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To the writer, Steve, and to Dan Lynch for the awsome statement that was quoted by Steve! The truely sad part about the situation is that the power hungry women that are being manipulated do not realize that they are selling themselves out, as is usually the case until it is to late. Another day in the life of the walking wounded, struggling to persevere.
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This article is illuminating and give us women the benefit of the doubt, allowing us the "out" of having been misinformed. Let's take it. Let's get properly informed and accept the benefits Steve offers-equal rights for both women and men. "Vagina Friendly" frat houses on college campuses!" C'mon, ladies, if we can't do better than that, maybe we should take a break!
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"Vagina Friendly" frat houses on college campuses!"
I would imagine that all frat houses are 'vagina friendly'.
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This article is illuminating and give us women the benefit of the doubt, allowing us the "out" of having been misinformed. Let's take it.
You rightfully have the "out" of being misinformed, gracepaz. Your generation, if you are of college age or younger, has an unusual opportunity. Each generation seems to have an inclination to tell their parents generation how wrong they were, and how the younger generation is going to correct the mistakes of that parent generation.
Your parents' generation has led you down the primrose path. Do educate yourselves. Find out the truth. Reject the lies of feminism. And clean up the mess, feminism, that's been bequeathed to you by your parents' generation.
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(With Permission by the Author)
V-Day ignores men-as-abusers stereotype
By: Steve Krakauer
02/13/03
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Feb. 14 means love, courtship, flowers and chocolates — but don't get used to it. Enter V-Day, and not the Hallmark holiday.
V-Day "is a global movement to end violence against women and girls," said V-Day Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields. The "V" stands for vagina, victory and, somewhat overshadowed, valentine.
But the "V" ignores vindication of the men-as-abusers stereotype.
At Syracuse University and more than 600 universities in the United States, V-Day contaminates the February romance-holiday with a vengeance against males, fighting viciously with weapons of misconception and propaganda.
Cruelty toward women warrants attention on an international level, as women around the world face hardships not seen since the U.S. women's rights movement in the mid-1800s.
Today, women cannot vote in Kuwait. They cannot drive cars in Saudi Arabia. Our world may be assimilating to Americana but not without abandoning its chauvinistic culture.
The discrepancy comes when looking at the harm toward women within our national borders. Women, of course, fall victim to violent crimes at an alarming rate. But through female empowerment, which is the ultimate goal of V-Day, truth is compromised.
A favorite piece of V-Day artillery is the use of statistics — publicizing misleading data easily available through malleable reports.
For example, a popular V-Day figure is "every 15 seconds in America a woman is being battered, usually by an intimate partner." The statistic originates from a National Family Violence Survey conducted by Richard Gelles, Murray Straus and Susan Steinmetz.
Straus himself admits, "Family conflict studies, without exception, show about equal rates of assault by men and women." Thus, every 15 seconds in America a woman — and a man — is being battered.
Glenn Sacks, a former feminist who has appeared on CNN, Fox News and in major newspapers, often defends males, especially in instances of misleading statistics.
"College males have to deal with defamation and can't defend themselves," said Sacks. "They don't know it's false and have no outlet to speak out against it."
Some might say the "15-second" stat is truthful, although not entirely reflective of reality. But consider if an event were held to combat carjacking in America.
To demonstrate carjacking as an epidemic, organizers post facts like "58 percent of all carjackers are black."
This fact is true and backed by the U.S. Department of Justice. But it doesn't take into account where carjackings occur, such as in a predominantly black neighborhood. It disregards vehicle type and the criminal's age and ignores the societal fact that police target blacks.
Is the statistic saying a black man is more likely to hijack your car than a white man? Should we be more cautious of blacks eyeing our vehicle in the grocery store parking lot?
Obviously not, and the implication is ludicrous — just like the statistics furthering the stereotype of female victimization and male dominance.
Rape is an immensely serious issue. Victims should have every forum to express anger and violators should be prosecuted. But the fact remains: Most men are not abusers. V-Day's propaganda incriminates all men.
Kate Kennedy, campus projects director for the alternative-feminist Independent Women's Forum, agrees.
"We want to prevent the portrayal of a white male patriarchal society," Kennedy said. "What V-Day does is put on a pedestal women victimization."
Kennedy's organization runs SheThinks.org, which developed an advertisement exposing the other major problem with V-Day: its essential theft of the value of Valentine's Day.
The evolution from viewing Feb. 14 as a day of positivity in relationships to their destructive aspects furthers the fabrication of male-supremacy in America. Valentine's Day becomes soiled with negativity as if Cupid's arrow provides more harm than good.
Sacks does not see how holding V-Day on any other date solves the problem either. "Campus feminists lie about men 365 days a year, so the fact that it's on Valentine's Day doesn't bother me," he said.
Dan Lynch, a board administrator for the Men's Activism News Network, opposes V-Day as well.
"The fear mongering propaganda leaves women vulnerable and divided from men," he said. "It serves one purpose and that is to indoctrinate women for political purposes."
At SU, V-Day events do not alienate men as much as Lynch notes in the national arena. "Vagina decorating" and literature tables in Schine Student Center have no ill-meaning. The performance of "The Vagina Monologues," a staple of V-Day nationwide, is artistic expression.
