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.

Dates for your diary

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

There are loads of events going on for Oxford Pride - check out their website at http://www.oxfordpride.org.uk/

Some other upcoming events that might be of interest.......

Oxford Queer Studies Circle - TONIGHT

What: Discussion group. The topic this week is ''The Velvet Rage: Queerness & Mental Health''

When:Saturday, May 28th, 7 pm

Where: the Turl Pub (next to Jesus College)

Cost: Free

Find out more



Reading group and discussion on the politics of Slutwalk

What: Meeting to discuss various critiques of Slutwalk and to consider how and/or if an intersectional feminist politics can be made visible on the day of the march.

When: Wednesday, June 1 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Where: Bishopsgate Institute, London E1 (opposite Liverpool St station)

Cost: Free

Find out more

Asexuality and the Queer Community

Posted by Annalytica

NB: This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared on annalytica.dreamwidth.org. This post contains discussion of oppression and abuse which is not detailed but may be triggering.


As Jenni mentioned in her post on Tuesday, there has been a lot of debate in some corners of the internet about whether asexuals are queer, and much of that has centred around whether they are oppressed enough to deserve the label.

 When Jenni posted a piece on her personal blog explaining why, as a hetero-romantic asexual, she identifies as queer and participates in queer communities, she came under attack, including being told that she is straight. Some people have argued that, in referring to the fact that she has been welcomed into other queer spaces, such as Lashings, she is speaking on behalf of queer people, and thereby abusing her so-called straight privilege. So, I'm using this post to speak on behalf of myself, as a queer person who recognises Jenni as queer and welcomes her into this community.

Erasure and Identity

Posted by Jenni

This post began life as a discussion of the ‘I’m-more-oppressed-than-you’ game. There’s been a spate of posts on various sites recently discussing whether asexuals have a ‘claim’ to the queer community, and one argument is that we aren’t oppressed in the same way. Rather than argue this out, I’d much rather share with you my experiences of one particular kind of oppression, one I’m sure many of you are familiar with – erasure.

Links roundup

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Welcome to the weekly Lashings links round up! Feel free to add your own links in the comments, with a brief description and trigger warnings if appropriate.



Oxford Save Our Services are protesting against NHS reforms in Cornmarket on Saturday 28th May

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that gendered words in job adverts may influence the gender balance of applicants.

Athene Donald, one of the winners of the UKRC's Women of Outstanding Achievement Awards, discusses the impact of displaying portraits of outstanding women within science, engineering and technology. The portraits are displayed on the Guardian website

[TW for discussion of rape]

Thomas from YES MEANS YES discusses conversation analysis, and debunks the myth that rape victims are 'misunderstood' by their attackers and/or are to be blamed for 'not saying "no" forcefully enough'. He cites studies that have examined the fact that English speakers in general are socialised to say 'no' in indirect or 'polite' ways, and that both men and women understand this as a social convention -- but also that women in particular are socially penalised for expressing a direct 'no':

That means that they are “communicating in ways which are usually understood to mean refusal in other contexts and it is not the adequacy of their communication that should be questioned, but rather their male partners’ claims not to understand[.]”

Feminist Frequency's series Tropes vs. Women examines the trope of the Evil Demon Seductress

"Bad Science" and bad science.

Posted by Sebastienne





Ben Goldacre - columnist, GP, empiricist hero of the secular left - published a column in the Guardian this Saturday: "How can you tell if a policy is working? Run a trial". In it, he lambasts UK politicians for their lack of interest in the effectiveness of the policies they propose. And he's right, as far as it goes; policies with intuitive appeal are much more likely to be accepted than policies which just happen to be effective. We might think we can increase the intuitive appeal of tried-and-tested policies by educating people (the MPs who will vote, and the public who will later vote on them) on the evidence; but I don't know if anyone has actually run a trial on this approach, so we'd better not rely on it.

There is a real problem here. It is not a trivial proposition, to convince people that their intuitions are not to be trusted - but it's an important goal that anti-oppression activists and pro-science empiricists share, although we rarely acknowledge it.

Dates for your diary

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer

Below are some upcoming events we thought might interest Lashers. If you know of any other relevant events, please post details in the comments.