Quotable: Katha Pollitt on the Ten Commandments

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Sabina Becker

katha-pollitt-quote

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Oh look, another ignorant white woman has an opinion!

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Sabina Becker

know-your-veils

So I was scrolling through my Facebook feed this morning, when up pops this. Yet another ignorant white woman who is strangely offended by Muslim women just being themselves and minding their own damn business. Let’s take her argument point by point so we can see how ridiculous it is, shall we?

The niqab is a ridiculous garment, adopted by a small (but growing) number of women and rejected by many mainstream Muslims. When I see someone wearing it, I’m torn between laughing at the absurdity and irritation with the ideology it represents. In secular countries, the notion that women have to cover their faces whenever they leave the house is rightly seen as weird, and runs counter to the principle of gender equality. Many brave women in the Middle East and Asia have died for the much more important right not to cover their faces, and I have little patience with women in this country who make a mockery of that struggle by trying to pretend they’re the ones suffering oppression.

If it’s so ridiculous and so little worn, Joan, why do you care? And you obviously do, since you feel compelled to point and laugh and be “irritated with the ideology it represents”. WHAT ideology might that be, hmmm?

And what is “right” about seeing a veiled woman as weird? I see someone’s cultural biases doing the talking for her here. Now that’s an offensive ideology.

As for the “gender equality” canard: I should also note that in some North African Muslim countries, the men cover their faces and the women don’t; ever hear of the Tuareg, Joan? And anyway, most Muslim women who veil do not cover their faces; you said so yourself. So why single out the few who do?

And if you want to talk brave, I think you might want to meet Qahera, who doesn’t need your silly directives to unveil, and who rightly takes offence at ignorant westerners trying to “rescue” her from an imagined “ideology”.

Or just refer to my post about Riham Said from yesterday. She doesn’t need your ideology either.

I’m not in favour of the French approach, which is an outright ban on the niqab and the burqa; I’m not keen on banning things and it risks creating martyrs. It makes more sense to treat the face-veil as a political statement and insist on our right to make one in return.

And yet, you feel compelled to rag on how “weird” it is. And to make political statements against it. So, you’re calling for discrimination and razzing instead of an outright ban? Bravo, Joan, what a brave and rational stance to take! I’m sure that will convince everyone!

Covering the face doesn’t make anyone a better human being and the “modesty” argument doesn’t wash; if you wear outlandish clothes, whether it’s a face-veil or fancy dress, of course people will stare.

What is this, an argument for staring? Did your mother not teach you any manners? A veil isn’t a “fancy dress” costume. Not even in not-so-great Britain, anymore.

And how do you know it’s only about “modesty”? You don’t. It may in fact be a statement about nationality or tribal allegiances, not religious belief or a fear of sexual assault. Different women from different regions wear different headgear to say “this is where I come from”. More on this later.

Nor does the niqab discourage violence; evidence from Egypt suggests that veiled women are slightly more likely to suffer sexual harassment, probably because men regard them as easier targets than women in Western clothes. Does anyone seriously believe that women are safer in Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran, where most women wear the veil (many of them against their will) in one form or another? Wearing the niqab or the burqa is self-defeating, exposing women and girls to more oppression rather than less.

Well, isn’t this a hot mess? I’ll gladly concede that there is no article of clothing that will ever really discourage sexual harassment, assault or violence. But the other side of this coin is that removing a veil just because it offends your delicate British sensibilities won’t make those women any safer, either. The only thing that will work is educating the men. And by that, I mean ALL men.

Plus, women in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran don’t wear niqabs. Iraq is largely secular, and the women there usually wear either a hijab (which shows the face) or no veil at all. Afghanistan? Well, the burqa (which is even more concealing than a niqab, seeing as it has a mesh panel to cover the eyes) has been in fashion ever since we in the “enlightened” west (or at least, Ronald Fucking Reagan) saw fit to help them defeat godless communism by sending in the “Arab-Afghan mujahideen”, otherwise known as al-Qaida. Before that, Afghan women tended to dress a lot more like us:

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As for Iran, they wear the chador there; again, a veil that leaves the face uncovered. And it’s not strictly required of all women, only those who are Shia Muslim.

