Dare To Be A Feminist

Haaretz Exposing Israelis to radical feminism Haaretz We hope to create visibility for feminists in Israeli society, since feminism and the war against the oppression of women are very silenced issues.

There are things, personal things, many sex workers don't want to talk about; including me. And that's a pity. Because it holds the sex worker movement back. Most cultural shifts regarding unequal ...

An Egyptian revolutionary sentenced to two years in prison for the "crime" of protesting speaks out from behind bars.

On March 25 the Supreme Court will hear two cases brought by for-profit companies that want to deny their employees coverage for birth control. The bosses at Hobby Lobby, a large chain of arts and craft stores, and Conestoga Wood Specialties, which manufactures cabinets, are arguing that their personal religious beliefs should trump the personal beliefs of their female employees, allowing them to evade the law and deny their employees birth control coverage.

This Is Personal will be at the Supreme Court on the day of the hearings to rally in support of birth control coverage and to show America that every woman should have access to this benefit, regardless of her boss’s religious beliefs.

Already more than 27 million women have access to the birth control coverage benefit under the new health care law. Birth control, one of the most frequently used women’s preventive health services, is critical to women’s health and equality. Excluding it from insurance coverage for women while covering the full range of preventive care for men is discrimination—pure and simple.

If you agree — show it. You may not be able to be there in person, but you can still keep it personal. Add your name to the big banner.

Thanks for keeping it personal,

Thao Nguyen
Campaign Director
This Is Personal

The point I am trying to make here is that if clients were contributing something valuable or even something innocuous to our movement, I could deal. Instead, they are perpetrating whorephobia. I fear that people who don’t know better will see posts like this and think these men somehow have more knowledge of our lives and the realities of our work than we do. After all, the conversations surrounding punters and activism are largely cisheteronormative, and most of these men bring their male privilege to the table, while not even being aware of these advantages.

Beyond that, this issue seems to cause a divide between sex workers and, as evidenced by my anon friend, makes those of us who don’t subscribe to this thinking feel isolated, as if we’re doing something wrong. As if it’s our responsibility to listen and care about what men have to say. After all, it’s part of our socialization as women and marginalized people to listen to men, just as it’s part of our male clients’ socialization to speak over us and for us.

As a feminist organization, Secular Woman promotes gender equality. We stand against and combat sexism, hate, intolerance, and misogyny.

Transgender women are women.

Cisgender women are women. 

We do not, in any way, view the existence of transgender women, genderqueer individuals or transgender men as a threat to the safety of women, female identity, or the goals of feminism.

As intersectional feminists we acknowledge the privilege that cisgender people experience. We aim to dismantle the axis of oppression that this represents.

Unfortunately, not all who claim the label “feminist” agree with us.  They do not represent us and we reject their actions and views as unethical and devoid of reason.

We stand in opposition.

Members of our community have been targeted by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs). Personal information such as former names, current legal names, and photographs have been compiled and displayed on the website “Name the Problem”.  Several of the entries are self-attributed to “Pegasus” ("PegasusBug" is a pseudonym of Cathy Brennan, the head of Gender Identity Watch). This information was presented alongside reports describing rapists and batterers of women.

Countless others, including members of transgender advocacy groups have reported similar treatment, as well as other alarming behavior, such as Cathy Brennan contacting employers, schools and medical doctors of transgender women, girls and young men.

This is unacceptable.

Foz Meadows from “I Am So Very Tired” in shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows October 4, 2013 (via nonmono-perspective)