The nice news

Young women commercial pilots:

Meet 'easyJet's youngest female airline captain' - 26-year-old Kate McWilliams

But Kate isn't the youngest ever female captain.

Ronan Milne got in touch with Newsbeat to say his colleague Dawn Hunter was made a captain aged 24 at Loganair.

Sarah Hendry is also 24 and a captain with the same company.

"Nice" isn't exactly right for this but I just don't feel like making a "Not totally horrible world-ending suicidal-making news" thread...

Netherlands government to counter Trump abortion funding ban

Reminds me of this one time when I was helping some groups with drafting documents, translating etc. and witnessed Finns stepping in to replace American funding that was withdrawn from a programme against domestic violence at the last moment because the group in question refused the appalling conditions American tried to impose--including such weirdly humiliating shit as people at the organisation legally binding themselves never to utter any criticism of the US--I kid you not--and the sum in question was about 4K (four thousand) USD.

What was especially galling to the guy in charge was that the Americans approached them, not vice versa--he said nobody liked to go to the Americans precisely because they were notorious for treating "aid" as a purely political tool--and the deadlines for other countries almost made them miss out on funding for that year.

I wasn't sure which thread to drop this in, but I found this story pretty inspiring: https://backchannel.com/one-womans-brilliant-fuck-you-to-wikipedia-trolls-aab410...

Truly inspiring! Fuck bully boys and their "alternative reality" fantasies. Don't the morons even realise anyone can play that game? They should ask me what could happen to them in mine!

My respect to anyone who does this, it's a true sacrifice of time and effort (to say nothing of the nerves). Some time ago when the dearth of female editors on Wikipedia was (again) in the news I looked into joining, but on examining about a dozen entries I was shocked by how many obviously malicious edits there were. The worst example was a page on a widely consulted topic (US demographics? not exactly sure at this remove) skillfully and subtly deploying atomic-grade racism. Just the sort of thing to eat up years of Internet-life. I was astonished that a page of such importance survived in that form even for several days (hadn't looked at it since), and that was decisive.

I could overlook the pathetic "rape yo ass" shit-for-brains, but constantly re-doing work without guarantee that some bastard won't eventually tear it down again is simply too much.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38947134

Yale University is renaming a college that honours a former politician who was an advocate of slavery to recognise a female computer scientist instead. Calhoun College will be renamed to honour Grace Murray Hopper, who helped transform the way people use technology. Hopper earned Yale degrees in the 1930s and became a US Navy rear admiral...

Pretty appalling to think it took Yale this long. And only after years of black protests.

This stained glass window lived in Calhoun college all these years:



The man who broke it was fired, then rehired after the uproar, and it seems, but am not sure, that windows with similar themes will be removed.

But then let's remember there's a courthouse in Florida with a fresco celebrating the KKK and who knows what else all over the US.

How African feminism changed the world (African Arguments)

So the USA women's hockey team is boycotting the World's Championships this year in protest over unfair wages and treatment. Before boycotting the Captain called every single player (over 100 women) in the player pool to talk with them about the boycott and get their opinions/get them on board. World's is being hosted in the USA later this year so the boycott has gotten a lot of attention. So far USA Hockey has expressed disappointment... and as of today has no team. The rumors today are that USA Hockey is reaching out to U-16 high school players (which, hockey is a violent sport but they are more willing to put girls against women then actually support the women's team #sad). Anyway, I've been following along mostly on twitter with the hastag BeBoldforChange, but here's my favorite article on the situation. As someone who cringed at the nation wide No Women Boycott watching every single USA women's player stand together has been pretty awe inspiring.

http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/article/18908360/time-usa-hockey-wake-support-w...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39582389

This is about the artist of the Wall Street bull demanding that The Fearless Girl be removed. I love the quote by Mayor de Blasio: "Men who don't like women taking up space are exactly why we need the Fearless Girl."

Good on De Blasio. Di Modica needs to get a sense of humour, or something. It's a little girl, for Pete's sake, what's she gonna do to his big bad bull? How embarrassing to kvetch like that in public. Being a capitalist shill, of course he'd feel burnt. But geez, think about how you sound, big boy.

