I've posted once or twice about the Greens in recent months. Full disclosure: I am not a Green party supporter. However, I do believe they offer a better hope for Britain than any of the main three parties or any of the new challengers coming in from the right, such as UKIP.
The Green Party of England and Wales (there is a separate affiliated Scottish party) has an MP, two MEPs and 141 councillors across England and Wales. They polled third in the most recent London mayoral elections. While on the national popular vote they often poll a little lower, they are by representation the fourth largest non-geographical party in the UK and are the only loud voice of progressive politics left in traditional politics.
The Young Greens have opened an e-petition asking for the Greens to have a seat at the table. They want the Green party to be included in future Prime Ministerial debates, and I for one believe this will do real good. Nick Clegg's performance at the first Prime Ministerial brought the Tories towards the centre, and I believe that including the Green's can help pull the narrative of politics back into the world of social justice.
I am not alone in thinking this. Polls suggest that over half of Britons feel much the same way. Show your support for democracy by allowing one of the UK's major parties to enter the political mainstream:
Monday 11 March 2013
Tuesday 5 March 2013
What is the Party of Social Justice in the UK?
Is it Labour? No. Since Blair, Labour are no longer a real party for labour interests in the UK. They still take donations from the unions, but that doesn't make them "for" labour interests. Or even "for" social justice.
The LibDems? Never were. And that's before they got into bed with the Tories.
Nope. If you want a party which has a commitment to social justice written into its constitution, you need the Green party. So: for social justice, you need to be supporting the party which polled 7th in the popular vote at the last general election - a number skewed rather high as the Greens fields nearly 10 times as many candidates than any of the 8th through 12th largest parties.
This is our representative for social justice in mainstream politics. And people wonder why we young people lose faith in mainstream politics.
The LibDems? Never were. And that's before they got into bed with the Tories.
Nope. If you want a party which has a commitment to social justice written into its constitution, you need the Green party. So: for social justice, you need to be supporting the party which polled 7th in the popular vote at the last general election - a number skewed rather high as the Greens fields nearly 10 times as many candidates than any of the 8th through 12th largest parties.
This is our representative for social justice in mainstream politics. And people wonder why we young people lose faith in mainstream politics.
Bad Chart Tuesday
Taking a leaf out of SkepChick's Bad Graph Thursday, I'm going to show you a graph. This is not just any graph. This is a graph showing the correlation between attitudes towards sushi, and attitudes towards gay marriage across generations. This is a graph presented without any irony whatsoever, and it proves... something. Thanks, Mother Jones!
In all its glory:
In all its glory:
Tuesday 26 February 2013
In Which I Wonder What Some Men Think Women Think After They've Been Harassed
I've been wondering about this for a while. What's kicked me off into actually getting off my arse and sitting down to write about it is the Lord Rennard/Lib Dem Cover-Up story (link here to an early story summary if you've missed it).
I don't wonder what men think when they see a story like the Lord Rennard story. I wonder what men think the victims are thinking immediately after the harassment. I know that's like a third-order consciousness or something, but bear with me.
The reason I wonder what some men think goes through a woman's mind after being sexually harassed is this: There are so many men out there who seem to think women view sexual harassment as an opportunity to enact revenge in the medium-to-long-term future. Revenge for what? Whatever the man in question happens to dream up: that's what.
For instance, Michael White, in the Guardian had to wonder why the claims against Lord Rennard are surfacing now. But here's what I don't get: does Mr. White believe that the women involved, who were touched inappropriately, or invited to inappropriate places, or worse; does he really believe that their first thought afterwards was "Hmm. I think I'll hold on to this to save up for a by-election when I can really do some collateral damage"?
This kind of thinking really frustrates me. We saw it in the Julian Assange debacle, where hordes of men decided en masse that the women must have been exaggerating to bring down the Chosen One. And we're seeing it now, where a bunch of self-righteous (mostly) male keepers of truth have all openly wondered why the women are only coming forward now and why there were not more specific allegations made at the time.
I've never been raped, but I have been the victim of a serious incident of sexual harassment from another man - a man older and more senior than myself, in much the same way as Lord Rennard was to these women. I did one thing and one thing only at the time: I fled the fuck away as quickly as I possibly could. It was only later that afternoon that I was able to return and report the offence to someone who could do something about it. I was promised things would be handled and things were quietly swept under the carpet. I don't believe there was any real punishment for the offender involved, although he may have had a quiet talking to, I suppose.
