Today I read several articles on the massive rape epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I read about Egypt and the protests that have been raging on for the last few weeks. I also checked up on Tunisia, thought about the coffee farmers in Nicaragua, checked into international volunteering, talked a bit about latte art and caught myself being asked directly why I don't consider woman's basketball to be a real thing for the first time ever (in theory not in practice). Yet, the nagging thought that wouldn't leave my head when I sat down to my computer this afternoon was WTF Pepsi??? Seriously, what the fuck?
Pepsi has changed their diet Pepsi can to a taller thinner can in "celebration of beautiful confident women." The new cans will be available in March and press releases noted that this cylindrical slender aluminum can is "sassier" then the old boring chubby soda can of the past. On top of everything in the entire world to pressure women into eating disorders, distorted body images and self loathing, Pepsi has to make their diet soda can skinnier. Moreover, this was the second most popular news story according to the Christian Science Monitor, right behind Mubarak refusing to step down.
It's mind boggling.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
WTF O.B. Tampons II
As of Feb. 3rd the website for OB tampons had this to say, "To our valued customers: We are pleased to confirm that o.b.® tampons are increasingly in-stock at more stores nation-wide and several online retailers."
I won't believe it until I see it. Furthermore, seeing as though Johnson and Johnson hasn't explained why the only mainstream non-applicator brand tampons disappeared; I am now going to do everything I can to NOT buy OB tampons.
Between horror stories of Toxic Shock Syndrome, fiberglass in tampons (to hold shape) and all of the other unknowns that make you think about the truth of what may be in the cotton wad you are inserting inside yourself, do you really want to go back to using a product that pulled a Houdini?
Now, there are of course natural alternatives to all kinds of tampons. The Diva Cup is becoming more and more popular and if you are concerned about additives to tampons you could also use sea sponges.
I have been quite happy using Natracare tampons which is the organic version of OB but it seems like now may be the time to continue living without OB and try out the alternatives to all tampons.
Without any explanation or warning about the tampon crisis of 2010-2011, I am certainly not jumping up and spending my money on Johnson and Johnson products. Sorry OB, I learned to live without you.
I won't believe it until I see it. Furthermore, seeing as though Johnson and Johnson hasn't explained why the only mainstream non-applicator brand tampons disappeared; I am now going to do everything I can to NOT buy OB tampons.
Between horror stories of Toxic Shock Syndrome, fiberglass in tampons (to hold shape) and all of the other unknowns that make you think about the truth of what may be in the cotton wad you are inserting inside yourself, do you really want to go back to using a product that pulled a Houdini?
Now, there are of course natural alternatives to all kinds of tampons. The Diva Cup is becoming more and more popular and if you are concerned about additives to tampons you could also use sea sponges.
I have been quite happy using Natracare tampons which is the organic version of OB but it seems like now may be the time to continue living without OB and try out the alternatives to all tampons.
Without any explanation or warning about the tampon crisis of 2010-2011, I am certainly not jumping up and spending my money on Johnson and Johnson products. Sorry OB, I learned to live without you.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Dirty Girls Ministries (or This Hand Ain't Your Hand)
First of all, I am not saying that porn addiction isn't a real thing. What I am saying is that there is huge difference between addiction and self loathing.
Dirty Girls Ministry is an organization founded by 26 year old Crystal Renaud. Renaud claims that she went though her own "porn addiction" and wanted to help other women with similar issues by holding meetings at her local church and on the internet. Renaud also offers treatment for masturbation and lustful thinking. Some members of the discussion forums admit that they view porn or masturbate twice a week or less. They also include romance novels and erotica in this definition of porn addiction.
Bust Magazine reports on the ministry in the Feb/Mar. issue and author Blaire Briody says of DGM founder; "Her ministry is labeled anti-pornography, but it also aims to treat masturbation without porn when it involves lustful thinking".
Renaud uses all the terms that come along with addiction lingo. Terms like "staying clean" for instance or being "sober" is the only way to completely break free from the horrors of this addiction. Her approach includes a 12-week recovery program called No Stones. Renaud starts the recovery off by banning any sort of material that can be determined as pornographic for one week. Then begins 90 days with no sex, no masturbation, no pornography or any TV shows about sex.
"When you stop masturbating, says Renaud, or stop looking at porn, your body actually goes through withdrawal. It's intense."
