrong. And I believe that eventually, though it might take some time, justice will prevail. I have enough faith in this country to know that one day, the good, the just, and the right side will triumph.

Until then, hang in there, my loves <3

Why I love Huffington Post: they do things like compile a list of "The Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions."

Aww, only ten?

Among those on the list: taking Obama's and Biden's quotes out of context, calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist, giving seemingly endless coverage to the tea party protests and hardly any to the March for Equality, and the "terrorist fist jab" shared by Barack and Michelle Obama (seriously... is this news?)

I can't imagine why anyone would see Fox News as a credible news source.

I just have a question: WHAT YEAR IS THIS?

Because clearly it must be 1960. Surely it isn't 2009 because I thought we left this bullshit in the past.

The racist judge, Keith Bardwell, said he denied the interracial couple a marriage license out of concern for the children:

There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it.

And of course, like many prejudiced bigoted jerks who know they're about to be crucified by the public for their hateful views, Bardwell tried to pull the old "I'm not racist, I totes have black friends!" card.

I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way. I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.

Omigosh... you let black people use your bathroom?! How kind! What a saint you are, Judge Bardwell! And look at you, refusing marriage licenses to protect children. How noble. Nevermind that you're making assumptions based on outdated views and treating interracial couples like they're sub-human.

Un-fucking-acceptable.

The Huffington Post put together a list of the worst anti-gay marriage ads ever made. And wow, are they brilliant. My favorites are the ones that try to convince us that the gays are out to destroy children:





Hahahahaha. You have to laugh.

Did that make you want to puke? Then you're going to love this:



We all know that Comedy Central is no stranger to disgustingly sexist shows, but "Secret Girlfriend," a new show about single guys in their 20s who act like they're 14, might just take the cake. This appalling sad excuse for a show portrays its main characters picking out women at bars and parties like they're picking out meat at a deli counter. They go through the women faster than pairs of underwear, because they all dumb bitches so who cares how they feel? I just want to get laid, bro!

Shows like this are the reason why people think women are just objects to be ogled, holes to be penetrated, and brainless sorority girls to be made fun of. It makes me wonder how any self-respecting woman can be in a show like this. Maybe they've never been told that they have the ability to be more in life than tits on a TV screen.

It sickens me that this piece of shit is on the same network as the brilliance of "The Daily Show." It also sickens me that I would be surprised if this show didn't turn out to be hugely popular, especially among teenage boys who have to learn how to treat women as objects somewhere. It's so sad that they're not only going to learn that a woman's ass is more important than her brain, but also that a "real man" behaves in this revolting frat boy-esque manner. Gag.