‘respect’

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Has Airport Security Gone Too Far?

12.8.10 | No Comments »
Cartoon found on tumblr.

Cartoon found on tumblr.

Flying is now even more unpleasant with the new regulations recently announced by the TSA. They have imposed new regulations that include body scanners, nicknamed “Nude-o-scopes” for the invasive, naked pictures they produce. These body scanners have now been installed in almost all of the major airports across the United States. They utilize x-ray technology to look through your clothes, a technology that has been “independently researched” by the government and found to be safe. When imaging experts from the University of California, San Francisco wrote a letter to Obama’s science and technology advisor requesting a government-independent panel to review the machines, their request was denied. The government has significantly downplayed the risk of radiation, especially in the cases of people who are more susceptible, such as pregnant women and young children.

Aside from the disturbing fact that TSA employees all across the country are looking at you naked before you step foot on your plane – it has been compared to a virtual strip search – the scanners also have the capability to store the images they take, although the TSA claims that that is usually not activated. This is a reversal on the claim they made in the summer of 2009 when they said scanned images cannot be stored; this past August it came to light that over thirty-five thousand images of passengers from a checkpoint in Florida had been saved. Oh, and some might masturbate to your pictures.

Aside from the fact that these machines may have unhealthy levels of radiation, and some stranger will see you naked (and maybe save that picture), and the government violates your Fourth Amendment now right before you get on a flight, 4 in 5 Americans support these measures, according to a CBS News poll. If you’re one of the 1 in 5 that doesn’t, don’t worry, you have another option: you can get groped by a TSA agent instead.

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“This is What Rape Culture Looks Like”

11.26.10 | No Comments »

When the men’s ice hockey team used objectification and sexual language to advertise for a sporting event, the feminist group on campus didn’t sit idly by. In fact, they didn’t even sit busily, talking or complaining. They didn’t even ask for help.

They just painted a new sign, a sign that did all the talking. And it worked. Discussion was provoked, people were intrigued, and a shift in the campus understanding of rape culture’s impact on women’s lives occurred. Kudos to the masterminds behind it!

Feminist Students United at UNC said:

While it can certainly seem daunting to attempt to change harmful cultural norms, remember that cultures (ours included!) are composed of individuals who can choose to act in ways that either reinforce or challenge sexism.  Although it’s clear that we still have a lot of work ahead of us, hard-working students, faculty, and staff have already made important steps in fighting rape culture and creating a safer and more equal campus community.

Moving forward, we need to unequivocally shift the focus of the conversation from how to deal with the problem of violence against women to working to change the fact that men overwhelmingly perpetrate violence in the first place.* Women don’t need more self-defense classes, more canisters of pepper spray, more advice about not walking home alone at night, or more blame when men perpetrate violence against them despite all of their precautions.  Everyone needs to speak up and refuse to allow actions/advertisements/jokes that promote men’s violence against women. We’re glad that our cube has generated so much buzz about the problem of rape culture—let’s keep the conversations and the actions going!

*Although most men do not commit violence, 95% of sexual violence is committed by men.

Read more at their kick-ass blog!

You CAN End Violence: TODAY!

11.16.10 | No Comments »

The last time you were harassed on the street, what did you do?

If it happened recently, you may have thought about Hollaback!, the global movement to end street harassment. The epidemic, one that especially affects LGBTQ persons and women around the world, is being challenged by Hollaback!’s chapters in cities across the world. The movement started in New York City and has since been transformed from a blog full of civilian submissions of stories and images of street harassers to a full-frontal campaign against one of the most pervasive forms of violence against women that incorporates mobile technology, the mapping of street harassment on ihollaback.org, efforts to increase dialogue and education in communities about street harassment and why it happens, and the empowerment of people everywhere to take action. The message and role of Hollaback! has remained: don’t just walk on, hollaback! Tell your story and expose your harasser.

What has also remained is you.

When Hollaback! NYC launched and began posting stories from women in New York, it was about you. And when Hollaback! Launched a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer to fund their expansion into a global non-profit organization creating new technologies and working on new strategies, it was you they counted on to show support and take that step toward changing the world with five or ten dollars. When Hollaback! posts stories on the website and tweets people’s experiences tagged with @ihollaback, it’s about you.

And now, with my.ihollaback.org, it’s all about you. The new website allows activists to create personal fundraising pages that feature their fundraising efforts and goals, a letter to potential supporters, and their own personalized URL and images. Hollaback! has been expanding and experiencing great success- including a recent mention in the New York Times and the release of the iPhone and Droid apps to make reporting street harassment faster, easier, and more effective. The more Hollaback! expands, the greater their successes: street harassment is now an issue of discourse in the mainstream media and a focal point for leading feminist blogs and activists. The campaign has created a vision of a world without street harassment, and now that we’ve all seen it, there is no other choice.

So get involved today. Small contributions make big changes, and big contributions make waves. Tell your family and friends with a simple click of a link and post your fundraising page on your Facebook and Twitter so that even your classmates can see that vision. The fundraising campaign (with a goal of 25,000 dollars) ends in under seven days. The time to start talking is NOW!

