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Racial, global, and LGBTQ+ issues galore; prepare for your weekly dose of intersectionalism.

1. Nicki Calls Out "Tone-Policing.'

If you're still recovering from the great T-Swift/Minaj debacle of 2015, we ask you to kindly fasten your seatbelts for the next white feminist upset of the season: the "What's Good, Miley?" War of the VMAs. Yeah, Miley Cyrus--who has made some excellent femi-strides in the way of her charity org and her sex-positive lifestyle--just fell a few femi-pegs when she criticized Nicki Minaj for coming off as "angry" in those famous tweets about misogynoir. CURSES! Many people found Miley's "tone-policing" to be rill offensive. Why? Because women of color are often lazily labeled with the "angry black woman" trope, and cast aside as irrational; a great excuse to ignore what they actually have to say. Come on, Miley, leave that for the patriarchy! Yet another lesson in the eternal book of racial feminist politics. Hooray for (hopefully?) learning from our mistakes!

2. Sisters To Be Punished With Sexual Abuse.

If anyone tries to tell you that we don’t need feminism anymore because women have been given “equal rights” to men, you can first chuckle to yourself at the absurdity, and then throw out some stats about unequal pay in the U.S., media misrepresentation, campus sexual assault, etc. OR you could show them the story of two sisters in a remote Indian village who were sentenced punishment by gang rape for their brother’s elopement with a woman from a higher caste. Um, yeah...this level of extreme sexism and injustice is real. The only sliver of positivity from this story has been the immense global response, and Amnesty International's petition asking local law enforcement to intervene. So far, that petition has garnered over 400,000 signatures worldwide. Brb, getting “Women are people, too” tattooed on our foreheads.

Image via ABC News

3. Kentucky Clerk Denies Gay Marriages.

Oook... that story about India is beyond terrible, but don’t get too comfortable on your high horse yet, America: we still have people refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples--even after the Supreme Court straight up said "We don't do that anymore" (def direct quote from RBG). An elected county clerk in Kentucky who objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds denied two separate same-sex couples their marriage licenses this week. She feels that giving out these licenses violates her 1st Amendment rights, and has appealed to the Supreme Court--which flatly denied her claim and made no further comments. So it looks like she’ll either have to step down from office, be forcibly removed, or start handin’ out those papers (and option #3 seems unikely). Woof.

4. Not-So-Fun Home.

And on that same, awkwardly homophobic note, a handful of incoming Duke University freshman have decided toboycott the graphic memoir Fun Home by Alison Bechdel because reading it would violate their religious beliefs. So here’s the thing: Bechdel’s book explores LGBT themes and includes some illustrations of her budding sexuality, and is thus deemed “pornographic” by some. Many people, however, feel these students (who have admittedly not even read the book) are a little confused about college, where the purpose is to experience new things--often things that are challenging to deal with. Plus, ignoring the self-told stories of the LGBT community can only lead to more divisiveness, and honestly, ain’t nobody got time for that. (P.S., who's gonna break the news about Wonder Woman to these kids??)

5. Wonder Woman Does What Kentucky Won't.

Ohhhhhhhhhh SNAP (sorry, is it not 2009 anymore?)! Wonder Woman just schooled Superman on marriage politics! Wait, wait. Back it up. So in the most recent WW comic, the shero to end all sheroes officiates a wedding between two women--which is a big step for DC comics who, only recently, would have been hesitant to show this. The cherry on top? Clark Kent gets all sweaty and surprised and asks Wonder Woman, “I...didn’t know you’re a proponent of gay marriage?” to which she responds, “Clark, my country is all women. To us, it’s not ‘gay’ marriage, it’s just marriage.” *fans self* Feminism wins again! And on behalf of Team THINX, our sincerest congratulations to Elizabeth and Katie, whose love is now officially bound by the lasso of truth. No, no we’re not crying, we’re just allergic to PERFECT.

by Team Thinx