Stop Patriarchy

Revolution Books

146 West 26th St. NYC btw 6-7th Aves.

For ten days, volunteers from around the country and scores of folks from New York City will fan out around the city to take patriarchy by storm. Through flash protests at fake abortion clinics and porn stores, through social interventions at outdoor concerts and crowded summer parks, through discussions, film-showings and strategizing sessions, we will jump start the fight to end the war on women.

Come hear Sunsara Taylor speak on Defeating the War on Women, Winning Women’s Liberation, meet some of the volunteers and others around the city who hate patriarchy, share some good food and good company and get your hands on the action-packed calendar to take part in the ten days that follow.

Bring your favorite dish to share, bring a poem or song, bring a metro-card for the out of town volunteers, bring friends, or come alone.

stoppatriarchy.org

** One urgent need is for housing for the volunteers. Please contact stoppatriarchy@gmail.com if you are willing to take in a volunteer for all or a portion of this time (even a couch or floor-space would be greatly appreciated).

If you hate the way that women are not only raped but then blamed and shamed for being raped…

If your blood boils at the knowledge of millions of women bought and sold and abused and degraded in the global sex industry…

If you want to puke when you hear Christian fascists moralizing that women should “keep their legs closed” and you want to scream when you hear of another abortion clinic being attacked, another doctor being stalked, another law restricting women’s right to birth control or abortion being passed…

If you are infuriated by how pornography has become more violent, more degrading, more cruel, and more humiliating towards women even as it has become more and more mainstream…

If you are sick of the way women have been trained to hold their tongues, suppress their rage, and remain silent in the face of this all out war against their lives and their humanity…

You need to be part of the August 4 - 14th intensive effort to

TAKE PATRIARCHY BY STORM.


For ten days in New York volunteers from around the country and all over the city will work closely together to launch an all-out counteroffensive against patriarchy and to strategize together to figure out how we are going to go forward to win.

We will:

• hold flash protests outside of strip clubs and anti-abortion institutions (like fake clinics and the Catholic church)
• stage positively confrontational “social interventions” (like going into crowds at outdoor concerts with big signs which read, “Stop Watching Porn! Start Fighting Patriarchy!”) and stand our ground in the mass debate this provokes
• get out in the oppressed neighborhoods throughout the city with a beautiful “War on Women” display
• do street theater in crowded areas
• hold public programs on women’s liberation
• organize a cultural talent show against patriarchy
• and discuss and strategize every day as to how to really kick out the jams and take the movement to End Porn & Patriarchy to a whole societal level, particularly making plans for the campuses and high schools in the fall

From our work thus far with this initiative we have found incredible receptivity. Yes, some people are hostile (which is only to be expected in a society where so many have been indoctrinated for so long in such bone-deep misogyny), but there are also many who have been choking on their rage and hungry for an outlet. And there are many who begin by dismissing or even attacking us who, through sharp arguments and political struggle, open up about how much turmoil they have been in over these very questions and express the desire to get involved in the movement to end patriarchy.

But until now we have not found the ways to fully tap into this, to bring it to the surface, to sustain this and to fan it even further. This is what we will do in these ten days. This will be a forging ground for all who attend, a chance to work together with other like minded people to try new things out and figure out what works, to get into deep discussion about all this and strategize about going forward, to project this movement to thousands of people in one of the most trend-setting cities in the world, and to draw in and actively organized hundreds as we do.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US.

stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

7:00 TONIGHT - Protest!

50 Shades of Grey -

BAD FOR WOMEN! BAD FOR SEX!

at: SideBar

118 E. 15th Street, New York City

by Irving Place [4,5,6,R,N,Q,L to Union Sq.]

here’s what’s happening:

SideBar is hosting a “50 Shades of Seduction” event. They’re advertising:

“Can’t get enough of Grey? Come indulge in some eXXXtra Grey at this 50 Shades of Seduction event…..The Hands Tied Ticket includes admission, 45 minute S&M class taught by Mistress Gia inspired by the highly addictive trilogy and one Grey-tini Cocktail.

The Hands Tied for Two Ticket includes admission for two, 45 minute S&M class inspired by the highly addictive trilogy taught by Mistress Gia and 2 Grey-tini Cocktails.”

But we’ll be there to say:

COME JOIN US…bring a sign -

We’ll be calling on people to reject the view of women and of sex that is promoted in the book, not to imitate and celebrate those views.

50 Shades of Grey glamorizes the story of a powerful man hurting a woman who cares for him using riding whips, chains, paddles and violently degrading sex. This is not ‘just fantasy.’ This does harm.

Every day millions of women around the world are hurt through the real-world acts of rape, battery, sexual slavery, pornography and sexual abuse. Women should be fighting to end their oppression and degradation, not celebrating it or seeking to get ‘in on’ their own objectification, commodification and degradation.

50 Shades of Grey is also bad for sex. More space needs to be opened up for people to imagine and experience the full richness of sex between mutually respectful and equal partners. Instead, this book pushes people to get over their discomfort and wallow in degradation and enslavement.

From the Call to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women:

“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; 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 their sexuality without shame or stigma); this culture that demonizes and bullies LGBT people.

“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!”