Friends: Just letting you know that this blog is no longer being actively maintained. HOWEVER:
You can find articles by Sunsara Taylor at revcom.us.
In particular, for everyone interested in a revolutionary perspective on work to end pornography, the attacks on abortion rights and all forms of patriarchy, check out revcom.us/movement-for-revolution/stop-patriarchy/index.
For news from the broader movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women, check out the website: StopPatriarchy.org
To contact Sunsara about speaking events, interviews, and other inquiries write to: sunsara_tour (at) yahoo.com
Open Letter: To the Civil Liberties & Public Policy program
An Open Letter to the Civil Liberties & Public Policy (CLPP) program and the Hampshire Community
from Sunsara Taylor and members of StopPatriarchy.org who attended the CLPP Conference:
We are outraged at the illegitimate, immoral and dangerous decision made by CLPP organizers, including CLPP Director Mia Sullivan, to use police to eject us from your conference under threat of arrest simply for peacefully advocating an anti-pornography position to those who approached us at our own organizational table on Saturday, April 13, 2013.
This action on your part violates the most basic and essential standards of any movement against oppression. The police are the armed enforcers of a highly oppressive and repressive state. There is a long and brutal history of the role of the police – from the murder and wrongful imprisonment of Black Panther Party members in the 1960s to the more recent coordinated brutality inflicted on Occupy protesters across the country – in attempting to crush, punish, and demoralize those who would lift their heads to fight against oppression. No one who calls on the police to suppress and physically threaten others who are fighting against oppression can legitimately claim to be doing anything other than the work of this highly oppressive, violent, and repressive state.
What's the Real Deal About CLPP & StopPatriarchy.org?
What's
the Real Deal About the Hampshire CLPP Reproductive Freedom Conference Using
Police to Eject Stop Patriarchy From Their Conference Under Threat of Arrest?
For a video explanation of what happened please watch:
We were motivated to attend by our overall opposition to the
war on women, but especially by the extremeness of the attacks on abortion in
the last few months. In addition to
learning from and connecting with others, we aimed to bring in a program of
mass political resistance and struggle to counter the spate of new laws,
threats, stigma and restrictions on abortion access throughout the country –
starting with the April 25th Student Day of Action for Abortion On
Demand and Without Apology and continuing through major plans this summer.
At the same time, StopPatriarchy.org sees the assault on the
right to abortion as the “mirror opposite” of the assault and violence against
women being mainstreamed through the increasingly degrading, cruel, brutal and
humiliating nature of pornography and the massive growth of the global sex
industry which has destroyed the lives of millions upon millions of women and
very young girls. This is something we
were prepared to engage people over. And
within all this, some of us were bringing the view of all-the-way revolution,
rooting the 40 years of backlash against women's rights as well as the New Jim
Crow and other crimes against the people in the system of
capitalism-imperialism and advocating for revolution and communism as it has
been re-envisioned by Bob Avakian [http://revcom.us/avakian/index.html].
ALERT! Sunsara Taylor arrested at St. Patrick's Cathedral. DROP THE CHARGES!
Aug 12, 2012 New York City: Sunday morning a message was
delivered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a historically
right-wing, anti-birth control,
anti-abortion, anti-queer and anti-woman stronghold of
the Catholic Heirarchy. Chants rang out: "Abortion on demand and without
apology!" "Forced motherhood is female enslavement!"
“Stop the war on women!"
This action came at the end of 10 days of political protest in New York City, to Take Patriarchy by Storm.
The message that women are full human beings, not
sexual objects for the pleasure of men, not breeders,
and capable of equality in every
sphere, was brought across the city: inside a Hooters
restaurant, into porn shops, and a “crisis pregnancy”
center. Activists confronted the current political
climate where people aren’t outraged by the
subjugation of women.
Sunsara and Alice -- leaders in such a needed
movement -- must be released now. Drop the charges!
Write a statement to demand that charges be dropped. Send to stoppatriarchy@gmail.com and it will be delivered to court by defense attorneys to be noted to the judge.
