Wednesday 30 November 2011

Yet Another Example Of Why Most Everybody Sucks

I've stated before that I usually don't write about U.S. politics, due to my lack of knowledge about differences between Canadian/U.S. legal and electoral systems. However, here's something I think I have a grasp well enough on to make some snide remarks. Here goes:

Hey, has anyone here heard of Herman Cain?

Yup, I'm talking about THAT Herman Cain. Republican presidential candidate and full-time rapist Herman Cain. Misogynist extraordinaire Herman Cain. First ever "Second Black President" Herman Cain. You know the dude. He's been in the news a bit lately. Seems over the years ol' Herman raped a woman or twelve. Oh, excuse me, sexually assaulted. That's what they're calling it, right? No, oh sorry, sexually harassed. 'Cuz... he didn't... or the rules are... or something. Anyways, there's a big thirteen year extramarital affair hanging over his head now, too. Hoo-wee! Herman, he sure loves the ladeez, amirite? However, one would think hope that due to all these fairly blatant crimes he's committed against women, his approval rating would be falling faster than R.I.M. shares (zing!). But, you'd be wrong. Because Herman Cain is claiming a "groundswell" of support in the face of these many, many accusations against his character. Yes, a groundswell. Whatever the fuck that is. This guy gropes women left, right and center and has been cheating on his wife with a steady mistress for thirteen years and people still fucking love him! What the fucking fuck?

It's so damn depressing sometimes, because if Herman Cain had been a female candidate (especially a democrat, you better believe it) people would be hanging him (her?) out to dry. To be fair, I suppose his approval rating has actually dropped some since all these stories started breaking, but not nearly enough. And he continues his campaign! He believes that he's done nothing wrong! He still thinks he can be president! What the hell? I heard he even tried to head off this affair business by saying something along the lines of "I won't say who, but someone is going to come forward and say something nasty about me. So don't believe it." What are we here, five? "Mom, Dad, you might hear some things about me and your broken lamp in the next little while. Now, I'm not gonna say who from, but I'm here to tell you, whatever you hear, don't believe it." Uh-huh. Nothing inspires trust like asking for blind faith in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. Well, it works for Jesus, I guess.

The thing that really sucks, though, is that people still support Herman Cain. People (mostly dudes, duh) are so quick to accuse the victims of Cains' attacks (and that's what they were, attacks, make no mistake) of grubbing for the camera, looking for their fifteen minutes, trying to get rich quick, all while ignoring the fact that no woman has ever gotten rich or famous (infamous, maybe, to dudely dudes) in this way. Herman Cain is a misogynist, therefore he has the support of all other misogynists. There's a code, a bro code amongst woman-haters. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some dudes started to like Cain because of all the accusations. And that's just so fucking scary I can barely deal with it. The more you hate women, the more dudes like you. What the fuck kind of society is this? How can anyone look you in the eye and tell you that it's not an oppressive, misogynist fucking patriarchal empire while looking at the smug-ass grin on Herman Cains' oh-so-guilty-but-getting-away-with-it face? Cain says these allegations are just a smear campaign cooked up by his competitors to attack his character, reputation and name, but he doesn't "believe that America is going to let that happen."

Unfortunately, I think I agree with him on that.

Thursday 24 November 2011

The Male Definition of 'Honor' Seems Lacking...

Honor killings. You've probably heard of them. If not, to summarize, honor killing is a practice in which men defend their "personal honor" and the honor of their family name by killing their female relations if and when they step outta line. Although the numbers fluctuate depending on your source, anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 women and girls are killed (honorably) every year. To drive the point home, here's the currently accepted definition of honor killing, from the group Human Rights Watch:

Honor killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.
 This is a practice that is alive and thriving today, all over the world. It happens "there", in the uncivilized nations that lack our "compassion, understanding and humanity" and it happens here, in our own neighborhoods. While men technically can be the victim of an honor killing, I'd like to point out that:

1) While it is agreed that minimum 5,000 women and girls are killed in the name of honor per year, the number of males killed for honor is nowhere near that, hovering somewhere around 200-250 per year.

