Now, for many of you reading this, this may not really be news. Many of you seasoned feminists/women’s liberationists are familiar with the fact that abusive and controlling men use various methods to oppress and control their female partners. Hell, these abusers all seem to follow a “Domestic Violence for Dummies” manual. But rarely ever do folks in the mainstream, and, more disturbingly, most social workers, doctors, nurses, and counselors, recognize pregnancy or repeated requests/questions for and about contraceptives and condoms as red flags for spousal abuse. I’ll admit, I didn’t really think too hard about the particular issue of reproductive control until reading the above article.

But here is a part of the article that really stuck out at me:

And it’s not just about pregnancy. Dr. Anne Teitelman, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, is an expert on partner abuse and HIV risk. In her published review on this link among adolescent girls, she found six studies identified an association between intimate partner violence and increased risk for HIV (as in condom non-use). Among adolescent girls, survivors of partner abuse are significantly more likely than others to be diagnosed with an STD.

When I lived in the Washington D.C. area, and marched many years ago at The March For Women’s Lives, I remember learning that D.C. has some of the highest rates of HIV infection in the country. D.C. has a huge black community, and black women, in particular, are at much higher risk of HIV infection than their male or white and other non-white female counterparts. This should be raising a red flag. Nay, sounding an alarm call!

So why do many folks not associate higher rates of HIV/STD infection with possible partner abuse? I think there are many reasons: one, that consciousness regarding domestic violence and partner abuse is practically nill in our society; two, that much of the dialogue we DO have about hetero male-on-female partner abuse is rife with myths and misconceptions (“she drove him to get angry and hit her,” “he couldn’t control or help himself” “visible bruises and lesions are the main or only indicator of spousal abuse” etc. blah blah de blah) combined with the fact that dialogue surrounding HIV and STDs is also laden with misogynist myths (“people (i.e. women) who sleep around are more likely to get STDs/HIV,” “gay people are much more likely to get HIV/STDs because they’re promiscuous, evil, etc.” yadda yadda); and three, black women (who are, in various regions of the U.S., at much higher risk of HIV infection) are certainly not thought of as typical victims of domestic violence. If you are fortunate enough to even get a news report on a homicide related to domestic violence, you often hear about a pretty middle-upper class white woman who’s been shot or stabbed by her husband. If one was to use the news as a representative of all that’s going on in the world (and, yes, many folks do this, without even knowing it) one would think that only pretty, affluent, virginal white girls are the victims of rape or abuse.

But this is not the reality. The stereotypes surrounding black women include the idea that they are too “tough” or “unfeminine” to be physically or mentally abused by male partners, that they have animalistic or “wild” sexualities that make them “unrapeable.” Add to that the oppressive and eerie silence withing the “Black community” regarding domestic violence, incest, and other forms of violence against women…And the fact that society and the media don’t really care about the lives of black and poor women. These misogynist and racist tendencies in our culture make it hard for people to consider that many black women are indeed on the receiving end of partner abuse. In fact, out of all of the racial and socioeconomic groups of women in this country, black women, I believe, are the most susceptible to rape, domestic violence, and spousal abuse particularly BECAUSE of the stereotypes that surround black female “sexuality” (as if there was only one) and femininity. I am not at all arguing that other groups of women do not experience rape and abuse at the hands of men on a massive scale. But I am claiming that pervasive ideas about black women and sexuality/femininity in American culture have created dire consequences for many working class and poor black women (I am not even going to debate with anyone on the clear link between classism and racism in the U.S.) who are stuck in abusive relationships. If a poor black woman is even lucky enough to have access to condoms or birth control at a clinic or institution, it might more easily be tampered with or taken away by an abusive male partner that wants to control her through her body. Combine that with the idea that black women are immune to, or “tough enough,” to handle such a boyfriend or husband and you have a recipe for disaster. The crazy and disturbing thing is that these misconceptions about black women are pervasive both in mainstream (white-centered) society and the “black community.”

We need to deconstruct and rid of common myths regarding women’s bodies, black women’s sexualities and lifestyles, and men’s behavior, in addition to lifting the shunning silence surrounding violence against women and girls among many black folks, if we want to make a change.

I recently applied to Harvard and didn’t get in, so this news story really caught my eye:

Homeless girl goes to Harvard!
I have, for a long time, believed that if you give any child or young woman support, encouragement, and love, no matter what their circumstances, they can do incredible and amazing things. Good for the young Ms. Williams, and may she have years of learning, growth and success at Harvard and beyond!

Sure, I would have loved an angry open letter to Chris Brown, asking him why he’s such a misogynist, abusive, controlling piece of shit. But I like the non-judgemental and caring words Leslie Morgan Steiner sends to Rihanna, and, really, to all women who are subject to physical, mental, and sexual abuse at the hands of their male partners. She writes from experience, insight, and a feminist solidarity that looks ahead to healing and growth. Thanks, LMS.

