Roman Polanski is a child rapist, and Whoopi Goldberg is a rape apologist. End of.

http://jezebel.com/5369395/

One, of many notable comments to the article:

“I’m very confused by this Hollywood place, where a man interrupting a 19-year-old at an awards show constitutes a reason to boycott him and receives universal scorn, and at the same time, a man who raped a 13-year-old child receives a petition in support of his release.”

And so are a lot of others, in reference to the petitition: http://jezebel.com/5370356/letters-from-hollywood-roman-polanskis-rape-of-child-no-big-thing?skyline=true&s=i

This piece of patriarchal scum anally, orally, and vaginally raped a 13 year old girl child who he had drugged to semi-consciousness, in spite of her noes, stops, faking asthma, and other attempts at stopping him. And Whoopi has the gall to defend it, nor is it the first time she has defended the sexual abuse of women and children.

What I’m up to right now (aka, why I’m crying)

I’ve got a few things on the go, all of which have contributed to me crying my wee heart out.

I’m watching the subtitled English Italian documentary Women Bodies.

I read a news article on a speech by our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, in which he states: “We also have no history of colonialism.” And shows he doesn’t give a shit about the “apology” for the Canadian government’s role in residential schools for indigenous children that he made a couple years ago. Also, did you know that Canada, Amerika, and New Zealand are the only nations who oppose the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples? (Australia changed recently, issuing a statement of support; previously, they had voted against.)

I’m catching up on Julian Real’s blog, reading over September entries mostly, including entries on the late Andrea Dworkin, Robert Jensen calling on us to abandon masculinity as desirable or fixable, incestuous abuse by “Papa John” of his daughter (and Julian’s abuse at the hands of an adult when he was a preteen) and white hetero male privilege.

Julian’s blog is leading me to other blogs, such as A Lady Divine.

I’m also on a Blue October kick, listening to songs such as Razorblade (about a boy sexually abused by a priest and self harm. this live version adds a verse where he kills him when he grows up), Libby, I’m Listening (lovely love song, being there for someone in an abusive situation, fucked up individuals and all), Come In Closer (the lyrics evoke beautiful imagery, and it’s really compelling soundwise), Jump Rope (a song Justin wrote for his daughter when she asked why all his songs were sad),  HRSA (stands for high risk of self abuse, about institutionalization), 2 AM Lovesick (not sure what it’s about, but love it), Chameleon Boy (opening oneself up to help, being vulnerable, dealing with addiction), Angel (wanting to help a rape survivor, not giving up), His Name Is Crazy (awesome musically) and Weight of the World (recovery). Oh, I love them, and could link songs to queendom come, but made myself stop :P And for good measure, here is Justin talking about Sexual Power-trip and Razorblade

Apologies for rarely updating lately. Things have been hectic, and my dad recently became seriously ill and passed away. But I have “abnormal” attitudes toward death, so have been handling it ok (in comparison to how people tend to deal with death, anyway).

Lyrics to the songs listed above, found here

Except, His Name is Crazy (aka Crazy Man):

I could talk for hours
About nothing in particular
Ranting uselessly, profusely
Get charmed or charming
This big-eyed evening
Left me numb for the next few days
I can still smell the chemical
Nosing it’s way up to my lap
Like a playground heart attack
Chemi-chemi-chemical reaction
Chemi-chemi-chemical reaction
Chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi

 

Chorus:
Call me a crazy man
Call me a crazy man
Call me a crazy man

Indiscreet, and me a fight
It’s dark oustide
Pulse, veins, blood, trains
Breathing really burns
Life, spleen, drugs, scream
That’s really how it works
I break grounds and I go underground
So dig up all your dirt

Chorus:
Call me a crazy man
Call me a crazy man
Call me a crazy man
Call me a crazy man

Island shutters
Ballet and tap stutters
I’ll sleep to that dream
Ice cream, we all scream
I really need a nice drink
Island shutters
Ballet and tap stutters
I’ll sleep to that dream
Black near colors
We both will leave
Kiss the sunshine, orange sheet
So best my man
Bless it and go to bed
And wake up sober and sweet
Che-chemi-chemi-chemical reaction
Chemi-chemi-chemical reaction
Chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi-chemi

Chorus

 

Guilty Pleasures: Music

Alright, we all know none of us are perfect, in that our likes/hobbies/etc don’t align wonderously with our politics. So I’m posting some songs–or the songs are fine, but the music video?!? GTFO–that are not woman-friendly, yet I like. EGGGAAAADDDSSSS!!! :P

Hides head in shaaaamme!

