The following is a poem contributed by Tabitha to this blog. Check out Tabitha's blog, Mad Babe Zine and its Ning Site. She wrote this after realizing that she had been raped. The title is called "rape: to seize and take away by force . . despoil". Thanks for the poem, Tabitha! :)
What Tabitha says about this poem: "The following is a poem I wrote after realizing what had happened to me, and what keeps happening to so many other young girls."
"rape: to seize and take away by force . . despoil"
positive poetry in and out of ear
wandering aimlessly, in and out of fear.
timeless, unbuttoned. smooth over folds.
screams inside, shut in, fingers are cold.
my words they are numb, from things i don't know.
i stand upright, broken plateau
mindlessly grunting, words are unkept.
powerfully hunting, I'm already dead.
Showing posts with label contributions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contributions. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Riding The Wave Of French Feminism
The following is a contribution written by: Colette Davidson. The same post is also posted on her blog, Kolet ink*. Colette lives in France and decided to write about feminism in her country. Thanks for the article, Colette! :)
Riding The Wave Of French Feminism
I have a bone to pick with Alain Soral, French sociologist and ex-Front National party member. It’s not his pretension or even his manipulation of his “followers” that bothers me, but instead his definition and loathing of modern feminism.
Soral claims there are two types of feminists: the “freaked out” feminist like Simone de Beauvoir, and the “bitches” such as Elisabeth Badinter. He claims that the modern feminist model only pertains to the plight of upper middle-class white women. At his debate in Bordeaux last Saturday, he openly admitted to detesting the “American neo-feminist.” I hate to break it to Alain, but being an American female today - or any female at all - means being a feminist. After all, what sort of gender would we be if we didn’t fight for our equal rights within a world run by men?
French feminist Simone de Beauvoir, circa 1955
In a televised program I watched recently, Soral claimed that the reason fewer homeless women were on the street than men was because they liberally took advantage of their ability to get government aid - and subsequently housing - by having a child. Do you mean to tell me that if I shoot myself up with drugs, run away from my family or lose my job and home, that I can simply have a baby and everything will turn out okay?
The idea in itself is ridiculous. This goes right along with those (mostly men or the religious right) who believe that birth control or the morning-after pill actually condone having unprotected, careless sex. Only a handful of women are dumb to the fact that having a baby is a lifetime commitment, not one to be taken lightly and certainly not a way to get out of a sticky situation. The fact is, having a baby usually is the most sticky situation a woman can find herself in. No matter how involved a man is in a pregnancy, those 9 months can only be fully experienced by the woman herself.
I’m not alone in opposing Soral’s views on the French homeless woman of the 21st century. On France Inter today, reporters announced the completion of a study as to the greatest risks of a woman on the street. Far and above was the issue of rape and sexual assault. So when Soral says that the reason we don’t see as many homeless women out there is because they are living comfortably in their government-owned apartments with their new babies, I have to disagree. Because the risks of being a woman and on the street are so high, most find shelter elsewhere - be that with friends, a boyfriend (even if he is abusive, this may be the more likable option) or at a homeless shelter. Being homeless is scary enough without bringing a child into the mix.
I think before anyone talks about feminism in France, the French language must change with the times. France has come a long way in terms of women’s rights, and soars high above U.S. legislation on the subject. French women get maternity leave for up to 16 weeks. If a French woman so chooses, she can take up to three years off (unpaid) from her job and come back to it afterwards with total job security. And she can ask for a one-month vacation from her job within three years of having her child, and be paid approximately 500 euros by the government-run CAF.
Gloria Steinem has been the face of American feminism for decades
So, then why are we still using terms such as “Husband and woman (mari et femme)” or “My woman (ma nana)” to refer to a man’s female counterpart? Of course these are but few feeble examples. But France has long explored ways to remove the sexism from its language and come up dry. In 1993, the University of California at Berkeley actually studied the relationship between the French language and gender in a course entitled, “Sexual Difference, Gender and the French Language.” As the course outlines:
“Though there is no necessary correlation between gender, as a grammatical category and sexism in language, for a variety of reasons, cultural as well as linguistic, it has been difficult for French, particularly in France (in contrast to francophone communities outside the Hexagon), to comfortably institute nonsexist usage.”
