Shame of Spitalfields

Pride of Spitalfields is the name of the pub where Meow Meet – a gathering of like-minded individuals’ crazy about communism and cats – took place. There was a planned pub crawl but as the night went on, we settled and occupied the back quarter of the pub. Being with kindred spirits aside, I felt myself on full alert having clocked the various leering geezers dotted around the bar. Very early on in the evening a large skinhead attempted to woo me with his American accent all the while slurring how much he liked the cat on my dress, his eyes fixated on my breasts. After we’d done a good job of ignoring him, he sloped off.

I felt safe. A mixed group, I was friends with many of them and since we’d been out together and tackled patriarchy effectively before, I felt reassured I could just be. With these righteous men and women I felt free. Except patriarchy was more brazen that night. I caught the bald American through the corner of my eye, as he left his table to walk past me for the loo. He stroked my shoulders and back whilst I was sat on a stool between two of my friends. Shocked and utterly grossed out, I told the group what had just happened. When he came out of the toilet, one of my beautiful sisters pointed at him and said “how dare you touch her? Don’t fucking do it again?” Far from being embarrassed he’d been caught out, he leant in to her and asked her to slap him. In an attempt to distract him, I asked if he was American. When he replied yes, I said “figures”. Well, then he called me a “fucking cunt”. When the rest of our group stood up, he crawled off, mumbling expletives.

Shaken but proud and empowered, I told one of the barmaids what had happened. I was happy when she immediately said she would not serve him anymore. She also said he had been aggressive but they couldn’t throw them out because there were only three women behind the bar. However, I was just pleased that she’d acknowledged what had happened. Shortly after, the man and his friends left. One of them even apologised to one of the men in our group. We were able to enjoy a few more drinks before the second incident of the evening.

Sat on my stool at the side of the table, somebody grabbed the back of my neck and pushed me down. Alarming and distressing, yes, but I also have a spinal injury. I’ve been told never to attempt to touch my toes. I have to think of my every movement before I make it. I am having an MRI in three days. Livid, I shot up and shouted at the man. I can’t remember what I said; I was too frightened and angry. Other people in the bar started shouting at me, how it was funny it was always the same girl complaining, how our stools were in the way of the path to the toilet and my blood ran cold. I asked the older landlady whether they were saying I was making it up and she matter of factly nodded yes. I didn’t exactly want to burst into tears and start rolling off all the other times I hadn’t been believed but that’s what happened. Like a collage of all the other times I’d been violated but made to feel like the evil scheming temptress I must be. All of it poured out as the mascara gushed down my cheeks. I’d had a drink but the pain is always the same and I react in exactly the same way. Triggers, emotions so strong and so embedded because of careless caretakers and patriarchy; that I try and keep a lid on. For years, I slapped a smile on it until the corners of my mouth hurt so much from smiling, they’d quiver. Now, I cannot.

One of the things said to me by the patrons of that pub was that we should just accept it. Accept what? Being groped? Being leered at? My body does not belong to the public. It is mine and it is fragile. If anyone touches me without my consent, I will shout and scream blue murder.

When I finally calmed down I learnt the man who’d grabbed my neck had also groped one of our teenage comrades (her account). The guy was in his 50s. One of my friends hugged me as she said she’d challenged one of the younger barmaids as to whether she’d been harassed more than a coupla times in one evening and she said yes. The landlady responded there was little they could do with their customers of old. And there, patriarchy is atoned. Capitalism is what makes the misogo man’s world go round.

I can’t keep it in any more. And I know there are many others like me. I’m not going to get quieter as time goes on; I’m going to get louder. And if aggression is what they understand, I might have to do what is required of me.

I think if someone touches you without consent, you should be allowed to hurt them back without theirs. That seems a fair exchange.

From an angry feminist to the men up to no good (TW)

It’s a simple world where the good man dwells. He has ideas about the role he plays in society and he works hard to maintain the way he is perceived. He loves his children and brings breakfast to his wife’s bed. He talks to other men about their balls because men don’t talk enough about their balls so he seeks to redress this, and for all his endeavours, he expects a pat on the head. What’s the point in being so damn good if nobody notices it?