Oh here, have this handy guide to all the different veils worn by women you know nothing about. Maybe it will help you to stop embarrassing yourself with this ignorant blather.

Where I think the state is entitled to intervene is when a woman’s decision to cover has negative consequences on others, including her daughters; face-covering should never be a component of school uniform, let alone compulsory. Then there’s the example of a courtroom: when someone is giving evidence, she should be subject to exactly the same rules as the rest of us. Vulnerable witnesses need to have their identities protected but as a general rule the judge, jury, defence and prosecution should be able to see witnesses’ faces. I wouldn’t expect to be allowed to appear in court in a balaclava, and the public good of open justice takes precedence over demands for special treatment on religious grounds.

I fail to see what “harm” it does to cover one’s face in public, or in a court of law. Where in the rules of evidence does it say that one must be bare-faced? This “pro-equality” argument is bullshit on the face of it (pun intended).

As for the NHS, I’m aghast at the prospect of being treated by a health professional in a niqab. Patients often have to discuss intimate matters with GPs and nurse-practitioners, from sexual health to domestic violence. If someone doesn’t trust me enough to let me see her face, I’m hardly going to feel comfortable about her carrying out an intimate procedure such as a cervical smear. Nor is it easy to imagine a man discussing the symptoms of prostate cancer with a health professional whose idea of “modesty” doesn’t allow her to expose her nose.

Well, Joan, if you’re so offended by veiled doctors or nurses, don’t use the NHS, then! Take your prejudices private, if they’re so important to you. You’re making an awful lot of assumptions about the hypothetical practitioner’s motive for wearing the veil. Have you ever actually been treated by somebody wearing one? And if so, has it impaired her ability to help you in any way? If not, you have no business complaining.

At one level, it’s hard to believe we’re having this debate.

I quite agree. But since you insisted on yattering ignorantly on about it, there you go. You got yourself a debate, lady! And you’re losing to cold hard fact. Sucks to be you.

Human rights law is clear about the right to manifest religion but it isn’t an absolute right, and can be limited when it conflicts with the rights of others.

Such as…your “right” not to have someone else’s Muslim-ness visible to your virgin eyes? That’s not a right, that’s a privilege. And your column reeks of it. Get over yourself, Joan.

The demand by a small number of Muslim women to cover their faces in all circumstances clearly impacts on the rights of others, and requires a robust response.

No, it doesn’t. And no, it doesn’t.

Secularism is not about forced suppression of religion, or at least it wasn’t the last time I looked. But hey. If a piece of fabric is really so offensive, Joan, maybe you should move to Québec. They just instituted a “Charter of Values” there that has a strangely subjective definition of secularism that, I suspect, would fall right in line with yours.

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Music for a Sunday: Demeter sadly walks the land…

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Sabina Becker

…the dying grasses in Her hand.

Happy Mabon to all!

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Submissive? HA!

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Sabina Becker

In case you ever get to thinking that all Middle Eastern Muslim women are hopelessly under the thumb of men just because they wear veils, this video from an Egyptian TV program should prove instructive:

The interviewer, Riham Said, “agrees” to wear a scarf while she interviews this cleric, who appears to have no trouble with her uncovered hair beforehand, when he doesn’t realize the cameras are already rolling. But when the interview gets going in earnest, soon Ms. Said removes her scarf, saying it feels hypocritical (and it is). And when the cleric starts to object, she brings up the salient fact that the channel paid him to appear in what is supposed to be a discussion on sexual harassment. He denies it, but he isn’t very convincing. Probably because the sight of a woman’s uncovered head is just so distracting, eh?

But for me, the best part of all is HER explanation: She says she’ll wear a scarf for God, not men. Not even “holy” men. A point that even a wily old cleric can’t counter very effectively, because it reminds him of whom he is supposed to be serving!

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Wankers of the Week: Miss Amurrica is BROWN! Oh NOES!!!

