As Sady Doyle put it: Reality now outstrips my feminist paranoia.
Remember a thousand years ago, when the Orange Menace bragged on camera about “grabbing women by the pussy,” and Republicans all pretended to be shocked & horrified? Yeah, they’re done with that. They’re no longer fretting about “How could I look my daughter in the eye.” Drumpf is openly mocking Dr. Blasey Ford for reporting sexual assault, and the Republicans are laughing along with him. Orrin Hatch is publicly slut-shaming another of Kavanaugh’s alleged victims. Women are coming forward all over the place to talk about sexual assault, and Susan “Serena Joy” Collins makes that ludicrous speech claiming to believe that Dr. Ford was sexually assaulted but not by Brett Kavanaugh.
No wonder dystopias for women are the latest trend in science fiction. Except it’s getting difficult to tell fiction from Republican reality anymore.
As always, the WOW diary takes a village. Thanks to Besame, Angmar, Crimson Quillfeather, ramara, Gertie Green, and the WOW crew for links and discussion behind the scenes.
Violence and Harassment:
A professor at Brooklyn College published a blog post defending sexual assault as a male rite of passage. When called out on it, he decided it was “satirical.”
Rape culture and the teen movies of the 70’s and 80’s.
A major new study looks at the long-term physical and emotional effects of sexual assault and harassment.
Less than a year after admitting to multiple acts of harassment, Louis CK just had his second appearance at the Comedy Cellar.
Criminologist Joanne Belknap cuts through the hype about “false rape accusations.”
In a recent British survey, 53% of respondents said it was not okay to withdraw consent for sex after getting naked. 9% said it’s not okay to withdraw consent if someone’s bought you dinner. I couldn’t find the exact gender breakdown on these views.
High school kids talk about sexual assault.
How to channel the rage that toxic weeks like this one create.
Nobel Peace Prize goes to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege, campaigners against sexual violence.
Reproductive rights:
Missouri is down to one clinic that offers abortions once a week.
The human cost of surrogacy in Ukraine’s “baby factories.”
A federal judge strips away parts of a St. Louis ordinance that protects against discrimination based on whether someone's had an abortion
Work:
Physicist Donna Strickland shared this year’s Nobel Prize in physics with Gerard Mourou. Strickland is an associate professor….which kinds says it all. Months earlier, a Wikipedia editor tried to put up a page for her, but it was rejected on the grounds that she wasn’t well-known enough.
The above came on the heels of Cern suspending physicist Alessandro Strumia over a ludicrous speech claiming physics “was built by men” and that men are the victims of discrimination in science.
California has banned non-disclosure agreements in workplace harassment and assault cases.
The Guerrilla Girls are confronting the issue of harassment and abuse in the art world.
Around the World:
There have been a number of major changes in India just in the last few weeks: legalization of same-sex relationships, striking down one-sided adultery laws with the observation that “women are not chattel,” and now, their Supreme Court has ruled that a temple cannot ban menstruating women.
In Sweden, 8-year-old Saga Vanacek went swimming and found a thousand-year-old sword, which I’m pretty sure makes her Queen of the world.
Good News and Action Items:
Roosh V, the notorious “pickup artist” whose advice books for men could be summarized as “to hell with consent,” gave up and took his flagship website down.
Earlier this year, Stanford law professor Michele Dauber helped facilitate the recall of California Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexual assault. Such recall initiatives seldom find such support, making that success all the more monumental — and now Dauber is channeling that energy into a PAC that targets political candidates accused of sexual misconduct, misogyny, and generally working against women's interests.
"Women are saying no abusers in office, no abusers on the Supreme Court, no abusers in the state legislature," Dauber told The New York Times. "Those who enable them, who apologize for them, who excuse them can also be targeted."
There are protests all over the country today. Please check in with your protest experiences if you go. I may be back late from mine, so I may or may not be on time for proper diary hosting.