Mon. Aug 13. 12 noon: Come to 100 Centre Street - outside courthouse. Demand: Drop all charges against Sunsara and Alice. Join us!
Monday 7pm: Anti-Patriarchy Talent Show- Celebrating "Take Patriarchy By Storm!" at Revolution Books - 146 W. 26th St. NYC (btw 6-7th Aves.)
IF Sunsara and Alice are not released by 7pm on Monday: Anti-Patriarchy Talent Show will be held in front of 100 Centre Street. Call 212-691-3345 for updates.
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 - 14thintensive 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 porn stores 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.
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!
Fierce, Joyous, Inspiring...A Movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy is Launched!
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.” Read more...
First Quick Report on Yesterday's Protest to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
Yesterday we took to the streets – beginning at St. Patrick's Cathedral and ending in front of a porn store and strip club in Times Square – against the war on women.
Along the way, we stopped at the offices of the foundation which sponsored the anti-abortion billboard which was featured in SoHo last year which claimed that, “The most dangerous place for a black child is in the womb,” at Fox News, at the US Military recruiting station, and to speak out against the way that women's bodies are displayed and objectified on billboards (and everywhere else) in Times Square.
This was a very lively and powerful launch to a new movement. It was a beginning. I will post more about it in the coming days.
At its height, the crowd swelled to about 75 and there were joined in for different legs of the march and protest.
Along the way, we encouraged people who had never spoken before against the war on women to step up and do so. We made clear that we are done with a situation where women all too often tell their stories of rape and sexual assault, of battery and sexual harassment, of obstacles and shame encountered while seeking abortion or even birth control. Meanwhile, woman-haters and religious fascists scream at the tops of their lungs that women are “sluts,” and use the power of the state to strip away our rights. Throughout the march, people did find their voices.
Particularly by the time we reached our last stop, many people stepped forward to speak. A young man told of the first time he saw pornography. He was ten years old. He came into the living room and a bunch of his male relatives were watching. They were all pretty young and began acting out the poses and behavior of the porn. He concluded, “Pornography takes a little boy's natural curiosity and turns it into something perverted,” and into something that is about degrading and getting over on women. A young woman who had toured the porn store with me and others last week stood up and spoke angrily about what was for sale inside. She held high some of the DVD's which were for sale inside, one featuring a woman performing oral sex and other sex acts on a pitbull, one in which the woman's breasts were bound and tortured, and one in which featured the words “All Women are Goo Swallowers.” She spoke of how these videos train men to think this is what women want, “But I am a woman and I don't find pleasure in this! I don't want to be treated like this!” She called on people to get involved in the movement to end pornography and patriarchy and to come to the next meeting.
A young Black woman stepped up and spoke of how she had grown up surrounded by pornography, including that the guys she had relationships with would watch it and try to get her to watch it. She said that when you think this is what you are supposed to do you go along and you even try to find pleasure in it yourself. But now she has the confidence and clarity to say that she finds it demeaning and humiliating and that she sees it as completely bound up with the abuse that is heaped on women in every sphere of their lives. She spoke of how her father brutalized her mother for years, of street harassment, and of the experience of a female relative who works in a profession where most of the men go out to strip clubs at night and bring that same attitude of disrespect into the workplace against her.
A young white woman spoke up about how even doing something as innocent as playing online card-games has made her the target of vicious anti-woman hatred. She explained that everyone must choose an “avatar,” or an online screen picture that represents you on the computer as you long and and play games. But, if she chooses an avatar with long hair (that looks female) she said as soon as she starts winning about 25% of the time men will start calling her “cunt,” “slut,” “whore,” and threatening her. She said that when she changed her avatar to a cat, the harassment stopped. Think what it means that the cat got more respect than the woman!
A young woman stepped to the front with a handmade sign which read, “I am not an incubator!” She spoke for a minute against pornography and built up momentum until she was screaming at the top of her lungs, along with her sign, “I am not an incubator!” The crowd cheered and offered support to every speaker.
There is much more to report. And I promise to write more.
