Links roundup

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Sometimes when I check the stats for this blog to see which sites are referring people here, I find a URL for the stats page of somebody else's blog - usually one that has appeared on the links roundup - and I wonder if clicking on it will lead to an endless recursion of links back and forth. Enjoy this week's roundup!

This is chord-striking: Hugo Schwyzer on self-deprecating jokes as a means of defusing feminist anger. I've seen this done by quite a few men, sometimes without any conscious intent to perpetuate oppression. TW for misogyny in some of the comments.

But one thing I remember from my own college days that I see played out over and over again is this male habit of making nervous jokes about being attacked by feminists. In my undergrad days, I often prefaced a comment by saying "I know I’ll catch hell for this". I’ve seen male students do as they did today and pretend to run; I’ve seen them deliberately sit near the door, and I once had one young man make an elaborate show (I kid you not) of putting on a football helmet before speaking up!
... There’s a conscious purpose to this sort of behavior. Joking about getting beaten up (or putting on the football helmet) sends a message to young women in the classroom: "Tone it down. Take care of the men and their feelings. Don’t scare them off, because too much impassioned feminism is scary for guys."

The always-awesome Marianne Kirby on 'passing' in terms of class, and the invisibilisation of working-class people's experiences:

When people look at me (and my extensive wardrobe) I’m pretty easily pegged as solidly middle class. I wear a really good dress made of middle-class acceptability, middle-of-the-road class identity. I work an office job in an urban area. I travel for work and recreation. I own a computer and a smart phone. My income puts me in this bracket, as do my actions, my education, my interests, and my expectations for what I should be able to accomplish.
But sometimes I think I am only passing as middle class.

OK, so I shouldn't have been watching YouTube videos at work, but I didn't expect to end up in tears in front of the whole office! This clip from a US TV show, about bystanders in a Texas diner responding to homophobic abuse, is just so completely joyful that I couldn't help myself.