So, how did Renaud come to be the messiah for women who can't stop masturbating and checking out porn?
First let's back up a bit. The abstinence movement has long been a tool of the religious to deter young people from engaging in sexual intercourse period and we all know how well that works.
If these young people don't have sex until marriage, their purity is intact and their physical chastity has brought them to whatever prize it is that you get when you don't fuck until marriage. If they don't wait until the blissful marriage bedroom...well in that case, they won't use a condom because as the abstinence teacher said condoms don't work and a girl shouldn't ask a guy to wear one unless she's a slut. So the guy does alright in the end and the girl ends up getting pregnant, labeled a whore or a slut and suddenly wonders why her abstinence only sex education didn't include putting a condom on a banana like all the other kids in the school downtown got in there sexual education class. I bring abstinence only education (if you can call that being educated)up because it provides us a look at the mentality of people who seek to erase human sexuality in any context other than procreating. Now, not only are you not suppose to have sex, you aren't suppose to think about it nor simulate it in any manner until you are legally married and in the bed you your husband/wife picked out together and ran by the comforter set with your priest.
Renaud says that she found a dirty magazine of her brothers when she was 10 years old and the male genitalia was so fascinating to her that she began searching for it. Upon hitting puberty she admits that masturbation was added into her porn seeking behavior. Fast forward to age 15 and we find Renaud at a Christian summer camp. She heard a pastor talking about god loving everyone unconditionally regardless of what you do (unless you have an abortion or are gay, I digress). Renaud pledged then and there to end her masturbation and porn habits.
Putting women and pornography together is already a touchy subject as Men are supposed to hide the fact that they view/enjoy pornography and women are supposed to be open and loud about the fact that they don't view and are offended by pornography in all of its icky porn ways. Obviously parts of the above are true, on the whole I think the whole thing is crap. Women are made to feel awful about having any sort of sexual desires or wants to begin with. Now your telling me that women look at and actually masturbate to pornography and it is a viscous addiction that needs to be stopped?
Masturbation is wrong because....wait why???? Christian porn addicts are told that God intended sex to between a man and a women, not a man and himself. Okay....and why is masturbation wrong again? Because of the Porn thing? Well, as Christine O'Donnell stated in that oh so fascinating 1990's MTV video, it is wrong because having lust in your heart is committing adultery and you can't masturbate without lust. Uh. huh. She goes on, "If he already knows what pleases him and he can please himself, then why am I in the picture?"
AH HAH!!!! There it is. Renaud's crusade is against all sexual thought unless they are about your husband. O'Donnell is another women who is against all sexual thought unless it is about your husband (though she's worried more about him not thinking about her apparently).
So let us put a few things into context. The Dirty Girls Ministries is an organization where women who to one extreme are masturbating and watching porn all the time and to the other extreme having (gasp!) dreams about masturbation. So, what is the common thread between the two? GUILT. They all feel guilty. One member of DGM reports "Once, I've actually committed the sin (of porn and masturbation), I find myself feeling such sadness, frustration, disappointment anger and shame." Another states that it makes her feel "sick and unworthy" and another feels isolated and disgusted with herself.
While Renaud is running her DGM, some parts of society are starting to embrace the idea of masturbation, especially when it comes to women. It's a fact that millions of women struggle to reach orgasm during traditional penis/vaginal penetration. Countries like Spain and Britain have launched masturbation positive campaigns or pamphlets. Last year the UN released a report saying that children should learn about masturbation around age 5. Even Oprah, OPRAH has talked about the benefit of female masturbation. Some Doctors have pointed out that masturbation allows women and young girls to take the reins of their own sexuality. No way says Renaud, you can teach children that porn and masturbation exist as long as they don't try it. "It's a very dangerous society that we live in when we're telling women that it is OK to look at porn."
Christine O'Donnell agrees. What if women figure how to pleasure themselves without men?
What if getting married doesn't do anything to curb sexual desires felt by good Christian women who still feel guilty about their sexual fantasies? The women in DGM have the assumption that once a man is involved and they are married, the guilt or temptation to do taboo things will go away, allowing them to have appropriate good Christian women sexual thoughts, as if such a thing exists. If someone is taught that porn and masturbation is a bad thing, it is going to intrigue them more than if they came to the decision on there own and through there own experiences.
