DO NOT blame sexist abuse on Feminism
Oh fuck no! As feministing.com reports, National Review Online editor is now claiming that feminism is the reason why pop superstar Rihanna got beaten up by her boyfriend Chris Brown. She writes:
According to an article in the Boston Globe, an informal poll taken among 200 teenagers has revealed that almost half of them blame the pop star Rihanna for her recent beating, allegedly by her boyfriend, Chris Brown.
It's just one survey. But it's very bad news. And feminists are to blame.
...What has happened -- and what Rihanna and Chris have to do with Gloria [Steinem] and us -- is that by inventing oppression where there is none and remaking woman in man's image, as the sexual and feminist revolutions have done, we've confused everyone. The reaction those kids had was unnatural. It's natural for us to expect men to protect women, and for women to expect some level of physical protection. But in post-modern America, those natural gender roles have been beaten by academics and political rhetoric and the occasional modern woman being offended by having a door opened for her. The result is confusion.
Let us deconstruct this idiocy. First of all, abuse and rape was not lacking "in olden timey days." Nor was abuse and rape of women discovered after the feminist movement. Gender abuse was weaved into the society of the pre-feminist West, though let us not pretend that it still isn't. Chivalric codes, which held that noble men ought to protect the docile maiden, did inhibit those men from abusing and raping women. If Lopez is interested in hearkening to the "good old days" when noble men protested women then I can direct her to Froissart's Chronicle of the Hundred Years' War, which depicts those chivalrous men raping chaste nuns and using their talents with the sword to slice up peasant women's bodies.
Second, Lopez is interested in having men reclaime their masculinity; biologically destined I'm sure, in order to protect women. However, who should women be protected from? Oh yeah, anxiously masculine men. Lapse in logic much?
Third, feminism, at least in my definition, does not insist that people, such as people with vaginas and those with penises, are not intrinsically or socially different from one another. Nor does it insist that all people should be exactly alike. Feminism insists that gender differences should not be used to privilege one person at the disadvantage of another. Teaching men to be masculine and thus to arm themselves and develop their aggression while teaching women to be feminine and thus to be docile and not learn to protect themselves leaves women at a disadvantage when men decide to extend their privilege over women by kicking the shit out of them.
Now, I'd like to see Chris Brown try to touch Serena Williams and survive with his peen still attached.
Re: Bros Before Hos the Musical
I wrote an article a few weeks ago that was featured on Feministing's main blog about a youtube video titled "Bros Before Hos: The Musical," that generated a fair amount of comments and confusion. I refuse to re-post the youtube video, as I feel it was sexist and homophobic and perhaps even posting it in the first place was a bad idea. That said, my article was moreso a rant than a critique and as such I was criticized that I should be able to "take a joke" and not fight irrelevant battles. Typical way of dismissing anger about sexism and homophobia: feminists just can't take a joke.
I responded accordingly:
Based on the comments, I see that is confusion about the homophobia expressed in this video. Although some of you expressed that the sexism is blatant, others argue that the homophobia in this video is non-existent or even irrelevant. Although it didn't help that I lacked coherence in connecting the dots between sexism and homophobia. I think the first concept I must address is that sexism and homophobia are interrelated. Sexism is the institution that subjugates one gender to another. Homophobia re-instates that subjugation by ensuring that there is no blurring of lines between the genders. Speaking to an audience of men, Michael Kimmel says, "Homophobia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men." The men in this video re-enact the institution of sexism and keep it in check with homophobia. The structure of this event is organized neatly in the video as such: A) female figure in a menge-a-trois demands, lifting her status from object to subject B) the two male figures explore the conflict which arises in a sexist system when gender and sexual lines a blurred, ostensibly through sex, wherein gender lines are usually instated and/or re-instated C)The conflict resolves by ejecting the "single" guy from the group and instating heteronormativity.
There, I said it, now I can sleep at night.
Using Sexism to Criticize Power Relations
KABOBfest recently wrote a little article titled "KABOBfest Exclusive: Livni Sex Tape Exposed." I initially assumed was going to be a story of how Bebe Netanyahu and cronies rummaged through Livni's personal space and realized that she has a fully functional vagina and is putting it to use, but as it turned out it was a parody article that is sexist and anti-Semitic.
From KABOBfest:
A new sex tape emerged that should send shockwaves through Israeli politics. As this family-friendly screenshot demonstrates, Livni was getting it on with two of her security detail as she was covered in flowers -- in public. Pretty hot, but nowhere nearly as sexy as the Israeli porn classics, Checkpoint Chicks Meet the Golani Brigade, Menachem the Mohel (if you are into horror-porn), and Coma-Hoes (starring Ariel Sharon).
I sounded the first mental alarm in only the first sentence. "Should" send shockwaves? I didn't know people having sex constituted national or even international news. Should we give her a reality show too?
The article then plays around with porn titles like "Checkpoint Chicks Meet the Golani Brigade," which insinuates that mistreatment of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints is comparable to being forced into sex. This idea may best be understood with the double-edged phrase "getting fucked." Punny...
The author draws on themes of powerful women in the Bible, such as the famous Jezebels of both the Old and New Testaments, in order to make sense of female political power. The Jezebels were viewed as utilizing their bodies to (re)claim power in society and that they were thus prostituting themselves. Tzipi Livni, who nearly controls the military power know as the Israeli army, is apparently also being viewed by this blogger as wielding her power through similar means, and the relationship between Livni, her power, and her followers is understood similarly to the Jezebels, their power, and their followers. The Jezebel of the Hebrew Bible is thrown, by her Eunuchs, from her bedroom window and eaten by dogs, the Jezebel of the New Testament is gang raped by her "children." Hopefully no one resolves the tension created by Livni's power to justify raping or killing her.
The shit this article spews doesn't stop there. It concludes, "However, the film may not offend the orthodox Jewish community: they were boinking her through blanket holes." This = exploiting huge misconceptions of orthodox Jewish sexual practices, which is, in my definition, prejudice.
The underlying problem here is that this article perpetuates the idea that sexual relations are reasonable ways in which people may demonstrate power relations and that, thus, sex and power can be used metaphorically, interchangeably, etc. But they cannot. Sex is an act that occurs between two or more fully consenting individuals. If power relations find their way into sex, as they find their way into the workplace, our school systems, dating life, etc., then that means one or more people will be subjugated by one or more people. That isn't sex, that's rape.
I understand that the situation in Gaza and Israel is royally fucked up, but the messiness of this situation cannot be understood in the same tired ass ways, i.e. sexism, anti-semitism, wtvs-ism.
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