2) There is virtually no evidence to show that a heterosexual male has ever been killed in the name of honor, even though they could be killed by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship.

So, as you can see, honor killings happen to women and girls, and sometimes homosexual men, but mostly women and girls. Which brings us to this. Four females are dead. An honor killing is suspected. There is a virtual fucking mountain of evidence, forensic and otherwise, to implicate the father, Mohammad Shafia and his other child, his male child, Hamid Mohammad Shafia in their deaths. His (Mohammad senior's) current wife, Tooba Mohammad Yehya is also implicated in the crimes, but if the beatings and threats that Shafias' first wife and daughters faced paint any picture, it would seem that Yehya would have had little choice whether to be involved or not.

The girls were routinely beaten and threatened. They lived in constant fear of their father and brother. Youth protection had been called on more than one occasion. The eldest daughter, Zainab Shafia, had run away and both of the other two girls had repeatedly told authorities they were afraid and wanted to leave the family home. And then, they all wind up dead, with their mother in the car, just days after someone had used the family computer to Google things like "where to commit a murder" and "bodies of water".

The trial is already underway. The plaintiffs have all plead "not guilty". Mohammad Shafia wants to know if this happened because his daughters were "drugged or choked" even though the autopsies performed twelve hours after the drownings have detected no drugs or signs of choking. I believe he thinks he can get away with this. I believe he does not care that his daughters and first wife are dead. I believe that he did not think that they were human enough to live and now thinks that he should not be punished, but oh, these pesky backwards Canadian laws! His crocodile tears and false act of postmortem concern don't fucking fool me for a second. I smell a rat. And I'd smell one even without the skyscraper's worth of evidence pointing the finger straight at daddy dearest.

The scariest thing is, honor killings seem to be on the rise in Canada. This seems to be common knowledge but, and here's the real kicker, no one really seems to be doing anything about it. Just like the neighborhood that just knows that Mr. Johnson down the street simply couldn't be a pedophile (!), everyone seems to think that they'd know if there were honor killings going on in their neighborhood, and since there obviously aren't, well it's not their problem, is it? Ask most white Canadians and they'll tell you "well, that's, like, an Arab thing, right? So, like, I don't really, like, think about it or whatever." But, no. Because even if it is an "Arab thing" or an "East Indian thing" or a "Whatever other group thing", if dudes keep getting away with it, other men will start to notice. And when they do, what's to stop it from becoming a "Mormon thing" or a "Jewish thing" or even a "Catholic thing"? And if that happens, well, then it just becomes a "normal thing" and women and girls are even more fucked in the Western World than they already are now.

There should be no leniency on those found guilty of committing honor killings. If your precious fucking "honor" is really more important than a real human life to you, then you should be locked up forever, having no contact with the outside world, especially those you consider yourself superior to. The concept of dudely honor is fucked anyways, in that dudes have honor, and the women in their lives reinforce that honor by being pure. But, according to the tenets of dudely honor, ladies have no honor, they're just things with which you prove your honor to other dudes. And if another dude gets your lady-honor-marker-thing dirty, well you get rid of that dirty lady-thing, right? I mean, forget about the dude that brutalized your female relative, she's damaged goods, man! How's that going to make you look to the brothers down at the lodge? Oh, and P.S.: fuck you, dude.

The bottom line is, that if only men can have honor, ladies can never be safe. And since dudes are never going to let women be honored or honorable in the same way as men are, the whole concept of familial honor has to go. Now. Today, preferably. Because if not, this won't be the last time women and girls are dredged up out of the Kingston river in the name of "honor".

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Laziness, Nimbostratus Style

Don't really feel like writing a proper post today, but here's a few articles that've caught my eye. Feel free to engage in such activities like clicking on links, reading articles and coming back here to discuss.


Teens in superhero garb confront online predators


Benetton pulls ad with Pope kissing imam

RCMP harassment claims to be investigated

I'll have something longer and better written soon, folks! Thanks for putting up with the spotty posting as of late (as of always). 

