SlutWalks continue around the globe – check out the SlutWalk Toronto website which is keeping tabs on the Satellite Slutwalks.

This post is open to any social justice activist to spruik any upcoming event/activism outreach: protests, vigils, petitions, fundraisers, film nights, book launches, festivals etc.

Guidelines:
1. Please include links to websites with full details (Facebook pages are fine).
2. Keep your plug brief! Date/place/time name of event and 100-200 word summary, please.
(2a. if your event is already being well plugged elsewhere, please be extra-brief!)
3. Please confine the plugs on this post to events occurring in July and August 2011 only. I’ll do another post next month.
(3a. Exception made for books/films launched any time and still available for purchase. Keep on plugging them so that people still hear about them if they missed out on the launch.)
4. “Nothing About Us Without Us”. If an event is challenged by others for lacking inclusion/actively marginalising groups being discussed at the event, the event will be reviewed and subsequently the promotional comment may be deleted. e.g. events centering transphobic opinions without balance from trans voices, or centering whorephobic opinions without balance from sex worker voices, will not stand.
5. The place to complain about these guidelines is on the Complaints page, NOT on this signal-boost post.

Events posted so far:

SlutWalks continue around the globe – check out the SlutWalk Toronto website which is keeping tabs on the Satellite Slutwalks.

This post is open to any social justice activist to spruik any upcoming event/activism outreach: protests, vigils, petitions, fundraisers, film nights, book launches, festivals etc.

Guidelines:
1. Please include links to websites with full details (Facebook pages are fine).
2. Keep your plug brief! Date/place/time name of event and 100-200 word summary, please.
(2a. if your event is already being well plugged elsewhere, please be extra-brief!)
3. Please confine the plugs on this post to events occurring in June and Julyl 2011 only. I’ll do another post next month.
(3a. Exception made for books/films launched any time and still available for purchase. Keep on plugging them so that people still hear about them if they missed out on the launch.)
4. “Nothing About Us Without Us”. If an event is challenged by others for lacking inclusion/actively marginalising groups being discussed at the event, the event will be reviewed and subsequently the promotional comment may be deleted. e.g. events centering transphobic opinions without balance from trans voices, or centering whorephobic opinions without balance from sex worker voices, will not stand.
5. The place to complain about these guidelines is on the Complaints page, NOT on this signal-boost post.

This June spruiking post is brought to you by the recently published novel Last Chance Cafe by Liz Byrski:

The novel centres on a group of older women asking themselves questions about the personal and political lives – past, present and future – negotiating their own feminist journeys while both mentoring and learning from younger women undergoing their own.

With aching empathy, Liz Byrski assembles a fallible cast of characters who are asking the questions we ask ourselves. What does it mean to grow older? Are we brave enough to free ourselves from the pressure to stay young? And is there ever a stage in life when we can just be ourselves?

Saturday, May 7th is Boston’s Slutwalk

This post is open to any social justice activist to spruik any upcoming event/activism outreach: protests, vigils, petitions, fundraisers, film nights, book launches, festivals etc.

Guidelines:
1. Please include links to websites with full details (Facebook pages are fine).
2. Keep your plug brief! Date/place/time name of event and 100-200 word summary, please.
(2a. if your event is already being well plugged elsewhere, please be extra-brief!)
3. Please confine the plugs on this post to events occurring in May and June 2011 only. I’ll do another post next month.
(3a. Exception made for books/films launched any time and still available for purchase. Keep on plugging them so that people still hear about them if they missed out on the launch.)
4. “Nothing About Us Without Us”. If an event is challenged by others for lacking inclusion/actively marginalising groups being discussed at the event, the event will be reviewed and subsequently the promotional comment may be deleted. e.g. events centering transphobic opinions without balance from trans voices, or centering whorephobic opinions without balance from sex worker voices, will not stand.
5. The place to complain about these guidelines is on the Complaints page, NOT on this signal-boost post.

Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the academic industrial complex of feminism

This May spruiking post is brought to you by the recently published anthology Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the academic industrial complex of feminism, edited by Jessica Yee.

