Take Patriarchy By Storm, Aug 4 - 14th, NYC

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 - 14^th 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 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.

stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

Out of Denial and Into the Streets – International Women's Day 2012

Women the world-over are facing a growing assault on their lives, their rights, and even their recognition as full human beings.


In the U.S., Catholic Bishops have turned women's basic right to birth control into a national controversy. At least twenty percent of U.S. female soldiers are sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers. Every moment we are bombarded by images of women's bodies, half naked and half starved. And strip clubs, which serve up the subordination of women to men in the living flesh, have become so mainstream that annually men spend an estimated $16 billion dollars on them (as compared to the $4 billion they spend on baseball).


In the Congo, tens of thousands of women have been so brutally raped they can no longer hold their bladders or bowels. From Moldova to Thailand and beyond, millions of girls and women are sold as sex slaves. Throughout the world, fueled by the massive dislocations caused by imperialist development as well as imperialist wars, Islamic fundamentalism is rising with its “honor” killings, forced veiling, and hatred of women. And from China to Honduras to Silicon Valley, the near-slave labor – and sometimes outright slave-labor – of women and girls has disproportionately fueled the growth in cheap manufacturing.


These are not “just a bunch of different bad things happening to women."  These are but a few of the many fronts in an all-out war on women. While the forms this takes may appear different – or even unrelated – a common rope is tightening around nearly every dimension of the public, social, political, and intimate lives of women.

Read more »

"Human Barbie," Sexualization of Girls, and a Call for PROTEST

Just now someone sent this link to me with the subject line, “this is just obscene.” I had to stop and write something because, indeed, it IS obscene – on many levels!

'Human Barbie' Gives 7-Year-Old Daughter Liposuction Voucher

The worst part of this story is not even the fact the mother of this 7 year old would give her a voucher for a future “boob job” and liposuction, it is the fact that this young girl is already herself begging for these procedures.

Obviously, it is outrageous for a parent – or any adult – to give such a gift to a child, but lets not leave this story at criticizing her mother. Even as indicated in the “objective” coverage of this story, the idea that a female should be evaluated primarily in terms of her physical attractiveness (as defined by a dangerously narrow and unhealthy standard) to men is broadly accepted in society. That is not being indicted by the article. What is being called out is that this 7 year old is just too young to be objectified and surgically modified. I agree, she is too young. But just because a girl grows up into a woman doesn't make objectifying and commodifying her body okay (nor does it make it harmless for her to “choose” to objectify and commodify herself!). And this is what is not being called out in this article, or in most of the discussion these days about the very real and very dangerous phenomenon of sexualizing very young girls.

If we treat women like nothing more than sex objects then how is that NOT going to filter down into the psyches and aspirations of very young girls?

To be clear, sexualizing a 7 year old IS a fucking crime, but lets just step back a second so we don't miss the other crimes this is part of.

Read more »

Abortion Doctor LeRoy Carhart Is a Hero -- Operation Rescue Threatens Him

Why YOU should be in Maryland July 31-August 7

by Sunsara Taylor

A determining focal point in the battle for abortion rights and the lives of women begins July 31 in Germantown MD. One of the most courageous and prominent abortion providers in the country is being targeted by one of the most hateful, fascistic, anti-woman groups in the country. Anyone who cares about the future for women needs to be there or find a way to support those who will be.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart is a hero. He provides abortions. As simple as that may sound – and as simple as that ought to be – this means that every day for more than two decades he has risked his life for the lives of women. He’s been threatened. He’s been stalked. His family has been harassed – even receiving calls “informing” them of his murder. Once, his farm was burned to the ground.

But that is not all.

Two years ago Dr. George Tiller, a fellow abortion provider, colleague and good friend of Dr. Carhart’s, was assassinated while attending church. In the face of this devastating loss, LeRoy Carhart stepped up even more. He expanded his practice. He opened new clinics. He spoke boldly to the national media. He not only performs, but has taken responsibility for training others in performing, some of the most complex and life-saving abortion procedures for women late into troubled pregnancies.

For all this, he has been targeted as “Enemy # 1" by the very forces responsible for Dr. Tiller’s death. From July 31st through August 7th, Operation Rescue will be bringing anti-abortion fanatics from across the country to hound and endanger Dr. Carhart, his staff, and the women he serves.

.
Operation Rescue is an organization of woman-hating, evolution-denying, theocratic, Christian fascists. They oppose all abortions. As in: even in cases of rape, incest or the life of the woman. They oppose all birth control. As in: they not only oppose pre-marital sex, they also oppose marital sex that is not aimed at procreation. And for more than two decades they have systematically targeted, prosecuted, waged character assassination against, and whipped up an atmosphere that has led to the actual assassination of some of the most selfless and heroic abortion providers in the country.

