Fergus Noodle

I’m baaaaack! Oh you didn’t know I left? You should totes follow me on Instagram! Anywhos, a coupla weeks ago the boy and I left Oz for Japan and we had the best time. Like seriously, we wanted to go back as soon as we had left! It started when we checked in at JAL and got upgraded from cattle class economy to premium with glorious seats that reclined to an almost complete flatness and made the next 10 hours flight time fly by.


But then how to get from the airport to our hotel? We were staying at Hotel Sunroute Higashi-Shinjuku (7-27-9 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) which was pretty good, decent price per night with free wifi, super close to a station, clean rooms and staff who spoke perfect english. The only negative was that unfortunately the hotel was not part of the Airport Limousine Bus route so we had to navigate the trains but luckily we had picked up a wifi router (we used JCR $180 for 300MB/day) so Google Maps was a massive help. The thing to remember is that Japan has 3 wacky train lines- the subway, the tram/monorail and the normal trains so if you ever need to switch lines to get somewhere and can’t find the platform it’s prolly cos you gotta go outside and enter another station. Anyways! We took the Narita Express, cost about $30 and took about an hour to get to Shinjuku.


We dropped our bags off at our hotel and even though I was super zombified after the flight, Noods wanted to go exploring immediately so we walked into the nearest ramen shop.


Zomg what is this madness?! Noods taking photos of his food??? According to Noods the ramen was tasty with a flavourful broth and firm noodles but he wasn’t fond of the amount of shallots piled mile high lol


My hunger awakened when we walked by Kizuna Sushi (Building B1, 1F, 1-18-8, Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo). We’d spied a large group milling around the entrance and originally we were stopping just for a drink but I was glad we did in the end because woo! Fatty tuna time (880yen/$9)! Toro, Chu-Toro and my absolute fav: the O-Toro! I’ve always hated tuna in Aus because there was something about the texture that creeped me out but the tuna in Japan? SWOON. Melt in the mouth, tender and such clean flavours!


The Sushi Mix (2480yen/$26) gave us a pretty good selection, Noods loved the scallop sushi in particular while I dove headfirst into the uni (sea urchin) sushi. The miso soup was complimentary which we appreciated because it was so damn cold and we hadn’t packed any winter thermals for the trip :(


The next day we set off to hit all the (depachika) department stores, in particular the famed food halls on the basement level. On the way to Takashimaya, we passed this gyoza store and vowed to return but sadly forgot all about it and ended up not eating any gyozas on the entire trip!


The food levels are amazing. Sure, there’s a crapload of packaging but the attention to detail of each and every product is just mind blowing! The Japanese cherish seasonal local produce and it’s a pretty important role in their culture. When we enter on the lower level (B2) where the fresh produce are sold, we literally just stopped dead in our tracks and stared at how perfect everything was. I mean, look at them strawberries! Not jumbled haphazardly into a carton but placed super carefully and everything!


Even the meat is perfect!


I’ve never seen fresh seafood so meticulously arranged!


I was obsessed with the mini watermelons I kept seeing everywhere, even on the street at fruit kiosks! They weren’t cheap either, averaging at 4000yen/$42 each o_0


And when we saw these melons we immediately backed away at their price- 11000yen/$115 each!!!


Packaged sushi all ready for an easy takeaway meal.


Crazy sandwiches aplenty with flavours like rum & raisin with whipped cream; mandarin, orange & pineapple; shrimp & egg salad.


Ridiculously tall and fluffy chiffon cakes! We got lured in with free samples of the maple chiffon and couldn’t resist buying one.


At the Isetan food hall we found Imagawayaki aka fluffy fat pancake with fillings like red bean, chocolate or vanilla custard. These babies were only 100yen/$1 each!


Mmm super generous with the fillings = happiness


And also lined up for fresh Taiyaki, a fish shaped pancake with a crispy waffle outer, fluffy innards and a filling of red bean, chocolate or vanilla custard.


So tasty!


So my only gripe with the food halls is that there’s nowhere to eat. Like, people buy stuff to take away but because it’s considered rude to walk around and eat at the same time we decided to do the one touristy thing we had never wanted to do: visit the cherry blossoms. We’d actually spied signs to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on our way to the department stores and it was just a 10min walk and 200yen/$2 entry to get in. So yeah. Here’s the cherry blossoms yo!


So we had our own little picnic in the garden! The green tea mochi was for Noods because he’s crazy about their texture, then there was a random koi pancake filled with mung bean, a couplea slices of the famous Castella cake with its super fine texture, a red bean Dorayaki pancake aaaand my fave, strawberry shortcake which was as light as a cloud!


Noods wanted something savoury so it was off to find ramen. No idea on the name of this ramen shop but it had a sign saying: no ramen, no life lol


About 50% of ramen shops have a ticket machine system out front. The first time we used one we had nfi how it worked and only found out after watching other ppl that you had to put your money in before making your selection. Some places have photos but others don’t so I guess be prepared for random foods?


Luckily I can recognise hiragana and katakana characters thanks to Japanese classes back in high school and I can sound out most stuff so tadah one tonkotsu ramen with tamago (egg). While the egg was a tad overcooked we loved the fatty chashu pork and it was just pretty damn awesome with the rich and umami filled broth.


We wandered around and oggled all the lights in Shinjuku and ended up at Memory Lane aka Piss Alley.


There’s rows of itty bitty restaurants that could only fit max 6 customers, serving yakitori and giant mugs of beer.


We went into a random one and ordered pork belly and chicken skin skewers.


Oh and karaage because fried chicken yo


So many lights! So bright, so vivid…


And so many pachinko parlours! The sound inside is deafening as hundreds of tiny metallic balls go a-clanking.


