Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so in honor of that, all the links in this week’s roundup are feminist-themed. And there’s a lot of news to cover:
• Anita Sarkheesian of Feminist Frequency has released the first in her Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, exploring the cliche of the damsel in distress. (Hilariously, a group of “men’s rights” advocates who solicited donations for a rebuttal video series appear to have taken the money and run.)
• A brutal, poignant comic-book retelling of the story of Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban for wanting girls to get an education.
• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, because it mentions the existence of LGBT people.
• My wife’s review of Quiverfull: Inside The Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce.
• Miri on Freethought Blogs has some unsolicited advice for guys who want to be feminists. (Also, go congratulate her for being accepted to Columbia!)
• The activist Zerlina Maxwell suggested on Fox that we should prevent rape by telling men not to rape, not by telling women to buy guns, and as if to prove the point, was promptly inundated with violent threats from the deranged.
• The Arkansas legislature passes a blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban. No surprise: if it survives court scrutiny, it will disproportionately affect poor and young women. This is just the latest in an escalating series of legal harassments and restrictions placed on women by misogynist legislators: as Amanda Marcotte writes, “Arkansas [already] has a mandatory lecture and then waiting period, restrictions on insurance coverage, parental notification laws, and a gag rule on state-funded clinics so they can’t help women find abortion providers.” But no abortion restriction is ever enough to satisfy the fetus-obsessed.
Image credit: NARAL Pro-Choice America