Harassment

– “Under this system, WAM! escalates the reports they receive to Twitter, collecting detailed data about Twitter’s responses to those reports. Once the program is out of its pilot stage, WAM! promises sit down with Twitter in order to “improve their responses” to gendered harassment.” If Twitter Won’t Handle Its Massive Harassment Problem, These Women Will (via @SLAwrites)

– “Australians were outraged after discovering Blanc, a so-called “date coach”, was holding seminars to teach men how to “pick up” women using physical force and emotional abuse.” US ‘pick-up artist’ Julien Blanc forced to leave Australia after visa cancelled (h/t @JShahryar)

Criminal Justice

– ‘The investigation by the Medill Innocence Project, she said, “involved a series of alarming tactics that were not only coercive and absolutely unacceptable by law enforcement standards, they were potentially in violation of Mr. Simon’s constitutionally protected rights.”‘ Duped by Medill Innocence Project, Milwaukee man now free (h/t @sarahjeong)

Sexism

– “There had to have been at least one young lady in that room who had been the victim of sexual assault who had not reported it,” Rev. James Thomas, whose son is a junior at Lincoln, told the Inquirer, “and there was nothing that was said by the president that would have given any comfort.” College president: Women lie about rape when sex doesn’t “turn out the way they wanted” (via @Slate)

– “At issue is whether pregnant workers should be afforded the same type of legal protections as disabled workers who would be allowed special accommodations that would allow them to do their jobs.” Democrats denied a proxy vote to a pregnant congresswoman. Here’s the issue. (h/t @scATX)

Trans Rights

– “According to medical experts on this issue, the assumption that a transgender girl or woman competing on a women’s team would have a competitive advantage outside the range of performance and competitive advantage or disadvantage that already exists among female athletes is not supported by evidence.” Heroes, Martyrs and Myths: The Battle for the Rights of Transgender Athletes (via @ParkerMolloy)

Health Care

– “On Jan. 1 this year, I started on the Obamacare insurance. I now pay just $126 a month for insurance; a federal government subsidy covers the rest. If we had to cover the full cost of our health care, we would have just $574 left each month for all of our other expenses, including food and medicines. Without Obamacare, I would have died. I’m scared the Supreme Court is going to gut the part that saved me. (via @drgrist)

– “Correspondents say all the women came from very poor families. Those who survived are receiving treatment in three different hospitals in the district.” Indian botched sterilisations kill nine women in Chhattisgarh (h/t @ClinicEscort)

Policing

– ‘The document says Brown’s killing and force used by police officers during protests that followed the killing “represent violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”‘ Michael Brown’s parents address U.N.: ‘We need the world to know’ (h/t @roqchams)

– “This increase sounds notable, but the underlying data continues to be nearly useless. As we outlined in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in August, the FBI’s UCR program undercounts what it classifies as justifiable police homicides (while skirting the issue of non-justifiable homicides), and should not be considered a useful estimate.” Reminder: The FBI’s ‘Police Homicide’ Count Is Wrong (via @FiveThirtyEight)

Parenting

– “In America, today’s parents have inherited expectations they can no longer afford.The vigilant standards of the helicopter parents from the baby boomer generation have become defined as mainstream practice, but they require money that the average household earning $53,891 per year— and struggling to survive in an economy in its seventh year of illusory “recovery”— does not have.” How baby boomers ruined parenting forever (via @SarahKendzior)

Racism

– “It could be that the head of the police union wants me to stop working to raise the standards of police culture and accountability. It could be that he objects to the community policing and relationship-building measures that I am acting on, and attempted to use this non-story to discredit this work. I share the public’s speculation that this is the real option.” #pointergate (via @MayorHodges)

Racism

– “The judge brought Arpaio and his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan into court after learning that Sheridan told deputies that the federal court order was “absurd” and “ludicrous,” an assessment that Arpaio had agreed with.” Federal Judge Orders Sheriff Joe Arpaio To Undergo Racial Profiling Training (via @ThinkProgress)

– “But Navell happens to be a young black man, a fact that must have something to with what happened next: Newscasters at KSTP, the local ABC affiliate, took the innocuous photo and quickly warped it into an exclusive report accusing Hodges of “posing with a convicted felon while flashing a known gang sign” and thereby instigating violence in their fair city.”  Pointergate: This Week’s Most Racist Local News Story (via @MotherJones)

