Sady Doyle of Tiger Beatdown fame has a great piece up at In These Times on the ways in which the Internet has helped to highlight virulent and violent misogyny — and inspire effective feminist pushback. It’s actually kind of … inspiring? (That’s a word I don’t use often!) Here’s the opening:
When a history of 21st-century feminist activism is someday written, 2011 may be labeled Year Rape Broke. Sexual assault and harassment have, of course, always been key feminist concerns. But in 2011, sexual violence, exploitation, or intimidation were part of nearly every major story that fell under the heading of “women’s issues”–and the activism against it has been particularly widespread, focused and effective.
As we enter this renaissance of sexual assault awareness, it’s worth considering the ways in which new media has informed it–and, indeed, perhaps even made it possible. …
You can read the rest on the In These Times website.
Full disclosure: I worked at ITT for a couple of years in the 90s (yes, I’m old), and Sady says some nice things about Man Boobz in the piece.
“What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we cannot tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy. . . . .We must prayerfully and reverentially practice a merciful severity. . . . . Let me give you my honest advice:
First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our LORD and of Christendom.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.
Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home. [We might well ask “What home?”, since they were all presumably burned in point two!]
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them, and put aside for safe keeping.
Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hand of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.”
Martin Luther.
But hey, nobody cares what HE had to say, amiright?
@Holly Pervocracy
You don’t tell me how to be a good Christian, ever.
Want to be a good Jew?
Go have sex with a little girl under the age of 3.
Go kill even the best of gentiles.
Happy now?
Except what I said was true, and what you said was a lie. So it’s not an eye for an eye, it’s the reaction of a liar.
Oh, you mean if I shut my trap, you’ll be nice to Jews? You’ll stop making shit up about us? You’ll stop lying about us? You’ll stop calling for our extermination? You’ll stop denying the Holocaust?
Yep.
Also, NWO, psst, “stop or I’ll say terrible things” is a bigger threat if you don’t say terrible things every day. That’s, like, your resting state. Kind of hard to make a threat from “you know that disgusting thing I do constantly? well I’ll do it!”
But I’ll continue to blaspheme Christianity:
NWO, do you live by these words?
zhinxy: When I was a Christian I believed in universal salvation; it seems bizarre to me that Jesus would come down to earth and only save the people who said the right words. Besides, would a merciful God command an infinite punishment for a finite crime?
Ten bucks says:
a) NWO believes in predestination
b) NWO is too stupid to know what predestination is
c) Both
@zhinxy
OK, the game continue’s. More from the holy book of Jews.
Yebamoth 98a. All Gentile children are animals.
Sanhedrin 57a . A Jew need not pay a Gentile (“Cuthean”) the wages owed him for work.
Shabbath 116a (p. 569). Jews must destroy the books of the Christians
————–
Israel Shahak reports that the Zionists burned hundreds of New Testament books in Occupied Palestine on March 23, 1980 (cf. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, p. 21).
Burning books like Nazi’s. The blessed Jew.
Please note that I am impressed by how NWO is now TOTALLY against raping little girls and how he TOTALLY disagrees with the idea of women being filthy animals.
I am so fucking impressed, it’s not even funny.
Progress!!
(Psst, NWO, what’s Christianity’s take on being a fucking hypocrite?)
@Holly Pervocracy
Do you live by yours?
Also, NWO – while I can’t speak for the Jews here – I don’t think anyone actually intrinsically minds if you point out that there are things in various faiths that are nasty or offensive to you! No one is actually likely to get upset if you say something like, “In my opinion, the Orthodox Jewish practice of Negiah is really problematic from a modern feminist perspective.” (We can test this right now – I’m a non-Jew and I just said that! Let’s see if anyone gets angry at me for it!)
You are allowed to criticize (and comment on generally) Judaism. And non-Christians are allowed to criticize (and comment on generally) Christianity. They’re also allowed to ask you questions like, “Why do you call yourself a Christian when you explicitly disagree with a great many things the guy you say you worship as God said?” And you can answer those questions if you like, or not, but throwing a screaming tantrum about HOW DARE NON-CHRISTIANS KNOW THINGS just makes you look completely ridiculous. (Not that you don’t already look completely ridiculous, but it doesn’t help you look any less ridiculous, that’s for sure.)
