Tamora Pierce's Blog, page 12

Self defense from pervos in crowded spaces

Warning: Bad Words Used and Demonstrations of Fighting
cross-posted to my fan lj

Back in September a tiny woman with a huge heart was on the subway when a guy tried on her a variation of what guys used to try on me. That's when defense goddess Nicola Briggs gave a live demonstration of what to do when the perverted guy tried to rub his exposed penis against her.

Now she's back on Jezebel discussing other means of dealing with perverts. She addresses subways, but these will work on buses, hallways, and crowds. The yelling won't work at rock concerts, but the physical moves will.

I dealt with these guys in New York City parks. Unfortunately for me, they caught me when I was isolated, feeding squirrels and birds, so my yelling didn't do much good, though yell and curse I did. And because it was the 90s when a lot of this happened, I headed straight for the nearest phone. (Catching them would have gone better, I think, if I'd had a cell phone and could have gotten a picture to boot.)

You know something? You have every right to stand or walk along, thinking your thinks, listening your music, without some s**tpoke waving his willie at you. If he's gonna ruin your day, don't you think you should do your best to ruin his?

Start talking to your Senators!

The House just passed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. It's time to call, e-mail, snail mail your Senators and tell them if they want a job the next time they run, they had better remember that all American citizens should be equal, and that includes in the military!

When does military battery get more than lip service?

I am so not liking this. When is staff going to step up and teach this is wrong? When is the macho ethic going to start including this as wrong? When will these academies tell the incoming classes that attacks will get their asses booted out and then follow up on it? Yes, it's a good thing the attacks are reported more often. The report says nothing about how the academies follow up. What kind of investigations and punishments result? What kind of counseling and help do the victims get, and what kind of reach-out is done to the entire academy when this happens?

When will the military send a clear and hard message that its members are there to fight for their country, not batter and rape each other?

So Assange Isn't a Feminist Victim

To those who have been assaulted : Don't give up. Don't let any of what's reported here sway you. These people are trying to scare you. They are broadcasting facts that don't exist. They are trying to make you go away; they are trying to make justice go away. You deserve justice. You deserve a voice. You deserve your day in court. This is all noise that cave-thumping men, wife-beaters, female appeasers, and outright female traitors think will keep the world from changing. The world WILL change, and you will change with it, into a person who deserves the right to live without harm and the right to have justice.</b></u>




The WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange is accused of actual rape (he's been accused of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, not condom breakage, having held one woman down to have sex with her and having had sex with another while she was sleeping. Whether or not he is guilty of these things, I don't know. That's up to the Swedish courts to decide. I do know--I think everyone must--that he wouldn't have been chased over half a planet if his company hadn't made a lot of people unhappy.

The whole "sex by surprise" thing and "condom breakage" offenses laws people have been bandying about don't even exist. Here's the Swedish Rape Law so you can confirm that for yourselves.

So where do these made-up laws that everyone's talking about, that make any and all rape charges seem, by association, suspect? Because they do, you know. People are now looking at plenty of women who are trying to talk about their private ordeals--those who haven't retreated after looking at what's being said about these two Swedish women, one of them a so-called "31-year-old blond academic and member of the Social Democratic Party who's known for her radical feminist views, once wrote a treatise on how to take revenge against men and was once thrown out of Cuba for subversive activities"--and wondering if hers won't be treated as another fake-o Assange case.

This all began (including that description of one of the complianants) with AOL's Dana Kennedy's article, which is even titled "Sex By Surprise." The way Kennedy puts it, even the Swedish prosecutor is suspect:

"In fact, the current prosecutor, Marianne Ny, who re-opened the case against Assange, has been active in the proposed reforms of Swedish rape laws that would, if passed, involve an investigation of whether an imbalance in power between two people could void one person's insistence that the sex was consensual."

Well! Now everyone knows the Swedish law is crazy and women can cry rape whenever they want to! This just proves they're a bunch of vindictive hyenas who go after men, right?

The other complainant's description by Kennedy sounds like that of a groupie--pink sweater, snapping pictures, managing to get an invitation to lunch with the big man--and we all know what groupies want, right? And she invited him to her apartment 40 miles away and she paid for his ticket . . . Who the hell did Kennedy work for before AOL, anyway, Fox News?

Or maybe Kennedy just works for the Swedish prosecutor's office. But not Marianne Ny.

Since this original article was posted, accurate, real accurate information has been given out by the BBC, The Guardian, and the New York Times, among others.

