rich white men on TV ..

Caused by outrrage at Jimmy Carr (but I have always disliked him for his slimy misogyny) and Francis Boulle from Made In chelsea tweeting about how the rich should pay less tax. for reals.

I have saved this picture as "rage", lolz 

So I think I have paraphrased their world view. This is applicable to Boris Joshnon, Jimmy Carr, the Cast of Made In Chelsea, Lucas and Walliams, and many other members of the privileged minority, but lets be honest, I did make the specifics up:

"Ha ha ha I can laugh at the world because I am RICH and therefore given an amazing education which has nurtured my ego and ability to believe in myself and also make insightful and well timed comments about other people. 

This ability to be so harharhar FUNNY has been funded by fucking exploitation because of grandaddys diamond mines or whatever built up the fortune and funded an education at Eton and then oh look I was talented enough to get into oxford AND Cambridge but I could only pick one because it has to be fair for the state school kids.. Now as an adult I am all set, through my **natural sense of humour** and brilliant ability to court the press/ throw money at marketing teams so they let me on TV, and I can go on to exploit and take the piss out of women, working class people, fat women and ethnic minorities.. 

Oh look I have a gazillion twitter followers who are all listening to what I say and internalizing it and anyone who disagrees should just stop ruining the "funniness" and appreciate that its “jokes man”, oh look, Boris is so funny so people vote for him. Because guess what, people like to be entertained, they like a politician with a silly voice and silly hair.. cuts?  lets watch some Made In Chelsea because it distracts us from the fact that THEIR LIVES ARE SHIT COMPARED TO THE GLITZY PEOPLE ON TV BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MONEY AND NO JOBS AND SHIT HEALTHCARE BECAUSE PEOPLE LIKE JIMMY CARR WONT PAY TAX AND HAVE THE NERVE TO SUGGEST IT SHOULD BE LOWERED

(francis Boulle): "har har har NHS? what NHS, the government doesn't need my money har har har"

The End. 

That is all for the moment  x 

books made feminism so interesting

and the internet makes it boring? Like with everything else.

 Maybe because the debates on political lesbianism/ third wave have been so fragmented by the 2012s, and its difficult to wade through the many opinions and blogs without getting a headache. I just think FUCK WHO YOU WANT GET OVER IT WHY IS LIBERATION SOMETHING WE HAVE TO ARGUE SO MUCH ABOUT. In terms of real revolutionary politics like socialist things, I do think factions are a necessary evil. ( #committedtrostkyist ) But sometimes people need to realise there is more of a world outside their vaginas and their sex life, and while I completely oppose transphobia, homophobia and sexism, you can't tell people who they should be sleeping with. Not because its *wrong* morally, but because they aren't going to listen and you would wind up going from a similar, feminist-ish perspective to like hating eachother, visciously, over the small things.

 I have a tumblr and go on it every few days and repost kl feminist things I see, but I just think people need to connect back with **real life** a bit more. Like whats the point of posting nice pictures about strong women if you are too busy sitting inside to actually go on a demonstration or a gig or see some friends. I get that people IRL can be annoying and followers on a social network can be a source of self esteem but INTERNET< REAL LIFE. And there is no point saying "I am a kl hairy feminist and anti racist" if like you don't go out into the world and set a real example. Its better to  bring up these issues when they are awkward and difficult to say in a social setting, rather than  making a meme or a GIF which you know will be safely accepted by a bunch of like minded internet m8z.

 I am aware there were similar feminist arguments in the 1970s or whatever, but I am going to start reading more books and less tumblr and twitter! I feel like a luddite saying this but having an attention span  is something underestimated and I have to.. grow mine back, because the internet killed it!

"Twitter hate"

OKay I seem to have created a backlash of rightwing hate via twitter by saying Eurosceptic MP Douglas Carswell is a reincarnation of the British Fascist Oswald Mosley. Lolz.
In a style not dissimilar to the wicked witch of the west's flying monkeys, a number of random supporters of said MP and general unimaginative people hastily jumped on the opportunity to kindly explain to me how much a eurosceptic MP is not a fascist.. well THANKS GUYS. Thanks 4 educating me... No !

A rifle and Union jacks that wouldnt look out of place at a BUF rally.. and they are trying to say a politician they care enough about to defend is not a "fascist".

