Paging 'S'

Dear S,

So much more...than this...



fitter, healthier and more productive
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics




Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning.



I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent

This is my final fit, my final bellyache

Love A

Blogging for Choice: A Confession - How I went from being "Pro-Life" to "Pro-choice"

For my friend K, because you opened my eyes.



About seven years ago, I was ambivalent about 'abortion', I wasn't pro-choice you could say. At one point I even made it a point to declare that I would never abort my fetus even if it had been born anencephalic. Weird you say? No, it's the truth, this is how I felt at the time - in my early twenties.

In fact despite being agnostic, I felt that it was 'morally wrong' to kill 'potential life'. Of course the only person's life I didn't think about was the woman's.

I became a "feminist" before I became pro-choice, yes, you heard me correctly - I became a "feminist" before I became pro-choice, or at least I thought I was a feminist. I kept this hidden, to myself and never mentioned it in public (until today for the first time) - of course I didn't want to be ostracized by other feminists. In fact, you could say I even hid behind the whole "I would never do it - but if other women do it - it's okay" lie. You know the game where you assume "you're the centre of righteousness" and everyone else who does something differently is a dumb ass.

The truth was I didn't really know what 'pro-choice' meant. I just assumed it was a way for women to get 'rid' of 'babies'. As though women who did this did so because they were stupid, ignorant, selfish, heartless, vain about their figures, promiscuous without worrying about the consequences or were a combination of all of these things. Of course, I was none of those things - but 'these other women' supposedly were.

So how did I become pro-choice? I listened, I thought it over, I realized I wasn't being much of a feminist either - because if I was I would understand that only individual women can decide whether they can have a child or not at the right point in their life.

After some time I understood what it meant to be pro-choice, I understood that it was only the individual woman who knew what her circumstances were. There are many questions that no one can answer for a woman who is pregnant (or for that matter any questions that women need to answer for anyone else!), women's lives are too complicated as it is and many things effect their decision about continuing with a pregnancy:
- are they financially stable
- do they have a partner they want to conceive with (do they even want a partner)
- do they already have several children
- are they currently studying
- are they working
- are they in an abusive relationship (pregnant women experience the highest rate of DV)
- do they have supportive parents
- will they face ostracism from the community they live in (you know the word 'slut' only works one way really)
- will they be able to provide a stable and loving environment for their children (there are many children who need adoption already!)
- are they medically incapable/ will it harm them to have a baby/ will it harm the baby (if it's going to harm the baby - will this woman have the ability/finances/support to take care of a disabled child?)
- did their partner threaten to leave them/already left them
- is it just the wrong time in this woman's life?
- do they just not want a child (why should someone be forced to bear a child if they don't want one? - childbirth should be a joy - not torture!)

All these things came crashing down on me - and I realized I wasn't being much of a feminist at all if I couldn't trust WOMEN to make their own decisions for themselves. In fact I moved away from an ANTI-WOMAN PRO-LIFE rhetoric towards a WOMAN-CENTRED view.

Recently, however, my feminist principles took on a new challenge. A wonderful and dear friend of mine discovered she was pregnant. I have known this woman since she was a pre-teen, sometimes I think I feel a little protective of her - because she is much younger than I am. This woman like myself is a woman of colour, she is and has often been in and out of social assistance programs (as has her family), she also does not have a high-school diploma despite her extreme brightness, she comes from an abusive home and her boyfriend is an utter loser.

My friend came to me for advice about what she should do about this pregnancy because despite the odds and the challenges she really wanted to carry on with the pregnancy and NO ONE supported her in this decision. I cried many times that night, I cried for her education, I cried because I loved her, I cried for her future, I cried about her abusive family, her poverty, her lack of employable skills, her youth - I convinced myself that this woman did not know what she was talking about.

And then it hit me like a tonne of bricks, I was not adhering to a woman centred analysis, in fact I wanted my friend to have an abortion and it was for all the same classist/racist and anti-feminist reasons that I became pro-choice in the first place. My friend came to me because she loved me, because she trusted me, because everyone else had told her not to have the baby - she came to me for advice because she knew I was a feminist and had told her "that I love women".

