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

Month: July 2010

Is White Really the Combination of All Colors?

This “family feud” has been mentioned in blog post after blog post, so I’ll keep the history short. Big “feminist” site Jezebel posts about female comedy writers not being represented in the staffing of The Daily Show. Big “feminist” site XX Factor posts about how hypocritical it is for Jezebel to post something controversial to stir up page views and therefore ad revenue, as XX Factor uses their controversial article to stir up page views and therefore ad revenue. Other less commercial blogs such as this one write about the feud. Then! The female employees of The Daily Show put out an open letter insisting that Jon Stewart isn’t sexist. Cue the (admittedly hilarious) response to that letter and the background chatter regarding new TDS female correspondent Olivia Munn and how she gets half naked sometimes, hates fat people (she does come off as pretty fatphobic) and isn’t funny. Ad infinitum.

I’m not going to critique any of the above-referenced articles, nor am I going to offer an opinion of whether or not Olivia Munn is qualified to be on The Daily Show. What I am going to talk about is the fact that I’m tired of middle to upper class white cissexual Internet feminist all-stars dominating the debate over what is acceptable in feminism and what isn’t. I’m not saying these women aren’t talented writers; they are. But I want to see myself (not literally, although of course that would be nice — a chick’s gotta eat) and other marginalized feminists represented in the feminist all-star constellation. I want to read articles in WaPo and Slate and Salon and the NY Times by marginalized women dealing with issues that actually affect us, and don’t involve pot meeting kettle. I want to see articles on the big woman-oriented blogs that deal with intersectionality, that talk about deeper issues, and that inspire me to think and take action other than reaching for the Tylenol.

Tangentially, but also related in a way, I want to raise a concern I’ve had for a while about the name of the Slate woman-oriented blog “XX Factor”. Titling your blog after a set of chromosomes that not every woman has and not every man does not have is, to me, extremely transphobic and also ignores intersex folks with varying sets of chromosomes (because it ain’t just XX or XY). It completely erases trans women as women, and it is really appalling to me. Why should I take a woman-oriented blog seriously that clearly doesn’t understand or apparently doesn’t care about intersectionality or exclusion of certain women? Cutesy names don’t make up for erasure of identities.

Examples like the one given in the above paragraph are what I mean when I say we need representation of marginalized women on the big, ostensibly feminist, woman-oriented blogs like Jezebel, Salon’s Broadsheet, and Slate’s XX Factor (well with them, we need a name change as well). The discourse is controlled by women for whom sexism against white cis women seems to be their main focus. We need to stop looking to these white middle/upper class cissexual feminist role models for instructions on how to interpret feminism or on how to apply feminist principles to media critique. We need prominent marginalized women who have more than paid their feminist/womanist dues to offer a fresh and very much needed perspective.

What’s interesting to me about these large woman-oriented sites is that when you look closely, they’re actually not explicitly feminist. That’s why I keep referring to them as “woman-oriented” or “ostensibly feminist”. Writing articles that appeal to women does not mean that they’re feminist articles. For example, Jezebel’s tagline is “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing.” XX Factor’s tagline is simply “What Women Really Think.” Salon’s Broadsheet just doesn’t say anything, as far as I can tell. Basically, these sites can simply fall back on the fact that they never said they were feminist. So maybe we shouldn’t be expecting representative feminist content from these blogs. When questionable content pops up on these sites, like Hanna Rosin’s critique of Al Gore’s accuser (which, to be fair, she did later follow up with a sort-of “I was wrong” post) on XX Factor, or the Emily Gould anti-Jezebel article, also on XX Factor, what standard can you hold them to? Emily Gould is a woman, and she wrote what she “Really Thinks”. I guess that’s all you can ask for when they’re not specifically identifying themselves as a feminist site. These sites are simply woman-oriented. Not all women are feminists.

Marginalized feminists/womanists need to have the door unlocked so we can finally kick it down and get some actual representation alongside the current white cis feminist all-stars. Unfortunately, those same white cis feminists are holding the keys to the door. The only way we’re going to get that door unlocked is to continue to point out the lack of meaningful diversity among the feminist gatekeepers and insist that our voices be heard. We need to make it their problem. We need to “show our color”.