I am aware of the difference between Mosley's fascism and being a loud Eurosceptic. I wrote my summer project on Mosley, and doing an A level in European politics and while ya'll might go "but we have degrees and jobs", I will not let that undermine me.
 Mosley proposed a ton of corporatist measures that would probably sicken the Free-Trade- loving Carswell, as well as state benefits (for the British only obvs) that I am sure Carswell thinks is a waste of time.
But while the specifics of right-wing diatribe may have evolved, I cant resist poking fun at arrogant politicians, who stick their neck up in politics by saying ridiculous things like the EU is a "corpse" and also mention  a bunch of times how Great they think Britain is. I know Mosley was in Labour (after being the Tories MP for Harrow) but there are similarities, and it is more of a sign of the Labour party's low standards rather than Carswell's not-being-like-a fascist. Maybe the fact all these far right groupies were so eager to correct me on the specific differences because so much  else is essentially very the same?

Seriously, who else can imagine the scenario, if David Cameron ever stops being so sickeningly accommodating to the far right in parliament, Mr Carswell getting angry, quitting Mosley style and joining UKIP, donning a silly costume and making more speeches about the greatness of Britain? Just me? Hopefully not, once the recession is over, and Europe is a non-issue again, Carswell will just fade back into obscurity. But I cannot resist.. The right wing is becoming too much of a political norm these days and whether they are fascists or have stopped admitting it and now call themselves "eurosceptics", I think it is appropriate and not "twitter bullying" to point it out.

 I did not imagine Mr Carswell retweeing and calling me a Troll, calling on all these losers to call me "stupid" and a "loony" but maybe I struck a nerve with this?

I think when "lefty" has become an insult we need to re-evaluate the direction british political debate is going, and I think the backlash is a lot more "twitter intimidation" encouraged by an elected official against a citizen (thats me). And the responses do not really help the whole "we arent fascists" cause. Just saying. (see the pic).

So shoot me. (not literally, plz..  )



P.S I am not guilty of "trolling" because it is more a political comment about how I think the right wing is reincarnating itself. And maybe I shouldnt have @ed Mr Carswell Himself but hey, Live n Learn #yolo..  People calling me a troll, and getting self righteous, Lousie Mensch style, is not appreciated because I hate twitter bullies too! I think Mensch's case against internet trolls is really good, because death threats misogyny and racism on the internet are awful! As much as it pains me to say that, I have to rate her as a feminist, even if I criticize her hugely as a conservative..  The real trolls are the nice Tory ones who have been tweeting at me for the last hour?

So Carswel, stop trying to steal Mensch's thunder! That is not cool, she had a valid point about misogyny and you cant just pretend its the same thing.

Political correctness has not gone mad

..people have just forgot that it is not okay to be offensive.

I am sick of the conservative, common sense, populist, chauvinistic attitude that is subtly seeping its way into the psyche of.. people. Anyone who reads the Daily Mail in a non critical way. I could talk about this all day, but political correctness has not gone mad, people have just got more racist. Anyone can be racist and because the media is not politically correct enough, a lot of things we think are okay are actually racist, so everyone needs to be aware of racist issues and be like extra sensitive. And sensitivity is not the problem, because if you start to say that the problem is political correctness, then racism becomes relatively more okay. It starts subtle, with fried chicken jokes and skin lightening treament aimed at women of colour, then gets worse and then you have lePen and UKIP gaining ground, then before you know it the KKK is back and the world problems can be blamed on Jews, and its okay because we never thought we were being racist to begin with.

You always see the press warn against the horrors of the Nazis or the KKK. But I found coverage of the Norway massacre last year and the Polish Neo-Nazis on panorama uncomfortable. They can't really keep the moral highground on that, because while in theory they aren't racist any more, the reports on immigration keep coming and Jeremy Clarkson is still on TV and they would complain about political correctness with more passion than they care about Stephen Lawrence or Trayvon Martin. breivik got his ideas from the Daily mail. The police are still much harsher on anarchists or socialists or anti fascists or whatever than they will ever be on the EDL and thats the way it has always been. Racism is a slippery slope and as a country (ew I hate saying that) "we" are not immune to it.

And racism must be overcome if we are going to succeed with this whole "stop capitalism" thing (lol) because the workers should unite and also racism in itself is bad.. but on its own being anti racism and politically correct can coexist with capitalism, they could get people of colour into powerful places (Obama) and commodify anything.
 For this reason I don't think being anti racist is a political position that comes above socialist politics. Its more of a super necessary society thing, but lets not get sectarian about it.

