PREMIERES ONLINE MAY 9TH, 2013

RELEASED FOR MOTHER'S DAY IN CELEBRATION OF THE EVERYDAY FEMINIST
While Hillary Clinton makes cracks in the political glass ceiling and Lena Dunham challenges Hollywood's ideals about the female body, it's our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, best friends and colleagues - these are the women moving feminism forward today.

Tidal Wave Girls is a documentary short celebrating the educational and economic advancements women and girls have made in recent years thanks to everyday women. At home. In the classroom. On the playground.

To harness the power of generations. To grab our wetsuits, stand tall and make waves - until we reach the shore.

Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization with Christian roots and like some churches has embraced the homosexual lifestye (although some modern AA's deny it). This video gives a little personal insight into how it was done. One of the links discussed in the video is "My name is Padric a Alcoholic (Gay).It is in the AA pamphlet entitiled: 'Are you different' Here is a link to the AA approved pamphlet and a short excerpt:
Are you different?

"In AA today, I know sober leather fans, transvestites, and members of every other sexual group there is. But the only important thing here is that we are all human beings, all alcoholics, and all in AA together"

1 posted on May 11, 2013, 4:39:17 AM PDT by tedw
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To: tedw
Reading that AA embraces homosexuality is more than ‘disturbing’, rather it displays a severe character flaw.

On the other hand, perhaps the organization is recognizing that homosexuality, like alcohol, is an addiction.

Wonder if the embracement would include those inclined to pedophilia?


2 posted on May 11, 2013, 4:44:18 AM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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Content Note for rape and kidnapping, and general rape culture.

They look just like everybody else.



They look just like everybody else.

It’s not an easy thing to keep in your head. Disney movies have taught us that villains look like villains.* But in real life, they look like everybody else.

Once they get caught, and we see a mugshot and they look like they were up all night drinking and then groped a stranger in a parking lot and were driven off by force, it’s easy to see them for what they are. But in the office, before Jeff Krusinski got arrested, he looked like a normal person. Someone gave him the job of heading up sexual assault prevention for the Air Force. In hindsight, it seems like a cruel joke, or a deliberate effort to put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Rather like putting a pedophile in charge of a program for troubled children. And given the massive issues the US armed forces have with sexual assault, it’s not absurd to think there are plenty of people who are more or less outright pro-rape. But just like the proportion of the population that are actually rapists is limited, the proportion of the population that can think both “that guy’s a rapist” and “I’m okay with that” is limited. I don’t have anything quantitative to point to for the size of that population, but experience teaches me that when people are determined to make excuses for a rapist, they first deny he’s** a rapist. Even the rapists don’t say they’re rapists.

Men’s power advocates (the guys who call themselves “men’s rights activists”, which is not a little like calling one’s self a “white rights activist”) get all wound about the term “rape culture,” making really facile arguments like we can’t have a rape culture if rape is a crime. But if you have a crime that perpetrators routinely get away with, where people defend even those duly convicted, then isn’t it a crime the culture offers a lot of support to? I think we’d all agree that we have a culture of corruption in politics, even though every once in a while one of the scoundrels gets hauled off in handcuffs. It’s illegal, but it’s common, it’s both decried and laughed at and to way too large an extent tolerated. Rape culture is like corruption culture: we all know it happens, it’s a crime, it’s sometimes prosecuted; but efforts to stop it are ineffective and lots of people who know about it find ways to make believe it isn’t what it i,s or convince themselves that the people who do it are justified; especially when it’s their friend.

I’m not saying that outright, self-serving human venality isn’t a significant reason that people look the other way. If we look at Sandusky, certainly for some people at some point there’s a more or less conscious thought process: I know what he is, I know what he does, but I’m putting the interest of the program and my self-interest first. If we look at Polanski, some people are simply calculating that supporting him is important in Hollywood and calling him what he is just isn’t in their self-interest. Even someone whose primary public reputation is as a feminist will call a rape a “model sexual negotiation” when necessary to appeal to a target market.

Friday’s attack happened at 5 a.m. after two gay men tried to enter an after-hours billiard club and were denied entry, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The two were approached by a group of about five men who shouted anti-gay slurs and beat them, Coleman said.

He said the gay men tried to flee but the attackers followed them to the entrance to the 33rd Street PATH station, where Port Authority officers saw the assault and broke it up.

Several of the attackers fled but officers arrested two suspects.

Asllan Berisha and Brian Ramirez, both 21, were arrested on charges of felony assault as a hate crime. No information on attorneys for the suspects was immediately available.


