The Fabulous Web Travels of jXc

Hello! Vader

2006-08-24T17:07:00.000-04:00

Too cute for words.

-original website-

Hand-Face

2006-08-24T17:05:00.000-04:00

-original website-

Wal*Mart + Women = Me Pissed Off

2006-08-24T15:11:00.000-04:00

Women Be Wary

You Can Do More

Join our friends at Back Up Your Birth Control to help draw attention to this issue and make sure Wal-Mart follows through on their promise to women. Take action.

BREAKING NEWS: Wal-Mart Changes Policy, Agrees to Carry Plan B

An important message for American women: Wal-Mart wants your business. But be wary of what it is they’re really selling you.

On critical issues of women’s health, women’s work, and women’s worth, Wal-Mart’s real record is a sad one. As the largest private employer in the United States, that record is shameful for the messages it sends to the millions of women whose lives are affected by the company – as an employee or as a consumer.

Consider this: Just after a Massachusetts state agency forced Wal-Mart to carry emergency contraceptives in that state, the company proclaimed concern: “Women’s health is a high priority for Wal-Mart.” But that revelation is surely news to a big portion of Wal-Mart employees: namely, women. This company’s record hardly demonstrates that “priority."

When it comes to fairness in the workplace it’s too often “Wal-Mart vs. Women.” The Massachusetts decision was a step forward, but a long road is ahead. Here are just four examples of the discrimination and disadvantage women face at the world’s biggest corporation. The message is clear: women be wary of Wal-Mart.

Largest Class Action Suit. Ever.

In 2004, a U.S. District Court granted 1.6 million former and current Wal-Mart employees class-action status in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart case. The case shows that Wal-Mart systematically pays women less than their male counterparts, and offers them fewer opportunities for promotion. As one employee testified, Wal-Mart’s policy is: "Men are here to make a career and women aren’t. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money." As part of the trial, California State University’s Dr. Richard Drogin conducted a study on the wages of female employees at Wal-Mart. Among his key findings:

Women hourly workers earned up to 37 cents less per hour than their male counterparts.
Female managers earn nearly $5,000 less than male managers in yearly salary.
Women comprise 72 percent of Wal-Mart’s total workforce, but only 33 percent of its managers.
Women comprise 92 percent of Wal-Mart’s cashiers, but only 14 percent of Wal-Mart Store Managers.
(Read more ...)

It’s a Man’s World at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart infamously refused to sell T-shirts that bore the slogan “Someday a Woman Will be President!,” citing complaints that the mere idea was offensive. Ann Moliver Ruben, the 70-year-old psychologist who designed the shirt, said Sharon Higginbotham, a buyer for women’s clothes at Wal-Mart’s national office in Bentonville, Ark., told her the store would not carry the shirt nationwide because the message “goes against Wal-Mart’s family values.” (Read more ...)

Wal-Mart Forced to Stock “Plan B” contraception

For years, Wal-Mart refused to stock and sell the emergency contraceptive pills known as “Plan B.” Because Wal-Mart—with over 3,200 pharmacies in the US—is the only pharmacy in many communities, untold numbers of women were left with no access to this safe and legal birth control option. Illinois and Massachusetts enacted laws that required the company to stock emergency contraceptives. In response to mounting pressure from public advocates, Wal-Mart agreed to stock the drug and fill prescriptions in the remaining 48 states. (Read more ...)

Have a Family? Leave!

When it comes to the federal Family Medical Leave Act, Wal-Mart has a long history of noncompliance. While the Act requires employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for themselves or a loved one without losing their jobs, there are countless cases of Wal-Marts failing to follow the law and reinstate employees. In one case in 2005, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission fined Wal-Mart $188,000 for refusing to reinstate an employee of six years after she finished her maternity leave. (Read more ...)

Second Rate Benefits for Women

Women who are pregnant or thinking about starting a family in the future should think twice about Wal-Mart. Only one ultrasound is allowed per pregnancy, and mothers may be forced to pay an additional $1000 deductible for their newborn—on top of their own. Now Wal-Mart is now rolling out a Health Savings Account Plan with $6000 family deductibles that don’t even include preventative services like mammograms and pap smears. (Read more ...)

-original website-

A Love Letter

2006-08-24T15:04:00.000-04:00

"The Good Wife's Guide"

2006-08-24T14:57:00.000-04:00

Y'know, there ARE a few items here that make sense... the little thoughtful bits about making the person you love feel good. But... wow. Just... wow. What's scary is how subtle the domination is.

-originally published in a 1950's Home Economics handbook-

Steak & Blowjob Day!

2006-08-24T14:56:00.000-04:00

Steak and Blowjob Day: March 14th!

Mark it down, cross the days off, and keep your calendar open on March 14th. As many of you may or may not know, guys don't have a day for themselves. After Hallmark created Valentines on February 14th, a day in which men get to display their fondness and undying love to their significant other by showering them with gifts and affection, guys started getting depressed.

The girls need a day too. They need an outlet to show their love and devotion...

"March 14th is now officially "Steak and Blowjob Day". Simple, effective and self explanatory, this holiday has been created so you ladies finally have a day to show your man how much you love him. No cards, no flowers, no special nights on the town; the name of the holiday explains it all, just a steak and a BJ. That's it. Finally, this twin pair of Valentine's Day and Steak and Blowjob Day will usher in a new age of love as men everywhere try THAT much harder in February to ensure a memorable March 14th. It's like a perpetual love machine!"

- Tom Birdsey (founder of Steak and Blowjob Day)

Now you can share your thoughts and feelings with those dear to you by delivering to them an authentic Steak and Blowjob Day Greeting Card. You can also find out more about blowjobs, or steaks, or whatever, in our Steak and Blowjob Resources section. Say it with love. Say it with meat. Say it with a SBJ Card.

Also - SHARE YOUR DAY and you have a chance to win a Steak and Blowjob Day t-shirt. Submit your stories, and you are automatically entered into our contest.

After you celebrate Steak and Blowjob Day why not play some online poker at Hollywood Poker.

tell a friend about steak and blowjob

-original website-

1001 Feminist Links

2006-08-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

1001 Feminist Links And Other Interesting Topics
main	gallery	library	links	contact us

If you have suggestions for other sites (or notice a broken link), please contact us.

