The big news: Nigerian army rescued 293 women and girls from Boko Haram earlier this week, and more were reported on Thursday. As of today, the number rescued is now given as 677 girls and women. Many of them fought their abductors. It's unknown if this includes any of the girls abducted from Chibok last year, and it's also unknown how many women and young girls are still being held captive and/or forced into "marriages" with Boko Haram fighters.
The good, the bad and the ugly below the orange whirligig.
As usual, major props to ramara for helping find this week's stories.
Economics and workplace issues:
Pope Francis calls for equal pay for women. On the one hand, that's awesome, and I'm glad to see him once again using his position to argue for economic justice. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to notice that the Catholic Church still practices discrimination against women.
Two female researchers were told in a peer review that their paper could be improved by adding one or two male biologists to help with their research. Publisher PLOS had apologized.
Shaming people on food stamps.
Violence:
In Pakistan, ten men are given life sentences over the shooting of Malala Yousafzai.
Some advertising genius put this on a Bud Light label: The perfect beer for removing "No" from your vocabulary for the night. Budweiser has now issued an apology, claiming they somehow never thought of the rape connotation. Like the folks at Belvedere vodka a couple of years ago?
Cop resigns after his refusal to act on a domestic violence call ends in murder.
After Mike Tyson, should it be any surprise that Floyd Mayweather's track record of violence toward women gets ignored?
Intersectionality:
Rekia Boyd's black life mattered.
Many of the protest organizers in Baltimore and elsewhere are women.
#GoodMuslimBadMuslim is a podcast that explores being a Muslim woman in the US.
"Men's rights" activist gets drunk and harasses women at a white-supremacist conference.
Reproductive Rights:
Colorado Republicans vote to defund a program that reduced teen births by 40% and teen abortions by 35%.
Montana Governor vetoes a bill that would have banned telemedicine abortions.
The Satanic Temple is arguing that Missouri's 72-hour waiting period for abortion violates their religion.
Sharing abortion stories.
In the "water is wet" category: anti-abortion views are frequently linked with sexist attitudes.
Media:
Jezebel rounds up some of the worst offenders for sexist advertising in the early to mid 20th century. Sadly, some things haven't changed.
After yet another interview where Scarlett Johansson is asked about her underwear and a male co-star is asked about his stunts, an interviewer flips the script.
Shit People Say to Women Directors.
Uncategorizable:
A Wisconsin high school distributed fliers telling boys that Prom is A night to protect her character. Yes, of course "character" turned out to mean "virginity."
Notorious RBG observes that the case against marriage equality is built on unequal gender roles.
Good news and action items:
Here's a fabulous photo series of girls in Afghanistan. Forbidden to ride bikes, they've taken up skateboarding.
Congratulations, Attorney General Loretta Lynch!
The Nepal earthquake is following the pattern of natural disasters hitting women harder for a variety of reasons. You can help out here.
Tell Google, YouTube, and Hulu: Stop censoring ads about abortion.