That’s right. According to the Washington Post, just months before Dr. David Gunn was assassinated by an anti-abortion fanatic, “an old-fashioned ‘wanted’ poster of Gunn was distributed at a rally for Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry” complete with a home phone number and photo of Dr. Gunn. In 1992 Operation Rescue targeted the clinic of Dr. Barnett Slepian. Later, Dr. Slepian was assassinated in his own home by a fanatic who had traveled with Operation Rescue for years. In 1991, Operation Rescue declared a “Summer of Mercy” and brought thousands of anti-abortion fanatics to blockade Dr. Tiller’s clinic, demonize his person, and create an intimidating anti-woman spectacle in the national media for weeks. Just months after Dr. Tiller was assassinated, Operation Rescue began making efforts to purchase his clinic as the site of their new headquarters!

This is the shameful and murderous history that Operation Rescue is invoking as they gear up for their “Summer of Mercy 2.0" at Dr. Carhart’s new clinic in Germantown, Maryland.

Why do they do all this? Not because they give a rat’s ass about the so-called “life of the fetus.” They do this because they are driven by the biblical mandate that women have babies – lots and lots of babies – and obediently submit to men.

The shirt reads: Jesus is the Judge, therefore: Abortion is Murder; 
 Homosexuality is Sin; Islam is a Lie;
Evolution is a Delusion; Feminism is Rebellion; 
Liberalism is False Religion; and Conservativism is Pretend Salt.

According to the Bible, everything evil that has ever happened is because Eve tempted Adam into eating the “forbidden fruit.” Not only that, there was a “special curse” brought down on women. Here it is in 1 Timothy 2:11-15: “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”

It is this total submission of women to men that Operation Rescue is dead set on. As Dr. Carhart himself pointed out during an interview I conducted with him earlier this year, “Most women today don’t want to be a second class citizen. They want to enjoy all the rights and privileges that the world has to offer. I think the very thrust of the anti-[abortion movement] is to deny women those very rights. Abortion is a vehicle they are using to do much greater damage.”

The only “good” thing that can be said about Operation Rescue is that they clarify the issue. The movement against abortion has never been about anything but forcing women to submit to men and have babies against their will. This is true of the Christian fascists in – or seeking – political office, from Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin to Sam Brownback and Tom Coburn. This is true of those who have introduced the largest onslaught of legislative restrictions on the federal and state level in history over just the past few months – from mandatory ultra-sounds, to requiring women to undergo “counseling” at Christian fundamentalist “clinics,” to imprisoning women whose newborns do not survive! (Yes, you read that right: several states are currently prosecuting women for the natural deaths of their newborn babies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pregnant-women-murder-charges%29

And this is a truth that is being lied about or covered over by all those – most significantly prominent Democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but also much of the pro-choice movement leadership – who are refusing to call out this fascist woman-hating for what it is. As the World Can’t Wait so aptly put it several years ago, “This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into ‘leaders’ who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.”

If women are to be free they need the right to decide for themselves when and whether to have children. They need abortion on demand and without apology. They need fully scientific sex-education. They need birth control available without shame or stigma. These things are not “tragic” or “unfortunate.” They are tremendously liberating – and they are long overdue!

All of this is essential not only for women, but for humanity as a whole – for how can anyone be free when half of us are enslaved?

The future of abortion rights, the lives of women and of the safety of heroes like Dr. LeRoy Carhart cannot be left to politicians or law enforcement or “someone out there who isn’t me.” It is time – long past time – for all those to care about women to confront the fact that the future will hinge on what each of us will do.

From July 31st to August 6th World Can’t Wait and others are organizing a Summer of Trust to be a strong abortion rights presence countering Operation Rescue and standing up for the lives of women. I add my voice to theirs in calling on you to BE THERE in the streets to show your support. If you cannot be there, reach deep into your bank account and make a donation to this effort commensurate with your concern for the future.

For more information on the Summer of Trust

Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't Wait" (Summer of Trust in the memo) to:

World Can't Wait
305 West Broadway #185
New York, NY 10013

Listen to my interview with Dr. LeRoy Carhart, Carole Joffe (author of Dispatches From the Abortion Wars: The Cost of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us), Merle Hoffman (President and Founder of Choices Women’s Medical Center), and Debra Sweet (National Director, World Can’t Wait), here



Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of The World Can’t Wait

An Answer to Ross Douthat

On June 26, the New York Times ran an op-ed from Ross Douthat which highlighted the horror of there being 160 million girls missing from the world today, largely owing to sex-selective abortions. However, rather than indicting this as a horrible outgrowth of deeply entrenched male-supremacy and patriarchy, Douthat places the blame for this on women's right to abortion and the few hard-won advances that have been made in some spheres for some women. As such, he ends up arguing for the very male supremacy and traditional values that lead to this kind of thing in the first place.

Douthat's argument rests on three key assertions.

First, Douthat makes the outrageous claim that the widespread practice of sex-selected abortions is not due to patriarchy, but to female "empowerment" and to abortion technology itself. Second, Douthat distorts and discounts the very liberating aims and actual impact of the fight for women’s ability to control their own reproduction because the programs of some very reactionary forces overlapped at times with the fight for women's reproductive rights. And, finally, Douthat insists that only the anti-abortion movement can legitimately and fully critique this horror.

