Feminism and Sexism in Geekery 4

So in the annals of online sexism this week has been so darn quiet, right?  I mean what in the world would anyone post about?  It's all sunshine, dandelions and puppies, right?

NOPE

Sexism is alive and well this week. This week got off to a roaring start with Serena William's doing some slut shaming in Rolling Stone.

"I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16-year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you: don't take drinks from other people. She's 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn't remember? It could have been much worse. She's lucky. Obviously I don't know, maybe she wasn't a virgin, but she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different."

She then quasi-denied/implied the quote was made up.  But really, who makes shit like that up?  Her denial wasn't even really a denial and she apologized for the things she supposedly said.  Either deny it or admit to making a mistake, this response seemed fuzzy at best.  And prickly fuzzy, not warm and fuzzy.

Read More here
I'm linking Deadspin for 2 reasons. #1 It's where I first saw the article #2 It's a publication that caters to men (Well not really but I'm assuming they would say they do. Anyone can love sports and Deadspin. I do!) and I'm pretty happy that we're getting to the point where men recognize slut-shaming too.

As for the rest of the week, it's been surpisingly not very sexist, right?

NOPE

Actually there has been potentially the biggest blow-up ever over rape-culture and what constitutes sexual assault.  It started when someone on tumblr posted a Kickstarter project that's basically a "how to sexually assault women" manual, but they call it "picking up women."  Oh rapists, you're so stupid sometimes.  But information on redditt, supposedly directly from the book is very rapey.

“Decide that you’re going to sit in a position where you can rub her leg and back. Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.”

If anyone is confused THAT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT.  Let me repeat.  TOUCHING A WOMAN WITHOUT CONSENT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT.  The guy who created the kickstarter also talks about how he went up to a random woman in a club, pushed her against a wall and started kissing her.  THAT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT.  Do I need to be clearer?  If you want to touch me you need to make sure that's okay with me?  Otherwise I'm calling the fucking cops.

Here is a starting place to read about how this got noticed. 

Here is content from the actual book  

Raw Story covers this crap well 

As does Huffington Post

When people deliver a petition, Kickstarter CONTINUES TO BE ASSHOLES - They are pretty much "Like oh that's bad! But we'll let it be funded. We need that $800 and don't want to deal with making complicated moral decisions." (It shouldn't be that complicated, but alas)

Seanan McGuire summarizes my feelings quite well:

Update

Kickstarter posted an apology that was by all means a good apology, especially since it came with a policy change that will prevent this in the future.  However, I don't understand how it took so long to actually apologize or why they were so rude to the petitioners.  But still, even though this project got funded future projects like this will not get funded.

Third, we are prohibiting “seduction guides,” or anything similar, effective immediately. This material encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works. These things do not belong on Kickstarter.

Read more here