feminism

Rape or “Bondage Session Gone Haywire”? Rape Apologists Speculate.

by Cara July 20, 2011

Trigger Warning on post and links for graphic descriptions of sexual violence against sex workers, including sexual torture; rape apologism This past April, a woman who was doing sex work was picked up by one John Hauff and driven to his home to engage in a pre-negotiated sexual encounter. Hauff requested some bondage elements in [...]

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What A Bastard The World Is: The Feminist Politics of Yoko Ono’s Personal Song

by Cara July 6, 2011

When I began listening to Yoko Ono’s music and learned that it wasn’t at all what I’d been led to believe, one of the first songs I was strongly drawn to was a track from the second side of her landmark 1973 double album Approximately Infinite Universe, titled What A Bastard The World Is. Her [...]

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Louisiana Law Forces Many Sex Workers to Register as Sex Offenders

by Cara March 22, 2011

Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence and abuses against sex workers Last week, Jordan Flaherty wrote an article at Colorlines about how sex workers are being punished under an archaic and punitive law that specifically targets those who are convicted of selling oral or anal sex (as opposed to vaginal sex). The law makes [...]

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De Anza Rape Trial Filled with Victim Blaming, Slut Shaming

by Cara March 10, 2011

Trigger Warning on posts and links for very explicit descriptions of gang rape against an intoxicated person, severe victim-blaming and rape apologism, and ableism. Four years ago, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang raped at an alcohol fueled party by 9 young men, almost all De Anza College baseball players. The girl was found by [...]

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Study: Too Many Fat Women Don’t Even Know They’re Fat

by Cara November 23, 2010

So there’s a fascinating new study out about how women perceive their weight, with the results being that a significant proportion of women who were deemed “overweight” by the BMI did not view themselves as such. Cue the body-shaming, junk reporting, and photographs of fat1 people with their heads cut off. In the most neutral [...]

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On Birth Rape, Definitions, and Language Policing

by Cara September 16, 2010

Trigger Warning for discussions of rape apologism, specifically related to birth rape and other medical rape, and graphic descriptions of rape, including birth rape. This post has been slowly brewing over the past week, as I was sincerely hoping to not feel ultimately compelled to write it. I note this simply because in the meantime, [...]

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U.S. Continues to Discriminate Against Sex Workers, Deny HIV Prevention Funding

by Cara July 27, 2010

Last Friday, Titania Kumeh wrote an excellent blog post at Mother Jones about the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and the over 100 sex workers and advocates who protested outside. The protest was about how U.S. funding to fight HIV transmission explicitly and deliberately excludes sex workers, even though they are one of the groups [...]

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Age Old Victim-Blaming Myths Win Court Case for Girls Gone Wild

by Cara July 24, 2010

Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual assault and explicit victim-blaming and sexual assault apologism. Earlier this week, a jury ruled against a woman who sued the Girls Gone Wild franchise on the grounds that they damaged her reputation when they included footage of her being forcibly disrobed in one of their DVDs (h/t). The woman, [...]

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New Report Details Police Abuses Against Cambodian Sex Workers

by Cara July 20, 2010

Trigger Warning for discussions of sexual violence and police violence, specifically including violence against sex workers and transphobic violence. Earlier this year, I wrote about an Amnesty International report about sexual violence against women in Cambodia, and the judicial response (or more accurately, lack of judicial response) to sexual violence. A section of that report [...]

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Oregon Police Officer Confesses to Sexual Violence Against Sex Workers

by Cara July 2, 2010

Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence, specifically sexual violence against sex workers. Continuing in an unfortunately long line of stories about police officers using their state power as a means to commit sexual violence against women, comes this one out of Oregon. An officer named Joshua Jensen (left) was alleged to have forced two [...]

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