Sexism

– “A campaign organized by the women’s group Georgette Sand found that products such as shampoo and razors that are advertised as “female” cost more than identical products marketed to men.” France To Investigate ‘The Invisible Women’s Tax’ (via @ThinkProgress)

– “But while the men’s World Cup was played entirely on natural grass, FIFA has decided to stand with the Canadian organizers who have cited weather concerns to justify their turf-only cup.” FIFA Denies Women’s World Cup Players an Equal Playing Field—Literally (via @EdgeofSports)

Eugenics

– “Blackmon is among the more than 7,000 people in North Carolina — many poor, many African-American, many disabled — who were sterilized between 1929 and 1976 in one of the country’s most aggressive eugenics programs.” Payments Start For N.C. Eugenics Victims, But Many Won’t Qualify

Abuse and Harassment

– “Having said all of this, given what Dunham has written, I think she would have been indicated for sexual abuse for the masturbation incident.  I don’t think, however, that she is a child sexual abuser in the classic sense, meaning that I don’t think she’d go out and abuse a child today.” Is Lena Dunham a Sexual Abuser? (h/t @AngryBlackLady)

– “I’m more concerned at the moment with Dunham’s decision to publish them, and what that says about her respect for consent and agency right now.” On Lena Dunham and Consent (via @Shakestweetz)

– “These humorous tweets further the conversation on street harassment by showing just how strange it would be if men said these things to other men walking by.” #DudesGreetingDudes Hilariously Proves Catcalling Isn’t ‘Just A Compliment’ (via @HuffingtonPost)

Health Care

– “There are many, many people who are trying to keep something like life going for so many tragically affected people,” Dr. Faden said. “You’d be hard pressed to argue why they might be treated differently.” Treating Those Treating Ebola in Liberia (via @SheriFink)

Rape

– “But for me? I have enough shit to do. Why the fuck should some asshole cruise along being a total fucking creepy piece of shit and now I have to change my whole life? And give my NAME to all you internet douchebags and rape apologists? No thank you.” I Didn’t Report Because Fuck You (h/t @JessicaValenti)

Policing and Incarceration

– ” It also expands notions of criminality at a time when the criminal-justice system is regularly committing horrific acts of race- and class-biased violence.” ‘Yes Means Yes’ Is a Bad Coupling of Feminism and the State (h/t @ChiefElk)

– “Rather than spend money on mass incarceration, this proposal will reinvest the savings in education, which will provide youth with an opportunity for a better future and can keep young adults out of jail.” This could start to topple systematic racism. And it starts on Tuesday in California. (via @RachelLive)

– “While men are certainly responsible for their personal behavior, a law against street harassment would, in practice, randomly punish a select few individuals in the name of redressing a vast and systemic problem.” No, We Don’t Need a Law Against Catcalling (h/t @ChiefElk)

Body

– “It’s an aggressively entrenched paradigm that I’ve only recently managed to excise from my own psyche – me, the feminist killjoy shrew – so I really can’t begrudge anyone that initial reaction. But, every time, the subtext is clear: you are reaching above your station, fat lady.” Why I Can’t Wait To Be a Fat Bride (via @TheLindyWest)

Sex

– “Fuck first is one of my rules—and it’s not even a rule. It’s a suggestion. I encourage couples to “fuck first” on Valentine’s Day, wedding days, and anniversaries.” Should the Duggar Girls #FuckFirst? (via @FakeDanSavage)

Reproduction

– “Q: How are you going to feel knowing that your womb is a barren wasteland? A: Relieved!” My Fallopian Tubes (h/t @nothavingababy)

Policing

– “The colleague upbraided him for violating a citizen’s privacy, contacted a commanding officer, and arranged for Harrington’s arrest on felony charges. I kid, of course. The colleague actually complained that the photo wasn’t more explicit.” California Can’t Police Its Own Cops Stealing Nude Photos of Women (h/t @conor64)

Health

– “Duncan’s relatives say they also sought to have him sent to Emory University, one of the specialized hospitals. Duncan’s medical records suggest he was still strong enough several days into his hospitalization to walk around his room, sip Sprite and watch an action movie.” Could more have been done for Thomas Eric Duncan? (via @AP)

– “Even some of the seemingly boilerplate language used to describe Duncan was fraught with accusatory rhetoric. He was the man who, we read everywhere, “brought Ebola to America.” There is an insinuation of intentionality, one that is embedded in the very grammar of the phrase. And his identity was thereby changed from a man who suffers from a disease to the potential infector of an entire nation.” Why are some Ebola patients portrayed as criminals, others as heroes? (via @slate)

