things i've been reading lately...

... which i'd like to share. most of them were posted a little while back, but nonetheless, if you haven't come across them yet, i'd recommend you have a read.

i'll start with this excellent post on rape culture 101 up at shakesville. it should be required reading for absolutely everyone.

then there's this from queen of thorns on the whole "it's not sex, it's rape" meme, with a grammatical take on the issue which is quite enlightening.

on the issue of ACC support for victims of sexual abuse, ludditejourno shows us that the number of claims has not been increasing, but the rejection of claims is.

the standard also has an excellent series of posts on ACC, amonst other things, proving that ACC is not in crisis.

i put up a post a while back about david letterman sleeping with female employees, and the sexual harassment issues it raises. i recall that rosemary mcleod wrote about this some time back, writing off feminist concerns as foolish because people at work have sex with each other all the time (really? i must have been working at the wrong places. or maybe not). way to miss the point rosemary. this post over at shakesville might help you understand the point a little better. here's an excerpt:

...a boss who makes a habit of sleeping with subordinates creates a workplace environment that has the potential to communicate to all female staffers that sleeping with the boss is an expectation of the job. … It's an issue of the workplace culture being created...

And the women who had affairs with Letterman aren't the only consideration. Did any women feel compelled to leave their jobs because they didn't feel safe or comfortable in a workplace environment in which the boss made a habit of sleeping with female subordinates?

And did Letterman's habit tacitly condone the same behavior among senior male staff? In which case it's not just one boss who makes a habit of sleeping with female subordinates, but multiple male bosses who have the same habit. And, if that's the case, were all of them responsible partners who never overtly coerced anyone?

It's just not as simple as Letterman's individual relationships with individual women -- and pointing out how this stuff reverberates through an office environment doesn't require infantilizing the women who were sexually involved with Letterman. They could still have agency, and other women still could have felt coerced by the workplace culture.

there has been further disclosure by a former employee about the hostile atmosphere created by mr letterman's behaviour, also posted at hoydens, which proves the point even further.

this very long post at hoydens about a recent law and order episode entitled "dignity" provides really useful and in-depth discussion of issues around disability and abortion.

and in case you missed it, here's sue bradford's valedictory speech (no video link - if anyone has one, feel free to add into comments). and a rather nice extended interview with her on radio nz (nine to noon, 10.06am). definitely a huge loss to parliament.