OMG, decent review of Catharine Mackinnon!

[delphyne]

In The Nation of all places -

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060731/nussbaum

It sounds like the legal profession in the US has a lot of respect for MacKinnon. It's pretty shaming that most feminists don't acknowledge her in the same way.

[resisterance]

thanks for the link delphyne

[buttonwillow]

I'm afraid to read it... is it really reasonable?

[sam]

Yes, very much so. Martha Nussbaum wrote it.

[buttonwillow]

OK!
I do not know this Martha Nussbaum, but maybe I should.
On the subject, sort of, of being out of touch and being afraid to read articles...
I have to say that looking back, part of the reason I took a de facto if not intentional or conscious vacation from feminist activism was because of what I saw happen to Andrea, when she was raped and when she was ill and just throughout her life. It is heartbreaking and there was nothing I could do about it.
I am grateful that I had the chance to write to her and send her a gift or two and even meet her and speak to her on the phone once or twice, and let her know how much her work meant to me, but what good was that? what did the little i could do mean? -- nothing.
That article in the Guardian when she was raped was the start of the end for me, and it wasn't the only one of its kind, by a loooong shot. I think I sort of lost the will to fight for a little while. And I think her abuse hastened her death. Sometimes I'm not sure I want to live either. I'll be damned if I know what I can do that will make a difference, here this brilliant woman worked so hard and gave so much, even her life and I can't offer anything even a tiny fraction of that.
Anyway now I don't watch TV or read papers or listen to radio news, or any radio except for Randi Rhodes and occasional jazz or classical, and I mostly read women writers. I don't trust what I read and so much of it is just WRONG. And sometimes, like with Andrea or even occasionally about MacKinnon, vicious and unnecessary. I did see a few minutes of TV while I was visiting a relative recently and I'd see people saying the exact opposite things as though they could both be facts. And the listener with no way to respond.

[sam]

Sometimes I'm not sure I want to live either. I'll be damned if I know what I can do that will make a difference, here this brilliant woman worked so hard and gave so much, even her life and I can't offer anything even a tiny fraction of that.

I feel you on this. There was a terrible night a few years back when a very dear person betrayed me in a way that just about crushed my resolve to continue helping prostituted women. We talked all night long and at one point I was so exhausted mentally and physically that when the subject of the stress hurting my health came up I said , "Fuck it if my poor health kills me by 30, maybe I don't want to live all that many more years in this awful woman's hell where I can't make a difference anyway." For a few seconds I actually meant it.

There are still bad spells and always will be, but when I think on all the people who have told me that reading my writing or hearing me speak changed their minds about pornstitution I know I've got some fight in me yet. Giving up and living a carefree life sipping drinks on a beach is just not an option; my conscience would haunt me.

In the current issue of the excellent Satya Magazine there's an interview with Jimmie Briggs, a journalist who has spent the past six years capturing the stories of child soldiers in Africa, not a fun or easy job but a necessary one. I got teary when I got to this part because it mirrored my emotions exactly:

How do you cope with witnessing this trauma?

Before I started this project, I didn’t have a healing process. I didn’t know how to prepare myself for what I was about to see. In the field of journalism you are affected by stories that you cover, but there is a reluctancy to talk about it. I was very traumatized but didn’t know it and couldn’t admit it. It manifests itself through extreme temperamental mood swings, nightmares, flashbacks and shakes—even today, coming here from the Tribeca Film Festival. My friend is pitching this documentary project [based on the book] and an hour ago we were talking about it, and my hand was shaking. It’s a struggle within myself. I’m trying to get to a place of resolution and healing within myself. At the same time, I have a daughter, and I’m just trying to be a good healthy parent for her. But then also, being drawn to these issues, unwillingly almost. The next book is going to be on gender violence and war. There is reluctance inside of me to go back into this situation, but at the same time, I feel on some level called to do it. I feel like I can do it respectfully and truthfully and honestly. Maybe a part of me feels like, for better or worse, this is what I’m good at.

[Army Of Me]

Yep, button and sam, ditto about the living bit.

This is so hard sometimes, and button, I lapsed too - it was a combination of having to survive and working all the time, and just trying to "live on denial".

