In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: December 2008

A Very Special Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday

Cara has been carrying the Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday torch for me since I’ve been away in Seattle and subject to my mother’s dial-up AOL, but since it’s the last Sunday before the new year,* I figured we’d do something extra-specially self-promoting: In Cara’s thread, post something you’ve written this week that you’re particularly proud of or excited about; in this thread, self-promote the best piece you’ve written all year.

I know that’s a tough order, so I’ll start with a post I worked particularly hard on and ended up putting up about two weeks after it was relevant — this one about surrogacy, adoption, the ethics of reproduction and what “reproductive justice” actually entails.

So self-promote away, and feel free to include posts from other writers that you found particularly powerful. Sometime before the new year, I’ll try to compile a full post with all of your best links.

(And yes, I am back in NY and back to my shoddy Time Warner wireless, which means I will resume regular blogging as soon as I adjust to the time change).

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*It’s still Sunday somewhere, right?

What Sustainability Can Mean

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
(Process Media)

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew
(South End Press)

The Planner’s Guide to the Urban Food System by Arly Cassidy and Bowen Patterson
(Self-published; via Post Carbon Cities)

From 1994 to 2006, South Central Farm – the largest community garden in the United States – provided 360 families in Los Angeles with food, medicine, and other useful crops.  But when Ralph Horowitz, a former partner in the Alameda-Barbara Investment Company, decided to cash in on the undeveloped land, he had the farmers evicted to make way for a Forever 21 warehouse.  In what has become one of the dominant patterns of the 20th and early 21st centuries, a thriving, semi-self-sufficient community was gutted to make way for a business that sapped resources without giving anything in return.  It isn’t hard to spot the racism and classism behind the land-grab – those who had the land were working-class Latina/o families, and those who wanted it were wealthy and white.  However, there was another force at work behind the seizure of South Central Farm: a profound sense of detachment, on the part of the local government, from its citizens’ food sources.  After the eviction, farmers hung signs around the outside fences that read “SOUTH CENTRAL FARM FEEDS FAMILIES.”  The need to hang the signs was very telling – after all, shouldn’t the idea of a farm producing food be self-evident?

Read More…Read More…

A Call to Action on Trans Rights in Tennessee

Via Questioning Transphobia comes this press release from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition on the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards, the third transgender woman to be shot in Memphis in the past six months.  One of the other women was Duanna Johnson, who died.  Renee at Womanist Musings further points out the strong racist thread to the transphobic and misogynistic violence.  My thoughts are with Leenashia and her family, and I hope that yours are as well.  Read the press release below, do what you can, and pass the information along.

For Immediate Release: Dated December 27, 2008

Another Transgender Woman Shot in Memphis

On Christmas Eve, a Memphis television station reported the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards in Memphis. She becomes the third transgender woman shot in Memphis in just six months. At last report, Leeneshia is in critical condition. We extend our hopes and prayers to Leenashia for a speedy recovery.

We also ask for anyone with any information about this latest crime to call Memphis Crimes Stoppers at (901)528-CASH.

The shooting of Leeneshia Edwards helps shed light on a disturbing trend in Memphis. Transgender women who work in the sex industry in order to survive are now being targeted by a pervasive culture of violence.

The indifferent attitude of law enforcement towards the February 16, 2006, murder of Tiffany Berry, and the February 12, 2008, beating of Duanna Johnson by Memphis Police Department officers, has sent a message that the lives of transgender people are not important. This has fed the culture of violence that has permeated the second half of 2008, and is exemplified by the July 1 murder of Ebony Whitaker, the July 28 murder of Dre-Ona Blake, a two year old girl who was killed by the man who had previously been charged with the murder of Tiffany Berry, but was allowed to walk free for two and a half years, the November 9 murder of Duanna Johnson, and now the shooting of Leeneshia Edwards.

This open season on transgender people in Memphis and elsewhere, regardless of whether or not they engage in sex work, must come to an end right now.

