In the Blog

Mid-Week Round Up: May 21

May 21st, 2015     by Jessie Hale     Comments

Illustration: Erin McPhee

The #ToyLikeMe campaign called on toy manufacturers to create dolls that better represent disability. In response, several small companies have announced that they will begin selling accessories for their dolls, such as walkers and hearing aids, that will help allow children with disabilities to see themselves in their toys. However, larger companies have not responded to the campaign’s demands.

The city of Los Angeles voted on Tuesday to increase its minimum wage from $9 to $15 as of 2020. This is a major victory for the #FightFor15 movement, which has been campaigning for a significant increase to the minimum wage across the United States.

A recent article in the New York Times exposed widespread abuse of nail-salon workers in major cities. Their investigation found that employees in low-cost beauty salons, who are often migrants, are routinely paid far below minimum wage, video monitored, and even physically abused. The Jacobin suggests five ways you can help salon workers in your area.

During an interview on NPR, a professor referred to scientists as “boys with toys,” a comment that many saw as evidence of the ingrained and often unconscious sexism in the science and technology industries. In a playful pushback, women engineers and scientists posted images of themselves at work under the hashtag #girlswithtoys.

In 2012, Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz was raped by a classmate. As her senior thesis, Sulkowicz vowed to carry a dorm-room mattress across campus until her attacker was expelled. He never was, and on Tuesday Sulkowicz carried the mattress to her graduation ceremony. Watch the video here.

The Inside Out LGBT Film Festival kicked off this week in Toronto and runs until May 31. The 25th anniversary of the fest will see screenings of both contemporary and classic queer cinema.

Tags: activist report, art, body politics, gender, lgbtq+, media savvy, news flash, rape culture, recommended reading

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