Feminist News
+ Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled that parental rights extend to gay spouses.
+ Meanwhile, in Brazil, conversion therapy has been legalized after a judge ruled that homosexuality was “a disease.”
+ Students rioted at Georgia Tech after the police shot and killed an LGBT group leader from campus.
+ In Chicago, protestors and officials are coming together to demand FBI involvement in the investigation into Kenneka Jenkins’ death.
+ Anti-abortion extremists are invading clinics.
+ The county of Durham in North Carolina just unanimously endorsed CEDAW.
+ The Trump administration rejected its own report on refugees. Here’s what it said.
+ A Labour leader has called on British newspapers to hire more women.
+ A statue honoring the first Grand Wizard of the KKK may be coming down soon in Memphis.
Milestones
+ According to Kindle data, The Handmaid’s Tale was the most-read book of the summer.
+ Hillary Clinton’s What Happened sold more than 300,000 copies across formats as of Wednesday. The hardcover sales—168,000—were the highest opening for any nonfiction release in five years. The book set company records at Simon & Schuster as well in weekly digital audio sales and sold more e-books in a week than any of their nonfiction releases since 2011.
+ Sasha DiGuilian just became the first woman to free-climb Mora Mora, considered the most difficult multi-pitch climb in the world.
+ North Carolina’s Labor Federation just elected their first woman president.
+ Hillary Clinton’s appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show was cable’s most-watched news broadcast of the week and the number one non-sports show on cable.
How We’re Doing
+ A new report shows that the Great Recession had a gendered impact—and women and girls are still feelings its major effects. The report finds that unemployment rates for women increased significantly during the recession, and afterward they nearly doubled—with women of color, and particularly Black women, hit hardest.
+ “African Americans were worse off financially in 2016 than they were in 2000.”
+ 51 percent of young women in the UK have to borrow money to make ends meet before each paycheck.
Lest We Forget
+ He was used as the butt of the joke. It fell on deaf ears and I feel bad for him.” April Ryan wasn’t impressed by Sean Spicer’s appearance at the Emmy Awards.
+ “Promise me, Mom, that you will continue to help. I’m not sure if I am as meek and strong as you are yet. I hope to get there one day. I love you dearly.” This is Serena Williams’ letter to her mother.
+ “I think that it’s about love and it’s about actually respecting people’s right and in my view Australia needs to get on with it.” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Nikki Kaye had strong words for Australians in her interview with BuzzFeed News about gay marriage.
+ Hillary Clinton isn’t going anywhere.
This Week’s Must-Reads
+ Why do we allow terrible men redemption?
+ The White House is Doxxing America.
+ These are the women who missed the space race.
Media, Arts & Culture
HuffPost: Dolores has been an icon and activist for decades. Peter, why do a biopic now?
Peter Bratt: The world is in need of feminine power. I think [Carlos Santana] picked up on that somehow and he called and he said, “We need to tell this story right now.” Of course, that was four and a half years ago. We could not foresee where we’d be today. I mean, it’s uncanny how relevant and urgent Dolores’ story and work is right now.
The biopic also tackles head-on the notion of women, and Dolores specifically, being erased out of history. Why was it so important to drive that point home?
Dolores Huerta: I think it’s important for women to be recognized in history for [the sake of] other women, especially young women. But it’s not only when it comes to women. Also, when people of color are left out of history. Then we see the racism that we’re looking at today, we see the misogyny, homophobia and all that. And that’s because our histories are not being told, they are not included in our school books. So then what happens is that people will grow up ignorant of the contributions of people of color or of women or of the LGBT community, of labor unions, etc. We have this abysmal ignorance of women inside America. I think that it’s not only important for women but it’s important for our whole society that our stories be told and that our victories and our achievements can be recorded in history.
Peter: We are trying to broaden the narrative so that the white voice is not the sole voice of this country. It’s a complex, rich, beautiful history and diversity is nothing to fear. I think Dolores is absolutely right, we need to bring those stories to the foreground. And if we do that I think there will be less ignorance.
+ The fourth PowerPuff Girl is a woman of color.
+ Uber’s search for a female CEO has been narrowed down to three men.
+ Go see Battle of the Sexes this weekend.
+ OKCupid released a new feature that allows users to designate whether or not they support Planned Parenthood. It got weird.
Last week, online dating giant OKCupid announced a partnership with Planned Parenthood. Site users can choose to answer a question about the health-care organization and earn an #IStandwithPP badge for their dating profiles. OKCupid says that about 200,000 people have now identified themselves as Planned Parenthood supporters.
This move, which allows me to see if someone disagrees with efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, couldn’t come at a better time for me. Last week, I had a run-in with the shadiest of online dating characters: the secretly anti-choice guy. We met on OKCupid and matched on a number of variables. We both have young kids; we both like travel and the outdoors.
I thought he was cute, so I suggested moving off the site to text, adding a humorous pre-admonishment not to send dick pics. I didn’t realize this would be nearly prophetic.
He texted, “What type of work do you do?” I replied, “abortion rights.”
+ Lena Waithe was first. She doesn’t want to be last.
+ Elisabeth Moss is taking on a lead role in Call Jane, a fim about abortion before Roe and the Jane Collective in Chicago that provided women with clandestine services. Ask for Jane is an independent film covering the same topics; we interviewed the filmmaker and a member of the collective in June.
+ Angelina Jolie’s work as director of First They Killed My Father, an adaptation of a powerful memoir on the Cambodian genocide, is another example of how her work spotlights violence against women and girls around the world.
The reviews have been very good, although the wider world seems baffled as to why one of the most beautiful women on the planet would value politics, internationalism and human rights activism over prettiness, Hollywood privilege and American insularity; why she would want to speak and create rather than be gawped at. In Jolie’s case her commitment, lack of dilettantism and the evident political seriousness of her outlook have prevented her from being trashed outright – as Madonna was for her beautiful-looking, intelligent and delicate film WE, say – but her work has still been erased, ignored, talked down, picked apart in countless petty ways and ultimately dismissed. Two decades into her career, she is still not seen as a heavyweight.
It’s disappointing, because in Jolie’s work both as a film director and a stateswoman she is propelled by the single most important impulse behind the global fight for women’s liberation: confronting endemic male violence against women, girls, boys and men.
