The Internet Becomes A Bit Less Misogynist; Janet Mocks People Suffering from Cisness

This past week, Google decided to pull misleading ads from pregnancy crisis centres that claimed to offer abortions, but were really just tricking women so they’d come in to the centre and be talked out of having one.

Then there’s the loveliest video I saw this week, which was a discussion amongst queer Black women about identity and self-representation. Watching it, I felt very much like I was an interloper in someone else’s space, which I was. But I’ve passed it on so readers who belong to that space can experience their messages, and because the women who speak in it are visionaries whose words should be heard.

People Continue to Think it’s Okay to Ask Trans* Strangers About Their Genitals

This week, Janet Mock gave the best example possible of transsexism in interviews. She asked Fusion’s Alicia Menendez whether or not she had a vagina.

“What’s so amazing is that if I were to look at you, I would never have known that you weren’t trans,” she said, asking whether she felt “her cisness held her back.”

Menendez said she hadn’t realized how painful it is to be on the other side of those kinds of questions. Mock responded that even in the good interviews she does, people expect her to give up deeply personal information and answer ignorant questions.

The result was another teachable moment. Genius.

Screenshot via YouTube.
Queer Women Of Colour on Posing Nude and Autonomy of Self

And in other Janet Mock news, here is a beautiful video of five Black, queer women thinkers and activists discussing being true to themselves, honouring their communities, posing nude, and owning their own bodies.

Mock, Elixher editor Kimberley McLeod, and storytellers and artists Kim Katrin Crosby, Mia McKenzie, and Tiona McClodden are talking about the new issue of Elixher—in which they all pose—called “Baring Our Truths: Reclaiming Our Bodies + Narratives.” From Crosby, as she talks about her taking care of her health and coping with a recent illness:

“Going through this whole new relationship-building with my body has been something that I think is really denied to black women, and women of colour, and queer women. And a relationship that feels like an autonomous one over our body, I think, is a complex one to keep trying to claim…

“When I go to speaking engagements, I’m very femme. I’m into bright colours and lots of boobs and short skirts, and I think it’s really important for me to challenge what people think intelligence looks like, and power looks like, and radicalness looks like.”

These five women are true teachers in this world, creating important safe spaces and discussions.

Check out the video, or pre-order the mag. Screenshot via NARAL.
Google Kills Misleading Anti-Choice Ads

In a win for women this week, shaming from pro-life nutters was reduced a teeny bit—on the internet, at least. Google took down several misleading ads that pretended to offer abortion services in order to lure women in, only to lecture them about why abortions are super evil.

Google’s decision to ban the ads was prompted by an investigation conducted by NARAL Pro-Choice America, which campaigns for a woman’s right to choose. That investigation found that no fewer than 79 percent of phony abortion clinics that advertised with Google claimed to offer a full range of family planning services, but in reality only offer alternatives to abortion and counseling services.

Google made it clear that they didn’t ban all crisis pregnancy centres that don’t offer abortions, only the deceptive ones. While the more limited options tend to shame women (and not be as useful), at least Google took action on the misleading nature of their ads. It makes knowing that they own every tidbit of information about me slightly palatable. Screenshot via VICE News.

Um, Why Is No One Talking About These Kidnapped Nigerian Girls?

I generally write what I know, and that’s mostly limited to North American culture. But I had to include this deeply frightening, shocking story: Over 200 girls and young women, from ages 12 to 17, were captured from their school in Nigeria, and are being sold into marriage for $12 to Boko Haram militants. They were abducted two weeks ago, and you can read more about it on VICE News. It’s suspected that the girls have been taken across the border, to Cameroon and Chad, but those reports have not been verified.

How about those governments take up the cause and verify them?

Reportedly, it’s going to take international assistance to retrieve the stolen women and girls, according to a federal senator for Borno, in northeastern Nigeria. Okay, fine, but when? Is it going to be before they’ve all been married off to and impregnated by their captors? Like Canada’s failure to conduct a proper inquiry into its missing and murdered Indigenous women, this is an absolutely shameful situation, and the parents of those who are missing are duly outraged. In the words of one father to Agence France-Presse:“May God curse every one of those who has failed to free our girls.”

Mainstream media outlets need to spend less time trying to crawl up Kim Kardashian’s ass and more on reporting—and helping to end—dreadful stories like these.

@sarratch