Misogyny and Sexual Abuse

– “What these people are doing is reminding women that, no matter who they are, they are still women. They are forever vulnerable.” The Great 2014 Celebrity Nude Photos Leak is only the beginning (via @rgay)

– “For every statement of sympathy to the women whose massively personal, vulnerable information was shared, there are several posts about the idiocy of posting these pictures on the internet (which they didn’t) or taking them at all (which is none of our business).“ What Nude Photo Scandals Tell Us about How We View Women (via @courtenlow)

– “The story itself should not be addressed as if it were a scandal, but rather what it is: A sex crime involving theft of personal property and the exploitation of the female body.” Jennifer Lawrence Nude Photo Leak Isn’t A ‘Scandal.’ It’s A Sex Crime. (h/t @M_E_Winstead)

– “The receptionist, on learning I was reporting a sex offence, insisted on me giving details in front of everybody in the waiting room before taking me somewhere private.” How I was raped – and pressured into dropping the charges (h/t @stavvers)

– “So Sulkowicz joined a federal complaint in April over Columbia’s mishandling of sexual misconduct cases, and she will will hoist that mattress on her shoulders as part savvy activism, part performance art.” Beyond ‘no means no’: the future of campus rape prevention is ‘yes means yes’ (via @JessicaValenti)

– “But them there girls didn’t matter. People like us, we don’t matter.” Child abuse revelations divide “most shameful town in Britain” (via @reuters)

– “The problem here is that these squealing man-children, so desperate to keep women out of their precious games, want it both ways. They want gaming to be taken seriously as a culture and art form, while at the same time throwing an unbelievable tantrum when subjected to serious criticism.” Announcement: Readers who feel threatened by equality no longer welcome (h/t @womenactmedia)

Families

– “All the handwringing in the world didn’t change the fact that families needed two incomes to get by and women increasingly wanted their own careers.” Why America Gave Up On The Fight For A Family-Friendly Workplace, And Why It’s Starting Again (via @ThinkProgress)

– “Childless isn’t a synonym for hollow or miserable. And let’s move together towards a world where if women are asked why they didn’t have kids, they simply say: ‘That’s an odd question.'” Jennifer Aniston is right – a childless life isn’t a fruitless one (h/t @nothavingababy)

– “Fears about outbreaks aren’t simply hypothetical. This past year, California specifically has faced a record-breaking whooping cough epidemic, as well as several serious measles outbreaks.” Health Experts Are Worried That More Kids Are Heading Back To School Without Their Vaccines (via @ThinkProgress)

– “After five months, she has been granted full custody of her children. Her kids can finally come home.” Woman Who Left Kids in Car During Job Interview Regains Custody (h/t @msfoundation)

Police Abuse

– “At every point where it’s possible, the cops assume Boucher is a bad, unconcerned mother.” Mom Arrested for (Maybe) Hanging Up on Cop While Her ‘Missing’ 10-Year-Old Plays at Church (h/t @radleybalko)

– “He is accused of stopping women, who were all black and between the ages of 34 and 58, while on duty in Oklahoma City.” Prosecutors Charge Cop Daniel Holtzclaw With Rape, Sexual Assault Of 8 Women (h/t @angryblacklady)

– “While I think it is probably a good idea, it really depends how it’s used and whether or not police officers are disciplined … Are there consequences if the recordings show that a police officer violated policy or a police officer used excessive force?” Watching the Watchmen: Are Police Officers’ Body-Worn Cameras a Win for Accountability? (h/t @prisonculture)

– “And there’s the rub. It is not just releasing the fact that they were looking for Ashya that is being challenged: it is the fact that they put out misinformation about the nature of their search. They insinuated very clearly that the family had removed a child “without consent”. Comment: After Ashya, can the police be trusted with a Twitter account? (h/t @stavvers)

– “The problem with telling people they have to participate in any mandatory expression is that it tells people who might have a religious objection or other deeply held belief that, if they don’t go along with what the government tells them to do, they aren’t welcome in this community.” Mayor orders police to remove man who wouldn’t stand for Pledge of Allegiance (h/t @radleybalko)