Mostly, I think Renaud and the other members of the DGM are lonely. Besides living in a society that tells them good girls don't like anything to do with sex, a lot of them are single and Renaud herself admits that she herself has never had a boyfriend. Maybe it is her lack of real life sexuality that drives her to call reading a romance novel and getting a tingly sensation during a particularly licentious scene "pornography addiction". Her preaching of the so-called 12-step path to salvation may be her way of normalizing the sexual repression that manifests as obsessions to other women who like to pleasure themselves if there isn't anyone else who will do it for them.
For more information on the Dirty Girls Ministry visit there web site here
Dirty Girls Ministry is an organization founded by 26 year old Crystal Renaud. Renaud claims that she went though her own "porn addiction" and wanted to help other women with similar issues by holding meetings at her local church and on the internet. Renaud also offers treatment for masturbation and lustful thinking. Some members of the discussion forums admit that they view porn or masturbate twice a week or less. They also include romance novels and erotica in this definition of porn addiction.
Bust Magazine reports on the ministry in the Feb/Mar. issue and author Blaire Briody says of DGM founder; "Her ministry is labeled anti-pornography, but it also aims to treat masturbation without porn when it involves lustful thinking".
Renaud uses all the terms that come along with addiction lingo. Terms like "staying clean" for instance or being "sober" is the only way to completely break free from the horrors of this addiction. Her approach includes a 12-week recovery program called No Stones. Renaud starts the recovery off by banning any sort of material that can be determined as pornographic for one week. Then begins 90 days with no sex, no masturbation, no pornography or any TV shows about sex.
"When you stop masturbating, says Renaud, or stop looking at porn, your body actually goes through withdrawal. It's intense."
So, how did Renaud come to be the messiah for women who can't stop masturbating and checking out porn?
First let's back up a bit. The abstinence movement has long been a tool of the religious to deter young people from engaging in sexual intercourse period and we all know how well that works.
If these young people don't have sex until marriage, their purity is intact and their physical chastity has brought them to whatever prize it is that you get when you don't fuck until marriage. If they don't wait until the blissful marriage bedroom...well in that case, they won't use a condom because as the abstinence teacher said condoms don't work and a girl shouldn't ask a guy to wear one unless she's a slut. So the guy does alright in the end and the girl ends up getting pregnant, labeled a whore or a slut and suddenly wonders why her abstinence only sex education didn't include putting a condom on a banana like all the other kids in the school downtown got in there sexual education class. I bring abstinence only education (if you can call that being educated)up because it provides us a look at the mentality of people who seek to erase human sexuality in any context other than procreating. Now, not only are you not suppose to have sex, you aren't suppose to think about it nor simulate it in any manner until you are legally married and in the bed you your husband/wife picked out together and ran by the comforter set with your priest.
Renaud says that she found a dirty magazine of her brothers when she was 10 years old and the male genitalia was so fascinating to her that she began searching for it. Upon hitting puberty she admits that masturbation was added into her porn seeking behavior. Fast forward to age 15 and we find Renaud at a Christian summer camp. She heard a pastor talking about god loving everyone unconditionally regardless of what you do (unless you have an abortion or are gay, I digress). Renaud pledged then and there to end her masturbation and porn habits.
Putting women and pornography together is already a touchy subject as Men are supposed to hide the fact that they view/enjoy pornography and women are supposed to be open and loud about the fact that they don't view and are offended by pornography in all of its icky porn ways. Obviously parts of the above are true, on the whole I think the whole thing is crap. Women are made to feel awful about having any sort of sexual desires or wants to begin with. Now your telling me that women look at and actually masturbate to pornography and it is a viscous addiction that needs to be stopped?
Masturbation is wrong because....wait why???? Christian porn addicts are told that God intended sex to between a man and a women, not a man and himself. Okay....and why is masturbation wrong again? Because of the Porn thing? Well, as Christine O'Donnell stated in that oh so fascinating 1990's MTV video, it is wrong because having lust in your heart is committing adultery and you can't masturbate without lust. Uh. huh. She goes on, "If he already knows what pleases him and he can please himself, then why am I in the picture?"
AH HAH!!!! There it is. Renaud's crusade is against all sexual thought unless they are about your husband. O'Donnell is another women who is against all sexual thought unless it is about your husband (though she's worried more about him not thinking about her apparently).