– “He uses Twitter throughout the day to make note of the details he isn’t likely to remember tomorrow: What he was reading about, what kind of coffee he ordered, who he spoke to. Even the details of his sex life, which he tweets about in Korean to avoid embarrassing over-the-shoulder moments.” This Man Uses Twitter To Augment His Damaged Memory (h/t @RebeccaSkloot)

Sexism

– “The idea that regret is, in and of itself, a reason to legally constrain women’s actions is conceptually flawed, paternalistic and degrading. It’s grounded in age-old sexist nonsense about women needing choices to be made for us, as unreasonable, feeble-minded creatures who need protection from the dangers we pose to ourselves.” (Hoping that) Women Hurt: regret as a tool of advocacy (h/t @melissagira)

– “For winning this year’s World Cup in Brazil, Germany received more than £21m more than Japan’s women did after they were crowned world champions in 2011.” Men get more prize money than women in 30% of sports (via @BBCsport)

– “That said, I’m pretty understandably confused by how Che gave himself the right to joke about catcalling. I’m confused, and I’m pissed off — because, seriously, how did the impact of that video fly so over his head?” SNL Star Michael Che’s Joke About Street Harassment is Offensive to Every Single Woman & Here’s Why

– “Yeah, well. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if I was harassed, assaulted, if I was flat-out raped, I would not go to the police. Not unless I wore clear scars from it, not unless I was bloodied or scraped. Even then, only if it was a stranger.” Do You Know About Jian (h/t @stavvers)

Intelligence

– “They believed the ex-Nazis’ intelligence value against the Russians outweighed what one official called “moral lapses” in their service to the Third Reich.” In Cold War, U.S. Spy Agencies Used 1,000 Nazis (h/t @mtracey)

Religion

– “The suit makes several arguments claiming that “representatives of atheist organizations” should have the same right to solemnize marriages that ordained ministers have.” Minnesota Atheists Sue For Right To Perform Marriages Just Like Ordained Ministers (via @ThinkProgress)

Family

– “5. What’s Your Legacy Going to Be? About the same as yours: nothing. Fifty years after we die, no one will remember us. Be honest: How much do you know about your great-grandparents? Unless you’re famous or infamous, you’ll be nothing more than an entry on Ancestry.com.” 10 Dumb Things People Say When They Find Out I Don’t Have (And Never Want) Children (h/t @nothavingababy)

Misogyny

– “This reaction, mostly from male gamers, is to protect the status quo,” she said. The same is true more broadly, and always has been when it comes to women’s progress: the more ground we gain, the worse men react.” Gamergate is loud, dangerous and a last grasp at cultural dominance by angry white men (via @JessicaValenti)

– “There’s this herd of people, mainly angsty teenage caucasian men (based on an informal survey of 99 percent of the people who feel the need to defend this nonsense to me on Twitter), who feel that somehow, their identity as “gamers” is being taken away. ” Why #Gamergaters Piss Me The F*** Off (h/t @Karnythia)

– “Here is a thing you need to internalise: just because you can get away with something doesn’t mean you should do it. ‘Whatever I can get away with’ is an inherently antisocial standard of behaviour.” Attention, men: don’t be a creepy dude who pesters women in coffee shops and on the subway (via @TheLindyWest)

– “A friend reminded me of all of the other recent shootings/stabbings/ violence like this. ‘Jesus f*cking Christ,’ she says. ‘Was it always like this and we’re only hearing about it more now?'” Entitled to Women: When Saying No Leads to Violence (h/t @Legal_Voice)

Police Violence

– “Everyone in St. Louis is afraid. The discrepancy in what they fear is tearing the region apart. Ferguson protesters—and much of black St. Louis—fear the police. ” “I am Darren Wilson”: St. Louis and the geography of fear (via @SarahKendzior)

– “The use by law enforcement of rubber bullets, tear gas and heavy military equipment and restrictions placed on peaceful protesters all violated international standards, the group said.” Police in Ferguson committed human rights abuses: Amnesty report (h/t @JasonLeopold)

Health

– “These incidents, which all took place at schools, illustrate a very poor understanding of African geography” 5 Schools Freaking Out About Ebola Because They Don’t Realize Africa Is A Really Big Continent (via @ThinkProgress)

