Question #152: If not now – WHEN?
March 22, 2013
I heard this question asked twice in one day, from two different people, about two different issues.
I think it’s the crux of it all – the question we must seriously ponder and decide when we ‘cross the line’.
Is there a line?
There has been a growing voice emerging and gradually escalating – standing up for the preservation of some basic, bloody principles. Fundamentals.
But there also seems to be a surge in bad, malicious, callous behaviour that’s infecting our culture – like bad apples rotting the barrel.
I don’t know…is it a backlash?
If we look at the current, abhorrent issue of the rape culture we now seem to inhabit, then we need look no further than the Steubenville rape case in the States. *Trigger Warning*
Why this case? Because it’s the first biggie since India. This was the test to see if we changed – even a bit.
We failed. In fact, I feel like we regressed.
The two boys on trial were found guilty of rape – one will serve a minimum of one year and the other, two (an extra year for taking nude photos of a minor and circulating them).
The discussion has been fierce on both sides – but I have to say that I am quite dumbfounded at the reactions to this case.
This girl was stripped naked, raped repeatedly, sodomised and urinated on (tweets support this) – carried around from party to party by the wrists and ankles – whilst unconscious. These boys went a step further by documenting the ordeal by filming, taking photos and tweeting about it.
There is the video where one of the bystanders who watched his mates, laughs about the girl’s horrifying experience, for 12 minutes and discusses what was done to her – you can see it here. *Extreme Trigger Warning*
(Notice the rifle on the floor by this guy? What a frightening combination.)
And yet, there is an enormous, insurmountable number of people who still think it’s her fault. Blaming the victim. One man went so far as to write the following post over his ‘outrage’ that the rapists were put on a Sexual Offender Registry:
Why don’t we have a Dumb Fucking Whore Registry. Now that would be justice.
Just the title. Speechless. I’m so offended by it.
Why aren’t ALL women offended by this?
Many of the comments left on this post sing a familiar tune – supporting the author’s stance of the girl pretty much ‘asking for it’ – male and female alike – including that she wasn’t raped at all – just digitally penetrated. Saying she shouldn’t have gone out, shouldn’t have gotten drunk, shouldn’t have…etc.
This girl’s human rights were violently and devastatingly ripped from her.
She will never be able to form a healthy relationship with a man, she may have sustained physical injury – like not being able to have a baby, caught a disease and she’s still a child. She’s a minor and has already endured such a horribly degrading, violent and humiliating experience. Never, EVER to be forgotten.
They will do a year or two in juvenile detention. Come out and either rape again – more bad for us – or come out changed men. If that’s the case – great, they gets a second chance.
What about her?
Why should they get a second chance?
So how bad does a rape – or anything for that matter – have to be, before society snaps out of its coma and starts to take action?
Well, I see one of two solutions for our rape culture:
1. Women actually do as they’re told and stay home. They don’t go out. Stay indoors. And if you do go out, cover up so as not to provoke. Don’t smile sending mixed messages that you ‘want it’. There’s only one problem with that…many, many girls and women are raped at home. It’s a tricky one.
2. We hone in on the source of the problem:
Question #153: Why are there so many more men like this?
It may not be you – but if it’s not, you can’t deny – it’s like a war out there.
Isn’t anyone hearing what’s being shouted? Or is everyone simply turning a deaf ear?
There’s only ONE significant change – I believe – in all our social existence.
PORN.
Yes, it’s always been around but now it’s saturating – the availability of it – the actual advertising of it, regardless of location – like the local newsagent for families; TV – and what eyes are watching. REGARDLESS.
Women are advertised as whores (I’m sorry for the word – but it resonates best) to both our sons and daughters – look around at the effects this is having on both genders.
Life is imitating art.
![163802-lee-jeans-billboard[1]](https://questionsforus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/163802-lee-jeans-billboard1.jpg)
Quite unavoidable, isn’t it?
Is this the world you want?
Its consequences are happening now, to a lot of people. Around the globe. And it’s escalating.
This is bad.
Yet we find it hard to punish and say ‘No’. We give more and more chances – until when?
Seriously.
So I’ll ask again: If not now – WHEN?
