 
SearchFemiStatsWomen to men
153.6 million
The number of females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2007. The number of males is 149.4 million.
Source: US Census Bureau
Earnings, women to men
$32,649
The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2006. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.
Source: American Community Survey, US Census Bureau
Education, women to men
32%
Percent of women 25 to 29 who had attained a bachelor's degree or higher in 2006, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent).
Source: American Community Survey
Political representation, women to men 111th Congress
17
Number of women out of 100 U.S. Senators.
74
Number of women out of 435 U.S. Representatives.
Source: American Community Survey
Rapes or sexual assault against women, 2007
248,300
Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice
The majority of US citizens are women; Women are more highly educated in the U.S; Women are paid less--by almost 25 percent--than men. Women are given miniscule representation in government even as they are the majority of the population. A staggering national assault occurs daily against women’s bodies.
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Race trumps Gender, in elections Ok, but…in Rape? Feministing says have at it if you're Lovelle Mixon, an angry black man, for whom rape is AOKFriday, April 3, 2009 at 9:08 am — admin
Did the top of my head just explode? Feminisiting is publishing that not finding work and life’s other frustrations excuse RAPE of women and small girls. Nevermind the murder of 4 cops. Let’s just soak this in: A supposedly feminist web site finds it OK for a black man to rape a young girl because he is black and angry. In the elections it was abundantly clear that race trumped gender for the majority of female black Americans. That is one we at FemiSex won’t weigh in on; although we have said for black males it was a no-brainer to support Obama. But…For white Democratic females who opted Obama over Hillary, we have roundly dismissed these women as non-feminists and sadly self-loathing women to boot. But this story of blacks in Oakland protesting the death of Mixon, a black male who purportedly raped several women, including a 12-year old girl and without a doubt murdered 2 cops who had pulled him over at a traffic stop and 2 more who tried to arrest him after the shooting…this story is mind-boggling. Lovelle Mixon was a Rapist and murderer, which evidently is fine and dandy with these black protesters, but evidently being gunned down after shooting 4 people in cold blood is police terror!? NEWSFLASH: Who doesn’t think shooting 4 cops is going to get them killed? What idiotic minds think cops won’t shoot you if you shoot 4 of them? That is the WAY the world works and believe me, if this lily white girl shoots 4 cops, those cops are gonna shoot me if I run away. I am no massive fan of the police and have found many to be overindulged in their own power, yet I am smart enough to know a civil society can’t function without police. When cops do MY BAD then by all means make a ruckus, but this…..this shows the utter disdain for female dignity and law-abiding police officers that make one wonder in the same dreadful fashion we all wondered about the black community’s support of the shit-head misogynist OJ who slashed his ex-wife’s throat—and another for good measure—because it felt good! But what is truly mind blowing about this is what I found at Feministing—a website that is supposedly a feminists web site, but in reality is a place where raced trumps gender at every turn. The whole site went gaga over Obama during the elections and engaged in sexist posts for both Hillary and Palin. But their final demise as a feminist site comes from this post re Lovelle Mixon:
FemiSex repeats: Now here goes….women have long supported blacks in their struggle for human rights in this country. And gays have long supported human rights for blacks, so when the black community voted against Prop 8 in California there was legit outrage. And I must say, watching this spectacle of black support for a murdering rapist is very difficult for this feminist to stomach. Feministing choose to dub in Lovelle Mixon’s face on an Obama poster and I have to say they at least got that right; Obama said not a peep about the sexism that brought him to power and he had a wonderful opportunity to speak out against sexism but was deadly silent. Obama gave his love to rapper Ludicris, who called Hillary an irrelevant bitch (white was strongly implied in this utterance.) So while Feministing manipulated the poster to heroize scumbag Mixon, they inadvertently showed the link of female misuse both men used to advance their own ambitions. The time has come for the black community to speak out against misogyny the same way the liberal white community has railed against racism. Period. End of story. Women’s groups have taken up the banner of race for years and years but I don’t hear a peep out of the black community over sexism and misogyny. Rappers are especially atrocious in their distain and hate for women. I want this to change and change NOW. Time is UP; I want to hear this! NOW. I want a LOUD and ugly cry from the black community to condemn this action by a group of—hopefully…hopefully!!!!!!—splinter blacks who don’t speak for the larger black community. Sadly the woman writer at Feministing is a woman of color who posted heavily in favor of Obama over HRC and Palin. Sadly, she is saying the rape is understandable if a male is upset enough. Note to little Miss Samita at Feministing: Rape and cop killing can get you shot! Matter of fact, wouldn’t it be something if women who were raped had the ability to snuff out a rapist's life right on the spot. Justifiable homicide, You BETChA! But little Miss Samita would be there to protect rapists and their right to rape if they were angry black men put upon by society. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/MNDD16N9VP.DTL |
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Comments
pucklish said: Go ahead and
pucklish said:
Go ahead and hate Samhita. I hope, at some point, you can get over all of that and look past yesterday to see how we can work together to shape tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.
