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May
20
Update on WrongCards
Earlier this month I wrote a post on a particular ecard I saw on WrongCards.
A week later, I received an email from the person who created the card. While they noted that what they sent me was a personal letter and I will not publish it in its entirety here, here are the important parts:
“i created the ‘come back to my place for coffee and rohypnol’ card’ as a satyrist and not a celebrator of violence against women. satire here, in my view, shouldn’t be gentle - this is in an your face, offensive statement: ‘look at yourself, society and be aware’. The idea that people intoxicate themselves and make themselves vulnerable in public is a fact that cannot be reasoned with. in the same way: its bad to smoke, but it cant be reasoned with either. to explain that ecard: people seem to need pretexts for intimacy, so they can say ‘oh i didnt mean to do that, i was drunk’- for what? dignity? the fact people seem to need that is one point worth underscoring. we can’t stop them. The ecard is satire. it’s like adbusting in an unlikely place. as a subtle PSA, the hope is that if people carry it in their mind as something funny that they saw, they may remember the next time a stranger (or even someone they think they know) offers them a drink. Preaching, in my belief, doesn’t work. nobody thinks they’ll make a mistake like that. i’ll do things like that at wrongcards, i just have to be careful about not doing it too often or people won’t come and it’ll be irrelevent.”
First of all, I am all about public service announcements that are intended to help others from, in this case, making a decision such as accepting a drink that you did not see made for you. However, I can still think of about a hundred different ways to go about creating a PSA that is geared towards trying to warn people of the dangers surrounding them rather than publishing an ecard that says “Wanna come back to my place for coffee and rohypnol?” on a website that prides itself on being wrong.
The people who visit that site are mostly the kind of people who find jokes about rape funny and would most definitely see the card in question as funny and then move on, rather than lay in bed, waiting to fall asleep and think back to that funny picture that they saw on that website about rohypnol and think a little more in depth about it. Most likely, the people who saw this card did think it was funny and probably sent it to their friends to get their kicks from for about five seconds before moving on to the next wrong, but equally as “funny” picture.
While the creator’s intentions may have been good and while they thought that targeting their idea on a website with high traffic would be an effective ploy to place a subtle PSA, I am going to call this one like I see it–Ineffective.
May
7
WrongCards Aren’t Only Wrong, They’re Disgusting
I came across this site a few days ago and while the website name alone should have tipped me off to the type of content I would find there, I was pretty disturbed by a few of the images that I saw.
With a name like WrongCards, sure, you can suspect that the content is going to be pretty far from politically correct, but what I found completely crossed the line from wrong to sick and disgusting.
Apparently we can add date rape to the list of things people find funny right alongside of sex criminals and being kicked in the stomach while pregnant.
However, WrongCards doesn’t stop there; they also have another card that reads “I’m still waiting to be sexually harassed.“
May
5
The Abortion Superhero: NOT Funny
Apparently kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach is considered a form of abortion. This is odd because in the world I live in, this is called blatant violence against women and something that people are prosecuted for. I must live on another planet or something, especially since a video of a man playing a superhero that goes by the name Abortion Man is considered funny by the masses.
With comments such as:
- I want the sequel…”Coathanger man.”
- He’s my new favorite super hero.
- Come on people lighten up
- LOL. It’s funny…if you don’t take it too seriously.
And those are all just on the first page!
I frankly can’t stand how people excuse something that is obscenely offensive by saying not to take it seriously. How exactly are people supposed to take it, with a whimsical attitude? Do these rules apply to all facets of life or just subjects that make fun of women?
Oddly enough, the pedophile beards video is listed as a related video; what tags are these people using?
Apr
30
Feminism at its Finest: April 2008
Hooray, it’s the April 2008 edition of Feminism at its Finest!
Carol presents Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, a great post on spousal abuse and when you know someone who is being abused by their spouse–physically or verbally. Definitely a must-read, so head on over toCan’t Holder Tongue.
The Eclectic Female presents Recognizing Verbal Abuse in Relationships, saying:
“Words can hurt, and it is important to recognize when verbal abuse occurs.”
This is posted at Women’s Lifestyle.
Jackson Kern presents 40 Million Trees and a Nobel Peace Prize: One Woman’s Story, which is a video exclusive on how Wangari Maathai became the first African woman, and first environmentalist, to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. You can see the video at The Alternative Channel Blog.
