In the spirit of Andrea Dworkin: "It is incumbent upon each of us to be the woman that Marc Lépine wanted to kill. We must live with this honour, this courage. We must drive out fear. We must hold on. We must create. We must resist.“
Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student
I’m writing this today on behalf of a coalition of over 80 people and growing, called Not1More, deeply affected by the recent events at University of California Santa Barbara. As I’m sure you’ve heard, on May 23rd, a young man named Elliott Rodger murdered six people and injured seventeen before killing himself, after his bitterness over his virginity came to a head.
We are organizing a national demonstration for June 28th, and taking direct action against the cultural standards of misogyny and male entitlement that allowed this horrible incident to take place. We feel that we must take a stand. This man’s beliefs and actions were unacceptable, but also stemming from direct messages in our media; and as citizens of the United States, we are responsible to remind people that our social norms are created by us, and can be destroyed by us too.
WE ARE REQUESTING YOUR ASSISTANCE OR INVOLVEMENT. If you cannot participate to make this happen in your city, please SHARE THIS, or contact us if you can get us in touch with people or groups who can. We are trying to make contact with people as quickly as possible, so people have time to organize and get the word out.
TOM COTTON, PHYLLIS SCHAFLEY, AND WOMAN HATIN’: TOMMY AIMS TO PLEASE
By Jane X
Tom Cotton has recently pushed a group called “Women for Cotton.” Talk about an oxymoron. Truly baffled, I wonder how and why any woman who actually knows the truth about Tom Cotton and his views about women would vote for him. Anyone … Anyone … I say in my retrofitted Ferris Bueller voice. He has repeatedly voted against us at every turn and has earned a big fat zero concerning everything that affects us women folk and just as important, our families. Honestly, let’s look at his voting record: he voted against the Violence Against Women Act, not once, but twice, he voted against the farm bill which included food assistance for us single moms who need help to feed our kids, he voted against the student loan bill that would help those sisters who are trying to educate themselves, he was against changing the form of military justice that allows twenty six thousand rapes a year in the military to go unchecked with only 238 convictions, he voted against immigration reform which helps keep families intact, and he voted for a government shutdown which had a detrimental effect on female government employees and of course those “stay at home moms” who are married to said employees, costing American taxpayers 26 billion dollars, and to top it all off, he voted against equal pay for women cause you know, we should be pleasing our husbands and frying chicken barefoot and pregnant to put it nicely.
If that isn’t enough, we can look to his patronizing comments about women in the military and his writings at Harvard which are just beyond all explanation. How any honorable man can blame women’s equality for the fall and great demise of modern society is just … bizarre. Mind you, Tom Cotton wants to force every woman in America to give birth to children no matter the circumstance including rape, incest, fetal anomalies, and even when the mother’s health is in jeopardy as he supports “personhood.” For those of you who don’t know what that means, let me explain. Personhood would give a zygote more rights than a living breathing woman and would be disastrous for women’s health and to be more accurate, endangers the very lives of pregnant women. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU2BZN_GRhI
It would also stop stem cell research for those suffering from diseases with no cure and in-vitro for those women who have trouble conceiving. It would even lead to a ban on any type of hormonal contraception. Think about that. Ninety-nine percent of all American women have used birth control during their lives, yet Tom Cotton either doesn’t realize this or doesn’t care. I vote for the latter. Even more disturbing is his connection to Phyllis Schlafly’s doctrine of thought. Both Schlafly and Cotton even used the same phrasing, “perverse incentives” to describe women who have used food stamps to feed their children. Remember, she believes that if women just got married, they would not be at risk of being raped. It is Mind boggling, ancient, and quite frankly, a disgusting belief system. To begin the comparisons between Schlalfly and Cotton, let’s start with the similarities in their comments on women in the military.
