April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

feminism

If we’re from Venus can we go back?

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While debate continues as to whether reducing women to their sexuality is acceptable, women and female children around the world are suffering from the permissions those attitudes are granting.

Permission to take control

A man has admitted murdering his baby daughter after thinking about killing her every day since her birth as part of fantasy about controlling women.

Andrew Randall, 33, of Havelock Street in Kettering, committed “a catalogue of horrendous violence” on seven-week-old Jessica, Northampton Crown Court.

Jessica, born five weeks early, was abused almost since she left hospital until her death in November last year.

Randall also pleaded guilty to causing her grievous bodily harm.

After her death, Jessica was found to have at least nine injuries to her ribs as well as brain injuries and cuts to her face, the court heard.

Permission to destroy

A Canadian couple convicted of brutally assaulting two girls, one of whom said she was kept as a sex slave, were sentenced on Tuesday, but the victims’ relatives denounced the punishment as too lenient.

Prosecutors had described the couple — Terry Ladouceur, 39, and Lynnette Traverse, 25 — as “evil incarnate,” and the case evoked memories of the trial of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, who were convicted in the torture killings of two Ontario girls in a notorious sex case in the 1990s.

A Manitoba judge sentenced Ladouceur to 10 years in prison and Traverse, his common-law wife, to four years on charges that included sexual assault, kidnapping and forcible confinement involving the two girls, who were 12 and 13 when the assaults started.

Because of the time the couple spent in jail awaiting trial, Ladouceur will spend only an additional seven years behind bars, and Traverse will be eligible for release almost immediately.

The victims’ relatives cursed and cried in the courtroom over sentences that they said were too lenient. They complained to reporters that the couple have never shown remorse for what they had done.

Prosecutors had wanted Ladouceur to spend up to 18 years in prison and Traverse eight years. They called the sentences handed down by the court an irony since at least one of the girls would likely never recover psychologically.

Interesting in these cases how more blame seems to go to the female accomplice.

Permission to assign blame to the victim

Until now rape cases were dealt with in Sharia courts. Victims had to have four male witnesses to the crime – if not they faced prosecution for adultery.

Now civil courts will be able to try rape cases, assuming the upper house and the president ratify the move.

The reform has been seen as a test of President Musharraf’s stated commitment to a moderate form of Islam.

“It is a historic bill because it will give rights to women and help end excesses against them,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told parliament after the vote.

Religious parties boycotted the vote, saying the bill encouraged “free sex”.

Free sex? seems right now the men have a right to all the free sex they want.
Oh! I get it! Women shouldn’t be able to have sex freely. Ya know like with free will.

Do something!

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

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A sad and frightening tale at AlterNet today,

Though there are no exact figures for the size of the movement, the number of families that identify as Quiverfull is likely in the thousands to low tens of thousands. Its word-of-mouth growth can be traced back to conservative Protestant critiques of contraception — adherents consider all birth control, even natural family planning (the rhythm method), to be the province of prostitutes — and the growing belief among evangelicals that the decision of mainstream Protestant churches in the 1950s to approve contraception for married couples led directly to the sexual revolution and then Roe v. Wade.

“Our bodies are meant to be a living sacrifice,” write the Hesses. Or, as Mary Pride, in another of the movement’s founding texts, The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality, puts it, “My body is not my own.” This rebuttal of the feminist health text Our Bodies, Ourselves is deliberate. Quiverfull women are more than mothers. They’re domestic warriors in the battle against what they see as forty years of destruction wrought by women’s liberation: contraception, women’s careers, abortion, divorce, homosexuality and child abuse, in that order.

Pride argues that feminism is a religion in its own right, one that is inherently incompatible with Christianity. “Christians have accepted feminists’ ‘moderate’ demands for family planning and careers while rejecting the ‘radical’ side of feminism — meaning lesbianism and abortion,” writes Pride. “What most do not see is that one demand leads to the other. Feminism is a totally self-consistent system aimed at rejecting God’s role for women. Those who adopt any part of its lifestyle can’t help picking up its philosophy.” “Family planning,” Pride argues, “is the mother of abortion. A generation had to be indoctrinated in the ideal of planning children around personal convenience before abortion could be popular.”

