Weekly round-up and open thread

On time this week! Here’s our list of links we found interesting or thought-provoking in the past week. As usual, linking does not imply endorsement of the content of the article or website in question.

We are unable to provide content notes for every link, so please exercise caution when clicking, as some content may be upsetting or triggering.

Not all men in the ‘friend zone’ are bad guys (Guardian, CiF)

Five people living on the margins of modern Britain, including a former prostitute and a female asylum seeker (Guardian Life and Style)

Zooey Deschanel is a feminist (The Cut)

Racism within white feminist spaces (Black Feminists Manchester)

Are you racist? You may be without even knowing it (The Conversation)

Not brave enough to be boring: celebrating Katherine Mansfield and the short story (Independent Blogs)

Media’s misillustration of older mothers (Sociological Images)

A girl’s guide to the Chilean revolution (Ms Magazine)

Restorative justice (The Hairpin)

Mae Azango, Liberia country manager – a bio of one of Liberia’s leading journalists, who spoke out against female genital cutting (New Narratives)

Story time, dreadlocks and cultural appropriation (Racism 101)

100,000 assaults. 1000 rapists sentenced. Shockingly low conviction rates revealed. (The Independent)

Seeing only the red you want to see: Suzanne Moore’s blind trans-misogyny (leftytgirl). This is a great post, but it’s a shame about the disablist language in the title (using “blind” to mean something bad).

Will your son be a rapist? (PhD in Parenting)

India’s women-only trains – in pictures (Guardian, World)

Taking over the asylum – on the failure to allocate appropriate housing to asylum seekers in the UK (Inside Housing)

Why do you write strong female characters? (Shannon Hale)

UK Border Agency rejects calls to stop using force on pregnant detainees (Guardian, UK news)

Unpacking Male Tech Privilege (Skillcrush)

A failure to care – on the GMC’s investigation of Dr Richard Curtis (Dru Without a Map)

Prove you’re gay or go home, Home Office tells Senegalese student (Guardian, Education)

Intersectionality – a brief summary (with tweets) (@sazza_jay, Storify)

Intersectionality, solidarity and sense (Den of the Hyena)

The abortion of unwanted girls taking place in the UK (Telegraph)

We don’t want our burqas back: women in Afghanistan on the Taliban’s return (Observer, World)

Unguarded and poorly observed: a response to Julie Burchill (Nuclear Unicorn)

Burchill’s defence of Moore: sadly inevitable (Another Angry Woman)

An open letter to Suzanne Moore, by Paris Lees (Diva)

Julie Burchill has ended up bullying the trans community (Guardian, CiF)

University’s new centre to study rise in anti-Islam far right (Guardian, Education)

How a trans teacher showed adults have more hang-ups about gender than primary school kids (New Statesman)

I’m angry about the latest statistics on rape and you’re about to find out why (Sian and Crooked Rib)

Finally, a short documentary on the experiences of LGBT asylum seekers and refugees, produced by Irish charity BeLonG To (contains discussion of rape, homophobic violence and transphobia):

Photo of liquorice all-sorts by EssjayNZ, shared under a Creative Commons licence.