So let us put a few things into context. The Dirty Girls Ministries is an organization where women who to one extreme are masturbating and watching porn all the time and to the other extreme having (gasp!) dreams about masturbation. So, what is the common thread between the two? GUILT. They all feel guilty. One member of DGM reports "Once, I've actually committed the sin (of porn and masturbation), I find myself feeling such sadness, frustration, disappointment anger and shame." Another states that it makes her feel "sick and unworthy" and another feels isolated and disgusted with herself.
While Renaud is running her DGM, some parts of society are starting to embrace the idea of masturbation, especially when it comes to women. It's a fact that millions of women struggle to reach orgasm during traditional penis/vaginal penetration. Countries like Spain and Britain have launched masturbation positive campaigns or pamphlets. Last year the UN released a report saying that children should learn about masturbation around age 5. Even Oprah, OPRAH has talked about the benefit of female masturbation. Some Doctors have pointed out that masturbation allows women and young girls to take the reins of their own sexuality. No way says Renaud, you can teach children that porn and masturbation exist as long as they don't try it. "It's a very dangerous society that we live in when we're telling women that it is OK to look at porn."
Christine O'Donnell agrees. What if women figure how to pleasure themselves without men?
What if getting married doesn't do anything to curb sexual desires felt by good Christian women who still feel guilty about their sexual fantasies? The women in DGM have the assumption that once a man is involved and they are married, the guilt or temptation to do taboo things will go away, allowing them to have appropriate good Christian women sexual thoughts, as if such a thing exists. If someone is taught that porn and masturbation is a bad thing, it is going to intrigue them more than if they came to the decision on there own and through there own experiences.
Mostly, I think Renaud and the other members of the DGM are lonely. Besides living in a society that tells them good girls don't like anything to do with sex, a lot of them are single and Renaud herself admits that she herself has never had a boyfriend. Maybe it is her lack of real life sexuality that drives her to call reading a romance novel and getting a tingly sensation during a particularly licentious scene "pornography addiction". Her preaching of the so-called 12-step path to salvation may be her way of normalizing the sexual repression that manifests as obsessions to other women who like to pleasure themselves if there isn't anyone else who will do it for them.
For more information on the Dirty Girls Ministry visit there web site here
Sunday, January 23, 2011
You got your choice...Part 1
Yesterday marked the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the court decision that the right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th amendment extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion. One stipulation is that that same right must be balanced against the state's two interests for regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting the mother's health.
While this decision is absolutely one to celebrate, even 38 years later, it still leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to women deciding their own reproductive future. Congress in 1976 passed the Hyde Amendment, barring federal funding of abortions (except in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother) for poor women through Medicare. Since poor women may have many children and cannot afford private insurance, this amendment denies those women (who are most likely on medicare) the finances and the choice to avoid having more children they can't afford. This is just one example of the obstacles still in place to prevent women from accessing safe abortions.
The country remains divided on the issue just as fervently as it was in 1973 and prior. Every year, thousands of anti-choice protesters march on the capital in a self proclaimed "March for Life".
In Dallas, Texas they have there own protest rally to mark the anniversary. Here is a quote from the Dallas News.
Kristen Rodriguez, 22, carried a sign for her son Jacob, 5, that read, “My Mom was a teen mom and she chose me.” She considered abortion herself when she got pregnant as a teen but decided against it.
“There are a lot of teen girls who get pregnant and get abortions, then they regret it,” she said.*
There are a lot who don't regret it, but then you don't hear about those women and girls.
Also from the Dallas News is Joe Martin, senior pastor of the Trinity Church in Dallas, sharing his own story. He said he regretted his part in an ex-girlfriend’s decision to get an abortion when he was 21, and shared how his wife also regretted her abortion at age 18. He now opposes the Roe decision.*
If the pro-life movement were about saving lives they wouldn't waste their time preventing women from making their own reproductive choices; they would do something to either prevent teen pregnancy or encourage women to procreate. They would get poor mothers health care or educate women on the importance of contraceptives. Making abortion illegal is akin to condemning countless number of women to death. Even still, the argument that these women regret their decision to have an abortion MEANS THAT THEY HAD A CHOICE!
The disturbing story of Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) starts in Louisiana were she was raised by a violent alcoholic mother after her father left before she was old enough to remember him. She got married at 16 and became pregnant. McCorvey gave birth to her daughter Melissa though she left left her husband after claims of abuse. She became pregnant again the following year and gave the baby up for adoption. When she came out to her mother as being sexually attracted to women, her mother disowned her and took custody of Melissa.
