A Shout Out to Feminist Bloggers!
Whenever you bring up politics or opinions on world events, you are bound to receive a myriad of disgruntled and downright rude comments, but when you’re an open feminist blogger, the comments tend to escalate to something very, very ugly. Every feminist blogger I have spoken to for a little while have shared stories about the outright madness that occurs in the comments section of their blogs; our blogs tend to be playgrounds for the sexist and misogynist masses and there is likely no end in sight.
It is for this reason (and I’m willing to bet several hundred other reasons) that I was overjoyed when I saw this awesome video over at Feministing by Samhita.
Being a feminist blogger takes passion and intense dedication, otherwise we’d all start blogging about shoes and Sarah Jessica Parker (hey, that’s why I made a fun women’s interests blog!) and while it’s apparent that we don’t always get the appreciation we definitely deserve, all you feminist bloggers out there, know that you are doing excellent work.
And don’t forget to check out Samhita’s video:
I also found this really great comment on the Feministing YouTube page that I feel the need to share because while we do see a great number of female feminists out there, male feminists are a bit more scarce:
It takes strength to be a male feminist — to say, “I will stand aside and follow my sisters; because for too long, they have only been allowed to follow.” To be a male feminist advocate (like a blogger) is to say, “Society stacks its deck in my favor, and that is wrong.”
–dasneonlicht
“Men’s Rights Advocate” Glenn Sacks Protests Domestic Violence Awareness in Dallas
Via Womanist Musings and Alas, a blog, a “men’s rights advocate,” Glenn Sacks, has been protesting (and receiving a great deal of press, thus confirming again and again what an asshole he really is) two of the three ads recently created by The Family Place and appearing on 45 bus sides and 300 bus interiors throughout the Dallas, Texas area. Even though these ads were approved by DART (the Dallas transit system) Sacks and his fellow penis-praising minions say that the ads are offensive to men and fathers.
The Family Place is the largest family violence service provider in the Dallas area and looking at the cold, hard numbers of (reported) domestic abuse cases, yeah, I’d say that we need to have some ads targeting women and letting them know that there is help out there. But hey, that’s just a fellow human being with a vagina talking, so Glenn Sacks would hate me and my damn, fact-based opinions.
“I think they should take the ads down,” Sacks said. “Domestic violence is still a problem that affects women more than men, but it affects them both. I can guarantee you if the genders were reversed, there is no way DART would have accepted those ads.”
How does he know? I mean, sure, you can make your little ‘my sex is so underprivileged, we’ve just been running the world for the past eight billion years’ assumptions, but did Sacks ask The Family Place to add an additional ad that would reach out to male victims of abuse? Nope, he surely did not, he just wants the ads reaching out to female victims taken down because, you know, as a men’s rights advocate, he knows that men are always shown in a negative light and there is absolutely no reason for it at all. Nope, none whatsoever. Riiight.
Women know that domestic violence exists; hell, a great deal of women are survivors of domestic violence and a great deal of other women are dead due to domestic violence. Given these facts, however, women also know that not all men are abusers; we’re smart like that and seeing an ad is not going to make us think that every single man we know and see in passing goes home to beat his wife. Seeing ads like this do, however, remind us that if we are currently in an abusive situation or know someone who is in an abusive situation, there is help out there and above all, victims of domestic violence are not alone.
Not only has Sacks been very vocal, receiving enormous attention by the press about his feelings on these ads, but he is also dodging his responsibility for basically coming out and screaming from the rooftops ‘I am an asshole who does not believe that women who are affected by domestic violence should be reminded that there is help out there.’ Sacks and his 50 hand-selected protesters attacked The Family Place’s funding.
“A sub-group of our protesters who I selected called over 50 of The Family Place’s financial contributors to express our concerns about the ads. [...] Several of The Family Place’s financial contributors withdrew or reduced the financial gifts they planned for the end-of-the-year giving season. I don’t say this with pleasure–I would have preferred that The Family Place do the right thing from the beginning rather than lose the funding.”
So not only is he trying to paint The Family Place in a grossly negative light as a family violence service provider, but he is basically aiming to shut them and the innumerable people they have helped throughout the years they have been in operation down. Good going, Glenn! Seriously, I can think of a better way to counteract the message that ‘there is help when and if you need it’ then saying ‘we men are outraged and if we’re mad, no one gets help at all!’ Luckily, however, Sacks did not succeed in ruining The Family Place financially and their financial contributors knew that The Family Place is just that–A family place; a place that offers services and support to those who need it.
