feminist blogs

It was a rough three days, but now I’m back. Covered in stomach juices, it’s true, and far wiser about the digestive tracts of cetaceans than I ever expected to be.

By the way, have you ever read the Book of Jonah? Really read it, in modern translation? It’s a comedy. A pretty good one, too. Jonah is a buffoon and the whole thing is a comic satire on his meanness and lack of charity. It’s full of jokes, absurdities, and punch lines. When God calls Jonah to go preach in Nineveh, the angry little prophet immediately runs in the opposite direction. God brings him back — the whole episode with the ship, Jonah getting thrown overboard, the whale — and forces him to go to Nineveh. But Jonah doesn’t want the Ninevites to be converted; he wants them to die! He wants God to fry ‘em up! But God keeps pestering him, so finally Jonah pokes his head inside the city walls and says, “Repent or in forty days you’ll be destroyed, okay I’m outta here.” Upon hearing this exceptionally brief sermon (all of five words in Hebrew) the entire city of a million people instantly repents and dons sackcloth and ashes. Even the animals put on sackcloth and ashes. Jonah is pissed! Goddamnit, he wants the Ninevites to roast! Surely God won’t spare the city after all its perfidy and sin, will He? So Jonah plops himself down on the hillside in a funk and waits for the firestorm to ensue. God, whose persona in the book is not unlike a wry Jeeves, makes Jonah comfortable by growing a giant plant over his head to shade him, and so forth. The whole thing is a comic masterpiece.

So how can people read Jonah and not get the joke? It’s because of what I call Magic Book Syndrome. The literature that comprises the Hebrew Bible is no longer recognized by naive Christians as literature, which of course it is: history, myth, fables, romances, love poems, proverbs, humor. To Christian fundamentalists — which, up until a couple of centuries ago, was all Christians — none of these categories exist. Everything in the Bible is the word of God. The book itself isn’t even a book in the normal sense of the word: it’s a holy communiqué from God to us. It’s magic.

Protestants suffer from Magic Book Syndrome far more than Catholics do, for the simple reason that Protestantism is actually based on the primacy of the book — sola scriptura — and the concomitant rejection of Church tradition as a parallel fount of authority. Protestants have nothing but the book. Whereas Catholics have the apostolic succession, the Pope, the councils, and the whole magisterium of the Church.

Magic Book Syndrome also occurs with Jewish sects, of course, and is a fricking epidemic among Muslims, who have taken book-worship to an even higher level than Christians. Mormons have it too. It seems to be a potential of all book-based revealed religions.

And so we have intelligent Christians with Ph.D.s (though not in zoology, I think) earnestly discussing what kind of whale or fish or sea monster might have hosted Jonah for three days. You might as well speculate on what kind of wolf Little Red Riding Hood encountered that was able to speak human language and disguise itself as an old woman.

From the CBS interview:

Katie Couric: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

Sarah Palin: I do. I’m a feminist who believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed and to try to do it all anyway. And I’m very, very thankful that I’ve been brought up in a family where gender hasn’t been an issue. You know, I’ve been expected to do everything growing up that the boys were doing. We were out chopping wood and you’re out hunting and fishing and filling our freezer with good wild Alaskan game to feed our family. So it kinda started with that. With just that expectation that the boys and the girls in my community were expected to do the same and accomplish the same. That’s just been instilled in me.

Couric: What is your definition of a feminist?

Palin: Someone who believes in equal rights. Someone who would not stand for oppression against women.

I agree, Gov. Palin. That’s how I define a feminist too.

I would love to have a woman in the White House who calls herself a feminist. I would love to have that role model for our daughters.

By the way, can’t resist pointing out the irony of feminists rejecting Sarah Palin — a self-described feminist who is unashamed of her work and ambitions — and lauding Michelle Obama, a woman who appeared at the Democratic Convention in full Stepford Wife mode and who won’t even call herself a feminist:

So is she a feminist? “You know, I’m not that into labels,” Michelle Obama said in the interview. “So probably, if you laid out a feminist agenda, I would probably agree with a large portion of it,” she said. “I wouldn’t identify as a feminist just like I probably wouldn’t identify as a liberal or a progressive.”

The blogosphere is picking up on a story that started coming in over the wires last week: religious vigilantes in Basra have murdered at least 40 women in the past year for various infractions of Islamic law. Typically the victim’s body is mutilated and dumped with a note pinned to it explaining whatever monumental death-worthy crime against the universe the woman had committed (wearing lipstick, not wearing a headscarf, etc.)