The Good Men Project falls short at its name. We all know a ‘good man’ or a ‘nice guy’ who is keen to point out their goodness and niceness from the first time they speak to you. They’re so good, EVERYONE takes advantage and they always finish last. They’re just waiting for the right woman to come along and it will have all been worth it. But the reality being what it is, she doesn’t exist to please him (and why the hell should she)? This is when good men go bad. Much like teh menz over at The Good Men Project, good men have an idea of what they need in their lives to enable the good man to flourish from within.

Good men like a good woman. Don’t be angry now wimminz, good men don’t like it when wimminz shout. Or have an opinion for that matter. Actually, a good woman is allowed an opinion because ‘naturally’ that opinion will echo that of the good man. In this way, the good man is free to work out his biceps whilst the good woman is happy to play wifey to her man. It’s not like it’s his fault 1 billion women across the world are experiencing violence or oppression because of their sex. And just because there are billions of men beating and humiliating those other women, doesn’t mean we have to be angry at the other billions of men who are not abusive, we just need to be better at seeking the good ones out. Oh wait, which ones were the good ones again?

To paraphrase: “I was really angry right, cos some men sexually abused me once but I got over that cos these other men do these lovely things for me”. Nondescript men, or decent people, do nice things for other people cos it’s being human. Many men have been nice to me but I tell you what, they didn’t make the pain of being violated more bearable.

Oh, thank you for my perfect birthday weekend nice man, it really made up for that time the mosque teacher slid his hand up my 9 year old thigh. All better now.

Gosh, those flowers are amazing! I don’t think I’m ever gonna think about the time I was gang raped EVER AGAIN. I can stop being angry now; I know not all men are the same. I love all teh menz!

Are you fucking kidding me?

The Good Men Project published this piece in all seriousness. As if sexual violence was the only thing spurring on billions of women to fight against the oppression they face, they found a poor soul with an all too familiar story and a warped sense of her role in a patriarchy, so much so she believes these minor gestures of love and affection (that are her RIGHT and a bare minimum of human decency) are somehow to be commended, and ran with it as their answer to the angry feminist threatening their male goodness.

Feminism exists for more reasons than a good man can fathom, evidently. As feminists we are fighting for bodily autonomy. We are angry for the demands put on our bodies, from puberty through to pregnancy we are controlled by the patriarchy. Our breasts aren’t big enough or they’re so big we tempt strange abusive men into having a go. Pubic hair is more often than not groomed to please the eye of the beholder; we have very little choice over how we look down there. Teh menz invented labiaplasty for those whose vulvas resemble that of a grown woman. I’m not a big fan of porn (ahem) but in the interests of research, I’ve seen the patriarchal ideal shift. Women’s bodies have changed drastically from the 70s to present day, in appearance and also the ways in which they are used. Newspapers and magazines bombard us with images of ridiculously tall white cis gendered wimminz with tans in ridiculous suggestive poses (legs akimbo/shaking a tail feather) and anyone falling short of this ideal just isn’t worthy. We are constantly fighting the battle for the right to choose what happens to our pregnant bodies. Some of cannot be pregnant, some of us will be forcibly impregnated and many more will break their backs working right up to the birth for fear they will lose their jobs in this patriarchal man’s world. And before Junior cracks his first smile, we’ll be leaking breast milk at work, crying in a toilet cubicle, torn between needing to be with our young and needing to work in order to survive. But wait, patriarchy has an answer! You need a manz to provide! He’ll be earning more than you for a start. Even if he beats you, cheats, uses your body at will. Know your place woman; pregnancy is vulnerability and teh menz like the sound of that. Good Men will even do the hoovering, cos they’re good like that. Just keep your gold stars handy and they might even do it again.

“I certainly had a lot of reasons to be angry. I was sexually assaulted”. That’s one reason, Good Men Project writer. Where were your words regarding the systematic control of women in the workplace, the streets and at home?

“The truth is that most men are not rapists.” That is not what my male friends tell me. But then I guess this depends on your definition of rape. Do you mean rape or ‘bad sexual etiquette’?

“Of course, I had a right to be angry at the men who hurt me. But I didn’t have a right to hold all men everywhere responsible for what happened to me. And by being angry, I was shutting down the possibility of love”. I have every right to hold patriarchy responsible for the ways in which it controls women. Unfortunately the patriarchy is mostly made up of men. I am angry but there is love in my life. It surrounds me and supports me. Anger at the patriarchy is one of my redeemable features and shock horror; there are men that get why! And totally dig it.

