Conference anti-harassment campaigns do work: Three existence proofs from SF&F, atheism/skepticism, and open source

Guest Post by the Ada Initiative, a not-for-profit organisation supporting women in open technology and culture (originally published at the Ada Initiative blog)

chalk writing on a pavement saying STOP RAPE NOW

One Reason Why False Rape Allegation Statistics Are So High

Guest Post by Dana Hunter

Men, even good men, believe women lie about rape. There’s this myth that runs amok saying that some enormous proportion of rape accusations are just women lying to get attention, or revenge, or to hide their summer fling from mommy and daddy. And they believe it without question.

When male friends toss that grenade at me, I toss it back by asking if they know what the percentage is. “Fifty percent,” they’ll say, or above, depending on which MRAs their stats are coming from.

“It’s two to eight percent,” I say, and I need to remember to never do this when they’re walking or have something in their mouths, because the good ones are always staggered, and they always gasp. “But even those numbers are on the high side.”

Previous Next

101

July Open Thread

July Open Thread

Another month another Open Thread! Here’s a discussion starter:

clarifying-concepts

Guest Post: More Men Are Raped in US Than Women?

Guest Post: More Men Are Raped in US Than Women?

Originally published at Echidne of the Snakes. Crossposted with permission.

You may have come across that assertion before if you have the habit of visiting MRA sites on the net. I’ve seen it, but never found any sources for it, except for fuzzy hints that it’s because of prison rape of men is not included in the general rape statistics.

debunking myths

FAQ: Aren’t feminists all lesbian man-haters?

Short answer: No. Feminists come from a variety of backgrounds, with a variety of values and opinions, and (among other things) are in no way uniform in their sexual preferences. Some feminists identify as lesbian, some as heterosexual, some as bisexual, some as asexual, etc. As for the “man-hating” moniker, it has more to do […]

FAQ

FAQ: vagina vs vulva and public “faces of feminism”

Q: A celebrity feminist said something about the incorrect usage of vagina vs vulva and I want you to explain every nuance of her thoughts to me and why feminism thinks that way.

A: “Feminism” doesn’t necessarily think that way just because that celebrity feminist does.
Possibly there is controversy about her opinion.
Possibly her opinion is highly unpopular.
Also, just a thought, possibly she didn’t actually say quite what you think she said?

Feminism Friday

Feminism Friday: What can I do, right now today, to help stop sexual violence

Feminism Friday: What can I do, right now today, to help stop sexual violence

It is frustrating to live in a society where sexual violence is commonplace, and feel helpless to stop it. Many people are so disgusted and frightened for themselves and those they care about, that they do not have the patience to wait for our culture to right itself. It is from this frustration, impatience, and usually from a sincere worry for women’s safety, that people often will try to pass along rape prevention measures that may or may not be useful. […]

Much of the safety advice that is given out is aimed at potential victims (quite often young women), that seems solid and constructive, but that largely ignores the social and societal context in which the violence happens, and also fails to take into consideration the practical realities of women’s lives.

FWW

FAQ: But doesn’t evidence show that women are just as likely to batter their partners as men?

A: No. This is an often repeated claim based on either faulty understanding or outright misrepresentation of a few studies made using the CONFLICT TACTICS SCALE (CTS) or similar self-report surveys. One of the authors of the original study, Richard Gelles, categorically rejects this interpretation of his research, and has done ever since these factoids […]

introductory

Reader request: Feminism 101 book recommendations for teens?

Reader request: Feminism 101 book recommendations for teens?

It’d be great to find a book written with intersectionality in mind which contains info on slut-shaming, body positivity, abortion rights, internalised misogyny, etc., which is easy to understand and digest for young girls who aren’t educated about things like privilege and oppression and class, etc.

man-hating

Open Thread: Feminism, Sexual Orientation and Social Hostility

This thread is a response to a comment from Astrodyke in the Suggestions thread: I don’t see tags for “lesbian” or “sexual orientation”. It’d be nice to have some FAQs about lesbianism and how it relates to feminism. There are the straw questions, “Don’t all feminists hate men?” or “Aren’t all feminists lesbians?” But there […]

no-sense-of-humour

Feminism Friday: Humour as a tool for shaming and silencing

Last week’s Feminism Friday post was on why Rape Jokes Just Aren’t Funny, based on a series from Melissa McEwan of Shakesville, and at the crosspost on Hoyden About Town Bernice made a telling comment. Humour – the final frontier of colonialisation. You really now you’ve co-opted someone into the frame of dominance from which […]

op-ed

Cyberbullies 101: Part 2 – The Art & Science of Moderation – Free Speech vs Free Audience

Cyberbullies 101: Part 2 – The Art & Science of Moderation – Free Speech vs Free Audience

I had a long post in the works about comment moderation, but RealLife™ intervened and I hadn’t been able to complete it.

Luckily Bora Zivkovic at Blog Around The Clock has a long and detailed post full of relevant links which includes pretty much every point I wanted to make. I’m providing a summary of his headings with some meaty quotes below, but please make sure to click through and read his post in full in order to see all the points he makes and the many link citations he provides.

spot the strawfeminist

Feminism Friday: that “why are Western feminists such cowards about atrocities in other countries?” lie

Shorter Pamela Bone: feminists are such cowardly hypocrites for being against FGM and rape in war whenever any culture does it instead of just specially castigating Islamic societies where such brutalities occur. I posted over at Hoyden About Town a few days ago with more background to Bone’s article about how she bravely spoiled a […]