What Does Tyler Perry Really Want?

I enjoy his plays and movies but I’ve always felt the same as Nichole here about his portrayal of women, which is not all that great:

There is little to dispute that [Tyler Perry’s] target audience is Black women, so let’s look at the message we’ve received so far from the play. A beautiful, ambitious driven woman is a promiscuous, shrill bitch and a danger to the home. A good woman doesn’t turn heads with her beauty, is soft-spoken, religious, and will wait- sexually and emotionally- for the right man to come along. We see this play out as well in the movie version of Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?

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Again, I Laugh at a Nation United in Ignorance أه يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الأمم.. تاني

With Meena has harsh words for his country:

نجلاء الإمام المحامية و رئيسة جمعية لحقوق الإنسان تدعو الشباب العربي للتحرش بالإسرائيليات و اغتصابهم كنوع من المقاومة و بعد كده بنتسائل ليه الغرب بيتهمنا بالتخلف و الإرهاب أما تكون دي رئيسة جمعية لحقوق الإنسان هيفتكروا المواطن العادي شكله عامل ازاي؟؟

Nagla Al Imam, a lawyer and head of a human rights organization, invited Arab youth to sexually harass and rape Israeli women as a form of resistance … and then we wonder why the West accuses us of backwardness and terrorism … if this is how the head of an NGO thinks, then what would an average citizen be like?

[Hat Tip: Marwa Rakha]

Another Poor Excuse

Ms. Krish blogs:

It wasn’t always like this. From 1998 to 2003, female rappers such as Lauryn Hill, Eve, and Missy Elliott were among the genre’s most bankable artists. But nearly all of their successors — including Lil Mama, Kid Sister, Ms Dynamite, and Jean Grae — have struggled to connect with listeners. And it’s harder than ever to launch new talent. ‘‘Hair and makeup is killing female hip-hop,” says a source. ”The grooming cost to break a female rapper versus a male rapper is 10 times as much per appearance. That tends to have an adverse effect on a record company’s willingness to even entertain a female rapper.”

So let me get this straight: there aren’t any women MCs out there because they don’t want to foot the bill for a glam squad? But, somehow, Hollywood tends to make a killing suiting and booting these white girls while their careers, talented or not, skyrocket?

On Being Radical

Julian blogs:

Radical means open: to new understandings, to new perspectives, to new awareness, and the valuing of self-examination and critique. White Men’s Conservatism and White Men’s Liberalism are closed systems of thought the boundaries of which their ideologues refuse to acknowledge, identify, or name. Radicalism, as a social-political perspective, here means not closed. It means open to learning more. Not assuming I know it all. Not assuming anyone does.

The Porn Industry and Exploitation

Renee blogs:

Normally I am in agreement with most things that Noam Chomsky has theorized but in this case I must respectfully disagree.  The idea that the decision to work in the porn industry is simply a result of womens exploitation ignores the degree to which womens agency can make this an active choice.  While all paid labour in a capitalist economy is defiantly exploitation, working in the porn industry is not more exploitative because what is being produced is sex, or rather the imitation of  reciprocal sex.

Why is sex work necessarily more degrading than working at McDonalds, or a  Dunkin Donuts for that matter? Both involve the sale of ones body, and labour power to a certain degree. Both involve not being adequately compensated vis a vis profits versus wage, yet pornography is deemed horribly degrading. I submit that this because women’s sexuality is only culturally acceptable when it is virginal in nature.

Chomsky on Pornography

Lenin posts a video of a short interview on Chomsky’s views of pronography:

I am particularly impressed with the way he just trashes the free market arguments of the pornographic industry (as in, ‘she chose to do it’).

Reconsidering Brokeback

Marisol Lebron, over at the blog post pomo nuyorican homo, blogs about Brokeback Moutain (in retrospect of Heith Ledger and the latest Batman film):

I confessed that I actually owned the film on DVD and enjoyed it quite a bit when I first saw it. I still think that the film has some of the most breathtaking cinematography I have seen in a long time. What I hated about Brokeback was the hyped up mainstream celebration of the film and the lack of critical race and sexuality analysis. For me, seeing the film in a theater packed with gay white men in Chelsea, I noticed the film became a collective moment for the predominantly Anglo audience to share their despair at the fact that there was no happy ending for the two white male protagonists.

