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Messages - Jenne

#31
Aneristic Illusions / Re: Occupy
December 02, 2011, 04:45:23 PM
I'm 1973 and feel like most of Gen X doesn't apply, but I think that's just how it goes with the general descriptors.  I think folks like mine who were born in '55 but have sibs that were born in the 60's also feel that same "intermediate" thing about the generation "gap."  There has to be overlap as the generations feed into each other.
#32
Quote from: 'Kai' ZLB, M.S. on December 02, 2011, 01:48:56 AM
Quote from: Faust on December 01, 2011, 02:41:36 PM
So we have segregation of minorities and some of the other worst parts of fascism but without the efficiency or national pride. You have the all pervasive and controlling aspects of communism (down to not being allowed to discuss democracy), but none of proper control structure on industry. You have the opening for gross exploitation by industry of pure capitalism, but no opportunity of free trade or movement between corporations.

Frankly this sounds like all of the CONS of every political structure of the last 200 years with none of the PROS.

I second that. But I say they go make an island in the Pacific Ocean and try it.  :lulz:

I thought they did have an island already?

*goes to Google*

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/silicon-valley-billionaire-funding-creation-artificial-libertarian-islands-140840896.html
#33
Aneristic Illusions / Re: Frank Luntz
December 02, 2011, 04:37:28 PM
Fuck yeah, I'm with Nigel.  And I still see him as an evil genius--he may not be evil the sense he fucks with people to do anything but make a profit, I don't believe he's sociopathic or anything.

But it would be nice if he wasn't on the side of the fucking GOP.
#34
So THAT's where you've been--you've been eating and shitting grapes!

I'd join in the fun, but it would probably go awry with my current condition.
#35
Quote from: Hoopla on December 01, 2011, 08:46:05 PM
Pointless anecdote time:  So, anyone remember the Supposedly Green Baby Making Machine?  One time we were at someone's house and the song "Roxanne" by the Police came on.  This chick, who was -of course- pregnant at the time, she always is, starts going on a fucking rant about how she'd like to pop Sting in the mouth with her fist for writing such an insulting sexist song. 

"Wait wait," said I.  "Isn't this song about him paying a prostitute so she doesn't need to hook that night?"

"Yes!" she cried, emphatically.  "And it's fucking sexist.  Where does he get off?  What gives him the right to say how she can and can't use her body?"

"Wait wait," said I.  "Isn't this song about him paying a prostitute so she doesn't need to hook that night?  Where does it say he thinks he has the right to say how she uses her own body?"

"He is paying her to stay off the streets.  Maybe she likes the streets.  Maybe she likes being completely self sufficient.  His judgement of her is a moral indictment he has no right to be laying on her."

"You think she prefers hooking, possibly getting beaten up any given night, to someone paying her for nothing and going home?"

"Those men shouldn't be beating her up in the first place."

I gave her a "bitch, please" look, but said nothing.  It was then that she brought up the priestesses of Aphrodite, at which point the fetus in her womb punched her in the cunt for being so fucking stupid.  Or, so I like to imagine.


Carry on!


Ah, that's the kind of pseudointellectualism I DON'T miss from hanging out in these vapid mommy circles I got caught up in in my late 20's/early 30's.  I'm so glad I said BUH BYE to those bitches, because SRSLY, this is the type of shit that got flung at my head with religiosity.
#36
Quote from: Placid Dingo on December 01, 2011, 08:12:08 PM
I honestly cannot tell if I'm completely incoherent or if people are reading my posts in a way that they want to try and disregard what in saying.

Of course human trafficking is a real problem. But if human trafficking was exactly the same thing as prostitution nobody would ever be able to argue that it's either empowering or consistent with feminism because by definition you are stripped of your rights and power.

However having no money and going to work for a brothel, is not human trafficking. There's a fair argument to say it's disempowering, or even the stronger argument that it CANNOT be empowering but it is not by definition the same thing as human trafficking. Making a distinction doesn't make me unaware of human trafficking any more than saying Genocide is not the same thing as Homocide makes me a holocaust denier.

Jenne so far as I can tell you're saying everything about prostitution is both damaging and linked to every other damaging facet of the industry, so we should consider human trafficking and any other damaging outcome as synonymous with prostitution as a whole?

I'm ok if you want to say; 'for the purpose of discussing prostitution, I want to consider only prostitution connected to trafficking, or something of the kind, but please don't treat me like a complete moron, especially when every single post has acknowledged how large of a problem human trafficking is, and have specifically noted that it's an issue in Australia (mostly a destination country for trafficking from the local Asian nations and internal from preying on indigenous girls in bad situations).

Addendum; Trips point is good that trafficking does make up a major part of prostitution, and I'll admit to not knowing the exact stats. I do know a lot of Aussie protitutes come from Asian backgrounds in poor areas, though I'm not convncec that they're all trafficked (desperate for a means to earn a livelihood perhaps, which isn't good, but isn't by definition trafficking.) I guess when talking about 'is prostitution femininist' it seems to me important to focus on the variety of scenarios out there not singularly on the most heinous.

I'm saying, you can't talk about prostitution WITHOUT that factor that it's a shitty practice in general because of all that "most heinous" you refer to but want to ignore so you can focus on "the variety of scenarios."