The radfem police are so gonna get me and take away my membership for this! ;) Teehee.

Katy Perry Hot n Cold (self explanatory)

(the video is to just the song, because the music video goes wayyyy too far in regards to sexualising violence to be able to stomach in any way)

(They play brothers Sam and Dean on Supernatural, which is such a misogynist show, but I lap up the wincest subtext :( )

Don’t Trust Me – 3Oh!3 (oh, fucking hell. Needs no explanation. The last verse is the worst, I usually skip over it.)

The Bad Touch – The Bloodhound Gang (I’m sooo sorry, really. This is the only song of theirs I like, I swear.)

Lady Marmalade – Pink, Mya, Lil Kim, Christina, Missy Elliot (this is a collection of good, some great singers, but ah, helllll nah to the glorification of prostitution)

Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode (couldn’t find it on youtube, but they are in a goddamm brothel! wtf!) But Marilyn Manson’s version is worse. *le groan and le barf*

Under My Thumb – Rolling Stones (I only like the music/tune, and want to strangle Mick and shove Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics down his huge piehole)

Like a Pill – Pink (I don’t think Pink often pulls off being sexual without being objectified)

Rocky Racoon – The Beatles (woman as possession. damn you paul! and your deer eyes!)

OK, we’ll call it a day.

Next shall be songs and artists that sexualise women without objectifying them, as in, women as sexual, not sexy-for-male-gaze. “I’m coming for ya” not “Come and get me.” I’ll just list most I’ll be including to explain better: Sophie B Hawkins, Storm Large, Tori Amos, Jill Scott, Yeastie Girlz, Cyndi Lauper,  kd lang, and Blue October. I need to earn my radfem card back ;)

And if you’re still scratching your head, you’ll just have to wait a few days to get a sensical explanation of the next post. But here’s two  examples of Sophie Hawkins:

Right Beside You (won’t let me embed, but you should watch it :D )

And a duet with Melissa Etheridge!

Published in: on September 16, 2009 at 5:48 pm Leave a Comment

I’M GOING TO SEE TORI!!!

Amos, of course. In concert in Toronto on the 10. I’m all excited!!!

Published in: on August 5, 2009 at 6:37 pm Comments (2)

HOLY HELL–MANICS PLAYING IN T.O.

I damn near had a squee fit-heart attack-orgasm rolled into one when I found out that not only are the Manic Street Preachers coming to North America for the first time in a decade, but they’d be playing in Toronto on October 4. Anyone want to go with me? (herein lies proof)

FUCK YEAH!

ps i just got back a couple days ago doing an activist training camp for earth justice.

Published in: on August 1, 2009 at 4:36 pm Leave a Comment

hahaha; this pwns!

I pour you gravy, over some pies tonight…

someone on a manics comm stated that weebl was james, and bob sean. TOTALLY true. and made it even funnier.

Published in: on June 17, 2009 at 2:31 am Leave a Comment

Nova Scotia votes in first and majority NDP gov

Whoot!

Need I say more? :D Next up, Ontario ;)

Published in: on June 11, 2009 at 8:50 pm Comments (2)

Joins the “pile-on” on poor, poor Twisty

Alright, don’t tend to do this publicly, but here I am.

All I’ll say on a public arena is, I agree with buggle, delphyne, etc. Bonobobabe and Undercover Punk explain why beautifully.

PS read this brilliant incorporation of species into intersectionality while you’re at it, peas and carrots.

PPS, do I need to say anything about George Tiller being killed for performing late term abortions, thereby “murder,” by an all too sane, all too masculine man*? OK: seriously f’ed. Pro-life my ass.

*I, like Jane Caputi, believe that the clear majority of men who kill are not anomalies, not deviant, not insane.

Published in: on June 9, 2009 at 5:48 am Comments (3)

Upcoming posts…

Will happen:

-Responding to Lierre Kieth’s and another defender of corpse-consumption responses on a mutual friend’s facebook page.

-Eating on the cheap–and veg*n–in Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo in particular (I’ll be inviting reader input on this one, for both in this area and other locales)

-Reproductive technologies as methods of controlling the Other, as illustrative of the mutual oppression of women and animals, as reproducing racial, class, species, and sex divisions.