On all accounts, as I will show, Douthat is dead wrong.

Let's begin with his first major argument.

Douthat disputes the notion that sex-selective abortion is caused by patriarchy and misogyny, because, "Thus far, female empowerment often seems to have led to more sex selection, not less." He cites Mara Hvistendahl's new book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, to argue, "In many communities... 'women use their increased autonomy to select for sons,' because male offspring bring higher social status."

Excuse me? There is a huge difference between, on the one hand, "women's empowerment" and increased "autonomy" within a world of patriarchy and male-supremacy; and, on the other hand, the full liberation and equal participation of women together with men in every sphere through the achievement of a world without patriarchy and male supremacy! And lest anyone be confused: a world where "male offspring bring higher social status" is a world in which women are still, a) valued not as full human beings but as the breeders of children, and b) boys are valued more than girls. That is a world of patriarchy.

Further, it is extremely widespread for women in the countries where the practice of sex-selected abortions is most widespread to be severely beaten, set on fire, or burned with acid if they fail to produce a male child. In this context, the fact that some of these women themselves "choose" to selectively abort female fetuses—and even the fact that often this brutality is carried out with the participation of women (most often the mother-in-law)—does not change the fact that this violence, the valuing of women only in terms of the offspring they produce, and the subsequent selection for male fetuses are ALL the result of deeply entrenched male supremacy and patriarchy.

Next, let's take apart Douthat's attempts to obscure and bury any discussion of the real interest of women beneath a game of guilt by association.

Douthat cites Hvistendahl in identifying "an unlikely alliance between Republican cold warriors worried that population growth would fuel the spread of Communism and left-wing scientists and activists who believed that abortion was necessary for both 'the needs of women' and 'the future prosperity—or maybe survival—of mankind.'" He continues, "For many of these antipopulation campaigners, sex selection was a feature rather than a bug, since a society with fewer girls was guaranteed to reproduce itself at lower rates."

Notice first that there is zero discussion from Douthat as to whether or not "abortion [is] necessary for the 'needs of women.'" In fact, it is. A world without abortion is a world in which women are forced to bear children against their will. It is a world that enslaves women to their biology. It is a world in which women have little more freedom than slaves.

But, Douthat side-steps this basic and fundamental truth by instead "revealing" that there were some reactionary forces whose agendas overlapped in some ways with those fighting for women's reproductive freedom. Big fucking deal! I spoke to a fanatical End Times fundamentalist not long ago who was eager to seize on recent scientific findings pointing to the tremendous extremes of recent weather patterns, but that doesn't mean he had anything in common with those fighting to recognize—and put an end to—the manmade causes of climate change!

But to go even further, the fact that some in the movement for women's reproductive rights have at times been influenced by racism and chauvinism that is so common in an imperialist country like the U.S., does not negate the fact that the right to decide for herself when and whether to have a child is necessary for women to be free.

Finally, Douthat implies that Hvistendahl and others who uphold women's right to abortion don't really have firm ground to stand on in condemning the situation that has led to—or the harm caused by—the 160 million missing girls. Instead, Douthat offers the simplistic and wrong-headed claim that "the anti-abortion side has it easier" because it can say outright that, "The tragedy of the world's 160 million missing girls isn't that they're 'missing.' The tragedy is that they're dead."

Only they aren't dead, they were never born. While a fetus has the potential to become a human being, it doesn't become one until it is born. Ever notice how we count how long we've been alive since the date of our births? Until then—no matter how much the anti-abortion movement romanticizes it and no matter how many "pro-choice" people capitulate to their bullshit—a fetus is a subordinate part of a woman's body. As such, while there IS a great disparity and a host of highly oppressive factors that have led to it, there ARE NOT 160 million "dead girls" as Douthat would have us believe because they never came into being as independent biological or social beings.

On the other hand, the women in whose body fetuses grow are fully formed human beings. And each year, 70,000 of those fully formed human beings die due to lack of access to reproductive health and safe abortions. They are not "missing"—those women are dead! And the lives of the millions upon millions of women worldwide who are forced to have children they do not want, their lives are significantly disfigured. And the lives of all women who live in a world that fails to recognize the full humanity and equality of women in every sphere—and instead reduces them to either breeders or sex objects, and quite often both—is horribly diminished.

We do not need the horrors that Douthat is peddling—even greater burden on that half of humanity that has the misfortune in this world of male-supremacy of being born female, the retrenching the very patriarchy that leads to female children being valued less than males, and the further restriction of women's ability to control their own bodies and their own destinies. We need the kind of thorough-going, world-wide revolution that can, once and for all lift these burdens off of women as a core and driving force in the emancipation of all of humanity—from the lack of access to birth control and abortion to the life-time of restrictions, insults, violence and degradation that comes from being born female.

To find out more about that revolution, here is a good place to start: A DECLARATION: FOR THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN AND THE EMANCIPATION OF ALL HUMANITY