a link to this cartoon about how every discussion about sexism ever goes.

It's not funny 'cuz it's true.

GC, your kid is so cute it made me forget all about People and their Ignorance for ten whole minutes. Now that's something!

Gar, fantastic news!

beth, lots of ~ma.

Plus the whole issue of religious based harassment/assault, to try an enforce a modesty code that is neither legally required nor part of the culture of a majority of Israeli's - in addition to "normal" harassment.

Plus the conflict. I just got a story. Allow me to describe: that story had three paragraphs. Three lines, not even sentences, from the second paragraph described the case. The other sentences used to describe the atmosphere in the specific neighborhood (which I know, for I lived there for two years - and yes, it is a problem there), and followed by an apologetic note that "I know anyone can harass, but it this case..." and so on. She later sent another email, saying that she just read our racism policy, and that she wants us either to publish the story as is or not at all, and "it would be sad if even you would try to silence me just because the story doesn't hold some sort of an imaginary PC standard".

Ugh. Remind me again why I started Hollaback in a country with at least four different social splits (male-female, religious-secular, Arab-Israeli, Sfaradi ("Eastern")-Ashkenazi ("Western")), with a war every now and then?

Seska, I know about Harassmap. Their job is fantastic!

omnis, of course you're a catch! Even the Germans can tell!

And thank you all, so much, from the bottom of my heart for the cheer up and support pixels. It feels good to know there's at least one place I can escape from ignorance to.

IOpossiblyTMIN: I really wish I had a boyfriend, for getting physical support as well. Plus, you have no idea how much tension I have to take care of. Imaginary boyfriend would be very grateful, let me tell you that. Mostly because I might be somewhat attracted (only physically. Intellectually, we don't really match) to someone I Really Shouldn't be Attracted to for a Huge Number of Reasons, and I have to see the guy. A lot. And I like him very much, but Lord, I do not want to like him That Way.

Boo on her, meara.

That cartoon is probably a direct response to the kerfuffle that resulted from a tweet by Kate Beaton (from Hark! A Vagrant!): [link]

That cartoon is indeed a direct response to said kerfuffle. Well done.

I was reading ... somewhere ... a post by a young woman of color who's teaching at a college. She was having problems with a (white, male) student; for an assignment early in the year he'd turned in something which was about his sexual experiences (sorry - my memory's a bit vague on the details). She gave him a bad grade, largely because it wasn't what she'd assigned. He protested the grade and even after having the grade left as originally set, protested throughout the year. He'd sit in her class with his arms folded, glaring at her. He turned up in her class the following year, with the same attitude. She was concerned for her safety.

The response was as you might expect - women, people of color, gays, etc., gave advice on how to protect herself - making sure he'd never get her alone, making campus security and the administration aware that there was a problem. Others responded that it was a stupid assignment and he'd responded in protest to its stupidity; that she was stereotyping him and she was the problem.

Don't know if this problem will ever go away; probably not in my lifetime, but maybe someday.

I LOVED that panel with the guy erecting a giant erection.

It's depressing cause it's true.

Because really, I had no idea I'm a radical, insane, hairy, lesbo feminist if I'm just saying that women and LGTBQ should feel safe walking the streets and that we should stop ignoring it - but apparently I am.

It might be difficult to explain, later, why I like Greg Dulli's music so much. I was listening to Omerta earlier and thought how well most of it describes my feeling towards social change via feminism at the moment. While I'm all Brathes' girl with The Death of the Author, I sometimes recognize an extreme argument when I see one (for the record, I do not find Dulli's lyrics sexist. Yes, even Be Sweet).

Oh hey, one of you guys is going to be receiving a package from California in the next few days. It's just something my sister was going to give to the goodwill that I thought belonged with you.

If it's any consolation, things have gotten better. When I graduated from high school it was standard to have classified ads headed "Help Wanted - Men" and "Help Wanted - Women". When I graduated from college, my (women's) college didn't get a lot of companies looking to recruit, while our brother school did. The boys graduating also got credit card offers; after almost a year of being out on my own, I had to have my father co-sign in order to get a credit card. When I was interviewing for jobs that first summer (and for several years afterwards), it was still legal to ask about my plans for marriage and children. And one of the first questions asked was always "how fast do you type?" There were quotas - and very stingy ones - for women in any graduate school, especially law and medical school. Sexual harassment was the norm, with very few people seeing anything wrong with it.

So ... progress.

I know I baby picspammed yesterday, but holy crap, these came out too cute not to share!

No such thing as picspam when it's a cutie of that magnitude. Goodness, GC, what an bundle of adorableness.