Linky Love - Volume 17

Sorry this is so late - I've hardly been at a computer all week.

Standard intro - Linky Love is basically a cobbling together of posts I've noticed around the traps that have set off little tiny sparkles inside my head, and which I would possibly write about or comment on if I didn't need to sleep, eat, work, that kind of stuff. I usually put Linky Love volumes up weekly, on Friday mornings, although sometimes I sneak them in on Thursday for various reasons. I hope you like it.

As always if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Capitalism Bad - Eating disorders are about more than hating your appearance - Maia responds to a post by Hugo Schwyzer comparing eating disorders and veganism, and looks at the role that control and self-denial plays.

Feministe - Teen Girl Sex Scandal!! OhmiGod!! - Flea examines the annoying moral panics that frequently seem to spring up around the possibility of young women having sex.

Feministing - Hero of the Day: Erin Davies and her "fag bug" - Jessica reports on a homophobic vandalism that has had rather the opposite effect from what the tagger would have intended.

Ghetsuhm - Moooooo - Ghet posts about the cow-chicken-grass test, which I didn't just like cos I studied anthro.

LeftAlign - Terrorists I am scared of - LA writes about some scary scary people and the regular folks who support their views.

The Legal Soapbox - All's fair in love and law - Legal Eagle shares why she loves being a lawyer, and why the structure of legal work makes it hard for her to maintain that affection.

The Legal Soapbox - Managing up and down - LE gets a second nod for an insightful piece on managing that she wrote ages ago (before she shifted to wordpress) but I only just got around to finishing it.

Pandagon - Quality of whose life, again? - Chris Clarke has a fantastic post on the "patriarchal blindspot" some seem to have when advocating for change such as the Slow Movement. zuzu, also of Feministe, has written about her family's experiences in response.

Red in Roskill - Lessons for Labour - Michael Wood extrapolates a few things for Helen Clark and friends to take heed of, from the recent UK elections.

Salon - Tinky Winky says bye-bye to Jerry Falwell - The former teletubby breaks his silence on the death of the tele-evangelist who outted him.

WebWeaver's World - Smack no more! - ww shares her thoughts on the successful final vote on s59's repeal, and also has Sue Bradford's full Third Reading speech.

Previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 16) can be found over here.

And finally, this week's Heart Pic is provided by Tze Ming Mok, of Yellow Peril fame, and was snapped at an art gallery in Shanghai recently. Thanks tm :-)

Linky Love - Volume 14

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

a bird and a bottle - On the Feminization of Poverty - Bean unpacks an Alternet article which states that 70% of those living in poverty, worldwide, are female.

the blonde canadian - Pure intentions? - -k turns her insightful mind to one of my latest obsessions, Purity Balls.

Born on State Highway One -Quid Auclandium faciam? - Tama Boyle bids a fond farewell to Herald columnist Garth George.

Feministe - We're getting tired of prying your guns for your cold, dead hands - Jill debunks the line that enabling "vulnerable" women to have guns for self-defense is a feminist stance.

Feministe - "Pro-Life" Mississippi has highest of infant mortality rate in the nation - Jill reports on the US state which is allegedly "safest for the unborn child" yet has appalling statistics for chidren, and argues that this appears to be a wider trend amongst "pro-life" states.

Ilyka Damen - Some Thoughts on What Beauty is Mything - gennimcmahon examines her own internal contradictions and reasons that they come from her "deep connection to a culture that says that a good woman doesn’t believe herself to be attractive, no matter what." Let's just say, she's not alone.

The Legal Soapbox - Potter Schmotter - Legal Eagle explains why she finds the Harry Potter books so insufficient that she hasn't even read Book 6. (This one's for you, Apathy Jack.)
Me - My Opinions! Noisy! - disturbed kiwi disagrees with the recent BRT column in the Herald claiming that Working For Families and similar schemes discourage people from earning more.

Pandagon - President-for-Life Sheelzebub institutes her new Stumbling Block Prevention Program - Sheelzebub comes up with some novel ideas to resolve the problem women's bodies seem to pose for some men.

