Fuck Yeah, Gender Studies!

month

October 2011

Happy Hallowe'en!

Hallowe’en is the best holiday because it is focussed neither on being (or aspiring to be) in a relationship, nor on gift-giving. It’s about being creative with large orange fruit, thinking about death and giving stuff to strangers for fun. And…

i just updated my links page. there’s some cool stuff on there, you know!

genderfuckandsecrets: The links from my presentation thing, as requested by Joe. [tw: cissexism, misgendering, slurs] Trans etiquette 101 Not your mom’s trans 101 Cis privilege checklist Binary gender privilege checklist Media depictions of trans people Book list Gender neutral relational terms About purportedly gendered body parts Why misgendering is bad Pronouns guide Singular...

By the way... a thank you

With everything that’s gone on over the last few days to do with the Cosmo Blog Awards, i have neglected to thank all of you who read this blog, and special thanks to those readers who nominated me and voted for me. I work hard at this blog, and i know at times i write about things that some or lots or all of you disagree with, but i really like that i can make these things into discursive...

nerdbyrd: fuckyeahgenderstudies: nerdbyrd replied to your post: sophierose233 answered your question: I actually… -_- you have the patience of a saint That’s not something i often hear. Interestingly, i did some quick research and discovered that sophierose233 is another 3rd year Journalism student at City, so i expect she knows Kirsten Jones, the person who plagiarised maybe 50 pieces of...

nerdbyrd replied to your post: sophierose233 answered your question: I actually… -_- you have the patience of a saint That’s not something i often hear. Interestingly, i did some quick research and discovered that sophierose233 is another 3rd year Journalism student at City, so i expect she knows Kirsten Jones, the person who plagiarised maybe 50 pieces of journalism…

sophierose233 answered your question: I actually don’t know what my next step should be regarding the plagiarism and the blog awards leave them alone. They’ve done nothing wrong! Nothing wrong like… winning a student blogging competition based on the content of their website, which featured maybe fifty articles plagiarised from professional journalists and presented as original...

How to Make Love to a Trans*person →

goodcopbadcop: by Good Cop/Bad Cop Publishing first distributed at SMCM Sexfest 2011 by Jess and Gilligan

betaboy asked: University of Northern Colorado has one hall that is gender neutral =]

[Updated Oct 30, 2011] Colleges with... →

144 and counting! Remember to let me know if i’ve missed any off the list!

After using the 't' word, Tim Minchin shows world... →

femboydreams: The ‘t’ Word? Seriously? You dont need to make a word offensive to try and make what you are a bigger deal. Tranny Tranny Tranny Tranny. Not Tr*nny. Tranny is not in the same league as N-. Nowhere fucking near. Guess what? He is a comedian. And if you cant be a big enough person to take a joke about what social structure you happen to be in, you are pretty much a miserable...

After using the 't' word, Tim Minchin shows world... →

fightklubblog-korbltheblack: femboydreams: The ‘t’ Word? Seriously? You dont need to make a word offensive to try and make what you are a bigger deal. Tranny Tranny Tranny Tranny. Not Tr*nny. Tranny is not in the same league as N-. Nowhere fucking near. Guess what? He is a comedian. And if you cant be a big enough person to take a joke about what social structure you happen to be in, you...

P.S. Re. AskMen.com and male rape:

Just… ugh. Even the way that question frames rape, using drugs and weapons, is vile—as though no man could ever be raped unless he were debilitated or threatened with a deadly weapon. No. Just fuck off with that bullshit.

Christ... AskMen.com asks "Can a woman really rape...

This is so surprising to me. AskMen.com is a lot of things (mostly sensationalistically misogynistic), but i would not have expected “dubious about male rape” to be on that list. Apparently, it is. Perhaps this opinion in particular has something to do with the fact that the author is a woman and co-host of a “Dr” Phil show spin-off, The Doctors. Which suggests to me that...

Hugo Schwyzer: Yes, Rape Victims Get Erections,... →

[…] Because women are much less likely to sexually abuse teens than are men, those rare cases that do feature female defendants tend to attract lots of media attention – particularly when the woman involved is relatively young and conventionally attractive. Invariably, someone will suggest that the boys involved were lucky, and that rather than being abused, they had lived out every...

