Almost every woman knows why strangers hooting and hollering at people on the street is a problem. More than 80 percent of women experience gender-based street harassment: unwanted sexual comments, demands for a smile, leering, whistling, following, and groping. Many men do, too, especially in the queer community.
This week is International Anti-Street Harassment Week—a perfect opportunity to engage people who may not otherwise be aware that this is a widespread problem, especially straight men.
Here are three ideas—and resources—for ways straight dudes can be street harassment allies.
It's that time again! Mad Men is back for another stylish, symbol-packed season, and your faithful recappers Kelsey, Andi, and Annalee are here to break it down and hash it out. For those of you new to our Mad Men recaps, be forewarned that these aren't linear summaries, but rather discussions of the key plot points and most compelling questions of each episode—and yes, you can be sure there are some spoilers, so proceed accordingly.
Last night's season premiere was a two-hour mood-setting piece that took us from Oahu at Christmas to the sunken living room of the Draper's New York pad on New Year's Eve. We know that 1968 is a big year, filled with civil-rights protests, the assassinations of both RFK and MLK, and the advent of the Nixon administration. But right now, all our friends in the world of Sterling Cooper Draper Price know is that it's a time when fondue pots are on sale at Bloomingdale's and everything smells like reefer.
You’d think that kids these days would know better than to read what's inside of a book bound by human skin, especially if those kids are taking shelter in a cabin in the middle of the woods.
Good morning! There's no better way to start Monday than reading all the feminist news from the weekend.
• The Iron Lady has died! Margaret Thatcher remade Britain during her time as prime minister, championing an austerity budget, free market politics, and war. She's remembered as a tough leader, but one who oversaw an increase in poverty. [New York Times, Guardian]
• The tricky politics of achieving freedom with nudity: Feminist Wire has an op-ed on "how Femen went wrong." [Feminist Wire]
Director Shola Lynch spent eight years researching intricacies surrounding activist and scholar Angela Davis—she wanted to make sure that her film documenting Davis’s controversial 1972 murder trial got the story right. And, well, she did.
A review and clip of her new film Free Angela and All Political Prisoners are below the cut.
Maybe this is a little premature, but for this week's BitchTapes playlist, I put together a mix for this summer's same-sex weddings. Like the scouts say, "Be prepared!"
Big thanks to Portland's DJ Rhienna for suggesting all the good songs on this list.
When I checked Marie Lu's Legendout of the library, I hoped that the main girl character (June) would be Asian. After all, Lu herself is Chinese, born in China and influenced, as a young child, by the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests. From the age of five, she lived in the U.S. and, unless she lived in an alternate U.S., probably also didn't see herself reflected in the books on her library and school shelves. So wouldn't she use this opportunity to add one more Asian girl to YA litdom?
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