Parrot on Policy - Civic Virtue - Policy Parrot looks at why our political cynicism has increased and some ways we could fight it.

soapbox spinsters - updates and reflections from town hall - movingtargets covers the recent controversy in Western Ontario (and through-out many of the US and Canadian feminist blog) over a Not Funny "satire" piece in her University's student newspaper.

The Techsploder - Fisk on Wikipedia and Web hate campaigns - Juha highlights and discusses an article by Robert Fisk about the impact of internet hate-mongering and the difficulty of finding the truth online.

What We Said - French election update - mandarine explains why he's voting for a woman.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love (1 - 13) can be found in their own shiny category.

(Pic Via)

Caution: side effects ahead

Feministing has the buzz on the 11th Annual Abstinence Leadership Conference. This year they have the snazzy theme:

Abstinence: It's a Black and White Issue -Purity vs Promiscuity

They even kind of have a blog, and there's a post up there where the writer responds to a feminist criticism of Purity Balls and the like. The Abstainer includes this gem in their brief critique:

...a person might choose sexual abstinence because of its obvious benefits, including freedom from STDs, unwed pregnancy, emotional scarring, suicidal ideation (especially in teens), and so on.

So all of these negative side effects are likely to befall you if you have sex. Oh, before marriage, I always forget that bit. After marriage you can bring sexy back, no probs. Except you gays. You can't get married, which means no sex for you FOREVER, 'cos sex without marriage could result in unwed pregnancy.

But I digress.

All of the possible Bad Things Sex Causes listed in the post are actually preventable by other measures too, not just abstinence. In fact I argue that they are better prevented by sex education that focuses on liking your body, not hating and denying it's sexual nature, because then you can continue making healthy choices once you start having sex, rather than having no clue because everything was focused on stopping you from having your first orgasm.

• Freedom from STDs: I know what you're thinking - haven't these people heard of condoms? Yes they have but they think they are Evil and have some faux-science that says they don't work. (Sadly they are still unaware that STIs are the new STDs.)


• Unwed pregnancy*: How about we educate people about how you get pregnant, and what the birth control options are to stop that process? I'm thinking maybe we could also make birth control widely and freely available, along with abortion, and stop attaching a stigma to these measures.


• Emotional scarring: Let's encourage teh kids to have sex when they want to, rather than when they feel pressured to. We could even chuck in a little bit of respect, for yourself and others, and add a culture that doesn't tolerate rape and sexual abuse. Our churches and other institutions could stop hiding rapists and abusers, and we could give people options to get out of abusive situations without high social and economic repercussions.


• Suicidal ideation: See above, and consider ditching the heavy judgement and coming down on the side of loving support.

Funny how the post doesn't mention the positive outcomes of sex; intimacy, pleasure, fun, and getting your rocks off, to name a few. It's as if sex is only a Bad Thing That No Good Comes Of. Do these people know where babies come from?

I've ranted before (and not just here) about how this agenda seems to me to be fundamentally anti-woman. It tells girls, and their older sisters, that their sexual desires and experiences are wrong and dirty. It sends the clear message that their intact hymen is synonymous with their worth as a person - and that they must remain an unsullied china doll until their father hands them over to their husband. Any sex with someone other than your hubby is promiscuous, and promiscuous equals Evil.

Yes there are times when sex is not a good idea. But telling people, persistently and from a position of power, that sex is Never Good unless it is with only one person, ever, and then only after you have a mystical magic ring on your finger, is just wrong. It doesn't encourage women to feel ownership of their bodies, it doesn't encourage them to say no when they aren't into it (and yes when they are) and it certainly doesn't encourage men to view hetero sex as something that must be consensual.

* Actually I don't see the problem with "unwed" pregnancy. The issue is actually unwanted pregnancy, marital status has nothing to do with it.

Linky Love - Volume 11

Tomorrow's Good Friday, so again Linky Love is early this week.

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Caraka - Strike at the root, not the branches - caraka highlights an article on the Saudi involvement in terrorism and asks a few searching questions too.

Feministe - Abstinence-only craziness - Jill has a great post highlighting a range of abstinence programmes, all of which are united by the common theme of characterising women who have pre-marital sex as used up. So good to know that an intact hymen is the most important thing about a woman.