So, off I go! Woot!

Funny how they found no “outward signs of physical trauma” on the two girls’ bodies….Yet another case of the armed forces sweeping an on-base rape or sexual assault under the rug. Many of these male soldiers will stop at nothing to get access to women’s and girls’ bodies.

And then this.

Because there's nothing more sexaayy than dead women sprawled nude on the floor. ::snark::

I’m gonna first start with the nitty gritty on what exactly is so disturbing and obnoxious about PETA’s racist demonstration and sexist ads. Then I’ll make some comparisons between the media coverage of the racist demonstration and the sexist TV ad.

PETA held its KKK demonstration at Madison Square, in New York. New York is in the U.S. of A. The U.S. of A. was built on the backs of Black slaves, Native American indentured servants, the oppression of non-white groups in general, and sex-classed women (many of whom are also members of said racial groups) for centuries. And the Ku Klux Klan was founded in the U.S. of A. About 140 years ago, in Tennessee, to be precise. And for almost a century and a half in this great nation, KKK fuckers have been terrorizing folks of color, intimidating them from exercising their right to vote, burning crosses on Black folks’ yards, gang-raping women and men of color, and basically being one of the worst terrorist groups in American history. I guess PETA either wanted to be added to the list of America’s most awful terrorist groups (I think they should), or they didn’t think, in their privileged college-educated phallocentric minds, that perhaps the mere sight of white people initially perceived to be members of the KKK (with white hoods, robes, and all) could be disturbing, nay, traumatizing, to folks of color walking along Madison Square.

But what really gets me even more about the mock KKK demonstration by PETA is the fact that they are trying to draw an analogy between the Westminster Kennel Club’s promotion of pure-breeding dogs and the KKK’s advocation of a (White) master race. This trivializes not only the suffering of folks of color at the hands of a White Supremacist organization, it reveals PETA’s complete misunderstanding (or lack of effort/care to understand) the reasons that groups like the KKK would have for wanting to kill off non-white folks. The Kennel Club’s promotion of pure-breeding leads to health problems for various dogs. Promoting White Supremacy and a master race (as the KKK does) does not hurt the white folks who only want to screw each other and make more white babies. It hurts the non-white folks in that the very notion of a “pure” White race only exists because there is the concept of a “non-White/non-pure” sub-class or race. It’s not like the Westminster Kennel Club is going around terrorizing and raping mutts and mixed dogs, for fuck’s sake. The fact that I am even having to write out the reasons that PETA’s demonstration is racially insensitive, White-centric, and ridiculous is making me realize more and more how absurd this PETA demonstration is.

And I’m not done there. Drawing a parallel between the pure-breeding of dogs (with its harmful side-effects) and the mass oppression/rape/terrorization of non-White folks is such a huge slap in the face to folks of color. Let’s keep in mind that vegetarian, vegan, and animal rights movements are traditionally and often White and middle-upper class. Rich white folks have the time and money to buy their expensive organic produce and go home and cook their Ina Garten-inspired recipes with said produce. Many folks of color in America, specifically Black and Hispanic folks, do not have the time or resources to do so. Thus, meat, dairy, and animal by-products (many of which are included in processed, low-quality foods) are a big part of their diets. To many folks of color the suggestion that one should restrict their already-dwindling choices of foods to feed their families would be absurd. The suggestion that they should refuse to eat meat, that a cow or pig has the same rights they do (when they barely have any rights or human status to start with) is ludicrous and blatantly offensive. My folks are Egyptian. My grandmother would tell me stories of seeing kids and adults having to beg, in huge numbers, on the streets of Cairo to barely feed themselves every day. Being able to restrict your diet so much, based on moral (non-religious) grounds, is indeed a class and race privilege, people.

So just imagine the double affront that folks of color had to deal with when they happened upon those PETA/mock-KKK demonstrators at Madison Square: not only was their systematic oppression, represented by one extremist/terrorist group, being trivialized, they were being told (perhaps unintentionally) that their very few rights as human beings of color are not merely as important as those of some pure-bred dogs at the Westminster Kennel Club.

Disgusting.

Regarding the absent-mindedly racist demonstration by PETA:

Most passers-by seemed more puzzled than offended, though those who didn’t stop walked away thinking they really had seen the KKK. The most common reaction was to pull out a cell phone and start snapping photos.

Police monitored the situation from nearby, but the scene was mostly calm. One shouting match broke out during the hour-long protest.

Earlier, a man strode away yelling, “That’s disgusting! I’m going to buy more fur!”