well isn't that rich, and typical of the Feminisitng crowd, all about them,and false worlds thrown in about the bigger picture. I don't think the writer hates Samhita she just hates her "damaging" message. and luv the talk about working together, as if. reminder: Feministing would not support the female over the male, but they speak now about working together. do you ladies not think we remember all the negative stuff you wrote about HRC? That is why I shought out places likes this and The New Agenda etc.
@PUCKALISH you say -- "if I
@PUCKALISH
you say --
"if I say that there is a context, or culture, of violence in this country that makes extreme cases like Mixon's possible, that's not removing the guilt from Mixon, but recognizing that, under different circumstances, he wouldn't have been able to cause as much damage. For every crime, there is a context.
Look, I never said that "rape must be considered in context." I did say that the context in which rapes are committed must be considered "
HUH?
Can you not repeat yourself endlessly, please. Worse still you refute yourself left and right. Perhaps it is to fool yourself but you are not fooling anyone else.
And how about Samhita writing that the actions of the guy in Binghamton make sense when considered in Context of his race. that ought to be good. and how exactly would Mixon been less likely to rape a 12 year old girl? you know, given the "context" of his life? Whatever girl. Join the club or work for the other side.
You say Mixon's actions are extreme but read the paper girl, every day such extreme actions happen to women in this country. Swear to God the Binghamton thing is almost there to put this trash talk of context to bed. When men are killers and rapists, stop giving them a pass. Women have plenty to be mad as hell about but I don't see them shooting the place to hell as they rape their way through life. Yeah guns kill but look who is always doing the killing with those guns. Men tell themselves it is all about context (man was i jealous, or pissed off, or demeaned, or ripped off, or whatthefuck ever!) and this allows them to justify bad actions and you are buying into that male-built bullshit. I'd put a cool million that you voted Obama and dissed Hillary. Make that 2 million or 5. No doubts.
After reading Femisex from
After reading Femisex from almost its inception I can say this blog is anything but a place for the privileged. The writers here, unlike just about all other feminist web sites or blogs I read are not afraid to take on anyone who exhibits sexism or female hate or backwards motion for women.
The privileged, as i see it are the established clubs of women who banded together as they used sexism to undermine my candidate, Hillary or Palin. They got away with it because of their privileged status as large web sites or those with well established bases of readers. The privileged used sexism to reach more readers, because sexism sells.
I don't always agree with the politics here, but I come back time and again because the feminist writers here are not afraid to take on other feminist writers who use sexism to attack women.
The women at Feministing don't have the courage to take on the Slate writers who piled on both HRC and SP with their sexist distain. Why? They want to be part of the privileged club. Must not attack other privileged writers, goes the thinking or they will not cross-promote us. Cowardly!
Femisex has gone after everyone, no matter who, or how big. When I read something that Maureen Dowd has said that makes me cringe, I tune in here to find relief.
So I find it courageous that this site has called on the black community to address their failings in support of anti-sexist talk. I am Asian American, and believe me there is plenty of sexism in my community. Whack away, Femisex. We need to be called out as well.
What I see in Puckalish and over at Feministing is a blindness to be willing to talk about sexism in black community or in LGBT community. Of course it exists, but to them anyone who talks about it is privileged white girl, or at least that is what I got from Puckalish's post. Extreme defensiveness to introspection. Not Helpful!
So I will come back here, because the writers here have a courage that I find both uncomfortable and thrilling.
And I must agree with the commenter who asked you not post another diatribe by Puckalish saying there is context for rapes to be considered in. We get it Puckalish, you want rape to be considered from multiple angles, but that is just what women have fought off for decades. "Did she kiss him first? Did she have a short skirt on? Did she agree to go to his apartment first?"
Most women probably have been date raped, but don't go to police BECAUSE the crime will be considered in context. Foolish girl.