Feministing - WaPo: Wage gap is "A bargain at 77 cents to a dollar" - Jessica reports on the drivel in the Washington Post that women should be happy to be paid less then men.

from the morgue - On Purity - morgue writes about the hard-core Christian "purity" drives and how they may be coming to New Zealand.

Hard News - The Solipsistic Left - Russell Brown covers and critiques the claims by Nick Cohen that we lefties are all dirty misogynistic, anti-Semitic, homophobic supporters of radical Islam. What, even the feminist Jewish lesbians?

Joe Hendren - Don't let climate change quibbles weaken movement - Joe Hendren responds to the frequent (and really rather dull) attacks on those campaigning to stop climate changing behaviours because they use air travel, and cars, and other wacky modern inventions that our society relies on and which sadly contribute to warming the planet. I'm sure Al Gore would have got his message out far wider if he had relied on bicycle power as some would prefer.

Larvatus Prodeo - Work/Death Balance - Kim argues that the Australian Government is promoting work more and more as a duty which must be done for longer and longer, and that this creates an environment with unconscionable levels of work-related stress.

No Right Turn - A closer look: election funding - Idiot/Savant turns his attention to the Campaign for Open Government's proposals to review the funding of electioneering.

What We Said - A Very Rough Guide to Feminism - Make Tea Not War gives us her take on feminism - a good read for those who reckon they hate feminists!

Women's Space/The Margins - Republican Bill Would Have Jailed Women For Not Reporting Miscarriages to the Police - Heart reports on a US bill, luckily withdrawn, which sounds like all kinds of crazy.

And don't forget, previous volumes of Linky Love can be found in their own shiny category.

Christians and loins

I was going to just put this in the next Linky Love, but I can't keep my plug for it to a simple sentence.

Jill has written a killer post at Feministe entitled "Christian Warriors: Fighting immodesty, one guilt-inducing erection at a time."

I would think this one was written especially for Messr Chesswas*, except that I don't think Jill knows he exists. Plus he's "on a break" for Lent, so I feel a bit naughty goading him with it.

Anyway...

Jill highlights a very worrying trend amongst the group of young Christian men covered in a US survey on modesty - not only do they hold views that men are superior to women girls, they further dictate that fathers, brothers, husbands or "brothers in Christ" should be the arbiters of a woman's decision on what she wears (and in fact most other things). This would certainly reflect comments I have seen some Christian male bloggers** make in the NZ context.

Amanda Marcotte is on the case too, particularly examining the responses to a question about a woman's girl's posture or position being a "stumbling block." Apparently the ideal stance for those of the female gene pool is slouched. Don't even think about making eye contact.

Not that far from this to the burqa, folks. Which means I'm gonna make me a bumper sticker that says:

Fundamentalist Christians & Fundamentalist Muslims
Have Different Attitudes to Women? Not so Much.

*Actually I think Apathy Jack would really really like this one. I can hear his future chuckle from here.

** I'd like to acknowledge that there are many young Christian men of my personal acquiantance who are not misogynist fools. I even know some who respect women and treat XXers like actual real life human beings, and partly justify their beliefs about these matters by reference to their Christian faith. Good for them says me!

Faking & Making

Recently I've been musing a bit on self-confidence and I think I may have finally concluded that I'm not a total freak.

Two things happened today to reinforce that view.

I talked to a colleague (who we'll call Shirley, because that is surely not her name) about our belief in our own abilities, in relation to our job performance. I shared with Shirley that when I first won by current job another woman working in our industry had told me "fake it until you make it," but that I still felt like I was faking, not making, two years later. Shirley in turn told me of all the strong, capable, inspiring women she knows who have told her recently that they too feel considerable self-doubt. Our korero turned from focusing on our insecurities to thinking about the reality - that if other people perceive that we are achieving perhaps we truly are, despite our own deficeit of confidence.

When I got home today and cleared my Bloglines there was a post from Amanda Marcotte about how women share critical comments about their own bodies and abilities to bond. While this is depressing it is undeniably true for me and for many women I know. If North Harbour had scored a try for everytime I've traded tales of my body imperfections with another woman then my team would be top of the table every season and make no mistake. It's like a reflex - sometimes when I say it I don't even mean it at first, it's just the polite thing to say, but then after the words have escaped into the world they take on a reality of their own and I start to believe them.

