feature image via shutterstock
A brand new week for you to fill with AWESOME! Hope you had a healthy breakfast.
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Here’s an update from the lesbian moms who gave birth four days apart in December! All the breastfeeding and gayness and cute parenting stuff you could hope for, really.
+ The way you feel about Mississippi’s anti-LGBT law is the way Robin Roberts also feels about it.
+ Oh excellent news, just great: Tennessee Bill on Counselors is the Latest Battleground Over LGBT Issues. Motherfuckers.
+ Pope Francis’s Report Was a Letdown to LGBT Catholics.
+ OK to be Gay: Mothers’ Group Promotes LGBT Awareness.
Doll Parts
+ The women of the new Ghostbusters will keep you company as a Funko Pop. I feel like I need to say that I want a cute lil’ Pop sitting on/near my desk so so badly, but I don’t know which one I want! So I’ve just been silently pining for a perfect Pop match. One of these days!
+ Here’s Why Women Everywhere Will Delete Uber on April 19.
+ Rough Trade’s Andy on New York Scene and Knowledgable Females.
+ This is a list of medical tests that women in their 30s should have done. I can’t bring myself to read it though, so let me know how it goes.
+ Here for this: Celebrating the Sly Subversiveness of Josie and the Pussycats 15 Years Later.
+ The Complicated Dynamics of Disability and Desire.
+ New Quebec Hotline Allows First Nations Women to Report Abuse by Police.
+ Was I Raped Enough to Call Myself a Survivor?
Saw This, Thought of You
+ What was the first home purchase that made you feel like an adult? Mine was probably Slade’s crib.
+ In which we are all on the same page: Welcome to the Schwimmerssance.
+ Finally You Can See Dinosaurs In All Their Feathered Glory. Rejoice!
And Finally
When Given Colored Construction Paper, Wasps Build Rainbow Colored Nests.
oh my god
Okay but the Chariot website doesn’t say what cities it will be in.
First oficial same sex religious wedding ever in Latin America, Romina Charur and Victoria Escobar were married on Sunday by Rabbi Karina Finkielstein.
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/338304/argentina-lesbians-tie-knot-in-first-for-latin-america-jews/
Taking into consideration the words of Bergoglio, I don’t expect to see a lot of catholic church weddings, but I do know about some let’s called it underground catholic weddings that happened.
Rachel Leigh Cook as Josie is one of my main roots, I want to have a chicken-sized dinosaur as a pet, and that wasp is killin it with that psychedelic best aesthetic. A+ roundup.
thank you for linking to that interview with my work wife andy <3
Nope nope nope nope nope on wasps. No matter how cool their nests are.
HOWEVER. All of these links on raising babies up right are making my heart warm and glad.
Ok but I feel like comparing McConaughey and Schwimmer isn’t really fair on Schwimmer… First, he had a shit ton of money after friends and staying out of acting isn’t exactly the same as Matt LeBlanc’s attempts to stay relevant before he finally landed Episodes.
Also, Schwimmer was genius on Friends. They all were, that’s why this show worked. Let’s not pretend his legacy is the equivalent to McConaughey’s…
As long as the wasps (and the WASPs) built nests far away from me. =P
*Golf clap*
I’m ridiculously excited about Chariot for Women!
And they seem like a great company, I love that part of their proceeds go to women’s charities.
Laneia, just a word of warning about Funko Pops. I also started out with just one cute lil Pop on my desk. I think it was a Groot. And I was like, “This is so cute, but I probably won’t get anymore.” But then I did. A lot more. I’m at the point where I don’t even really know where to put them anymore.
But maybe, unlike me, you’re a normal person who can actually control herself so you might have nothing to worry about.
Yeah, I feel like I am really careful about what I get and now I have Baby Groot & Poe Dameron at work and, uh, 10 others at home. SO FAR. #adulting
Same here! I’m planning to get the Poison Ivy. But knowing me, I’ll probably go “But she needs to be with her GF, Harley Quinn! D:” and buy it. Then get Catwoman because…catwoman! And then get Evil Queen from Snow White. Then Maleficent.
See?!?!?!
Yeah, that’s basically how it happened for me, too. Different characters, same story.
I’ve got over 30 of them now. I think I have a problem! But it’s a problem I don’t mind too much.
It wasn’t clear, but does Chariot also work for the non-binary/trans crowd?
I think my first adult purchase and moment was, when I was paying for my taxes. That counts right?
I read a Washington post article on them, and it said that trans women can both ride and drive.