“For example, my brother steadfastly believed what happened to me and validated..” STOP. Were your experiences more or less validated because he is a man?

“And so did the mac and cheese he made me when I was sad, and the hours of Nintendo-playing we did when I was too down to do anything else.” This is why I love my girlfriends. I don’t need to thank them for providing me with distractions; it’s just how we roll. All of the time, and mostly with little significance.

“He turns up the heat when it’s cold. He walks the dog when I don’t want to go outside. He puts gas in the car.” He basically functions as humans do. Respect.

“Men love survivors of sexual violence every single day” Can you believe it? Have they no shame..? I’m sorry, but what exactly does this line mean?

“Most men are horrified by sexual violence and its impact on those they love.” Unless you’re asleep and it’s the second insertion of the day, you’ve already given consent and it can’t be violent if there weren’t any bruises.

“They want to help, but feel powerless – and afraid to say or do the wrong thing.” They feel this way because they are aware of how big patriarchy is and they know they can’t battle it alone. They stay silent because it’s too risky.

“If we want men to join the movement to end rape and sexual violence, we have to stop talking about all the things men do wrong, and start talking about all the things that men do right.” I know a few honest men who deserve genuine praise. Generally they read, retweet and shut the fuck up. They don’t dare to presume what women need in order to achieve equality. They are there to support us, not take over (take note you fucking good men). They have an appreciation of what thousands of years of subjugation has done to womankind. As our allies, they are happy for us to take the floor.

Unlike the good men and the nice guys who, under threat that the wimminz might take over (we’re a few hundred years off that sonny jim), use every vulnerable/disillusioned woman (who may or may not have listened to angry feminist folk music..)  they can find to undermine our crucial movement.

Feminism isn’t fun and sexy, it’s angry. Fighting oppression and for our basic rights does this to us.

May your anger over floweth and the good man/nice guy fadeth away. A-wo-men.

Fem Bloc needs YOU

Fems, gather round. We’re growing and we need to realise this.

This comes as no surprise when we consider the world around us right now. Rape, child abuse, rape culture, domestic abuse, ableism, transmisogyny, racism, classism; these methods of control are contaminating the lives of more women and children then we ever believed before. We’re focused on them though; we’re beginning to use the right labels. We know we are not alone.

Oppression has a way of seeking a scapegoat. We’re reminded all the time of how appalling those other people are with their women. But we know this is not the whole truth. The statistics tell us that 1 in 4 British women will experience rape or sexual assault in their lives. I’ve worked with and befriended 100s of women, spoken to women about the women in their lives and we have come to the grave realisation; more than half of our sisters have experienced unwanted sexual attention. Projects like Everyday Sexism only confirm what we already know. But we cannot forget those who do not speak about their violations because of slut shaming and guilt. And what of those who do not understand their own bodily autonomy and believe they are there to be used? Bodily autonomy for women is not the norm, it is the exception.

Haven’t you had enough? I have. Don’t you wanna smash kyriarchy in? I do.

Will you join us and help our intersectional feminism grow?

Fem bloc needs you. This wave of oppression is intolerable; every single rape is a trigger for us all. We’ve tried talking to them but they haven’t listened; the dominator has minimised our experiences, and told us how to feel. Fems, aren’t you angry?

This February 14^th, a billion women will rise from all the corners of our earth. 1 in 3 of our sisters across the world will experience domestic/sexual violence in her lifetime.

“One billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women dancing is a revolution”.

http://www.onebillionrising.org/

Visit the website and see whether there is an event near you. Alternatively, if we have enough members for fem bloc, we can start our own event.

Fem bloc is intersectional. We are working to make activist spaces safer for all self-identifying women. We have a right to protest and change our society without fear of attack. For many on the left, socialism is a movement dominated by men and it is simply unacceptable that these self-proclaimed messiahs are able to use their activist spaces to control all women through intimidation and sexual attack. Fem bloc hopes to address this and safer spaces travel with us, wherever we might be. One Billion of us will rise and from there, we keep on marching. Every march, every protest, every rally, it is nothing without a feminist presence. We want to eliminate oppression in all its forms; any other way just won’t work. Intersectional feminism will succeed where other movements have failed. Because it is inclusive.

