Friday Links: Emancipation Day Edition

Washington, D.C.'s African American Civil War Memorial. (Flickr/wallyg)

• Folks in Washington, D.C., are celebrating Emancipation Day, or the day when we as a country decided it was probably a bad call to let humans own other humans. Somehow, this is not recognized as a federal holiday and we'll take a day of for Imperialism Columbus Day instead. [Washington City Paper]
• Is our business students learning? [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
• Mumford and Sons have a new song. [Paste]
• Wow, Peggy Ornstein is right. This gendering our children thing is starting at a younger and younger age. Now they have parties for your gender when you're still in the womb. [The Awl]
• Men should wear wedding rings, Hugo argues. [Good Men Project]
• After Congress negotiated away the District of Columbia's right to spend its own taxpayer money on abortion, private donations flooded in to make up the lack of Medicare payments. They raised $25,000, but still fall short. [Amanda Hess]
• Do you need something, anything cute to look at? [Cute Roulette]

Saturday Links: The Misogyny-Free Pickup Artist and Comix Journalism

Sylvia Plath on her typewriter (Flavorwire)

• Famous authors and the typewriters they wrote on. [Flavorwire]
• How to pick up women, misogyny-free. [Good Men Project]
• I guess you're not surprised to learn the budget battle wasn't about money; it was about taking money away from "welfare sluts," Amanda Marcotte writes. [The Guardian]
• How Ayn Rand ruined one woman's life. [Salon]
• A new project on merging graphic art and journalism. [Graphic Journos]
• A graphic history of the Honduran coup. [Archcomix]

Friday Links: Bloody Marys and Graphic Journalism

(Flickr/Kenn Wilson)

• Cool story on the chemistry of bloody marys, but where's the Old Bay? [NPR]
• The lovely Tracy Clark-Flory takes on America's obsession with "porn for women." [Salon]
• Reading Sinclair Lewis decades later. [Shani O. Hilton]
• Rants against girl gamers are so tired, you could play BINGO. [Feminist Fatale]
• The four main ways of thinking about motherhood. [Sociological Images]
• What is graphic journalism? Erin Polgreen, the raddest of comic ladies, takes this question on. [The Hooded Utilitarian]
• Sandra Lee, terrible as she is, is pretty feminist. [TAPPED]
• An Indiana state legislator delivers an emotional speech defending victims of rape, drawing on her six years of experience as a sex crimes investigator. [Think Progress]
• Tipping seems to reward flirting, not actual good service. [Smart Money]

Friday Links: SPACE FOR WOMEN

(Flickr/AGeekMom)

• Can mainstream media ever responsibly cover race? Cord Jefferson takes on the question. [The American Prospect]
• Ann Friedman on late-20s girl genius. [On This Recording]
• Ever wonder what happens when the president or the first lady decide they're going to eat at your fancy restaurant? Now you know. [The Washington Post]
• Byron Hurt, a wonderful male anti-violence activist, explains why he's a black male feminist and why more men should pick up the f-word. [The Root]
• Here's kind of a neat info graphic by artist Kate Hersch. Did you know that 4 in 10 mothers are unmarried? [Pop Jolly]
• Did you know Neko Case registered as a Republican when she lived in Arizona? [GOOD]
• Via the hairpin, Caterina Fake examines how the "fear of missing out" is amplified in the age of social media. All I can say is, been there. [Caterina]
• SPACE FOR WOMEN. [Wherever You Go, There You Are]
• A woman in Iowa was jailed because she told a nurse she was thinking about having an abortion. [The Frisky]

Update: You should also read G.D.'s thoughtful piece over at Post Bourgie that responds to Hurt's post.

Friday Links: Star Trek, Socialism, and Unions

(Flickr/esthereggy)

• What Star Trek teaches us about socialism. [Yglesias]
• I bet you'd be really shocked to learn that Gov. Scott Walker is also anti-contraception. [RH Reality Check]
• Latoya Peterson wants to stop being feminism's Ms. Nigga. I don't blame her. I'm also really glad she agreed to speak on the panel I helped organize. [Racialicious]
• Fetal pain laws are bad. Like, really, really bad. [The American Prospect]
• Shirley Sherrod has some thoughts on the modern era of racism. And they're as interesting as you'd think they are. [The American Prospect]
• This was kind of a neat little corporate video celebrating International Women's Day. [YouTube]
• Remember those "Choose Life" license plates proceeds that weren't actually going to support pregnant women? Yeah, now they just want to blatantly fund the anti-choice movement. Points for honesty? [The American Independent]
• Turns out attacking unions is also bad for the black middle class (and everyone else). [The Root]
• I'm sorry, this Kate Middleton doll is creepy. [The Frisky]
• So excited that Clarissa Explains It All is going to be back on the air! [Entertainment Weekly]
• Hey, so maybe when we write about rape, can we not include the pornographic descriptions? [Columbia Journalism Review (PDF)]
• Dolly Parton has a cookbook. [Dolly's Dixie Fixin's]

