Charlie Elphicke was the Conservative Party's Member of Parliament for Dover. Now he's likely headed to jail, convicted of sexually assaulting two women. Though the cases occurred years apart, both victims reported uncannily similar assaults.
He forced his victim on to a sofa and groped her breast while trying to kiss her, before chasing her and chanting "I'm a naughty Tory".
Elphicke will be sentenced in September; the judge already told him he's likely to receive a custodial sentence.
Enjoy this lesson in instrumentality and choice, courtesy of Natalie Elphicke, Dover's new MP and Charlie's wife of 25 years:
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Trump complained about White House reporters Weijia Jiang and Paula Reid in a new interview, saying “It wasn’t Donna Reed, I can tell you that. ... Paula Reid, she’s sitting there and I say, ‘How angry. I mean, What’s the purpose?’ They’re not even tough questions, but you see the attitude of these people, it’s like incredible.“
In response:
People are assuming that when he says "Donna Reed" he means demure and submissive, but it's just as likely he means dead. Read the rest
In the interest of reducing the chances of exposure to the coronavirus, Osaka, Japan mayor Ichiro Matsuimen thinks men should be entrusted with buying groceries, because women "take a long time as they browse around and hesitate about this and that," according to Channel News Asia. "Men can snap up things they are told (to buy) and go, so I think it's good that they go shopping, avoiding human contact."
Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Unsplash
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During a promotional event for the movie Sonic the Hedgehog, Jim Carrey was asked by Heat Magazine's Charlotte Long if the actor had anything remaining on his bucket list (things one wants to do or see in life before “kicking the bucket”).
“Just you”, he replied. Read the rest
Only 5 women have ever been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director — and only one of those nominations happened in the past decade.
So this year, Natalie Portman decided to make a point. She wore a Dior-designed cape to the award show that was embroidered with the names of the women who were snubbed for Best Director nominations, including Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers); Greta Gerwig (Little Women); Lulu Wang (The Farewell); Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim); Alma Har'el (Honey Boy); and Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).
As Portman explained to the Los Angeles Times, "I wanted to recognize the women who were not recognized for their incredible work this year in my subtle way."
I don't normally pay much attention to the Oscars, in part because I know that it's always going to be a disappointing Old Boys Club showing of the exact same kinds of movies every time. And, well, that's exactly what Portman's pointing out here. There are plenty of cynical things I could say about celebrity gossip and performative protest and all. But right now, I think it's just important: fuck yeah Natalie. Good on you. Here's hoping that it makes even a little bit of difference.
Image: Gage Skidmore (CC 2.0) Read the rest
Utah Judge Kara Pettit sided with prosecutors who said “lewdness” means women’s breasts.
Mary Cain, a middle-distance runner, reports that her male coaches' constant demands she get “thinner, and thinner, and thinner” hurt her health and career. The crux of the problem: she joined a program operated by Nike, whose priority is selling shoes, not training athletes.
The New York Times:
The problem is so widespread it affected the only other female athlete featured in the last Nike video ad Cain appeared in, the figure skater Gracie Gold. When the ad came out in 2014, like Cain, Gold was a prodigy considered talented enough to win a gold medal at the next Olympics. And, like Cain, Gold got caught in a system where she was compelled to become thinner and thinner. She developed disordered eating to the point of imagining her own death.
“America loves a good child prodigy story, and business is ready and waiting to exploit that story, especially when it comes to girls,” said Lauren Fleshman, who ran for Nike until 2012. “When you have these kinds of good girls, girls who are good at following directions to the point of excelling, you’ll find a system that’s happy to take them. And it’s rife with abuse.”
It's a big warning to young athletes: Nike doesn't need all of its mannequins to be winners. The head coach, Alberto Salazar, would weigh her in front of her teammates and humiliate her if she failed to reach his arbitrary targets.
Consider how even after years of constant scandals, this sort of abuse still thrives at the place two opposed goals meet. Read the rest
The "pick-up artist" community, a sexist self-improvement cult centered around manipulating and bothering women into sex, needs no introduction. Like many of its stars, Adnan "Addy A-game" Ahman is little more than an incel who graduated to sexual harassment. He's off to jail for two years, and on to the sex offender's registry for ten. BBC Scotland reports:
Ahmed was convicted last month of threatening and abusive behaviour towards five women. The 38-year-old from Maryhill, Glasgow, has also been placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. ... Five young women, aged between 16 and 21, gave evidence at his trial about how they had been intimidated by Ahmed in Glasgow city centre and in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire.
Another woman broke down in court as she described how Ahmed followed her through Glasgow city centre and grabbed her head as he tried to kiss her.
YouTube failed to remove Ahman's videos, many depicting him following and pestering women and girls in public, until the BBC broadcast the exposé about them that led to his charges. In one example, he boasts of exposing himself to a woman and asking her if she's ever seen circumcised dick; in others, he records sexual partners without consent and posts audio and video online.
