Welcome to the 57th Carnival of the Feminists, Littlejohn Baiting Edition.
Roles and Society
Holly from Menstrual Poetry comments on a survey by The Telegraph that states (with admirably restrained glee) that many men believe society is now run by women and men are merely 'waxed and coiffed metrosexuals' who have to abide by female rules and long for a good only fashioned 'return to manliness'.
The World is Now Dominated by Women, Where Have I Been?
"It seems as if once women set their footprints in the wet concrete of history and start making own choices without having to consult a man before doing so, the men start to get all uppity."
Fannie offers a step by step guide to the kind of worriedly becoiffed men in The Telegraph who are fretting about the influx of women into the pubic sphere, by taking a lesson from Iraq on keeping women in their place.
"Where in the world could one look for inspiration, for a guide on how to keep women in their place? Where could we possibly look for a shining model on how to integrate fundamentalist religion with government while using the correct gender-conservative ideals declaring that each gender has a proscribed place in society?"
Cara at The Curvature tries hard to keep a straight face at the pundits insistence that the wife of The New York governor caught cavorting with ladies of the night is somehow to blame for the apparent easy downward motion of his trouser fly.
Another exciting round of Men Can?t Be Held Responsible for Their Actions, Let's Blame The Wife!
"In the end, there’s nothing that you can’t turn around and blame on a woman. This time, we’ve got: Well, she didn’t have enough sex with him! In other instances, it will be: Come on, what’d she expect if she was going to burn the roast — and then talk back?!"
Sexual violence
Julie and Maia from The Hand Mirror present a duo of complimentary posts on anti-binge drinking ads from New Zealand that reinforce the responsibility of women to prevent rape by not enjoying themselves too much.
It's the victim blaming; it's not how you victim blame and Actually, She Wasn't Asking For It At All
"Anyone who believes the rape myth that women are responsible for rape if they have been drinking can do real harm to women who have been raped. This advertisement is one more reinforcement of a myth that is already way too prevelant."
Another pair of linked posts from Holly at Menstrual Poetry, this time on the commercial sex industry, offering some statistics on prostitution and thoughts on the reasons why men use sex workers.
The Truth About Prostitution and The Psychology Behind Men and Prostitutes.
"It is said that while politicians, in particular, are used to wielding power and keeping people under him in check, no one is working for this man without getting something in return–and that is where the appeal of prostitutes comes in."
Rape survivors Marcella at Abyss2Hope and Amanda at Pandagon present two differing views on the 'I Was Raped' t-shirt designed by Jennifer Baumgardner, a shirt designed to let rape victims “own the experience,” an "help chip away the cone of silence that surrounds a crime with humiliation at its core."
I Was Raped T-Shirt Not A Statement Of Victimhood
"Smart and rational rape survivors are supposed to carefully guard their secret unless they are being brave by cooperating with law enforcement. If you don't shut up about rape or don't only reveal what happened to you in hushed tones then you are suspect. The dangerousness of coming out as someone who has been raped is what should have all of us concerned and dedicated to eliminating this danger."
You know who needs to take ownership for rapes? Rapists.
"Pressure to “own” a rape probably doesn’t do rape victims a bit of good, because that puts it back into the dominant narrative about rape, which is that it’s a woman’s fault if it happens to her."
The Feminist 101 blog comprehensively debunks the views of a BNP London Assembly candidate Nick Eriksen who said earlier this month that "Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal.To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that forcefeeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched."
If women like sex just as much as men do, then why is rape so bad?
"I suggest that anyone tempted to make such objections really think a bit harder about the difference between doing something when you choose to do it, and enjoying doing it when it is your choice, versus being forced to do it at someone else’s choice with no care for your safety or dignity, and that someone being gratified at you being powerless to stop them."
Sex and Reproductive Choice
Mary from Womenstake is shocked to the core - as all of us Decent, Right-Thinking citizens are - by a recent news article that young people are Doing It and what is more, Catching Things.
Young People Are Having Sex! (And this is "News"?)
The recent “news” that STDs are running rampant among young women is already old to those working in public health. What other outcome could we expect when the federal government is funding abstinence only education, which deprives students of the basic information needed to make sex (which they are apparently having) safer?"
Author of Hoyden About Town, Lauredhel presents a well reserached analysis of free choice in birthing care and infant death from unnecessary caesarean intervention.
Death twice as likely by caesarean??
"Truly free choices are almost impossible within a societal and medical patriarchy in which birthing is considered a stupendously dangerous, messy, primitive, terrifying process which must be timed and controlled and scrutineered and interfered with in the normal course of things."
Greta poses the question: Why don’t they make a birth control pill for men?
Sex, Lies, and Contraception: The Male Pill
Because this isn't simply a question of sexist men dumping the responsibility for birth control onto women. It's a question of whether women would be willing to place the responsibility for birth control into the hands of men.
The F-Word rounds up the press reaction to my personal favourite story of the year so far, Thomas Beattie, the pregnant transman. I've tried to avoid reading any tabloid coverage of this due to a desire to keep my head unexploded until at least May this year, but Jess has suffered the rage so I didn't have to.
How the press reported on a pregnant man
"The concept that Beatie doesn’t feel like being pregnant threatens his identity as a man seems to be difficult to understand for those who are still not entirely comfortable even with those who break down gender roles, such as a female boss, a stay at home dad, etc, let alone challenge the concept of gender as a simple binary divided by an impenetrable wall."
Twisty Faster - gentleman farmer and spinster aunt - from I Blame The Patriarchy gives further thought to the 14 year old girl in the US who was threatened with the head-meets-wall lunacy of murder charges for miscarrying on an aeroplane.
