Climate Change is a Feminist Issue
This article from the “Guardian” is a must read:
Granting women control over their own reproduction would combat overpopulation and reduce carbon emissions
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- Mary Fitzgerald
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 16.30 GMT
When it emerged earlier this year that Obama’s science tsar John Holdren had once, back in 1977, co-authored a textbook discussing possible methods of population control, among them sterilisation, America’s rightwing fury machine triumphantly seized upon it, dubbing him Obama’s “science fiction tsar”.
Click here to read the complete article- The Guardian
Saudi Jounalist Sentenced to 60 Lashes
This article demonstrates the reality that the more Patriarchist a society is, the worse women are treated:
Reuters article by Asma Alsharif, dated Sunday, October 25, 2009
RIYADH (Reuters) – A Saudi court sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes in a case brought after a Lebanese television channel she worked for aired the sex confession of a Saudi man, the reporter and a lawyer said.
Rosana, 22, who did not want her full name disclosed, said a court in Jeddah convicted her on Saturday on grounds that the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. she worked for did not have proper authorization to operate in the Islamic kingdom.
Read the entire article here -
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE59P0DL20091026
Life Without Parole for Killing Her Pimp
Is this a travesty of justice or are we missing something?
We think Sara should be given some sort of Good Citizenship award, not put in jail for life.
This story speaks for itself. From the free Sara Kruzan action page at change.org:
This Post is from the Blog www.feministing.com
Congress To Debate Anti Transvestite Bill
The article below was on the front page of today’s Washington Post—–
Congress to Debate Anti Transvestite Bill
Controversial Bill Recalls Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA)
By Harold Cartwright and Mary O’Neil
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 26, 2009
In a surprise move, Republican legislators have introduced a bill aimed squarely at America’s transvestite community. Political analysts believe this is part of the ongoing Republican effort to sabotage President Obama and his administration by distracting it from far more important matters. The bill is titled the Defense of Attire Act (DOAA) and is co-sponsored by Senators James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) on the senate side and Representatives Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) and Gregg Harper (R-Mississippi). Staffers for the legislators said they were responding to the outraged complaints of their constituents regarding the increasing display and tolerance for cross-dressing in the entertainment media as well as their own deeply held beliefs. The focal point of this outrage and allegedly the trigger for legislative action, according to staffers, is an Australian entertainer who goes by the stage name of Dame Edna Everage, but who is in reality a man. Dame Edna periodically appears on American television, especially late at night on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and DVD’s of her/his performances are widely available in this country. The fact that Dame Edna has been performing since 1956 reinforces the questions being raised about the timing and motives behind this piece of legislation.
Representative Wilson when questioned directly about his motives said, “I believe that God intended that women should wear dresses and men should wear trousers, wearing clothes of the opposite sex, no matter whether in public or private, is an affront to the will of the Almighty.” Senator Chambliss affirmed this morality based motivation saying, “This is not just a religious issue, cross-dressing is an attack on the traditional values of American society and the passage of a law by the Federal government to prohibit this perverted activity is long overdue. As a conservative Republican I am opposed to excessive government regulation but this is necessary regulation.”
The Republican sponsors say they are confident they can get enough Democratic support in the respective Senate and House committees to vote it out of both committees and through the reconciliation committee without any weakening amendments. They are similarly confident that once subject to floor votes it will pass overwhelmingly with bi-partisan support just as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) did in 1996. If President Obama signs the bill as Clinton did with DOMA, he will further alienate his liberal supporters. On the other hand if he vetoes it, the Republicans can accuse him of being a supporter of perverts and perversion. Political analysts say this would be a no win situation for the Obama administration.
The bill provides for the creation of a new Federal agency, called the Bureau of Gender Appropriate Attire (BGAA) which would have primary responsibility for enforcing the law. Among the enforcement provisions of the bill, would be a requirement that anyone attempting to purchase clothing intended for a person of the opposite sex would be required to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, that they were making the purchase for the use of a person of the opposite gender. Minors under the age of 18 would be required to produce written permission and a statement of purpose from their parents in order to purchase opposite gender attire. The penalty for making a false statement on these forms would be up to five years in prison and/or a maximum fine of fifty thousand dollars for the first offense.