After using the 't' word, Tim Minchin shows world... →

I followed this story as it developed on @TransMediaWatch’s Twitter. You can read full details in the Independent at the above link, but here’s an illuminating extract: As Minchin put it: “[I have learnt] that grown people seem to think demanding & receiving an apology has inherent value. Apologies are about intent.” He also admitted that he is “too proud…...

plagiarism update #cosmoblogawards

Just emailed (after guessing various permutations of their names/initials to find the right combination of email addresses; don’t know why i didn’t think of it sooner) the writers at the Daily Mail whose work i know was definitely plagiarised by HerUni. Also CC’d: 1) the editor of the MailOnline (who i’d already contacted before with no response); 2) the editor of...

getinthehandbasket replied to your post: I actually don’t know what my next step should be regarding the plagiarism and the blog awards next time you find one of their plagiarized articles, contact the ORIGINAL author of the article (the original article, not the re-written one) and let them know what’s going on - that HerUni won an award thanks to an article someone stole from them. Well,...

I actually don't know what my next step should be...

Cosmo just aren’t paying attention to my tweets (or anybody else’s) and the runner-up, My Arched Eyebrow, who obviously deserves to be promoted to winner, hasn’t heard anything in response to her queries, either. And no responses, that i know of, to any of the emails that Cosmo had been sent about it in the last week or so. Thus far i have also not had a follow-up response from...

Fun sport analogy!

It doesn’t matter how good an athlete is; if they take performance enhancers, they’re out. Their medals get taken away. They get disqualified. They get banned. Even if they would have won the race without doping. Cheating is cheating is cheating.

Re: HerUni and plagiarism, part 3

This is keeps getting messier… (Part 1: http://fuckyeahgenderstudies.tumblr.com/post/11990329244/plagiarism-and-the-cosmo-blog-awards Part 2: http://fuckyeahgenderstudies.tumblr.com/post/12010269510/re-herunis-open-letter-to-me-regarding-plagiarism) Dear Geraldine et al., Although you asked me, alongside one of a number of ad hominem attacks, to engage with you directly regarding your...

David Cameron's priorities are very obvious......

News headline today concerns gender equality. Woo! David Cameron is doing something towards gender equality. Woo! Oh. Wait. David Cameron will strike a deal today to reform the monarchy, which will let the eldest child of Prince William and his wife Kate inherit the throne – even if it’s a girl. The Prime Minister will put an end to more than 300 years of history by thrashing out an...

Guardian: Don't lecture black women about marriage →

Falling black marriage rates aren’t the result of black women ‘being picky’, but of the complex politics of attraction Latoya Peterson writes…

Miss S. Pankhurst's letter to Lenin--originally... →

“Dear Comrade, The situation is moving in a revolutionary direction more swiftly, but of course we are far away yet. The prices of necessaries are rising, but the cost of living is not totally supposed to have risen this month. Unemployment is now acute, and the unemployed are restive. One of Lansbury’s meetings was broken up by members of my party because he advised peaceful...

Anonymous asked: Just curious, why don't you capitalize 'i' on its own?

Anonymous asked: Can you have vulvodynia and still be able to use tampons and stuff? Cause I get this pain every time i have sex?

New project: gender and books.

Being unemployed is shit (especially when the DWP approved my JSA claim six weeks ago but i haven’t had any benefits payments yet—what am i meant to live on, despair?!), but it does mean i have more time to read, especially since finishing my dissertation (end of last month). Of the 17 most recent books i’ve read, only five were written by women. Of the fiction books, just two...

skankassqueer-deactivated201207 asked: what does ({}) mean?

Anonymous asked: P.S. Vassar's gender-neutral housing is open to all students

Re: HerUni's open letter to me regarding...

(Link to open letter here) Dear Geraldine et al., You’re very welcome. I’m glad we are agreed in that plagiarism is disgusting. Now, you said: “We invite you to continue to delve into our archives and we are confident that you will find nothing but authentic, original content.” Thanks for the invitation—consider this my RSVP. I just had a quick look found...

queergirlfeminist: Hi my name is Kaitlin and I love Helene Cixous. Hello my name is Emma and I also love Hélène Cixous. “I was ashamed. I was afraid, and I swallowed my shame and my fear. I said to myself: You are mad! What’s the meaning of these waves, these floods, these outbursts? Where is the ebullient, infinite woman who, immersed as she was in her naivete, kept in the dark...

Seven months later, BFI still hasn't changed their...

This is really disappointing. Some of you may remember how towards the end of March this year i wrote to the BFI expressing my profound disappointment at the consistent and disgusting misgendering of Brandon Teena in their blurb for Boys Don’t Cry. ...

Seriously, does nobody care about plagiarism any...

It’s disgusting. Can’t believe Cosmopolitan are supporting/endorsing it and sullying the name of all students by choosing a blog with plagiarised content as “the best student blog” when all of the runners up (including the Highly Commended first runner-up, My Arched Eyebrow (which i believe should be promoted to winner—and HerUni.com have their award rescinded) had...