Also shows how the spirit of the girl statue IS much broader than the official "rah rah for corporate women". ;)

I suppose they could allow him to remove his statue to private ground.

Just... How petty do you have to be to ask for this, even? It's a statue. It's symbolic. He could have gotten on the right side of history by saying how happy he was to share space with such a symbol because of what it has meant to so many. Ugh.

Well, the bull is totally a dick symbol, and the little girl is totally radiating "hmph! not so impressive!"

There was also that incident when some POS humped the girl--video or pics were taken.

Picture of Wall Street bro appearing to hump ‘Fearless Girl’ statue goes viral

Clearly, it hits exactly where something ought to hit!

True. I get that the bull is a dick symbol. And the girl's statue is a symbolic confrontation of that. I just think you'd have to be a pretty insecure person to want the the girl statue removed because of that. The bull statue has been there for a gazillion years. No one said it should be removed because it's a dick symbol. I mean, people complained or joked about it but I don't think anyone formally asked for its removal.

And, yeah, that bro humping the girl statue was pathetic. I saw it making the rounds on FB and decided it wasn't even worth reacting to. Guy clearly has major problems.

>14 jennybhatt:

No one said it should be removed because it's a dick symbol.

Of course not, THAT is the point!

Poor bears. I blame that whole tradition of "teddy bears" for kiddies for ruining their machismo.

First Woman to Officially Run Boston Marathon Makes Triumphant Return

In 1967, 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer made history when she defiantly became the first woman to officially run in the Boston Marathon — even as race officials tried to physically stop her.

Fifty years later, she finished the race again, donning the same number: 261.

In 1967:



And the stuff they yelled at her...

But she did it.

Where do you go when you're too skanky even for Fox?

Bill O'Reilly out at Fox News after sexual harassment claims and ad boycott

>17 LolaWalser: in 2008, O’Reilly would stop by her desk and grunt like a “wild boar”. The woman, who is African American, said O’Reilly called her “hot chocolate”

ew.

>18 southernbooklady:

grunt like a “wild boar”

So... zoo, maybe? :)

So this happened:

http://nypost.com/2017/05/29/pissed-off-artist-adds-statue-of-urinating-dog-next...

Asshole got his name in the news by pissing on women. Original. Then he goes and makes it even more pathetic by "explaining" why the dog is so bad. No, dude, now we KNOW. You can't sculpt for shit.

Unprecedented results:

Election 2017: Record number of female MPs

There are now 207 women in the Commons, up from 197.

Overall 32% of MPs are women but there are significant variations between parties. For Labour

the figure is 45%, and 21% for the Conservatives. (...)

"But the real story is that progress has stalled. Getting more women in cannot be subject to party political fortunes. As we approach the centenary of women first getting to vote in general elections, we cannot wait for another nine elections to achieve equality. (...)"

Nice news, but damn it all, 100+ years to just about reach one-third representation. Let's hope it will take less than five decades to reach one-half.

>16 LolaWalser:

A Swiss documentary that came out last year has lots of interesting footage about Switzer and her peers, and other interesting running stuff. Link to trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWO5nFjABN8

Interesting, thanks. I'll look for it but it'll be hard to watch because it makes me want to go out and RUN. :)

Women would still get arrested if they went running topless! Men are so lucky.

It reminded me of a couple funny things when I was young, don't know if that still happens to girls... an older male friend of the family telling me (in all seriousness) I shouldn't swim so much because my shoulders would get too broad, and the gym teacher (male, 40-ish), on hearing I had started fencing (extracurricular activity and it substituted for gym) also seriously cautioning me I have to watch not to get too muscular, especially in the thighs. Neither gave details on what would be the problem with "too broad" shoulders or "too muscular" thighs, so much was it taken for granted that a woman's (girl's) appearance is her major concern.

The documentary is a bit all over the place in trying to capture the different strands of European and American running pioneers, and the rise of women runners in this story--it's a rich subject, with lots of angles. One of the creepier ones is the pseudo-science of critics of women athletes.

