Before we get to the news roundup, here’s a bit of summer reading. I’ve been rediscovering science fiction and fantasy lately. Both genres can hold a mirror up to our own world, letting us look at it differently, and see things that were hidden before.
The stuff I grew up with was hit-or-miss for women: there were writers like Ursula K. LeGuin and Marion Zimmer Bradley who opened up new worlds, and others like Robert Heinlein who kept trying to squeeze women back into tired old tropes. Tolkein barely seemed to remember that women existed. Ann McCaffrey gave us the powerful Dragonriders of Pern series, but also “The Thorns of Barevi,” where a rape victim decides she liked it after all. And don’t get me started on John Norman’s gawdawful Gor series.
With the rise of feminism, there were some attempts at fitting women into male tropes. And there was also the Role Reversal, often done in a too-earnest way that said they were Making a Point — and even then, sometimes it missed the mark. When Star Trek: The Next Generation had Will Riker being sexually harassed on a matriarchal world, he didn’t seem to mind.
But recently, I’ve been noticing a pattern in SF/F written by women, using male characters to address issues like rape and exploitation. It’s usually in a subplot with a secondary character, often in the second or later book in a series, fitting naturally into the storyline. The Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins) and Parable of the Talents (Octavia E. Butler) both include men being prostituted, and there’s nothing romanticized or sexy about it. CJ Cherryh portrayed female-on-male rape in Downbelow Station, and sexual harassment in Chanur’s Legacy. Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy takes place in a culture where gender is regarded as unimportant, and the default pronoun is “she.” But we do learn the genders in a subplot where a wealthy landowner who exploits a teenage boy for sex — and, just like exploiters on our world, she insists that he’s “flattered” by her attentions.
If that sort of reading interests you, be sure to check out the Tiptree Awards, given for stories that do surprising things with gender. I’m reaching for another book about an alternate world, because the real world has a whole lot of news as usual about the War on Women.
As always, mega-thanks to elenacarlena, Besame, ramara, officebss, Eyesbright, and the rest of the WOW crew for links, commentary, and a lively behind-the-scenes discussion.
Violence and Harassment:
Here we go again: Young athlete commits a premeditated sexual assault, gets to plead it down to a misdemeanor because “Prison would not do this kid any good.”
Study shows a correlation between childhood abuse and earlier death for women.
Lindsay Lohan was assaulted on camera by her fiance — but it somehow counts less if she’s not a “good” victim:
The fact that Lohan felt the need to clarify that “she’s not an angel” during an interview about documented violence at the hands of a loved one proves just how pervasive the issue of victim blaming is. Her statement also references to her attempts to “fix things” (because that is an emotional burden often outsourced to abused women and women in general), as if that’s a requirement before leaving a potentially fatal relationship.
A woman trying to exercise in peace describes everyday harassment.
The comedy world is currently dealing with multiple women alleging sexual assault by comedian Aaron Glaser, inevitably followed by a victim-shaming post by Kurt Metzger. The Reductress found a unique way to show solidarity with survivors, filling its entire front page with scathing satire like “I anonymously reported my rape for the anonymous attention” and “How to be an ally to both a rapist and his victim.”
New Zealand cricket player Scott Kuggeleijn’s defense in his rape trial was that he “didn’t think the woman meant it” when she said no. Incredibly, he got a hung jury and will have to be retried. Here’s a response from New Zealand comedian Alice Brine :
I'm gunna start going home with random very drunk guys and stealing all of their shit. Everything they own. It won't be my fault though... they were drunk. They should have known better. I'll get away with it 90% of the time but then when one brave man takes me to court over it, I'll argue that I wasn't sure if he meant it when he said 'no don't steal my Audi.' I just wasn't sure if he meant it. I said 'Can I please steal your Gucci watch?' He said 'no' but I just wasn't sure if he meant it. He was drunk.He brought this on himself. You should have seen how he was dressed at the club, expensive shirts and shoes. What kind of message is he sending with that!? I thought he wanted me to come and steal all of his shit. He was asking for it. When he said 'no' to me taking everything he owned I just didn't know if he meant it. 'No' isn't objective enough, it could mean anything.
Nafisa Ahmed explains consent with a $5 bill.
The California Assembly voted to add rape to the short list of crimes with no statute of limitations. The state Senate already passed a version of the bill. Both votes were unanimous, and the bill now goes to the Governor.
