It’s misogyny time! We’ve got one victory in the abortion-rights fight (but more bad news), a fantastic Twitter hashtag in response to a horrible “motivational” speaker, Fox News idiocy, and the best Beastie Boys cover ever!
Let’s start with some good news! Albuquerque voters rejected a law that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks at the two abortion clinics in the city (not-so-coincidentally, the only two in the entire state).
Across the border in Texas, though, the situation is much more grim. One abortion doctor talks about his frustrations that his only option now is to tell women to obtain abortion drugs in Mexico or illegally and just hope they don’t have any complications. But if they do, he’s allowed to treat them. And none of this would be relevant if he could get admitting privileges, but the only local hospital won’t grant them because they’re religious. In his words, “So you know, Jesus.”
Exploiting a Michigan law that allows petitions with sufficient signatures to be passed into law with the approval of the legislature instead of having to actually be put on the ballot or even be subject to a gubernatorial veto, activists are trying to prohibit insurance companies in the state from covering abortion unless a separate rider is purchased before a woman becomes pregnant.
An Alabama man was found guilty of raping a girl twice when she was 14 and again when she was 18 and yet will avoid any jail time (so long as he doesn’t violate his probation) despite being sentenced to 40 years in jail because of the way the judge structured the sentence. The victim, now age 20, is outraged, and the county DA has filed a motion for the prison time to be enforced.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee tweeted a link to an article that included a photoshopped image of Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ face on the body of Obama Girl. Grimes, a Democrat, is challenging Mitch McConnell in next year’s senatorial race.
Veterans seeking mental health care from the VA due to PTSD from being sexually assaulted in the military are being asked to provide documentation that isn’t required to get the same treatment for other causes, and are thus more likely to be denied services.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s governor has decided to cut benefits to all spouses of National Guard members, since she wasn’t allowed to discriminate only against same-sex spouses, who aren’t recognized under state law but must be treated the same under a Pentagon directive.
Well, fuck. Looks like the metric we’ve been using to determine rape statistics undercounts them by a lot due to the way the question is phrased (and the fact that victims may be unwilling to disclose their status in telephone surveys).
A high school in Richardson, Texas invited a faith-based speaker to an assembly (that they had to make optional after some students and parents complained). Some students walked out after hearing Justin Lookadoo’s message that girls need to “shut up” to be dateable and a whole pile of other gender-essentialist misogynistic crap. On the bright side, though, many took to twitter to complain under the hashtag #lookadouche.
I can always count on Fox News to provide a moronic soundbite for this column. This week, in response to the lack of women in positions of power at tech companies—“Is there something about the female brain that is a deterrent for getting on board with tech? Is there?” Oooh, I know the answer to this one! NO!
Oh, Joe Rogan. I know you’re trying to show your support for same-sex marriage by calling opponents “a lot of weak-ass bitches… posing as men,” but gendered insults aren’t fucking helpful.
A record number of American women are in the workforce today, but that news isn’t as good as it sounds, since much of that growth has been in low-paying service jobs and women have actually lost ground to men in higher-paying jobs like manufacturing and healthcare.
Güd body butter: For when you want to be catcalled. Sigh. Burt’s Bees, the parent company of Güd, issued a “we’re sorry if you were offended” style apology on Facebook after customers complained about the product’s packaging, seen below, but Hollaback has launched a petition asking them to really apologize and to redesign the label.
(Also, “A sexy moisturizer that leaves you feeling sexy and moisturized”?? Who writes this shit?) Image via Hollaback petition.
What in the fresh hell is going on in this Elle article that claims that lesbianism is just trendy (which the writer seems miffed about because she likes dudes and why isn’t that cool??!?) and ignores the existence of bisexuals?
Melissa McCarthy was on Conan last week and discussed why she stopped doing stand-up comedy—too many men asking to see her boobs instead of just letting her do her act.
Recommended reading
Is Lorde helping or hurting her cause by putting down other female pop stars?
A UConn student speaks out about how the school failed to protect her identity when she testified about a football player she witnessed beating his girlfriend and how they told her that if she feared for her safety, the best course of action would be to just not say anything to them about the crime.
Rush Limbaugh’s greatest misogynistic hits, starting with his most recent assertion that single moms on government assistance are “receptacle[s] for male semen.”
Katy Waldman on how gender affects discussions of bullying.
Just because HuffPo got some men to list the female fashion trends they personally dislike, that doesn’t mean that all men dislike them (or that women should give a shit).
All the ways in which feminism has totally ruined life as men knew it. It’s just so not fair that women control everything now! (This is hilarious and depressing at the same time.)
The Onion asked men on the street about the recent study that found that women are less likely to climax during casual hookups.
Check out the new Hobbit poster that puts Legolas in the butt pose while Tauriel gets the action pose. Excellent!
Mario Batali, slapping down fools on Twitter who were pissed that he was fundraising for pro-choice Texas organization Lady Parts Justice.
Can I tell you how much I love this new GoldieBlox ad? So freaking much! Go vote for them to get a commercial aired during the Super Bowl!