And really, is it any surprise that women police not only each other's body image but also their broader self-confidence, when we live in a society that still often sees women as inferior beings? We are so frequently told, subtly or overtly, that we are just baby-makers, or sexualised objects for men to do with as they will, or the property of a father or husband. That we constantly reinforce that status ourselves, internally and with other women, is commensurate with the world we have lived in for generations, albeit against our own best interests.

All of this negativity, to ourselves and to others, is a coping mechanism. I blame no woman for going down that path, but I hope to reject it myself.

Update, 16th March 2007, 9.33am: gennimcmahon also has a post on this subject, from a the angle of thinking about her daughter, including the quote that sums it up:

Our culture makes clear to girls that liking themselves is egotistical and therefore insufficiently modest.

* This doesn't mean all other women are above my criticism. It means that they are open to the same level of criticism as men, i.e. based not on silly irrelevant things like appearance or conformity with the gendered division of labour.

Linky Love - Volume 6

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Alas (a blog) - The Long Beach Beating Case and Race - Ampersand writes about a number of assault cases in the USA where race has been an issue and looks at the impact skin colour may have had on the outcomes (and the conservative reaction).

Anarchia - Anarchism in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington - Asher blogs about anarchy groups in our fair capital.

Auckland's Burning - Activists assaulted while CEO lies - John covers a protest against climate change at Don Elder's speech as CEO of Solid Energy. Includes snaps!

Blogging it Real - Things that hack you off - dc_red asks what would you dispose of if you were Supreme Commander of the Universe, even providing a handy starter list if you are stuck for inspiration.

Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty - It's not anti-feminist to go on a diet, it is anti-feminist to write a diet book - Maia looks at two recent Guardian pieces and writes about dieting as a survival mechanism.

Contradiction - Fashion tips for liberals - George explains why he supports Chester Burrows on banning gang patches.

Feministe - More proof of the Housework Gap - zuzu looks at new research on the housework-gender labour division, and examines her own motivations for cleaning.

Frogblog - Public transport, how do you spell that? - Russel covers and comments on a recent debate in the House about public transport, involving Jeanette Fitzsimmons (first questioner), Michael Cullen (the questioned), Shane Jones (asks a patsy) and Peter Brown (puts in another plug for the roading lobby).

The Fundy Post - Hollaback Man - Paul reports on Matthew Hooton's spirited defence of the Exclusive Brethren on RNZ National recently. Paul reckons Laila Harre made "mincemeat" of him. What a shame.

Island Life - Browned to perfection - David Slack constructs a new New Zealand, loosely based on Tariana Turia's pronouncement that we could be a little browner (and she doesn't mean more tanned).

Long Ago And Not True Anyway - Panel Beaten (Oh for a higher calibre of right wing nut) - Terence muses on the woefulness of Michael Basset's recent performance on RNZ National's afternoon panel.

No Right Turn - Climate change: no policy - Idiot/Savant responds to a Herald on Sunday comment about the lack of policy (which he agrees with) and examines the reasons for this. He also has a related post on the emission statistics the HoS has used and scratches his head over where they got them from.

No Right Turn - Trickle down fails again - And Idsy gets a second nod in this Linky Love volume for his examination of how trickle down economics have failed to deliver not only in NZ but also in the USA under George W.

Pandagon - Salaries and housework and the whine of entitlement oh my! - Further to the housework post at Feministe listed above, Amanda Marcotte looks at the impact of women earning more than their male partners on the division of labour in the home.

stanselen - Playcentre is Anarchism in our area - jo succintly reveals how her local playcentre works.

Walking with Ghosts - Another Modest Proposal - the STFU scale - Phoenician in a time of Romans outlines a brilliant scheme to stop complaints about various things by establishing a Statistics Towards a Fairer Universe scale.

Past Linky Loves are now in their own shiny category.

Linky Love - Volume 5

Standard intro - if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

As always, if you want to suggest some new blogs to widen my reading please leave a comment.

Alas (a blog) - Court Issues Unbelievable Stupid Sex Crime Ruling - Ampersand reports on a bizarre legal case (in the USA, whereelse) where a young woman's conviction for child pornography, based on sending intimate photos of herself and her boyfriend from her computer to his personal email, was upheld to protect her reputation. Yes you read that right.

