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The Week In Patriarchy

Proposition 8, California’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples, was overturned–not that same-sex couples may see an immediate benefit. A seventeen-month-old boy was murdered for acting like a girl. Nineteen young men in Sudan were sentenced to a public flogging for wearing women’s clothing and “dancing in a womanly fashion.” Sudan was also named one of the ten worst places to live if you’re a woman.

World Breastfeeding Week occurred over the first week of August, during which time Giselle Bundchen faced criticism for asking rhetorically if parents were going to to give their children “chemical food.” An ad campaign by Men Can Stop Rape has finally showed what we may have suspected all along: Rapists can prevent rape by not raping people. On the other hand, David Brown, Dallas Police Commisioner, may or may not have shifted the blame of date rape onto the victims–you decide.

Seth MacFarlane noted that “every civil rights conflict–black people, women–come to an end the right way.” His body of work makes you wonder what he meant by “the right way.” Video game publisher Activision might have something against female leads in its games. Mark McInnes, the former chief executive of Australian retailer David Jones, was named in a $37 million sexual harassment lawsuit. Male commenters to the story thought the suit was ridiculous for one or more stupid reasons.

Arizona state senator Russell Pearce compared the birth practices of immigrant women to those of farm animals. The New York Times reported by means of data and anecdote that feminism has solved all of women’s job problems save one: Motherhood. Some eggheads at Psychology Today found that there still is sexism in the workplace. Despite common assumptions, feminism is not one of the highest-paying jobs in the world.

One Comment

  1. Raemon wrote:

    Plenty of things to be mad about. As an aspiring game developer I am particularly depressed by the comments in the article about Activision. I spend so much time on blogs like this that I forget that basic understanding of white male privilege (not to mention basic decency) is not nearly as common as I like to think it is.

    Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 12:41 am | Permalink