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

Month: April 2009

Derailing for Dummies

For everyone in need of a laugh, especially bloggers and regular blog commenters, check out Derailing for Dummies (tag line: Making Discrimination Easier!).  Here’s the intro:

You know how it is. You’re enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe you’re in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated against – or so they claim.

The thing is, you’re having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible – it’s been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right.

Yet all of a sudden something happens to put a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. It’s someone who belongs to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about that. They might be a person of colour, or a queer person. Maybe they’re a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is they’re trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know that’s just plain wrong. How could you be wrong?

Don’t worry though! There IS something you can do to nip this potentially awkward and embarrassing situation in the bud. By simply derailing the conversation, dismissing their opinion as false and ridiculing their experience you can be sure that they continue to be marginalised and unheard and you can continue to look like the expert you know you really are, deep down inside!

Check out the whole thing. Oh, the fun as you recognize each and every tactic, especially when you’ve just opened your blog that morning and run into a whole host of them sitting in moderation!

And though it’s really all quite good, I’m particularly fond of the step “You’ve Lost Your Temper So I Don’t Have To Listen To You Anymore” and especially, especially fond of “You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry.”

via Renegade Evolution

April Fool’s!

In need of some April Fool’s fun — and a giant timesuck?  Check out the Museum of Hoaxes Top 100 April Fool’s Hoaxes of All Time (h/t).  Though probably the cruelest of all I’ve come across so far, I’m particularly a fan of #21.  #10 also gave me a good laugh.

Have you been had at all today?  I’ll admit that even as I was waiting for the first April Fool’s joke to come across my way, I gasped in horror upon reading the headline “Damon Lindelof Quits LOST” on my favorite LOST blog, and choked out “but — he — oh wait, never mind.  Thank god it’s April Fool’s.”  And though I immediately knew it was a joke, I did find the Guardian’s announcement that they’re switching entirely to Twitter format incredibly amusing.

How about you?

Feministe Hero of the Day: Aspen Baker

Aspen Baker co-founded Exhale, an organization that provides judgment-free post-abortion counseling for all women. Here she is being honored for her work:

And here she is talking about her own abortion:

She’s an amazing woman, and another example of the positive feminist work that women are doing in their own communities every day. Thanks, Aspen, for everything you do.

Afghan Leader Backs Law That Legalizes Rape

So much for women’s rights in Afghanistan:

Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan’s presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands’ permission.
…
The final document has not been published, but the law is believed to contain articles that rule women cannot leave the house without their husbands’ permission, that they can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands’ permission, and that they cannot refuse their husband sex.
…
Ustad Mohammad Akbari, an MP and the leader of a Hazara political party, said the president had supported the law in order to curry favour among the Hazaras. But he said the law actually protected women’s rights.

“Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters.”

Akbari said the law gave a woman the right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband if she was unwell or had another reasonable “excuse”. And he said a woman would not be obliged to remain in her house if an emergency forced her to leave without permission.

Ah, so she can refuse sex if she’s feeling “unwell” or has an excuse other than “I don’t want to have sex.” And she can leave her house without permission if it’s on fire. Score one for feminism.

via UN Dispatch.