In the case of persons who wear clothes of the opposite sex in their homes, law enforcement officers would be allowed to raid the home without a warrant upon receiving a tip from a nosy neighbor or similar concerned citizen. The sponsors of the bill explained that the need for speed to apprehend the guilty party before he or she could remove the illegal clothing outweighed the protection of the constitution against unlawful search and seizure. Representative Wilson stated that, “We can’t allow laws to stand in the way of protecting the morality of the American people.”
When contacted for comment, the Australian embassy, through its cultural attache, said that it intended to file a formal protest with the American government over this matter.
The spokesperson said this was a vicious and unwarranted attack on Australian culture, and by extension on the Australian people who universally love and admire Dame Edna despite the fact that she/he is a transvestite. The spokesperson also said that the United States has an unacceptable habit of imposing its narrow minded and intolerant cultural values on other peoples around the world. In this particular case it should not be using the behavior of a citizen of another country as an excuse for passing repressive legislation directed against its own citizens.
The autobiography of Dame Edna and other books, DVD’s and CD’s, reflecting her wit, wisdom and worldly sophistication can be purchased at our Online Book Stores. Just click on the appropriate link below:
Enjoy the Dame Edna Experience
Idiocy Epidemic – Read About it in “Idiot America”
There is much discussion in the media about the health crisis in America of obesity. Little attention is paid to the existing and rapidly spreading incidence of idiocy among the American population. This insightful book examines the phenomenon of idiocy, ignorance, and sheer lunacy that has gripped a major portion of not just the American people but also many of their political leaders.
Click on the appropriate Online Book Store where you can see more and purchase it and other interesting books and DVD’s.
Online Book Store – United States
Online Book Store – United Kingdom
Online Book Store – Deutschland
Feminist Messages in Pop Culture
Part I – The Simpsons:
Flying under the radar, so to speak, it is not recognized that the popular animated series “The Simpsons” conveys a powerful Matriarchist message. Homer Simpson is the nominal head of the household which is the expected norm in a Patriarchal society. He is stupid, ignorant, irresponsible, lazy, incompetent, insensitive, complacent, unambitious and devoid of self-discipline and any ethical or moral sense. Rated in terms of qualities, he is totally undeserving of his position. He is the incarnation of the worst traits to be found in the Patriarchal male.
Imagine if you will, a world run by Homer Simpsons – that is essentially the world we live in. The fact that he is able to retain his job as the technician responsible for plant safety at a nuclear power plant is a harsh commentary on the level of incompetence that is tolerated within the various institutions of a Patriarchal society. Remember what happened at Chernobyl. (look it up on Wikipedia if you don’t know)
Marge is intelligent, wise, practical, level-headed, conscientious, industrious, sensitive and ethical. She is in reality the one who manages the family so that the centrifugal forces of dysfunctionality, both within and without, do not destroy it. She is an excellent role model for any human being.
Bart is a typical boy. He hates school. He dislikes discipline and constantly challenges authority. He can’t sit still except when trapped at his school desk, otherwise he is constantly in motion. He is adventurous, loves to play and has a visceral aversion to anything remotely intellectual or artistic. He is constantly getting involved in high risk activities and situations without giving any advance thought to the obvious dangers or possible negative consequences in general. This behavior is hard wired into his DNA as a male of the species. It is not the result of his cultural environment. He is usually well intentioned but invariably winds up creating a mess. He is always remorseful when this happens but never draws the logical conclusion that he should be more careful in the future. He is a perfect example of a Patriarchal male in the formative stage.
Lisa is at the extreme right end of the behavioral bell curve. She is exceptionally intelligent and intellectual, precociously so. She is conscientious and self-disciplined. She is artistically talented- she plays the saxophone at an advanced level. She is very empathetic with a highly developed social and environmental awareness. She aspires to higher levels of achievement in all aspects of her life. In one episode she is portrayed in the future as being elected the first woman president of the United States. In sharp contrast, Bart is portrayed as having grown up to be a shiftless ne’er-do-well, a Billy Carter or Roger Clinton type presence who is a constant source of embarrassment and distraction for President Lisa Simpson.