Mark International Women’s Day in your diaries. Let’s protest against ALL OF PATRIARCHY. White men, black men, brown men and all the other shades that don’t get as much of a mention. Men who rape, intimidate, control and abuse. Perverts, paedophiles, sociopaths from every race, colour and creed. Bosses and big brothers, accidental sperm donors and the menz in parliament especially.

The struggle continues but it gets easier the bigger we get. Let’s take Safer Spaces Solidarity from our virtual safe space online and make it a reality for all women.

(Email saferspacessolidarity@gmail.com if you would like to become a member of Fem Bloc)

Intersectional feminism is not a choice

Like all newborns, I came into the world with an empty memory bank. I knew only that I had to feed and poo. Loud noises came as a bit of a shock but as long as there was warmth and I was wrapped up secure; life was good, people were love and being alive mostly pleasurable (I assume). Being a twin, in my earliest memories she felt like a shadow, always there, never far behind.  There was a oneness and it was a comfort, I’d never feel alone. But then the labels society slaps us with are inevitable.

By the time we were three, I was the sensible one. My parents and grandparents had wanted the first born to be a boy, instead they had me AND another girl. I was desexualised from a very young age, my twin not so much. I could walk around the house in a skirt barely scraping my bum and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid. My sister was made to go change out of her pedal pushers. She was pretty, I was smart. She was graceful, I was solid. We were identical twins.

Struggling with my identity, I conformed to the tomboy stereotype. I liked rolling around and jumping off things. I put on a brave face and got my jabs first. We’d play ‘follow the leader’ in the back garden and I’d order them about and they’d fall into line. In role play I was the cowboy, the bus conductor, the gladiator. The doctor to her nurse. I thought girls were pathetic. Yes, it hurt when I fell and grazed my knee but the positive encouragement I got for being such a ‘brave lion’ meant I rarely expressed any pain. I wouldn’t question my appearance again till the menz began to compare us too.

Puberty came early. My emerging curves were too much for the family and I noticed a huge shift in their attitudes towards me. Suddenly I was a woman and they treated me as such. We could entice boys by merely reciprocating a glance. It was an oppressive environment, being a woman you were instantly less important and there to be ordered about. I would slouch forwards so that my chest wasn’t so prominent. I would wrap scarves around my barely there breasts when I was alone in my room, maybe I could slow down this premature transformation. But I also popped down the two halves of a kinder egg to see what I might one day look like. I decided that I’d rather keep the mounds because that is what seemed ‘normal’ for me. In fact, I felt happy. I felt powerful. I felt like me.

Imagine what it must be like to come of an age when it is made clear to you that who you feel you are (know you are) is not ‘normal’ but weird, that you cannot under any circumstances feel like yourself, in fact if you choose to ignore the threats and warnings, you could be murdered for standing by your person. Fems, imagine feeling and thinking “I am” and being told “you’re not”. Repeatedly. How does it feel to being born into the wrong body? I have thought a lot about this and I have had my own mental health struggles but the body is a constant reminder of your perceived identity and if you are treated in a way that is alien to the way you feel?

When my body started changing, I wanted it to stop. I noticed the embarrassed looks on the men folk’s faces and the worry on my mother’s. I didn’t enjoy the accompanying growing pains, I resented that boys seemed to get away scot free. For their part, teenaged boys can be cruel and I was mocked for sounding like one myself. As a child, I was taunted. As a young adult, I was sexualised for having a ‘dirty’ husky laugh. I’d even convinced myself I wouldn’t bleed; being as I wasn’t like the other girls. I began to self-harm, in various ways, cutting to disfigure my ugly skin, binging and purging to shock my body into submission. BUT I had the privilege of owning the body I would grow into. My hormones would eventually settle, I would realise my own capabilities, I would be granted the support to embrace who I am. This is what happens when you are cis gendered and society wants you to fill a role. They will actively encourage it.

Trans* people suffer from the minute they can verbalise and are able to disagree with the labels put on them. I cannot begin to imagine the depression one would suffer; it is no surprise that almost half of all transgender people have attempted suicide. When our brothers and sisters are already suffering, what kind of evil are we perpetuating when we deny them their bodies, their choices? How does a trans* person’s bodily autonomy affect us? Simple answer: it doesn’t. Much in the same way that abortion does not affect the religious and political menz up top, even though they seem to be the most vocal about it. It’s patriarchy that decides what happens to women’s bodies. It is patriarchy that dictates the differences between the two genders, as if there are only two. Their versions of masculinity and femininity are suffocating and ultimately come down to control.

