Welcome to this week’s round-up of stories and articles of interest from the last week. As ever, inclusion does not imply endorsement. Feel free to add anything we’ve missed in comments!
In the news:
- Author Maeve Binchy dies aged 72 (BBC News)
- Forced marriages blight the lives of those with learning disabilities (Guardian)
- Coaching not quotas is key to achieving boardroom balance in UK life sciences (HR Review)
- What if every sport was photographed like beach volleyball? (Metro New York)
- The second in a five part series on ‘Africa’s Propaganda Trail’ by Martin Robbins in The Guardian; ‘Kidnapped at Birth’ looks at issues around maternity service provision and funding in Kenya
- West Mercia Police have apologised in response to widespread criticsm of their victim-blaming anti-rape campaign (as covered by Pippa last week), (BBC News)
- As Pussy Riot’s trial begins, Putin’s opposition grows stronger (Independent)
- New research shows girls as young as six want to be ‘sexy’ (Live Science)
- US women begin receiving free birth control (New Scientist)
Blogs and comment:
- Prof. LD: What is “Sex Critical” and why should we care about it? (a new blog, Sex Critical, about moving beyond the binary of rad-fem or ‘sex-positive’ analysis)
- Michel Kazatchkind, newly appointed UN Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Easern Europe and Central Asia: Why are Human Rights so Central to the AIDS Response in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Everywhere Else? (RH Reality Check)
- Spectra: Love and Afrofeminism: Queer Bois and the Gendered Politics of Partner Dancing (Spectra Speaks)
- The Melissa A. Fabello Guide to Hollering Back – Effectively (at ToughxCookies)
- Colleen Osborne, Debra Miller, and Gina Barber: Taking Back ‘the F Word’ (Feminist Campus)
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: If girls are aping Kate and Kim we’re in trouble (Independent)
- Zainab Magdy: Undressing Um Ahmad: Egyptian women between the bikini and the burquaa’ (openDemocracy)
- “My R.E. teacher taught about the ‘evils’ of aborting a fetus” (former guest bloggers, Education for Choice)
- Ilona Burton: The staggering cost of eating disorders in England (Independent blogs)
- Dr Black: Stop blaming the women!
- Andrew M. Brown: Women’s judo: it’s disturbing to watch these girls beat each other up (Telegraph Blogs)
- Jessica Valenti: The Upside of Ugly (The Nation)
- Justin “Filthy Liberal Scum” Rosario: How to spot and out a pro-lifer that really just hates women and sex (Addicting Info)
- If Maeve Binchy had been a father (the Telegraph, via Regender.com)
- kdotcdot: Defcon, hackers and the red/yellow card project (Singlevoice.net)
Last but not least:
- Our very own Pippa, in the Independent: Bad attitudes do not cause disability any more than good attitudes guarantee health
Portrait of Maeve Binchy shared under a creative commons license by flickr user UggBoy♥UggGirl