Thing is, no one is bringing up what the "variety of scenarios" that AREN'T fucked up would be...so perhaps provide us with a few so we can compare?
#37
Quote from: 'Kai' ZLB, M.S. on December 02, 2011, 04:04:17 PM
Plus babies are such wrinkly pink monstrosities that there is no clear indicator of their sex when they're clothed.

Exactly, so if you know the mom, and you know the baby, you don't need the non-verbal marker of "boy" or "girl" that color scheme of baby paraphernalia would signal to you.
#38
Quote from: 'Kai' ZLB, M.S. on December 02, 2011, 03:59:50 PM
Quote from: Jenne on December 02, 2011, 03:49:37 PM
It would be awesome if Mattel et al would come up with neuter/both boy AND girl makeup/doll/dress up sets.  Or if giving pink to a boy didn't signal in the West* a "mistake in gender identity."

*There's no "pink" taboo in my husband's family, and so maybe extrapolatable to his culture? because his favorite photo of himself as a baby is when his grandmother is holding him on a raspberry pink blanket while he's wearing a pastel pink sweatersuit and hat! ...NOT that I expect we'll see the mujaheds or Talibs in the region wearing Prince's raspberry berets, but one can hope, can't one?

Maybe they're still operating under the "old" tradition of pink as a strong color.

I think for babies, it just doesn't matter--as long as the clothes fit.  If you like the color and you're the baby's mom, you dress them however you want.  Makes sense.  Folks know each other so closely, they already know if you had a boy or a girl.  So there's no question about having to look at the color of bib, blanket or clothing to "guess"...you hear from your relative what gender the baby is, and that's that.
#39
It would be awesome if Mattel et al would come up with neuter/both boy AND girl makeup/doll/dress up sets.  Or if giving pink to a boy didn't signal in the West* a "mistake in gender identity."

*There's no "pink" taboo in my husband's family, and so maybe extrapolatable to his culture? because his favorite photo of himself as a baby is when his grandmother is holding him on a raspberry pink blanket while he's wearing a pastel pink sweatersuit and hat! ...NOT that I expect we'll see the mujaheds or Talibs in the region wearing Prince's raspberry berets, but one can hope, can't one?
#40
...or alternatively, someone call Roto Rooter and enemize the interbutts.
#41
Happy Bee Day, You Hoser!
#42
It's inequality, but it's much more than that.  I have to admit I haven't studied or seen as much on male prostitutes that aren't trannies so I can't speak to that exactly as I could with the documentaries I've seen on street walkers and bunny ranchers.  Unfortunately a large part of what I do know comes from my husband's experiences in his pediatrics practice, along with news stories and what my dad told me about folks when he got out of the clink.

There's still a huge morass of stories I'm waiting to hear about from my dad.  He tries to not tell us about being "on the inside" but it bubbles up and boils over sometimes so that he can't help himself. 

The only person I know in my own life that has been with a prostitute that's admitted it to me besides my husband's estranged best friend is my youngest brother.  And he was too drunk to even get a hand job by the gal. :|  It was a bad night all around.  A humiliating experience such that he'll likely never repeat it.
#43
Or Kill Me / Re: Rape
December 01, 2011, 05:56:08 PM
It's a difficult nut to crack.  In looking at the problem, one wants to blame and keep it away from oneself at the same time.  I don't have the answers except to raise my boys to not see subjugation of women as a good thing.  Or subjugation of themselves or anyone else for that matter.  That the innocent are to be protected and that the black and white cloak society places on things can sometimes just hide what's real underneath.

Truth and honesty about people, and acceptance they are people without having to accept their badness, it's a hard thing to teach.  Hard thing to live.  

Mostly because I'm really a judgemental bitch.
#44
Um...there are MANY male prostitutes out there.  Maybe just as many as female.

But like the rape thread, in our society, we don't talk about male prostitution as if it's a so-called hard fact of life, like we don't talk about male rape.

You should visit my husband's peds office a bit, Ippie.  You'd see some stuff that would uncurl your hair.  Boys who start out at 14 prostituting themselves to the little old people (most of whom are vets)  in mobile home parks.

The world is a seamier place than we like to admit.
#45
Or Kill Me / Re: Rape
December 01, 2011, 05:17:39 PM
And then I want to address the "most men are rapists and in fact hold back" statement because I've heard it too.  I think Muslim men are actually taught this, and that's a large part of the justification for hiding their wives and girl children.  That men are really beasts inside that can't hold themselves back, and to present a woman in any form except covered so that you really can't tell if she's a man or woman undearneath everything, is to wave her vagina in his face as if it's for the taking.  Right here, right now.

It's a shocking idea, to me, because I wasn't raised to think of men or boys as that impulsive.  I was raised to think people might have self-control issues, and there were those sick assholes who wanted to hurt people because of opportunity, let alone motive.  But I was not raised to think men patrolled the streets thinking of who they could sexually take advantage of just because they were in the general vicinity.

But from what I've heard Afghans say, this is very much their upbringing.  And this is why women are to be not even seen let alone heard if the men in the room are not their relatives.

Now, of course, this covers up all sorts of ugly underbelly no one in Afghan society wants to deal with.  Like the ritual rape and sexual slavery of boys, for example.  Who get to be around lascivious old farts that can ass rape them at will because they want to and have money to pay their families.

Or the complete subjugation of girls as soon as they're married.

Yeah, so anyway...I think it might also be a cultural ill here, too.