The epidemic of rape and domestic abuse doesn’t seem to faze Ms. Schlafly, but apparently, even a fictitious military flick is hard for her to stomach: “G.I. Jane proves that women can take a beating as well as a man, but so what? The movie shows that she lacks the upper body strength to pull herself out of the water into a boat, a rather elementary test for anyone seeking to be a Navy Seal. The pretense that G.I. Jane could do everything the Seals do is a Hollywood fiction created with trick photography, make-up, and a stand-in for the star. It’s all as make-believe as the scene where her Seal commander talks to her in the shower and somehow doesn’t notice that she’s nude,”
Now, let’s look at Tom Cotton’s statement about women serving in the military which he made on the Laura Ingram show: “To have women serving in infantry, though, could impair the mission-essential tasks of those units [showering in the nude]. And that’s been proven in study after study, it’s nature, upper body strength, and physical movements, and speed, and endurance, and so forth.” And what exactly does he mean by our “nature?” Obviously he has never seen a woman give birth, or witnessed a woman protect her children. Would not these same traits be beneficial in the arena we call war? Fierce and deadly protection of the “family” unconsciously or willingly without a second thought of sacrificing life and limb, and the ability to endure extreme pain might prove beneficial. No? It’s astounding when you compare the two statements between Cotton and Schlafly: nature, upper body strength, and apparently the belief that male soldiers should not be held accountable for their innate “manly desires.” In my humble opinion, men that rape their own comrades are the ones who are detrimental to the mission and the men who allow that to occur and protect the criminality of soldiers and allow them to remain in the military are the threats. Not women. “That be” you Tom Cotton. And who does he sound like? Do their words sound similar? It should. You can read more about that interview here: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/08/1418451/gop-congressman-womens-nature-means-they-should-be-banned-from-infantry/
If belittling female soldiers isn’t enough, let’s move on to the Violence Against Women Act. One of the aspects of this act is to help quell help domestic abuse and help rape victims. Interestingly enough, Schlafly and Cotton want to change divorce laws. They both think no fault divorce laws destroyed the institution of marriage. Let’s compare the comments made by Cotton and Schlafly. She says, “The recent PBS program called “Breaking the Silence” is an example of feminist propaganda that men are batterers and women are victims. Among the falsehoods in the film was the assertion that ‘one-third of mothers lose custody [of their children] to abusive husbands’ and that if a divorcing father seeks any form of child custody, he’s most likely a wife-beater.“ Shaking my head. Yeah, she said that. http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/nov05/05-11-09.html
She goes on to say that, “Because of perverse incentives a so called "no fault divorce” is often followed by a bitter child custody dispute with bogus allegations of domestic violence or child abuse, and the winner can get a huge child support windfall. Usually the family court judge cannot tell who is telling the truth.“ Now read what Tom Cotton wrote in his Harvard Crimson article, “Promises and Covenants.” "For example, liberals wanted to help the poor, especially poor children, so they created a welfare system with perverse incentives that encouraged the birth of children into poverty.” He also stated that feminists should hail the covenant marriages as it doesn’t allow men to dump their old hag wives for new bustier prettier versions. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/10/3/promises-and-covenants-pmen-are-simple/
On his the “truth” about Cotton website, he had this to say about the VAWA: “This law spends $660 million, much of which goes to fund liberal organizations to carry out an ideological agenda without effective results in reducing violence against women. This law is poorly and too broadly written. It unconstitutionally surrenders the rights of Americans who are not Native Americans to racially exclusive tribal courts, potentially violating the 4th Amendment Constitutional rights of American citizens to due process.”
Unfortunately, he is serious folks, but again, I wonder who he holds dear to his heart when espousing such nonsense about the “liberal agenda” and what not. Oh look what Phyllis Schlafly had to say on the subject in 2011: “The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), now up for reauthorization, is in major need of revision. Its billion-dollar-a-year price tag spent by the radical feminists to pursue their ideology and goals (known as feminist pork) … VAWA should be subject to rigorous auditing procedures in order to curb waste and fraud and to establish accountability.” http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2011/07/12/violence_against_women_act_must_be_rewritten/page/full
I’ll give you a hint—feminism and liberal are interchangeable in Tommy’s book of games. Just ask him and watch him run like a “little girl” cause’ he knows I am right. I dare say, my five year old “female” child has more kahunas than him.
Here are a few examples of the VAWA really does:
VAWA has improved the criminal justice response to violence against women by:
• holding rapists accountable for their crimes by strengthening federal penalties for repeat sex offenders and creating a federal “rape shield law,” which is intended to prevent offenders from using victims’ past sexual conduct against them during a rape trial; • mandating that victims, no matter their income levels, are not forced to bear the expense of their own rape exams or for service of a protection order; • keeping victims safe by requiring that a victim’s protection order will be recognized and enforced in all state, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions within the United States; • increasing rates of prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of offenders by helping communities develop dedicated law enforcement and prosecution units and domestic violence dockets; (Factsheet: The Violence Against Women Act)
I have to ask. Does any of that sound like a “liberal” agenda to you? How about feminist pork?