– “This is where the fundamental fault in the police culture of St. Louis lies. The use of guns and force define the recruiting message, by having violence as a transcending theme. Imagine how it would feel, if the promotional video of a Medical School was all about the scalpel and the students using it on corpses.” How It’s Easier to Become a St. Louis Police Officer Than a Barber

Racism

– “What is it about black womanhood that renders us so fascinating? Not unlike the manic pixie dream girl, this fantastical stereotype has taken on a life of it own, in which sassy fierce black women are on permanent performance mode.” Why the hell do TV producers think inside every white woman is a fierce black diva? (via @renireni)

– “When April protested by noting her Native American religious beliefs, Warren asked her for to prove that Malachi is, indeed, a Native American.” Texas School Won’t Let Native American Attend His First Day Of Kindergarten Because Of His Long Hair (via @ThinkProgress)

– “During the first round of court proceedings, Texas admitted that between 600,000 to 800,000 registered voters in the state lacked a government-issued photo ID, with Hispanic voters between 46.5 percent to 120 percent more likely than whites to not have the new voter ID.”  Will Texas Get Away With Discriminating Against Voters? (h/t @DrJaneChi)

– “The team tweeted the score at the end of all 16 preseason quarters. Against the year’s first three opponents teams, 11 of the 12 tweets included the opposing team’s nickname. Against the Redskins, none of the four tweets did.” One Redskins preseason opponent showed you can live-tweet a Redskins game without using the word ‘Redskins’

– The Economist just defended slave owners

Gun Violence

– “The weapon was in the employee’s pants pocket and was not displayed at any time. The employee was injured in the foot and treated and released from the hospital.” Police: no charges pending in ISU accidental shooting

– “But it turns out that bringing SWAT teams into buildings to simulate an active shooter situation doesn’t always make people feel safer.” Active Shooter Drills Don’t Really Prepare People, But They Do Make Them Cry (via @MotherJones)

Policing:

– “The research team, which studied clashes between police and activists during the Occupy movement three years ago, found that protests tend to turn violent when officers use aggressive tactics, such as approaching demonstrators in riot gear or lining up in military-like formations.” Police often provoke protest violence, UC researchers find (h/t @BeckyGMartinez)

– “In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn’t be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.” Why Police Lie Under Oath (h/t @Copwatch)

– “An officer on the street let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial site.” Michael Brown’s Mom Laid Flowers Where He Was Shot—and Police Crushed Them (via @MotherJones)

Homophobia:

– “The ESPN segment, as Burke and Long both insinuated, had the air of a report seeking to make a story where there was none.” Rams’ Chris Long Tweets Perfect Response To ESPN Report On Mike Sam’s Showers (via @ThinkProgress)

Privacy:

– “EFF opposed the kill switch bill because the legislation does not make clear exactly who can trigger a smartphone’s kill switch.” New CA kill switch law stirs free speech debate (h/t @SeattlePrivacy)

Worker Rights:

– “The policy is that if you have kids, you will never be scheduled past 5pm. The business closes at 7:30, but those without kids work the later part of the day” Child Free Discrimination? (h/t @nothavingababy)

Appropriation:

– “When an aesthetic is divorced from anything essential, from any soul, it becomes little more than a sound. And that sounds bad for the future of black music.” The Tragedy of Whitewashing Hip Hop (h/t @FeministaJones)

Health Care:

– “They assume that pharmacies are charging them the right co-payments, that insurance companies are paying the correct share. But as health plans’ rules for prescription drugs become more complicated, it’s harder to tell.” One Drug. Two Prices. A Reporter Struggles to Find Out the Cost of His Son’s Prescription (via @ProPublica)

Feminism:

– “It sucks shit to be a woman in music and female musicians already get the short end of the music coverage stick, so it’s real bogus to see potentially important ink get wasted on this crap.” Erm…the Weekly’s Bumbershoot preview for La Luz is real weird (h/t @passtheteapot)

-“Abortion is a basic health care service”  Abortions Must Be Covered By Health Insurance Companies In California (h/t @jessicavalenti)

-“When breaking the reviews down by gender of the person evaluated, 58.9% of the reviews received by men contained critical feedback. 87.9% of the reviews received by women did.” The abrasiveness trap: High-achieving men and women are described differently in reviews (h/t @gildedspine)