– “Its development stalled in part because Ebola is rare, and until now, outbreaks had infected only a few hundred people at a time. But experts also acknowledge that the absence of follow-up on such a promising candidate reflects a broader failure to produce medicines and vaccines for diseases that afflict poor countries.” Ebola Vaccine, Ready for Test, Sat on the Shelf (h/t @leftiblog)

– “In her statement declaring the state of emergency and the cremation order, Sirleaf acknowledged the edict runs contrary to national tradition. “Ebola has attacked our way of life,” she said.” Cremation fears leave empty Ebola beds in Liberia (via @AP)

– “While a few of those interviewed said an overabundance of caution was welcome, the vast majority said that restrictions like those adopted by New York and New Jersey could cripple volunteers’ efforts at the front lines of the epidemic.” New Ebola Quarantine Protocol Seen as Barrier to Volunteers (h/t @charlesornstein)

– “Hickox also says that she eventually showed a fever on a forehead scanner because she was “flushed and upset” at the airport. After she arrived at the hospital, she says, a check with an oral thermometer found her temperature to be normal.” Health Care Worker Tests Negative For Ebola In NJ, Stays In Quarantine (via @nprnews)

– “So two power-hungry, corrupt, thuggish governors, New Jersey’s Chris Christie and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, have decided to enact their own public health Ebola policy. What could possibly go wrong?” So This Is How We’re Going to Respond to the Killer Death Virus? (h/t @shakestweetz)

Drug War

– “The report includes extensive analysis of marijuana arrest and income data, showing  that overall, low income and middle class communities of color face dramatically higher rates of marijuana possession arrests than do white communities of every class bracket.” Race, Class and Marijuana Arrests in Mayor de Blasio’s Two New Yorks: the NYPD’s Marijuana Arrest Crusade Continues in 2014 (h/t @mollyknefel)

Sports

– “According to the report, more than one in five of the university’s athletes from 1999 to 2011—and upwards of 3,000 students in all—were enrolled in the paper classes.” 3 Key Findings in Chapel Hill’s Academic-Fraud Investigation (h/t @scATX)

Prison Abuse

– “The family members claim the county and the jail’s health care service provider refused to transfer the inmates to a hospital until it was too late to save their lives, just to save money.” Lawsuits: Alabama Jailers Allowed 3 Inmates to Die of 19th-Century Ailments (h/t @DrJaneChi)

Sex Work

– “People love to talk about sex work as ‘selling your body’, but I am yet to meet a sex worker who, upon completing a job, is suddenly rendered incorporeal. Sex workers do not sell their bodies – they sell a service. ” I Don’t Care If You Call Me A Whore (via @jaythenerdkid)

Gender and Sexuality

– ‘No matter what we did, we were always going to be otherizing Maura in some way. And in the same way where I wouldn’t want a man to say, ‘I can have a writers’ room full of men and we can write women just fine.’ Orange Is the New Black Creator Criticizes Transparent’s New ‘Trans-Affirmative Action’ Policy (h/t @DrJaneChi)

Misogyny

– “It is not karma that has oppressed women in India, where Nadella and I are from — it is the domination of the wealthy classes, in a system where subjugating women is a convenient way of subjugating the working class as a whole.”  Nadella’s blunder: Two Seattle City Council women respond (via @cmkshama)

– “In most courts, dates are routinely moved to accommodate the schedule of lawyers, including for vacations. And although the court does not employ her directly, the incident does raise questions about the state of maternity leave in the U.S.” Judge Won’t Delay Hearing For Lawyer’s Maternity Leave, Then Berates Her For Bringing Baby To Court (via @ThinkProgress)

Banking Crisis

– “Parker is about to file a class action lawsuit against the Dallas-based debt collection company, Dyck O’Neal, which is working to recoup the money on behalf of Fannie Mae. The class action will allege that Dyck O’Neal violated fair debt collection practices by suing people in the state of Florida who actually lived out of state.” Americans face post-foreclosure hell as wages garnished, assets seized (h/t @sarahkendzior)

– “Getting tens of thousands of homeowners to deceptively sign away their rights for $178.04, and then rip off their homes, is bad enough, but it gets worse. Wells Fargo never complied with the minimal obligations in the class action settlement.”  “We hope they were duped”: How prosecutors gave banks the best “penalty” ever

Intersectionality

– “When I see a white man ambling towards me on the street at night, or when I am in an elevator with him, or when I see him in the car next to mine on the interstate, I often think I should be afraid. I know what white men are capable of.” Roxane Gay: I have feared white men and I have loved them (via @rgay)

