Red Light Politics
Welcome to my short form Tumblr blog. My name is Flavia Tamara Dzodan, I am a business developer, writer, public speaker, ideas instigator, content creator, media facilitator and trend watcher living in Amsterdam.
This Tumblr is about the spaces and intersections between politics, culture, race and gender matters with some humor and pop culture thrown in the mix.
My long reads blog is Red Light Politics.
I also blog at Tiger Beatdown.
If you would like to know more about me, visit this page .
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What did I miss?
I’ve decided that I am not even going to try to catch up on Tumblr since Friday. Nope. Not gonna do it.
So, did anything important...
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Interesting
Just got a job offer? I know the company, it has a good reputation. And awesome downtown offices.But it’s not quite my style - their...
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“The new rules, which were given the force of an executive order, are a clear improvement over a draft version. If monitored and enforced, they could...”
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Heroism in the Supermarket:
Vitamin Water wants me to believe that drinking their sugary concoction will help to make me a superhero rather than...
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…and The Onion for the win, forever.
Tl;dr: All 10 ways are “Revolutionary Terror.”
(via TheNoobYorker)
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Last night got the pleasure to met and chat with the German Tumblr team.
These women were totally awesome. Total girl crush!
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“The institution of marriage is not under attack as a result of the President’s words. Marriage was under attack years ago by men who viewed women as...”
Tag Results
52 posts tagged misogyny
“Feminists are calling for a ban on hate speech on the Internet, but it’s not the government’s job to censor the Internet”
Stamp Out Online Misogyny? - Wendy Kaminer - Technology - The Atlantic
Since I am part of one of the feminist blogs that actually kick started this whole discussion, I am laughing and laughing at these lies published by The Atlantic. The funniest part? Not a single link or quote to one of these supposed feminists calling for bans.
Also, another fact they carefully omit: the one post that created the domino effect to have these discussions was written by a non feminist. But well, that’d be too much for The Atlantic to acknowledge, no?
Some of us might be feminists, but I yet have to find anyone who’d be foolish enough to demand a ban on anything. We all know how the internet works by now.
Alleged Oslo killer has ideas about women
Back in the day, when I started this Tumblr (and later on when I started posting at Tiger Beatdown and some other places), I made it my “mission statement” to explore the intersections of politics, gender and racial matters. What I never anticipated is that there would be a day when all three would collide in such a tragic way.
Jen McCreight has fine combed the alleged Oslo killer’s 1500 page manifesto (he has apparently confessed to the murders so I suppose we can stop referring to him as “alleged”) and put together a handy list of his ideas about how to deal with the “problem” of women:
1. Limit the distribution of birth-control pills (contraceptive pills): Discourage the use of and prevent liberal distribution of contraceptive pills or equivalent prevention methods. The goal should be to make it considerably more difficult to obtain. This alone should increase the fertility rate by 0,1 points but would degrade women’s rights.
2. Reform sex education: Reform the current sex education in our school institutions. This may involve limiting it or at least delaying sex education to a later age and discourage casual sex. Sex should only be encouraged within the boundaries of marriage. This alone should increase the fertility rate by 0,1 points.
3. Making abortion illegal: A re-introduction of the ban on abortion should result in an increased fertility rate of approximately 0,1-0,2 points but would strip women of basic rights.
4. Women and education: Discourage women in general to strive for full time careers. This will involve certain sexist and discriminating policies but should increase the fertility rate by up to 0,1-0,2 points.
I have gone back to it (the things I do in the name of research, eh? I nauseate myself sometimes) and found some more of his misogyny (emphasis mine):
Social analysts pin it (what he refers to as “the fertility crisis” in the Western World) on some jumble of female education and fiscal autonomy, secularisation, birth control, Sex and the City, a heightened desire for personal freedom, and increasing uncertainty about bringing a child into a world plagued by terrorism, global warming and Lindsay Lohan. (Page 364)
Social analysts pin the “fertility crisis” on Lindsay Lohan? I see…
And last, but not least:
In the big scheme of things, the truth is that European men have treated women with greater respect than the men of almost any other major civilisation on earth. […]. Yet we are the one group of men who are most demonised and attacked, whereas non-white men get treated with much greater respect. What white men see from this is that white Western women prefer men who treat them like crap, and disrespect men who treat them with respect. This isn’t exactly a smart way to behave if you want to be treated with dignity.
