TWEE-Q
Who do you RT more often on Twitter? Women or men? Retweets are a way of listening to, acknowledging and passing on opinions. If we amplify the voices of male Twitter users more than female Twitter users we are ranking their opinions higher.
genfem
A fair question. Two quick answers:
1. Those of us lucky enough to live in the most progressive parts of the world tend to focus on how good we have it, and yet we still haven’t achieved true gender equality.
2. I’m over trying to pitch women’s magazines. If the story isn’t about slimmer thighs for summer, they’re just not interested.
This stuff is important, I’ll try not to make it too dry.
Why violence against women is more of a men’s problem than a women’s problem.
Another Reason Abstinence Only Education is a Terrible Idea
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, UT bedroom at age 14, and freed nine months later when she was found walking with her captor on a suburban street in March 2003, recently spoke at a Johns Hopkins human trafficking forum. Raised in a religious household, she recalled a school teacher who spoke once about abstinence and compared sex to chewing gum.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’ And that’s how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value,” Smart said. “Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value.”
As Jessica Valenti points out in The Purity Myth, “While boys are taught that the things that make them men - good men - are universally accepted ethical ideals, women are led to believe that our moral compass lies somewhere between our legs.” The effect of this is that rape victims, like Smart, can feel that nothing they do after they are raped will make them worthwhile people again. Equating women’s morality with how sexually pure they are is deeply misogynistic and dehumanizing, and it can be especially destructive for survivors of sexual abuse.
“ Feminism is hated because women are hated. Anti-feminism is a direct expression of misogyny; it is the political defense of women hating.
Andrea Dworkin
Leading Men Age, But Their Love Interests Don’t
Vulture has analyzed the data of ten middle-aged leading men (Denzel Washington, Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Richard Gere, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson and Tom Hanks) and the ages of the women they’ve wooed onscreen. As one of the commenters pointed out, “A quick note about Tom Hanks: Sally Field played his love interest in Punchline in 1988 and his mother in Forrest Gump just 6 years later.” That pretty much sums it up.
Moms Demand Action has listed all of the senators who voted against common sense gun reform today in exchange for contributions from the NRA. I called out each of these senators on Twitter. Feel free to RT: @MichelleHaimoff
“ We judge female celebrities through an imagined male viewer; weight, clothing and behavior evaluated through a patriarchal lens of social sanction. This is easy to do because, as women, we are used to doing it for ourselves. We are always aware of our own image: A ghost-like figment of how we might look [to a male eye] in any moment. How do I look while taking out the trash? While slumped in a chair at work? While crying during this movie?
Rachel R. White for Thought Catalog
