On October 23, 1850, the first National Women’s Rights Convention met in Worcester, Massachusetts. For everyone not in New England (or regular England), that is pronounced like “WUS-ter,” not “wor-ches-ter.” Also, different from “WOO-ster” in Ohio.
- What Does Domestic Violence Have To Do With This Blog? Everything – Domestic violence and the portrayal of women as weak or small. Trigger warnings, of course. From Petr.
- An Open Letter to Feminist Trolls – From Amy.
- Justin Aclin on ‘S.H.O.O.T. FIRST’ and Battling the Supernatural with Weaponized Atheism – “Rather than fighting the monsters on their own supernatural terms, the Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration Taskforce battles exactly the monsters they don’t believe in, gunning them down with guns powered by anger and atheism.” From Jac.
- Call for help: please speak out about this joint harassment of a young trans girl by TERFs and the religious right, in unholy alliance – From Melanie.
- On the Critique of Science in Film – In case you missed this missive from Neil DeGrasse Tyson about his recent critiques of Gravity. From mrmisconception.
- Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod confirms – Neat! From miserlyoldman.
- Axes of Evil: What happens when a grown woman wears Axe fragrance for an entire week? – At first I thought “nothing good,” but that’s not true. From Amy.
BONUS: This comic about shaming the body shamers, from Cat.
I pronounce it WIS-tah myself, there are just too many letters in Worcester.
Well, as long as you don’t add the “ch” sound in the middle, right? :)
I’m not originally from Boston so I can’t drop my r’s at the end.
I’m going to go with WIS-tah, but with like half of an R at the end. I grew up in the suburbs between Worcester and Boston, so I have a little bit of an accent that comes through once in a while (or so I’ve been told – I don’t usually notice it).
That video by Melissa A. Fabello was very well done, but shouldn’t it have been called “An Open Letter to Anti Feminist Trolls” rather than “An Open Letter to Feminist Trolls” since its anti feminists doing the trolling.
I agree! The wording seemed a bit off to me too.
This is the third link I’ve seen this week to Robot Hugs. And they’re all great.
I remember having an on-line argument a few years back with some(male)body who was convinced it was his “right” to find pubic hair disgusting on a woman, and to express that opinion — in crude terms, and repeatedly — on a feminist website. “I’m allowed to have my preferences,” he insisted. I hit him with the slogan, “if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” but I think he was too clueless (and probably too young) to get it.
I guess I’m showing my age, but in my formative years, the fad was being “natural,” which included not shaving much of anything[*], and the women I hang around with don’t seem to go for the Barbie body thing, anyway (at least not on the parts I can see, of course :) ), so each time I’m confronted with the supposed “necessity” of shaving legs, underarms, or more intimate places, or other forms of socially compulsory body modification, it’s always a bit of a culture shock.
[*] It also often included not bathing, but I never could go that far.
I was at a $5 comedy show once, and the “comedian” was making fun of his girlfriend for shaving her privates and her calves but not her thighs. So I yelled out, “Shave YOUR damn legs! See how YOU like it!” Haha, it was fun being a heckler that night.
That was a truly awful comedy show. It was sort of halfway between a real show and an open mic night. One guy’s set was half awkward silence, but it wasn’t intentional.
Every time I hear someone tone trolling a feminist I always think about the TERF whose name I’d prefer not to mention and how she basically decided her Feminism would be a cross between the Westboro Baptist Church and the worst parts of 4Chan and proceeded to get into very public fights with schoolchildren. And the only people that have any idea who she is are other Feminists.
I don’t think anybody’s actually basing their negative opinions of Feminists on the actions of Feminists.