Everything closes pretty late in Japan which was awesome for us because we just kept getting peckish. Helloooo takoyaki balls from Gindaco!


The octopus takoyaki balls (310yen/$3.25) were piping hot and perfect for the crazy cold weather.


Aaaand then I couldn’t help stopping in at Cafe Gre (3-21-3 | Shinjuku Towa Bldg. 2.3 F, Shinjuku) for their super light strawberry chiffon cake (700yen/$7). So many eats, so little time! Stay tuned for part 2 :P

Click here for Japan Part 2
Click here for Japan Part 3
Click here for Japan Part 4

EMILY’S ABORTION VIDEO from Emily Letts on Vimeo.

Emily Letts is just a twenty-something lady who accidentally got pregnant and became one of the third of American women who have an abortion. But Letts is also an abortion counselor, and she decided she wanted to use her own procedure to help demystify the experience for others. Over at Cosmo, she explains how she was inspired by Angie Jackson, who filmed herself having a medical abortion a few years ago.

I searched the Internet, and I couldn’t find a video of an actual surgical procedure in the clinic that focused on the woman’s experience. We talk about abortion so much and yet no one really knows what it actually looks like. A first trimester abortion takes three to five minutes. It is safer than giving birth. There is no cutting, and risk of infertility is less than 1 percent. Yet women come into the clinic all the time terrified that they are going to be cut open, convinced that they won’t be able to have kids after the abortion. The misinformation is amazing, but think about it: They are still willing to sacrifice these things because they know that they can’t carry the child at this moment.

There are three options for a first-trimester abortion: medical abortion, which is the pill; a surgical abortion with IV sedation, where you’re asleep through the whole thing; and a surgical abortion with local anesthesia during which you’re awake. Women are most terrified of being awake.

I could have taken the pill, but I wanted to do the one that women were most afraid of. I wanted to show it wasn’t scary — and that there is such a thing as a positive abortion story. It’s my story.

This is such an important, useful intervention. I’ve written lots before about how telling abortion stories helps break the culture of stigma around the issue and show that there is no single abortion story — just a wide range of very personal experiences, including those as positive as Letts’. And I know from my own experience as someone who’s stared down those two pink lines that one of the most immediate, concrete consequences of that silence is that you just don’t have a very clear idea of what happens next — not in some huge “Will my soul burn in hellfire forevermore?” kinda way (as you might imagine, that personally wasn’t one of my biggest concerns) but in a very practical, nuts-and-bolts kinda way. “What will the actual procedure be like for me?”

These days, when you can find YouTube videos of someone doing just about everything you can imagine (and some things that you’d rather not), it’s a testament to the deep stigma that remains around abortion that Letts’ video is such an anomaly. Many thanks to her for putting her story out there and helping to fight it.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Ed. note: Some readers have expressed concern that posting these names may put the girls at further risk. We take that concern seriously, but given that the list has been released by a Nigerian organization and has been reported on by both the Nigerian and US media, we feel comfortable keeping it up here. We hope that the good that comes from putting names to this injustice outweighs any potential harm caused by their release. 

Thanks to the tireless efforts of activists — on the ground and on social media — the world finally seems to be caring about Nigeria’s kidnapped girls. That this case has belatedly started getting the attention it deserves is likely due in part of the horror of so many young people taken at one time. As many as 276 girls have been abducted — unbelievably, just last night, in the midst of growing international pressure to #bringbackourgirls, eight more were taken.

But though the stark numbers are powerful, it’s important to remember that each of these girls is an individual, with a family, friends, dreams — and a name. Here, via the Christian Association of Nigeria, are the names of 177 of those still missing:

Click here to enlarge.

(h/t @Tiphani_M)

Hold onto your hats hipsters, there’s a new joint in town! Sly (212 Devonshire St, Surry Hills) opened last month on former Sly grog shop of the underworld gangster Kate Leigh. Owner and chef Dean Wilkinson has created a tempting menu with jaffles and toasties all $10 and under and a couple of larger items if you’re feeling ravenous.


There’s a whole bunch of Nudie juices available but I opt for the cold drip which is fruity and refreshing.


On my first visit I tried the Duck and Chestnut Jaffle ($8.50) and it was pretty damn tasty! The pieces of duck were plump and juicy and I loved the satisfying crunch of the chestnuts in each bite.


The Fromage D’affinois and Pear Jaffle ($8.50) is the absolute bomb though. Like, seriously, how good is melty cheese in a jaffle? Oh and the pic above is only half the jaffle lol I uh ate it. Melty cheese jaffle waits for noone!


On my second visit Raff has his heart set on the Jamon and Manchego Toastie ($10). Jamon and Manchego go together like sprinkles on a donut- it just works and makes the world a happier place.


I used to hate mushrooms growing up but woo look at me now! This picky eater is completely, madly, deeply in love with mushrooms! The Mushroom Stack ($14) is all kinds of amazing, there’s a pile of baked mushrooms, sorrel, tomato chutney, PX reduction and bits of labna scattered throughout the open faced sandwich.


The Notorious P.I.G ($16) brings a smile to my face and not just because of its name but at the sight of the mountain of tender braised pork shoulder, the crispy ribbons of smoked speck, cute mini chorizo and bringing it all together is oozy poached egg bliss.


We happened to be sitting right next to the pastry display case which meant I was eyeing the Chocolate Tart the entire time. All the baked goods are made every morning for all your sweet tooth needs.


Innards shot! The chocolate tart was as rich and decadent as it looked and luckily not overly sweet thanks to the wonders of dark chocolate. I loved the crumbly chocolate biscuit tart base and the cute bottle contained gloriously smooth vanilla bean anglaise.