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Inquiry Update 2

Here's a surprising fact: Robert Pickton was the Vancouver Police Forces' top suspect during his rape and killing spree. But, while the police were sure that Pickton was committing the crimes he was, in fact, committing, they felt he was "out of their jurisdiction". It seems that the farm Pickton occupied and took the women to, before he and his associates raped and murdered them is in Port Coquitlam, which is RCMP territory. Nevermind that the Vancouver police had numerous credible tips and eyewitness accounts, that farm just wasn't in their jurisdiction. So, what did they do? Well, they instead chose to pursue other potential suspects who resided in their jurisdiction... for four fucking years. That's right. Pickton topped the suspect list of the Vancouver PD in goddamn 1998!

What the fuck?!

The Vancouver Police are pointing the finger at the RCMP. The RCMP are pointing right back at the VCPD. Who the fuck is to blame here? Well, the Vancouver Police have a long and storied history of unwarrented violence, especially against homeless or impoverished women, which is what most if not all of the prostituted women that Pickton killed were. As for the RCMP, don't they care enough about prostituted women in danger to nab a suspected killer in due time? Oh, that's right, the RCMP hates women, too. So, to recap, that's two separate police forces, all not giving a shit about women disappearing off the streets, for their own special reasons. But, it goes even deeper than that, because once again, patriarchal society is to blame. When you grow up and live in a world that not only looks down on women as a whole, but looks down on some women even more because of what they do to survive, without even taking into account the circumstances that may have forced these women into this horrible, nightmarish lifestyle, then it becomes plain to see that prostituted women are doomed from the start. Even if they're not murdered, or contract a deadly disease, or overdose on drugs to escape the pain of life.

I want to point out that the term should be "prostituted women" instead of "sex workers" because the latter denotes some type of choice. The former shows that women are always, in one way or another, forced into sexual slavery at the hands of men. I'm so sick of hearing the "but some women choose to do it!" argument, because even if it is true, even if somewhere out there is one self-employed prostitute who has nothing but wonderful things to say about her job while she sits in her mansion and drives a Ferrari (which is how the story usually goes, just ask a dude), that doesn't make up for the billions upon billions that are forced into sexual slavery against their will.

But, I digress. I guess what I was trying to say is that police hate prostituted women. Police look down on victims, on the people that they're supposed to protect. Prostituted women go missing by the truckload, but instead of going to catch the guy who's taking the women, the police squabble about who's in charge of the jurisdiction that the murderer resides in, not wanting to step on anyone's toes, of course. And the squabble goes on for fucking years. And what does the rapist-murderer do while no one is busy arresting him? Well, he kills forty-nine women, that's what he does. Forty-nine women that could have been saved, but the police decided that fucking jurisdiction trumps human life. How's that for a message to 51% of the countries' population? That's right, if you're already unlucky enough to be forced into prostitution, you'd better get raped and killed in the same town or county where that fucking john picked you up, or no one's ever gonna come looking for you. Or, evidently, for him, sayeth the VCPD and B.C. RCMP. No, but once the body count passes the magic number, once the stack of missing women posters just can't be ignored anymore, then maybe they'll get their shit together and catch the guy they knew was doing it all along.

To Serve And Protect.

Whatever, dudes.  

Wednesday 2 November 2011

CBC: Canadas' Secret Misogyny Meetingplace?

Today, the CBC published an article which they've published before about Canadian women being politically stifled. No doy. I'm not going to point out the obvious here. In terms of equal representation in our major political parties, we're pathetic. We rank behind places such as Burundi, Latvia and Guyana, which are supposedly more backwards than the liberal, modern, equality-for-all-type haven Canada touts itself as. Look at who our leader is. This is on the verge of becoming a dead horse for me.

What I want to point out, however, is that every time the CBC posts an article that has anything to do with women's rights, equality or anything of the sort, these (presumably) white-dude trolls come out of the woodwork to shit all over it. Where do they all come from? Why do they all flock to the CBC? How do they have the time?