It seems, since 1993, that not much as been resolved. And Alain Soral’s sexist rhetoric certainly isn’t helping things. While Americans are already onto “third-wave feminism” (a movement led by Rebecca Walker, which challenges second-wave feminism and focuses on the rights of the non-white, wealthy female), the F-word is still a gros mot in France today and linked largely to homosexuality. It rests heavily in literary theory and philosophy instead of practice. As the scholar Elizabeth Wright points out, “none of these [well-known] French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the Anglophone world.”
Feminism in France needs to start with women themselves. I wouldn’t say the situation here is grave, but it’s certainly urgent.
Riding The Wave Of French Feminism
I have a bone to pick with Alain Soral, French sociologist and ex-Front National party member. It’s not his pretension or even his manipulation of his “followers” that bothers me, but instead his definition and loathing of modern feminism.
Soral claims there are two types of feminists: the “freaked out” feminist like Simone de Beauvoir, and the “bitches” such as Elisabeth Badinter. He claims that the modern feminist model only pertains to the plight of upper middle-class white women. At his debate in Bordeaux last Saturday, he openly admitted to detesting the “American neo-feminist.” I hate to break it to Alain, but being an American female today - or any female at all - means being a feminist. After all, what sort of gender would we be if we didn’t fight for our equal rights within a world run by men?
French feminist Simone de Beauvoir, circa 1955
In a televised program I watched recently, Soral claimed that the reason fewer homeless women were on the street than men was because they liberally took advantage of their ability to get government aid - and subsequently housing - by having a child. Do you mean to tell me that if I shoot myself up with drugs, run away from my family or lose my job and home, that I can simply have a baby and everything will turn out okay?
The idea in itself is ridiculous. This goes right along with those (mostly men or the religious right) who believe that birth control or the morning-after pill actually condone having unprotected, careless sex. Only a handful of women are dumb to the fact that having a baby is a lifetime commitment, not one to be taken lightly and certainly not a way to get out of a sticky situation. The fact is, having a baby usually is the most sticky situation a woman can find herself in. No matter how involved a man is in a pregnancy, those 9 months can only be fully experienced by the woman herself.
I’m not alone in opposing Soral’s views on the French homeless woman of the 21st century. On France Inter today, reporters announced the completion of a study as to the greatest risks of a woman on the street. Far and above was the issue of rape and sexual assault. So when Soral says that the reason we don’t see as many homeless women out there is because they are living comfortably in their government-owned apartments with their new babies, I have to disagree. Because the risks of being a woman and on the street are so high, most find shelter elsewhere - be that with friends, a boyfriend (even if he is abusive, this may be the more likable option) or at a homeless shelter. Being homeless is scary enough without bringing a child into the mix.
I think before anyone talks about feminism in France, the French language must change with the times. France has come a long way in terms of women’s rights, and soars high above U.S. legislation on the subject. French women get maternity leave for up to 16 weeks. If a French woman so chooses, she can take up to three years off (unpaid) from her job and come back to it afterwards with total job security. And she can ask for a one-month vacation from her job within three years of having her child, and be paid approximately 500 euros by the government-run CAF.
Gloria Steinem has been the face of American feminism for decades
So, then why are we still using terms such as “Husband and woman (mari et femme)” or “My woman (ma nana)” to refer to a man’s female counterpart? Of course these are but few feeble examples. But France has long explored ways to remove the sexism from its language and come up dry. In 1993, the University of California at Berkeley actually studied the relationship between the French language and gender in a course entitled, “Sexual Difference, Gender and the French Language.” As the course outlines:
“Though there is no necessary correlation between gender, as a grammatical category and sexism in language, for a variety of reasons, cultural as well as linguistic, it has been difficult for French, particularly in France (in contrast to francophone communities outside the Hexagon), to comfortably institute nonsexist usage.”
