Revolution #256, January 15, 2012
CALL TO ACTION
End Pornography and Patriarchy:
the Enslavement and Degradation of Women
We are told that "equality for women has been won" and that "there are no limits to what girls can achieve." BULLSHIT!
Every 15 seconds a woman is beaten. Every day three to four women are killed by their partners. One out of four female college students will be raped or sexually assaulted while in college.
In recent years, pornography has become increasingly violent, cruel, degrading towards women; women are referred to as "cumdumpsters" and "fuckbuckets"; the “money shot” (ejaculation in a woman's face) is standard; humiliating cruelty—like violent "ass-to-mouth" penetration—is normalized, and racist bigotry is sexualized. Meanwhile, the broader culture has been pornified: pole dancing is taught at gyms, "sexting" is a national phenomenon among teens, and the strip club is the accepted backdrop to male bonding. All this is tied in with, and reinforces, the trafficking of millions of women and girls as literal chattel in the international sex industry.
This is NOT society becoming more comfortable with sex. This is society becoming saturated with the sexualized degradation of women. If you can’t imagine sex without porn, you’re fucked.
At the same time, a Christian fundamentalist-driven assault is imperiling abortion, birth control, real sex education, and women’s lives. Doctors are killed. Women who seek abortion (a safe, necessary, and perfectly moral medical procedure)—or even birth control—are stigmatized. 2011 saw the largest spate of legal restrictions on abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Women who are not virgins or who do not choose to become mothers are shamed. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who do not conform to traditional patriarchal gender and sexual norms are demonized and condemned.
ALL THIS MUST BE STOPPED!
Women are not objects. Women are not things to be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!
It is long past time that this new generation stand up, reject, and RESIST this culture of rape and pornography; this culture that labels women "selfish" if they choose not to become mothers and stigmatizes them for having abortions; this culture that reduces women and girls to sexualized objects while denying their full multi-dimensional humanity (including their right—as one essential part of this—to explore and experience mutually respectful and fulfilling sexuality without shame or stigma).
• RESIST THE CULTURE OF RAPE AND PORNOGRAPHY— Join in protest against the celebration of, and profit in, the degradation of women and the trade in women’s flesh.
• STAND UP FOR ABORTION RIGHTS—Fetuses are not babies. Women are not incubators. Abortion is not murder.
Our purpose is NOT to lobby for new legislation to ban pornography ("decency laws" have always served to further repress homosexuality, boundary-challenging art, and scientific sex education). We oppose the criminalization of women in the sex industry.
Our mission is to challenge the new generation in particular to reject this culture of rape and pornography, to resist the shaming of women who have sex and/or abortions, to wage fierce cultural and political resistance to wake others up, and to celebrate, fight for, and win the full equality and liberation of women.
March 10 & 11 • Everywhere
International Women’s Day
This March, to commemorate International Women’s Day, take to the streets! On the weekend of March 10 & 11, demand: End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
January 22 & 23 • Washington, DC
Stand Up for Abortion and Birth Control!
See call on page 6 for protest on January 23 in Washington, DC to commemorate the anniversary of the legalization of abortion and to counter the biggest annual march against women’s right to abortion. Come to DC Sunday night for a panel and discussion on defeating the assault on abortion rights and winning the liberation of women. See worldcantwait.net for more info.
Contact Info
stoppatriarchy.tumblr.com
stoppatriarchy@gmail.com for questions, comments, ideas, and interest in getting involved. Get flyers to hand out, bring a speaker to your campus, ask your toughest questions. The future of women depends on YOU!
sunsara.blogspot.com to check out the conversation on Sunsara Taylor’s blog.
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