on intersectionalities of oppression November 13, 2009

i’ve removed feministing.com from my blogroll because the bullshit and privilege that they’ve displayed over the last few months, with regard to disabilities issues has just made me sick. there are way to many blogs to link to right now, but quixotess has a pretty good write up of what happened and why i no longer feel that they are a progressive site i want to support.

There was an open letter to feministing’s editors.

There was a chat that went badly.

And now there’s a boycott.

Sara Kruzan jailed for life without parole for killing her pimp October 23, 2009

from feministing:

“Life without parole means absolutely no opportunity for release,” said Senator Yee. (of California) “It also means minors are often left without access to programs and rehabilitative services while in prison. This sentence was created for the worst of criminals that have no possibility of reform and it is not a humane way to handle children. While the crimes they committed caused undeniable suffering, these youth offenders are not the worst of the worst.”"As a society we’ve learned a lot since the time we started using life without parole for children,” said Elizabeth Calvin, a children’s rights advocate with Human Rights Watch. “We now know that this sentence provides no deterrent effect. While children who commit serious crimes should be held accountable, public safety can be protected without subjecting youth to the harshest prison sentence possible.”

or, Create a Petition

Change.org

My pointless attempt at logic October 19, 2009

heh, i had a moment of stupidity and thought i might try to speak logically to some wingnuts today:

in response to this post at humanevents.com:
Kevin Jennings: Unsafe for America’s Schools

let’s see how well this goes over…

Anyone who doubts how unsafe schools are for kids who show even the slightest behavior out of the norm (boys who aren’t great at sports or girls who don’t want to wear dresses in photos) should read Jenning’s memoir, “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son”. Would you want your child spit on, shoved into and locked in lockers, even threatened with death, every day, only to have teachers and counselors pretty much ignore it, because “I know those kids. They would never do such things.” You’ve all been through middle and high school. You know most of the bullying doesn’t happen in view of the teachers. You’re hiding your head in the sand and hurting the kids if you pretend it’s any different.

No one encourages homosexuality anymore than they encourage blue eyes or shortness. Ask any kid who has known since they were very small that something was different. Ask yourself when you knew about your sexuality. Did someone have to encourage you? When could they have talked you OUT of being straight? Could they do it now, if they got you in the right mood, or the right moment? No, you know that’s bunk and that no one can “teach” someone else to be gay, straight, or otherwise.

Also, for all of you who claim to be Christians, but spout such hate, I remind you of 1 John 4:20:
“If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

“Love the sinner, hate the sin” is nowhere in the bible and is BS* used by extremists to promote the kind of hate that hasn’t been seen in the country since the civil rights movement of the 60s. Find for me the actual words of Jesus that tell you to do these things, to speak such hate and disrespect for our President and your own children. Find me that and I’ll stop fighting against you.

*double heh: i had to replace “bullshit” with “BS” after the website so kindly asked me to “Please clean up your comment”. it’s okay to spew hate like linda blair’s soup around there, but only if you do it in a way your grandmother would approve of.

What is rape culture? October 10, 2009

one of the best 101 pieces i’ve read on this problematic question is up at shakesville.

Rape culture is encouraging male sexual aggression. Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent. Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.

Buy Hand for the Holidays! September 23, 2009

the challenge title challenges me (shouldn’t it be hand-made?), but this is totally up my crafty-ass AND broke-ass alley. i’m going to commit to the following for all of my holiday gift-giving:

• hand-make my gifts
• buy my gifts that are handmade by someone else (like from Etsy or a local craftsperson)
• buy it used either at a thrift store, yard sale, Craigslist or Freecycle, etc.
• barter for my gifts

this should help me save money and get my crafty-bug up and running more efficiently. it tends to rev up for a few weeks and then peter out for a while. i need to be more regular/attentive to it since i’m hoping to turn it into a source of income.

anyways, if you’re interested in joining the challenge, just check out Crunchy Chicken and add the little button to your sidebar!

Our Terrible Bargain August 27, 2009

there’s a series going on over at Shakesville that REALLY needs to be read by anyone who has ever been or cared about a woman/girl/female. i know i say this a lot, but for you men out there who say you’re allies, THIS is the thing you need to read. ignore the rest of it and get on this one right now. If you can’t read them all, PLEASE read the first and last links and do some perusing of the comments.