Lilith Gallery Resources: Suggested Readings for Black Feminists 21st century black warrior wimmins chant. By Hattie Gossett is it true what they say about colored pussy? By Hattie Gossett Biography of Feminist Poet Hattie Gossett Jamaica's First Female Prime Minister Overview of Feminist Artists of the 20th Century The Corset: Is it Feminist? Inside the Feminist Feminist Revolt in Poland The Male Feminist Myth and Fact Hildegard von Bingen - Feminist Nun The Faces of Cindy Sherman Where is the Feminism in Cyberfeminism? Hockey Mom Goes Topless! Monstrous Domesticity Are You AFRAID of My Breasts? Tales of a Female Hitchhiker Female Rights in Retreat The Golddigger Vs The Feminine Scholar Are Men Really Necessary? Mary with Brass Knuckles Chastity Belts & Corsets? Joyce Wieland Queer Women & Religion William Blake's Ecofeminism George W. Cunt Topfreedom Manifesto Fight for Topless Rights Why is it Illegal in Texas for Black Women to go Topless Radioactive Super Playboy Bunnies Carre Otis and Disgusting Supermodels Males Crying The Fear of Lilith The Devil and the Deep Holy See Topfreedom: A Fundamental Right American Catastrophes Cuteocracy Women of Power: From Ku-Baba to Indira Gandhi The New Pill: The End of Menstruation? Cindy Sherman The Modern Corset The Demonification and Sexuality of Lilith NEW!!! War Goddess: The Varga Girls, WWII and Feminism Disinterestedness & Political Art Gender Minefield: The Heritage of the Past If white is just a colour, the gallery is just a sight? CONTEMPORARY TURKISH WOMEN ARTISTS The Legacy of 1970s Feminist Artistic Practices Estonian Feminist Art Critical Position within Feminist Conceptual Practices A feminist response to Martha Rosler The Rise of Feminism & Feminist Art in Taiwan Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? A Feast of Feminist Art A Woman's Choice The Bitch Manifesto What is Socialist Feminism? The Rise and Demise of Women's Liberation Is the Women's Movement in Trouble? TRASHING: The Dark Side of Sisterhood CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING COVERT SEX DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN AS MEDICAL PATIENTS THE TYRANNY of STRUCTURELESSNESS THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT FEMINISM OLD WAVE AND NEW WAVE Lesbianism and Feminism Why I Want a Wife
Sites People Have Suggested Via Email: Pissed Off Pussy MatriFocus Zine For Goddess Women Raven's Bell Tower: Women's Spirituality & Visionary Outspoken Clothing The Womyn's Room Riot Grrl Europe The Feminist Webring The Toronto Dyke Parade The Fear of Lilith Tales of a Female Hitchhiker	Erica Shehane's Feminist Art Carol Queen William Blake's Ecofeminism The Cultural Revolution of 2002 - 2012 Breast Cancer, the Feminist Disease President Hillary Clinton in 2004 Mary with Brass Knuckles The Corset: Is it Feminist? The Faces of Cindy Sherman Males Crying Ultimate Ani Difranco Pro-Choice Florida License Plates (US Only)	BannerWomen.Com Digital Women Banner Exchange Hippie Personals
The BEST Feminist Sites (My opinion) GLBTQ - The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer Encyclopedia Ms Magazine	Guerrille Girls, Feminism in Fine Art and Media The Lilith Gallery, Feminist Art 4 U The National Organization for Women	www.equalitynow.org Bitch Magazine, Feminist Response to Pop Culture Feminist . Com Feminist . Org (don't confuse the 2.
Some of the Better Ones The National Women's Hall of Fame V-Day, Until Violence Against Women Stops www.about-face.org, Combating Negative Stereotypes	Feminist Utopia Individualist Feminists, 21st Century Feminism www.aware.org, Arming Women Against Rape Women Defending Ourselves	Women Leaders Online Fear Us, whose sole mission is the elimination of patriarchy Doctor Mary Daly, Radically Funny Feminist Writer Andrea Dworkin :)
More Good Stuff Pro Erotica Body Politics, United Kingdom Sole Support, The Single Parent Family Network Media Watch, Challenging Media Stereotypes www.crazy-bitch.com, Funny Feminist Romp Liberal Feminists, Yahoo Club Ani DiFranco, Yahoo Club Tegan and Sara, Yahoo Club KILL BARBIE!, Yahoo Club Sex Magick Boudior, Sexuality for Wicca Grrls, Yahoo Club Male Feminists Unite, Yahoo Club Radical Feminism, Yahoo Club Womyn's Style Justice	Webgrrls International The Voice of Feminism www.she-net.com, Women of Independent Minds www.feministsforlife.org www.SusieBright.com Relationship/Sexuality Links www.yoni.com, Gateway to Feminine Sexuality and Motherhood www.scarletletters.com, Erotica for Women Women in Film and Television Toronto We'd Rather Be Destroying Pornography Women's Health and Spiritual Links The Virago Art Series Wendy, Women Artists In History Art Folio Gallery Son of a Bush!	Narcissistic.Org, Attacking Chauvinism Feminist Pros and Cons Die Fetus Grrl, A Poem Pussy Power, Sex Toy Store For Women BY Women Saucybard.com, Art and Yoga Snarly Central, Sassy Writings Jane Magazine, Rants Social Reject . Com Manifest Angel, Free Websites for Feminists Muted Grrl The Collaborative Bibliography of Women in Philosophy International Network for Life Studies Susan Brown Miller . Com, Where Feminism Lives UNITED RADICALS
Radical Feminists Feminista Young Radical Wimmin Off Our Backs (feminist newsjournal) Radical Feminism (a discussion) Radical Feminist Quotes Radical Feminism and Re-Imagining Radical Feminist Philosophy No Status Quo Nikki Craft Homepage Always Causing Legal Unrest (ACLU) Playboy table of contents (an anti-porn site) One Angry Girl Designs Radical Feminist message board at United Radical Communities	Riot Grrls Riot Grrl I Wanna Riot What is a riot grrrl anyway? Kristy's Riot Grrrl Review Geekgirl Grrl RiotGrrrl.com Riot Grrrls Make Some Noise Riot Grrrl Web Directory Pioneer Grrrl's site Heroine Chick Angel Cake Anjali Riot Grrrl Ring Riot Grrrl Online Gimmie a Kiss Riot Grrls	Eco-Feminists Women, Anarcho-Eco-Feminism Eco-Feminism Webring What is Eco-feminism anyway? (from eve online) Peace, Feminism and the Environment What could an eco-feminist society be? Eco-feminist literature Eco-feminism Eco-Feminism Eco-Feminism (from Cat Bytes) Ecofeminism (Jamie Hardt's page)
:)	Liberal Feminists The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism Liberal Feminism Liberal (individualist) Feminism	;)
Socialist Feminists Solidarity Socialist Feminism: a strategy for the women's movement SOCIALIST FEMINISM What is socialist feminism? Socialist Feminism A Pioneer of Socialist Feminism	Pro-Sex Feminists Outrageous Roots and a Bright Future; Sex and Feminism A Feminist Defense of Pornography A Feminist Overview of Pornography Camille Paglia Interview PatCalifia.com	Anarchist Feminists Anarcha Feminism Emma Goldman Tactical Media Crew Anarchist Feminism Anarchist Action Network Feminism in Liberty
Individualist Feminists Individualist Feminism: The Lost Tradition iFeminists.com Individualist Feminism: a voice for gender sanity	Conservative Feminists Conservative Feminism: an oxymoron? Conservative Feminism Conservative Feminism?	Marxist/Materialist/Fascist Feminists Marxist Feminism Materialist Feminism matfem Marxist page MATFEM
Activists Feminist Majority Foundation Global Fund for Women Stop the Violence Project Feminists for Animal Rights Feminist Activist Resources on the Net Anti-Pornography League Feminist Activist Resources on the Net Feminist Activism and the World Wide Web Feminist Activism on the Web Women-Related Activist E-mail Lists	Feminist Artists Judy Chicago: Through the Flower Beatrice Wood Any1canfly (a Faith Ringgold site) Georgia O'Keefe Museum World of Frida Kahlo Carol Rama Eleanor Antin: Real Time Streaming Helen Redman's Birthing the Crone Jen's Eye-Popping Online Art Gallery	Feminist Art Organizations Women in Art Woman Made Gallery National Museum of Women in the Arts Women's Caucus for Art Early Women Artists Women Artists Women Artists Archive National Association of Women Artists Women's Studio Center Her Arts Art Women.org WARM Arts Opening Closed Doors The Varo Registry of Women Artists
Authors: A,B Bartky, Sandra Lee Bass, Ellen Bohn, Carol R. Bordo, Susan Brownmiller, Susan Brumberg, Joan Jacobs C,D Caplan, Paula J. Caputi, Jane Chesler, Phyllis Daly, Mary De Beauvoir, Simone Dworkin, Andrea	E,F Barbara Ehrenreich Susan Estrich Lillian Faderman Susan Faludi Betty Friedan G,H Giddings, Paula Goldman, Emma Gordon, Linda Greer, Germaine Molly Haskell Judith Herman Bell Hooks	J Sheila Jeffreys K - Z? HELP! Suggestions Please? Email me. Naomi Wolf and Other Authors S. Kappeler, Audre Lorde, McElroy, Jill Nagle, Susan Moller Okin, Camille Paglia, C. Queen, G. Rubin, Strossen, S. Tisdale, Kamala Visweswaran, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hyun Yi Kang, & Slavoj Zizek are all feminists authors too, but I don't have any links listed for them. Help?!
Feminist Leaders Women Leaders Online League of Women Voters American Women Presidents	Be Fearless Center for the American Woman and Politics She's Got Vote	White House Project Women and Politics Institute WAND
Feminist Music Kill Rock Stars Mr. Lady Queenie Chainsaw Green Girl Righteous Babe Grrlyrock Rock 4 Choice	Persy Grrrl's Women in Musica International Alliance for Women in Music Women in Music National Network Association of Women's Music and Culture Collected Sounds The Women of 1970's Punk Women in Punk 1975-1980	Women Rock the World Amasong Drummer Girl Women in Jazz Ladyslipper Music Women of Country Sister DJs Estrogen Music b-gYrl
Feminist Groups/Communities United Radical Communities Femina Ms. Magazine Boards Feminista Boards NOW Boards FEAR US Boards The Womyn's Room Forum The Bust Lounge Blood Sisters Chicas Combat Eurocentric Patriarchy Doll's Riot Grrrl Punk Club Female Feminists Feminism for the Youth	Feminist Art History Feminist Lit Discussion Group Feminist Philosophy No Sex Object Here Radical Feminism Teenage Feminism Riot Til You Die Riot Grrrls United Real Feminism Riot Grrls rEV fEM Rebel Grrls Write and Riot	Radical Feminists Young Radical Wimmin Genuine Woman Feminist Issues 4 Women Only Feminist Discussion Feminist Activists Drumsong Midwest Radical Feminists Dissonant Dreams Feminist Forum Amazon City Liberal Feminists She-Net
Other Big Bad Chinese Mama Pro-Choice Florida License Plates (US Only) Feminist Film Reviews Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia Debri Field	Big Bad Chinese Mama Store Pussy-Power T-Shirts Penelope's Glad I'm a Girl Store One Angry Girl Designs Feminist Majority Foundation Online Store Coyote's Corner Feminist T-Shirts	Almighty Marketing Anti-Establishment Clothing Northern Sun Sticker Sisters Wearable Mamas Radical T-Shirts, Buttons and More ACLU Marketplace

The United Feminists Webring
Join Now . Ring Hub . <<> . Next >>

<<> . Join Now . .:Journalism & Art Express:. . Random . Next >>

Visit a complete list of WebRing memberships here

-original website-

Some Legal Info for Songwriters

2006-08-24T14:46:00.000-04:00

Legal Information

101 Music Business Contracts www.order-yours-now.com
"...101 Music Business Contracts for Independent Artist, Bands, Musicians, Song Writers, Agents, Producers, Managers, Promoters, Label Owners, Composers, DJ's, Talent Scouts, Club Owners, Publicist, Media and others in the entertainment field. All forms of music covered. ..."

The Business Affairs Group- Entertainment Lawyers www.firemark.com
"...a law firm dedicated to the legal and business affairs requirements of clients in the entertainment and media industries..."

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society cyber.law.harvard.edu; eon.law.harvard.edu/mp3/
"...The Internet has become notorious for the frenetic pace at which its enabling technologies engender movements which impact the lives and interests of those who deal in its realm. Nowhere has this been more clear in recent months than when confronting the concept of music on the Web; most particularly, music distributed via the MP3 format..."

COPYRIGHT FORMS- We recommend that you protect your songs with a formal copyright from the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Click HERE for online FORM PA.

International Trademark Association
(formerly the US Trademark Association) www.inta.org
"... a not-for-profit worldwide membership organization of trademark owners and advisors. INTA represents trademark owners to protect and advance the importance of trademarks as essential elements of international commerce..."

Law Cybercenter www.hollywoodnetwork.com/Law/music/survival2.html
"Tips for negotiating songwriting contracts..."

Multimedia & Entertainment Law Online News (MELON) www.ibslaw.com/melon

Music and Recording Contracts For Musicians www.internetpagecreations.com
" A Music and Recording Contracts site designed for recording artists searching for information on recording contracts, copyrighting, record deals, demos, songwriting..."

Music Business Registry www.musicregistry.com
A&R Registry, Music Publisher Registry, Music Business Attorney Registry, and the Film and the Television Music Guide- "...we always do our best to keep you informed of the newest companies that are actively signing talent as well as making sure all of the information in this directory is accurate..."

Music Copyright For The New Millennium
"...authoritative textbook for copyright courses in college music business programs..."

MusicLawyer.com www.musiclawyer.com
"...over 21 years active experience in the music business, representing songwriters and publishers, as well as artists, producers, record labels, and other users of music...The site provides a constantly updated research library of legal articles and useful links to other resources..."

UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE www.lcweb.loc.gov/copyright
“Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works...."

-original site-

Intro to Chaos Theory

2006-08-24T14:27:00.000-04:00

	What is Chaos? a five-part online course for everyone
	Introduction: Start Here
	Lesson One:The Philosophy of Determinism
	Lesson Two: Initial Conditions
	Lesson Three: Uncertainty of Measurements
	Lesson Four: Dynamical Instabilities
	Lesson Five: Manifestations of Chaos

-original website-

Amusing Relationship Advice

2006-08-24T13:40:00.000-04:00

Falling in love is the easy part.
It's staying that way that takes some work.
So instead of saying...

"This relationship stuff. It gives me
a headache just to think about it."

Try to change your attitude a bit.

"Okay, I'm taking notes!"

Tip #1
Make a list.
When you find yourself feeling critical
of your beloved, sit down and make a list of
"All The Things I Still Love About My Mate."
This will remind you of why you first fell in love.

"Hmmm... Something I love about him?"

Pretty soon, you'll find yourself thinking...

"Say, he's not so bad after all!"

And making that list goes for both of you
—to help you both remember the good.

"That's what we do.
And it really works to
remind us of our love."

Tip #2
Start spreading the news.
At least once a day, compliment each other.
Because everyone loves to hear good news.

"Thank you, Mary, for taking such good care of me."

"And thank you for scrubbing out the roasting pan!"

Tip #3
Learn what to say.
(And how to listen.)
When it comes to communication,
men and women have different needs.
Men need to hear they've done a good job.

"Honey, I fixed that leak under the sink!"

So remember to compliment him for things he does.
(Even if he doesn't do them that well.)

"Who knew plumbing could be so rewarding?
I'll have to help out more around the house!"

Women need to feel their man is listening.
Men can help by learning the "Mantra for Men"
and practicing it often, saying to themselves,
again and again...

Just listen, don't give advice.
Just listen, don't give advice.
Just listen, don't give advice.

The results can be amazing.

"Wow, he really listened to me!"

Tip #4
Learn to soothe frayed nerves
When your partner is having trouble coping
—either with the world or with you—
don't shout, don't pout, don't run away.
Just turn to your mate and lovingly say...

"Honey, what do you need from me...
right now?"

So instead of wondering what to say or do...