So I am jumping through a lot of issues together here, probably all need their own coherent attention: Nazis, Rise of the far right, sexism/racism in products aimed at ethnic minority women, fried chicken jokes, reverse racism and generalising black/ white people, media racism.
 but I just wanted to write this little paragraph because its procrastination before exams Important for me to share ma feelingz. 

picz from recently

Hugh and Julia, flowers, moi, utilising my digicam SLR skillz

I am so sick of the Queen

Thanks, Jubilee weekend. Usually, I don't mind the Queen, but this weekend has been OTT.  Every Union Jack I see, I now experience the urge to tear it down (gonna resist that urge as they are adorning my next- door neighbours garden and that wouldn't be very neighborly of me).

I take no sides in the politically obsolete, pseudo-debate between "monarchists" or "republicans" because the Monarchy is such a non issue. It is a waste of energy to moan about how un democratic and rich the Queen is. Of course she is undemocratic and stupidly wealthy but so are a lot of people, and they are far more dangerous  because they aren't a well publicized and scrutinized tourist attraction. The Monarchy isn't really political because, the Queen has no power. IF it was Elizabeth the 1st, things would be different.

Testiment to how much of a non- issue the Monarchy is, they even allowed a demonstration to happen. Given the recent police state crackdown on actual protests, it shows how little political significance being a "republican" is. This is not the USA, republicans are not an actual thing here.

Your wasting your time, guys

HOWEVER: I am critical of the queen. With all the press coverage of the non-news that was some boats floating down the Thames (in a situation where, judging by BBC coverage, everyone involved looked bored), one thing came to my attention: The Queen has never given an interview. That is a PR masterstroke, because it means she is never hated for her opinions. We don't even know them! She could be a racist bigot for all we know. Instead we project out views of what we think the Queen is like, then criticize or defend her based on these unfounded assumptions. She might as well be a cardboard cut-out, or a hologram, Like Helen of Troy at the end of Dr Faustus. Why can't we  value women who actually speak? Why do we love one who doesn't?

I may have said I think those demonstators are wasting their time, but I think it would have been a funner crowd to stand in than a street party or be next to the Thames. At least there were no Union Jacks. I thought the patriotic overkill was sickening,  I could have been living in North Korea or Nazi Germany with all those ubiquitous ugly flags making innanimate objects look "racist".  I don't want patriotic people to jump on that and say " IM NOT RACIST 2 LUV MA COUNTRY", I associate patriotism, nationalism with racism because I think its a slippery slope, one leads to another. I know they are different things. But I can't help it, the Union Jack looks racist!! It just does! It was the symbol that people in India and Australia came to associate with so much oppression. And I heard the words to "rule britannia".. that song is not okay?!? Rule the waves? I am embarrassed to call myself British over that stuff!

This cake looks sinister. 

In conclusion: I don't hate the queen but I hate the patriotic celebrations and I wish every old lady had as much money and love as Elizabeth gets <3

Syria

They keep showing a photo of dead children in Syria and it is really upsetting. I have said this before, I don't think its okay to show dead people or people dying on the TV,  its just not dignified whether they are Gaddafi, the Ceaucescu's, or innocent Syrian babies.

Also, I think the news is very selective about what they show, and its like the tell us about atrocities when they want to. So I feel like my human emotion and genuine concern is being manipulated by the press people, i am sure every conflict has produced gruesome images but they are showing us this one, now. In this case we are being led to believe it was the work of Assad but its like If I was the western media and told to garner support for a potential future NATO war against Syria, how would I do that? ..

In regards to the Houla massacre (and this is just my western, news-watching, not really involved opinion) it seems as if the Free Syrian Army would have more reason for doing this than Assad, because it sabotages the UN peace plan and paves the way for a war, which would depose Assad, get Nato involved on their side, and one of those fuckers can take his job and potentially be just as awful. For a blueprint plan see Libya.

If you agree, read what these guys say about Syria, it is quite good in a sort of exposing-western-imperialism way.

The sometimes-not-okay side to Slutever

Okay so I have posted on here about how i think the sex blogger Slutever is really great, and empowering in how she talks about sex and is so honest and brave and cool.And for the most part i stand by my comment that she is awesome. But this recent Q&A she did for I dont like mondays made me think ".. really?" (imagine an unimpressed face).

Basically  some guy wrote in about how his 17 year old cousin who was in his words "insanely hot" and he had been "fantasizing about for years" gave him  a BJ then freaked out about it afterwards, and feels like she was raped by him. Karley then replies with a comment about how underage girls can be "selfish little cunts when they pull the statutory rape card". Which I just don't think is appropriate.