Also, it’s really, really bizarre that you’re yelling at people for supposedly “attacking Christianity” when they’re saying things like, “Jesus preached mercy and forgiveness. How come you don’t like those things?”
(Wait – is that the insult? Is it that you think Jesus would be really insulted by the implication that he was a good guy who didn’t support beating people in the street or raping anybody? Would it be better if people started saying, “Contrary to literally everything in the New Testament, Jesus was all about raping and beating people! Also, despite being a Jew and his parents being Jews and all his buddies being Jews, he totally hated Jews! Also fluoride!”?)
No. I’m not an observant Jew. I’m a pantheist who’s culturally Jewish. But I never claimed to follow the Jewish Law.
Do you claim to follow the Christian Law?
@Holly Pervocracy
Let me help you be a good Jew.
Have sex with girls under 3 years old.
Kill all non jews.
Sanhedrin 57a . When a Jew murders a Gentile (“Cuthean”), there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a Gentile he may keep.
Steal from a gentile and you may keep it.
I just wanna help you be a good Jew.
Wanna play helping stick to your faith?
‘church law was superior to civil law in Luther’s day and that law said the penalty of blasphemy was death. When Luther called for the deaths of certain Jews, he was merely asking that the laws that were applied to all other Germans also be applied to the Jews. The Jews were exempt from the church laws that Christians were bound by, most notably the law against charging interest. ‘ http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html
I kind of like his 95 tenants, while I think all religion is bullshit he had some pretty good ideas.
NWO, don’t be an asshole. Jesus Christ.
NWO: You never answered any of my questions. Especially whether you will be nice to Jews if I don’t say how you are a shitty Christian.
Ozy – zhinxy: When I was a Christian I believed in universal salvation; it seems bizarre to me that Jesus would come down to earth and only save the people who said the right words. Besides, would a merciful God command an infinite punishment for a finite crime?
….
I was too! high five for former universalists!
But it’s still always worth pointing out it was the majority belief there for a while and wasn’t considered heretical until the darker middle ages periods, cause whatever I believe on the matter, historical facts is FACTY, and besides, it tends to piss off all the right people!
………….
“Ten bucks says:
a) NWO believes in predestination
b) NWO is too stupid to know what predestination is
c) Both”
…
Yes. And a third thing that should have nothing to do with it, but somehow is rolled in!
I don’t claim to be a good Jew.
If you’d step off the Christian thing, if you’d say “I’m not a good Christian and I don’t intend to be,” then people wouldn’t quote the Bible at you any more.
(You’d still be a bad person, but that’s a separate issue. You wouldn’t be a religious hypocrite, at least.)
NWO, a few hours ago I saw a fig tree, and I kicked the shit out of that motherfucker. What have you done to honor Jesus today?
@Holly Pervocracy
Afraid it doesn’t work that way princess.
If you say anything at all about how to be a Christian, who is a good Christian, any thing at allo about Christianity. I do The same.
Can you keep you trap shut about anything pertaining to Christians/Christianity? If not I will tell you how to act as well.
@Ullere: “church law was superior to civil law in Luther’s day and that law said the penalty of blasphemy was death. When Luther called for the deaths of certain Jews, he was merely asking that the laws that were applied to all other Germans also be applied to the Jews.”
Hmm. But that would mean that any standard prayer for the coming of the Messiah would subject a Jew to death — right?
NWO: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”
Do you think Stormfront and the KKK bring forth good fruit, NWO? If so, what fruit is this, given that from this corner they’re racist hatemongering fuckheads? If not, with what justification do you treat them as true prophets instead of false prophets?
Ullere, I know about the blasphemy laws. Trust me. Luther was VERY extreme and anti-semitic even for his day. Luther was extremer the more he aged.
How is that an attack on Christianity, though? As oppose to an attack on YOU?
On the plus side, I think this conversation is gonna allow me to use the action-phrase *bangs head repeatedly on the Wittenberg Door*
Can you keep you trap shut about anything pertaining to Christians/Christianity? If not I will tell you how to act as well.
As Holly already pointed out, “if you don’t stop doing that, I’ll keep doing the thing I already do every single day” is possibly the weakest threat ever.