Although a child, she is keenly, often painfully, aware of and regrets the boorish behavior of her father and brother. She is already a Matriarchist at the tadpole stage without realizing it
Copyright 2009 by Matriarchist Forum
Part II – Family Guy:
This animated series can also be said to have a strong Matriarchist message. Peter Griffin, the head of the household has an IQ that is in the dull normal range at best. His social skills level is equally deficient. He often seems disconnected from the real world and only marginally a functional person. With regard to his physical appearance, the most salient characteristic is the fact that he is clinically obese. Not only is this unattractive, but bodes ill for his future health and reflects a deplorable indifference about his physical well being. He never hesitates to lie in order to avoid taking responsibility for his continual blunders or to gain some unmerited advantage. He seems devoid of any commendable personality traits other than being fairly affable and well intentioned. To summarize, he is basically an innocuous bumbling buffoon.
His wife Lois seems to have an IQ in the bright normal range. She is a former beauty queen who has retained her physical attractiveness. A musically talented person, she both plays the piano and sings. In general she gives the impression of being a much more practical and energetic person than her husband. A stay at home mom, she supplements the family income by giving piano lessons. She is capable of functioning well in the real world although at times she succumbs to the pressures of her family and community environment and slides off into dysfunctional behavior. Their daughter Meg is a typical sixteen year old girl. She suffers from the normal insecurities and self doubts of girls in that age range who are not very attractive or popular with their peers. She is usually portrayed sympathetically as the butt of her father’s crude and insensitive remarks and sense of humor. In general, like her mother she does not project a negative image.
The Griffin’s son Chris has inherited both his father’s endomorphic body type and low end IQ. In terms of personality he duplicates his father in being a well intentioned oaf. However, to his credit he is not a mythomane like his father. Although the creators of the series chose to make the two older males in the home considerably less than ideal male specimens, this was most likely done to achieve comic effect rather than to consciously denigrate males of the human species, although that is the result achieved.
The two most intelligent members of the household are the family dog, Brian, and the baby boy, Stewie. They are both more intelligent by a huge margin. It is interesting that one is a member of the animal species and the other is of ambiguous sexuality which sharpens the image of alienation from mainstream humanity. Since this is a cartoon world and not the real one, the creators take extreme artistic license with these two in order to create humor of a truly bizarre sort. Brian is an anthropomorphic figment of a writer’s imagination who talks in a very articulate educated manner. He walks on two legs and is often seen sipping a martini, reading the newspapers or a book and/or smoking a cigarette. He lives the life of a human being for all functional purposes.
Stewie is another bizarre figment of the writer’s imagination. Stewie is either the host for an alien space creature who has entered his body and taken control of his mind or he is the victim of satanic possession. He has two personae in the series- one is a baby, the other is a miniature adult when he teams up with Brian for some adventure. He has a brilliant evil intellect. After all, how many one year olds like to have Goethe’s “Faust” read to them as a bedtime story? (admittedly in English translation) He is also a megalomaniac. His long term goal is to conquer the world, His short term goal is to kill his mother. However, being limited by possessing the body of a diaper clad one year old child, he is always frustrated in his attempts to achieve these ends. Nevertheless, he periodically achieves success in constructing science-fiction type devices from whatever toys and other odds and ends are available. Some devices to his credit are a time altering machine, a hand-held death ray, a mind changing ray gun and a weather changing machine.
When engaging in soliloquies or ranting threats and insults at his mother, which he often does, or conversing with Brian and human beings in general, his command of English is exceptionally erudite. It is safe to say that his command of vocabulary exceeds that of 90% of native English speaking Americans. Unusual and highly creative pejorative epithets directed at his mother like “wretched harridan”, “festering strumpet,” “soulless witch” and “shrew” roll trippingly off his tiny tongue. When in the presence of his parents, for example when seated in his high chair at the kitchen table where the family habitually dines, his acerbic comments are apparently not heard by anyone but Brian when he happens to be also seated there. Stewie often experiences bouts of verbalized raging frustration as one can well imagine about someone in his situation. Brian and Stewie’s relationship is that of adult human peers.
Everything considered about these two series, it is probably accurate to say that their message is as much misanthropic as Matriarchist since it makes human beings in general appear foolish. Nevertheless, the characters who project the most negative image of sheer ineptitude are the male protagonists and and the other male characters. Imagine if you will, the world, or anything of consequence, run by the male characters of either series. As noted with respect to Homer Simpson earlier, this basically describes the Patriarchal world in which we live.
Copyright 2009 by Matriarchist Forum
The Matriarchists
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