Is the downfall of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn amid charges of attempted rape in the U.S. inspiring women in France to denounce the sexual coercion and aggression they’ve suffered from men for so long? The resignation Sunday of a French government minister accused of sexually harassing and assaulting …
Gender
Global Briefing: Hollow Rhetoric and Bad Ideas
Obama’s Cairo II: At 11:45am EST, President Obama will deliver his latest speech on the Mideast from the State Department. TIME and Global Spin’s Tony Karon writes that the Washington venue is important: “Obama’s Mideast ‘reset’ speech is not aimed primarily at the newly empowered Arab public; its primary audience is Washington, where the …
What’s The One Thing Not Growing Fast In China? Its Population.
China, as we all know, is a rapidly expanding country. Economic growth is chugging along, the military is adding new high-tech hardware and international luxury brands are opening new stores on a near daily basis. But according to the results of the nation’s sixth census, China isn’t growing quite as dramatically in one key respect: …
Thailand’s ‘Topless Teen’ Scandal and the Sexual Politics of Southeast Asia
During last week’s Songkran festival, three Thai teenagers danced topless in front of a crowd in central Bangkok. The footage was uploaded to the Internet and went viral, sparking a nation- and region-wide scandal. The police promised a crackdown and politicians denounced the incident as an affront to Thai culture and a national …
In France, A Risky Business May Get Riskier
Given French society’s reputation of unbridled sexual attitudes and libertine habits, it’s probably not surprising that a new proposal to combat prostitution is provoking considerable push-back. On the face of it, the initiative appears to be generating heat by sending two pillars of French life clashing in conflict: France’s …
France’s Burqa Ban Comes Into Force With Much Noise, Little Impact
It sparked the protest, denunciation, and even arrests many had feared, yet as France’s legal ban of the burqa took effect April 11, it had many viewing the interdiction of facial coverings in public as one of the strangest and least enforceable laws in the long and cluttered French history of trying to legislate every aspect of …
Party Police: Cops Raid Gay Bar in Shanghai
A weekend raid at a club in Shanghai was a stark reminder of what can happen when homophobia meets the all-too-heavy hand of the law. Shanghaiist reports:
Early Sunday morning, police stormed into Q Bar in the middle of a gogo boy performance, turned the lights on, and shoved about 70 bar employees and patrons (save the foreigners)
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More Catholic than the Pope? Manila Suburb Cracks Down on Condoms
If you live in Alabang and want to have safer sex, you’re going to need a doctor’s note. That’s because the wealthy Manila suburb has made prophylactics prescription-only. The local council says they wanted to discourage sex outside of marriage. They also wanted to stir debate about the morality birth control as the nation mulls its …