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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26 posts tagged sexism

“Misandry” may be the most efficient word in the English language. In just one word it condenses the self-denying assholery of “I’m not a racist, but …” with the misogyny of “All women are bitches,” throwing in a free persecution-complex bonus”

Cracked, of all things. Seriously. Cracked is now doing better on gender politics than Tumblr. Just sit with that for a moment.

(NB: The rest of the article contains some of the same problematic stuff that’s in most Cracked columns, and for the love of all that is good, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!)

(via pareidolalia)

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This… exists?! I guess you could buy this book. Plenty of people will then probably laugh at you.

This… exists?!

I guess you could buy this book. Plenty of people will then probably laugh at you.

Tiger Beatdown: Media Analysis, the Butterfly Effect and how Rebekah Brooks hair is forced to eat humble pie

Sexism! Somalia! Headlines! Misogyny! Rupert Murdoch!

Yeah, where I packed ALL THE TOPICS unfit to print in a single post.

“

Revealed figures show that the BBC has taken a sexist approach in its payment policies. There are five times as many men earning more than £200,000 as women in the corporation.

The number of male staff who earn more than £100,000 is twice that of women. On the average, women’s pay is £36,827, but this number is £41,916 for men.[…]

However, Patten did not refer to the corporation’s pay discrimination against women. There are 31 full time male workers at the BBC who earn over £200,000 a year, but this number is six for women.

”

PressTV - BBC gender gap: sexism in payments

A tale of two sexisms

My post at Tiger Beatdown. Which I would love if you all read.

“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.

“

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.

michelledean:

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.

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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.

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As seen in Berlin

As seen in Berlin

“From the beginning we have spoken of the special Viennese qualities, of the way music is made here. The way we make music here is not only a technical ability, but also something that has a lot to do with the soul. The soul does not let itself be separated from the cultural roots that we have here in central Europe. And it also doesn’t allow itself to be separated from gender. So if one thinks that the world should function by quota regulations,then it is naturally irritating that we are a group of white skinned male musicians, that perform exclusively the music of white skinned male composers. It is a racist and sexist irritation. I believe one must put it that way. If one establishes superficial egalitarianism, one will lose something very significant. Therefore, I am convinced that it is worthwhile to accept this racist and sexist irritation, because something produced by a superficial understanding of human rights would not have the same standards.”

Dieter Flury, a solo-flutist in the Vienna Philharmonic who believes that only central Europeans should be members because they have qualities that are intrinsically different from other races.

The Wiener Philharmoniker,  a democratically self-administered orchestra regularly considered one of the finest in the world, has 112 members. Four of them are women. One of the men is half-Asian. Found via.

Also, from the same Philharmonic, Otto Strasser, the former chairman had this to say:

I hold it incorrect that today the applicants play behind a screen; an arrangement that was brought in after the Second World War in order to assure objective judgments. I continuously fought against it, especially after I became Chairman of the Philharmonic, because I am convinced that to the artist also belongs the person, that one must not only hear, but also see, in order to judge him in his entire personality. […] Even a grotesque situation that played itself out after my retirement was not able to change the situation. An applicant qualified himself as the best, and as the screen was raised, there stood a Japanese before the stunned jury. He was, however, not engaged, because his face did not fit with the ‘Pizzicato-Polka’ of the New Year’s Concert.

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Heh. Of course they wouldn’t use a pretty face. Found via.

Heh. Of course they wouldn’t use a pretty face.

Found via.

This is what derailing looks like

On the subject of two UK sports commentators who got fired this week for making sexist remarks about a woman linesman in a football (soccer for the American inclined) match, the Daily Mail had to offer their mandatory rancid commentary. This time, the piece does, at least, serve as a teaching tool as it exemplifies rather transparently, what derailing in politics and, more specifically, in feminist politics looks like. Sky sexism row: Why is it all right for women to be sexist about MEN? (I do like how MEN is all in caps to emphasize its importance, by the way; emphasis EMPHASIS actually mine):

You shouldn’t pass unflattering remarks about women behind their backs because it is not a well brought-up thing to do, and they needed to be told. I would never do it myself. Not because I am a feminist, but because I am a gentleman.[…]

Not that that’s anything new. To be a man in this country is constantly to have to apologise for oneself and to be ever so very careful about every sentence we speak or write which contains any reference at all to members of the opposite sex.

While at the same time, and this is the shame of it, we ourselves are fair game for women. While sexism from men is the outstanding social crime of the modern world, women can say absolutely whatever they like about us.

For make no mistake: sexism is alive and well in this country and applauded in all quarters — as long as it is practised by women. And they are allowed to say the most terrible, terrible things.[…]

I’ll tell you how. It is because pretty much from birth women are schooled by their mothers to deride men. They are sugar and spice, we are slugs and snails.

They are reflective and sensitive, while we run around kicking balls and shouting. And then as girls push towards puberty their mothers take them aside and tell them: ‘Boys are only after one thing!’

The great lie. All men want is sex. Not so. If anything, it is women who think only of having it off. Girls on average lose their ­virginity much younger than boys and have more sexual partners in youth.

As a teenager, I was ­terribly shy about sex and yet girls were trying to do it with me all the time. I used to run, literally run, from their bedrooms when they tried it on. And yet women are allowed endlessly to harangue us with our supposed lechery.

And it goes on and on and on, offering nothing of substance but a text book case of privilege denying tactics and antics. What bothers me the most is not that someone thinks like this (we see plenty of such ideas in blogs and assorted media), but that a mainstream news outlet offers this commentary without a shred of critical thought behind it. Because, this, this is how you actually perpetuate an ideology.

That pony tail makes you look bigoted

I see everyone is already on the “Retarded” pony tail post. I have already said everything I had to say on their use of ableist language, even if it is for comical purposes (and notice the post doesn’t say a word about the word “retarded” being an ableist slur). However, I also would like to shed light on the person who supposedly submitted the story:

The submitter had this to say:

I can’t exactly say how this would contribute in the true sense of the word, but I would love to hear what people make of it, given that in Romania, where I’m from, the theory tends to be scarily accurate.

Really, random person? You have been evaluating Romanian women through their pony tails?

Jezebel bingo! today’s trifecta: ableism, sexist stereotypes and xenophobia.

A progressive site’s dreams!

“Man Whispering” is a heterosexual dating technique that urges women to suppress the gender equality of the career world in order to “restore feminine communication” to relationships through the elimination of unnatural female “nagging.”

‘Man Whisperers’ explain feminism - Amanda Hess

I should point out that “Man Whispering” was invented by two women. Also, if I was a guy I would be up in arms with this concept. Would Cesar Millan approve of his dog handling techniques applied to sexist garbage?

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