With much pain, I did the right thing, I told her how I felt about her having a child at this stage in her life - but I also told her that only she knew what was right for her and that I would support her in whatever decision she wanted.

Her family is still not supportive, she's still in poverty, she still doesn't have a degree (BUT she's working on that - I wouldn't let that one slide!!!), she still has a dead-beat, unfaithful boyfriend - but you know what? My friend is also very happy with her decision, she also gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl I know (who've I've already offered to get some feminist books for!).

So what have I learned over the years? Pro-choice means being there for women, knowing that YOU do not live a woman's life for her, that you can't possibly experience/live her pain to know what she is going through. Pro-choice also means providing sustainable solutions for women so that if they choose to have/not have children they have OPTIONS such as universal daycare, health care, education, scholarships, housing, meaningful employment. Like everything else about women's lives - CHOICE does not operate in a vacuum separate from other decisions/realities of women's lives.

Blogging against White Supremacy: A hodge podge of sorts

I really wanted to post something about "blogging against white supremacy" earlier- but have been a little busy, and I've also been debating about what to blog about, considering how wonderful the posts at Yolanda's and elsewhere have been, I just didn't know what to contribute. Anyways, today is a good a day as any to post about this, last time I checked white supremacy was still rearing it's ugly head all over the place.

Originally, I wanted to post about my experiences with racism in "La Belle Province", Quebec, in response to this report in which 59% of Quebecers proudly declare that they are racist (report coincidentally released on MLK's 78th Birthday). It's one thing to say 'everyone is slightly racist', it's another to declare that you are one. Considering that I lived for more than a few years in a small predominantly anglophone town in Quebec, i thought my experiences would be timely for both blogging purposes and as a response to the report.

But, alas, the heavy hand of Germaine Greer has incited me to blog about something I never thought I would blog about - "Bollywood" (or in this case a Bollywood celebrity). I am specifically using the Shilpa Shetty example because a) it's a micro-level analysis that has macro-level implications and vice-versa b) because it's timely c) I was already gonna post about white-supremacy.

I must also first explain why I dislike Bollywood by linking to an excellent "How to read Bollywood" guide here. This is a fabulous resource and if anyone has a similar "Hollywood Literacy guide" site available please post it in the comments.

On with the show:

So this horrible show called "Big Brother" has this huge cast of washed up has-beens, and amongst this list is actually, quite oddly - a not so washed up, not has-been, Shilpa Shetty. You see, even before Shilpa Shetty vocalized her experiences with racism on the set of Big Brother, I was really scratching my head why an A-list Bollywood celebrity (and that too, someone as glamorous as Shetty) would even want to participate in a reality show of all things. It's like putting Julia Roberts or Charlize Theron on Big Brother, it just doesn't make sense.

But then of course neither of those two would ever subject themselves to such humiliation for a measily $600K, whereas in Rs. that's quite a lot. Also, as Indian fetish rises in the "West" someone like Shetty might use this as a 'launching pad of sorts' for a non-bollywood career - as she points out here.

Granted Shetty is kind of full of herself, but seriously which A-list celebrity isn't? But when someone, who I'm starting to believe has it out for "Pakis", Germaine Greer really ought to reconsider what she says here before she goes around peddling the idea that "Shetty brought this upon herself", get this - by being "annoying". Read, "annoying" means 'not being able to come up with actual reasons why Shetty is being hated". Can't fathom why Britons would treat Ms. Shetty as a second-class citizen Ms. Greer???? Here's a clue - could it be about White Supremacy and the feelings of entitlement facilitated by being a co-conspiring imperialist nation, maybe?

So this is where my post is going to get 'messy' because my thoughts are all over the place and I'm really just going to have to put them in point form.

What is "white supremacy," really?

Well, let's say as a general rule it's feeling a sense of superiority to POC and therefore that you as a white PERSON (male or female) deserve more than people of colour. How does white supremacy manifest itself?