Should I say X? Do Y? Not do Z?
What does that woman want from me?

Just remember those nine magic words:
"Honey, what do you need from me... right now?"
No more wondering, no more guess work.

"Who knew life could be so easy!?"

Tip #5
Give a little more.
Instead of trying to get your way,
try to give a little,
then give a little more.
So instead of...

"Listen up, lover boy!"

"This is the way it's going to be."

Learn to think more "We" than "Me."
You'll have a lot less...

"Gosh honey. I don't know what I was thinking."

And a lot more...

"I know what you're thinking!"

-original website-

Rusty is a Homosexual

2006-08-24T02:42:00.000-04:00

Rusty is a homosexual

Text by Sean.

	Once there was a boy named Rusty. He was 9 years old. Rusty had a dog named Patches. Patches slept in a doghouse beneath Rusty's bedroom window.
	One night, Patches couldn't sleep. He smelled a scary smell. "Bow-wow-wow!" barked Patches. "Bow-wow-wow! Bow-wow-wow! Bow-wow-wow! Bow-wow-wow!"
	Rusty threw open the window. "Oh, no!" he cried. "The house is on fire! Mother! Father!" Rusty felt the door as he learned at school. The door was hot, so Rusty stayed in his room and yelled for help from his window.
	A big strong fireman came up on a ladder and carried Rusty to safety. Rusty hid his face against the fireman's uniform until they were safe on the ground. Rusty was very glad to see that his whole family was safe. "That's a good dog you have," said the fireman. "He saved your family! And we got here in time, so your house is barely damaged."
	The next night, Rusty couldn't sleep. He thought about the fireman. He thought about how warm and muscular the fireman had felt through his uniform. He remembered the smell of smoke mixed with the fireman's sweat. Remembering the fireman gave Rusty a funny feeling. He wished he could be together with the fireman again.
	The next day, Rusty talked to his sister Sue. "I think I want to marry a fireman when I grow up," said Rusty. Sue gave Rusty a strange look. "Boys don't marry boys!" she exclaimed. Then she ran off and told all the other children that her brother wanted to marry a fireman.
	Rusty went and talked to his mother. "I think I want to marry a fireman when I grow up," he said. Mother laughed uncomfortably. "What a funny idea, Rusty!" she said. "What will the neighbors think if they hear about this?"
	Rusty decided that maybe his father would understand how he felt. "Father," said Rusty. "Did you ever wish that the house would catch on fire again so that a fireman can rescue you? And did you ever wish he'd take off all your clothes?" Father gave Rusty a strange look. "No, I can't say that I did," said Father.
	The real shocker came at dinner that night. "I wish a fireman would take off all his clothes and sleep with me in my bed," said Rusty. "And I wish he would put a dog leash on me." Mother nearly choked on her tomato aspic. "Eat your dinner, Rusty," said Mother. "And be quiet."
	When Rusty went to bed, his mother came to tuck him in. "Now, Rusty, there's something I want you to remember," she said. "Don't play with yourself, or you'll go blind." "Okay, mom," said Rusty. He wondered if he could just do it until he needed glasses.
	After Rusty was in bed, Mother and Father talked things over. "I think Rusty may be a homosexual," said Father. "It certainly seems that way," said Mother. "What ever can we do about it?" "I think we should have a talk with him and put the fear of God in him," said Father.
	The next morning, Mother and Father had a talk with Rusty. "No son of mine is going to be a homosexual!" said Father. "God says it's bad. If you don't give up this fireman business, we'll kick you out of the house!" Rusty burst into tears.
	Mother talked to Mrs. Brown to see if she had any advice. "I think my little Rusty may be a homosexual," said Mother. "I just don't know what to do." Mrs. Brown's eyes grew wide. A homosexual! Mrs. Brown ran away shrieking. Soon, Mother learned that she had been un-invited from Mrs. Brown's Tupperware party.
	When Rusty went to school that day, all the other children ran away from him. "Ewww!" they said. "We don't want to play with a homosexual! We'll get gay germs!" Rusty stood behind and tried not to cry.
	Rusty was so confused that he decided to call the police to ask for help. "Officer Plotchnik speaking," said the policeman. "Hello, my name is Rusty White," said Rusty. "I'm 9 years old. Everybody hates me because I want to marry a fireman, and they say I'm a homosexual. What should I do?"
	"Well, Rusty," said Officer Plotchnik. "You'd better not put your wee-wee in any other boys mouths or bottoms, or you'll go to jail. Sodomy is a crime in this state, you know." Rusty hung up the phone, more confused and depressed than ever. "What am I to do?" he asked himself.
	After thinking it over, Rusty decided to run away to find a place where people would understand him. "Come on, Patches," he said to his dog. "We're running away!" He packed some peanut butter sandwiches for himself and some dog food for Patches. Then he took Patches with him and ran away to a park.
	In the park, Rusty met a man. "Hello, little boy," said the man. "How would you like some ice cream?" Rusty knew exactly what the man was after. Maybe this was his big chance! "Have you a fireman uniform?" asked Rusty. "No, I'm afraid I haven't," said the man. "Oh," said Rusty, disappointed. Then he kicked the man in the balls to show him what he thought of child molesters.
	Rusty ran all the way home with Patches. Then he cried and cried. "Oh, Patches," he said. "There seems to be nowhere to turn. I think I should end it all and kill myself." He looked sadly at Patches. "But I'm too scared to die alone. Let's make a suicide pact, Patches! How does that sound?" Patches licked Rusty on the nose. Rusty took that to mean yes, so he carried Patches outside.
	Rusty sadly carried Patches to the sidewalk. They waited for a car to come by. Soon, a driver came speeding around the bend.
	With Patches in his arms, Rusty jumped in front of an approaching car. The car screeched to a stop just in time. The driver jumped out of the car. "Goodness gracious, young man!" said the driver. "Why did you jump in front of my car?" "I was trying to kill myself because I'm a homosexual, and all my family and the other kids and the police and everyone hate me," said Rusty. "Don't kill yourself!" said the driver. "Call the Gay Hotline! They can help you!" He gave Rusty a card with a phone number, and then got in his car and drove away.
	Rusty nervously dialed the number. "Hello, Gay Hotline?" he said. "My name is Rusty White. I'm 9 years old. I'm a homosexual, and I want to marry a fireman. Everybody hates me because I'm a homosexual: Mother, Father, sister Sue, Officer Plotchnik, and all the kids at school. I tried to run away but a man tried to buy me ice cream, and I kicked him in the balls. I tried to kill myself but the driver stopped and gave me your number. What should I do?"
	"What you need is a good family psychiatrist!" said the man on the Gay Hotline. "Here's a number for you." He gave Rusty the number.
	"Can we go to a family psych--- psych--- head shrinker, Mother?" asked Rusty. "I have the number for a good one." Mother thought, "Maybe this will get those perverted homosexual thoughts out of little Rusty's head." She said, "All right, Rusty."
	"Hello, folks, I'm Dr. Goldenberg," said the psychiatrist. "What seems to be the problem?" "We're here because our little son Rusty seems to be a-- homosexual!" said Mother.
	"Not to worry, folks. Being gay is a perfectly normal variation of human sexuality," said Dr. Goldenberg. "The best thing you can do is to accept Rusty for who he is."
	At home, Mother and Father talked it over. "Maybe we were too hasty to judge the boy," said Father. "Maybe so," said Mother. "All right, let's talk to him."
	Father told Rusty, "Rusty, your mother and I have decided to accept you just as you are. We're proud of our gay son." Rusty's face lit up. He was very glad.
	"Guess what, Patches?" cried Rusty. "Mother and Father say they're going to accept me just as I am!" Patches jumped and barked joyfully.
	Rusty became a gay rights activist and gave consciousness raising talks to his classmates. "And by using a condom or dental dam every time you have sex, you can greatly reduce your chances of contracting HIV!" said Rusty.
	Rusty's parents became avid readers of the P-FLAG newsletter. "Who needs a Tupperware party when we have all these P-FLAG meetings to go to?" remarked Mother.
	Rusty's family tried to accept his kinkier interests. "Father, will you buy me that leash for my birthday?" "But Patches already has a leash," said Father. "I didn't want it for Patches," said Rusty. Father chuckled uncomfortably.
	Rusty's family even helped set him up with a good boyfriend. "What about this one, Father?" asked Sue. "10-year-old boy into fireman uniforms and bondage. Usually top but versatile. Is Rusty a top or a bottom, Father?" "I think he's a bottom," said Father. "This looks like a good match for Rusty."
	Rusty was very glad that his family accepted him. He lived happily ever after. THE END

If you liked this story about Rusty, please send me the URL to your homepage, if you have one. I'd like to look at it!

P.S. (later): I've gotten such a great many emails from Rusty fans that I haven't been able to respond to everybody. Sorry! I would like to hear from you, tho.

P.P.S. I'd like to ask nicely that you not copy Rusty into your own web space. However, feel free to link to this page.

P.P.P.S. In case you need to have it spelled out, the story is satire, and Rusty is the personification of the little boy inside every grown gay man. I am not advocating pedophilia, already. Geez. (Thanks to the 99% of you who found it funny!)

Contact

-original website-

Pierced Glasses

2006-08-24T02:36:00.000-04:00

Pierced Eyeglasses

“People should think things out fresh and not just accept conventional terms and the conventional way of doing things.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller

The idea of hanging eyeglasses from a piercing or a combination of piercings or even transdermal implants is something that a lot of us have toyed with — as I was writing this, my old boss Tom Brazda reminded me that almost ten years ago we made a set of them built around a 10ga bridge piercing (with both left and right-handed threading to make it adjustable). That said, I don’t think we ever took pictures, so maybe I’m making it up because I want to steal James Sooy’s thunder. He’s who sent me this gorgeous example of a piercing-mounted set of eyeglasses:

