A Body Image, Body Politics, and Body Justice News Roundup

International

• In the wake of a deadly US-led airstrike that killed scores of civilians in Syria, children in the war-torn nation are appealing to players of the widely popular Pokémon Go smartphone game, hoping to attract international attention to their plight. In the photos, posted by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office, children are posting with images of popular Pokémon mascots, such as Squirtle and Pikachu, bearing captions with phrases like “Come save me.”

 

LGBTQI+ Disability & Ableism

• Eddie Ndopu, is a 25-year-old black, queer feminist thinker in Johannesburg. He is a disability rights activist who recently became the first African with a disability admitted to the University of Oxford. Although Eddie received a full scholarship, the funding fails to take into account his disability-related costs while attending Oxford. This link includes a short film of Eddie in his own words discussing the fallacy of independence. “Disability is an offering to humanity to rethink what it means to move, to love, to think, to be human.” -You can support Eddie Ndopu by contributing to the  #OxfordEddiecated campaign on Indiegogo.

• California’s students will learn about the contributions to history and social science of LGBT people in American history. “The California State Board of Education on Thursday voted unanimously on a new History-Social Science Framework that includes “a study of the role of contributions” of minority groups, including “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.” It’s about time.

 

Gender & Justice

• Mike Pence, the Indiana governor recently named Donald Trump’s VP has a vile reputation in

  

  Indiana having refused to admit Syrian refugees into the state, restrictive anti-abortion legislation including defunding Planned Parenthood and support of conversion therapy for LGBT+ folx is well documented. Bitch magazine pays homage to Tanya Walton Pratt, a native Hoosier, who has blocked many of Pence’s attempts to rewrite Indiana law.  She is the first African-American federal judge in Indiana.

 

• Playboy playmate Dani Mathers has been suspended from her job after publicly shaming and sharing a naked photo of a woman at the gym, LA Fitness. She snap chatted the photo stating ‘ If I can’t unsee this you can’t either.’ ” The blonde model uploaded an image where she was coyly laughing at the woman. The Playmate is also under criminal investigation by the LAPD after L.A. Fitness alerted police to the incident of “disseminating private images,” officials told Entertainment Tonight. Rebecca Blackmon a mother of three penned an open letter to Mathers on their facebook page including a nude photo of herslef with the hashtags #UNSeeTHIS #AllBodiesAreBeautiful.” The post received 39,000 likes, more than 4,550 shares and 1,700 comments, with many commenters sharing photos of their own bodies.

 

• Over 24 hours on July 18th, Ghostbusters,. and Saturday Night Live actress Leslie Jones was inundated with racist, hateful vitriol on Twitter. She outed the vicious tweets and called on Twitter to take accountability for allowing this to take place. This sparked a #LoveforLeslieJ hashtag campaign and eventually resulted in the permanent banning of one of the people who assaulted Jones on Twitter. “It is likely, though, that if Jones were not such a high-profile figure, much of the abuse that Twitter has acted on would likely go on without interference, even if it were to be reported. Twitter’s abusive behavior policy is perhaps purposefully vague.” – How a racist, sexist hate mob forced Leslie Jones off Twitter

 

Privilege & Accountability

• “Prosecutors in Baltimore failed for the fourth time to secure a conviction in the Freddie Gray case, with Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams acquitting Lt. Brian Rice of all charges Monday related to Gray’s arrest and death. … [Rice] was the fourth of six officers charged in the case to go to trial, and the third to be acquitted by Williams. Another officer’s trial ended with a hung jury and mistrial.” Freddie Gray is a Black man who died in police custody from “severe spinal cord injuries last year. …His death sparked widespread protests against police brutality.”

 

• Researchers Say The More Whites Are Told Criminal Justice System Unfair to Blacks, the More They Like It Atlanta Black Star recently documented the highlights of the Stanford research study in this video.

 

• This Acronym CLA(I)M,  is a great resource for helping to take accountability and center yourself when called in or called out. Created by Lukayo Estrella, Wordslinger & Educator. Check out more of their work here.

 

• A guide to debunking the need for “All Lives Matter” and its rhetorical cousins

 

Police Brutality

• Charles Kinsey was advocating for his Autistic nonverbal client when shot by police while lying on his back with both hands up in the air.  “As long as I got my hands up, they’re not gonna shoot me. This is what I’m thinking. Wow was I wrong.”

• Last week, as the Black Lives Matter movement approached its third anniversary, Shane Vincent was in the streets of London watching it take hold around the world.

 

• Footage Released of Austin Officer Brutally Arresting 2nd Grade Teacher, Then Tells Victim he Understands Why Whites Fear Blacks 

 

• The lawyer for Sandra Bland’s mother said a former Waller County Jail guard told him under oath that he falsified entries on a jail log, indicating he checked on Bland in the hour before she was found dead when he did not.

 

• On Thursday morning, the WNBA levied fines against three teams and their players for donning uniforms worn to protest the recent spate of police killings of black people. On Thursday afternoon, the players responded. – WNBA Players Staged An Incredible Boycott After Being Fined for Wearing Black Lives Matter Shirts.

 

Art & Culture & Identity

• By now, you’ve probably heard that Kate McKinnon’s character inGhostbusters—the tool-loving, ghostbusting engineer babe Jillian Holtzmann—is the queer action hero of your dreams. But the Holtzmann Is Super Hella Gay narrative misses out on one crucial Ghostbusters detail: THEY’RE ALL QUEER.

 

• Buzzfeed presents What It’s Like When Your Parents Speak Broken English

 

• Ward + Robes custom hospital gowns for kids!An incredible new company is making custom hospital gowns for sick and injured kids and it’s pretty cool.