John Phillips presents Guide to Hiring Women. I’ve seen these pictures before, but here’s a little trip to the past for you. This is posted at The Word On Employment Law.
Kejda Gjermani presents Dissecting the Burqa posted at Kejda.
Madeleine Begun Kane presents An Ode To Lefty Bloggers Who Hate Hillary Clinton posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.
Nine Deuce presents Porn Part 4: Half of the Big Picture. This post is not offensive. In fact, it makes some phenomenal points, such as:
“There’s no other object that is both desired and hated in the way women in porn are.”
~
“The porn industry is fucking lousy with producers who not only don’t work too hard to make sure their “actors” are of age, but who actively seek underage girls as they know it will increase the revenue they can extract from the kinds of assholes who are obsessed with virgins and young girls. Chances are, if you use a lot of porn, you’ve participated in the rape of a minor by proxy, especially if you’ve ever done a search with the word “young” in it.”
This is definitely a post worth checking out, posted at Rage Against the Man-chine.
Shaheen Lakhan presents Domestic Violence: Call for Primary Care Screening and Gender Issues - Part I, saying:
“Nearly half of women killed by their partner are seen in primary care settings prior to their deaths, but only 4% of them were in shelters.”
You can read the whole post at GNIF Brain Blogger.
Tali presents Plus Size Pinups - Could they Ever Grow Beyond Sidestream?, saying:
” Plus-size pinups are a niche within a niche. It’s hard to see a potential of growth outside of the plus-size fetish community. I would like to propose otherwise, by showcasing a few plus-size pinup artists.”
She also presents Where Pinups Got Their Start, saying:
“he end of the 19th century brought us the curvy, flowing styling of Art Nouveau. What better suiting movement to kick-start the pinups of the mid 20th century?”
Both of these stories can be seen at The Pinup Blog.
And lastly, for some shameless self-promotion, everyone should go check out my weekly section on the commercial sex industry, Take Me Now Here.
And that’s it for this month. Be sure to submit your posts for next month’s carnival here.
Mar
31
Feminism at its Finest: March 2008
Welcome to Feminism at its Finest, March 2008 edition. This is by far the largest edition we have had to date and I am very excited for this carnival to keep building awareness and momentum. So let’s get to the submissions.
Blue presents Hotties On TV Sell Get Rich Scams, a post talking about an infomercial that I have seen on some lazy late nights that used women who are depicted as brainless and naive while objectifying women and using the “sex sells” mentality and sadly, they are selling to millions of people using this mentality. This post can be seen at Money Blue Book.
Carol presents What Kind of Feminist Am I? posted at Can’t Holder Tongue.
Christine presents Is Marriage Outdated?, which starts off with:
“The marriage ritual is Anglo-Saxon in nature and archaic in today’s society. Marriage for tax break reasons is not a very romantic notion nor should it be a reason for two people to stay together.”
Posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
She also presents Think Before You Vote,posted at Me, My Kid and Life.
Clever Elsie presents a few posts, first off we have “Marry Him” by Lori Gottlieb: A Singletude Response and How Single Men Make Women Settle, which is a followup on the “Marry Him” post about how Lori Gottlieb says that women settle, but men don’t have to and Commit to Yourself, a great post on a tongue in cheek idea of self-commitment parties, which I find to be a refreshing new look on being a happy single. All of these posts can be seen at Singletude: A Positive Blog for Singles.
Edith presents How to Succeed Without Being a Man, an interview with Kerrie Halmi, posted at Edith Yeung.
Greg Laden presents Board Room Gender Gap posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.
Katie presents Powerful Speech: Suggestions For Feminist Media, saying:
“This lets feminist media makers (like we bloggers!) one of the most useful things we can do right now (and, I suppose, forever?) to end sexual/gendered violence against a huge population of women.”
This post can be seen at Brown Femi Power.
Lori Jewett presents Ending Violence Against Women, saying:
“Strong, confident women everywhere are making themselves heard, but violence against women still threatens us. Learn more about women’s struggles against this plague of violence and what you can do to help.”
She also presents Coming Together for Change, saying:
“What the world needs now…is a woman in the White House. Rational, compassionate thinking, the ability to bring people together, the creation of consensus, real change…isn’t it about time?”
These posts can be seen over at Between Us Girls.
Madeleine Begun Kane presents Hysterical Lefty Bloggers Whine For Clinton To Leave Obama Alone, a great limerick, as well as Ode To Eliot Spitzer, posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.
