OWS – Go Rad Fems!

Someone on the Occupy Wall Street message board was trying to make a point about the movement and posed a question along the lines of “Should sex changes be legal?” Womononajourney linked to this discussion in a comment on her eye-opening post about Woman’s Day of Action at OWS.

I went over to the link and found the whole thing very interesting. I was proud to recognize some Rad Fem bloggers adding their voices to the discussion. In case of deletion (since the original question was deleted) I also took some screen shots. I’m just putting this one up for now because it links back to the issue of trans species, furries, otherkin and so on. While this poster is certainly taking a techno post-human approach to the question we can see where surgical modification leads in some people’s eyes.  (notice his ridiculous entitled screen name)

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Women’s Shared Experience: The Period, Part 1

I have been thinking a lot about what is true for being a woman and what shapes that experience. Thus I have decided to do a series of posts on the subject. While gender roles are constructed; what is true about being a woman that is not a construct? As little girls we are shaped by the expectation of receiving our periods and then the accompanying shaming attached to the event. I realize that this is not a new concept and has been written about before, but I wanted to share my own views. Basically, I wonder why having a period is something, like so much else for women, that is defined and all about the men.

From the historic record we know that women were often separated from men during the monthly bleeding and determined to be unclean.  The period is a taboo. Many religions restrict what a woman can do during menstruation and forbid women from entering sacred sites during this time.

Women and periods are so closely aligned in people’s minds that most of our experiences are influenced by this cyclical event. We are defined by having a period, irregularity of a period, the absence of a period, the return of a period, controlling a period through chemicals, and then the cessation of the period at menopause. Having a natural process like this would be fine if we didn’t live in a patriarchal culture where having a period inconveniences PIV.  Wikipedia has an alarming section about menstruation:

All female placental mammals have a uterine lining that builds up when the animal is fertile, but is dismantled (menstruated) when the animal is infertile. Some anthropologists have questioned the energy cost of rebuilding the endometrium every fertility cycle. However, anthropologist Beverly Strassmann has proposed that the energy savings of not having to continuously maintain the uterine lining more than offsets energy cost of having to rebuild the lining in the next fertility cycle

Many have questioned the evolution of overt menstruation in humans and related species, speculating on what advantage there could be to losing blood associated with dismantling the endometrium rather than absorbing it, as most mammals do.

Beginning in 1971, some research suggested that menstrual cycles of co-habiting human females became synchronized. A few anthropologists hypothesized that in hunter-gatherer societies, males would go on hunting journeys whilst the females of the tribe were menstruating, (LOL, WTF!) speculating that the females would not have been as receptive to sexual relations while menstruating.

We see that the issue for men is the clear loss of blood that deprives some men of having PIV. (While there is no reason if a woman desires intercourse during that time that she shouldn’t be able to have it). Once again we see how EVERYTHING is framed by PIV. There couldn’t be ANY OTHER possible reason a man might want to be around a woman if he couldn’t get PIV. Never mind the fact that hunting is dictated by the animals being hunted and their habits and availability NOT a woman’s monthly cycle or any other human directed event (damn it, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost ten years and even I know that). Entire tribes moved as a group to follow herding animals to hunt them, for instance, or would travel to spots to fish, etc. Sigh. Science fails when misogyny rules.

As you might guess those questioning a FACT of nature in women are men. The endnotes prove it, one of the men being the laughable asshole that is Desmond Morris. And really this section on Wikipedia about questioning a biological fact  is unnecessary to an understanding of menstruation. Compare that to how Wikipedia phrases the explanation of why external testicles exist:

There are several hypotheses why most boreotherian mammals have external testes which operate best at a temperature that is slightly less than the core body temperature, e.g. that it is stuck with enzymes evolved in a colder temperature due to external testes evolving for different reasons, that the lower temperature of the testes simply is more efficient for sperm production.

