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Jun. 29th, 2008 @ 04:34 pm Save same-sex marriage in California!
Current Mood: hot
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Opponents of same-sex marriage are seeking to reverse the California Supreme Court ruling in June of this year, which legalized same-sex marriage in that state. These forces want to put a constitutional amendment to vote in November that will take that right away.

Live Long and Marry is an LJ community seeking to raise money for the efforts against this proposed amendment. Artists of all kinds are offering their services for bidding/purchasing, which you pay for by donating to same-sex marriage activist efforts.

For those (like me) who are not in fandom and do not wish to bid, we can just make donations directly to an organization. The community profile includes a list of suggested organizations. I picked Equality For All, which is a coalition of groups supporting gay and lesbian rights, as well as trans people, African Americans, and Asian Americans. You can donate directly through their website via credit card, for any amount. So even if you can't afford much, you can throw in what you can for a good cause.

(hat-tip: [info]laylah)
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 08:19 am Stupid body
Current Mood: blah
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Ugh. My body decided to be stupid and hit me with about of nausea in the middle of dinner last night. Not food poisoning, not PMS-related, not vomit-inducing - just enough queasiness to render speech impossible and make me useless for anything besides going home and curling up until it went away. This is especially frustrating because it used to happen to me all the time as a teenager, but then it went away and should not come back now that I'm taking care of myself and being healthy. >:(

So that meant productivity was shot for the evening, which makes me grumpy. I'm trying to get my mood back on track this morning:

1. Prior to the stomach blargh, I was having a wonderful time on my date with [info]ratzeo, discussing plans for the Warmakers endgame.

2. Today is Friday, and it is sunny and warm.

3. This.

4. BPAL will (most likely) post this month's update tonight. I'm not looking forward to it because I actually want to make an order (perhaps it's best if I don't establish a pattern of monthly BPAL orders, you know ;D), but I like the prospect of new shinies to read about and put on my future-order wishlist.

5. Tomorrow is the first day of the Street Fair! I probably won't get to go until Sunday, but I'm still jazzed for it.
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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 04:26 pm rape prevention: ur doin it wrong
Current Mood: *sigh*
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From the front-page article of today's campus newspaper, "UWPD to train students in rape defense":

"One in six women is a victim of rape or attempted rape during her lifetime in Washington state. In order to combat these statistics, the University of Washington Police Department is holding a women’s self-defense class."


Uh, no. In order to combat rape, you teach people not to rape. Within the sexism-fueled rape culture that we live in, that means, first and foremost, teaching men to respect women's sexual and bodily autonomy. Providing women self-defense education so that they can keep themselves from being victimized is a stopgap solution. It can be useful, yes, but is not to be mistaken for the primary method of sexual violence prevention.

Ironic that this article comes along just as I'm reading The Macho Paradox, which describes how we mistakenly place our attention and scrutiny upon (female) victims of sexual violence, rather than looking at men, who commit the overwhelming majority of sexual violence and actually have it in their power to prevent it. Notice how the article is comfortable naming women as the primary/only targets of sexual violence - which is true - but fails to note that men are the primary perpetrators of it. Notice how it makes men, and men's responsibility to prevent themselves and their peers from committing sexual violence, disappear.

To get a sense of how ridiculous this one-sided attention is, check out [info]misia's Open Source Swift Kick to the Balls Project (a satirical response to the Open Source Boob Project). Does it seem absurd that the proposed project puts the onus on men to prevent unwanted/violent attention perpetrated upon their own bodies? How absurd is it that we do expect women to do this for themselves, every damn day?
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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 10:49 am "Preservation of ones' culture doesn’t mean contempt for others'"
Current Mood: pissed off
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A proposed Arizona bill would ban race-based student organizations and any courses that supposedly "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization."

The results of this bill would be simple, and devastating. Ethnic student associations like MEChA, which provide students with a place to learn about and share their cultural heritage, would be lost. Courses that (dared to) criticize the violent colonialist history of the United States, or the continuing racist patterns that persist today, would be silenced.

These results aren't the unintended consequences of well-meaning legislation. Read the article, and you'll see that this is exactly what the legislators mean to do.

