Entries from December 2006
The comments section of one of Twisty’s posts festered into a pile of vile crap. Several bloggers have been discussing this. Many people have rightly condemned the hateful things said in that thread.
This is not a post about radical feminists versus transpeople. I can’t go there yet. My purpose here is to beg all of you to walk your talk. It is not possible to advocate for the humanity of one group of people by denying the humanity of another group. In fact, that exact sentiment was expressed repeatedly by people who were objecting to Twisty’s commenters. In one of the attacks on Twisty’s blog, someone equated a transperson with a “nutjob”. Yet the same types of slurs showed up on the blogs of people condemning Twisty and her commenters. Here’s an example:
“I wish you weren’t a crazy-ass, so I could listen to you.”
The slurs against those with mental illness weren’t that frequent, given the number of comments. But they were there, and what broke my heart is that I never saw a single comment objecting to them. You know, when you throw around words about mental illness, like crazy, psycho or psychotic, frootbat, and nutjob, you’re mocking disability. You’re spitting in the face of everyone who suffers from a mental illness. You’re equating horrible behavior with mental illness. Stop it.
Do people care about doing more than paying lip service to respecting the rights of disabled people? I really don’t know. I was feeling isolated enough before reading those blogs.
Comments: Please remember, this is about disablism, not about the original conflict.
Categories: mental illness
An intimate gathering of radical feminists
May 25-28, 2007
The Radical-Feminist Lesbian Festival is a lesbian festival open to all radical feminist womyn (lesbian, straight, bi,undeclared, other). If you know that men are waging a war against women and that rape, battering, incest, pornography, and prostitution are some of the main instruments of male supremacy; and you’re unalterably opposed to all forms of domination and oppression, you share our radical feminist beliefs. This festival is designed to bring together womyn who share these beliefs for sustenance, support, encouragement, and plotting and scheming about the overthrow of patriarchy. See FAQ for more details.
Categories: radical feminsim
So far, I’ve deleted two comments from my post on the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. Both commenters explained to me that sometimes women lie about rape, and that this hurts everyone! Rape is the only crime in which the victim is immediately viewed suspiciously. No one asks if a man who is robbed brought the robbery on himself.
Misogynists insist that they know better than I do. They insist that you just can’t trust a rape victim. I wonder if they will maintain that attitude when the rape victims are male?
Houston: A rapist targeting young men in a Texas refinery town has struck at least five times since April, stalking each victim in advance to make sure he’s home alone.
Is anyone asking if the men who were attacked wore tight pants (which would cause the rapist to lose control over himself)? Is anyone asking if the men locked their doors, or if they encouraged the rapist in any way? Is anyone insisting that the men who were attacked weren’t really raped? I hope not. These questions are disgusting, and no one who survives a rape should have to hear them. But women hear these remarks all the time.
Women who have been raped are often reluctant to come forward for fear of being ostracised or victimised again; for men those feelings can be even more amplified, police say.
In the Baytown attacks, police suspect even more young men have been assaulted, but they are ashamed to come forward. Some of the five known victims told police about the attacks after initially reporting a robbery, Clifford said.
“When you’re talking about the humiliation of being dominated and threatened with your life to perform sexual acts, it’s understandable.”
So men suffer more from rape than women do? I don’t think so. I don’t see men being treated as if they “asked for it”. What a shame we can’t support all people who’ve endured being raped. What a shame that gender has such a big role to play in how rape survivors are treated.
Going to leave an ignorant and/or offensive comment? Don’t bother, I’ll delete it.
Categories: rape
Bumble wishes everyone a peaceful and happy Christmas.
Categories: Monday Bunny Blogging
This morning, I read Yolanda’s post in which she broke the news that the DA’s office is dropping the rape charges. You’ll recall that this case involves white boys on Duke’s lacrosse team who were accused of rape and false imprisonment of an African American woman.
J informs me that sports programs are all over this news, worried about how the poor boys who were “falsely accused” will ever be able to recover. It doesn’t seem to matter that the sexual assault and kidnapping charges still stand.
The racism in this case is overwhelming. The sexism is so standard that I want to scream. If you think the fact that the woman worked as a stripper is relevant, you’re a sexist. If you think it’s irrelevant that the woman who was assaulted was African American and the boys who attacked her were white, you’re not only a racist, you’re a fool. If you immediately disbelieve a woman who says she’s been raped, you’re a waste of human tissue.
Categories: racism · rape · sexism
Does anyone know if BB is alright?
Categories: Uncategorized
The hay drawer has been removed. Bumble is standing where the hay existed just seconds before!
Categories: Monday Bunny Blogging
Here’s a perfect example of what happens once you’re given the label “mentally ill”:
Look at the difference between the psychiatric definition (#4) and every other definition. Generally, using a neologism is a creative use of language, which is a good thing. But for those labeled mentally ill, a neologism is a nonsense word-it’s meaningless. Why? Well, because once you’re mentally ill, everything you have to say is at best, suspect, and at worst, absurd.
It doesn’t matter that many mental disorders are cyclical. Even when you’re doing well, you’re still stigmatized. I wrote about my gallbladder surgery recently. Once the gastroenterologist reviewed my history and saw “lithium”, his manner changed. He did the physical exam and informed my that my gallbladder felt fine (the test results and the surgeon disagreed), and that it would be difficult to sedate me for the endoscopy he ordered (it wasn’t). He even said I’d be so difficult to sedate that I might be awake during the entire procedure (which included 8 biopsies).
Anyone else out there terrified of medical procedures? I am, and the buildup of anxiety (I also have an anxiety disorder!) before my endoscopy was terrible. What actually happened? I remember watching him inject the drugs, then a nurse telling me I needed to wake up so I could go home.
When the nurse was prepping me, and Dr. Bigot hadn’t arrived yet, I confided that I was scared of being awake during the endoscopy. The nurse said “Oh, honey, if you ever give signs that you’re not fully sedated, we just give you more drugs. We don’t want you to be awake during something like this!”
I guess she hadn’t seen “lithium” on my chart.
Categories: mental illness
Yes, it’s counterproductive to do a blog post asking for help when the problem is that most people can’t comment on my blog anymore.
If you know how to fix the problem, but can’t comment, please email me: spotted_ele@hotmail.com
I hate Blogger. Thought I’d switch to wordpress, but can’t pay for the hosting thingy, and frankly am not up for anything complicated right now.
Update: Brownfemipower told me about the free blogs at WordPress!
Categories: help
