Today, a brief foray into racist conspiracy theory, courtesy of the Men’s Rights subreddit. This is from a discussion of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s internet porn ban, which the Men’s Rightsers seem to think was orchestrated by the evil feminist overlords.
Lovely! You may wish to peruse k66ish’s comment history for many other nuggets of wisdom that may involve use of the word “cunt.”
Thanks to Cloudiah for pointing this one out in the comments here.
You prolly don’t want to click on this link, then. (Mostly SFW, violence warning: cartoon of someone who got on Henry’s wrong side at the end.)
Marxist Tetris – here you go!>
Malte remembered it before I did.
You forgot “seeing a veiled woman makes me feel threatened because it reminds me of the scary Muslim men who want to make us all dress like that”. Or at least, that was my MIL’s (now-)ex’s reasoning.
As I often say: it’s amazing how many people suddenly become feminists when they need something to justify their islamophobia.
Historophilia, well, some porn is being banned under that legislation. I dunno how I feel about that legislation either. On the one hand, yeah, porn is too easy to access and I generally agree it helps significantly in promoting status quo patriarchy (and I personally think it’s gross but that’s an aesthetic thing), on the other hand, I also don’t really care what fantasies other people have as long as they know they’re fantasies and don’t tell me about them, and criminalizing fantasies seems like a violation to me. I have a hard time reconciling those two ideas…
The Niqab bans in France really make my blood boil. It’s all about Islamophobia and NOT about feminism. A woman should be able to choose whether or not she is veiled and a ban takes that choice away from her. If a woman really does not want to be veiled and is in a situation where she cannot make choices about her appearance the larger population’s hatred and/or ignorance of her religious beliefs will most likely keep her from speaking out or seeking help.
As for the officials and IDs … as far as I know women who practice Islam can reveal their faces and hair to other women. In that case, have a female official take said lady into a private room so the official may confirm the lady’s identity. Problem solved and we don’t even have to humiliate or degrade her.
QFTW.
What if someone wanted to veil because they liked the look and not because of any religious reasons? Does wearing a hat/toque (that covers the hair) count as a veil or does it have to be traditionally associated with Islam? What about other religions where they cover their hair, there are a number of Christian religions that recommend it, especially at church? Does the ban get enforced on Halloween when people dress like I Dream of Jeanie? Enquiring minds want to know!
(Yes, I’m being facetious, it just seems like an odd thing to ban clothing choices)
A world of THIS.
David Futrelle
I should have known that it would be only a matter of time before an “MRA” combined his sexism with anti Muslim and anti Arab bigotry. I wonder how long it will be now until one of them blames the “evil” of feminism on the Jews.
@SittieKitty- Given how attached the French are to their Catholic “cultural traditions.” I doubt nuns won’t be allowed to walk around veiled.
@Dvärghundspossen @emilygoddess @sarahlizhousespouse
Listening to people like you give back my faith in humanity. Seriously. All this hijab-niqab problem many Westerners have, to the point they are just being plain intolerant and quite ridiculous, makes me not only angry, but very uncomfortable.
and you are right! Most people who are bothered by that are not connected to women’s freedom at all, they just want to control others. Specially ones they do not understand (and don’t even bother to).
Not to mention I have several Muslim friends who cover and choose to do so. In fact, the husband of one of them told her he would rather she does not veil so people would not harass her. She told him that veiling (she covers the head only) was very important to her, so he respected that.
I have made an artistic decision that whenever I need to mention a band name in a story, I will use some trollspeak from the Internet. As a restul, my punk rock band is going to be Marxist Culture Assassins, and courtesy of the g0ys, my queercore band will be called either the Sodomizing Buttfuckers or Buttphuck Tyranny. What do y’all think?
RE: Falconer
So ⌠why is the Scarecrow garrotting Albert Wesker?
I like you.
Also, oh god that Soviet Union Tetris song. That song inhabits a really weird place in my mind, because I first heard it as I was getting steadily more and more demented from the ED and workaholism, and the increasingly manic tempo and insanity of the song pretty accurately reflects what my brain was becoming. It’s a good song, but adds a whole new dimension of creepiness and muted terror for me, in that light.
@pineapplecookies- I went to a prestigious women’s college. Lots of feminist friends. Lots of my brilliant feminist classmates were women who veiled. So yeah, you know.
The only argument I’ve heard that holds any water whatsoever when it comes to veils is that they could be problematic in helping criminals hide so they won’t be identified/found, which is why face-concealing masks are banned in a lot of places (in the States, at least, to my knowledge). But that doesn’t stop people from wearing masks to commit crimes, and besides, what are we going to do next, ban face bandages for people who’ve hurt their faces?
I think that maintaining freedom of religious expression is more important than maybe perhaps possibly keeping someone from wearing a niqab to rob a gas station or whatever. It’s not like people who are going to get up to no good don’t have other options anyways.
@LBT: I think Buttphuck Tyranny has a nice ring to it. Just rolls off the tongue đ
I have a friend who’s a politician, and made this argument on his blog a while ago regarding the anti-veil-legislation debate; so, you feel that covering yourself in cloth would be degrading. Fine! You don’t have to do that, since it’s a free country! But the fact that you feel that covering up would be degrading, is no basis for prohibiting others from covering up. It’s just like BDSM: If you feel it would be degrading to be tied up or whipped or whatnot, you don’t have to do that, since it’s a free country! But that’s no basis for prohibiting others from doing so. Everyone realizes that when it comes to BDSM, so why is it so hard for people to draw the same conclusion regarding veils?
And, like, half of the commentators were like “NOOOO you CANNOT make that comparison, because BDSM is something enlightened westerners do, while only these oppressed brown women wear veils!”. Go figure.
Are we voting? Buttphuck Tyranny has a nice sound. It really rolls off the tongue. Oh dear, that could be interpreted in a dirty way.
@ dustydeste
Am I you? Or am I David?
I can’t keep track anymore!
@sarahlizhousespouse: You just forgot to turn off your Hivemind⢠reciever. Sometimes we get echoes like that.
RE: Dvarghundspossen
because BDSM is something enlightened westerners do, while only these oppressed brown women wear veils!â
Oh, gag me. I know people who do BDSM, and it is NOT enlightened. It seems to have just as many abusers and misogynists in the vanilla world, just plastered over with lip-service about how awesome consent is (but GOOD subs will consent to everything).
Also, I would never presume to claim that I know why anyone wears what they do, never mind folks in a part of the world and religious background that I know very little about.
“@Shiraz
Thanks for the link.”
Sure thing. đ
Thank you! ::beet red::
I had a lot to say, but it boiled down to multiculturalism yay! and sumptuary laws boo! and sounded alternately mansplaining and cookie begging, so I cut it. Don’t even know why I’m typing this paragraph except to show off my vocabulary.
Oh, gack.
I’ve seen people claim that a sub’s sexual orientation is just “sub” and will therefore have sex in any manner and with any person their* dom tells them too.
*I use the gender-neutral pronoun, but I’m pretty sure that the idea really only applies to female subs