Femonomics reads the internet so you don't have to: cool women on the internet edition

Feminist Philosophers has an appalling story of a woman who was told she would be rescinded admission to an academic seminar if she couldn't "demonstrate" that she had full-time childcare arrangements "to the satisfaction of the Institute directors" throughout the duration of her stay.  Says Edge of the American West: "I can’t figure out why there are so few women in this discipline. It must be because logic is hard."  Anyway, the Feminist Philosophers blog looks cool, and worth checking out for us women in academia.

But don't worry, non-feminists, I have something for you, too.  [NSFW alert!] The cheeky blog Feminisnt, written by a woman who describes herself thusly: "I'm a pornographer, sex worker, atheist, and former 'sex-positive feminist' who grew tired of trying to shoehorn my life into a feminist analysis."  In a recent post, she addresses the assertion that men who pay for sex hate women.  It's an interesting blog to scan for sex-positive feminists or sex-positive feminist-skeptics.  Like I said, when you're not at work!

Speaking of sex-positive feminism, Natalia Antonova has a great response to a piece at Femonade claiming it's impossible for "just sex" to be feminist.  I get Femonade's point, that when people say "just sex" they're often talking about the type of sex that most benefits men (PIV), but often they're not.  I know lots of women who have very satisfying "just sex" relationships (And, let's also remember to consider non-hetero and non-cis pairings, where PIV is not necessarily the order of the day).  For some of them, these relationships will become less satisfying over time, and they'll realize they want something more.  But as Antonova says, let's trust women to make that call for themselves. [Edit: it should be noted that Femonade has exhibited rampant transphobia in the past, so be careful on her site]

This interview with Emma Thompson gives me hope.  Excerpt:

Two years ago she went ballistic when she heard it had been suggested that a young actress on the set of Brideshead Revisited lose a stone in weight. Did she really threaten to quit?

'Absolutely! I would have broken my contract and taken the story to the press.
I am a bit of a fundamentalist about all that size zero stuff - I would have made a big, fat fuss. That was no joke. I would have walked off the set.'

Ask what can be done about such attitudes and she doesn't shrug, like most actresses of her calibre would.  'Put on weight and say F*** off,' she retorts. 'Demand bigger sizes. Go into places where you can't get a 38D bra and say, "I want a 38D bra and give me one. If you can't, I am never coming here again."'