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"The sight of women talking together has always made uneasy; nowadays it means rank subversion." - Germaine Greer

Hello and welcome to my feminism and politics blog. Here you'll find my own content, discussions, and a plethora of quotes. Expect radical feminist leanings.

I'm open for discussion, but I will not engage if you use threatening, abusive language.

In a meta-analysis (a statistical integration of all existing scientific data), researchers have found that using pornographic materials leads to several behavioral, psychological and social problems. Their study concluded that:
— One of the most common psychological problems is a deviant attitude towards intimate relationships such as perceptions of sexual dominance, submissiveness, sex role stereotyping or viewing persons as sexual objects.
— Behavioral problems include fetishes and excessive or ritualistic masturbation. Sexual aggressiveness, sexually hostile and violent behaviors are social problems as well as individual problems that are linked to pornography.
— “Our findings are very alarming”, said Dr. Claudio Violato one of the co-authors of the study. Dr. Violato, Director of Research at the National Foundation for Family Research and Education (NFFRE) and a professor at the University of Calgary, said “This is a very serious social problem since pornography is so widespread nowadays and easily accessible on the internet, television, videos and print materials”.
— Studies have shown that almost all men and most women have been exposed to pornography. An increasing number of children are also being exposed to explicitly sexual materials through mass media.
— The rise in sexual crimes, sexual dysfunction and family breakdown may be linked to the increased availability and use of pornography.
— The rape myth (belief that women cause and enjoy rape, and that rapists are normal) is very widespread in habitual male users of pornography according to the study.
— “There has been some debate among researchers about the degree of negative consequences of habitual use of pornography, but we feel confident in our findings that pornography is harmful”, Violato noted. “Our study involved more than 12,000 participants and very rigorous analyses. I can think of no beneficial effects of pornography whatsoever.”
— Exposure to pornography puts viewers at increased risk for committing sexual offences, experiencing difficulties in intimate relationships, and accepting rape myths.

I also have both white privilege and class privilege. Neither of these negate my oppression as a woman. They do make more privileged than Black women and poor women. As a feminist, I want to see the eradication of the gender binary hierarchy and the destruction of the systemic and institutionalised oppression of women in the capitalist-patriarchy. I believe that sex is biology but gender is a social construct designed to oppress women. Gender can be “performed” but it is inherently a destructive and reductive social construct. Performing it only serves to reinforce that destructive and reductive social construct and further oppress women. I think it is telling that for MtF transgender people in the UK to be allowed surgery on the NHS, they have to “live” for two years performing femininity: not gender but femininity by wearing dresses, make up and high heels. If this were how women were identified, I would know very few FAAB who would pass. I do not believe women will ever be “free” until we have destroyed the Patriarchy which also requires destroying capitalism. The Patriarchy predates capitalism but it now functions in symbiosis with capitalism so that we can not destroy one without the other. The capitalist-Patriarchy is harmful for everyone. Yes, there is an intersectionality of oppressions that privilege certain groups of women over other women [and over other men in terms of poverty]. I do not understand how we can destroy the Patriarchy if we are reinforcing the gender binary hierarchy.

$thepeoplesrecord: “We’ve made our sacred fire. We’re going to stand our ground here.” Seismic trucks won’t pass, says Elsipogtog war chief, calls for help from all Nations.BY MILES HOWE A sacred fire, which must burn continuously and be monitored for four days, has been lit by Mi’kmaq peoples from all corners of traditional Mi’kma’ki, who have gathered in the New Brunswick community of Elsipogtog. They, as well as non-Indigenous peoples from the local communities and beyond, have now begun to congregate in a field – with permission given by the owner – adjacent to the junction of highway 126 and highway 116 west. The gathering, which now comprises about 40 people, is directly in the path of seismic testing trucks – or “thumpers” – that are conducting geological surveying on behalf of SWN Resources Canada. SWN is exploring for shale gas deposits. Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples worry that the seismic testing will lead to hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – of Kent County, much of which is under exploratory lease to SWN. Elsipogotg war chief John Levi has noted that the gathering will remain peaceful, but that the seismic testing will not be allowed to continue past the sacred fire. “We’re not going to let them pass. This is the reason why we’ve set up,” Levi told the Halifax Media Co-op. “We’ve made our sacred fire. We’re going to stand our ground here. This would be the spot here, so we’re asking for support from all non-Native and Native peoples.”$

thepeoplesrecord:

“We’ve made our sacred fire. We’re going to stand our ground here.” Seismic trucks won’t pass, says Elsipogtog war chief, calls for help from all Nations.
BY MILES HOWE

A sacred fire, which must burn continuously and be monitored for four days, has been lit by Mi’kmaq peoples from all corners of traditional Mi’kma’ki, who have gathered in the New Brunswick community of Elsipogtog. They, as well as non-Indigenous peoples from the local communities and beyond, have now begun to congregate in a field – with permission given by the owner – adjacent to the junction of highway 126 and highway 116 west.