James is an artist currently designing and painting for Texas-based Magnificent Egos, a minatures (as in gaming) company. Art consumes all of his time, professionally and personally, and much of it is centered around character design, which gives him both time — and money — to fantasize about mods on fictional characters. With the help of his friend Oliver (who many of you know as one of the founding members and guerrilla engineers of the suspension group TSD) this fantasy was made real.
BME:	How did you come up with the idea of attaching a pair of glasses to a piercing?
JAMES:	I’m not sure... some time during the drooling days of high school the idea came to me. I kept it in mind over the years and got the bridge piercing this July and then started looking to make it happen. Maybe it had something to do with not being able to wear contacts.
OLIVER:	I had originally considered making a pair of glasses that hung from a bridge piercing for myself about ten years ago. It was just one of those things that seemed so obvious that I was surprised I hadn’t seen it done. I never got around to doing it then, since I wasn’t too keen on getting a bridge piercing. When I got a call from James inquiring if I could help him with some jewelry he wanted to make, and then he mentioned he wanted to do the glasses as well, I jumped on the opportunity. He already had the piercing done over at Obscurities, here in Dallas, so I knew he was more serious about it than I ever was.
BME:	And how did you guys formalize the design?
JAMES:	Oliver and I sat down for about five minutes one night to think over what would need to be done and he got straight to work making the brackets out of aluminum with a small mill in his garage!
OLIVER:	Originally we were discussing and sketching ideas that would have been considerably more involved to produce. The ones that we ended up making aren’t necessarily the final product, but seemed the best and easiest way to test the viability of the idea. The brackets were machined from aluminum, roughly to shape and then drilled and tapped on my little tabletop Sherline mill — a machine that’s far more suited to this size project than what I normally use it for! After a fair bit of tweaking and polishing with files and abrasives we ended up with what you see. The part you don’t see is a barbell from Anatometal.
JAMES:	The threading on the barbell was 1.2 mm, which happens to be a relatively uncommon and expensive thread (as far as screws go). The screws ended up delaying the project about a month. We used some lenses out of an old pair of glasses I had at first, but I decided to get some new lenses once everything else was finished.
BME:	What’s it like actually wearing it? What does it feel like?
JAMES:	They feel exactly like a regular pair of glasses, actually. I put the nose pads on to keep them from swinging around, so all the pressure is placed there, just like any other pair of glasses. Since they have no frame on the side I can wear them while I sleep and still roll onto my side.
BME:	Good thinking; so the piercing is more of a balance point than something structural. Does that make it more than just a “show piece”, and into something that you wear for real?
JAMES:	I’ve only had them for about a week now, but I’ve been sleeping and showering in them. I hadn’t taken them off in four days when one of the brackets cut me while I was asleep; I’d forgotten to sand the edges and they were still razor sharp. They’re back on now and seem reliable enough to take on a two week trip over the holidays; I doubt I’ll need to take them off during that time. Taking them on and off is a bit of a hassle, as it involves taking a tiny screwdriver and unscrewing them while they’re on my face — about a 5 to 10 minute process — which I suppose is about what you’d spend with contacts.
BME:	I hope they don’t get caught on anything... I suppose that could tear them out rather unpleasantly. Any thoughts on how the engineering might change for the next model?
OLIVER:	This pair isn’t quite what I was looking for both in design terms and in terms of fit. I don’t think they sit at quite the right angle to his face and we both want them to sit a little closer to his eyes, so we’ll probably make another pair in the near future. Much as there are so many designs and styles of eyeglasses currently being manufactured, I think there are a number of ways this design could be improved upon. I certainly think they look neat and ended up being far more subtle than I thought they would be. I didn’t even realize he was wearing them when I saw him a few days later, and he mentioned that most people don’t notice that they are only attached to the piercing.
BME:	What’s next?
JAMES:	I suppose I could try to make marketable version if I had ambition to do so — something easier to take on and off. As for me I only have run of the mill tattoos and piercings planned right now, but seeing how some of my friends and family are in the community and looking to push the frontier, it means I have the manpower at hand to try out what comes to mind, so I’ll keep trying out any of my feasible ideas. Being young and unsure where my future will lead, I’m quite reserved about anything permanent and visible, which limits what I’m willing to do right now... As well as not having the time or resources to work on any major projects, so it’ll just be the ones that steadily work their way in, like the glasses.
BME:	Since people are going to ask me, I have to ask... are these for sale?
JAMES:	As far as money I only spent about $10 on screws and $75 for new lenses. And I bought Oliver a meal.
OLIVER:	I don’t have any intention at this point of pursuing the idea commercially but it’s not something I’m averse to doing. If others were interested I might work something out with them. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a more developed version of these glasses from the existing body jewelry companies. I know there are any number of people here on IAM that could probably do a much better job both in the design and execution.

Be sure to visit James over at jamessooy.com, and of course you can visit Oliver at iam:antagonist. Thanks to both of them for taking the time to talk to BME, and for thinking creatively about body modification... Too few people understand that it’s OK to try something different or new.

Finally, I apologize that an article on the creative application of piercings has such an uncreative title.

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

-original website-

Sodomy Laws

2006-08-24T02:30:00.000-04:00

Sodomy Laws Around the World

White = Legal Red = Illegal

Sodomy laws are any of the many laws which criminalize non-reproductive, non-commercial, consensual sex between adults in private.

-original website-

Victims We Don't Hear About

2006-08-24T02:21:00.000-04:00

SURVIVORS OF A FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST

Peter Tatchell salutes the new film, Paragraph 175, featuring the testimonies of gay holocaust survivors

"We must exterminate these people (homosexuals) root and branch…We can’t permit such danger to the country; the homosexual must be entirely eliminated".

With these chilling words, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, set out the Nazi master plan for the sexual cleansing of the Aryan race.

Heinz F, now 96, was a care-free young gay man living in Munich in the early 1930s. He had no idea of what was about to happen. "I didn’t fully understand the situation", he admits with pained regret. One morning, out of the blue, the police knocked on his door. "You are suspected of being a homosexual", they told him. "You are hereby under arrest". "What could I do?", he asks, struggling to hold back the tears. "Off I went to Dachau, without a trial".

After spending a year and a half in Dachau, Heinz was released but soon rearrested and sent to Buchenwald. He was stunned to discover the grisly fate of gays. "Almost all the homosexuals…nearly all of them (he breaks down crying)…were killed".

Heinz miraculously survived a total of eight-plus years in concentration camps. Following the war, he never spoke to anyone about his experiences. He was afraid. Gay ex-prisoners were regarded as common criminals – not victims of Nazism. With tears trickling down his cheeks, he laments: "Nobody wanted to hear about it". Then a feint smile flickers across his tearful face: "Thick skin, eh?"

Heinz is one of only eight known gay holocaust survivors who are still alive. Together with five others - and one lesbian – he recalls the homophobic witch-hunts of the Third Reich in a stunning new film, Paragraph 175, which premieres in Britain next Sunday at the Imperial War Museum. Narrated by Rupert Everett, the feature-length documentary is by the US directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who won an Oscar for their Aids film, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

"Paragraph 175 explores a history that has not been told", says Epstein. "We felt a particular urgency to record what stories we could while there were still living witnesses to tell them".

The dignified, defiant testimonies of the gay survivors refute the "neo-revisionism" of mainstream holocaust histories that neglect the Nazi war against homosexuals.

Martin Gilbert’s recent book, Never Again, purports to be "a comprehensive account of the holocaust". Yet the fate of non-Jews merits only one two-page chapter and the mass murder of queers is dismissed in a single 13-word sentence.
If Gilbert had similarly ignored or belittled the suffering of Jews he would be condemned as a revisionist. Some people might say his downplaying of gay victimisation is also a form of revisionism.

The film Paragraph 175 rescues historical truth from half a century of amnesia and censorship. There is no happy ending, but the beginning is full of joy and hope.

Before the nightmare years of Nazism, Berlin was the queer capital of the world. Jewish lesbian, Annette Eick, who escaped to Britain shortly before the outbreak of war, recalls with fond nostalgia: "In Berlin, you were free. You could do what you wanted".

The city boasted dozens of gay organisations and magazines; plus over 80 gay bars, restaurants and night clubs. In his narration, Rupert Everett describes it as "a homosexual eden".

Although homosexuality was illegal under paragraph 175 of the criminal code, prior to the Third Reich it was rarely enforced. In the Reichstag, MPs were on the verge of securing its repeal. A new era of freedom seemed to be dawning. Then came Nazism.

Within a month of assuming power in 1933, Hitler outlawed homosexual organisations and publications. Gay bars and clubs were closed down soon afterwards. Storm troopers ransacked the headquarters of the gay rights movement, the Institute of Sexual Science, and publicly burned its vast library of "degenerate" books. Before the end of the year, the first homosexuals were deported to concentration camps.

Seventy-eight year old Gad Beck was, in those days, a precociously gay Jewish schoolboy, sweetly innocent about homophobia. "I had an athletics teacher…One day we were showering together and I jumped on him. I ran home to my mother and said: ‘Mother, today I had my first man’". Luckily, his parents accepted his homosexuality. But they feared for his future. He remembers their reaction: "They said: ‘Oh my god, he’s Jewish and he’s gay. Either way he’ll be persecuted. This cannot end well’".

But Beck survived, although nearly everyone around him perished. Two of his lovers were seized by the Nazis. "I met this beautiful blonde Jew. He invited me to spend the night. In the morning the Gestapo came…I showed my ID – not on the list. They took him to Auschwitz. It had a different value then, a night of love".

Later, Beck tried to free another lover, Manfred, from a Gestapo transfer camp by posing as a Hitler Youth member. This incredibly dangerous deception was successful, but as they walked to freedom, Manfred told Gad he could not abandon his family in the camp. Beck watched helplessly as his lover returned to be with them. He never saw Manfred again.
In 1934, the Nazis stepped up their anti-gay campaign, with the creation of the Reich Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality. According to Himmler: "Those who practice homosexuality deprive Germany of the children they owe her…our nation will fall to pieces because of that plague". The police were ordered to draw up "pink lists" of known or suspected homosexuals. Mass arrests followed.

At the age of 17, Frenchman Pierre Seel was detained by the invading Germans, who rifled local police files on homosexuals. "They saw our names of these lists", he says. "I ended up at the camp in Schirmeck".

"There was a hierarchy from weakest to strongest. The weakest in the camps were the homosexuals. All the way at the bottom".

"I was tortured, beaten…sodomised and raped!", Seel screams in anguish. "The Nazis stuck 25cm of wood up my arse…(it) still bleeds, even today".

His lover Jo suffered a worse fate. "He was condemned to die, eaten by dogs. German dogs! German Shepherds!", Seel shouts with rage. "That I can never forget".

The Nazis again intensified the war against "abnormal existence" in 1935, broadening the definition of homosexual behaviour and the grounds for arrest. Gossip and innuendo became evidence. A man could be incarcerated on the basis of a mere touch, gesture or look.

Later, Himmler authorised a scientific programme for the eradication of "this vice", with gay prisoners being subjected to gruesome medical experiments – including hormone implants and castration.

From 1933-1945, about 100,000 men were arrested under Paragraph 175 for the crime of homosexuality. Some were sent to prisons; others to concentration camps. The death rate of gay prisoners in the camps was 60 per cent, the highest among non-Jewish victims.

Heinz Dormer, now a very frail 89 year-old, spent nearly ten years in prisons and concentration camps. In a quivering, barely audible voice he remembers the haunting, agonised cries from "the singing forest", a row of tall poles on which condemned men were hung: "Everyone who was sentenced to death would be lifted up onto the hook. The howling and screaming were inhuman…Beyond human comprehension".

This "homocaust" was an integral part of the holocaust. Contrary to false histories that claim the persecution of Jewish people was distinct and separate from the victimisation of other minorities, the genocide against Jews and queers was part of the same grand design for the racial purification of the German volk. The Nazis set out to eradicate all racial and genetic "inferiors" – not just Jews, but also gay, disabled, black, Slav, Roma and Sinti people.

Even after the Nazi defeat in 1945, gay survivors continued to be persecuted. Men liberated from the concentration camps who had not completed their sentences were re-imprisoned by the victorious Allies. Since they were regarded as criminals, all were denied compensation for their suffering. The German government still refuses to pay reparations. As a further insult, the former SS guards are awarded better pensions. Their work in the concentration camps counts toward their pension entitlement, whereas the time spent in the camps by gay inmates doesn’t.

Most Nazi doctors, including those who experimented on gay prisoners, were never put on trial at Nuremburg. The most notorious of all, Dr Carl Vaernet, was allowed by the British military authorities to escape to Argentina, where he lived freely until his death in 1965.

