Featured Articles

A Thursday Interruption: Billy Collins! NATURAL WOMAN! Some classical, IDK.

OMG I love how into the poem he gets!! <3 Oh, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. <3  Covers can be such fun. HERE ARE TWO MORE COVERS OMG. A classical cover of “Poker Face” And one of “Rude Boy!”

Midweek Media: an anti-rape campaign that focuses on men

BitterBuffalo has found an anti-rape campaign that focuses on what men can do to prevent rape. This should be the norm, but instead most campaigns focus on what women can do to avoid rape, which is sick not only because it puts the responsibility on the targets of crime rather than the criminals, but also because when criminals are denied one target, they just move onto another. So there is worse than no point in advising the targets of crime ... READ MORE

The choice to wear the niqab or hijab

Equality is largely about everyone having equal choices and options. In the US in the 70s and 80s, some (educated, career-prepped, privileged) feminists spoke out against “housewives” and their choice to make a career of managing the household and/or raising kids responsibly. This was wrong. It was fair to point out that some women felt they had no choice but to be “housewives.” It was fair to point out social and economic factors that discouraged women from any other occupation. ... READ MORE

FYI: better spam control features?

Dear readers, we’ve been aware for some time that Akismet, the default WordPress anti-spam solution, is catching quite a few legitimate comments in its spam filters. We always catch and post those before they get automatically deleted, but it’s no fun having a comment sit in the mod queue until we get to it, when there’s a lively discussion going and you’re trying to make a contribution to it. We’re currently testing a succession of plugins to see which ones will ... READ MORE

Why did the mean admin not post my comment?

Here’s a newsflash: if you are overflowing with male privilege and don’t realize it, you’ll have some trouble getting your comments through moderation. Why? Because your rights are not more important than the rights of all our other readers, and I won’t tolerate your offending them with your bullshit just because you have been assured all your life that your bullshit doesn’t smell. It does. You have been lied to. Let’s look at an example. In a recent post about The ... READ MORE

McLeod’s Daughter’s

Australian drama series McLeod’s Daughters (2001-8) was never going to win awards for its sharp, witty writing (nothing credible at least – the Logies don’t count). In the dozen or so episodes that I watched, it was frequently highly predictable with extremely basic camera tricks. But at the same time, it’s one of the strongest female casts I’ve encountered, with the male characters largely peripheral, orbiting around the women. Imagine Desperate Housewives, only with women you can respect. It starts off ... READ MORE