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Yearly Archives: 2011

Vulnerable Populations: Agency, Identity, and Incarcerated Women

In nonprofits that provide social services, we like to classify and index groups of people as if we are scientists. There’s at-risk, high need, barrier to whatever, specific needs, people with disabilities, under-represented, and on and on. We might as well just group everyone as people who might need some stuff for some good reasons. But it would […]

Right-wing memes ahoy – “pregnancy is not a disease”

At Religion Dispatches , Sarah Morice-Brubacker traced the emergence of a new right-wing anti-contraception meme, “pregnancy is not a disease” which has recently been deployed in response to the recent announcement that insurance plans in the US will be required to cover contraception without co-pay.  Morice-Brubacker quotes rightwinger Bob Laird,”a fellow at Human Life International […]

The Help is a model of the most unhelpful cinematography

I didn’t want to see it. I knew it would most likely infuriate me and it would make me sad (and I try to avoid sad because sad is an emotion permanently lurking and waiting to make a jump and get hold of me; and then it sends me into this spiral of more sadness […]

The TSA Expands Its Security Theatre Repertory With the Chat-Down

The Transportation Security Administration just keeps getting more creative when it comes to tormenting air travelers in the US. Problems with the approach to security by agencies like the TSA, which tend to focus on a reactive rather than proactive handling of security matters, have been extensively documented by experts like Bruce Schneier, who regularly […]

Team Tiger AWESOME

One thing about a group of people this fantastic is that our pure awesome cannot be contained to these pages alone. Thus, we like to keep you posted on what we’re up to elsewhere! Emily Manuel’s been all over the place! At In These Times, she writes about the London riots. On Global Comment she discussed […]

Moving away from Social Justice towards Social Wellbeing

Many of us identify part of our activism (be it through writing, community engagement, online, offline, etc.) as part of the broad umbrella of Social Justice. However, most of us (or at least I) do not necessarily devote a lot of time to think of the meaning behind Social Justice and how the whole idea […]

The TV show that had ALL the complex and strong female characters: Battlestar Galactica

This week Lindsay Miller wrote about Doctor Who (and if you’ve seen the comments, you’ll notice my endless love for the many incarnations of the Doctor) and s.e. smith wrote about the portrayal of strong female characters on TV. Since I am a big sci-fi nerd (all it takes for me to watch a TV […]

What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?

Oh, the strong female character. Holy grail of pop culture, embodiment of all that is empowerment, role model and inspiration for viewers of all genders, proof that women do not need to be shoehorned into stereotypical roles, but can instead spread their wings and fly free. She’s the characterisation many people say they do not see […]

LANDMARKS OF LADY-HATE Presents! American Psycho, or, Despite All My Rage I Am Still Just A Rat In A Vagina

Ladies! We of the feminist persuasion have a long and noble history from which to draw. Specifically, a long and noble history of being offended by stuff! I worry, ladies, that in this our Internet age, we are losing touch with that history. And thus, I introduce to you a new series, LANDMARKS OF LADY […]

They want to do real bad things to you: Class War on True Blood

“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives on by sucking living labor and lives the more, the more labor it sucks” – Karl Marx, Capital The vampire has long been a potent metaphor for cultural anxieties of many kinds.  HBO’s True Blood is a fun, sex-filled take on the urban fantasy genre, combining vampires, werewolves, […]