Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday

It’s been a slow week with finals, but I was able to look a little bit at a new woman-friendly dance workout called Dance Dance Party Party where the only rules are 1: no boys, 2: no booze, and 3: no judgment.

The Easy Bake Oven In My Vagina: The Role of the Good Mother: Looking at the way motherhood is constructed by race and class.

What Does WOC mean: Looking at the way WOC is taken to mean black women thus erasing the experience of other non white women.

WOC and the Tablescraps of feminism: Looking at the way feminism continues to “other” bodies of color.

Saving the World one Savage at a time: Porn TO The Rescue: Looking at one porn companies attempt to end poverty in Africa through the use cultural appropriation and racism.

I wrote a piece this week on hatred of children, which was inspired by a sneering comment made on an earlier post on similar themes.

My thoughts on the relationship between feminist theory and activism and children’s rights is still very much developing, and I would welcome responses and questions from the Feministe readership. Please honor my request, however, to keep comments free of derogatory language. This seems to be a topic upon which many people have very strong feelings, but I will not accept comments that contain language that characterizes children as sub-human.

The 13th Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom & Autonomy is up at my blog.

On the continuing hypocrisy of professional homophobe Maggie Gallagher.

Australian Supreme Court rules that obscene cartoons/comics can be considered child porn. (((boggle)))

Well, I had a piece linked to by this site, which makes me very proud!

I write letters, this time about abortion in the media, specifically in regards to an NPR show canceling a guest.

I ranted about the guilt-justified anti breastfeeding backlash that even permeated medical school instruction:

La Leche League, haven of extremists

And, I tackled church, state, religious extremists and my family:

What’s wrong with saying “Happy Holidays?”

A “Fuck You of the Day” award for fat shaming.

We had a Hawai’ian Snow Day. Nope, it didn’t snow.

And finally, I never realized how much I missed the things I hated until I couldn’t do them anymore.

Have a great week everyone!

How about a music post? I was shocked to find an audio of Robert Pollard and Kim Deal singing Love Hurts. I’m still trying to find out when this was recorded. It’s almost as good as the Gramm Parson and Emmylou Harris version. And that’s saying a lot.

I’ve been thinking about the responsibilities of outing someone who is trans and interested in dating a friend of mine. The situation is complicated by my status as trans and knowing exactly what I think I should do, but having a hard time applying that to a real-world situation…

after reading alternet’s article on how 400 people have been tasered to death, i offered this alternative suggestion:

<a href=”http://getangrywithme.com/2008/12/cops-earn-weapons/”make the police EARN their weapons

Though I shouldn’t have been so surprised, this week I learned about ambulance attendants molesting patients.

I looked at the context of the the protestations coming from a biology professor who has loudly refused to attend an anti-sexual-harassment seminar.

Another twilight post is up
http://mzbitca.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/hidden-messages/

An open letter to our illustrious Preznit on his last chance to do something right (for a change) and do what’s necessary to help the Rust Belt economies caught in the middle as the Senate GOP tries to sacrifice millions of us out of their hatred for the UAW.

I responded to the discussion at the New York Times’ Motherlode on orgasmic childbirth.

I guess the NYT has been irritating me lately, because features in their magazine also nudged me to ruminate on gestational surrogacy and
incompatible libidos in long-term relationships. Those last two posts are technically from the previous week but they haven’t gone stale. :-)

I wrote about our residual fear of Toxic Shock Syndrome.
http://saucyriot.com/2008/12/15/toxic-shock/

I dissected the claim by some on the right the Planned Parenthood actually spends far more than 3% of its budget on abortion, because abortion apparently should include “every reproductive health service given to a woman who wants an abortion”, from contraceptives to STD screens.

A few reviews posted this week:
Ain’t I a Feminist? African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom: White’s book not only showed me that African American men can be feminists (a conclusion she was more skeptical about than I was), but that many of them are far more evolved in their feminist development than I am. Furthermore, I realized that in making this personal observation in the first paragraph of my review of her book, I am exercising my white privilege and not acting like a very good feminist!

Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men: Men in Guyland watch pornography in large groups, not to get off, but to discuss humiliating the women to whom they feel entitled. Binge drinking and partying all weekend are common behaviors, both in college and beyond. No one acts particularly interested in committed relationships, though many men interviewed assume they will one day marry and have children. The contradictions continue throughout the entire book, as entitled young men voice to Kimmel their desires without introspection about how to reach them.

Changeling: There’s a lot going on with the film, most notably, a feminist theme that’s surprising, as Eastwood isn’t the first name that would come up when thinking of feminist directors. However, Straczynski’s script does bring up important questions about how women were treated, most notably when they challenge male authority.

It’s not quite midnight in California yet, so I hope I can still shamelessly self-promote…I wrote about not feeling guilty about holiday eating.

I wrote about the three day sex worker conference I went to a few weeks back. It was amazing!

http://hexpletive.blogspot.com/2008/12/whorecon08.html

I wrote Almost worse than Twilight, about Bride Wars and the referenced Twilight.

I also wrote The chicken came first. about media representation of people who are not white and/or male.

I finally watched the documentary “Demographic Winter” and am writing a series of posts on it. The film is about how declining fertility rates in the West (and a few “other” industrial countries) could lead to the extinction of certain kinds of people, i.e. whites. The cause of the fertility decline? Progressive causes. The solution? Patriarchy. I WISH I WAS KIDDING.

Alright, I’m shameless enough to self-promote on a Monday – here’s what we’ve been writing about at The Feminist Underground:

1. Vintage Sexism: Pop Science from Centuries Past

2. Sexual assault in ambulances

3. A little feminist moment that made me smile.

Rhode Island does not criminalize indoor prostitution. It is alleged that illegal Korean immigrants are being held as slaves in ‘massage parlors’ A documentary film maker went to the women and asked them about their lives. No one dares to show the film–it does not fit anyone’s agenda and no one comes off looking good.
see a review here–
http://kmareka.com/?p=2396

This month I’m doing retrospectives on the 10th anniversary of the officer-involved shooting of Tyisha Miller.

Miller was killed by four police officers in my city while laying in medical distress in her car on Dec. 28, 1998 and was shot at least 24 times and hit 12 times in a matter of seconds after the officers and their sergeant arrived. Then afterward, the officers hi-fived and joked about it and according to another officer onscene, made racist remarks. Like how it would ruin the family’s Kwanzaa and they shot her with “black bullets”.

Incidentally, one officer who made racial remarks is no longer in LE and may be going to prison in connection with a conviction for felony assault while offduty.

This posting was one I wrote yesterday.

This posting was the first in the series.