Dang. No matter how many
Dang. No matter how many times I or Samhita said something condemning this guy's actions, y'all seem to think we condone or excuse them or somehow think that he's a "poor victim." And Samhita never said that anything made Mixon "less culpable." That's dumb. If I say that having small arms on the streets leads to more gun deaths, that's not defending people who use guns to kill other people, it's simply stating that taking guns off the streets will make gun deaths less likely.
Similarly, if I say that there is a context, or culture, of violence in this country that makes extreme cases like Mixon's possible, that's not removing the guilt from Mixon, but recognizing that, under different circumstances, he wouldn't have been able to cause as much damage. For every crime, there is a context. Rape is often influenced, among other things, by male privilege and a feeling of being entitled to women's bodies. This is a cultural context. If work is done to change that context, we can actively reduce rape and sexual assault. This is part of why there is criticism of the media and of sexist ad campaigns and such. It doesn't remove culpability from rapists but it gives those of us who are not rapists a certain amount of power to reduce the climate of violence against women.
I mean, perhaps the Buddhist side of me sees any victimizer as victim, too, because they're trapped in the cycle of aggression and violence they sow... but take that, too, in the context of my own history of abuse and molestation with a grain of salt as I seek to build my own agency out of situations where I was too young to take decisive action.
Heck... dunno why I even wrote that, since I'm the bad guy and y'all will just use it as ammunition for further assaults on my character (or name or whatever). Real classy.
Look, I never said that "rape must be considered in context." I did say that the context in which rapes are committed must be considered (not in order to determine whether a rape is really horrible or not, but in order to understand how to dismantle a culture of rape and a culture of violence). Further, the presumption that one rape is any less horrendous or one rapist is any more pardonable than another is preposterous and I've never suggested any such thing, that's just y'all's strawman.
Where context comes in is figuring out how to prevent violence, not how to weigh violent acts that have already been committed. When a violent act is committed or, in the case of rape, when there is an epidemic of violence (particularly violence against women, in this case), it is critical to look at the social factors at play and look at how we, as a society, can affect change.
Now, for folks who just feel like Black people are bad and want to hear about how folks criticized Ludacris, which is relevant to this conversation because...?
Well, here ya' go (from Obama's campaign, released simultaneously with Clinton's campaign's statement):
In the media and blogosphere, J Smooth criticized Ludacris, Notes of This Native Son criticized it, Vibe criticized, Black Informant criticized it... Of course, there wasn't a whole lot of coverage because, well... Luda's an entertainer and isn't really relevant to politics anyway. I mean, you didn't hear a lot of outcry from the public about Daddy Yankee endorsing McCain because, well, Daddy Yankee's not important in politics.
As far as Rev Wright suggesting that Obama had to work "twice as hard" as Clinton, that's not sexism, that's the same kind of Oppression Olympics bullshit you guys try to pull on here. He was wrong to say it, but it wasn't because Clinton's a woman, it was because she's white and it was because, as a man, Wright has privilege blindness with regards to sexism. Similarly, you have privilege blindness with regards to racism.
As far as the claims that I've been making shit up or pulling quotes "from thin air," recognize that this post here was made on April 3rd. Samhita posted her first, brief post about Mixon on March 24th. She posted a follow-up on March 31st (in my first comment, I actually provided a link to it; if you're familiar with how the internet works, you can go read it). If this post is about what she had to say, it's important to look at everything she had to say on the issue at least up until this post was made. To do otherwise is just uninformed. I pulled quotes from both of Samhita's posts, but, hey... if her voice matters as little to you as that of all the Black Feminists and WOC Feminists out there who you discount so readily, then cool... you shouldn't even look at what she had to say the first time. You can just figure that, because she's brown, she's not a real woman and she's covering from men of color or some other such nonsense.
Anyways, you all can go ahead and see me as a violence apologist, despite that I actually do anti-violence work with youth and adults. You can also go ahead and say that, in trying to address the systemic and cultural problems of a misogynistic society, Samhita and Feministing are removing culpability from individual rapists. You can make up silly names for people and suggest that individuals (such as myself and Samhita) who've actually been abused would write "love letters" to a rapist in order to make us look like bad people while actually hurting us in the end.
That's cool. It's wrong, it's backwards-minded and spiteful and it leaves us nowhere to go except to let things continue to degenerate in the world around us, but at least you get to feel good about yourselves, right? And that, after all, is really what's important, isn't it?