Read more and send an email to Arizona legislators.
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Apr. 15th, 2008 @ 11:31 am Joss Whedon on the murder of Dua Khalil
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Today I found a link to Joss Whedon's commentary on the murder of Dua Khalil, a young woman who was killed almost exactly one year ago. Her death is yet another instance of the abuse of women being treated as a spectator sport - and in the year since, that has not changed. The reason Joss' entry surfaced again is that a charity anthology, Nothing But Red, was written to commemorate Khalil's murder and raise money for Equality Now, and it has just been released.

I never read Joss' entry last year, but I'm glad I found it now. If you are like me and also missed it, I want to bring this it to your attention now for two reasons: the first is that, as to be expected, Joss writes very eloquently about Khalil's death, as well as the pervasiveness of misogyny and sexual oppression.

The second reason is this quote:

"Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished."


I appreciate that Joss does not use this event as a call to arms for feminism that relies on perpetuating racist and imperialist power differences. In other words, he does not seek to protect women from misogyny by redirecting our malice against non-white men and non-U.S. cultures. Too often, the response - the feminist response, even - to news such as this is one of, "Look how awful they are," and "We should help those women over there." Villainizing minority men, infantilizing minority women, and ignoring the whole heap of steaming bullshit that is sexism in the United States.

I do not feel safe from misogyny for being born in the U.S. In fact, when my so-called "liberal" or "progressive" male peers decry "foreign" sexism but refuse to acknowledge the necessity of combatting or even acknowledging their own privilege - I don't feel very safe at all. Finding one more male ally who not only challenges his male privilege, but also refuses to soothe his ego by relying on his racial privilege, gives me some hope.
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Mar. 9th, 2008 @ 12:23 pm Andrea Smith denied tenure
Current Mood: pissed off
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Assistant Professor Andrea Smith was denied tenure by the University of Michigan. The press release regarding the denial can be found at http://www.woclockdown.org/ImmediateRelease-TenureForAndreaSmith.pdf in PDF format, or pasted on La Chola.

Smith is one of the foremost indigenous feminist scholars and activists working today. By that I don't mean that she's only important to "indigenous feminism" - she's vital to both indigenous rights and feminism. Writing about indigenous women is indigenous scholarship. Working for indigenous women is feminist activism. If either of these groups forgets how necessary she and her work are to their movements, they're cutting themselves off at the knees.

Note that, while the Program in American Culture recommended Smith for tenure,
the Department of Women's Studies, where she is jointly appointed, did not. As a result, the College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts also gave a negative tenure recommendation.

You can read in the press release about Smith's publications and service and nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. I personally first heard of Smith when taking a course by Luana Ross, who was one of Smith's former professors. We were assigned Smith's book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, which analyzes the ways in which sexual violence was and is central to the genocide of indigenous peoples in the United States. This book is insightful and infuriating, and I recommend it to anyone. If you know me offline, I will loan you my copy.

In conclusion? This fucking bites.

(hat-tip: Oyceter)
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Feb. 21st, 2008 @ 08:36 am (no subject)
Current Mood: pleased
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Then democracy asserted itself, just like that.

I love it when news makes me say "fuck you," but in a happy way.

Also: today's icon comes from this post by the brilliant [info]das_dingsi.
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Nov. 7th, 2007 @ 08:36 am Causes of Death Are Linked to a Person's Weight
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Furthermore, "[O]verweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease. And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease."

Take that, popular conceptions of health that assume heavier = unhealthy.

( blah blah me stuff )

I also recommend checking out Kate Harding's BMI Project. Especially for the triathletes who are labelled as "morbidly obese." Yeah.
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Sep. 18th, 2007 @ 05:57 pm Support the Jena Six
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Wear black (or green) on Thursday, September 20 to show solidarity with the Jena Six.

If you aren't aware of the Jena Six, go here for the story.

