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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
beigelights
Published Letters: 77 Editor's Choice: 2
If I was disrespectful and rude, I would say that since someone is being raped every two minutes http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/frequency-of-sexual-assault
baby seals really should not be a priority right now.
However, I think everyone should talk about and work for what they believe in at any given time.
The time I spent in the sex industry was one of the unhealthy-est times of my life, and the proportion of women I met in the sex industry was about 3-1 mentally ill, abuse survivors, and drug users to healthy empowered women. I guess one woman's exploitation is another womans empowerment. Personally, I think doing something women haven't already done for thousands of years, like physics, is a lot more revolutionary than selling sex.
PETA's net assets according to it's most recent 990, found here: http://www.guidestar.org/index.jsp
are $15 million. The Humane Society's are $200 million. So apparently PETA's headline-grabbing-at-all-costs tactics aren't that effective. Even given the difference in animal-rights missions between the two, that asset gap is HUGE.
trying to "ban discussion of/reference to the matter" of women's pubic hair?!?!? The objection is that PETA called women's naturally occurring body hair "disgusting." Funny, I bet a lot of the waxes and creams used to remove that hair are tested on animals. . .
The reason this animal lover supports the Humane Society and not PETA is because of their offensive ad campaigns. I suspect that offending people like me who would otherwise support them is at least part of the reason PETA doesn't have $200 million in the bank like the HS does. But hey, they've got the $20's those vegan strip club guys didn't spend at the bar. . .
DurianJoe. I just wrote to my reps about the downed animal bill: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/update_downed_animals08.html
I might even give Farm Sanctuary a donation. I love organizations that don't make me feel objectified to get their point across.
I think the problem is that PETA has consistently and deliberately used questionable tactics, and resorted to personal attacks against those who brought it to their attention. I think their antics actually harm their cause and cheapen the publics view of the problems they are supposed to be working against.
I JUST found this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bale
Gloria, feminist icon, married David Bale, animal rights activist. You see, we can live in peace!
I felt like the female characters in Michael Clayton mirrored this dichotomy - the country bumpkin who is willing to secretly fly to NY to meet a lunatic who chased her through a parking lot naked is a sympathetic character but the intelligent (albeit ruthless) attorney for uNorth is pure evil.
" The reporter, Libby Copeland, seems to want McCain to come off as a bimbo. . . Similar logic has governed media portrayals of Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson. Half-baked assertions that these women are merely "acting" like sexified dimwits."
In otherwords, Charly here was critiquing the media's portrayal of McCain as a bimbo. And it is noteworthy that the Republican party, for which McCain is blogging, campaigns on anti-intellectualism and women-as-fluffy-bunnies-not-human-beings.
To Libertyson, I am a young woman, and a Hillary supporter, and I have never said something like Obama has an "overwhelming need to beat people over the head with his intelligence." Maybe it's immature women rather than young women who feel defensive upon reading this article.
this [comment] comes off as a major slam of [Hillary Clinton]. Perhaps she doesn't come from the same mold as [Obama] (the seemingly perfect [canidate]), but why does she have to? You betray some ugly prejudices ("[bitter]", "[messianic]") in what is ostensibly a [broadsheet article] critique. Why not just drop the pretense and change the title of the piece to "[Hillary Clinton] pissess me off"?
DTerry. Despite calling it's audience stupid, however, I think the piece made some good points about the portrayal of McCain. And I should clarify that the Republican party promotes docility in the massess of women, not the figurehead battleaxes who are its mouthpieces.
I certainly don't think everyone is defensive if they don't agree with the piece. But accusing the author of attacking young women who like lipgloss and then insulting Clinton supporters sounds childish and defensive to me.
You're really Ann Coulter posting under a pseudonym, aren't you? LOL
The volume and quality of your comments really makes me respect the openmindedness of the comment moderators on Broadsheet!
Libertyson - I'm sorry I insinuated that you were immature.
Mattcable - I'm sorry I aped your comment.
Linney - I'm sorry I called you Ann Coulter.
1. Participation of women in the work force has been linked to greater political, social and economic power by researchers.
AND
2. Women have been prostitutes and strippers in Saudi Arabia and other places where women have very little power for thousands of years
So, apparently all that work in the sex industry doesn't result in greater status for women the way participation in typically male fields does. I guess the sex work is empowering, just not, you know, politically, economically or socially. . .
I'm sure you would like more detail! I think they were probably called dancing girls or just members of a harem back in the day.
Rupert - what I took away from the article is that if I want to help out sisters overseas, helping to invest in economic opportunities for them in non-extraction industries is the way to go. Then women in other countries will have the power to create their own liberation movements.
I have read a few of your comments and I think you're hot (intellectually).
Also:
Feminism = equality of the sexes.
Strip clubs = one sex doing all the work, the other sex determining the standard of 'sexiness', i.e. not equality (Barring very few exceptions)
Hence, strip clubs = not feminist.
Strippers, you can be as feminist as you want, but your industry is not.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
