This Week in Misogyny: Happy Birthday, Roe v Wade!

Roe v. Wade turned 41 years old yesterday. Happy birthday, choice! Here’s hoping for many more. We’ve got some good news in the abortion fight, mixed news in advertising, and a bonus section on LGBTQ issues. (As usual, trigger warnings for pretty much everything apply.)

Catharine Samba-Panza has been selected as the interim president of the Central African Republic; she’s the first woman to lead the country. General consensus is that men have driven the country into chaos and civil war and that they needed a woman to clean up their mess. Best of luck to her!

Good news! The North Carolina law that required doctors to force women seeking abortions to view an ultrasound and listen to a description of the fetus has been permanently blocked by a federal court ruling.

Colorado Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck compared unwanted pregnancies to his bout with cancer in a weirdly twisted metaphor about how, while he understood the desire to have control of what’s going on in your body, women shouldn’t have that right.

Kentucky State Rep. Joe Fischer has attached a 20-week abortion ban provision to a domestic violence bill that would expand protection to couples who are dating, not married. Fortunately his amendment will likely be removed before the full bill is voted on.

More attacks against Wendy Davis after a Dallas Morning News article uncovered some slight discrepancies in her life history (like saying she was divorced at 19; technically she was separated at 19 and the paperwork wasn’t finalized until she was 21, but she was still on her own with a young child for those two years). The Dallas Observer collected some of the vile tweets and memes that have come out since the article’s publication. Think Progress lays out how the truth has been twisted to make her seem like a horrible person, and one of my friends discusses how the allegations are rooted in misogyny.

Time Magazine’s new Hillary Clinton cover is just ridiculous. Oh, the poor menz, getting trampled by her sensible heels! Will no one stop her?!

Elizabeth Hasselbeck thinks that feminism is a danger to national security because it’s turning manly men into wusses. I can’t.

Advertising!

• The new spring ad campaign for aerie has sworn off using photo retouching, showing their models’ real bodies instead. Of course, they still chose thin girls who look amazing even without airbrushing.
• Dove has released another short film, titled Selfie, about normal girls and their moms embracing their beauty. It’s a bit cheesy and it’s still promoting their brand of beauty products, but it was nice to see the participants embrace taking selfies as a way to accept their looks.

• I kinda love this horny old lady Shredded Wheat commercial. Get it, girl!

Cate Blanchett called out the “Glam Cam” on the red carpet for the SAG Awards, asking if they also pan up and down the bodies of men attending the awards show.

Gabourey Sidibe, meanwhile, had a pretty awesome smackdown for the fat-shaming assholes who were being shitty to her on Twitter after the Golden Globes.

People Magazine had some Vegas bartenders create a “Blurred Lines” cocktail to tie in with this weekend’s Grammy Awards.

Jezebel paid $10,000 for unretouched pictures of Lena Dunham’s spread in Vogue, and pretty much the entire ladyblogosphere simultaneously headdesked. (Waves to our new readers!)

Last week a liposuction cartoon game for little girls was briefly available on iTunes and Google Play. Laura Bates discusses why this is disgusting but not particularly surprising given how female bodies are treated in the world.

A study of Google search data found that parents are more likely to search for info about their son being gifted (even though girls on average hit intellectual milestones earlier) and their daughter being fat (even though childhood obesity rates are higher among boys). Other inquiries were similarly biased; check out the link for more.

Recommended Reading

• I love the #readwomen2014 challenge! I might actually be convinced to use Twitter to participate. I’m happy to see that some big name reviewers are taking the challenge as well.
• Lexi Alexander, who was nominated for an Oscar back in 2003 for her live-action short film Johnny Flynton, wrote an amazing editorial about how there’s no lack in women directors in Hollywood, only a lack of studios willing to hire them and give their films the same support they give to men’s films.
• Oh for fuck’s sake. Apparently kicking ass at the Australian Open means being asked about your boobs and which celebrity you’d like to date instead of, you know, tennis.
• This BuzzFeed Community list of things that are more likely to happen to men than being falsely accused of rape.
• Ha! The Onion’s take on Nice Guys™ who don’t understand when a woman says to leave her alone.
• Why women say they like funny guys but comedians can still have trouble getting laid.
• Lauren Rankin at RH Reality Check on how new mayor Bill de Blasio can make NYC a better place for women and mothers.
• The heartbreaking story of a Texas woman who learned at her 20-week sonogram that her baby was dying and opted for a late-term abortion while the state was debating the bill that could have prevented her from getting one. Nicole Stewart went on to tell her story at a live storytelling event at which she’d planned to discuss her pregnancy. (NSFW, mostly because you’ll be sobbing by the end.)

LGBTQ News and Readings

• STFU, Louie Gohmert. Federal judges who are overturning gay marriage bans are doing just fine consulting the Constitution; they don’t need “plumbing lessons.”
• A British politician is blaming the country’s recent flooding on legalizing gay marriage. (Hats off to The Daily Mash for their subsequent satirical article about gay married couples heading to drought-stricken countries to bring them rain.)
• Arizona state senator Steve Yarbrough is trying to make it legal for companies to discriminate against people for religious reasons. While the bill is intended to let people refuse services to gays, it could easily be applied to other marginalized groups.
• Transgender woman Pamela Raintree stood up to a Shreveport city council member who was trying to repeal the city’s ban on LGBTQ discrimination and dared him to stone her to death. He quickly withdrew the measure. Brava!
• Cyd Zeigler of Out Sports discusses the article posted at Grantland that purportedly was discussing a fancy new golf club but actually veered into a prurient outing of its inventor as transgender. She’d asked the author not to discuss her former identity and committed suicide while he was investigating her background, but they ran the piece anyway, wrong pronouns and all.
• Photographer Clare Carter has been documenting “corrective rape” in South Africa.