Posts tagged protest

Really?!?

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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Aug 4th-14th NYC - TAKE PATRIARCHY BY STORM!

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

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Protest pics - ”50 Shades of Grey: BAD FOR WOMEN! BAD FOR SEX!” 

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Together we made a promise, to ourselves, to the faces around us, to the women throughout the country, and to the women throughout the world, that we will not stop until never again is a woman demeaned, degraded, enslaved, disrespected, spit upon, set on fire, beaten, raped, humiliated, mocked, tortured, stalked, devalued, or dismissed simply because she is born female. As people made this promise together, as we all looked in each others faces as we did, the change in all of us was palpable. People felt alive with fury and lifted up with joy.
Sunsara Taylor, in Fierce, Joyous, Inspiring… A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!

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I, at first, when I went to Revolutionary Bookstore and heard Sunsara speak I didn’t see the seriousness of porn and I kind of just brushed it off. You think, okay this is something that’s pleasurable, you look at it maybe with your boyfriend you don’t want to seem too feminist you don’t want to seem too sensitive. But I come from a community, an urban community where guys kind of have these sexist attitudes. A lot of their attitudes, I believe, is shaped by porn. But it is shaped by, me as a young person of color, it’s shaped by the music industry. Watching BET, seeing how guys depict women, its like a watered down version of porn. And when you don’t look that way they kind of have these attitudes that you are not woman enough or you’re trying to be the man, look how you dress, you got your hoody, you got your coat. If I have Timberland boots. And often times, why I dress the way I dress I because I don’t want to be fucked with and harassed, you understand? I’m a care-giver. I also graduated from college; I wear many different hats and it’s a shame that I feel that as a woman of color that I’m already being reduced down in society because society sees me as a fucking bitch trick or whore. And you hear what they have said about Whitney Houston about her being a crack head and whore. It’s not just about porn, but it takes it to a macro level. When you have executives and how they view women. My sister works in corporate America and these guys who wear suits, who wear briefcases when they leave from work where do they frequently go? You understand? Strip joints! They purchase escorts…
young woman quoted by Sunsara Taylor in Fierce, Joyous, Inspiring… A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!

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I want to say what I saw when I come into the porn store. And not just what I saw, but what I felt and what I realized about pornography made with women. When we went to the porn store, on the ‘Torture Wall’ we saw women with these things on their breasts that stop the blood and that is very painful for women. It is not something that we enjoy but the people who made [did it] because that made money and because of this society thinks that women enjoy doing that. But that is not true. And then we saw women giving pleasure to dogs. Because they said that women enjoy this. Which women enjoy this? I am a woman and I don’t enjoy that. And the other things that we saw was a tv showing the second floor of the shop and what was on the second floor were women selling their bodies and they were showing us, the people who were not on the second floor, how the women sell their bodies and how the women are ‘happy’ because of that. It was fucked up. Then, we need to join this movement. You need to join this movement and you need to build it. Because a whole different world is possible. Because we can imagine it and we can build it. You can do it with us
young woman quoted by Sunsara Taylor in Fierce, Joyous, Inspiring… A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!

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In front of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, which sponsored a billboard last year in downtown Manhattan which claimed that, “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb,” a young Black woman asked, “Should Black people fear genocide? Yes!” She went on to speak of the epidemic of police brutality, police murder, and mass incarceration of Black youth. “But these ads, they don’t call out the system. Instead, they blame Black women.” She continued, “Do Black women get higher rates of abortions than white women? Yes they do. But why is that?” She answered that Black women have the least access to real scientific sex-education, contraception, affordable and reproductive health-care, so they do end up with more unwanted pregnancies. But that is as a result of the genocidal conditions facing Black people, not the cause of it! Not only do these ads scapegoat Black women for the oppression of this system, they use this shaming of Black women to attack the rights of all women who seek abortions.

She, and others throughout the day, emphasized that “there is nothing wrong with abortion.” Fetuses are not babies. Abortion is not murder. And women are not incubators.

Sunsara Taylor, reporting A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!

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Fierce, Joyous, Inspiring… A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!

by Sunsara Taylor

On Saturday, March 10th a new energy, a new defiance, and a new commitment to fight for the full liberation of women, were felt on the streets of New York City.   Beginning at noon in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, proceeding on a tour of many sites which concentrate the oppression of women, and concluding in front of a strip club and porn store near Times Square; people of all ages, many nationalities, and all genders condemned the enslavement and degradation of women.

In Times Square

As people gathered in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, beneath its towering spires and enormous brass doors designed to make humans feel small and humble, their faces were filled with both exuberance, but also hesitation. It is not typical to confront churches. In fact, it’s not typical these days to directly confront woman-haters of any kind. It is all too typical for people to complain in hushed voices or to send money and sign petitions to politicians in the hopes that maybe someone else will do something. So, it is understandable that this felt new to many people.

As people picked up signs and decked themselves out in stickers, I was reminded of something told to me by a self-defense instructor years ago. She made a point of taking the time to insist that all her female students learn to yell forcefully. She did this because women are so deeply socialized to be polite, demure, docile, quiet and agreeable that they have to learn to trust their anger when they are under attack.

“I Demand my Reproductive Rights!! I’m a Human Being!!

I shared this story with the crowd and added, “Today, women around the world are under attack and we ought to be angry about that. We ought to be loud about that. We ought not to be the ones telling our stories in whispers and through tears while woman haters scream ‘slut’ at the tops of their lungs. Today, we are going to get in touch with our anger. We are going to yell at the tops of our lungs. If it feels funny at first, that’s okay, keep at it. After a while it will stop feeling funny and will start to feel really fucking good. And then, it will be contagious. That is the point of today. We are taking it upon ourselves to defeat the war on women. We are changing ourselves in the process. And we are launching a new movement that wakes up and draws in others wave after wave until we win.” 

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Women speak out at Fox News

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International Women’s Day in NYC. View more photos here.

International Women’s Day in NYC.

View more photos here.

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International Women’s Day - Chicago

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The Priest and the Pornographer: two sides of the same patriarchal coin.

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They do NOT have a right to tell us who must become pregnant!

I demand that THEY SHUT UP!

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International Women’s Day is nice to celebrate, as it has been for decades. However, if you think long and hard about the status of women today, on a global level, there is absolutely nothing to “celebrate.” In fact, we are heading backwards. Candidates for President, such as Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney espouse hatred of women in their doctrine of abortion being a “special interest.” Draconian laws are being passed almost monthly in the last year curtailing services and service providers for women’s health care needs. Insurance companies will no longer pay for birth control or abortions. And all of this under a “democratic” administration.

So today we in New York City, took to the streets not in celebration, but in righteous anger by demanding hands off our bodies, lives and minds. Stop enslaving women through trafficking and pornography, industries that make billions off girls’ bodies. We told the Catholic Church, Fox News, military recruiters and anyone else, male or female, to stop sticking your noses in our vaginas and leave us the hell alone!

Elaine Brower, writing about the International Women’s Day march in NYC

(Source: elaine.worldcantwait.net)

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ABC - Chicago: Group holds Women's Day protest

March 10, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Saturday was International Women’s Day and a group of activists gathered at the Marilyn Monroe sculpture in Pioneer Court to hold a protest.

“Women are not toys. Women are not objects for the boys,” the group chanted

They gathered at that controversial sculpture to protest the degradation of women.

A short time later, they marched to Holy Name Cathedral to call out the Catholic Church for its opposition to birth control, sex education and abortion.