This is a cross post from a good friend of mine. It originally appeared at team berlin. If you are interested in guest or cross posting at feministhemes.com, send a line with your idea to ms.wizzle@feministhemes.com.
In response to Vatican says women priests a ‘crime against faith’ [telegraph]:
Yep. It’s definitely one of those times when I remember why so many people hate the Catholic faith. Mostly because they’re full of dicks, both literally with all their penii flying all over the place and metaphorically in the sense that they’re quite mean.
REALLY?! Worse than pedophilia? REALLY?! Honestly? Who came up with an idea like that? Only the Catholics could come up with a concept that is so obviously opposed to the teachings of Christ, and yet have such “reverence” for the Virgin Mary. Yes, they have their insane reverence for a character in the Bible that hardly does anything at all, except for what they view as her womanly duty of giving birth. Yet, they never look at the fact that there were female judges that led the Jewish people through battles and back into moral integrity.
What terrible hypocrisy. How can we possibly allow such hate and sinfulness from a church? I don’t care what we want to say as far as equality goes. I don’t care when we want to say as far as women being ordained as priests. If the Cathies just said, “No. Not our style,” that would be okay. That’s their thing, they’re sexist, and they like it. I’ve long since accepted that. But I cannot stand by when somebody who identifies as Christian is saying that ordaining women as priests is WORSE than pedophilia!
It isn’t as if the Catholic church has belittled pedophilia enough already. No, they seem to do plenty of that. No really, Catholic church, take as long as you need to prosecute or punish the pedophilic priests. We’re not in a rush to get any sort of justice or closure on these. 8 years? No, go ahead and take longer.
In the news today is a story about “flying pasties” – stickers that women can wear under their clothing to protect their privacy when going through full body scanning security booths at many US airports. I haven’t done enough investigating to tell whether this is just a joke or a serious “countermeasure” to one’s privacy being invaded in the name of national security, but I can say that it’s got me thinking.
Having flown on multiple occasions out of the SLC airport, which has a full body scanner in addition to four of the normal metal detectors, I’ve been through the full body scan. It reminds me of those tubes that you put checks in at the bank teller drive-thru. You step into a cyllendrical chamber, hold your arms up, and the doors zip back and forth around you. Then you step out, and if you’re lucky you’re free to go (if you tend to roll up the cuffs of your jeans, you can count on having those patted down). It was kind of weird and futuristic, but I didn’t really think about it much.
Until today. First on Bust and then on Jezebel I saw a story about “Flight Pasties” which can be worn under your clothes to protect your privacy when you go through the full body scanner. And my first thought was “wow, that’s kind of ridiculous.” But my second thought was “I probably should have thought about this more on one of the many occasions that I went through the scanner.”
Being a middle class, white, cisgendered female I carry a lot of privilege. I don’t belong to a religion that emphasizes modesty, particularly when it comes to the female body. My class and skin color mean that I’m not exceptionally likely to be treated as though I’m some sort of threat. One could argue that being a woman puts me at an increased level of risk, but I carry enough privilege that I’m usually oblivious to threats FROM authorities. And the body beneath my clothes matches my experience of gender. But if all of those things weren’t true for me, the full body scanner could very reasonably be a major threat to my personal security.
So, after putting more thought into this subject than I had the first few times I went through that scanner I find myself thinking about it differently. Are Flight Pasties the solution? Um, no. It seems to me that they’d just draw more attention to the areas that they cover, and would provide “protection” from little to nothing. But they could be useful in highlighting some of the problems that are inherent in the full body scanning system. At the very least, they led me to examine my privilege.
Pat Robertson has made it into our archives of misogyny before, but this one is really something else. Remember that time that Tina Fey hosted SNL and implied through her tear-down of “Bombshell” McGee that a husband’s cheating is more the fault of the mistress than the husband? Pat Robertson takes it a step further and educates us all on how it’s the wife’s laziness that drives her husband to cheat.
E-mailed Question: “My husband has always been a flirt and loves to talk with other women he finds attractive. He says he would never cheat on me, but his actions are starting to get to me. What should I do?”
Robertson’s response: “First thing is you need to make yourself as attractive as possible and, uh, don’t hassle him about it. And why is he doing this? Well, he’s doing it because he wants affirmation that he is still a man, that he is attractive, and, uh, he gets an affirmation of himself. That means he’s got an inferiority complex that’s coming out, and, uh, he’s not gonna cheat on you – he’s just playin. But you need to not drive him away, start hassling and hamming on him, but make yourself as beautiful as you can, as fun as you can, and say ‘let’s go out here, let’s go there, let’s go do the other thing’ so…”
Co-host, laughing: “He has a lot more grace than I do. Let me just say, we’d be having a serious conversation.”
Robertson: “Affirmation! Affirmation, dearheart!”
Co-host: “Yeah, yeah. A little bit of affirmation goes a long way.”
The past month or so has seen a number of celebs – specifically musicians – coming out publicly and engaging in (or at least instigating) dialogues about what is often a controversial and risky decision. Some of these have been not so surprising, but some have been more unpredicted. It will be interesting to see the longer-term effects of Ricky Martin, Jennifer Knapp, and Chely Wright’s coming out on their corresponding communities, each of which have attitudes ranging from mixed to hostile when it comes to coming out (Latino machismo, Christian fire-and-brimstone, and country homophobia). What do you predict the outcomes (pun not intended but left anyway) will be?
Ricky Martin is now publicly gay: “The word happiness takes on a new meaning for me as of today.” [greg in hollywood]
These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.
Christian Singer Jennifer Knapp Comes Out [the advocate]
Knapp no longer feels like being gay and being Christian are in opposition, even if others do. “I’m quite comfortable to live with parts of myself that don’t make sense to you,” she says. She acknowledges that such peace is hard-won in her community. “I keep running across people living closeted, who have literally chosen one or the other,” Knapp marvels.
