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Guest Blogger
It might seem out of place to centre a man’s work in the final part of this book review; but Kate Millett chose to conclude Sexual Politics with an analysis of Jean Genet’s plays (which is not the same thing as a general critique or ”appreciation”) , and I’m glad she did, because it makes for an electrifying climax. The last chapter will send chills down your spine.
January 28, 2012
In Reporting Pain, Men Are the Norm
The title of a recent New York Times blog post reads “In Reporting Pain, Women the More Sensitive Sex”. The article discusses the results of a Stanford University study that were published this week, comparing women’s and men’s reports of pain for identical medical ailments. What is mysteriously absent from the article in all of its hand wringing about women reporting “more pain” is a very obvious answer for the discrepancy: men simply underreport pain.
January 27, 2012
Rape is worse when it happens to men, reports the New York Times
Recently, the New York Times reported that rape is worse when it happens to men than when it happens to women.
“There is no arena in which rape takes place between men and women that it does not take place between men and men[.]“
Like women, men who are raped feel violated and ashamed and may become severely depressed or suicidal. They are at increased risk for substance abuse, problems with interpersonal relationships, physical impairments, chronic pain, insomnia and other health problems.
But men also face a challenge to their sense of masculinity. Many feel they should have done more to fight off their attackers. Since they may believe that men are never raped, they may feel isolated and reluctant to confide in anyone. Male rape victims may become confused about their sexual orientation or, if gay and raped by a man, blame their sexual orientation for the rape.
See what they did there? Rape is “X” when it happens to women; rape is “X+1″ when it happens to men. Of course, the Times would probably deny that’s what they said if they were ever asked about it, but look, folks: the math doesn’t lie.
January 22, 2012
What’s “Fuckability” Got To Do With It?
so what does being “fuckable” really mean, in a world where men as a group are known to stick their dicks into anyone, at anytime, under any circumstance? most of us spend way too much time, energy, worry, and of course money on fuckability mandates, beauty, and appearing “appropriate” at all times. which not coincidentally requires an entirely different costume from one hour of the day to the next. for women, of course, not for men. women make less, but spend more. on being fuckable. for men. cha-ching!
January 20, 2012
Malawian women protest after attacks for wearing pants, miniskirts
Today, Malawian women protested after several women were brutally beaten and stripped naked by male street vendors for the offense of not-wearing-dresses in public.
Street vendors accused women of defying cultural norms and attacked them this week in Lilongwe and Blantyre, two of the nation’s largest cosmopolitan centers.
“They beat them up and stripped them naked, claiming they did not follow the tradition,” said Seodi White, a rights activist and protest organizer. “Attacking women in trousers is an outrage. We are a democracy, they’re taking us back to the dark ages.”
Protesters wore pants, miniskirts and leggings in a show of solidarity as they gathered to condemn the attacks.
While this protest may (or may not) evoke familiar imagery from last summer’s “SlutWalk” protests, unlike SlutWalk, this protest sticks to the issues, and makes it clear what they are getting at. Importantly, these women actually name the agent of harm: men, attacking women, out of contempt for women.
January 17, 2012
Sexual Politics (Part II)
This is Part II of a three part post. Part I is here.
I’m still trying to fathom how to break down this masterpiece; hopefully by Part three I will have worked it out. Meanwhile I’ve summarized Chapter two, because this is the part that makes me want to dash out immediately to order some T-shirts or print out some bumper stickers…
January 13, 2012
*Whose* ‘Biology-Is-Destiny’ Around Here, Anyway?
Patriarchy has been reconstructing women to “fit” within male biological norms and convenience for millennia. One of the first bits of female biology to start reconstruction was pregnancy and birthing, more recently, patriarchy has focussed on reconstructing sexuality and sexual identity. In all cases, this reconstruction removes all the uniquely female bits. As Germaine Greer in her classic The Female Eunuch pointed out, women often seek social reconstruction as castrated males, or as mentioned in Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed, women’s only options are to 1. Live WITH a man, or 2. Live LIKE a man. read more »
January 11, 2012
Women’s Sunday
On Women’s Sunday, seven processions began from various points of London and marched to Hyde Park to hear speeches given by the Pankhursts and other suffragettes. More than 300,000 people gathered for the suffragette rally. It was one of the largest single demonstrations ever, up till that time.
January 9, 2012
Boys will be Boys
Not so long ago, I read about the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State, and the ensuing firing and arrests of men heralded as leaders of a community for decades, and a flurry of news articles like this one at Huffpost about the ongoing ‘Crisis of Masculinity’. Poor dudes.
To be honest, I never thought too much about bloke stuff before, not since that day walking home from school, I found my 15 year old baby brother squared off against a bunch of other boys, all reeking that feral pubescent testosterone gymclass odour after footy training.
Strong enough to peel your nail-polish and melt your mascara. Really. A lot of ballet position postures and gestures, but with snarling, drooling, and bared frothy canines between the bum-fluff. When I asked what was going on, my brother told me to bugger off, as it was “guy stuff”, and not to tell mum if I knew what was good for me. read more »
January 9, 2012
On Gender as Personality
As many Aussies do over the holiday period, I went to the movies to watch some trash. I had a particular film in mind so I went to the website of the local cinema. As per usual every single movie advertisement featured men or male characters front and centre, with long lists of male actors names covering the poster and a few token females thrown in. The only exception to this was the poster advertising the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. On the poster for this movie there is a young woman, stripped to her waist. A man is standing behind her with his arm clenched over her breasts as if she is his possession. This year, as with every other year, women’s role as owned possessions is made crystal clear in Hollywood. read more »
January 6, 2012
UK Home Office Announces Transgender Action Plan
The UK’s Home Office recently announced a new strategy to “drive out transgender prejudice”:
The Transgender action plan addresses some of the obstacles faced by transgender people in every aspect of public life, as well as identifying wider cultural issues. It provides a framework for communities to work with the government to challenge and overcome persisting inequalities.