Then wear black or green, and tell people why. Raise awareness of institutionalized racism in the legal system.
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Aug. 31st, 2007 @ 01:40 pm Iowa legalizes same-sex marriage ... maybe
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But two men managed to make use of the ruling a couple of hours before it was stayed. Go them. XD

Let's name some names, so we remember who's a homophobe and who's not:

Polk County Judge Robert Hanson ruled that the state law banning same-sex marriage must be nullified, severed and stricken from the books, and the marriage laws "must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage ..."

On the other hand, County attorney John Sarcone is appealing that ruling, which led Hanson to stay the ruling while the appeal is being resolved. Clearly, he's looking out for the best interests of his constituents - just not any of the gay ones, of course.

Dennis Johnson, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, says that the Act contradicts previous rulings regarding civil rights and is simply "mean spirited."

But of course that can't be right, can it? The DoMA isn't about oppression, just personal opinion - at least, according to Governor Chet Culver, who says that "While some Iowans may disagree on this issue, I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman." Proving the point that heterosexist marriage laws are just about personal beliefs, Republican House Minority Leader Christopher Rants says that the ruling illustrates the need for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Oh, and in contrast, here's what one of those heterosexual-oppressing, U.S.-hating abominations has to say:

"This is it. We're married. I love you." - Sean Fritz to his new husband, Tim McQuillan.
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Jul. 30th, 2007 @ 02:09 pm "Prostitute" does not mean "worthless"
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Jeffrey McKee was convicted of raping two women, but received a lighter prison sentence because his victims were prostitutes.

Luckily, there are people in the Washington state judicial system who aren't total fuckwits.

Read the article for the full story, but here are a few notable quotes that illustrate the persistent sexism and victim-blaming in public attitudes towards sexual violence. Sure, society says, we'll protect the victims of rape - but only if you're the right kind of victim.

( Newsflash: working as a prostitute doesn't actually reduce the gravity of a rape )

x-posted to Shrub.com
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May. 23rd, 2007 @ 10:53 am See if you can follow the logic on this one ...
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Reading the anti-feminist whinings of entitlement-junkies tends to get my blood boiling, but there are a few things that are just too funny to get mad about. Like, say, talking about men who are misandrist - and using Joss Whedon as your example. Because, y'know, if ever there was a man who loathed his own gender, and relegated male characters to the same sort of trivializing and degrading roles that misogynist creators use for female characters, it's Joss. All those well-rounded male characters with unique forms of internal strength and ingenuity, damn him.

He must be a misandrist in the same way Jackson Katz is. Or the same way that Tim Wise hates white people. God forbid someone call out their own group on their privileged bullshit.

(Does that make me self-hating, too, when I examine straight privilege or classism? Oh, but wait, clearly I hate men and white people too, right? So I guess I'm limited in my social circle to lesbians of color. Who better not be wealthy, damn them.)

Or maybe, just maybe, this is another case of the normalization of oppression, in which abuses of members of disadvantaged groups are ho-hum, but the slightest infraction against the privileged group is ZOMG! SUCH A CRIME. If members of a group are not "allowed" to do something, it's that much more of an offense when they do. Criticizing a dude's privilege? That's surely as grievous as belittling misogyny or commodifying rape!

That's why, you see, white kids who beat up a black kid are charged with battery, but black kids who beat up a white kid in relatiation are charged with attempted murder. Oh, and those nooses? Just a joke, you oversensitive PC-nazis!

*sigh* Sometimes there's too much ignorance in the world to comprehend.

Oh, well - I guess I can just go spit in a white man's coffee and make up for the history of colonialism or something.
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Apr. 6th, 2007 @ 10:53 am Take Back the Night 2007
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Still decompressing. The Daily has an article on it in today's issue. Here's a rundown of how it went for me:

( The rally and aftermath )

Thus ends SARVA Week 2007. It was pretty crazy for me since I was much more involved this year, but it was totally worth it. The other events of the week were all fantastic (though more humorous than heavy, and so not really worth attempting to translate into a blog post).

I hope you're all wearing jeans today for our Denim Day remembrance/protest. I've been wearing my SARVA Week t-shirt all week, so my co-workers all know about it and a bunch of them are wearing jeans today. :D

Oh, and ha ha.
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Apr. 4th, 2007 @ 10:59 am More Seattle/UW news
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[info]kyonkun pointed me toward today's issue of The Daily, our campus newspaper, for more news about Monday's murder.

