Stop Patriarchy

by Sunsara Taylor

We spent most of yesterday at the Supreme Court for the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. We began by honoring the doctors and providers who risk their lives every day to provide women with abortions.

We read statements from some of these doctors as passersby paused to listen. Behind us was a droning voice of a hate-filled anti-abortion fanatic (he later called one of our leaders, “Bitch!” and threatened to “knock [her] out”). Off to the side were a hundred or more anti-abortion activists praying in small circles or kneeling in prayer before the Supreme Court. The whole backdrop only underscored the heroism of the providers who actually give women abortions – and how essential it is to honor them. All too often, they are accompanied and called out by name and known only by those who hate them.

But, on the 40th anniversary, at the Supreme Court in DC, their voices and their service and their courage was heralded! Stories of botched abortions and unnecessary suffering, terror and death of women before Roe were shared. Stories of commitment to women and safe access to abortion were shared. Stories of the gratitude and appreciation that millions of women have expressed to thousands of doctors and staff were shared. StopPatriarchy.org was proud to make these voices at the center of the controversy around abortion!

TAKING ON THE ANTI-ABORTION RHETORIC

We were also proud to politically confront and expose the vicious program of the anti-abortion forces.

We got into many arguments with them. What was noteworthy about this was less that I think we are going to sway many of their hard-core organizers and activists who believe they are on a mission from god and that motherhood is the duty of women.

But, it was noteworthy that the arguments that the people in our crew were making were getting sharper throughout the day. They were cutting through the obfuscation and claim to a “higher morality” of the anti-abortion movement. They were the kind of arguments which caused many of the young anti-abortion activists to turn around and back away because they could not answer them. They were the kind of arguments that, if they were being made more consistently throughout society in this debate, could enable those who care about the lives and the liberation of women to turn the tide. Some examples:

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By Helen Ridsdale.

     Today is the 40^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and abortion remains a tense political issue in the United States. It is also more under threat than it has ever been. And yet, pro-choice activism is on the wane; while hundreds of thousands march for “life” every year, it is rare to see many on the pro-choice side in the streets. The pro-choice movement is taking a more conciliatory stance towards their opponents, and increasingly letting the anti-abortionists set the terms of the debate in the name of reaching across the divide. Conciliation seems generous and high-minded, to those who believe the battle has already been won; and indeed, many in the US today consider abortion rights to be a foregone conclusion. And particularly with a democratic president in the White House, something we can all happily, comfortably forget about. Those who once stood up for women, and stood up for abortion, have been lulled to sleep. The reality is more like a nightmare.

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Break the Silence ©2007-2013 ~AzFaka

I’ve been thinking lately about the charge that is eventually leveled against anyone that actively fights for women to be treated as human beings. “YOU HATE MEN!!”

Not true. But before I go all into defense mode…let me turn the question: Why is it that men hate women?

Look at the world we live in, and look, honestly, at what this world is like for women. Look at how many women are raped, the majority of the rapes carried out on women by men that they trust, friends even. One of the ones they thought was one of the “good guys.”

Look at how many women are beaten, again mostly by their so-called ‘partners’

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A woman holds a poster during a vigil in Dublin November 17, 2012, in memory of Savita Halappanavar and in support of changes to abortion law. 

WTF. WTF? REALLY??!! WTF!!!! This was my reaction…..increasing in anger and volume… to the news that Planned Parenthood is dropping the “label” of being pro-choice, under the idea that this term is too “divisive.” As I sifted through some articles online, I also read from one of them that Planned Parenthood is saying that they hope to move beyond any labels, and that the issue of abortion is “complicated.”

It must be said, this is not at all complicated!!!! This is a “divisive issue” not because of the pro-woman, pro-abortion side of this fight, but because there exists a fanatical anti-abortion

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By Sunsara Taylor

On Dec. 16, 2012 a 23-year-old medical student was kidnapped, repeatedly gang-raped and tortured on a bus in Delhi, India which had been taken over by six men. She was raped repeatedly, beaten viciously, and penetrated by a rusty iron rod which ruptured her internal organs. By the time her rapists dumped her naked body under an overpass, along with her male companion who had sustained broken bones and a severe beating, 95% of her intestines had been pulled out of her body. Her rapists attempted to run her over with the bus, but her companion managed to pull her out of the way. Still, her ordeal was not over. For nearly two hours, as blood poured from her body, medical treatment was delayed – first as passersby refused to stop and then as police delayed and debated over whose jurisdiction and responsibility she was. On December 29th, after 13 days of emergency surgeries and medical attention, she died.