Deep Breath
x
PS – I really do want to talk about this. Good guys – any ideas?
My local newsagent located the hard core porn magazines at the very front of the side shelf of his shop. If you send your kid down to buy you the paper – from where the papers are, you can see a magazine on the flat section of the shelf, with a fully naked woman on the cover, sitting on a pushbike.
I challenged him, very politely, saying if he had to have them at all, they should be at the back of the shop. It’s all still there.
What are your suggestions?
Keep your money; I want change.
March 16, 2013
I see a pattern in the way we deal with everything – ourselves; politics; the way we ‘survive’; the environment – and it’s looking a tad grim.
The psyche of ‘who we are’ as a species, is tipping toward a greedy, destructive, selfish and stupid one – with some people sadly possessing all four traits.
We collectively ‘cut the nose off, to spite the face’, by encouraging (through action or indifference) the defence of these bad ideals and behaviours – and all for money.
Our soul is disappointingly tarnished with greed.
The outcry to the damaging effects of such behaviours, that are worsening in their intensity, seems to be fobbed off as an annoying distraction. The lack of true change makes this apparent.
1. If it’s a feminist fight, it gets shot down with labels of ‘hysterical’ / ‘bitch’ / ‘whore’ / ‘liar’ and/or the easy option of using violence – to keep women in their place.
2. If it’s an environmental fight, we actually turn our backs to what Nature is trumpeting – as it globally waves its arms furiously at us.
It feels like the planet is twitchy – trying to shake us off – the planet we need to sustain us.
More earthquakes and volcano eruptions, cyclones, devastating rain, snow storms, rising seas in the Pacific with islands slowly going under…and that’s just the climate.
Then there’s replacing land with concrete or rubbish; digging enormous holes to deepen our dependence on fossil fuels…and the list goes on.
Was the last wipeout the dinosaurs?
We haven’t got a hope in hell against this old soul fully turning on us.
It’s the one hunk of rock we’re on, isn’t it? I mean it’s ALL connected.
So why have Australians fought the Carbon Tax, when we all know (even the Opposition) it’s for the better?
In fact, it has already lowered emissions and it’s aimed at big businesses doing the most damage to our planet – you know, the people making millions/billions in profits.
I suppose a better question would be, ‘If not this – what?‘
3. And if it’s a political fight, we neglect policy; we neglect using the government in power to its full potential – regardless of whether one voted for them or not.
This was never more apparent than with our latest Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
She has been systematically vilified from day one – distracting her (for example) with press conferences on her character, rather than just letting her get on with it.
What good does that do any of us?
Did anyone know that last week, this government passed a bill that made fantastic changes to the current National Disability Insurance Scheme?
Kim @allconsuming wrote the following piece about this decision and its wonderfulness – Quite Something. She writes:
“I do not care what your political leaning, I do.not.care. but this Government is the first to actually action it. The first to say this is important, to say to the four million or so Australians who have a disability that they matter.
To grasp the scale of that, those four million people equates roughly to the population of Melbourne. Then consider the 2.6 million Australians who care for family members with a disability. Now you’ve got the population of Victoria.
As soon as you hear someone start to say how great it is but gee, how we can fund this, how we can pay for it I want you to tell them you’re talking about the population of Victoria. You’re going to turn your back on an entire State?”
Yes – it seems we do tend to turn our backs, if selfish wants are jeopardised, which then paves the way for the media to create spin on our general ignorance and feed the masses biased reports on our government. And it is biased if you don’t get informed about the good stuff along with the bad.
Balance.
Question #151: So how will people vote? How will women vote?
Will environmental policies get a look in?
How about women’s issues? The gender equality gap – where the female gender suffers most from poverty and violence – globally – than its equal. Does that get any importance?
I lobby for equal pay for all women.
If there’s no money in the budget, they can just bring men down a peg and bump women up. Easy. They’ve had a good go of it.
We also need to look after our single parents who have had their payments cut by Centrelink, if their youngest child has turned 8 years old. A devastating blow…
OR will the simple mentality of those who cling to clichés – not policy – determine our collective fate?
I shudder to think.