Coleman said both victims suffered severe facial injuries and were treated at Bellevue Hospital, where one victim underwent eye surgery. Their names were not released.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/05/police-arrest-two-men-in-beating-of-gay-men-in-new-york-city/

Queering Iranian Cinema

The concept of a queer Iranian cinema may sound contradictory or impossible, but that is exactly how one would describe Facing Mirrors (2011), the first movie to feature a female-to-male transgender main character that has been written, produced, and screened in Iran. Directed by Negar Azarbayjani and produced by Fereshteh Taerpour (two cisgender female filmmakers), Facing Mirrors features the story of the unlikely friendship between the upper-class Adineh (“Eddy”), a pre-op transman in Tehran struggling to escape from the grips of his transphobic father, and Rana, a modest, devout, working class woman who ferries passengers in order to pay her imprisoned husband’s debts and secure his release.

This film has won numerous awards and nominations in over 64 different LGBTQ and international film festivals around the world – most notably the Special Jury’s Crystal Simorgh Award at Iran’s 29th Fajr International Film Festival and the Outstanding First Feature Award at San Francisco’s 36th Frameline Film Festival. It has also received rave reviews from Iranian film critics and audiences around the country.

Although the transgender identity is legally accepted in Iran, it is not often visible in popular culture. The legal acceptance began with a fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini in 1978, which laid the groundwork for the current legal regime dealing with trans issues. Today, not only does the government recognize transpeople, but it also financially supports those who cannot fully afford hormones and sex reassignment surgeries through charity grants, and more recently, by mandating that insurance companies cover the full cost of the operation.

The surprising aspect of this story, therefore, is not the positive response from both critics and ordinary moviegoers in Iran, but rather a lack of coverage by mainstream Western press of such an internationally successful movie. It would seem that a movie about transpeople in Iran would be an instant headline-grabber, especially when one considers the plethora of news reports, op-eds, and airtime devoted to criticizing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s horrid record of human rights violations, particularly when it comes to the rights of women, minorities, and lgbtq folks. Indeed, another recent movie, Circumstance (2011), written and directed by Iranian-American female filmmaker, Maryam Keshvarz, which chronicles the love story of two female Iranian teenagers – Atefeh and Shireen – trapped between a repressive government and an unaccepting society, was immediately picked up by mainstream media. It generated multiple articles, reviews, and critiques, including an interview on AfterEllen.com, a popular US-based lesbian pop culture website.

Today millions of Americans will honor their mothers for the sacrifice, compassion and care they gave in rearing their children, and as a holiday it was set aside to acknowledge not only mothers and motherhood, but maternal bonds and the influence of mothers in society. Whether Republicans care for and respect their own mothers is questionable, but it is not difficult to imagine they have contempt for all mothers in America after they spent the past two years waging war on women, their equal rights, and their reproductive health. The disregard conservatives typically have for women was on display this past week courtesy of the National Rifle Association, and although it may not represent the sentiments of all Republicans, it certainly is a microcosm of conservative’s attitudes toward women; including mothers, sisters, wives, and potential mothers.

Last weekend in Texas, the National Rifle Association held their annual convention in Houston, and included among vendors selling killing paraphernalia was a company selling targets representing an ex-girlfriend that bleeds when it is shot. The more the target is hit, the more it bleeds and it is a reminder that violence against women is well-received and accepted as a normal way for men to keep women in their place. It is irrelevant the company labeled the target a “former girlfriend,” because girlfriends, like all women, can be mothers or potential mothers, and although Republicans have not yet sanctioned using firearms against women, they have taken extraordinary steps to attack mothers and potential mothers with hundreds of bills targeting women.

One of the first items on the agenda when Republicans took control of the House in 2011 was delineating rape as legitimate, requested, and/or warranted, and when they refused to make allowances for incest or the health of the mother as a condition for abortion services, they made it clear mothers are insignificant in comparison to a life-threatening pregnancy. In several state legislatures, Republicans either attempted to pass, or passed, legislation giving full 14th amendment protections and citizenship to a single-celled organism (zygote), and subjugated the mother to second-class status unworthy of equal rights Republicans bestowed on a fertilized egg. It is the ultimate expression of hatred toward mothers that some Republicans will pretend to honor on Mother’s Day.

When the Violence Against Women Act was due to be reauthorized last year, Republicans balked at passing the normally bi-partisan legislation because they believed Native American and gay mothers were not worthy of protection against male predators who often use firearms against women and were likely who the “former girlfriend” targets that bleed when shot were manufactured for. The same Republicans blocked passage of equal pay for women, most of whom are mothers, for no other reason than conservatives typically regard women as being of less worth than a man, and it is particularly harsh as more mothers are breadwinners in the family.