In a nutshell the group thinks women should have as many children as they possibly can in an effort to create soldiers for god and overthrow the feminist, heathen, liberal society they so fear.

It is their belief that god will provide. That if women are submissive all good will come to them and their husbands will care for and never leave them.

Oh and no need to take care of this earthly sphere for god has a new home prepared for the faithful.

I wish it were possible to force feed history. It is not that long ago women were submissive regardless if through choice or by law.

Cases of spousal abuse were not less, rape was not less, single mothers were really not less just better hidden.

Women worked!!

Yes there is the great romantic novel of how women merely lazed the days away, happily content in her role as mother and wife.

The reality being that any woman of a certain class was trained in certain skills to be a good companion and social climber.

All other women made do as they could working as domestics, laundresses, wet nurses, prostitutes, bar maids, anything that might keep body and soul together.

Children were raised by older children, were taken to orphanages, were abandoned were raised in workhouses and were lost to poverty and disease.

There was nothing romantic about their lives. God sent no armies of angles to comfort the children as their bellies swelled with hunger, no angles comforted mothers trying to provide for their children as their bodies ached from their daily labours. No angles kept the fibers and dust out of the lungs of women working in the mills. God provided no comfort for those women beaten and raped by husbands and who had no recourse for the damage done. God’s priests provided no comfort sending these women home and telling them to be better more submissive wives in order to prevent further abuse.

“My body is not my own.”

A scary thought. A feeling one has when undergoing severe abuse or rape. The only way to deal with is to disassociate

It is interesting to me that these women fear feminism, fear autonomy, fear the right to make their own decisions and fear being left.

It is as if they do not realize that women living under full control of a patriarchy have much more to fear.

The children have much to fear also, being seen as future brood mares of cannon fodder.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal

Wednesday Winners and Wackos

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(todays winners brought to you by America)

Winners:

Bernie Sanders

Hundreds of supporters chanted “Bernie! Bernie!” at a victory party that welcomed the maverick independent congressman who calls himself a “democratic socialist” into the U.S. Senate.Sanders handily beat businessman Richard Tarrant in an expensive race to succeed retiring Sen. James Jeffords, an independent.

“The people of Vermont have told America they are sick and tired of right wing extremism!” Sanders told the crowd, which punched red balloons into the air. “This election tonight may be the end of a campaign, but it is the beginning of a grassroots movement across America!”

Three wins for common sense

n a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakotans rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

First woman speaker

Democrats have partially taken back control of the U.S. government from Republicans after winning enough seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to take secure a hold of one or both houses of Congress. With the change in tide Rep. Nancy Pelosi is poised to become nation’s first woman Speaker. The expected first Madam Speaker has promised a series of “discrete deliverables” in the first 100 work hours after the Democrats take control, which includes boosting minimum wages, improving fiscal discipline, research on new embryonic stem cells, improving upon the prescription of drug coverage program for seniors and many other issues.

Background on Ms. Pelosi

Wackos

and Wackiness

War on Women their REAL intent

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However, it was M.P. Belinda Stronach, (Newmarket – Aurora) who got down right rude and insulting when she stated:
The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie, has said that the organization, REAL Women, raises, interesting points that warrant close inspection. This is a group that is anti-choice, anti-gay, does not support equality for women and wants to obliterate the Department on the Status of Women. This group’s website even has links to sites that suggest that day cares do not care and homosexuality is a psychological disorder.

With budget cuts on the horizon, who is the minister listening to, Ian Brodie, the right-wing organization, REAL Women, or will she stand up and defend the rights of Canadian women?

I want to add that promoting equal rights for Canadian women is never a waste.

