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links for 1-6-2011

Anoushka

All over the world, people are becoming fed up with corrupt, corporatized, unrepresentative governments, and Spain has been no exception. The recent elections there have sparked an occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Plaza. Still, capitalist, colonial heteropatriarchy has proven a tough stain to remove, both from the state and within the ranks of protest. But feminists in Spain have stepped up and spoken out.

TRIGGER WARNING: The Egyptian military is admitting that “virginity checks” were performed on women who were arrested at the protests this spring. Sadly, police and military violence that is directed towards self-identified women protestors is often sexualized, as we saw during the G20 protests in Toronto last year But women, people of colour, trans folks and queer folks continue to play a pivotal role in revolution all over the world, despite the intense danger we face.

Any of us who work in feminist and social justice knows that it’s incredibly difficult to access resources and funding for our work. What do we do when our funders are the very corporate or state institutions that perpetuate the systems of inequality and domination that oppress us? Can we bite the hand that feeds us? Colorlines features a great piece about that very dilemma facing some young self-identified women media activists and filmmakers.

TRIGGER WARNING here too, for homophobia and transphobia: A Toronto couple is trying to raise their new infant outside of the gender binary. Naturally, people are freaking. Out. The Today Show and CNN EVEN DID POLLS ABOUT IT. Because apparently this is everybody’s business? And we must defend gender and sex binaries at all costs! Shakesville pretty much captures how I feel about that. Now the mother responds to the frenzy whipped up by heteronormativity. Heteronormativity always ruins the party.

After months of struggle, queer artist Alvaro Orozco has been granted permission (by an occupying colonial state, irony) to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Read about his struggle, it is both inspiring and sobering in the face of all the xenophobic, racist, colonial bullshit that goes on this colonized land, Turtle Island.

Finally, given that these links are all a bit heavy, here’s something to make you cry, but in the best way!

10 thoughts on links for 1-6-2011

  1. “We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place,” the general said. “None of them were (virgins).”

    That makes no freaking sense.

  2. TRIGGER WARNING here too, for homophobia and transphobia: A Toronto couple is trying to raise their new infant outside of the gender binary. Naturally, people are freaking. Out. The Today Show and CNN EVEN DID POLLS ABOUT IT. Because apparently this is everybody’s business? And we must defend gender and sex binaries at all costs! Shakesville pretty much captures how I feel about that. Now the mother responds to the frenzy whipped up by heteronormativity. Heteronormativity always ruins the party.

    Ironically, one of the bloggers I read that was freaking out about the idea that parents could just not tell the world what the physical sex of their child was, I found via the last Shameless Self Promotion Sunday. (She’s the same blogger who freaked when I pointed out that not all homosexuals are male, because, uh, hello? Lesbian here?)

  3. Fabulous links roundup — thanks Anoushka! Definitely some heavy stuff, but I loved the slam poem and some of the signs from the Spanish feminists (“Let whores govern since their sons have failed us” and “We don’t want 50% of your capitalist hell; we want 100% of our feminist paradise!”).

  5. Luckyluckygirl:
    “We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place,” the general said. “None of them were (virgins).”

    That makes no freaking sense.

    “We didn’t want them to say we sexually assaulted them, so we sexually assaulted them to prove we hadn’t sexually assaulted them.” What’s so confusing about that air-tight, not-at-all-evil logic?

  6. Fascinating links… didn’t know about the feminists in Spain. Thanks. As for the gender binary… someone at work today was complaining about this story. Ugh.

  7. Saw a commercial last night (for Kohl’s if people want to know the company) that immediately made me think of the Toronto couple and how we’re male and female bodies are treated differently from birth. The woman in the commercial was thrilled that she could exchange all her blue baby clothing and gear for pink because her expected Daniel turned out to be Danielle.

    I wish that couple luck with what they’re doing.

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