Tom Cotton and Phyllis Schlafly are so similar in their thinking, writing, and actions, I suggest we play a little game. Can the reader tell who wrote what? Was it Cotton? Was it Schlafly? Who knows! They sound the same don’t ya think? “Feminists who allegedly speak for women should attack divorce, not its effects. If men have easy access to divorce, many will choose it thoughtlessly. Being married makes a man care more about his family’s expectations and future because he sees his family as enduring. It also makes him more faithful and committed to his partner. It’s true that women who have found men who are already better partners are more likely to marry them, but it’s also true that marriage settles men down.They may not gain true happiness with their new trophy wives, but they certainly will not slide into the material indigence and emotional misery that awaits most divorced women. If restrained, however, men can fulfill women’s deepest hopes.” (Ms. Tommy Schlafly)
Oh shucks, I would tell you, but I’ll just let this stew for a bit, while I await my knight and shining armor to arrive, so he can fulfill all my hope and dreams while beating me to a bloody pulp because there is now a ban on no fault divorce laws. Likewise, Ms. Schlafly most recently enlightened us all in regards on how not to get raped: GET MARRIED. But wouldn’t you know. Cotton suggests the same. If only women would stay in bad marriages enduring psychological and physical abuse they could avoid the pitfalls of poverty because divorce is the root of our money shortage. Not that women are paid less, not that some men do not pay their child support, not that high paying, truly, family friendly employment doesn’t exist, not that our country is the only industrialized nation not to offer maternity leave, not that women lack quality access to affordable childcare, not that women lack access to affordable birth control so they can control their reproductive lives, not that they are burdened with tremendous student loan debt, not that rape, domestic abuse and patriarchal hammers beat women down, and not that the top one percent is robbing our country and our sisters blind. Nope. None of that has anything to do with the poverty level of single women.
And much to my chagrin, Cotton’s voting record does not reflect a solution for any of the aforementioned problems. Instead, he recommends that women “defend these men against feminism, but also demand that all other men accept the lifelong nature of marriage.” The audacity is overpowering isn’t it, and the uncanny similarity to Ms. Schlafly is in fact, nauseating, although Tommy “know nothin’ bout’ women” creates the same symptoms for me—frequently.
Further, and on a different note, if one wants to get technical about plagiarism, I must explain that if a writer uses more than three words in a row, the author must put quotes around it and give credit to the writer, but there is also another rule. When one bases their entire article around the premise of another person’s intellectual property, the writer must credit that author. When reading “Promises and Covenants,” it is quite clear where Cotton got his material, so not only does he not respect women, but he steals from them while telling them to stay at home, make babies, and clean house. How is that for gallantry? Please take the time to read this tom-foolery, not pun intended. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/10/3/promises-and-covenants-pmen-are-simple/
Now, besides the intellectual theft issue, there is that sick notion that Tom Cotton actually believes that women have babies in order to receive SNAP benefits. Single mothers everywhere understand what an utter joke this is, but it isn’t funny. Not. One. Bit. And quite frankly, Tom Cotton should be ashamed of himself for ever writing such a monstrous and untrue statement, yet he is eerily quiet on the subject and when a columnist at the Democratic Gazette asked for a comment regarding all these “brilliant” essays, his communications manager brushed him off with a shameful but joking tone. “Like,” what Cotton wrote in college was irrelevant, but actually it isn’t. In fact, it reflects his voting record of today. Therefore, it would be nice, if Justin Brasell would answer the question. Why does Cotton vote the same way today as what he wrote of yesteryear? And just how much money did Ms. Schlafly’s organization donate to Tommy’s campaign or does she “just” endorse him? I wonder if he has the ovaries to answer, but somehow, I doubt it.
“Will women always die? Let some men die too,” Dogan told police. “I killed him for my honor.”
Since it was not included in the article, I thought I would provide a rough translation of her historical defense on court;
“When men wear suits and look down they get their sentences lowered; I dont have a suit, my mom barely managed to find this shirt for me. I won’t lie, there is also the joy of being able to survive that i can’t conceal. I’ve walked the corridors of these courthouses countless times, my face covered in bruises, for a restraining order. I didn’t have any other choice. If he hadn’t died, I was going to. He wasn’t going to tell you he had decided to pimp me out, he wasn’t going to talk about his plans of putting me in the arms of other men, he wasn’t going to tell you about the beatings I endured just because the eggplants were slightly overcooked, because the curtains were dirty, because there were leftover crumbs on the table. He wasn’t going to mention how many times I was hospitalized. There is a picture of me taken in the teahouse. I’ve smiled a bit lopsidedly. Maybe he was going to show you that picture and tell you I looked like a dishonorable woman. He was going to tell you he ‘cleansed my honor’ as if he wasn’t planning to pimp me out. You were going to sentence him to 3-5 years and pardon him because i had dishonored him and see my lopsided smile as provocation and feel sad for him. However, honor is mine Mr. Judge, I won’t leave it to anyone else just because I signed a paper.”