Paragraph 175 remained in force in Germany until 1969. Some gay holocaust survivors, such as Heinz Dormer, were repeatedly re-arrested in the post-war period and again jailed. In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of convictions for homosexuality in West Germany was as high as it had been during Nazi rule.
The film Paragraph 175 is the last testament of the remaining few living victims of Nazi homophobia. It will indict for all time, not just the perpetrators of the holocaust, but also the victorious Allies, successive post-war German governments and "neo-revisionist" historians.

Published in a slightly edited form in The Independent (Tuesday Review), 12 June 2001.

-original website-

A Very Special Apple Pie

2006-08-24T01:36:00.000-04:00

-original website-

LESBIAAAAANS!!

2006-08-24T01:25:00.000-04:00

-original website-

No Sex Tonight!

2006-08-24T01:23:00.000-04:00

NO SEX TONIGHT!

Date: 2005-02-18, 9:18AM PST

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing. I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart. FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." I said "WHAT??!! What was that?!" So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear... "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man." She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?" Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep. The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said lets get a pair for each outfit. We went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you...she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier." I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it." Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled WHAT?" I then said "honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman." And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?" Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either.

-original website-

A Pretty Moving Letter about Biblical Affirmation of Homosexuality

2006-08-24T01:17:00.000-04:00

A Biblical Affirmation of Homosexuality

Dear Reader,

Shortly after I had gone from the seminary to my first pastorate in 1948, Louise invited my wife, Anna Marie, and me to have Sunday dinner with her family. She has been one of our dearest friends ever since. Recently, during one of the many visits we have had since then she said to me “My brother hates God because God made him gay, and he knows he is going to hell, and I do, too, for that is what the Bible says.” At that time I had only some suppositions - quite negative - about homosexuality and had never thought it needed study. But her words made me want to know as much as I could learn.

When I began reading I soon realized things about myself I now deplore: I was ignorant of the many facts about homosexuality and what the Bible says about it. Yet, without facts, I had pre-judged it; I was prejudiced. With little thought I had read into the Bible what I presumed it ought to say instead of reading out of it what it did say. My idea of not needing to study the subject was pure anti-intellectualism. I am now grateful to God that He led me to study.

I read some two score books, most by eminent sociologists, psychologists and theologians. Then I wrote this letter to Louise, reflecting what I have come to believe is the truth about homosexuality, what the Bible says and what God wants us to think and do about it.

Now I want others to study seriously this matter of such importance to many lives and many churches and denominations. I asked for and received Louise’s permission to share her letter with others. I pray it may be helpful.

Bruce W. Lowe, January 2002

-original website-

Schools of Feminist Thought: Factions and Subsets of the Feminist Movement

2006-08-23T18:05:00.000-04:00

Schools of Feminist Thought: Factions and Subsets of the Feminist Movement

It's important to the credibility of feminism as a movement that differing schools of feminist thought be recognized. A major criticism of modern-day feminism is that the mainstream of the movement tends to reject any ideological dissent from within. A number of self-proclaimed feminist women have been summarily rejected from the movement and even called anti-feminist just by daring to make any criticism of the movement's goals or actions. The visible vanguard of the movement attempts to paint itself as a purely homogeneous sisterhood of women, united and unified under one ideology in the name of one singular feminist movement. In reality, of course, the situation is much more complex, and richer in diversity of ideas, priorities, and activist involvement. Feminism is a much broader umbrella than it appears.

I wanted to give some idea of what feminism means to different women who claim the label as their own on this site--after all, the very idea at the core of this project is to illustrate that not all feminism falls under the ball-breaking reverse-double-standard militant stereotype that is so prevalent today. But as it turns out, someone had already tackled this task, and to a more ambitious extent than I had intended to apply myself in the first place. The newsgroup soc.feminism posts several periodic FAQ lists (Frequently Asked Questions), and one of them (posted as "Soc.Feminism Terminologies" by Cindy Tittle Moore) describes the "various kinds of feminism" in conscientious detail. She includes the following factions of feminism on her list:

-Amazon Feminism
-Anarcho-Feminism
-Cultural Feminism
-Erotic Feminism
-Eco-Feminism
-"Feminazism"
-Feminism & Women of Color
-Individualist, or Libertarian Feminism
-Lesbianism
-Liberal Feminism
-Marxist & Socialist Feminism
-Material Feminism
-Moderate Feminism
-Pop-Feminism
-Radical Feminism
-Separatists

I would take exception with the fact that there is no entry for "Equity Feminism" in this list. If Ms. Moore is so generous as to extend an entry for Rush Limbaugh's term "Feminazism", you'd expect the reason would be that she intends to give consideration to all factions of feminism, major or minor, actual or perceived. But this appears not to be the case: "equity feminism" is a term that has been at the center of controversy within feminist circles since at least 1994, and certainly has more real-world relevance to feminist policy than does the ridiculous and inflammatory non-movement called "feminazism". The closest thing you can find to an Equity Feminism category in this list is Liberal Feminism, and even here the language reverts from a matter-of-fact, unbiased and informative tone to a sniping, subjective and insulting dismissal: "they slog along inside the system, getting little done amongst the compromises until some radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of center".

Aside from this small backslide into nasty but perhaps unsurprising radical-centricism, this document is still extremely informative and well-rounded in its sources. So with that note of caution from me, I will step aside and let Ms. Moore and her co-authors have the virtual podium here.

A variety of movements in feminism means that calling one's self a feminist can mean many things. In general, members of the following categories of feminism believe in the listed policies; however as with any diverse movement, there are disagreements within each group and overlap between others. This list is meant to illustrate the diversity of feminist thought and belief. It does not mean that feminism is fragmented (although it often seems that way!). Much of the definitions presented here are inspired from American Feminism by Ginette Castro; there is a definite American bias here. Other sources were Feminist Frameworks (2nd ed.) by Jaggar and Rothenberg (which is a worthwhile but incomplete reader that tried to sort out these various schools of feminist thought). Any additional, balancing information from other countries and/or books is more than welcome (and will be incorporated).

Defining various kinds of feminism is a tricky proposition. The diversity of comment with most of the kinds presented here should alert you to the dangers and difficulties in trying to "define" feminism. Since feminism itself resists all kinds of definitions by its very existence and aims, it is more accurate to say that there are all kinds of "flavors" and these flavors are mixed up every which way; there is no set of Baskin Robbins premixed flavors, as it were.

Amazon Feminism

Amazon feminism is dedicated to the image of the female hero in fiction and in fact, as it is expressed in art and literature, in the physiques and feats of female athletes, and in sexual values and practices.

Amazon feminism is concerned about physical equality and is opposed to gender role stereotypes and discrimination against women based on assumptions that women are supposed to be, look or behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless.

Amazon feminism rejects the idea that certain characteristics or interests are inherently masculine (or feminine), and upholds and explores a vision of heroic womanhood. Thus Amazon feminism advocates e.g., female strength athletes, martial artists, soldiers, etc. [TG]

Anarcho-Feminism

Anarcho-feminism was never a huge movement, especially in the United States, and you won't find a whole lot written about it. I mention it mostly because of the influential work of Emma Goldman, who used anarchism to craft a radical feminism that was (alas!) far ahead of her time. Radical feminism expended a lot of energy dealing with a basis from which to critique society without falling into Marxist pleas for socialist revolution. It also expended a lot of energy trying to reach across racial and class lines. Goldman had succeeded in both. Radical feminist Alix Schulman realized this, but not in time to save her movement. She's put out a reader of Goldman's work and a biography, both of which I recommend highly. [JD]

Cultural Feminism

As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism got rolling. In fact, many of the same people moved from the former to the latter. They carried the name "radical feminism" with them, and some cultural feminists use that name still. (Jaggar and Rothenberg don't even list cultural feminism as a framework separate from radical feminism, but Echols spells out the distinctions in great detail.) The difference between the two is quite striking: whereas radical feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural feminism retreated to vanguardism, working instead to build a women's culture. Some of this effort has had some social benefit: rape crisis centers, for example; and of course many cultural feminists have been active in social issues (but as individuals, not as part of a movement). [JD]

Cultural feminists can sometimes come up with notions that sound disturbingly Victorian and non-progressive: that women are inherently (biologically) "kinder and gentler" than men and so on. (Therefore if all leaders were women, we wouldn't have wars.) I do think, though, that cultural feminism's attempts to heighten respect for what is traditionally considered women's work is an important parallel activity to recognizing that traditionally male activities aren't necessarily as important as we think. [CTM]

I have often associated this type of statement [inherently kinder and gentler] with Separatist Feminists, who seem to me to feel that women are *inherently* kinder and gentler, so why associate with men? (This is just my experience from Separatists I know...I haven't read anything on the subject.) I know Cultural Feminists who would claim women are *trained* to be kinder and gentler, but I don't know any who have said they are *naturally* kinder. [SJ]

As various 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got co-opted, folks got pessimistic about the very possibility of social change. Many of then turned their attention to building alternatives, so that if they couldn't change the dominant society, they could avoid it as much as possible. That, in a nutshell, is what the shift from radical feminism to cultural feminism was about. These alternative-building efforts were accompanied with reasons explaining (perhaps justifying) the abandonment of working for social change. Cultural feminism's justification was biological determinism. This justification was worked out in great detail, and was based on assertions in horribly-flawed books like Elizabeth Gould Davis's The First Sex and Ashley Montagu's The Natural Superiority of Women. So notions that women are "inherently kinder and gentler" are one of the foundations of cultural feminism, and remain a major part of it. A similar concept held by some cultural feminists is that while various sex differences might not be biologically determined, they are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be intractable. There is no inherent connection between alternative-building and ideologies of biological determinism (or of social intracta- bility). SJ has apparently encountered alternative-builders who don't embrace biological determinism, and I consider this a very good sign. [JD]

I should point out here that Ashley Montagu is male, and his book was first copyright in 1952, so I don't believe that it originated as part of the separatist movements in the '60's. It may still be horribly flawed; I haven't yet read it. [CTM]

Erotic Feminism

[European] This seemed to start (as a movement) in Germany under the rule of Otto von Bismarck. He ruled the land with the motto "blood and iron". In society the man was the _ultra manly man_ and power was patriarchal power. Some women rebelled against this, by becoming WOMAN. Eroticism became a philosophical and metaphysical value and the life-creating value. [RG]

Eco-Feminism:

This branch of feminism is much more spiritual than political or theoretical in nature. It may or may not be wrapped up with Goddess worship and vegetarianism. Its basic tenet is that a patriarchical society will exploit its resources without regard to long term consequences as a direct result of the attitudes fostered in a patriarchical/hierarchical society. Parallels are often drawn between society's treatment of the environment, animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting patriarchical culture, eco-feminists feel that they are also resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. And vice-versa. [CTM]

This is actually socially-conscious environmentalism with a tiny smattering of the radical and cultural feminist observation that exploitation of women and exploitation of the earth have some astonishing parallels. The rest of "eco-feminism" turns out to be a variation on socialism. The Green movements of Europe have done a good job of formulating (if not implementing) an environmentally aware feminism; and while Green movements were not originally considered a part of eco-feminism, they are now recognized as a vital component. [JD]

(If I remember correctly, a couple of feminist groups, including NOW have joined up with Green parties. [CTM])

Feminazi:

This term was "invented" by the radio/tv host Rush Limbaugh. He defines a feminazi as a feminist who is trying to produce as many abortions as possible. Hence the term "nazi" - he sees them as trying to rid the world of a particular group of people (fetuses).