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Sabina Becker

india-miss-america.jpg

Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, how about that Indo-American Miss America, and all those idiots who think she’s an Arab and a Muslim? Um, isn’t she Hindu? Well, whatever she is, she’s just not white enough for some people, and those racists have much in common with Indians in India who think she’s too brown to be a beauty queen, too. Maybe all these caste-conscious cretins should get together. I hope they do it far away from the rest of civilization…along with these other assholes, in no particular order:

1 and 2. Matt Fucking Bowman and Lawaun Fucking Edwards. Just imagine if I’d tweeted something as nonsensical as this: “Reject a fireman and he will never let it go. One of the many defects of their kind. Also weak brains.” Or this: “Would swat him in the back of the head been considered abuse or a way to reset the brain?” You’d say that was prejudiced, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s exactly what they wrote about WOMEN. They both deserve a rejection from the firehouse and a swat upside the head. And here’s the kicker: Instead of coming out on the side of women, the Fucking Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association is “outraged” that they’ve been suspended for their sexist shit. I’m going to go right ahead and assume that the “Professional” bit is a sarcastic joke, because this kind of tweeting is unprofessional, to say the least. As is defending them for doing it.

3. Alex Fucking Jones. At some point, all this “vast globalist conspiracy” shit has got to become its own worst parody. But since he’s so far up his own ass as to assume it was done only to discredit him, I’d say he doesn’t need a vast global conspiracy; he’s done the job himself already. Yeah, Alex, twelve actual living people were killed just to “discredit” you. You fucking simpleton.

4. Cindy Fucking Jacobs. Satan doesn’t cause tumors; radiation, chemicals, genes and viruses do. And as for being able to regrow any part of the body just by being a faith-healing charlatan, ha! Why doesn’t this woman regrow her own lost brain cells, and those of her idiotic followers?

5. Todd Fucking Starnes. Why?

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That’s why. Shooting guns represents “American values”? Tell it to the families of the DC navy yard massacre, asshole.

6. Sean Fucking Gastonguay. Oh joy, he and his brainwashed wife are planning to sail off to some little island again in protest of gays, abortion, and taxes! Well, good. Maybe this time God will finally finish what She failed to do last time…namely, sink those stupid fuckers. Just a pity that they plan on taking their kids with them. Isn’t that child abuse?

7. Stephen Fucking Baskerville. Soooooo, rape, child abuse and domestic violence are good things, and criminalizing them is all about power for the matriarchy? Well, bring it the fuck ON, sez I. Patriarchy has made a shithole of this world. Ah, if only there were a conspiracy of progressive women actually seeking this kind of power…Le SIGH.

8. Christopher Fucking Jackson. He branded his girlfriend’s vagina with his initials to show he “owned it”? Sorry, but only one person can own a woman’s vagina, and that’s the woman to whom it belongs. Maybe, in the name of fairness, someone should brand his penis with the words “An Idiot”. You know, just as a reminder of who owns it. And as a warning to any other potential girlfriends. PS: And by gawd, that warning is badly needed. He’s such a pervert that even dogs aren’t safe from him.

9. The Fucking Westboro Bastards. Can you believe that they even picketed Bryan Fucking Fischer, the Internet’s leading homophobe, for being “too pro-gay”? How on Earth does a professional ‘phobe DO that, anyway?

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10. The Fucking American Family Association. Home Depot still supports gay people in every way it ever did, but they’re pre-emptively claiming victory in their fruitless attempt to pressure them? Wow. That too is quite the feat of cognitive dissonance, there…

11. Nicholas Fucking Savino. What is it with assholes and AR-15 assault rifles? They seem to go together like rubbery burgers and stale fries, don’t they? Oh yeah…and assassination threats against black presidents? Yeah, that’s the limp dill pickle on top of the whole unholy mess.

12. Erik Fucking Rush. Oh look, another false-flagger! I guess the fact that the navy yard shooter was mentally ill with PTSD from 9-11 doesn’t count for shit with any of these wackaloons.

13. Reg Fucking Dwight. Yup, “Sir” Elton John wanked a big one this week. How his playing in Russia is supposed to empower LGBT Russians is beyond me. If anything, wouldn’t it concentrate them in one arena for fascist thugs to strike? And isn’t this just so of a piece with his playing for Imelda Fucking Marcos and Rush Fucking Limbaugh? Ah well, money must be made. After all, mansions and yachts don’t just buy themselves, y’know.