– “I’m appreciative that young men like want to curb sexual assault, but anything that puts the onus on women to “discreetly” keep from being raped misses the point. We should be trying to stop rape, not just individually avoid it.” Why is it easier to invent anti-rape nail polish than find a way to stop rapists? (via @JessicaValenti)

– “A student who was punched in the face at the Notting Hill Carnival for telling a man not to grope her says she would do the same again.” Notting Hill Carnival: Punched woman talks of outrage (via @BBCNewsbeat)

– The latest Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is really well done and also horrifying. (via @femfreq)

Robin Williams dies. Mike Brown is unarmed and killed by the police, and the police handle it so poorly there aren’t words to describe it. It’s been a rough week.

– This is unacceptable: One Black Man is Killed Every 28 Hours by Police or Vigilantes (h/t @AngryBlackLady)

– “Justice should be the affirmation of our existence.” Mychal Denzel Smith being awesome: The Death of Michael Brown and the Search for Justice in Black America

– How is this possible? Teen Convicted In Steubenville Rape Case Back On Football Team

– Ah, ‘private security.’ Westlake Mall Cop Ignores Agitator, Maces African American Bystander at Israel Protest

– Pajiba.com has been a great place this week – so many posts on Robin Williams, and a great one tonight on what’s going on in Ferguson. Check them out (this one is by my favorite writer over there, @courtenlow): Why Do We Personalize Celebrity Deaths?

– I can’t yet read anything about Robin Williams without tearing up. This one is hard. Harder than I would have thought: ‘He was a hero to me’: Paul F. Tompkins on Robin Williams

Two birthdays this week – Arlo turned three and Lukas turned one. Happy birthday buddies!

– NY Times on the ruling about franchises: Holding McDonald’s Accountable (via @nytimes)

– What happens when a celebrity supports Palestine: Tweet and delete: On Gaza, celebrity courage — and cowardice — over social media (h/t @roqchams)

– Ugh: Study: Women More Likely to Be Lied to in Negotiations Than Men (h/t @MacMcClelland)

– Cis just means you aren’t trans. It’s really not that hard: Criado-Perez Gets Cisgenderism Spectacularly Wrong (h/t @ParkerMolloy)

– This is what happens when states are allowed to discriminate: Ohio Hospital Withholds Medical Records From Lesbian Widow (h/t @fakedansavage)

– Trans issues deserve better coverage than what the New York published recently. This op-ed explains: Op-ed: An Open Letter to The New Yorker (h/t @ParkerMolloy)

– Yikes: UK’s Lords and EU Take Aim at Online Anonymity (via @fightfortheftr)

– Go NYU. This should be interesting. Will NYU’s New Video Game Degree End The Era Of Bro Gaming? (via @ThinkProgress)

Alaska was gorgeous. Thankfully Seattle arranged for some great weather to ease the transition back.

– Awesome: refusing money with unethical origins: Native Americans Refuse Redsk*ns Foundation Money for Skate Park (h/t @EdgeofSports)

– Issues with private management of children and family services: The Right to Parent, Even If You Are Poor (h/t @prisonculture)

– Detroit water crisis continues: Four things you should know about Detroit’s water crisis (h/t @allisonkilkenny)

– Sigh: Hobby Lobby Allegedly Fired Employee Due to Pregnancy (via @RHRealityCheck)

– Michelle Goldberg continues to disappoint: The New Yorker’s Skewed History of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism Ignores Actual Trans Women (h/t @melissagira)

– I usually don’t link to Vox, but the war on drugs IS, in fact, racist: The war on marijuana is racist. So is the rest of the war on drugs. (h/t @prisonculture)

– Having an opinion on Israel and Palestine: Empathizing w/ Gaza does NOT make me anti-Semitic, nor pro-Hamas or anti-Israel. It makes me human.

– About the boys killed on the beach: Four Little Boys and the Price of Play in Gaza (via @EdgeofSports)

– What happens when a person expresses support for Palestinians: The risk of opposing Israel in the US (via @ajam)

– Another perspective on the blockade of Gaza: End the Gaza blockade to achieve peace (h/t @RaniaKhalek)

I’m taking next week off from the blog, so this will return on July 31. In the meantime, enjoy!

