Donations greatly appreciated
Topic: Individualist Feminism
I am back from a much needed vacation, and I'll be here every day for the foreseeable future. If you value the blog and ifeminists, please donate to their support at the donation button to the side or by writing to wendy©wendymcelroy.com. I thank you.

Mozilla is eliminating its advocacy division
Topic: Unspecified
Source: The Verge
...which fought for a free and open web / The Mozilla Foundation laid off 30 percent of its workforce in late October. While Mozilla is best known for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Foundation — the parent of the Mozilla Corporation — describes itself as standing up “for the health of the internet.” With its advocacy and global programs divisions gone, its impact may be lessened going forward. “Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We’re revisiting how we pursue that work, not stopping it,” Brandon Borrman, the Mozilla Foundation’s communications chief, said in an email to The Verge. Borrman declined to confirm exactly how many people were laid off, but said it was about “30% of the current team.”

Treasury Calls for Financial ‘Inclusion’ of Homeless, Transgenders...
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: MRCTV
Ex-Cons, Immigrants, Refugees, Etc. The Treasury Department has put out its first-ever “National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in the United States” calling on financial institutions to “address disparities” by lowering their standards and amending their business practices. The goal of the “national strategy” is to increase “inclusion” of so-called “underserved” groups, which it says financial institutions have historically excluded and discriminated against: “This inaugural National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in the United States establishes a framework and set of priority objectives to facilitate consumers’ ability to equitably access safe and useful financial services to meet their financial needs and achieve their financial goals, thereby promoting an inclusive financial system that works to reduce rather than compound disparities.”

Coloring, puppets, crafts: Elite universities prep students for election results
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The College Fix
Harvard, Virginia Tech, and Georgetown offer preschool-level activities for their students. Students at elite Georgetown University can find a safe space tomorrow to color and drink hot chocolate. As Washington, D.C. goes into lockdown over potential election violence, the Catholic Jesuit university is offering students a way to decompress, according to The Free Press. “In recognition of these stressful times all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day,” Jacelyn Clevenger, student engagement director, wrote in an email. There will be a “Legos Station,” “Milk and Cookies,” and tea and cocoa, according to the email.

College Volleyball’s Spartan Meltdown
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Quillette
In a scathing Title IX Complaint obtained by Quillette, a San José State University women’s volleyball coach explains how her school’s aggressively enforced transgender-inclusion policy created a toxic environment for female athletes. On 26 October, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Division I women’s volleyball team was scheduled to host a Mountain West Conference match against the San José State University (SJSU) Spartans. It was a game that everyone knew would never take place, because UNR’s players had publicly declared they wouldn’t be showing up—notwithstanding the stubborn insistence of UNR officials that the university “intend[ed] to move forward with the match as scheduled.” When it became clear that UNR would be required to pay the Spartans’ travel costs if UNR forfeited the match on game day—as everyone knew they would—the location of the (by now, completely imaginary) match was changed to the Spartan Gym in San Jose, California. But of course, when game time arrived, that gym was empty—as everyone knew it would be—because members of the UNR team were busy conducting a press conference explaining why they’d stayed home. And the whole farce concluded with SJSU winning by forfeit.

UK budget: a pittance for crumbling, asbestos riddled schools
Topic: Children and Family
Source: World Socialist Web Site
The UK Labour government’s first budget since coming to office in July does nothing to reverse the cuts to education since 2010 or make schools safe. The UK school estate is in a dangerous, dilapidated state, with ill maintained buildings, some literally crumbling and many thousands riddled with deadly asbestos. [Ed: the answer if to privatize schools, of course.]

Abortion Rights Measures Fail in 3 States, Pass in 6
Topic: Abortion
Source: Newser
Missouri votes to overturn near-total ban on abortions. Reproductive rights didn't just factor into the presidential race: The issue of abortion was on the ballot in 10 states on Tuesday, and results were mixed. A look at partial results: Florida: Voters rejected an abortion rights amendment and kept in place Gov. Ron DeSantis' 6-week ban, per the AP. The initiative failed to reach the required 60% threshold for passage—it was at 57% with nearly all votes counted, per the Hill. The measure faced an uphill battle in the red state where Donald Trump, a Florida resident, said during the campaign that he would vote against it. The Hill notes that Florida is now the first state to defeat an abortion rights amendment since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

TX AG Sues Dr for Prescribing Gender Transition Chemicals to Minors
Topic: Children and Family
Source: The Washington Stand
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed suit against El Paso doctor Hector Granados for prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12 in violation of state law. "Granados unlawfully treated 21 patients with testosterone or puberty blockers for the purposes of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex in violation of SB 14," the lawsuit alleged.

LGBTQ+ organizations eye legal challenge
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: Edmonton Journal
...of Alberta's new transgender policies if passed. "It's impossible to overstate the seriousness of the risks that the Smith government is imposing on the population right now, so both because what she's done is illegal, unconstitutional, and because it will cause such severe harm, we will be challenging it in court". [Ed: of course, I disagree with this sentiment.]

Iran Student Strips
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: Off the Press
A now-viral video shows the young woman in a bra and panties in the courtyard of Tehran’s Azad University, while other footage shows her soon being shoved by men into a car and being driven away. The unidentified student was protesting security forces who had ripped her clothing earlier while confronting her for not wearing a headscarf, which Iranian law demands for all women in public, Iran International reported. After the woman stripped in protest, she was filmed from above sitting on a wall — with one man approaching her and making a phone call before casually walking away as bemused students looked on. A university rep said, “Campus security intervened and handed the individual over to law enforcement authorities,” blaming the incident on “an indecent act by a student.”