-”Pedophilia” as child hatred (misopedia?), social hypocrisy of condemning “pedophiles” when normal male sexuality is channeled into being fixated on children and childlike adults

-Some favourite spoken word of mine on youtube

Will probably happen:

-Feminism and slash fanfic, particularly in the fandoms Supernatural and Manic Street Preachers (eg Supernatural is a very “not feminist friendly” show, yet so many women and girls write and read slash of it, some injecting very feminist/egalitarian messages, but many reproducing antifeminist themes, eg patriarchal depictions of female characters)

-edited to add: should I try taking this http://kittywampus.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/twisting-the-meaning-of-sex-class/ on? I mean it’s been covered a bazillion times by other so-called “cultural” feminists, but why should I not reacquaint my head with a brick wall? Presumably, for starters, she’s not familiar with Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics, from 1969, or Andrea Dworkin’s Woman Hating (1974) and Our Blood (1976), if she finds actual radfems to not be so (hint: GAYLE RUBIN HAS NOT BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR RADICAL FEMINIST IN DECADES! She, in the 80s, repudiated the article the blogger quotes from). Shulamith Firestone is fairly not representative of radical feminism. She wrote one book, then dropped out, and her views re: reproductive technologies have been proved wrong.

Published in: on May 27, 2009 at 2:35 am Comments (5)

Sheila IS my sister, too

via allecto’s post.

Sheila is my sister

Sheila is my sister

Published in: on May 24, 2009 at 5:46 am Comments (4)

Vegan Freaks forum?

I was wanting to register for the vegan freaks forum, but it’s by invite only. Can anyone hook me up?

ps I’ve been vegan (freegan style, so dumpstered/food co-op dairy and egg products, I’ve eaten*) for over a year :D And I’m definitely of the ethical/political variety.

*My freegan position also has a lot to do with the socio-economic class of my family. Being pure vegan is VERY difficult when you get much of your food from a food co-op, and only buy specialty vegan foods when they are on sale/reduced because you can’t afford them otherwise. I was vegetarian since I was 11, and found that easy, but had to give up an absolutist approach to veganism when I tried it at the ages of 9, 11, and 20 (last year).

Published in: on May 19, 2009 at 11:02 pm Comments (4)

JHR Laurier’s publication on 2010 Vancouver Olympics – PDF

Click here, via AW@L’S site

My article about prostitution, trafficking, and the Olympics is on pages 6-7.

Yay!!

Published in: on May 12, 2009 at 2:34 am Comments (3)

May Day of Action for Immigrant Rights, and anti-arms shows petition

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/MayDay2009/

I’ll be attending the Toronto action organised by No One Is Illegal on Saturday (link contains more info). Hope to see you there!

http://prax.ca/coat/No-Arms-Shows please sign this too :)

Published in: on April 30, 2009 at 3:38 pm Leave a Comment

Suicide Food?, or Portraying Animals as Enjoying, Encouraging Own Slaughter (a rant)

“suicide food” taken from http://suicidefood.blogspot.com/. http://vegantabulous.blogspot.com/2009/03/vegetarian-myth-open-thread.html is also highly recommended

I want to explain something: justifications for slaughter are read by veg*ns as justifications for pornography or rape are read by (radical) feminists or justifications of lynching and segregation are read by antiracist activists.

The view that animals LIKE being farmed and killed is PERVASIVE (eg see above link). Even people otherwise understanding of animal rights (eg opposing animal testing) can actively participate in this, such as Lierre Keith and Derrick Jensen.

Reading The Vegetarian Myth angered me (for a fantastic–to me–reception to it see http://vegantabulous.blogspot.com/2009/03/vegetarian-myth-open-thread.html), but parts of it felt like a punch in the gut. For one thing, a huge part of her argument about the stupidity of vegans seemed to some to be based on a sarcastic, satirical conversation by vegans (http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=90752&p=1, and http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19376), that she apparently took very seriously, and worked strenuously to debunk. However, she has informed me that it did happen seriously, circa 2001, and there’s no reason to believe she’s lying about this. But basing a large part of her book on a eight year old conversation that she can’t seem to find more recent examples of and cite them results in this readers’ annoyance, not outrage or anguish.

What was anguish was her defense of killing–animals, of course, not humans. eg, “for someone to live, someone else has to die. In that acceptance, with all its suffering and sorrow, is the ability to choose a different way, a better way.” and “The grass and the grazers need each other as much as predators and prey. These are not one-way relationships, not arrangements of dominance and subordination. We aren’t exploiting each other by eating. We are only taking turns.”