Immigration

– “Clearly moved, once on board the plane the other passengers refused to fasten their seat belts – a protest that prevented the pilots from being able to begin take off.” Refugee facing deportation from Sweden saved by fellow passengers refusing to let plane leave (h/t @stavvers)

Policing

– “Novara is apparently taking the aliases of activists, finding out their real names (which may be difficult or easy) and then making calls to businesses to warn them that they are tweeting things that are making people upset and so that is why they may get angry phone calls. If effective, this can be pretty defamatory.” St. Louis Officer Who Called Activist’s Boss About Her Tweets Now Under Investigation by Internal Affairs (h/t @Copwatch)

Education

– “Labor exploitation is not the new normal. Adjunct professors are distinct from other low-wage contract workers only by virtue of degree – that is, the Ph.D. Like other exploited workers, adjuncts are told that their low pay and mistreatment are the deserved consequence of poor choices.” The Adjunct Crisis Is Everyone’s Problem (h/t @sarahkendzior)

Racism

– “Stop trying to repackage black cool or trends as if it’s some sort of brand-new idea.” Thug Kitchen: A Recipe in Blackface (h/t @fatbodypolitics)

– “Completely confused by the incident, Currie was sprayed with pepper spray in the face as he tried to explain that he lived there and had his own room.” Black teenage foster child gets accused by neighbors of burglary and pepper-sprayed in his own home (via @shaunking)

Policing

– “But instead he prioritized the comfort and security of his officer over the comfort and security of his community, which … okay, non-rhetorical question: Isn’t that literally the opposite of his job?” 4 Weird Decisions That Have Made Modern Cops Terrifying (h/t @studentactivism)

Health Care

– “We had no difficulty explaining the specific dangers of various treatment options, but we never really touched on the reality of his disease.” Doctors Who Don’t Know How to Talk About Death

– “Still, the sight was a little jarring: The woman was putting the food into plastic foam plates just a few steps from the dressing rooms for staff members coming out of the decontamination areas, the pharmacy, and past a refrigerator with a sign marked, “Ebola blood tests. NO FOOD.”” Life, Death and Grim Routine Fill the Day at a Liberian Ebola Clinic (via @sherifink)

– “The oilfields giant, which also donated $100,000 to the foundation, boasts that it’s “doing our ‘bit’ for the cure.” Get it? It’s a pun. A horribly misguided, pinkwashing attempt at a pun.” Fracking company teams up with Susan G. Komen, introduces pink drill bits “for the cure” (h/t @EdgeofSports)

– “Under these interpretations, Amendment 67 would go farther than any anti-abortion measure in U.S. history. Even before Roe v. Wade, criminal abortion laws typically carried penalties from one to ten years, not Colorado’s first-degree murder sentencing of life in prison or death.” Keep Mothers Out of Jail: Vote ‘No’ on Colorado’s ‘Personhood’ Measure (via @RHRealityCheck)

Misogyny

– “The actor – livid – called the violation a “sex crime”, accused those who looked at the photos of “perpetuating a sexual offense” and added: I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body.” The Jennifer Lawrence nude photo hack response is the end of the ‘shamed starlet’ (via @JessicaValenti)

– “Sexual harassment on the job, while illegal, is still very common, particularly for women.” Woman Fired Day After She Complained Coworker Rubbed Her Buttocks (via @ThinkProgress)

Policing

– “A critical form was never filed at all, while others are kept out of public sight, hidden behind dubious bureaucratic procedures and exorbitant and apparently arbitrary fees that seem to have been put in place with the sole purpose of keeping the details of the incident on Canfield Drive a secret.” Ferguson Officials Aren’t Telling You What Happened to Mike Brown (h/t @ShaunKing)

Sports

– “We find it easy to talk about crime, especially crime as a problem within our larger society, when we have a black person in the role of perpetrator. It’s comfortable for us.” The NFL’s Domestic Violence Problem and Our Race Problem (via @scATX)

– “What Husain Abdullah did was not “unsportsmanlike.” It was a brief, personal moment between himself and the higher power he believes in.” Husain Abdullah was penalized for … praying? (via @SBNation)

Women’s Health

– “I want every single person who wants and/or needs an abortion to be able to get one, easily and safely. And that makes me pro-abortion.” You Really Got Me (via @Shakestweetz)

– “What most people don’t understand is that these donations are really more of a base marketing cost towards a campaign to make headway into the demographic of women ages 18-54, with what little actually donated to the cause being spent lining the pockets of executives at Komen.” Breast Cancer Awareness Month Is A Marketing Scam (via @ParkerMolloy)