Still, many other areas further the men-as-abusers stereotype. A flier put out by the SU R.A.P.E. Center lists criteria a man can conform to in order to combat dating violence.
The flier makes such asinine suggestions as "If you are emotionally ... or sexually abusive to women ... seek professional help NOW" and "Mentor and teach boys about how to be men in ways that don't involve degrading or abusing girls and women."
V-Day organizers also asked fraternities to sign "Rape-Free Zone Declarations," naming the greek houses as vagina-friendly and posting their avowal, as if signing a piece of paper somehow ended their previously untamed aggression towards women.
The biggest disappointment with V-Day is that, for now, it's the most popular outlet for revealing injustices needing exposure.
Globally, bias against women runs rampant and worthy of uproar. Nationally, education about rape and dating violence is necessary to solving the problem holistically.
But V-Day is an ultimately misguided attempt at remedying those issues. A sign in Schine reads, "When violence stops, women and girls will be ... running the world."
For V-Day ever to succeed, the sign should instead read, "When violence stops, women and girls will live in complete equality with men and boys."
Steve Krakauer is a freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. E-mail him at sakrakau@syr.edu.
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Story Source: The Daily Orange
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V-Day was really special in our town this year: The Vagina Monologues ("At first, women were reluctant to talk..." Since when? "But once they got going, you couldn't stop them..." Must be kidding.) was put on in the newly-renovated largest theater in town, and the Big Bazooka herself, playwright Eve Ensler, came to town to promote it. Much fuss was made, including a big cover story in the local femmunist weekly. I paid as little attention as possible to the event (I assume the play was a sell-out in this heavily feminist town: a parking lot full of SUVs), but just happened to hear on the radio this morning that Ms. Ensler made her personal presentation at Temple Beth Shalom (beth shalom = "house of peace"), the local HQ of the Infant Male Circumcision Cult. Why am I not surprised? Sometimes it's almost uncanny how everything fits together when you pay a little attention.
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"... Temple Beth Shalom (beth shalom = "house of peace"), the local HQ of the Infant Male Circumcision Cult."
I find this a very ugly remark. Philalethes, I share your opposition to infant circumcision (though, rightly or wrongly, not your passion), but this nasty characterization of Judaism does not advance either the objectives of this discussion board, or the cause of truth or justice in general. If you believe the Jews are wrong in this practice, it's your privlege to say so, but this kind of statement isn't going to get us anywhere.
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Well, sometimes the truth is ugly, and pretending it is not only perpetuates the Lie. This "characterization" is simply based on the demonstrated priorities of the Jews themselves. To clarify: by "the Jews" I mean generally those people who so identify themselves--including the many different groups who follow many different versions of their traditional religion/culture. (I remember once hearing a Jewish joke--i.e. told by Jews themselves--"Get two Jews together and you'll have three opinions.") They range from the "ultra-Orthodox" such as the Hassidim commonly seen in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, who follow all the traditional commandments and many more of their own besides, to the "ultra-liberal" secular Jews who practice none of the traditional religion. Except one thing: outside of a tiny handful, all Jews are agreed in their fanatic attachment to the infant male circumcision ritual. They may eat pork and shellfish, shave their beards, "round the corners of their heads," work on the Sabbath, even ordain female "rabbis"--or no rabbis at all--but circumcision is the one thing they won't give up. Why? Of the 613 (I believe it is) commandments the Jews were at one time or another directed to live by, why is this single, barbaric practice the sine qua non?
Since it seems clear that, despite their endless differences on every other issue, more Jews are agreed on this point than on any other, it makes sense to me to "characterize" what they have in common thereby. It's their call, and they've made it; I'm only an observer. And I find it interesting that in this they have so much in common with the feminist movement--which is largely run by Jewish women. I'd be only too happy to see both groups renounce this atavistic cruelty. Why don't they? Why is it so important to them? Why are such questions forbidden to be asked?
A good deal of the task we face, I believe, is to look at how our own thinking and behavior have been programmed. For instance, we've all been programmed to believe that women are incapable of doing harm--which is why, as has been noted many times with outrage in these forums--they so often get away with murder. That's the payoff of being a "victim"--and these days that status is being milked for all it's worth by anyone who can make a claim to it. So have we all been programmed not to question anything done by the Jews, who now seem to have a lock on victimhood--with all its privileges--second only (if at all) to that enjoyed by the female of the species. The truth is, we don't do anyone a favor by excusing their behavior--because ultimately there is no "getting away" with anything, and anyone who thinks e is doing so is simply piling up a lot of pain for emself.
"...isn't going to get us anywhere." Well, where do you want to go? Since when did being "nice" get anybody anywhere regarding such issues? If you help the pretenders maintain their pretense, what reason will they have to give it up?
If your first priority is to be liked, then better not say anything that might "offend" anyone. Better yet, if you're a white anglo male, just go ahead and commit suicide, since your very existence is considered an offense in the current climate of opinion. If, on the other hand, your first priority is the truth, you're going to find, sooner than later, that someone will take offense. Sorry, that's just how it is. Your call.
"God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please; you can never have both." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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