Of course, she doesn’t mean humans need to die for others to live, let alone that humans need to die for animals to live.The facts are, which she and plenty of others, seem endlessly to perpetuate while either denying that they are doing so, or assuming that there is nothing wrong with, is this: humans have more right than any other creatures to live. While animal killing humans is “horrific” and cannibalism is “barbaric” to the vast majority of humans, we have so much right to life that, even when not necessitated by survival (self-defense and/or food to stave off starvation), we have the assumed right to kill a “lesser” animal to consume their corpses as meat. Not only that, but it’s the way it should be.

If she and others who tout the above quoted line of thinking actually stood by what they claim, they would not be placing humans outside of being prey. They’d be living amidst predator species, allowing nonhuman animals to cull the human animal herd of the sick and elderly. Which we DO NOT do. They ARE one way relationships. There is no mutuality in fact or practice in the stated bargain. We do not get killed and eaten, except in rare instances, by carnivorous or omnivorous animals. In fact, when it does happen to humans, we punish the animal who kills with death. Even committing a severe bite is deemed sufficient to kill an animal, even a dog, a species whom we generally don’t consume. The animals we eat, whether vegans or flesh-eaters, don’t get to eat us. Animals who could kill and eat us are not allowed by making us inaccessible and capitally punishing those who do.

Vultures and flesh-eating dirt-dwellers do get to eat us, but only after we die in ways not related to being treated as eatable, ie disease, or death by another human. Not only that, but we regard these creatures as aborrent, as disgusting and gross because of where they live, what they eat, how they look, in shining examples of speciesism. Humans, especially males, are the death-dealers to humans, not animals, and humans equate awful humans with being these creatures and can even find it better to be a human dealer of death to humans than to be a “slug” or “maggot.”

Additionally, we not only do not eat animals that are already dead; we don’t eat elderly ones, or one’s that are naturally sick (however, we do eat animals that are sick from industrial farming practices, but they are often young, babies even, and would be healthy if not for said practices). We regard it as unhealthy, by and large. We are not as noble as vultures or others feeding off the already dead to help the return of the body to the earth. We slaughter billions–about ELEVEN BILLION in the US and Canada alone–of animals EVERY YEAR for their flesh. We kill additional billions in animal testing, fur and leather, abandoning puppy milled animals, and other animalcidal practices. We are not like carnivorous animals, killing for survival, and only taking what we need. About 335 000 000 people do not need 11 billion animals yearly, by any stretch of the imagination.

The following quote by Derrick Jensen is guilty of the same, and beyond: “I go back again. I remember the predator-prey bargain: If you consume the flesh of another, you take responsibility for the continuation of its community. I open the refrigerator. Eat more.

“This time the salmon says something else to me: “I know you don’t like killing. If you help take out the dams that will help us survive. Then you can kill and eat all the salmon you’d like. We will even jump out of the water and right to where you are waiting. You won’t feel bad about killing us, because you have helped our community. We will gladly do this for you, if you will help us survive.””

If you can’t understand where I am coming from, envision the latter quote stating this:

“I go back again. I remember the john-prostitute bargain: If you use the orifices of another, you take responsibility for the continuation of its trade. I go down to the brothel. Buy more.

“This time the woman says something else to me: “I know you don’t like raping. If you help take out the traffickers that will help us survive. Then you can rent and rape all the women you’d like. We will even jump out of the women’s shelter and right to where you are waiting. You won’t feel bad about prostituting us, because you have helped our trade. We will gladly do this for you, if you will help us economically survive.””

or perhaps this:

“I go back again. I remember the white-of colour bargain: If you degrade the skin of another, you take responsibility for the continuation of its community. I buy more sweatshop labour clothing. Hate more.

“This time the person of colour says something else to me: “I know you don’t like hating. If you help take out the corporations that will help us survive. Then you can exploit and hate all the racialised bodies you’d like. We will even jump out of the sweat shop and right to where you are waiting. You won’t feel bad about hating us, because you have helped our community. We will gladly do this for you, if you will help us survive.””

