This is why we can’t have nice things in our house…
This is why we can’t have nice things in our house…
I’m not really sure what CBC music was going for here (I suspect Christmas “cheer” was involved), but it does reek of Canadiana. Slightly painful, but given all the holiday music that we are subjected to, this isn’t all that bad.
Did you need another reason to be critical of christianity? Let’s take a look at what can happen when you preach hate and intolerance in your holy house of risible stupidity. You see, I’m all for the idea of having a meeting place in the community because people need to interact with people. Interactivity breeds empathy and respect for others on a general level – keeping in touch with your community is not only good for the neighbourhood, but it is good for you and your health as well. If we could dispense with all the fantastical bullshite that religions bring to the table I would be all over going to church.
Let’s try for a little more community building and a little less condemnation, otherwise we risk what happens in the video.
A big thank you to Francois Tremblay over at The Prime Directive for such a clear and concise break down of why its okay to hate prostitution and work to end it. He knocks this one out of the park in his post titled “The assumption sex is power“.
“In prostitution and pornography (which is, after all, organized prostitution), the imbalance is, at least on the surface, financial in nature; johns and porn directors trade money for sex, either with themselves or other people (and for those who object that pornography cannot be prostitution because porn directors don’t make actresses have sex with them, some johns have prostituted women have sex with each other too). Prostituted women and porn actresses are often coerced into unwanted sexual acts so they can get the money they need, and are exposed to high risks of sexually transmitted diseases, extremely high death rates, and extremely high percentages of PTSD (equal or higher to that of war veterans).
As has been pointed out by feminists, making women have sex with you by giving them money means they wouldn’t want to have sex with you in the first place. They’re doing it because they need the money, which makes it non-consensual. Furthermore, if consent is granted beforehand, and cannot be given or revoked for specific sexual acts as they happen, then it’s not consensual either, simply because it’s then very easy for a john or a porn director to decide to add new sexual acts and force the woman to do them under the threat of not getting paid.
And all of that is predicated on a capitalist society which makes work contracts and organized prostitution possible, as well as normalize the position that everything is potential property, including people’s sexuality.
But the more profound power imbalance, I think, is psychological: psychologically healthy men who have no qualms exploiting women who have been abused in childhood and devalue their own sexuality, or otherwise have bought into their “womanly” duty.
I can already hear the pro-prostitution advocates hissing like the snakes that they are, “see, you do hate sex workers!” I don’t hate prostituted women, I listen to the voices of ex-prostituted women who speak up about their experiences and who tell us that it was their devaluation of their own sexuality that led them to accept prostitution as a way of life. Pro-prostitution advocates tell us to listen to the voices of prostituted women, but they want you only to listen to the privileged white women who got what they wanted out of prostitution and then joined pimp-led advocacy groups. Of course such women have a vested interest in hiding the truth.
But to pro-prostitution advocates, anyone who disagrees must hate “sex workers.” To pro-pornography advocates, anyone who disagrees must hate porn actresses. As if hating an industry means hating the people who work at the lower echelons! Hating capitalism has never meant hating the workers, it means hating the institutions that exploit the workers. I hate prostitution and pornography and the people who defend those institutions, not the women whose sexuality is exploited by them. The power is generated by those institutions, not by a woman taking her clothes off.”
Go over to the Prime Directive and check out the rest of FT’s work, you won’t be sorry.
Well colour me “sex-negative” I guess, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding *any* value associated with the debasement and objectification of women.
And that, fair readership, is the first and last argument you will ever need for discussing the “benefits” of pornography with misguided people.
Greetings loyal readers. This is the time and space where I get to curate a musical experience for you (who knew “curate” had become a verb). So, as an atheist finding good tunes during this particular time of year can be challenging; but not impossible. So today I present to you two works, one choral and one piano choral piece. Both are fine works, but I think you’ll find “White Wine In the Sun” Both humourous and touching at the same time.
But first, a choral work with the libretto taken from the collected works of Carl Sagan.
