Women's News, Items that highlight sexism in action Options

[Tapati]

Judge bans use of word rape in rape trial!

So perhaps future murder trials shouldn't use such a loaded word as "murder" and instead call it "involuntary death." I guess mugging is "involuntary loss of personal items."

The judge's contact info:


Jeffre Cheuvront
575 S. 10th St.
Lincoln, NE 68508-2810

Phone: 402-441-7065

[Chanahari]

Guess what, there was a Hungarian case were some twenty members of a certain minority (the only minority we really have, ie. the Gypsyes) beat a guy to death before his two children, because he ran over a child of theirs (who sustained no injury by the way).

In the courthouse, one of the experts called the event a lynching, and the main indictee had actually sued him for "defamation", because the word degrades his fame! (I guess he is okay with "murder" though.)

[Tapati]

On a lighter note:

Gender Inequity in Whoville

I love the righteous indignation on the part of this father who wishes to protect his daughters from sexism!

[Tapati]

I just saw a piece on CNN about these t-shirts that declare, "I was raped." While I agree with the comments that some of the reactions might not be favorable as one walks around wearing it, I think that if a woman has come to the point in her recovery that she <b>knows</b> deep, deep down that the shame is not hers, that she did absolutely nothing wrong, and that it rightfully belongs to the person who committed this crime, then I think she's ready to wear this shirt. Perhaps if these become commonplace it will really educate the public. At the very least it will start some conversations.

I'd rather the shirt actually say: I was raped, and the shame belongs to the rapist.

You can find the t-shirts and also some good articles and information, here: scarleteen.com.

You can also find an interesting article on how guys can prevent rape.

-----------

In other news, we knew that McCain had a temper, but who knew that he would call his wife a c--t over her making a remark about his thinning hair?

[Tapati]

Rape Poem
by Marge Piercy

There is no difference between being raped
And being pushed down a flight of cement steps
Except that the wounds also bleed inside.

There is no difference between being raped
And being run over by a truck
Except that afterward men ask if you enjoyed it.

There is no difference between being raped
And being bit on the ankle by a rattlesnake
Except that people ask if your skirt was short
And why you were out anyhow.

There is no difference between being raped
And going head first through a windshield
Except that afterward you are afraid not of cars,
But half the human race.

The rapist is your boyfriend’s brother.
He sits beside you in the movies eating popcorn.
Rape fattens on the fantasies of the “normal” male
Like a maggot in garbage.

Fear of rape is a cold wind blowing
All of the time on a woman’s hunched back.
Never to stroll alone on a sand road through pine woods,
Never to climb a trail across a bald
Without that aluminum in the mouth
When I see a man climbing toward me.

Never to open the door to a knock
Without that razor just grazing the throat.
The fear of the dark side of the hedges,
The back seat of the car, the empty house
Rattling keys like a snake’s warning
The fear of the smiling man
in whose pocket is a knife.
The fear of the serious man
In whose fist is locked with hatred.

All it takes to cast a rapist is seeing your body
As jackhammer, as blowtorch, as machine gun.
All it takes is hating that body
Your own, your self, your muscle that softens to flab.

All it takes is to push what you hate,
What you fear onto the soft alien flesh.
To bucket out invincible as a tank
Armoured with treads without senses
To possess and punish in one act,
To rip up pleasure, to murder those who dare
Live in the leafy flesh open to love. The fear of the smiling man
In whose pocket is a knife.

[Tapati]

Texas removes women and abused children from FLDS (splinter Mormon) sect.

[Chanahari]

Rape fattens on the fantasies of the “normal” male

What's "normal"?

[Emma]

I understand it as men who are perceived as "normal" whatever that means.

[rhapsodieff]

I understand it as men who are perceived as "normal" whatever that means.

Normal is like reasonable in a legal sense...

[Adrija]

I just saw a piece on CNN about these t-shirts that declare, "I was raped." While I agree with the comments that some of the reactions might not be favorable as one walks around wearing it, I think that if a woman has come to the point in her recovery that she <b>knows</b> deep, deep down that the shame is not hers, that she did absolutely nothing wrong, and that it rightfully belongs to the person who committed this crime, then I think she's ready to wear this shirt. Perhaps if these become commonplace it will really educate the public. At the very least it will start some conversations.

I'd rather the shirt actually say: I was raped, and the shame belongs to the rapist.

You can find the t-shirts and also some good articles and information, here: scarleteen.com.

You can also find an interesting article on how guys can prevent rape.

-----------

In other news, we knew that McCain had a temper, but who knew that he would call his wife a c--t over her making a remark about his thinning hair?

It goes without saying that rape is abhorrent but (and I don't know whether it's the same over your side of the Atlantic), there was here an element of militant feminism which purveyed an idea of every man as a rapist. Many of these women advocated the abortion of male children and were under the delusion that a world populated by women only would be a perfect one.(Many were lesbian and had also had abuse as part of their background).
As someone with sons I find their attitude offensive.