her name is Çilem Doğan and she was sentenced to 15 years for this. the court initially wanted to give her life imprisonment. she was released on bail in june 2016 and has since become a symbol for the movement against femicide and violence against women in Turkey.
we always spend like two seconds max talking about mass shooters with their male grievance bullshit & their misogyny & their violence against women in their lives… and I just want to know when is this conversation going to happen for real?
when are we going to admit that misogyny and violence towards women is not minor in any sense? when we will take it seriously for its own sake, and as the most alarming & reliable predictors of mass violence?
the Uvalde shooter talked about how much he despised his mother and grandmother (he began the carnage by shooting his grandmother in the face); his friend/acquaintance says that he’d previously admitted to kicking his grandma, punching his sister, shoving his ex-girlfriend.
(the same friend, a 15-year-old girl in Germany, says he had shown her pictures / video calls of his guns and ammo and talked about “doing something.” a few days later, he told her he was going to do something to his grandmother; a little while later, he texted that he had shot his gran in the face and was going to shoot up an elementary school. the friend read these texts immediately and simply wondered if he was serious. what is the fucking threshold? what do men have to do before people even begin to wonder “Wow Is This Bad”?)
Literally… we need to be very clear that these acts of violence have a specific pattern. They are carried out by men and boys with a history of misogynist behavior. Here’s a source on the Uvalde shooter as described in the OP:
Top, Open Carry Texas members blast a semi-nude female mannequin for target practice; bottom, a Florida gun instructor wishes gun control activists “Happy Mother’s Day” (note the bullet holes in the exclamation point).
On average, every 6 days in Canada a woman is murdered by her intimate partner.
My ending is not so much a happy one as it is a lucky one. And that’s why I do what I do @reclaimyourvoice.
Yesterday during my meditation practice, in tearful gratitude I thanked the gods and the universe for this freedom, for this second chance at life, for these opportunities to become a better person, to love more, to give more, to grow more and for the glorious blessing of being able to heal underneath these palm trees. I thanked them for all the people they’ve sent to help me along my journey (you all and so many more), and said I will endure any storm they throw my way, but to just please keep sending these beautiful souls to help light the path.
Although in my recent post I shared how I escaped, my story is far from over. As most people who’ve been abused will tell you, the tough times don’t necessarily end just because we’ve been physically removed from the abuse.
So in the coming posts I will be speaking on what the aftermath of the abuse has looked like for me. May this and all the posts I have shared thus far be of benefit to those who need them most.
This spring, my Women’s and Gender Studies class at the University of Miami hosted an event called Canes Consent. The event was to raise awareness about sexual assault on campus with the aim of eradicating it, however one of our speakers told her story and we were all inspired to help her get justice. Angela (who has consented to having her name used for this cause) was violently raped by a fellow UM student to the extent that her vertebrae cracked, and the school only suspended her rapist for a semester. Because of this, he is currently back on campus endangering Angela and other students here. My class and I decided to help Angela get justice against her assailant and create a safer campus environment by getting her rapist expelled before he can graduate on May 8, 2015. We are also taking additional measures against him, however this is a priority. As a survivor of sexual assault myself, this is a very personal issue, so I ask that you sign this petition to support Angela and pass it on to whomever you can. This is a time for solidarity: together we can change the way the University of Miami, and other institutions like it, handle rape and sexual violence cases.
I am aware that this blog is primarily for telling personal stories, but at the moment I feel Angela’s story needs more attention than mine, because her cause can help make a change.
Men and women are not “equally oppressed” under patriarchy.
Such statements are nonsensical as oppression predicates inequality.
Male domination treats women and girls as commodities to be abused and discarded by men.
“A new U.N. report warns ‘the number of human trafficking victims is on the rise’ as criminal gangs and terror groups prey increasingly on women and children to make money and bolster their numbers. The 90-page Global Trafficking in Persons report says that children, who account for 30 percent of all trafficking victims, include 'far more’ girls than boys.”
The pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries transform women-made bodies into man-made bodies.