But, this was a very powerful beginning. It needs to grow. More people need to get out in the streets with us.
The reactions of men along the way were further confirmation that a new era of struggle against the enslavement and degradation of women is necessary. Will write more on this tomorrow.
A March 10 march aims to stop oppression against women fueled by porn, says Sunsara Taylor
The flyers that Sunsara Taylor handed out at the Athena Film Festival display a photo of a girl holding a sign that said “porn fuels rape” and call for people to join in a “protest and march against sites of women’s oppression.” The fine print describes a march that will take place on March 10; the route includes St. Patrick’s Cathedral, strip clubs, U.S. Military Recruiting Centers, and “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” whose mission is to dissuade women from having abortions. Upon first glance, the flyer was overwhelming to me; proclaiming that pornography and patriarchy were intrinsically bound seemed similar to saying that opposing stem cell research went hand in hand with opposing gay marriage. “What about the non-misogynistic porn thatwomen are trying to reclaim as empowering?” I wondered. What about the scientific studies that found that states with increased access to the Internet—and therefore porn–actually experienced a decrease in sexual violence? I was by no means convinced that “ending” porn, as the flyer called for, would liberate women– but I was intrigued.
My friend and I met up with Taylor and her colleagues at Times Square on Friday night in order to tour the “adult stores” that they are protesting. We were planning on covering many locations but were so disgusted by the first one we walked into that we nixed the rest of the itinerary. The shelves were packed with DVDs arranged into categories: “Lesbians,” “Asians,” “Teens,” etc. There was nothing subliminal or apologetic about the blatant racism and violence depicted on the covers of these videos; DVDs featuring girls, drugged by chloroform, being gang raped lined the walls. Some of them boasted women being knocked out “over and over and over again!” It was clear that reclaiming these particular movies in the name of empowerment would do nothing for women in terms of sexual liberation.
After we left the store, we sat down to discuss what we had seen. Taylor emphasized that her goal is not to lead a crusade against sex; she supports erotica—a distinction she makes from porn. The difference can be found in the etymology of the words: porn is derived from the Greek word “porne” which translates to “prostitute.” Erotica, on the other hand, comes from the Greek “erotikos” and means “caused by passionate love.” As Taylor explained, porn is only one of the numerous ways that our patriarchal society objectifies women. Other components include conservatives working to take away abortion and birth control rights, as well as the sexual violence that women in the military face. Taylor is working towards a revolution that she hopes will change our culture’s mindset in regards to gender and sexuality as a whole. She welcomes everyone interested to join her on March 10as she begins what she hopes will become a revolution. To learn more about Taylor and her work, visit her blog follow her on Twitter or check out the Stop Patriarchy website.
"pornography and the pro-life movement are two sides of the same patriarchal coin..."
Another comment from another young woman...
"As these times worsen the fascists are intensely waging a war against women’s autonomy and humanity to keep us exploited, degraded and treated like commodities. Events like these which highlight how pornography and the pro-life movement are two sides of the same patriarchal coin looking to shove women into roles not fit for full human beings. Enough is enough! End Pornography! End Patriarchy!"
Sunsara Taylor Speaks at Protest Against Backpage.com for Facilitating Sex Trafficking
Yesterday I joined the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and others to protest Backpage.com for making millions of dollars off of paid advertisements which facilitate the trafficking and the prostituting of women.
The overwhelming majority of women and girls in prostitution are tricked, coerced, or forced through male predation, outright violence, and/or desperation. The notion that women's bodies should be available for sale to men for sexual use and sexual degradation and plunder is a product of thousands of years of patriarchy as it is filtered today through capitalism, which commodifies everything -- including the flesh, the sexuality and the lives of women and girls.
The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, which is led by Bob Avakian, is building a movement for revolution. This revolution takes the complete liberation of women as a driving force, and a dividing line. Find out more at: revcom.us
Keep up with the new effort to
End Pornography & Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women
here: stoppatiarchy.tumblr.com
"Sex-Positive" Feminism and Sasha Grey; No Defense for Porn
Re-posted [originally published 9/27/11]
Recently, two college students (young women) insisted to me that it was wrong to oppose pornography because we should be "sex-positive." They also insisted that many women choose to go into pornography out of their own ambitions and that ought to be respected as a means of "empowerment."
