Another imaginary pub conversation

"The thing about women is, they're always trying to change you."

"Yeah, my wife nags me all the time. Not allowed to do this, not allowed to say that...."

"I know what you mean. Mine's always on at me to listen to her and be more considerate, and to stop making sexist remarks."

"God. What a castrating bitch."

"I got to try but it's bloody hard work. Why should we have to make all the effort?"

"Exactly. It's not as if there's an incentive like a few extra blow-jobs or something. Mine complains about me coming here with you lot but she's driven me to.....Hey! Check it out! Wouldn't mind having a go on her."

"Women aren't fair-ground rides you know. They're human beings."

"Oh shit mate. You're under the thumb."

Tuesday Cat Blogging

Mrs Columbo & Ms Taki.

Because feminists' cat blogging has been irritating some MRAs, and that's as good a reason as any.

I love Columbo

He be cute!

Britney

Why is a woman shaving her head seen as self-mutilation, and a woman having invasive plastic surgery is not?

Answers on a postcard please...

How common is false accusation of rape?

I put a somewhat baiting question on Yahoo answers. Some of the responses are rather disturbing if we are to view this as a representative question & answer site. If you have a Yahoo adress, please add your comment.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070215130044AAFEnQR

Radical feminism, porn and prostitution

There seems to be some confusion about the terms "radical feminism" and "anti-porn feminism". They are not interchangeable. A radical feminist is anti-porn because she's a radical feminist. She is not a radical feminist because she's anti-porn.

Radical means root, and it is not possible to see pornography or prostitution as empowering women if you go to the root of the problem, which is the disempowerment of women through patriarchy. The disempowerment of women is the root cause of prostitution and pornography.

Our planet evolved through survival of the fittest; the strongest and most cooperative. Patriarchy invaded through dominance and combat, trying to twist evolution into survival of the most powerful/competitive. It is this that has caused the digression some scientists like to call "progress". In reality, patriarchy is destroying the Earth.

In this survival-of-the-most-powerful era, (which is estimated to be between 5 & 12 thousand years long/short) porn and prostitution have been marketed to women as empowering. More so now than ever, because less women are coerced through desperation. Many women who support these industries do feel empowered by it (and who doesn't want to be a survivor?), but this is at the expense of women in general.

The ability to buy women for sex was only made possible by disempowering women. This is still true.

Porn/prostitution is about as empowering for women as a chicken joining forces with humans to kill other chickens for human consumption (and maybe it's own consumption) is empowering for the chicken. In the end, there's nothing to stop the human eating that chicken. The chicken was never as empowered as it thought it was. In patriarchy, humans consume animals. In patriarchy, men consume women.

The hierarchy of "survival of the most powerful" is killing the planet and its inhabitants. Patriarchy is eating itself and most people are happy to go along with this for fear of conflict.

They aren't radical feminists.

From rapecrisis.org.uk The Verdict

Through text message services the BBC are making money out of this show, and yet have refused to offer any donations to rape crisis groups. Please complain if you haven't already done so.

Bea has more links for complainers on her blog. Click on "Dead Men Don't Rape" in the list of blogs on the right. (You may need to scroll down to bottom of page if you can't see it.)



Justice For Women Statement on The Verdict
Another women's group has issued a statement on the BBC programme 'The Verdict'. Click to download the statement from Justice For Women and find out how you can also join your voice to the complaints already made. (Word doc)

Rape Crisis Advance Statement on “The Verdict” – 1pm Sunday 11th Jan.
Rape Crisis (England and Wales) are worried that the BBC are using a rape trial as entertainment even though they have placed it under its “Factual and Arts” category. Because they have refused to discuss this programme with us or let us see an advance copy (which they have given to other people) we have a range of concerns,
We do not understand why the BBC has refused to answer the questions that Rape Crisis and other women’s groups raised in advance of this show. We are particularly concerned that while they have asked barristers and the police for advice about the show, they have not found it necessary to talk with groups that support survivors. We believe that while this programme might increase awareness about what happens in court, it may also make women even less likely to report rape to the police. Most of the women who contact Rape Crisis Centres choose not to report to the police.