Firstly one of the reasons why I like Slutever is how much she empowers women with their sexuality, by setting an example of how she completely owns hers, but this comment completely goes against that. It seems like the girl was subject to the male gaze, having been objectified by her cousin who had been perving on her for years, as she is 17 and he is 23.. now he coulda been aged 20 perving on a 14 year old? Is that really okay?

 I know that older men can manipulate girls into thinking it is consensual (through the awful authority that patriarchy gives them in these situations). I say this from experience (generalization alert) but if the girl who was in a safe family environment, alcohol was around did something she later regretted which her older male cousin wanted her to do, it does seem a bit like she was pressured or coerced into it.  I don't think she is a "selfish cunt" for feeling regretful and violated. And I think Karley is wrong to call her that. Victim-blaming alert!

Secondly, the account written by the man could have manipulated the details, it is he who wrote in. To be fair to Karley, she does say "If things went down as you said they did then you are not a rapist" , which is good because it hints that his status of "not-being-a-rapist" depends on how honest he is being and is not a given. And this whole letter could be trying to reason with himself. But maybe Slutever could have made that part clearer, to show sympathy with the potential victim?

Now this is one of those awkward, not clear cut situations, and I appreciate it is difficult one, but I was just a bit dismayed about how much of a feminist Karley Sciortino isn't. A similar thing happened on her blog a while ago when some girl wrote in about being sexually harassed by men in the street, and Karley said something like 'enjoy it, older men are hot'. But she later apologised like a babe and was humble about it.

So this post is not intended to be attacking, just constructive criticism because I think sometimes Karley assumes that all women are strong and empowered like she is, and therefore able to enjoy weird perverted sex. And I would like it if all women were so empowered, but patriarchy still exists and loads of women are struggling to fight it, and comments such as this from Slutever (who I am sure girls look up to and idolise) can do more harm than good, because it turns into victim blaming and being okay with potentially shitty men.

Everyone should do prison Norway style

After reading this on the guardian, I really truly think that prisons everywhere should be like they do in Norway.

To summaries; expensive prisons with decent facilities and a big focus on rehabilitation and maintaining normality have almost no internal prisoner violence or drug use. Can you imagine?

  I know there will be lots of Daily Mail style outrage, prison-should-be-a-punishment-not-a-holiday type sentiment, but prisons that treat inmates like shit create shittier inmates who get released back into society. Despite the reactionary urge to call for "PUNISHMENT AND REVENGE", it is an approach which leads to much more crime as offenders get exposed to gangs drugs and violence in prison.  I read that after the August riots, the prison population grew and new gangs were formed in prison. How is that going to solve any problems once those kids get released ? More gangs?? Thanks David Cameron!! taking a "tough stance" really pays off..

I think the guardian article focuses a little bit too much on the 'luxury' experience, but it seemed to me just basic decent living standards in a developed country (should be that way everywhere). I can truly understand if working class people read that and say 'I don't have all that stuff at home, why should the criminals?' but obvs as a socialist I don't think that anyone should be materially deprived whether they are in a prison or not! And opposing restorative justice like this is not going to make life any better for the working class in the long run, because they have to deal with the higher crime rates that come from fucked up prisoners being re released into the long run, and quite frankly I would like to see rates of mugging, violent crime and rape go down not go up.

Rich people can afford to live in the nicer areas so they don't really mind if crime happens a lot in the poor parts, because they would rather have lower taxes than pay for prison to be reformed. Just another injustice that happens in capitalism, but the point about taxes is that UK style prisons are still currently super expensive (I think its around £50,000 per year per prisoner). The difference is that the same money gets wasted in the negative abyss of crime, and eaten up in the profit margins of private security companies like G4S and Serco. In the long run, less re-offending would mean less prisoners and less paying for their upkeep. But G4S wouldn't be happy?? 

Norway style prison is still a punishment, for murderers and rapists they still lose their freedom. But after they leave they would have had a lot of counselling and therapy and are like a billion times less likely to reoffend (slight exaggeration on the numbers). But isn't that a good thing? 

Loretta Lynn!

I don't know why I am so obsessed with Loretta, I just really like her songs and the way she sings them. It really annoys me in the videos of her singing like at the Opry or whatever, when the men are patronising. I know she is no feminist, despite being a strong woman and singing about the pill ( <3!!!! ).. she also sings about how other women are 'trash' and belong in the garbage can.. which isn't so great.