The truth is that any nation is always protected from external aggression by the men. The women can play a supporting role in this, but never more than that. For all the talk about “girl power” and “women kicking ass” which you see on movies these days, if the men of your “tribe” are too weak or demoralised to protect you, you will be enslaved and crushed by the men from other “tribes” before you can say “Vagina Monologues”. Which means that if you break down men’s masculinity, their willingness and ability to defend themselves and their families, you destroy the country. That’s exactly what Western women have done for the last forty years. So why are you surprised about the results? (Page 351)
“The first thing he did was shoot the cutest girl he saw”
Eyewitness of the shooting in Utøya, Norway (via Norwegian news site VG Nett through Google Translate).
Putting this out there because many of us consistently bring up the link between misogyny, gender related hatred and certain extreme right wing ideas. The mass murderer in Norway, apparently, was no exception.
Sexism! Somalia! Headlines! Misogyny! Rupert Murdoch!
Yeah, where I packed ALL THE TOPICS unfit to print in a single post.
Misogyny Watch just brought this to my attention on Twitter. A search of “Women have it all” on the Daily Mail produces more than 36 thousand results. This goes to prove that the tabloid doesn’t have a gender related agenda to push, not at all. Here’s the link to the search, in case you’d like to pursue the enticing headlines.
24 hours after latimes.com issues this call to arms, we await the anticipated “heated debate”! via Blog fight! ‘Cheers’ writer trades barbs with Roseanne Barr
“I maintain that those who are surprised that one doesn’t take the side of the “poor, immigrant woman” as a matter of principle against the “rich and arrogant white man” who supposedly has raped her are reinventing a kind of class justice in reverse. It’s no longer, as before, “poor bastards, the rich are always right” but “rich bastards, the word of the poor is sacred.”
Bernard-Henri Levy: Stop the Attack Dogs on Strauss-Kahn and Protect the Indicted - The Daily Beast
He goes on to talk about how this attitude is “disgusting”, etc.
I must confess, I have troubles writing any coherent, thought out response to this piece by BHL. I am taken over by righteous indignation, which you know, it’s something I try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to leave out of my posts. And it is not because of the subject at hand (rape), but mostly because of its intersections, which hit too close to home: an immigrant woman, a defense of White privilege by a very well known academic, the misogyny that oozes in the piece… en fin, that I am not well equipped to maintain my usual level headed responses in this case. Because all of the above is too close, plus the poverty. And the IMF (of which I wrote yesterday and I am currently writing more). It’s like a roller coaster of WTF, followed by anger and just the realization that we might never win these battles. At least not during my lifetime.
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A new law in metro Atlanta will limit breast feeding in public.
On Monday night, Forest Park passed a public indecency ordinance to prevent public nudity. Previously, the city only had a public indecency ordinance that covered adult entertainment businesses.
According to the law, no woman can breast feed anyone older than 2 years old in public. City manager John Parker called the law a proactive step.
“It sets up a process whereby we can try to control nudity throughout the entire city,” Parker said.
”“A study last month revealed a truth many of us have long suspected: men with “macho” attitudes are more reluctant to seek health care—and as a result experience shorter life expectancy and greater medical problems—than men who hold less traditional views. According to the Rutgers University researchers, men who believed in rigid gender roles (like the idea that women should be homemakers while men work) were 46 percent less likely than their more progressive peers to seek out vital life-saving preventative health care.”
Macho Men Die Early: The Destructive Rules of Traditional Masculinity
The good news is that now we have scientific evidence to tell them “Be careful, those ideas might end up killing you one day”.
“TBS host George Lopez compared “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Kirstie Alley, praised for her cha cha cha on the show’s premiere, to a pig on his TBS talk show Wednesday night.[…]
Lopez was belittling Alley’s dancing on “Dancing With the Stars” on his show, “Lopez Tongiht.” “She did a nice job, her little hooves tapping away. Before the show, she went to the market, and then she had roast beef and this is her going all the way home!” he said, before cutting to a squealing pig from a GEICO commercial.”
George Lopez Slammed for Comparing Kirstie Alley to a Dancing Pig - FoxNews.com
Two things come to mind: WTF George Lopez and his sexist “humor”?! I saw the video of her dancing and she was AMAZING! But even if she wasn’t, that doesn’t mean anyone has the right to comment on her looks.
And also, the amusement factor: Fox News is up in arms about sexism?! Oh I see, it’s sexism from a) a Latino and b) someone that doesn’t work for Fox News.
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According to Eurogamer one of the 4 different types of multiplayer to be included in Duke Nukem Forever is Capture the Babe. In capture the babe you need to get to your opponents base and instead of then capturing the flag as is standard you will be capturing Duke’s Babe instead.
