Quickies: Campus Sexual Assault Revolution, Synthetic Biology, and Sexist Atheists

• How My Chronic Pain Shaped My Views About Abortion – “There’s no correlation between being in favor of reproductive rights and having chronic pain. But these issues have a great deal in common, such as the questions of bodily autonomy, patient dignity, and stigma. Chronic pain may not stir up religious passions, but it it is almost as politicized as abortion, falling in the orbits of the war on drugs, women’s health, stigma, and the Republican backlash against Obamacare.” From Arturo.
• Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault – “By owning those accusations, and pointing a finger not only at assailants but also the American university, the ivory tower of privilege, these survivors have built the most effective, organized anti-rape movement since the late ’70s. Rape activists now don’t talk much about women’s self-care and protection like they did in the ’90s with Take Back the Night marches, self-defense classes, and cans of Mace. Today, the militant cry is aimed at the university: Kick the bastards out.”
• The domestic violence gender trap: Hope Solo, Ray Rice and the tired myopia of “women do it too” – “All of this violence is unacceptable, which is, perhaps, the essential point that Macur and Boren are attempting to argue. But each erases a lot in her vigor to make a one-to-one comparison between these cases, and more broadly, to argue that domestic violence is an issue that impacts men and women in ways that are culturally the same.” From mrmisconception.
• Beyond GMOs: The Rise of Synthetic Biology – Genetically modified organisms today usually have just one engineered gene. Scientists now want to create organisms with whole new gene clusters.
• Here’s the controversial ‘Daily Show’ Redskins segment with real Native Americans – “Most of the actual confrontation detailed in the Washington Post was left on the cutting room floor and focuses on the clashing views between Washington fans and the Native Americans while Jones tailgates at a Washington game with varying degrees of discomfort, and that’s the point. And the fact that many of the tailgaters refused to let their faces be shown on TV—one even after signing a consent form—is telling.” From Sarah.
• Atheists Show Their Sexist Side – “Here’s a great way to make a movement: have your most famous and powerful public figures obsess over Henry Higgins’s famous question, ‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ Why aren’t they more into critical thinking, argument, logic? more rational? Why do they accuse a man of sexual harassment when he’s just trying to chat them up in an elevator at 4 in the morning? Why do they get drunk and then accuse men of rape? Then, having alienated a huge number of actual and potential members, to whom you sound arrogant, vain, sexist and clueless, look around and wonder, Gee, where are the women? They must be even less rational than we thought!” From Courtney.

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