Five reasons why Chely Wright’s coming out matters [after ellen]
The closet in the country music industry is deep and it is full. Talking about Wright and Knapp can change things; it can set an example. They have given us a specific topic, and a reason to discuss it.
About a month ago I was contacted by a promising young filmmaker in New York – not bad for a lil’ ol’ blogger out here in the wild west. Katie Madonna Lee describes her film as follows:
When her mother is murdered by her father, Julie Ann Mabry is confronted by a life of hardship and poverty. Taken in by her Evangelical relatives, she begins to adopt new convictions in an effort to reconnect with her mother. Slowly, the threads of her new life begin to unravel and Julie Ann is sent to prison. It is there she finds the freedom and community she had sought so long, yet it does not come without a price.
Woman’s Prison is a tragedy through and through. It is filled with the consequences of poverty, people stuck in cycles that they can’t break out of without the help of mankind, which all too often turns a blind eye to the needs of others. Julie Ann’s life is punctuated by moments of beauty, in her relationship with her mother and with her cousin Britney – two people who genuinely love and accept her as she is. The rest of her life is filled with pain, suffering, and people who use and discard Julie Ann. She never has a chance, spends the majority of her life in jail, and eventually faces the death penalty. She becomes the epitome of the the poor and untouchable that our society sweeps under the rug.
Woman’s Prison is a story like so many others that most of us would rather ignore. That is exactly why it is so important for us to face. You can find out more about the film at its official site.
Ani DiFranco has been my hero since the seventh grade, and some of the best relationships in my life have evolved from a mutual love of the little folksinger. I could list 100 reasons to love her, but music aside, these snippets of her politics should give you some insight into the worldview of one of the most outspoken (and idolized) feminists of the modern era.
1. On feminism today:
“When I do many interviews and I’m faced with the is feminism really relevant anymore question … I’m sort of trying to put [it] out there more than ever now [that] our idea of feminism has stagnated and almost been abandoned by many, many people at a time when we should have evolved it. It should be embraced by men and women. I mean why don’t we call ourselves feminists? Young women don’t even [call themselves feminists] anymore, let alone women and men; and instead of feminism as equal pay for equal work – okay, we got that – but try to understand it as a consciousness shift. We have to use feminism all together as a tool to dismantle patriarchies so that all of us together can rise.”
2. On patriarchy in world politics:
“It’s the elephant in the room. As I get older, I really understand peace to be a product of balance. And there’s a fundamental imbalance inherent in patriarchy. Unless you have a dynamic interplay between the sensibilities of the two sexes, you can never create peace. It’s impossible.”
3. On the power of the people:
“I’m still very optimistic for the potential of grass roots change. I still see and feel it out there. It’s what allows me to get up in the morning, the immense possibility that exists all around us right now… We don’t need to change the world. The world is changing around us. We just need to direct that change. And our power to direct it is immense once we use it.”
Not much of a contribution of my own today, but check out these cool recent posts from other bloggers (props to Laura at Adventures of a Young Feminist for the formatting inspiration):
Why is the focus solely on getting girls to protect their “purity” and so little on preventing boys from violating it? After all, I think the term “purity balls” would be much more appropriate for Christian males who pledge to remain virgins. But aside from that, there’s a laundry list of reasons why I think purity balls are not only ridiculous, but harmful to the females who are pressured into participating in them.
Now, I know there will be some Gaga haters out there, and still others who think her and feminism are like oil and water. They never mix. Nope, sorry, they do. Those who will chid her feminism based on how she looks or the style of music she writes are guilty of the same sexism they propose to be fighting. Judge not by the outfits one wears, but by the content of their character!
2009 has provided a lot of opportunities for female filmmakers and has brought some breakout female performances in unlikely places. A variety of films addressed women’s issues with depth, clarity, and honesty this year. After watching marathons of movies, both poignant and compelling, a compilation of the best was born.
Carrie is a classic horror-meets-coming-of-age flick, and it incorporates a wide range of themes, from menstruation to bullying to domestic violence to religiosity. Stephen King has fallen from favor over the years, but a number of his works have stood the test of time. Carrie is one of those gems.
Of the films I’ve watched for our Halloween Movie Marathon, Carrie has been the most frightening, and also the most deeply tragic.
Carrie is the story of a high school senior (Carrie White) who is outcast by her peers largely as a result of her strict religious upbringing. Her mother makes the rounds to visit the parents of her classmates in an attempt to convert them, and when Carrie has her first period (a traumatic locker room experience) her mother punishes her for the sin she has committed. Taken under the wing of her gym teacher, Miss Collins and asked to prom as an act of charity, things momentarily look up for the young woman until a terrible prank at the prom (dumping pigs blood on her after she “won” prom queen – surely another jab at the locker room incident) unleashes Carrie’s telekinetic rage on the community.
Even in this brief synopsis we can glimpse the following themes: the dangers of female sexuality and sexual development, domestic violence, questions about charity and outreach, and religiosity. I take a closer look at each of these after the jump.
“[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
- Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson is a Southern Baptist televangelist and host of the 700 Club, as well as a controversial public voice for the Religious Right.
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“When I do many interviews and I’m faced with the is feminism really relevant anymore question … I’m sort of trying to put [it] out there more than ever now [that] our idea of feminism has stagnated and almost been abandoned by many, many people at a time when we should have evolved it. It should be embraced by men and women. I mean why don’t we call ourselves feminists? Young women don’t even [call themselves feminists] anymore, let alone women and men; and instead of feminism as equal pay for equal work – okay, we got that – but try to understand it as a consciousness shift. We have to use feminism all together as a tool to dismantle patriarchies so that all of us together can rise.”
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