Sasha Weiss writes for The New Yorker: “There is something about the fact that Twitter is primarily designed for speech—for short, strong, declarative utterance—that makes it an especially powerful vehicle for activism, a place of liberation.”
Feminists, journalists, and campus activists were finally heard this year when the White House announced its intention to attack the scourge of sexual assault in the US head-on. It made good on this promise toward the end of April, with the White House Report on Campus Sexual Assault. Despite a few problems, the report was full of facts and recommendations that will hopefully curb the repugnant rate of sexual assaults on college campuses. Too many women and men have been (and are currently) victimized by sexual assault and then silenced by their university’s policies on rape and sexual assault.
Hayes Brown writes for Think Progress: “The White House on Wednesday announced that it would be sending 80 U.S. military personnel to help take part in the international effort to find more than 200 missing Nigerian schoolgirls, a reversal from previously insisting that no military forces would be involved in the hunt.”
Despite, or rather because of, the Nigerian government’s lack of effective action parents and loved ones of the abducted girls have staged protests and started #BringBackOurGirls.
Mark Follman writes for Mother Jones: “As Jennifer Longdon her wheelchair through the Indianapolis airport on April 25, she thought the roughest part of her trip was over.”