sexism

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sexism is old news at this point, but hey, it's election season and he has to stay in the news, right? Romney doubled down on the misogyny last Thursday by hiring Richard Grenell as his national security and foreign policy adviser. Grenell, formerly of the Bush administration, kicked off his first week on the job by deleting a bunch of sexist shit from his Twitter account.


Sexist tweeters, raise your hands!

David Wong's article on Cracked, "5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women," has 6,132 comments and counting, and 1.6 million (million!) people have read it since yesterday, so obviously it's striking a chord. What's your take? Is Wong sparking an important conversation about social constructs and sexism, or is he just trying to give sexist straight guys a pass for staring at women's boobs?

In what I'll call the executive summary of the Supreme Court's decision to throw out the class action lawsuit alleging sex-based discrimination against the female employees of Wal-Mart, Justice Scalia writes that the plaintiffs must show evidence that the company operates under "a general policy of discrimination," and that the Court does not see this evidence. Well, how smart of sexism that it doesn't operate that way. Today, I'll take a look at the majority and dissenting opinions in this case.

OK, first things first: I am a Beyoncé fan. However, fandom aside (well, sort of, because you can't ever really throw fandom aside) I must say that I'm surprised by all of the negative pushback Bey's latest video, "Run the World (Girls)," is getting. Not because it's a perfect video with a flawless, amazing message (it isn't), but because so many people are fired up about it. On the one hand, this pushback is terrific, because it means lots of people are talking about race and feminism and doing a close read of a music video, which doesn't happen all that often. On the other hand, this pushback is a bit harsh and asks more of a pop song and pop singer (whose heart I believe to be in the right place—more on that in a minute) than is perhaps fair.

It’s a problem faced by most straight couples—you haven’t even tied the knot yet, and everyone is wondering whether you’ll have children. Or in this case, whether your eldest child will inherit the crown if it’s a girl. Like the nursery rhyme says: first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a debate about primogeniture that would overhaul the entire line of succession.

You know the fury that comes over you when you're affected by other people's prejudice? The coldness, shock, or devastation when they put you or your loved ones down over race, sexual orientation, age, gender, size, class or ability? Maybe you felt it when your folks wouldn't let you bring your partner to a family celebration, when a white woman crashed your MLK event to announce that she deals with racism too, or when a classmate blocked your path to stare at your walking aid. Despite what a lot of defensive apologists might try to tell you, these incidents do matter: They're called microaggressions.

Read more about this amazing website after the jump!

Somehow I feel like Fox's new sitcom Traffic Light pulled one over on me. This is likely my own fault, because the warning signs were there. Three dude main characters in various stages of romantic entanglements? Check. Jokes made at the expense of the women in their lives? Check. Cohabitation without any mention of domestic responsibilities whatsoever? Check. Yet I still had high hopes that this show was going to be (at least kind of) funny and refreshing and (maybe?) offer a more nuanced portrayal of masculinity and relationships than your typical run-of-the-mill network comedy. Maybe because I recognized some of the actors from The Office? I don't know. Well the joke's on me, because two episodes in I'm not finding much to love about this sexist snoozefest.

Following a great expose ("The Dark side of Open Source Conferences") by Valerie Aurora on harassment and sexism in Open Source (technology that is horizontally integrated, anyone can collaborate on it, and its nuts and bolts are all transparent) conferences and communities, which has been making its rounds on feminist as well as tech sites, the blog Geek Feminism has posted a great conference anti-harassment policy template on their wiki.

PETA has long been known for offensive, weirdly sexist, and lazy advertising. Their sexism-is-OK-because-it's-for-animals tactics are tired as can be, yet they seem determined to stay the course. Case in point: Their latest campaign revolves around the much-reported-on new TSA screenings, and it is chocked full of sexism, misinformation, and size discrimination (surprise! but not really). First, the video, which apparently PETA is lobbying to play at airports during the holiday travel season:

This week on Grey's Anatomy, we went from fire poles to therapeutic worms, and everywhere in between. Will the doctors of Seattle Grace successfully reassemble their lives after the shooting? Is Cristina seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? Is Lexie feeling the bite of a green-eyed monster? And is Dr. Avery a sleazebag or what?! Is Frances Conroy cool or what?!

All this and more after the jump with the Grand Rounds bloggers!