the feminist librarian reads

(via Kitty Rescued Around Halloween Grows into Proper Lady Cat)

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:45:03 -0400

(via Kitty Rescued Around Halloween Grows into Proper Lady Cat)

Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled | Lindy West @ Jezebel

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:49:41 -0400

Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled | Lindy West @ Jezebel:

“I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.”

(via Anarchist Garden Gnomes Invade Fancy British Flower Show)

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:38:11 -0400

(via Anarchist Garden Gnomes Invade Fancy British Flower Show)

of all the images in this round-up, it was this one that made me...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:17:23 -0400

of all the images in this round-up, it was this one that made me tear up. RESCUE ALL THE KITTENS. (via Photos, Videos: Deadly Oklahoma Tornado | WBUR)

CFP: Pill and Pen: Contraception and Unwanted Pregnancy in Global Literature and Popular Culture

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:35:56 -0400

CFP: Pill and Pen: Contraception and Unwanted Pregnancy in Global Literature and Popular Culture:

Call for Papers
Pill and Pen. Contraception and Unwanted Pregnancy in Global Literature and Popular Culture

Fr, March 7 to Sunday, March 9, 2014
Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of Iowa, Iowa City

click through for details.

Burn those jeans | Patti Digh @ 37days

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:15:29 -0400

Burn those jeans | Patti Digh @ 37days:

Just one more note about this in case it wasn’t clear—and then I promise to move on: To get back into those jeans, I would have to be smaller than my 12-year-old daughter.

The Ethics of Extreme Porn: Is Some Sex Wrong Even Among Consenting Adults? | Conor Friedersdorf @ The Atlantic

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:53:34 -0400

The Ethics of Extreme Porn: Is Some Sex Wrong Even Among Consenting Adults? | Conor Friedersdorf @ The Atlantic:

My generation doesn’t treat consent as a lodestar merely because consent permits pleasurable sexual activity that more traditional sexual codes would prohibit. The ethos of consent is regarded as a lodestar because its embrace is widely seen as an incredible improvement over much of human history; and because instances when the culture of consent is rejected are superlatively horrific.

I was friendzoned by a girl I like; what do I do now? | Molias @ Scarleteen

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:21:15 -0400

I was friendzoned by a girl I like; what do I do now? | Molias @ Scarleteen:

She’s not putting you in a zone, she’s just making a decision about who she wants to date, and everyone — this girl, you, everyone — is entitled to make those decisions. To be honest, I think framing this situation as one in which you have to escape the “friendzone” she’s put you in is pretty disrespectful to her wishes and autonomy, and won’t do you any favors in the long run. Part of caring for someone and having affection for them is respecting their choices and decisions, even if you wish those decisions were different.

"This attitude, that children shouldn’t be believed, puts the burden of proof on children, rather..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:50:40 -0400

“This attitude, that children shouldn’t be believed, puts the burden of proof on children, rather than assuming that there might be something to their statements. Some people seem to think that actually listening to children would result in a generation of hopelessly spoiled brats who know they can say anything for attention, but would that actually be the case? That assumption is rooted in the idea that children are not trustworthy, and cannot be respected. I’m having trouble understanding why adults should be viewed as inherently trustworthy and respectable, especially in light of the way we treat children.”

- Children Talk But No One Listens | s.e. smith @ this ain’t livin’ (how did I miss this when it came around the first time!?)

"DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:01:58 -0400

“DiCaprio and Mulligan, meanwhile, don’t seem like star-crossed lovers so much as a delusional man in love with a bauble of a woman. Maybe that’s intentional?”

-
People Magazine’s review on ‘The Great Gatsby’

(via aeferg)

johnthelutheran: discourseontheotter: ~Isabella Stengers “How...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:45:26 -0400

johnthelutheran:

discourseontheotter:

~Isabella Stengers

“How do we make room for otters?”

On Sam Morril’s Response | Sady Doyle @ Global Comment

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:53:14 -0400

On Sam Morril’s Response | Sady Doyle @ Global Comment:

But nothing was ever made smarter by refusing to think about it, and nothing was ever made worse by kindness, and no society or art form was ever destroyed by asking difficult questions, though plenty of terrible things have been caused by suppressing them.

where I've been:

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:55:05 -0400

Thanks to Google Reader, which is pulling the plug in June, I’ve had to migrate my RSS feeds to Feedly. Feedly doesn’t have an interface with Tumblr so far, so I’ve been posting everything directly to Twitter for now (@feministlib).

I don’t like posting links with no excerpts on Twitter, so if I can figure out a work-around I’ll be back here in full force! But until then, feel free to check out the stuff I’ve been reading through that interface.

If you miss me. Which, admittedly, you may not!

Hope everyone’s having a lovely Monday.

Fans and Fantasy: Shipping as... Activism(?)

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:16:54 -0400

Fans and Fantasy: Shipping as... Activism(?):

tiptoe39:

This week’s SpoilerTV.com column on shipping.

Let’s be clear — the very act of shipping a couple is not activism. That’s simply a desire, or a creative impulse, or a reading of a text. Where activism (such as it is) comes in is in the efforts to persuade creators to act on the possibilities of non-canon and particularly same-sex couplings, potentially but not universally as part of a larger effort to increase media representation of same-sex couples and diverse gender and sexual identities on television.