See. No questioning. No pointing out how testicles might appeal to a sex partner (because women and our viewpoint of something NEVER matter, and goddess forbid that Wikipedia mention that men like to look at each others junk). Nope. Testicles exist of and for themselves, i.e. the men who own them, while women and our periods are all owned by men.

Since PIV has come up let’s see if it is mentioned on a website supposedly dedicated to women’s health.

Does Sex Help to Manage Period Pains?
Many women find that sexual intercourse actually helps to relieve period pains and menstrual cramps. This is because an orgasm can cause your uterus to contract, enabling it to use up excess prostaglandins in the process. Prostaglandins are hormones produced by your uterine lining. They help to stimulate contractions that move menstrual blood out of the uterus, and are also responsible for those cramps that occur throughout your period.

Notice sex = PIV. Yes and PIV is the only possible way to orgasm during menstruation. To be fair the site does briefly mention oral sex, but seems to dissuade readers from doing this. The focus is completely on heterosexual relationships.

How do You Avoid Making a Mess When Having Sex During Your Period?
Women and men often dislike having sex during menstruation because of the mess that it can cause. However, with a little careful planning you can keep the mess contained and focus on enjoying the experience.

I could LOL forever at this one.Don’t forget about the men!!

Guess what is not mentioned at all on this site to relieve period pain? MASTURBATION. Yep, that’s right. Sigh. I wish all women were taught how to masturbate if they don’t discover it for themselves.

Since I mentioned masturbation I’ll close by saying that I am only TOUCHING the surface of cultural beliefs about periods and I will continue exploring this further in another post. A little digital humour for you (oh see, double meaning there too, lol).

 

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Braaaaiiiiins, Braiiiiiins

  NOT A ZOMBIE OR UNDEAD!  A LIVING HUMAN WHO EATS BRAINS!

Zombies are TOTES the most oppressed class of monsters! Not sexy like a vampire. Not powerful like a werewolf. No sweet jewelry and curses like a mummy.  Damn. It sucks.

However, when zombies eat brains can they tell the difference between a male and female brain? What do they prefer to chomp down on?

We may never know due to their limited ability to give feedback, but did you know that having a female brain has been PROVEN to be true of men who think they are lesbians and have a penis that they want to stick in a lesbian (as the only form of sex that their female brain allows them to believe in?) If you don’t know what I’m on about click here.

Yes. It’s true and thanks to intrepid commenter of the day Adlai my outrageous opinions on PIV and lesbians can be  put to rest in the ground (see the zombie theme continues, yay!)

Biological facts: Men and women have differently structured brains. Transsexual brains, at *least* with respect to neuron numbers in the limbic nucleus, either match the gender they say they are, rather than the sex their genitals indicate, or are somewhere in between.

Awesome!!! This must be why I excel in a male dominated field and wear masculine clothes. LOL!

Adlai links to this article using dismissive language “big words”. Oh how the big words hurt my female brain or wait is it a male brain because I love boy jeans and have a kick-ass fake leather wallet in my back pocket?

Well, based on my Fibromyalgia post you might guess that I just love me some shitty science in the morning!

What does this landmark study show? Well, it took place in the Netherlands. Did they control for class, race, ethnic group, educational background, etc? We’ll never know, but believe me scientists routinely ignore such issues. Science, the god of the easily led masses, is an older white male (or Asian on an off day) who knows everything! Because? Because! Science!!

How many people were studied? Was this conducted over time? Nope. Like all hastily promoted science we find that:

In the present study, 42 brains of patients were analyzed (for an overview see Table 1⇓). The brains of 34 reference subjects (9 presumed heterosexual males, 9 homosexual males, 10 presumed heterosexual females, and 6 male-to-female transsexuals) ranging from 20–53 yr of age, together with six brains (three males and three females) of patients with sex hormone disorders were obtained at autopsy, after the required permissions had been obtained.

