52nd Carnival of Feminists

Welcome to the 52nd Carnival of Feminists.

Violence Against Women

• Stef at Toxicity talks about Sophie Elliot's murder and why women feel pressure to stay in 'toxic' relationships.
• Feminist Fire points out the obvious to the Home Office, who once again have a new campaign up that blames women for getting raped:Note to the Home Office: Rape is caused by rapists, not alcohol, and not women.

Media

• Jospeh Orosco critiques Roger Scruton's ideas that us crazy ol' feminists just can't take a joke. This is a such an interesting and conflicting issue. Harking back to random acts of feminism, what do you do when someone says a sexist joke? Which battles do we pick?
• This leads us nicely on to Why Do The Supposedly Liberal Doods Link Sex And Derogation?

• Carol McKay asks why there isn't more outrage from the feminist community about the arrest of a Chinese woman after she publicly outed her husband in terms of his extra-marital affair. She's been detained by police, yet there is hardly any media coverage or grassroots activity to help her.
• Shuffl has a post up about the irony (and stupidity) of using sexual images of women to sell information about why women's sexuality equals evil (in a nutshell): A Witch Worth Blowing Your Whistle Over?
• BrownFemiPower voices her dismay at once again mainstream American feminists not looking in their own backyard. And KitKat's Critique follows up with Budgeting Time As A Feminist (part 2).
  

Body Image

• Ann Bartow from FLP continues the discussion about toe removals for shoe fitting and how it's not an urban myth anymore.
  
• High School, Hair Color and Choices posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, reminds us that fighting for your rights should start early and gives us a glimpse at how hair color on a young girl can be interpreted as subversive behaviour.

Sexuality

• Menstrual Poetry writes about the recent study on bisexuality in women and I think we all agree with her in asking why the hell they aren't also doing a men's study?
• We know that Facebook is pretty evil, and now Digg is joining them in demonstrating how social networking and media sites are sexist and discriminatory. Where's the rage?? Read Tali's post to find out more.
• Greta Christina presents All I Really Need To Know I Learned From Porn -- Or Not posted, looking at why porn is not where kids should be getting their sex education. And while that may sound obvious to alot of us, but considering the state of sex education, it's no wonder teenagers are turning to pornography. And remember, if you're a parent - this does fall into your remit of parental responsibility - don't blame it on the schools.
• Sage presents In Praise of Degradation at Persephone's Box, voicing her opinion on the attraction to "safe-scare" violence. Her starting point is with bell hook and Riane Eisler's writing.
  

Politics

• First start with a bit of Hillary poetry from Mad Kane.
  
  
• Followed by Antidrown, who points out that as much as everyone wants to pretend that woman have it pretty good, thus demonstrated by how far Hillary has come, women are still pretty much invisible so maybe we should stop putting the horse before the cart.
• A Business Professor's Weblog looks at the Iron My Shirt scandal,
• While Grrl Scientist speculates on the "Hillary cried!!" events.
• AfroGeek Mom writes about being expected to choose between race or gender.

Arts (and Craft)

• Lea Kottner looks at the arts and crafts revival and how it's not really original to dismiss crafts as a waste of women's time, considering that how anything that has traditionally been done by women is labelled: "a waste of time".
  
  
• Check out The Pinup Blog to learn why pinup art isn't actually only 'boy's art' and a bit of history about women pinup artists.
  

Choices

• Lauredhel asks Rudd to STEP UP on women's rights and abortion.
• Cara from The Curvature has an excellent post up about anti-choice activists calling abortion "The Darfur of America''.
• Holly Ord presents Medical Accuracy is So Last Year, as well as Colorado and Missouri Wage War on Women’s Rights posted at Woman Tribune.
  
• Yesterday was Blog for Choice Day 2008 and there are a number of great posts up - here are just a handful of my favourites: Womenstake, Light Rail Coyote, and Two Women Blogging. You can find the full list of bloggers who registered here.
  
• Natalie Bennett discusses the Safety First Coalition lobby she attended on sex worker's rights and decriminalisation.
  

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That's it! Thank you to everyone who submitted and I hope every one enjoys the carnival. The next carnival host hasn't been announced yet so please be sure to check the Carnival of Feminists site to find out where to send your submissions for next month.