Kyle Payne is an Ass

Which is obviously a huge understatement.  Ravenmn blogs:

Kyle Payne, a blogger and advocate against sexism and pornography, has been convicted of sexual assult. Renegade Evolution explains and follows up with a list of links to other bloggers who are following the story. Way to go, Ren!

Go. Read. Learn. When you’re done, let me disgust you some more.

Belledame’s post on the matter beings with an interesting post about the weenie character in politics and blogland (that last link stolen from belle’s post-thanks).

Renegade Evolution writes:

So, yes, meet Kyle Payne, a man who is staunchly against pornography, a man who is dedicated to men rethinking their views on sexuality, privilege, rape culture, and masculinity, a man who spent time as a Rape Crisis Advocate. A man who assaulted and photographed a unconscious young woman under his authority as a university resident advisor, for his own sexual gratification and without her consent. A man who had child pornography on his hard drive, a man who’s blog, The Road Less Traveled, is filled with angst and turmoil and emotion, condemnation for the exact sort of behavior he himself has engaged in.

That is the real Kyle Payne. Hypocrite of the worst kind.

And finally, belledame222 blogs:

So, I’m surfing around, procrastinating, you know how it goes, and I find what appears to me at first to be yet another garden variety (as these things go, there aren’t actually THAT many of them I don’t think) male radical feminist blog, one Kyle Payne. Since I’m in the mood to snark, I read and roll my eyes a bit: yeah, your classic: all of 22 years old and teddibly teddibly earnest, doesn’t seem totally rabid or nothin’ but your basic pompous, sanctimonious hetboy dweeb fangirling Andrea Dworkin and other Famous Not The Fun Kind Feminists for whatever reason. Yeah, there are a few of these around, mostly kind of, well, um, creepy and risible in a milquetoast way at best, foamingly horrid at worst. Ime, imnsho, etc.

But this one, thus far, well, I am thinking, trying to be relatively charitable, not really sure why–basically he just seems like this character, albeit with politics I find particularly teeth grinding. Oh, whee, yet more hairshirting and lecturing about the horrible awful pr0nz and such small portions.

A New Paradigm for Thinking About Prostitution

Louise Livesey blogs:

Over at Genderberg is this piece on a new paradigm for thinking about prostitution. And it’s fabulous!

To cut to the core, it argues new moves in Sweden and Scotland are part of a move from a Build-A-Better-Whore paradigm to a Build-More-Sexually-Responsible-Men paradigm

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 45

The 45th Carnival Against Sexual Violence is up at abyss2hope:

Welcome to the Apr. 15, 2008 edition of the carnival against sexual violence.

Thank you to everyone who nominated a post or who wrote a post against sexual violence whether it was nominated/selected or not. Nominations that came in after the nomination deadline will be considered for the next edition of the carnival.

If you support the purpose of the carnival, you can help get the word out about it and all of the posts included in the carnival.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Blog Against Sexual Violence Day which I coordinated for the second year in a row.

Is There Something to Celebrate?

Junaid blogs about International Womens Day and its meaning in Pakistan on the blog Pak Tea House:

Last week the world celebrated International Women’s Day. So did Pakistan with a bit of fanfare on the electronic and print media. I thought of writing something but then wondered if at all there was anything to ‘celebrate’?

Are women in Pakistan any better than before? no morning ever brings sunshine in their lives. Their struggle in their homes and outside continues unabated. Discriminatory laws are still there despite tall claims of enlightened moderation…

“Hands Off the White Woman!”

