M.I.A. is God

I hate me

[wintertrash]

They tell us that the prisons are overpopulated. But what if it were the population that were being overimprisoned?

Michel Foucault  (via lacanno)

[stupidfuckingquestions]

[rockcandymelted]

this is both hilariously, and horrifyingly, true.

[majinboy-deactivated20130418]

In case you forgot, the SPLC classified MRA’s as a hate group last year.

[glittertitties-deactivated20130]

cry, hatemongers

[renkris-deactivated20130506]

“virulent misogyny, spreading of false anti-woman propaganda and applauding and even encouraging acts of domestic terrorism and extreme violence against women and children, up to and including murder. “

[makaveliminded]

[communismandlove]

The 2pac you don’t hear about.

[knowledgeequalsblackpower]

FOREVER REBLOG!!!!

[wordsthat-speak]

I was afraid to be alone, and now I’m scared that’s how I like to be.

November (Azure Ray)

[baseddw]

sporadically posting due to horrendous workload

[stfueverything-deactivated20230]

The Steubenville guilty verdict spawned nearly as much rape apology as the original news of the case did, highlighting the point — made by feminists like Zerlina Maxwell and Jaclyn Friedman — that America has a long way to go before it gets past blaming victims and sympathizing with rapists.

Below are the top 5 rape apologist reactions to the verdict.

1. CNN: “Those poor boys’ lives are ruined”

CNN correspondent Candy Crowley responded to the verdict by bemoaning the sad future of two rapists who traumatized one young girl for life but would never get to live out their football dreams.

2. The judge: “This is the problem with social media”

Feministe’s Jill Filipovic tweeted that the judge in the case noted that the verdict is a lesson in “how you record things on social media that are so prevalent today. As she said, “Problem =/ the recording.”

3. Author/blogger Michael Crooke: “It’s just buyer’s remorse” Author/blogger Michael Crook, who additionally claims that “rape doesn’t exist,” won the race for most-likely-to-be-poorly-executed satire, at least until he took to his Twitter feed to demand that the survivor be “held accountable”, tell women that “skimpy clothing is pretty much implied consent” and encourage every woman to not “dress like a whore if you don’t want to be treated like one.”

4. Way too many people on Twitter: “Die, Jane Doe!”

Clearly, death threats are not the way to go.

5. Lee Stranahan on Breitbart: “The town’s the real victim here”

Stranahan says that the media and Anonymous are the real villains in the case, though they really should’ve been paying more attention to rapes reported in Occupy camps anyway.

[rosieramblings-deactivated20200]

Things that really fucking piss me off: The Rape Culture Edition

[eattherich73]

Just fucking gross.

[bananasalways-blog]

It’s too much. It’s too much

[invisiblelad]

No. The victim…the one that was drugged, degraded , photographed and raped is the real victim. Every single thing about the way this story was covered and the way the case was handled is evidence of how horribly screwed up our culture is as it regards social issues of this nature.

[confusedtree-deactivated2013092]

Walk up in the club like “Actually, I didn’t think it was appropriate to invite children since it’s… You know, there’s gambling and alcohol, and it’s in our dangerous warehouse and it’s a school night… And, you know, Hooters is catering. You know, is that enough? Should I keep going?”

[mehreenkasana]

On a scale of 1 to Leonardo DiCaprio, how unappreciated are you?

[miss-love]

Relationships are complicated, and it can take a woman more than one attempt to leave an abuser. But if any woman who goes back is told that she has forfeited sympathy and can be written off with mockery—that the whole thing is now an amusing spectacle—then we’ll end up with more dead women.

Amy Davidson on Seth MacFarlane’s Rihanna joke (via miss-love)

[thepeoplesrecord]

[TW: rape culture] College rape victim faces expulsion for speaking out

February 26, 2013

A sophomore at the University of North Carolina (UNC) is facing potential expulsion and other consequences from her school for what the college calls “intimidating” behavior. But the “intimidating” behavior may be that the student spoke out to the press about the man who raped her.

As the blog Jezebel highlights, Melinda Manning, the former assistant dean of students at UNC, and other students “filed a complaint [last month] with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on behalf of themselves and 64 other unnamed sexual assault survivors, alleging that university officials pressured Manning into underreporting cases.” The complaint also alleges violations of laws under the “Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, the Clery Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and equal opportunity mandates” from federal civil rights law.

Now one of the students who was a party to the complaint, named Landen Gambill, is being investigated by the school’s “Honor Court,” which is tasked with reviewing allegations of misconduct on campus. The student alleges the charge results from her talking to the media.

Gambill had spoken out to the press about her awful experience reporting sexual assault at the school she attends. Gambill says she was verbally and physically abused by her long-term boyfriend. After the relationship ended, she had to deal with stalking, threats and harassment from the ex-boyfriend. When she pressed charges at the Honor Court, she says she had to answer humiliating questions.

“The woman student said to me, ‘Landen, as a woman, I know that if that had happened to me, I would’ve broken up with him the first time it happened. Will you explain to me why you didn’t?’” Gambill explained to The Daily Tar Heel, a student newspaper at UNC, in December 2012. The court also “implied that I was emotionally unstable and couldn’t be telling the truth because I had attempted suicide.”

Gambill added: “It’s incredibly clear that those people had no idea what sexual assault is, what consent is. They were not only offensive and inappropriate, but they were so victim-blaming. They made it seem like my assault was completely my fault.”