It seems, since 1993, that not much as been resolved. And Alain Soral’s sexist rhetoric certainly isn’t helping things. While Americans are already onto “third-wave feminism” (a movement led by Rebecca Walker, which challenges second-wave feminism and focuses on the rights of the non-white, wealthy female), the F-word is still a gros mot in France today and linked largely to homosexuality. It rests heavily in literary theory and philosophy instead of practice. As the scholar Elizabeth Wright points out, “none of these [well-known] French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the Anglophone world.”
Feminism in France needs to start with women themselves. I wouldn’t say the situation here is grave, but it’s certainly urgent.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
No Girls Allowed
The article below was written by Amanda S. that lives in the United States and this same post can also be found here: Something Of Substance. Thanks for the article, Amanda! :)
No Girls Allowed
This misogyny thing that people still perpetuate is so tired. Girl-on-girl bashing is so passé. Hearing women proclaim (always with a sense of entitled pride) that they “can’t stand other females” is so boring. Snore.
We all know at least three people like who I’m talking about: girls who call every girl they meet and don’t take an immediate love to “sluts” and “whores” and “bitches”, girls who make a point out of loudly announcing how much they can’t stand “drama!” (always with an exclamation point) and girls who just plain diss and dismiss every other girl they meet.
Having spent a majority of my undergraduate years at an all-women’s institution (it’s not a “girl’s school”, folks), I would have been hard-pressed to make friends if I discounted an entire class of people based on sex. And, I do mean sex: gender seems to make the difference in this equation. Men who are transitioning or identifying as female don’t fall under the umbrella of disdain. Neither do women who are identifying as male.
Blind hatred is nothing new. Anyone remember the Holocaust? Yup, they hated people simply for being Jewish. Or homosexual. Or Bulgarian. Study the Spanish Inquisition? People were tortured and killed for the “crime” of not being Catholic. Or, hey! How about the World Trade Center bombings on 9/11? I recall that some Islamic extremist-fundamentalists flew planes into American buildings because they hated us for being American. Gee, isn’t your hatred so revolutionary and fetching?
Aside from not being the most becoming mentality to have, one of hatred- especially that of female-perpetuated misogyny- is dangerous. I don’t necessarily mean “dangerous” in that I believe girls will go out and start car bombing each other or poisoning the other one over drinks. Well, not every girl will resort to this. But, hatred itself is a slippery slope, especially when we can no longer recall the reasons for our extreme disdain.
For one thing, when girls proudly air their hatred of other girls based on genetic requirements, it does nothing to curb the growing misogynistic tendencies of boys these days. I can’t begin to enumerate the times when, as a Resident Advisor in a co-ed college, I attempted to re-direct boys who were shouting horrible adjectives at girls only to have to turn around and stop the girls from doing it to each other.
Where is all this hatred stemming from? I know I hear a lot about “drama”: how people don’t want it, don’t like it, don’t create it, etc. Here’s an obvious fact: if you’re talking about it, you’re creating it. If you’re gossiping about it, you’re perpetuating it. If you’re taking part in it, you like it. I would tell everyone to just stop already, but I think that solution is entirely too simple. All of this misogyny isn’t coming from simple gossiping.
I’m certain that envy is at the root of the female-on-female misogyny. Men are misogynistic for myriad reasons that I can’t even begin to go into in this post. Suffice it to say, statements such as “you’re a good writer, for a girl”, “girls don’t make very good IT people” and, my personal favorite, “women should never be in positions of power because they have emotions” are so common-place among men that most women shrug them off, titter and say: “well, you know, he has a point!” Congratulations, you just devalued yourself! Now that your self-worth isn’t stemming from intellect or character or healthy respect for your body, what should you base it on? I know!! How about your tan? Or, how little cellulite you have? Even how good-looking your boyfriend is?
And that girl over there? She is tinier and tanner than you and she’s checking out your good-looking boyfriend. Bitch! Get her! All girls are whores like she is? Right?