In D.C., New York and San Fran, Carrying a Condom Can Give Cause to Arrest

You’d think this was one of those mythical laws from one of those Puritan colonial states, but it’s not. D.C. police confirm that carrying a condom, while with another person, can contribute to cause to arrest for prostitution.

Making condoms a factor for arrest, discourages prostitutes (or anyone, really) from practicing safe sex — this is especially terrifying news for the District, which has the highest HIV infection rate in the U.S.

Sign the petition to keep condoms from being used as evidence.

Hat tip to Tyler for the link.
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Kate is guest blogging for the week at Feministe. She’s a part-time journalist and a full-time law student. Follow her on twitter @itscompliKATEd.

Quick Hit: Child Rapist Polanski Freed in Switzerland

Swiss authorities have denied a U.S. extradition request for child rapist Roman Polanski and freed him from house arrest. Polanski has been a fugitive from justice for 32 years, after pleading guilty to statutory rape and skipping the country while awaiting sentencing.

Sadly, there’s nothing unusual in itself about a child rapist getting away with his crimes – the difference here is that the media deems the situation worthy of coverage.

Child rapists who recently skipped free that weren’t breaking news:

Last week in Barbados, a man charged with the rape of a 9 year-old girl went free after ten years with no trial.

Also last week, a man charged with sexual offenses against a 13 yr old girl in Trinidad & Tobago was ordered to stay away from her. Not go to jail, just stay away.

A pedophile priest who has allegations of serial child rape in four countries, including the United States, has yet to face charges for any of them. He’s living in Stockton, CA, working as priest, and living next to a children’s skating park.

So no, we won’t be discussing these or the hundreds more children denied justice, for varying reasons, this news cycle. It’s all Rosemary’s Baby and “but 13 is old enough to consent to sex with a famous movie director.”

The Polanski case is to rape apologists as standing water is to mosquitos. (Here’s a big flyswatter, courtesy Amanda Hess, with a point by point refutation of the most common Polanski defenses.) News outlets and blogs feel the need to gin up page views by debating the definition of rape, or it’s status as a crime in certain situations, or the believability of survivors, or whether extraordinary talent – whether it be in the arts or sports – negates one’s status as a rapist. In almost all cases, these conversations do nothing but prop up and propagate a rape culture – and those who initiate them in the mainstream media and on the internet should be held accountable for doing so. If you see this type of behavior, post it in the comments, tweet about it, write a letter to the station – one injustice should not breed hundreds more.

Miss Tasha If You’re Nasty

Hey y’all, my name is Tasha Fierce, but feel free to just call me Tasha or TF because we’re going to be tight like that. For the next two weeks I’ll be guest blogging with the other lovelies here. My personal blog is at Red Vinyl Shoes and I also contribute to the pop culture blog I Fry Mine in Butter. You might have also read my writing at Jezebel, Racialicious, FWD/Forward and Shapely Prose. Or maybe you haven’t and I’m just tooting my own clown horn.

Now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way, let me clue you in to how I operate.

First off, I don’t sugarcoat things. I’m a fat, disabled, queer black woman. Dealing with things like walking privileged people through why what they’re saying is offensive or problematic is not on my to-do list on any given day. I will talk about “white people” and I will not take time out to single out the “good” white people who may or may not do whatever I said white people do. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to pat yourself on the back. If what I say doesn’t apply to you, then it doesn’t, so you can move along. I understand this is a problem for some of you, but just know that angry comments about how I’m racist because I generalize white people are not going to make it out of the queue, period.

Secondly, I don’t suffer fools gladly. I don’t write for a 101-style audience, I often tackle topics that are unpopular and that may make you uncomfortable. Hopefully they also make you think. There are great resources like the Feminism 101 blog and your best friend Google that can help you understand an issue without asking a borderline offensive question. I’m sure I won’t have to deal with any of that from you lovely readers, but I felt I should put that out there.

Finally, I work a quasi-day job that doesn’t always allow me to moderate comments in a speedy fashion. So unfortunately, you may have to wait. You may also have to wait for me to respond. I do my best to sneak off and check on the health of my burgeoning Internet empire throughout the day, but sometimes I just can’t get to it. But, if your comment isn’t up by the evening (Pacific time, I’m a California girl), it probably won’t go up period because it didn’t adhere to the comment rules. I don’t like to stifle debate, but I also don’t like petty arguing, race baiting, fat shaming, body snarking and blog posts disguised as comments. I’m not going to trash your comment because you disagree with me, but if the way you disagree with me is couched in offensive terms, yes, it’s going to the trash.