Our people, politics and environment are all interwoven and connected, and it’s the obsession with making money and gaining power – astronomical money and power for some (regardless with how they got there) – that is slowly choking our very existence.
It’s time to lobby for these big important changes, recognise we’ll have to sacrifice to get them and see which government can best accommodate.
I want change. I want balance.
Deep Breath.
x
Happy International Women’s Day! + Question #150.
March 8, 2013
*TRIGGER WARNING – image may upset*
I awoke this morning with mixed emotions.
It was International Women’s Day and I wanted to quickly shout a ‘Woooo Hooooo’ to my sisterhood before getting ready for work, but there was also a feeling of some aimlessness.
Returning to full-time work on the Monday just gone (after caring for my injured husband) and due to the extra workload I was about to encounter – I decided to give social media a bit of a break, so that I could have some time without feeling incensed.
Because that’s what I was feeling.
How could I not?
When Facebook Pages like Being an Asshole, promoting hatred against women, are considered appropriate for viewing, even though it’s been reported for its promotion of violence.
How can men who defend it not see that by making a joke of this very real violence to countless women, it gives them permission to downplay how atrocious it is??
When a billboard promoting a strip club is placed in front of a boys’ school in Brisbane, is deemed honkey-dorey by the Advertising STANDARDS Board, when also reported for ‘grooming’ boys – teaching them to be sexually obsessed.
When the devastating statistics about the global pandemic of violence against women, inspires a t-shirt company to create many, many t-shirts bearing slogans such as: Keep Calm and Rape Her or Keep Calm and Knife Her. Amazon was then the place to get them.
(A computer program was blamed for generating the phrases – yet the word ‘him’ doesn’t appear anywhere…hmmm…)
It’s all getting a bit nasty.
Question #150: Could it be a back-lash to our ever-louder voice?
Well, the mixed feelings I awoke with today are due to me believing that – YES – we are becoming louder and stronger and I feel enormously proud to be a part of this new movement…
But is it working? Can we see any change?
We seem to be inundated with violence and exploitation – perpetuated by the Internet, I know – but it still IS what it IS.
An indifference to us – whether active or passive.
I believe we can make a profound change – both women and men…there’s just one problem:
Most are afraid to speak up.
And I understand that fear.
The other day, I confronted my Newsagent – a more elderly man – about the fact he had Zoo Magazine on a stand facing the street, near the front of the shop. I explained that not only is it bad enough that any kid can buy it, it was unavoidable to see the objectified woman on the cover, from the street.
So even if you choose not to go into the shop, that culture is still in your face. Still being advertised.
I had butterflies throughout the whole exchange. So nerve-racking.
As I left him, he was contemplating the location of the magazine and when I drove by later, he had taken the stand down.
Victory!
A small one, but one none the less…and it felt good.
So, it’s time.
It’s time to join the ranks for a better world for women. We deserve it.
Our nature is a nurturing one and it leaves me profoundly baffled as to why our other half want to continue to keep things the way they are.
I saw an argument by a man saying that he simply couldn’t understand why women wanted equality to men, when we’re not the same.
We know we’re not the same – it would not have made sense for nature to make us the same – but we are equally needed to balance things out.
Yin and Yang.
That’s what men and women are – predominantly one gender with a bit of the other. Of course I’m being very general – nature provides a rainbow of variations to this – but you get my drift.
So, Happy International Women’s Day!
I am for balance and I am for all women and hope the good men can join our voice.
An amazingly awesome documentary was made in the States called:
MAKERS: Women who make America – narrated by Meryl Streep.
Watch it by clicking on the link above – see how women have fought since WWII and continue to do so – see our modern-day leaders – be inspired – and join today’s movement.
Deep Breath x
The Oscars. Pedestrian. My brain is starving for stimulation.
February 26, 2013
With interest, I have been watching the reaction to yesterday’s Oscars.
This interest started to turn to a calm, but deep, indignation at how far the women’s movement has yet to go.
Today, Gloria Steinem (legendary) was on The View and she said we’re:
“Halfway there. We once fought for an identity to vote and now we are fighting for social and political equality.”
Yesterday, The Oscars was more than just a night with a few crass jokes.
