Linkspam - 25th March, 2014

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

Aaaaand... it's officially spring in the Northern Hemisphere - the hares are haring around, the blossoms are blossoming, and the leaves are... reappearing. Huh.

So - links!

Trudy at Gradient Lair writes "10 Ways That White Feminist and White Anti-Racism Allies Are Abusive To Me In Social Media", with triggers for racist abuse.

On her blog Dances with Fat, Ragen Chastain writes on a recent piece of fatphobic and disablist fail from the International Congress on Obesity: "Ego Over Accessibility".

AFROPUNK contributor Jas offers a powerful personal story with "Gender and the In Between - a Genderqueer's Journey".

Paul Bernal deconstructs an insidious piece of political rhetoric, explaining why ""Hard working people" doesn't work for me...".

Our own Hel Gurney describes "Adventures in microaggressions: misogyny and ablism in public spaces", with reference to a spectrum of abuses including non-consensual physical contact, sexual comments, and misogynistic language.

In Get Bullish, jen Dzuira takes on some of the cosy assumptions of Personal Development gurus with "When "Life Hacking" is Really White Privilege", including mention of general racism and attacks on POCs.

So So Gay notes that Sophia Banks and CN Lester of the Trans Cabal have launched the Songs of Ourselves project "to celebrate the beauty, joy, pride and strength of trans people".

Linkspam: Mary-Sues, Oxford's institutional racism, and Aether album launch

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

Continuing with our catch-up of links we missed over the winter, we have another mix of ancient and modern, lovingly rescued from the thick sediment of the Interwebs....

Following on from the I, Too, Am Harvard campaign, there's now a similar project happening at Oxford - highlighting the othering incurred by students of colour at Britain's oldest university, and with associated triggers for racism.

Dreamwidth blogger kaz makes an important point about "Mary-Sues", turning the whole concept on its head to remind us of a sad truth.

The Ottawa Citizen has an article by Rakhi Ruparelia about our societal reluctance to talk about race, and the collective tendency of white people to pretend not to perceive racial difference. This is a good introduction to the issue within mainstream media.

Allie Shyer writes a thought-provoking Autostraddle piece on fatness and gender flatness, with much mention of internalised and societal fat stereotyping and misogyny, specifically within the writer's queer community. There is also some description of non-consensual physical closeness.

The Mental Health Recovery Archive presents the voices, experiences, and perspectives of four mental health service users, with triggers associated with mental health difficulties.

Mia McKenzie on Black Girl Dangerous lists 4 Ways to Push Back Against Your Privilege - a seriously important article.

And coming up imminently - this coming Saturday, in fact - is CN Lester's album launch for their much-anticipated disc, Aether.

Linkspam: the Oscars, foodbanks, and other things you may have missed from the last... wait, *how* long has it been??

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

So, we seem to be emerging from our customary hibernation, and have a bumper-sized links round-up of things we missed recently.

To begin with a theme, our first two links concern the Oscars...

On The Motley News, charish writes on The Fetishization of Lupita Nyongo - TW for discussion of systemic racism, as well as mention of violence (including sexual violence) against women of colour.

Laura Kate at the Geek Agenda tells us Why I can't stand Jared Leto's Oscar win - with references to cissexism, transmisogyny, and violence against trans women.

There's also been continued nastiness from a certain 80s Tribute Government, with Jack Monroe's Thoughts on the foodbank debate, from the public gallery

But the oldest link on this round-up is from 2011, the Social Justice League's Burquas and Bikinis: Introducing the concepts Macroproblematic and Microproblematic - a really useful post that some of us only discovered not long ago; it includes discussion of rape culture, body policing, slut-shaming and general misogyny.

The brilliant Reni Eddo-Lodge recently posted Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race - with triggers surrounding structural racism.

And Michelle Nijhuis suggested One Weird Trick to Undermine the Patriarchy - of particular interest to Tolkien fans and lovers of children's literature.

Gracie Hagen's photography series Illusions of the Body is a fascinating deconstruction of accepted norms of attractiveness, emphasising the effect of pose on people's bodies. This link is NSFW and includes nude photography.

An anonymous academic writes on the culture of acceptance around mental health issues in academia - with a variety of severe mental health issues and outcomes discussed.

We're also just dropping a link to Dr Nadine Muller's site for everyone interested in literature from the Victorian era to the present day, feminism, and the challenges of existing in academia....