Quick post on RNC suppression

This post is brief - just to bring to my scant readership's attention media suppression of the riots that were what really postponed the RNC. Not Hurricane Gustav. Also get the story here.

Thinking this over, esp. the headline of the second source ("RNC 8 Charged with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism"), I'm realizing just how goddamn fascist it all is. What's "furtherance of terrorism?" I mean, remember when everyone criticizing the Iraq War was "furthering terrorism?"

So either the Grand Old Party didn't prosecute the doves then just out of the goodness of their hearts, or they knew the press would raise a stink. This time around, though, the press is securely under their thumb, so with nothing to worry about, the Man and the American Machine ooze on down towards "They came first for the Communists..."

h/t upliftingprettypicturesverycool art blog Yo! Peace

I do not like Sarah Palin very much.

It's been circulating around the blogosphere lately that when Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, she allowed her police departments to charge rape victims anywhere from $300 to $1,200 for their own forensic exams. No other victims of violent crime that I know of have ever been charged money for their exams - just rape victims. In case you were wondering, Alaska government doesn't give a flying piece of crap about women (this stopped in 2000. Yes, you can make the turn of the millenium and still not figure out rape is a crime.). Bitch PhD points out how this demonstrates the callousness of the libertarian position: yes, it does put more burden on the taxpayer, and yes, we are morally fucking obliged to do it anyways.

Now, purely in the interests of playing devil's advocate and nuanced debate (do not mistake this for a compliment to Palin!), I will point out that Palin was not directly responsible for this policy. She was merely mayor of a city at the same time the state government had this atrocity going on. We can't know if Palin was really 100% ignorant of the whole thing, since after the lies-ridden RNC speech we can't really trust a word that comes out of her mouth.

However, she probably could have stopped this policy. You know why she wouldn't have, if she did know/were responsible for the perpetration of this anti-woman policy?

Because Sarah Palin is not a feminist. Feminists like women's rights. Basic math, people.

I would argue, personally, after that mendacious-ass RNC speech, shat Sarah Palin is not an anything but a political chameleon with no colors of her own to show except nauseating scaly grey. She's so cartoonishly anti-woman it hurts. Margaret Thatcher syndrome, anyone?

P.S. ~ It's a tad ironic that Palin's opposite number (Biden) was the main man behind the federal legislation that made debacles like this impossible in the future.
P.S.S. ~ Holy shit on brussel sprouts these people are obscenely rich

Bullshit paradigm needs smashing.

Future ally

When something makes me really mad (and this time I'm not talking about someone taking my ice cream or whatever - this is outrage I'm talking about here) it usually isn't just sexist. I don't think sexism ever comes all by itself, naked, a pure hatred of women. That's not how the human mind works.

I'll use a metaphor here - sexism is a brick in the wall of obfuscation and hatred that prevails, chill and wall-like, over today's society. That wall is built from racism, homophobia, ableism, and every other kind of cruelty humanity perpetrates on humanity. If we knock the sexist brick out, one brick's gone and the wall is closer to falling, but the wall's still there, and the mortar that bound it to the other bricks hasn't crumbled all the way out either.

We don't need hammers; we need dynamite.

The variety of prejudices comprising the dominant paradigm enforce each other.

If you think men are natural dominators and women are natural "nurturers," are you going to find the idea tenable that two people who happen to fit into the same one of your gender categories can have a loving relationship? Probably that idea will rush in one ear and out the other like the sound of leaves scattering in the wind.

If you think women should be subservient to men, are you going to notice the casual cruelty of white men who denigrate, fetishize, or simply ignore women of races not his own? If you give it even passing notice, you wouldn't think in a million years to call it out.

If you think easy, constant, socially approved sexual satisfaction is not just a right but a responsibility for men, will you ever realize that those whose sexualities society mocks or declares taboo - the disabled, the elderly, the young, the "unattractive" - also have relationships, desires and emotions? I'd guess that information might slide right under your nose.

If you buy the idea that sexual attractiveness is contingent on regular use of chemical makeup and expensive diet food, and, if your "problem" is especially bad, corrective surgery, are you going to look at that "Made in China" label on your designer clothes and really grasp what it means in terms of human and environmental cost? You tell me.

I've read about Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza's concept called "kyriarchy," and I think this is really expressive of the ideas feminism now needs to tackle. I am wont to approach the multileveled juggernaut of oppression that kyriarchy is through the lens of feminism, since my mommy raised me reading Ms., but for me and for all feminists, there can't be a clinging to "just feminism," "just women's issues." Who is the default woman who is "just a woman?" My guess is she's a white woman, middle-class or higher, and she's got nearly as much bullshit paradigm going for her as her guy buddies do.

Ingathering was today.

Ingathering is one of my personal favorite parts of the year. Unitarian Universalist congregations tend to run on the academic year, and Ingathering is the Sunday where everyone comes back from vacation and refocuses their energy on the community. It's really refreshing. In some congregations (such as mine!) Ingathering is traditionally celebrated with Water Communion, where everyone brings in water from wherever they've been over the summer, and water is the overarching metaphor of the service. A lot of people recite physical lists of destinations, which is the dull part of the ritual; others make more out of the celebration and give the congregation a quick brief of where they were spiritually or emotionally while they were away. Ingathering is my favorite uniquely UU tradition (at least among those that take place in the sanctuary on Sunday morning).

During the sermon today I learned that Water Communion is a feminist tradition. According to its originators, who were compiling a book of feminist theology titled Wellsprings, the metaphor of water liberates women from concepts of female servitude that are ingrained in many theologies. I found this to be true because it centers on universal, human, even animist ideas. And it's beautiful, in short. Our bodies are made of water. Without it, our very cells dry up and die off. Water connects us to the world; we need it, and, in these troubling times for the environment, we are also its protectors.

Where was our family this summer? Our water was from the first visit in many years of my two grandparents - a wonderful visit that brought much joy, although it left joy as well as the knowledge that they're aging steadily, and all our thoughts are with them, particularly my father's.

You kissed a girl, and I'm goddamn sick of hearing about it.

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention

If I had intended it, that would be, like, so gay.

I got so brave, drink in hand

Drunk girls are cute!

Lost my discretion
It's not what, I'm used to
Just wanna try you on

I don't care about your feelings. Again, that'd be totally gay.

I'm curious for you
Caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick

All girls wear cherry chapstick! That's, like, the sole differentiator of gender.

I kissed a girl, just to try it

which I can because of my white privilege, class privilege, and weight privilege!

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

I hope it turns my boyfriend on, because manipulative sexual agency is a woman's only agency. By the way, men aren't attracted to men. Ever.

It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight

See previous lines r.e. the gay

I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter

because you don't matter to me.

You're my experimental game
Just human nature

to avoid social consciousness at all costs.

It's not what
Good girls do
Not how they should behave

and the only way I can think of to transgress the role of "good girl" is objectifying myself. Can you say "Madonna/whore complex?"

My head gets so confused

My IQ is significantly below average

Hard to obey

Us girls we are so magical
Soft skin, red lips, so kissable

Anyone who doesn't moisturize daily, wear makeup, or struggle to seem "kissable," on the other hand, does not qualify as female.

Hard to resist; so touchable

See, guys? It's okay to cop a feel on the bus. Even girls can't resist.

Too good to deny it

Women's bodies are public space.

Ain't no big deal, it's innocent

It's only sex if there's a cock involved, everyone knows that! No cock = no sex = innocent - so, like, I'm still not a slut, okay, guys?