So, y'all will get your wishes and I'll leave you alone. This has really hurt me and brought up a lot of bad stuff for me, but, hey, let's not talk about that, because I'm the bad guy. So, go ahead and hate me. Go ahead and hate Samhita. I hope, at some point, you can get over all of that and look past yesterday to see how we can work together to shape tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.
Dear Puckalish-- If there is
Dear Puckalish--
If there is one thing about this site it is this: no quarter be given to things that work against female progress. Ms. Lee was exactly correct in her comment that the "context" stuff has hurt COUNTLESS women. So many readers (and this is normally a site whose readers are not much up for comments, and many come to me rather than are posted) have asked us to not post another long item by you seeking solace for the "context" stuff.
If you work in media you know that Samhita's orignal post is and will be used free from her latter attemtps to clarify. (Perhaps you are Samhita, as one reader suspected.) Once you put words on paper, unless you issue an apology and retraction, it STANDS. If I write a story on breast cancer and tk, and then say, my goodness you didn't read my later articles on breast cancer and tk, well no one cuts me slack. None! If i get it wrong, it is wrong. If Samhita wants to play big girl ball she can't whine about not reading her other items. If I get something wrong in print, I get NO pass.
We at Femisex hate female pain. All of it. But when females do things that broadens the likelihood that other females will be injured, then we must say: Ok this person must be dismantled or discredited as a voice that may cause more female pain. Blacks tend to live in black communities and when blacks rape they are likely to rape black women. So telling the world that a black man who rapes a 12 year old girl, begins to make sense when considered in context of his environment Samhita only increases the likeihood that those inclinded to self-justification of their heinous actions will take such silly talk and justify their nasty actions. Actually those most likely hurt by Samhita's silly words will be black women. We care about EVERY rape and speak out againt EVERY rape. We brook NO context in which rape "begins to make sense."!!!!!Yak!!!!!!!!!
If prime time television shows giver viewers Rancid Bitch and Slag Whore and all the other things we hold up here at FemiSex as sexist and misogynistic, we BY NO MEANS say that a rapist actions Makes SENSE in terms of this context. Forgiving men for their brutal actions because they live in imperfect society is NOT going to happen here. AND GOD FORBIDE it pervades the courtroom any more than it already does! Poor fella, just watched Desparate Housewives and couldn't control himself! Frankly that was Samhita's argument just isolated to the mismash of inner city life. Society will always be imperfect and only by demanding rape be UNForgivable in ALL contexts will women every be free of this life-destroying action.
I want to point to something else you mentioned. You mentioned that Ludacris's rap bitch slam was given pro forma condemnation by Obama. Then you went on to say this:
"In the media and blogosphere, J Smooth criticized Ludacris, Notes of This Native Son criticized it, Vibe criticized, Black Informant criticized it... Of course, there wasn't a whole lot of coverage because, well... Luda's an entertainer and isn't really relevant to politics anyway."
Well, actually Ludicris was recruited by the Democrats to help a democrat win in a Georgia run-off election for a Senate seat AFTER this November's presidential elections. This hits at the heart of what we are talking about here. Subtle integration of acceptance of context, subtle integration of racism. Clearly the democrats believed that Ludicris would rally the blacks in Georgia, rally them even after he called HRC a white hapless bitch. They and Obama knew the pro forma reproachment was crap, cause Obama and his party pulled Ludicris into political actions again, a few weeks after he made the comment that earned him Obama's condemnations. This Double message is what is laughed at and what allows the flourishment of sexism. That, along with Samhita's it all begins to make sense comment which is Wholly Unacceptable and a form of female servitude to male patriarchary. Men create sexism; women follow along. Samhita has demostrated that quite well, with her poor fella just had to do it crap.
We are happy to work together when that does NOT mean compromising progress for women's rights. Feminisitng has done a PiSS Poor job of moving things forward for women's rights. Sorry but new medicine is needed. Rapes are soaring, Domestic violence is soaring and Feministing favored the less experience male over the better female candidate. You are very good at what exactly? Where is the beef? Apologist voice for sexist rape tudes when race is a factor and going for the baby-fat male candidate is NOT movign things forward. Show me the bacon, baby! FemiSEX wants a documentary called The LAST RAPE, and your context of understanding is NOT going to get us there. Males are not poor misunderstood dears: they are warriors who need to be TOLD firmly TOLD that no MATTER WHAT context they live in, and themselves perpetuate!!!!!!! ....Rape is never to be UNDERSTOOD in light of that context! That is the voice that will MOVE us forward. I will say this to you: If you are to have a daughter she will surely benefit more from our NO Quarter /NO Context voice on rape than Samhita's all makes sense when context is considered load of CRAP! Her's is reto voice akin to the short skirt made him do it voice that Ms. Lee mentioned. This MUST be about MORE than Samhita or you, this is about a solid voice of condemation of rape NO MATTER WHAT! NO context/ NO quarter! yell it sing it shout it ladies! NO CONTEXT/ NO Quarter!!! NO Context/ NO Quarter!