This term is of course completely without merit, but there's the definition of it FYI. [CTM]

Feminism and Women of Color:

In _feminist theory from margin to center_ (1984), bell hooks writes of "militant white women" who call themselves "radical feminists" but hooks labels them "reactionary" . . . Hooks is refering to cultural feminism here. Her comment is a good introduction to that fractious variety of feminism that Jaggar and Rothenberg find hard to label any further than to designate its source as women of color. It is a most vital variety, covering much of the same ground as radical feminism and duplicating its dynamic nature. Yet bad timing kept the two from ever uniting. For more information you might want to also read hooks' book and her earlier reader, ain't i a woman? Whereas radical feminism was primarily formulated by educated white women focusing on women's issues, this variety was formulated by women who would not (because they could not) limit their focus. What is so extraordinary is that the two converged in so many ways, with the notable exception that the women of color were adamantly opposed to considering one form of oppression (sexism) without considering the others. [JD]

I think an important work in the history of feminism and women of color is Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga's anthology, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color. It's my belief that the unique contribution of women of color, who experience at least two forms of discrimination daily, provides balance and reality to much of the more theoretical forms of academic feminism favored by educated white women. [EE]

Individualist, or Libertarian Feminism

Individualist feminism is based upon individualist or libertarian (minimum government or anarchocapitalist) philosophies, i.e. philosophies whose primary focus is individual autonomy, rights, liberty, independence and diversity.

Lesbianism:

There are a couple of points to make here. First is that Lesbianism is not necessarily a *de facto* part of feminism. While it is true that merely being a lesbian is a direct contravention of "traditional" concepts of womanhood, Lesbians themeselves hold a wide variety of opionions on the subject of feminism just as their straight sisters do.

On the other hand, Lesbianism has sometimes been made into a political point by straight women "becoming" lesbian in order to fully reject men. However, it is never accurate to characterise all feminists as Lesbians nor all Lesbians as feminists.

The reader should also note that homophobia is as present among feminists as it is in any other segment of society. Lesbianism and feminism, for all their common points and joint interests, are two very different groups. [CTM]

Liberal Feminism:

This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure. Its roots stretch back to the social contract theory of government instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing equality for women. As is often the case with liberals, they slog along inside the system, getting little done amongst the compromises until some radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of center. This is how it operated in the days of the suffragist movement and again with the emergence of the radical feminists. [JD]

Marxist and Socialist Feminism

Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes the oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus they insist that the only way to end the oppression of women is to overthrow the capitalist system. Socialist feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Jaggar and Rothenberg point to significant differences between socialist feminism and Marxism, but for our purposes I'll present the two together. Echols offers a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between Marxism and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner. Marxists and socialists often call themselves "radical," but they use the term to refer to a completely different "root" of society: the economic system. [JD]

Material Feminism

A movement in the late 19th century to liberate women by improving their material condition. This meant taking the burden of housework and cooking off their shoulders. _The Grand Domestic Revolution_ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one reference. [RZ]

Moderate Feminism:

This branch of feminism tends to be populated by younger women or other women who have not directly experienced discrimination. They are closely affiliated with liberal feminism, but tend to question the need for further effort, and do not think that Radical feminism is any longer viable and in fact rather embarrassing (this is the group most likely to espouse feminist ideas and thoughts while denying being "feminist"). [CTM]

'pop-feminism'

This term has appeared several times on soc.feminism. It appears to be a catch-all for the bogey"man" sort of feminism that everyone loves to hate: you know, the kind of feminism that grinds men under its heel and admits to no wrong for women. It is doubtful that such a caricature actually exists, yet many people persist in lumping all feminists into this sort of a category. [CTM]

Radical Feminism:

Provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism. Radical feminism provides an important foundation for the rest of "feminist flavors". Seen by many as the "undesireable" element of feminism, Radical feminism is actually the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas which get shaped and pounded out in various ways by other (but not all) branches of feminism. [CTM]

Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted as it was then, nor does it provide a foundation for, for example, cultural feminism. In addition, radical feminism is not and never has been related to the Maoist-feminist group Radical Women. [EE]

This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason this group gets the "radical" label is that they view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of opression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact. [JD]

Ironically, this get-to-the-roots movement is the most root-less variety of feminism. This was part of its strength and part of its weakness. It was always dynamic, always dealing with factions, and always full of ideas. Its influence has been felt in all the other varieties listed here, as well as in society at large. [JD]

To me, radical feminism is centred on the necessity to question gender roles. This is why I identify current "gender politics" questions as radical feminist issues. Radical feminism questions why women must adopt certain roles based on their biology, just as it questions why men adopt certain other roles based on theirs. Radical feminism attempts to draw lines between biologically- determined behavior and culturally-determined behavior in order to free both men and women as much as possible from their previous narrow gender roles. [EE]

The best history of this movement is a book called Daring to be Bad, by Echols. I consider that book a must! [JD]

Another excellent book is simply titled Radical Feminism and is an anthology edited by Anne Koedt, a well-known radical feminist [EE].

Radical feminist theory is to a large extent incompatible with cultural feminism. The reason is that the societal forces it deals with seem so great in magnitude that they make it impossible to identify any innate masculine or feminine attributes except those which are results of the biological attributes. (This is what I think the [above] "view[s] the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of oppression," [is getting at] although I don't agree with that statement in its context.) [DdJ]

Separatists:

Popularly and wrongly depicted as Lesbians, these are the feminists who advocate separation from men; sometimes total, sometimes partial. Women who organize women-only events are often unfairly dubbed separatist. Separatists are sometimes literal, sometimes figurative. The core idea is that "separating" (by various means) from men enables women to see themselves in a different context. Many feminists, whether or not separatist, think this is a necessary "first step", by which they mean a temporary separation for personal growth, not a permanent one. [CTM]

There is sometimes some overlap between separatist and cultural feminists (see below). [SJ]

It is equally inaccurate to consider all Lesbians as separatist; while it is true that they do not interact with men for sexual fulfillment, it is not true that they therefore automatically shun all interaction with men. [CTM]

And, conversely, it is equally inaccurate to consider all separatists Lesbians. Additionally, lesbian feminism may be considered a category distinct from separatist feminism. Lesbian feminism puts more emphasis on lesbianism -- active bonding with women -- than separatism does, in its emphasis on removing bonds with men. [EE]

--------------

My thanks to:

Ellen Eades[EE]

David desJardins [DdJ]

Jym Dyer [JD]

Thomas Gramstad [TG]

Rebecca Grinter [RG]

David Gross [DG] (incl. all info on men's movements)

Stacy Johnson [SJ]

Rudy Zalesak [RZ]

--------------

Please mail in comments, additions, corrections, suggestions, and so on to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu. I reserve all rights to edit material for brevity, clarity, and constructiveness.

--Cindy Tittle Moore

-original webpage-

2006-08-23T17:51:00.000-04:00

Some Moral Dilemmas

The following is a list of some moral dilemmas, mostly adapted from Moral Reasoning, by Victor Grassian (Prentice Hall, 1981, 1992), with a couple additions. The question to consider with all of these is why they are dilemmas. Some, however, may not seem to be dilemmas at all.

The Overcrowded Lifeboat
In 1842, a ship struck an iceberg and more than 30 survivors were crowded into a lifeboat intended to hold 7. As a storm threatened, it became obvious that the lifeboat would have to be lightened if anyone were to survive. The captain reasoned that the right thing to do in this situation was to force some individuals to go over the side and drown. Such an action, he reasoned, was not unjust to those thrown overboard, for they would have drowned anyway. If he did nothing, however, he would be responsible for the deaths of those whom he could have saved. Some people opposed the captain's decision. They claimed that if nothing were done and everyone died as a result, no one would be responsible for these deaths. On the other hand, if the captain attempted to save some, he could do so only by killing others and their deaths would be his responsibility; this would be worse than doing nothing and letting all die. The captain rejected this reasoning. Since the only possibility for rescue required great efforts of rowing, the captain decided that the weakest would have to be sacrificed. In this situation it would be absurd, he thought, to decide by drawing lots who should be thrown overboard. As it turned out, after days of hard rowing, the survivors were rescued and the captain was tried for his action. If you had been on the jury, how would you have decided?
A Father's Agonizing Choice
You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don't he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don't have any doubt that he means what he says. What should you do?
Sophie's Choice, not in Grassian.
In the novel Sophie's Choice, by William Styron (Vintage Books, 1976 -- the 1982 movie starred Meryl Streep & Kevin Kline), a Polish woman, Sophie Zawistowska, is arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz death camp. On arrival, she is "honored" for not being a Jew by being allowed a choice: One of her children will be spared the gas chamber if she chooses which one. In an agony of indecision, as both children are being taken away, she suddenly does choose. They can take her daughter, who is younger and smaller. Sophie hopes that her older and stronger son will be better able to survive, but she loses track of him and never does learn of his fate. Did she do the right thing? Years later, haunted by the guilt of having chosen between her children, Sophie commits suicide. Should she have felt guilty?
The Fat Man and the Impending Doom, with parts cut out in the 2nd edition; they seem to have gotten removed to avoid unintentionally humorous overtones.
A fat man leading a group of people out of a cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short time high tide will be upon them, and unless he is unstuck, they will all be drowned except the fat man, whose head is out of the cave. [But, fortunately, or unfortunately, someone has with him a stick of dynamite.] There seems no way to get the fat man loose without using [that] dynamite which will inevitably kill him; but if they do not use it everyone will drown. What should they do?
The Costly Underwater Tunnel, compare: 112 men were killed during the construction of Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border (the "official" number was 98, but others had died from causes more difficult to identify -- or easier to ignore -- like by carbon monoxide poisoning): The first was a surveyor, J.G. Tierney, who drowned on December 20, 1922, and the last was his son, Patrick Tierney, who drowned on December 20, 1935 -- 13 years to the day after his father.