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14. Ram Fucking Jethmalani. Funny how, in rape trials the world over, defence attorneys invariably argue that it’s always the victim that has something wrong with her. Never the perpetrator, no, he’s always a golden boy. But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a rape victim having a “chronic disease” that makes her seek out abuse from a much older man in authority, one who should surely know better — if he were really a guru, that is, and not just another fucking charlatan addicted to power, money and the ability to chase girls with impunity.

15. AP Fucking Singh. And in other news of slimy defence attorneys the world over, how about this one? He says he’d kill his own sister or daughter if she were to engage in premarital sex! What fucking business is that of his? NONE. But then, this sort of sentiment is hardly surprising, coming from him; after all, he defended the culprits in the Delhi bus gang-rape case, the same half-dozen thugs who went around, with the collusion of private bus drivers, deliberately armed with metal rods, just looking for girls to sexually abuse to the death for no good reason at all.

16. Tarek Fucking Fatah. Rumor has it that he got a massive boner for a certain infamously shitty Islamophobic blogger in Toronto recently. Given his name, you can just imagine what must have happened. I’m surprised that the Centre of the Universe has still continued on as if nothing were amiss, because wouldn’t that be like, you know, matter and antimatter meeting to cancel each other out in a burst of god-awful gamma rays?

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17. Abraham Fucking Cooper. At this juncture, I feel like the Fucking Simon Wiesenthal Centre should just have a permanent place on this wankapedia, for their steadfast refusal to distinguish between pro-Palestinian humanitarianism, and antisemitism/Holocaust denial. This week, again, the target for all the flying bullshit is Roger Waters. Who is definitely a humanitarian, and certainly no denier of anything. Honestly, haven’t these people seen The Wall? They sound just like right-wing Christian preachers, dissing Harry Potter because it doesn’t make wizards and witches out to be evil minions of Satan. Yeah, that’s pretty fucking stupid. Now that they’ve run out of real Nazis to hunt, they have to invent ’em where none exist.

18. Scott Fucking Lively. There’s a “war” between Christians and gays, says the father of Uganda’s “Kill the Queers” law? Um, no. Newsflash: Some gays are Christian. Some Christians are GAY. And Jesus never said boo about LGBT people. Get the fuck over it!

19. Larry Fucking Klayman. Calling him loopy is like shooting fish in a barrel. That said: Bang, bang. Anyone care for a plate of red herring?

20. Erick Fucking Stakelbeck. I hope you’re aware that it’s impossible for a state to be both communist and Islamist at the same time, what with all that “opiate of the masses” and such. And undoubtedly, if you read this blog regularly, you are aware. He, on the other hand…um, not so much.

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21. Paul Fucking Elam. Yeah, your terrorism is human rights activism. And rape has no gender. And your crapaganda posters are sacred private property. And I’m the Queen of Sheba, proprietor of the Brooklyn Bridge, motherfucker.

22. Phil Fucking Gingrey. Awww, ya poor widdle fing. If $172,000 a year as a public servant doesn’t seem like enough, then go back to the private sector. And start at burger flipping, so you get to know the value of a dollar.

23. Ron Fucking Paul. Surprise! Women don’t WANT to quit work and go back to the kitchen, much less home-school their kids in how to be a bubblehead like you and your son. Moreover, they can’t afford it. And I don’t hear you coming up with a plausible plan to help them out there. Which surprises me not in the least; flibbertigibbertarians are always a lot longer on cutesy rhetoric than they are on ideas that actually WORK.

24. Steve Fucking Stockman. And speaking of bubbleheads with no workable solutions, how about him? He wants to rail against the evils of gun-free zones…IN A GUN-FREE ZONE. I think the only logical place for shit ideas like his is in the dead centre of a circular firing squad.