In response to Ms Stonach’s remarks the Conservative MPs pounded their desks and called out “hurrah for REAL women”

On September 25, 2006, the Conservative government announced long overdue cuts to a number of government departments including the Status of Women. The latter’s budget was cut by $5 million out of a budget of 23 million. It is an excellent beginning on what we hope will be the eventual elimination of the Status of Women.

This is from REAL women’s Sept/Oct. newsletter.

I’m just going to deal with this small section of it.

Belinda Stronach was rude and insulting with what she said?

She only repeated their platform. Are they embarrassed by it? (they should be)

Here is a group which supports violation of human rights, which would have us all governed by their religious beliefs, and whose members seek to force women to carry a pregnancy to term regardless of the circumstances of conception, danger to the woman’s life or psychology ability of the woman to continue on.
In response to Ms Stonach’s remarks the Conservative MPs pounded their desks and called out “hurrah for REAL women”

And we have a party fully supportive of this type of platform. Do we want our country to be known for intolerance, bigotry, sexism and denial of human rights? That’s not what my parents fought for.

The views expressed by this party and their support of a group of sexist bigots need to be repeated loudly, widely and constantly to remind people of the how the conservative government views women, gays and those who support reproductive choice.

Finally this last sentence is chilling and wraps up the conservative stance on women, and women’s rights in a nutshell;

It is an excellent beginning on what we hope will be the eventual elimination of the Status of Women.

Yes, they hope for the elimination of the Status of Women and the status for women.

These are people who would happily return to the days of Father knows best, women in the kitchen, and biology is destiny.

I am not willing to allow the Conservative Party, the fundamentalist religious wingnuts, or the fake progressive men who can talk a good game but get testicular shrinkage when asked to walk the talk, to determine what opportunities are available to my daughters and granddaughters.

We will not be silenced and we will not go back!

the F word and it isn’t fuck

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There seems to be an awful lot of defining what feminism is. Yet little of it seems to have anything to do with feminism as I know it or as those I regularly have conversation with seem to know it.

exhibit A

Is Dieting Anti-Feminist?

My efforts to drop pounds made me feel like I was dropping the ball on women’s rights as well. Then the epiphany: What’s wrong with wanting to be healthy and look hot?

I don’t know what is wrong with it? I can’t remember seeing a section in the Feminist Agenda Handbook which states “one must not care about one’s body, health, or hottiness”.

exhibit B

Stubble, stubble, feminist trouble

But the stinging pain of my Veeting was nothing compared to what I felt when a female peer recently belittled me because of my status as friendly blonde. I could see her condemning me for crimes against the feminist agenda — for general silliness. I have a brain, and I like silky smooth legs. It’s often a tough thing to reconcile as a woman, and I find I’m judged not by men for my blond hair and primping but by my fellow women. Serious girls with brown hair like to turn up their noses at me when I laugh, say hello or tell them I like their bag. This, I would argue, is the downfall of feminism. Women are too quick to judge one another.

Now again in flipping through the Feminist Agenda Handbook the only sections dealing with not shaving ones legs are under “Baseless assumptions about feminists” and “Personal hygiene choices”. Friendly blonds …. nope can’t find anything against either hair colour or friendliness.

exhibit C

Muslim Rape, Feminist Silence

In France, the phenomenon of Muslim gang rape as punishment for non-veiling even has a word to describe it: “tournante” (take your turn). In areas where Muslims form the majority (i.e. the Muslim suburb of Courneuve, France), even non-Muslim women feel pressured to veil themselves in fear of Muslim sexual and physical punishment.

In the context of this epidemic of Muslim violence against women, and the open legitimization of it pronounced by Islamic clerics, one would think that the Western feminists of our time would be up in arms, sympathetically coming to the side of their raped sisters and standing up for women’s rights in general.

But this is just not the case.

The West’s leftist feminists are responding with an apathetic heartlessness and deafening silence.

