Women in the DRC are pushing for land rights, and curbing gender-based violence in the process–“We learned that women have a legal right to own the land – that it was Congolese law,” Mwa Namupopa says. “We talked about regional, national and international laws protecting women’s rights and how customs cannot be above laws.” www.positive.news
Becoming Jerry Springer–When Tim Burke remembers Jerry Springer, he doesn’t think of the man who hosted what he calls “the crazy show”. Nor the tabloid provocateur who for many was the lurid avatar of America’s fin de siècle societal decline. No, Burke recalls a young, ambitious activist with an unmistakable touch of showmanship who became a rising political star in the Democratic party in the 1970s. And the time he broke into prison. www.slow-journalism.com
Gender and Its Enemies–Anti-gender politics make strange bedfellows: disappointed radical feminists and Catholic theologians, far-right strongmen and assorted reactionary centrists. In Who’s Afraid of Gender?, the philosopher Judith Butler suggests that the anti-gender movement is ultimately “as much an attack on feminism, especially reproductive freedom, as it is on trans rights, gay marriage, and sex education.” “Gender,” at least as it is used by its critics is an “overdetermined” “phantasm. www.chronicle.com
The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife–For readers of Betty Friedan or viewers of “Mad Men,” the idea that the interior life of a mid-twentieth-century housewife could be anything but tormented is strange, but the trad wives want to reclaim the role and show it as a source of pride and happiness. Though many trad wives voice suspicions of contemporary feminism, there is no singular model. The current queen is Hannah Neeleman, a homesteading mother of eight, who milks cows, bakes, dances, and takes part in beauty pageants, to the delight and incomprehension of her followers. www.newyorker.com
When Kids Are Addicted to Their Phones, Who is to Blame?–But I’ve never been able to silence my inner panic — not just about screens and kids, but about adults. It’s been a private obsession that is tedious to bring up, so I never do. No one wants to talk about it. We’re all on our phones too much, we all know it, and we make our peace with it individually. The idea that parents need yet another thing to feel bad about is perverse. What do I want to do, lose friends? Hate myself forever? www.thecut.com
The last crimes of Caravaggio–In May 1606, Caravaggio’s rackety life caught up with him. He already had a long list of misdemeanours against his name. He had been twice arrested for carrying a sword without a permit; put on trial by the Roman authorities for writing scurrilous verses about a rival, Giovanni Baglione (or “Johnny Bollocks” according to the poems); arrested for affray and assault, in one incident being injured himself (his testimony to the police survives: “I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs. I don’t know where it was and there was no one else there”); arrested again for smashing a plate of artichokes in the face of a waiter; for throwing stones and abusing a constable (telling him he could “stick [his sword] up his arse”); and for smearing excrement on the house of the landlady who had had his belongings seized in payment of missed rent. www.newstatesman.com
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