The week of September 18th demands us to rethink our nation’s concepts of justice and democracy. Is it really a democracy if 630,000 people’s voices are ignored; if the national and international communities’ demands fall on deaf ears; if the Supreme Court finds no reason to change its mind when 7 out of 9 witnesses for the crime recant their evidence?– The answer’s for us all to decide.

Troy Davis, likely an innocent man, was killed by the state of Georgia at 11:08 pm on September 21, 2011. Is this the kind of democracy in which we want to live? Troy, the feminist community mourns your death. Take a look at Crunk Feminist Collective’s historical reading of Troy’s execution, placing it in the tradition of lynchings:

These days conservative (white) Americans fancy themselves more civilized than their bloodthirsty ancestors, but I submit that the state sanctioned murder of Black men based on dubious, trumped up, and coerced evidence is just lynching remixed for a new generation. …Let me be clear. Mark MacPhail’s family deserves justice. But no one deserves justice at the expense of a potentially innocent man.

• The paradoxes of World Peace Day, from Feministing editor Vanessa Valenti.

• This will make your skin crawl: the California Christian Coalition is fighting California’s gay education law, because–oh yes–the bullying of LGBT students is “not a real issue” and bullying is just “part of the maturational process.”

• But, let’s not overlook the good news in LGBT rights: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is officially OVER! About. Freakin’. Time.

• Are these new shows about playboy bunnies and stewardesses feminist? The NY Times says yes:

There is horror in seeing how dismissively many men treated women back then, but also a kind of pleasure in revisiting — with hindsight — a noble cause played out in a simpler time. Sexism hasn’t been vanquished, obviously, but it has splintered into more subtle, ambiguous channels. Back then it was overt, coarse and overdue for assault.

• Hey, dudes: instead of weeping about the new study that indicates drops in testosterone after becoming a father, why not see it the way the Good Men Project does:

As it turns out, the claim that women are “just built to be more nurturing” (so we might as well let them do the bulk of the nurturing and let guys off the hook) is baseless. The real truth is that we are hardwired to be adaptable, built to have seasons in our lives of both public ambition and domestic tenderness.

Have a great weekend.