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25. Tucker Fucking Carlson. And then there’s the Bowtie Boy, who thinks an increased stigma on mental illness would solve everything. Oh sure, like banning abortion made it just not happen anymore; pay no attention to all those maternity wards full of dying women. How about an increased stigma on dumbass conservatism, instead? Oh wait, that doesn’t work…they’re stupid, so they’re impervious. Just look at the superannuated frat boys who run the show!

26. Ray Fucking Comfort. Shorter: The Moon does so make its own light, because Beethoven! Biblical literalism doesn’t get any dumber than this. And that’s why we need more science education, kiddies — so dim bulbs will no longer blather on about bright lights!

27. Elizabeth Fucking O’Bagy. How the hell does a pipsqueak of a nobody become a trusted “expert” on Syria? By lying about it, how else?

28. Stephen Grady Fucking Fillingim. Need more proof that “Blurred Lines” is an evil song about abuse, not sex? Here you go, courtesy of an abusive bastard who spent over 40 minutes beating a child to that tune. Can we get that shit off the radio NOW?

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29. Mark Fucking Zuckerberg. What the fuck is a “pro-knowledge economy”? A buttload of meaningless blather from a guy who makes his money off advertising even if that means sometimes exploiting the dead, what else?

30. King Fucking Willem-Alexander. Yes, that’s right, the king of Holland. Who knows nothing about the need for a welfare state, seeing as he is his country’s #1 tax-funded welfare bum, with all the luxury of denial that THAT affords him. Ignorant royals bring out the anarchist in me like no other.

31. Paul Fucking Hudson. There are some things one doesn’t need to try in order to know full well that one won’t like them. Reading his shit is one of those things. Another, I suspect, is anal sex…with him, anyhow.

32. Bill Fucking Donohue. Considering the vast numbers of women and girls who’ve been molested by priests, claiming that the problem is gays rather than pedophiles (or fucking lechers in cassocks) is disingenuous to say the least. But then again, this dude is a league of one, and definitely in a league of his own, at least where stupid pronouncements are concerned.

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33. Godfrey Fucking Bloom. What is the male equivalent of a slut? I’m hard pressed to say, since men aren’t expected to clean house or refrain from having sex for fear of what some bigoted old jackass (like, oh, say, HIMSELF) will “think” of them. Or what cheap, unfunny “jokes” he will make at their expense. PS: Now THIS is funny.

34. Ted Fucking Cruz. When your own party splits itself up the ass because of your stupidity, it’s time to pack it in and call it a day. Srsly.

35. Linda Fucking Harvey. If you love Russia’s homophobic laws so much, why don’t you marry them and adopt kids with them? Oh yeah…now THAT would be a perversion!

36. Kevin Fucking Swanson. He blames Colorado’s floods on gays, ganja, and godless women abortin’ baybeez? I think the real problem might have more to do with ungodly stupid right-wingers refusing to fund proper inspections and maintenance of all those dams in that state because they’d rather waste taxpayers’ money on god-bothering. But whatever! At least now the assholes who voted to deny relief funding for Hurricane Sandy’s victims on the East Coast have a taste of their own “medicine”, so maybe God IS paying attention, after all.

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37. Stephen Fucking Baskerville. Can’t stand the heat? Get the fuck out of the freeze-peach kitchen, you stupid wanker. Did you seriously expect your misogyny and homophobia to pass unnoticed and not get called out? And why did you fail to note that I wank-listed you? I’m hurt. Really I am.

38. Tim Fucking Huelskamp. Congratulations, double wanker. Please don’t come back for an encore, you’ve worn out the welcome mat already.

39. Mark Fucking Kessler. Fired? Awww. Too bad, so sad. Don’t let the door hit you…oh, what am I saying? I hope it hits you hard on both sides. Ha, ha. PS: Next time you have a gun in your hand, please aim it at your own head.

40. Ted Fucking Yoho. Why?

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That’s why. Obstructionism is NOT activism, it’s assholism.

And finally, to Vladimir Fucking Putin. George Orwell would be delighted by your obvious acumen for doublespeak. Lord knows he predicted it long enough ago.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Whose fault is it?

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Sabina Becker

In India, it’s WOMEN!

In the US, it’s WOMEN!