But like in one video of her singing You Aint Woman Enough (I think), you can actually hear Conway Twitty or whoever saying "I hope Loretta doesn't mess up the words again", and then they laugh at her when she does, but she is such a great singer I think she deserves more respect than that! And I love her Kentucky accent <3

I heard somewhere in my country music obsession (I think it was a Tammy Wynette documentary) that they used to put on girl singers like as a trivial novelty, and that angers me, because the women of country music are so great! 

Best news ever ever

I stole the pic from Zooey Deschanel's twitter, but LOOK!!! Loretta Lynn!!!!! Zooey Deschanel!!! Together!!!!!

So there is going to be a musical of Coal Miners Daughter! With Zooey! As Loretta! I am so excited! If I was one of those people who had creepy, all-my-favourite-things  dreams, this would so be one of them.  Instead I have normal person, weird dreams about cats and holidays and stuff. But still, #dreamcometrue

Also, I am so sad because WHY DIDN'T LORETTA PICK ME!!!!!! This is worse than when they picked Emma Watson to be Hermione. You know those roles you are born to play, even though you aren't an actress/ singer/ from Kentucky? Sometimes I wake up and think, "why am i not Loretta Lynn." Now I am super jealous because Zooey Deschanel gets to be her instead!!! And she is quite great too.

But excited! They might include more songs! #YAY

Karl Marx's Ghost of Christmas Future..

I am watching via iPlayer a documentary that is Michael Portillo going around Greece and talking to people. And looking at Greece today I am thinking this is the type of futuristic hellish capitalism that Karl Marx hoped his work would help avoid, but sorry Mr M. We are trying. the workers are just really really desperate, and its like hello, capitalism requires austerity whether its via the IMF and Eurozone or a nationalist government. Wouldn't it be a good time to socialise those property relations??

The footage of foodbanks and homeless people makes me cry. It just upsets me to see migrant workers, children, the elderly, every worker forced into poverty and degradation, and I won't pretend that it doesn't.

  I have less sympathy for the civil servant who went from doing business with "ambitious European projects.." to, in Portillo's words "managing poverty". I think that is such a cold way to phrase it, I am imaging these politicians talking about how to "manage" the poverty, with sterile anti bacterial handgloves, using such removed and cold terms such as manage to talk about human suffering. The same suffering which by being part of the political capitalist establishment, their jobs and actions have perpetuated.

Although Portillo is keen to push his Eurosceptic agenda on the Greek people he talks to, this is just as backward as a return to the drachma would be for them (as they tell him repeatedly).  The Drachma reminds Greek people of all those fun dictatorships they lived under, but somehow people still chose the Euro. I wonder why?

The problem with Greek capitalism is that the rich didn't pay tax. They had a government who would accommodate this, and also pay out for welfare, eventually to their own debt-ridden detriment. Yacht owners had a loophole, new buildings had a loophole, and no one minded. That is the only generalization I will accept about "the lazy greeks", they have a very lazy bourgeoisie & politicians who couldn't control them but, guess what, every country has one of those! It isn't just a Greek thing!

But, owing to a weak economy based on tourism and olive oil, Greek capitalism is looking quite unstable.. and the bourgeoisie aren't as lazy any more. They are quite frantically working with the IMF and the ECB, stamping down the living standards of working people in a hope to protect their profits..

Paying for welfare is not a problem, but accommodating capitalism is. What seems mad to be about the greek crisis, is it is not as if there is less of anything, they have enough people & resources to sustain themselves, but cuts and the recession are forcing so many people into poverty, and its like WHY IS THE ECONOMY CONTROLLING PEOPLE! DIDN'T WE INVENT IT ??

In short, looking at Greece, socialism is the only way forward, unless you like poverty, austerity and military dictatorships.. People can waste a lot of time debating whether they would prefer a national dictatorship or a European one, but I would vote for neither.

New fave blog distraction

SO it is revision season, and that means spending a lot of time on the computer, trying to saturate my brain with information and remember it all in time for the exams.. So I spend a lot more time than I usually would looking at internet things. My current obsession is Slutever and more recently, Sugartits . Both are mainly about sex, but I think hey, I am learning enough **serious** stuff with my A level revision, so theres nothing wrong with the 2012 equivalent of the sex problems page of womens magazines (but a lot better. that makes it sound rubbish)

Slutever I sort of idolised a few years ago, when I discovered her blog I was like WOW SHE IS SO COOL SHE MAKES SEX AND DRUGS SOUND SO COOL I WANNA BE COOL TOO...... And yeah, she is still cool and great, her writing is very good at making awkward or weird situations in life just sound jokes. Which I think is inspirational if you can take Karley's approach and see life as a big adventure and just have fun with it, you can't go wrong. #yolo
The best thing I read recently is that after facebook-stalking a boy she liked, put on a charity shop wedding dress and went and sat outside his house with a sign saying "I get myself off thinking about you" and waited for hours until he came home. And they are still together.. aww.
Now I want to idolize her again because that is SO FUCKING COOL

And I think Sugartits is so gr8 because she seems like a really empowered woman, gives out really spot on advice and is also a stripper. The advice she gives out is so great, she is a big fan of Making the First Move, loving and accepting yourself, and being okay without a dependent man.