It went beyond that. This article looks at why it was so wrong.
The Oscars: 5 Things that need to Change
“Consider that sexist comedy alienates at least half of the show’s intended audience. Everyone who managed to endure Seth MacFarlane’s jokes last night deserves an award. As many news outlets have astutely pointed out, a broadcast that should have been about the recognition of talent devolved almost immediately into ugly, juvenile humor. Next year, send a boldface memo to the show writers: No awards show should be a megaphone for jokes whose punch lines boil down to “Ha ha, you’re a woman.”
…and I saw your BOOBS!
It’s just so juvenile.
ANYONE can make these sorts of jokes. They’re a dime a dozen – amongst most teenage boy groups in the western world – and yet we applaud and revere it?
Putting aside Seth Macfarlane using women (predominantly) as the butt of his boys’ toilet humour, he actually sang the names of accomplished actresses, such as Meryl Streep, with the line, “I saw your boobs!”
How old is he? 12? Are most men saying they are too?
On this sophisticated night that is supposed to celebrate the craft – it sounded so infantile and was embarrassing to watch.
Pedestrian. My brain is starving for stimulation. There’s nothing to watch.
I’m in shock that comedian Jason Alexander – who tweeted:
Oscar talk: If you didn’t think the “I Saw Your Boobs” song was funny… no one can help you.
— jason alexander (@IJasonAlexander) February 26, 2013
is actually turning his back on his own craft to support the Boys’ Club.
He thinks that’s funny? Well…there goes my respect for him as a comedian.
The worst part of the boob song (yes, it gets worse) is that many of the movies he chose to that these boobs appear in, were ones depicting rape and sexual violence – like Jodi Foster (who was honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes) in The Accused.
No Respect.
This then paved the way for more.
* Rihanna’s abuse joke, laughs at her and every woman who has to live with that horror.
What about Chris Brown? Where’s the joke about the abuser?? Why isn’t HE being laughed at?
* Jessica Chastain’s character in “Zero Dark Thirty” referred to by Seth as “every woman’s innate ability to never ever let anything go.”
* 9-year-old Oscar nominee, Quvenzhané Wallis, was connected sexually with George Clooney in another ‘joke’ and Clooney was the one who received an instant apology. What??
To add insult to injury, the majority of the male population (yes, the majority because I’m not hearing much opposition from guys) are telling us to zip it. It’s aaallll good.
THEY think it’s funny – and so do all the guys – so what’s the problem?
Imagine…a HILARIOUS bit where Jack Nicholson’s penis is compared to a shrivelled up, baby zucchini (based on what we saw in a movie) or that Daniel Day Lewis had a flaccid penis and we SAW IT!! Hahahahahahaha!!
No – we will never see that happen because guys wouldn’t do that to each other but…*newsflash* neither would (do) WE!
Do women play a part in all this? Of course we do.
I have always stated that and is the main reason for starting this blog.
But this is about The Oscars. It was shit and men are saying it’s OK.
It’s not OK.
Question #149: Who are we becoming…or have already become?
Deep, Deep Breath.
It’s going to be a long battle.
What my daughter said to me today.
February 25, 2013
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking – pondering – reflecting – over the last few days.
I’m feeling quite disillusioned (on a grand scale) but it’s not upsetting me…I just want to figure out what the next step is. There’s an aimlessness to my thoughts.
I know, through social media, that there is A HUGE amount of us standing up and voicing our objections to things that seem ludicrous to be even out there in the first place – but they’re flatly being ignored.
A few days ago it was about the hateful and violent images and memes that Facebook allow to remain online – despite protest – and then the latest atrocity being the adult club billboard in front of a boys’ school that the Advertising Standards Board has deemed appropriate to keep up – despite protest – grooming our future’s sexual tastes.
I won’t go on because the list is literally endless and too dispiriting.
Many of us have written and complained, but to little or no avail. There have been some small victories but it’s not on the scale necessary to bring about change.
So today I found myself thinking – what’s the point? (bad of me, I know)
Today I had a hectic afternoon in the car driving up and down, picking up and dropping off etc. when I heard the following song for the second time on Triple J. The first time I only caught the end of it and what attracted me was the divine voice and music – today, however, when I heard it in full, I listened to the lyrics.
