Blotting paper

Turns out David Davidar has been asked to step down from his post as CEO of Penguin Canada after allegations of sexual harassment were made. It also appears that some women have been defending him or at least finding it hard to believe that he could have behaved in such a way towards anyone, which is, if not anything else, interesting and worthy of comment. » Read the rest of this entry «

A feminist asks where all the other feminists were (planning a boobquake?) (via River Slant)

The three events were started in response to an Iranian cleric’s proclamations about women’s immodesty and promiscuity causing earthquakes, and have subsequently been supported by members of such prominent feminist sites as Feministing.com, Jezebel.com, and Feministe.com. I was initially intrigued by the idea as a sort of campy and playful way to collectively disprove an idea, but » Read the rest of this entry «

Here’s an interesting article: ‘Men and feminism: comment is fraught’ by Penny Red (link via Stef Convery).

The article begins with the author’s frustrations with the way men’s (positive) comments on feminist struggle are treated much more kindly than women’s. This, in the context of a Comment is free article by David Mitchell about Cambridge Union Society’s recent initiative to offer pole dancing lessons to women. » Read the rest of this entry «

Kamala Das was first introduced to me in an anthology of contemporary Indian poetry that I had sought out because I didn’t know who contemporary Indian poets were. The poem was titled, aptly enough, ‘An Introduction.’ I read and promptly forgot all about it until I was in college and forced to take a paper called ‘Literatures of India 1.’ » Read the rest of this entry «

Occasionally social networking will bring something incredible to your attention, like this normal breasts photo gallery I found through a comment on someone’s status message*. This is something  all women should see, especially young women and pubescent girls, who are most likely to feel ashamed about their bodies. » Read the rest of this entry «

Natalie Portman on ethics and eating animals

I remember in college, a professor asked our class to consider what our grandchildren would look back on as being backward behavior or thinking in our generation, the way we are shocked by the kind of misogyny, racism, and sexism we know was commonplace in our grandparents’ world. » Read the rest of this entry «

For a minute I’m going to ignore the ridiculous political correctness of this world and say this: I like size zero models on the runway. It’s a difficult aesthetic to understand, but I think the clothes look better that way. » Read the rest of this entry «