We call on business people who refuse to hire transgender people to open their doors immediately to transgender workers so there are alternatives to working on the streets.

We call on shelters that routinely turn away transgender people who are seeking help, to open their doors so that transgender people do not have to live on the streets.

We call on religious leaders who preach intolerance towards crossdressers and transsexuals from the pulpit to cease immediately and begin preaching messages of love and acceptance of diversity.

We call on political leaders of all parties to stop campaigning against transgender people and start supporting fully inclusive employment non-discrimination and hate crimes legislation to show that the lives of transgender people have value.

Marisa Richmond
President

The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) is an organization designed to educate and advocate on behalf of transgender related legislation at the Federal, State and local levels. TTPC is dedicated to raising public awareness and building alliances with other organizations concerned with equal rights legislation.

For more information, or to make a donation, contact:

Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC)
P.O. Box 92335
Nashville, TN 37209
http://ttgpac.com
TTGPAC@aol.com
(615)293-6199
(615)353-1834 fax

Israel Strikes Gaza Strip

gaza

As of writing, 200 have been confirmed dead and 600 injured, including children.

Waves of Israeli aircraft swooped over the Gaza Strip on Saturday, firing missiles at Hamas’s security headquarters and killing more than 200 people, bringing the highest death toll in Gaza in years in a crushing response to rocket fire by Hamas against Israeli towns.

At least 140 Palestinians were killed and scores more wounded, according to the head of emergency services at the Gaza Ministry of Health

After the initial airstrikes, which also wounded about 600 Palestinians, dozens of rockets struck southern Israel. Thousands of Israelis hurried into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets, including some longer-range models that reached farther north than ever before. One Israeli man was killed in the town of Netivot and four were wounded, one seriously.

A military operation against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a rocky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas broke down completely in early November and rocket attacks began in large numbers against Israel. Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, in broad daylight on about 100 sites, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.

The center of Gaza City instantly became a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The vast majority of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, but the dead included several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.

According to HuffPo, parents are still looking for their children — who were leaving school as the air strikes began — and the hospitals cannot cope with the casualties.  The Electronic Intifada has info on a lack of food in Gaza thanks to the sanctions, and an additional editorial on Israel’s violence and how it ought to spurn action. (Thanks to BFP for these links via Twitter.)

The United Nations, along with Russia, Egypt and “numerous governments in Western Europe,” has called on Israel to stop.  And our government?  Oh, Bush has merely urged them to try harder to not kill civilians.

This is fucked up.  That’s all I’m going to say.  And my thoughts are with the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Are You Popular?

Via Sociological Images, I thought this video 1947 educational video “Are You Popular?” was a real riot:

While discussing dating etiquette for boys to a small extent, it mostly explains how good girls and bad girls each behave — with good girls of course going out of their way to “look nice” and make everyone around them feel comfortable. Perhaps most importantly of all, it explains how the girls who “park with all the boys” aren’t really popular, but just think they are. Of course, going parking with a girl they’re not committed to seemingly does not not cause the boys’ popularity to suffer. But hey, they do have to pay for everything on the dates.

Rigid gender role policing for all involved — what nice, wholesome fun.

CIA Uses Viagra as Bribing Tactic in Afghanistan

Yesterday, the Washington Post had an article about how the CIA is now bribing warlords and chieftains in Afghanistan with Viagra, as opposed to say, money or guns.  My first concern was about the health consequences of unlicensed U.S. government officials just handing out prescription medication to men for whom the potential effects could be grave.  Having seen the Viagra commercials a million times, always explaining all of the risks associated with the drug (like any), that’s plain irresponsible.

But then this quote scared the fuck out of me and turned my attention elsewhere:

“You didn’t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones,” said one retired operative familiar with the drug’s use in Afghanistan. Afghan tribal leaders often had four wives — the maximum number allowed by the Koran — and aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the utility of a pill that could “put them back in an authoritative position,” the official said.