Impotence: Laura Sessions Stepp (of Unhooked fame) wrote in The Washington Post that young women’s feeling empowered to initiate sex was causing a scourge of impotence among college-aged men: “According to surveys, young women are now as likely as young men to have sex and by countless reports are also as likely to initiate sex, taking away from males the age-old, erotic power of the chase….. One can argue that a young woman speaking her mind is a sign of equality. “That’s a good thing,” says [teacher Robin] Sawyer, father of four daughters. “But for some guys, it has come at a price.” Because if there’s one thing that kills straight guys’ boners, it’s girls that want to have to sex with them.

Crime: Concerned Women for America, the anti-feminist organization, believes that feminism is behind the increase of incarcerated women. According to CWA’s then-president Wendy Wright, feminism made a grave error in promoting women’s autonomy: “Such ideology, which often encourages women to feel that ‘they don’t need to be dependent on a husband and they shouldn’t have to depend on their family,’ could be leading women into these kinds of activities ‘where they’re forced to fend for themselves,’ Wright says.” Hear that ladies? Husbands don’t just take out the trash, they keep you out of jail!

Mass Shootings: It’s not just women in the workplace that’s behind mass shootings, it’s “feminized” schools. According to Charlotte Allen in National Review Online, the murder of twenty children at Sandy Hook Elementary School can be traced back to the lack of men around : “There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred…. There didn’t even seem to be a male janitor to heave his bucket at Adam Lanza’s knees. [A] feminized setting is a setting in which helpless passivity is the norm.” Guns don’t kill people, feminized settings kill people.

Traffic & Environmental Decline: Women are so selfish, with their wanting to work outside the home. Don’t they know they’re single handedly ruining the environment? According to Jack Cashill—a writer who just put out a book, If I Had a Son: Race, Guns and the Railroading of George Zimmerman (ahem) — feminism is bad for the environment. Or, as he writes, “Equal pay for equal work also means equal commutes.” Cashill continues by saying that stay-at-home moms “save the state’s highway infrastructure from meltdown, especially since a ‘nanny’ often drives to the working mom’s house, putting three cars on the road where otherwise one would do. Homeschooling moms further ease the strain on the ecosystem by keeping their kids off the road.” The less you gals leave home, the better off the earth will be!

Anthony Weiner: You may have thought that the only person responsible in the Anthony Weiner sexting controversy was Weiner himself—how shortsighted of you! Thankfully, Fox News set the record straight and pointing to the real culprit: feminism. You see, feminists made it easy for slutty, slutty girls to go on the Internet and entice men into sin. Because birth control.

Gee, isn’t it nice to know that women on this side of the world have so much in common with our sisters on the other side of the world? And what they have most in common, is how much they both need to fight.

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: No such thing as too much of a good thing

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Whether it’s Evo in a straw hat…

evo-strawhat

…or El Ecuadorable dressed to kill…

correa-waorani

…there’s just no such thing as too much of either of these guys. Or too many cute pictures of them.

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Colombia’s disturbing virgin auctions

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Sabina Becker

auction-gavel

Once again, Medellín makes the news for all the wrong reasons. Not only do they have a major problem with child sex trafficking from the city to mining camps in rural areas; as Rodrigo Martínez Arango reports in El Colombiano, they also auction off local girls to tourists and crime bosses as though they were cattle:

An investigation by the Central Corporation of Consulting and Urban Conflict (C3) confirms a rumor which is circulating among organizations working for the welfare of women and state entities: in Medellin, there are auctions of virgin girls between 12 and 14 years of age.

In the field study, performed over a period of eight months by an interdisciplinary team of the Corporation, composed of a sociologist, an anthropologist, a social worker, a creative artist, and a popular pedagogue, it was established that the minors are scouted in the barrios on the outskirts of the city by delinquents and chiefs of gangs, who contact the [girls’] families, threaten them, and also guard the little ones so that no one can touch them until the moment they are auctioned off to tourists or the heads of criminal gangs.

Luis Guillermo Pardo, director of C3, said that the most worrisome thing about this phenomenon is that some girls are subjected to these abuses with the consent of parents and families, through menaces or money.

