Queers don't deny it! STONEWALL WAS A RIOT!
IN WASHINGTON, DC ON THE 42nd ANNIVERSARY OF THE STONEWALL RIOTS
(In the wee hours of June 29, 2011)
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gift shop in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC is a god awful monstrosity. We were in there yesterday and between wiping our genitals on the clothing and discovering that the snow globes wouldn’t properly fit up our bums, we got to thinking:
“This place would look great with a bit of shattered glass and splattered paint.”
Reposted from Nola Anarcha:
Less than a month after Women With A Vision won a victory for sex workers by getting a repeal of the Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature (SCAN) law through the Lousiana legislature, a law which labels sex workers with Sex Offender status meant for sexual assault perpetrators, NOPD continues it’s racist, P.R. motivated sweeps of minor offenders by arresting 9 women and charging them with the soon-to-be-repealed SCAN law.
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 or 14 years old. Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were “traditional wives” without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children.[1] The fact that New Orleans cops firstly failed to protect these women when they were children from the violence of patriarchy and class society, and then have the gall to ATTACK THE VICTIMS when they use a means of survival that is a visible reminder of this system’s failures is a despicable attempt at obliterating any activities which remind them of where their massive degree of power, control and wealth in our society came from, while simultaneously re-producing and furthering that inequality as these women are forced to pay money to the courts for fines and fees, as their bodies in cells mean daily money to pay the Sheriff to house them, and as they lose the money from Johns to the whiter, more privileged sex workers (“escorts”) not targeted by NOPD. NOPD’s action simultaneously attacks society’s victims, takes away more power from the oppressed and gives it to the more privileged, and blames sex workers instead of Johns for prostitution when most wealth is controlled by men in our society, re-enforcing the system of patriarchy.
The insults against the dignity of the people who live in this city just keep on coming fast and furious.
Just read this again today and, remembering how much I love it, wanted to share it with all of y’all. Recently printed in the 2011 issue of Slingshot and written by my buddy, Jules Bentley.
Violence in New Orleans Overshadows a Complex Community
This winter there was an unusual wave of violence in New Orleans. Right? There must have been, because people were freaking out. The news covered it. Even Slingshot, out in California, wrote to ask about all the “intense shit” going down here.
This winter there was no unusual wave of violence. There was no surge, no increase, no uptick. December was a bad month, but only as bad as it usually is. There were only as many killings (and robberies and assaults) as there always are in the run-up to Christmas. What was different was white people died. Continue reading
Recently my partner and I were discussing/arguing about the role patriarchy plays in our relationship. I had been letting some things he was saying slide despite my better feminist judgment, and it eventually built up and things got pretty heated.
Partially in jest, but also partially in seriousness, he often told me he wanted to “make an honest woman out of me”. At first it seemed so ridiculously archaic that I could only respond with hilarity. Being an enlightened boy, I figured being scoffed at was enough to make him reconsider this sentiment. Obviously it wasn’t, so I finally said something along the lines of “What the fuck is an honest woman anyway?” and “Do you really think I would let a man ‘make’ me into anything?”. Blah, blah, blah.
I expected his response to go something like, “I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m so lucky to have an awesome feminist partner who will call me out on all my misogynistic bullshit and patriarchal conditioning.”
No such luck. Instead he said, “But you wear makeup and like to be dominated in bed! I’m so confused!”
Poor boy and silly me. I suppose I should shave my head, wear a burlap sack, and give male lovers bloody noses to achieve orgasm so as not to confuse anyone about my status as a feminist. I understand that when I wear a cute little dress and let my leg and armpit hair hang out, it may seem a little inconsistent and look a little uncanny, but get over it for fuck’s sake.