42! The meaning of life and everything! Someone doing this study has a sense of humour.  Do you notice too the words in bold. Nicely done there assholes. Whew, thank Darwin they didn’t study any lesbians or presumed lesbians…. Sigh. When will people realize that studies like this are done because researchers need more money and publishing something salacious that confirms the patriarchy is good for bu$ine$$.

When trans deniers hand you junk science about the brain don’t forget the important issue of neuroplasticity.  In school I studied the work of a neuroscientist who was researching the brains of serial murderers.  One of the most important issues that kept cropping up was the fact that the brain experiences actual physical, structural changes over time according to external stimuli.

Yes. Despite what you might have learned, that the brain is all set to go once childhood is over, your brain adapts over time.

This is both an amazing and scary prospect as we can see how incredibly invasive our culture really is. The patriarchy really can brainwash one into actual sex differences in the brain, but those sex differences are NOT INNATE or essential. They DO NOT mean that a man is actually a woman.

For example women are not inherently inferior in math. Culture influences how women are able to perform mathematically. With a sample size of over 1200 people this study has much more potential to hopefully ignite more of its kinds to see how far the issue of the brain and sex go.

In completely non-sex based news that corresponds to the concept of neuroplasticity are the brain growth patterns seen in British taxi-cab drivers. You can read about that here.

As I told good ol’ Adlai we are still at the beginning of our search into the human brain and its capabilities. It’s hard to separate culture out from biology and the brain’s willingness to change over time makes that more difficult.

What we are learning from cutting edge researchers is that the things that we think are the most set in stone (like gender roles) are not universal and not biological. I don’t doubt that gender dysphoria exists, but it is something created by culture not allowing people freedom of expression.  Why does anyone want to fit in a box anyway? Laziness? Convenience? Fear?

It is my absolute belief that smashing the gender binary and not reinforcing it by men claiming to be women is essential to our culture moving ahead instead of stagnating.  That’s fucking radical.

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Disgusting, Sexist PIV Focused Marriage Tips from Yahoo

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/7-ways-to-spice-up-your-marriage-2611571/#photoViewer=

I’ve left the link title up, rather than linking a word so that you can see exactly how bad this slideshow of poorly written tips is.  First, it’s Yahoo News based, probably one of the worst offenders of having an obvious sexist, anti-alternative lifestyle viewpoint of any seemingly neutral site out there.  Second, look at the link! It’s titled on the Yahoo main page as ways to avoid boredom in marriage but once you click on it you are sent straight to something filed in the sex section and when Yahoo means sex they mean let a dude stick it in so he’s not bored.

Here are the tips summarized. In parentheses or not, I describe what the photo that accompanies the tip looks like.

1. Don’t go on date night; stay home and drink wine. (A white woman laughs in a chair with wine)

Isolating yourself from the outside world even more. Sounds grand.  Since women are often portrayed as the one’s wanting a date night we can already see that this is catering to the male POV. See that lady laughing in the chair? That woman is so happy to always be chained to her home!

2. Don’t be Facebook Friends with each other. (White het couple in a white bed with white laptops)

Here I have to share this precious and disgusting quote that accompanies this tip. “It’s a terrible idea for spouses to be Facebook friends with each other,” says Ian Kerner, Ph.D, “Relationships are already filled with enough banality. I want to preserve what little mystery there is, which means I don’t need to see my wife’s latest check-in with her third-grade pals on her Superwall.” Wow just listen to that entitled, disdain.  Women are so stupid with their grade school friends. I just want a fuck doll. I don’t want to know about her life.

This advice assumes so much about women and is clearly aimed at men.  Never mind that most couples spend a lot of time apart and could find FB a useful way to keep in touch, share photos and learn about each other’s pasts.  If you hate your spouse and her FB updates so much why are you with her Ian Kerner? What’s wrong with you?