What struck me was how very recent all this stuff was, within my lifetime.

The docu is definitely worth checking out.

>22 LolaWalser:

And the French elections: a record 233 of the 577 MPs are women.

But still well short of 50%.

French election: Macron team complete rout with Assembly win (BBC)

You may have missed this. Judge rules airline can't reseat women at the request of men who don't want to sit next to them. I think we discussed this when it occurred.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/534003870/israeli-judge-says-a...

Yeah, seen that a few days ago, really happy for that lady. There ought to be universal rules about that kind of bullshit, get religion out of public life once for good.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40398462

Female cricketer in India reads before batting. Also has good answers to sexist questions by journalist.

I can't pick the best part of this, it's all so great--not only all the transgender inclusion firsts, but that she defeated the dinosaur 40 years older than her who called himself the state's "chief homophobe"--sometimes life does go for a Hollywood happy end.

Danica Roem On Historic Victory: Inclusion And Equality Won | The Last Word | MSNBC

That was my favorite news this morning. Finally, sanity prevails somewhere.

Yes! A ray of sunshine.

Ahahahahaha! Keep 'em coming!

Meet The NJ Woman Who Beat Republican That Mocked Women's March | The Last Word | MSNBC

>33 LolaWalser: I kept waiting for her to say, 'and my husband made dinner lots of nights.' But even without that, great story.

I hope it's just the beginning. I can't imagine what more the Republicans would have to do for a mass uprising against them.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-41962595/conductor-s-indian-homecomi...

This is a nice story anyway, but it also gets the spammer's tombstone off the message list.

Here's another one http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-41614476/100-women-how-a-musical-changed-one-gi...

Sharing the first one with a Danish-Indian friend...

In the good news department, some folks in Durham, NC are putting together a Black Feminist Book Mobile:

https://www.indyweek.com/news/archives/2017/11/24/black-feminist-bookmobile-comi...

More really nice news:

Cafe Con Libros

New feminist bookstore in Brooklyn

Is this nice news, or just about bl**dy time news?
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2018/1/formula-1-to-stop-using-grid...

I'd rather see women as drivers, mechanics, engineers etc.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/darts/42841620

Same thing has caused a big controversy in British darts.

Would be nice to see all the women-only professions that can be summed up as "decorative lampshades" disappear off the face of the earth.

“As violence against women in fiction reaches a ridiculous high, the Staunch book prize invites thriller writers to keep us on the edge of our seats without resorting to the same old cliches—particularly female characters who are sexually assaulted (however ‘necessary to the plot’), or done away with (however ingeniously).”

https://jezebel.com/prize-launched-for-thrillers-that-dont-involve-violence-1822...

>41 Helenliz: I heard a BBC radio interview about this, which explained that there are women drivers who are known to be good enough to compete, but they do not get given cars by the leading companies because "they aren't pretty enough".

Not much progress here, I would say.

>44 Marissa_Doyle:

I'd like to hear more about these times being the peak of violence against women (in fiction). I don't read enough contemporary literature to tell, or in the thriller genre (I suppose crime, noir and such could be included, being related?) I've been appalled by classic crime/noir but couldn't say if it's getting worse.

I'd hope things were improving if for no other reason than there's more public discussion of representation, female agency etc. (I've been shocked by the amount of violence against women in recent television a few years back, when I got stuck in bed watching TV for a month, but not sure there are necessarily parallels to fiction.)

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Ooops, maybe not in the NICE thread. :)

Eh, wherever people will talk...

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-43466365

A program in Kenya is teaching girls to be better at refusing sexual abuse. They are also teaching boys that 'real men' stop rape when they see it. Apparently it is working.

One NGO's way to stop staff paying for sex? Hire fewer single men (Devex)

The Senate is changing it rules to allow babies onto the floor so their parents don't have to miss votes. The amazing Sen. Tammy Duckworth was the impetus behind the change.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/politics/tammy-duckworth-senate-baby-rules/index....

Bill Cosby, convicted rapist. That's one.

Finally. I still can't wrap my head around how vile people can be behind the most benign mask.

