Monday Reading List

Lawyer Claims Rapist "Misread the Situation" by Cara. I think the title says it all.

Pussy, Pussy, Come Here! by Echidne.

From the Women Can't Win Files by Pilgrim Soul:

A female colleague of mine at work once remarked that when the elevator doors opened, she would often hear the group inside (if all male) fall silent, as though she had broken up the party. Small cues like that, dudes, are how you tell us you don’t think we get an equal share of the world. If you were making the kind of joke that would make a woman uncomfortable, the problem is not that she interrupted your fun. The problem is that you made the joke in the first place.

There's More To Life Than Marriage by MediaMaven.

Everything You Ever Loved Was Always Horrible, featuring: Short Circuit by Sady Doyle, who wittily and handily explores two movies I have never seen, owing at least in part to my weird-ass childhood where it was the odd thing I saw that wasn't produced by PBS or Jim Henson (and Short Circuit wasn't one of those). And then there's her point, choicely noted:

Because, you know, shit was fucked up. It continues to be fucked-up now, in fact! With any luck, our descendants will look back on our movies and be like, “Jesus, people WATCHED that? And didn’t get how TERRIBLE it was?” Because things will be better for them than they are for us, and they will get to take more for granted, which means we will all seem stupid and somewhat loathsome, which is as it should be.

Blaming the Gang Rape Victim by Tracy Clark-Flory:

She didn't deserve to be raped, but she was raped because she made some stupid mistakes.

It's such a convenient response, because every single day women do all sorts of things that seem reckless, especially after the fact of a crime against them. We leave our houses alone. We use underground parking garages and ride in elevators. We answer the door while we're home alone. We wear makeup. We wear clothing that doesn't hide our breasts and hips. We allow men in our lives, as family, lovers, friends and casual acquaintances. The list goes on and on.

And a comic from Toothpaste for Dinner that describes my life kind of perfectly.

toothpastefordinner.com