Right?!
Nope. Try again. When you base the crux of your existence on whatever you can display on the outside, then all you will ever be is envious of everything on the outside of everyone else. This isn’t to say that looks don’t matter, I think I firmly covered in a previous blog that they do. However, looks don’t last. But, your hatred will. It will outlast everyone in your life. It will be the only thing around to keep you warm at night. Unless, of course, your hatred attracts more hatred and, in that case, you better hope you stay alive long enough to watch your looks fade.
If you want men to start respecting you and drop their misogyny, then you, ladies, need to do the same. I don’t know very many men who refuse to hang out with men under the assumption that they are hanging around to take their girlfriend or might have a better looking shirt on. I don’t know many men who tirade against everyone else of their sex for simply walking the earth. I don’t know many men who don’t constantly encourage, validate, support, and even go out on a limb for other guys. And, you know what? They don’t have the same problems with “drama” or generalized hatred or low self-esteem that women, overall, have.
Females are the majority sex in the world. Instead of constantly tearing each other apart, allowing men to tear us apart and generally basing the whole of our existence on the packaging we came in, why not make an effort to find what there is to like about each other? Why not bond together and encourage, validate, support, and even go out on a limb for another female? Those men aren’t going to do that for you. And you don’t seem to be doing such a good job of it for yourself. In fact, it wouldn’t be far off-base to say that those qualities you so disdain in other women are ones you can’t stand in yourself. So, fix them! Build a personality! Embolden your character! Think a fucking original thought! And then, with your newfound sense of pride, tell the boys to knock it off. It won’t hurt you- I promise.
Is everyone ever going to love everyone else to the point of skipping off, hand-in-hand, into a beautiful sunset? Absolutely not. But, judging an entire class of people on one characteristic and using that as a reason to loathe never seemed to get us anywhere either.
*- misogyny means, quite frankly, “hatred of women”.
No Girls Allowed
This misogyny thing that people still perpetuate is so tired. Girl-on-girl bashing is so passé. Hearing women proclaim (always with a sense of entitled pride) that they “can’t stand other females” is so boring. Snore.
We all know at least three people like who I’m talking about: girls who call every girl they meet and don’t take an immediate love to “sluts” and “whores” and “bitches”, girls who make a point out of loudly announcing how much they can’t stand “drama!” (always with an exclamation point) and girls who just plain diss and dismiss every other girl they meet.
Having spent a majority of my undergraduate years at an all-women’s institution (it’s not a “girl’s school”, folks), I would have been hard-pressed to make friends if I discounted an entire class of people based on sex. And, I do mean sex: gender seems to make the difference in this equation. Men who are transitioning or identifying as female don’t fall under the umbrella of disdain. Neither do women who are identifying as male.
Blind hatred is nothing new. Anyone remember the Holocaust? Yup, they hated people simply for being Jewish. Or homosexual. Or Bulgarian. Study the Spanish Inquisition? People were tortured and killed for the “crime” of not being Catholic. Or, hey! How about the World Trade Center bombings on 9/11? I recall that some Islamic extremist-fundamentalists flew planes into American buildings because they hated us for being American. Gee, isn’t your hatred so revolutionary and fetching?
Aside from not being the most becoming mentality to have, one of hatred- especially that of female-perpetuated misogyny- is dangerous. I don’t necessarily mean “dangerous” in that I believe girls will go out and start car bombing each other or poisoning the other one over drinks. Well, not every girl will resort to this. But, hatred itself is a slippery slope, especially when we can no longer recall the reasons for our extreme disdain.
For one thing, when girls proudly air their hatred of other girls based on genetic requirements, it does nothing to curb the growing misogynistic tendencies of boys these days. I can’t begin to enumerate the times when, as a Resident Advisor in a co-ed college, I attempted to re-direct boys who were shouting horrible adjectives at girls only to have to turn around and stop the girls from doing it to each other.