The Washington Post first ran this story last week, and here’s what the page looked like:

Okay, see the internal banner ad up there above the article? The one that’s floating context-sensitively over a story about batshit crazy god-botherers who are on a killing spree against women in the name of religion? Here’s what it says, in case the type is too small for you to read:

“On Faith | Join Two Nobel Prize winners, Iran’s former president, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and others in a dynamic conversation about faith and its impact on the world.”

Click on that banner ad and you’ll be whisked to a soft, gooey, bluish page with padded walls where the Washington Post is hosting a tasteful symposium on “faith.” Contributors include Rick Warren, he of the purpose driven life, a particularly piquant presence in this instance since Warren is basically the modern American corporocraptastic Ray Kroc billions-and-billions-served version of the serial killers in Basra. Theocracy in a Hawaiian shirt with a side order of fries.

Here’s my contribution to this oh-so-dynamic paid endorsement of horseshit: let’s stop calling it “faith.” Let’s call it something else, something more accurate. How about “rationale for the most evil bloodthirsty shit ever committed in the history of the world”? Or “age-old excuse to persecute women”? Or just “festering brain sickness”?

It would put a different spin on things, wouldn’t it?

President Jesus would deliver faux-earnest sound bites about the importance of Festering Brain Sickness-Based Initiatives. Wanna-Be President Romney would give a speech on “Festering Brain Sickness in America” (money quote: “Festering brain sickness requires freedom, but freedom also requires festering brain sickness”). The Washington Post would lure readers to its blue padded room with a banner urging them to “Join Two Nobel Prize winners and others in a dynamic conversation about festering brain sickness and its impact on the world.” Once there, readers would find a selection of articles on “choosing a festering brain sickness” that’s right for them.

I like it.

The Satanic plush toy and its evil paymaster.

Goddamnit.

By now you’ve probably heard about Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher in Sudan who’s facing up to 40 lashes for allowing her class of 7-year-olds to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

I’ve been hoping this idiocy would evaporate quickly and Ms. Gibbons would be released, but today the word is that she’s been formally charged with insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.

In today’s piece over at the BBC, a spokesman from the Foreign Office is quoted as saying “the first step [is] to ‘understand the rationale behind the charge.’” Right. Because it sure as hell isn’t religious sensibilities.

I’ve been watching this case for a couple of days, and I simply don’t believe that it is really some kind of unthinkable offense in Islamic culture to name a stuffed animal Mohammed. Adel Darwish writes about his childhood in Alexandria, when Sudanese Muslim children routinely named their pets and toys Mohammed, Ali, Fatima, and so forth. At Comment Is Free, one of Gibbons’ colleagues in Khartoum writes that none of the parents at the school raised any objection at all to the children’s naming the bear Mohammed. And a seven-year-old boy in the class tells reporters that it was his idea to name the bear Mohammed (after himself, not the Prophet) and the other kids agreed.

Nevertheless,

.. Sudan’s top clerics have called for the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam.

“What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam,” the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said a statement.

Yeah, right.

As the Foreign Office would have said if it weren’t the Foreign Office and thus constrained to be all diplomatic and shit, “What the fuck is going on here?”

Sudan is ruled by a murderous theocracy that relies on Islamic fanaticism and xenophobia to prop up its regime — as well as to maintain its genocidal war on its own citizens in Darfur. Ten years ago the New York Times described Sudan’s National Islamic Front as “an ingenious hybrid, a cross between a theocracy and a Mafia syndicate.” More than one person has suggested that this business with Gibbons is essentially a kidnapping, with the British schoolteacher serving as hostage for something the Sudanese government wants from Britain (though what, I don’t know). Or maybe it’s just an opportunity for the clerics to stir up some anti-West paranoia, all the better to distract the populace from the fact that they’re being ruled by a bunch of corrupt homicidal maniacs.

Whatever the case, Gillian Gibbons is a pawn with the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Brits need to get her the fuck out of there.

Well, do ya, punk?

‘’

via Coturnix.

The Vatican has suspended a senior official who was caught on videotape propositioning a young man.

Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, a capo ufficio, or section head, at the Vatican ministry responsible for the clergy, insisted yesterday he was not gay. He said he had posed as a homosexual to research a plot by satanists.

Every time I read that it makes me laugh.

Matt Abbott in Catholic Online:

That said, I do believe, in some cases, the abortion-seeking woman is indeed the perpetrator. She knows very well what she’s doing. She’s not coerced by anyone. Perhaps she’s even going against the wishes of her loved ones. This is the woman who should be treated as a criminal – if not a murderer, then an accessory to murder.

What would be an appropriate prison sentence for such a woman?

Fifteen years-to-life sounds reasonable, no? Of course, one would have to take into account all the circumstances in a particular situation, and it wouldn’t be an easy task. But it could be done.