At the Macro-level:
- in trade policies
- free trade agreements
- "development" strategies (including 'population control', 'pollution control' strategies only enforced on developing nations)
- immigration laws
- deportation laws
- barriers to education
- geopolitical divisions both externally and within White Imperialist Countries, aka 'the West'
- 'cultural' imperialism and that includeth the sacared TV (we the enlightened west and you are the backwards 'rest')
- allocation of resources
- distribution of wealth and a global economic system of domination that does not factor in colonial asset accumulation (both externally and internally)
- labour laws both externally and internally (if women are the sex class, POC - all POC, are the 'service class')
- entitlement to the natural resources of POC lands (externally and internally)
- brute force (torture and violence)
- exoticization/devaluation of POC cultures
- 'ownership' and 'objectification' of POC bodies (from the slave trade to sex trafficking, slave trafficking, use of illegal immigrant labour)
- technocracy
- delusions of meritocracy
- militarism
- the legacy of colonialism and it's newer manifestations of 'imperialism'
etc....

At the micro-level white supremacy manifests itself as (and this is where I draw in the Shetty fiasco):

A: By the Supremacist: (To get the full weight of the interactions of the BB household, take a look at the youtube vids in which Shetty stars)
- Reaping the benefits of all of the above
- insert a tonne of psycho-social benefits as well.
- entitlement to harass, intimidate and ridicule a WOC because she is 'below you'. (would the primarily white women of the BB house harass and intimidate a MOC in the same way?)
- always questioning the other vs. learning about/from the other, believing mainstream sources of information vs. POC lived experience.
- identifying individual POC's strictly on the basis of their 'race' vs. their individuality. (for ex; in one episode one woman says she won't be giving a present to the "Indian" - as though Shetty doesn't have a name)
- believing and acting on the ideologies that POC are backward culturally and financially, therefore they should be eternally indebted to white people for whatever they recieve (Shetty claims someone in BB told her 'to go back to the slums').
- accepting POC labour as a 'given' AND ridiculing POC at their 'inability' to 'properly' perform such labour. (a cooking example follows below). Because POC labour is 'worth less' than 'hardworking white people's labour'.
- treating POC's needs as invisible.
- Claiming cultural 'relativism' when things are and often should be about simple human decency, an example follows below. (POC seldom do this without 'legitimate' reason).
-etc...

B: On the POC (and yes, there are many similarities here with other oppressed peoples and of course WOMEN as a group): In this short 1:43 seconds Shetty unintentionally says everything and more (Edited to add: this video was intended as a promotional video to introduce the UK audience to the BB cast, but the funny thing is - it entails a lot of forsight on Shetty's part)..


- feelings of always having to work a lot harder to prove the samething that a white person has accomplished. Shetty says so when she says, "Even if I was a maid-servant I'd want to be the best one". Before you say "that could be any individual", contextualize this into the fact that she says so FOR the BB audience, not for an Indian one.
- carrying the weight of your entire race with you - because you are not an individual you are your race. Shetty again says "I'm representing Indian culture". Um, last I checked there were over 2 million South Asians in the UK (the largest population of south asians diaspora), haven't they already done enough representing? No - cause our 'work is never done'.
- the above leads into having to qualify the behaviours of your less than 'perfect' counterparts. Like why do 'pakis' breed so much, why do they bargain for cheaper shoes, why do they eat/sit/drink/shit/clean their shit/talk the way they do?
- Comparing yourself to the "STANDARD" i.e the white standard, because you know like White people are normal. Shetty says so when she has to 'identify with whiteness' - i.e. "I'm like the Angelina Jolie of Bollywood", you can see the clear look of discomfort as she winces when she says that too, but tries to laugh it off.
(I know someone out there is going to say - well, it's only because everyone, knows who Angelina Jolie is - and of course I would say - "why does everyone know who Angelina Jolie is?").
- Having to consistently prove your credentials. Shetty talks about how special she is and how she has an entourage - cause it's almost as if she KNOWS that being in a household with a bunch of washed up white folk who are half as good looking as you, means you're going to be treated like trash.
- Wanting a piece of the pie. Really, is there anything wrong with this? No.
- Showcasing your culture and trying to get rid of derogatory stereotypes. In one episode Shetty cooks (her service) some Indian 'curry' for the house. After one woman gets 'grossed' out by it (rule #1: eat the curry - don't live with the curry-maker) - Shetty is hurt and tries to talk it over with a friend. Of course his advice is "You're a world apart"... Shetty realizes that asking for 'equal rights' is asking for too much.