Brother Peacemaker blogs about America’s infatuation with white women:

It would be easy to blame the media for such obvious white women favoritism. But the real problem is our culture that places such emphasis on looks, youth, sex, race, money, and other features and factors people use to compensate for the shortcomings of their character. Media is only a hapless pawn serving to feed the insatiable hunger of its master the character weak, wealth exchanging, public so tremendously concentrated in the white community. Until we have a more even distribution of wealth among all racial communities and/or a realignment of people’s priorities away from the secular and more towards a true all encompassing community oriented spirit, be prepared to hear more stories in the news from the undiscovered Susan Smiths and Natalie Holloways that are destined to become pawn in society’s perpetual endeavor to make pretty white women the focus of our attention.

Exploitation

Bambu rants:

i recently got a myspace message from an old friend who had a little bit of a beef with me. she wanted to know why i was “knocking the hustle” of so many young pinays in the import model/go-go dancing game. she felt that by me trying to persuade young women (especially young women of color) away from standing next to vehicles at car shows, or dancing on a platform by speaking “ill” of them, i was hurting their pockets and not supporting my sisters.

hmmmm…

…

my intention is never to make my sisters feel trashy, but it’s also not meant to sugar coat anything. we’ve been struggling and fighting for such a long time. i just want young people to understand what exploitation means and how many levels there are to being exploited.

i want everyone to celebrate their physical beauty! i want us as a people to be truly happy with our beautiful faces, our beautiful bodies and our wonderful culture!

Racism, Feminism, and the Issue of FGE

Plain(s)feminist blogs about Female Genital Excision (FGE), also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and the issue of white Western feminists focusing more on the brutalities against women in Third World countries than in the Western world:

There seems to be no way to get a certain segment of the feminist population to understand that it is possible both to oppose practices like FGE and still seek to use respectful terminology. This is perceived as attempting to “whitewash” (an interesting phrase, since we’re talking about mostly White women slinging racist slurs as mostly Black women) the issue. In fact, on several occasions when this issue has come up, it has progressed in the following way:

40th Carnival Against Sexual Violence

Marcella Chester hosts the 40th Carnival Against Sexual Violence which deals with sexual violence issues involving: gender, the law, the media, personal stories, and other subjects.

Ike says “it’s water under the bridge. I have no regrets of my life.”

But the Angry Black Woman blogs:

I am tired of people using the “But he was a great artist” line whenever someone who is, otherwise, a despicable human being, writes a song or a book or a poem that they like. I hate to break Godwin’s Law here, but even Hitler wrote some nice poetry and drew some pretty pictures (and he was nice to animals).

Proving Manhood

DesiGirl blogs about the movie Varalalu in where the main actor Ajith “proves his manhood” by raping a woman:

The cherry on top of this sick icing happens a few scenes later, when the girl’s mum pleads his case to her now pregnant daughter, with the standard “He is a good man, sweetheart” line. Of course he is, if you discount the fact the raped you to prove his manhood. He is so the man!It is movies like this that make me want to gag. Here we have organisations trying to fight crimes against women and then we have movies like this tosh, that make a whole mahatma out of the sod who commits this heinous crime. Even more gaggable fact is that, the adoring public turned up in droves to see this load of crap, shelling out their hard earned money hand over fist to make it a hit. A hit! This &%$#* of a film!

Miss Landmine

BrownFemiPower blogs about the Miss Landmine Beauty Pagent:

Now, I’m not sure what I think about this pageant beyond the fact that I think that the name is repulsive (as I’ve said in several places, would we make a pageant called “Miss Rape Victim”? Or “Miss Car Crash”?–and what are the implications of “beautifying” the violence done to female bodies?)–but I do want to say that I think it’s *vitally* important for feminists to be just as critical of this pageant as they would any other pageant (no matter what their final conclusions are).