Marcella Chester presents Socialization Which Sets Up Sex Predator/Passive Victim Model posted at abyss2hope.
Tina Su presents A Gift That Wows!, saying that the best gifts we can give another person are appreciation and open communication, posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive.
Tracee Sioux presents a few posts, Girl Characters and Geena Davis, saying:
“Girl characters are outnumbered 3 to 1. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media is trying to change that. A look at some studies and what you can do to help.”
Posted at So Sioux Me.
She also presents Mood Shaper, a post on how a full-body girdle made her feel about herself, including adjectives such as angry, moody, irritable, cramped, shoved in, judged, restricted, oppressed, repressed, hostile, wrong, fat, unacceptable, picked apart, flawed, pinched, unworthy, squished and frustrated, as well as Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!, saying:
“With health care for disenfranchised women on the table we have an unprecidented opportunity to drastically reduce the abortion rate without criminalizing women in poverty.”
These posts can be seen at Blog Fabulous.
And that’s it for this edition! Make sure to submit your feminist posts for next month, which will be up on Wednesday, April 30.
Mar
4
George Bush Thinks Poverty, Death and Abuse are Blessings of Freedom
Many people in the United States believe that the war we are currently fighting is for just cause. Many people are also under the false assumption that because of this war, we have given the people of Iraq and Afghanistan the freedom of democracy; that we have bettered their lives. The reason that so many people in the United States believe this is because the citizens of this country are being told that we have a reason to be at war and that we are bettering the lives of millions–And every word that comes from the mouth of our president is a lie.
Of course there are also many people who know all of this and are aware that our troops are dying in vain for nothing more than a pissing contest.
When falling into the topic of the current war when speaking with people, because it does happen quite a bit especially when I am asked “So what do you do?” and I can’t help but mention this website and what it’s about, the first thing that people grab onto it “Oh well we have helped so many people over there and you just don’t understand. They needed help over there and we are helping them redefine their government and they have a democracy now!” But these are the same people who believe each and every word our president says, which should be good enough. We should be able to believe what our commander in chief is telling us and believe that they are doing what is in our best interests as well as in the best interests of other countries that we invade. However, that is simply not the case, especially when George Bush has done nothing but lie to us, especially about how the women in Afghanistan are now living their lives.
George Bush and his administration have made Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places in the world to be female.
On March 12, 2004, during the White House Celebration of International Women’s Day, George Bush said:
“In the last two-and-a-half years, we have seen remarkable and hopeful development in world history. Just think about it: More than 50 million men, women and children have been liberated from two of the most brutal tyrannies on earth—50 million people are free. All these people are now learning the blessings of freedom.”
Now, I have no idea what his term “blessings of freedom” means, but how Afghani women and children are now being forced to live is about the furthest thing from freedom that I can imagine.
The picture in this post is perhaps the most heartbreaking pictures I have seen in quite some time. It is a picture taken by US photographer, Stephanie Sinclair and has won the UNICEF prize. It is of a 40 year old man with his new, 11 year old Afghani wife. This picture captures what young girls in Afghanistan are being put through.
Women in Afghanistan are now able to participate in these “blessings of freedom”:
- Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.
- Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
- Violent attacks against females, usually domestic, are at epidemic proportions with 87 percent of females complaining of such abuse – half of it sexual. More than 60 percent of marriages are forced.
- Despite a new law banning the practice, 57 percent of brides are under the age of 16. The illiteracy rate among women is 88 percent with just 5 percent of girls attending secondary school.
- Maternal mortality rates – one in nine women die in childbirth – are the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. And 30 years of conflict have left more than one million widows with no enforceable rights, left to beg on the streets alongside an increasing number of orphans.
What George Bush has said in the past years regarding the quality of life of the people we have “helped” has been a lie and what he will say in the coming year as well as after his presidency regarding the war will also be a lie. We have not helped these people, we have not given them freedom or democracy; what we have given them, however, is fear for their lives and fear for their children’s lives. Not to mention, while making these places the worst that they have ever been, we have been outright lied to several times by our president and that is something that more people need to acknowledge and refuse to stand for. The people of America who truly believe that we are fighting this war for a reason are sadly mistaken and the troops that we have lost in the past six years fighting a bullshit war has been for nothing and those lives have been lost in vain.
Thanks, president Bush.
Feb
27
But I Never Raped Anyone…
Dedicated to every man who believes that because he never sexually assaulted a woman he shouldn’t be educated or care about violence against women.
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