When feminism itself becomes its own form of oppression, what do we have to say about it? Western notions of polite discourse are not the norm for all of us, and just because we’ve got some new and hot language lately in equity-seeking movements like feminism — such as “intersectionality” — to use in our talk, it doesn’t necessarily make things change in our walk (i.e. actually being anti-racist).

Confronting the sometimes uncomfortable questions feminism has made us ask about what’s going on FOR REAL paved the many paths that brought the contributors of this book together to share their sometimes uncomfortable truths, not just about feminism, but about who they are and where they are coming from.

I was enjoying the quiet so much that I kept on procrastinating about actually taking a closer look to see that I hadn’t imagined reversing that setting, but apparently I did imagine it after all.

Apologies, and a reassurance that the comments box being closed on this post is quite deliberate. Please feel free to continue all those interrupted discussions.

Obviously this is an approach that somebody is recommending to you, but can I tell you what it feels like to me? It feels like you are asking me to do your homework. That’s not what tertiary education is supposed to be training you to do.

When your professor/instructor/tutor gives you an assignment to find something out about how a particular issue is addressed on the Internet, and wants you to find some extra details about the author and their personal sentiments on the issue, I don’t actually believe that they want you to just ask the author of an online article those questions in an email instead of doing the background reading for yourselves. It’s pretty much all right there on people’s websites, and most site authors have enough to do without regurgitating stuff they’ve already written on cue, for you.

These are matters of established netiquette when engaging in the interactive, collaborative space of the Web 2.0 spaces of the Internet. You are supposed to click around a site’s internal links and do some reading before asking questions, on the basis that Frequently Asked Questions are very likely to be addressed in those links. If your instructors really don’t understand that, then they need to learn this so that they stop telling you to approach these assignments in ways that violate netiquette. Communications that violate netiquette tend to get ignored or nastily rebuffed, depending on the mood of the receiver. Here are my recommendations to you all:

Firstly: that introductory paragraph

… where you tell me about how you’ve been given an assignment on the relevance of [topic extensively covered on this blog, which is exactly why you found it using a search engine] today etc? And the bit you’ve been told to include about why you feel it’s important to you personally?

Be aware that anybody who runs a blog discussing controversial social issues has an extremely fine-tuned sense of when someone is not using their own words to communicate with us, because we have so many disruptive comments submitted by trolls and cranks relying on cut-and-paste screeds. If your introduction seems formulaic and insincere, you will set off alarm bells and your requests will be viewed with suspicion and possibly resentment, right from the start.

Now, those questions:

#1 – Your name and a little about yourself? (for the purpose of a credible source and to give life to your name in the article)
Websites, especially blogs, usually have an “About” page where there is more information about the author(s). This is the page that your instructor is/should be expecting you to read. Blogs (and most other Web 2.0 websites) are designed so that their About page is easily findable using a prominently placed navigation menu. Read the About page. If you need to know more, show me that you know something about me already and I’m more likely to tell you more.
#2 – Do you believe that the issue of [topic extensively covered on this blog, which is exactly why you found it using a search engine] is an issue? What can feminism and what is feminism doing to prevent or/and discourage this issue?
Hmm, you could, I dunno, actually read the article that the search engine results gave you? And then read what the comments from other people responding to the article say? This is what your instructor is actually expecting you to do (or if the instructor really expects you to get individualised responses from authors without doing your own research, then that instructor is steering you down a very wrong path).
#3 – Why do you believe, if you do believe, that this is an issue?
See response to #2 above.
n.b. If it’s not clear in the article, why not leave a comment and ask your question there, so that it adds to the discussion?
#4 – What has caused this issue to still occur commonly today?
See response to #3 above.
#5 – What should a female do when [issue extensively covered on this blog] occurs?
(a) female is an adjective, not a noun. I am a woman, and I am a female human. If you’re only going to use one word, woman/women is the one to use.
(b) See response to #3 above.
#6 – Have you ever been effected by this issue?
(a) You really need to learn the difference between affect/effect and affected/effected here (and maybe so does your instructor).
(b) See response to #3 above.
#7 – Is there anything you wish to cover that was not covered in these questions please state here.
I wish to see a modicum of respect, from students and from their instructors, for the following facts:

• blogs already tell people about their authors
• blogs are easily searchable to find what the authors have written on certain issues
• it’s very, very easy to ask clarifying questions in comments to a blog article that show that you have actually read the article
• it’s actually just simple good manners to actually contribute something to the existing and ongoing discussion of an issue if you have a question that needs clarification

Now, if and when it’s clear that a student has actually done their own background reading and is simply seeking some clarification on a few matters, then website authors are generally likely to be happier to answer questions, even when it is in email rather than on their blog. But generally, ask your clarifying questions on the relevant post on the blog, and be honest about the fact that you’re doing it for a class assignment (and, if appropriate, be honest that it’s an assignment you’re not all that deeply engaged with and just want to get out of the way), mmkay?

Most of us have been in the same position, even if it’s a memory-stretch for us. Honesty elicits sympathy, especially when you show that you are willing to do your own work.

Thank you,
Viv Smythe aka tigtog

Because the rest of my life is pretty busy and I sometimes just don’t click on the alert emails from FF101 about comments in moderation when I’m this busy, I’m leaving the blog in full moderation mode so that new comments will all get approved together rather than some commentors having to wait to see their comment appear while others are autopublished.

Comments which do not abide by the Comments Policy will continue to not get published (or maybe published with disemvoweling if they are a horrible enough example).

Soulspeakout.org was born out of the need for a safe space for survivors to tell their stories. Our original intent was to start a zine to distribute at local women’s shelters and support centers. However, this site has the potential to reach many more. We hope that you are able to use it as a safe space to reach out to other survivors or just have your voice heard.

This space is designed to be a healing, empowering and inspiring space for survivors of all ages, genders, sexualities, abilities, nationalities, cultural and social identities.

Feel free to contact us at any time as you explore and make this space your own.

Best wishes to Elisha, Maria, and Stefana as they build this safe space.  They’ve already made a strong start with their Resources page, so check them out and maybe submit your survivor story, if you feel it would help you or others to have it shared.

• Being Offended Is Great For You!
• It’s Only The Internet!
• But If It’s Okay For Marginalised People To Use Those Words, Why Can’t I?
• I’m Just Saying What Other People Believe. I Never Said I Agree
• I Said SOME Marginalised People Do That, Not ALL

I’ve also updated the mirror of D4D here at FF101 to reflect these changes.

Feminists as lesbians

Myth#3: Feminists are bitter because they are ugly, hairy and lesbians.
Why would any good consumer be bitter over saving gobs of money by rejecting the billion dollar beauty industry, aimed at manufacturing stepford wives?

What’s wrong with being a lesbian? Let me guess:you think its unfair competition for heterosexual men with little foreplay skills? I say, competition is a good thing; it allows the best lover at the lowest emotional drain to win the girl.

[Aspazia (Mad Melancholic Feminista): Feminism 101: Myths and Facts.]

As you can see by the above quote, the “all feminists are lesbian” myth is often coupled with the myth of all feminists being hairy legged/flannel wearing/mannish/ugly. Neither of which, it’s noted over and over again, is a bad thing. The problem is that these attributes are 1) being used as shorthand for “bad” in a way that allows the speaker to casually dismiss the group and its members, and 2) being forced on people in the group who do not subscribe to them, thus creating effectively erasing their experiences.

Beyond the individual level, however, it’s also important (especially for heterosexual feminists) to recognize that lesbianism has had played a significant and positive role in shaping modern feminism. Notably, Lesbian feminism(Wikipedia link), for all of its flaws (especially regarding its erasure/rejection of trans* people, identity, and issues), called out mainstream feminism on its homophobia and heteronormativity. As the qlbtq article on Lesbian Feminism states, “Indeed, one of the most significant accomplishments of the lesbian feminist movement was to facilitate a network of social and political support that helped lesbians cope with the isolation, stigma, and legal problems that many homosexuals battled.”

Feminists as man-haters

Unlike the “all feminists are lesbian” myth, the “all feminists are man-haters” myth would be a very bad thing if it were true. Good thing, then, that it’s not (this is discussed in more detail in the Why do you feminists hate men? FAQ entry).