I applaud the bravery of this
I applaud the bravery of this site in taking to task faux feminists. No matter how many times Puckalish or Feministing writers say rape must be considered in context, it does't change the fact they have excused rape base on context.
I read this site but have never commented, as I am rarely moved to do so, but after reading this and then reading Puckgoulishalish defend the concept that rape must be considered in context, I was choked up in revulsion. As a rape victim who is still bearing the scars of my male attacker, I find, I can't even find the words, actually. I was grabbed by raw anger after linking to the Feministing post. These morons don't even realize what they are doing is condoning rape if the male has a tough time of life. F that. and F them, for as the Femisex writer says, they do great damage to women with this tactic.
Since my attack I work with rape victims of all colors. I can tell you that 83 % of rapes happen to white women, but that black women are just as likely as whites to be raped. Men too are raped but the crime is commited wholly by men, unless you want to talk about statutory rape and then they still take the "cake." So rapists are 99.9% male.
I don't always argree with Femisex, but on this point, I have lost my appetite for my dinner after reading Samhita and Puckalish say that rape is partly excusable based on circumstance of the rapist. I can't even bring myself to address these women directly. I hope you will stop posting their disgusting defense of the indefensible! Never in my life have I hoped any woman would be raped, and I still do not, but I can only say these women must be discredited. Hands off my body NO MATTER WHAT has happened to you. Hands off me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think Feministing was
I don't think Feministing was condoning the rapes that Mixon is accused of. I believe that the topic they were attempting to discuss was Mixon's actions relating to the shooting of the police officers.
Dear anonymous, if seemed
Dear anonymous, if seemed very clear to us. the sentence prior included the rape and said his acts (in the plural) were deplorable, But, that big fat "BUT" came next along with "sadly start {sic}make sense. "
In any event, if you are unclear then that makes it certain that it is, at the VERY least, open to be understood as an excuse for raping women. If the writer wishes to say she was utterly wrong and there is no context that makes a rapist less culpable, then let her recant. NO means NO, NO MATTER WHAT! NO understanding handed out b/c a rapist had a bad hair day or even a bad hair life. No Context should make us judge a rapist less harshly. That is the only way to lower the levels of rape in this country--a country where a woman is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes.
Again, you are not reading
Again, you are not reading the article at all. It had nothing to do with a discussion on rape. It was clearly a discussion on race.
You might want to re-read the article.
read it very well; yes the
read it very well; yes the Samhita item WAS apologist case for rape b/c of factors of race. yeah i get it: the item was about race, race as a mitigating factor in cruelty and rape. sorry that is what the woman wrote.
she can try to spin out of it, but her words are very damning. she said his actions (all) makes sense in light of circumstance. very damning!
look perhaps the Post chimp cartoon was not racist, but I took it to be b/c of the semantics used and history of chimps and blacks. they tried to spin out of it and then took the heat like good boys. now Samhita wrote a very sexist/misogynist post and now she wants out, but there is only apology. or ...dismissal of her voice.
Puckalish you say: "I think
Puckalish you say:
"I think blame is actually useless at this stage in the game. Mixon is dead. "
Oh yes, your poor victim is dead. All the while the victim must live with his crime in her body for the rest of her life. Yes, blame is what I do, when men rape I attempt to blame them and get a fair sentence for the woman. Yet, almost all rapists plea out and get a fraction of the time they deserve. And that is because of people like yourself, those who worry much more about minority rights for men than women's rights, such as the right to NOT have a penis shoved into their 12-year old vagina.
Women live in the same circumstances Mixon did and they don't go around raping because of it. You, clearly Samhita as evidenced by your defensive posts, are where I will lay blame. You are the person who cries oh yes, he raped but he was poor and downtrodden so we must not blame him.