If Matt ever decides to leave the Church, he could do some fine work at Landover Baptist.

I’ve been reading about Sai Baba, an Indian conjuror who has spent the past 60-some years persuading people that he is God Incarnate. He does this, first of all, by saying he’s God Incarnate, which right there is a startlingly effective technique, as the global history of religion amply demonstrates. But his second trick is to, well, play tricks: he pretends to materialize jewelry out of thin air, which he presents to stunned wealthy onlookers. He also pretends to materialize sacred ash out of thin air, which he presents to stunned non-wealthy onlookers. There’s no big mystery about it all, unless you’re a devotee; these are just standard sleight-of-hand parlor tricks. The ash comes from tiny pellets which Sai Baba conceals at the base of his fingers and then crushes as he swirls his hand around in a “materializing” motion. The jewelry is also hidden in his hand, or in his seat cushion, or in his handkerchief.

(And lots more videos here.)

I’ll have more to say about Sai Baba later, when the Venusian atmospheric conditions here have abated and I’m not feeling so lazy. He’s quite a character — not just a con man but an enthusiastic sexual predator. There are many brilliant and penetrating observations to be made about the will to believe, the psychology of religious devotion, and the whole business of guru worship, which I will get around to as soon as I’m feeling brilliant and penetrating again.

But today I’m just thinking about how magic tricks work in the first place. It’s all misdirection, the magicians tell us, and I think this little online ESP test I found demonstrates that as well as anything. It’s psychological misdirection, telling people what to look for and thus diverting attention from other goings-on. See if you can figure out the trick.

Online ESP Test.

If you know anything at all about rapture Christians, you probably know that they want all the Jews to return to Israel so the End Times will come, when Jeebus will rapture up the Christians and then slaughter the Jews.

This story is old, but I just now came across it. It’s about a couple of Christian missionaries who decided that the best way to get Russian Jews into the washing machine would be to make up shiny pretty Jew-friendly Bibles in the Russian language:

They need Bibles, but a Bible with a difference – a Bible to touch their hearts! Instead of a cross, we put striking illustrations of the Star of David and Menorah on the cover, and called this Bible, The Holy Scriptures. Inside, we added a special feature — a selection of God’s promises to the Jews, which include the Messianic prophecies.

Since there’s no chance the washing machine could actually turn on, I suppose this is harmless enough. (Not the Christofascist support for right-wing Israeli politics, but the Bible distribution bit.) The nice Jewish people get their Bibles, the crazy Christian people get to feed their fantasies, and I get a nice giggle. Everybody’s happy!

A Qiang woman. Jeebus wants to turn that smile upside down!

The goose-stepping Christofascists are still at it. In a world where women are struggling for basic human rights, in a world where the few remaining matrilineal societies are fighting a rearguard action to maintain their values, what are the Christian missionaries doing? You guessed it: sending their minions abroad to stamp out every vestige of female empowerment they can find.

Check this glint-eyed page from the Joshua Project about one of the heathen groups they want to “help,” the Qiang in China. The Qiang are an ancient matrilineal, matrifocal ethnic group with a powerful tradition of sexual freedom for women. And so naturally the Christians can’t wait to smash the bitches into the mud:

Ties between Chiang men and women are weak. Romantic love is considered important, and sexual freedom is prevalent. The Chiang men need to move into their God-ordained roles as heads of the families.

Ties based on love and equality are always weak, you see; the only tie that binds is the one in the husband’s whip hand. That romantic love is “considered important” is apparently a bad thing to these freaks, and sexual freedom is described like a disease, or a crime, which of course is exactly what they think it is — for women.

Savor this phrase: God-ordained roles as heads of the families. Yeah, we sure the fuck need more of that in the world.

Coincidentally, I was recently reading about the Khasi, one of the traditionally matrilineal groups in India. The Khasi have been the target of Christian missionaries for 150 years now, with the result being that most Khasi have converted and the status of women in their society is appallingly degraded. (Increasing contacts with the Khasi’s über-patriarchal neighbors down in the plains is also a factor.) The family home is still passed down mother to daughter, and some Khasi men still go to live with the wife’s family, but these formal expressions of matriliny are just a shell. Sociologists in India have long recognized that all real power is in the hands of Khasi men. They own all the cash and movable property, they make the decisions, they exert sole political power (Khasi women don’t have the right to vote or even debate village affairs), they have the education and the jobs, and on top of all that they don’t even owe the women financial support. The women are expected to obey their husbands in everything, from minor purchases to family planning. All the women have left is their official ownership of the family home, although even there the men have effectively taken over, since actual control is in the hands of the women’s brothers. Still, the Khasi women cling to their matrilineal form of inheritance. Besides being the link with their ancient sense that women are entitled to something, in purely practical terms it’s the only refuge they have against complete poverty. If a Khasi man leaves his wife (frequently after subjecting her to years of domestic violence), the only thing keeping her from the streets is the fact that the family home belongs to her clan and she and her children have a permanent right to live there.