Beyond the fact that the “man-hating” myth is, well, a myth, it’s important to note that it has roots in homophobia:

The idea that feminists hate men seems to be based partly upon media representations of 1960s and 1970s radical feminism, especially the horror of lesbian separatism. Here we have a very marginal, but radical, aspect of feminism highlighted and made representative of the entire movement. This claim also compounds the homophobic link between feminism and lesbianism…

[Winter (Mind the Gap): Springing the Traps: On Countering Anti-Feminism(Article no longer available).

]

Indeed, mainstream feminists in the past hoped to distance themselves from the “man-hater” stereotype by distancing themselves from lesbians/lesbianism:

[Betty] Friedan, and some other straight feminists as well, worried that the association [between lesbianism and NOW/the emerging women's movement] would hamstring feminists’ ability to achieve serious political change, and that stereotypes of ‘mannish’ and ‘man-hating’ lesbians would provide an easy way to dismiss the movement.”

[Wikipedia: Lavender Menace.]

Of course, the “threat” to men inherent in both lesbian and feminist thought is that women need not, and should not, position men as the center of their lives:

The Woman-Identified Woman‘s] authors claimed that lesbians and lesbianism are of central, rather than peripheral, importance to the feminist movement. The woman-identified woman, they contended, undermines patriarchy by withdrawing her energy from men, by affirming a connection with other women, and by validating women on their own terms, independent of men. So long as women seek the approval of men and male institutions, they argued, they cannot become autonomous human beings.

[glbt: Lesbian Feminism.]

Related Reading:

• FAQ: Why do you feminists hate men?
• FAQ: Aren’t feminists just hairy-legged makeup haters?

Introductory:

• Melinda Kanner and Kristin J. Anderson: “The Myth of the Man-Hating Feminist” in Michele A. Paludi [ed.] (Praeger, 2009): Feminism and Women’s Rights Worldwide: pp. 1-26.
• glbt: Lesbian Feminism.

Clarifying Concepts:

• Claiming man-hating as a distraction technique:

  It does not really matter whether or not a few individual feminists “hate” men (I haven’t met one yet but I promise I’ll tell you if I do), for accusations of misandry constitute yet another distraction technique. When encountering this statement, don’t go on the run and start talking about your lovely boyfriend and men friends who you (obviously) don’t hate. There’s no way you can prove that feminists don’t hate men to someone who believes this to be the case and, anyway, the argument is again a strategic one. Ask them what man-hating feminists have they met? Can they direct you to references to man-hating feminist articles and books? You’d be interested to read them. Or, if you want to be really provocative, ask them if they understand why some women have good reason to have issues with some men? I mean, if my husband beat me, I might not hate all men, but I might justifiably be very frightened of them. Ask them what they think could be done to stop women feeling frightened of men and feminists from being angry?

  [Winter (Mind the Gap): Springing the Traps: On Countering Anti-Feminism(Article no longer available).

  ]

• Addressing the homophobia of the myth:
  

  Where women are concerned, the line taken is “I don’t want to be a feminist because feminists are all lesbians.” Calling upon homophobic stigma, this claim also presumes lesbianism to be a bad thing with which one does not want to be associated. When young women calmly express the view that they don’t want to be feminists because feminists are lesbians, I am most concerned that these young people are still so comfortable with their own homophobia. Is the existence of lesbians within feminism enough to render the movement disgusting? Are lesbians really considered such socially abject creatures? As a lesbian feminist, the idea that my identity is a source of revulsion to young men and women is not a little disconcerting. There is no point in giving them examples of heterosexual feminists and to do so is again to implicitly disavow all the lesbian feminists. Instead, I would just tell them I find their homophobia utterly repulsive. If they don’t consider themselves homophobic, this might shake them up a bit and open to the way to an actual discussion. If, however, they are happy homophobes, you might be better off finding someone worth talking to.

  [Winter (Mind the Gap): Springing the Traps: On Countering Anti-Feminism(Article no longer available).

  ]


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