WEEKEND REWIND is LadyClever’s round-up of important events and stories that happened around the world over the weekend. Catch up on what you might have missed while you were sleeping in. Because a clever lady always stays informed, even when she’s relaxing.
Kiss Off: This weekend, an excerpt from Lena Dunham‘s New York Times best-selling collection of essays Not That Kind of Girl shares seven year-old Lena’s rather cavalier sexual explorations with her then-toddler younger sister Grace: from bribing and pressuring the littler girl into kissing her, to masturbating in bed next to her sister, and looking at her private parts. The intimate stories might have blended otherwise unnoticed into a book filled with tons of other over-shares and WTF moments, but Lena sums it up with this admittedly-gruesome statement, “[…] anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl, I was trying.” The Internet began gleefully accusting the author of rape, while more level-headed folks merely wondered why she’d share the story so nonchalantly, but frame it so darkly. “Dunham’s anecdotes about trying to kiss her sister and so forth may be off-putting, but it’s important to realize that she was seven,” Refinery 29 reminded critics. “Plenty of kids have awkward “playing doctor” stories of their own, and it’s important to make the distinction between simple childish experimentation and full-out abuse. If the Dunham girls can laugh over this, that should be the end of it.”
Non-Violent Femmes: “If you’ve been wondering where the repercussions are for harassers who have defamed the personal and professional character of female developers, revealed women’s personal details online, and threatened terrorist acts, you’re not alone,” The Mary Sue wrote, sharing that developer and #gamergate target Brianna Wu is establishing a legal defense fund for her embattled sisters. These women have fled their homes, lamented that their families have been tortured and harassed, their dirty laundry has been aired, and they’ve shared fears that their names will forever be associated with this campaign of hatred rather than remembered for their hard work at their craft. Doesn’t that sound like textbook defamation to you? “One of the biggest ways Gamergate operates is character assassination,” Wu posted on her Tumblr. “Well, we have laws protecting you against that. I’m not a lawyer, but the fund will pay lawyers to find cases on libel and defamation and prosecute them in civil court. These cases might be mine, or they might be other women targeted by Gamergate. It will be cases the legal team feels they can win.” #solidarity
RIP Brittany: She made headlines for moving to Oregon to end her life legally after a devastating terminal brain cancer diagnosis at the age of twenty-nine, but she stayed in the news because her spirit was so lovely and her story so harrowing. On Saturday, Death with Dignity advocate Brittany Maynard ended her own life as the cancer began reaching its pinnacle, with the aid of lethal drugs. Her final social media post on Saturday bid farewell to friends and family and reflected on her time: “The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type… Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!” Read the full post at Jezebel.
Got Vegan?: Swedish researchers found that women who consumed three or more glasses of milk a day were nearly twice as likely to die, and even a single glass of milk daily increased women’s odds to 15 percent. “The researching professor from the study said that the simple-sugar galactose could be the harmful element, as it can inflame,” according to The Cut. However, thankfully, dairy products like ice cream, yogurt, cheese, etc. somehow apparently have the opposite effect on lifespan or, as The Cut so succinctly put it: “Gross slurp-slop is bad for you; scrumptious nibbles from heaven are good for you.” Lolz.
Image Credit: AP/Arthur Mola