Aucklander at Large - Section 59 Citizens Initiated Referendum - Jeremy gives his thoughts on the Family First views on s59 and the CIRs that are now on the go, but the main reason I linky loved this post is because of the fab cartoon at the end of it, all about the Right Wing Noise Machine in the USA.

Auckland's Burning - My street - John writes about a recent brush with violence in his street. A sad story.

Feministe - Disorder - piny supports Pigeon's theory that eating disorders operate in the same way as addicition, in a compelling post about power and anorexia.

Feministe - If motherhood is so great why don't you do it? - Jill has produced a post responding to the frequent calls for women to fulfill their "natural" roles as mothers to the exclusion of all else in their lives. She makes an excellent point - if motherhood is genuinely the most valued work then how come more men don't do it?

from the morgue - [mediawatch]The Listener Gets It Right - morgue highlights and comments on a recent Listener article about paroled murderers who haven't reoffended.

The Fundy Post - Dispatches from the frontline in the diversity war - Paul writes about what the Exclusive Brethren are up to these days, and the Human Rights Commission's recent conference on a possible religious diversity statement.

Instaputz - Rocky Mountain News: Putz is the right's Ward Churchill - Brilliant reporting by The Blue Texan on MSM criticism of Glen Reynolds of Instapundit advocating the assasination of Iranian scientists and leaders.

I See Red - Selection of media comments on Key - Tony Milne has put together what the post title says, creating an interesting review of media views of the new National Leader.

Pandagon - How to explain things to Libertarians - Chris Clarke starts with a great cartoon and just gets better.

staneslen - It's not OK to smack - jo writes about her views on smacking and why she hopes the Greens' bill passes.

Past Linky Loves are now in their own shiny category.

Linky Love - Volume 3

Again, if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Also, I am still looking for new blogs to add to my Bloglines - particulary foreign leftie and/or feminist links - suggestions welcome in comments or by email. Thank you for the links offered last time.

Alas (a blog) - Silly - poor people don't get choices - Maia writes about the conflict between choice and access in Texas, where the governor has decided to make the HPV vaccine compulsory for all girls before they can start school.

Alas (a blog) - Lactivist blogger attacked by National Pork Board - Rachel highlights the lawsuit an American blogger who promotes breast-feeding rights faced as the result of a funny t-shirt slogan.

Auckland's Burning - ROI and Activism - A post on the assessments activists need to make when organising their campaigns, namely will there be sufficient Return On Investment, by John.

Feministe - Dates with Daddy - Jill has an icky article on fathers swearing to protect their daughters' chastity in the USA. Warning: you may need a bucket handy.

Feministe - The Limits of Political Strategy - piny gives her thoughts on whether (and how) straight marrieds can contribute to the fight for queer marriage rights.

Just Left - Waitangi Day - Jordan Carter reveals his thoughts on our national day, and then posts further in response to many of the comments his original article attracted.

The Legal Soapbox - Feminism and having babies - Legal Eagle writes about her feminism and how it has evolved, particularly since becoming a mother. Also, a follow-up post by the same author, Motherhood and career - what is the answer?

No Right Turn - Typicalling misleading - Idiot/Savant takes DPF to task over his dodgy graph on government revenue (DPF also responds in comments).

Public Address - The thing you can't stand on - Tze Ming Mok has another killer post, this time ostensibly about the kerfuffle rippling outward from a request to fly the Tino Rangatiratanga flag on the Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day.

Red in Roskill - Maori Party and Maori Political Power - Michael Wood gives his thoughts on the newest party in our parliament, and what its advent bodes for our political system, particularly for those on the Left.

Single Malt Social Democrat - In her Majesty's Service - Carl writes about the tensions of being a civil servant, and the extra scrutiny the public service faces from all and sundry.

Sir Humphrey's - Those dirty stinkin' capitalists! - Pyscho Milt writes in response to Maia's post at Alas (a blog) about clothes, sizes, etc, which I linked to in the last Linky Love.

Women of Color Blog - The Coward speaks - brownfemipower's brief post sums up my thoughts about the furore in the US that has resulted in a leading feminist blogger resigning from the John Edwards' campaign team after pressure from some religious lobbyists. While I understand and support Amanda Marcotte's decision to stand down* it makes me very sad and I wish we lived in a world, and operated in a political system, where it wan't necessary for The Game.