I am on the fence about the whole feminist debate like "is it okay for women to be strippers and call themselves a feminist".. My Mother would say NO, you have to respect yourself and any woman who dances for men, prostitutes herself or whatever is selling the feminist cause down the river..
But on the other hand, one horrible aspect of patriarchy is that women's sexuality is defined by men, and perhaps these women are trying to change that? Sugartits and Slutever  are both empowered and give the impression that sex is THEIR THING, they want it, they seek it out and they enjoy it. This post especially made me say "I love her what a babe!!!" By discussing it in detail both blogs turn sex into a thing that girls shouldn't be embarrassed about, but feel like they own, and I think that is a very feminist thing indeed. Its sex ed for the 21st century and I think its essential reading.

Still on the fence, but cheering more for the third wave!! Have to go and read more Shulamith to balance it out lol

The Avengers get together and break things

The Avengers.. Defending NYC from carnage?

Today I went to the cinema and watched the new superhero film. here are some thoughts:

1. This is a very efficient film, because now I don't have to bother watching The Hulk, Captain America, Iron man, Iron man 2 or any of those Marvel comic blockbusters, because they are all in it! I feel like i have already seen them! However, as I haven't seen them, I was a little confused, my partial deafness didn't help and some parts of the storyline were a little bit confusing..

2. Mark Ruffalo is such a babe! Aww I have loved him ever since he was in 13 Going On 30, and he makes a very likable Hulk.

3. Putting all those superheros into a room together to fight a new evil did bring about the inevitable clash of masculine egos that you would expect. Made me hate all of them a little bit (apart from Mark Ruffalo and Scarlet Johansson, who was also quite good)

4. It is a good thing Captain America got frozen after world war two, or he would have joined the Republican Party. Instead, he is just slightly confused and adorable. And he loves God. #allamericanhero . The patriotic propaganda of Captain America is so obvious it becomes semi ironic. When he said how he "met a man who tried to control people in Germany once before, we didn't get along too well" I actually LOLed because of the cheesy, American fascination with like the only time they "beat a bad guy", and the awfully reductionist view the media takes on such wars.

The USA have generally tended to support such "bad guys" (Milosevic in the 1980s, the Contras in Nicaragua etc) as long as they line up with the US economic interests.. But hey Claire! Stop ruining Captain America with all your "political correctness" and historical "facts"... jeez.  But on a level I actually think Captain America is such a camp stereotype that it is too obvious to hate on him. Like Loretta Lynn.. he seems like a nice guy..

5. They break soo much stuff. Watching this film I sort of slipped into a slightly comatose state where I watched enemies attack an invisible spaceship, fights would happen, there was be punching and shooting and it just happened in front of me with no need for a coherent story line. The special effects were very shiny..

And on a more serious note, the WSWS reviewed the Captain America film last year, and have also referred to Marvel comics as Super epic Cold-Warriors. They have a lot more clever things to say about it, but I do think at a time when we have a global economic crisis and bourgeois leaders intent on starting imperialist wars in Syria, Iran, Libya etc, such sparkly blockbusters with a vague story and ability to make people feel comatose are intended to do so. They like to get across these ideas of patriotism and heroism. It has been the practice of the USA over the past 60 years or so to make their citizens feel threatened about the invasion of "others", to justify their warmongering as a defense on American Freedom.

And this movie even went as far to justify the use of Nuclear weapons against the attacking Aliens, who were brainwashing people and attempting to "take peoples freedom", teach them that "freedom is not freedom" and other such right wing doublespeak. Free market sort of freedom? that doesn't feel so free to me. And the fact that the invasion was centered on New York city, and contained lots of evocative images of buildings falling down.. just felt a little bit 9/11. I am just saying.  Lets get the Captain Americas organised to fight the attackers? Is that what they want the audience to say?