Railroad Safety

year billions of
passenger
miles fatalities
per billion
passenger
miles

1890 11.8 24.2

1900 16.0 15.5

1910 32.3 10.0

1920 47.4 4.8

1930 26.9 2.3

1939 22.7 1.8

1943 87.9 3.2

1950 31.8 0.6

1970 10.8 0.07

The working conditions in the summer down in the canyon involved temperatures hitting highs of 119^o, with lows of no less than 95^o (familiar numbers to those who have visited the cities of Needles, Blythe, or Yuma in the summer). In 1931, about the time that Hoover Dam, a federal project (with private contractors), was begun, the Empire State Building, a private project, was completed. Although the rule of thumb had been that one man would die for every story built in a skyscraper, which would have meant 120 dead for the Empire State Building, in fact only 5 men died in the whole project. By comparison, in the earlier (1908-1913) building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct by William Mulholland (d.1935), it was also the case that only 5 men died (though when Mulholland's St. Francis Dam, in Francisquito Canyon, collapsed in 1928, it killed over 500 people). The Golden Gate Bridge cost 14 lives (or 11 -- the rule of thumb there was one life for each $1,000,000 of the project, with the bridge costing $35,000.000). The Tunnel under the English Channel, built in the early 1990's, cost 11 lives. When the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was being planned, the prediction was that 15 workers would die, but none did. Similarly, though much earlier (1927-1941), no one died during the carving of Mt. Rushmore. Even with such progress over time, the John Hancock Building in Chicago (1970) cost 109 lives, or, indeed, about one per floor, as predicted for the Empire State Building. While it is usually ordinary workers who suffer in construction accidents, it isn't always, as was the case with the Brooklyn Bridge, whose designer, John Augustus Roebling, died in a ferry accident in 1869 while surveying the site. His son, Washington Roebling, suffered such a severe case of the bends, working in a pressurized caisson in 1872, that he supervised the rest of the construction crippled in bed, sending instructions through his wife, until the bridge was completed in 1883. Overall, 27 died on the Brooklyn Bridge, 3 from the bends. It was many years before it was known what to do about this condition. Workers were still suffering from the bends when the Holland Tunnel was built in the 1920's. The chief engineer of the tunnel, Clifford Milburn Holland, died suddenly in 1924, aged 41, of "exhaustion." The tunnel, opened in 1927, was then named after him. The first tunnel under the Hudson, for railroads, was begun in 1874; but construction was abandoned, restarted, and not completed until 1908. All such bridges and tunnels eliminate the need for ferry boats. Even in recent years, ferry sinkings and accidents are common, and they still result in the deaths of hundreds of people at a time.
An underwater tunnel is being constructed despite an almost certain loss of several lives [actually, all but certain]. Presumably the expected loss is a calculated cost that society is prepared to pay for having the tunnel ["society" doesn't make any such calculation]. At a critical moment when a fitting must be lowered into place, a workman is trapped in a section of the partly laid tunnel. If it is lowered, it will surely crush the trapped workman to death. Yet, if it is not and a time consuming rescue of the workman is attempted, the tunnel will have to be abandoned and the whole project begun anew. Two workmen have already died in the project as a result of anticipated and unavoidable conditions in the building of the tunnel. What should be done? Was it a mistake to begin the tunnel in the first place? But don't we take such risks all the time?
Jean Valjean's Conscience, with some comments; see the 1998 movie, Les Miserables, with Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman, and Geoffrey Rush.
In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, the hero, Jean Valjean, is an ex-convict, living illegally under an assumed name and wanted for a robbery he committed many years ago. [Actually, no -- he is only wanted for breaking parole.] Although he will be returned to the galleys -- probably [in fact, actually] for life -- if he is caught, he is a good man who does not deserve to be punished. He has established himself in a town, becoming mayor and a public benefactor. One day, Jean learns that another man, a vagabond, has been arrested for a minor crime and identified as Jean Valjean. Jean is first tempted to remain quiet, reasoning to himself that since he had nothing to do with the false identification of this hapless vagabond, he has no obligation to save him. Perhaps this man's false identification, Jean reflects, is "an act of Providence meant to save me." Upon reflection, however, Jean judges such reasoning "monstrous and hypocritical." He now feels certain that it is his duty to reveal his identity, regardless of the disastrous personal consequences. His resolve is disturbed, however, as he reflects on the irreparable harm his return to the galleys will mean to so many people who depend upon him for their livelihood -- especially troubling in the case of a helpless woman and her small child to whom he feels a special obligation. He now reproaches himself for being too selfish, for thinking only of his own conscience and not of others. The right thing to do, he now claims to himself, is to remain quiet, to continue making money and using it to help others. The vagabond, he comforts himself, is not a worthy person, anyway. Still unconvinced and tormented by the need to decide, Jean goes to the trial and confesses. Did he do the right thing?
A Callous Passerby
Roger Smith, a quite competent swimmer, is out for a leisurely stroll. During the course of his walk he passes by a deserted pier from which a teenage boy who apparently cannot swim has fallen into the water. The boy is screaming for help. Smith recognizes that there is absolutely no danger to himself if he jumps in to save the boy; he could easily succeed if he tried. Nevertheless, he chooses to ignore the boy's cries. The water is cold and he is afraid of catching a cold -- he doesn't want to get his good clothes wet either. "Why should I inconvenience myself for this kid," Smith says to himself, and passes on. Does Smith have a moral obligation to save the boy? If so, should he have a legal obligation ["Good Samaritan" laws] as well?
The Last Episode of Seinfeld, not in Grassian.
The cast of Seinfeld, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer, have a layover in a small New England town. They witness a robbery in broad daylight. The robber has his hand in his pocket, and the victim shouts that the man has a gun. As soon as the robber runs away, a policeman appears on the scene; but instead of pursuing the robber, he arrests Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer for having violated the new "Good Samaritan" law of the town. Since the four of them spent the time of the robbery making fun of the victim, who was fat, their role in the matter doesn't look good, and at their trial everyone who has ever felt wronged by them in the course of the television series testifies against them. They are convicted. Is this just? What were they supposed to do during the robbery? Should they have rushed the robber, just in case he didn't really have a gun?
A Poisonous Cup of Coffee, with Jane and Debbie added for the sake of gender equality.
Tom[/Jane], hating his[/her] wife[/husband] and wanting her[/him] dead, puts poison in her[/his] coffee, thereby killing her[/him]. Joe[/Debbie] also hates his[/her] wife[/husband] and would like her[/him] dead. One day, Joe's[/Debbie's] wife[/husband] accidentally puts poison in her[/his] coffee, thinking it's cream. Joe[/Debbie] has the antidote, but he[/she] does not give it to her[/him]. Knowing that he[/she] is the only one who can save her[/him], he[/she] lets her[/him] die. Is Joe's[/Debbie's] failure to act as bad as Tom's[/Jane's] action?
The Torture of the Mad Bomber. cf. Clint Eastwood's movie, Dirty Harry. Now, however, after 9/11/01, we have the case of terrorist suspects who may know of planned operations that could cost the lives of thousands. The otherwise four-square civil libertarian and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz has actually suggested legalized torture to deal with such people.
A madman who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been apprehended. Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds of people may die. The authorities cannot make him divulge the location of the bombs by conventional methods. He refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. In exasperation, some high level official suggests torture. This would be illegal, of course, but the official thinks that it is nevertheless the right thing to do in this desperate situation. Do you agree? If you do, would it also be morally justifiable to torture the mad bomber's innocent wife if that is the only way to make him talk? Why?
The Principle of Psychiatric Confidentiality, cf. the 1997 movie, Devil's Advocate, and the 1993 movie, The Firm, on confidentiality between lawyers and clients.
You are a psychiatrist and your patient has just confided to you that he intends to kill a woman. You're inclined to dismiss the threat as idle, but you aren't sure. Should you report the threat to the police and the woman or should you remain silent as the principle of confidentiality between psychiatrist and patient demands? Should there be a law that compels you to report such threats?
The Partiality of Friendship
Jim has the responsibility of filling a position in his firm. His friend Paul has applied and is qualified, but someone else seems even more qualified. Jim wants to give the job to Paul, but he feels guilty, believing that he ought to be impartial. That's the essence of morality, he initially tells himself. This belief is, however, rejected, as Jim resolves that friendship has a moral importance that permits, and perhaps even requires, partiality in some circumstances. So he gives the job to Paul. Was he right?
The Value of a Promise, Compare with the role of David Cash in the murder of Sherrice Iverson by Jeremy Strohmeyer.
A friend confides to you that he has committed a particular crime and you promise never to tell. Discovering that an innocent person has been accused of the crime, you plead with your friend to give himself up. He refuses and reminds you of your promise. What should you do? In general, under what conditions should promises be broken?
The Perjured President, not in Grassian.
A long time Governor of a Southern State is elected President of the United States on a platform that includes strong support for laws against sexual harassment. After he is in office, it comes out that he may have used State Troopers, on duty to protect him as Governor, to pick up women for him. One of the women named in the national press stories as having been brought to the Governor for sex felt defamed because she had actually rebuffed his crude advances, even though he had said that he knew her boss -- she was a State employee. She decides to clear her name by suing the now President for sexual harassment. The Supreme Court allows the suit to proceed against the sitting President. Because the sexual harassment laws have been recently expanded, with the President's agreement, to allow testimony about the history of sexual conduct of the accused harasser, the President is questioned under oath about rumors of an affair with a young White House intern. He strongly denies that any sexual relationship had ever taken place, and professes not to remember if he was even ever alone with the intern. Later, incontrovertible evidence is introduced -- the President's own semen on the intern's dress -- that establishes the existence of the rumored sexual relationship. The President then finally admits only to an ambiguous "improper relationship." So the question is: Is it hypocritical of the President and his supporters to continued to support the sexual harassment and perjury laws if they do not want him to be subject to the ordinary penalties for breaking them?

Railroad Safety
year	billions of passenger miles	fatalities per billion passenger miles
1890	11.8	24.2
1900	16.0	15.5
1910	32.3	10.0
1920	47.4	4.8
1930	26.9	2.3
1939	22.7	1.8
1943	87.9	3.2
1950	31.8	0.6
1970	10.8	0.07

-original site-

The Male Privilege Checklist

2006-08-23T17:38:00.000-04:00

The Male Privilege Checklist
An Unabashed Imitation of an Article by Peggy McIntosh

by B. Deutsch

In 1990, Wellesley College professor Peggy McIntosh wrote an essay called White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. McIntosh observes that whites in the U.S. are "taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." To illustrate these invisible systems, McIntosh wrote a list of 26 invisible privileges whites benefit from.

As McIntosh points out, men also tend to be unaware of their own privileges as men. In the spirit of McIntosh's essay, I thought I'd compile a list similar to McIntosh's, focusing on the invisible privileges benefiting men.

Since I first compiled it, the list has been posted several times on internet discussion groups. Very helpfully, many people have suggested additions to the checklist. More commonly, of course, critics (usually, but not always, male) have pointed out men have disadvantages too - being drafted into the army, being expected to suppress emotions, and so on. These are indeed bad things - but I never claimed that life for men is all ice cream sundaes. Pointing out that men are privileged in no way denies that sometimes bad things happen to men.

In the end, however, it is men and not women who make the most money; men and not women who dominate the government and the corporate boards; men and not women who dominate virtually all of the most powerful positions of society. And it is women and not men who suffer the most from intimate violence and rape; who are the most likely to be poor; who are, on the whole, given the short end of patriarchy's stick. As Marilyn Frye has argued, while men are harmed by patriarchy, women are oppressed by it.

Several critics have also argued that the list somehow victimizes women. I disagree; pointing out problems is not the same as perpetuating them. It is not a "victimizing" position to fight against injustice; we can't fight injustice if we refuse to acknowledge it exists.

An internet acquaintance of mine once wrote, "The first big privilege which whites, males, people in upper economic classes, the able bodied, the straight (I think one or two of those will cover most of us) can work to alleviate is the privilege to be oblivious to privilege." This checklist is, I hope, a step towards helping men to give up the "first big privilege."