That’s about it! Here’s to two weeks of outrage and debate. Well, hopefully just debate, although you may have to deal with some outrage on my part because hey, the world ain’t perfect.

And hey, if you want to follow my Library of Congress-worthy tweets, add me on Twitter: @redvinylshoes

Storytelling as a Radical Act

Testimonies hold great power, and there is no better feeling than the ability to tell my stories in the ways that are true to my life, my heart and my perspective. In activist and anti-oppression circles, the term “silencing” appears frequently, referring to a particular type of manipulation and subjugation. A person’s words, for whatever reason, are not honored. They are not honored because the person’s existence illuminates an undesirable truth the hearers do not want to face, or their words lead to a place that cannot be accessed fully by travel or imaginative exploration.

Sometimes, I’ve silenced myself and many of my sisters have done the same. They have borne witness to me and to others telling of egregious wrongs that they have experienced or have observed… yet they do not speak too loudly. They won’t speak out for fear of losing something: losing a relative, losing control of their lives, or losing their stories. To them, it’s not a myth that their stories will be repeated without their names to guide them. Anyone can pick up a textbook and read case studies about H, a 26-year-old African-American woman from X with cerebral palsy, or see pictures of happy smiling children online referred to as “happy smiling children in the Y mountains/Z desert/Q farmland.” These people — their bodies, their plight, their stories — are Other. No names in the street, in the book, in the mind, and people only recently have been asking why they are nameless.

Think of Alice Walker’s search for Zora Neale Hurston and discovering her unmarked grave in Florida, and the resulting revival of Hurston’s great anthropological works and stories about the Southeastern United States.

Think of Rebecca Skloot’s search for Henrietta Lacks and how her immortal cells save lives and generate billions of dollars for the medical industry; yet her surviving family members can’t afford health insurance.

Think of the stories behind these 17 words: Prosecutors in Los Angeles have not won a murder conviction in a police shooting case since 1983. Think of Oscar Grant’s trial and what the jurors now carry with them. I think back to a section of Audre Lorde’s “Power,” a poem she wrote in response to the acquittal of a Queens cop whose murder of a 10-year-old boy was recorded:

Today that 37-year-old white man with 13 years of police forcing
has been set free
by 11 white men who said they were satisfied
justice had been done
and one black woman who said
“They convinced me” meaning
they had dragged her 4’10” black woman’s frame
over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval
until she let go the first real power she ever had
and lined her own womb with cement
to make a graveyard for our children.

I think pessimistically, “At least he was convicted of something. At least he’ll serve some time.” Justice still feels cold and leaves a bitter, coppery taste on my tongue. The cast of characters are similar and the same bodies are still and cold.

Seek out the stories behind the news alerts; count the years behind the breaking bulletins. Learn the patterns. Cherish the names.

Tell their stories; tell your stories. Be ready if they say, “Where were you when you heard about Mehserle?” “Where were you when the world let down another one of our dead?” When confronting miscarriages of justice, errors in history, and blank pages in books, arm yourself with names and dates. Amadou Diallo. Kathryn Johnston. Sean Bell. Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Hold their truths to be self-evident until all are created equal, until every person’s life carries the same weight as Yeardley Love or Natalee Holloway or even Michael Jackson.

This is the first year I have agreed to write here on Feministe, and I feared using this platform to tell my story. I feared no one wanting to hear what I said. I didn’t want to be drowned out by past infighting and abandonment. Then I reread Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival” and I thought. Audre Lorde, a woman who preached the power of poetry and speaking truths to power. Audre Lorde, a woman who spoke truth to power until her last breath. So it is better to speak/remembering/we were never meant to survive. Every silence, every statistic, every appearance of an asterisk hits me as violently as the worst epithet. Do not erase the stories. It is better to speak, even if we cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice.

No one chooses to be exploited. Media are forces, are vehicles of expressing who you are. Of reinforcing who you will become.

Tell stories by choice. Tell stories of life as it should be. It is radical to speak.

Smashing Street Harassment? There’s an App for That!

***Trigger Warning for description of street harassment*** (Mild, with no violence, but I’d rather be overly cautious than trigger someone!)

