Links Round-Up

This week:

Jgrand50 saw that CNN pulled a report that investigated the effect of ovulation on women voting. Luckily, we all were spared the craizness. On a related note, Obama (smartly) continues to push against Rebulicans on women’s issues. His recent speaches attack Richard Murdock’s disgusting comments about rape.

Femistorian wants you all to watch this amazing video featuring some awesome female celebs, sending Mitt Romney a very clear message:

And, since she was just in Maine, she recommends checking out this great poster set from the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Visionsofourfuture saw that a Missouri pastor’s speech on gay rights from a City Council meeting in August has recently gone viral. What seems to start out as an anti-gay rights speech, takes a surprise turn when the speech’s true intention is exposed through the true intention of the speech: to highlight the bigotry perpetuated by those who oppose equality.

 

Also, If you’ve ever heard the statistic about (white) women earning ¢72 to every $1 that a man makes, you’ve probably heard the argument that it’s so low because of women taking time off work to have children and raise families. So you maybe be surprised — or not — to find out that one year out of college, women already earn an average of 18% less than men.

Classifiedsarcastic wants you to check out this very amusing video on some alternative costumes for Halloween! It is an amusing attempt to help say, enough with the slutty costumes or ones made of just you in your udnerwear, try real ones!!

This is a great article about the decreasing numbers of women identifying as feminists. While that might not seem so interesting, what is interesting is its detailed analysis of Cosmopolitan’s more recent attempts to label itself as feminist. Does being able to talk about sex more openly make this magazine feminist? Probably won’t surprise you to hear that signs point to no.

veryone is super busy this time of year, and HannahGrace wants to remind readers to take time for themselves and de-stress! However, she was divided over these gendered anti-stress tips for womenwhich say that” learning to reduce emotional stress helps those around us while decreasing vulnerability to physical danger by looking stronger and more confidant.” Although some of the tips, like bringing coffee to work rather than buying as a way to decrease financial worries are great, but the one that urges women to be “patient” because men around them are “likely to be stressed and prone to domestic violence” is just an elaborate form of victim blaming.

She also fell in love this week with Lizzie Velasquez, a 23 year old who shot to Internet fame after a YouTube video named her the “Ugliest Women in the World.” Lizzie is one of two people that have been known to be born with no adipose tissue, making it impossible to store body fat despite eating up to 60 high calorie small meals a day. The 58 lb. woman didn’t crumble under the cyber bullying, but wrote a book and is touring as a motivational speaker. You go girl!

Finally, eszenyme enjoyed this article, which summarizes an open letter written by a Special Olympian with down syndrome who criticizes Ann Coulter’s use of ableist language. She also recommends this good post (and blog) on being a woman in philosophy and how we deal with stereotyping (there aren’t many of us).