At the mo they’re only open 7am – 4pm, Mon – Sat but here’s hoping they score a liquor license soon!

It’s been a while since our last post, but during our hiatus we decided to refresh the site. What do you guys think?

We couldn’t think of a better way to kick start the blog again than with celebrating one of our own’s birthday!

Linda’s milestone birthday banquet was at the ever popular Ms G’s, which was very decently priced at $65 per person (plus 10% service fee if there’s more than 8 people) – especially considering that we were completely stuffed and actually had to take home food.

Mini Banh Mi

The mini banh mis comes with crisp pork belly or chicken katsu – either one, you can’t go wrong! Both were crumble-crisp and tender with wonderfully refreshing and zesty pickled vegetables, sandwiched between fresh, soft bread.

Ms G’s Grilled Corn on the Cob

Ms G’s grilled corn is topped with grated Parmesan and a squeeze of lime.

I love cheese and I love corn, so it’s not too big of a stretch to understand why I love Ms G’s corn on the cob… only, it was pretty spicy and I sadly had to give the rest of the corn to F.

Dan Hong’s Crunchy Vegetable Salad

The crunchy salad is further made crunchy by toasted corn kernels and was dressed with a white soy & ginger vinaigrette.

Although I’m not the biggest fan of coriander, this salad was wonderfully refreshing and bright.

Kingfish Tostada

The kingfish tostada came with green papaya, guacamole, and red nahm jim.

Another light and crunchy dish, though this one had a lovely bit of a kick to it (everyone didn’t think I could handle it, but I did! Yay!)

Prawn Toast

Accompanying the crunchy prawn toast was yuzu aioli and herbs. While this dish was decent, it was overshadowed by the other dishes’ more fantastic combination of flavour and texture.

Nasi Goreng Hitam

I love this twist on nasi goreng: the rice is fried with squid ink and chorizo. For me, no nasi goreng is complete without having a sunny-side up egg! (It also adds a nice colour contrast to the dish too)

Like with all other nasi gorengs I’ve tried, this was pretty spicy and I had to concede that it was above my chilli tolerance. Sadness.

Stir-fried Broccoli

The broccoli was stir-fried with house-made XO sauce and fried garlic for that extra kick of flavour. So simple, yet packed a punch in flavour.

Jow’s Sweet and Sour Lamb Ribs

These sweet and sour lamb ribs were amazing. They were fall-off-the-bone tender and had such incredible flavour; a little squeeze of lime really lightened an otherwise meaty dish.

It was probably one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Grandma’s Stirred Spicy Pork & Tofu Egg Noodles

I really, really tried to eat this, but was beaten by the heat in this dish. I was told it was pretty delicious though.

Crispy Pork Hock

Served with the crispy pork hock was pink lady apple kimchi, 5 flavour sauce, lettuce, and herbs.

The pork hock was crispy as advertised while the meat was oh-so-tender and juicy. It was even better wrapped in lettuce with a pinch of sweet apple kimchi and a dash of sauce.

I was so incredibly full by this time that I didn’t think I could eat another mouthful, but I forged on – this dish was too tasty to go by without a second or fifth helping.

Stoner’s Delight 2.0

Sometimes I think the saying “there’s always room for dessert” is true (second stomach for it and all that) because somehow I found that I still had some spare space for dessert.

I adored this jumble of a dessert made up of doughnut ice cream, peanut butter, raspberry jam, candied bacon, potato chips, mars bar slice, and banana fritter.

It was equally sweet and savoury, alternating between each with every delightful, rich mouthful.

Dirty Passion (Thai Edition)

Some at the table thought the Stoner’s Delight 2.0 was a bit too rich for their tastes and favoured the Dirty Passion more. It’s not hard to see why, the combination of coconut sticky rice, jackfruit, rambutans, Thai aromatic crunch, chilli, and coconut sorbet was wonderfully bright, zesty, and sharp.

Passionfruit S’more Cake

I’m sorry this photo doesn’t do Linda’s cake any justice, but in spite of the graininess, I think its magnificence still shines through.

This bad boy is a momofuku malt cake layered with milk and ovaltine crumbs, passionfruit marshmallow, and passionfruit chocolate glaze. If that’s not enough, it is then topped with maltesers, crumbs, passionfruit marshmallows, chocolate passionfruit macaron and fresh passionfruit.

It was, naturally, nothing short of amazing!

Ms G’s is a pretty fun place to hold a function: the atmosphere is cheery (as well as trendy), the staff are lovely and attentive, and the food overall is pretty darn fantastic (not to mention some awesome cocktails too). Ticks all the boxes for a fun night out in my books!

Happy birthday, Linda! Hope you had as much fun (and ate as much) as we did.
_{Sorry it took me so long to write this up haha}

Ms G’s
155 Victoria Street
Potts Point, NSW, 2011
Ph: (02) 9240 3000
http://merivale.com.au/msgs

The post Ms. G’s, Potts Point appeared first on .

For Those Who Cringe at the Word “Seminal” When Used in Academic Discourse

Jenny Davis (Sociology, James Madison University) writes what she calls a “public service announcement” over at Cyborgology.  “Dont Say Seminal, It’s Sexist,” Professor Davis explains:

Yes, “seminal” refers simultaneously to groundbreaking intellectual work and male bodily fluids expelled at the peak of sexual excitement.  First, the metaphor doesn’t even entirely make sense. although the work, like the fluid, is a seed, to earn the seminal descriptor, a work has to have grown into something rich and complex.  It cannot, as semen is wont to do, shoot into an unreceptive environment where it is wiped away, left to quickly die, and ultimately forgotten. Moreover, the metaphor is downright vulgar.  It evokes (at least for me) the image of some dude splooging his ideas all over everything. Finally, and most importantly, the metaphor is blatantly sexist.