Friday Links: Lady Gaga and Zombies

(Flickr/Kerry Burnout)

• Apparently Lady Gaga's songs present problems for sign language interpreters. How do you translate disco stick? [Washington Post]
• Last week, I highlighted Sarah Jaffe's series on anti-choice Democrasts, but it's also worth highlighting some great pro-choicers. [Keep Your Boehner Out Of My Uterus]
• "Americans are so used to the fact that women are capable of doing anything that we hardly ever discuss it." [Gail Collins]
• These awesome ladies (and men) are protesting to change bad sexual assault policies. [Penn Live]
• Why do environmentalists hate the Easy-Bake Oven? [Food & Think]
• "It took me a long time of standing still and being quiet to figure out what in retrospect appears to be a pretty simple lesson: writing a novel and living a life are very much the same thing." [Fuck Yeah Lady Writers]
  
• Are you sure you're rooting for the right baseball team? [YFSF]
• Only about 20 percent of plays are written and produced by women. [Female Playwrights Initiative]
• We're becoming the United States of Zombieland. [AlterNet]
• The super-awesome Anna Holmes takes on Charlie Sheen and his horrible misogyny. [New York Times]

Friday Links: Team Katniss!

(Flickr/Makena G)

• I, too, devoured the Hunger Games series in a short period of time. Team Katniss! [Feminist Fatale]
• What would a world without Planned Parenthood look like for black women? Bad. Really bad (via Amanda Marcotte). [The Root]
• Disney princesses as snarky hipsters. Thanks to Laura McGann for nominating me to be Ariel. [Vulture]
• A girl's guide to the boy's club (featuring photos of Mad Men). [This Recording]
• What major magazine editors have to say about the dearth of female bylines in their magazines. [The Jewish Daily Forward]
• If you haven't yet, you should really check out Sarah Jaffe's phenomenal series on the "HR 3 Ten," the ten Democratic congressmen who voted in favor of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act." [RH Reality Check]
• Tracy Clark-Flory does some great reporting on a kind of silly study on casual sex. [Salon]

Friday Links: What Can We Learn from the Gosnell Case?

A counter protester outside Richmond Women's Medical Center in 2007. (Flickr/taberandrew)

• The author of Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us -- an excellent book if you haven't read it -- has a take on the Gosnell case. [Beacon Broadside]
• Yoga = pretty. Right? [Feminist Fatale]
• Pema Levy agues that efforts by conservatives to stop abortion will only hurt poor women the most. [The American Prospect]
• Only 13 percent of Wikipedia editors are women. [NY Times]
• New pickup line: "What's your Myers-Briggs?" [PiLOLZophy]
• How to be a high school feminist. (Hint: It probably doesn't include joining the cheerleader squad.) [Ms. Blog]
• Why don't men initiate divorce more? [The Good Men Project]
• The father of the individual mandate was a Republican. [Ezra Klein]
• Women were totally in the Civil War too! [NY Times]
• Meet the girl who helped start the revolution in Egypt. [Bust]
• Sudhir Venkatesh, the guy who wrote Gang Leader for a Day, is now talking to prostitutes in New York City. [Wired]
• Why aren't there more women in local office in D.C. ? [Amanda Hess]

Friday Links: Stop Sitting on Your Fortune!

(Flickr/J. Star)

• Are Italian women literally sitting on their fortunes? No. Also, stop being so gross, Italian newspaper. [Bust]
• A documentary shown at Sundance this year cribs inspiration from Rebecca Traister's work on women in politics. Miss Representation is a film about the objectification of women in media and political activism. [LA Times]
• The doggie bag traces back to ancient Rome. [Food & Think]
• Via Dara Lind, the account of a woman who decided to have an abortion after her husband had been deported. [The Asylumist]
• Props to Jessica Wakeman for documenting the painful experience of moving out after a breakup. [The Frisky]
• Pema Levy tells us that there might be a small chance the Equal Rights Amendment can still pass. Maybe. [The American Prospect]
• Why aren't there more women in comedy? This writer for CollegeHumor.com argues that not enough women try. [Split Sider]
• Stop. Are you pregnant? Are you pre-pregnant? Are you sure? [Ms. Blog]
• Maybe it's because I'm from Minnesota, but I could not stop laughing while reading this parody of the Tiger Mother column. [The Hairpin]
  