After that, I felt impotent, which I suppose I should feel a sense of irony over. Ultimately the incident wasn't enough to see this man dealt with in any way. And it doesn't feel like there is anything else I can do - all power feels like it has taken away from me. But if in 10 years I see his face in the paper with similar allegations, you can bet your life I'm calling the paper up and adding my experience into the story. Because sometimes that's the only way these people see justice for their behaviour.
My experience is just one person's experience. And it's not even a woman's experience. I'm not going to pretend to truly understand what other people go through when they are raped, abused or harassed. I'm explicitly telling you not to generalise from what I've written and apply it to other people.
Instead, the message needs to be that second-guessing people's motives for publicly coming forward with rape or sexual abuse allegations is damaging to the women coming forward and to all other women who may have to face coming forward with their own story in the future. This creates a culture of hostility towards victims and makes no ones lives any better.
There are many reasons why people don't come forward with accusations of rape or sexual harassment for years at a time, and it is not our place to second-guess those reasons. Our job is to support victims as best we can and try, bit by bit, to change our world into one where sex is consensual and women are treated as equals instead of meat.
I don't wonder what men think when they see a story like the Lord Rennard story. I wonder what men think the victims are thinking immediately after the harassment. I know that's like a third-order consciousness or something, but bear with me.
The reason I wonder what some men think goes through a woman's mind after being sexually harassed is this: There are so many men out there who seem to think women view sexual harassment as an opportunity to enact revenge in the medium-to-long-term future. Revenge for what? Whatever the man in question happens to dream up: that's what.
For instance, Michael White, in the Guardian had to wonder why the claims against Lord Rennard are surfacing now. But here's what I don't get: does Mr. White believe that the women involved, who were touched inappropriately, or invited to inappropriate places, or worse; does he really believe that their first thought afterwards was "Hmm. I think I'll hold on to this to save up for a by-election when I can really do some collateral damage"?
This kind of thinking really frustrates me. We saw it in the Julian Assange debacle, where hordes of men decided en masse that the women must have been exaggerating to bring down the Chosen One. And we're seeing it now, where a bunch of self-righteous (mostly) male keepers of truth have all openly wondered why the women are only coming forward now and why there were not more specific allegations made at the time.
I've never been raped, but I have been the victim of a serious incident of sexual harassment from another man - a man older and more senior than myself, in much the same way as Lord Rennard was to these women. I did one thing and one thing only at the time: I fled the fuck away as quickly as I possibly could. It was only later that afternoon that I was able to return and report the offence to someone who could do something about it. I was promised things would be handled and things were quietly swept under the carpet. I don't believe there was any real punishment for the offender involved, although he may have had a quiet talking to, I suppose.
After that, I felt impotent, which I suppose I should feel a sense of irony over. Ultimately the incident wasn't enough to see this man dealt with in any way. And it doesn't feel like there is anything else I can do - all power feels like it has taken away from me. But if in 10 years I see his face in the paper with similar allegations, you can bet your life I'm calling the paper up and adding my experience into the story. Because sometimes that's the only way these people see justice for their behaviour.
My experience is just one person's experience. And it's not even a woman's experience. I'm not going to pretend to truly understand what other people go through when they are raped, abused or harassed. I'm explicitly telling you not to generalise from what I've written and apply it to other people.
Instead, the message needs to be that second-guessing people's motives for publicly coming forward with rape or sexual abuse allegations is damaging to the women coming forward and to all other women who may have to face coming forward with their own story in the future. This creates a culture of hostility towards victims and makes no ones lives any better.
There are many reasons why people don't come forward with accusations of rape or sexual harassment for years at a time, and it is not our place to second-guess those reasons. Our job is to support victims as best we can and try, bit by bit, to change our world into one where sex is consensual and women are treated as equals instead of meat.
Friday 16 November 2012
Ken Ham, Once Again Missing the Point
Oh, Ken Ham. Your writing is so often mental, so often self-aggrandising, always devoid of reason. I follow your blog, but not for the photos of you standing next to random evangelical pastors. No, I follow your blog for posts like this.
