I probably won't be writing for a week or so while I am busy psyching myself up for comps next Monday and Tuesday, and I have been saving up several miscellaneous little nuggets to post here - so I will do that now and then I'll have no excuse but to get to work on this pile of readings on gender and crime.

First of all, if you are so inclined I highly encourage you to vote for Ms. Led for Best Seattle Indie Rock Band. The link above will take you to the online ballot for the Seattle Weekly Music Awards.

Next, if you are glued to the show Alias like I have been for four seasons, you might be interested in this reluctant critique by a fan at Alternet.org who, like all of us, must come to terms with the show's unrealistic, positive portrayal of the CIA (e.g. they hardly ever kill anybody and are always the "good guys"). But that's OK. I watch West Wing to pretend that Martin Sheen is actually the president, and I watch Alias to pretend that there actually is a Sydney Bristow who works for the CIA. It's all part of an elaborate coping mechanism.

And finally, I can't seem to find the article anymore but a couple of days ago the Austin American-Statesman reported on a rape trial where the defendant, who was representing himself, was allowed to directly question his accuser about her sexual history because the rape shield law was recently overturned. Since the 1980s these shield laws (most states had them) were in place to protect rape victims/survivors from being questioned unnecessarily about their sexual history on the stand, as they had been since time immemorial. Defense attorneys love nothing more than to show that the accuser and defendant had sex previously, or that the accuser has had sex in the past - because, don't you know that when you consent once that means you've consented to sex with that person in the future, whenever he wants? Or with anybody, for that matter? Of course. Good GOD this is scary.

The argument against these shield laws is that it inhibits the ability of a rape defendant to defend himself like other kinds of defendants. Ok, but do defendants accused of robbery ask their victims if they've carried money on them before? Have they previously given the defendant money willingly? These kinds of questions are pretty ridiculous in that context - as they are for rape.