Oddly enough Greer acts like the the 'grossed out' white woman at Shetty's cooking because supposedly "Shilpa likes to be seen cooking. She looks utterly virtuous while she is doing it,". You know cause Germaine - women are always 'virtuous' when they are in domestic servitude - right?... I guess the mommy wars are over now, dang those Filipina nannies are just going to have to get "real jobs" now.

This list can go on and on....

To further her argument, Greer does a huge disservice to all feminists, she pulls out the biggest faux-pas, the 'sex-class' trumps the 'service-class' card: " But it's a funny old world, to be sure. You can call her a "dog". Sexism is fine. What you mustn't do is call her a "Paki". As if to be Pakistani was to be worse than being a dog. Our very tenderness on this issue is the flip side of racism, and still part of the same coin."

If I haven't said it before - I'll say it now: I can't peel away the skin off my genitals. So there it is - when people call Shetty 'a dog' it's only because she's a WOC, not because 'she's being insulted as a woman' but because she is being insulted as a WOC. Explicitly they could have called 'Shetty' a "Paki-dog", would that have been clearer to you Ms. Greer? And how do you not get that saying "Paki" is almost like saying the "n-word"? It's not the same as saying "aussie" anyday. Or do you not see how the "n-word" is offensive when used to refer to a colonized peoples?

This isn't the first time Ms. Greer's had it out for the "Pakis", she once accused Monica Ali of being too much of a 'half-breed' to "authentically" (whatever that means) write about the experiences of the Bangladeshi diaspora.

It's fine when Memoirs of a Geisha (written by a white american guy 'who on a whim can channel his inner Japanese Geisha') sells a zillion copies and re-sells it again in movie-form, but all hell breaks loose when a WOC writes about anything - she must be put in her place, who is she to take ownership of speaking on behalf of the experiences of other WOC? What could she possibly know?

See Ms. Greer, no WOC needs lessons from you on how to 'identify' racism, we know very well what it is - and you as a WHITE FEMINIST (TM) just really ought to be the one taking notes for fuck sakes. Now go on and write for a bunch of pornstubating mantellectuals at Penthouse please. Or better yet, you could continue with taking photos to facilitate a paedophile's wet-dream, like you did in volume 1. You know cuz, taking half-nekkid photos of young boys is really like turning tables on the menz. *rolls eyes*.

The long-standing tradition of how WOC are never believed about anything continues (Greer's example is just a tiny little micron of it), ironically the one thing that is consistent between the Duke rape case, Greer's vision of Shetty and Mineko Iwasaki (the woman 'behind' Memoirs of a Geisha), is the predominant belief that the only reason WOC ever say anything is because they're really the 'vilest of whores' who can be 'bought off' with a quick payment because really that's their main aspiration. Cause you know when we say something - it's only for 'the attention' or the money and therefore our concerns are not 'as legitimate'.

More than 30,000 people have written to Channel 4 complaining about racism, Tony Blair and the Indian parliament have weighed in on this but Germaine Greer sees it fit to 'blame the victim'. The truth is - if white supremacy exposes itself at the micro-level to someone as 'important' as Shetty - how can England keep perpetuating illusions of multi-cultural 'meritocracy' and still reap the rewards of POC labour at the macro-level.

This 'Paki' is out for now, Shubhratri Greer Memsahib.

On Bitches, Dog-Training and Keeping your Girlfriend in-line

UPDATE 3: I got a message in my email account today saying that someone replied to my message on the youtube thread - (about keeping your girlfriend in-line). I also posted the passage from the community guidelines. Hurrah - thanks for flagging it everyone! This is the comment that appears instead of that video now!

Yippers :)

So the first video is gone!!!