I have this question too, like I always do when some product or service aims to benefit a minority/an under served part of the community but ends up excluding another part of the community that could also benefit from the service (sometimes even moreso) and whose inclusion **wouldn’t do anything to devalue the integrity or original intent of the product or service**.
Yes, women need to take special safety considerations when using a ride share service because they are more at risk of being harrassed. It makes sense that women need their own ride share service. I can’t believe it’s taken this long, to be honest. But the same exact thing could apply to trans and nonbinary folk, probably especially so, we just don’t have data on that because no one thinks to collect it and thus trans and nonbinary folk are automatically deemed “statistically insignificant” and then just plain old “insignificant”. Making this service explicitly available to nonbinary and transmasculine people too would only make this service more awesome and more important in my opinion, and I’d want to support it even more. I think that, because we live in the patriarchy and people are still clinging to the gender binary like their life depends on it, a service like this can’t advertise itself as for women, trans, and nonbinary people because that reads too much as NOT FOR CIS MEN, and when cis men read that the indignation starts to well up and the male tears come a’flowin and the #notallmens come out a’blazin because in the patriarchy it is still wrong to call out men as the problem even when so, so often CIS MEN ARE THE PROBLEM.
Instead, you just gotta say “women get harrassed more so women need their own ride service”.
Who does the harassing? Cis men, mostly, of course. But to identify men as the problem is “bad pr”. Instead it’s pitched as a service for women by women (except, of course, made by a man. A man who feels the need to label his product as FOR WOMEN and give it an all pink interface. Yeesh. Give me a break.)
Still holding out for a No Cis Dudes ride share app tho*crosses fingers*
My only issue there would be some trans men could be included in that category of awful men. I’ve seen posts aroudn the web by trans men who are in/support MRA groups, or are terf supporters. Plus, as I’ve mentioned here in the past what’s to stop a cis man from pretending he is trans to take advantage of the situation.
Then again I wonder how this service will protect their trans customers(more so the trans women/feminine folks who the most vulnerable)?
I absolutely agree. Pretending trans men don’t have male privilege does no one any favours; they aren’t Men Lite, they’re actual real men with stakes in the patriarchy. I for one am glad it will be a service for just women (though I share your concern about how they will protect women who are trans).
I really hate that Chariot was started by a dude. Because he actually DOESN’T know what it’s like to be a woman and all of the things that concerns your average American woman. And yet, he’s making money off of pretending like he does. Ughhhhhhh patriarchy.
That’s my exact feeling on it. Like he’s going to feel really great about himself for saving women or whatever when really he doesn’t actually know what it’s like.
Hence the condescending name…
ugh, yes! chariot for women? seriously? the minute I read it had been founded by a guy though it made sense.
Yes, I completely agree!
I think I want “Ughhhhhhh patriarchy” to be the next Autostraddle t shirt.
I LOVE the idea of Chariot, but I’m wondering if there are going to be issues with both sex and age discrimination. How is it legal to only employ women drivers? How is it legal to only allow male passengers 13 and under?
I’m guessing the age restriction probably uses whatever legal stuff is used to bar people under 13 from PG-13 movies or whatever allows restaurants to set separate menu prices for kids under a certain age, or whatever allows businesses to create senior discounts for people over a certain age.
I often ride in Ubers alone. I tend to take them late at night allllllll the way to the other side of town. I’ve had only two female drivers and many, many male drivers since I started using uber. I’ve never had a bad encounter, but given past trauma, it still gives me pause to ride alone with a male driver.
I like the idea behind Chariot, and I can’t wait to try it out.
So the Chariot app is actually not “for women by women”…a white dude started it.
Also WTF kind of name is “Chariots for women?” Is it supposed to be some sort of chivalry thing? Ew.
If a woman had made this app, I would hope and expect her to do a better job.
The name made me cringe, too. And maybe it didn’t focus-group too well? Per their fb page they are currently having a contest/accepting suggestions for a new name. It has to be better…
I just lost my comprehensive health insurance, good thing I’m up to date with the tests for women 30+
on the website featuring the article about Chariot for Women there’s content in the sidebar titled “Watch Lesbians Touch A Penis For The First Time Because Their Reactions Are Hilarious.” Also, gay men and vaginas. Really quality stuff.
The former, I think. Don’t want to click.
Lesbian YouTube couple Bria and Chrissy made both of those videos to spotlight how dumb it is that society teaches us to be uncomfortable nudity/anatomy/etc. The title is clickbait because it’s YouTube, but the videos are really good.
Anyone else spot that upside down ‘bird’ being flipped at us by the rainbow wasps? Sure, the finger is a little short, but I’m guessing if the wasp was given another colour and some extra time it would absolutely be an upside down middle finger to the world.