Rambling, blathering, going on, link collecting, women's rights/issues/health/perceptions THING
You know, I try and keep well read on stuff that have to do with, well, women's rights, feminism, sexuality and gender discussions. One thing that comes up a lot is sexual violence, specifically (and I say specifically because I'm well aware that there are other kinds of sexual violence, and domestic violence, and plain old VIOLENCE) violence by men committed against women. (Once again, I KNOW THERE IS OTHER TYPES OF VIOLENCE, sadly, but I'm focusing as much as I ever can.) My various friends come from a variety of different directions when it comes to the topic. Male, female, cisgendered, transgendered, bi, straight, queer... and everyone's got a different take on the issue.
One linked this article. The title itself is pretty fricking harsh, but then again, the reality is pretty fricking harsh. I've seen a few reactions. Some agreeing and some violently disagreed. And, to be honest, I can see some validity in both sides of this. At least, usually.
But then I see something like this? And...
What can you say? What can you say to that but stare and feel your heart clench up and want to cry? Because our culture supports this kind of nonsense. Because 30 Senators voted against this. Because this was even a question. Because someone can actually get away with saying this shit. Because women are like vending machines in any number of video games. Because you read stuff like this and the list goes on. I can grab some of the other political issues that've come up, women's health stuff, but my blood is already nearing a boil.
Just... just look at that. Read some of those. Stare at reality for a moment and then go back to that Jezebel article and admit that it all fits together, that it all functions within the same system and the same broken ideas that permiate the "enlightened" world we live in. That what happened there is NOT SURPRISING. It's sad, it's sickening, but it's not surprising.
And sometimes when I read all this stuff, I get so angry, literally so angry I can hardly keep from shaking. My arms are tight, my fingers clench. If you aren't angry after reading all that, I... I don't even know what to say. But mainly, the response is always "Why Don't People Do Something?"
My job is member services. I deal primarily with abuse, such as pictures that violate our TOS and theft of images. One of the things I try to discourage is flaunting and one thing I absolutely won't allow is men using "sexy" girl's pictures to get clicks and visits on their accounts. Not only is it theft, it's a part of all that nonsense that I linked up there. I deactivate an account, I email the member and let them know how it's a violation (and it is a violation; I'd never let my personal preferences dictate the rules of my job but I DO enforce more strictly in such cases) and why their account was deactivated.
And one day I kind of realized "...hey. I'm part of 'people'. And, well, I'm doing something."
I'm not doing anything huge. I'm not even doing anything someone else couldn't do. But I am doing something in my own way. And I'm sticking to my guns; when discussions come up at work about whether we should 'really' take action during such cases, I point out why this kind of thing is important. Why we need to keep our rules.
I don't quite know what the point of this is. Maybe it's just me getting my feelings out somewhere. Maybe it's just me collecting things all in one place so people can look at it and realize how VERY FUCKED UP IT IS and not jump on her if a woman says something like "yes, I do kind of have to make sure a man is 'safe' before I deal with him" as opposed to immediately assuming she's... any number of things. Maybe it's to remind people not to just get pissed off in their computer chairs and never let it go beyond that, do what they can. I can't even say. Maybe it's to point out stuff like this organization that really needs to get more press. Maybe it's just to point out that there are little ways of making a difference.
I don't know. I just know I had to put it all down somewhere. Signal boost or... something.
...Now I'm going to make an RP post and try to have pretendy funtime for a while.
One linked this article. The title itself is pretty fricking harsh, but then again, the reality is pretty fricking harsh. I've seen a few reactions. Some agreeing and some violently disagreed. And, to be honest, I can see some validity in both sides of this. At least, usually.
But then I see something like this? And...
What can you say? What can you say to that but stare and feel your heart clench up and want to cry? Because our culture supports this kind of nonsense. Because 30 Senators voted against this. Because this was even a question. Because someone can actually get away with saying this shit. Because women are like vending machines in any number of video games. Because you read stuff like this and the list goes on. I can grab some of the other political issues that've come up, women's health stuff, but my blood is already nearing a boil.
Just... just look at that. Read some of those. Stare at reality for a moment and then go back to that Jezebel article and admit that it all fits together, that it all functions within the same system and the same broken ideas that permiate the "enlightened" world we live in. That what happened there is NOT SURPRISING. It's sad, it's sickening, but it's not surprising.
And sometimes when I read all this stuff, I get so angry, literally so angry I can hardly keep from shaking. My arms are tight, my fingers clench. If you aren't angry after reading all that, I... I don't even know what to say. But mainly, the response is always "Why Don't People Do Something?"
My job is member services. I deal primarily with abuse, such as pictures that violate our TOS and theft of images. One of the things I try to discourage is flaunting and one thing I absolutely won't allow is men using "sexy" girl's pictures to get clicks and visits on their accounts. Not only is it theft, it's a part of all that nonsense that I linked up there. I deactivate an account, I email the member and let them know how it's a violation (and it is a violation; I'd never let my personal preferences dictate the rules of my job but I DO enforce more strictly in such cases) and why their account was deactivated.
And one day I kind of realized "...hey. I'm part of 'people'. And, well, I'm doing something."
I'm not doing anything huge. I'm not even doing anything someone else couldn't do. But I am doing something in my own way. And I'm sticking to my guns; when discussions come up at work about whether we should 'really' take action during such cases, I point out why this kind of thing is important. Why we need to keep our rules.
I don't quite know what the point of this is. Maybe it's just me getting my feelings out somewhere. Maybe it's just me collecting things all in one place so people can look at it and realize how VERY FUCKED UP IT IS and not jump on her if a woman says something like "yes, I do kind of have to make sure a man is 'safe' before I deal with him" as opposed to immediately assuming she's... any number of things. Maybe it's to remind people not to just get pissed off in their computer chairs and never let it go beyond that, do what they can. I can't even say. Maybe it's to point out stuff like this organization that really needs to get more press. Maybe it's just to point out that there are little ways of making a difference.
I don't know. I just know I had to put it all down somewhere. Signal boost or... something.
...Now I'm going to make an RP post and try to have pretendy funtime for a while.