Top Stories of the Year
Friday, December 27, 2019

#7: 9 Young People on How They Found Out They Are Intersex (Teen Vogue) 

Hans Lindahl shares the stories of nine young intersex people, including Johnny, a Black, indigenous, plus-size intersex trans femme. As Johnny says of the intersex community: “We are here. Our bodies are not wrong. Our bodies break the binary. Our bodies are whole. Our stories may seem to always live in the world of sadness, but we are thriving and fighting in a society that constantly erases us. I have to remember to tell myself that my body is powerful, and it is full of the groundbreaking fight for liberation. I am proud to be intersex and live my truth authentically and fully.” Read more.

#6: The rise of anti-trans “radical” feminists, explained (Vox)

Katelyn Burns explores the bigotry of trans exclusionary radical feminist’s (TERFs) “gender critical” ideology: “[The] supposed concern for cis women and children has become the primary method for radicalizing gender-critical feminists, similar to how Islamophobes play up threats of gang rape of white women by Muslim men, or white supremacists have historically painted black men as sexual threats to justify segregation. Defending the purity of white womanhood has always been a significant axis of common bigotries, and gender-critical feminism operates in the same fashion.” Read more.

#5: Disabled people are sharing the worst ‘compliments’ they’ve received (Metro)

The everyday ableism people experience often goes unnoticed. Imani Barbarin, longtime activist, has had enough. That’s why she went to Twitter to expose the ableist  “compliments” she experiences using the hashtag #DisabilityCompliments. It resonated. People across the world tweeted their experiences with harassment and offensive comments disguised as compliments, and the hashtag went viral. “The goal of my work is for disabled people to feel like they have more of an opportunity to feel seen and heard and build community with others using similar experiences,” Barbarin said. Read more.

#4: Gay Men’s Obsession with Masculinity Is Hurting Their Mental Health (them.) 

Gabrial Arana explores masculinity’s impact on gay men as they “reconcile their sense of masculinity with their failure to conform to its compulsory heterosexuality,” a process that can have adverse impacts on their mental health: “While some may dismiss the reverence of masculinity among gay men as ‘just a preference,’ it has documented negative effects on mental health. Gay men who are more gender-nonconforming struggle more frequently with self-esteem and experience higher levels of depression and anxiety. Those who prize masculinity are more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies.” Read more.

#3: “Hustlers” Explodes the Damaging Stereotype of Sex Workers as Thieves
(Bitch Media) 

In her review of Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria’s adaptation of Jessica Pressler’s 2015 New York magazine article, Aya de Leon argues that the film subverts the stereotype of sex workers as thieves: ‘They didn’t make the rules in this post-economic-crash dystopia where patriarchy is determined to leverage financial precarity to exploit women. [...] Though I wanted to see these women using their surplus money for more than individualistic consumerism, the film still manages to be a powerful and moving testament to female friendship, brilliance, ingenuity, and survival.” Read more.

#2: The Best Dating Apps For Non-Monogamous Couples (Refinery29)

Erika W. Smith puts it simply: ethical non-monogamy—“anything outside of a monogamous relationship, with everyone involved knowing and consenting”—is on the rise. Because of this, some mainstream dating apps have made changes to welcome non-monogamous people. Smith shares reviews five of these apps—Feeld, OkCupid, PolyFinda, Tinder, and #open—detailing who the apps are for and what their users are saying. Read more.

#1: Liberal Feminism Has a Sex Work Problem (The New Republic) 

As Melissa Gira Grant contends, by conflating sex work with human trafficking, liberal feminism echoes rhetoric from anti-choice groups and the religious right: “[such] professions of concern for victims of sexual abuse [...] succeed in distracting from the actual effect: maintaining police control over sex workers. In this, anti-sex workers’ rights groups are not so different from anti-reproductive rights groups, and in fact, when it came to opposing the D.C. bill, groups like the anti-choice Concerned Women for America and the National Organization for Women sit on the same side.” Read more.