I cannot stress enough how patriarchy keeps you apart to keep you down. Caitlin, Suzanne and the Jools’ are perfectly acceptable to patriarchy, that’s why he’s given them the platform they have. Well, they’re women and they say they’re feminists and because they have money and power, they must be right. But 100 years ago, they’d have been abused the way trans* people are now. Bent and shaped into a desirable figure, speaking only when spoken to. They certainly wouldn’t be allowed to raise their voices or react in an honest way. What a privilege it is to have a voice. And now that their struggle is over, they’re using their powers to silence others. That’s not feminism. THAT’S PATRIARCHY.

“Your feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit”

YES. THIS.

As a feminist, I would ask that all my fems question their attitudes towards women who are the ‘other’; disabled women, WoC, trans* women. That was the point of feminism right, equality?

Equality doesn’t mean ableist cis gendered white people living happily ever after (to the detriment of the rest of us). For equality to stand a chance, we need the peoples with the most privilege to humble themselves and share some of their good fortune. And fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

My Top Tip for the commentariat: Do the exact opposite of what you’re doing right now and STFU.

What is Safer Spaces Solidarity?

I expected support. I believed people would reach out. But I hadn’t anticipated the urgency with which feminist comrades would respond. And the number of perpetrators we would immediately identify. Not surprising, the same names came up and the same complaints. “Claims to be a feminist ally but uses activist spaces to lunge at women”, “uses gendered language and tells everyone I’m crazy”. We know this is patriarchy in action but… HOW DARE THEY? How dare they invade our activist spaces and make it difficult for us to work on our world? As if the cosmos wasn’t enough of a dirty perpetrating misogo stomping ground, they infect our very limited safe spaces with their privilege and their sexually threatened manz egos and somehow it is all OUR fault. Yeuch.

Safer Spaces Solidarity is a feminist collective aiming to create safer spaces for activists experiencing oppression as a result of their gender. The group comprises feminist activists who responded empathetically to my previous post regarding predatory allies. Sadly, it would seem that I am not alone when it comes to unwanted misogynistic attention. And from people who should know better. They pretend to be our allies and succeed a fair while… so they obviously know how it works. Makes it more sinister doesn’t it?

Safer Spaces would like to hear from you if you believe you are being harassed/stalked/intimidated by a misogynist masquerading as an ally. We will not judge you; we will not tell you we don’t believe you (regardless of whether or not the perpetrator is a known and ‘trusted’ comrade). In turn, we ask for:

• CONFIDENTIALITY: Everything we discuss in this space is in confidence.

• HONESTY – we are being open & trust others to be the same. If we have nothing other than a ‘gut instinct’, we say so. If we have anything additional, we say so too.

• JUDGEMENT – part of this group involves making judgements; that is part of what keeps us safe. However, we need to be mindful that we are giving constructive advice, be empathic & understanding. If we cannot do this, we should opt ourselves out of a discussion by not commenting.

• SENSITIVITY – there may be some (generally men) that we follow, & have no problem with, and we may feel protective over both these men, and our choices. However, saying ‘he’s never done that to me’ etc. is (at the least) unhelpful & needs to be avoided.

If you would like to share your concerns, please send an email to:

saferspacessolidarity@gmail.com

One of our administrators will respond to your email and discuss any fears you might have in confidence. Armed with information we can make an informed decision about whether to continue following/engaging with potential perpetrators.

Remember, we are here to support and reassure each other that we believe each other and will not stand for abuse and intimidation of our feminist comrades, we have the right to move and speak freely.

Also, discuss your concerns within our safe space. Moving the discussion onto a public forum is risky and we do not want to expose ourselves to further threats.

Solidarity sisters.

Peace x

(HT @opinionatedpavs for Code of Conduct)

The First Obstacle To Equality

“I don’t want to say anything cos they won’t believe me.” A sentiment almost exclusively owned by women. Whether disclosing rape or thinking of telling our pals their boyfriends are womanising scum, we fear repercussions on speaking the truth. There was an incident in which we were victim, we were hurt physically and/or emotionally, we know what happened wasn’t right. Yet it’s instinctive to bottle up and withhold justice for ourselves because we know, society will simply not believe us. What makes us so unbelievable?