Pardo says the crime was localized, particularly in the neighborhoods of Centro 10, Aranjuez 4, Villahermosa 8, Buenos Aires 9, and San Javier 13.

“When there are international events, such as the Flower Festival, it’s a madness, and they make catalogues offering the little girls. It’s a disgrace. They show virginity, the body of girls, as a source of income,” denounced the director.

The study found catalogues of between 50 and 60 girls, who were being offered to tourists seeking sex in Medellín, and to chiefs of criminal bands.

The unbelievable thing about this phenomenon, Pardo says, is that the delinquents engaging in this trafficking pay bribes to other antisocials so that they allow them to distribute the catalogues and don’t disturb them in their illicit work.

It’s said, he says, that these girls who are the object of this sexual abuse, are later handed off to other delinquents who offer them protection, and end up in prostitution.

He said that it was also observed in the study that, in many cases, these girls are submitted to all kinds of abuses. They are forced to drink intoxicating beverages such as whisky, and they are drugged, especially with cocaine, to increase their resiliency. “They make bacchanals with them, and the little girls are passed from hand to hand,” Pardo concluded.

Clara Mazo López, director of the corporation “Vamos Mujer de Medellín”, said that each year they publish a report on human rights in Medellín, and as of last year, they have been reporting this phenomenon, because in that city they promote sex tourism with the sale of virgin girls which has been propagated.

Mazo emphasized that the authorities must intervene ahead of time, and not “turn a deaf ear” because these are problems of society. This phenomenon is happening all over the city, even in the Centre it is becoming more visible. But wherever one lives there is evidence of the problem, with the appearance of apartments and rooms which are rented as lodgings to foreigners or to powerful persons, in which they can have sex with girls and teenagers without the authorities intervening.

Mazo alerted that the practice is not only with street girls or those from the poor barrios, but that they are also doing it with girls from well-to-do homes, taken from their schools.

An anthropologist who participated in the investigation, but who asked for anonymity, indicated that they detected the problem in neighborhoods very much on the outskirts of the city, with very pretty girls, members of families with all kinds of problems, a situation taken advantage of by gang bosses.

“The heads of gangs or bosses of the block make the approaches. They take charge of economically supporting the homes of the minors, paying rent, services and grocery bills, but they make certain that no one can touch that girl until they find clients who can pay good money for her.”

By way of contacts in sites where tourists arrive, they pass the catalogue with a small number of girls in order to avoid being discovered by the authorities or organisms defending human rights.

“These auctions,” the professional continued, “also take place on social networks, with the help of a PIN. Then they offer them to a closed group of bidders in the exterior, the same which uses this PIN to get into the auction.”

What usually occurs with these girls after they lose their virginity is that they are obliged to prostitute themselves by way of the so-called “pre-pay” system. The structure of the network, says the anthropologist, is an octopus.

The head of the structure, as well as contacting families in need, also extends his tentacles with accomplices in high schools, barrios and even in universities.

“‘I know someone who can help you get ahead, so you can work and collaborate at home’, they say to convince them, and later they turn the girls over to these capos,” said the anthropologist.

The delegated spokesman for human rights in Medellín, Jesús Sánchez, confirmed that last year they heard of a case which has been denounced in a session of city council, and “was that of a mother who came to us to seek protection in order to get her daughter out of the barrio, because the armed group in the sector ordered her, with threats, to hand over the girl, 13 years old, during a weekend, in order to send her to these networks.”

The same mother, continued Sánchez, fearfully asked that the declaration be made with great care, because she was afraid, and that the threat was to seek retaliation against her and the rest of those involved.

“That whole family had to leave the city as displaced persons, and the motive was to protect the girl,” said the spokesman.

“The call could not have been made only to the citizenry to denounce it, the police, the competent authorities also have to activate the mechanisms to identify this crime, which, with the title of ‘Auction of Virgins’, was included in the chapter dedicated to children and adolescents in the human rights report of 2012.”

To parents who may be affected by this criminal phenomenon, Sánchez recommends that they contact the Ombud, who have all the reserve and, in the end, the entity which will make the denunciation to the competent authorities will be the Public Ministry, the Ombudsman of the city, or the Spokesperson Delegate for Human Rights.