Has Kennedy or AOL posted any kind of retraction or apology as a result of someone else doing the research they should have done? (Why, you sillies! I would have thought the last 10 years would have beat all that idealism right out of you!) Nope: they go after those bad old feminists (Swedish ones!) again.

No, really! Look:

"Julian Assange, facing extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations, may be in more trouble than he realizes in a country where feminism is a powerful force and courts often favor the woman in rape cases, one of the country's top defense lawyers said today."

There, you have it. Feminism is a powerful force in Sweden, unlike here, and in Sweden a man can't get a fair trial. That's what AOL and Kennedy want us to know. That feminism is unjust, that rape victims lie, and that men are persecuted. It's so much better that this is happening in Sweden, which is often presented as a nation ahead of us in many ways. Kennedy is saying, "Well, look here, friends and neighbors! See what happens when you get super-progressive!"

And Kennedy also includes this remark from Per E. Samuelson, an attorney who specializes in defending men accused of rape: "We've had cases when the victim admits that she lied and the man was not guilty but they still rule against the man," Samuelson said. (I've heard that so often I want to punch the next man who says it to me.)

Dana Kennedy has done everything she can to reinforce the status quo for rape culture and apology. You should read this second Kennedy article in its entirety, because she uses Swedes to write an article loaded with some of the most vicious attacks on feminism I've seen in what's supposed to be mainstream media in a long time.

To the people of the Torah, near and far

May your Chanukah be filled with light, love, and happiness! Tonight is the first night, the night of the first candle, which to this non-Jew always means the light against the darkness, the light that keeps it back, the light of hope and eternity. I love any holiday that reminds us of the power of light.

To the defeat of the dark, of ignorance, of hate, of grief. To the triumph of light, of faith, of love, of learning, of friendship, of peace, of wisdom, of life.

How many flavors of Wrong can you name?

A Buffy, the Vampire Slayer reboot is in the works. Without Joss Whedon.

I know, I know, they've got a woman helming this, give her a chance. But is she going to give us lines like "Sometimes I should not say words," or "I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer! And you are--?", or "Say, you guys didn't go do a buncha drugs or somethin, didja?", or "I'm a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!", or--

No, I'll stop. My heart, she aches.


cross-posted to my fan journal, because I haven't the heart to write something fresh on this same shattering subject there

If you try to record (tape/film) your TSA Security process

Folks were arrested at two points, one with full perp walk in underwear, one getting a citation.

The 24th is two days from now, and the TSA folks are already feeling a bit frazzled, it seems. Maybe they should call their bosses and complain. They do have that right.

Isaac Z. Schlueter takes on TSA with a few friends

This wonderful man found a way to rebel. Without yelling or screaming. In fact, he did it by sharing, and aren't we taught that it's nice to share?

Check it out. Think about it. What you can't or dare not do as one, you could do if there's a bunch of you!

Isaac Z. Schlueter is my new Rock God.

Sing it, Sister!

edited to add:
No offense to other groups here is meant. I post this because I believe in biting satire, not because the deaths of millions is not a subject engraved on my heart. There is nothing else I can say that won't offend somebody, but I think this satire is important, and nothing can erase the bitter effect of the original poem. Nothing.

Megan Rosalarian Gedris writes writes this splendid commentary on the new TSA search procedures flap:

They came first for the Muslim's junk,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

Then they came for the black's junk,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't black.

Then they came for the women's junk,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a woman.

Then they came for my junk…


…and I kicked up a huge fuss and demanded that they cut it out because it was infringing upon my freedom and goddammit you should listen to me because I'm a white dude and I and I alone have domain over my junk!


She makes my heart sing.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Sadly, it's once again the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the day to mark the loss of--this year--the 180 dead worldwide who were killed for their difference. I apologize for not posting this earlier today, having been tied up on personal things. I should have done this first, because the hate directed at our transgendered people is hate that sooner or later spreads to everyone else who does not follow the path that is enforced by the narrow-minded and the frightened with violence.

I will never understand this, never. To me, my life is complicated enough. I'm kept busy keeping my own life from running off-course. I have no energy to tell others how they should live, nor do I have the inclination. People should be allowed to make their own decisions, and others should take care of their own lives and have the courtesy to allow others the same right. It doesn't seem that hard to me, but every day I see evidence that millions of people are all too happy to tell others what is the "right" way to live--and to kill if others beg to differ.

Here's to a world where everyone is accepted for exactly who they are. And here's to those who have gone before.