A couple of months ago, I was walking on the street by my house, sobbing. I’d just had a huge fight with my mom, hung up on her, and felt so miserable I didn’t even want to stop the tears. But the guy swaggering toward me on the other side of the sidewalk did and knew exactly how he’d do it, too: “Girl, I’d never make you cry, you come home with me and I’ll make you scream.”

Ew. Gross and so self-absorbed, as street harassment goes, for him presume he knew what was wrong and could fix it with his dick. I glared but otherwise ignored him as he passed. I guess he whipped around to take another look because the next thing I heard was, “Oooh, girl has an ass, too!”

I turned, raised my bag in the air and let loose with all the curse words for slime like him I could think of and some indignant feminist rage, too. As soon as I’d gotten the first f-bomb out of my mouth, he broke off into a run and I ran right after him, screaming at his back: “Would you say that to your mother? Your sister? You think you own this street and my body if you want it? FUCK YOU!”

As all the women reading this know, this situation could have turned dangerous quickly – often times confronting street harassers escalates the situation and I usually don’t do it to this extent, but I felt more comfortable, and probably more angry, because the door to my apartment was a few feet away. When I made it inside, I felt strong, powerful, and more than a little bit subversive.

Of course, this isn’t how I, or probably anyone else, usually feels after a run-in with street harassment in all it’s nefarious forms, which can range from whistles, barks, meows, and grunts from across the street to threats of violence or demands to smile, to out and out attempted physical assault. Whenever one of these occurs, which can be several times a day in New York City, I usually end up feeling some combination of angry, scared, annoyed and a little less hopeful about the progress women have made and are making in asserting our basic humanity to the world.

Today, however, I have a lot more hope, so much so that I’m almost excited to meet my first street creeper of the day. With the long-awaited launch of the iHollaback iPhone app dawns a new era in pairing mobile technology with woman-powered guerrilla activism to end street harassment – and, hopefully makes feeling subversive and empowered afterward the new norm, not the exception.

Here’s how it works: when an incidence of street harassment occurs, iPhone users can pull up the app and report the place and type of abuse, as well as upload a photo of the offender. The reports go into a central, searchable database that women can use to share their stories and figure out the routes on which street harassment is most likely to occur. As Rebekah Spicuglia points out in New York Daily News, street harassment is a crime that everyone knows occurs but on which we have very little data – iHollaback will serve as a resource for law enforcement looking to cut down on the behavior, legislators trying to pass stricter laws against it, and activists holding the feet of both to the fire to actually do so.

Activist Emily May started the iHollaback movement in 2005 with a site that allows users to upload photos of offenders along with short stories. The point was to send a signal to men that women will no longer be silent or powerless in the face of street harassment and their behavior will no longer be secret or without shame. That mission holds – and will soon be expanding worldwide and beyond the iPhone, with the upcoming introduction of an international app and an SMS text service and an app for Droid phones. (I’ve personally appealed to the iHollaback team for a Blackberry app – any developer who’d to help make that happen, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the right people!)

If you happen to be in NYC and want to drink to the beginning of the end of street harassment, the iHollaback launch party is tonight, in Brooklyn, details here.

As for me, I’m raising my glass to the dude who’s been staring at me across the train station the whole time I wrote this post – your creepy mug is going on the internets!

Win Another Ticket to Summer, Sex and Spirits!

Planned Parenthood’s Summer, Sex and Spirits annual fundraiser is TONIGHT, Thursday, July 8. Here’s the info again:

Location: Museum of Sex, 233 5th Ave @ 27th St. New York, NY
Date: 7/8/2010 from 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Hosted By: Planned Parenthood of New York City
RSVP to activists@ppnyc.org by: July 8, 2010 at 4:00 pm (Eastern Time)

We’re giving away another ticket to the first person who emails me the correct answer to the following question. Congrats to blaney for getting the second ticket! The correct answer is D.

Which of the following is not a function of the vagina?
A. to allow menstrual flow to leave the body
B. to allow sexual penetration to occur (either by hand, sex toy, or penis)
C. to allow a fetus to pass through during vaginal delivery
D. to allow urine to leave the body

Even if you don’t win, you can join me, Steph, and other awesome people and buy tickets for the event and enjoy the open bar, silent auction, and raffle prizes.