Where is all this hatred stemming from? I know I hear a lot about “drama”: how people don’t want it, don’t like it, don’t create it, etc. Here’s an obvious fact: if you’re talking about it, you’re creating it. If you’re gossiping about it, you’re perpetuating it. If you’re taking part in it, you like it. I would tell everyone to just stop already, but I think that solution is entirely too simple. All of this misogyny isn’t coming from simple gossiping.
I’m certain that envy is at the root of the female-on-female misogyny. Men are misogynistic for myriad reasons that I can’t even begin to go into in this post. Suffice it to say, statements such as “you’re a good writer, for a girl”, “girls don’t make very good IT people” and, my personal favorite, “women should never be in positions of power because they have emotions” are so common-place among men that most women shrug them off, titter and say: “well, you know, he has a point!” Congratulations, you just devalued yourself! Now that your self-worth isn’t stemming from intellect or character or healthy respect for your body, what should you base it on? I know!! How about your tan? Or, how little cellulite you have? Even how good-looking your boyfriend is?
And that girl over there? She is tinier and tanner than you and she’s checking out your good-looking boyfriend. Bitch! Get her! All girls are whores like she is? Right?
Right?!
Nope. Try again. When you base the crux of your existence on whatever you can display on the outside, then all you will ever be is envious of everything on the outside of everyone else. This isn’t to say that looks don’t matter, I think I firmly covered in a previous blog that they do. However, looks don’t last. But, your hatred will. It will outlast everyone in your life. It will be the only thing around to keep you warm at night. Unless, of course, your hatred attracts more hatred and, in that case, you better hope you stay alive long enough to watch your looks fade.
If you want men to start respecting you and drop their misogyny, then you, ladies, need to do the same. I don’t know very many men who refuse to hang out with men under the assumption that they are hanging around to take their girlfriend or might have a better looking shirt on. I don’t know many men who tirade against everyone else of their sex for simply walking the earth. I don’t know many men who don’t constantly encourage, validate, support, and even go out on a limb for other guys. And, you know what? They don’t have the same problems with “drama” or generalized hatred or low self-esteem that women, overall, have.
Females are the majority sex in the world. Instead of constantly tearing each other apart, allowing men to tear us apart and generally basing the whole of our existence on the packaging we came in, why not make an effort to find what there is to like about each other? Why not bond together and encourage, validate, support, and even go out on a limb for another female? Those men aren’t going to do that for you. And you don’t seem to be doing such a good job of it for yourself. In fact, it wouldn’t be far off-base to say that those qualities you so disdain in other women are ones you can’t stand in yourself. So, fix them! Build a personality! Embolden your character! Think a fucking original thought! And then, with your newfound sense of pride, tell the boys to knock it off. It won’t hurt you- I promise.
Is everyone ever going to love everyone else to the point of skipping off, hand-in-hand, into a beautiful sunset? Absolutely not. But, judging an entire class of people on one characteristic and using that as a reason to loathe never seemed to get us anywhere either.
*- misogyny means, quite frankly, “hatred of women”.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Contributions
If you are interested in contributing something to this blog, email me: grrrlsvomitcandy@NOSPAMhotmail.com with the subject "blog" or "contribute". Just remove the words NOSPAM and you've got my email address. My contact information is also on the "Contact Me" page.
Contributions for this blog must be activism, DIY, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and/or women's rights focused. Anything relating to those subjects are welcome. Your personal stories, essays, articles, opinions, etc. related is welcome to be contributed. I'm also interested in knowing about the riot grrrl scene in your country or about feminism in your country. Any and all contributions will be appreciated for this blog. I will give you credit for your contributions, when I post up your contribution.
Contributions for this blog must be activism, DIY, equal rights, feminism, human rights, riot grrrl, and/or women's rights focused. Anything relating to those subjects are welcome. Your personal stories, essays, articles, opinions, etc. related is welcome to be contributed. I'm also interested in knowing about the riot grrrl scene in your country or about feminism in your country. Any and all contributions will be appreciated for this blog. I will give you credit for your contributions, when I post up your contribution.
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