Bro code, an unspoken agreement between men that their woman is their property and brothers must not risk the woman coming between them. Yes, she is damn fine and tempting but don’t fall for her, instead, give that big man chest a primal thump and a knowing look; “bros before hoes”. They will believe each other before they believe you, in some misguided solidarity with the brotherhood irrespective of the offender’s track record. Whereas, a woman; her reputation, her previous record says everything there is to know about her morality.

Do women who have had sex always tell lies? Jane Clare Jones asks for the Guardian.

“In the patriarchal playbook, a woman’s moral virtue is synonymous with … well, her virtue. Good women are chaste and pure. And the others – those who express their sexuality in ways not sanctioned by church and state, those who are sexual at all – are quite simply not to be trusted. They seduce and entrap. They’re dirty and diseased. And, above all, they are deceitful and duplicitous. If they want to moralise, they should, as Rogozin told us in his second tweet, put their pants back on. And if they refuse, nothing they say is to be taken seriously or believed by anyone. A simple sexual slur, and, as if by magic, a woman’s word is instantly devalued, divested of authority and discredited.”

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/13/women-sex-lies-pussy-riot-madonna)

This makes sense. Rape victims, sexually assaulted against their will have actually had non-consensual sex. Despite the fact that they did not agree, potentially fighting off the perpetrator with every bit of strength they had, men will instantaneously believe they must have brought it upon themselves. “They love it really.” By the mere fact they own vaginas. If she wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her vagina shut, i.e. sewing it up so it’s not a “gaping pocket” or covering herself so that she looks just like any other Dalek, then she must have been “asking for it”. How patriarchy has twisted the way we view women, their bodies sexualised even when breastfeeding their infants. People are disgusted by the most natural act of them all. Because, well, it’s private, for a husband’s eyes only. Only on humans though, we are more than happy to guzzle back billions of gallons of other animal’s bodily secretions, quite happy to munch on the reproductive efforts of birds. Females, whichever species, are to be gorged on, to satisfy male bellies and sexual urges. It’s their only function. Do you know what human breast milk smells like?..Isn’t it time you found out? Why don’t we talk about it? Is that why breasts are so sexualised? Is it also why we push sugar laden formula milk on people who can’t afford it, because breast milk smells so.. womanly? It smells as it does so that visually impaired newborns can recognise their mothers. It’s NATURAL.

So they forcibly impregnate and take what they can from the female form. Rape it at will. A vessel, it carries through new life, but the womb is pure filth. Full of dirty blood, it smells. In many cultures, they shave off the downy soft hair on small babies, coming as it did from that evil place deep at the core of woman. She must take 40 days’ rest, unwashed and unmade; cleanse herself of all impurity when her time is up. Reintroduce her into society as a born again virgin, God put the baby in there, they have no idea how it came out. Vaginas, they smell bad too. Why don’t we ever talk about semen? It’s not an odourless, colourless gas we can’t see. Boys start off by teasing girls about their periods and how they can “smell when you’re on”. I don’t remember teasing the boys back just feeling utterly ashamed at being afflicted by this curse I thought was going to bypass me, being as I wasn’t like all the other girls…

Nuns. People believe them (unless they too are raped). Mothers who never remarry, sacrificing everything for their broods; they are exalted in my local community. They are however, also called ‘rundhi’ in Punjabi. ‘Rundhi’ means both ‘widower’ and ‘whore’. For a woman without a man (having already experienced sexual intercourse) must be like a whore?

Will you join me in an unspoken celebration of the female form? Not to ogle it and take from it what you want to satisfy your own desires but marvel at its resilience and adaptability, the ability to create life, sewing together all the parts that make a human… Magic, no? And what might it be like to be with a woman who is proud of her body and what it can do too? Not just reproductively but sexually. And if there were more men who knew and appreciated female sexuality, maybe then we’d be happier sharing the truth about when we were violated?

Our bodies are not shameful. Patriarchy is.

A Woman’s World 2012

“What were you doing when the Olympics were here, grandma?”