Friday Links: The Swanson Pyramid of Greatness

• Do romance novels hurt women? [Bitch Magazine]
• Amanda Terkel reports that a high-level military panel says the ban on women in combat is discriminatory. [Huffington Post]
• DIY abortions are becoming more popular. [Slate]
• Living with an STD certainly comes with stigma, but as this author writes, you can get through it. [Salon]
• Via Jill at Feministe, this in-depth piece on the foreskin restoration movement is fascinating. [The Good Men Project Magazine]
• An imagined conversation in which Robyn converts Katy Perry to feminism. [Ann Friedman]
  
• The way people argue on Facebook. [Shakesville]
• Foodies are everywhere these days, but is that a good thing? Lisa Bramen argues it is. [Food & Think]
• Parks and Rec is back. Here's the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. You're welcome. [Anywhere But Nowhere]
  

Friday Links: Long Weekend Edition

(Flickr/jdlasica)

• Ashton Kutcher doesn't understand why sex ed doesn't focus more on sexual pleasure for women. [The Frisky]
• An ugly reminder that your health has a lot more to do with racial inequality than we'd all like to admit. [New York Times]
• Ever tried closing your eyes and walking in a straight line? Can't do it, can you? [NPR]
• As I suspected, assassins almost always have three names to prevent mistaken identities. [Slate]
• Marshmallow is a plant. Really. [Food & Think]
• Maybe those widely accepted stages of grief aren't all they're cracked up to be. [Brainiac]
• Turns out when you elect a bunch of anti-choice state legislators, you get the possibility for some serious anti-choice legislation. [Women's eNews]
• Beer batter is the best. Obviously. [Food & Think]
• Long Read: This is mad old, but Zadie Smith's review of The Social Network is a really beautiful piece of writing. [New York Review of Books]

Friday Links: 'Math Is Hard. Let's Go Shopping.'

(Flickr/Bindaas Madhavi)

• This is a really fantastic slideshow that refutes the "men are just better at math" idea. My favorite quote? "Math is hard. Let's go shopping." [Geek Feminism Blog]
• Most sports reporters are white (and, I might add, male) and it's hurting sports coverage. [Colorlines]
• Miller Lite runs a sexist ad campaign. Again. [Bitch Blogs]
• Planned Parenthood Arizona does some good work, but this writer thinks it's still firmly entrenched in the white "mainstream." [The Feminist Wire]
• As the comic industry hems and haws about what their female readers want, one blogger took it upon herself to ask a bunch of women who read comics what they want. [Okazu]
• Boardwalk Empire has brought prostitutes to premium cable again, and this blogger interviews an extra who played one. [Abortion Gang]
• London was once the home of a ruthless all-female gang called Forty Elephants in the 18th century. [The Guardian]
• A stay-at-home mom can't sleep because she's given up decades of earning power. [Salon]
• New Yorker's fiction writers are mostly male. [The Millions]

Friday Links: Abortion Care Under Attack

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx joins Pro-Life members of Congress to demand that healthcare reform does not require taxpayer funded abortion or abortion insurance mandates. (Flickr/Rep. Virginia Foxx)

• Several states have already banned abortion coverage in the state health insurance exchanges, and several more are looking at doing the same. [Guttmacher Institute]
• Think Stupak was bad? A new bill would go even farther in banning abortion coverage. [Mother Jones]
• Steph Herold talks about her Twitter hashtag #ihadanabortion. [The Daily Femme]
• All this buzz about Natalie Portman's new ballet psychological thriller reminds one writer that she was once a ballerina with an eating disorder. [Crushable]
• Another reason Robyn is awesome: "It's not politically correct any more to not be a feminist which is good, but for me, feminism is still necessary and that sucks." [AFP]
• Hyde hurts poor women and women of color the most, says the illustrious Jessica Arons. [Campus Progress]
• Thanks to the recession, more black women's hair salons are closing. At the same time, salons that traditionally serve a predominately white clientele are seeing an increase in diversity of its stylists. [Washington Post]
• Amanda Hess reports on the protesters camped out outside Leroy Carhart's new clinic in Maryland. [TBD]
• A women's soccer coach at Belmont University was reportedly fired after revealing she was a lesbian and that she and her partner were expecting a baby, but her firing has ignited pro-gay activism on campus. [Inside Higher Ed]
• Impostor syndrome comes to life with a young woman who grades herself far below what her peers do in an academic setting. [Geek Feminism]
• What holiday season would be complete without a bacon and sausage nativity? [Gawker]

