Change.Org petition on Facebook pages
Facebook says that hate speech and incitements to violence are banned and will be removed from their site. So why are they maintaining a page called “Riding Your Girlfriend Softly Cause You Don’t Want to Wake Her Up”? And another page about “throwing bricks at sluts” that includes a photo gallery of portraits asking “Bang or Brick”?
It has been commented several times recently how sexist comments, unlike with other forms of discrimination, tend to be tolerated much more. This is not necessarily the case with clearly outdated, straight-faced assertions about (for example) women belonging by the kitchen sink; but there is almost a new sexist language, masquerading as free speech, random swearing or simply a form of humour, that is often overlooked or dismissed as harmless. Calling it out can even lead to accusations of priggishness. But we need to make it very clear that this is not acceptable conduct.
US: the abortion battle continues
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=13199
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=13213
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=13222
I don’t think the danger to abortion rights posed collectively by these various challenges can be overestimated. The same is happening here in the UK with Nadine Dorries leading the charge to restrict abortion further. The tactic seems to be to chip away at the protections piece by piece, and perhaps to attempt to make abortion illegal altogether by implication. Watch this space. With raised hackles.