3 Stories You Should Read 5/13/2019: Alyssa Milano, China, Brian Kolfage

May 13, 2019 Confluence

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.

In the category of: The many faces of feminism

Alyssa Milano’s sex strike is misguided. Here’s what actually might work

The Georgia law is a blow, for sure. But Milano’s message, though attention-grabbing, was misguided. And far from feminist. In fact, it largely served to reinforce the idea that women’s power lies primarily in their willingness to “give” men sex and that abstinence is the way to get that power back.

Think about it. In calling for a sex strike as a way to regain “bodily autonomy,” as she put it, Milano is implying that women pretty much only have sex to please men or for babies. There’s no acknowledgment that women might have sex for their own pleasure. Calling for a sex strike also suggests that women can, and should, bribe men with sex, effectively reinforcing an age-old stereotype, which feminism has worked hard to debunk, that all women have to offer is their bodies.

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In the category of: Trade tirades

Why China’s new tariffs could make the US trade war even worse

A crumbling global economy, job losses, and a spooked market — just to start.

China is clearly unhappy about President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war — and it just retaliated in a way that could hurt global markets and further damage ties between the world’s two biggest economies.

On Friday, Trump raised tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods after Washington and Beijing failed to reach a long-sought trade deal despite days of intense talks.

China vowed to fight back, and officially did so Monday, announcing it would increase its own tariffs on $60 billion of American products. Around 5,000 items will now have duties increased up to 25 percent; those penalties will go into effect on June 1, according to China’s finance ministry.

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In the category of: Fundraising for Satan

Man Who Raised $22 Million for Border Wall Breaks Silence to Say He’s Going to Keep Being Silent With Y’all’s Money

The man who started a GoFundMe and raised some $22 million to help build the border wall that only racists, xenophobes and racist xenophobes want and then went radio silent with all that white-nationalist scratch is speaking out.

After several news outlets began wondering where all that border wall money went, Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who started the fundraising campaign, offered an update.