Creative Project Time

Hi loyal readers (friends and mom)!

So I'm going to be working on something creative for the next few months, well a few creative projects. As a result, I'm not going to be as active on this blog. Don't get me wrong. I'm going to try to post everyday, but I doubt I'll have that much time.

Regardless, be in awe of Emma Watson. I love her so much!

Rape culture, what’s first?

Zerlina Maxwell wrote a piece entitled “Rape Culture is Real” which had the subheading “Simply put, feminists want equality for everyone and that begins with physical safety.” I couldn’t disagree with this subheading more. Maxwell discussed her personal experience with sexual assault. However, she discusses the things she was told, that it was her fault, she must have done something to provoke the violence, which brought her to the conclusion that rape culture exists, “a culture in which sexual violence is the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults.”

Of course, rape culture exists. Maxwell continues on to talk about Caroline Kitchens who decided that rape culture isn’t a thing, but the product of hysterical feminists. Maxwell counters Kitchens’ points with facts and statistics, and Maxwell is very right. This brings Maxwell to her conclusion that feminists want safety above all to bring about equality. Maxwell’s article continues to discuss the hashtag #RapeCultureIsWhen.

I don’t think we’ll be able to achieve equality or safety without a shift in culture and understanding of rape culture. I fear that “safety” while rape culture remains unchanged will only serve to create policed behavior of women because the behavior of rapists and those who enable rapists will not change. The focus remains on women to amend their behavior to be safe, which solves nothing. What we need to do is amend the thinking of the masses and articulate how rape culture impacts everyone, which is very simple. Within the parameters and framework of rape culture, all men are rapists and all women are victims. That alone should be enough to convince people to shift their thinking.

Within Maxwell’s framework, physical safety is the priority, but that isn’t going to create change. Change will only happen when rape culture is actually addressed through substantive conflict. Everyone has to confront rape culture and openly challenge the status quo until rape culture is no longer the norm. We have to move past this worldview and progress to the next stage, which would include the physical safety of everyone.

Whedon and feminist

Joss Whedon is my spirit animal. I’m completely bias here; I think the man is a brilliant storyteller, and I’m partial to those. That said he makes a compelling argument for changing language, and I love English linguistics (thanks Dr. Ruff).

Whedon begins by saying he hates feminist, but feminsits, but the word feminist because of the –ist, which is a great attention grabbing way to start his statement. Whedon asks that we use the word “genderist” to provide context instead of feminist. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a feminist, and I don’t think we need to change the word, but we need a word that provides the context in the negative. So instead of someone saying, “I’m not a feminist, but…” it would be “I’m not a genderist, but…” Genderist meaning discriminatory toward a person based on their gender because genderist takes us back to a world before women, men, and trans people were treated equally.

I go both ways on men in the movement. I believe they have a place and can be feminists, but sometimes I wonder about men in the movement who need to be out front all the time. That said, I’m giving Whedon a pass because he is employing his privilege not to speak for women and people who reject the gender binary, but because he’s bring attention to the cause. Jezebel does a good write about with a transcript, but just watch his speech. His speeches are the best because he brings the funny.