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

Month: April 2009

By Any Other Name

I was just directed to this article at Nerve by Hugh Ryan, called By Any Other Name: How My LGBT Students Taught Me to Love a Forbidden Word. You should know, before heading over and/or reading further here, that it’s about the C-word. A word that a lot of us as women, and as feminists, have problems with. And for good reason.

I’ll say up front that unlike the author, I did not like the Inga Muscio’s book Cunt. Well, honestly, I never finished it, and I hardly ever put a book down. But once I got past the indication that menstrual cramps are all in our minds (excuse me?) and the declaration that women who use hormonal birth control — women like me — don’t really know their bodies, suffice it to say that I was done. It was a shame, because I was hoping to be able to “reclaim” a word that has often felt painful to me.  And I know that some people really do like the book, and that’s fine.  But it sure as hell was not the avenue for me.

And I’m also skeptical of this article on many levels, too.

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Benefit for a Sexual Assault Survivor: Help if You Can

A Connecticut woman was recently raped, beaten, and left in the woods by a co-worker (serious trigger warning on that link); she survived only by pretending to be dead. Her friends are putting together a benefit to raise money for her medical bills, legal fees, and counseling. As far as I know she’s still hospitalized.

I am contacting everyone i know to ask for donations for silent auction that will be held friday, april 10that 7pm, at Vivid Hair Salon in Madison, CT. tickets are $25 for the event, and all proceeds will go
to helping our friend cover medical expenses, legal fees, and counseling. She has a long long road of recovery ahead of her; even if there’s nothing else to be done, we can at least eliminate this one
worry from her life.

We are looking for anything along the lines of the following:

– Artwork (paintings, graphic prints, scultpures, photography)
– Collectables
– Items sold by vendors you may know (bicycles, guitars and instruments, clothing and accessories, sporting goods, baskets of non-perishables [coffee or tea gift sets or spa packages etc etc])
– gift certificates or trade time
– monetary donations
– information or handouts (flyers, pamphlets, etc) that raise awareness about violent crimes, brutality, and sexual assault.

If there’s anything not on the list that you think may work, let me know.

Thank you for even taking the time to read this. Words can’t express how much even that means. Even if you can’t donate, just reading the article and taking the time today to think about what you can do to effect some sort of change is endless amounts of appreciated.

The details of the silent auction/fundraiser:

April 10th, 7pm at Vivid Hair Salon in Madison, CT
Tickets are $25

If you can’t make the event but still want to help out, you can donate via PayPal here. Contact Ashely at ashleyrthomas@gmail.com with any questions.

Please consider helping out. Thanks to Justin for letting us know about this.

Iowa Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage

This just in: Iowa’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry.

“The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution,” the justices said in a summary of their decision.

The court rules that gay marriage would be legal in three weeks, starting April 24.

[. . .]

The decision makes Iowa the first Midwestern state, and the fourth nationwide, to allow same-sex marriages. Lawyers for Lambda Legal, a gay rights group that financed the court battle and represented the couples, had hoped to use a court victory to demonstrate acceptance of same-sex marriage in heartland America.

Fuck yeah, Iowa!  And a big congratulations to all of those who worked so hard on this case, and to all of the couples who now have plans to wed.

via just about everyone on Twitter

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara
(Columbia University Press)

This review may contain triggers.

At this moment, there are roughly twenty-seven million people enslaved globally, and over a million of them are sex slaves. Millions more have escaped, “earned” their freedom, or died from assault or STDs over the past twenty years – and, unless action is taken right now, millions more will become enslaved. Tellingly, almost all the countries that serve as either origins or destinations of trafficking victims have enormous, well-funded police forces devoted to drug wars, but can’t be bothered to rustle up the money for anti-trafficking efforts. The abuse of drugs has the power to whip entire populations into a frenzy, but the abuse of people is met with listless dismissal.

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…eew.

via Renee and via Mongoose Chronicles (apologies for not linking to MC earlier!) comes a commercial for salmon fish sticks with the following dialogue:

Male Fishstick 1: Woo, who are you?
Female Fishstick: I’m the new salmon fish-finger.
Male Fishstick 2: Salmon? Does that mean that you’re pink underneath?
Female Fishstick: Yeah. Wanna look? [Unzips fried coating and giggles.]
[Male fishsticks pass out]
[Birdseye ad thing]
Male fishstick 1: So much pink!
Male fishstick 2: I wasn’t expecting that!

It’s not the most subtle advertisement in the world, is it?

And then there’s this sausage ad:

It’s all about mmm, you know you want it… until the knife comes down. Gah.

Thursday LOST Blogging: Whatever Happened, Happened

Spoilers below!

I’m just going to be upfront and say that with regards to last night’s episode, Whatever Happened, Happened, I was more than a little bit disappointed.  In fact, I’m feeling down right “meh” about the whole thing.  And I’m not alone.  Because for an episode that has the word “happened” twice in the title, virtually nothing happened.

But, here we go anyway.  Let’s see if we can make some lemonade.

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The Cigarette Tax, the Middle Class, and the Poor

Kevin has an interesting post up about cigarette taxes, and how they hurt the poor more than they do people of higher incomes. I’m not a smoker. I’m very in favor of policies that outlaw smoking in enclosed spaces like bars and restaurants. I also don’t think cigarette taxes are a terrible idea. But Kevin makes an interesting point when he writes:

And yes, it is true that taxes such as these make us start considering quitting more seriously (many of my friends and acquaintances are smokers–birds of a feather, I suppose–and this has become a frequent topic of discussion over the past few weeks) which is a good thing, but I still find myself conflicted over the very real fact that what we see here is lower-income people taking the brunt of the burden. Add to this my suspicion that most of the people making millions of dollars in the cigarette industry are not smokers themselves, and I start to get suspicious of the entire system.

There are a lot of policies that sound great on their face — like a tax on gasoline — that end up hurting the poor worse than the rich. I’m not sure I would put a cigarette tax in the same category as a gas tax, mostly because travel is a necessity for most people and smoking isn’t (plus smoking serves very little purpose), but it is worth noting and examining the disproportionate impact. Kevin asks:

So, I’m curious. Any middle-to-lower-class smokers (or ex-smokers) out there who’d like to weigh in on this? Why do you think we are more inclined to smoke? How did you get started smoking? Do you think these taxes are unfair? Or do you think these taxes are a good thing, if for no other reason than they might make you force yourself to quit smoking?

Head over there and weigh in.

Sarah Haskins Blow Out

In case you’ve missed them, below are two new Target Women videos for your viewing pleasure.

First up, Lifetime!

(Click here if you can’t view the embedded video.)

You know, I’m sure that the dogs reenacting scenes from famous movies is actually supposed to be a joke on the part of Lifetime (Right? Someone please tell me they’re not serious), but I really do have to agree with Sarah that it ought to be illegal, nonetheless. Somewhere. Soft-core dog porn = so not cool.

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