Sympathy for the Rape Apologist?...

Yesterday, Harpyness reader Christopher F. wrote me about the firestorm of controversy surrounding a recent student column in the Daily Princetonian. In “The Real ‘Sex on a Saturday Night‘”, freshman Iulia Neagu explains that women who are raped while inebriated have only themselves...

Airport Security: Now With More Asswease...

Yesterday dudely Harpyness fan Christopher F. sent me a link to a column on Philly.com about an incident at the Philadelphia airport which pretty much sews up everything I hate about air travel and everything I hate about the Patriarchy. Thanks, Chris! Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University...

A Bitch’s Work Is Never Done...

Yesterday, while on a walking tour of the spice market in Old Delhi, I punched a guy who groped my ass on a crowded sidewalk. I only got him in the arm, but he dropped the package he was carrying and scurried away, which made me feel somewhat better. Our tour guide, a  motherly, middle-aged lady in...

Bitches 1, Mansplainer, 0...

Gentle readers, I know I said I was leaving you for a whole three weeks, but I simply couldn’t head off to India without sharing this story with you. Plus it’s snowing–yes, snowing–here in London and I would rather cozy up to my sister’s laptop than go out again. Anyhoo…I...

Be A Bitch–And Be Vindicated....

Y’all may remember that back in May I had an Evil Cabbie Experience. At the time I wrote: He went out of his way to belittle me, and there was a definite air of leering intimidation about it as well, as he was a big dude and I…am not. There was no doubt that gender played a role here. As one...

All Over But The Shouting...

The most e-mailed article on the New York Times website yesterday was “For Some Parents, Shouting is the New Spanking”. Like most trend pieces in the Thursday Style section, it’s heavy on the generalization and aimed squarely at the Times’s readership of affluent white helicopter...

Shut up, Gawker...

I’ve been too philosophical lately.  In life, I am sort of philosophical, but I also have, as you have sometimes seen, anger issues.  Serious, foulmouthed anger issues.  So let’s get some anger on the table.  Today, I am angry about people lacking fundamental reading/viewing comprehension...

Response from the Feminist Majority Foun...

Posted this afternoon on the Feminist Majority Foundation’s blog  in response to the shitstorm over Peg Yorkin’s pro-Polanski statement in the L. A. Times (comments on the FMF’s blog are enabled–I hope you’ll use them). Statement by Eleanor Smeal, President, Feminist Majority...

An Open Letter to Peg Yorkin of the Femi...

Some of the industry’s most prominent women said they believe Polanski, who faces a sentence as low as probation and as high as 16 months in prison for pleading guilty to having sex with a minor, should be freed. “My personal thoughts are let the guy go,” said Peg Yorkin, founder of...

The List of Shame (or Rape-Apologists R ...

It’s really dispiriting–and utterly infuriating–how many Hollywood types have signed the petition to free confessed child-rapist Roman Polanski. I mean, Woody Allen doesn’t surprise me, but et tu, Wes Anderson? SRSLY, Steven Soderbergh? I can only assume they haven’t read...

SARAHMC SMASH!...

Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee voted against a government-run public insurance option.  Fuckers. Democrats Kent Conrad (ND) and Blanche Lincoln (AR) refused to support a public option, but they did vote to restore federal funding to a program that has been proven to not only be ineffective,...

Don’t Lie About Your Age: A Rant...

Recently I was at a dinner with a bunch of female friends. The five year old daughter of one friend had a birthday coming up, and was extremely excited about it. She kept rolling up on us guests and announcing: “I’m going to be six! How old are you?” We all dutifully reported our ages–which...