Ireland referendum to repeal abortion ban amendment passes with 66% of the vote.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/26/europe/ireland-abortion-referendum-yes-vote-react...

Good news. I've seen even higher percentages for individual cities and counties. Dublin 77% or so.

Rwanda deploys female-dominated police contingent to S. Sudan (Sudan Tribune)

Rwanda has deployed a contingent of 160 police officers, majority women, for a one-year peacekeeping duty under the United Nations mission in South Sudan... Assistant Commissioner of Police, Teddy Ruyenzi heads the group and it’s the first time Rwanda has deployed a female-led contingent...

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-44630911/can-paying-girls-to-go-to-scho...

More good news from South Sudan. International help involves giving girls who go to school cash.

Good story https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-45008297

It impresses me that the 19 year old had the self confidence to call the bouncer on his harassment.

It feels almost derisive to post this as "nice news" but I simply can't tell where it would fit better... apologies if I'm harshing anyone's "nice" expectations.

The relatively but ultimately insignificantly "nice" bit: Ian Buruma got fired from the post of editor at the New York Review of Books in the wake of giving Jian Ghomeshi, the piece of shit who abused women for his kicks, a front page article leading a whole "The Fall Of Men" (I kid you not) theme. For the first time in history a teeny tiny bit of public attention in a small portion of the world is alerted to chronic mistreatment and violence against women--and obviously this has led to nothing less grandiose than THE FALL OF MEN. Bless my bloomers and wowsie.

I'd cancelled my NYRB sub the moment I saw the front page and sent them an e-mail saying why. I had and have no expectations that mine and potential other such actions by other readers made a difference, and I'm surprised to see Buruma was fired. (It's not 100% clear to me the reason was entirely this debacle, although the timing is certainly suggestive.) As with The Atlantic giving a platform to the guy who thinks women who abort should be hanged, one feels that not to have indulged pieces of shit like that in the first place would have been how a decent publication behaves. Damage control simply can't compensate for the damage done.

News of Buruma's firing, on Jezebel: The Fall of a Man

Interview with Buruma about the decision to allow Ghomeshi space (and such space! and so much space! with SUCH a theme!) in the NYRB, on Slate: Why Did the New York Review of Books Publish That Jian Ghomeshi Essay?

I'm not going to comment further on this in THIS thread because that would really not be nice. In sum, the very faint consolation is that Buruma's firing may show that publishing such crap may at least come with a few corrective slaps to those oblivious arrogant sexist pricks.

Ethiopia's first female president can be a force for reform (Al Jazeera)

New campaign which deserves support to reach its targets: https://www.1mwis.com/

The Black Feminist Bookmobile:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-feminist-bookmobiles

With the Durham Public Library under renovation until 2020 and the selections at local stores lacking, Gumbs and her counterparts decided to take action: The trio is transforming an Airstream trailer into what Gumbs called “a tiny, black feminist nerd utopia.”

So happy for her:

Saudi teen fleeing family arrives in Toronto after being granted asylum

If you haven't been following, she was on the run in fear of what her family would do to her because she "renounced Islam".

At least someone's making the effort to change:

"We Believe: The Best Men Can Be | Gillette (Short Film)"

https://youtu.be/koPmuEyP3a0?fbclid=IwAR2ZAf2wzsac87ihpzOdCMvajaquV-8-J8XR3WhagK...

(Sorry; the link is on autoplay, and I don't know how to set it otherwise. I'm not much of a youtube user.)

>63 Lyndatrue: This got backlash. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46874617

Makes me want to buy Gillette products if I had any use for them.

>64 MarthaJeanne: As the article points out, it's at least a conversation. In addition, I'm adding Gillette razor blades to my grocery list. Do I need them? Nope. I can donate them to local shelters, and encourage others to do the same. Two steps forward, one step back.

I don't understand what anyone could object to in that ad.

Well I hope there's a backlash to the backlash... :)

Teenage boys rated their female classmates. The girls fought back:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/03/26/teen-boys-rated-their-female...

Paywall.