Today's issue presents some interesting juxtapositions. ( Good, bad, and in-between )
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Apr. 3rd, 2007 @ 06:23 pm Impromptu activism
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As Seattle-area folks might have heard, yesterday morning there was a shooting on campus that killed two people. Police have deemed it a murder-suicide, with the alleged perpetrator being the ex-boyfriend of the victim. He had been stalking her for two months, and she had already sought help from multiple sources.

The following is a message from the university president, emailed to everyone on campus:

( Read more... )

I appreciate the university administration putting forth an official gesture of sympathy. However, it's also problematic in a few ways: there is no mention of the domestic violence/gendered violence aspect of the crime, which makes the murder seem like an isolated incident rather than part of a society-wide pattern. Of course, the president did acknowledge that this kind of violence happens "all too often," but note that he also characterizes it as "senseless," thereby obscuring the pervasive nature of domestic violence, particularly against women. Also, it being SARVA Week and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, he really failed when he advertised only palliative resources (grief counseling, etc.) and completely ignored the preventative action being taken on this campus right at this moment.

So. What to do about that, right? It didn't occur to me that something could be done until one of my friends forwarded to me and some other classmates the response she had sent to the president, addressing these very issues. Then, in response, another person sent another email, advocating a collective effort to get the president's attention - which finally made me realize that I could do the same (I'm a little slow ...). Emails have been sent to the campus newspaper as well, so that in case the president doesn't respond at least someone will know.

How simple was that? There was ignorance; we spoke against it. It was a simple thing to do, and I don't know how much effect it will have. But at least it was a way for us to take action against a problem.

As I learn how to engage in activism, there are a lot of reasons to get discouraged, so I'm glad to have this small example of how it can be easy.

By the way: I encourage all members of the University of Washington to join in writing these emails, so the president can see how many people care about this issue.
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Jan. 13th, 2007 @ 02:28 pm Support for female athletes withdrawn when schools discover that it means actually supporting them
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The New York Times has an article about a group of New York schools who have started requiring cheerleaders to girls' basketball games as well as boys'.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of complaints to this new policy, most of them being some variation of, "But we don't waaaaaaannaaaaaaaa." Mostly, this is because the added workload of cheering at girls' games has required the schools to stop sending cheerleaders to the boys' away games. Because, you know, of course we're all equal now and Title IX is outdated and female athletes are on equal footing with the boys ... except, you know, when giving girls equal support means actually having to take something away from the boys (gasp!).

To the Times' credit, the article itself is rather well-balanced - not very surprising, since the Times is part of the Lib-rul Media and all. However, there were a couple of ... interesting quotes just ripe for analysis:

( more )
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Dec. 11th, 2006 @ 08:16 pm Oppression is not a zero-sum game
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I have a ton of blog reading to catch up on, due to the fact that the last five days were jammed full with getting all of my Christmas shopping, writing all of my final papers, and doing all my winter-time celebrating (i.e., holiday party and my birthday). But here's the first thing to jump out at me:

Via Jenn at Reappropriate, Rosie O'Donnell makes a racist (anti-Chinese) joke. And surprise, surprise, no one does a goddamn thing about it.

One of the reasons this pisses me off so much is that I recently heard about O'Donnell having a public spar with Kelly Ripa over Ripa's homophobic comment. Ripa insisted she didn't intend to be homophobic, and O'Donnell replied, "I'm just saying from where I sit as a gay person in the world that I have to tell you, that's how it came off to me." In other words, as the non-privileged person, she (rightly) has the broader perspective concerning what is privileged or bigoted. However, when O'Donnell says that her racist comment "was not meant to mock," and Asian-Americans try to assert their perspective, we're told that we just don't have a sense of humor.

Bigoted "humor" is one of the things I hate most. Because when you try to call someone on their privilege, they always use the chickenshit response, "hey, it was a joke, get over it." Instead of taking two seconds to see what's wrong with what they said, they just carry blithely on. And what ends up as a throwaway comment for them is usually the 600th repetition of the oppression I have to face every damn day.