The rise of trans ideology shows us that there are men who associate womanhood with the facsimile imposed by patriarchy, but even more so, that men believe themselves equally capable of creating males or females, and see themselves as heroes correcting the errors of those made insufficiently by women, when it is a man-made patriarchal system that is at fault.
It exposes patriarchy’s deeply entrenched envy of the female ability to create life, and his desire for complete domination over nature.
Eighty male students at Notre Dame University wrote an open letter in the school newspaper asking for a porn filter on the school’s Wi-Fi.
“This filter would send the unequivocal message that pornography is an affront to human rights and catastrophic to individuals and relationships. We are calling for this action in order to stand up for the dignity of all people, especially women,” the letter read. “The overwhelming majority of contemporary pornography is literally filmed violence against women — violence somehow rendered invisible by the context.”
“Pornography is prostitution through the lens of a camera, but more abusive. It exploits the men and women involved, advances a twisted narrative about human sexuality and harms those who consume it.”
“From the beginning, Cyntoia Brown’s life story has been heartbreaking. She was put up for adoption at the age of 2, and her life after that was a traumatic spiral of verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and substance abuse.
At the age of 16, she was sold as a sex-slave to a 43-year-old Nashville realtor—Johnny Mitchell Allan. She was subjected to more abuse by Allan, and in a documentary about her life, she described the abuse and how it made her paranoid.
In 2004, she was tried as an adult for killing Allen. She said she shot him because she feared he was going to kill her. During the trial, she said there was always a gun pointed on her during her captivity. She said she was hit, choked and dragged. She feared for her own life, and she acted out of that fear.
It didn’t matter. A jury convicted the then-16-year-old to life in prison. Under the then-Tennessee law, she would only be eligible for release after serving 51 years of her sentence.
The law in Tennessee has since changed. Now anyone 18 or younger cannot even be charged with prostitution, and that change in law came about because of Brown’s case. Still, it has done little to help Brown.”
“As in all war-torn societies, women suffer disproportionately. Afghanistan is still ranked the worst place in the world to be a woman. Despite Afghan government and international donor efforts since 2001 to educate girls, an estimated two-thirds of Afghan girls do not attend school. Eighty-seven percent of Afghan women are illiterate, while 70-80 percent face forced marriage, many before the age of 16. A September watchdog report called the USAID’s $280 million Promote program – billed the largest single investment that the U.S. government has ever made to advance women’s rights globally – a flop and a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Government statistics from 2014 show that 80 percent of all suicides are committed by women, making Afghanistan one of the few places in the world where rates are higher among women. Psychologists attribute this anomaly to an endless cycle of domestic violence and poverty. The 2008 Global Rights survey found that nearly 90 percent of Afghan women have experienced domestic abuse.”
Spain’s governing party wants to penalize clients and those who provide apartments for prostitution activities. The sex workers themselves would not be targeted in any way, as they would be regarded as victims. The bill is inspired by the abolitionist model pioneered by Sweden.
The new law seeks to disincentivize demand by outlawing the purchase of sex. It also considers human trafficking for sex exploitation to be a form of gender violence.
Our friend Niara, a black trans woman imprisoned in Pennsylvania, is in desperate need of money. For the past few months, she has been economically supported by another inmate, who she began a romantic relationship with. She is now attempting to escape the relationship, but he is using his support of her as leverage to pressure her into sex with him. She desperately needs money in order to get this man to cease his coercion and abuse.
Words are not enough, and if we claim to be against white supremacy, against homophobia, against transmisogyny, we must act in solidarity with those who suffer under these systems of power.
PLEASE give whatever you can to help Niara!
To donate: 1. Go to https://jpay.com/ 2. Type state and inmate ID: Pennsylvania, KU1265 3. Click the name of the prisoner: Herman Burton 4. Register an account 5. Send money, stamps, digital mail, etc
Our friend Niara - a trans woman of color imprisoned in Pennsylvania - is desperately in need of money. She is receiving little support from the outside, and is struggling with constant harassment from male inmates inside.
Prison is hell. Please send her money:
1. Go to https://jpay.com/. 2. Type state and inmate ID: Pennsylvania, KU1265 3. Click the name of the prisoner: Herman Burton 4. Register an account 5. Send money, stamps, digital mail, etc
And support mail:
Herman Burton #KU1265 10745 Route 18 Albion, PA 16475-0002
[address the envelope to Herman Burton, but the letter to NiaraorPeaches]