Gender and Sexuality

– “The new law clearly outlines that a defendant’s discomfort with, suprise at, or fear of a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity may not be used as a legal defense to justify the assault.” California Becomes First State to Ban Gay, Trans ‘Panic’ Defenses (h/t @ParkerMolloy)

– “The Transgender Law Center, which was also represented at that meeting, said in a separate statement that Facebook should “establish clear and easy procedures for users to appeal account suspension” and eliminate a requirement that users show forms of identification before opening accounts.” Facebook apologizes to LGBT users, reverses ground on ‘real name’ policy (h/t @EWDolan)

Education

– “If we’re making 12-year-olds, much less five-year-olds, do homework, it’s either because we’re misinformed about what the evidence says or because we think kids ought to have to do homework despite what the evidence says.” Homework: An unnecessary evil? … Surprising findings from new research (h/t @mims)

Homelessness

– “One local pastor, Craig Watts, cautioned commissioners against “laws that criminalize misfortune.” He called it “ethically dubious at best,” noting that the religious community opposed these measures.” City Makes It Illegal To Sleep In Public In Effort To Crack Down On The Homeless (via @ThinkProgress)

– “Seattle has become a playground for wealthy developers who are receiving sweetheart deals, making enormous profits and who are given virtually free rein over our neighborhoods.” Statement on Mayor Murray’s Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory Committee (via @cmsawant)

NFL

– “You can’t train away entitlement or take a two-hour course to be misogyny-free. Especially when the people who are “training” and “educating” players and league employees will be getting paychecks from the a league that saw marijuana use as a more serious offense than beating a woman.” Roger Goodell wants YOU to accept his nightmare of violence and sexism (via @JessicaValenti)

– “In the end, after everybody has taken their cut, only 8.01% of money spent on pink NFL merchandise is actually going towards cancer research.” A Shockingly Small Amount Of Money From Pink NFL Merchandise Sales Goes To Breast Cancer Research

Policing and Prison

– “According to St. Louis alderman Antonio French, Johnson also said he would “have a talk” with whatever agency the bracelet-wearing officers work for.” “I Am Darren Wilson” Bracelets Are Missouri Cops’ New Fashion Statement (h/t @chescaleigh)

– “Keep in mind that the UN considers solitary confinement for anything more than 15 days to be torture or cruel and inhumane treatment.” How Can The Atlantic Give Us 5,000 Words on Prison Life Without Interviewing Prisoners? (via @MotherJones)

–  “Ritchie told several reporters after the 5 August shooting that he was an “ex-marine”. When confronted with his seven-week service record, however, he confirmed that he had been quickly thrown out of the US marine corps in 2008 after being declared a “fraudulent enlistment”” Doubts cast on witness’s account of black man killed by police in Walmart (h/t @Karnythia)

– “He described the presentation as “almost like a pep talk for police officers,” which informed them: “You have to go after these things, you can’t ignore them”.” Ohio police given ‘pep talk’ on shooting scenarios ahead of Walmart encounter

Assault of Women

– “In a horrifically misguided plot to catch the suspect in the act, they asked a female special-needs student to act as bait, luring the alleged rapist into a bathroom where teachers would be present to intervene.” There Are So Many Things Wrong With This Alabama Middle School Rape Case (h/t @courtenlow)

– “Just as lynching in America is not a phenomenon wholly confined to black people, spouse-beatings are not wholly confined to women. But in our actual history, women have largely been on the receiving end of spouse-beating.” The domestic violence gender trap: Hope Solo, Ray Rice and the tired myopia of “women do it too”

Health

– “It is especially important because a psychological disease can spread as fast as any virus but be more enduring. It is especially lucrative for all the food companies making tons of money off of people like you.” Science Proves Gluten Sensitivity Isn’t Real, People Are Just Whiners (h/t @DrJaneChi)

– “CVS has been illegally charging women for birth control, violating an Obamacare provision that forces insurers to cover generic contraceptives at no cost to women.” CVS Caught Illegally Charging Women For Birth Control (h/t @DrJaneChi)

Labor Rights

– “Lyft announced the cuts in an email to all drivers, reminding them “the more you make, the more Lyft makes, so your earnings are our top priority.” But one Lyft driver explains to Valleywag that drivers aren’t buying it.” Lyft Just Slashed Driver Pay Again, And Everyone’s Pissed (h/t @chrisglenski)