So, Ms. O'Donnell, let me tell you - being a lesbian who knows a lot about queer issues doesn't give you a free pass concerning other forms of oppression. Yes, white women can be racist too - that's kind of what one of the giant schisms in Western feminism is all about.

You know what? Just like I'm tired of sexism in the anti-racist movement, it's also really fucking tiresome to have to deal with racism in the queer movement, feminism, and everything else.

And while we're at it, you know what's not okay? This whole "nobody's racist anymore, but sexism is all over the place" whining from white women who don't have a clue what it's like to deal with both. Or any other form of "my oppression is the only one still out there, so you shut up about yours." We're all stomped on in different ways, so stop trying to be the special snowflake whose hardship is the worst.

On another topic, go take a look at Hey Hetero!, a public art installation in Australia that highlights straight privilege. Which I've got in spades. (Because, you know, being yellow and female doesn't mean I get to forget that I'm a straight person who doesn't get harassed for the gender of my partner. Who'd've thunk?)
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Nov. 2nd, 2006 @ 12:39 am Ugh
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Here's what I read today at work before going to do a C.O.R.E. presentation.

According to a court in Maryland, a woman cannot withdraw consent to sex once it has begun.

Because, apparently, once a man sticks his penis in you, you lose all say over what happens to your own body. I guess this isn't terribly surprising, though, since that's the common conservative position on abortion - if you consented to have sex, then you lose the ability to decide what happens to your body if you get pregnant. It doesn't matter if the pregnancy is inconvenient, painful, damaging to your body, or even life-threatening. And now, apparently, it doesn't matter if sex does the same thing. You said 'yes' at one point, after all.

Does anyone else have an image of a three year-old whining, "No take-backs!"?

But wait, there's more! The court graciously explained the basis for this ruling, which was a law that states that raping a woman "de-flowers" her and is thus a loss for the man who owns her.

Maryland court in less than 50 words: You're not allowed to control your body once a man penetrates you. But that's okay, because your only worth is being a pristine virgin for the man who actually controls you anyway.

More here, here, and here.

You know, contrary to popular belief, I don't hate men because I'm a feminist. But I do hold a scathing contempt for a large number of them, namely the ones who are too selfish, lazy, stupid, or cruel to own up to their privilege. Particularly the ones who purport to be intelligent or even enlightened, and have the tools for education staring them in the face. I include judges in this category.

( which brings me to C.O.R.E. )
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Oct. 25th, 2006 @ 08:42 pm Gay "marriage" in New Jersey
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Go New Jersey!

The state Supreme Court gave the OK for gay unions to have the same benefits as straight couples, though it left the legislature to decide whether the unions should be "marriages" or not. (Because OH NOEZ teh gays will turn "marriage" into an evil word!!1!)

Here's a delicious quote from Matt Daniels, president of Alliance for Marriage: "The court is holding a legal gun to the head of the State Legislature, and saying, 'Listen, there are two bullets, you get to pick the bullet: either gay marriage or civil unions.'"

Yes, because gay people getting married is like SHOOTING STRAIGHT PEOPLE IN THE HEAD.

And here I thought that the whining from heteros about how gay marriage would hurt them had reached the limits of absurdity. But luckily there's this Daniels guy to show me that that isn't so.
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Sep. 1st, 2006 @ 02:08 pm Ellison digs himself deeper into the hole
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Aaaaaaand there's more! Via [info]wordweaverlynn, we have another response by Ellison regarding his groping of Connie Willis. And no, this isn't him dropping all sarcasm and misguided attempts at humor in order to make a straightforward, sincere apology. (We can only dream.)

Since jfpbookworm did such a great job deconstructing the first "apology", I think it's only fitting that we subject Ellison's newest offering to analysis as well. One, because he's so spectacularly idiotic - but more importantly, because of the unexamined privilege that drips from his words alongside the expected arrogance. He may be a talented writer, but that skill does nothing to save him from his underlying sexist assumptions.

( Apparently no one told him that humility is the better part of sincerity )

x-posted to Shrub.com
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