If the misogynists are worried about discrmination...
http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=27184-qqqx=1.asp
In honour of International Women's Day (okay, maybe I'm being flippant), an ad for Catholic charity Trocaire's Lenten campaign was pulled by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland for being 'too political'. Why? Because the campaign highlights gender inequalities in the developing world and because it encourages people to support UN resolution 1325, which would protect women in times of conflict. So it is not appropriate for broadcasting. After all, women and those who concern themselves with women's needs are just a political lobby.
Yesterday, the BCI emailed all broadcasting stations - except RTE, which is self regulating and is showing the advertisement - to inform them that the ad, which has been running for the past two weeks, was in breach of the Radio and Television Act prohibiting advertising "directed towards a political end".
(http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1788738&issue_id=15335)
But if a campaign for gender equality is deemed too political, is that not a twisted way of acknowledging that gender inequality is itself a political issue? And if so, why do so many people seem to get up in arms when it is discussed as such? Or is this just an opportunistic move that expects us to believe that charity is generally apolitical, that this Trocaire campaign is an anomaly, the result of the secret machinations of feminists to push their evil man-hating agenda, and the BCI is just calling them on it? Are people really that stupid? I don't think so.
http://trocaire.org/news/story.php?id=978
[Trocaire director Justin Kilcullen] said violence against women was endemic and one of the most pervasive human rights abuses throughout the world. "Violence against women and girls occurs in every segment of society - regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, country or whether the country is at peace or war," he said. "Around the world, women and girls are victims of countless acts of violence. In a great many cases, the violence is not random - women and girls are victims simply because they are female. The range of gender-based acts of violence in conflict is devastating and includes rape. Women are also trafficked, forced into prostitution and face dowry-related and domestic violence."
But it couldn't be down to this female puppet government that many misogynists believe controls the world with sandwiches, since Trocaire is a Catholic charity (http://trocaire.org/about/trocairevision.php), run by a council of bishops. And there are at least two ways of looking at it. Sure, such a campaign is deeply ironic in the context of the most misogynistic institution in global history, but it is alsp possible to suggest that when a group of people normally associated with a misogynistic institution tells you to worry about gender inequalities, you worry. That even within the Catholic structure, someone has found a way to carve out a place where women are not punished for being female, that even the terrifyingly powerful nature of the church (albeit, a power that is in peril) is not so monolithic as to be unable to do something positive. So if we can't point the finger at Holy Catholic Ireland, whose decision was it? Who, then, is responsible for suggesting that women are a political special-interest group with no right to solicit money?
These are realities, not just makey-uppy facts. They are political, yes, because gender inequality is political, but they are also real:
In almost all countries, [Kilcullen] added, women were under-represented in decision-making positions and there was no country in the world in which women earned as much as men. The majority of those who could not read and write in the world were women, and of the 100 million children who didn't go to school, most were girls.
Even John Waters, Ireland's Number One Misogynist, was on the radio yesterday pointing out that even he, who believes Western feminism to be petty and silly, recognises the immediate and serious need to address gender inequalities in the developing world. And when perhaps the most extreme feminist baiter in the country says this goes too far, you listen.
Of course, what John Waters fails to recognise is that if there were such a thing as gender equality in the West, this would not immediately have aroused suspicions. If Western feminists were indeed just provoking petty squabbles, an ad run in a developed Western country highlighting the inequalities in poorer societies would not be deemed too political. If women were equal in the West, we would all agree that the inequalities highlighted by Trocaire's campaign are an issue for all genders. While for the victims, it is about gender, for those of us who, by accident of birth, live in societies where we are free to argue about such things, the responsibility to find solutions is not gender-specific.
Perhaps, though, I'm jumping to conclusions. Maybe it's smaller, more petty, more personal than my broad assumption that it is the feminist backlash would allow. It's not Western feminists who are petty, it's the fact that someone in Today FM asked to have the radio script queried, that for some reason -- for all we know, it was office politics -- they took their freedom to argue petty semantics for granted and chose to put their own pissy squabble above the fact that global poverty and injustice is everybody's issue. I don't think most of us believe that the ad was pulled because it was too political, but that there's something going on that's being left out of the story, and it may be as big as the feminist backlash, or as small as someone using the ad as part of a stupid personal vendetta.
Is Trocaire's ad political? Sure, but find me a charity that isn't. Without the politics to envision a better future, charities would not exist. And what could be a more political move than banning an ad that points out the indisputable fact that the suffering of poverty is a gendered suffering? And ultimately, the people who suffer most are the beneficiaries of Trocaire's campaign, and haven't they been shafted enough?
You can sign the petition here:
http://trocaire.org/news/latestnews.php
You can hear and see the ads here: http://www.lent.ie/News/trocaire-lent-tv-and-radio.php
And here's where you can tell the BCI what's what: info@bci.ie
Happy International Women's Day.
