“Rape Joke” appears to have final word in the rape joke debate

I thought Jezebel blogger Lindy West was going to have the final word in the debate about rape jokes that emerged earlier this month in the wake of the comedian Daniel Tosh’s inane comment that it would be funny if a member of the audience “got raped by… five guys, right now.” West’s brilliant and sassy piece, “How to Make a Rape Joke” made me laugh out loud — and even made an interesting pass at suggesting a few criteria for acceptable jokes about offensive topics. But, despite West’s earlier attempt to point out that responses in the form of threats to rape and kill her only proved her point, the debate continued.

Then poet Patricia (Tricia) Lockwood published “Rape Joke” at The Awl last week.

It went viral within hours — and based on the tone of comments, tweets and blog responses, seems to have silenced — or at least taken the wind out of — those who think that all rape jokes are forms of protected speech.

The skirt chaser 5 km run is just a very bad idea

The skirt chaser is a 5 km race in which “skirts start first and the guys start  3 min after” and then the guys chase the skirts. Awful.

Read more here at Fit, Feminist, and (Almost) Fifty.

Underappreciated Philosophy: The Blog!

This is an awesome idea.

This blog was inspired by … three posts over at “What is it Like to be a Woman in Philosophy?”, and [a] post at “The Philosophers’ Cocoon.” These posts collectively suggest two things:

Sometimes good philosophy is unjustifiably ignored or underappreciated, and
Sometimes credit for a good philosophical idea or argument is unjustifiably attributed to one person(s) rather than another (either in whole or in part).
This blog is premised on the idea that both phenomena are regrettable and deserve a forum for redress. This blog aims to be such a forum.

Its mission is simple: Anyone who believes that a philosophical work, idea, or argument has been unfairly ignored or insufficiently credited to a particular person is invited to submit an entry briefly explaining why in detail.

This strikes me as a wonderful venture. Let’s all go send in suggestions!

Fall semester/term/session is coming soon: a reminder below of what it can be like

Though hitting people with solid objects may be against your college’s code of conduct:

It might be fun to think of the ways the scene does get bits of life in a philosophy department!

Campaign for Jane Austen on currency leads to rape and death threats

But also, fortunately, to the arrest of the threatener.