Femmeblr →
Check out HOUfems members Kate and Nikki’s new feminist blog.
a feminist book club in Houston, TX. Make it part of the conversation.
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Penelope Truck Blog →
I came across this blog. The woman who writes it, Penelope Trunk, founded three startups, including Brazen Careerist. Her career advice runs in 200 newspapers. Inc. Magazine called her “the world’s most influential guidance counselor.”
Penelope’s blueprint for a woman’s life.
Obviously there are some potentially controversial things. What do you guys think?
- Julia
I really enjoyed that blog! I think that the blueprint for a woman’s life is more satirical. Kind of like “Advice for an Imperfect World.” I actually enjoyed reading the comments a lot. Some people took Penelope very seriously, and others are convinced its a joke.
But the best part was their discussion of whether women can “have it all.” And some of the commenters blame feminism for making women despair and feel pressure to go for everything (interesting/sad), but mostly they come to the conclusion that you can either have a family or a career but not both. But at least now modern women get to choose?
- Nikki
“Sometimes procrastination is the best tool we have for taking care of ourselves.”
I’ve only read one post of her’s so far but this was the last line of it, and I have never, ever thought about that before but I think it is so true.
Super cool.The pressure we feel to find a perfect career is insane. And, given that people are trying to find it before they are thirty, in order to avoid both a quarterlife crisis and a biological-clock crisis, the pressure is enough to push people over the edge. Which is why one of the highest risk times for depression in life is in one’s early twenties when people realize how totally impossible it is to simply “do what you love.”
God, I love this woman.
- Ingrid
I was just about to send this post out!
“Stop worrying that your twenty something is lost.”
- Julia
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An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk →
Throwback to our discussion months ago on SlutWalk! You may have also seen this on the HFM’s listserv.
- Kate
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Parenting.com: "My boys are sexy. Please exploit them." →
So close, and yet so far….
Don’t ask me what I was doing on the Parenting site. I have no good answers.
- Nikki
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discussion on Sexist Tees
Wow, they are actually sold out. And here I thought douchebag t-shirts could not get any worse.
- Abel
I don’t even understand this. I feel like it’s so outrageously offensive it must be a joke, like “look how egregious this is I am wearing this shirt to point out the horrors of domestic abuse.” No?
- Nikki
Well, after I sent this out, I later saw something on Jezebel about it. But they were exhibiting an even worse tee - something about “what breed of dog is your girlfriend?”
Joke or not, it’s hard to swallow. I mean, if I wore an “ironic” (not really ironic but like hipster ironic) t-shirt with a swastika, I would catch a beating.
- Abel
Y’all may have already seen this, but while we’re on the subject of sexist tees…being pretty is so much more important than homework!
- Katri
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The 5 Most Depraved Sex Scenes Implied by 'Harry Potter' →
I thought most of this article was pretty silly, but the first section about centaur-rape as just punishment is disturbing to think about. Especially when the author points out that a woman’s comeuppance here is rape, and male villains get killed/disgraced in a public sphere/other non-sexual punishments. I did not know that thing about centaurs when I first read HP, but I imagine Rowling did when she wrote it.
- Nikki
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Joss Whedon’s Equality Now speech. It’s pretty old, but pretty great for any Buffy/Firefly/Dollhouse fans.
It gets good around minute 6, so wait for it.
- Nikki
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discussion on Creepy Sex Monologuist, etc.
If you care about rape culture/sexual assault (so, ya know, if you’re in this group), this could be triggering. However, I feel that I need to share it with you all, because it really dramatically demonstrates the passive and active condoning of sexual violence in our culture. AND it’s about The Second City, which we just talked about at our last meeting! Whoohoo!
Jezebel: “Creepy Sex Monologuist Banned from Las Vegas Improv Events”
If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go vomit.
- Kate
I saw this last night and almost started crying. The entire room full of people who are actually laughing at his monlogue (even if they’re laughing at him, not with him) is disturbing. How he could possibly have been able to get through this entire disgusting explanation of his raping a drunk woman without being forcibly removed from the microphone is beyond me.
I was thinking later about what I would do if I were in that audience. Would I get up and try to stop him from continuing his 9 minute long rape joke? Call the police? “hey this guy is detailing a rape he committed, can you come arrest him?” (hint: no, they can’t because the police are useless) Just leave? Start shaking with anger then vomit on the person in front of me? Sit there quietly then file a formal complaint later? I really don’t know.
I hope this completely destroys this man’s career.
- Katri
Before Kate sent that link (disgusting), I basically started going down the rabbit hole reading fem blogs at my boring job and coincidentally stumbled across this Fem 101 definition of rape culture. We all know what rape culture is, at least a little, but I found this article extremely powerful. Warning: it links to hundreds of real life examples of rape culture and it’s highly disturbing.
Things that it made me think about that I would love to discuss with you all sometime:
Rape jokes
Consensual rough sex— Is it a turn on for any good reason? Or is that a byproduct of rape culture?
- Nikki
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