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Patriarchal Nonsense.
How many more examples do we need to understand that our society is still in love with patriarchy and misogyny? Adria Richards makes a reasonable gesture, calling people out for their crappy remarks, and for her trouble she is fired and gets rape and death threats.
We’re completely ready for the post-feminism society. For-sure. David Futrelle over at Manboobz has the story.
“And so the Internet has found a new woman to hate. Most of you are probably already familiar with the Adria Richards debacle that’s developed over the past several days. If not, Jill at Feministe has a good summary of events:
Adria Richards, formerly of the company SendGrid, was at a tech conference this week when some dudes behind her made a series of inappropriate and sexual jokes. Annoyed by the pervasiveness of misogyny in the tech world, she snapped a photo of them and put in on Twitter with a complaint. One of the conference organizers spoke to the men and they apologized. Totally reasonable! Good response, PyCon. Later, one of the dudes got fired. Instead of getting mad at the company that made the choice to fire him, the internet hordes descended on Adria. She was on the receiving end of rape and death threats. Her address and phone number were published. Her blog and her company’s website came under DDoS attack. Oh and then her company, SendGrid, fired her.
Like Jill, I think firing someone for a “dongle” joke is an overreaction, to say the least. But Richards wasn’t responsible for that; indeed, she told the fired man she hoped his employer would reconsider and take him back.
SendGrid’s firing of Richards is far more problematic. It’s one thing to get in trouble for acting like a sexist boor; it’s quite another to get in trouble for simply pointing out someone else’s problematic behavior. Richards faced a virtual lynch mob for simply documenting an example of the everyday sexism that permeates the tech world; by firing her, SendGrid essentially sided with the mob.
Is “lynch mob” an unfair term to describe those who’ve gone after Richards? No. In this context, the term is sadly apropos, as the target of all this online “activism” is not only female but black – two strikes against her in the minds of many of her, er, “critics,” who attacked her as a “fucking nigger” as well as a “cunt.” (The more genteel racists referred to her derisively as a “diversity hire.”)”
Oh hey they are talking about this on Pharyngula as well – consider this comment:
“I’m just going to go ahead and re-quote what JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness said in #74, because it bears repeating for the folks who keep insisting that Richards brought everything down on herself solely because of how she raised her objections:
Every single day, all damn day women are subjected to this kind of shit and there’s no reason to give “mercy”. We’ve done the “guys please don’t do that”, remember how that turned out? Every fucking day at work, in public, even at home with our friends and families, we’re pressured to be quiet, speak softly, which adheres to that sexist “ladylike” expectation. FUCK THAT.
What is crystal clear in our culture is that IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW A WOMAN RAISES AN OBJECTION. She can be polite, she can say, “guys don’t do that” without even naming or identifying the person she’s talking about in any way, and go on to be incessantly harassed for over a year. Polite objections by women result in the exact same onslaught of violent hate speech, death threats, and rape threats.
So keep on focusing on what Richards did to “bring this on herself.” Just understand that by doing so, YOU are contributing to this culture of misogyny and YOU are part of the problem.”
So before we get any further please take the following piece of helpful advice to heart: Your experiences are not the experiences of others, thus take the time and really listen to what others are saying, before opining on what is going on.
Imagine, if you will, walking in a salubrious green meadow. The sun is shining, a cool breeze plays delicately with your hair, you’re lost in the rich tapestry of nature; all is well. Then imagine you step into a what appears to be the largest, most vile pile of dung and putrefaction you’ve ever seen. Silly you, taking off your shoes to enjoy the soft earth earlier, now only the rancid ichor squishes up from betwixt your piggies. Hold that image, dear friends because this is what happened to me while browsing the feminism tag in the wordpress reader. I came across this festering pustule of a web site and started reading one misogynists vapidly shallow thoughts on women and how they should act.
Let me replay some lowlights –
“Women, let me tell you something that your friends and many guys will not. Your tattoos are ugly. We do not like them. We respect you less for them. We think you’re a pawn without a sense of solidarity in a world that pressures you to conform.”
Can you feel the sense of dudebro entitlement flowing? I certainly can, and of course under the weighty guise of speaking for all men nothing but wisdom can flow. The jack-assery only gets worse.
“The fact that women with tattoos and piercings are exceptionally easy to conquer sexually with minimal effort always gets contested despite the universal anecdotal evidence to the contrary.”
The ugly misogyny on display is revolting. Sexual conquest, that would be the role women have. Not people, not human beings, conquests. Do note the appeal to “universal anecdotal evidence” – a synonym for “shit I make up and call it true”.
