So you say you’re not a feminist?

“My response to the “I am not a feminist” internet phenomenon….

First of all, it’s clear you don’t know what feminism is. But I’m not going to explain it to you. You can google it. To quote an old friend, “I’m not the feminist babysitter.”

But here is what I think you should know.

You’re insulting every woman who was forcibly restrained in a jail cell with a feeding tube down her throat for your right to vote, less than 100 years ago.

You’re degrading every woman who has accessed a rape crisis center, which wouldn’t exist without the feminist movement.

You’re undermining every woman who fought to make marital rape a crime (it was legal until 1993).

You’re spitting on the legacy of every woman who fought for women to be allowed to own property (1848). For the abolition of slavery and the rise of the labor union. For the right to divorce. For women to be allowed to have access to birth control (Comstock laws). For middle and upper class women to be allowed to work outside the home (poor women have always worked outside the home). To make domestic violence a crime in the US (It is very much legal in many parts of the world). To make workplace sexual harassment a crime.

In short, you know not what you speak of. You reap the rewards of these women’s sacrifices every day of your life. When you grin with your cutsey sign about how you’re not a feminist, you ignorantly spit on the sacred struggle of the past 200 years. You bite the hand that has fed you freedom, safety, and a voice.

In short, kiss my ass, you ignorant little jerks.”

Libby Anne [via Mark Ruffalo]

Sex on TV

“I don’t think that most men know this, but a lot of the stuff they create is propaganda for the way they want to move through the world. It’s the definition of male privilege, and it influences the way real girls act as they watch this stuff growing up.” — Jill Soloway

How TV Sex Got Real

GIRL IN A BAND

“I’d never written a word, but I took Dan’s advice. I decided to write about men, and how they interact onstage with one another and bond by playing music.
I remember staring endlessly at the books lining the walls of my dad’s study as a little girl. I didn’t know what a sociologist did, but the books had titles like Men and Their Work. What did that even mean? Obviously, men – and boys – spent time, most of it in fact, engaged in an activity knows as work. Keller, for example, had his rock collection, Erector set, and assorted other boy-passions. Whereas whatever I made up or imagined in my own head lacked that builder’s significance or invention, and the train set I presumed would someday magically appear must have died on the tracks on its way to me. Looking back, I was clearly devaluing what women did. How had that happened? Was it just that my parents placed higher expectations on Keller as the firstborn? Did I ask for, and in return get back, a little smile rather than any attention?
Guys playing music. I loved music. I wanted to push up close to whatever it was men felt when they were together onstage – to try to ink in that invisible thing. It wasn’t sexual, but it wasn’t unsexual either. Distance mattered in male friendships. One on one, men often had little to say to one another. They found some closeness by focusing on a third thing that wasn’t them: music, video games, golf, women. Male friendships were triangular in shape, and that allowed two men some version of intimacy. In retrospect, that’s why I joined a band, so I could be inside that male dynamic, not staring in through a closed window but looking out.” 

Buy it here: http://www.amazon.ca/Girl-Band-Memoir-Kim-Gordon-ebook/dp/B00M70S96S

#NoTaxOnTampons

Let’s all remember that change is possible. We have come so far — we have the right to vote, to own property, to work, to have maternity leave, to have child care, sick leave, (almost, maybe soon) equal pay and so much more all because a small group of women said enough is enough. And now we have no tax on menstrual products. I am so proud of this group, and the almost 100,000 people across Canada who fought to make this a reality. This will benefit so many people. It’s truly amazing. If we stay cynical about the world nothing is possible. When we believe, the world opens up to the beauty of possibility. 

 

A special shout-out to the amazing leader of this movement, Jill Piebiak. She is a force to be reckoned with and without her none of this would be possible. I am so honoured to call her a friend and so proud of her amazing hard work. Period.  

VAJACULATE with WIFEYTV and FUNNYORDIE

http://wifey.tv/video/if-you-build-it-she-will-come/

#WhatMayaTaughtMe

 

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Maya Angelou

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Apparently all that #TV was not rotting my brain. #thanksmom #thesis #gradschool #feminism

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Happy Monday! #regram @cassblackbird #feminism #lady #love

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Suppose, to suppose, suppose a rose is a rose is a rose.
To suppose, we suppose that there arise here and there and here
and there there arose an instance of knowing that there are
here and there that there are there that they will prepare, that
they do care to come again.
Are they to come again.

GS (1912)

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My participatory installation. Discourse analysis to narrative through ethnographic fiction.