Previous Editions:
Linky Love - Vol. 2 (4th Feb. 2007)
Linky Love - Vol 1. (23rd Jan. 2007)


* Pandagon is currently down due to a DOS attack, which is unfortunately not surprising given all the effort some on the US right have been putting in to attacking one of it's authors for daring to have a personal opinion, expressed on her personal blog, about issues they don't like, and criticising them for their stances. GRRRRR! When it comes back up I will put in a link to Amanda's post about her decision to resign. Update, 15th Feb 2007 9.41am - Pandagon is now back up and I have put in the link.

Linky Love - Volume 2

Continuing with the This Is Not A Link Farm, But Actually It So Is thing...

Alas (a blog) - Looking Professional - Maia (also of CBTP) writes on the issues surrounding the purchase of clothes for job interviews, and the difficulties faced by those whose bodies don't conform. Copious comments too.

Capitalism Bad - What we've lost - A well-written post from Maia about the change in language in the abortion debate from "A woman's right to choose" to "pro-choice."

Feministe - State of the Union: Hot Chicks Get Naked! - Jill writes about the anti-woman bent of PETA's latest campaign.

Frogblog - John Key's State of the Nation speech - Russel Norman gives a succint summary of the good and bad in the new National leader's 30th Jan speech.

Feministe - Feeding the Crocodiles - piny has a scary post about the trend towards accusations of "fetal abuse" in the USA. In other words, when you are preggers you are just a baby carrier and nothing else. So much for being a person too!

I See Red - Party activist bloggers - Tony Milne contributes a revealing article (complete with cool graph, he's so good at the cool graphs!) about the tensions of being a party activist and also having a private blog.

No Right Turn - What the Royal Commission really said about the Maori Seats - Idiot/Savant contributes a much needed article refuting the National spin that the Royal Commission recommended abolition.

NZ Human Rights Lawyer - Set Tasers to Spun - Actual lawyer (as opposed to all us pretend ones) Mark Lillico covers a recent court decision around pepper spray and draws the links to the current police taser trial.

One Tenacious Baby Mama - Blog for Choice Senior Kindergarten style - darkdaughta writes powerfully about the ride to school for her child, and the abortion clinic they pass together.

Pandagon - Help Chris Muir Find Teh Funny - Some great remixes of a climate change denial cartoon, put together by Amanda Marcotte.

Pandagon - Beg, Borrow or Steal (But Mostly Borrow) - ilyka has written about the NOW letter to the US Senate supporting the probably rise in the minimum wage in the States, and includes detail from the anecdotal research NOW attached. While it's in the American context, it sounds very familiar, and clearly many of the arguments made against increasing the minimum wage are the same here as there. ilyka has ferretted out some of the particular anecdotes which rebut those points.

Red in Roskill - Progressive Christianity - Michael Wood's post on what he sees as his faith, and some interesting comments in response.

What We Said - Why I Am a Feminist - Make Tea Not War talks about why she became a feminist in the first place and why she is still one today.

Again, if you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else.

Also, I am looking for new blogs to add to my Bloglines - particulary foreign leftie and/or feminist links - suggestions welcome in comments or by email.

Related links:
Linky Love - Volume 1 (23rd Jan. 2007)

Linky Love - Volume 1

I've been quite inspired by the link farming work that Ampersand does over at Alas, and have decided to do a bit of it myself, although no doubt on a much smaller scale.

My intention is to semi-regularly put together a post that links to a whole lot of posts that I've noticed and got something out of in recent times. Mainly these are going to be from NZ pol blogs, because that's often what I read, but also feminist blogs. They'll be the posts that I probably haven't written about but wanted to. Sort of like a recommended reading list, but I'm not vain enough to think that anyone will follow my recommendation. More like an acknowledgement to the author that I appreciated their post even if I didn't comment or write my own post on the subject.

I've decided not to call it a link farm though, as Wikipedia tells me that has pejorative connotations as it is a spammer tool. "Linky Love" seems to more reflect what my sentiment is, so I'll see how that goes as a name.

So here is my first go at it. Hopefully it won't be the last!