It is also very concerning to us that that licence fee money should be spent promoting the careers of people like Jeffrey Archer and Judge Dennison. Meanwhile, rape crisis centres are closed down every year because of a severe lack of funding. Our national branch, for example, exists on just £30,000 funding a year. How much did the programme cost to make? Are the celebrities getting paid to take part? We asked the programme makers (RDF television) to discuss with the BBC the possibility of making a donation to Rape Crisis groups but they came back and said they would make no donation. If they are asking people to register their mobile phone numbers for SIM updates does this not imply that they are making money out of the show?

We also have real concerns about Judge Dennison’s suitability for this show. For example will the audience be told that he previously sentenced a man to probation for a string of sex offences and that this man was able to go and commit further sex offences against children? (http://archive.thisishampshire.net/2000/12/22/80514.html)
And is this the same Judge Dennison who let a man walk free from the court after being found guilty of manslaughter of his wife and told him “you have suffered through no fault of your own …” ? (http://www.jfw.org.uk/ontrial.htm)
(for details of this and many other concerns about Judge Dennison scroll to the bottom of the following webpage - http://www.truthaboutrape.co.uk/4655.html )
Dr Nicole Westmarland, Chair of Rape Crisis (England and Wales) and rape expert at Durham University made the following comments:
“We really do not understand why the BBC has ignored the questions raised by Rape Crisis and other women’s organisations.”
“If money is being made out of text messaging, I think that this money should go to help fund rape crisis centres.”
To make a donation to Rape Crisis please e-mail info@rapecrisis.org.uk

Incredibly lazy blogging

I love hairy women. I find it very natural and very attractive. Blokes I know feel the same so it's so sad that many women feel the need to conform with peers instead of giving the men what they want - curvy, natural and hairy instead of thin, cosmetic and hairless.Dan, Cambridge, UK

I found this comment here where comedian Shazia Mirza is speaking of her decision not to shave.

Anyone want to make a suggestion about why it pissed me off?

1 pt to you if you get it right
2pts to you if you make me think of another reason to be pissed off by it

Look! Snow! In London!

I would go to the park with a sledge and sing Carly Simon at the top of my voice whilst hurtling down a hill at great speed but I haven't got a sledge. So I'm just gonna sit here and sulk.

You're So Vain

You probably think this post is about you
You're so vain (you're so-wo vain)
I bet you think this post is about you, don't you, don't you, don't you?

Notes On A Scandal

No, I'm not going to do a review of it, nor do I especially recommend it. (Anyone who wishes to explain what the hell that film was all about, why it got such good reviews, or indeed what the point of it was is warmly invited to do so in the comments section.) A trailer that came before it was what caught my attention.

Soon we are going to be graced with a film entitled "Becoming Jane". We have also had "Iris", "Sylvia", "Miss Potter" and "Frida". Who are these unassuming sweet-sounding ladies? They almost want exclamation marks by their names like on the front of lads mags.

Would we have a film entitled "Becoming Oscar"? Well, no, we already have a film about him - it's called "Wilde". We also have "Capote", "Pollock" and "Finding Neverland". Yes, that's "Finding Neverland", not "Mr Barrie".

So who decides not to call a film about a respected poet "Plath"? Why do they suppose it would put people off?

And on the other side of the coin, why would a film about Thomas Hardy entitled "Becoming Thomas" or "Mr Hardy" seem absurd? Perhaps those titles sound a bit disrespectful. A tad overfamiliar. Infantalizing even.

So does the film industry believe that in order to make a successful film about a gifted woman, they have to make her sound more like your cute little sister than someone to be revered? (Not that one shouldn't revere one's little sister, particularly if she's cute.) Would a film called "Austen" be deemed too threatening for people? Or is it just that it would sound boring?

After all "Austen" would sound like a film about a writer, and we don't want to see women in films about writing. We want to see women in films about sex, because, you know, women = sex. We want to see films where men treat clever women badly. We want to see talented women cry for a good half of their screen-time. Just like in "Sylvia". If I had watched that film not knowing who she was, I wouldn't have got the impression she was a prolific writer. Just an ordinary, put-upon, neurotic mess who also enjoyed baking.

So in calling the new film "Becoming Jane", the audience does not feel it has to respect the subject. It can just watch a vulnerable young girl getting into romantic scrapes. We don't have to know she wrote books or whatever it was the pretty young thing did in her spare time.