“American Gangster” and the Hip-Hop Generation

Bambu, a militant rapper from LA, blogs about the movie American Gangster:

i’m glad this movie sucks. if this movie was better than malcolm x (which it ain’t) that wouldn’t sit well with me. why the fuck do we idolize frank lucas anyway? because he flew to saigon to buy heroin? because he came from nothing and turned himself into the biggest heroin trafficker in new york? he killed a lot of his own people! a lot! with the biggest voice in the world today, we, as the hip hop generation, have decided to make albums based on the lives of these people… we’ve taken the names of italian mobsters, we put pimps in our videos and we treat the mothers of our people like cigarette butts on the street. why? jay-z can make any kind of record he wants. he can make a record about elmo and muthuhfuckuhs will buy it — what does he do? jumps back in the studio after watching this weak ass movie!!! inspired by frank lucas. would he have done the same if they did a noteworthy movie on bobby seale? or assata shakur? probably not. let’s stop glorifying those figures in our history and in our present who get rich over the graves of our own. c’mon, hip hop generation, wake up…

Brainwashing

Donna blogs on white privilege and male supremacy effecting bloggers in their thinking and interactions with each other. Here is one small piece of her blog post:

…all of us in American society are brainwashed by white supremacy/male supremacy to some extent. Projektleiteren doesn’t notice that she is expecting us to treat whites better than they treat us, because it is “natural” to see them as superior and therefore grant them more benefit of the doubt, chances, understanding, etc than they ever grant to us. If you think I am being sarcastic, you’d be wrong. We do get so used to being treated like we are wrong, like our opinion doesn’t matter, like we don’t know ourselves and our own families, lives, world; all of these things contribute to internalized racism. You know the grass is green and the sky is blue, but daily it seems like everyone else around you is saying the grass is purple and the sky is yellow. You may start to question your reality, believe that they are right and there is something wrong with you…

“Troublemaker”

FAbulosa Mujer writes:

This here, I’m seeing more and more of. At 26 years-old, having been in the progressive circle for a couple of years now, mostly people of color and the few whites in positions of power in a nutshell this is what I see: when you’re new and excited about the work, always hopeful, dreaming, wanting to say yes to everything and not challenge everyone loves you. Speak in a tone that’s very welcoming…you are one with the movement. Beware once you fall, when you are not proper and you are speaking your mind “articulately” in a matter you believe in, and you disagree with um…the ranks, whether it be white women in the ranks or the men of color in the ranks or men of color colleagues when you challenge oppression, you’re a divider, trouble maker, punishable. You’re too loud and not as likeable.

“Troublemaker”

FAbulosa Mujer writes:

This here, I’m seeing more and more of. At 26 years-old, having been in the progressive circle for a couple of years now, mostly people of color and the few whites in positions of power in a nutshell this is what I see: when you’re new and excited about the work, always hopeful, dreaming, wanting to say yes to everything and not challenge everyone loves you. Speak in a tone that’s very welcoming…you are one with the movement. Beware once you fall, when you are not proper and you are speaking your mind “articulately” in a matter you believe in, and you disagree with um…the ranks, whether it be white women in the ranks or the men of color in the ranks or men of color colleagues when you challenge oppression, you’re a divider, trouble maker, punishable. You’re too loud and not as likeable.

Being a Woman In The Middle East

Margari Aziza Hill writes about her travels in the Middle East and opens up with this line:

As the reality of being a woman in the Middle East sets in, I am becoming increasingly aware of my limitations in social opportunities.

“You’ve Had Sex Before?…Well Than You Couldn’t Have Been Raped!”

Vanessa, on Feministing, writes:

Rape victims in Scotland are being questioned more than ever about their sexual history despite a previous victim committing suicide after being forced to show her underwear in court.

After the incident five years ago, the law was changed so that lawyers must request an application to “investigate” the person’s sexual history. (How considerate of them!) Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed much; more than three-quarters of rape trials include a request for an application. Scotland is also among the worst of rape convictions in the world with 3.9% of reported rapes ending in conviction in 2005.

“You’ve Had Sex Before?…Well Than You Couldn’t Have Been Raped!”

Vanessa, on Feministing, writes:

Rape victims in Scotland are being questioned more than ever about their sexual history despite a previous victim committing suicide after being forced to show her underwear in court.

After the incident five years ago, the law was changed so that lawyers must request an application to “investigate” the person’s sexual history. (How considerate of them!) Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed much; more than three-quarters of rape trials include a request for an application. Scotland is also among the worst of rape convictions in the world with 3.9% of reported rapes ending in conviction in 2005.