This Week in Politics Mitt Romney realized that he should be doing more to appeal to women. Well, white women anyway. Has anyone explained to Mr. Romney that women of other races exist? Meanwhile, Politics365 examined the battle to win over single mothers.
Ever wonder who those concerned women in political ads are? Jezebel has the scoop.
A disturbing report has come out in Canada about how reluctant female Mounties are to report sexual harassment – and how often the only consequences come to the women who do the reporting. (Hat tip to The Frisky for the link.)
And in the world of political punditry, Mika Brzezinski continues to be surrounded by tiresome sniggering grown men who think they’re “bad boys” and that such behavior is charming. I hope Ms. Brzezinski’s dressing room is full of china to smash.
This Week in Cray Oh, hey, did you know that President Barack Obama is secretly super gay? Tell us more, Rachel Maddow!
Honestly, this phenomenon is fascinating to me. Part of it is the far-right wingnut need to make the President as scary and other as they can in as many ways as they can think of, even if those things they think of aren’t especially scary to non-wingnuts. (Must be foreign! Must be Muslim! Must be gay!)
But I think this odd Obama-is-gay hypothesis (Queeorizing?) also springs from a depressingly frequent mindset that I keep seeing pop up on the far right: The assumption that there is no reason to do anything for another human being unless there’s something in it for you personally. Obama has made statements and taken actions that support the LGBT community, therefore he must be gay, because otherwise why would he support treating total strangers like full citizens?
I think that mindset is one that we need to stay vigilant about and challenge, because I’m guessing it’s the reason we keep having to retrieve our uteruses from under the bus so often lately.
Speaking of that, Ryan Gosling has an important message for you. This Week in It’s About Time Women in the United States Army will finally start deploying with body armor that’s actually designed for women. That’s right: All this time, our servicewomen have been risking their eyes in armor built for men. That is some serious dedication to duty.
Speaking of that dedication, we had the one-year anniversary of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal this week. Anybody notice the country being overrun by Visigoths? Didn’t think so.
Oh, but Congressman Jim Jordan (R – OH) thinks it would be better if we stopped asking and telling again, because that thing where careers were needlessly destroyed and our military was either losing highly qualified personnel or forcing them to lie was so awesome. As to what would happen to the members of the military who have come out since the ruling, you will be shocked to hear that Jordan hadn’t really thought about it.
Our (secretly gay!) President had a different take on the effects of the repeal.
This Week in Thinky Writer-director James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens) spoke with The Guardian about how most of Hollywood gets strong female characters wrong (among many other things).
A historian of Christianity has released a scrap of papyrus that suggests that Jesus had a wife – and perhaps a female disciple. Since some of the less lady-friendly interpretations of Christianity are based in the no-girls-allowed atmosphere that people assume was the rule for Jesus and the Apostles, this could have some intriguing fallout. Get ready for extremely smart and extremely stupid arguments in equal measure.
Women still speak less when they are outnumbered by men. The study that came up with those results also noted ways to get more female input into group decisions. I will be interested to see if they are ever put into action.
I am firmly of the belief that violence is not the answer to societal woes. That said, I don’t know that I am entirely without sympathy for this Iranian woman who hit her limit with being told to cover herself and beat the snot out of the cleric who made the suggestion one too many times. It’s making some deeply held values clash and that’s puzzling me. Tell me what you’re thinking in the comments.
Racialicious had an interesting piece on being a woman of color in the lingerie industry.
Author Arathi Prasad thinks that the ability to have a child will be increasingly removed from age and gender. Check out this fascinating interview in Salon in which she discusses parthenogenesis, artificial wombs, and the social implications of future fertility technology.
And Lori Adelman at Feministing took a look at faux-feminist consumerism.
This Week in Ass-Kickery
CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien and out Clinton White House adviser Richard Socarides stayed polite, but wouldn’t let creepy-smiling televangelist Joel Osteen wriggle out of questions about whether his preaching against The Gay is maybe just a teeeeeny bit in conflict with his self-proclaimed emphasis on love and a positive attitude. Osteen’s answers didn’t come off as genuine to me at all – I’d love for one of these guys to really talk about what he feels and where he gets tangled up – but I appreciate O’Brien’s firm insistence on trying to make him see what he’s doing to part of his congregation.
The Mary Sue ran a feature on Sunita Williams, who completed a triathlon while still being in command of the International Space Station.
…While The Jane Dough featured Joyce Pugh, an 81-year-old great-grandmother and the world’s most reliable papergirl.
This Week in Fun
For those of you who are jonesing for ‘squatching and skepticism, Ranae Holland pointed the way to some Lego Finding Bigfoot goodness. And finally, a little joy from Down Under (Via Buzzfeed). That totally beats jumping on the beach. Now let the woman play! Have a great weekend and unleash your own inner superhero.
Got a hot Feminist Friday tip? Tweet Ali.