The gathering, which now comprises about 40 people, is directly in the path of seismic testing trucks – or “thumpers” – that are conducting geological surveying on behalf of SWN Resources Canada. SWN is exploring for shale gas deposits. Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples worry that the seismic testing will lead to hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – of Kent County, much of which is under exploratory lease to SWN.

Elsipogotg war chief John Levi has noted that the gathering will remain peaceful, but that the seismic testing will not be allowed to continue past the sacred fire.

“We’re not going to let them pass. This is the reason why we’ve set up,” Levi told the Halifax Media Co-op. “We’ve made our sacred fire. We’re going to stand our ground here. This would be the spot here, so we’re asking for support from all non-Native and Native peoples.”

1,208 notes REBLOG

A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.

ironfoxe:

breakingnews:

Oregon county to order gender-neutral bathrooms
The Oregonian: Multnomah County in Oregon has one of the first in the country to require single-occupancy, gender-neutral bathrooms in all new construction projects for the county.
The Oregonian reported that the move, coming through an executive order scheduled to be signed Tuesday morning by county board Chairman Jeff Cogen, is intended to eliminate stigmas for transgender county employees and visitors using county-owned restrooms. Photo: Dana Tims/The Oregonian
More from the Oregonian here.

Wonderful! We need more solutions like these because offering gender neutral, “family”, and single stall restrooms allows for the safety of transgender individuals without compromising women’s safe spaces.

breakingnews:

Oregon county to order gender-neutral bathrooms

The Oregonian: Multnomah County in Oregon has one of the first in the country to require single-occupancy, gender-neutral bathrooms in all new construction projects for the county.

The Oregonian reported that the move, coming through an executive order scheduled to be signed Tuesday morning by county board Chairman Jeff Cogen, is intended to eliminate stigmas for transgender county employees and visitors using county-owned restrooms.

Photo: Dana Tims/The Oregonian

More from the Oregonian here.

Wonderful! We need more solutions like these because offering gender neutral, “family”, and single stall restrooms allows for the safety of transgender individuals without compromising women’s safe spaces.

3,066 notes REBLOG

iboughtthewolf:

I’m so angry that the sex-pos movement is encouraging women - who already experience internalised misogyny and learned submission - to celebrate sexualised inequality and to embrace their internalisation of female sexual masochism as “empowerment.” It’s so manipulative and scary and disgusting. And men are fucking loving it.

I don’t like or use the terminology that is so popular these days: transmasculine, genderqueer, masculine-of-center, boi, etc. These are all words and phrases that obscure the fact that women and men are trained by patriarchy to live in constricting, life-denying, soul -sucking, yet totally made-up categorical boxes. It obscures the fact that men, as a class under patriarchy, created these conditions, and that men, as a class under patriarchy, benefit from that pervasive world-view…
I believe that whatever a woman does is womanly. If she wears a suit and tie and sports a mustache – she is womanly. If she wields a blowtorch, she is womanly. If she drives a 16 wheeler, she is womanly. If she runs a government, she is womanly. She may not be “feminine” according to the socially constructed, restrictive gender rules of our contemporary dominant culture, but she’s womanly. To call a woman who identifies as a woman transmasculine or boi or masculine of center is to deny scope and breadth and depth to the category of woman. These words serve to claim as “masculine” the behaviors, occupations, attitudes, fashions and grooming styles that are not only liberating to women, but that women can enjoy, do enjoy, and should be able to enjoy as women.

smashingcontrolmachines:

Saying that people need to “figure out their gender” is such a dangerous thing because it frames gender as a benign person choice instead of an inherently shitty hierarchy imposed by a violent and oppressive social system. No one truly has the option of exploring and owning their gender, especially not the girls and women who gender exists to subjugate.

As a woman totally committed to the feminist cause I received several requests…to march, speak and “bring out my sisters” to antiwar demonstrations “to show women’s liberation solidarity with the peace movement,” and my response was that if the peace movement cared to raise the issue of rape and prostitution in Vietnam, I would certainly join in. This was met with stony silence on the part of antiwar activists whose catchwords of the day were “anti-imperialism” and “American aggression,” and for whom the slogan—it appeared on buttons—“Stop the Rape of Vietnam” meant the defoliation of crops, not the abuse of women.

Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls

The fact that I’m seeing more and more [liberal] feminists argue that the sexualization of women and girls is “empowering” concerns me. Especially considering that the American Psychology Association has reported that the sexualization of women and girls in the media results in:

“disruption of mental capacity”

“negative emotional consequences”, such as “shame, anxiety…self-disgust”

“impaired performance on mental activities,”…e.g.: “mathematical computations…logical reasoning”

The sexualization of women and girls has been linked to 3 mental health problems:

Eating Disorders

Depression

Low Self-Esteem

Media sexualization also impacts women and girls accepting sexist gender roles:

“Girls and young women who more frequently consume or engage with mainstream media content offer stronger endorsement of sexual stereotypes that depict women as sexual objects (Ward, 2002; Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999; Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006).”

“They also place appearance and physical attractiveness at the center of women’s value.”

According to the APA, components of sexualization occur when:

a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;

a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;

a person is sexually objectified — that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or

sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

This is not okay. This is not empowering.