9 Posts That Might Make You a Feminist

October 4, 2012: Here’s a round-up of nine thought-provoking (and sometimes shocking) women-related blog posts and articles I’ve stumbled upon recently. Two are by one of my favourite feminist bloggers Soraya Chemaly.

I’ve included an excerpt from each to give you a taste of the content. Click on the headlines to go to the full stories. Find 13 more in the same vein here.

The Vagina Travelogues (Naomi Wolf)

I get a glimpse of my life ahead for the next little while. American publishers send authors their copies of books in big boxes labelled with the title. My doorman approaches me in the lobby, gesturing with some consternation at a three-foot cardboard box marked, “Vagina.” “Is this yours?” he asks.

10 Rules for Emerging Women Leaders (Tabby Biddle)

While women used to think that they needed to emulate men to rise into leadership positions, today the story is different. And while we used to think that we needed to deny our feminine nature in order to make it in a “man’s world,” this is also no longer the case. The path to power is changing.

Where Are All the Angry Women? (Marcia Reynolds)

One question continuously asked is why women don’t stay in corporate positions long enough to earn the top executive positions. We know many don’t leave to raise babies. Many leave out of frustration, disillusionment, loss of hope and sometimes sheer boredom. If we know this to be true, why aren’t there thousands of women working together to change the corporate environment?

The End of Nothing (Edee Lemonier)

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Criminal Victimization Survey from 2010 shows a slight dip in crimes, such as rape and domestic violence. However, the report also clearly states, “The decline in the rate of simple assault accounted for about 82% of the total decrease in the rate of violent victimization in 2010.” Even if victimization of women was half what it was ten or twenty years ago, the numbers are still staggering. Millions of women each year would hardly agree there has been a major shift in a positive direction.

The 12-Year-Old Slut Meme and Facebook’s Misogyny Problem (Soraya Chemaly)

I think a reasonable person might find “I kill bitches” with its side-splittingly funny gun pointing at your face photo and the “I love killing fucking bitches” comment thread exceeds being offensive. I mean if the same gun were in place and the entire page and thread said, say, “I kill n*****s,” I don’t think we’d be having this conversation.

Healthy Masculinity: The Idea That Men Can Control Themselves (Soraya Chemaly)

Consider this example of the language we use to describe violence: “Women get raped and beaten up by men they know every day. Millions of them.” OR, “Millions of men rape and beat women up every day. Millions of them.” Here’s another: “She went to a party. Drank too much. Passed out and was sexually assaulted.” VERSUS “During the party, two boys inserted their fingers into her vagina and took pictures while she was unconscious.” “She was a victim of domestic abuse,” doesn’t give the same impression as, “He broke his wife’s nose five times and knocked out two of her teeth during a two-year period.”

Walmart claims discrimination too varied to be discrimination (Katie)

Bobbie Millner, accidentally received the paycheck of another worker who was maleand earned thousands more a year, although he was less experienced.  A Wal-Mart manager explain the discrepancy by saying “men needed to earn more.”

Court Requires Disabled Rape Victim To Prove She Resisted, Calls For Evidence Of ‘Biting, Kicking, Scratching’ (Zach Beauchamp)

In a 4-3 ruling Tuesday afternoon, the Connecticut State Supreme Court overturned the sexual assault conviction of a man who had sex with a woman who “has severe cerebral palsy, has the intellectual functional equivalent of a 3-year-old and cannot verbally communicate.”