Stop Patriarchy

That’s what a young woman said to her friend with wonder in her voice after encountering the #Stop Patriarchy booth at Warped Tour. She was pro-choice and wanted an #Abortion on Demand & Without Apology sticker but she had obviously never heard anyone talk positively about abortion. We mentioned how important and liberating the right to abortion is for all women, and how we need to fight for it this summer on the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride. It wasn’t long before she told us that she had had an abortion and wasn’t sorry she did, but also felt bad about it. We answered very supportively that abortion is a responsible choice, she obviously did the right thing for her, and she absolutely did not do anything wrong, period - so there’s no reason she should have to feel bad about it for the rest of her life. When her friend ran up behind her and got filled in about the conversation, she put her arm around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, “You shouldn’t feel bad about your abortion.” The young woman smiled and you could literally see her shoulders relax. 

This needs to happen many times over and on a much larger scale throughout society. 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion by age 45. Think about how many teens and grown women are held back and held down by a burden of shame and stigma! This is totally unnecessary and should not be tolerated by anyone who cares about women or what kind of world we live in. 

This summer, Stop Patriarchy and all the people who will be joining us on the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride are setting out to change this! Imagine what it would look like, this new force on the scene, if everywhere the Freedom Ride travels, to all five states with only one clinic left, hundreds of girls and women, wave after wave, throw off the burden of shame and stigma and begin to proudly and defiantly fight to determine their own destinies and turn the tide for abortion rights. All this is tangible and possible.

This Freedom Ride is happening. Join it, Support it, Tell people about it. Donate at stoppatriarchy.org

from Andrea Strong

Andrea Strong is a Steering Committee Member of End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women.

[Written after reading the letter, “I Still Don’t Call It Rape and the Weight of It Gets Heavier All the Time” from Abigail Lynn.]

Rape is NEVER the victim’s fault. Let me repeat that: Rape is NEVER EVER EVER EVER the fault of the victim. If you were raped, suspect you were raped, or if you were coerced by words or charm or threat, and may not call it rape, but still feel violated, IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT.

We live in a RAPE culture, a culture where people think that rape has to with sex. Rape has little to do with sex; it is about one person controlling another: whether through physical violence, emotional pressure, or leveraging of power or other social capital, to the point where the victim of the rape feels anything from humiliation all the way up to fear for their life as the dominant emotions. Any female, from the age of 6 months to 90 years old, of any nationality, from any walk of life, wearing any kind of clothing, doing any kind of work or activity (sometimes even sleeping in her own bed), is at risk. Any female in any physical environment, at any time of day or night, is at risk. It could happen in her own home, at a college frat party, at her kindergarten playground, at her church or temple, at her job, in her car, on the street, on the bus or subway, etc., etc., etc. The aggressor could be her boyfriend, her teacher, her priest, her husband, her friend, her date, a stranger, her employer, her boss, her client, her co-worker, even her father/brother/uncle/ or other family member, etc., etc.,etc.

This idea that women that get raped somehow asked for it: by their dress, by their behavior, by the work that they do – like prostitution, or pornography, (or babysitting!!), those ideas are wrong.  Let me be clear, they are wrong because morally it’s wrong, not to mention ludicrous, to blame a victim of a crime for the crime that someone else committed against them. BUT moreover, those ideas are wrong, meaning that those ideas don’t reflect reality; they don’t accurately describe why rapists rape women.

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from Abigail Lynn

[part of our growing collection of Stories from the War Zone]

I was 42 before it really, seriously dawned on me that my first sexual experience was an assault. Even now, in my late 50s, I cannot say that it was rape. Rape is what happens to others; this wasn’t “as bad.” Even as I write about it now I have to soften it, distinguish it from real pain, by calling it an assault.

It was 1970; I had just turned 15.

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Here is my story about an opportunity I had today to do just that..

A Catholic science teacher asked me this morning to talk to a girl who has been dressing scantily. She walked into a class full of freshmen boys yesterday who then proceeded to hoot and holler and harass her in front of the teacher and throughout the day. The proposed solution is for me to talk to her and tell her when she dresses that way she “drives boys crazy.” I asked if anyone talked to the boys about their behavior and it was like it hadn’t occurred to him; he said, “Oh, uh, no, I don’t think so.”

