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Today in hateration news: people really, really don't trust atheists. In a new study, the only group participants found as untrustworthy as nonbelievers were rapists. More »
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On last night's episode of Sister Wives, the Browns visited Tufts University, where they'd been invited to be part of a discussion about their religion and lifestyle. When asked if they were nervous or scared. Christine said she was "imagining an audience full of feminists." OH NO OH MY GOD ANYTHING BUT THAT. She continued: "They'll look at us and think that we live a suppressed, oppressed lifestyle." Well… yeah. Honestly, these women seem intelligent and communicative and happy. But their religion — invented in the 1820s — is a tool of oppression. Brigham Young himself wrote, "It is not the privilege of a woman to dictate the husband, and tell who or how many he shall take, or what he shall do with them when he gets them but it is the duty of the woman to submit cheerfully." The ladies on the show are not idiots, but the belief system they have been taught has a built-in patriarchal inequality. Mormon apostle Heber C. Kimball said, "I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow." Also, in the Mormon faith, a woman must be married to get into heaven. If oppression is the "unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power," then Mormonism is oppressive. (And so are many religions. The Browns belong to the Apostolic United Brethren Church, a Mormon fundamentalist church within the Latter Day Saint movement.) More »
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What we know of the story of Vivian Maier's life and work, and of how 30,000 of her negatives came to be acquired at a Chicago estate auction by a 26-year-old real estate agent and amateur historian, is breathtaking. More »
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested in London in connection with Swedish rape allegations, and guess who's to blame? Feminists, of course! More »
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Lately, the definition of the word "feminist" has become somewhat vague. More »
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Kavita Ramdas: "Unlike almost every other social movement, [it's] not a struggle against a distinct oppressor...It's against a deeply held set of beliefs and assumptions...This is the ultimate gift of feminism, that the personal is in fact the political." [Ted] More »
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Hissa Hilal, a Saudi housewife and a contestant in an American-Idol-style poetry competition, read an incendiary 15-verse poem that criticized clerics who issue ever-more-restrictive fatwas, and referred to clerics as monsters "wearing death as a robe, cinched with a belt." More »
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• Even beauty queens are feeling the pinch of the recession: CBS reports that many pageant contestants have been forced to wear their dresses more than once or, worst case scenario, sell their costumes. • More »
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"Being a role model is complicated cuz it involves thinking of oneself like a character in a novel and can be really dehumanizing...If I am a role model, I want to be one who is unafraid to make mistakes." [Rebel Grrrl Italiana] More »
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Opium! Lurid pulp fiction! Rags to riches and a schoolgirl crush on Thoreau! According to a new film, Louisa May Alcott's life was a lot more interesting — and a lot more depressing — than Little Women. More »
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"I call myself a feminist. Isn't that what you call someone who fights for women's rights?" said the Dalai Lama to an audience in Memphis yesterday. "We all come from the same mother. That creates the basis for compassion." [FeministLawProfessors] More »
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Marilyn French, the activist writer who declared, "my goal in life is to change the entire social and economic structure of Western civilization, to make it a feminist world," has died at 79. [NYT] More »
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Debra Dickerson can't leave well enough alone. After painting all young feminists as lazy, uncommitted, pole-dancing, hard-drinking exhibitionist sex-bloggers, she says they can't be trusted... but she loves them. More »
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For a group of people who think their particular, religiously-inspired worldview should be foisted on others, conservative bloggers Kathryn Jean Lopez and Ace of Spades have some strong opinions on who shouldn't get hitched. More »
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BBC Radio 4 has aired its first episode of "Call Yourself A Feminist," a discussion of feminism in the 60's and 70's, and it is now accessible online. More »
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• The Guard Dogs, a French/Swiss feminist group, has named this underwear ad the most degrading of the year. The Guard Dogs also give out "macho medals" for the most sexist remarks. • More »
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Feministing points out that in a recent interview, Kelly Clarkson was asked if she would call herself a feminist. "No, not at all," Kelly replied. She continued: More »
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Since leaving office, George H.W. Bush has built a reputation as an affable, non-partisan weenie who chills with Bill Clinton and does good things. Turns out that, just like his wife, he's still an asshole. More »
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When we first got word of Ljubomir Erovic's new book, The Testicle Cookbook: Cooking With Balls, one thing became crystal-clear: After decades of jokes about busting someone's balls, I was finally going to be able to make good on the metaphor! And so, in honor of the holiday, Kay Steiger, Latoya Peterson and Ann Friedman joined Spencer Ackerman and me for a delicious reproductive organ meat feast. The video is, of course, after the jump. More »
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It's time for another installment of Pot Psychology, the "advice" column in which we attempt to solve everyone's problems with an herbal remedy. (Remember, kids: Don't do drugs!) In this episode, Rich helps me answer questions about gay sex, asexuals, and women's nipples. Got a burning question? Send it to potpsych@jezebel.com. (Please keep them short; they're verrrry hard to read when stoned.) More »
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Sarah Palin knows why women don't like her — and, no, it's not because (as adviser Rick Davis asserted) she's pretty, competent and happy. She thinks women aren't flocking to McCain-Palin because, she says, the media puts "a kind of spin on the my record or my positions." Would those be the positions on pay equity, abortion, health care, taxes, the environment, energy exploration, foreign policy or who should pay for the forensic exams after a woman is raped? Yeah, thought so. [Think Progress, ABC News] More »