The plan commits to reform Health services to ensure greater consistency in commissioning gender identity services; publish a clear and concise guide for health practitioners, including GPs and Primary Care Trusts, on the treatment and care available; [and] amend the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to raise the starting point for murders motivated by hostility towards a transgender person from 15 to 30 years.
The announcement follows extensive engagement by the government with the transgender community, public bodies, practitioners and the voluntary sector.
Extensive engagement? Perhaps, but interestingly, they haven’t seemed to bother engaging with wimmin’s or lesbian health groups, child health and education groups, or even with a wide range of the transgender community. In other words, those who may’ve been critical of their Plan and those charged with advocating for girls and wimmin as a sexual class, around the world.
January 3, 2012
Sexual Politics (Part I)
I’ve decided to kick start the New Year with a three-part review of the mother of all radical feminist works : Sexual Politics by Kate Millet.
When I first read this book I knew I had found the work of a true intellectual; no pretensions, just genius. The majority of the non-feminist Great Works of political or literary theory I’d read up until then were suddenly revealed as fakes. Later, I would enjoy the work of other radical women, but most of them acknowledge Sexual Politics as being influential, if not foundational, to their own writing.
January 1, 2012
On Credibility
in the real world, meaning in the world occupied by men, where womens issues are a nonissue really, and we are only talking about trite, privileged bullshit that doesnt matter anyway…credibility matters. journalists have to disclose any possible conflicts of interest when they are reporting on a story, so that any possible bias on their part is vetted. and if the politician they are covering turns out to be their third cousin or something, the story might be given to someone else entirely. you know, to avoid the appearance of impropriety. to avoid the stench of fish. or to, most importantly, maintain the value of some rich white mans stock in publicly traded media outlets.
December 31, 2011
Radish News: Fundraiser Held to Bail Out Male Feminist Activist
The following article is satire, not reality. Mostly.
Thursday night in downtown San Francisco, a fundraiser was held to raise bail money for James Hackett, a prominent local feminist activist. Hackett is being held on sexual battery charges, after one of his students alleged he groped her at an event on campus. Hackett faced similar accusations in the 1990s, but the woman did not want to press charges.
Organizing the fundraiser were Hackett’s colleagues, friends, and members of Sluts for Justice, a pro-slut legal group that fights for all things law- and slut-related. read more »
December 29, 2011
Lest We Forget
ANZAC Day women's march, 1984 (Melbourne newspaper photo)
One thing that distinguishes human animals from non-human animals is death rituals and ceremonies. One thing that made me a feminist, was the complete lack of human respect for women’s systematic ritualised rapes/deaths. In the early 1980s, I went to one of the ‘Women Against Rape in War’ remembrance walks on Australia’s nationalistic war day – ANZAC Day (April 25th). I was young, I had no idea the scale of the hatred and violence which would be directed at the women who marched way-back at the rear of the formal military parade, to just lay a wreath on the war memorial cenotaphs, in memory of our own war dead and injured. read more »
December 21, 2011
Second Wave Feminists & Older Feminists
Guest Post by Vliet Tiptree
We have just lost some of our most respected radical feminist elders who were part of the Second Wave of feminism, namely, Mary Daly and Andrea Dworkin, but there remain alive and definitely kicking many more. Some of us who are over 60 and well-known include Germaine Greer and Catharine MacKinnon. Many of us have worked steadily over the years on reform issues or gone into scientific research or examined future feminist societies through the vehicle of science fiction. Many of us have entered the professions and helped women one-on-one in our careers.
Others of us were once very involved and our lives were changed by the Second Wave. Over the years we were unable to contribute much due to survival or other issues. But here we are again. What has brought us back?
December 19, 2011
Our Journey
One sister, new to this pain called feminist consciousness
for want of a scream to name it, asked me last week
“But how do you stop from going crazy?”
Monster by Robin Morgan read more »
December 18, 2011
Can Women Escape from Men?
If women as a group were able to escape male violence, we would not be men’s victims. Women as a group have obviously not yet found a way to stop or escape rape, wife abuse, incest, sexual harassment, or other forms of male tyranny. (Dee Graham, in Loving to Survive)
A new survey released in the U.S, entitled The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, details the extent and effects of male violence against women. It is a nationally representative survey that assesses experiences of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence among adult women and men in the United States and for each individual state.
December 15, 2011
Why Did Sasha Grey Exit Pornography?
-Sasha Grey-
Sasha Grey is an exited pornography victim who was known for participating in nearly all the degrading types of acts available in pornography. Before her retirement, she was the best-known woman in the industry besides Jenna Jameson (source Pornland by Gail Dines, p. 41). At her first shoot shortly after her 18th birthday, she asked her costar/paid rapist to punch her in the stomach. She also claims to have invented licking a toilet seat as part of a scene in pornography.
After only being in the porn industry for about three years, Ms. Grey has retired from the filmed exploitation business. But why, if the industry was so lucrative and she loved sex so much, did she retire?
December 11, 2011
The Fistula Foundation Charity: Preventing and Treating Obstetric Fistula
the HUB applauds the important work of the fistula foundation, and encourages readers who make charitable contributions this time of year (or anytime) to consider giving to this reputable charity.
on a personal note, i simply cannot overstate the importance of their work, or the impact the fistula foundation has had on my radical feminist awakening: it was the catalyst for it.
read more »