I explained to the science teacher that I can talk to her, but am not going to send that message, and why. And I want to talk to the boys, too. Christian math teacher jumps in to stalwartly defend the idea that young women are in control of boys’ actions. I tell him I want to live in a world where sexual harassment is not considered a natural hazard, and victims in general aren’t blamed for their own abuse, but we can at least try to create that culture here. He said, “That’s why I’m glad I’m having a boy” (his wife is pregnant). I told him, “Well you better raise your boy better than thinking what he does in the world is the fault of women and their wardrobe choices.” He stared at me a second and then left.  I looked up and the science teacher had left the room as well.

I think I just figured out how to clear out the copy room at the busiest time of day.

This is a message young women are getting across the country - it’s completely unacceptable to go on with our days without resisting and directly interrupting the constant stream of blame on women for the effects of patriarchy!  SPEAK UP!

                                            —A high school teacher in California

Donate $5 or $10 or $20…right HERE to stand up for abortion rights in Charlotte.

Here’s a letter we received from Sheila, who made a donation towards our trip to Charlotte to PROTECT Clinics during the DNC:

The anti-abortion misogynistic fanatics of “Operation Save America” are planning mass protest at Charlotte-area women’s clinics both before and during the Democratic National Convention.  They will harass women coming to the clinics & clinic staff.   Stop Patriarchy is rallying together to get people down to Charlotte this weekend to stand against OSA.

There are politicians out there talking about ‘legitimate rape’ and not even knowing what is wrong with that phrase.  We know the majority of the republicans are letting the total right wing Bible belt crazies make their decisions.  But even the democrats aren’t truly fighting for women’s rights.  They’re not saying they are anti-abortion but they’re not pro-abortion either.  They are not protecting women’s clinics from harassment and they are not helping women’s rights with their healthcare plans either.

The right to decide should not be anyone’s decision but the woman who owns her body  - not the government, not the church, not her family members, friends, employers.   If your body is your temple you should be allowed to worship it however you choose.    The Right to Choose should be legalized.  You can get your hands on a gun and shoot people in a movie theater or in the city streets but a woman cannot make her own decision about her body in this country.  There is something very wrong here.

I donated to Stop Patriarchy to help them get people down to North Carolina to stand against “Operation Save America”.  Please do the same so you and your sister, mother cousin, niece, granddaughter will not be forced to make demands on her own body that are not her own decision.

Be like Sheila! 

Donate $5 or $10 or $20…right HERE to stand up for abortion rights in Charlotte over Labor Day weekend.

From Alex.

So there we were, in Union Square, taking patriarchy by storm.  We had the Bootprints display, as well as the Warzone banner (see previous posts below), and were attracting a crowd.  We took turns shouting out our Call to Action (see above under “call”), and many people who find this sick society intolerable were engaging us, giving donations, adding their stories, and signing up to our list. Then, along comes this guy…

He is carrying this sign and yelling at us from a distance.  I approach.  He says:

“You people have nothing new to say.  If it were up to people like you, only rich guys would ever have sex.”

This was intriguing.  I said to him:

“We don’t think people or sex should be exchanged for money at all.  You don’t know anything about us.  Do you want to?”

Him: “Oh yes I do.  I know.  You people are all the same.  If you really want to end porn, you should just have sex with anyone, people like me, in public.  You don’t give it up for free so we need porn.  There, I won.  You don’t have anything to say to that.”

And he proceeded to walk away.  This was not acceptable.  I shouted after him:

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Thursday, August 9, 7:00pm
Sunsara Taylor
speaking on

“You Can’t Break All the Chains Except One.   Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution.”

A talk and discussion on this quote from BAsics from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian:

“You cannot break all the chains, except one. You cannot say you want to be free of exploitation and oppression, except you want to keep the oppression of women by men. You can’t say you want to liberate humanity yet keep one half of the people enslaved to the other half. The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women. All this is why women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure there is all-the-way revolution. The fury of women can and must be fully unleashed as a mighty force for proletarian revolution.” 

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 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…

Join TAKE PATRIARCHY BY STORM! 

Aug. 4-14 in NYC - volunteers from around the country and all over the city working 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.    http://www.stoppatriarchy.org/

at Revolution Books

146 W. 26^th Street, NYC   212-691-3345

Discussion…
 
Tuesday, June 26 at Revolution Books in NYC
7-9:30 pm
146 West 26th Street, NYC

hosted by Sunsara Taylor and the project to
End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement & Degradation of Women

50 Shades of Grey: Bad for Women! Bad for Sex! 

50 Shades of Grey portrays a virginal college grad falling for a stunningly wealthy, controlling, powerful and troubled man who insists on totally owning her and getting off while hurting her with riding whips, chains, paddles and violently degrading sex. Despite her tears, deep isolation and confusion she comes to find this fulfilling and enjoyable.
 