Listen to some of the few comments, unedited and in their original form, posted so far on this particular article:

Women are still considered an "under-represented" group by the federal public service yet they make up 55% to men at 45% a 10% difference and I was denied applying to a job a couple weeks ago because it was only open to women and other under-represented groups. I think this needs to change for one, gender equality should go both ways.

As to politics more women should run, perhaps men are more interested in politics thus more run? I vote for the best person, be it a woman or a man as fo most people now so the only issue I can see is getting more women interested in it.
 Says "Darexc". Here's a short but sweet one:

People vote for the best PERSON and that's how you get elected.
 Thanks "Kritterz" for that tired old fucking line of bullshit.

If you want to enter a trades program, as a women you can get full funding. Not as a man. Go figure.
 "DaleMartell" ignores most, if not all of the facts here. Nice one, dude.

so long as women have babies... this isn't going to change
good luck with that!
This gem posted by a dude with the handle of "Anti-Establishment". Just as an aside, what do you wanna bet that Mr."Anti-Establishment" just loves him some high-budget pornography? And then, there's the worst of what's posted so far:

Most women are smart enough not to get into politics that's why!
 You can thank a dude by the handle of "SayWhatThe" for that one. This is what I mean. And, to be truthful, these are pretty tame in comparison the blatant woman-bashing that usually goes on in the CBC comments. These comments are supposed to be moderated under strict guidelines ( found here) and if you'll look at what to always avoid as a commenter, let's see if you can spot anything that might be amiss:

Always avoid:

  • Lengthy excerpts from other posts. We want to hear your own opinion.
  • Racist, sexist and offensive language.
  • Personal attacks and defamatory statements.
  • Breaking copyright rules (that includes copying and pasting excerpts from other sites without permission and attribution).
  • Violating someone’s privacy.
  • Threats or suggesting committing a criminal act.
  • Insensitive comments regarding the death or injury of private individuals, especially children.
  • Posting your message in all CAPS (this makes it difficult to read and in online speak is considered yelling).
  • Posting press releases and commercial promotions.
 Above boldface emphasis mine. However, the majority of comments I read on the CBC are racist, sexist and offensive, I have seen commenters post personal attacks against other commenters as well as post defamatory statements, and hardly anyone is civil. The policies clearly state that "If you violate any of these rules, then your comment will not be posted and your account may be suspended." But, some of these people post comment after comment after comment, even gaining the rank of so-called 'Trusted Members', which I interpret as meaning that their comments go unmoderated altogether. Who does this moderating? Why have these policies if they're so obviously ignored? Why do my posts never seem to make it through, even though they are NOT in violation of the commenting guidelines?

The CBC is touted as "liberal media" which is a bullshit label, I suppose, but would lead some to believe that they (the CBC) are more enlightened, more tolerant and that their readers/viewers would follow suit. Canada has many more Conservative media options than true liberal ones, but the CBC isn't really making the grade. I know that "liberal" is kind of an iffy term, in the sense that a lot of liberal dudes hate women just as much as conservative dudes, but what I mean to say is that I guess with Sun Media and the National Post and all the other crappy news sources out there, I want to expect more from the CBC. I want them to stand up for equality. I want them to at least enforce their fucking comment policy! I don't know if this is really an issue of the greatest importance, but it irks me to no fucking end whenever I go a-searching for news during the day. I guess it just goes to show that when dudes have the opportunity to talk shit about women, the venue just really doesn't fucking matter to them. And that's goddamn depressing. Because like I said, the comments I posted above are just the tip of the iceberg. I have read comments of a truly disturbing, threatening, disgusting, frightening and violent hateful nature on the CBC. I just don't know how most dudes can hate women so fucking much that they will derail a comment thread about a raped or murdered girl just to get their hateful point across. The backlash against women is getting stronger in this country every day. If this is the type of commentary we see in our "liberal media", then I'm even more afraid than ever about what the future holds.