Friday Links: Retro Edition

• Though I typically despise listicles, I can at least agree with the premise: The '90s rocked. [The Frisky]
• Cristina Hendricks on her Johnny Walker: "I like my Green Label neat or I like my Gold Label chilled." [Grub Street]
• Video: Katha Pollitt on Sarah Palin's gross misinterpretation of feminist history. [GritTV]
• "I forgot to have children!" postcards [Cafe Press, via Lindsay Beyerstein]
• Amanda Hess helps us navigate the history behind the New York Times' latest exercise in Sex and the City gender essentialism. [TBD]
• If you're in New York this weekend, I'd highly recommend partaking in the Radical '80s Prom going on tonight. [Feministe]
• How much is Netflix's stock worth? [Daily Intel]
• Sandra Lee is terrible. [YouTube]
  
• But, apparently also feminist for having her own career while her boyfriend wins the New York governorship. [Daily Best]

Friday Links: Ginny Weasley is Awesome

(Flickr/Evelis Santos)

• An unabashed love letter to Ginny Weasley. [Feministing]
  
• Audio: Experts discuss the impact of the recession on reproductive health. [Guttmacher Institute]
• Why your future has pretty much nothing to do with your actual happiness. [Jezebel]
• Blacks and Latinos still aren't getting into the nation's top colleges. [Colorlines]
• Crisis pregnancy centers are stealing your tax dollars. [Abortion Gang]
• Real life superheroes: Woman escorts her flasher to the police. [Hollaback!]
• Monica Potts does some analysis on the failed Paycheck Fairness Act. [The American Prospect]
• Crunching the numbers on girls playing with "gendered" toys in holiday catalogs. [Redefine Girly]
  

Friday Links: High School Dating, Vagina Facials, and McDonald's No-Rot Hamburger Mythbusting

(Flickr/Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL))

• Ah, high school dating. [Slate]
• In many of the closest races across the nation, abortion turned out to be a winning issue. [Politico]
• Um, anyone want to go get a vagina facial? [Harper's Bazaar]
• The impact of the recession on reproductive health (audio). [Guttmacher Institute]
• Top 10 ways to be a feminist in 2010. [Amy Andronicus]
• Science confirms that gender makes no difference in math ability, so why do women "choose" not to go into math careers? And are they even actively making that choice? [Ms. Blog]
• A lesbian student is kicked out of high school in Oklahoma because she lived with her girlfriend. [Change.org]
• An academic discussion on abortion reveals that even academics can't agree. It might be time to change how we talk and think about this issue, writes Francis Kissling. [Salon]
• How B-movie cliches are taking over comedy. [The Atlantic]
• Why the elderly are more susceptible to financial scams. [Scientific American]
• Remember that happy meal that wouldn't rot? Here's why that happened -- and why it's not just McDonald's that does that. [Serious Eats]

Friday Links: Gender Parity in Companies, Congress

(Flickr/Julia Roy)

• Companies have failed on gender parity because they are focusing on women, not men. [Change This, via Geek Feminism Blog]
• Suzy Khimm crunches the numbers on women's leadership in the GOP. Turns out it's not as awesome as reports of the "year of the woman" led us to believe. [Mother Jones]
• Will the Obama administration actually move forward with the plan to classify birth control as preventative care? [The American Prospect]
• Fashion bloggers might be revolutionizing fashion for the better. [Ms. Blog]
• Surprised that Barbara Bush is pro-choice? Don't be. She -- and the rest of the Bush family -- have a long history of supporting family planning. [RH Reality Check]
• You can now make Daria Morgendorffer the voice of your GPS. [NavTones]
• A woman at Catholic Benedictine University was forced into early retirement for her same-sex wedding announcement. [Change.org]
• Does running as a pro-choice candidate put you at an advantage? [Huffington Post]
• What The Exorcist says about female sexuality. [Ms. Blog]
• Judd Apatow defends his horrible female characters. [Jezebel]
• Possibly the grossest thing you could make this Thanksgiving (and no, it's not a turdukin).[Chow]
• Walk a mile in Lady Gaga's shoes? [Stylelist]