Millions of copies of this book have been sold and everyone has been buzzing about what it means that women are attracted to this fantasy.

In reality, the attraction to this “fantasy” is not shocking. It’s only different by a matter of degree from the common romance novel or fairy tail that women have been indoctrinated with their whole lives: a young, virginal and insecure woman somehow attracts a man who she “doesn’t deserve.” He is powerful, jealous, moody and controlling. She is frightened, but the more she submits the more she sees abuse is just how he shows his love. Finally, she is made “worthy” because he wants to possess her.
 
The only thing new this time is that she has to sign a contract that refers to her as “The Submissive” and he buys her platinum and diamond jewelry to cover her bruises.

This is harmful!

It is bad for women - at a time when, under the guise of “post-feminism” women are once again being pushed to embrace the role of “breeder” or “sex object,” this book reinforces and makes appealing the idea that women should be owned and controlled by men.

It’s bad for sex - at a time when more space needs to be opened up for people to imagine and experience the full richness of what sex can be between mutually respectful and equal partners, this book pushes people to get over their discomfort and wallow in sex as degradation and enslavement.

NOTE: You do not have to have read the book to participate!

An Open Letter on Sexual Subjugation and Intellectual Rationalization

by Sunsara Taylor

Some people say that it is wrong to call for the abolition of pornography, prostitution and the entire global sex industry. They claim that doing so only further stigmatizes the women—and very young girls—who are bought and sold and denies these women—and these very young girls—their “agency.” Instead of abolishing the sex industry, these people insist, we should be “empowering” women and girls to “reclaim sex work” and we should be fighting the sense of shame that is imposed on these women and girls for the “work” that they do.

Outrageously, a great many of those making this argument are concentrated in the “Gender Studies” departments at universities and colleges throughout this country and therefore have disproportionate influence over the thinking of young people who are concerned about the oppressed conditions of women throughout the world.

To those who make this argument, and to all those influenced by it, I pose the following:

During the many long and bitter years of outright chattel slavery in the history of the United States, did Black people suffer not only physical brutality, cruelty and disfigurement on a mass scale, but also tremendous psychological trauma, shame, and humiliation as a major part of that experience?

Undoubtedly!

But, does that mean that those generations of enslaved people needed to be “empowered” to make the most of their situation within the confines of slavery? Did they need to be counseled and told not to feel so ashamed or devalued just because they were enslaved?

Or did they need people, millions and millions of people, to fight and to sacrifice to put an end to the back-breaking, spirit-crushing crime against humanity of slavery and, in that process, to repudiate the ideology and culture of white supremacy and Black inferiority which was not only promoted by the U.S. ruling class but which also inflicted deep scars on the psyches of the oppressed themselves?

For anyone with any sense of history and a conscience, the question answers itself.

Applying the same basic standard today, it is simply immoral to refuse to stand up against and demand the abolition of the global sex industry which dehumanizes, degrades, tortures, exploits, traumatizes and brutalizes millions of women and very young girls each year—and which fosters a culture where all women are demeaned, degraded, devalued and endangered. Beyond that, it is impossible to conceive of putting an end to the stigma and the shame that is heaped on women who are used and degraded in the sex industry while simultaneously rationalizing and defending this very industry as it daily treats these women (and very young girls) as nothing more than human chattel.

End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!

(Source: revcom.us)

Saturday, March 17
at The Left Forum at Pace University in NYC -
 
KEY PANELS & DEBATES!

Come listen, learn more and volunteer to be part of the team getting the word out about this new movement to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
 
►An Army of Rape: Why Supporting the Troops is Wrong! - 10:00 am
 more info
 
► Pornography & the Sex Industry: Reclaim, Regulate, Uproot, or Abolish? A Debate - 12:00 noon
 more info
 
► ABORTION: An Ugent Part of Women’s Liberation — Differing Viewpoints on How to Win this Fight - 3:00 pm
more info
 
full schedule & info: www.leftforum.org
 
email: stoppatriarchy@gmail.com to volunteer