Ah, not sure what to do about that. I got it from Roxane Gay's FB feed. But it basically sounds like a group of the girls at the school, unhappy with the lack of any real substantive response from the school administration, organized a forum and turned the whole thing into an opportunity for dialogue:

Bethesda-Chevy Chase’s principal, Donna Redmond Jones, said an investigation revealed the list was made during school hours, and that “there was definitely discipline applied,” in line with the district’s code of conduct but that she could not give any more information because of privacy concerns.

Unsatisfied with the disciplinary action, Schmidt texted about 15 girls she knew, and told them to tell all of their friends to show up at the school’s main office the next day during lunch, “to tell them we feel unsafe in this environment and we are tired of this toxicity,” Schmidt wrote in her text.

About 40 senior girls showed up, packing into an assistant principal’s office as Schmidt read a statement she had written.

“We want to know what the school is doing to ensure our safety and security,” Schmidt said. “We should be able to learn in an environment without the constant presence of objectification and misogyny.”

The girls and administrators agreed that they should have a large meeting with the male students in the program, including the boys who created and circulated the list. That Friday, on International Women’s Day, almost all of the students in the IB program — about 80 students — met in a large conference room for what was supposed to be a 45-minute meeting during fifth period.

Instead, the meeting lasted two and a half hours. Several girls delivered personal and impassioned speeches describing not only their presence on the list but also their previous experiences with sexual abuse, harassment and objectification, both inside the school and outside of it.

“I feel it when walking home from school, I get catcalled by a man in a truck who repeatedly asks me to get in his car, and follows me home when I don’t,” said Rose Frank, one of the senior girls on the list, reading from a letter she had prepared. “I feel it when my mother tells me that my third ear piercing will ‘send the wrong message’ in a workplace setting, and that in the future it’s best to let my hair down for job interviews.”

Sitting toward the center of the room during the meeting was the male student credited with creating the list, an 18-year-old senior in the IB program. After listening to all of the girls’ speeches, many of which were directed specifically to him, he stood up and spoke to the group, admitting to making the list and apologizing for the hurt it caused.

“It was quite intense, being so directly confronted in front of so many people for so long,” the student recalled in an interview with The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of the repercussions he could face.

He recalled coming up with the list — which began in the 5 range for girls perceived to be average-looking — during a brief conversation with a friend during a fifth-period English class last year. He said he never distributed the list to anyone else in the grade, and he didn’t know how it began circulating earlier this month. But he took responsibility for what he said was a haphazard, “stupid decision.”

“When you have a culture where it’s just normal to talk about that, I guess making a list about it doesn’t seem like such a terrible thing to do, because you’re just used to discussing it,” he said in an interview. “I recognize that I’m in a position in this world generally where I have privilege. I’m a white guy at a very rich high school. It’s easy for me to lose sight of the consequences of my actions and kind of feel like I’m above something.”

While he regrets making the list, he said he was grateful that the girls spoke up. “It’s just a different time and things really do need to change,” he said. “This memory is not going to leave me anytime soon.”

Little assholes training for big assholes league. There's not a smidgen of real understanding in that pseudo-apology.

Why We Should Cull Men, example #133762.

somewhere on one of these threads I said something like "we can't change what people think, but we can change what their kids think." If the kid who made the original list had to sit in a room and listen to girls tell him exactly how it made them feel, for several hours, and if the memory of it sticks with him for the rest of his life, then something positive happened there.

If nothing else, he may have learned to keep better controls on things that might upset other people.

Erdogan loses Ankara and Istanbul, 25 years of Islamism-lite and neo-Sultanate coming to and end? Probably not without some purges and terror yet. But still. Democracy in Turkey may be on the deathbed; good to know individual
progressive Turks are not.

https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-elections-opposition-claims-victory-in-ankara-pulls...

Beautiful video on the page, I teared up:

First ever black hole image released

No single telescope is powerful enough to image the black hole. So, in the biggest experiment of its kind, Prof Sheperd Doeleman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics led a project to set up a network of eight linked telescopes. Together, they form the Event Horizon Telescope and can be thought of as a planet-sized array of dishes.

Only science brings people together like this, uniting us as Earthlings, and using our best attributes. Only science.