UPDATE 4: Zooey noticed the video is available---I checked and there are two more copies of that first video (the original link has been taken down). I don't want the two videos on my blog. I am taking them off - but feel free to keep commeting on the videos and also flag them. I am keeping the links on here. Thank you.

Original post:

Well.... Look no further than youtube for rampant misogyny. This is a brand new video. I didn't expect to post something so quickly, I was searching for a video for this song and this (among other misogynistic videos) came up. The song was "Yours to keep" (yes, the virgin mobile song) and instead this came up. This video has only had 100 views, but can everyone please join me in flagging this as inappropriate and or trying to get this removed. Just register with youtube, and flag it. (trigger warning).

UPDATE 2: This is from the Youtube Community Guidelines:
We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech which contains slurs or the malicious use of stereotypes intended to attack or demean a particular gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or nationality

The only way, from what I understand, for a video to be removed is for people to "flag the video as inappropriate" and at some point someone will 'view it for consideration'. I suggest - logging in and posting comments. Please do this if you get a chance. Youtube terms of use. I tried to post comments again today - and they aren't posting for some reason. Does anyone know why?

This is so hate-filled and vomit-inducing I can't get my head around it.

VIDEO HERE!

Okay, I was wrong - this wasn't the only video - this one is about 'how to score anal sex with your girlfriend'. This one is actually quite popular. It's basically a rape-training video.

SECOND VIDEO HERE.

Now that youtube is worth over 1.6 billion dollars, does anyone know what the regulations are for posting vids? when is something offensive?

What the hell.

I posted this comment on youtube, but I don't see it. Note, if you are posting comments on youtube - the maximum word count is 500 characters:

This video promotes misogyny. It relies on the stereotypes that 1) women are dogs 2) Should be roughed up in order to be 'trained' 3) are vacuous gold-diggers

Domestic violence, and rape statistics aren't just made out of thin air.
Men, you too need to speak out against this video:
http://www. rapeis. org/activism/prevention/menagainstrape.html
PLEASE REMOVE THIS VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE.

I posted this message on the second one, but I can't seem to post either message. It keeps on asking me to confirm my email address - and then I confirm it - but nothing is happening.

Is beating a woman into submission getting her to have anal sex with you? Or is it rape and assault? 1 woman in North America is raped every 30 seconds. 80% of rapes happen by acquaintances. PLEASE REMOVE THIS VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE. SPEAK OUT AGAINST MALE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. That means men too: http://www. rapeis. org/activism/prevention/menagainstrape.html

UPDATE: I don't know how this youtube thing works - is there any likelihood that these videos have a chance of being permanently removed from youtube? If it is pointless for me to post these videos here - then I will remove them asap.

On temporary e-hiatus

I'm just really busy with stuff, I have compiled at least three posts - but I realized I end up spending more time researching for articles than I do posting. I think I find the former way more fun (reading blogs - than writing one!). Like I spent over 4 hours reading about that new show 'little mosque on the prairie', only 30 mins to watch it, and then realized I have about 17 word-doc pages about the damn show - no way I could blog that! So, I'm going to wait until I see one more episode for my take on the show. I don't know how people blog everyday... it's really quite incredible when you think about it. Actually, I don't know how journalists write everyday either - I figure a good estimation for 'research to writing' is like 5 hours of research for every one page... I don't know, it's a marker I came up with off the top of my head - but it sounds about right.

So much to write about, to talk about, to read about, to learn - and really - so little time and so many obligations.

Taking an e-break. Checking out some lectures, watching some movies, getting done some thesis work...
Toodles and have a lovely weekend!

PS-My co-blogger, Bharatiyawadi is busy with his comps - so he won't be around till mid-februaryish... or so. He's also struggling with what to write here too.

:)

This post will be obliterated in less than 24 hours.

Decided against obliterating the entire post, the article is still worth reading.

Read Richard Leader's piece (link adonis mirror) on 'Kill your blog'... bit of truth to it, no? Not saying I'm killing my blog - just saying... get, get, get get over it!