A few paragraphs prior in the article, it’s discussed how “sex” has been a popular bribing tactic by the CIA and other intelligence agencies throughout history.  The problem is that “sex” in this context, what with their mention of using attractive women as “bait,” very clearly means women’s bodies.  And the same thing seems to be absolutely true here.

What does that mean?  An authoritative position?  Because to me, when I hear that the ability of a man to get an erection around his wife puts him back in an authoritative position, my mind screams rape rape rape rape rape.  What else could one possibly mean by equating a man’s capacity for intercourse so closely with authority over a woman?  (And any other possible explanation must by its very nature still be deeply misogynistic.)

Now, I’m not going to make a call as to whether any of the chieftains or warlords in question are actually using the drugs to commit rape, marital or otherwise.  Putting aside for a moment the question of whether meaningful consent is possible under the circumstances of a polygamous marriage that the wives quite likely had little to no choice in, I haven’t spoken to the women to know.  And I’m not going to just assume that anyone is a rapist, especially not solely on their belonging to a certain group.  Further, as too many of us have learned personally, there is more than one way to commit rape, and an erection isn’t necessary, anyway.

What I’m concerned about is that regardless of any actual enabling of rape — which would of course make the situation far worse — the CIA seems completely aware of and okay with the prospect of their enabling rape.  In fact, they’re the ones who seem to have first jumped to the conclusion, even if they likely wouldn’t use the word “rape” themselves, what with it making their actions seem much too icky.

All of this talk about passing out necessary tools for marital rape and allowing men to regain an authoritative position over their wives also strikes me as particularly ironic seeing as how a major method used to justify this war — other than repeating “9/11” over and over again — was by promising the “liberation” of Afghan women.

Seems like women’s bodies and autonomy are just an all-around popular tool of war for the U.S. government, no matter what stage of the deadly game they’re in.

h/t BFP‘s twitter feed

Friday Random Ten – the All I Want For Christmas Is Some Wireless Internet edition

I’ve been MIA all week because I’ve been visiting family in Seattle, which means being at the whim of my mom’s dial-up AOL (not even kidding). So the blogging has been light, because it’s apparently still 1995 at my mom’s house. But I have relocated to a lovely coffee shop with wireless, just in time to bring you the FRT. You know the drill — leave yours in the comments.

Friday video is my favorite single of the year:

1. Jets to Brazil – King Medicine
2. Silver Jews – Black and Brown Blues
3. Bruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl
4. Tom Waits – Carnival
5. Voxtrot – Rise Up In the Dirt
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Turn Into
7. The Mountain Goats – Palmcorder Yajna
8. Desk Ark – For Rob Riecke
9. Guided by Voices – Glad Girls
10. The Gossip – Yr Mangled Heart

Sadly, no more videos today because I’m in a rush, so I’ll pose a question instead: What was your favorite single of 2008?

Posted in Uncategorized

Daughter Offered to Iraqi Shoe-Thrower

I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not entirely sure what to say about this, what with the fucked up-ness seeming so obvious. But for the sake of completion, since Feministe did cover the shoe-throwing incident on multiple levels, I felt obligated to put it up.

Last week, an Egyptian man offered his daughter to the Iraqi shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi.

An Egyptian man said Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honour me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by telephone.

Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi’s brother, to tell him of the offer. “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage,” he added.

Aw, look!  See, he thinks is daughter is valuable! Isn’t that sweet?

Uh, yeah, sure it would be, if “value” wasn’t so closely equated with “ownership” — and property is exactly what the daughter is being treated as.  I am not going to get into sticky questions of the woman’s agency if she says that she’s fine with the idea — frankly, I’m shocked that anyone asked for her opinion at all — since we have no way of knowing how she feels other than to ask her, and we have no way of knowing how honest she would be in a public statement to the international press.

What we can say is that with her father doing the offering, with her permission and blessing or not, she’s sure as hell not being treated like she has any agency.  So let it suffice for me to loosely quote Haley, of Egyptian background herself, from the email she sent me with the link for this story: “Yay for women as property!” — not to mention prizes and rewards.