News

There are far more questions than answers surrounding the case of the three kidnapped women in Cleveland who finally escaped their captors this week after up to a decade of imprisonment. Many details about their ordeal will certainly come to light in the coming weeks. But one question that should be at the forefront is why police didn’t find the missing women years ago.

Part of the answer is that Cleveland police held a dangerous assumption: that two of the victims, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, were missing because they had each run away. Tragically, this assumption led law enforcement to take their cases less seriously.

Oh hello. Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today.

• A video of Charles Ramsey, the black neighbor of three kidnapping victims in Cleveland, went viral yesterday—it's remarkable not just because the neighbor helped rescue three imprisoned women, but because he points out issues of rampant racism. [Salon] 

* Delaware legalized same-sex marriage! [Autostraddle] 

• A judge blasts the Obama Administration's decision to keep fighting against Plan B access for young girls. [RH Reality Check]

• Lauryn Hill was sentenced to three months in prison for tax evasion, even though she paid off the back taxes. She compared the tax system to slavery, saying: "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of.... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me. I sold 50 million units ... now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."

• In much better news, the guy in charge of Girls Gone Wild is also going to jail—he was convicted of false imprisonment and assault. [Salon] 

• Sexual assault in the military is not going away. In fact, it seems like 90 percent of military assaults are never reported. [Mother Jones]

• Do hospital bills make any sense? Survey says: No. A recent study found wildly differing charges for the same procedures, leaving the cost of healthcare dependent on the whims of each hospital. [New York Times] 

• Writer Sady Doyle emailed prolific rape-joke-maker Sam Morris and sinerely asked him why his routine is so heavy on hating women. He finally replied with, well, what you'd expect. [Global Comment] 

• 21 things making you fat right now: A list of the ridiculous things junk science has reported make you fat. [xoJane] 

• What do you desire? The new issue of n+1 has an interesting personal essay about one woman trying to figure out what she wants from sex and relationships. [n+1]

What are you reading? Add your links to the comments. 

May the seventh be with you! Here's what we're reading...

• A woman in Ontario has spent six years fighting for her right to wear a niqab while testifying against her abuser in court. Farrah Khan discusses the dangerous implications this case may have in terms of sexual assault, victim blaming, and Islamaphobia. [Shameless]

• Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 in 2002, recently told a Johns Hopkins audience that abstienence-only education leads to abuse survivors feeling like they are worthless and not of value. (Link contains descriptions of abuse.) [Think Progress]

• The official in charge of the U.S. Air Force's sexual-assault prevention program was arrested for groping. Yeah. [NBC]

• Author Jamaica Kincaid talks to The American Reader about her new book, her style, and how critics often perceive her because she is a black Caribbean female writer. [The American Reader]

• After a widespread protest started by ColorOfChange, FOX has not renewed the long-running show Cops for its problematic depictions of law enforcement and race. [Colorlines]

• Skateboard brand Supreme appropriated the aesthetic of iconic feminist artist Barbara Kruger, and another artist copied them. Kruger isn't happy about either. [Atlantic Wire]

• Indian Country profiles WNBA and international basketball star Ryneldi Becenti about her career, the rise of Jude and Shoni Schimmel, and more. [Indian Country]

Share what you're reading in the comments!

Last week, the FBI named former Black Panther and member of the Black Liberation Army Assata Shakur as the first woman on its Most Wanted Terrorist List. This dubious milestone occurred 40 years to the day after she was, as she describes, unfairly convicted of shooting and murdering State Trooper Werner Foester in New Jersey on May 2^nd, 1973.

Hello Monday! All of these articles are ones worth reading. 