To refer to something as “seminal” is equivalent to the compulsory use of the masculine pronoun “he” when one really means “person.” The compulsory “he” has long fallen out of favor (though what “he” should be replaced with is a debate in itself, but I digress), and yet “seminal” persists as an integral part of speech and writing.

Read her full post here.

Professor Davis responds in a subsequent post (here) to what she identifies as four “thematic critiques,” namely:

• Critique one:  seminal comes from the Latin word “semen” which means “seed” (not sperm) and therefore does not maintain inherent masculine connotations.
  
• Critique two: sperm and eggs are both human seeds. Sperm are active and eggs are passive, so it is logical, not sexist, to equate foundational ideas with the active variant.
• Critique three: “ovulary” as an alternate term is equally sexist.
• Critique four: I don’t think of sperm when I use the word seminal, therefore my use of the term is not sexist. The author’s interpretation is idiosyncratic and therefore invalid.

Professor Davis effectively each critique, calling out faulty logic, biased premises and incomplete reasoning.  Her full response is worth reading.

-Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Professors

(Image via the BBC)

Today, protestors gathered in the Nigerian capitol of Abuja to demand the government do more to rescue the 200 teenage girls who were kidnapped two weeks ago while taking an exam at their school in northeastern Nigeria. Most assume the girls were taken by Boko Haram, a local Islamic extremist group whose name means ”western education is forbidden.” As The New Yorker reports, the girls’ “only offense, it seems, was attending school.”

Right after the abduction, the Nigerian government claimed they’d rescued most of the girls (in fact, they haven’t rescued any) and then said only about 100 girls were kidnapped (while parents and teachers put the number at 234). In the weeks since, parents have attempted their own rescues and a few dozen girls have escaped by themselves (including the four girls marching in the photo below.) The latest horrible word from the locals is that the girls are being sold into marriage with the militants for $12 each and some have been moved to neighboring Cameroon and Chad.

Check out more photos from today’s protest, which was organized by the Women for Peace and Justice organization, here and here and here. And follow the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag.

These four students were among those who managed to escape their captors. (Image via the BBC)

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Seriously? Who actually thought that would be a good idea? Well, apparently Dallas County District Judge Jeanine Howard did:

A Texas judge who ordered a rapist to serve community service at a rape crisis center has been forced to reconsider the sentence.

[...] According to The Dallas Observer, Young could have served 20 years in jail, but Dallas County District Judge Jeanine Howard showed him leniency during last week’s sentencing.

Howard ruled that Young would only have to spend 45 days in jail, but it was the “250 hours of community service at a rape crisis center” that shocked victim advocates.

“I’m sure she probably thought that it was his way of giving back perhaps,” Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Bobbie Villareal told WFAA. “But it’s just not an appropriate place for him to do his community supervision,”

“There’s just so many problems with that,” she pointed out. “First of all, we would worry about our client safety and well-being, the appropriateness of them having any kind of contact with survivors — even if it was a past victimization. Just having a criminal defendant in the office could be a triggering effect for many of our clients.”

Look, in theory, I’m in favor of a justice system that offers some hope of rehabilitation, and being forced to face and understand the effect of your actions on others seems far more likely to be transformative than being locked up in jail for a long time (or, ya know, not that long, as the case may be — sadly, the short jail time is so typical, it’s hardly even newsworthy.)

But you know who shouldn’t be asked to play teacher in a rapist’s potential learning experience? Unsuspecting survivors who never signed up for the job. Ever, but especially when they are currently in crisis and seeking a safe space to do their own healing. For fuck’s sake.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Thousands of striking women gather in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1975. (Image via)

Happy May Day!

Originally sparked by the Haymarket Massacre of 1886, when police cracked down on peaceful protestors rallying for an eight-hour work day in Chicago, International Workers’ Day has enjoyed a bit of a revival in the last several years. In 2006, activists organized “a day without an immigrant,” and immigrants’ rights actions have been a big focus of the day ever since. A couple years ago, Occupy activists attempted a (rather unsuccessful) nationwide general strike.

In honor of May Day — and as inspiration for future striking dreams — here’s an image from the feminist archives of one the more successful general strikes in history. On October 24 1975, Iceland’s women refused to do any work — outside or inside the home — taking “the day off” from paid labor, housework, and child care. An estimated 90 percent (what!!!) of Icelandic women participated and 25,000 — a tenth of the population — gathered at a rally in Reykjavik. As you might imagine, the country was basically shut down. An article the day after said, “The militant women…staged their token stoppage to show just how indispensable they are. And the men, who treated all the strike threats as a huge joke, began to get the point.” The day was later remembered as ”the long Friday.” 

More than a century after the Haymarket Massacre, many American workers still don’t even have an eight-hour (paid) work day. And almost four decades after Iceland’s women proved how indispensable their under- and unpaid labor was, the second shift still falls mainly to women — and still isn’t valued as the real and vital work it is. So, um, make that “Unhappy May Day,” I suppose.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Ed. note: This is guest post from Kiera Butler. Kiera is a senior editor at Mother Jones. Her first book, which is about 4-H, will be published in October 2014. 

Dear Dr. B.,

I’m writing to tell you why I’m taking my business to different dental office. Let me explain:

The last time I had my teeth cleaned at your office, your hygienist told me that the bonding on two of my teeth was coming off, and that I should come back so that you could fix it.

So I made an appointment to do just that. I asked you to take a look at the bonding, and you did. Then you took off your glasses and said, “Forget the bonding for a minute. Let’s have some fun.” 

You asked me if I ever felt like no one was paying attention to me when I was in a group, or if I was shy about talking to people.

