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Welcome back to Byte Me, our feminist newsletter that makes everyone mad <3
Some updates from us: Cara is continuing to shock Britain with her football prowess â her team has moved up to a higher league. While Anoukâs trampolining classes have unfortunately been canceled, her terrifying cat is still very large. Gigi is going through a housing crisis, so sheâs very tense, but going to the movies a lot â to continue the pussy theme, Cats has been her (un-ironic) favorite. Also, Cara and Gigi both have birthdays this month, so wish us happy birthday.
[Also read our previous issue:Â Byte Me #10: Very old dildos, deadly lipstick, and a tanned asshole]
Each month, our gloriously gifted designer, SaĂŻna, illustrates a weird comment or tweet we receive from one of TNWâs misogynistic, or just funny, readers. Hereâs the latest:
⌠hereâs SaĂŻnaâs artistic interpretation:
Not to brag, but every month we get numerous shows of admiration from people writing in or tweeting to tell us how much they love this newsletter, and by extension, us. Shout out to Madisen, Nadia, Vanessa, and Paul <3 We agree that weâre great. Now onto the news!
the bloody news
- MEL Magazine published a story on why no one accuses men of âfucking their way to the top.â
- The New York Times: Iranâs only female Olympic medalist defected over âliesâ and âinjustice.â
- Aeon questioned whether artificial-womb technology could be a tool for womenâs liberation.
- There has been a huge amount of incredibly sexist and racist discussion over Prince Harry and Meghan Markleâs decision to step back from royal life. A few articles that unpacked this well include âBlack Britons know why Meghan Markle wants outâ from The New York Times and âHarry and Meghan were meant to embody post-racial Britain. So much for thatâŚâ from The Guardian.
âMeghan Markle and her husbandâ
content we love to see. https://t.co/p7hUrtRB1U
â Mimi ?â? (@sa_vvy_) January 8, 2020
- These scientists developed #MeTooBots to fight workplace sexual harassment â but we shouldnât rely on it.
- From Medium: âI now know why my mom hated âThe Simpsons.'â
- NPR reported that a female arctic fox walked 3,500km from Norway to Canada.
Ugh, what canât women do? - New gender research shows how tech failed to fix its gender disparity problem over the past decade.
- From The Atlantic: How the early internet can be explained by one weird Celine Dion fan site.
And hereâs a video of her telling Drake not to tattoo her face on his body. - The latest from Code Word: The team from Immerse wrote about how we can protect users from harassment in social VR spaces. Code Word is an exploration into if â and how â we can protect people from harassment. Check out the rest of the series here!
- Buzzfeed reported on how Instagram model, âNaked Philanthropist,â raised $750K for Australian fire relief with nude photos before her account was deleted.
-
choose your fighter pic.twitter.com/19n1euu4r8
â jordan (@JordanUhl) January 12, 2020
She donated more money than Jeff Bezos.
- The popular Dutch makeup artist and YouTuber, NikkieTutorials, has just come out as transgender after being blackmailed by people who threatened to leak her story to news outlets. Insider profiled her here.
- Airbnb admitted to owning AI technology that targets and discriminates sex workers. (XBIZ)
- This yearâs male-dominated Brit awards have an issue with women, according to The Guardian (and us).
- According to HuffPost, you can now make your home smell like Gwyneth Paltrowâs vagina!
Just kidding, you canât, cos her muff candle is sold out.
thatâs what she said: is it feminist to use your sexuality to get ahead?
Because weâre all magical and unique snowflakes who donât always agree on feminist issues â and subsequently feel like weâre âbadâ women â weâre going to discuss something we found online in each newsletter.
For this monthâs thatâs what she said, weâre discussing using your sexuality to get ahead at work, the âNaked Philanthropist,â and slut-shaming. Weâve linked to our full discussion here, and included the TL;DR below:
Georgina:Â Is it feminist for a woman to use her sexuality to get something?
Anouk:Â I think that when men/women use sex to better their position, it fucks up the whole dynamic within an organization, and others are affected too.
Georgina: True, but that might be the goal? By âfucking up the dynamicâ you could be fucking up patriarchal organizations⌠that seems to be a common reason why women do it, like, to get on the same power playing field as men.
Anouk: But adding sex to the mix (at least for women) doesnât really level the playing field â I think it actually sets both groups apart more.
Georgina:Â But saying itâs anti-feminist is also blaming women a bit for the situation theyâre in.
Cara:Â Yeah the responsibility of changing a âboys clubâ culture shouldnât fall on women, but it usually does.