What will I tell them? It is possible that I will say; I vehemently refused to be part of an event that actively encouraged division of the human race and placed insurmountable pressure on a few select individuals who were only as important as the medal they snatched from the claws of their sworn patriotic enemies and that my actions were confirmed to be the only plausible reaction to a persistent offender of misogyny, highlighting wherever possible how they’d ‘let the women’ do things like that man sport, boxing. Yes children, can you believe, in the 21^st Century, the great Britons were obsessed with how the women actually performed exceptionally well on the world stage yet it still didn’t stop them from commenting on their beautiful smiles? I wished that Tom Daley would smile, just to see whether they’d comment on his but in my heart, I already knew… Men don’t smile…

What does a fat female Olympian look like? As a Snatch weight lifting competitor, you’d need to be a little on the heavier side for balance and strength, core stability and strong legs to support the weight of an average teenaged male. From a squatting position, one is required to lift the barbell to chest height and in one smooth action extend overhead and hold. Size 0 need not apply. Male weightlifters are barrel shaped and sturdy, females are just fat.

But Jessica Ennis, y’know, pretty, feminine Jessica, she’s fat too. Sporting a 6 pack most men would die for, Jessica is not rakishly thin. She treads the tightrope many of her compatriots have succumbed to, wanting to be taken seriously as an athlete in her own right whilst allowing the gutter press to photograph her applying her girly makeup. It gives her a ‘boost in confidence’, to run in a full face. Well, it’s one thing being called fat but ugly? It doesn’t bear thinking about. The pressures she and her teammates are under to conform to the disgusting standards set to us by the Western press are unachievable. They are, in fact, dangerous. The gruelling schedules they are subjected to, the many hours of training they have to put in; if they do not eat well, they will burn out. But since when did patriarchy care about the illnesses it has invented to control women?

“Obama applauds Saudi women Olympians.” A massive step forward for feminism..!

STOP. Stop holding the East up as an example of how shoddy brown women’s rights are when I’m still opening my free English newspaper up to the words “The sisterhood knows how to celebrate a win. When it comes to girls scoring goals and women winning gold, the female athletes at London 2012 have no shame in showing each other the love. Here’s the best of the girl-on-girl action.” Lesbians. That’s what I’m thinking now. And so are you.

“I did not watch any of the nudge-nudge girls’ volleyball.” And there you have it. Bruce Anderson, Tory rent-a-gob actually manages to get himself published on the Conservative Home Blog (why I am so surprised at this, I don’t understand) saying what he and many other Tories – no doubt – really think about women. “It sounds a charming digression from the more serious events (how dare you dude?). But girls’ boxing: no. That sounds indecent. In the nineteenth century, we prevented females from working as coal-miners. That was an advance in civilisation. Now, we are allowing female boxers. That is regression. The whole notion is deeply squalid. Above all, it is nothing to do with feminism. Feminism insists that women should have the right to stand alongside men in scrutinising the farthest frontiers of the universe, the tiniest sub-atomic particles. Feminists should demand equality of opportunity in the arts, in commerce, in law, in politics. Not in the boxing-ring, lest they lose contact with femininity. Any girl who feels uncontrollable pugnacious impulses need not despair. She could always try to emulate Margaret Thatcher.” (Bet they laughed at her behind her back).

When will men stop defining feminism, femininity and stop referring to themselves as we and us as females?

..Possibly when they stop seeing us a threat.

The crux of the matter is that patriarchy bullies women into submission. It cannot let us believe that we are valid and worthy of international praise based on our skills and abilities. Patriarchy is fixated with the way we look; it has made it so that our popularity is heavily dependent on how attractive we are to men. If there are physically strong women giving out a righteous message of solidarity and independence, it messes with their power and control structure. They are scared. And despite my anti Olympics stance, this makes me very happy. The Olympics haven’t shown us how far we women have come; it’s shown us how utterly afraid patriarchy is.

Well done Team Woman. We’re winning.

*Bruce Anderson also believes in child abuse and violence against women (just google him and ‘torture’).

East Vs West

(via Facebook ”Anonymous ART of Revolution”)

When you think like a feminist..

 

..You draw like one too

How you can help

Friends.

With Refuge facing closure due to government funding cuts of over 50%, women need your support more now than ever before.

Southall Black Sisters established in 1979, provide support to BME women at risk of or fleeing domestic abuse. Whenever there are cuts, services for the most vulnerable go first.

In response to the inherent racism and sexism we face in modern day Britain, I have decided to give up my long locks in protest and hopefully make a few pennies along the way.

Don’t worry, it’ll grow back!

We can’t bring women back from the dead though.

This year so far, there have been 47 gender related murders.

PLEASE DONATE:

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Thank you for your support.