Things I read this week that I found interesting

Today is International Women’s Day, which means this blog is celebrating its fourth birthday, because I like making things easy for myself. Yay me. Yay women across the world. I’ve changed a lot over the last four years, having learned a lot from reading excellent stuff by brilliant people, so what better way to celebrate this double special day by doing my weekly linkdump?

Living a Lesbian Life (Sara Ahmed)- On lesbian feminism, and why it needs a revival [note: Sara Ahmed isn’t a transmisogynist, therefore this is actual lesbian feminism, not that bullshit trotted out by TERfs]

Someone Tell Me That I’ll Live: On Murder, Media, and Being a Trans Woman in 2015 (Kai Cheng Thom)- This is a heartbreaking read, but very important.

Why Americans Don’t Care About Prison Rape (Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig)- Upsetting article about the magnitude of the problem.

Rape culture: would prison abolition help women? (Josh Kitto)- Exploring issues surrounding prisons and sexual violence.

‘Not a lesbian’: Aderonke Apata and the impossibly high threshold for asylum claims based on sexuality (Jennifer Blair)- Overview of Aderonke’s case, read and share.

Police Surveillance in Britain (piercepenniless)- This is an enormous problem, here’s why.

Power to the people; A post for International Sex Workers Rights Day (Sometimes it’s just a cigar)- ISWRD was also this week, and here’s why it’s important.

Celibacy Challenge (GLAAD)- Fun campaign video against homophobic blood donation regulations, starring the delightful Alan Cumming.

#DearMe: A Letter to My 15 Year Old Self (That Pesky Feminist)- This is cute, touching, and one of my favourites along this meme I’ve seen.

#ThisIsLuv: A Black Bisexual Manifesto (Crystal Fleming)- Touching, passionate and articulating the problems Black bisexuals face.

Who’s Afraid of Call Out Culture? Jerks, Mostly. (Kitty Stryker)- Kitty points out bad faith in a lot of articles about “toxic call out culture”.

The Logic of Whiteness (Ronald A. Kuykendall)- On white constructions of criminality.

Are We Mistaking Feelings for Politics? (Sarah Jaffe)- On the rise of “feelings journalism”.

#blackoutday (Amadi Talks)- Beautiful piece on the necessity of initiatives like #blackoutday.

And finally, my friend Elaine is doing a really cool challenge. She’s going to visit all 170 embassies in London dressed as Carmen Sandiego. She’ll be raising money for refugees and migrants, who can’t travel the world so easily. Donate to this really brilliant project.