Good job, PETA. Your members, on one hand, look down on the masses by assuming that they’re too stupid and base to understand how animals should have rights like humans do by making adverts and demonstrations that cater to preconceived notions about race, gender, and class. Ads and protests that use the showiest and most obnoxious tactics to get people’s attention and shock them. And what has PETA accomplished? It’s hard to say, because they create adverts and demonstrations that don’t even get their point across at all to passersby and viewers. All PETA does is offend for the sake of offending, in order to get press time and media attention.

Speaking of whiny little white male hipster brats trying their very hardest to get attention, let’s turn to the (yet again) porntastic travails of PETA and its marketing crew.

What’s interesting here is that PETA doesn’t have to necessarily make such an openly political (I’m being nice here in referring to the above-mentioned demonstration as “political”) point about “master race” or oppression. It’s simply catering to the pornified representations of women that completely flood Superbowl TV and advertising. In fact, they don’t even have to get that creative. The advert crew at PETA’s headquarters sat there and thought “We need naked women, but this time, doing the naughty with vegetables! And then if men realize they can get their girlfriends/wives to shove olive-oiled asparagus and broccoli up their vajayjays that’ll make vegetables cool! And then women will empowerfulmentalize themselves by not eating meat AND showing vegetables some porntastic love!” I am almost certain that’s how it went. Why in the hell would any regular old Joe watching the Superbowl give two shits about not eating meat, let alone animal rights? What kind of demographic is PETA trying to target with this tacky, repulsive, misogynist ad? And what are female viewers really supposed to make of this? Were the folks at PETA hoping, perhaps, that the male viewer might identify with the carrot sitting in a woman’s cleavage and think “Gee, I would love to be that vegetable…vegetables get lots of sex with women….I’ll never eat meat again!” On second thought, eating the vegetables would severely minimize their chances of being shoved up women’s orifices and rubbed against their breasts, so are the folks at PETA confused? Perchance?

While the intentions of PETA’s personifying pumpkins is unclear, the tagline of the commercial is “Vegetarians have better sex.” Yup, that’s what folks at PETA are truly concerned about. People have boring sex. In fact, one idiot from PETA just shows the organization’s true colors:

Says a PETA rep: “PETA’s veggie ads are locked out, while ads for fried chicken and burgers are allowed, even though these foods make Americans fat, sick and boring in bed.”

Translation: “Animal rights? Pfsh, who cares?! We just don’t want you fugly bitches gaining weight and not putting out for us men in the bedroom! Who wants to fuck a fat woman with a cold?”

There is, again for the millionth time, the direct connection drawn between women’s naked (or half-naked) bodies and penetrative/hetero sex. And semen-receptacle is precisely the sole function that women carry, according to Patriarchy (and to it’s sidekick, PETA, of course).

Some people (not enough people, frankly) are outraged at the racist imagery put forth by the NY PETA demonstration on account it could traumatize people of color who have to have it shoved in their faces. And, as detailed near the beginning of this post, I agree. PETA is a white and male-privileged organization that can’t even differentiate its head from its ass when it comes to knowing how to use allusions to racism and genocide (of animals) without acting like the self-righteous white morons they are.

But, alas. What is it about the “racy” sexist PETA ad that got it pulled from playing during the Super Bowl? Because it was too “sexual.” NOT because it contributes to the dehumanization of women. NOT because it perpetuates the idea that women are, indeed, a sex class. No. It got pulled because people wouldn’t want 5-year-old Johnny to see a half-naked white woman grind her vag on a squash. Little Johnny’s not quite old enough yet to be taught to see women as fucking-machines, so says society,

But then again, I’m not surprised at this double standard in media coverage. Hell, sports culture all over the world, and especially in the U.S., completely thrives and relies on hyper-masculinity and misogyny. And while PETA and all of its supporters may fold their arms in smug hipster satisfaction that they’ve provoked the masses into questioning their meat-eating ways, they definitely have no problem in taking part in mainstream misogyny. The Superbowl ad time slots, and a regular day at Madison Square, were a perfect opportunity for a thoughtful and creative organization such as PETA :/

Just to drive the point home.

Perhaps we should all write up a petition urging PETA to quit its racist and misogynist ways. It will say “Black men and women are animals too!” It might actually get them to start giving a rat’s ass about the rights, dignity, and well-being of women (of all races) and men of color. :/

ARMY NAVY MARINES AIRFORCE YOU STAND BETRAYED BY SECRECY AGREEMENTS (A EPIC LIFE AWAITS ONE WOMAN WILLING )

Yeah.

Global Women Strike Event.

Thanks to Black Looks for letting us know about this event.

Please let me know if you go and how it goes/went. I am only sorry I don’t live in England.