Let’s not forget the other thing FB is useful for! It’s great for cheating, hooking up, looking at pictures of women, etc.  It’s also a place where men, who are still friends with their wives openly chastise their womenfolk for whatever fresh offense pops into their minds.   Think I’m making it up. Like me I’m sure you know someone who has cheated using FB, stalked a girl, criticized their wife, etc.

3. Get an e-mail address just for each other. (White lady in a park on a laptop)

This one is weird. It basically says get an e-mail address that you use just for each other and don’t e-mail shopping lists (i.e. don’t pester the man to pick up stuff from the market).

4. Schedule time for sex.  This tip is accompanied by two pairs of light colored feet in a white bed.

This one is easy. Let the man stick it in you once  a week so he’s happy and not hounding you for sex. Think I’m making this up. Look to my last relationship with a man and my current friends.  Constant hounding for PIV sex with being told that mutual masturbation, oral sex, etc is not “real sex”

5. Don’t argue. (White het couple with their backs turned in a white bed)

This disgusting tip tells people to schedule out a time six months in advance and not fight until then. The fights highlighted are all domestic issues that sound suspiciously like things that men typically neglect to do, forget, etc based on my understanding of domestic statistics. Look at this advice “The money fight, the recycling fight, whatever: you’ll have it on May 15, time TBA. Until then, not a word.” Great way to grow resentment! Ladies keep your damn mouths shut!

6. Use “we” when we fight, not “I”

Again, ladies shut the fuck up about yourselves! We men don’t want to hear about your date nights, FB friends, e-mails to get groceries, protestations about sex, or recycling bullshit!

7. Do “chore play” (White het couple in matching pink shirts clean the man holds a vacuum hose out like a phallus over his groin)

Clean the house and fuck each other PIV.

“Researchers in the Netherlands found that the key to female arousal seems to be deep relaxation and a lack of anxiety,” says Kerner.

No shit researchers, but do you know what that really means. We FABs live our lives in fear of rape, anxiety over our appearance, performance and all that other socialized nonsense and having PIV is just another scary prospect leading to perhaps unwanted pregnancies, etc.

FAKE SCIENCE MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES SINCE FOREVER!

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Fibromyalgia and The Patriarchy

The patriarchy hates Fibromyalgia and the women who have it because Fibromyalgia makes it difficult for women to do the grunt work that men demand from them.

Early adverts for the drug Lyrica featured a white middle-class woman serving food to a gathering of people including a man who could be presumed to be her husband.  The focus in these first ads were not on relieving a woman’s suffering because she was in pain, but because she couldn’t do what she used to be able to do, i.e. serve men and the children she bore from their PIV focused marriage.

Searching youtube and google images I could not find these original ads, but I did find one from 2009 with a scene that looks like it was taken from the commercial that featured a woman serving food to a group of people outdoors.

Someone needs to shop, buy the food, prepare it, serve it, be charming and then clean up after all of these people! Being in pain, fatigued, and the various other symptoms that FMS causes is no excuse for this woman to not know her place and do what men want and expect her to do.

Unfortunately we have a vast history of women’s medical complaints not being believed, marginalized, and mistreated.  For example, MS was believed to be a disease that women made up in recent history.  The Western Medical Complex wants to keep women in their place through drugs that make us more compliant and drugs that keep us functioning according to the enforced codes of sex based behavior.

Furthermore sexual politics are at play in these drugs.  An ill-advised Pfizer advert featured a woman who looked like a domestic abuse victim.  Yes, FMS does feel like bruising on some parts of the body, but having had a bruised eye before and having FMS eye pain I know the two are different. So why did this horrible imagery make it into a commercial? I have chosen not to include the image in this blog entry, but search for Lyrica in Google images and you will find the picture.

Thankfully the FDA did not approve a known date-rape drug for Fibromyalgia.  Small favours, eh?  However, we can see how this is a part of a bigger problem and ties into the concept of women taking drugs to be compliant to the desires of men.  Big Pharma also loves to rake in cash through drugs targeted at women.

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