- No, Sexual Violence Is Not 'Cultural' Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. secretary general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, recently described such thinking as the “lingering assumption...violence has festered in Congo’s war-ravaged east. This does not make rape cultural. It makes it easy to commit. There is a difference. read at dreamwidth reply at dreamwidth : Comment(s

- Via The F Word : Save Refugee and Migrant Justice Campaign Refugee and Migrant Justice is committed to securing justice for asylum seekers and other migrants in the UK. We are the largest specialist...miscarriages of justice – which, sadly, are already common on asylum. More information at the RMJ website On Twitter On (ugh) Facebook read at dreamwidth reply at dreamwidth : Comment(s

I came up with this theory after reading Cherie Priest's Not Flesh Nor Feathers , a mystery set in the South about a flood rising and the evils it uncovers. I've seen/read several examples of stories...to coffeeandink for the post title and deepad and kate_nepveu and Mely for listening to me spout off on this yesterday) Comment | Read Comments ( ) | Link

Speaking about the storyline, Miss Cattrall, 53, insisted: 'To transport these emancipated new-millennium women to a world that has not changed, in a lot of ways, since Biblical times was a fascinating... a world that has not changed, in a lot of ways, since Biblical times A WORLD THAT HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE BIBLICAL TIMES. That is all. read at dreamwidth reply at dreamwidth : Comment(s

So, Maker Faire... much more fun the day before it officially opens, when a) there is free food, b) you don't have to tend to your exhibit, and c) fewer people! A few short observations: Maker Faire...to the avoidance of mansplaining, the ability to crawl beneath things to slap on more duct tape, and in general trying not to call attention to myself. Comment | Read Comments ( ) | Link

...storytelling. A black hero gets disembodied and has to share the body of his white predecessor, a black villain from back when it was acceptable for every non-white character have a reference to their ethnicity in their title gets brought back in a book where two white heroes take down a group of men who not only bring to mind the worst stereotypes and phobias about black men in the collective unconscious...

- Everyone should read this post by ephemere : If a writer is afraid of writing about us due to all the weight this task carries, and if this fear thus renders that writer unable to write,...topic? Anything you've heard me say "I should write that entry about $foo I've been meaning to write" and have been patiently waiting for? read at dreamwidth reply at dreamwidth : Comment(s

...to redeem in these terms, when there are perfectly good terms available – why call someone an Oriental when they are Asian? Or one can be more specific and go right down to country of origin, or ethnicity. Why use a term so fraught with a history of Other-ing, or rendering real peoples invisible and not-quite-human? To insist on using the term is to maintain the status quo that continues to marginalize...

Why yes. Yes, I should indeed be packing. However, I wanted to post something for the fifth Asian Women Carnival and so here we are. This isn’t some last minute flight of fancy, either; as usual I... We are apparently magically turned into ethnically Dutch white people or something. And… yeah, no. … There will be a time when I will submit a thinky post that will have some coherence. I promise

These are books 3 and 4 of Hoyt's Legend of the Four Soldiers quartet, which is about four survivors of a British regiment ambushed by Indians in the not-yet-United-States. (I will get to this rant in... classist, racist, extremely Western-centric, and sexist despite being written by women, for women, and I feel calling these issues out is by no means bashing. Comment | Read Comments ( ) | Link