The thing we all know and hate about patriarchy is that it’s fully formed and completely saturated condition. The former signs and symbols of male domination and female oppression don’t even matter in a fundamental sense anymore. There are no more Don Draper’s patting secretaries on the ass, or Betty Draper’s imprisoned in their home because there are so few options for even upper class women. Today our archetypes are a lot less cut and dry. Take the left’s theoretical sweetheart, Slavoj Zizek, admitting to being an anti-feminist, or Katy Perry singing about getting her kicks by kissing a girl, but still the whole time worrying about if herboyfriend will mind.
With both supposed radicals and liberated women consumed by the all encompassing facets of patriarchy, can there be a clear intellectual and aesthetic defense against it?
No.
Enough with those big heads of yours! We never even liked y’all that much in the first place. I mean, you could be boring, inexplicably moody, sexually uninspiring, had shaky politics, and, well, bad taste in music. Of course there was the initial attraction, but it fails to explain our lingering feelings.
WHY DO WE FEEL REJECTED? WHY DO WE EVEN CARE?
We had to end things because you weren’t looking for a relationship (‘cause we were, right?), or things just got “too intense” for you, or we distracted you from your true passions, or because we were too demanding/abrasive/clingy/challenging. Truth is, and this is hard to admit, you validated us. Your rockstar/monied/ radical-elite/small-time celebrity status made us feel like we were on the right path, meeting the right people, and climbing the social ranks. Your privilege, your image, and our close proximity to it was what we really lusted after, and what made all of your other traits tolerable.
Now, before you get all high and mighty, you exploited us, too. OMG. You LOVED that we are organizers! You got so HOT when we talked politics. And, it was so RAD that there was no commitment! We have long been accustomed to the old sexual/emotional/domestic exploitation thing but, y’all were attracted specifically to our working-class, hairy, aggressively polyamorous, anarcha personas, OUR POLITICS, something far more intimate than sex, something we didn’t even know you could objectify like that.
I’m not saying that our motives were righteous but, I will tell you that they’re honest. It’s really hard to break down 20+ years of internalized sexism and, even in the radical community, women have to work twice as hard as men in order to get half the respect. We may have been riding your coattails a little bit, exploiting the tools that society provides for us to achieve our ends, self-admittedly, to varying degrees of success.
To be honest, we don’t really miss you very much. We’re just bitter that you walked away first. It really hurts that those same traits that attracted you to us ultimately chased you away—we’re loud, assertive, politicized, talented, intelligent, and bold—words that don’t easily describe your new girls, god bless ‘em. It reinforces that sneaking suspicion that we’ve always had: that smart, serious ladies who work to live their politics instead of just talk about them are worthless to society, and therefore unworthy of love, that we’ll only be accepted, even by the most radical men, if we first submit to the wills of both the dominant culture and our lovers. Thanks, boys.
YOU MAKE US WANT TO QUIT MEN.
YOU MAKE US WANT TO QUIT POLITICS.
YOU MAKE US WANT TO MARRY RICH AND RETIRE EARLY.
I guess what I’m trying to say is…
We want you back, babies. We get turned on talking politics, too, and we can’t help but love men, especially the radical ones. We don’t want to believe that everything we shared was empty pillow talk. We don’t want to believe that all men are inherent oppressors. We certainly don’t want to believe that the radical community is just as sexist as all our other options. Help us restore our faith in you, in men, and in anarchist politics!
So, why don’t you come over tonight? We can drink too much and talk shit about vegans. We’ll go make out at a bar, ride our bikes against traffic, and vandalize some luxury cars, go back to our place and be terrifically underwhelmed in the bedroom. Maybe in the morning, pressed up against your naked body and contemplating a greasy breakfast, we’ll feel that validation once again. Or, we’ll explain to you that stuffs kinda complicated right now, and we have this boyfriend, kinda, from high school who’s coming to visit, and he’s not political or anything but we’re sorta in love, and we need more time to work on our writing and having a partner who’s local would be too much of a distraction and, man, we hope that’s ok with you, and you’re really cool and everything but, you know… and, we hope it’s not weird or anything. I mean, we’ll see you at the meeting, right? We knew you’d be cool with that. You’re so rad.
xoxo