“No,” I replied. “I’m a journalist. I love talking to people.”

You said that you suspected that my colleagues were ignoring me—and that maybe I should try to observe this behavior over the next few weeks. If I did feel ignored, you said, you knew why: my smile.

“You have bunny teeth,” you said. “It’s distracting.”

You took out your camera and asked me to smile. Then you took a few photos.

You applied some plastic goop called composite to my teeth, which you then dried with what looked like a UV light. When you were done, you asked me to smile again and took more photos. Then you showed me both sets of pictures, and led me over to a mirror where you asked me to admire my fixed smile. You had closed two small gaps and made my teeth more evenly sized.

Even though I could barely see a difference (and honestly didn’t care enough to look that closely) I told you that I liked how it looked, because it seemed like the easiest thing to do.

You told me that the composite made me look more “refined.” Then you told me about two women patients whose smiles you had fixed. One of them had been out of work, and the very afternoon that she left your office, she went on a job interview and got an offer. The other woman’s boss asked her to manage “a team of 36 people” right after you worked on her teeth.

“Does the same thing happen to men?” I asked.

You told me that you wouldn’t know, because men are not as chatty with you as women.

I told you that I had to get back to work, so you removed the composite from my teeth. While I was lying down in the chair with my mouth open, you told me that if you fixed my smile, you firmly believed that I would start “dressing better.” I would also wear more make-up, you predicted. You told me that I was a beautiful woman, but that my smile was distracting.

On my way out, as I was saying goodbye, you told me that I was smiling with my mouth closed, and that you guessed it was because I was feeling self-conscious about my smile. “We can fix that right up,” you said. “Sorry I made you nervous!”

“You couldn’t make me nervous,” I said. I wanted to say more, but that would have meant that I had to stand there and keep talking to you. And I never wanted to talk to you again.

But it wasn’t because you had made me nervous about my smile. It was because I was offended by your use of the tired and sexist old sales technique of making a female customer feel bad about her appearance so that she will buy something.

As sexual harassment goes, it could have been so much worse. You didn’t grab my butt, or even give me the “ol’ elevator eyes” that they talk about in sexual harassment training videos. But it is shit like this—behavior and comments that just barely stay on the right side of the harassment line—that we let slide. And that makes the people who do this kind of thing believe that they can get away with it. And that’s a problem.

Can I stop you from behaving unethically with the rest of your patients? No. But I can certainly stop giving you my business. And that is exactly what I will do.

And about those “bunny teeth?” I think I’ll keep them, thanks.

Sincerely,

Kiera Butler

• Don’t leave your dog unattended in public – even if just for a few minutes
• Secure your yard – make sure your dog can’t escape from your yard by digging, through holes in fences or via gates
• Keep microchip information up to date – ensure that your dog has an implanted microchip, that it is registered with your local council and that you keep all relevant information up-to-date
• Ensure your dog has identification – a tag with basic contact details on it will let someone who finds your dog know who its owner is and provide an easy way for them to get in touch with you to return it

I have a little sister and, like any good feminist, I spend a lot of time making sure that she knows that her worth extends beyond her beauty, her body, and her sexuality. As she is still a teenager, a big topic in her life and that of her peers lately has been virginity. Personally, I don’t think that my sexuality or “virginity” is an object to lose, or give away, and I don’t want her to think that either. That’s why I was so excited to watch How to Lose Your Virginity with her.

In this documentary, filmmaker Therese Shechter uses her own path out of virginity to explore why our sex-crazed society cherishes this so-called precious gift. Along the way, we meet sex educators, virginity auctioneers, abstinence advocates, and young men and women who bare their tales of doing it — or not doing it. How to Lose Your Virginity uncovers how all the hype around virginity is basically a campaign to control and commodify women’s bodies. 

Did you know that the word “virgin” comes from the Latin word “virgo” which literally means young woman?

The film makes it clear that our culture’s obsession with preserving purity and regulating women’s sexuality comes from a time when women were legally considered to be property. If a man bought married a woman who had already had sex, how would he be sure that the children she bore were his? However, this logic only appears to have applied to women who were not enslaved, i.e. white women. Because enslaved African women’s children automatically became the valuable property of their owner upon birth, the more children slaves had, the better. This of course meant that slaves did not have any purity to lose, or really any sense of agency in their sexuality. According to this logic, slaves could not be raped. These cultural practices continue to have deeply painful and harmful legacies on the way we map sexuality onto racialized bodies today.

I honestly can’t decide what pisses me off more–the fact that less than 3 percent of babysitters are men or that the few who are earn more than their female counterparts. Via The Atlantic:

As the Priceonomics blog, which compiled the data, points out, it’s pretty amazing that male babysitters out-earn women considering how much cultural bias there is against them. As one mom in a parenting forum said, “I personally would have a hard time hiring a male babysitter for obvious reasons.” Right, because obviously guys couldn’t possibly be good caretakers. It’s not like they’re equally likely to have grown up with younger siblings or anything. And thank god, we don’t let guys become dads responsible for parenting their own children…Oh wait. And yet! “Even in an industry like babysitting where men are likely discriminated against, they still try to charge more for their services!”

And it’s not just babysitting — gender wage gaps persist in most traditionally feminized jobs. Men who enter these industries — which they are increasingly doing these days – tend to make more money and be promoted at faster rates. A study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that in the female-dominated worlds of administrative assistants, teachers, and nurses, women make about 10 percent less than their male colleagues.

As a long-time babysitter, Maya is clearly taking this personally.