10 days after news of the federal complaint Gambill and Manning filed broke, “Landen received an email from Elizabeth Ireland, the Graduate & Professional Schools Student Attorney General, who wrote that she ‘received a report of a possible violation of the Honor Code on which you are listed as the reporting party,’” Jezebel notes. But Gambill says she did nothing wrong—she hasn’t even named her rapist, who lives across the street from her.

And then last Friday, Gambill received another e-mail from Ireland that said that sufficient evidence existed to refer the case to the Honor Court, though Ireland also said that being charged does mean she is guilty. The charges include “disruptive or intimidating behavior that willfully abuses, disparages, or otherwise interferes” with a student that “adversely affect their academic pursuits, opportunities for University employment, participation in University-sponsored extracurricular activities, or opportunities to benefit from other aspects of University Life.”

If the Honor Court finds Gambill guilty of “intimidating” her rapist, she could face a slew of consequences, including: loss of privileges on campus; a grade penalty; a written assignment; probation or suspension; and expulsion.

A preliminary Honor Court meeting with Gambill has taken place. Jezebel reports that  the student “asked whether she could have violated the Honor Code simply by saying she was raped; the answer was yes.”

“This type of gross injustice is the reason why UNC students are speaking out and demanding answers,” Gambill told Jezebel. “The reason why i’m so vocal about this isn’t because I just want justice for my case. I want to make sure no one else has to go through this if they want to report an assault to the university.

Source

[lord-kitschener]

“Fiscally conservative but socially liberal” is a hip, trendy way of saying “I still think poor kids are being too grabby with this whole ‘wanting food’ thing, but I also like weed.”

[baseddw]

this is probably posted somewhere else, but here it is again. 

[asfouri]

Safwan Dahoul, Dream 32 (2010)

[latimes]

Argo still a no-go in Iran

“Argo” may have won acclaim from critics, audiences and now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - but many in Iran remain unimpressed with the film. Set during the turbulent post-revolution era in Iran, the Iranian government was initially provoked by the film for its portrayal of the country, but with time, more Iranians have been able to see the movie and react.

“I am secular, atheist and not pro-regime but I think the film ‘Argo’ has distorted history and insulted Iranians,” said Hossain, a cafe owner worried about business because of customers’ lack of cash in a sanctions-battered economy. “For me, it wasn’t even a good thriller.”

And further reaction from the ground in Iran:

“I did not enjoy seeing my fellow countrymen and women insulted,” said Farzaneh Haji, an educated homemaker and fan of romantic movies who was 18 at the time of the revolution. “The men then were not all bearded and fanatical. To be anti-American was a fashionable idea among young people across the board. Even non-bearded and U.S.-educated men and women were against American imperialism.”

Photo: Keith Bernstein / Warner Bros

[cutemermaidprincess-deactivated]

a joke

Seth MacFarlane’s career

[jayaprada]

Maternity Leave, Iran, & American Exceptionalism

On February 17, 2013, The New York Times published a fascinating and, quite frankly, damning map depicting the United States’ retrograde attitude toward paid maternity leave in comparison to the rest of the world.

In simple terms, the United States is a global outlier: the only industrialized country not to mandate even a single day of paid maternity leave to its working mothers.  While this has been known and publicized for quite some time now (here is a very similar report from National Geographic back in 2007 which was also picked up by the Times),periodic reminders are indeed welcome.

As the report demonstrates, in contrast to the United States, Iran’s official policies regarding maternity leave and many other maternal rights are notably progressive. (On the other hand, Iran’s abortion laws, while liberalizing,still have a way to go.)  This may come as quite a shock to American readers given the usual media coverage on Iran. The Islamic Republic is perhaps the single most demonized and vilified nation in American politics and mediatoday, depicted almost exclusively as a bastion of medieval barbarity and misogynistic backwardness.

As seen in the diagram above, Iran doesn’t just have some paid maternity leave, it has one of the most substantial paid benefits policies on the planet for new mothers, setting it apart from the rest of the region and placing it on par with – if not far in advance of – labor laws in much of Europe.

A 2009 study in the International Breastfeeding Journal found that after six months paid maternity leave, Iranian working mothers are given the option to reduce their work by one hour per day in an effort to promote breastfeeding for children up to 2 years old. The study concluded,  “In comparison to many European Union countries, Iran showed a favorable situation in terms of breastfeeding rates and promotion of breastfeeding.”

On February 20, just three days after The New York Times published this map, the Majlis (Iranian parliament) approved a new family planning bill which, although unfortunately eliminating a number of beneficial birth control programs, actually increased paid maternity leave for mothers from six to nine months, and created an obligatory two-week paid leave for fathers.

In an official move to roll back the strict population control efforts of previous decades, the Iranian press reported,“Previous restrictions around having a fourth child have also been dropped from the act, and now such children will be afforded insurance and their mothers will receive the same amount of leave as any other mother.”

These benefits outshine most other developing nations.  For instance, mothers in India get 12 paid weeks while Brazilian law mandates six months.  Turkey stipulates only a 16-week paid leave at 70% pay with an optional six-month unpaid extension, and allows new mothers the ability to “request breaks in the working day amounting to 1 hour 30 minutes per day for breastfeeding” for up to a year.

In the United Arab Emirates, private businesses are required to provide roughly 45 days maternity leave at full-pay followed by the same amount of time at half-pay. The public sector offers slightly better benefits with 60 days at full salary.  All working mothers in the UAE may extend their leave up to an additional 100 days with no pay.

Of course, all of these figures seem unfathomably generous and humanitarian when compared to the United States, which literally stands alone with a begrudging 12-weeks unpaid leave. How’s that for American exceptionalism?