I hope my message in response to Bob didn't singe anybody's eyebrows off.
I know that my flame can sometimes burn high despite my efforts to temper
it. It's just that as a penis bearer I am sick of confused men who do not
know what to do with their sexual frustration except blame it on the
women. That's the same thing that's been going on for millenia. If you
look at the Malleus Maleficarum, the Witch's Hammer, written as basically
a witch-hunting and killing guide, it is clear that the lust arising in
men is attributed to the woman... the woman is blamed for it... for the
lust, which is of course "evil..." It's right there in the Bible too with
Genesis and Eve and woman being the source of all evil... she gives him a
boner, so he can do whatever he wants, including torturing, raping and
killing her because it's her fault that he is a sexual being when he's not
really supposed to be according to that stupid "god."
And bringing up the witch burnings reminds me of the fact that I don't
feel safe either. The word "faggot" if you look it up in the dictionary,
is a bundle of sticks. It was first coined as a term for sodomites
(homosexuals) in the witch burnings, when the bodies of gay men (and
others) were drawn and quartered (cut in five peices) and then bundled up
like a bundle of sticks and used as kindling to kill the witches who were
burned alive. OUR OPPRESSION IS INTRICATELY INTERTWINED even to this day.
The first time I attended a Take Back the Night march here in Missoula, I
was asked by the women to walk on the sidewalk. As a survivor of both
rape and incest, I was really upset about that, and walked in the very
back of the march despite some really nasty comments by women who wanted
me on the sidewalk. I stopped going to the rallies and marches because of
that. But now, for a couple of years, at least, the march has been
de-segregated and I'm happy to see us coming together to make a statement
against violence.
I agree that Bob bringing this up is important for ecofemers to look at...
i can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that those men who gang
raped the woman in Boulder, and all the other ones too... are sexually
frustrated men. They don't know what to do with their sexuality because
all they have learned in life to deal with it is sports (which is often
violent), pornography, beer drinking... drugs, all that to try and deal
with their sexuality (materiality... matter... the feminine) that they
don't understand because sexuality is so demeaned and bastardized in our
culture.
Women are ahead of men in understanding their own sexuality because of
women's liberation and all the changes that we've seen in the last thirty
years. Men are just on the tip of the iceberg of things that women were
working on in the sixties... men need to learn how to own their own
sexuality, be responsible for their bodies and their impulses, and really
truly liberate themselves from the patriarchal oppression that their
sexuality faces too.
> Questions:
> ***How do these particular men justify their actions? Where do they get the
> nerve?***
I don't think they even feel a need to justify what they are doing. I
truly don't think they're that deep to be like "oh, let's kidnap a women
and rape her because we are men and this is our right." I think they're
just acting on impulse, and habit, based upon a pornographic violent
relationship with women. They can't relate to women because they can't
even relate to themselves. They certainly don't know what to do with
their dicks or they would realize they could take care of it amongst
themselves rather than brutalizing someone for it. Those men in that van
are definitely having a sexual experience with each other, but they're so
tarnished and fucked up by our culture that they have to have a female
focal point so they don't have to look at the fact that they are acting
out sexually together. I still maintain that a circle jerk is way better
than a gang-bang... unless the one getting banged actually wants it, which
is a possibility, but most men think it's more of a possiblity than it
really is.
> They must assume it is their right to verbally, physically, or visually
> consume women.
Again, i really must contend that animalistic brutes who rape women don't
think about things like "rights." They just take what they want and don't
think about it any more. It's just like all the white people who came and
killed all the indians and took their land. Nobody would proclaim that
that was their "right" but they did it anyway, and our entire economy is
based on it.
I attended a presentation by Carol Smith called "The Sexual
> Politics of Meat" (also her book title) a while ago. She had a fascinating
> perspective on the objectification of women in our society. We buy and
> consume meat in flanks, ribs, legs, and gizzards, totally separate from the
> whole animal. (I even know people who cannot stand bone or vein or skin
> connected to their meat.) Just as it is comfortable for us to eat animals in
> spiritless parts, we (as a society) consume women in the same way. Perfect
> lips, eyes, breasts of women are used in advertising to sell products. What
> we do not want are the wrinkles, the unseemly hair, the fat, the blemishes -
> anything that we might recognize as HUMAN.
>
Carol Adams also talks a lot about pornography. I think this influences
men's sexual identity greatly. Women portrayed in porn ARE objects... an
object you can hold in your hand and have and keep in a secret drawer of
your own, etc. The men transfer this subject-object relationship to real
life. Television, marketing, advertising, religion... it all reinforces
it.
> ***Can most injustice be attributed to speciesism?***
I think most injustice can be attributed to a lack of compassion... for
other species, other sexes, other individuals, etc. Oddly enough, I
thought that's what Jesus was trying to teach people. So much for the
Messiah leading his followers....
>If certain living > beings (whether it be women, native americans,
african americans, plants or > animals) aren't seen as being human,
doesn't that justify ANY actions taken > against them, even genocide,
slavery and rape? Isn't this how our society > treats the earth?
YES!
Ecofeminist perspectives are a good way to wade through this.
later
jake paisain
missoula, montana
