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MID-WEEK ROUND UP: AUGUST 20

August 20th, 2015     by Jessie Hale     Comments

Illustration: Erin McPhee

(Content warning: graphic description of surgery at link) Writing for Bitch Media, Gretchen Sisson analyzes the representation of abortion in film and television, arguing that it is depicted as both overly violent (14 per cent of women on-screen who consider an abortion die) and overly sanitized (refer to plot lines on Grey’s Anatomy, Girls and the film Obvious Child). She asks:

“How do we understand and represent the corporeal experience of abortion (which involves blood, and often pain, to be sure) without ceding ground to the violent, gruesome, and gory ideas promoted by anti-abortion propaganda?”

The new film Straight Outta Compton tells the story of the hip-hop group N.W.A and their founding in 1980s California. The film is earning rave reviews, but some feminists are arguing that it erases the contributions of Black women. At Feministing, Katie Barnes writes that while Straight Outta Compton:

“is bold, invigorating, and reminded me of all the things I do love about rap music,” its treatment of women “is despicable, completely glorifying the misogyny laced in some of NWA’s lyrics without restraint or critique.”

Meanwhile, Dee Barnes writes about her brutal 1991 attack at the hands of Dr. Dre (an executive producer of Straight Outta Compton), an event which is not discussed in the movie.

The White House has appointed its first openly transgender staffer. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan will serve as outreach and recruitment director of the Office of Presidential Personnel.

The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a bid to block seismic testing off the coast of Clyde River, a hamlet in Baffin Region, Nunavut. Those opposed to the testing project argue that it will drive away sea mammal populations, affecting traditional Inuit hunting practices and harming the local economy. Clyde River residents say they plan to take their case to the Supreme Court.

A new study indicates that First Nations adults are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes than non-Aboriginal Canadians.

This Sunday, WWE’s SummerSlam, one of the network’s biggest events of the year, will feature a much-hyped triple-threat women’s card, a response to the surging popularity of women’s pro wrestling. Mairead Small Staid looks back [http://jezebel.com/the-short-spray-tanned-history-of-womens-wrestling-at-1724525965] at the history of women’s wrestling at SummerSlam.

Tags: activist report, gender, indigenous, media savvy, news flash, race, recommended reading, reproductive justice

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