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     News: Carnival of Radical Feminists #22

    Genderberg wasn't supposed to host a Carnival of Radical Feminists, but I made my trap and walked into it.

    See, months ago I emailed Heart (aka Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff) for permission to put a call for future hosts on the forum with the hope that some blogging members who are radical feminists would volunteer; not all are radfems. Her reply unmistakably identified the next open slot as Genderberg's and my inner stepchild cracked a wry smile at the realization Heart had misunderstood (or did she? hmm) my intention. She was thrilled with the idea and then I was stuck.

    The pulse-quickening risk of pushing into unknown internet territories to explore for material was mostly pleasant. The same will not be said for sifting through the official carnival entries, but offenders were usually apparent.

    After the carnival host concept solidified in my noggin, my second thought was that I wanted to see my favorite essay on prostitution in the next edition. The problem was that the essay didn't live anywhere online, only in the book Not for Sale. I am thrilled to announce author De Clarke has sent me an electronic version to share, because I have read hundreds of essays on prostitution and this one stands out for its singular round-up of crisscrossing issues delivered in mellifluous prose. The addendum on Abu Ghraib is not only eerily relevant today but a spectacular explanation for why men make and use pornography.

    "Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation, and the 'sex' industry'" by D.A. Clarke
    http://genderberg.com/docs/Prostitution ... ifinal.pdf

    "First, the prevailing Market-worship mocks and devalues any suggestion of altruism; if women fortunate enough to have escaped sexual exploitation in their own lives demonstrate concern and caring for prostituted women, they are dismissed as naive, unrealistic idealists and (of course) 'ideologues.' The 'sexual liberation' pseudo-progressive ideology then serves to cast women who object to exploitation, profiteering, coercion and other routine practises of the sex industry as 'crypto-conservatives,' 'neo-Victorians,' 'anti-sex,' and so forth. Should either of those barriers fail to discourage the feminist social critic, the neoliberal dogma is trotted out to prove that, for example, the woman eating dog food on the floor of Stern's studio is exactly where she wants to be. Any woman who expresses disgust at the men who enacted and enjoyed this ritual of humiliation is actually an anti-feminist: she is denying the agency and choice exercised by this 'liberated' female, the 'good sport' who is 'tough enough to take it' and needs no sympathy or interference from well-meaning nannies. Just as, of course, the poor are quite capable of pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps and need no insulting assistance from the smothering hands of Big Government."
    from addendum:
    "Why did the Nazis take pictures and meticulously document the atrocities committed in the camps? Why did a generation of white hunters take pictures of themselves standing on wild animals they had shot? Why do hunters hang trophy heads on their walls? Why did white people take pictures of lynchings and make them into postcards that were then collected and traded? Why did GIs in Vietnam collect ears and other more private body parts from their victims? Why did ‘Indian fighters’ and bounty hunters in the old American West collect body parts from dead Indians? And – lastly – why do men make documentary pornography?"
    Here's what else me and contributors (thank you!) culled together for your reading pleasure.

    http://genderberg.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=3825





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         myth-heard by men
    Woman is made for man. Man is made for life. -Richard Burton, British Actor (1975)

         ms-heard by women
    I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit. -Ida B. Wells-Barnett

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    This site is dedicated to Phillip Michael Peck




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