Worth Reading – Part IX at Purple NoiZe

Worth Reading – Part IX

I’m going to try making these on a monthly basis. So here’s the September highlights from my RSS feeds and Twitter.

Secularism and Sexism

Jen McCreight who took a stand against the harassment that’s going on in the secularism movement has gotten so much hateful feedback for her initiative that she no longer have the emotional energy to continue blogging and is taking a break. The people who claim the harassment is a non-issue are clearly wrong. Don’t worry Jen, you deserve some time off.

Goodbye for now – Blag Hag (Sept. 5th)

Rebecca Watson is still hanging in there though. PZ Myers is also paying attention to the situation.

Misandry: A How-To – Skepchick (Sept. 6th)
The anti-atheist+ boobs on Twitter – Pharyngula (Sept. 10th)
It’s not skeptics, atheists, or gamers: it’s the whole culture – Pharyngula (Sept. 10th)

Feminism

Yessenia at Queereka wrote a good article about women and self defence.

Now, as a general rule, I’m suspicious when I see phrases like “women’s self defense.” Because isn’t that just called ‘self-defense?’ What makes women’s self defense different? Well, as we’re all generally aware, the implicit rest of the phrase is “women’s self defense against rapists.”

Self-Defense: Now Available in Pink! – Queereka (Sept. 11th)

Blue milk had an interesting post about the tomboy character from the children’s books Fabulous Five. I read those books many times as a kid. I loved them!

About George and gender rules – blue milk (Sept. 8th)

The above post from Queereka shows a pink mace gun. Here’s another blog post about why women “need” stuff to be pink.

Why Ordinary Things Go Pink – Ms. Magazine Blog (Sept. 11th)

A friend of mine, Rebecca, wrote an excellent post about boob shame.

Boob Talk – Rebecca’s Dystopia (Sept. 21st)

Sean Carrol wrote a very revealing article about gender bias in science. Ms. Magazine also commented on this.

Scientists, Your Gender Bias Is Showing – Discover Magazine (Sept. 19th)
We Like You a Lot, Ms. Scientist, But We’d Rather Hire the Guy – Ms. Magazine Blog (Sept. 26th)

While in other academic news, in Iran female students are apparently taking up too much space that should be reserved for male students.

The “Problem” of Too Many Women: Iranian Universities’ Female Student Ban – Fem2.0 (Spet. 24th)

While the MRAs are as always exploring new ways to victim blame.

New frontiers in victimology: Men are “intimidated” into buying women drinks in bars – Man Boobz (Sept. 24th)

In The New York Times, Stephanie Cootz does a great job at debunking the myth the MRAs love that our society is turning into a matriarchy where they are the oppressed sex. Yeah, when they’re not blaming the victims for being victims, they’re making themsleves into victims.

The Myth of Male Decline – The New York Times (Sept. 30th)

LGBT

An interesting post about what’s known as the “cotton ceiling”.

The Cotton Ceiling: trans sexual politics – Ms. Magazine Blog (Sept. 18th)

In the UK entitled Christians think there are too few gay people to bother giving them equal rights. The absurd idea that giving other people the same rights as you have somehow discriminate against your rights is so absurd that I struggle to understand where they’re coming from. Yet this is a very common argument.