There’s no doubt that there’s a need there. Television has always struggled with issues of diversity, and many of the shows with the strongest fanbases are also the shows that suffer greatly in those areas. And it’s only in the past few decades that television has offered any meaningful representation to same-sex pairings, or to people with non-cisgender, heterosexual identities. Disparities persist.

But is shipping, and pushing for a shipped couple to be canon, the way to address those disparities? Perhaps it’s a step, but it’s not one without its own problems.

Read the full article here

rachelhills: I’m sure there is an image floating around...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:42:14 -0400

rachelhills:

I’m sure there is an image floating around somewhere of me, age 7, dressed as Alice, and my second grade bestie dressed at Dorothy.

Image by dollychops.

I’m not a fan of either ‘verse, actually, but I love this little piece of fanwork.

The Orgasm Gap: The Real Reason Women Get Off Less Often Than Men and How to Fix It | Lisa Wade @ Alternet

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:48:09 -0400

The Orgasm Gap: The Real Reason Women Get Off Less Often Than Men and How to Fix It | Lisa Wade @ Alternet:

SEX & RELATIONSHIPS

AlterNet / By Lisa Wade

352 COMMENTS

The Orgasm Gap: The Real Reason Women Get Off Less Often Than Men and How to Fix It

The gap between men’s and women’s frequency of orgasm is impacted by social forces that privilege male pleasure.

April 3, 2013 |

According to a large-scale survey of American adults, women have about one orgasm for every three a man enjoys. We call this the “orgasm gap” and it’s been a point of contention since feminists identified it during the heyday of the sexual revolution.

In the U.S. we tend to explain the orgasm gap by suggesting that women’s bodies are somehow bad at orgasms. Sigmund Freud infamously posited that women should have orgasms in response to intercourse. If they didn’t, he argued, there was something fundamentally wrong with their sexuality. While his theory has been roundly debunked (as few as 25% of women will routinely have orgasms from intercourse), many female college students who don’t have orgasms this way assume there is something wrong with their sexual response. College students bring some other interesting ideas too. I’ve been asked to confirm if it’s true that women are physically incapable of orgasm before the age of 30. I’ve explained to a truly confused listener why, anatomically speaking, women are unlikely to orgasm from anal sex. I’ve clarified the location of the clitoris (30% of women and 25% of men don’t know where it is).

These are the stories we tell ourselves about the clitoris: that women’s bodies are simply more difficult. The clitoris is hard to find and complicated to operate; it’s shy and persnickety; it disappoints its owner and mocks the efforts of her partner. And perhaps it doesn’t matter anyway, we continue, because women aren’t as interested in orgasm, right? They don’t need them like men do. They’re a more giving sex. Their pleasure is more diffuse and empathic. In any case, they’re really in it for the eye contact and the cuddling.

Freudian echoes, anatomical mischaracterizations and gender stereotypes are part of the logic naturalizing the orgasm gap, but there is nothing natural about it. We know this because women who sleep with women have many more orgasms than heterosexual women, almost as many as men who sleep with women. Women also have no problem experiencing orgasm through masturbation and the same women who frequently have orgasms during masturbation report many fewer orgasms when they’re with a partner. Men are also not faster to climax than women; it takes women the same amount of time to orgasm during masturbation as it takes men, on average, to have an orgasm through intercourse: four minutes.

Instead of being driven by biology, women’s rate of orgasm relative to men is a function of social forces. For one, we often bifurcate the sexual experience in line with gender norms: men are sexual (they experience desire) and women are sexy (they inspire desire). The focus on men’s internal wants and sensations also draws our attention to his satisfaction. Thus his orgasm, but not necessarily hers, becomes a critical part of what must happen for a sexual encounter to be successful and fulfilling. This is part of why intercourse – a sexual act that is strongly correlated with orgasm for men – is the only act that almost everyone agrees counts as “real sex,” whereas activities that are more likely to produce orgasm in women are considered optional foreplay.

How Shulamith Firestone Shaped Feminism | Susan Faludi @ The New Yorker

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:41:56 -0400

How Shulamith Firestone Shaped Feminism | Susan Faludi @ The New Yorker:

Clearly, something terrible had happened to Firestone, but it was not her despair alone that led Millett to choose this passage. When she finished reading, she said, “I think we should remember Shulie, because we are in the same place now.” It was hard to say which moment the mourners were there to mark: the passing of Firestone or that of a whole generation of feminists who had been unable to thrive in the world they had done so much to create.

(via #femfuture launches: Online revolution)

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:40:35 -0400

(via #femfuture launches: Online revolution)

The empathy gap for those hardworking, white middle-class “men on top?” | Historiann

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:48:06 -0400

The empathy gap for those hardworking, white middle-class “men on top?” | Historiann:

Middle-aged and older men, men old enough to be my father, really didn’t like my feminist analysis of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century masculinity and family life. I always wanted to point out that I’m writing about families 300-400 years ago–I’m not talking about your marriages!”

therewerebirds: triflesandparsnips: This morning my daughter, who is nearly four, saw the stretch...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:43:59 -0400

therewerebirds:

triflesandparsnips:

This morning my daughter, who is nearly four, saw the stretch marks on my hips and stomach. She ran her hands over them and asked what they were.

“I got them when I grew up,” I said, “and a few more when I had you.” I grinned down at her. “They’re my stripes. You’ll get stripes too when you grow up.”

She was overjoyed. “Really?”

I think she’s in her room now, pretending to be a tiger.

This is what we need to teach.

reblogging for Truth :)