You pretend to care that we live in a system that promotes rape, While you Promote it! You are a very foolish woman to think that saying to minority men rape is a product of their environment and thus they are not fully responsible doesn't help more men to believe that because they do not have the perfect life they are to be given a pass on brutality. Go away and sin no more, Puckalish.
RAINN fan, Mind you, there is
RAINN fan,
Mind you, there is no excuse for what Lovelle Mixon did. It's not even about being upset of having rage... but, as someone who work in criminal justice, can you not see how there needs to be a way of addressing the climate of violence out of which Mixon's acts arose?
He is in no way pardonable, even in death. However, we live in a system that promotes a rape culture... in a system that deals with problems violently... these institutional and systemic issues help to shape individual acts and, if we wish to prevent future atrocities, we need to start by changing the culture and the system that nurtures this violent climate.
I'm not really sure who you think I'm placing this "blame" on... I think blame is actually useless at this stage in the game. Mixon is dead. Blaming him solves nothing. Blame is ineffective no matter where one stands. Looking at what situations make individuals desperate and what situations promote violent behavior is much more effective. Looking at why people held a vigil for Mixon and what social pressures are levied on entire neighborhoods and larger communities can actually help bring about a situation where sick individuals such as Mixon are not aided in committing horrible crimes. When we look at Mixon's case, do we ask what role economics played? Education? The stigmas around convictions and their relationship with unemployment of ex-cons? Do we look at the ways in which violence isn't dealt with in a constructive and conscious manner in our society? Do we look at the complete paucity of mental health services in this country?
No. We look at one dead guy and blame him. That won't change the future... that will only allow us to be comfortable with doing nothing.
Okay, I'm sorry, but there
Okay, I'm sorry, but there are some other things that stand out from this post that just drive me crazy.
You mean, like the women who supported Sojourner Truth? You know, like, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who made a point of only agreeing to work for black sufferage if women got the right to vote first... Right? You know, like all the women who tried to shout Truth down before she gave her "Ain't I a Woman" speech? KNOW YOUR HISTORY.
And are you decrying when Frederick Douglass said:
And I love that you buy that bullshit about Black people and Prop 8... I mean, really... did you know that there are LGBT People of Color!? Do they even exist to you? No... you're just the same as the patriarchal SOBs who ask Black Women to choose whether to be Black or a Woman. You're doing the same damned thing and it reeks!
Do you want to look at stuff that's going on today? Are you even aware that WOC are constantly working against violence within their communities and visited from outside their communities every day? You discount their work and the work of their male allies simply because you know nothing about it! Privilege is blinding and I sympathize with your blindness as I, too, have been afflicted by it. However, it's no excuse not to open your eyes, take a breath, and realize that you may not have the whole picture.
I mean, goddamn! Have you ever listened to hip hop? REAL HIP HOP? Shit like Dead Prez, 2Pac and the Coup? Folks who have lines like "And since we all came from a woman/ Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman/ I wonder why we take from our women/ Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?/ I think it's time to kill for our women/ Time to heal our women, be real to our women" and "And I don't think that it's gon' end til we make revolution/ But who gon' make the shit if we worship prostitution?/ Ain't no women finna die for the same ol' conclusion/ Put they life on the line so some other pimp could use 'em"...
And that's just guys... don't your remember Queen Latifah and MC Lyte and Queengodis and the list goes on? I mean, really... the only reason you think rappers hate women is because you only listen to the misogynist shit put out by the big corporations (which happened to be run by White Folks)... You ever listen to country music? Heavy metal? Rock and roll? There's some very well-promoted ridiculously misogynist shit in there, too... but you don't look at it the same because, um... the Rolling Stones are White People, so "Under My Thumb" just doesn't sound as bad...
Black people, Black women and men... not to mention women and men of all different backgrounds, have been championing women's rights for far longer than your weak understanding of history can even support. For you to suggest otherwise just further lays bare the racist propaganda that's been fed to you by this horrible system. And, you know what...
I could see you as the "villain..." as a bad person for taking space to promote a message of hate and misunderstanding... but I understand that you, too, were shaped by your circumstances. And I have a sincere hope, nourished by a spiritual practice and healthy disregard for contrary signs, that you will grow to understand more than your narrow view has allowed you to see.
That you just can't see that people like Alice Walker, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Patricia Hill-Collins even exist, none-the-less have something to say that you need to learn from if we are to move forward as a world community.