From the article:

While the dynamics are complex, the definition is not: a blogroll is simply a long list of hyperlinks to other blogs, sometimes those that are similar in nature to one’s own and sometimes not. These lists form webs of association and are often created opportunistically, in that the goal is sometimes as much to win reciprocal links in the blogrolls of others (hopefully those more famous than one’s own) as it is for the more mundane reason for the blogroll’s existence: a way for the creator of a blog to conveniently keep tabs on the other blogs he or she reads; that is, a personalized centralization of utility.

Obviously - I don't agree with everything he says - but I would say - criticism of 'blogging allegiances' is warranted here.

Not even a slap on the wrist for Joe boy afterall....

How do you take back a slap on the wrist? Okay, I'm not even going to bother typing out incoherent ramblings in a state of major pissed-offedness. Forget it....

Most charges against adult video series Girls Gone Wild producer dropped
January 04, 2007


PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A judge dropped many felony charges against the producer of the popular adult video series Girls Gone Wilds on Thursday, citing a lack of evidence to support the charges involving the filming of young girls at spring break on a Florida beach.

Only four felony charges and two misdemeanour counts remain in the 2003 case in which Joe Francis, the creator of the soft porn video empire, was charged with more than 40 criminal offences.

Prosecutors dropped much of their case against Francis and his company, Mantra Films, Inc., in early December after Circuit Judge Dedee Costello suppressed hundreds of hours of videotape seized from Francis' condominiums and private jet. Costello said authorities had improperly obtained search warrants.

"We are very pleased that the judge has dismissed the vast majority of the counts," Larry Simpson, a lawyer for Francis, said Thursday.

The remaining felony counts, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, charge Francis with using minors in sexual performances and conspiring to use minors in sexual performances. The two misdemeanour counts allege prostitution.

In her ruling, Costello said she did not dismiss the remaining felony charges because prosecutors have said a photographer and a cameraman might testify at the trial about the filming of the two 17-year-olds.

But Costello gave defence lawyers until Jan. 31 to file additional motions to dismiss the remaining charges.
"We continue to believe the entire case should be dismissed and we will be filing additional motions seeking the dismissal," Simpson said.

Read more on the link... I can't digest this at the moment. I can only wish him a very painful and torturous death.

"Racialized Anger"

I am smitten with Zooeylive!!!! You've gotta read this.

Post your comments directly at Zooeylive's blog. Hurrah!

UPDATE: Have you seen this short film yet? I think it's befitting taking into consideration some of the comments that Zooeylive has on her post.

It's a 12 min film - "all ya 'efnik' ppl" will relate. Most of you "non-efnik" UKers will too - cause it's made in the UK.

Watch it - it's hysterical!

Holly Bolly! By Dishad Husain. 2004. London.

Note: gender representation is biased, but overall a hysterical 12 mins.

Also for anyone visiting this blog - check out the new posts at reSisterance. The last three are especially good, link is in the blogroll!

"Of Cultural Appropriation and White Feminists"

I am cheating here because this is such a good post that it is worth repeating and distributing, plus there is no way I could ever write/analyze something so critically and honestly:

diaries of an eccentric nerd athaba hijibiji discusses: "Of Cultural Appropriation and White Feminists"

Just a delicious morsel of the article, so you get a taste:

a) If you are working on a cultural or literary tradition, please make sure that you know about it in all its possible complexities before you begin to work on it or pass authoritative judgements on it.

b) Learn to give other cultures their proper rights of ownership.

c)Please remember that we do not need a clueless white woman like you to prove the relevance of our literary works or to provide their feminist re-interpretations. We have already accomplished those tasks ourselves.

Especially worth reading is the discussion that follows.

If I was to add to this, I would say this is not just relevant to 'literary works' but also anything of 'another culture' that you relay on your blog which you do not 'fully understand' or view in it's myriad complexities and connectivities. This is why "Burqa-gate" was such a complex fiasco.

Comments are off, because you can comment directly on the writer's blog, which I am sure she would appreciate.

BTW: HAPPY NEW YEAR AND EID MUBARRAK!!!