However on the whole, the film was watchable, if one suspends disbelief (as with a lot of Marvel comics). The last line of the film, the defeated enemy alien attacker says something about how formidable the Humans are, he won't try attacking them again!! It made me cry out (literally) "yaaay, I am a human!!". How nice.

Looking for a mountain

I stole this pic from google maps streetview, but HOW AMAZING they have managed to take a much better photo of the view from the top of Mount Wellington in Hobart than I ever managed to. New favourite thing to do is streetveiw Tasmania and pretend I live there already! It will happen one day, and then I bet I will just sit at home and streetveiw North London and say aww...  But still, Tasmania.. <3

Introducing Hugh

This is Hugh. He is my long haired grey Syrian hamster and he is one of the loveliest Hamsters I have ever had :)

thoughts on the SCUM manifesto and relevance of radical feminism

I like Valerie Solonas because she is really determined and strong and angry, and one really gets the impression when reading the SCUM Manifesto that she would not mute her angry passion, no matter how much society judges it to be ugly or intimidating or childish. She rejected every expectation of femininity, and wrote really actually radical statements. There is a really personal, striking element to radical feminist literature like this, which i think reaches out to women. It screams FUCK YOU AND LISTEN TO ME, I WILL NOT BE QUIET OR WAIT MY TURN OR PLAY BY YOUR RULES! I am sure lots of women have felt this way, I know I have.

"middle-class ladies with a high regard for the touching faith in the essential goodness of Daddy and policemen. If SCUM ever marches, it will be over the President's stupid, sickening face"

I can relate. Many presidents have had "stupid sickening faces", politicians are professional liars and as a man of great authority he has many tools in his metaphorical gun-holster to patronize and undermine women. (They have misogynist comments, innapropriate sexual advances, female stereotypes, scrutinising our appearance.. and even the nicest man is given these tools whether they use them or not). Solonas identifies a lot of truth with this bizarre call to arms, her childish rage is not to be dismissed as incoherent but as honest.This radical feminism is about complete and total rejection of male authority, and Solonas powerfully reprimands the well behaved suffragette for stopping way short of true liberation. I think it reaches the psychological core of inequality, and calls for a passionate uprising not a polite reform. Well done.

A lot of people take the extreme bits, read: she hates men, she wants to kill half the population, how silly, that must be rubbish, what a nutter. If you quibble over generalizations you risk missing the point. The SCUM Manifesto is about how much patriarchy kills distorts and subordinates women, mankind have changed female nature into something that exists to compliment men. And she is simply turning it back on itself and imagines the worst excesses of a gender based war. Solonas herself said in 1977 it is a "literary device". Essays that are this extreme are needed to drill home the message to uncertain feminists and are a rallying cry for women who have been beaten, raped, objectified and fucked over: literally or otherwise. In our minds, we all have our inner SCUM, and that source of anger and complete, level headed man hating energy can be a source of strength. Filmmaker Mary Harron recalled how reading the SCUM Manifesto helped her "reach a core of anger she never knew she possessed" [1]. This angry core exists but is difficult to put into words, however I think Solonas' attempt to do so is pretty accurate.

"What will liberate women, therefore, from male control is the total elimination of the money-work system, not the attainment of economic equality with men within it" [2]

I really like it when radical feminists talk about some sort of economic revolution. What Solonas calls the money system is what Marxists call capitalism? Maybe the problem is property and ownership not currency, but as the theory goes in its most simply form, we are an unfree society and it doesn't have to be this way. The Marxism vs feminism debate both intrigues and annoys me, because I can see both sides and don't want to pick one. Radical Feminist women want their freedom from men NOW and don't want to be put in a hierarchy where men talk over them and give orders, no matter what the revolutionary goal. Consequently, the Marxists see this as divisive of the working class, as if gender is creating a false dividing line when we should all be concerned with class based politics. But that is a whole separate issue. I am so far undecided and have a lot more reading before I take a side, but these differences I want to see debated! And Inspirational women like Alexandra Kollontai managed to walk a line between the two, so there is hope. Well there was in 1917. The advent of neoliberalism is putting global changes into overdrive, things aren't looking too good for the working class,women or the entire human race in 2012- if we like having things like healthcare, having enough food and having a stable environment we need to get our shit together! And these big revolutionary questions shouldn't be vanquished to the past. It really makes me angry when people talk of the left as being "political dinosaurs". What sort of agenda dismisses these ideas just because they aren't discussed by the mainstream, although they seem like common sense to me?