Since this ordeal, The Family Place has put all three of their ads up on a page of their website with the following statement:
We are not a male-bashing organization. Our services support all victims—male and female, children and adults. This year, we have provided court-ordered batterer’s treatment to 449 male, 106 female and 98 adolescent offenders. We have helped 308 men and 326 women recover from childhood sexual assault and incest in our Incest Recovery Program. To date we have counseled 9 male and 1,335 female victims in our outreach programs.
We wanted the campaign to start a conversation, and it has.The visibility of the DART campaign and the community response to it resulted in a front-page story in The Dallas Morning News featuring our hotline number. This sparked a sharp increase in hotline calls for help. The campaign also provides an opportunity for parents to talk about family violence with their children and emphasize the importance of healthy relationships and respect for others.
Ultimately the campaign is making a difference by getting the word out about our services to victims who need our help.
If you would like to donate to The Family Place, please click here.
Prop 8 – The Musical
I’ve seen this popping up all over the blogosphere today and still, no matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old. Really, it never does. If you missed this, watch it now because sadly, this is really what people who oppose equality say and come on, Jack Black is Jesus, which I think is reason enough to watch it. Not only does Jack Black make an appearance, but you will also see familiar faces like Margaret Cho, John C Reilly and others.
Just a sidenote, if you go to the video’s actual link, it’s best to stay away from the comments section because like on most websites out there that allow anyone to flaunt their ignorance, some comments will really piss you off and your faith in humanity will dwindle away.
Family of Wal-Mart Employee Sues over Black Friday Death
The shopping conditions of “Black Friday” can most definitely be described as nothing less than chaotic and this past Black Friday can be described just the same; however, there was an altercation on that morning that does differ from previous years and that is the fact that a 34 year old seasonal Wal-Mart worker in New York was trampled to death by a stampede of discount-seeking shoppers.
Most recently, the family of the Wal-Mart worker, Jdimytai Damour, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wal-Mart, claiming that Wal-Mart “created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety” that led to “crowd craze.” In the lawsuit the family argues that Wal-Mart “engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent.”
Do you think that the family has the right to sue Wal-Mart over their loved one’s death? The family certainly feels that they have the right and frankly, I do as well. As a person who had their first Black Friday shopping experience this year, I personally visited a mall as well as two additional stores that morning and not one store I shopped at had appropriate security or law enforcement on the scene. When it comes to retailers and Black Friday, every single one of them are indeed using marketing and advertising techniques to attract a great deal of people and in doing so, they are fairly certain to have a line outside of their store for at least a half hour before opening their doors to the crowd they have attracted with whatever discounts or sales they have. These stores have no idea how many or what types of people will be lined up outside their doors and in any social situation where a large group of people are present, there is always a risk of either a fight breaking out or in tragic cases such as this, someone can lose their life over something as small as saving money. Think of it this way–Any concert I have ever attended in my life has had either security guards, law enforcement or both present, so why not take the initiative to do the same on Black Friday?
Since this man was the first person to ever die during the post-Thanksgiving bargain-hunting ritual, I would expect that all stores, no matter how big or small, to ensure safety and have security on hand for following Black Friday openings.
United States Finally has a Gender-Balanced Security Team
As Courtney over at Feministing points out, security is an issue that is very often masculinized in popular and political culture, so Obama’s decision to include three women in his national security team shows us that not only is Obama the first African-American president or the first man to be elected president due to the inspiration and motivation he instilled in the younger generation who don’t want to see history repeat itself until the end of time, but he is also using his power to make some other firsts arise–Like an actual gender-balanced security team.
Yesterday in Chicago Obama spoke about national security and rolled out his national security team, which includes Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary, Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations and as we had suspected early last month, Hillary Clinton has accepted the role of Secretary of State.
Watch President-Elect Obama’s speech:
Sex-Positivity
I'm passionate about sex-positivity and believe every sexual being should have the freedom to explore their sexuality safely and without condemnation. I even lost my ad network after my refusal to censor myself after reviewing feminist porn.So if you're in the market for sex toys, porn, books, etc. take a look at the retailers below, all of which are feminist-friendly.
Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