Anarchia - Mental Illness: My Struggle - thought-provoking post from Asher about responses to disclosure of mental illness

Put Up Thy Sword! - Repentant Kiwi Bloke - don't agree with everything AJ says (no surprises there) but this is a revealing and interesting (if somewhat paternalistic) piece about rape and the responsibility men take (or don't) for sexual violence.

Capitalism Bad: Tree Pretty - Hating your body is for losers - Maia writes about feminism and body image, wondering what we can do collectively to stop the hate.

Hard News - Appeasing Osama - Russell Brown has covered the outbursts from Dinesh D'Souza, blaming the left for 9/11 because of our support for liberalism (in the sense of homosexual rights, feminism, etc). An interesting discussion has ensued in the forum thread.

Inside Higher Ed - Against Phalloblogcentrism - Article by Scott McLemee about the perception that political blogging is dominated by men, and how that culture may be maintained. (Hat tip to Make Tea Not War's post at What We Said, where there is also some discussion in comments of this notion) (Apologies to MTNW for not adding the hyperlink, fixed 24th Jan)

I See Red - Minimum Wage 1980 - 2007 - Tony Milne has done a very helpful graph of the level of the legal minimum wage year by year since 1980, thus under both National and Labour-led governments, plus an additional graph showing it in today's dollars. While the evidence is not surprising it is certainly good to have.

Long Ago and Not True Anyway - "Post Abortion Syndrome" - Terence succintly sums up the wrongness of anti-abortionists arguing on the basis of protecting women's mental health.

NZ Human Rights Lawyer - Mad Bad and Unparoleable - given all the recent reactionary palaver about parole, Mark Lillico's contribution is refreshing, imho.

Ranting on the ROK - Vanity Size Me - a post by Stef about the irritation and impracticality of the practice of labelling a size 12 as a 10 (etc) that seems to be infesting women's clothing.

Red in Roskill - As the Bishop Said to the Editor - Michael Wood returns to blogging with a piece about (Anglican) Bishop Randerson's comments about faith, inciting what must be the longest non-spam comment I have ever seen.

Ok that'll do to start with.

If you have a post of your own, or some else's, that you'd like to highlight please feel free to add it in comments, or to discuss the above posts, or indeed most anything else. In particular I'd appreciate some feedback on this concept, good or bad.

Ageing beautifully

Over at Alas, Rachel S has posted eloquently about how young feminist bloggers need to be more aware of issues for older women. She has challenged feminist bloggers to post about the issues facing older women.

I instantly thought of women I know of my mother's age (in their 60s) and how differently they have aged physically. My own mother looks much younger than she is, but I often wonder if she feels it is a constant struggle to maintain that appearance. I know that she worries that she dresses too young for her age, that she was very concerned that people would think she was "mutton dressed as lamb" at a recent family event, or that many people think she's had plastic surgery. She carries all of this worry around with her, not because she looks old, but because she looks young.

And then there are the women I know who look their age, or older, and the different pressure on them - the comments that they have "let themselves go" just because they gave up dying their hair, or that they are frumpy because they choose to wear comfortable shoes. Somehow these women are supposed to choose a life revolving around maintaining an appearance that doesn't come to them naturally, that may be unhealthy (physically and mentally) and that pleases others but may be uncomfortable (at the least) for them.

Not much to look forward to for me then - do I hope for my mother's natural youthful looks, or build a shield around myself for the coming barbs about being a "grandma" (as if that's a bad thing!)?

Of course there's the rise of appearance "medicine" which I could always fall back on - lie about my age, and I should be able to get by for an extra decade or so before people start writing me off as a bitter old lady (instead of writing me off as a naive young thing as they do now, or a middle aged moaner as they will in the medium future).

Either way, the mere fact of being female means that your appearance remains a topic of conversation, a tool to judge you by, until your dying days. Never mind my professional or personal accomplishments when I'm 60 - the real factors to assess my worth by will be the colour of my hair, the length of my skirts, and whether I've got crows feet.

Stink.

saying yes

Maia has two fantastic posts on rape and consent, which deserve the widest possible audience (especially amongst male readers).