A university professor who recently conducted a study on child sexual abuse for the Medellín mayor’s office and who asked that his name not be used, told this publication that in the process of the work, a story came to his attention, told by the rector of a public high school in the city, regarding a 15-year-old girl, who had changed schools three times in one year.

They did a follow-up to find out if there were family problems, difficulties in the neighborhood, or with her peers. The directors of the establishment were tremendously surprised to find out that she was the recruiter of a human-trafficking ring. “This modality of the gangs, of going from school to school, is not only for microtrafficking [in drugs] and to recruit boys [as members], but also to look for pretty girls to hand over, under deceptions and promises, to these prostitution networks,” said the educator.

Luz Aida Rendón, under-secretary of Social Assistance in the Medellín Secretariat of Social Inclusion, informed that the institution has a program called “Growing With Dignity”, for which they send out 13 mobiles specialized in the problems of children, and one of them is to recognize the subject of exploitation and child sex trafficking, which occurs throughout the city.

In the Centre, she says, they have identified 374 minors, most of them girls between 12 and 17 years of age, who are sexually exploited.

With regard to the sale of virgin girls, she says that they have only heard rumors from the street, which are being investigated.

Adriana González, director-general of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, consulted over these denunciations, responded that it was the first time she had heard tell of this phenomenon, which caught the attention of the entities who have performed these investigations so that they can make them known to the Instituted with the purpose of activating, with the help of the Prosecutor-General, a network of protection in order to confront this crime.

Translation mine.

Colombia’s high tolerance for prostitution, as well as its ongoing reputation as a sex-tourism hotspot, has made this ghastly situation inevitable. As Kajsa Ekis Ekman noted in this interview I translated earlier, there are never enough willing adult women in prostitution to meet the heavy demand for sexual servicing. And since Colombia is trying hard to shed its Cocaine Country image, and using tourism in order to do so, particularly in drug-crime-ridden cities like Medellín, it stands to reason that the ravenous touristic demand for prostitutes — the younger and more virginal, the better — would be filled in this way. The gang infrastructure has been there for decades, as has the poverty that ensures that there is no end of supply — however frightened and unwilling — to meet the demand. As Gabriel García Márquez has noted in fiction and journalism both, the little girls who work in that industry are there in order to eat. And the gangs are well aware of this, and only too willing to “help”…in the way that is most profitable to sex capitalists, of course.

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Stupid Sex Tricks: Where to wank in public

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Sabina Becker

swedish-flag

Yay, Sweden.

A court in Sweden has ruled that it is acceptable to masturbate in public as long as it is not directed at anyone.

The ruling came in a landmark judgement following a case brought against a man seen touching himself on a beach.

The 65-year-old man, who dropped his shorts close to the water at Drevviken beach, Stockholm, and started to masturbate, was initially charged with sexual assault.

But in a surprise ruling, the Södertörn District Court acquitted the man. While the judgement stated it ‘may be proven that the man exposed himself and masturbated on this occasion’, it subsequently added that no offence had been committed.

No word on whether that also counts if you’re high on crack and near a middle school when you whip it out. Or if it’s also okay to eat a gyro while riding a vibrator on the New York subway.

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Posted in Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Scandinavian Smorgasbord, Stupid Sex Tricks, The United States of Amnesia, The WTF? Files | Comments Off on Stupid Sex Tricks: Where to wank in public

What do I have against Facebook ads?

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Oh, only shit like this:

rehtaeh-find-love

Isn’t Facebook wonderful, letting advertisers use people’s pictures to sell product without permission, much less a cut of the profits? And even more wonderful: They help dead girls find dates! Just a pity Rehtaeh Parsons didn’t live to take advantage of this invaluable service. She killed herself in April, and dates were probably the furthest thing from her troubled mind.

And yeah, my Social Fixer adblock software is staying put. I do NOT need to see things like this, even if I remain single for the rest of my life.

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Posted in Bullies, Canadian Counterpunch, Facecrooks, Isn't It Ironic?, Madvertising, The WTF? Files | Comments Off on What do I have against Facebook ads?