Policing

– “These highly questionable revelations stirred a fair amount of public outrage, but few people seemed to realize how truly sinister they were, or how they connected to much broader patterns of official lawlessness that have long bedeviled St. Louis County, and Missouri more generally, as well as many other jurisdictions across the land.” Ferguson’s massive cover-up: How police departments are protecting Michael Brown’s killer (h/t @ShaunKing)

– “The question of whether Urban Shield is an essential training experience worth a significant investment of taxpayer money or a chance for grown men to run around and play war games was bubbling beneath the surface the whole time.” Militarized Cops Pretend to Fight Terrorists in Oakland (h/t @MelissaGira)

Reproductive Health

– “Despite the mounting pressures to have a baby already, a number of well-known, powerful women have said no, thanks, and spoken quite frankly about their decision not to parent.” 25 Famous Women on Childlessness (h/t @sovvvy)

Sexism

– “The thing that’s most striking about the opposition to Sarkeesian’s work is that while her opposition comes in very different forms, ranging from simple criticism, to faux-intellectual documentarians, to outright virulent abuse, it’s all pretty lightweight.” Criticism of Anita Sarkeesian & “Tropes vs. Women” Comes in 4 Groundless Forms (h/t @femfreq)

– “In protest, some students are continuing to openly defy the dress code regulations and wear shorts and tank tops to school.” High Schoolers Protest Sexist Dress Code That’s Landed More Than 100 Girls In Detention (via @ThinkProgress)

– “I made the mistake of dating a guy who would later go on to write a several-act manifesto about my alleged sex life and post it to every forum he could create a handle for. Normally, this would blow over with little more than a “whoa, check out THAT guy,” but since I work in an industry that has very strong feelings about women, it quickly mutated from a jilted ex’s revenge-porn to one of the most intense scandals in recent gaming history.” 5 Things I Learned as the Internet’s Most Hated Person (h/t @studentactivism)

– “We may be able to see these small population differences if we ran a large, controlled study but it would be practically invisible to us on an individual level as we go about our lives and it certainly wouldn’t result in large gender imbalances in terms of people who like Sam Harris.” Sam Harris Doesn’t Understand Bell Curves (via @skepchic)

Sexual Assault

– “This rape prevention campaign doesn’t even include rapists in its messaging about personal accountability for preventing rape. Instead, it’s directed at everyone but rapists.” White House Rolls Out “It’s On Us” Campaign (via @Shakestweets)

Homophobia

– “I don’t see how it could be self-defense,” Nagle says. “There were 12 people there. The self-defense thing is a little crazy to me. It wasn’t like a guy just threw a punch to protect himself and ran away. That’s not what happened here.” Philly Hate Attack Mob Claiming Self Defense After Brutal Beating Sends Gay Men To Hospital

Intimate Partner Violence

– “The Radisson hotel chain is suspending its sponsorship of the Minnesota Vikings after star running back Adrian Peterson was charged with child abuse in Texas.” Radisson Suspends Minnesota Vikings Sponsorship (via @AP)

World Health

– “The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.” The Mathematics of Ebola Trigger Stark Warnings: Act Now or Regret It

Awesomeness

– “‘Obviously, my house would not be like this if I didn’t have Asperger’s,’ he said. ‘If it takes a long time, I don’t care because if I like what I’m doing, I almost don’t want to finish what I’m doing,’ Krueger said.” Autistic Minnesota man builds ultimate cat maze in home (h/t @AustinKelmore)

Sexism, Reproductive Rights

– “So the disparity is not because mothers actually become less productive employees and fathers work harder when they become parents — but because employers expect them to.” The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus (h/t @dreamhamptom)

– “Because, really, women’s abortions are none of your business – not even those of a public figure, not even one who became an international figure because of abortion rights.” Bravo for Wendy Davis, but women’s abortions are none of your business (via @JessicaValenti)

– “Miranda’s mother, Dianna Larkin, has referred to the outfit as a “suit of shame” and says that Miranda started sobbing as soon as she was forced to put it on.” High Schooler Forced To Wear ‘Shame Suit’ As Punishment For Short Skirt (via @ThinkProgress)

– “Whalen told authorities there was no local clinic available to perform an abortion and her daughter did not have health insurance to cover a hospital abortion.” Mom Ann Whalen Sentenced To Prison For Giving Daughter Abortion Pills

