Friday, February 1, 2008

Linksalicious

Because I have some unexpected time to kill, and it's never too late to get sucked into the blogosphere.

Ontario judge orders HIV-positive complainant to wear a mask in the courtroom and all others to wear gloves; believes virus flees body into dry air, is stuffed into his nostrils by evil HIV sprites. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what the complainant was complainanting about.

Update: Oh jeez.


The only thing that makes this a "new" low is that I just found out about it. L-girl at We Move to Canada draws connections between Katrina vanden Heuvel's article in The Nation about migrant farm workers in Immokalee, Florida and our very own agricultural practices right here in Ontario.


Swallow whatever you're drinking before checking out these PSA's about statutory rape. What Jill said.


The blog that brought me The Wire brings you the Worst American Birthdays series. (Also available: Sunday Deposed Monarch Blogging. High-brow!)


I think I think this is hilarious. But I didn't the first time I saw it. In my understanding, it's ultimately satire, which is an important function of horror movies - it's just so stripped of camp, considering the premise, that it's genuinely uncomfortable. And then I started laughing. Problem solved!


I roll my eyes, you roll your eyes, no one is surprised by any of it except the bizarre relish the author takes in detailing just how slutty she looked. The "grey rape" debate/concept, sort of like the god-awful PSA above, is what happens when almost-good ideas go wrong wrong wrong. If you strip away all the survivor-blaming (and that's a lot of, er... stripping), somewhere in there lurks an attempt to get people to think about sexual assault in a consent-and-communication framework (ie. you don't necessarily need to attack someone and physically force yourself on them to have violated their boundaries), and that's a good thing. I can't count the times it's been suggested that young women not drink in excess, not wear what they want, not be sexual in anyway because man is that asking for trouble. I have a counter-suggestion; hey everybody, don't get so drunk that you can't gage whether your partner is consenting, forget to ask, or don't really care.


Yeah, that'll do. I had planned to write a big post tonight in (belated) celebration of the 20th anniversary of R. v. Morgentaler on the history of reproductive rights in Canada, but now I'm tired, so just go to Birth Pangs.

Goodnight!

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