And when they ask what you’re doing, the answer is simple:

I Hollaback.

Hollaback! Launches Apps To Map Street Harassment

11.8.10 | No Comments »
A screen shot of Hollabacks app.

A screen shot of Hollaback's app.

Here at Where Is Your Line?, we have addressed a connection between street harassment and sexual violence over and over again. The silence around gender-based violence is extreme in regards to street harassment, a pervasive and ignored form of violence against women and LGBTQ people that anyone who has ever left their homes can surely talk about. The only way to end it is to talk about it- and that is something we strive for at THE LINE Campaign through our submissions, stickers, and screenings.

On November 8th, Hollaback!, an organization leading the movement to end street harassment, announced in the New York Times the launch of their groundbreaking smartphone apps.  The apps have the capability to track and map where and when harassment happens, in real time.

“Street harassment is a gateway crime. It is one of the most persistant and pervasive forms of gender-based violence, but it is rarely reported,” said Emily May, executive director of Hollaback!. It is also a fleeting crime, committed by strangers who too often disappear before action can be taken.  With no recourse, harassers are free to keep harassing, leaving victims to believe that harassment is part of city life.  Hollaback! doesn’t buy it. “We believe that taxes are the price you pay for living in the city, not street harassment,” said May.

When users sign into the iPhone app, they will be given choice to Hollaback! with or without a picture, describing the type of harassment: verbal, flashing, groping, assault, or other. A GPS mapping feature automatically tracks where the harassment is taking place, and maps it on iHollaback.org.  The user gets an email entitled “You Hollaback’ed!” and is encouraged to tell the rest of her story when she is safely back at her computer. The iPhone app will pilot in the U.S., with plans to expand internationally and onto other smartphone platforms.

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THE LINE Election Round-Up: The Scandalous and The Sexist

11.4.10 | No Comments »
Image via Humberto Moreno on flickr.

Image via Humberto Moreno on flickr.

Another election season has passed – and what has changed? Besides the major political developments and highlights- Barbara beating Carly, Reid holding on (but only real close), the unfortunate near-victory of Buck, and the switch from Pelosi to Boehner as Speaker and a coordinating, new, and more conservative House- some interesting events and victors are worth discussing.

First is the loss of “scandalous” Krystal Ball, who faced trouble in her VA campaign for a congressional seat after photos of her dressed as a sexy Santa at a college party were leaked to the media. Ball faced a lot of heat for her “controversial” (read: completely normal) college days, despite the fact that it was irrelevant to her current work and her current experience. This is an excerpt from Ball’s website:

In my professional life, I have tried to live the values of my parents and of King George County.  I helped reform the Civil Criminal Accounting system for 89 Federal District Courts to improve accountability and increase efficiency.   I also traveled to Louisiana to assist in the Court’s efforts to recover after Hurricane Katrina.  While working full-time with the Courts, I took night classes and obtained my CPA to better understand the accounting issues I was dealing with.

Somehow, it sounds to me like Krystal got over her scandalous days. (But tell that to politicians, the media, and the voters.)

While the scandalous were pushed out, many controversial winners still rode to the top. For example, Salon highlighted the following three candidates who claimed victory yesterday – featuring two major misogynists and one unapologetic racist.

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Buyer’s Remorse and the Buck Rape Controversy

11.2.10 | 1 Comment »

Ken Buck, rape apologist

The legal process for a sexual assault case is a long and often harrowing experience.  In Illinois, where I live, once the State’s Attorney (the same elected position as a District Attorney) finally decides to prosecute based on a police investigation of a sexual assault, that case can take one to two years before it even goes to trial.  And it’s no secret that our “justice” system ultimately offers little justice for victims of sexual assault.  According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, of the 40% of sexual assaults that are actually reported to the police, about 15 out of 16 alleged rapists walk free without spending a day in jail.

The legal system is broken, thanks in part to people like Ken Buck, current Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Colorado.  Buck and other legislators have taken it upon themselves to make the legal process as difficult as possible for victims of sexual assault and as safe as possible for rapists.

As District Attorney, Buck refused to prosecute an essentially open-and-shut rape case in 2005, despite the fact that the suspect admitted to raping the victim in both the police report and a police transcript of a taped phone call.  Most rape cases come down to a he-said-she-said situation, which can make prosecuting the case very difficult.  But when a police investigation finds that the suspect apologized to his victim, admitted the victim was drunk, unconscious and said “no” several times, and admitted that what he did was rape — in fact, that the suspect’s story is completely consistent with the victim’s story…  Well, prosecutors dream about getting cases like this.

So why did Ken Buck refuse to give the victim a chance to prosecute the man who raped her?  Because Buck does not want to end sexual assault.

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Porn and Consent

10.7.10 | 4 Comments »
Image via Frerieke on flickr.

Image via Frerieke on flickr.

I know porn is a controversial topic. But instead of getting caught up in should porn exist?, I’d like to take on porn as a cultural influence on sexuality.