And now the Khasi men want to get rid of that little inconvenience as well. After all, they’re already in charge of everything else; it’s infuriating that those stupid woman-shaped pieces of meat still have official title to the land. The Khasi dudes want to sweep away that nonsense and take their rightful places as “real men.” Just like the guys in the Bible. De facto power is fine, but there’s nothing to swell a man’s dick quite like the formal, official, god-given patriarchy of ancient holy books written in camel shit.

And so they’ve launched a propaganda campaign to persuade the public and the national government to their side. The interesting thing is the tack they’ve chosen. What they want, they say, is “equality.” Huh? Equality? But they’re already superior! Not according to what the Khasi men are telling any reporter who will listen. In Khasi society, goes the spiel, the men are “oppressed.” Women have “all the power” and the poor men “have to obey” the big bad evil women. It’s an astounding fiction that has absolutely nothing to do with real life, but everything to do with the popular myth that matriliny equals matriarchy. “We’re being horribly oppressed,” the Khasi men whine. All they want, they say with big doe eyes as a chorus of We Shall Overcome swells in the background, is to be “equal.” Occasionally one of the younger men slips up and accidentally tells a journalist what he’s really thinking: that women are morons and Khasi men are fed to the teeth with having to screw around with this matrilineal inheritance bullshit; the Christian God says men have the right and the duty to rule absolutely, and that’s exactly what the Khasi men are going to do. But most of the men are cagier than that. They stick to the script. “We just want equality,” they say.

This is absolutely appalling to activists and sociologists who actually know the score with the Khasi. Feminists in India say that Khasi women actually have lower status than women in many other parts of the country. But journalists are not sociologists, and so they eagerly and uncritically report the Khasi men’s propaganda. It’s so titillating, doncha know — a society where women are in charge! Ooh, sex-ay!

What intrigues me about the Khasi men’s campaign is that it’s so similar to reactionary politics here in the U.S.: white supremacists who say they want “white rights,” male supremacists who say they want “men’s rights,” Christian supremacists who claim that anything short of a Christian theocracy means they’re being oppressed. It’s enough to make me wonder if western missionaries are involved with the current Khasi campaign to destroy matriliny.

There’s no doubt that there is a huge Christian missionary presence in the hills of northeast India, where the Khasi live. Those Khasi who still cling to the pre-Christian ways are in constant conflict with the missionaries, who flood money into the region and actively discriminate against non-Christians. You want a scholarship to go to college? Fine: convert to Christianity. You want money to build a house? Fine: convert to Christianity. And a big part of the Christian message for the past 150 years has been that Khasi men need to…what is the phrase? Ah, yes: “move into their God-ordained roles as heads of the families.”

So I was curious to see what the Joshua Project would say about the Khasi. The Joshua Project is positively obsessed with India, having somehow determined that annihilating Hinduism is key to their global “harvest of souls” (a phrase which always makes me think of the human-battery pods in The Matrix). And lo and behold if the Joshua people aren’t perfectly in tune with the Khasi men’s propaganda campaign for “equality.” Remember how on the Qiang page they came right out and said that men were supposed to be in charge? But they don’t say that on the Khasi page. That would be giving away the game. Instead, they regurgitate the myth that matrilineal Khasi women are rolling in clover, and then follow that with a request that we pray for “social equality in matters concerning the genders.” Social equality between the genders! As if Christofascist pinheads believed in such a thing! They don’t believe in equality; they believe in male supremacy, or what they like to call — excuse me for a moment while I hack up this furball — “headship.” But the official line in Khasi land is that the men just want “equal rights,” and the Joshua folks are playing right along. Don’t mention the headship thing! We’re supposed to call it equality!

To all 37 good-hearted sincere progressive genuinely loving Christians in the world, I say again what I’ve said to you a hundred times: give it up. Just give it up. For two thousand years your religion has been in the hands of sick greedy men who breathe, eat, and shit pure hate. You’re not getting it back. Really, folks: time to punt. It’s the same with Islam — whatever tiny molecule speck of good is in there, it’s surrounded by a bolus of batshit bloody horror the size of Jupiter. Give it up. If you want a good, loving, progressive religion, start a new one. And stop giving these freaks cover for their evil.