The song is ‘God-Fearing’ by Sarah Blasko, from the album, I Awake.
You’ve got a nerve, you know you make me hate
One thing I’ve learned, you try to take away
I’m not beaten down, I won’t behave
Just listen this once or you will rue this dayYou have no respect
For me tonight if you’re not listening
It might be unkind but it might be right
But you’re not listeningSet them up, knock them down
Cast them left, cast them right
God-fearing tonightBiting my lip and holding my tongue
Was the most stupid thing that I’ve ever done
Got carried away, let myself down
I’ll shoulder that blame if you’ll admit what you’ve doneYou have no respect
For me tonight if you’re not listening
It might be unkind but it might be right
But you’re not listeningSet them up, knock them down
Cast them left, cast them right
God-fearing tonight
I adore this song. It resonates so strongly with how I feel.
Completely frustrated that I – WE – are not being listened to. Not respected. Second-class.
The lines I put in bold are the standouts for me (and I love that she sings them looking straight at us in the video).
I played it to my 10-year-old daughter in the car. It was just the two of us.
I’m in her ear about certain topics – I have to be.
After all…we live in a society which allows porn billboards to go up in front of schools. I have to prepare her.
So we talked about the lyrics of this song – about not keeping quiet when the wrong thing is being done and that responsibility needs to be taken by the parties that do wrong, for change to happen.
I parked the car in the driveway and we just sat there listening to the magical sound of the violins (we both love them) waiting for the song to end before getting out.
As we got out of the car, she said to me:
“I want to thank you for raising me the way you are…helping me…(paused)…I don’t know how to explain it.”
I said, “You just did,” and gave her the biggest, massivest bear hug.
Lump in throat; heart swell…you know.
All this from one song – so I thought I’d share it.
Question #148: Feeling inspired (and equally indignant) to use that voice of yours?
Deep Breath
x
Sarah Blasko
Question #147: Why do even bother with the magic of Christmas?
February 25, 2013
I’ll be brief.
This petition has come up and it’s important you sign it. It’s to the Advertising Standards Board:
Stop Sex Industry Billboards Outside Schools
This is the billboard:
So – not only did someone approve this decision – placing an adult club BILLBOARD in front of a boys’ school in Brisbane – it was also complained about and the complaint was rejected.
In front of a boys’ school. Please.
As Verina Rallings wrote – it’s a type of grooming. And it is.
So I ask you:
Why do we even bother with the magic of Christmas?
Going to all that effort to create this fictitious world of wonderment…
What for?
We’re living in a world where the drive to make money has deadened our senses – opening the door to a seedy, underbelly lifestyle and normalising it.
Where did Santa go?
What happens when the belief in Santa ends – at 9 – 10 – 5 years of age?
Shall we dress our girls in denim undies (oh, sorry – ‘shorts’) and teach them how to act in a hyper-sexualised manner, for guys’ approval, with a low-cut top to boot?
How about our boys? Shall we encourage them to learn how to successfully land a bitch whose gagging for it?
If the answer for you is ‘No’, then speak up and show your indignation!
Billboards like this are powerfully promoting a representation of reality that is unbalanced.
I can’t believe we are actually allowing this subliminal coercion of our kids’ minds; rendering their ability to formulate a balanced reality, impotent.
WE have to be the stronger voice in our youth’s ears, not theirs.
Theirs is solely about making a buck…and it’s plastered all around us.
Doesn’t that infuriate you?
Well it makes me livid and disappointed at what we’re becoming.
Please sign the petition. x
Stop Sex Industry Billboards Outside Schools
Deep Breath.
Humbled and distressed
February 22, 2013
*MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING – graphic images in this post*
I’m not sure how to feel after yesterday’s events. Numb, I guess.
After publishing my last post about my love/hate relationship with Facebook – predominantly about the content they allow to infect – I started to receive comments on my QFW Facebook Page from women, protesting about the number of times they have reported hateful and violent images only to be told by Facebook, that they deem them appropriate.