There are three movements:
Mvt. 1 is about discovery…
Somewhere, somewhere…
The sky calls to us.
If we do not destroy ourselves,
we will someday venture to the stars.Somewhere, somewhere…
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were,
but without it, we go nowhere.
We make our world significant by the courage of our questions
and the depth of our answers.Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known…
If we do not destroy ourselves,
we will someday venture to the stars.Mvt. 2 is about beauty…
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it,
but the way those atoms are put together.
The cosmos is also within us,
we are made of star stuff.
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.We are made of star stuff!
The beauty, the beauty…
Mvt. 3 is about space at large and our place in it…
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,
you must first create the universe.
[The universe is] neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and it’s [a lifetime]…Somewhere, somewhere…
If you wish to make…
And of course the indomitable Tim Minchin. I really want to sing this, it’s not hard technically, but keeping it together is where the problem lies, let me assure you.
I really like Christmas
It’s sentimental, I know, but I just really like it
I am hardly religious
I’d rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu, to be honestAnd yes, I have all of the usual objections
To consumerism, the commercialisation of an ancient religion
To the westernisation of a dead Palestinian
Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer
But I still really like itI’m looking forward to Christmas
Though I’m not expecting a visit from JesusI’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sun
I’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sunI don’t go in for ancient wisdom
I don’t believe just ‘cos ideas are tenacious it means they’re worthy
I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords but the lyrics are spookyAnd yes I have all of the usual objections
To the mis-education of children who, in tax-exempt institutions,
Are taught to externalise blame
And to feel ashamed and to judge things as plain right and wrong
But I quite like the songsI’m not expecting big presents
The old combination of socks, jocks and chocolate’s is just fine by meCos I’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sun
I’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sunAnd you, my baby girl
My jetlagged infant daughter
You’ll be handed round the room
Like a puppy at a primary school
And you won’t understand
But you will learn someday
That wherever you are and whatever you face
These are the people who’ll make you feel safe in this world
My sweet blue-eyed girlAnd if my baby girl
When you’re twenty-one or thirty-one
And Christmas comes around
And you find yourself nine thousand miles from home
You’ll know what ever comesYour brothers and sisters and me and your Mum
Will be waiting for you in the sun
Whenever you come
Your brothers and sisters, your aunts and your uncles
Your grandparents, cousins and me and your mum
We’ll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Darling, when Christmas comes
We’ll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you in the sun
Waiting for you…
Waiting…I really like Christmas
It’s sentimental, I know…
Taken from a blog post on the Feminist Current.
Also, it is the full decriminalization and/or legalization that has “produced more victims,” not the Nordic model, which is what Canada’s new laws are modeled after. Also — key point — prostitution produces victims. The demand for ever more (younger, fresher, newer) prostitutes is what supports the entire industry. Johns = the demand. Johns victimize women and girls in prostitution — not laws. And if it is the perpetrators we are after, than a feminist solution would be to go after the perpetrators. A law that criminalizes a man who seeks to abuse prostitutes will not abuse a prostitute. Rather, that law will serve to deter the man from seeking out a prostitute in the first place and make it easier to charge him if he does assault a prostituted women or child.
The fact that the new law, which will criminalize those sweet old johns out there prowling the Downtown Eastside, perhaps and likely looking for a young, vulnerable, Aboriginal girl to satisfy his “needs,” will come into effect on December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, is perfect.
December 6th is the day we remember and take action on violence against women. That is the name of the day. What better action could we take on that day than to say to perpetrators of violence: no more. It is not your right, these women and girls are not for you. They deserve better and are more than a series of holes for you to penetrate on a whim. Women who are poor and racialized deserve better options than prostitution. They deserve better than to be left on the street for the Robert Picktons of the world to pick up. So let’s criminalize those men before they have a chance even to get to them.
Ms.Murphy knocks it out of the park with this quote. I suggest bookmarking and following her site, as it as excellent feminist resource.
bleatmop
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