On 11 July a sex worker who went by the name of Petite Jasmine was murdered. She was a sex worker rights activist and member of the Rose Alliance, “an organisation for former and current sex and erotic workers in Sweden”. Here’s the statement they released on Facebook today:
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My latest for Indy Voices on why people should stop either praising Beyoncé for being a feminist icon or shouting at her for letting the side down:
Admire Beyoncé for her music, not her feminist credentials
Beyoncé’s apparent reluctance to label herself should come as no surprise. Aside from a slightly tepid admission in 2010 – “I think I am a feminist in a way” – there are few recorded instances of her associating herself with the movement. Yet it seems to me that people have been determined to shoehorn Beyoncé into the role of feminist icon for several years. It strikes me as an odd thing to do, given that she rarely uses the word about herself.
Read the whole thing here.
I’ve been meaning to revive the link roundup for a while. Now seems as good a time as any, since I’m taking a bit of a break from writing at the moment (and missing it terribly). Business as usual will restart at the end of May, when I’m no longer drowning in dissertation work.
This week is a bit welfare-heavy as it’s something I really wish I had the time to write about! There’s some cracking stuff written by other people though, so I hope you enjoy the links below.
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Last week I wrote a piece about Steubenville, victim blaming and rape culture for Indy Voices. I thought I’d cross-post since it’s likely to appeal to this blog’s audience:
‘Who is to blame for sexual assault?’ The language of rape
It’s a seemingly very simple question – and yet it generates heated debate any time rape hits the news.
When a guru claimed that an Indian student was partially responsible for being raped and murdered, his comments were reviled as backward and repulsive; no doubt there will be a similar reaction to police telling a Swiss tourist who was gang raped in India that she must bear some responsibilityfor the attack. Yet however strong the backlash, these opinions are pervasive – not just in India, but also in the West. In every high-profile rape case, there seem to be a crowd of people rushing to find anyone to blame but the perpetrator, be it the victim or society at large.
Who suffers as the result of sexual assault? A slightly less simple question, whose answer is even more widely contested than that of the first. The victim? The community? The attackers?
Over the last few months, the name of a small town in Ohio has become synonymous with a rape case which gained infamy after video footage of the incident was distributed online. Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, two teenage football players from Steubenville, were convicted on Sunday of raping a 16-year-old girl at a series of parties in August. The case has been steeped in controversy since it began, and the trial and its outcome have been the subject of international scrutiny…
Read the whole thing here.
Image: marsmet523 on Flickr.
In just over a week since the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, a change.org petition demanding an apology from the Sun for their coverage has gathered well over 5,000 signatures.
The tabloid’s now-infamous front page was adorned with a full-length photo of Steenkamp, the victim of a fatal shooting, clad in a bikini and posing seductively for the camera. Emblazoned on the cover next to her were the words “3 shots. Screams. Silence.”; underneath, a cut-out of her famous boyfriend, who was later arrested on suspicion of killing her.
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I wrote a piece for Indy Voices on the AKB48 singer who shaved her head as self-inflicted punishment for sleeping with another pop star. Turns out doing a Japanese degree does sometimes come in useful!
Shocked at the Japanese pop star who shaved her head for having a boyfriend and betraying band rules? Look around you
Minami Minegishi’s band AKB48 embody the disturbing schoolgirl fantasy: naïve and submissive, yet unattainable – and the hypocrisy isn’t unique to Japanese culture
When a video emerged last week of a Japanese popstar’s heart-wrenching apology for betraying the rules of her band, the British reaction was predictably dramatic.
It was difficult to fathom why a 20-year-old would go to the lengths of shaving her head in order to communicate the depth of her shame for having spent the night with a boyfriend. The offence was barely newsworthy. Although a traditional form of repentance in Japan, the self-inflicted punishment hardly seemed to fit the crime.
Yet Minami Minegishi’s response is perhaps less shocking in the context of idol culture in Japan. Minegishi, who was photographed leaving boyband dancer Alan Shirahama’s apartment, is part of the phenomenally successful girl band AKB48. Tickets to the band’s nightly shows are so sought-after they are allocated through a lottery. The band is divided into three teams, allowing them to perform in different locations, or even different countries, at any one time, and they are a powerful export. In 2011, AKB48 opened a café in Singapore: a replica of their own venue in Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo after which they are named…
In light of the recent uproar over Julie Burchill’s article in The Observer, this appeared on the Guardian website today:
Content warning: this post contains discussion of transphobia, trans-misogyny and hate speech, including direct quotations of the above. Links do not constitute endorsements.
“It’s never a good idea for those who feel oppressed to start bullying others in turn”. So ran the sub-heading for Julie Burchill’s Observer article about the supposed victimisation of Suzanne Moore by the “trans lobby” entitled ‘Transsexuals should cut it out’. It is a response to a saga which began a week or so ago with an article on female anger from Moore reprinted in the New Statesman which made a passing and ill-chosen reference to Brazilian transsexuals.
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The most tiresome argument I hear against gay marriage is that it is incompatible with the Biblical definition of marriage.
Quite apart from being irrelevant in our largely secular society, the argument that “the Bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman” is a lazy one. It also entails a lot of problems from a Biblical perspective, because marriage as practised by the Church* today differs wildly from that of Biblical times. At various points in the Bible, women are sold or traded as property, forced to marry their rapists and remain married to abusive husbands; and they lack autonomy throughout.
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Yesterday I published this post about an article in Cosmo which encouraged women to use street sexual harassment as motivation to lose weight. In the intervening hours Cosmo have removed the offending article, presumably in response to the number of negative comments they received about it. There were about 9 comments on the article itself when I looked, all of them reprimanding the editors for publishing the article. It’s good to see that people have been listened to!
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Content warning: this post contains discussion of sexual harassment, and links to descriptions of verbal and physical sexual abuse.
A couple of days ago, Cosmo published a short article on weight loss entitled ‘Wolf Whistles Motivate Us to Exercise‘. It cited findings which (apparently, though I can’t seem to find the original data) show that over half of women love street harassment:
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For students across the country, exam season is upon us. What better way to pass the dull hours than online sexual harassment?
Spotted: University of York Library was set up so that bored students could liven up revision sessions by sending in anonymous messages about fellow library-goers – specifically, fit fellow library-goers. Students running the Facebook page have recently responded to calls to moderate comments by suspending posting for the time being.
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Cis white female 