“Baby Bangs” – where are the feminists when we need them??

My first thought was to say, “This isn’t political, but it still bothers me.”

But this is political, dammit!

Baby Bangs! Made Just for Little Girls!

This ad is for something that mothers can foist on their baby girls so Everyone! Will! Know! they’re not boys. (Because babies are mostly bald, so otherwise, How Would Anyone Know??) (And apparently, it’s Absolutely Crucial That We Know.)

This is, essentially, a WIG. A headband you stick on the poor little baby’s head, with strands of hair hanging from it that make it look like the cute witto girlie has bangs. And by the way — the headband is all prettyflowerygirly. No makin’ a mistake here, by golly! This is a GIRL. (And yegods, that insane tutu that poor baby is wearing! What — someone is going to look at that and think this is a boy??)

So. We want to start early. Tell our little girls that FROM THE WOMB they are not good enough, and must be improved, must have a prescribed concept of “femininity” thrust on them. This is the prelude to their entire busy life of preoccupation with their weight, their hair colour, whether their nose is the “right” shape, whether they’re tall enough (or too tall), whether they’re pretty enough, blah blah blah blah blah.

What’s the problem with someone not knowing she’s a girl, when she’s that little? What’s the problem with telling someone, if they (understandably) get it wrong? Or even not bothering, if it’s not essential to the conversation?

C’mon, idiot parents. She’ll have plenty of time in her life to be objectified and sexualized and forced into a societal gender roll, whether or not it’s good for her. Give her at least a few months, early on, to be herself and HAVE THAT BE GOOD ENOUGH.

If I can’t have my toys, nobody can (or, it’s not the religion, it’s the MEN)

Yet another case of a man who is affronted that his property — pardon me, his wife — wants a divorce and will no longer be in what he perceives as his control.

So naturally, he kills her.

Same scenario played out countless times in North America, by men who are such whiny babies that if someone they perceive as “theirs” doesn’t want to be with them any more, they are unable to be grownup and accept the valid choice of their equal, adult partner, but must throw a violent tantrum. The equivalent of stomping all over their toys to make sure that if the toys are being taken away from them, nobody else can own them or enjoy them — ever.

Men who grew to be five years old, and stayed there. Stupid, stupid little immature, whiny babies.

There’s one difference in this story, though: the man and woman had started Bridges TV, a television station “with the message of developing understanding between North America and the Middle East and South Asia.”

That means that all Muslims, even moderate ones, are going to get tarred with the same brush as this guy. So he’s destroyed a whole roomful of everyone else’s toys, not just his own. He must feel real powerful now, that hollow little shell of a man.

Nancy Sanders, a former employee of Bridges TV, says in the article that she doesn’t believe this was an “honour killing,” but that it was just the conclusion of a streak of domestic violence that had been going on in the family for a while.

She may be right, in theory. But the fact is that these men always find an excuse in their beliefs. It is not a coincidence that this man beheaded his wife. There’s your “honour killing” tradition just staring you in the face. It was there, perfectly at hand for this man, when he wanted it.

Fundamentalist belief systems give these men exactly what they’re looking for when they want to wreck their toys. It doesn’t even matter how “moderate” they are. That goes for all fundamentalisms — Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu — they all have the weapons just waiting for their men to use against the women they regard as their property. Same song, always, in perpetuity — just a different tune occasionally.

And frankly, it’s when your philosophy meets a real test that you discover whether or not you truly believe it. This guy’s “moderation” only lasted while it was convenient and he didn’t have to work to live up to it. First big test his philosophy meets? BLAM.

Small, whiny little immature bug of a tantrum-throwing baby. So much for your principles, pig.

A Big Nasty gets to meet his Maker

One of the instigators of the most evil, fascist political movements we’ve seen in North America in decades (and of which we’re now seeing the devastating economic results, worldwide) has died.

Conservative activist Paul Weyrich dies

Weyrich was one of three founders of the Moral Majority and later had a hand in creating the Christian Coalition.

Nuff said. If Weyrich was right about the existence of an afterlife, I suspect he is now in the middle of a Very Big Surprise.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)

Or this:

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:22,23)

RIH, Paul Weyrich.

Montreal Massacre

To commemorate the 14 women murdered at L'Ecole Polytechnique, December 6, 1989

 

Nineteen years ago today, a gunman walked into a class at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, let the men go, and then lined up fourteen women and shot them. According to information he’d left behind, he said he was “fighting feminism.”

If there’s a heaven, these fourteen women are there: Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.

If there’s a hell, he is there. And I hope we women get to watch.

Peas in a Pod

Guess what these three things have in common:

Honor Killing – “An honor killing is the murder of a victim (almost always a female) by, or at the behest of, close family members with the aim of undoing the loss, or perceived loss, of wider family status owing to the actions or status of the victim. Victims are usually killed for actions seen to be sexually immodest.”

Would you pledge your virginity to your father? – “The event’s purpose is, in part, to celebrate dad-daughter bonding, but the main agenda is for fathers to vow to protect the girls’ chastity until they marry and for the daughters to promise to stay pure. Pastor Randy Wilson, host of the event and cofounder of the ball, strides to the front of the room, takes the microphone and asks the men, “Are you ready to war for your daughters’ purity?” “

Teen died of strangulation – “Aqsa Parvez was strangled to death in her Mississauga home, Peel police said today. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as “neck compression.” The 16-year-old was taken to hospital Monday morning after a man called police and said he killed his daughter. She died later that night. Friends told reporters that Aqsa fought with her Muslim family over whether or not to wear the hijab. She often stayed overnight with friends, afraid to go home, they said.”

Do you sense the common denominator here?? It’s all about MEN CONTROLLING WOMEN. Period. Especially, especially controlling who gets between their legs. (The women, apparently, don’t get to decide that.)

Men have always insisted that they should control women, of course. It’s an old, evil illness they just can’t seem to shake. There have been men controlling women (violently or not) for millenia, in every organization, group, political party, or philosophy in history.

But in the case of most of the “Purity Balls,” “honor” killings, and in the case of Aqsa Pervez two days ago — that crime was compounded, as it has been throughout history — by religion.

Religious men have really created a perfect scenario for themselves. Not only do they crave to exert control over women — but in their religion, they get to be told that it’s compulsory. And the women, damn them, have to submit and obey these gloriously self-righteous men or risk eternal damnation.

As I’ve listened to CBC news over the past couple of days, I can tell they’re so worried about not offending religious and other groups that they’re trying to portray this as a matter of parent-child cultural conflict. A typical generation gap issue, though in Aqsa’s case, taken to extremes because “culture” was involved.

IT IS NOT PARENT-CHILD CULTURAL CONFLICT. If that were the case, the news would be just as full of stories about fathers killing their SONS.

It. is. not.

This is about the War Against Women, and in the above cases, religion is being lassoed by the men to justify what they wanted to do all along anyway — control women. Show what big, powerful men they are.

Tell these uppity women just exactly what they can wear, and, by god, who is and is not allowed between their legs!

And if these men can’t control these uppity women who want to be, you know, mature, self-determining human beings whose lives and bodies belong to themselves — why, the women must be killed. Men must NOT be disobeyed or crossed. Or else.

The macho, warring men taking their daughters to the Purity Balls (looking them in the eyes, putting rings on their fingers, and pledging to guard these girls’ virginity till they hand it over to another man — can there be anything more incestuous??) — these guys haven’t (so far) killed any of their little darlings who, it turns out, decide to have sex before marriage after all.

But it’s coming. It’s just a matter of time.

Because this is all about men controlling women, and religion giving them all the excuse they could ever want, to do it.