Silent Sunday IX: Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Blogs

Facebook is a Misogynist Time Sucking Piece of Shit by Ann Tagonist8 Simple Rules for Not Being a Dick at It's Not A Zero Sum GameWe Could have Been Anything that We Wanted To Be at One Dames ThoughtsActivism to Normalise Gender Transitioning Now Comes at Children's Expense at Sex MattersLetter to the Attorney General Regarding the Unduly Lenient Sentencing of Paul Keene for the Killing of Carmen Gabriela Miron Buchacra by Karen Ingala SmithCounting...

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Jezebel: Could We Please Stop Confusing Humanism with "Humanism"

This image is by Tatsuya Ishida at SinfestI have a love/ hate relationship with Jezebel. Sometimes they are just spot-on. Sometimes they are a bit confused. But, mostly, they seem to forget what that word feminism means and they participate in the same women-blaming culture they claim to be critiquing [see: anything they've published about Kim Kardashian]. Lindy West's piece "If I Admit that 'Hating Men' is a Thing, Will You Stop Turning It Into...

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Hilary Boyd's Thursdays in the Park

This is one of those books that I really wanted to enjoy. It is the story of a woman's reawakening after an unhappy marriage to an unpleasant man. Unfortunately, the entire book is the minimisation of male violence both in the marriage of the main character, Jeanie, and that of her daughter. Like Paula McLean, who wrote The Paris Wife,  Hilary Boyd seems to have little understanding of the level of coercion and control that is common. Boyd also...

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"Mean Girls", Online Feminism and Misogynistic Language

I have been debating writing this ever since I saw Sadie Smith's piece "There's no Point in Online Feminism if it's an exclusive Mean Girls club" in the New Statesman. I didn't like Smith's piece because I think she went for cheap tabloid journalism. I find the use of "Mean Girls" a tired cliche which ignores the very real problem of male violence online. It ignores the death threats, the rape threats and the general threats of public outing that...

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Barbara Kingsolver's Pigs in Heaven

I love Barbara Kingsolver's books. I know I'm late to the party on this having only discovered her books two years ago but she is an amazing writer. The Poisonwood Bible is one of the best books I have ever read. Pigs in Heaven covers the same terrain as The Poisonwood Bible: motherhood, sisterhood, female friendships, family and surviving. Pigs in Heaven is the story of Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle who is Cherokee. The central plot is...

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Silent Sunday Blog Round-Up VIII

The Cost of Masculine Crime by Annie Oakley and Cynthia CockburnLittle Tales of Misogyny at Little Tales of MisogynyIdentity Politics: Paper, Sisters, Stone and RadFem13 at Sisterhood is Powerful I Believe Her and No Menz, I don't believe you've been falsely accused at Frothy Dragon and the Patriarchal Stone This piece by feminist Soraya Chemaly, written last week, is a must-read.On Rape, Cages and the Steubenville Verdict at Black...

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#DickheadDetox : Micheal Fassbender

Michael Fassbender is yet another male celebrity with a (possible) history of domestic violence which is rarely mentioned. At least, TMZ reported that his ex-girlfriend took out a restraining order on him in 2010 alleging a serious assault which involved breaking her nose with a chair. There were several other violent episodes listed in the restraining order. The petitioner withdrew in April 2010 and this is all the evidence I have as to whether...

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Helen Castor's She-Wolves:The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

I couldn't put this book down. Helen Castor has a real gift for prose; a rare gift among historians. The hours I've wasted reading badly written historical texts in my life are extensive so this was a joy to read. I also knew next to nothing about the 5 queens that Castor profiled: Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine,  Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou and Mary Tudor. She-Wolves: The Queens who Ruled England Before Elizabeth is a fascinating and...

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The Daddy Rat : Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender, The Real Science Behind Sex Differences

It's a standing joke in the Mumsnet Feminism/ Women's Rights section that we should all be receiving royalties for Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences. I must recommend it at least once a week on threads about gendering children or men being too stupid to see dirt so they, consequently, stink at housework. This, of course, is the same men who are so "visual" that they need to look at porn in order to get off....

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#DickheadDetox : Bill Roache: Just Another Creepy Old White Dude

Another day. Another old white dude blaming children for being sexually abused by predators.This time it is soap actor Bill Roache who bores everyone senseless on Coronation Street. But, Roache went one step further than the usual victim-blaming bullshit. According to Roache, we should be totally forgiving of people who commit "sex crimes" because "victims of paedophiles bring abuse upon themselves because of what they have done in previous lives."...

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Apparently, Bar Rafaeli is JUST Leonardo DiCaprio's Ex-Girlfriend

At least, according to the Independent, Bar Rafaeli's is only important insofar as she used to have sex with Leonardo DiCaprio. The fact that she is a multi-millionaire, world-famous model is completely irrelevant. Rafaeli's only value is that she used to have sex with Leonardo DiCaprio. The actual point of the article is that the Israeli foreign ministry would like to use Rafaeli in a new PR campaign to promote Israel internationally. The Israeli...

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The Steubenville Rapists Have Been Found Guilty But This Isn't Real Justice

17 year old Trent Mays and 16 year old Ma'lik Richmond have been found guilty of rape. I did not think I would ever type that sentence. I have always thought the two  football players would be found not-guilty. After all, no one else has been arrested for this crime whose cover-up involved a number of powerful adults within the community.The teenagers who stood by and watched whilst a young woman was brutally raped, dragged...

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Round-Up VIII: Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Blogs for Silent Sunday

A Rambling Post about Online Abuse, Misogyny, Rape and Football at Opinionated PlanetThe Cult of Pornography: A Black Feminist Perspective at Black FeministsSo, Who at the BBC has an Axe to Grind about False Rape Allegations at HerbsandHagsRape in Marriage at Too Much to Say for MyselfNot Tonight Honey. My Patriarchy Hurts at Liberation CollectiveHe Said (TW) at Left at the LightsOur Movement Must Be A Safe Space for Women at Too Much To Say For...

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Jewly Hight's Right By Her Roots: Americana Women and Their Songs

The problem with this book is that it is just one book. It should be nine separate books: the eight singer-songwriters that Hight adores so much:Lucinda WilliamsJulie MillerVictoria WilliamsMichelle ShockedMary GauthierRuthie FosterElizabeth CookAbigail WashburnAnd, Jewly Hight herself; because Hight might claim to be writing the stories of these eight women singers-songwriters and their examination of "their geographical, cultural, familial, and...

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Barbara Black Koltuv's The Book of Lilith

I'm in two minds about Barbara Black Koltuv's The Book of Lilith. I found the history of the myths surrounding Lilith, and her previous incarnations in other cultural traditions, utterly fascinating. This is a history of women and myth that I knew nothing about. Koltuv's choice to quote large sections of original text were of immense value. On the other hand, I was less fond of Koltuv's use of psychoanalysis because I felt it involved an essentialist...

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Bristol Women's Literature Festival: Or, Where Stewie Would Rather Be this Weekend.

(Image from here)Anyone who is familiar with this blog will know why I'd rather be at the Women's Literature Festival this weekend. A whole weekend dedicated to celebrating women writers and combatting cultural femicide: what's not to love? Unfortunately, and after consulting several maps, I am led to believe that Bristol is located not only nowhere near my house but also not on a single non-environmentally destructive form of public transport. (sulks)Anyway,...

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