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Yes, he can rock a suit. And the man pitches a mean cigarette slogan. But Mad Men's resident mystery cad Don Draper "cheats on his pre-Friedan-ized wife, Betty, going through mistresses like packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes. He is stoic, handsome, emotionally stunted." So, why, according to the Observer's Irina Aleksander, are liberated, independent women whose own supportive husbands happily stay at home feeding baby Thelonius Walnut organic applesauce dreaming of their own emotionally unavailable dick? More »
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"Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking." That's Eve Ensler, the latest to weigh in on Palin's feminism (or lack of) via an appeal to polar bear-loving American women in the Huffington Post. [HuffPo] More »
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Today's Guardian explores the new movement of ironic 1950s Domesticity that's sweeping England. To Americans accustomed to the rash of Stitch 'n Bitch books, knitting clubs, the pastel oceans of cupcakes sweeping our city's streets and tongue-in-cheek hostessing like Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, this will sound familiar. The article details the flights of domesticity of hip twenty-somethings who revel in tea dances and cupcake-based performance art (as distinct from the decidedly unironic domesticity of the also-British nutso "Time Warp Wives.") "The cupcake has become the symbol of this new movement, with afternoon tea and baking also seeing a renaissance. Much of this new domesticity is ironic — cooking and knitting carried out with tongue encased firmly in cheek." More »
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Sure, we all love Gossip Girl but most of us are (semi-)reasonable adults who can separate the show's risque antics from reality. But what about the children? Carol Platt Liebau, author of Prude, says that the show "glamorizes and normalizes" a sexy lifestyle which can result in emotional and psychological distress in young girls. She also thinks that "depicting high school girls as little more than gossipy sex objects is simply a tired cliche that does all females a disservice." But Carol, they aren't just gossipy sex objects! They are ASB presidents who out their ex-BFF as a recovering drug addict, they steal Valentino couture, they kill people. OMG, the drama! No wonder 14-year-olds love this show. [Reuters] More »
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Another day, another roadtrip, as the Washington Independent's personal Attackerman, Spencer Ackerman, joins me live from the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas. Topics discussed: Arianna Huffington's ability to channel the evil that is Karl Rove, race relations and the old-guard feminist movement in America, why we haven't heard the anti-sexism drum beating quite so hard for Michelle Obama and why the Obama campaign has to try so hard to remind people that Michelle's a mother, wife, and woman, too. More »
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Camille Paglia has put together a playlist for Paper Cuts, NY Times' book blog. (She's promoting her latest work, Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads 43 of the World’s Best Poems. She's mainly into rock from the '60s (Hendrix, Dylan, the Yardbirds), which isn't very surprising, since that's about the time she came of age. What was kinda fun to see listed on there, though, was Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart." [Paper Cuts] More »
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I've always sort of thought of Lisa Simpson as a Jezebel-in-training, what with her activism, enthusiasm for hobbies and books, love of cartoons and animals, and regard for feelings and unicorns, but it recently dawned on me that Lisa might just be the most visible, mainstream feminist of our time. I never thought I could worship a fictional 8-year-old so much. So here's a compilation of the best of Lisa's most Jezebelian moments. Enjoy! More »
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Tween Clique books link popularity/boys with brand name items. Prepare for disappointment, 7th graders of America! • Texas graverobbing teens and one adult make bong out of child's skull. • Professional British wedding planner doesn't believe in marriage. • People spend almost $2,000 a year on "pissed-off purchases," one women suggest couples kiss instead. Uh, okay. • Columnist Kathleen Parker says we should "save the males," oooh because they can lift heavy things? • Reporters without Borders asks Iran nicely to stop harassing "cyber-feminists." • Meanwhile in the Mid-East, Saudi women campaign against inconvenient late-night weddings. • Pro women's boxing comes to Japan. • An antidepressant may help teens with IBS. • Being breast-fed may lower a woman's breast cancer risk. • Penelope Cruz is set to become a stunning blonde. • Mary J. Blige starts foundation to help girls with careers and self-confidence. More »
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"Iron my shirt"; Citizens United Not Timid; steel-thighed nutcrackers... according to two feature articles this week, all that misogyny may be creating a new "wave" of the women's movement. Not only does Salon's Rebecca Traister suggest that the current election cycle may very well "give birth to a new generation of young feminists", across town, NY Magazine's Amanda Fortini is outright declaring that the political climate "leaves behind a legacy of reawakened feminism—the fourth wave, if you will." What both writers point to, of course, is the female population's disgust and surprise at the often sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton by their peer groups, the media, and political establishment. Here's my "two cent" takeaway: It's embarrassing that, in the year 2008, there are apparently so many educated young women who are either blind to sexism, claim to have never experienced it, or are shocked at its pervasiveness. More »
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Do women have a sense of humor? Don't ask Christopher Hitchens or, perhaps, singer/songwriter Nellie McKay. McKay (left) was a guest on Saturday night's edition of the radio program "A Prairie Home Companion", where, among other songs, she performed "Mother Of Pearl", a ditty about feminists. Some choice lyrics: "Feminists don't have a sense of humor (poor Hillary)"; "Can't these chicks do anything but whine?" "That's why these feminists just need to find a man." And although this feminist thought the song was pretty funny, many of the show's listeners took it seriously, as the comments left on this page attest. [A Prairie Home Companion] More »
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What do the Philippines Bureau of Customs and American feminists have in common? PETA rage. The animal-rights organization is getting flak for its use of sex dolls to protest Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in the Philippines' red light districts. The dolls, which were accompanied with a PETA-provided "KFC Blows" banner, have been confiscated by the Bureau. [Feministing] More »
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