Georgina: I guess what Iâm trying to say is that thereâs an idealized version of feminism, where weâre all educated, and weâve read the right articles and books, and we know whatâs right and wrong, black and white⌠but there are cases where women are just without any fighting power and trying to make a living. I canât blame them for using whatever they can, even if it is not necessarily beneficial to the greater good.
Cara:Â There are so many different realities of feminism, so the middle ground is hard to find. Youâll probably find itâll be the white, middle-class feminists saying âsleeping your way to the top is wrong.â
Anouk:Â Thatâs true â but still, even those who might not have other choices, while I donât think they deserve to be slut-shamed and I do have compassion, that doesnât make it feminist.
You can check out our full discussion here.
Feel free to comment on the document with your thoughts, or send us an email!
the best and the worst
In this section, we ask women much smarter than us about the best and worst piece of professional advice theyâve ever received. This week we asked Hallie Lieberman, who holds the worldâs first PhD in the history of sex toys, and is the author of âBuzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toyâ â a look at humanityâs favorite plaything explaining how a cold, stone penis became the hi-tech vibrator it is today, and what hurdles it jumped on the way.
The best?
âThe best was from my dad who always encouraged me to pitch my writing everywhere and ask anyone for an interview by telling me, âthe worst they could say is no.â As my favorite filmmaker John Waters likes to say: âa no is free.'â
The worst?
âThe worst advice I received is from a professor who told me to wait to write about sex toys until after I got tenure because it was too risky. My response was, âNo! Iâm writing about sex toys now! Iâll never get tenure! And if I canât get an academic job, Chiliâs Bar and Grill told me they will always take me back as a waitress.'â
Read Liebermanâs full AMA here.
tweets of the month
after successfully logging into my appleID on the third try, I whisper to myself âa woman in STEMâ
â ?????? ?????? ????? ?? (@rabbitwhite) January 14, 2020
My favorite part of being a girl is saying âsorryâ as I hold the door for another woman as she replies sorryâ
â god gives me top (@zoe_dubno) January 9, 2020
I always think itâs sweet when a guy writes a little article. Good job with the spelling baby
â Rachel Sennott (@Rachel_Sennott) January 9, 2020
mrs bucket made all those sacrifices to raise her son and grandpa joe is the one who gets to take him to willy wonkaâs factory? i donât fucking think so!! that movie shouldnât even have been called Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory that movie shouldâve been called Mrs Bucket
â rax king (@RaxKingIsDead) January 6, 2020
men be like Iâm bilingual I speak English and over women
â Arely (@arelygabriela_) January 13, 2020
Love these tweets and want more? Follow @byte_me on Twitter for clear skin!
word of the month: brofanity
To true bros, some things are better left unsaid.
Language is a funny thing. Words like âcuntâ or âfuckâ can make certain people cringe, while others â us included â gloss over them without much further thought.
But which words make a broâs neck hairs stand on end? Which phrase will never leave a broâs lips? In short, what qualifies as brofanity?
In the first category of brofanity: Latin names for female body parts. Vulva. Vagina. Has any bro ever whispered âLet me caress your labia,â to you in the dark? No? Our point, exactly.
[Fun side note here: Many parts of the female reproductive system have been named by, and after, bros. Yet they WONâT SAY IT? AND PROBABLY DONâT EVEN KNOW WHERE ANY OF THESE REPRODUCTIVE PARTS ARE? Thanks a lot, Gabriel Fallopian.]
Second category: Bros arenât keen on feminist lingo, either. Words like âpatriarchyâ and âgender fluidityâ can be crossed off the list. They donât exist to them, anyway.
The final, more complex category consists of language used by bros to hurt other bros: The deadliest sin of bro-dom. Itâs perfectly illustrated in this comment:
Dear bros, donât ever call your bros âbitch.â Not in a bar. Not in private. Just donât. Itâs totally OK when describing your new girlfriend, though.
How to use in a sentence:
- âOh, the brofanity!â Nate exclaimed when accidentally catching a glimpse of some female armpit hair.
- âExcuse my brofanity here, but she said âall men are trash.'â
- âUs white men just canât say ANYTHING anymore, while feminists have normalized brofanity,â Chad sighed.
What do you think of Byte Me? Love it? Tell us. Hate it? Tell us â as female journalists we love hate mail.
Donât forgetâŚ
<3 The TNW shrews
Cara ([email protected]
Anouk ([email protected])
& Georgina (georgina@thenextweb.com)
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