Whereby we presume you then fling her over your shoulder and head back to base. But the problem with captured babes is that ever so often they freak out at this manhandling.
At this time the only solution to the problem is to give her a swift slap on the derriere or in more teenager terms, the ass…
”Duke Nukem Forever Multiplayer includes female ass slapping | Lazygamer
“Capture the babe” like the spoils of war she is; “slap her in the ass” so that she submits to the kidnapping… Because multi player game environments are so woman friendly that they had to up the stakes a notch, amirite?
first rule of the justice club is you don’t - can’t - fight fire with fire.
Last night, after watching the first UCLA video, I posted this parody, which I thought was pretty brilliant particularly for its chorus. The catchiness of it immediately overwrote the ugly rant in whatever neurons in my brain had stored it for me. And if there is a greater activist achievement than that - than cleverly replacing all the ick in your head with a kind of joy - well, I don’t know what that is.
I did, however, take it down shortly thereafter. I noticed people were having a discussion of whether the song’s four or five mentions of Alexandra Wallace’s looks made it ultimately sexist. And you know, I personally thought that sure, they were a bit sexist, although mostly I think they were mean, but they didn’t strike me as virulent enough in their sexism to obviate the entire song. But it wouldn’t be the first time my first impression failed me, and not wanting to be the asshole, I took it down to think about it some more. I’m leaning towards reposting.
Let me preface this by saying I agree with everything you wrote on your post about Wallace. However, as a person “classified” as Non White (I am not comfortable using PoC because, theoretically, I am caucasian, but since I am a South American Latina/ Hispanic not the kind that is considered “native” in The Netherlands, where I live; long story, the state has classified me as a “Non Western PoC”), I can also understand the reaction behind those who justify any attack on her (even those attacks that are sexist) on the basis that her “crime” is worth making an exception.
These are not logical, well thought out reactions. These are visceral FUCK YOU’s, which are not borne out of activism and awareness but out of a frustration at taking one too many hits and suddenly realizing that it is enough.
You know I am usually calm and try to be reasonable in my responses. Still, there are times when I find myself having the most disgusting thoughts directed at those who attack immigrants or PoC. The kind of disgusting reactions that make me recoil and wonder where that anger comes from. I cannot answer for others here, but in my case, my seething rage (those rare moments I experience it) comes from issues like being beaten up for the mere fact of being a foreigner who speaks another language (happened to me twice, luckily once the guy was too drunk to inflict any real damage; the second, I was “lucky” enough to “only” be elbowed while the racist douchefuck yelled I should “fucking learn Dutch”). So yeah, I understand the argument against “being nice”. And I guess it’s one of those issues where the feminism of WoC will differ from what is usually called “mainstream feminism”.
For what is worth, I work hard not to let those frustrations come out. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced them. Or that sometimes I am not tempted to retaliate or lower myself to less than pleasant tactics.
Vote NO for the unmarried spinster!
In yet another attack on a woman politician on the basis of her gender, a mailer urges voters to not elect Rose Ferlita on the grounds that she is not married.
via ThinkProgress:
The mailer suggests that because Ferlita is not married, she is incapable of valuing family or holding public office. “Rose Ferlita has put her political ambition first and foremost, while her opponent is a dedicated family man with two children — Ferlita is an unmarried woman with a suspect commitment to family values,” it reads. Moreover, as Florida blog Saint Petersblog notes, “unmarried” is a “codeword” — “if you read between the lines is a subtle way of casting doubt on Ferlita’s sexual orientation.” Other mailers sent by Less Government Now going after men have focused on the candidates’ record or policy positions, not their personal lives, marital status, or sexual orientation.
And then, this surprising revelation on who is behind the attack:
Less Government Now appears to be tied to Scott Maddox, a Democratic operative who unsuccessfully ran for Agricultural Commissioner last year
If this is what the supposedly “progressive guys” are doing, what can we expect from the rest?
hookr replied to your video: This is, quite possibly, the worst real estate ad…
It looks like all their ads are like this: youtube.com/watch?v… which just seems like an amazingly awful marketing strategy.
Good grief. It’s a collection of asshatery! Not just an isolated ad. Also amazing that these two parroting in front of the camera are so unsexy themselves, but so quick to objectify gender stereotypes for their own financial gains. These ads are almost like a parody. If I had to create a brutal, non subtle ad to illustrate bad practices, something crude, probably I would come up with an ad like this. But these guys are serious.