Developers are in the process building a 26,900 square foot, interactive, mostly completely pink Barbie Dreamhouse For Humans in Berlin. If you were the Barbie type, this is probably your childhood dream come true. If you were the anti-Barbie type, then fear not! Because the Dreamhouse gives life to all dreams. Your anarcho-feminist childhood fantasy of fucking shit up at Barbie's mansion has also been given life: German feminists are planning an "Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse" protest at the grand opening of the shrine to traditional girlhood, on May 16.

Everyone knows that "virtual cupcakes" are the best thing to "eat" before setting foot on a Barbie Fashion Runway. Classic Barbie™, promoting healthy body image in young women.

“For 22 euros ($29), you can have two careers — model or pop star! What kind of image is that presenting to young women?” wonders Michael Koschitzki, the proudly feminist male leader of the Dreamhouse opponents.

In response, a spokeswoman from Mattel Germany said, "Barbie has again become a tool for some to advance their own agenda."

And, certainly, the Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse organization has a far-reaching agenda. From their Facebook page:

More: http://jezebel.com/life-sized-barbie-dreamhouse-comes-with-occupy-dreamho-500152674

Hey guys*: Listen, I know you're mad at me. I mean, maybe not me specifically, but a figurative "me"—the type of woman who thinks she's funny, who thinks she understands comedy, who has opinions (and shares them) about what kinds of jokes comics "should" or "should not" tell.

I speak up for women, which sometimes involves criticizing men. I don't believe that "rape jokes" should be a completely unregulated market. And I understand that, to you, criticizing a comedian's execution on certain subject matters can seem indistinguishable from censorship and conservatism. So I know you're mad at me and I know why.

But comedy has a serious gender problem, and I really can't stop complaining about it until it's fucking fixed. Comedy clubs are an overtly hostile space for women. Even just presuming we can talk about comedy gets women ripped to shreds by territorial dudes desperate to defend their authority over what's funny. "Jokes" about rape and gendered violence are treated like an inevitability instead of a choice; like they're beyond questioning; like they're somehow equally sacred alongside women's actual humanity and physical sanctity. When women complain, however civilly, they're met with condescension, dismissal, and the tacit (or, often, explicit) message that this is not yours, you are not welcome here. It's fucked up, you guys. And I'm saying that as a friend with the best intentions.


Hey, Men, I'm Funnier Than You
Oh, great! Let's talk some more about how women aren't funny. Science has performed yet… Read…
Comedy has always been my go-to art form—it's been more valuable to me, in terms of emotional solace, than film or music, and it's certainly on par with literature. I know a lot of you can relate to that feeling. That doesn't mean I have the same perspective as, say, a hardened road comic, but I get paid to perform on stages, in various contexts, all the time. I've done stand-up in a brightly-lit pizzeria at 6 pm in front of four people who were not informed that there would be comedy (try it, it's great). I've written a weekly comedy column in the newspaper. Most of my friends are comics (many of them are white males!) and my boyfriend is a comic. But I get that there's no amount of experience that could give me "cred" with every single one of you, and anyway, these goal posts are easy to move—even if I were a full-time comic, you could always say I wasn't "good enough" for my opinion to matter. (Plus, it's no secret that plenty of people don't think female comics count as comics at all.) So fuck it. Whatever. What I'm saying here is that I'm not a fucking tourist. I'm not a bachelorette party. And if you're not performing for people like me—discerning lifelong comedy fans—then I don't know why you're doing comedy at all.

http://jezebel.com/an-open-letter-to-white-male-comedians-497503334

Created by the datavisualization experts at Floating Sheep, the interactive map was made in response to criticism that a previous map – which plotted the distribution of racial epithets in the wake of Obama's re-election – had arrived at specious conclusions about the relative amount of racist content emanating from Mississippi and Alabama. Via Floating Sheep:

In order to address [one such criticism] , students at Humboldt State manually read and coded the sentiment of [hundreds of thousands of tweets containing homophobic, racist, or ableist slurs] to determine if the given word was used in a positive, negative or neutral manner. This allowed us to avoid using any algorithmic sentiment analysis or natural language processing, as many algorithms would have simply classified a tweet as ‘negative’ when the word was used in a neutral or positive way. For example the phrase ‘dyke’, while often negative when referring to an individual person, was also used in positive ways (e.g. “dykes on bikes #SFPride”). The students were able to discern which were negative, neutral, or positive. Only those tweets used in an explicitly negative way are included in the map... All together, the students determined over 150,000 geotagged tweets with a hateful slur to be negative.
The image up top is the map of all the homophobic tweets deemed hateful. Over at the interactive map, viewers can see similar maps for racist and ableist tweets, and even parse the data to examine the geographic distributions of individual words. The results were compelling. "Even when normalized," write the researchers, "many of the slurs included in our analysis display little meaningful spatial distribution":