No explores some recent research from the UK which shows some very disturbing views about rape, which basically show that a significant portion of those surveyed agreed that there were situations in which women ask for rape. It brought to mind for me the scrap between Cathy and Ruth over similar issues a while back, and I hope that Cathy will read Maia's post.

This Is Not What Yes Looks Like asks why we put the responsibility on the woman to say no rather than on the man to ask for a yes.

I wanted to draw attention to these posts but also add a few thoughts of my own. Sometimes women are their own worst enemies in these matters because we share some of the views of men - some of us think, deep down, that there are situations in which women as for rape, and that it is the woman's responsibility to make it clear that she doesn't want sex, and in holding these opinions we do ourselves no favours. I too have been guilty of less than sisterly thoughts in the past (probably back when I also thought that politics should stay out of sport and actually National would be the better party to have in power, ie a very long time ago) and it's through involvement with staunch and on to it women like Maia that I have come to realise my past error.

We need to take responsibility, that's true. But what we should take responsibility for is in fact each other. When we see someone else in a situation that we're not sure they want to be in, we need to just check-in with them, give them an out. When we are getting somewhat intimately acquainted with another person and we're not sure they are in to it we should ask - none of this crap about ruining the mood, if you're both into it a little checking isn't going to dampen things down (in fact it could serve as a prod to your partner to show you just how keen they are).

It seems to me that this inability to communicate with others about impending sex is part of a larger problem about sex still being viewed as dirty and taboo. You don't ask because sex is not something to be verbalised, just something to be experienced, preferably furtively, with the lights off, and as many clothes on as possible.

But that's a totally Victorian attitude that doesn't, and shouldn't, reflect reality. If we can change our attitude to sex I fervently hope that we can also change our attitude to rape - and ultimately see sex as something women can positively choose to take part in (or not), rather than passively put up with happening to them (or indeed not willingly consent to at all).

the politics of using the C word

(By special request from Em, and proof that in fact my mother does not read this blog. That i know of. And if she does, she certainly won't anymore)

I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to swearing. I had a horrible formative experience when I was in Standard 2 - Flang (who in fact I am still friends with despite this) dared me to say "fucking bitch" three times at her. I did and she promptly went and told our teacher (the fearsome Mrs Outhwaite I believe), resulting in my experiencing the verbal equivalent of being bent over and caned in front of the whole class. After that I swore (hah hah) off cussing forever.

This lasted until I was in my late teens - student politics really broke the barriers down ("darn" really doesn't cut it at 1am when you are trying to stick posters up and they won't adhere to the concrete) and these days I have quite the potty mouth, even at work (where swearing is largely acceptable). But, unlike some of my workmates (yes you R) I stop short of using the C word. In fact I can still count the number of times I have said it (13 as of writing this). I suspect my practice of keeping count is rather revealing too.

But should I really be that concerned about it? The Man in the Comfy Chair thinks it's hilarious that I'm reticent about this. My mother of course has only heard me use the F word a handful of times and all when I have been very upset, so she forgives me. She has a very firm position on use of the C word, as I discovered when I mentioned it in passing on the weekend. I remember well her concern when I was doing a project on the Commonwealth Games back in Intermediate School - I was going to paint all the O's in to the section titles with gold paint, and of course Medal Count didn't quite read like that as I was leaving the gold until last...

So enough background, time to get down to the guts of the matter.

There is a school of thought that the taboo nature of the C word is in fact patriarchal and denies women the right to talk about their reproductive organs in common parlance. On the other hand the fact that a word that merely describes a female body part is so offensive could be oppressive in and of itself.

In the late '90s the Women's Rights Officer at AUSA at the time Anita Treefoot (who went on to host Queer Nation) organised a women's art exhibition she called "Cuntasia". This was a bid by her to replace the C word in its rightful place; as a word that celebrated the vagina and it's importance to women, rather than as an insult to be hurled at particularly annoying types. At the time I thought this an admirable attempt on her part, and I remember referring to the exhibition by name at every opportunity. But I still didn't really use the actual objectionable word.

Myself I'm a bit torn. At the same time as I really like effective four letter words that you can spit venomously at people (even behind their backs) I am constrained by my up-bringing, and my PC concerns that by using the C word in a negative manner I am in fact contributing to a culture that defines sex and sexuality, in particular that of women, as dirty and bad.

Thoughts?