So... in summation, if you want some change... how about you look in the mirror first and then join up with your brothers and sisters who know a little more about what the struggle for women's rights really is and the struggle for human rights really looks like outside of White Liberal Feminist blinders.
wow, facts Puck. you've got
wow, facts Puck. you've got to learn ur facts.
blacks in CA did vote by the numbers against gay marriage.
b/c there are blacks who support gay marriage does not change the fact that blacks didn't support gays in California this past Nov. end of story. that is the facts. But you want no blame for black racism, only excuses for male violence.
and I know my history very very well, thanks. But as you know this post can't contain all of history and blacks were utterly silent on the sexism aimed at Hillary and Palin this past year. So I shall be happy to post the speak out of the black community to the sexism that Hillary faced and that Palin faced. The outrage over Rev. Wright saying Hillary never had to work twice as hard! HA!!!!!!!!!!!
Or when Father Fuckup Phleger sp? mocked Hillary and the Black church cheers to no small glee, when he pitched his voice high and spead his legs for effect....this is what I want corrected. Where was the Black voice against that. Yeah, time now to pony up.
If you want to talk about 1850 and your anger at the White women of those times there is a more racist forum for you: perhaps Feministing. But YES I WANT to hear the OUTRAGE of Ludicris calling HRC a Bitch. But this is not to deflect from the topic at hand-- your silly defense of rapists!
And to say rap isn't a sexist game, well that is like saying prime time TV is not sexist. dream on.
Puckalish wrote: "Do you
Puckalish wrote:
"Do you think that every rape and every murder happens in a vacuum and we, as individuals who make up a society play no role in creating the culture that nurtures acts of violence?"
Of course culture plays a role in creating rape. Salon featured Palin as "fuckable" and Feministing says rapes must be weighed in "context."
The way I see it: Feministing is actively working to create sympathy for rapists and that is what "nutures" rapes. I don't read Feministing these days and now I remember why! Shame on the site and shame on Pucklish for crying "fair" for a rapist! I remember Feminisitng had a "fuck you Friday" in the past. Well here is my Fuck you to Feministing. I am a woman who has succumbed to the "context" you want us to all understand better and I can only say my stomach churns at the thought of this woman writing anything in the name of women.
And yes, thanks to RAINN Fan, I too love that organization. And while I have been an Obama fan and thus wary of this site, I am now a convert! I finally get it!
Puckalish I'm with Femisex
Puckalish
I'm with Femisex on this all the way. You can make your case that we need to understand why people behave badly, but excusing rape because of hard times is not a good way to move women forward.
I never comment on these sites, but I am a officer of the court and have worked for years to help women overcome the shame of rape and that somehow they are to blame.
You are actually saying they are to blame, just in a wider sense because society is not perfect.
I am sorry but I have no use for such dribble.
You can bend yourself in knots but rape must not be seen as something men do because they are upset and socially frustrated. With backward thinking like this you don't deserve to live in a country that has worked so HARD to say that there is no good reason to rape. Ever. Never ever.
I'm very sorry, to be so harsh, but clearly you've never been raped. I send you and all others to RAINN for the terrible facts of rape in this country. And believe me it is far worse in places that have yet to rub out excuse-him voices such as yours.
I can only say THANK YOU for
I can only say THANK YOU for this post. It is bizzare to say the least that Feministing would post a "it all makes sense" story about a male who has likely raped many women and for certain one 12 year-old girl.
But after watching the silly girls on that site blast the female candidates while the cried tears of joy over Obama, nothing they do surprises me. Or at least that is what I thought until reading this. I too want to shower after linking to Samhita's forgive-the-rapist post. Dangerous to women is the best I can say about Feministing.
Please read the entire piece
Please read the entire piece and please read the conversation surrounding it. I've created a short summary of quotes from Samhita that make it resoundingly clear that she isn't (and never was) excusing Mixon's actions.
FS ADD: this in NOT IN Original post. pulled from thin air. NO mention was Made of the officers names in post!
FS ADD: ah but you DID!
FS ADD: translation: rape is ok when you consider what caused it! Rubbish!
Do you think it's possible to address the larger issues in our culture that contribute to violent environments without excusing the very same acts of violence? If not, you should really remove yourself from society, because it doesn't make sense to try to change something you don't even see.