On August 11, 2012, a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio passed out at a party. While she was unconscious, the stars of the local football team stripped her naked, raped her, and goaded party-goers into urinating on her while crowds looked on. They dragged the unconscious girl to three different parties, violating her throughout the night. In cellphone footage taken that night, one of the rapists can be seen laughing and joking about what he and others did to the girl. Referring to the fact that she was unresponsive as this assault went on, he jokes,“Is it really rape, cuz you don’t know if she wanted it or not. She might have wanted it. That might have been her final wish.” While this girl did not, in fact, die, a group of guys can be heard laughing as one of them goes on for a full twelve minutes saying things like, “She is deader than OJ Simpson’s wife,” and, “She is deader than Trayvon Martin.”

How different are these two stories, really? 

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Here’s a message sent to StopPatriarchy from Nikki who is coming to Washington DC for the Week of Action.  Read. Take a moment to think about what this means for women’s lives.  ACT. 

“Last year around this time a friend of mine bought the iPhone 4S, he was so excited about it and so was I. I wanted to play with Siri, the voice interpretation and recognition program that comes on that model and all subsequent models of the iPhone. The first thing I did, as a proud feminist, was to start talking to Siri about women’s issues. I asked Siri where the nearest abortion clinic was. Her response: 

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N17 report sent to Stop Patriarchy from Atlanta, Georgia:

The Military Culture of “Be All You Can Be” Patriarchy

(Inside the military and in the lands they invade and occupy)

As a part of the Call “N17: Take to the Streets! Stop the War on Women!” by the movement to “End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women,”  Revolution Books Atlanta brainstormed with some people to come up with a bold expression that could be taken to the annual School of America’s Watch (SOAW) at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia.   People come from all over the country (and some other parts of the world) to participate in the SOAW protest demanding the closing of the School of Americas because of its program of training reactionary armies from Latin America in CIA torture techniques, and consequently being responsible for torturing and murdering tens of thousands of people over the years.

Since the military is such a concentration of the oppression of women, we really wanted to expose the whole culture of patriarchy it embodies. We decided it would be important to have an interactive piece that would draw people in and find out their thoughts on the war on women.  We waited until we got to the protest to put it together in order to bring others into the process on the spot.  Three women enthusiastically took it up right away.  The title of the piece was “The Military Culture or ‘Be All You Can Be’ Patriarchy (Inside the Military and in the Lands they Invade and Occupy).”

We had a very bright piece of yellow felt that was 7’ x 8’. One of the women lied down and her body was outlined on the fabric.  Then we attached pieces of paper in the shape of bullets going into and exiting the outline of the woman’s body, with words on each bullet:  Rape, Pornography, Sexual Harassment, Homophobia, Torture, Degradation of Women, Denial of Abortion, Prostitution, Strip Clubs.  As people came by to check out the display they added more to it, expanding the Homophobia bullet to include Transphobia, Heterosexism and Cissexism; and adding more bullets for Sex Trafficking, Domestic Violence and Glass Ceiling.  Attached at the bottom of the display was a scroll of paper for people to write their comments, and next to that was the mission statement of “End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women.” The whole piece was taped down in the middle of the street leading to the entrance of the military base that had been closed off for the protest.

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It was sort of cozy in the arena. At least it offered protection from the storm raging outside that vetoed the N17 plan to make a ruckus at the courthouse. It was a first-name environment, too. We all knew each other from branding days or the county fair. Kids were stomping up and down the bleachers and through the stables in their boots, showing off their belt buckles and bragging about their advantages in this or that event. Everybody was dressed in plaid shirts and wrangler jeans, even the babies. It was just another rodeo.

I was hugging my bag tightly, thinking about all  the palm cards I had in there. “ABORTION ON DEMAND & WITHOUT APOLOGY!”: that would surely get me thrown out of the arena and into the rain. “IF YOU CAN’T IMAGINE SEX WITHOUT PORN, YOU’RE FUCKED!”: that might offend people because of the cursing, but folks might actually take it. The rodeo crew needed these cards just as desperately as the more progressive crowd at the courthouse, so I figured I better hand some out and see what happened. It would be a shame if the cards all stayed in my bag. 

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