And therein lies a fundamental justification of oppression: the oppressed ENJOY it. They WANT it. “Good” women (white, heterosexual, middle class, not sexually abused) are postulated as enjoying rape by the “good guys” (white, middle class, family, “not really rapists”) and needing to be protected from rape by the “bad guys” (of colour, poor, strangers, “real” rapists), not to mention being turned into pornography for other men or sometimes killed in “s-m games gone wrong” or “the bitch was going to leave me.” “Bad” women (of colour, lesbian, poor, in prostitution) are not afforded such protection at all, and “good” women often find that their “goodness” does not protect them. While “pets” are offered some protection, they too can find their “cuteness” doesn’t protect them. Farmed animals are postulated to enjoy being not only raped in farming (eg dairy cows are impregnated yearly through artificial insemination, which is standard practice even on organic farms), but to enjoy being sent to slaughter and being turned into food. What protection do food-animals get? Certainly not the protection of most animal-welfare laws.

And in enters the “they would die without us” argument, also known to take the forms of “they need us” and “how could we change now after domesticating them?” But do women need men, or do they need the end of men’s oppression? Do people of colour need whites, or do they need whites to stop being racist? While it is true that domesticated species would mostly die in the wild, unlike human oppressed folk, turning them out to fend for themselves isn’t the only solution. Companion animals and farm sanctuaries show that. Not to mention, is freedom not better than oppression? Is it better to not exist at all (for potential future farmed animals) then to live lives of oppression? I’d say yes.

When looking at debates around corpse eating, look at the money that is behind these industries. We have turned it into a multibillion dollar business–worth WAY more than the ejaculation industry (aka “sex” industry), by the way. In the US, pornography alone is worth between $8-12 billion, in Canada a billion. In Canada alone, “meat” is worth $21 billion, with dairy and eggs at $13 billion, and seafood $4 billion. They have far more economic, political, and social clout that any group of veg*ns has. To compare the agricultural animal products with vegan agriculture, here are the statistics for the latter: grain is $4.5 billion, and fruit/vegetables is $6 billion (according to the meat industry too: http://www.cmc-cvc.com/english/industry_statistic_e.asp).

Who controls how we perceive reality? What humans need to eat? What animals and other oppressed groups are “really like”? Certainly not veg*ns, and even more certainly not nonhuman animals.

also on facebook

PS Part 3 of the Carnival is on it’s way. Sorry it’s sooo late! It’ll probably be up Wednesday.

Published in: on April 20, 2009 at 6:08 am Comments (9)

21st Carnival of Radical Feminists, part 2: 30 posts

Demonista’s finds (as in, I take responsibility for its inclusion). This is part 2, there will probably be two more parts. Sorry to break it up so much! I’ve limited the number of entries per blogger to three, out of expediency.

A schadenfreudal orgasm by Jen.

Mom and Sex Work Is Transphobic at Valerie Speaks

Equality is Equality is Equality, Dispatches from Nappyville: What’s the Mother of a Black Child to Do?, and For Black Women, Hatred Begins at “Home” by What Tami Said

Can’t You Say Something Nice About Prostitution? by Peridot Ash

I Am Back with Apologies by Amber

Jennifer McClune’s WARNING Ladies: Being a Jerk is the Male Default Setting!, “You Told Harpo to Beat Me?”: How Hip Hop Music Defines and Divides Black Women, and With Friends Like These, or The ReTOOLed Misogyny of Feminist Dudes at Celie’s Revenge

Create for Animal Rights: Not Man’s best friend and Free Lucy! (the elephant)

FOKUS Networking Conference Statement on Trafficking & Prostitution at Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)

A recent Biting Beaver post, at Archive of the Biting Beaver, GFE’s or “Girl Friend Experience”

Bermuda Radical writes On the Struggle Against Patriarchy and reposts The Radical Women Platform.

Thoughts on “Consent” by Laurelin in the Rain.

Equalist Sex by Belenen.

On Being Alone, Love Me, Love My Menstruation, and Foie Gras by Bonobo Babe.

Some venting and activism courtesy of the lj community feminist_fury: I came across these magnetic words by anji, I am in a DIY community by Codie, and The Prettiest Girl in Class by Lady Hedge.

Feminist Reprise posts on white antiracist errors, News of the day apropos moi, and Ageism and Radical Feminism.

Let’s not forget the requisite Joss Whedon bashing :P Dans la Reine, inspired by Fengi, posts about Dollhouse.

I’ll try to get the third part up within a week. And now, on to responding to comments :)

Published in: on April 6, 2009 at 1:40 am Comments (1)