In honour of International Women's Day (okay, maybe I'm being flippant), an ad for Catholic charity Trocaire's Lenten campaign was pulled by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland for being 'too political'. Why? Because the campaign highlights gender inequalities in the developing world and because it encourages people to support UN resolution 1325, which would protect women in times of conflict. So it is not appropriate for broadcasting. After all, women and those who concern themselves with women's needs are just a political lobby.
Yesterday, the BCI emailed all broadcasting stations - except RTE, which is self regulating and is showing the advertisement - to inform them that the ad, which has been running for the past two weeks, was in breach of the Radio and Television Act prohibiting advertising "directed towards a political end".
(http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1788738&issue_id=15335)
But if a campaign for gender equality is deemed too political, is that not a twisted way of acknowledging that gender inequality is itself a political issue? And if so, why do so many people seem to get up in arms when it is discussed as such? Or is this just an opportunistic move that expects us to believe that charity is generally apolitical, that this Trocaire campaign is an anomaly, the result of the secret machinations of feminists to push their evil man-hating agenda, and the BCI is just calling them on it? Are people really that stupid? I don't think so.
http://trocaire.org/news/story.php?id=978
[Trocaire director Justin Kilcullen] said violence against women was endemic and one of the most pervasive human rights abuses throughout the world. "Violence against women and girls occurs in every segment of society - regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, country or whether the country is at peace or war," he said. "Around the world, women and girls are victims of countless acts of violence. In a great many cases, the violence is not random - women and girls are victims simply because they are female. The range of gender-based acts of violence in conflict is devastating and includes rape. Women are also trafficked, forced into prostitution and face dowry-related and domestic violence."
But it couldn't be down to this female puppet government that many misogynists believe controls the world with sandwiches, since Trocaire is a Catholic charity (http://trocaire.org/about/trocairevision.php), run by a council of bishops. And there are at least two ways of looking at it. Sure, such a campaign is deeply ironic in the context of the most misogynistic institution in global history, but it is alsp possible to suggest that when a group of people normally associated with a misogynistic institution tells you to worry about gender inequalities, you worry. That even within the Catholic structure, someone has found a way to carve out a place where women are not punished for being female, that even the terrifyingly powerful nature of the church (albeit, a power that is in peril) is not so monolithic as to be unable to do something positive. So if we can't point the finger at Holy Catholic Ireland, whose decision was it? Who, then, is responsible for suggesting that women are a political special-interest group with no right to solicit money?
These are realities, not just makey-uppy facts. They are political, yes, because gender inequality is political, but they are also real:
In almost all countries, [Kilcullen] added, women were under-represented in decision-making positions and there was no country in the world in which women earned as much as men. The majority of those who could not read and write in the world were women, and of the 100 million children who didn't go to school, most were girls.
Even John Waters, Ireland's Number One Misogynist, was on the radio yesterday pointing out that even he, who believes Western feminism to be petty and silly, recognises the immediate and serious need to address gender inequalities in the developing world. And when perhaps the most extreme feminist baiter in the country says this goes too far, you listen.
Of course, what John Waters fails to recognise is that if there were such a thing as gender equality in the West, this would not immediately have aroused suspicions. If Western feminists were indeed just provoking petty squabbles, an ad run in a developed Western country highlighting the inequalities in poorer societies would not be deemed too political. If women were equal in the West, we would all agree that the inequalities highlighted by Trocaire's campaign are an issue for all genders. While for the victims, it is about gender, for those of us who, by accident of birth, live in societies where we are free to argue about such things, the responsibility to find solutions is not gender-specific.
Perhaps, though, I'm jumping to conclusions. Maybe it's smaller, more petty, more personal than my broad assumption that it is the feminist backlash would allow. It's not Western feminists who are petty, it's the fact that someone in Today FM asked to have the radio script queried, that for some reason -- for all we know, it was office politics -- they took their freedom to argue petty semantics for granted and chose to put their own pissy squabble above the fact that global poverty and injustice is everybody's issue. I don't think most of us believe that the ad was pulled because it was too political, but that there's something going on that's being left out of the story, and it may be as big as the feminist backlash, or as small as someone using the ad as part of a stupid personal vendetta.
Is Trocaire's ad political? Sure, but find me a charity that isn't. Without the politics to envision a better future, charities would not exist. And what could be a more political move than banning an ad that points out the indisputable fact that the suffering of poverty is a gendered suffering? And ultimately, the people who suffer most are the beneficiaries of Trocaire's campaign, and haven't they been shafted enough?
You can sign the petition here:
http://trocaire.org/news/latestnews.php
You can hear and see the ads here: http://www.lent.ie/News/trocaire-lent-tv-and-radio.php
And here's where you can tell the BCI what's what: info@bci.ie
Happy International Women's Day.