The University of Arizona needs a new student code of conduct

Content note: Rape threats.

Dean Saxton, a student at the University of Arizona, is hanging out on campus with a “You Deserve Rape” sign. Because you’re dressed like a whore, of course, so you’re asking for it. The University says there’s nothing they can do, because he hasn’t violated the student code of conduct. I would suggest that maybe it’s time to rewrite the student code of conduct?

...read more

Okay, lay off Beyonce, already.

So we know that Beyonce’s numerous sins include dressing sexy, being married, and saying that girls run the world when that isn’t technically true. But did you also know she’s singlehandedly responsible for luring young girls into sexual exploitation?

...read more

Favorite Feminist of the Day: TigTog

Just wanted to take a moment to send some love to our tech / moderation / does-everything goddess TigTog. She keeps this place running smoothly, she’s exceptionally generous with her time and ideas, and she’s come up with and instituted many of the new comment features that are leading to more productive discussions and better moderation — calling for a giraffe, threaded comments, open threads. She is, in a word, wonderful. And she works extremely hard without the credit she deserves. So take a moment and leave a comment for TigTog — or a cat photo, or your favorite GIF, or whatever you think she would like. Because TigTog is the best and we love her.

...read more

On being one of those girls

Something about this piece at Delusions of Equality really resonated with me — and I’m not sure why, because it doesn’t describe my experience in the slightest. While I couldn’t pull off girly-girl convincingly or hide my good grades, my desperate efforts were definitely in the direction of conforming. I hung out with guys in carefully unoffensive yet girly casual outfits and talked about having more guy friends than girlfriends because girls were too dramatic and emotional. Without undue pressure I would acknowledge that I believed all the things feminists believe but I just wasn’t a feminist because, y’know, I wasn’t one of them.

Anyway, so what I’m saying is… sorry for college, I guess.

...read more

Post-Modern Morals

Can you believe the screwy world we live in, where it’s considered totally ok to show scenes of a sexual nature on TV, but it’s not ok to sexually harass a co-worker even if you were just kidding, gosh, have a sense of humor? And back when we were a more traditional society, military men had all sorts of liaisons and no one cared, but now David Petraeus cheats on his wife with his biographer and commits a series of ethical breachers and we all care? And bitches today wear the sluttiest clothes, but it’s somehow considered more rude to walk up to a big ol’ whore and say, “Hey, you’re a big ol’ whore!” than it is for that whore to wear a v-neck t-shirt. Unfair. Unbelievable.

...read more

Should birth control pills be available without a prescription?

The New York Times wonders. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists thinks they should be over the counter. The Catholic Medical Association and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists disagree, of course, because their religious beliefs should obviously dictate the kind of health care that the rest of us are able to access.

...read more