• Sexism and the Single Murderess: Frank Bruni attacks the rampant and obvious sexism of the case against Amanda Knox. [New York Times] 

• Pregnancy Resource Centers are part of a missionary movement that markets itself as saving black babies. [Colorlines]  

• One hundred angry, hundred men are still on hunger strike in Guantanamo. Will the US ever shut the prison down? [New Yorker] 

• GLAAD awarded Bill Clinton the honor of "Advocate for Change"—pretty strange for a man who passed DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell. [Atlantic] 

• Politicians are always demanding an end to violence in video games. Researchers made a giant graphic of how much gun violence is actually in games. [Guardian] 

• What do people see as "consent" in sex? Check out this scene of maybe consent in The Vampire Diaries. [Sociological Images] 

• A fan jumped onstage during a Kitty Pryde concert and started going down on rapper Danny Browne. People aren't treating it like  a sexual assault, but they should be. [Feministing]

• Race in Iron Man 3: Who is this villainous Mandarin? [Racialicious] 

What are you reading? Add more links to the comments!

Here's all the feminist news that caught my eye today!

• Nooobama! The president's administration moved yesterday to challenge the science-backed decision to make Plan B available over-the-counter to girls under 15. [New York Times]  

• Climate change hurts women. Does anyone care? [Grist] 

• Seattle's May Day protests last night turned into a mess, complete with tear gas and dozens of police. Here's a rundown of what happened. [The Stranger]

• Survey says: Doctors aren't mean to fat patients, but just nicer to thin ones. [Jezebel] 

• The New York State GOP is blocking a bill backed by the governor that would reaffirm the right to abortion. [NYTimes City Room] 

• Mountain Dew yanks an absurd ad that manages to make light of sexual assault and stereotype Black men all in the name of selling soda. [Mediaite] 

• Remembering the Catholic reform homes for girls: A survivor of the Magdalene Laundries tells her story. [Washington Times] 

• There are two interesting pieces on adoption in the news today: The issues of representing trans-racial adoptions and the sad, dark side of domestic adoption.  [Sociological Images, Atlantic] 

• More on Femen's "topless jihad": One writer argues for why it was right. [Atlantic] 

What did I miss? Add it to the comments! 

Here's what's on our radar! 

• As you probably heard, Jason Collins is the first openly gay NBA player. But he's only the first openly gay professional athlete if you completely ignore women. [Sin City Siren]

• Monica Bartyzel says it's time retire the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl." [The Week]

• NPR profiles Sarah Allen, the programmer who led the team that designed Flash. Speaking of programming, the Linux Foundation is funding three Linux kernel internships through the Outreach Program for Women—apply today! [NPR, Linux.com]

• Leigh Kolb discusses the rarity of seeing infertility and pregnancy loss in pop culture. [Bitch Flicks]

• The latest frontier of prison criticism....Yelp? [Washington Post]

• Film critic and writer Kartina Richardson discusses the "white default" of narratives, and how that plays out in Spring Breakers and Girls. [Salon]

Share what you're reading in the comments!

Happy Monday! This weekend had lots of interesting news. Here's what I'm reading: 

• Feminist editor and activist Mary Thom died this weekend in a motorcycle crash. Read all about her iife and legacy. [Ms.]

• The Deportation Machine: How did the government accidentally deport US citizen Mark Lyttle? [New Yorker]  

• Race on the runway: Sorry, everyone, major fashion shows haven't gotten any more diverse in recent years. [Sociological Images]  

• The boss is too bossy: Jessica Valenti spells out how a recent Politico profile of New York Times chief Jill Abramson is sexist. [The Nation] 

• A Prairie Homo Companion: Writing about queer culture in Canada's vast prairie lands. [Autostraddle] 

• Erk. Law and Order takes real stories from rape survivors and repackages them as a fictional show. [Jezebel]

• Feministing has five questions for Krystal Ball, the one-time Congressional candidate who's now a host on MSNBC's The Cycle. [Feministing]

• Transform! One woman writers about what Transformers taught her about parenting. [BlogHer]

• Beer and football: How British lad culture is alienating to pretty much everyone. [Guardian] 

What are you reading? Add your links to the comments!

Personally, I was shocked when the Steubenville rapists were found guilty. I've gotten cynical about prosecution of rape—so few cases lead to punishment that I was excited and surprised to learn that, this time, the legal system worked. 

But yesterday another aspect of creating justice in the case fell short: The football team's coach, Reno Saccoccia, has been rehired for another two years at Steubenville High.