What I’ve Noticed

The Girl in the Red Beret by Lina Mounzer.

Cocorosie redoes Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.” It’s an incredible juxtaposition – same music, same setting, very different perspectives.

Sex toy recycling program. They even give you a gift certificate when you send in old toys!

Teen girls on Chris Brown’s abuse of Rhianna.  People ask why women don’t leave their abusers more often and this is why: they think it’s their fault. And so do many of the people around them.

And why don’t more women report that they’ve been raped?  This is why:

But still, the police did not believe the victim.  Worse, they didn’t just laugh at her, as many other victims report happening to them.  They didn’t ask her if she really deserved it for X reason, or if she had sex with the gunman consensually and then just regretted it later.  They didn’t ask her if she really wanted to press charges, because hey, this could ruin this man’s life, you know!  All of these are outcomes far more than bad enough, and which still happen far too often, but didn’t happen here.

Instead, they accused her of a false report and put her in jail.

Majikthise has two good posts up on the economic crisis and the bailout.

Where I’d be applying to grad school if I were a physicist.

An eleven year old killed himself because of constant bullying and taunting for being gay.  This isn’t an isolated case.  Many children kill themselves or are killed by their peers for being queer or being perceived as queer.  The schools aren’t dealing with it.

Another school failure: a teenage girl was suspended for taking birth control at school.

A case where justice is very unlikely to be found.