Men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Akin blames “liberal elite” 
Aug 22nd, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He means the Republicans who are telling him to drop his Senate campaign.… Read the rest
A living nightmare
Aug 22nd, 2012 11:01 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat a horror.
Tony Nicklinson last week lost his court case to be allowed to have help in ending his life. He had a stroke in 2005 left him paralysed from the neck down.
So he stopped eating, and died. That’s a nasty way to die. If the court had ruled in his favor, he would have been able to relax, knowing he could have a less nasty way to die at a time of his choosing.
He explained this for the BBC in June.
… Read the restI have locked-in syndrome and it makes my life a living nightmare.
I cannot speak and I am also paralysed below the neck, which means I need someone to do everything for me.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Tony Nicklinson dead of starvation
Aug 22nd, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He lost his High Court case to allow doctors to end his life last week, so he refused food. A horrible way to die.… Read the rest
Mercy all around
Aug 21st, 2012 5:14 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s not just the Catholic church that is more concerned to protect its own sweet self than it is to prevent child sexual abuse or help the victims of child sexual abuse.
An evangelist Christian preacher from East Sussex urged a victim of sexual abuse not to report the man responsible to the police, the BBC has learned.
Ian Jackson told Lina Barnes he would not support her if she reported that Gospel Hall Brethren preacher Allan Cundick assaulted her at the age of 12.
Mr Jackson, from Eastbourne, said he was only concerned for her progress.
But Ms Barnes, 33, who sought advice from him last year, said he wanted to protect the Church.
“Only concerned for her progress” … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Evangelical preacher told woman not to report abuse
Aug 21st, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“In his email, he said to me it was important that Christians keep the testimony of the Church and therefore protect the institution.”… Read the rest
Jacques Rousseau on atheism+
Aug 21st, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We’d agree about being decent people, but not necessarily agree on how to do that.… Read the rest
Michael Nugent offers 5 ways you can help Alex Aan
Aug 21st, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Write to him, talk to politicians, start or support a campaign initiative, keep campaigning.… Read the rest
Pakistani girl accused of blasphemy could get death penalty
Aug 21st, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Neighborhood bullies told all the Christians to get out.… Read the rest
German rabbi charged for performing circumcisions
Aug 21st, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi.… Read the rest
The phenomenology of harassment
Aug 21st, 2012 12:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonStephanie has a post about whose is the liberty in “libertarian” on sexual issues, which follows up on a comment she made here on the temperature post.
… Read the restThe proof comes when women start going after what they want.
He wants the freedom to hit on me at any time and any place? Fine. Liberty in action. Maybe a little crass, but….
I want the freedom to call him a disgustingly selfish piece of shit? I want the freedom to determine whether I want to deal with him based on whom he treats well and whom he doesn’t? I want the freedom to use tools under my personal control to keep him from interfering in my projects? I want
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
As communal tensions continued to rise
Aug 21st, 2012 11:48 am | By Ophelia BensonCan’t we all get along? No. Not in Islamabad, for instance, after that 11-year-old was accused by her neighbours of burning a few pages of a Koran.
As communal tensions continued to rise, about 900 Christians living on the outskirts of Islamabad have been ordered to leave a neighbourhood where they have lived for almost two decades.
…
One of the senior members of the dominant Muslim community told the Christians to remove all their belongings from their houses by 1 September.
What an oddly respectful way of wording that – it makes him sound like a prime minister instead of a thug. If some male neighbor told me to get out of the neighborhood, I wouldn’t be thinking … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Prior to each insertion
Aug 20th, 2012 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonGeorge Galloway is certainly being disgusting on the subject of the rape allegations against Assange.
In a thirty minute podcast, the controversial anti-war MP said it was “an extraordinary coincidence that public enemy number one, Julian Assange, somehow gets inveigled with two women with incredibly complex political backgrounds who just, at the right time, come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him”.
Bitchez be lyin.
… Read the rest“But even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape.
“At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it. And somebody has to say this.”
The
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Rape, legitimate and illegitimate
Aug 20th, 2012 5:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonRound 873 of “there’s rape and then there’s just getting a little frisky.”
… Read the restYesterday, US Representative Todd Akin reinvented female biology by telling us that we can’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape”. But there is a rich history of rape being redefined to suit the occasion; whether it is former Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s concession that victims of “honest rape” can get an abortion or the Roman Polanski rape of a 13 year-old which wasn’t “rape-rape”.
All of these manoeuvres have an ulterior motive – either to outlaw abortion in all circumstances or to exonerate an accused celebrity. What they can all draw on and feed is the belief that there is “bad
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Soraya Chemaly on Todd Akin
Aug 20th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Akin’s statement and philosophy are consistent with conservative’s deep mistrust of women.… Read the rest
What we say when the temperature goes up
Aug 20th, 2012 1:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonA little more about this one crux in Jean’s argument about two types of skeptics-about-feminism (or particular feminist claims), because I think it is one place a lot of wheels came off, so better understanding might help…at least with understanding.
To rehearse the claim again:
… Read the restThe respectable skeptic may be on board with all substantive feminist goals, but they lean very liberal on sexual issues and libertarian-ish on rules and codes. They may also have distinctive positions on purely empirical matters, like how often harassing incidents occur, and what the impact is of discussing them at blogs. Their views on what will advance the status of women may also be distinctive. It strikes me as inflammatory and distorted to accuse
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Republican party tries to back away from Akin
Aug 20th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No money for the Senate campaign, he is told.… Read the rest
Austria Freedom Party condemned for Nazi-like cartoon
Aug 20th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks? Yes, that’s Nazi-like.… Read the rest
If women have choices
Aug 20th, 2012 11:33 am | By Ophelia BensonWhat do you do when women attain not only equality but, in some areas, numerical superiority?
Well if those areas are things like doing most of the domestic work, or low pay, or getting hassled in the street, you do nothing. But when those areas are desirable things like university education?
You slam the door on them, so that they won’t have any numerical superiority any more. You make sure there won’t be more women than men graduating from universities by not letting so god damn many women in in the first place.
In Iran,
… Read the rest36 universities have announced that 77 BA and BSc courses in the coming academic year will be “single gender” and effectively exclusive to men.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Iran bans women from 77 BA and BSc courses
Aug 20th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mullahs are concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.… Read the rest