– “What Alden’s bio fails to mention is he has also overseen a series of failures when it comes to how his department has handled off-field issues with players, specifically from the basketball and football teams when it involves violence against women.” Missouri Football’s Rape Culture and So On and So Forth (via @scATX)

– “Domestic violence is so much more complicated than a lack of money, or not having self-respect, or feeling like it’s OK for your man to beat up on you.” Why I Married My Abuser (h/t @DrJaneChi)

– “But judging by the list of banned content, GoFundMe doesn’t necessarily want a positive experience for all visitors. It wants a positive experience for visitors who align with a specific social outlook.” GoFundMe, the site that has raised money for convicted murderers, will draw the line at abortion and ‘sorcery’ (h/t @ClinicEscort)

– “When an incident of intimate partner violence in which a man knocks a woman unconscious gains national attention and every question or comment you think to make has to do with her behavior, you really hate women.” How to know that you hate women (via @mychalsmith)

Racism + Sexism

– “Black feminism is championing a more nuanced understanding of how oppression and privilege operate” After naked photo hack, ‘white feminists’ ignore Jill Scott (h/t @courtenlow)

– “Black women are almost three times as likely to experience death as a result of DV/IPV than White women.” Why Black Women Struggle More With Domestic Violence (via @FeministaJones)

Racism

– “The dream was to make the league palatable to a stereotypical, upscale suburban audience.” Out for Executing the NBA Game Plan: The Atlanta Hawks and That Levenson (via @EdgeOfSports)

– “There have been numerous calls for the NFL to ease up its marijuana punishments, based both on weed’s expanding legality and its potential use as relief for chronic pain.” The NFL Just Suspended Ray Rice Indefinitely. Why the Hell Did It Take So Long?

– “The Economist revealed just how many white people remain reluctant to believe black people about the experience of being black.” The Economist’s review of my book reveals how white people still refuse to believe black people about being black

– “Misee felt unable to continue working under such conditions and decided to quit the dental practice on the spot, much to the dismay of her bosses. They assumed Misee would simply promise to stop voicing her opinions on social media about racial injustice. ” Racial discrimination & resignation of Dr. Misee Harris – An Open Letter to media (h/t @SarahKendzior)

Policing

– “The effect is to make the city more appealing to successful, and mostly white, middle class professionals – while burdening the city’s poorest with more bills to pay.” Bratton-style policing means more fines and arrests for black residents of Detroit (h/t @FatBodyPolitics)

– “The captain, he said, told him we had been filming in an unauthorized location, though he could not tell us where that location was. (We’d been advised earlier that it was okay to film so long as we did not go on the bridge itself.)” Video: What We Saw Before Being Kicked Out of the SWAT Convention (via @MotherJones)

– “Better data, and the will to collect it, is necessary to get the full picture of how many criminals and law-abiding citizens are killed by police every year.” Here’s the Data That Shows Cops Kill Black People at a Higher Rate Than White People (via @MotherJones)

– “The police-military institutions sponsoring and consorting with weapons exhibitions like Urban Shield are not only ensuring that police agencies remain militarized but that the rising climate of both xenophobia and Islamophobia does not shift, the latter having a tremendous and direct influence over the use of the former.” ‘Urban Shield’: where hostility towards minorities meets policing on steroids (via @roqchams)

Trans Rights

– “An inventor, an executive, a lawyer, and even a founder of a religion, there are so many intriguing aspects of Rothblatt’s life. It’s a shame so much had to be made of her gender.” About that New York Magazine Cover Story (via @ParkerMolloy)

Children

– “While no one actually endorses child abuse or neglect, there is disagreement within the homeschooling community about how best to address the problem — and how widespread it is.” ‘Anonymous Tip’: Homeschooling’s Obsession With ‘False’ Reports Of Child Abuse

Disasters

– “Many people asked to return money were deemed ineligible for aid because their damaged properties were vacation houses or rental properties, not their primary homes.” FEMA Wants at Least $5.8 Million in Sandy Aid Repaid (via @AP)

Science

– “It is very clear that there are certain major issues where there is only one correct scientific answer, and political conservatives are much more likely to deny that answer than are liberals or moderates.” Stop Pretending That Liberals Are Just As Anti-Science As Conservatives (via @MotherJones)

Cool Stuffs 

– “To the company’s initial surprise, the feature is popular among late night office dwellers.” Genius Pizza Box Transforms Into Plates, And Then Storage For Leftovers (h/t @DrJaneChi)