This chart comes from Chuck Marr at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  As Marr explains:

The United States is a relatively low-tax country, as the chart shows.  When measured as a share of the economy, total government receipts (a broad measure of revenue) are lower in the United States than in any other member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), even after accounting for the modest revenue increases in the 2012 “fiscal cliff” deal and the taxes that fund health reform.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

“Recently Kim, whose company helps users change and personalize their Android smartphone homescreens, contacted a male developer about whether he’d be interested in joining Locket. He responded, “Hey Yunha, I’m pretty happy with my current job, but if you’re single I’d like to date you. Perhaps there are some unconventional ways to lure me away from my company (besides stock options) if you know what I mean. ;)” “

That’s a paragraph from this discouraging article.

Feminist Law Professors

THIS MAN REFUSED TO OPEN HIS EYES

No pockets, no justice.

Click to embiggen.
Visit Dumbing of Age.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

This is, by far, the best response to inquiries about male -bodied cross-dressing that I have ever heard. If you don’t already love Eddie Izzard, you might now.  Asked why he wears “women’s dresses,” this non-cisgendered man responds, in a nutshell: “I’m not wearing women’s dresses. I’m wearing my dresses. I bought them. They are mine and I’m a man. They are very clearly a man’s dresses.”

Johnny Depp does a similarly good job of refusing to take the bait in this clip from the Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman queries his rationale for wearing a women’s engagement ring. Depp just plays dumb and ultimately says that it didn’t fit his fiancée, but it did fit him. So… shrug.

The phenomenon of being questioned about one’s performance of gender is called “gender policing.” Generally there are three ways to respond to gender policing: (1) apologize and follow the gender rules, (2) make an excuse for why you’re breaking the rules (which allows you to break them, but still affirms the rules), or (3) do something that suggests that the rules are stupid or wrong.  Only the last one is effective in changing or eradicating norms delimiting how men and women are expected to behave.

In these examples, both Izzard and Depp made the choice to disregard the rules, even when being policed. It seems like a simple thing, but it’s very significant. It’s the best strategy for getting rid of these rules altogether.

Thanks to Dmitriy T.C. for the links!

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

It was my sister Beth's 21st birthday last week, and I wanted to make her a very special cake. After years of childhood bickering, I'm so happy that she is now one of my closest friends and business partner in a new venture that I'll tell you all about very soon. She is so funny, creative and a beautiful person inside and out. To say this cake was made with love would be the understatement of the century.

I put my own spin on a famous Momofuku Milk Bar recipe by Christina Tosi, keeping the chocolate chip cake and crumb elements but experimenting with the passionfruit curd and adding a vanilla bean cream cheese icing instead of the coffee buttercream. Is this sacrilegious? Perhaps...

I've long been a fan of the chocolate and passionfruit flavour combination (see here and here) so I knew that it would be good. But when my Dad, who has tasted many of the cakes I've ever made, says this is the best cake I've ever made, I think I made the right call. He has also requested this exact same cake for his own birthday next month. Hey, if it's good enough for David Chang...



The cake has a lot of liquid and fat in it, and the book was fairly specific about how the batter must be homogeneous at each stage to end up with a lovely moist cake. I split the cake mixture into four equal parts and baked my cake layers separately as I knew I wanted the 'naked' cake look of visible fillings and un-frosted sides, again another small deviation from the 'Milk Bar' way, but I think it's one of the best looking cakes I've ever made and I couldn't stop taking photos of it.

I was thrilled with how each component came out separately, and together the result was phenomenal. The passionfruit curd was sweet but tangy, which balanced out the rich cream cheese frosting. The chocolate crumbs added some texture and weren't too sweet. I actually wish I had doubled the amount of crumbs between the layers as I had a lot left over. The recipe after the jump looks quite long, but each part is pretty straightforward and you can make the elements over several days to lighten the load.

Happy 21st Birthday again to my gorgeous sister Beth. I hope this year is the best one yet, and I wish you adventures and happiness and french toast and success in everything you put your mind to xxx




Chocolate Chip & Passionfruit 'Naked' Cake
Adapted from 'Milk Bar' by Christina Tosi
Serves 8-12

Chocolate Chip Cake

• 113g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup grapeseed or vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (I used this method to make my own)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Chocolate Crumb

• 2⁄3 cup plain flour
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2⁄3 cup cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 85g unsalted butter, melted

Passionfruit Curd

• 2⁄3 cups (160ml) passionfruit pulp, seeds strained
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 165g butter, chopped
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks

• 500g cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped 

I’m loving this portrait series by photographer Meg Allen exploring “the butch aesthetic, identity and presentation of female masculinity” today. The project began with photos of her friends in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, and Allen describes her motivation like this:

It is a celebration of those who choose to exist and identify outside of the binary; who still get he’d and she’d differently throughout the day; who get called-out in bathrooms and eyed suspiciously at the airport; who have invented names for themselves as parents because “Mom” nor “Dad” feels quite right; and who will generally expect that stare from the gender police trying to figure out if they are “a boy or a girl”. It is an homage to the bull-daggers and female husbands before me, and to the young studs, gender queers, and bois who continue to bloom into the present.

See more after the jump and the full series here.

(h/t Buzzfeed)

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

If you try to visit OKCupid using Firefox, whose parent company Mozilla just got a new CEO who supported California’s Prop 8, this is the message you get:

For the record, a Mozilla spokesperson says the company supports marriage equality. But it’s still nice to see OKCupid take such a strong, public stand.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Robert H. Richards IV (Photo credit: USA TODAY)

*Trigger warning*

I can’t really imagine a story that more perfectly illustrates how totally broken the criminal “justice” system in the US is.

Robert H. Richards IV, a rich unemployed heir to a chemical baron fortune who lives off his trust fund, was convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter. He also allegedly admitted to abusing his toddler son. But a Delaware state Superior Court judge decided that he “will not fare well” in prison, so he should get probation and treatment instead. 