I'm not sure this will be behind a paywall or not. I hope not:

JEB: Photos of Lesbian Lives meant to inspire a movement

I found myself blinking away tears. The first photo is "Pagan and Kady at home in Monticello, NY 1978"



Ten years later, I ran into Kady (on the right in the photo) -- Kady Vandeurs, aka Kady Axe Maker -- when I was bouncing along the women's music festival circuit, the same way I once bounced through Grateful Dead concerts. I was young and newly out and overwhelming in love with a passionate (and dogmatic) radical feminist. By the end of our first year together she had left me -- I was never quite able to match the unshakable standard of her convictions -- but also by then I had fallen into the lesbian feminist community and I had never, ever been happier. It was like being able to breathe clean air after a life where you didn't even know you had been choking on smog.

So I still went to the music festivals and women's bookshops and Kate Clinton stand up shows and Alix Dobkin concerts. And at the time, Kady was often to be met in all those places. She would be selling labrys jewelry and self-published copies of her memoir "The Panhandling Papers" (I still have my copy!) and talking revolution. So seeing JEB's photo in the New York Times of all places brought it all back to me in a rush. The passion of the women, the beauty of their vision, how gorgeous women look when they aren't trying to be what patriarchy wants them to be, but just figuring out who they want to be for themselves. It was an amazing time for a college girl who had finally let herself fall in love with women.

Fascinating! Thanks so much.

Mmmm. Those are beautiful photographs; and not behind a paywall for me.

Thank you for sharing your reminiscences.

Indeed, beautiful and inspiring photos. Thanks.

ITV bans all-male comedy writing teams (BBC)

The rise of female Sharia judges in India (Al Jazeera)

Female 'qazis' are increasingly responsible for governing Islamic law, a role traditionally performed by men

I suppose some might argue that Islamic shari'a is never "nice news", but since it is unlikely to disappear in our lifetimes, does this at least represent a small step forward?

>81 John5918: does this at least represent a small step forward?

I don't know, to be honest. Will it alleviate some suffering in the short term? perhaps. But if you are asking whether a patriarchal edifice is tenable as long as there are enough women participating in it, I would say no. The underlying nature of the edifice does not change just because there are women on the upper floors. The problem is in its foundations.

I have to say I don't think many of the world's religions -- nor many of its political systems, if it comes to that -- would survive a true feminist transformation-- that is a transformation into something that recognized men and women and indeed all genders, ethnicities, nationalities, etc as simply and equally human. Much if not most of our current political and religious structure and ritual would fall away or be discarded in the face of that assumption as inimical or irrelevant to the principle of equality. Would it still be Islam, without shari'a law? Would it still be Catholicism, without the Pope? What would our representational democracy even look like, if the way of life it was supposed to represent was not so invested in, did not concern itself so frantically with women behaving like women, and men behaving like men?

I honestly don't know. I do know that the foundations of patriarchy aren't "fixed" by having a woman president, just as the racist foundations of the United States weren't "fixed" by having an African American president.

>82 southernbooklady: But if you are asking whether a patriarchal edifice is tenable as long as there are enough women participating in it, I would say no

And I would agree with you. But then that describes most of the existing institutions in the world, doesn't it? When will we see true transformation?

>83 John5918:

When we stop supporting discriminatory practices based on religion and tradition. I was thinking yesterday, watching one of the Pride parades that took place this weekend, and the beautiful people of all sorts carrying their messages of love, that the better future is already with us--only it's not allowed to flourish everywhere.

>82 southernbooklady:

Yeah, I don't expect anything from that. Female Genital Mutilation is performed mostly by women; no trace of "alleviating suffering" of women by women there. Conservative and right-wing women of every description programmatically keep women down.

There's a real positive in the few female-led inclusive mosques in Europe, where women can preach, there is no segregation and human rights are defended, but that's starkly opposite to the drive to normalise sharia.

In other news, Erdogan's loss of Istanbul to secular social democrats confirmed!

>84 LolaWalser: I was thinking yesterday, watching one of the Pride parades that took place this weekend . . . that the better future is already with us.

