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Sassy Grandmas and Angry Old Ladies: Comparing the Comedy Comebacks of Betty White and Joan Rivers

Women Aren't Funny post by Gabrielle Moss on May 23, 2013 - 2:44pm; tagged aging, Betty White, Comedy, Saturday Night Live, women in comedy.

Betty White sitting on a pile of chairs

Everyone loves a comeback, the more unexpected the better--and no recent comeback was more unexpected than Betty White’s.

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Race & Body Issues in Nalo Hopkinson's "The Chaos"

Girls of Color in Dystopia post by Victoria Law on May 23, 2013 - 12:21pm; tagged apocalypse, body image, dystopian, Nalo Hopkinson, Race, sexuality, Toronto, YA fiction.

The Chaos book cover

When I first picked up Nalo Hopkinson's The Chaos last summer, I thought, "Finally! A book with a young woman of color as the protagonist!" Of course, I've since learned that there are other dystopic novels with girls of color, but this hasn't ended my love forThe Chaos even after a second (and third) reading.

The Chaos isn't actually set in a dystopia. It's more of a post-apocalyptic world in which Toronto transforms from its usual racist, misogynist, able-ist normalcy to utter chaos, complete with hoodie-wearing sasquatches, escalators that ask questions about quantum physics, and Baba Yaga and her flying house.

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On Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup

News post by Sarah Mirk on May 23, 2013 - 8:50am; tagged Boy Scouts.

Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today:

• Prime-time TV is more gender-balanced than current films—according to a massive analysis, 39 percent of prime-time TV characters are women, while we make up only 28 percent of film characters. [Sociologial Images]

• Two articles about college graduation, since it's the season: Pictuing the enrollment gap between white students and students of color in college and Obama gives a graduation speech that veers into the territory of finger-wagging. [Racialicious, Colorlines]

• West Virginia has a new law banning sexting between teens, but it could wind up hurting the victims it aims to protect. [RH Reality Check]

• Are you following what's going on with #FBRape? The campaign launched earlier this week to get companies to stop running ads next to Facebook content that promotes violence against women has had a couple companies respond and no word from several others. [Women, Action, and Media]

• The Boy Scouts of America are meeting today to decide whether to life their ban on queer scouts—but keep in place their LGBT adults. [Advocate]

• Bronx environmental activist Majora Carter has fought blight in her community for decades and now says a recent New York Timesprofile of criticisms of her work is off-base and sexist. [The Slant]

• A WalMart security guard called the police on an interracial family because he thought the father must have kidnapped his daughters. [Alternet]

• If you haven't already seen Hyperbole and a Half's moving personal comic about depression, go read it now. That's an order! [Hyperbole and a Half]

What's on your radar? Add links I missed to the comments!

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Fighting for the Right to Go Topless

Politics post by Jordannah Elizabeth on May 22, 2013 - 5:08pm; tagged body image, criminal justice.

Holly Van Voast, shirtless in New York

This past week, the news broke that New York City began to instruct its police officers this winter that to make sure they act accordingly to legality of women going topless in public. It’s easy to dismiss this law with a punch line, but the truth is that instructing all of New York’s police force to leave topless women alone is groundbreaking and part of a long running movement lead by women who have fought for topless equality.

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Star Trek Into Feminism: Three Ways the Sci-Fi Series Needs to Change

TV post by zach on May 22, 2013 - 3:02pm; tagged LGBT, Race, Sci-Fi, Star Trek.

Uhura wearing a tiny red dress

Star Trek has a reputation.

For almost fifty years, the disempowered and the marginalized and the outcasts have held up Star Trek as a show that said, “This is what we can aspire to: a humanity that has evolved beyond inequality and oppression”. The show presents a vision of Earth that has moved beyond racism and classism, beyond ableism and sexism and homophobia. As a life-long Trekkie, it is tempting to agree with this reputation. Me and Star Trek, hand in hand, running through fields of wildflowers on a soft-focus sunny day while I gaze upon them longingly. Oh Star Trek! So progressive! So feminist!

But this reputation is not reality.

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Oh Joy Sex Toy: The Fleshlight

Comics post by Erika Moen on May 22, 2013 - 12:36pm; tagged Oh Joy Sex Toy, sex, sex toys.

comic: We're the anal safety snails, reminding you to start slowly

Read on for a thrilling NSFW sex toy review comic in the Oh Joy Sex Toy series.

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On Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup

News post by Hannah Siobhan ... on May 22, 2013 - 8:42am; tagged 'illegal immigrant', Facebook, feminist porn, rape culture, teen pregnancy.

It's Wednesday again! Here's some feminist news to start your day.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently picked up on the fact that no human being is illegal and officially dropped the term "illegal immigrant" [Colorlines]

It's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and ad campaigns are further stigmatizing the very people they seek to serve. [Policymic]

Feminist porn! Read all about it! [Policymic]

For those who've been following the rape culture on Facebook outrage (#FBrape), Women, Action, and Media just published an open letter to Facebook requesting that its moderators remove hate speech that glorifies violence against women. [Salon, The Feminist Wire]