As a public defender in the state notes, the sentence might make the public skeptical about “how a person with great wealth may be treated by the system.” Um, ya think?

Nobody fares well in prisons. Because they are terrible, dehumanizing places. And, while treatment is sometimes presented as an alternative to incarceration–usually in cases of drug addiction–in the vast majority of cases, the US criminal justice system does not give a flying fuck about how prison affects the incarcerated. If it did, the system would look nothing like it does today. If it did, solitary confinement would be understood to be torture and outlawed as such. If it did, prison rape would be treated like the serious epidemic it is instead of as a punchline. If it did, literally millions of black men would not be condemned to second-class citizen status for minor drug offenses. If if did, there would be no mentally ill people in our prisons. If it did–if rehabilitation was really considered the goal–the world would probably be a better and safer place.

But that’s not the world we live in. As Kendall Marlowe, executive director of the National Association for Counsel for Children, says, “Our prisons should be more rehabilitative environments, but the prison system’s inadequacies are not a justification for letting a child molester off the hook.” If we’re gonna start giving a shit about whether incarcerating people is really a productive way to address criminal behavior–which, again, I would love for us to do–I can think of way better places to start than with a one percenter who raped his daughter.

(h/t Shakesville)

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

For a few years now, Snickers has run ad campaign based the slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” where people in extreme states of hunger act completely out of character until they’re able to eat a Snickers. A number of celebrities have lent their talents to this campaign, including Betty White, Joe Pesci, Robin Williams, Aretha Franklin, and others. The premise is clever enough, as far as advertisements for candy bars go, and generally not worth the time analyzing.

But I had only ever seen the US ads. Yesterday, I saw a version of this that’s aimed at an Australian audience. Holly Kearl posted it at her blog, Stop Street Harassment. It’s…perhaps too clever for its own good.

The idea here is that in a state of character-altering hunger, these construction workers — that notoriously misogynist bunch — still yell at women passing by the construction site, but instead of catcalling, they say things such as:

“I’d like to show you the respect you deserve!”

“A woman’s place is where she chooses!”

“You know what I’d like to see? A society in which the objectification of women makes way for gender-neutral interaction free from assumptions and expectations.”

How sweet.

But see, here’s the thing: why is this so outrageous? Why is the idea of gender equality presented as out of character? Why do these men have to be starving in order to believe women deserve respect?

I get that it’s being played for comedic effect, that in our popular imagination construction workers are the worst offenders when comes to hurling sexist and misogynist insults at random women, typically under the guise of compliments. They’re the ultimate “guys being guys.” And in the universe of Snickers, the logical conclusion when they’re not being themselves is that they’re somehow feminist grad students. But do we really want to think that the only way a man can be pro-gender equality is if he’s not being himself? Shouldn’t that be a part of everyone’s character?

Holly brings up another, perhaps more important, point about this ad:

Even though the construction workers are saying positive, non-harassing things, they are actually still engaging in behavior we do not support. They are singling women out and demanding their time and attention as they yell at them. Men are able to walk by the site and go about their business and keep thinking their thoughts, but the same is not true for women. They are interrupted, their attention is demanded. That is not equality. If you wouldn’t yell it at a man, you probably shouldn’t yell it at a woman. Remember: women do not owe you their time or attention!

The last point here is crucial: women do not owe you their time or attention. This ad assumes there could be some redeeming factor to yelling at women you don’t know, if only you’re saying things they may welcome hearing. However, these men are still expecting that these women, who are doing nothing more than walking down the street, should devote some portion of their day to paying attention to these men. And in this instance, they should be grateful, because they’re so beside themselves with hunger, they’re not even saying their normal disgusting things. They actually care!

It’s the worst assumptions about men, wrapped up in some nice guy entitlement, and topped off with an excuse for street harassment. In other words, patriarchy doing its damndest to remain relevant.

We don’t have to accept that the default position of manhood/masculinity is anti-woman. We shouldn’t. It’s a false binary that forecloses on possibilities of partnership and personal gender expression. We don’t have to consider masculinity at odds with the feminine. We only do so to assert dominance and gain power.

Likewise, we don’t have to accept that the price of being a woman in public is that men will yell things at you — whether vile or uplifting. We can ensure that women feel as safe and unbothered in public spaces as men (generally speaking) do.

And Snickers doesn’t have to package sexism in order to sell their product. They’re fucking Snickers! Chocolate, caramel, peanuts, nougat. You don’t need any help selling that. As a matter of fact, that’s all their ads should be, big bold letters against a black screen that reads “CHOCOLATE. CARAMEL. PEANUTS. NOUGAT.” They’ll never go out of business.

That’s a million dollar idea. I accept PayPal.

Mychal Denzel Smith is a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute.

I’ve been dying in jealousy over seeing incredible photos of mega ice coffees and ice chocolates on Instagram so I grabbed Raff my eating buddy in crime and we trekked over to The Pig and Pastry, (1 Station St, Petersham).


Gotta love the presentation of hipster jars! My Iced Coffee ($5), is surprisingly strong and gave me a good hit of caffeine to kickstart my day and Raff’s Piccolo ($3.50) is as pretty as a picture and is given the two thumbs up.


We’d made it just in time for breakfast (which finishes at 12pm) and ordered the Sweet Corn Fritters ($17) quick smart. The kernels of corn bursts with the taste and happiness of sunshine. A gooey poached egg is incredibly satisfying to stab and I watched with glee as the rich egg yolk oozed everywhere. And the bacon! The bacon was super crispy and just AMAZING with the the zingy avocado salsa.