A Terrible Bargain

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Crank it up to 11

Dear Agony Aunt, my husband is raping me, what should i do? August 21, 2009

Help him lose weight!

kate harding is the shit. just in case you weren’t sure about that.

I Write Letters August 17, 2009

To NPR.org

Subject: Innapropriate “Diversions”

Re: Diversions – Brazilian TV Host Charged With Murder

Last Thursday, your “funny news” segment, Diversions, ran a piece about a TV host charged with Murder. This was a very disturbing news item and deserved to be treated with respect, rather than run with the light-hearted music that usually indicates silly animal stories or similar. I expect more from NPR than from the mainstream media, which routinely treats other people’s suffering as food for entertainment. Please refrain from using any other murders as “diversions”. NPR stations depend on the confidence of their audience to stay afloat. With stories like these, they may lose dollars, as well as the faith of your listeners.

InfamousQBert

Dallas, TX

To Hillary Clinton: August 11, 2009

The media is making it out that our Secretary of State was out of line in the way she answered a question yesterday in the Congo. I strongly disagree. Please read this from Shakesville and then consider sending your own letter of support to her.

My letter to the State Department:

I, for one, want to commend Mrs. Clinton for her comments made in Kinshasa, Congo yesterday. I know that the news media is saying she was “cold” or “bitchy” for the way to responded to the question about her husband’s opinion, but it was the absolute best way she could have responded. As the question was posed by the translator, it negated her as the top U.S. diplomat and cast her as no more than her husband’s wife and mouthpiece. In an area so rife with conflict and in which rape is still a major problem, she did exactly the right thing. She stood up for herself and, in doing so, for every woman and girl in that nation.

Thank you, Madam Secretary, for your unwavering support and outspokenness on the behalf of all women and girls. Please don’t let this ridiculous brouhaha get in the way of your work and PLEASE don’t apologize for your words. They were perfect and much needed, as the backlash against them has proven.

InfamousQBert
Dallas, TX

The Heterosexual Questionnaire August 11, 2009

A quiz:

HETEROSEXUAL QUESTIONNAIRE

(©1972, Martin Rochlin, Ph.D.  Reprinted with permission from the author.)

This questionnaire is for self-avowed heterosexuals only.  If you are not openly heterosexual, pass it on to a friend who is.  Please try to answer the questions as candidly as possible.  Your responses will be held in strict confidence and your anonymity fully protected.

1.  What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

2.  When and how did you first decide you were a heterosexual?

3.  Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?

4.  Could it be that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?

5.  If you’ve never slept with a person of the same sex, how can you be sure you wouldn’t prefer that?

6.  To whom have you disclosed your heterosexual tendencies? How did they react?

7.  Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle?

8.  Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality?  Can’t you just be what you are and keep it quiet?

9.  Would you want your children to be heterosexual, knowing the problems they’d face?

10. A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual men.  Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual male teachers, pediatricians, priests, or scoutmasters?

11. With all the societal support for marriage, the divorce rate is spiraling.  Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals?

12.  Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex?

13. Considering the menace of overpopulation, how could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?

14. Could you trust a heterosexual therapist to be objective?  Don’t you fear s/he might be inclined to influence you in the direction of her/his own leanings?

15. Heterosexuals are notorious for assigning themselves and one another rigid, stereotyped sex roles.  Why must you cling to such unhealthy role-playing?

16. With the sexually segregated living conditions of military life, isn’t heterosexuality incompatible with military service?

17. How can you enjoy an emotionally fulfilling experience with a person of the other sex when there are such vast differences between you?  How can a man know what pleases a woman sexually or vice-versa?

18. Shouldn’t you ask your far-out straight cohorts, like skinheads and born-agains, to keep quiet?  Wouldn’t that improve your image?

19. Why are heterosexuals so promiscuous?

20. Why do you attribute heterosexuality to so many famous lesbian and gay people?  Is it to justify your own heterosexuality?

21. How can you hope to actualize your God-given homosexual potential if you limit yourself to exclusive, compulsive heterosexuality?

22. There seem to be very few happy heterosexuals.  Techniques have been developed that might enable you to change if you really want to.  After all, you never deliberately chose to be a heterosexual, did you?  Have you considered aversion therapy or Heterosexuals Anonymous?