by Thé Tulloch In many ways, being a gay woman that is also a feminist feels like being the punchline to a bad joke. I am one of those hairy feminists. I am a lesbian: the sweater vest, sensible shoe, cat-loving kind; not the edgy-leather-and-studs-cool-haircut kind. You know, the one you trip over yourself to emphasise you’re not when the subject of your politics comes up, out of fear people think you’ve become a lavender menace. It’s sad that an ideology that concerns itself with the freedom of women from patriarchy is willing to engage in lesbophobia unashamedly.
Tag: misogyny
Slutwalk London means Speak UP ..Sat 22nd
http://slutmeansspeakup.org.uk/
Download our poster! Please share and come to SlutWalk London 2012. We still really need funds to make this event happen, so please donate here.
“It took the police two and a half years to arrest/sentence the man who raped me,who stole my virginity, In that time he managed to ruin 6 other girls lives. He spend just 7 months in prison. But that isnt the worst part the fact that people posted on his Facebook telling everyone that he was innocent and that the ‘victims’ were making it up, still not being the worst part The worst part is that i still see him walking around in the streets where i use to Continue reading “Slutwalk London means Speak UP ..Sat 22nd”
Sting, Madonna give support: Putin and Patriarch witch-hunt Pussy Riot
The trial continues of 3 women from the punk band Pussy Riot.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Mariya Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were taken into custody in February after singing a protest song against Putin in Moscow.
They have spent already 5 months without bail for nothing more than playing a song in a church without permission. Their detention is seen as a direct revenge against the lively anti Putin movement that followed disputed elections.
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Church leaders foaming at the mouth
Corrupt Church officials linked directly to Vladimir Putin have demanded 7 year sentences for Blasphemy and indulged openly in anti women tirades and sexist language. They described Putin as a ‘Gift from God’ and dubbed the jailings as ‘God’s Judgement’.
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Defendants ill after sleep deprivation torture
Medics were called when the women said they felt unwell on the third day of the trial on Wednesday, the court said.
The defendants say they are being deprived of sleep and are poorly fed, according to a defence lawyer.
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Singers and Artists support PussyRiot
Jarvis Cocker, Pete Townshend and other musicians have called on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure the members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are given a fair trial in Moscow. Continue reading “Sting, Madonna give support: Putin and Patriarch witch-hunt Pussy Riot”
Amerikka: Poor women get jail for stillbirths.
To paraphrase George Dubya: misogynists never stop thinking of ways to harm women, and neither does America. The latest joyous news from the motherland (a term I use advisedly) is that troubled women are being prosecuted for murder after suffering miscarriages or still-births. This is more than insane. It’s baffling. Despite the pro-life palaver America doesn’t generally give a damn about post-natal child welfare………
……..Rennie Gibbs was just 16 when her baby was stillborn. The state is trying her as an adult, for murder, alleging that the still-birth was caused by cocaine use. For some mush-headed moralists this is enough (“What kind of terrible human being takes drugs while pregnant?” etc.) Before galloping off on their high-horse, however, they should consider the fact that all sorts of things cause miscarriage and still-birth. As the Gibbs brief notes:
People wrongly believe that women have a high degree of control over their pregnancy outcomes. The longstanding and constant medical reality, however, is that as many as 20-30 percent of all pregnancies will end in miscarriage or stillbirth.
Not just crackhead pregnancies, teen pregnancies, women-of-colour pregnancies, or unwed pregnancies – all pregnancies. Including those of law-abiding suburban wives who drive SUVs and take their vitamins. The difference is the latter are more likely to get flowers than be slapped with a murder charge. The Gibbs brief spells it out: “Low income women… [are] particularly vulnerable to punishment” (italics mine).
The same theme emerges in the case of Amanda Kimbrough. Her premature son died shortly after birth. She was sentenced to ten years in prison after admitting to having smoked methamphetamine once during her pregnancy. Ms Kimbrough was denied funding to call experts witnesses who could have testified on her behalf that: “Amphetamine abuse does not seem to be associated with any consistent increase in congenital abnormalities… [And] cocaine is no more harmful to a fetus than nicotine use, poor nutrition, lack of prenatal care, or other conditions commonly associated with the urban poor” (italics mine).
These women weren’t prosecuted for taking drugs; they were prosecuted for being poor. In a culture that worships money, anyone without it is not just disposable, but potentially dangerous. The richest twenty percent of the US population holds eighty percent o
f its wealth and economic apartheid, like all other forms of oppression, requires brutal enforcement. Rennie Gibbs and Amanda Kimbrough are being persecuted to remind women that bodily autonomy, like everything else in America, is a privilege of those who can afford it.
Read more here
COMMENTS
This applies to all the cases. I’ve heard of, seen, and experienced government agents hounding people just because they could, but this is obscene! The law that is supposed to protect these people is being used against them to turn them into criminals. While that in itself isn’t uncommon, this is a particularly disgusting case. Some poor young girl, who had a drug addiction (a sickness of the mind) and happened to lose her baby is now a murderer. A woman who gave birth to a child that didn’t have a chance at survival to start with, is a cold blooded killer.
So who can I blame here? It’s just so hard for me to pinpoint a story like this. Where do I start? Alright, so I already made a note that the drug war is a major contributor t
o this injustice. Secondly the “pro-life” groups who are in favor of this are absolutely ludicrous! These people are not merely “pro-life” but are undeniably anti-woman. Ironic how these “pro-lifers” are in favor of the slow death penalty. DANNY
Anonymous said…
- I totally agree!
A word about right-to-lifer’s: they act like they are about saving and protecting children, but it’s really about sexual control. These are the same people who go ape-shit when birth control gets handed out in pulic schools. Why? because women have no sexual rights outside of marriage in thier culture.
Another odd trend I’ve noticed is how these people like babies, but they seem to hate inmates and animals too. I personally am a vegetarian and against the death penalty, but I always get proded and called a “damn liberal hippie” by the “lifers” for being either. You’d think that right to life covers all forms of life? - July 7, 2011 9:42 PM
The Free 