“She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop … This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don’t think so.”

Self-described Indian “spiritual guru” Asaram Bapu told his followers that “guilt is not one-sided” in the case of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey who was brutally gang raped on a bus last month. She later died from her injuries. 

Unfortunately, Bapu is not alone in his mindset. Here, 6 examples of politicians blaming the victim. 

Photo: AP/Saurabh Das

Honda has designed the Fit She’s, “the only car model aimed exclusively at women.” The designers took a regular Honda Fit and made it “adult cute.” The seats, steering wheel, and floor mats are all stitched in pink, and the apostrophe in “She’s” is shaped like a heart. Wrinkles, be gone: A special windshield cuts ultraviolet rays, and the AC unit allegedly improves the driver’s skin quality.

7 patronizing for-women-only products

(Source: theweek.com)

Finally, a laptop pretty enough to entice women into using it! The ”Floral Kiss” laptop ”features a flip latch that can easily open the display — even by users with long fingernails.” It comes daintily adorned with gold and pearl designs, scrapbooking software and daily horoscopes. The whole thing is “insulting,” says Jenna Sauers at Jezebel — just like these 6 equally patronizing products designed for the ladies. 

Meet Pussy Riot, the feminist punk band that might just be the greatest threat to Vladimir Putin’s rule. 

Three members of the band — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria Alekhina, all in their 20s — went on trial this week on charges of inciting religious hatred for holding an anti-Putin protest in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February. Specifically, the trio is accused of hooliganism and hate crimes for conducting a boisterous “prayer” to the Virgin Mary to kick Putin out of power. (A video of the protest, which went viral, can be seen here.)

The young musicians each face seven years in jail, and the severity of the potential punishment has drawn international condemnation, with stars like Sting and Madonna calling for clemency and Amnesty International describing the three women as “prisoners of conscience.”

Keep reading…

A South Dakota appeals court ruled this week that doctors must tell women seeking abortions that they could be more prone to kill themselves if they have the procedure — even though the supposed link between abortion and suicide is based on arguably bogus evidence.

Anti-abortion groups cite two studies that found an increased suicide risk among women who had abortions. But the studies did not determine that abortion caused the increased risk. In fact, the American Psychological Association called the link “misleading,” stating that “the best scientific evidence indicates that the relative risk of mental health problems among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy is no greater if they have an elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver [the baby].”

So why are doctors being required to tell women otherwise? 

Is new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer being set up to fail? 

As the first pregnant woman to lead a major company, her appointment was hailed as a huge step toward gender equality in corporate America. However, others see her rise as part of a depressingly familiar pattern known as the “glass cliff,” a term coined by academics a few years ago to describe a phenomenon in which women are more likely to be named the head of a company when it is struggling. 

Is Mayer the latest victim of the glass cliff?

Science: It’s a girl thing! 

The European Union is sponsoring a three-year campaign to encourage young girls to study science and engineering, but a teaser video for the effort has caused feminists — and pretty much everybody else — to erupt in protest.

The video, called Science: It’s a Girl Thing, features young women gyrating and doing “science” while wearing stilettos and short dresses. As the women saunter into view, a male scientist looks up from his microscope, puts on glasses, and leers. Random shots of lipstick flash on screen, interspersed with images of lab equipment and sexy young women casting come-hither looks and doing math. The campaign yanked the video from its website shortly after the wave of criticism hit.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, looks back on her 18 months at the State Department in the current issue of The Atlantic, and comes to a contentious conclusion: Women still can’t have it all. 

Slaughter lays the blame for her conundrum squarely at the door of feminism, saying the movement misled women into believing that they could have a high-powered career and a family. Slaughter’s manifesto quickly became the most-read article in the history of The Atlantic’s website, and has sparked lengthy responses across the internet. Here are some of the most notable:

1. Feminists don’t claim that “women can have it all” 
Slaughter’s entire premise is a straw man, says Maha Atal at Forbes. The feminist movement never promised women “the ability to have a completely unencumbered, full-time career and a completely involved, cook-dinner-every-day experience of motherhood without making any compromises.” The “have it all” concept “was the brainchild of advertising executives, not feminist activists,” says Stephanie Coontz at CNN.

2. Besides, “having it all” is an impossible standard 
“We should immediately strike the phrase ‘have it all’ from the feminist lexicon and never, ever use it again,” says Rebecca Traister at Salon. “It is a trap, a setup for inevitable feminist shortfall.” The “have it all” mindset “sets an impossible bar for female success, and then ensures that when women fail to clear it, it’s feminism — as opposed to persistent gender inequity — that’s to blame.”

3. Men would also struggle in Slaughter’s position 
Slaughter’s job at the State Department was so demanding that she suddenly has an easier go of it by falling back to being a full-time Princeton professor who writes books and gives 40 to 50 speeches a year,says Coontz. Really, her grueling government career would be “incompatible with family obligations and pleasures for men as well as for women.”

More responses

(Source: theweek.com)

Hooter’s top three competitors — Twin Peaks, Tilted Kilt, and Mugs N Jugs — each grew by at least 30 percent last year. Why are “breastaurants” succeeding while mid-price options such as Applebee’s and Bennigan’s have experienced declines?

“Why bother dining out if you’re not going to have a unique experience?” says Maressa Brown at The Stir. Most restaurants have some sort of “schtick to get people in the door,” and for breastaurants, “waitresses showing a little skin and serving regular ol’ pub food in a fun, kitschy way just happens to be theirs.” That’s why, as “a longtime self-described feminist,” I’m all for these “almost unavoidable, non-threatening” signs of the time.

Keep reading

Feminists are mad at Natalie Portman for saying that motherhood is her ‘most important role.’