On Friday, Ohio State University released the findings of an independent law firm’s investigation into the sexual abuse committed by former university physician Richard Strauss. During his time at the school from 1978 until 1998, the investigation found that Strauss abused at least 177 male student-patients, many of them athletes, with acts that ranged from overt fondling to more subtle abuse under the guise of proper medical treatment. Complaints about Strauss were never elevated beyond the Athletic Department or the Student Health Center until 1996, after which the University took some disciplinary action but did not take away Strauss’s status as a tenured faculty member. Strauss died in 2005, while still Faculty Emeritus at OSU.
Category: Gender Equality
Gay Sex No Longer Punishable by Death in Brunei
Boycotts do, in fact, work, or at least one did. The Sultan of Brunei has agreed to rescind a law permitting gay sex to be punishable by death, thanks in part to a celebrity boycott of his luxury hotels.
Deadline reports that on Sunday, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah issued a moratorium on a brutal law that made homosexuality a crime punishable by death by stoning. The law, which went into effect on April 3, was part of Brunei’s new Syariah Penal Code Order, which also criminalized abortion, mandated the amputation of limbs for stealing, and made lesbian sex punishable by “40 lashes with a whip,” according to the Human Rights Watch.
Man Who Kept Teen Girl in Sexual Captivity Gets Time Served
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 2017, now-33-year-old Duluth resident Michael Wysolovski was arrested after FBI agents and police raided his home and discovered a 17-year-old girl who had been missing for over a year. Wysolovski reportedly met the unnamed girl in an online anorexia forum, coerced her into meeting up with him, and then held her captive in residences in Decatur and Duluth.
via Man Who Kept Teen Girl in Sexual Captivity Gets Time Served
UK Police Want Rape Survivors to Hand Over Their Phones
According to the Associated Press, law enforcement will now ask victims of crimes, including rape survivors, to sign a consent form that asks for their permission to seize their electronic devices in order to access mobile data that might be relevant to the investigation.
“If you refuse permission for the police to investigate, or for the prosecution to disclose material which would enable the defendant to have a fair trial then it may not be possible for the investigation or prosecution to continue,” the form states, according to the AP.
Swarthmore Students Protest and Want to Transform Fraternities
Students at Swarthmore who arecurrently protesting their college’s two fraternities with a sit-in have an idea. The Washington Post reports that documents were leaked earlier this month from Swarthmore’s chapter of Phi Psi that detailed “graphic descriptions of members’ sexual encounters, including a reference to a ‘rape tunnel’” and a “rape attic” as well as “conversations about women, minority groups and sexual assault that often contained offensive language, such as homophobic and racial slurs.” In response to the leaked information, students demanded the college terminate its housing leases with the frats. When Swarthmore didn’t budge, a group of what eventually became 100 students organized a sit-in at Phi Psi in protest, shortly after which it was announced fraternities would be suspended.
via Swarthmore Students Protest and Want to Transform Fraternities
BFI female film season sparks misogyny row – BBC News
The British Film Institute (BFI) is facing accusations of misogyny over the title of a forthcoming season dedicated to “fierce females”.
The programme includes films featuring “some of the most wickedly compelling female characters on screen”.
But a letter signed by more than 300 academics and critics argued that the title “uncritically parrots” misogyny.
The Playing the Bitch season was programmed by Anna Bogutskaya, who said she hoped to “start a conversation”.
In a blog explaining the project, Ms Bogutskaya said she realised the word had “powerful connotations” that made it “offensive to many”.
Astra Taylor & Natasha Lennard on Anti-Fascism, Women's Protest
It makes a perverse kind of sense that the election of a gleeful, pussy-grabbing misogynist to the highest office in the land would cause a feminist backlash at the grassroots. Since the 2016 presidential election, women have been rising up: marching in the streets, mobilizing their communities, running for office, and winning a whole lot of them. And many have been explicit about their intention to pull this country’s political center to the left. The two democratic socialists to win congressional seats in the 2018 midterm election were not white guys shaped by the old-school mold of Bernie Sanders, but young women of color, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, who defy the alleged division between economics and identity politics with every breath. They, along with Ihlan Omar, point the way toward a forward-looking, appealing, and effective radicalism that we can only hope will continue to catch on.
via Astra Taylor & Natasha Lennard on Anti-Fascism, Women's Protest
CHEER UP LUV
via CHEER UP LUV
Joe Biden on The View: I Don&’t Think I Treated Anita Hill Badly
If his Friday appearance on The View was any indication, Joe Biden is going to have a real hard time addressing his history with women when the issue inevitably comes up (and comes up and comes up) on the campaign trail. He was asked to talk about his treatment of Anita Hill and his tendency to invade women’s personal space and it was a mess.
After much prompting by the show’s co-hosts, Biden reluctantly apologized to the women who accused him of being overly touchy. “Here’s the deal, everybody has to be much more aware of the private space of men and women,” he said. “It’s not just women but it’s primarily women. I am much more cognizant of that.”
via Joe Biden on The View: I Don't Think I Treated Anita Hill Badly
Ex-PayPal Employee Fights to Have Her Gender Discrimination Dispute Heard In Court
Theresa Pasinosky is seeking to have her complaint heard in a trial by jury, but according to a press release, PayPal may force her to settle her dispute by a third party behind closed doors due to an arbitration agreement she says the company had her sign. The case serves as yet another challenge to the practice of forced arbitration agreements, a common legal tool, historically used widely in the tech industry, to keep employees from sharing their horror stories of harassment and discrimination in public.
via Ex-PayPal Employee Fights to Have Her Gender Discrimination Dispute Heard In Court