As soon as the clock hit 12 we ordered off the lunch menu. The Braised Pork Belly ($17.50) was quiveringly tender with layers of creamy fat alternating with juicy meat and is topped with bacon and deep fried bread crumbs. So much win. Oh and there was a salad made up of radish, bean sprouts, watercress, mint, coriander and chilli with a soy, balsamic, ginger and chilli dressing. But because you don’t make friends with salad of my soy allergy I gave Raff my share of the greenery.


The pastry on the Pork & Apple Sausage Roll ($6) is light and so delicately flaky that I kinda wished there was more of it to stand up against the robust flavour of the pork filling though the pot of house made tomato sauce was the perfect accompaniment.


Checking out the counter display and I couldn’t stop staring at the pile of meringues.


So I ordered it. Behold, the Gingerbread Meringue ($3.50)! The scent of ginger and spices was so incredibly heady and best of all the meringue was studded with gingerbread pieces! And yes it was sweet but really it’s a meringue, duh. Oh and we also couldn’t resist ordering the Gingerbread Milkshake ($6.50) and Salted Caramel Milkshake ($6.50). Brain explosion max!


I absolutely loved The Pig and Pastry, it’s charmingly comfortable with a laid-back atmosphere and heaps of natural light streaming in. I was super grateful for the noise reduction panels on the ceiling cos I’m starting to have old people issues with places that gets too noisy heh oh and also love how each table had freshly cut flowers and that you could even buy a bunch to take home!

There are an estimated 400,000 untested rape kits in the US. (Photo credit: Lonnie Timmons III, Plain Dealer)

Back in 2009, over 11,000 kits were found abandoned in a Detroit Police storage facility. After processing just 1,600 of them so far, Detroit has identified about 100 serial rapists and ten convicted rapists. Those perpetrators have moved on from Michigan to commit similar crimes in 23 other states.

Of course, Detroit is not alone. Nationwide, there are an estimated 400,000 untested rape kits. One of our favorite actress/activists Law and Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay (read her Feministing Five interview here) has been raising awareness about this issue for awhile now. Her organization, The Joyful Heart Foundation, has launched a project called End The Backlog to pressure cities and states to prioritize testing their kits. (She’s also producing a documentary about the problem.) And thankfully, 17 states have proposed new legislation to address their backlogs.

There’s a ton of reasons that the rape kit backlog is national shame. For one thing, as Hargitay notes, “One would assume that if someone endures a four- to six-hour invasive examination, that that evidence would be handled with care.” And while police departments say testing evidence is expensive and they just don’t have the resources, they’re making choices about which cases they believe are worth moving forward. Sarah Tofte, the director of policy and advocacy for Joyful Heart, explained to ThinkProgress, “They’re making subjective judgments about whether they’re likely to get a conviction, what this rape looks like, whether the victim is credible, and what the victim’s worth to society is…Ultimately, it’s about, does this victim deserve justice?”

In other words, if we didn’t live in a rape culture in which all but the most “perfect victims” are doubted, you can bet your ass there wouldn’t be such a backlog. As Hargitay said, “To me, this is the clearest and most shocking demonstration of how we regard these crimes.”

Of course, the most urgent and concrete reason we should be testing rape kits is that they can identify rapists. (That’s kinda the point.) And since most rapists are serial rapists, that helps prevent future assaults. The stats from Detroit are similar to those in other cities and states that have tackled their backlogs: Once New York City processed its 17,000-kit backlog in 2001, the arrest rate for rape cases jumped from 40 percent to 70 percent. After working through 2,000 untested kits, Ohio has found nearly 200 matches with DNA in a criminal database.

A couple weeks ago, the White House announced they’d devote $35 million in next year’s budget to grants for processing unopened kits. We’ll be watching closely to see if congressional Republicans block that modest effort to help communities bring rapists to justice and prevent sexual violence.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing.

Haley Morris-Cafiero is an artist, a photographer, and a scorned body.  Aware that her appearance attracts disgust and mockery from some, she decided to try to document people’s public disdain.  The result is a series of photographs exposing the people who judge and laugh at her.  She chose to publish several at Salon:

Dmitriy T.C. was the last of many who’ve suggested I write about this.  I’ve decided against it in the past because I anticipated a critique, one that dismissed the project on the argument that we can’t really know what is going through these people’s minds.  Maybe that cop is just a jerk and he does that to everyone?  Maybe the gawkers are looking at someone or something on the other side of her?  Where’s the proof that these are actually instances of cruel, public anti-fat bias?

In some cases, Morris-Cafiero has a story to go along with the photo.  The girl waiting to cross the street with her, she said, was slapping her stomach.  In another instance, she overheard a man say “gorda,” fat woman.  This type of context makes at least some of the photographs seem more “legit.”

But, as I’ve thought more about it, I actually think the project’s strength is in its ambiguity.  The truth is that Morris-Cafiero often does not know what’s going on in the minds of her subjects.  Yet, because she carries a body that she knows is disdained by many, it is perfectly reasonable for her to feel like every grimace, look of disgust, laugh, shared whisper, and instance of teasing is a negative reaction to her body.  In fact, this is how many fat people experience being in public; whether they’re right about the intent 100% of the time is irrelevant to their lived experience.

And this is how people of color, people who speak English as a second language, disabled people and others who are marginalized live, too.  Was that person rude because I speak with an accent?  Did that person say there was no vacancies in the apartment because I’m black?  Was I not chosen for the job because I’m in a wheelchair?  Privilege is being able to assume that the person laughing behind you is laughing at something or someone else, that the scowl on someone’s face is because they’re having a bad day, and that there must have been a better qualified candidate.

For many members of stigmatized groups, it can be hard not to at least consider the possibility that negative reactions and rejections are related to who they are. Morris-Cafiero’s project does a great job of showing what that looks like.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)