For the posts where you get so close to understanding the truth, before your cognitive dissonance valve unblocks and you go back into denial-shutdown mode. The opening sentence:
For the posts where you get so close to understanding the truth, before your cognitive dissonance valve unblocks and you go back into denial-shutdown mode. The opening sentence:
It is interesting to note how secularists continue to modify their ideas about supposed biological evolution when they find new information.Welcome, Mr. Ham, to the fascinating world of science. The world where we learn new things all the time, and don't assume that the stuff we read in a book a long while ago will necessarily always be true for ever more. How's the Bible working out for you?
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Misogyny and the Gym
Some of my friends may know that I'm a regular gym-goer. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I don't like it so much, but generally I hate not going to the gym more than going. This isn't the forum to talk about why I go; instead I want to talk about the culture at gyms themselves.
Mostly, the atmosphere at the gyms I've attended is kind of okay. But then I'm a reasonably-in-shape male, so presumably all the total dickheads out there see me as one of their own. Which is a good thing, I guess.
But on the occasions I see someone who doesn't fit into their stereotype of a gym person (i.e. not male), the seething among the olympic lifters begins. I want to make clear that it's not a majority of people who act like awful fucks, but there's definitely more than in the outside world (and if I did a scientific study, I'm pretty sure the difference would be statistically significant).
Just yesterday for example, I was in the middle of a... No, wait, k'know what? I'm going to write this blog post in the voice of a fitness blogger. I'll start again. Oh, and imagine I'm speaking like Johnnie Vaughan would if he took a cocktail of anabolic steroids.
SO, yesterday is was hitting the weights HARD. And I mean HARD. I was fucking beasting my way through a SERIOUSLY hardcore set when some other dude heads on over my way and asks if the Smith machine is free. This rookie wanted to bench on a Smith machine - hitting big numbers on a machine like this won't end up getting you that ROCK-HARD body you always wanted, as you won't get it with a restricted ROM.
He's asking me this shit in the middle of a CRAZY fucking set. I mean, I am in the ZONE. And the worst thing was, he has to walk past this CHICK to come and ask me. Good for her that she's working out and getting herself TOGETHER - the real men out there won't TAKE a girl in unless she's got TIGHT abs and great ti-
Yeah, I can't carry on doing this. It's giving me a headache. I'm going back to my normal voice - if you haven't heard it, it's smooth, sultry, and slightly annoying after the first few sentences.
Basically I was in the middle of something, and a guy asked whether a specific piece of equipment was free. Which is kind of annoying, but kind of understandable. Unless there's someone standing right next to me (and nearer him), not wearing headphones, and taking a rest between sets. Then, surely, it's worth asking the other person.
Why didn't he? Personally, I think it's because she was a woman, and he didn't think she belonged. Why do I think that? First, he was wearing a T-shirt which read "Read this while I stare at your tits", second he decided not to ask her in the first place, and third, he ignored her when she answered his question anyway. He just pretended she was invisible and inaudible and waited for me to answer instead.
I know it sounds a bit petty, but this everyday misogyny can so easily fade into the background unless someone comments. There's just this general vibe I get from some people at the gym that it's a guy's space, which men graciously allow women to use sometimes. From men telling women to stop using equipment so they can, to the arse-staring and creepshots whenever a woman walks past in stretchy workout gear.
My least favourite event was a woman walking into the free-weights area (that most manly of places) and look around for a second. She could have been looking for anything: a free bench, the dumbbell rack, a squat rack, anything at all. But no, one guy realised she must be completely lost. Why would a girl want to work out with free weights, he wondered to himself. What came out his mouth was: "The cross-trainers are on the other side of the gym, love".
That's a gym I never went back to.
I remember some guys complaining in a changing rooms about women's-only branches of Fitness First which have opened around London. Where are the men's-only gyms? These morons asked that question over and over, while I shook my head silently knowing the real answer: they're fucking everywhere.
Mostly, the atmosphere at the gyms I've attended is kind of okay. But then I'm a reasonably-in-shape male, so presumably all the total dickheads out there see me as one of their own. Which is a good thing, I guess.
But on the occasions I see someone who doesn't fit into their stereotype of a gym person (i.e. not male), the seething among the olympic lifters begins. I want to make clear that it's not a majority of people who act like awful fucks, but there's definitely more than in the outside world (and if I did a scientific study, I'm pretty sure the difference would be statistically significant).