The continuing exploits of the fetus-lovers
"Why is this even in the news? Because even though it was just a miscarriage, it involves scandalous dirty female sex behavior in the shape of teen pregnancy and a trash can, that’s why. Homicide cops, faugh. Why not just institute the Houston P.D. Criminal Uterus Unit and be done with it?"
Eye-wateringly sanctimonious articles about enthusiastic devotees of abstinence movements are not new, but Jessica from Feministing neatly sums up why public promotion of the lifestyle choice hurts the chaste as well as the sluts.
Why glorifying virginity is bad for women
"Perpetuating the virgin/whore stuff hurts all women, not just the "whores." Until women's morality is divorced from their bodies and sexuality, we'll continue to be defined by what's in between our legs - instead of in our hearts."
Bitch PhD writes a extremely familiar story of social and self-imposed embarrassment over menstruation and learning to let it go.
Coming out of the menstruation closet
"Fourteen years after I started bleeding every month, I feel like I've mostly gotten the hang of it. But the other day, I realized the extent to which having "gotten the hang of it" is only true within the limited context of our culture of concealment. Getting the hang of it means learning how to conceal it as best as possible, so no one ever knows you've got it."
Body Image
Two posts about the fraught relationships women have with their body hair, the first from The Jaded Hippy and the second from Anji at Shut Up Sit Down.
"Women have body hair. We choose to manipulate it or get rid of it. But pure and simple, WE HAVE IT. And I have always been of the opinion that we should be able to simply HAVE it, and should not feel obligated to do anything about that."
"Put down the damned razor and love your body the way it is naturally, not the way you've been taught it ought to be. By refusing to participate personally, but becoming one more woman who challenges the status quo by loving her body hair, you become one more soldier in the army fighting towards making women's bodily self-esteem and equality a reality."
Rachel from Women's Health News reviews Locker Room Diaries, a book that purports to be a wake-up call for women to stop obsessing over body image but the text reveals something different.
Locker Room Diaries - An Initial, and Unpleasant, Review
"I don’t think I can bear the obsessive weighing and measuring of women’s bodies in what, one would assume from the title, would be a work precisely about refusing to let numbers rule women’s lives."
Inspired by this post, Samara at the F-Word wonders why, from scratchy lace arse-floss to crippling stilettos, women are still considered increasingly sexually attractive the more uncomfortable they are.
"I wonder if vulnerability = sexiness. Would I have been even more “sexy” if I’d been wearing shoes so uncomfortable I’d been struggling to walk? Is a woman who can’t fight back the best kind?"
A woman after my own (eminently sensible) heart, Nine from Rage Against the Man-chine is mystified by commercials in which women appear to gain some kind of curious sexual pleasure from cake, marvelling at the misogyny that leads food to be thought of as a forbidden pleasure.
I don't give a shit about chocolate at all.
It’s perfectly acceptable for these women to behave lustfully with regard to food, which is odd considering the fact that they aren’t permitted to do so when it comes to actual sex. I suppose it really isn’t much of a shock; women aren’t allowed to express sexual desire without being labeled sluts, so it has to go somewhere. Best direct it toward something that doesn’t threaten men’s control over the realm of sexuality. Something like cake."
Feminism
From Jessica Hoffman at Alternet, the compelling and necessary On Prisons, Borders, Safety, and Privilege: An Open Letter to White Feminists.
"If feminism is about social change, it is about recognizing that safety in this society is a fantasy afforded only by assimilation to power, and the cost of that fake safety is the safety of those who cannot, or will not, access it. If feminism is about social change, it is about radically challenging prisons and borders of all kinds."
Helen offers a very personal take on the transfeminism debate at F-Word.
"Perhaps, then, trans women do have insights to offer in the debate as to why our issues have a place in feminism: if nothing else, we must surely agree that gender variance, and how we express it, should be a right common to all if we are serious about ending discrimination."
Zuzu writing at Feministe uses the example of mass media misogyny towards Hilary Clinton to explain how using sexist language to dismiss and denigrate a woman you disagree with damages all women.
Why calling out misogyny matters
"I’m calling this shit out because this shit hurts women. Women like me. Women like many of you. Women like your daughters, your sisters, your mothers, your friends, your spouses, your SOs. If it’s okay to dehumanize a US Senator and presidential candidate as “that thing” or dismiss her as “that bitch” .... then we now have an environment in which it’s okay to dehumanize, demean and diminish ordinary women because they’re women."
Lina argues at Uncool on why there cannot be a single definition of feminism and by extension, why there are many ways to be 'feminist'.
On Patriarchy, or Why there cannot be a universal definition of feminism
I don't want to get all postmodern on your asses again, but the day of the metanarrative is (or ought to be) over. It's far better to engage with the language, the key words, and figure it out for yourself. In short, do not be told what feminism is (or patriarchy for that matter!).
Finally and with pleasingly neat contrast, there are also many ways to be unfeminist. Katie gives us a tongue in cheek yet annoyingly accurate top 10 list of all the ways some women manage to make life difficult for the rest of us.
Dollymix's guide to giving the sisterhood a bad name.
"5. Develop an irrational hatred for a woman you've seen in Heat magazine (but never met or spoken to), and make a point of saying "I *HATE* that stupid bitch/cow" whenever you see a picture or article about her, as though she has personally wronged you in some way."
And finally finally, April 18th is Blog for Equal Pay Day. More details here.
As far as I'm concerned, feminism was invented by female gorillas. When they want to make their point, they just mob the alpha male and sit on him. When they're finished he feels like an omega male.