These states have abortion laws on the ballot for the 2024 election
Topic: Abortion
Source: CBS News
The 2024 election will not only decide who succeeds President Biden in the White House, but in 10 states, voters will also have the chance to weigh in on abortion access through ballot measures. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which had established the right to an abortion in the U.S. Constitution, abortion rights groups have turned to ballot initiatives to put the issue of reproductive rights squarely before voters.

House Education Republicans’ Long-Awaited Report
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Townhall
...on Antisemitism on College Campuses Is Here. This week, Republicans on the House Education Committee released a report regarding antisemitism on college campuses. This occurred after a yearlong investigation that was instigated by the slew of antisemitic protests at schools following Hamas’ barbaric invasion of Israel. The investigation collected more than 400,000 documents from 11 schools that were known for its rampant antisemitism. “For over a year, the American people have watched antisemitic mobs rule over so-called elite universities, but what was happening behind the scenes is arguably worse. While Jewish students displayed incredible courage and a refusal to cave to the harassment, university administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve,” committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said of the report.

French families sue TikTok over alleged promotion of self-harm content
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Politico
They allege the platform is responsible for self-harm-related content promoted by its algorithm. Seven French families are hoping to set a precedent by holding TikTok liable for insufficient content moderation they say put their children at risk. The families, part of a collective called Algos Victima, are suing the social media platform whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing. They accuse it of promoting content tied to self-mutilation, suicide or eating disorders. “Our challenge is to see TikTok held accountable for its lack of moderation, which makes the service flawed,” said Laure Boutron-Marmion, the lawyer for the collective, confirming the civil lawsuit first reported by Franceinfo.

Family pleaded to have son's assault rifle seized
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Newser
...before deadly school shooting. Officers had few options. Orlando Harris' family pleaded with Missouri police to confiscate the 19-year-old's bulletproof vest, ammunition, and AR-15-style rifle. They knew his mental health was fragile after more than one suicide attempt. Nine days later, Harris entered his former St. Louis high school and declared, "All of you are going to die." A new 456-page police report details the efforts Harris' family took to try to take his gun away in the days before he walked into Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Oct. 24, 2022, when he killed a student and a teacher and wounded seven others before he was fatally shot by police, per the AP.

Joe Biden: the first trans-activist president
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked Online
The outgoing president sacrificed women’s rights and children’s safety at the altar of gender ideology. Under the Biden-Harris administration, so-called trans rights have been sanctified, becoming a holy mission for the mainstream left. Last year, Biden claimed on Transgender Day of Visibility that ‘transgender Americans shape our nation’s soul’. In the same speech, Biden claimed there is an ‘epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls’, although all the evidence would suggest it is actual women and girls who are being put most at risk from his trans-rights crusade, as sex-based rights are corroded and women’s spaces are thrown open to any man who claims to be a woman.

What’s so triggering about The Canterbury Tales?
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked Online
University students are being treated like oversensitive morons. Over the past decade, universities have slapped ‘trigger warnings’ on everything from children’s books to entire fields of law. They have warned archaeology students about bones, theology students about the crucifixion and forensic-science students about dead bodies. In 2022, it was reported that over 1,000 books on university reading lists – including classic works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare – warned students about everything from racism and sexism to murder and suicide. Now, The Canterbury Tales can be added to this list of shame.

Is Dawn Butler Britain’s most ridiculous MP?
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked Online
The Labour MP for Brent East is living proof that identity politics rots the mind. Apparently, Kemi Badenoch’s victory in the Tory leadership race is a win for ‘white supremacy in blackface’. At least, that’s according to a post on X that was reshared by Labour MP Dawn Butler. Astonishingly, the MP for Brent East seems to genuinely believe that the first black female leader of a major UK party is, in the words of a tweet by writer Nels Abbey, a ‘member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class’. Butler swiftly deleted the tweet, but the internet is forever and evidence of the offending post was quickly preserved.

How Long Can Universities Defer Maintenance?
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: James G. Martin Center
Organizations that don’t have to make a profit—such as governments—are more susceptible to deferring maintenance than are private profit-making companies. For a profit-making firm, the ultimate costs of deferred maintenance are potentially so high that they can make the difference between success and bankruptcy. So maintenance in private firms is rarely deferred. In contrast, governments hardly ever go bankrupt, and non-profits rarely do. In fact, Comptroller Regan pointed out that “deferred maintenance” (sometimes called DPR) has become a widely accepted term in many political circles. The term is “not even viewed as a pejorative,” wrote Regan; “it sounds like a government program!”

‘Not legal’
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The College Fix
Delta Dental excludes whites from med school scholarships. Insurance company Delta Dental works with Midwestern University to offer scholarships that exclude white students. This is ‘not legal’ according to a civil rights activist. A medical school scholarship that excludes white students is “not legal” according to a civil rights activist who regularly calls attention to illegal racial discrimination on college campuses. Midwestern University and insurance company Delta Dental of Illinois, continue to offer five “Diversity Admissions Scholarships,” which exclude white students.

How the Harris-Trump Divide Broke This American Family
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Politico
What the Johnson brothers of Centralia, Illinois, tell us about the causes of our nation’s political divide. Make America great again? It sounded like Ted was more interested in just making America talk again. He told me it was in part because he hadn’t talked to his brother in years. Ted and Fred Johnson were both registered independents, and both were tempted by Haley’s Republican run — but Trump, it turned out, had come between them as something like an unbending wedge, the source of a new split in an already frayed fraternal bond. Ted had voted for him — Fred had not and would never. But Ted, he had said, was weary of the rift. He was interested in repair.