McCorvey became pregnant a third time when she was 21 and was advised by friends to claim she had been raped in order to get an abortion. Since there was no documentation or evidence she could not attain the abortion legally nor did she have the option to have an illegal abortion. She was referred to two lawyers and while it took three years for her case to get to the courts she gave birth for the third time and put the baby up for adoption again.
She is now a staunch pro-life advocate, she was a lesbian but isn't anymore, she was baptized as a Roman Catholic and her mind was changed entirely while staring at a poster in a doctors office. She has even written two books. This women is clearly unstable and has been for a very very long time. Sickeningly, the story ends with the same backwards reasoning that since she regrets wanting an abortion, you shouldn't even have the choice to have one.
While it should be obvious to these individuals that pro-choice means that you are entitled to make your own decision, with individuals and stories like these it is clear that they just don't get it. Anti-choice conservatives cry foul that the government is folded into there back pocket yet they are tethering themselves to my uterus. We live in such a deeply entrenched patriarchal society that anti-choice groups masquerade as protecting the sanctity of life when they have no business telling anyone what to do since they only care about the unborn until they are born.
*quotes are taken from: www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110122-hundreds-march-in-downtown-dallas-to-protest-roe-vs.-wade-decision.ece
While this decision is absolutely one to celebrate, even 38 years later, it still leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to women deciding their own reproductive future. Congress in 1976 passed the Hyde Amendment, barring federal funding of abortions (except in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother) for poor women through Medicare. Since poor women may have many children and cannot afford private insurance, this amendment denies those women (who are most likely on medicare) the finances and the choice to avoid having more children they can't afford. This is just one example of the obstacles still in place to prevent women from accessing safe abortions.
The country remains divided on the issue just as fervently as it was in 1973 and prior. Every year, thousands of anti-choice protesters march on the capital in a self proclaimed "March for Life".
In Dallas, Texas they have there own protest rally to mark the anniversary. Here is a quote from the Dallas News.
Kristen Rodriguez, 22, carried a sign for her son Jacob, 5, that read, “My Mom was a teen mom and she chose me.” She considered abortion herself when she got pregnant as a teen but decided against it.
“There are a lot of teen girls who get pregnant and get abortions, then they regret it,” she said.*
There are a lot who don't regret it, but then you don't hear about those women and girls.
Also from the Dallas News is Joe Martin, senior pastor of the Trinity Church in Dallas, sharing his own story. He said he regretted his part in an ex-girlfriend’s decision to get an abortion when he was 21, and shared how his wife also regretted her abortion at age 18. He now opposes the Roe decision.*
If the pro-life movement were about saving lives they wouldn't waste their time preventing women from making their own reproductive choices; they would do something to either prevent teen pregnancy or encourage women to procreate. They would get poor mothers health care or educate women on the importance of contraceptives. Making abortion illegal is akin to condemning countless number of women to death. Even still, the argument that these women regret their decision to have an abortion MEANS THAT THEY HAD A CHOICE!
The disturbing story of Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) starts in Louisiana were she was raised by a violent alcoholic mother after her father left before she was old enough to remember him. She got married at 16 and became pregnant. McCorvey gave birth to her daughter Melissa though she left left her husband after claims of abuse. She became pregnant again the following year and gave the baby up for adoption. When she came out to her mother as being sexually attracted to women, her mother disowned her and took custody of Melissa.
McCorvey became pregnant a third time when she was 21 and was advised by friends to claim she had been raped in order to get an abortion. Since there was no documentation or evidence she could not attain the abortion legally nor did she have the option to have an illegal abortion. She was referred to two lawyers and while it took three years for her case to get to the courts she gave birth for the third time and put the baby up for adoption again.
She is now a staunch pro-life advocate, she was a lesbian but isn't anymore, she was baptized as a Roman Catholic and her mind was changed entirely while staring at a poster in a doctors office. She has even written two books. This women is clearly unstable and has been for a very very long time. Sickeningly, the story ends with the same backwards reasoning that since she regrets wanting an abortion, you shouldn't even have the choice to have one.
