Really happy to announce that not only is the next episode of “Five Minute Feminist,” the official podcast of MaleFeminists.com, available on iTunes or your favorite podcast catcher, but I’ve also created an audio version! If you can’t watch or don’t have time for video podcasts, no worries: subscribe to the audio version of “Five Minute Feminist,” and please leave a review and rating! This episode, I talk about something that’s been grating on me that I, probably unfairly, call “Aunt May feminism.” Please reblog, like, and share!
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Really happy to announce that not only is the next episode of “Five Minute Feminist,” the official podcast of MaleFeminists.com, available on iTunes or your favorite podcast catcher, but I’ve also created an audio version! If you can’t watch or don’t have time for video podcasts, no worries: subscribe to the audio version of “Five Minute Feminist,” and please leave a review and rating!

This episode, I talk about something that’s been grating on me that I, probably unfairly, call “Aunt May feminism.”

Please reblog, like, and share!

Maybe I’m just being oversensitive, but whenever someone refers to women by their hair only (“I was with a blonde,” for example), it really grates on me. It seems like yet another example of reducing someone to just a tiny aspect of their person, and in this case (personal appearance), one that’s historically been used as a weapon against women. Am I alone on this? What do you all think?

From the files of Detective Obvious: sex and rape are not the same.

Potential trigger warning.

This situation makes me want to pull my hair out. From Think Progress’s Tara Culp-Ressler:

On Friday afternoon, the Associated Press ran a story about a young woman in Washington state who alleges that her high school’s officials failed to protect her from a 16-year-old boy who raped her on school property, and even allowed the boy to remain in the same classroom with her after her guardian reported she was being harassed by him. The school continues to deny most of her claims, and she is seeking at least $400,000 in damages.

In its headline about the story, the AP chose to characterize the encounter — which took place in a bathroom at the high school — as “restroom sex.”

I AM ANGRY!

A Republican-controlled committee in the North Carolina General Assembly approved a bill on Tuesday that would require teenagers to present a notarized parental consent form in order to access sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, mental health counseling, pregnancy care or substance abuse treatment.

Laura Bassett of The Huffington Post, reporting on this bill in North Carolina. It doesn’t have a catchy picture or video like some of the stories this week, but this is terrifying. Republicans aren’t making us more moral, they’re making sure there’s more STDs out there.

Also…notarized? Notarized?

We’re telling teens to go to Mailboxes, Etc. to see if they have chlamydia?

Get out of here, North Carolina GOP.

Potential trigger warning, domestic violence. Good lord. This actually exists. Eric Lach, reporting for Talking Points Memo: In addition to making a mannequin target that looks like President Barack Obama, Zombie Industries sells a mannequin called simply “The Ex” — a large-breasted dummy that “bleeds” when shot. But wait, the company has a reason! It’s for a good cause, really! “In addition to the Ex Girlfriend Zombie, we currently sell 15 male zombies, 5 animal zombies & 2 aliens… to discriminate against Women by not having them represented in our product selection would be just plain sexist,” the company states on its website. Oh…discrimination, got it. All this is is endorsing violence against women. One-third of women murdered in the United States are killed by their intimate partners. I’m looking forward to the inevitable campaigns to take down this product, but it’s important to also recognize that “The Ex” is just one example of a culture that tacitly and not-so-tacitly endorses violence against women. A true victory has to be way more pervasive than just taking this one company to task. But seriously, this is some upsetting bullshit.
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Potential trigger warning, domestic violence.

Good lord. This actually exists. Eric Lach, reporting for Talking Points Memo:

In addition to making a mannequin target that looks like President Barack Obama, Zombie Industries sells a mannequin called simply “The Ex” — a large-breasted dummy that “bleeds” when shot.

But wait, the company has a reason! It’s for a good cause, really!

“In addition to the Ex Girlfriend Zombie, we currently sell 15 male zombies, 5 animal zombies & 2 aliens… to discriminate against Women by not having them represented in our product selection would be just plain sexist,” the company states on its website.

Oh…discrimination, got it. All this is is endorsing violence against women. One-third of women murdered in the United States are killed by their intimate partners.

I’m looking forward to the inevitable campaigns to take down this product, but it’s important to also recognize that “The Ex” is just one example of a culture that tacitly and not-so-tacitly endorses violence against women. A true victory has to be way more pervasive than just taking this one company to task.

But seriously, this is some upsetting bullshit.