In yesterday’s post, I discussed the graphic meme of a woman – appearing to have been stabbed over not doing the dishes – which caught the fury of Karen Pickering when she was told it was fine by Facebook.
A friend sent me the following image she had reported and was told did not breach Community Standards:
It says:
* know your place
* shut up when a man is talking
* proper fellatio technique
Facebook states in their ‘Community Standards’ in the section of Hate Speech:
Facebook does not permit hate speech, but distinguishes between serious and humorous speech. While we encourage you to challenge ideas, institutions, events, and practices, we do not permit individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.
So they have distinguished this as humorous speech (hahahahahaha) and NOT an attack on gender. Interesting to know what they would deem an attack.
Under Graphic Content:
People use Facebook to share events through photos and videos. We understand that graphic imagery is a regular component of current events, but must balance the needs of a diverse community. Sharing any graphic content for sadistic pleasure is prohibited.
This image is not for sadistic pleasure then?
Sadistic means to derive pleasure from extreme cruelty and this image ticks that box. It’s funny right? Funny = pleasure.
When I saw the image above, I was filled with such indignation, that I started a FB page where people can post the images they’ve reported, but told it didn’t breech Facebook’s Community Standards.
After only a few hours, I shut it down. I couldn’t look at one more photo.
The most haunting one I received, of the young toddler below, came from a site called ‘Anti-slut Patrol‘. I immediately reported it to Facebook for Graphic Violence.
Facebook were quick to reply that it was fine:
What I just noticed, however, is that they have – since last night – changed their Standards. I reported this photo under Graphic Violence (as it says in the screen shot) and now it’s called Graphic Content. I wrote them a response to their ‘ruling’ asking them to explain how the image is not graphic violence and what, to their standards, is.
I guess they just answered; change the Standard to comply with letting people publish this toxic waste.
I asked Facebook what they wanted their legacy to be – obviously it’s ensuring that depravity prevail and keeping those masses happy.
I am now humbled by the massive, unfathomable enormity of this.
And again feel helpless.
Victims of violence not only have to live with the horror that is their life, they must also reconcile with the fact that companies with no soul, like Facebook, will never have their back – or anyone else’s for that matter – because they would rather make money off malice and pass it off as humour.
Question #146: How can we create change, if our pleas continue to be ignored?
I finally want to add that I know many of you may think – it’s OK, it’s just a joke – and that if every picture that was reported was taken down, we’d live in a Nanny State.
My response to that is – WE NEED BALANCE.
Noone is saying that we have to have a dictatorship run by ‘mummies’, but a respect for the unimaginably, abhorrent lives some people have to live, without making a ‘joke’ of it, would start us on the road toward OUR LEGACY – one that we can leave for our kids to continue with.
Deep Breath
x
Facebook and misogyny – just kidding!
February 21, 2013
I have a love / hate relationship with Facebook.
I love my private page as I have family and friends around the world and this fantastic tool affords me the opportunity to stay in contact, see precious photos, share articles and funny memes etc. etc. etc.
I also love my Questions for Women FB page – I can put up articles and quotes to inspire and give a different perspective to life, as well as put up my blog posts.
What I hate, is how Facebook instills a feeling of insecurity and untrustworthiness.
I do not feel like they have our back.
They are always skulking around for your info – to share or sell to the highest bidder. We’re constantly having to change settings – which have been automatically been set to ‘Public’ as a default – when they reshuffle the way their site works.
Always leaving us none the wiser and exposed.
What I hate the most, however, is that they also do not have our back in protecting us from hateful and misogynistic content being posted. Horrible sites and images just being permitted to spread – their toxic nature infecting; normalising. And why?
Because it’s just a joke, crazy lady! Relax.
Sshhhhhhh….
The thing is, though, who exactly IS the person (or people) who make the final call?
I picture a bunch of young guys in a smoke-filled room, eating fast food, surrounded by empty food wrappers, snorting at all the crazy things that are being posted.
Haawww Haawww Haawww!
The reason I say that is because they don’t permit photos of breastfeeding mothers (eeewww – gross!) – but allow pages called ’12 year old slut memes’, which I wrote about in a previous post – That’s not misogyny. THIS is misogyny.
