Short posts, because I didn't get enough sleep for long posts. Here they are:
Straw-feminism on Twitter: Anti-feminist trolls pretending to be feminists create hashtags such as these last week:
Anonymous image board 4chan has a section called /pol/. Sometime around Thursday or Friday of last week, users on /pol/ decided to try and get the hashtag #EndFathersDay trending on Twitter. Users at the time compared it to similar fake activism tags like #WhitesCantBeRaped, which, as a quick search on Twitter reveals, appears to have been a failed prank attempted last week.More about this form of trolling here. I have no idea what motivate these particular examples of trolling, though I'm pretty sure that misogynists would participate eagerly. Others might just like to break things or stir the pot because pranks make them feel powerful.
Speaking of trolls, the founder of American Apparel, Dov Charney, is the reason behind the porn approach the firm uses in advertising of women's clothes. I've wondered about those ads, because the intended buyers are women. Are women to be self-sexual? Aroused by what Dov is aroused by? Who knows.
In Japan, something a bit sexist happened in politics. That's not uncommon in several countries, by the way, the United Kingdom being famous for sexist gestures in the House of Commons when female members give speeches. Men describe boob shapes in air and so on.
What's interesting about the UK use of political aggression is that it's not about what is being said but about who is saying it, and the desired results are probably silent or (even better!) absent women in the corridors of power. It's that generalizing aspect of the aggression which makes it something to write about.
Finally, there are rumors about possible trouble for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Those who have read me before know that I see him as a Ringwraith from Tolkien's Lord of the Ring, obeying blindly the commands of a central conservative think tank. Some background for the case can be found here, and the most recent take here. This is a general article about the history of Walker's climb to power and how it relates to race.