"Not for the politically correct," as he used to say. Read the rest
10-15 is Customs and Border Protection's code for "aliens in custody"; "I'm 10-15" is a secret Facebook group for current and former CBP officers whose participants create and share a torrent of racist and sexist memes, as well as jokes about the deaths of migrants in their care.
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Jeff Bezos and a "dozen tech titans" enjoyed a mini-conference in a medieval Italian hamlet, reports GQ magazine. Leading the story was a group shot of the gang, which includes only two women: Ruzwana Bashir and Lynn Jurich. Problem is, Bashir and Jurich are photoshopped into the photo, as demonstrated when BuzzFeed's Ryan Mac noticed their odd poses and @benjymous found the untamperered original on LinkedIn.
I got some questions about this story on "tech titans" in Italy, and uhhh I think this photo is photoshopped? ... Look at the woman, supposedly SunRun CEO Lynn Jurich, in the background. Some weird stuff is going on with her leg, which isn't aligned with the rest of her body.
Is two women enough to photoshop into the techie trip to Umbria? They should have photoshopped in at least four. Read the rest
@BUGPOSTING discovered something funny and desperately sad at Target: "womens" laxatives in a special pink box at more than twice the price. The real difference appears to be that they are "Comfort Coated", i.e. enteric coated so they dissolve slower.
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Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics doctor who sexually assaulted hundreds of young girls, will spend the rest of his life in jail. USA Gymnastics circled the wagons and shredded the files, and as a result it's hard to understand details of how it faciliated and protected Nassar. But Kerry Howley's startling article in New York Magazine shows how important medical bullshit was to his strategy and how the fraternal relationship between medical and administrative authority covered for him.
17-year-old Brianne Randall filed a complaint with Meridian Township police and had a rape kit administered at the local hospital. Detective Andrew McCready called Nassar and asked him to come in for questioning, which he did. Nassar told McCready that he had indeed touched Brianne’s perineum, that it was part of a treatment called “sacrotuberous-ligament release,” and that the treatment was “published in medical journals and training tapes.” He also gave McCready his PowerPoint presentation on said ligament, in which he is pictured cupping a girl’s buttocks and pressing near a girl’s vulva. McCready then called Brianne’s mother to tell her the case would be closed and that “no crime was committed.”
And:
in 2014, cheerleader Amanda Thomashow reported an assault to one of MSU’s Title IX investigators and university police... Thomashow, concluded [investigator Kristine] Moore, failed to understand the “nuanced difference” between osteopathic manipulative medicine and sexual massage. “Dr. Nassar has presented on this nationally and internationally,”
This sort of thing was constant and typical. It's hard to see where dumb respect for the doctor stops and willful contempt for his victims begins. Read the rest
Former Google executive Andy Rubin was credibly accused of "coercing" a colleague into oral sex. Google believed the victim and quietly forced Rubin out with a $90m payoff, according to a bombshell story in The New York Times. Staff at Google offices worldwide walked out in protest today.
The employees are demanding several key changes in how sexual misconduct allegations are dealt with at the firm, including a call to end forced arbitration - a move which would make it possible for victims to sue.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has told staff he supports their right to take the action.
"I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel," he said in an all-staff email. "I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society… and, yes, here at Google, too."
Remember James Damore and his fable of totalitarian feminism at Google? It will always be more real to those guys than any of this. Read the rest
Quick! Get some of these sexist facial tissues while you still can.
It took them 60 years but Kleenex is finally renaming their "Mansize" tissues after getting customer complaints. The facial-tissues-formerly-known-as-Mansize will now be branded "Extra Large."
Parent company Kimberly-Clark "succumbed to growing public demand to change the name, despite not itself believing that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality."
Sam Smethers, chief executive at feminist campaign group, the Fawcett Society, praised the move, saying: "Rebranding mansized tissues is not to be sneezed at. Removing sexist branding such as this is just sensible 21st century marketing. But we still have a long way to go before using lazy stereotypes to sell products is a thing of the past."
(DesignTaxi) Read the rest
In a year of unprecedented involvement by women in politics, as candidates, as votes and as subjects of political debate and rancor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has an interesting proposal: women should quit social media for 10 days, right before the election.
With a major election less than a month away, Nelson’s timing was particularly unfortunate for women involved in politics. Parker is a member of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, a left-leaning group founded in the wake of the 2016 election to encourage LDS women to become politically involved. She is helping to organize a nonpartisan “voter prep party” in her neighborhood where women will gather to review the issues, with the goal of boosting turnout in the midterms. Her group had planned to distribute sample ballots and other mateials online before the party, but now they are handing out invitations and information by hand and hoping for the best.
Tax them. Read the rest
“Lying Skanks.”
That is what radio host and Fox News pundit Kevin Jackson (screengrabbed above) called Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault victims, in a series of tweets today. Read the rest