Yesterday Karen Pickering posted the following passionate rant about Facebook:
She writes about an abhorrent image she saw on FB (it’s in there *Trigger Warning*), which she reported – twice – but was ultimately deemed appropriate for viewing, by FB.
Karen wrote the following, which struck a chord with what I feel:
I reported it despite being fully aware of a number of truths:
- that the internet is full of this shit
- that the world is full of this shit
- that this shit really happens
- that we can’t stop it from happening
- that we can’t stop people joking about it
- that people laugh because they’re conditioned to dehumanise women to the extent that they do
- that the people posting it feed off the persecution complex they get that feminists are out to get them
- that you’ll get one taken down and an even more hideous image will take its place
- etcetera ad nauseum
Yes, yes and YES! to all the points above…etcetera ad nauseum.
The image, as of today, has FINALLY been removed – but as Karen says, the world is full of it.
It’s hate. It’s misogyny. And Facebook thinks it’s OK.
Facebook must be a man.
So, if women are labelled as a bunch of hysterical banshees, who need to chill-out when they protest misogyny and violence against women, then –
Question #145: What label do the men inherit?
Let me know what you think of the quote below. My interpretation below.
In what way do I think men are stupid?
By seeing what’s happening and keeping silent.
That makes me crazy.
Deep Breath.
x
PS I know many of you would suggest that we all get off Facebook and be done with it. I think that’s easier said than done due to established connections…but if everyone I know and love switches to Google, I’m IN!
The three-to-one formula
February 13, 2013
This issue has been truly bugging me for quite some time.
Have you ever noticed the three-to-one formula on TV?
Sometimes it’s even four-to-one, but basically it’s a group of men, with a token female to fill in the gender gap. The thing is, however, that these programs seek the expert advice of a panel, which (unfairly) only ever has one female in the mix.
1.The Voice:
Here are the promotional photos of the big three – USA, Australia & England.
Pattern much?
It’s interesting to note that the men are free to look however they please – covered in tattoos; casual, relaxed clothing; physical differences such as very overweight…even old. (It would be a frozen day in Hell before we saw the female equivalents on our screen). And the females that do appear? Well, they’ve been preened and primed to within an inch of their lives.
*I never realised men were the authority in singing.
2. The Doctors:
This is an American program, which gives advice on everything medical – including episodes on what women can do to improve themselves through things like plastic surgery. I came across it on a sick day, channel-surfing.
*It came as a shock to learn that male doctors are the experts in medicine.
3. The Living Room:
This is an Aussie show where the men get out there and report on areas such as adventure activities, cooking and DIY. Amanda Keller – an intelligent and funny woman – merely compères the show…from the couch.
*Women just mustn’t be up for all the fun and travel…or capable.
4. Masterchef Australia:
The curious thing about this show, is that only the first season used Sarah Wilson ((below) as the host. She was quickly given the flick and the three male chefs remained…to this day.
*It is quite the morsel to digest – knowing the best mentors in the kitchen are male.
Question #143: Isn’t it time we had 50/50 representation on our screens, when it comes to giving advice?
More often than not – we seem to be a society that hangs on every word, when men speak with authority.
I find this extremely and increasingly frustrating – not because men can’t be experts (I’m not saying that at all) – but because we’re being taught that women can’t. We are merely conditioning the upcoming generation to only hear reason through the male voice…
…but that’s a whole other post.
Until then; Deep Breath.
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It’s a girl! #3
February 3, 2013
A few months ago I saw the disturbing documentary about the femicide of girls in India and China called it’s a girl!
I wrote about the film and its disturbing statistics in the post: it’s a girl.
The following song is written and performed by Omekongo Dibinga. He felt compelled to say something about what is occurring in these countries.
The music may not be your cup of tea, but I love that Omekongo chose to speak up – on this very important and horrific practice.
Below is the link to the it’s a girl! site with the article about this song:
It’s a Girl Inspires Music Video by Hip Hop Artist Omekongo Dibinga
Watching this video and listening to the lyrics have made me feel very, very microscopically small…again.
What can I (we) do to help??
Deep Breath
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