I mean, do you think Mixon was just one evil man and there are no other bad acts that people do? Do you think that every rape and every murder happens in a vacuum and we, as individuals who make up a society play no role in creating the culture that nurtures acts of violence? If so, you're not culpable. You're just one perfect person who can't do anything to change the world. On the other hand, if you grow to understand the situations that lead people to do horrible things, you can grow empowered to change those situations. To see how you fit into a puzzle of violence and complicity, so that you can work with like-minded people to dismantle that puzzle.
Your other option is to be self-righteous and even condemn people who ask the questions about what we can do to build a better world.
Good luck with that.
PS. This is not even addressing that you wrote this post today (April 3rd) after Samhita had even posted a follow-up where she more thoroughly spelled out the difference between working to understand the context of someone's actions and excusing that person's actions for all those folks who have a problem with doing their own analysis. You can read it here:
http://www.feministing.com/archives/014458.html
PPS. Please try to have an open mind about the second post, too. You seem really willing to cast someone else as the "villain" (in this case, Samhita) without even understand what her point was. I fear that, if you do the same thing, you will walk in with your mind made up and not really read any of the conversation that's going on. You know, her titles involve the word "dialogue." Check it out.
"I wrote very clearly that
"I wrote very clearly that his acts were not justified, but must be evaluated within context."
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Wow, women have battled the "context for rape" for hundreds of years and you want to bring it back! UnFing!! Believable! Go crawl under a rock. This site finds NO CONTEXT for dragging a child off the street and raping her. get it????
There IS NO CONTEXT for pulling a 12 year-old child off the street and raping her! GET IT?? YET????
yes, poor benighted me who says NO MEANS NO in ALL circumstances. NOT CONTEXT! No is NO. so save your words for misogynists everywhere who want to find the "right context" for rape.
Samhita wrote Mixon's actions make sense. THAT is the END of her voice for true feminists!
and btw, Pucklish, you have invented the first boxed graf you give as that was NOT in the original post, the post we have linked to. our readers are not fools so dont' pull that here. There are rules in journalism and making stuff up is not one of them!
More Mixon: from SF
More Mixon:
from SF Chronicle:
Lovelle Mixon was linked by DNA to the February rape of a 12-year-old girl who was dragged off the street at gunpoint in the East Oakland neighborhood where Mixon's sister lived, police said Tuesday.
Mixon, 26, a fugitive parolee who shot four Oakland police officers to death Saturday before he was killed as he hid inside his sister's apartment, might have committed as many as five other rapes in the same neighborhood in recent months, investigators said.
All the victims of those rapes were attacked in the early-morning hours, as was the girl who was raped Feb. 5, and the assailant's behavior was similar in all the assaults, police said
Samhita is crying a river over Mixon and we must forgive his Rape (s), b/c this jolly fella jus counldn't get a job. Wow, Feministing WHAT a cool thing you do for women! Wow, with help like this perhaps we can return to times of past when rape was socially acceptable if the man had good reason. Or Perhaps women will wise up and tell this anti-feminist to SHUT UP!
from Hilda who sent this from
from Hilda who sent this from the LA times:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/day-before-oakl.html
A day before a parolee killed four Oakland police officers, detectives in the city matched the man's DNA to an unsolved rape case, authorities said.
An Oakland police spokesman said the sexual assault occurred a year ago and that detectives learned Friday that Lovelle Mixon's DNA matched evidence taken from that crime scene.
On Saturday, Mixon, 26, was pulled over by two officers during a routine traffic stop. He opened fire on the officers, killing them and later fatally wounding two SWAT officers who stormed the apartment in which he was hiding.
Mixon had spent much of the last decade in and out of prison. Until last November, had served a nine-month sentence for violating the terms of his parole.
Mixon had previously served a six-year state prison sentence for assault with a firearm. He was also a suspect in a murder in Alameda County, but prosecutors did not have enough evidence to charge him in the case.
It's unclear whether the officers who pulled over Mixon knew about the DNA match. Mixon died in the shootout with SWAT officers.
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thanks Hilda and again, SHAME on Feministing for saying poor dear Mixon's actions all make sense. what a load of anti-feminist crap! Can you just see it if poor dear Misogynist Mixon had survived, Feministing writer Samhita would be writing love lettersz to this creep!...all the while posting on Feministing hopeing to inculcate her readers to the inevitability of Rape and Misogyny!
Hundreds mourn man who killed
Hundreds mourn man who killed police officers
Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/01/BAAG16Q9J1.DTL
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rape, an understandable weakness; cold-blooded murder, dandy fine. mourn this scumbag?
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