While it should be obvious to these individuals that pro-choice means that you are entitled to make your own decision, with individuals and stories like these it is clear that they just don't get it. Anti-choice conservatives cry foul that the government is folded into there back pocket yet they are tethering themselves to my uterus. We live in such a deeply entrenched patriarchal society that anti-choice groups masquerade as protecting the sanctity of life when they have no business telling anyone what to do since they only care about the unborn until they are born.
*quotes are taken from: www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110122-hundreds-march-in-downtown-dallas-to-protest-roe-vs.-wade-decision.ece
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
WTF o.b. tampons?
I'm not crazy. O.B. tampons disappeared. I noticed that the supply seemed to be shrinking in the last 3-4 months but who knows when stores restock things?
Within the last month I cannot imagine how many women stood in front of the feminine hygiene selection going "Where the fuck are my tampons?" Seeing as though there aren't any other applicator free lines available at your local supermarket or drug store; women were forced to buy tampons with applicators or not buy them at all. As a last resort, I bought the cheapest store brand regular tampons in a box of 10 for $1.99. The following day I proceeded to Cambridge Naturals and bought the more expensive organic brand of applicator free tampons.
The website states that there was a temporary supply disruption causing some stores to run out of tampons. They assure us that they will begin restocking the shelves "very soon."
If you cannot wait you can go bid on the last remaining o.b. tampons now being auctioned off on e-bay.
This is not so much suspicious as it is irritating. I claim no conspiracy or ulterior motive. I just want my tampons back please.
Within the last month I cannot imagine how many women stood in front of the feminine hygiene selection going "Where the fuck are my tampons?" Seeing as though there aren't any other applicator free lines available at your local supermarket or drug store; women were forced to buy tampons with applicators or not buy them at all. As a last resort, I bought the cheapest store brand regular tampons in a box of 10 for $1.99. The following day I proceeded to Cambridge Naturals and bought the more expensive organic brand of applicator free tampons.
The website states that there was a temporary supply disruption causing some stores to run out of tampons. They assure us that they will begin restocking the shelves "very soon."
If you cannot wait you can go bid on the last remaining o.b. tampons now being auctioned off on e-bay.
This is not so much suspicious as it is irritating. I claim no conspiracy or ulterior motive. I just want my tampons back please.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Nicaragua
At this time next week I will have spent my first night in Nicaragua. I have never been out of the country before. I was advised to bring "modest" shorts and that pants are appropriate for "most" occasions. It will be a completely new environment with strangers and strange food and no hospitals and I am incredibly excited. I am also terrified. I get to stay with a family for a few nights and I expect it will be an amazing change of scenery from what I am used to. I will report back on what I discover about women in Nicaragua. And of course coffee.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Power struggle (or If you bite me I'll bite you back)
While flipping through an old issue of Bitch magazine, I came across an article on a topic I have been meaning to write about for a while. I watched the film version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and was immediately interested in exploring the roots of the exploitation film genre, specifically the rape/revenge formula. Are Feminists right to begrudgingly admit that somewhere amongst the graphic violence and disgusting gore there is cultural validity and value?
Rape revenge films are not a recent phenomenon. In 1978, "I Spit of Your Grave" displayed a new type of horror sub genre. Rape revenge or exploitation films became popular in the 70's and 80's. "I Spit on Your Grave" originally called "The Day of the Women," included a brutal gang rape lasting 25 minutes. The movies heroine, Jenifer, goes off to a secluded cabin in nowhere USA in order to write her second novel. She later goes on a killing spree after she is gang raped and proceeds to cut of the penis of one of her attackers, hang another and hacks one to death with an ax. Time magazine listed the flick in its 2007 list of the 10 most ridiculously violent films. This film was redone and rereleased in 2010. The premise is much the same, only the way in which Jenifer kills and mutilates her attackers is altered.
The movie Teeth is a slightly different take on the same genre. A young women has fictional vagina dentata (teeth in her vagina)and the story follows her as her vagina deals out a quick bite of revenge to those that think to do her wrong whilst being inserted inside of her. This film takes a much lighter look at how a women may exact revenge when sexual abused but it fails to note that while the concept is original in the film world the reality of it is that it is all too familiar in the real world. Rapex, now called Rape-aXe (a device that acts as a female toothed condom)is called the "anti-rape condom." Created to deter the high number of rapes in South Africa, rapex marketers advise women wear one "should you have to travel long distances alone, on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don't know that well, going to a clubs or any situation where you might not feel comfortable or even not sure." Women are the ones responsible for preventing rape while the assumption remains that all men are rapist and should be absolved of any responsibility.