The Male Privilege Checklist

My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favor. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.
I can be confident that my co-workers won't think I got my job because of my sex - even though that might be true.
If I am never promoted, it's not because of my sex.
If I fail in my job or career, I can feel sure this won't be seen as a black mark against my entire sex's capabilities.
The odds of my encountering sexual harassment on the job are so low as to be negligible.
If I do the same task as a woman, and if the measurement is at all subjective, chances are people will think I did a better job.
If I'm a teen or adult, and if I can stay out of prison, my odds of being raped are so low as to be negligible.
I am not taught to fear walking alone after dark in average public spaces.
If I choose not to have children, my masculinity will not be called into question.
If I have children but do not provide primary care for them, my masculinity will not be called into question.
If I have children and provide primary care for them, I'll be praised for extraordinary parenting if I'm even marginally competent.
If I have children and pursue a career, no one will think I'm selfish for not staying at home.
If I seek political office, my relationship with my children, or who I hire to take care of them, will probably not be scrutinized by the press.
Chances are my elected representatives are mostly people of my own sex. The more prestigious and powerful the elected position, the more likely this is to be true.
I can be somewhat sure that if I ask to see "the person in charge," I will face a person of my own sex. The higher-up in the organization the person is, the surer I can be.
As a child, chances are I was encouraged to be more active and outgoing than my sisters.
As a child, I could choose from an almost infinite variety of children's media featuring positive, active, non-stereotyped heroes of my own sex. I never had to look for it; male heroes were the default.
As a child, chances are I got more teacher attention than girls who raised their hands just as often.
If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones.
I can turn on the television or glance at the front page of the newspaper and see people of my own sex widely represented, every day, without exception.
If I'm careless with my financial affairs it won't be attributed to my sex.
If I'm careless with my driving it won't be attributed to my sex.
I can speak in public to a large group without putting my sex on trial.
If I have sex with a lot of people, it won't make me an object of contempt or derision.
There are value-neutral clothing choices available to me; it is possible for me to choose clothing that doesn't send any particular message to the world.
My wardrobe and grooming are relatively cheap and consume little time.
If I buy a new car, chances are I'll be offered a better price than a woman buying the same car.
If I'm not conventionally attractive, the disadvantages are relatively small and easy to ignore.
I can be loud with no fear of being called a shrew. I can be aggressive with no fear of being called a bitch.
I can ask for legal protection from violence that happens mostly to men without being seen as a selfish special interest, since that kind of violence is called "crime" and is a general social concern. (Violence that happens mostly to women is usually called "domestic violence" or "acquaintance rape," and is seen as a special interest issue.)
I can be confident that the ordinary language of day-to-day existence will always include my sex. "All men are created equal…," mailman, chairman, freshman, he.
My ability to make important decisions and my capability in general will never be questioned depending on what time of the month it is.
I will never be expected to change my name upon marriage or questioned if i don't change my name.
The decision to hire me will never be based on assumptions about whether or not I might choose to have a family sometime soon.
Every major religion in the world is led primarily by people of my own sex. Even God, in most major religions, is usually pictured as being male.
Most major religions argue that I should be the head of my household, while my wife and children should be subservient to me.
If I have a wife or girlfriend, chances are we'll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labor, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.
If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, chances are she'll do most of the childrearing, and in particular the most dirty, repetitive and unrewarding parts of childrearing.
If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, and it turns out that one of us needs to make career sacrifices to raise the kids, chances are we'll both assume the career sacrificed should be hers.
Magazines, billboards, television, movies, pornography, and virtually all of media is filled with images of scantily-clad women intended to appeal to me sexually. Such images of men exist, but are much rarer.
I am not expected to spend my entire life 20-40 pounds underweight.
If I am heterosexual, it's incredibly unlikely that I'll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover.
I have the privilege of being unaware of my male privilege.

Birdies

2006-08-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

How Masturbation Came to be Known as a Sin

2006-08-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

How on earth did the Church come to regard masturbation as ‘seriously sinful’ when the Bible is totally silent on the matter?

Bruce Puddle - Contributing Author

The answer is scary!

To understand how this ‘masturbation is sinful’ idea came to be part of Christianity even up to today, you have to understand some history. So read on. This is fascinating and scary stuff.

Around the time of Jesus some religious ideas, most likely originally from India, were arriving with traders and beginning to become popular in the countries around Israel, especially among the huge numbers of Greek-speaking people. The most important groups who adopted these ideas were the Stoic philosophers and a religious sect called the Gnostics.

One of their main teachings was that God had created only the spiritual world; the entire natural physical world, including human beings and their bodies, were created by Satan. They began to teach that the human body and its functions, especially its ‘sexual functions’ were totally evil, and tolerated only because there was no other way to produce children. For the first time masturbation was said to be evil, for two reasons: it ‘wasted one’s life force’, which they believed was limited in supply; and it was pleasurable.

This was not what the Jews believed. Their Bible said that God had created everything, which of course included our sexual abilities. What’s more, Genesis 1v31 says, "God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good." So the Jews believed that sex was God’s idea and that within the sacred bond of marriage, where it found its fullest expression, it was to be celebrated and enjoyed.

As for masturbation, this was never mentioned, nor was it ever listed as a sin in the horrendously detailed lists of sins in books like Leviticus. The Jews clearly regarded masturbation as a natural fact of life and not even worth a mention.

Not only did the Jewish Bible never mention masturbation, neither did Jesus or any of the Apostles. There were of course warnings against the misuse of God’s gift of sexuality, but masturbation was never included or named as one of these ‘misuses’.

But in the world of the early Christians the Gnostics were growing fast and spreading their ideas with great zeal. So much so that by the end of the first century AD (80 to 100 years after the birth of Jesus) the Christians were actually being ‘outdone’ as far as strictness and attitudes toward sex went. They were at times even accused of being a sex-cult and of holding orgies at their communion love feasts. This was made still worse by the fact that early Christians treated women much more equally than did the communities in which they lived. Non-Christian men were really unnerved. The last thing they wanted was some religion that encouraged women to think they were equal to men!

So what happened? You’ve guessed it. Gradually over the next twenty to fifty years the new generation of church leaders, called by historians the ‘Church Fathers’, began to twist scripture in order to justify an about-face on the vital issues of sex and the role and place of women. This was done so that Christians would be seen to be as pure as Gnostics, and so that they would no longer offend their communities as regards the place of women.

By 300 AD the turn-around was almost complete. The official church teaching was that you could not be truly close to God if you had any kind of sex life. They even said that sex within marriage was a sin and that God turned his face away when a married couple had sex, even when the purpose was to produce a baby.

As part of those awful Christian teachings, masturbation began for the first time to be considered a great sin. And things were about to get even worse! A very famous church theologian, Thomas Aquinas, wrote in 1200 AD that masturbation was a worse sin than – now get this – sex with your mother (or if you were a girl sex with your father), worse than rape and worse than adultery. True! Why? Because in the other forms of sex there was at least a chance of a baby being born, while the masturbator committed the awful sin of ‘wasting seed’.

By the 1600’s both the Roman Catholic church and the newly arrived Protestants were so obsessed with the supposed sin of masturbation that it was not uncommon for boys to be sent to bed wearing a steel box (like a cricketer’s ‘box’) with spikes inside it to discourage erections and prevent the boy from masturbating. I bet it worked a treat!

For the girls the treatment was nothing short of horrific. Girls and young women were regularly subjected to having their clitoris burnt off with a red hot iron! Why? In 1882 a French doctor wrote, "Repeated cauterizing of the clitoris with red-hot irons destroys its sensitivity, children then become less excitable and less likely to touch themselves." The last western woman to have her clitoris removed to encourage moral purity was operated on in the USA in 1946!

This then is the frightening history of how God’s specially designed and universal gift of sexual release got onto the Church’s list of sins. Remember, it never came from the Bible; it never came from God.

It happened because Christian leaders of by-gone centuries failed to be critical enough of their own ‘traditions’. They did exactly what Jesus had severely criticized the Pharisees for, making up rules that the Bible hadn’t set down, and then having the nerve to tell their people "this is what God says" when God had said no such thing.

This history also explains why even today some Christians still loudly proclaim masturbation to be sinful, and give the impression that they regard sexual sins as the very worst sins of all. They don’t realize that what they are declaring as truth is nothing other than an ancient pagan heresy.

Further Information

This page is a very brief summary by Bruce Puddle, a former NZ Baptist Minister and is based on his book called "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" which looks in detail at this particular question and has heaps more really interesting and helpful information.

Contact Bruce direct for more information about this particular subject or for information about his book: bpuddle@ihug.co.nz

Another article - Is Masturbation A Sin?

Masturbation is not a sin. God provided masturbation for man. Physically stimulating one's self to orgasm in privacy is not a sin. God speaks of it in Leviticus 15:16. If you also read verse 18 the message is clear. God is speaking of two ways to have an orgasm: alone or with a woman. He compares them on an equal with each other. There is no sin offering specified for either one.

God connected uncleanness (social quarantine) with both ways of having an orgasm. This was not a punishment, but a way to encourage his people to do it at the right time of day. If it were done at the end of the day, followed with a bath, just before sunset, His people would gain the greatest benefit from the release of endorphins to promote better sleep and the uncleanness would be virtually null. By this timing method, God is allowing a person to have an orgasm as much as once a day without suffering any significant uncleanness. It also discourages a person from neglecting his sexual feelings until he has a wet dream that would make him unclean and quarantined for the whole next day. Paul supports the principle of frequent sexual attentions in 1 Cor. 7:5.

There is a concern though, in the New Testament Jesus warns about what is going on in the imagination. He stated that lusting for a woman in one's mind is adultery. So, thankfully enjoy the great sensations that God created into your sexual organs for you to delight in and let those great feelings bring you up to orgasm without imagining any forbidden relationships.

The idea is not to hurry things. Remember that God is the Creator of your sexual organs. He is the Great Physician. He can help you discover your body. That is why He turned on your hormones long before you are old enough to get married and have children. He would not have designed your body to start producing the hormones that create sexual desire so long before you should marry if He had intended sex to be for procreation only. He turned on your hormones early because He has provided a way for you to take care of them and intended for you to do so. In doing so, He also intends for you to discover how your body works and what will bring you the most pleasure. Your future wife should be doing the same thing, so when you are married, you can show each other the things that will bring you both the greatest delights. Proverbs 5:15-20 metaphorically tells us to satisfy our thirst for sex from our own fountain, not to do it with anyone else; then, when we marry, we may enjoy it to the fullest with our wife.

Remember, Satan can cause you to feel guilty. The Bible says he is the accuser of mankind. Wouldn't he want to make you feel guilty about masturbating so you would avoid it and have no escape from his temptations when your hormones built up? You bet! So, now you can send the Devil and his false guilt on his way with the assurance that God's Word has clearly provided for you to masturbate. This is what 1 Cor. 10:13 is speaking of, because without the provision of masturbation, man's hormones could drive him beyond his ability to resist the real temptation to commit sexual sin upon another person.

Contributed by Roy Dalby, USA

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How Masturbation Came to be Known as a Sin

The answer is scary!

Further Information

Another article - Is Masturbation A Sin?

Bartky, Sandra Lee
Bass, Ellen
Bohn, Carol R.
Bordo, Susan
Brownmiller, Susan
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs
C,D

Caplan, Paula J.
Caputi, Jane
Chesler, Phyllis
Daly, Mary
De Beauvoir, Simone
Dworkin, Andrea