Now perhaps this one is too easy. I found the section dealing with this in the Feminist Grade School Primer it deals with bigots and arseholes trying to smear two opponents at once with faulty argument, skewed statistics and a general Rush Limbaugh approach to logic.

exhibit D

Feminism, my foot!

Me? No, not really. Feminism from my point of view is anti-men. Actually, feminism wants to do away with men and compete unduly with them. That’s not my job.

That’s not my line. I believe in what I call complementarity. There are things men cannot do even if it is biologically and socially and there are things women cannot do. And if you keep insisting on equality, that’s what feminist does, total equality, you are fragmenting the effort. When you come together, you know you have deficiencies as a man and as a woman and two of you come together and complement yourselves. I believe in that. So, in actual fact, I am not a feminist, maybe I am a womanist because I believe that women have actually not been given their due.

Although, many of us are doing some important things, men still think we are inferior to them. In that case, if you think being a feminist means saying that women are important, women issues are important, woman rights are human rights, if that’s what feminism is all about, then I am a feminist. But if it is trying to fight with men and displace them and chase them away and not deal with them and becoming lesbian, so you don’t get any dealings with men, then I am not feminist, I am a womanist.

Confusion. Otherwise known as I’m not a feminist but…. Sadly indulged in by those who want all the rights, freedoms and perks of feminism but don’t want to appear “threatening” to men from whom they still need laudation.

exhibit E

Feminism is undermining human evolution

Before I explain what those Y chromosome differences are, though, let’s see what stories Tucker spins from it.

What has changed is the role of males. Among chimps, males hang out in groups, form alliances, forage together, and do a lot of bickering over status. They do not participate at all in child rearing. By the time hunting-and-gathering tribes arrive, however, men have been folded into the family. Monogamy predominates and both parents participate in child rearing. The extraordinary innovation is “fatherhood,” a role that doesn’t really exist elsewhere in nature.

Apparently, “fatherhood” is a special attribute embedded in the Y chromosome. Monogamy and shared parenting is certainly found in many vertebrates—sea horses and sticklebacks, voles and penguins come to mind—so I’m afraid that his claim of a special status for human fathers is complete nonsense.

He fine tunes his argument, though: paternal investment is a strategy that distinguishes humans from their nearest primate relatives, and is the reason for our success.

In fact, the discovery of bonobo society proves just the opposite. It is precisely because females play a dominant role and males are so passive and unambitious that bonobos did not produce an evolutionary line that led to human beings. Instead, they remain a relatively minor, underpopulated species holding their orgies deep in the jungle. The larger East African chimp, where males predominate, produced the line that led to humanity.

Well, having males “predominate” might not be the best strategy for increasing a population—I think he is referring to male dominance. He really seems to think that letting females have a dominant role in society would mean we’d just be having jungle orgies, and that patriarchalism leads to human ambition and progress (umm, can I just say…the jungle orgies don’t sound all that bad.)

The just plain hilarious.

The only thing I can find relating to this is to get more girls involved in science.

Now all of you watch out for your 2007 issue of the Feminist Agenda coming to your mailbox soon…and be sure to use those coupons for a free leg wax.

Misogyny epitomized

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So the little ladies have their skirts in flap again and it’s all due to the presence of estrogen in the press galley. Good to know. I thought maybe it had something to do with misogynist bullshit flying every direction, glad to hear it’s just a bunch of hormone challenged press types blowing things out of proportion.

Has Canadian society really sunk this low? Are the majority of Canadian men really this stupid? Well I did read one comment by a blogger that was less intelligent than what Spector said but I would hate to taint all men by comparing them with him.

I suggest you have a bucket handy and something to kick.

“You know, I’m not in politics, I can say it, I think she’s a bitch and I think that 90 per cent of men would probably say she’s a bitch, for the way she’s broken up (former Maple Leaf) Tie Domi’s home and the way she dumped Peter MacKay. She is a bitch.”

snip

Spector also told CTV News he thinks the reason the Tory foreign affairs minister’s reported reference to Stronach as a dog got major coverage was because of the number of female journalists in Ottawa.