“Not down with some inked skank?”
Wow, the creeper detectors just melted down, do try and remember that skanks are actually women and by using degrading language you show only your limited intelligence and irrational hatred of women.
“the most obviously ugly and demeaning indicators of low social value that a woman can get.”
Mere opinion, but then again dudes have thought that they should have the right to police the bodies of women. Sorry deluded dude-bro, that era is over. Women could not care less about you and your ‘important’ opinions (well, other than show how craptacular they are).
“Why do men find these things so unattractive?”
As if you are an authority on anything, other than spewing vitriol toward women.
“When you go to a parlor and hop in a chair for some greaseball to stick a needle in you and play kindergarten doodle on your skin, you’re lending him a level of familiarity over you. Does this fall under the category of what the mainstream media calls “jealous men calling normal things cheating?”
Wait, what? Let me spell this out for you (typing slow). Women are not anyone’s property. I’ll repeat because the two neurons you may possess seem to fire only infrequently at best. Women are not property; the screwed up notion of ‘lending familiarity’ reek of patriarchal shite that has no place in a civilized society.
“A man has marked you and you will always carry his handiwork. What if you wore a necklace that another man gave you in the presence of your boyfriend or husband?”
The author of this piece would enjoy Saudi Arabia and the chattel-status of women, as it what he is overtly pining for, during most of his post.
“She also turned out to be quite the skank. Trufax.”
Your anecdotal evidence is underwhelming. And of course, your hatred of women is affirmed once again. Funny how women don’t (and shouldn’t) give you the time of day, ever.
“You will lower your social value by having one and limit your choice of potential suitors.”
If it keeps people like you out of the market, it makes tattoos a good, even desirable procedure.
The dude in question allowed one of my comments to appear, but his response is even more telling to his deep hatred and disrespect of women. I doubt, since he cannot answer simple arguments, that any more productive discussion will happen over there. In his manly machismo take-on-the-world facade he managed (cowardly) not to publish my second reply to his statement (getting smacked down must have hurt his man fee-fees), so I’ll do my response here dissembling his fatuous ass-hattery (again).
Picking on creationists and their loopy ideas is low-hanging fruit, however, every once and awhile, you find someone who does an exceptional job of skewering cringe worthy creationist ninny-poo while being laugh-out-loud funny. Paul Chartly, in my opinion, achieves this in his video. It is long at twenty seven minutes, so a morning cup of coffee is required for viewing.
Enjoy.
Not caring if this is a repeat, it still rocks.
The Well-Tempered Clavier (German: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier),[2] BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. He first gave the title to a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, dated 1722, composed “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” Bach later compiled a second book of the same kind, dated 1742, but titled it only “Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues.” The two works are now usually considered to make up a single work, The Well-Tempered Clavier, or “the 48,” and are referred to respectively as Books I and II.[3] The Well-Tempered Clavier is generally regarded as one of the most influential works in the history of Western classical music.[3]
The Western press is/was conspicuously quiet when Hugo Chavez died. Our press is always mute when it comes to giving attention to official enemies or other successful political systems. Here is an excerpt from Alter.net about Chavez and some of his achievements.
“The regional blocs he worked to create fostered south-to-south economic and political alliances, provided a check to US military power in the region, and encouraged the leftist politics and economic policies of presidents across Latin America.
Beyond this regional influence, some of Chávez’s greatest legacies are not in the presidential palace, but in the streets, factories and neighborhoods of Venezuela, among the activists, workers and neighbors who have built the Bolivarian Revolution from the bottom up.
From communal councils to worker-run factories, Venezuela is the site of the some of the most sophisticated and successful experiments in direct democracy, socialism and worker-control in the world. While Chávez was a key figure in the development of many of these projects and initiatives, it is the Venezuelan people that brought them to life and will keep them alive after his death. Many of these programs are characterized not by top-down, bureaucratic state policies, or government funding handed out to create electoral support. They are the projects of people using the Bolivarian Revolution as a grassroots tool.
Since taking office in 1999 Chávez used his mandate as a leader, and the nation’s oil wealth, to create programs that provide free education, dental and health clinics, land and housing reform, government-subsidized supermarkets, and hundreds of thousands of business cooperatives. In Venezuela, where much of the population lives below the poverty line, these programs have had an enormous impact. Other government initiatives have helped spur on activism from below, self-governance at a local level, and direct democracy in political decision-making and funding.”
I recommend reading the full article.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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