I get disappointed and bored when all the current debate in the news is "should we introduce boardroom quotas?" (like last months appalling ten o clock live effort). Yes, I am sure that high profile corporations are horrible patriarchal places and must be frustrating for the women who work in them.. but getting more Christine LaGardes and Margaret Thatchers hasn't really solved anything, these are unfree women who have to play a mans game in a mans world. Though they have these jobs the organisations they represent like the IMF and the British government has inflicted extra economic suffering upon millions of less fortunate women. Christine LaGarde or Angela Merkel is not the friend of Greek working class women right now.. I just think today's arguments about women and feminism have become totally bourgeois and individualistic, they either relate to women who, the radical feminists predicted would be completely unfree, equality in an unfree world means we swapped one set of chains for another.. Or are so plagued by arguments about "difference" that the original message has become diluted. Rainbow coalition.. really? (OKay i got off topic here..)

Towards the end, Solonas talks of the SCUM manifesto's master plan, elimination of men and the society becomes utopian, death and disease will be worked on by dilligent women until they don't plague us anymore.. This part of the essay is not the unrealistic raving of an unhinged woman. She isn't seriously planning a genocide of men, but to exterminate destructive masculinity. Solonas was smart and had a Psychology degree and it is an insult to denounce her work on the grounds that these sections are a bit improbable. She is merely pointing out that Women have been so restricted by elitism, sexism, hierarchy, (an academic scene who's purpose she felt was to "perpetuate" its own existence..) that if they were truly liberated, the possibilities and achievements could be potentially miraculous and boundless.

So in short, I think that the SCUM manifesto has huge relevance today. Really aggressive feminism should stay in the minds of women and feminists, the passion rage and energy are valuable and not to be rejected just because it is also very negative and violent.

Men shouldn't be hostile just because its man hating, Women shouldn't be scared to identify with angry feminists because we sure do have a lot to be angry about. Its important to understand that sometimes you need to push the boat out and scream FUCK YOU, and say all the things that you supposed allowed to say, and I applaud Solonas because all accounts of her seem to show that she does this extremely well.

I am going to watch I Shot Andy Warhol, the biopic.

bibliography/ sources. Not very extensive.

1 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3178456?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=47698859696127

http://www.womynkind.org/scum.htm --> where i read it , (2)

Some good communist reading

I am reading And Red Is The Colour of Our Flag, by Oskar Hippe. Its really good, the memoirs of a committed german communist who took part in the reststance, was imprisoned by the nazis, and THEN spent another 8 years in prison in the GDR. Hippe's story reflects the fact that the german working class were screwed by Fascism, then endured the double betrayal of Stalinism. However, Hippe doesnt abandon his principles, and continues to argue for undiluted marxism and always for the workers. What a babe.

I think this is especially great given that the Stalinist dictatorship sure did sow a lot of false seeds about how rubbish communism is, but Hippe who remains a trotskyist managed to see Stalinism for the obscurity that it was..

It is good because the early chapters focus on Hippes upringing and, like most of these socialist books are really moving when describing the poverty that people endured. People were hungry! Really understandable why socialism was so appealing for Hippe. What got me most was the account of his doubly exploited mother and how the housework burden fell on her, as well as a horrible patriarchal husband, it demonstrates why early bolsheviks were also radical feminists..
The book also brings to life aspects in history- the sinister freikorps, Nazi germany, the chaos of east germany being brought under the control of Ulbricht. The inspirational power of Karl Leibnechts speeches, the irony that prisons built BY HITLER were recycled by the moscow controlled GDR regime to imprison dissidents and political unreliables.. And how truly rubbish it must be to have to spend your life in prison. Memoirs such as these are great for history students(aka me) because it reads easily but is subconscious revision.

More importantly there are political lessons which I really think young left wingers (like me) should hear about. The betrayal of Social Democracy in 1914- the Second International abandoned their perspective of, um, internationalism and became patriotic flag wavers in world war one... That worked out well for the working class...no? The true nature of Stalinism and the GDR is also gone into. Too long to recount here! Party splits and factions might seem petty to people like me who grew up in a time and country of relative money and stability, but these factions were and still are important, when one party are actively being instructed to forget their principles and the other is being persecuted for sticking by them..

I havent finished the book yet, but when I do I will say how it all ends... worth reading!

P.s I wrote this on my phone so excuse spelling mistakes :)

HI WORLD

Writing the headline on blogger is a bit like on a CV, and almost as cringey. Aiming to use this blog to write about what I think about the news, the world, people and politics! My sociology A level teaches me that the internet is important, and I am sick of just shouting at newsnight, so trying to be alittle more constructive. Here goes..