Survivors

• Julie S. Lalonde talks about the complicated feelings around When Your abuser Dies. “Speaking out against someone who has died is bad enough, but doing so about someone who died young? It is rarely done. So, when my abuser passed away and I decided to go public about what I had survived for so long , I was navigating new territory. I was also left with the major question: What now?”

Media Literacy/Identity

• British TV “Channel 4 announced last week that they’re giving away £1m of advertising airtime for brands which feature disabled people during the Paralympics. We can’t wait to see the winning ad. Hopefully it gets viewers, broadcasters and advertisers to think more about how disabled people are depicted in adverts.” – Scope talks about better examples of disabled people in advertising and shares some recent good examples.

Politics

• “An Alabama city appears to be the first in the country to specify criminal penalties for violators of an ordinance requiring people to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates, civil rights groups said on Wednesday. …The law passed on Tuesday by the city council in Oxford, located about 60 miles east of Birmingham, carries a possible punishment of a $500 fine or six months in jail.”-Reuters
• “An Oklahoma court has stunned local prosecutors with a declaration that state law doesn’t criminalize oral sex with a victim who is completely unconscious. The ruling, a unanimous decision by the state’s criminal appeals court, is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape. …The case involved allegations that a 17-year-old boy assaulted a girl, 16, after volunteering to give her a ride home.” Another example of how the law supports rape culture.

Art/Culture

• Michelle Garcia for Vox: “The 5-foot-2 Prince reportedly could play basketball like no other, and despite his hit song, “1999,” counting down to the end of the world, didn’t “believe in time.” He spoke in riddles, at times, and found comfort in eating spaghetti and orange juice. He was quiet, but not necessarily shy. …In his unavoidably dance-inducing hit, “I Would Die 4 U,” he sang, “I’m not a woman. I’m not a man. I am something that you’ll never understand.” … He was an example — perhaps even the goal — of sensual, confident androgyny, and blackness. – Prince gave black kids permission to be weirdos.

• Remezcla celebrates some lesser known Latino superheroes that you should know.

• Saturday Beyonce released her visual album Lemonade to lots of speculation on it’s journey through infidelity at its surface. But Lemonade’s  intimate lyrics and words were provided by Warsan Shire a Somali-british London- based poet. NPR shares 5 facts about Shire, a phenomenally talented artist who now has a global platform.