Given the inevitable existence of porn, I try to promote positive messages of sexuality, safe sex and consent that exist in some films. We have rights as viewers to demand good porn supporting the ideals of sex-positivity and consent.

The bulk of porn that exists now doesn’t align with feminism. I want my porn not only to be hot, but to do this while working from a background and through a lens that I can appreciate and support. So instead of condemning porn, I venture to say that we should condemn bad porn.

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No Symbols – Only Fire.

10.4.10 | 6 Comments »

Coming and Crying is an anthology published in 2010 by Melissa Gira Grant and Meaghan OConnell.

Coming and Crying is an anthology published in 2010 by Melissa Gira Grant and Meaghan O'Connell.

I remember so very clearly the first time I asked someone to hit me in bed – I was sixteen, I was dreadfully in love, and it opened up strange realms of possibility that, in fact, took me years to unravel. Desire is a complex creature, and for self-identified young feminists, it can be difficult to reconcile bodily imperatives with strongly-held beliefs.

I recently read Alex Hoyt’s story ‘I Hit Her – And She Liked It’, from Melissa Gira Grant and Megan O’Connell’s self-published wonder Coming & Crying, and was surprised at the amount of controversy it raised. Personally, I found it extremely touching, and opened up an important dialogue about sexual violence, the eroticisation of male dominance and female submission, and consensual kink/BDSM. I’ll be the first to say that non-consensual sexual violence is terrifying – domestic abuse and sexual assault is a serious issue. However, it has to be set apart from sexual preference. I also know from personal experience that given the stigmatisation of BDSM, fetish and kink, it is the lack of education about consent in relation to alternative sexualities that leads to negative representations and views of these practices in the media, or perhaps, more importantly, in our own minds and hearts.

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National Sexual Freedom Day is TODAY!

9.23.10 | 1 Comment »

This post originally appeared online at The Examiner.

Today the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to affirming sexual freedom as a fundamental human right, is celebrating Sexual Freedom Day with an all-day event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Sexual Freedom Day highlights “the intersections between government policy and lawmaking, marriage, reproductive rights, personal relationships, child rearing, sexual orientation, gender identification, sexual expression, and sexual practice,” with Panelists including Bil Browning, Kenyon Farrow, Nina Hartley, Amber Hollibaugh, Mark Kernes, Ricci Levy, Dan Massey, Mia Mingus, Zack Rosen, RJ Thompson, Carmen Vasquez, Lawrence Walters, Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, and Elizabeth Wood.

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation will also distribute its annual Vicki Awards today, given to individuals or organizations whose work and/or life embodies the mission and vision of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. This year’s honorees are Bina Aspen & Martine Rothblatt, Dr. Deborah Taj Anapol, Kushaba Moses Mworeko, and Susan Wright.

  • Rothblatt, CEO of United Therapeutics, one of the creators of Sirius Satellite Radio, and author of Your Life Or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve The Conflict Between Public And Private Interests In Xenotransplantation, is a male-to-female transsexual. She and her wife Bina Aspen are vocal advocates for transgender issues.
  • Anapol is the founder of Love Without Limitsand author of Polyamory in the 21st Century (2010), Polyamory: The New Love Without Limits (1997) and The Seven Natural Laws of Love (2005) and cofounder of Loving More Magazine.
  • Mworeko is a gay man and international gay rights activist from Uganda currently seeking asylum in the United States after his country introduced laws making it a crime not to report gays and calling for the execution of homosexual men and women.
  • Wright is the founder of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and is a popular author of science fiction, art books, and pop-culture books.

Today’s events in DC conclude with w press conference at 3pm ET to release and discuss the foundation’s State of Sexual Freedom in the US, 2010 Report.

These are interesting times for sexual freedom, to be sure. This week alone…

Next week we head into the American Library Association’s annual Banned Book Week, where almost all of this year’s most frequently challenged books are on the list specifically for content about sex and sexuality, and next month is National Coming Day (October 11).

Today, meanwhile, is a very good day to ask yourself: What are you doing to stand up for sexual freedom in your community, in the United States, and around the world?

Changing Minds

9.7.10 | No Comments »
Photo by Charlotte at flickr.

Photo by Charlotte at flickr.

As a feminist and an activist, I deal with a lot of ignorant and hateful people. When I tell people that I am a Women’s Studies major, I either get an eye roll or a lecture on how it is a useless area of academics. Recently, Miranda posted a great piece that touched a few buttons of men in the comment section. They don’t think men can stop rape. It was typical: nasty “you little ladies do not know what’s what and I (a self considered highly intelligent superior male) have to educate you in the error of your ways” thing, and it got me thinking about people who oppose actions taken in the movement against sexual assault/abuse/rape of women. Opponents of preventive education, anti-rape education, and ending violence against women and the social tendency to blame survivors often focus on three main myths:

  1. That few women are victims of sexual assault/rape/abuse.
  2. That people who are survivors of sexual violence are ever, in any way, at fault or instigators of the violence.
  3. That rape cannot occur in a relationship or with someone with whom the victim has had sex with before.

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