[Tapati]

It goes without saying that rape is abhorrent but (and I don't know whether it's the same over your side of the Atlantic), there was here an element of militant feminism which purveyed an idea of every man as a rapist. Many of these women advocated the abortion of male children and were under the delusion that a world populated by women only would be a perfect one.(Many were lesbian and had also had abuse as part of their background).
As someone with sons I find their attitude offensive.

Yes, there are women like that here too.

One theory of social change that I found interesting proposed that in any movement advocating a specific change or set of changes, such as civil rights or feminism, there is a spectrum of participants. Some want only modest change, some want a medium amount of changes, and some are quite radical and will only be satisfied by extreme changes (such as you describe). To the society at large, the medium range of the spectrum looks very reasonable compared to the extreme radical end, and thus the changes recommended by the middle seem more do-able and reasonable and eventually are implemented. So I try to have patience with the radical feminists on that level and hope that if they scare the bejesus out of the rest of the country we reasonable feminists will get more of what we want.

[Tapati]

Update on Texas FLDS investigation

Excerpt:


Officials have left the compound and still have not identified the 16-year-old girl who called to report she had been beaten and raped by her husband.

"When you're dealing with a culture like this, they're taught from very (early) on that they don't answer questions to the point," Doran said. "And we may very well have her at Child Protective Services. All of that is certainly being sorted out right now."

The discovery of the marriage beds in the temple was revealed Wednesday as troopers completed their search of the grounds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Texas law prohibits polygamy and the marriage of girls under 16.

Court documents said a number of teen girls at the compound were pregnant, and all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse."

Another 139 women left on their own.

The more I hear and read about how the young girls are treated in this sect, the more I am reminded of some of the accounts that former Gurukula girls wrote online of being expected to marry in their teens to much older men, not to mention the ones who were abused by their teachers or other authorities. (And to think when I was a registered member I wanted to go to Gurukula...) And of course, I can't forget that I was so nearly talked into tolerating a polygamous situation when my ex tried to take a second wife.

For that matter, one of my daughter's half sisters was allowed to marry at the age of 16, also to someone several years older. (Though at least not a few decades older!)

As I listen to former members talk about life in these compounds and how these old pedophiles run everything, and how total obedience is required from their followers, and how boys are pushed out so that these old men can have multiple wives (therefore reducing the supply of eligible brides for the younger males), and how the young girls are given in "spiritual marriages" (makes me want to vomit) to these older men and then immediately raped on this "marriage bed" I just want to go and burn down these establishments. But the women convince themselves that they are happy (killing that voice of intuition inside themselves that says it is wrong to give their daughters to old pedophiles) and after the raid in 1953 they wanted to go back to their husbands as soon as possible. (Perhaps things weren't as bad then, I don't know.) They are told that in the outside world they will be forced to cut their hair and have sex with many men! That the road to damnation begins outside their compound walls and they will go to hell if they leave! So I guess staying and having forced sex with just one man seems better than potential gang rape. Perhaps they like having "sister-wives" because that means they'll be expected to have sex less often, since it is joyless and painful right from the beginning.

It is all a painful illustration of what can happen when religious leaders convince you not to "listen to your mind," and that the outside world is hellish and evil.

Links:

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

Under The Banner of Heaven

God's Brothel

His Favorite Wife

Colorado City Polygamists

http://www.childbrides.org/

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy689.html

http://www.rickross.com/groups/polygamy.html

http://www.freedomofmind.com/

[Gerard]

It is all a painful illustration of what can happen when religious leaders convince you not to "listen to your mind," and that the outside world is hellish and evil.

It is also an horrible example of what human beings are capable of; it boggles the mind.

[Tapati]

It is all a painful illustration of what can happen when religious leaders convince you not to "listen to your mind," and that the outside world is hellish and evil.

It is also an horrible example of what human beings are capable of; it boggles the mind.

Exactly. Dave keeps asking me why I'm surprised. I don't know. I guess I expect that sooner or later the human race will grow up.

[Tapati]

Rape is like chocolate, UK official says.

Funny, it didn't taste like chocolate to me.

[Tapati]

I read this today (by Margaret Cho):

Oprah did an important show about the horrible business of puppy mills, which are “dog factories,” where female dogs are caged for their entire lives in order to churn out litter after litter, which are then sold at pet stores. It is an awful and cruel (not to mention disgusting and inhumane) practice.

and thought: isn't this a lot like what the FLDS elders do to their women?

[Sita]

Rape is like chocolate, UK official says.

The so-called "UK official" is a member of the BNP, a fascist right-wing racist "party" that has little credibility with anyone other than their biogotted followers.

[Tapati]

Rape is like chocolate, UK official says.

The so-called "UK official" is a member of the BNP, a fascist right-wing racist "party" that has little credibility with anyone other than their biogotted followers.

Oh, so he's like Bush?

[Tapati]

Used to say "penis envy" until a woman decided to correct it:

Attached image(s)

 

[Tapati]

Sounds like the FLDS people, doesn't it?