This is bullshit on so many levels. First, the vast majority of women and girls in pornography and prostitution (and the lines do blur) would get out of it if they could. Second, even where women choose for themselves to be in porn despite the availability of other options, this does not mean that choice is a good one. For them, or even more significantly for society and women as a whole. The view of women that is concentrated and perpetuated in porn hurts all women way beyond those who "choose" to take part in it. Every woman at every hour of every day -- whether on the street, in her home, at her job, in school, or on a battlefield -- is affected by, diminished by, and endangered by living in a world where millions upon millions of men get off of watching women reduced to objects to be tortured, humiliated and brutalized for their sexual arousal.
These young college students then mentioned Sasha Grey as their perfect example of a woman who entered into porn on "her terms" and to "her own benefit and empowerment."
I described, among other things, some of what Sasha describes about herself in the video below -- how she invited a man to punch her in the stomach during oral sex as one of the ways that she won such favor in the porn industry, for instance. The young women hesitated for a moment, but then one of them insisted that if this was her choice we should respect it. "But, what of the content? What of the view of women and sex that is being promoted through this?" I asked them. At this point, they insisted they were out of time and had to go (interesting, as they had stopped on the street and talked at great length and with no seeming hurry for quite some time).
The fact is, most women do not like the acts they are forced to take part in as part of the porn industry. Many women comply with those acts out of fear, out of financial desperation, out of addiction, and other forms of extreme coercion. Often, women don't even consent to what is done to them in film but have no resources or rights to keep the film from being distributed anyway.
But for that fraction of women in the industry like Sasha Grey who choose to be demeaned, degraded, abused, and much more (including films that portray them as small girls, ass-to-mouth scenes, gang-bangs with up to fifteen guys on her at once, scenes where she licks a toilet bowl and worse), the critical question is NOT whether she chose to do those things or not. The key question is the social effect of those actions -- and of broadcasting those actions to millions of viewers.
When someone kills someone else, we don't ask the question, "Did they really feel it in their hearts? Was their choice 'authentic to them?'" We ask first, "What was the social effect?" And, if there is not a very good reason for them to have killed (ie: some situations of self-defense or in certain situations within the context of a just war) their behavior is condemned for its effect on society. Further, such behavior -- wherever possible -- is stopped.
This is an analogy. Killing someone is not the same as choosing to be in a porn film. But, the method involved must be the same. The effect of porn must be evaluated based on its societal effect -- not based on the individual intentions of the people who made it. Judged from its societal impact, porn is extremely harmful to women -- to the women involved in making it as well as to every woman walking the earth where there is an international demand for it. It trains men (and women themselves) to not regard women as human beings worthy of respect and equality, it sexualizes degradation and domination, it strips sex of the full range of human interaction, intimacy, vulnerability and caring it can potentially enable human beings to share, it concentrates some of the most unreconstructed racist bigotry and hatred, and it spreads this courseness of being able to view other people as "things" into other dimensions of this heartless world (it is no coincidence that soldiers fighting in unjust wars often get "pumped up" watching porn before going out killing).
Having walked through all that, take a look at this clip from Tyra Banks when she had Sasha Gray on as a guest. Someone has put some extremely important information throughout the clip which I hope you will also take the time to consider.
Sunsara Taylor is a writer for Revolution Newspaper, a host of WBAI's Equal Time for
Freethought, and sits on the Advisory Board of World Can't Wait. She has written on the
rise of theocracy, wars and repression in the U.S., led in building resistance to these
crimes, and contributed to the movement for revolution to put an end to all this. She takes
as her foundation the new synthesis on revolution and communism developed by Bob
Avakian. You can find her impressive verbal battles with Bill O'Reilly and various
political commentary on things from abortion to religion to cultural relativism by searching “Sunsara Taylor”
on youtube.
