Category: Gender Equality

Cyber-flashing: ‘I froze when penis picture dropped on to my phone’ – BBC News

~ mcequality

Looking at my phone on the journey to work, a picture of a naked man pops up on the screen, and a heatwave of embarrassment warms my body, as if I were the one naked and exposed.
My iPhone was asking me whether to accept or decline a nude picture from a stranger via AirDrop. He had used a filter, sharpened his slim body, blurred the background and was posing in front of a mirror with an erect penis. That’s a lot of effort to put into a picture intended for a stranger.
My response was immediate: decline. But I couldn’t reject the insecurity and fear it left me with.

via Cyber-flashing: ‘I froze when penis picture dropped on to my phone’ – BBC News

How the New Supreme Court Discrimination Case Could Affect LGBTQ Workers

~ mcequality

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to review discrimination cases of three LGBTQ employees in the workplace—a pivotal decision that could very well result in the changing of protections for LGBTQ workers across the country. What hangs in the balance? And when will a decision be made? Here’s what you need to know about how crucial the next year will become for the LGBTQ community.

via How the New Supreme Court Discrimination Case Could Affect LGBTQ Workers

Judge Michael McShane to Block Anti-Abortion Title X Gag Rule

~ mcequality

Donald Trump’s mission to weaken the nation’s only federal family planning program has been temporarily thwarted: on Tuesday night, a federal judge said he plans to block the sweeping changes that would have barred providers from informing discussing abortion with patients, and would further enable the rise of anti-abortion Christian family planning centers.

Politico reports that Oregon’s U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane plans to grant a preliminary injunction against the so-called “gag rule” in response to a lawsuit brought by 21 state attorneys general (including Washington D.C.). The rule changes, scheduled to go into effect May 3, would have barred funding from family planning organizations that perform abortions, or even refer patients to abortion providers. They also would have required clinics that offer abortions to create separate physical barriers, including maintaining separate medical records and staff.

via Judge Michael McShane to Block Anti-Abortion Title X Gag Rule

Indiana Bans Most Common Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure

~ mcequality

Indiana, the state that gifted America its current Mother Boy, now has two new anti-abortion laws on its books: Come July, the state will ban the very mundane and safe method of abortion that’s called dilation and evacuation, and will allow any nurses, pharmacist, or physician assistant to refuse to participate in offering abortion care.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed these anti-abortion bills—the House Enrolled Act 1211 and Senate Enrolled Act 201—into law on Wednesday, and both are set to take effect on July 1. The first bill prohibits dilation and evacuation abortion in all instances except when a “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”

According to the the Times of Northwest Indiana, “anti-abortion lawmakers claim the procedure is ‘barbaric’ because it requires a doctor to use forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments to remove a fetus from a woman’s uterus.” (What do these men think of vasectomies, I wonder?)

via Indiana Bans Most Common Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure

Sterling Jewelry Expose Alleges Sexual Harassment, Wage Discrimination

~ mcequality

The New York Times Magazine has published a lengthy expose into the corporate culture of Sterling Jewelers Inc, a corporation which dominates the mall jewelry business with brands like Jared and Kay. It is not pretty.

The Washington Post initially broke the story of employees’ widespread harassment allegations back in 2017, and there is a large class-action lawsuit over the company’s pay practices currently winding its way through the courts. Now Taffy Brodesser-Akner has a new feature for the New York Times Magazine detailing the company’s apparently rotten culture over the decades, alleging gender discrimination in wages and sexual harassment and providing a thorough accounting of how a toxic workplace is created and maintained. She writes about the mountain of sworn statements collected for the lawsuit, which after years is still stalled in litigation:

via Sterling Jewelry Expose Alleges Sexual Harassment, Wage Discrimination

Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

~ mcequality

US actress Chloë Grace Moretz knows a thing or two about LGBT education.
Growing up in the conservative Christian town of Rome, Georgia, two of her brothers felt they had to “pray the gay away” before coming out.
That led to her taking a role in last year’s Miseducation of Cameron Post, where she played a character who was sent to a gay conversion therapy centre.
Now, with stories about equality teaching hitting the headlines, Moretz tells the BBC that there should be “no age limit” for learning about these issues.
Speaking from Los Angeles ahead of the release of her new psychological thriller, Greta, the star says: “I think children know what you teach them.
“I had two gay brothers in my family, and our little cousins have known my brothers as gay from the time they were little bitty babies.

via Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

Inside the Thai Spiritual Haven Run by an Alleged Sexual Abuser

~ mcequality

Koh Phangan is a small island in southeast Thailand known to tourists for its parties and beautiful beaches. The beauty of the locale also lures visitors in search of relaxation and spiritual awakening. Among the island’s most popular schools is Agama, a yoga community led by Swami Vivekananda Saraswati, whose teachings have attracted thousands of students since opening in 2003.

Only recently have allegations of sexual assault by the Swami come to light, as reported by the Guardian. (Agama and the Swami deny these allegations.) This short documentary is an in-depth look at how the school—led by one charismatic leader—is accused of fostering a culture of abuse and manipulation under the guise of healing and enlightenment. Janja Lalich PhD, a sociologist and specialist in coercive influence, also explains how leaders can assert power in isolated groups.

via Inside the Thai Spiritual Haven Run by an Alleged Sexual Abuser

Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a ‘diversity disaster’

~ mcequality

The consequences of this issue are well documented, from hate speech-spewing chatbots to racial bias in facial recognition. The report says that these failings — attributed to a lack of diversity within the AI sector — have created a “moment of reckoning.” Report author Kate Crawford said that the industry needs to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, and that the use of AI systems for classification, detection and predication of race and gender “is in urgent need of re-evaluation.”

Indeed, the report found that more than 80 percent of AI professors are men — a figure that reflects a wider problem across the computer science landscape. In 2015 women comprised only 24 percent of the computer and information sciences workforce. Meanwhile, only 2.5 percent of Google’s employees are black, with Facebook and Microsoft each reporting an only marginally higher four percent. Data on trans employees and other gender minorities is almost non-existent.

via Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a ‘diversity disaster’

Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

~ mcequality

Several former employees at Andarako Petroleum Corporation, an oil company that employs more than 4,000 people, are alleging sexual harassment at the company’s Denver office. The report is a particularly egregious example of workplace sexual harassment, in an industry that is around 80 percent male.

Bloomberg reports on a 2017 letter written by former employee Robin Olsen with the help of a lawyer, in which she wrote, “Anadarko has a culture of treating women as sexual playthings who are present at work merely for men’s sexual gratification.”

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Six former anonymous employees also alleged serial sexual misconduct and alleged gender-based discrimination.

via Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

A Bookstore of One’s Own – The New York Times

~ mcequality

LONDON — Lamb’s Conduit Street seems almost too adorable to be real, as if Ye Olde Fantasy Englande, the one that exists in your head, had suddenly sprung to life. But it feels exactly right that this cobblestone thoroughfare in Bloomsbury, filled as it is with idiosyncratic shops selling artisanal cheese and homemade cakes and other rarefied items, should also be home to Persephone Books, a gem of a place devoted mostly to overlooked works by female writers of the mid-20th century.

Walking into the shop feels for a moment like walking back in time. Vintage posters exhort wartime women to, for instance, Join the Wrens, the British women’s naval service. But the present is here, too. In the window is a blowup of Senator Mitch McConnell’s ill-tempered remarks about Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2017, using language that sounds decidedly “Jane Eyre”-ish: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

via A Bookstore of One’s Own – The New York Times