What’s wrong with “Don’t rape”

This post is about why I don’t like this sign: Trigger warning: A detailed discussion of rape and morality to follow. Maybe you’ve seen it making the rounds on Facebook or Tumblr. It’s popped up for me a few times, and each time I cringe, but don’t comment to explain […]

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Don’t tell me to smile

This piece on Jezebel really struck some chords, both in itself and because of some of comments from women sharing their experiences. Really, guys, telling a strange woman– or even an acquaintance or co-worker– to smile is a creepy thing to do. No need to feel bad about it, just read for […]

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I didn’t tell him not to murder, that it would assuredly land him on death row…that would be mean.

Do you recall those pastors who made it into the news lately for making outlandishly bigoted statements about homosexuals from the pulpit lately in the wake of Obama’s statement of support for gay marriage, and were recorded doing so? Well, you might be gratified to know that, as CNN’s Belief […]

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Video games are like porn

Yep, I’m going to make the comparison. But perhaps not how you think. I am not talking about this: Is the overuse of video games and pervasiveness of online porn causing the demise of guys?Increasingly, researchers say yes, as young men become hooked on arousal, sacrificing their schoolwork and relationships […]

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Women who don’t like sexual aggression from strangers are prudish children. Or childish prudes. Or something.

I don’t like Psychology Today, part 2: So Elyse of Skepchick wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago describing an incident that followed a talk on vaccination she gave at Skepticamp in Ohio. You can read the entire thing here, but to put it briefly, a couple she […]

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Defenders of male imagery in gaming strike back

So, some of the people who took exception (let’s call it that) to Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women” Kickstarter project— which has now been officially funded, to the final tune of $158, 917– have started a project of their own. It’s going to be another web video series, called “An […]

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“You don’t think you can beat her without a cheat code.”

Jay Smooth on the whole tropes vs. women thing:

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The beauty of internet legal absurdity

If you don’t already read Matthew Inman’s webcomic The Oatmeal, or the group blog Popehat devoted to “law, liberty and leisure,” here’s an excellent reason to start. Ken of Popehat begins: Yesterday afternoon, I started getting tweets and emails (to both my work and Popehat accounts) and Facebook messages tipping […]

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Sexist trolls, meet Streisand Effect

Not the kind of video game trollI’m talking about It’s now nearly the end of the funding period for Anita Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter project “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games,” and it has raised more than $100,000 over its initial goal. I don’t want to detract from the validity of the […]

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Quote of the day

From Jason Foscolo’s blog Food Law: At the NYT, Bittman evokes Mrs. Lovejoy in his support of the Bloomberg Soda Tax. I tend to stay away from policy on this blog, but Bloomberg’s soda ban perfectly crystalizes the absurdities of our food system. We pay farmers to overproduce the raw […]

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