I was there on Saturday as well: throngs of people being outrageously queer and having a blast. It's always a wonderful sight.

But then this afternoon I checked the CBC story on the big parade and made the mistake (one I rarely make) of looking at the first screen of the comment section beneath. Male names with the exception of one female; all expressing resentment, hostility, bigotry, ignorance. (And those comment sections are explicitly moderated.) I think I can confidently infer how they voted provincially, so that's a future that's also already with us, and it ain't pretty, and it ain't over yet. I live in hope that, come October, they waste their federal votes on Maxime Bernier.

>85 librorumamans:

Shame about the comments but that's pretty much to be expected... Really, it's not worth one's mental health to pay attention to that stuff. And the creeps truly are in a minority; they rampage online because it's the only venue where they can concentrate and feel like they count. Remember that American white supremacist meetup that was to take place in Washington and nobody showed up? And yet any comment section online looks like Nazi wallpaper.

Or take a look at the comments in The Globe & Mail about the Raptors parade--99% racist, xenophobic garbage. Then compare that to the parade itself and the vibe the city had.

I caught the tail end of the Trans March and went to the Dyke March. Weather was fantastic, the people were great (there was a tiny group of Bible thumpers on College but they were drowned out handily--I loved the teams with the giant blue sheets hiding them from sight. No confrontation necessary, just ignore the mofos.)

https://nowtoronto.com/news/trans-march-toronto-2019/

https://nowtoronto.com/news/dyke-march-toronto-2019/

>86 LolaWalser:

Great pics! Thanks.

>86 LolaWalser: Thanks for posting those links. It made me weepy, but in a good way. XXOO to everyone...well, except not bible thumpers. I have to draw the line somewhere.

The BookBar responds to some of the community's comments after the store was vandalized during one of their Drag Queen Storytime events

BookBar's Extremely Official Response to Extremely Negative Comments, with Book Recommendations

After the store was vandalized, other members of the community and store customers got together to help clean it up.

>89 southernbooklady:

Sad about the event, but what an excellent response.

>90 LolaWalser: I think, on the whole, the incident created a lot of goodwill for the bookstore locally and further afield, so that's a thing.

Moonlight tribute to Margaret Hamilton: the woman who developed the onboard computer programs for the Apollo missions.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/us/apollo-11-margaret-hamilton-50th-anniversary-t...

Australia's women footballers get equal pay in landmark deal (CNN)

Australia's top women soccer players will now earn the same as their male counterparts after a landmark deal Wednesday that aimed to close the gender pay gap between the country's national teams.

The women's Westfield Matildas and the men's Caltex Socceroos will also share an equal split of all commercial revenues. Previously, the Socceroos earned a greater share of revenues generated by the team and were paid more to play.
The Matildas will also be allowed to travel business class for international travel, as the men do, and coaching and operational support will be brought to the same standard as the men's team...

"Football is the game for everyone, and this new CBA is another huge step toward ensuring that we live the values of equality, inclusivity and opportunity," said FFA Chairman Chris Nikou in a statement. "This is truly a unique agreement. Every national team, from the Socceroos and Matildas, down to the Youth National Teams as well as the Cerebral Palsy National Teams have been contemplated in this new CBA"...

The resurgence of feminist bookstores in the (American) South:

https://www.autostraddle.com/resurgence-of-feminist-bookstores-in-the-south-a-mo...

Prague to honour little-known saviour of refugees fleeing Nazis (Guardian)

An aid worker who helped refugees flee the Nazis is to be honoured by Prague in a move historians hope will rescue her name and heroic deeds from obscurity. Marie Schmolka will be awarded honorary citizenship of her native city by the local municipality in recognition of what experts describe as a central role in saving large numbers of Jews and opponents of Hitler before the second world war...

Czech historians say her work deserves similar acclaim to that given to Sir Nicholas Winton... While Winton is memorialised in a statue at Prague railway station and was awarded the Czech Republic’s highest state honour, there is no shrine to Schmolka, who was arrested by the Gestapo on 16 March 1939, a day after the Nazi takeover, and imprisoned for months.