Is plagiarism okay? Apparently it is at the Cosmo... →

And to steal from the Daily Mail, of all places…

Plagiarism and the Cosmo Blog Awards

I have been debating with myself for twelve days now about whether or not to post this. Obviously, i decided to. Last night was the Cosmo Blog Awards party. The winner of my category was HerUni.com. At the risk of sounding like a sore loser (i’m not; i would have be happy if any other blog had won, just not this one), i’m absolutely flabbergasted and disgusted that they could...

Hugo Schwyzer: The accidental rapist--is rape a... →

Very interesting, raises important issues (but has a tone/rhetorical bent that leaves me a little uncomfortable). Well worth a read. Check it out.

bubbybobble replied to your post: Because if i didn’t laugh i’d cry I couldn’t even read it. The entire page is such an eyesore that it made my head hurt. I mean, REALLY? Yellow text on a black background? AND MSPaint drawains? This must be a damn joke, or a troll. Yeah. I mean, it’s anti-feminism and it has the page about how “Virginia Woolf was a Nazi!” and how...

Because if i didn't laugh i'd cry

(Please, please try to laugh. It’ll only hurt if you don’t, i swear) A friend just linked me to an atrocious, laughable website. Anglobitch. ”The First Online Zone to openly oppose Anglo-American Feminism & the Entitlement Princesses who profit by it!” It features articles like “The Nazi-Feminist connection” and “Anglobitch domination of the media...

Siri and the sex of technology: Apple's iPhone 4S... →

skankassqueer: what the fuck is a “female” voice and “male” voice. you can’t tell someone’s gender by their voice. this reminds me of the MWMF, their rules actually state that music with “male” voices cannot be played (unless it’s JD Samson, amirite?) Lest i appear an ass, i should point out that’s a direct quote from the byline rather than my own words.

Siri and the sex of technology: Apple's iPhone 4S... →

"Women can be independent and intimate" →

(Stop the presses!) This is a refreshing piece from the Guardian that makes a lot of interesting points. Some are boring and not-so-interesting… but most of it’s pretty good. It’s writing against Kate Bolick’s dreary, tired, cliched, short-sighted, tedious, infuriating cover story in November’s Atlantic.

Hey, if you are trans* and go to college in...

transcreature: Come to T-Camp! It’s the first one http://www.facebook.com/pages/T-Camp/305633889462282?sk=info It’s going to be Jan. 6-8 this year It’s going to be tons of awesome, I’ve helped a little on the planning, and the college directors organizing this are super awesome! The cost is steep, but they’re working on grants to cover most of the costs, you’re free to drop out later if it’s...

meowsense replied to your post: I realize this is more of a women’s studies question than a gender studies question but I am writing a paper on the objectification of women’ bodies through their size. I have a lot of scholarly material from a few psych journals and I’m using Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly documentaries. If any of you guys have actual advertisements or know of blogs that I...

venusinutero asked: I realize this is more of a women's studies question than a gender studies question but I am writing a paper on the objectification of women' bodies through their size. I have a lot of scholarly material from a few psych journals and I'm using Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly documentaries. If any of you guys have actual advertisements or know of blogs that I might be able to...

Do Women need more degrees than Men? →

stfusexists: feistyfeminist: feministdykeslut: The study’s other main finding is that a woman generally needs more degrees than a man in order to earn the same amount of money. For example, the average woman must obtain a Ph.D in order to keep pace with the average bachelor’s degree-holding man. “The women’s story is grand and dismal,” concluded Carnevale. After scanning all 171 majors...

The Unable Ablest

captainlabiatotherescue: Imagine yourself at the age of 19. You’re at university with a wide network of friends. You’re involved in student politics, societies and many many sports. You raise money of charity every month and you’re training for a marathon in aid of a local children’s’ hospice. This was my life in 2007 and it changed suddenly. Christmas 2007 brought my best friend over from the...

I hope Lush ring me today.

Serious media fail on transgender youth →

Boiling Bunnies: The demonisation of "mistresses" →

untitled65275: fuckyeahgenderstudies: This is a great post from My Beautiful Chandelier examining the way that society treats “the other woman”, i.e. women who have affairs with married men. I’ve covered the irrationality of societal responses to single women who have sex with men in relationships several times (here and here and here and here and partly here, to name a few). The post i’m...

Guest Post: Life, not Death, After Child Abuse

Tonight i bring you another frank and thoughtful post from my friend Captain Labia. You can read her previous guest post, “Anorgasmia—A Pleasureless Existence?”, here. Once again, Captain Labia is not her real name; for privacy reasons she is using her superhero name. If you would like to contact her in response to this or any post, you can do so via my Ask Box and i will ensure...