You want the blue pill; we’ll pay for it. You want the red pill; Rush Limbaugh owns your sex life.

In Limbaugh Land, consumption of these isdetermined not by time but by sluttiness. I’m a big believer– and try to be a big practioner– of giving people the benefit of the doubt in disagreements. Because it’s a nice thing to do, yes, but also because it’s way too easy to do things like assume the … Read more

Defending the female fuck-up

I really have no place writing this, considering that I have been anything but an avid consumer of new films and TV over, well, the past couple of years. But I really like Amanda Marcotte’s treatment of females in comedy productions engaging in behavior that reveals them to be petty, emotional, short-sighted, vindictive….you know, normal. … Read more

The wife. The boy.

One of the stories I mentioned yesterday was Feministe’s take on a recent…err, presentation given by Virginia Delegate David Albo to his fellow members of the House on how a romantic evening with his wife Rita had been spoiled when the two of them came upon coverage on the Rachel Maddow show about Virginia’s Republican … Read more

I’m fine with this rubber spine o’ mine

Really? Because it looks like that…hurts. As a follow-up to this post, I feel compelled to share these:   Cracked’s 5 Most Ridiculously Sexist Superhero Costumes, and R.K. Milholland’s Super Stupor! comic mocking such costumes and poses Comics are almost certainly the most sexist medium in geekdom. By that I do not mean that a) … Read more

Benevolent sexism

A lot of people seem to have a hard time identifying bigotry when it appears to flatter. After all, isn’t bigotry supposed to be about hating members of a certain group?  Not really. It’s more about forming expectations about individual members of a group, based on a general assumption about the group as a whole. … Read more

Not rape

A trigger warning is a notice posted at the top of an article that indicates that the subject matter may be disturbing, especially because it may describe abuse, molestation, and/or rape and people who have been victims of such may not want to read or to read with caution, in a place where they won’t … Read more

No True Feminist

Disbelieving Tankard Reist is disbelieving …is not my favorite game. I really dislike playing it, and not just because it’s a variation on an informal fallacy. I’m fully aware that groups need labels, and for the purposes of distinction we need some labels to fit some groups, and other labels to fit other groups. I … Read more

Nothing is worse than a princess who wants to hang out with you

On the “women in video games” front, science fiction author John Scalzi retweeted the following comment today: Naturally, I was curious. So I tweeted back to Valente, who is herself a fantasy/science fiction author, asking for some elaboration. And she linked me to this. Excerpt: Zelda cracked me up hardcore, because I, like many of … Read more

How not to get raped: Always victim-blaming?

Zerlina Maxwell, writing for Ebony magazine, thinks so. In the bluntly titled “Stop Telling Women How Not To Get Raped,” she says: New rule for 2012: No more ad campaigns and public service announcements targeted at women to teach them how to avoid rape.  It’s not effective, it’s offensive, and it’s also a lie. Telling women … Read more