Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the vitriolic backlash she has faced due to her comments about womanhood:
“I didn’t apologize because I don’t think I have anything to apologize for… What’s interesting to me is this is in many ways about language and I think it also illustrates the less pleasant aspects of the American left, that there sometimes is a kind of language orthodoxy that you’re supposed to participate in, and when you don’t there’s a kind of backlash that gets very personal and very hostile and very closed to debate. Had I said, ‘a cis woman is a cis woman, and a trans woman is a trans woman’, I don’t think I would get all the crap that I’m getting, but that’s actually really what I was saying. But because ‘cis’ is not a part of my vocabulary — it just isn’t — it really becomes about language and the reason I find that troubling is to insist that you have to speak in a certain way and use certain expressions, otherwise we cannot have a conversation, can close up debate. And if we can’t have conversations, we can’t have progress.”
Convicted male rapist is moved to a women’s prison. The revelation has stunned one of his victims, who called the decision a “kick in the teeth.”
Female student sues Columbia University for failing to prevent her being sexually assaulted — twice — likely by the same attacker. She says of the University’s response:
“It’s generous to call it an investigation. They interviewed me once and they didn’t do anything else.”
Male “dominates” major weightlifting competition for women.
Scotland expands their definition of what constitutes criminal domestic abuse in new legislation:
“The Domestic Abuse Bill criminalizes ‘abusive behaviour towards a partner or ex-partner,’ including coercive and controlling behaviour. This covers subordination, humiliation, isolating a partner from friends, relatives and sources of support, and controlling or monitoring their day-to-day activities.”