– We got enough shit for creating a new last name – I can only imagine when people start ‘messing with tradition’ when it comes to their children’s names: What Happened When We Gave Our Daughter My Last Name (h/t @andreagrimes)

– Ooof: Israel-Gaza conflict: 80 per cent of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes are civilians, UN report says (h/t @roqchams)

– I love this article. Stop assuming men are the default – if you need to be the qualifier of ‘female’ or ‘woman’ in front of it, put ‘male’ or ‘man’ in front of descriptions of men doing it: World Cup Soccer Stats Erase The Sport’s Most Dominant Players: Women

– Finally – Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) has been Liveblogging the 90s by picking choice films and reminding us (or questioning) why we loved them. You can find the archive here, but these are my favorites so far:

— I Know What You Did Last Summer

— The Craft

— Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

It’s going to be really hot here again this weekend.

– WHY do so many people not understand what feminism is? Seriously. I’m asking. Man Tapped to Draw the New Wonder Woman Doesn’t Want Her to Be Feminist (via @MotherJones)

– Street harassment sucks. Believe it. Women everywhere have their movement limited by the male gaze (via @renireni)

– I hate everything. Citing ‘Hobby Lobby,’ Religious Groups Ask Obama for LGBT Exemptions (h/t @msfoundation)

– This article is a really eloquent look at what we value in people, and why. Ugly Girl (via @shakestweets)

– And while people might mean well, as the post says, don’t do this. Don’t Do This (via @shakestweets)

I plan to spend today reading, watching the World Cup and enjoying a day off. Hopefully you have some fun plans as well!

– Thanks to one of Austin’s friends, we got a private tour of the cellars at Dom Pérignon, and a private tasting. It was amazing: Time Doesn’t Dim Its Sparkle (via @NYTimes)

– I spent loads of time on Twitter yelling about the Hobby Lobby decision; this was also handed down that day but has received less coverage: Supreme Court Delivers a Hit—But Not a “Kill Shot”—to Public-Employee Unions (via @MotherJones)

– Great article on how powerful women are covered in print media: The Princess Effect How women’s magazines demean powerful women—even when they’re trying to celebrate them. (via @SarahKendizor)

– One subject of George Will horrible article on rape responds: Exclusive: The Sexual Assault Survivor George Will Dismissed Responds (h/t @MsFoundation)

So much world cup.

– Luis Suarez. Ooof. The Many Crimes Of Luis Suárez, Soccer’s Notorious Supervillain (h/t @EdgeOfSports)

– With the ruling from the US Patent Office on the DC football team name, this article is appropriate. White America’s shocking ignorance on racist mascots (h/t @RaniaKhalek)

– If you’re in Seattle and support the living wage, here are businesses to avoid. Know your $15 minimum wage opponents: Measures, committees, and businesses, oh fuck. (via @Seattlish)

– More on the living wage fight: Support Seattle Workers

A day late because I spent last night raising money for Puget Sound Blood Center. It was a blast!

– I don’t think we talk about this enough. I know I use this language ALL THE TIME. Working on it: Doing Social Justice: 10 Reasons to Give Up Ableist Language (h/t @rhrealitycheck)

– Chelsea Manning speaks about her actions: The Fog Machine of War (via @NYTimes)

– Oh goody. Police: UW student planned mass killings, promised to ‘only kill women’ (via @Q13FOX)

– Huh. I didn’t have to take MY make-up off when I got my new license last year. Perhaps the DMV thinks only people with a W on their license should be allowed to wear make-up? DMV demands teen take off his makeup for photo or no license (via @Q13FOX)

– Hmmm. Starbucks, I’m keeping an eye on you. Critics Point to Drawbacks in Starbucks Tuition Program (via @NYTimes)

– OH HELL NO: Bob Jones University told rape victims to repent and look for ‘root sin’ that caused their attack

– Man, I need to bookmark this and post it on a pretty regular basis on some Facebook posts of others … FAQ: Why are you concentrating on X when Y is so much more important (h/t @JessicaValenti)

– Well that’s absurd. Do they refuse to air any ad that mentions a medical procedure? No? Huh. NBC ‘refuses to air ad for new movie Obvious Child because it mentions the word abortion’ (h/t @rhrealitycheck)