An illegal website in Australia is posting non-consensual explicit photos of teenage girls, targeting girls by name and location for “hunting” photos. And the response of the Australian Federal Police is teeth-grindingly familiar:
Poppy Bradley, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Sydney, told Buzzfeed she was angry that a video posted on Thursday by the AFP, asking parents to talk to their children about “protecting themselves,” made no recommendations about a conversation with teenage sons who might be sharing the content online.
There’s a petition to the Australian government to shut the site down by any available means.
International:
Turkey lowers the age of consent from 15 to 12.
South Sudan remains a disaster and even more so for women: At least 217 cases of sexual violence were documented in the capital, Juba, in less than 3 weeks.
Chinese human rights attorney Wang Yu was arrested and disappeared a year ago; now she’s been brought forward with an official public “confession.”
Women in Brazil are seizing the moment to speak up about women’s rights in the mist of Brazil’s political and economic crisis.
Demonstrations in Peru protest violence against women.
The case that sparked the demonstrations was that of Arlette Contreras, who was beaten in July 2015 by her then-boyfriend in the city of Ayacucho, Adriano Pozo, in an attack that was caught on hotel cameras.
Despite the evidence – the footage of the attack - Pozo, the son of a local politician, was merely given a one-year suspended sentence for rape and attempted femicide, because of "mitigating factors": the fact that he was drunk and jealous. When a higher court upheld the sentence in July, the prosecutor described the decision as "outrageous".
Intersectionality:
The Mayor of Cannes, France, banned Muslim women’s all-covering swimwear on beaches, claiming it represents “terrorism.” Some other towns in France are now doing the same.
Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC’s) are an important resource for women. But there is also a long, ugly history of LARC’s and sterilization being used coercively for poor women, especially women of color. Informed consent and patient autonomy must be kept front and center.
A hilarious take on being an Asian woman approached by white men who find her “exotic.”
Reproductive Rights and Health:
The abortion rights movement has gone from playing defense to being bolder than ever. But some anti-choice Democrats haven’t gotten the memo.
SSM health, a Catholic-run organization, is going to be running clinics in 27 Walgreens stores in Missouri and Illinois. Meanwhile, a study found that Catholic-run hospitals are putting patients’ health at risk when it conflicts with doctrine arund reproductive choice.
Zika is now a public health emergency in Puerto Rico.
On the use of people with disabilities as a rhetorical device in arguments over abortion:
Many parents facing a prenatal diagnosis have never interacted with disabled people, don’t know very much about the disability in question, and are feeling overwhelmed. Anti-choicers want to force them to listen to lectures at the least and claim this is for everyone’s good, which is a gross violation of personal privacy, especially since they don’t back their advocacy up with support for disability programs that would make a comfortable, happy life with a complex impairment possible. The pro-choice movement, on the other hand, often finds itself caught between the imperative to defend abortion as an absolute personal right and suggesting that some lived potentials are worth more than others. It’s a disturbing line of argument to take, alienating people who might otherwise be very supportive of abortion rights.
Seven states have refused federal money for evidence-based sex ed. Because that “abstinence education” thing is going so well?
Amanda Marcotte on the latest tactics of anti-choicers. Now that restricting abortion in the name of “protecting women’s health” has been rejected by the Supreme Court, the latest strategies include trying to get personal information on patients and care providers (for “research” purposes, supposedly), and even requiring funerals for fetuses. No, really.
Maybe we should just tell pregnant women “Don’t do anything at all, ever.”
Uncategorizable:
Egyptian state-run TV suspends 8 female news anchors and tells them to lose weight.
This article’s a few months old, but had some interesting thoughts on microaggressions, women in politics, and the way your perspective changes over the years.
Good News and Action Items:
Florida court permanently blocks parts of an anti-choice law.
Scottish writer Val McDermid elegantly shuts down a sexist twitter troll.
Speaking of Twitter burns, here’s astrophysicist Katie Mack dealing with a climate-denying mansplainer.
Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui broke the taboo about swimming while on her period — or even mentioning periods at all.
An “all options” pregnancy center in Indiana offers abortion, adoption, and resources to help with parenting. Whatever the patient chooses, they can help.
Petition to Congress to end the Hyde Amendment.
Petition to Fox to take action on sexual harassment; it didn’t end with Roger Ailes.
Let’s hear it for #BlackGirlMagic at the Olympics!