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More than half of Met police officers found guilty of sexual misconduct kept their jobs (Sascha Lavin, Byline Times)
Twitter thread from Stonewall on healthcare access and inclusive language
From the thread: “…Most women have a cervix and most people with a cervix are women, but the people excluded by that ‘most’ are often significantly harmed by the lack of inclusive provision. It’s important to focus on what one needs, rather than what was estimated they needed when they were born.
“So, being precise means we that can capture everyone who needs the service and no one who doesn’t, which is both the most inclusive and the most efficient way to provide healthcare…”
114 women died in the past decade in domestic-related incidents following previous contact with police (Sian Norris, Byline Times) [content note: descriptions of violence against women]
Violence against women won’t be solved by increasing police powers (Aviah Day, Guardian)
From the article: ‘The trend of dealing with social problems with more police powers and longer sentences has not been limited to domestic violence, and has seen a general “net-widening” effect with the number of women in prison skyrocketing. Women are being punished and criminalised through what has been called the “abuse-to-prison pipeline”.’
Labour won’t commit to helping disabled people live full lives (Chaminda Jayanetti, Open Democracy)
The rejection of disabled creativity (Penny Pepper, Byline Times)
From the article: “It is difficult to name one decent successful film with a disabled person in the lead or thereabouts, written and directed by a disabled person; or to name a novel by a disabled writer celebrating and extrapolating the disabled story in its fullest, contradictory glory.”
It may soon be time to leave Britney Spears alone (Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic)
From the article: “Even if the courts agree to give Spears her freedom, what about the prying media and the hypercritical public? Have we changed that much—in how we talk about Spears, about women, about celebrities, and about people who may be experiencing mental illness? What’s ahead may test whether the sympathetic documentaries, podcasts, and articles that masses have consumed about Spears lately represent much more than voyeurism in a virtuous package.”
A Woman of Color Cannot Save Your Workplace Culture (S. Mitra Kalita, TIME)
From the article: “This points to another problem workplaces struggling to diversify might have: their culture. Some managers view hiring as the solution to their ‘diversity problem,’ which—just to be clear—is a problem they created by not hiring inclusively to begin with.”
Sarah Everard: Norfolk police officer suspended over alleged WhatsApp group with Wayne Couzens (ITV News)
Do Trans Women Athletes Have Advantages? (Tricia Ward, WebMD)
Content note: weight stigma
From the article: “[Joanna] Harper: I like to use the term ‘meaningful competition.’ We always focus on advantages; well we actually allow advantages in sport. And we allow advantages for one group over another. For instance, in baseball, the configuration of the diamond lends many advantages to left-handed players over right-handed players. And yet, that’s an advantage we allow.
On the other hand, we don’t let heavyweight boxers get into the ring with flyweight boxers. And here’s the important difference. We can have meaningful competition between left-handed baseball players, and right-handed baseball players, despite the advantages. In fact, many would say that the lefty/righty combination is one of the most important factors in baseball. But there’s no meaningful competition between big boxers and little boxers; the big boxer wins every time.
The important question isn’t, ‘Do trans women have advantages?’ What really matters is can trans women and cis women compete against one another in meaningful competition. There’s no indication that trans women are anywhere close to taking over women’s sport, it’s not happening now. It’s not likely to happen anytime in the future.”
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Jeremy Seitz on Flickr. It is a photo of a pile of autumnal gourds in various colours.