So, are rape/revenge plots empowering Feminist material? Not really. Are these films purely misogynistic crap? Not entirely. Is this genre abhorrently violent and difficult to watch? Yes. Is this type of entertainment baseless and without merit at all? No, it isn't.
Obviously it would be easy to go one way or the other. "This is just pretend and we are all desensitized anyway, get over it" or "Violence and torture against women cannot be justified with violence and torture against men even if it is in the name of revenge."
I find both of these options troubling. Rape is a terrible crime. Rapists are one of the lowest forms of life in my opinion and it sickens me that we live in a rape culture where a women can never feel or be completely safe. These films create an acute awareness of what it means to have power versus what it means to be powerless. Our culture is gendered and rape victims are often left without justice or any recognition that they have suffered great indignity. Often rape victims are blamed for provoking attacks by dressing in suggestive clothing or wearing "sexy" clothes.
Without the retribution portrayed in these films one is left to wonder what exactly can a rape victim hope to achieve without seeking their own revenge? On the cover of ISOYG, the print reads: "This women has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition...But no jury in America would convict her." I find it incredibly disturbing that the premise behind rape/revenge mentality is that these women rape victims need to act as violently as their attacker did in order to earn acceptable justice. On the whole men are portrayed as inherent predators who maim and rape at any opportunity. Women need to act like men in order to gain the understanding of the audience. Answering violence with violence. Powerful with powerless.
Lastly I looked at "Descent" a film that came out in 2007. Rosario Dawson stars as Maya a young multi-ethnic college student who is brutally raped by a white college frat boy, Jarred. Maya enters a downward spiral of foggy nightclubbing coke binges and eventually meets a powerful sexy DJ, Adrian. The film touches on what it is to be a women of color in the aftermath of a rape. This film ends with Maya seducing Jarred and sodomizing him after tying him up and blindfolding him. Adrian also rapes Jarred while taunting and degrading him as he did to Maya. The last moment of the film shows a single tear falling from Maya's eyes after Adrian (whilst still raping Jarred) asks her if everything is all right now.
The overarching structure of the rape/revenge genre is power and violence. Who is attacked, how, their race, socio-economic standing, education, age or gender is left up to which film you look at and what if any point lies in telling the same story over and over again expecting a new result.This obsession with normalizing and fixating on retribution and absolution seems to be a factor in the inability to break the cycle of sexual assault and violence. Preventing rape and violence should be target, not giving women victimized by sexual violence empowerment after the fact by watching them act like men.
Here is a list of some other films taking a spin on or fulfilling the traditonal rape/revenge equation.
Straightheads (2007)
Monster (2003)
Baise-Moi (2000)
Hard Candy (2005)
The Brave One (2007)
Rape revenge films are not a recent phenomenon. In 1978, "I Spit of Your Grave" displayed a new type of horror sub genre. Rape revenge or exploitation films became popular in the 70's and 80's. "I Spit on Your Grave" originally called "The Day of the Women," included a brutal gang rape lasting 25 minutes. The movies heroine, Jenifer, goes off to a secluded cabin in nowhere USA in order to write her second novel. She later goes on a killing spree after she is gang raped and proceeds to cut of the penis of one of her attackers, hang another and hacks one to death with an ax. Time magazine listed the flick in its 2007 list of the 10 most ridiculously violent films. This film was redone and rereleased in 2010. The premise is much the same, only the way in which Jenifer kills and mutilates her attackers is altered.
The movie Teeth is a slightly different take on the same genre. A young women has fictional vagina dentata (teeth in her vagina)and the story follows her as her vagina deals out a quick bite of revenge to those that think to do her wrong whilst being inserted inside of her. This film takes a much lighter look at how a women may exact revenge when sexual abused but it fails to note that while the concept is original in the film world the reality of it is that it is all too familiar in the real world. Rapex, now called Rape-aXe (a device that acts as a female toothed condom)is called the "anti-rape condom." Created to deter the high number of rapes in South Africa, rapex marketers advise women wear one "should you have to travel long distances alone, on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don't know that well, going to a clubs or any situation where you might not feel comfortable or even not sure." Women are the ones responsible for preventing rape while the assumption remains that all men are rapist and should be absolved of any responsibility.