There is so much to be faced - someone has to do it - and it (pornification) needs to be brought out into the open arena.

For some reason, this thread has triggered me - it reminded me of my crying day I posted about recently, (I saw the same determined guy that I wrote about yesterday, so maybe that's why I'm on the verge today again.)

I just posted something on the now infamous paris hilton thread that was to to with the daily sport - very very evil. This hasn't helped either.

Yeah, I veer between "let's go get the fuckers", and then "I can't do this anymore - any of it - life whatever - can't do it". Up and down, boom and bust, that's the pattern, fight, then exhauation, then recovery, then another fight and so it goes. Elation, depression, but mostly depression - I try to stay on an even keel, but it's not easy. I sometimes feel, with all my health probs, and my age, that I am now at a time of life where it's now or never, that I dont' have much time left anyway, so gotta make what I've got left count. I just feel like, what should I do before I go? At least I can say I tried. Oh, now I'll stop whinging.

I hope that doesn't sound over-dramatic - but it's how I feel sometimes - yeah - take people's advice and "just chill out girl" - how can I do that when I know what I know? Fucking hell.

sam, you have no idea how much you have helped women already - just helping to create this forum you have achieved more than you will ever know - but I hope you feel proud, and don't ever forget just how much you are worth - you deserve to be Queen of the World. Your writing has inspired me so much, and of course oag,s. She can be co-Queen!

[annared]

I would like to second that! This site has helped me tremendously, I hang around with some luke warm feminists, well, more like tepid at times, and I know they think me as a *radical* in more of the *extreme* sort of way. I’ve always been like this, since I can remember, I’ve been able to see misogyny
and the patriarchy, even as a small child, I just didn’t have word, labels, and proof to put around it. I suppose that is what has driven me to work with some of the most horrendous situations that women find them selves. Ex- prostitutes, substance misers, sexual abuse/rape survivors blah blah you name it, I have looked it in the eye. How can I NOT be a radical feminist? Ffs. This site gives me *permission* and a safe space to challenge the stench. Thanks to all of you X

(edit, I forgot, and that's without MY OWN personal shite )

[oneangrygirl]

can I be King?

[Army Of Me]

well oag, King would mean you would be male - do you really want a penis? If so, be king yes, but please be a pro-feminist King - well, that's understood already!

I know they think me as a *radical* in more of the *extreme* sort of way

Well, it's getting to the point where radical is going to be normal - I've never really thought of my beliefs as radical at all - just normal thoughts and reactions of a normal person -I guess denial and facing the other way helps you to be non-radical (non-normal). IMHO of course!

[oneangrygirl]

it would also mean that i'm married to sam.
how about Duchess?

[Army Of Me]

My pc is going to die soon.

Ok - if you don't want to be a polygamist transgender King, then Duchess is ok, however you have to accept some considerable lesser degree of status. Perhaps you could be Princess? Or does that sound too unfeminist? Supreme Duchess then.

I don't know how sam is going to react to your reaction about not wanting to be married. Can she handle the rejection, and done so publicly?

This is sounding like an episode of "Friends"

[annared]

Stuff Royalty, I'm a Goddess

[Army Of Me]

Ok then - I forgot about a higher heirarchy than here on the physical plane.

I will be one of the humble servants - at your service Goddess annared, Queen sam and Supreme Princess Duchess oag.

[sam]

Aw shucks. Thanks for the votes of confidence, women.

Though I'm against marriage for myself, I'd marry oag in an ancient Egyptian sort of sibling marriage dealie where we're both sisters and mortal incarnations of the goddesses Isis and Nepthys.

[annared]

[/guote]Though I'm against marriage for myself, I'd marry oag in an ancient Eqyptian sort of sibling marriage dealie where we're both sisters and mortal incarnations of the goddesses Isis and Nepthys.

[/quote]

Thats OK cuz i'm Cerredwin the Celtic Moon Goddess, or mabye Kali the creator/destroyer. It depends how much shite i've read that day

[odd_dittee]

You people give me warm fuzzy feelings. Can I just say that "tepid" feminist is my new favorite feminist category?