Just yesterday for example, I was in the middle of a... No, wait, k'know what? I'm going to write this blog post in the voice of a fitness blogger. I'll start again. Oh, and imagine I'm speaking like Johnnie Vaughan would if he took a cocktail of anabolic steroids.
SO, yesterday is was hitting the weights HARD. And I mean HARD. I was fucking beasting my way through a SERIOUSLY hardcore set when some other dude heads on over my way and asks if the Smith machine is free. This rookie wanted to bench on a Smith machine - hitting big numbers on a machine like this won't end up getting you that ROCK-HARD body you always wanted, as you won't get it with a restricted ROM.
He's asking me this shit in the middle of a CRAZY fucking set. I mean, I am in the ZONE. And the worst thing was, he has to walk past this CHICK to come and ask me. Good for her that she's working out and getting herself TOGETHER - the real men out there won't TAKE a girl in unless she's got TIGHT abs and great ti-
Yeah, I can't carry on doing this. It's giving me a headache. I'm going back to my normal voice - if you haven't heard it, it's smooth, sultry, and slightly annoying after the first few sentences.
Basically I was in the middle of something, and a guy asked whether a specific piece of equipment was free. Which is kind of annoying, but kind of understandable. Unless there's someone standing right next to me (and nearer him), not wearing headphones, and taking a rest between sets. Then, surely, it's worth asking the other person.
Why didn't he? Personally, I think it's because she was a woman, and he didn't think she belonged. Why do I think that? First, he was wearing a T-shirt which read "Read this while I stare at your tits", second he decided not to ask her in the first place, and third, he ignored her when she answered his question anyway. He just pretended she was invisible and inaudible and waited for me to answer instead.
I know it sounds a bit petty, but this everyday misogyny can so easily fade into the background unless someone comments. There's just this general vibe I get from some people at the gym that it's a guy's space, which men graciously allow women to use sometimes. From men telling women to stop using equipment so they can, to the arse-staring and creepshots whenever a woman walks past in stretchy workout gear.
My least favourite event was a woman walking into the free-weights area (that most manly of places) and look around for a second. She could have been looking for anything: a free bench, the dumbbell rack, a squat rack, anything at all. But no, one guy realised she must be completely lost. Why would a girl want to work out with free weights, he wondered to himself. What came out his mouth was: "The cross-trainers are on the other side of the gym, love".
That's a gym I never went back to.
I remember some guys complaining in a changing rooms about women's-only branches of Fitness First which have opened around London. Where are the men's-only gyms? These morons asked that question over and over, while I shook my head silently knowing the real answer: they're fucking everywhere.
Saturday 13 October 2012
Feminists: Debasing Marriage Since Never
I caught this blog post through a long chain of bigots, and people reporting on bigots. What begins as a discussing on Isaac Newton's brilliant invention of the milled edge coin quickly descends into a poorly structured metaphor about how feminists are destroying marriage.
How? You may ask. Our intrepid reporter explains:
Men looking to marry face the same kind of dilemma ancient merchants used to face. Feminists and their enablers have slowly shaved off the value of marriage for men. Marriage for men no longer means:
Well, if this is the destruction of marriage, count me in. Being in a somewhat equal relationship (sometime we watch TV I don't like, sometimes I pretend to be an aeroplane in public just to be annoying, I'm pretty sure the power roughly balances out).
- Being the legally and socially recognized head of the household.
- An expectation of regular sex.
- Legal rights to children.
- Lifetime commitment.
And he hits all the standard dick-swinging woman-hating lonely-old-man tropes. Mischaracterisation of abuse as female histrionics:
Oh, and we also have some new laws which assume you are an abuser if your wife decides she needs some drama or extra leverage against you.Then there's the attempt to paint all women as serial sluts:
It took her so long to find you that you can’t reasonably expect her chastity to be perfectly in tact. I mean, it’s mostly there, but it suffered a ding or two. Her virginity was gone to her first boyfriend, but don’t worry it was very romantic and she still has fond memories of that special time. Not too long after that those jerks at the frat house did a number on her pride, but you can’t hold that against her.There are more, I'm sure. But I have a headache and want to sit in the corner.
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