So, are rape/revenge plots empowering Feminist material? Not really. Are these films purely misogynistic crap? Not entirely. Is this genre abhorrently violent and difficult to watch? Yes. Is this type of entertainment baseless and without merit at all? No, it isn't.
Obviously it would be easy to go one way or the other. "This is just pretend and we are all desensitized anyway, get over it" or "Violence and torture against women cannot be justified with violence and torture against men even if it is in the name of revenge."
I find both of these options troubling. Rape is a terrible crime. Rapists are one of the lowest forms of life in my opinion and it sickens me that we live in a rape culture where a women can never feel or be completely safe. These films create an acute awareness of what it means to have power versus what it means to be powerless. Our culture is gendered and rape victims are often left without justice or any recognition that they have suffered great indignity. Often rape victims are blamed for provoking attacks by dressing in suggestive clothing or wearing "sexy" clothes.
Without the retribution portrayed in these films one is left to wonder what exactly can a rape victim hope to achieve without seeking their own revenge? On the cover of ISOYG, the print reads: "This women has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition...But no jury in America would convict her." I find it incredibly disturbing that the premise behind rape/revenge mentality is that these women rape victims need to act as violently as their attacker did in order to earn acceptable justice. On the whole men are portrayed as inherent predators who maim and rape at any opportunity. Women need to act like men in order to gain the understanding of the audience. Answering violence with violence. Powerful with powerless.
Lastly I looked at "Descent" a film that came out in 2007. Rosario Dawson stars as Maya a young multi-ethnic college student who is brutally raped by a white college frat boy, Jarred. Maya enters a downward spiral of foggy nightclubbing coke binges and eventually meets a powerful sexy DJ, Adrian. The film touches on what it is to be a women of color in the aftermath of a rape. This film ends with Maya seducing Jarred and sodomizing him after tying him up and blindfolding him. Adrian also rapes Jarred while taunting and degrading him as he did to Maya. The last moment of the film shows a single tear falling from Maya's eyes after Adrian (whilst still raping Jarred) asks her if everything is all right now.
The overarching structure of the rape/revenge genre is power and violence. Who is attacked, how, their race, socio-economic standing, education, age or gender is left up to which film you look at and what if any point lies in telling the same story over and over again expecting a new result.This obsession with normalizing and fixating on retribution and absolution seems to be a factor in the inability to break the cycle of sexual assault and violence. Preventing rape and violence should be target, not giving women victimized by sexual violence empowerment after the fact by watching them act like men.
Here is a list of some other films taking a spin on or fulfilling the traditonal rape/revenge equation.
Straightheads (2007)
Monster (2003)
Baise-Moi (2000)
Hard Candy (2005)
The Brave One (2007)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
All I want for Christmas...Part I.
Giving gifts can be difficult. Giving responsible gifts can be really difficult. While there are many options for giving environmentally friendly and fair trade gifts, especially within the last few years; I am having a hard time coming up with gifts for Feminists.
I am not talking about a t-shirt with the ever popular "If I had a hammer...(I'd smash patriarchy") or "Pro-choice not Pro Abortion" scrawled across the chest. I want more than "The Second Sex" and a poster with a clenched fist. Don't get me wrong, there are options to purchase products that have something to do with improving the lives of women through one avenue or the other and often donations made to a cause that's pro-women can do good in a tangible manner. I have looked through web sites like Bitch or Bust magazine and they do have merchandise (mugs, t-shirts and hats) which make for a decent stocking stuffer for your favorite Feminist.
I am on the look out for the perfect Feminist gift(s). Stay tuned for detail about what I can find.
I am not talking about a t-shirt with the ever popular "If I had a hammer...(I'd smash patriarchy") or "Pro-choice not Pro Abortion" scrawled across the chest. I want more than "The Second Sex" and a poster with a clenched fist. Don't get me wrong, there are options to purchase products that have something to do with improving the lives of women through one avenue or the other and often donations made to a cause that's pro-women can do good in a tangible manner. I have looked through web sites like Bitch or Bust magazine and they do have merchandise (mugs, t-shirts and hats) which make for a decent stocking stuffer for your favorite Feminist.
I am on the look out for the perfect Feminist gift(s). Stay tuned for detail about what I can find.
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