“She is one of many women erased by history. Schmolka was a global player in saving refugees from Nazi Germany. She attended the 1938 Évian conference (which discussed Jewish refugees) and went to Poland to help Jews who had been expelled from Germany and were stuck in no-man’s land. I don’t want to dismiss the work of younger guys like Winton, but we have to see it in perspective – she was much more important,” said Anna Hájková, an associate professor of modern European history at the University of Warwick and co-head of the Marie Schmolka Society, dedicated to promoting her achievements...

This is not new news, it has been going on since 2015, but I have been reading about Therese Kachindamoto -- paramount chief of the Dezda district in Malawi, whose mission is to eradicate child marriage and send every girl to school:

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/malawi-fearsome-chief-termina...

She's annulled over 800 child marriages by force and sent the girls back to school, pushed through laws that make the practice of child marriages illegal, and fired/purged men and chiefs in her jurisdiction that opposed her reforms.

We need a "heroines" thread because she is one.

Cricket offers one teenage girl a way out from times of darkness (Guardian)

Faizah Hashmi was being treated for anorexia but gradually her health improved, thanks in part to ‘a safe space’ at Moseley CC

Finnish minister Sanna Marin, 34, to become world's youngest PM (BBC)

Sanna Marin is to become the world's youngest prime minister at the age of 34 - and will head a women-led coalition government in Finland...

Why are all the good places to live so cold?

ETA: I typed that as a joke but the USA is such a nightmare, my partner & I have EU passports & are musing on getting out. For those in the EU, any nice news?

I'd imagine white Americans wouldn't have too much trouble immigrating pretty much anywhere in the EU. It's the aquatic Africans and the hikers from Afghanistan who upset the natives.

Where were you thinking of heading?

There's a nice "looking back, looking forward" essay from Minnie Bruce Pratt about being queer in the South just out:

https://www.scalawagmagazine.org/2020/01/queer-south-minnie-bruce-pratt/

In Alabama in 1925, when my aunt Gilder Brown was six years old, she walked by herself two miles on the dirt road into town to Mr. Hick’s barbershop and asked him to “cut her hair like a boy’s.” He laughed and asked if her mama knew what she was doing. Gilder mendaciously said yes, and he indeed gave her a boy’s haircut, which she wore when she started to school that fall, where she fell in love with a pretty, very poor little red-headed girl that her mama wouldn’t let her get near.

>101 southernbooklady:

Very interesting. Fascinating detail about such a large portion of the LGBTQ population living in the South--I expect it has something to do with lower incomes, especially for queer women and PoC?

Mind-boggling the historic attitude to Native Americans (re: is a Native American story a Southern story). That's the same racist baseline that astounded me in Faulkner--the denial of the land to people other than white, even if they lived there as long as the whites, or longer than the whites, or, as is the case with Native Americans, hundreds or thousands of years before the whites.

>101 southernbooklady:

Fascinating. Pauli Murray — another name to honour and cherish.

It says something pretty awful that no one has been inspired to post anything here for a year. But today, abortion has been legalized in Argentina:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/30/americas/argentina-abortion-senate-vote-intl/...

I think it's more that the group is dead than that no one is coming across some cheering news.

I'm happy for the Argentinians, I hope they manage to keep this freedom.

I don't know. I can't think of any feminist nice news I've heard in ages. But the Argentine news is wonderful.

End of US ‘global gag rule’ raises hopes for women’s healthcare at crucial time (The New Humanitarian)

‘The gag rule has had a trickle down impact by affecting access to other lifesaving services.’

When the Trump administration reinstated the “global gag rule” in 2017, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) lost some $100 million in funding in the following years, impacting a spectrum of healthcare projects in 32 countries and going well beyond the intended goal of preventing abortions... US President Joe Biden will rescind the policy by executive order today in a move that could help restore funding to clinics and NGOs across the globe at a time when women’s access to healthcare has been particularly hampered during the pandemic...

Can't stop grinning... check out her Frida Kahlo skateboard...

Skateboarding 'makes me feel like I'm flying', says four-year-old