• A major victory for women’s right and anti-racist activism: Mississippi’s attempted “Personhood Amendment,” which would have defined a fertilized egg as a human being, was voted down on Tuesday. Woohoo!!! Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones tells us why it failed. President Obama publicly affirms the importance of this victory.

• And another good move from our President: speaking at the National Women’s Law Center annual dinner, he openly criticizes Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood AND describes the reprecussion of the recession on women’s lives and jobs. Emily Douglas at The Nation quotes Obama saying:

“These issues that primarily affect women are not just women’s issues,” he said. “When women make less than men for the same work, that hurts the entire family. …When a healthcare plan denies woman coverage because of a pre-existing condition, that puts a strain on emergency rooms, drives up healthcare costs for everybody. When any of our citizens can’t fulfill their potential because of factors that have nothing to do with their talent, or their character, or their work ethic, that diminishes us.”

• Courtney Martin writes about this disturbing new wave of sexual assault and harassment cases in the media. The silver lining, she says, is that women are speaking up.

• The voters have spoken! Arizona’s anti-immigrant demogogue Russel Pearce has been recalled–the first time in the history of the state that a politician has been ousted.

• An interview at The Rumpus with newly-wed New Yorkers Kelebohile Nkhereanye and Renee Boyd, originally from the African country of Lesotho, who are reaping the benefits of NY’s new gay marriage law. They answer the question, “What does marriage mean to you?”

• In response to the news that Penn State students rioted to defend their football coach, who has been fired for covering up information about child sexual abuse, Jill at Feministe furiously reminds us that these egregious riots tell a much more disturbing, big-picture story about sports culture [trigger warning]:

It’s not just one guy raping little boys. It’s a culture that values a game over basic bodily integrity and physical health; it’s a culture that values that game over education, even at an institution of higher learning. Of course, in the context of that culture, a child rapist is going to get a pass if he’s integral to the game. Of course people are going to cover for him, or look the other way, or make small changes so that they can feel better but don’t actually go to law enforcement, which might threaten the game.

via Racialicious:

• Kate Harding writes about fat acceptance and body love, recounting her own experience with the “fantasy of being thin.”