Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
In Ds9, there’s one thing that so often bothered me. I’ve written about it before but let’s do it again.
Its about the idea of Kira as the hope of Bajor.
Throughout the seasons, but particularly in the first seasons, there was several story lines about some random guys coming forth as the “hope of Bajor”. This particular dude can bring hope and stability, he can unite us and lead us. Kira always defended this dude, stood by his side, supported him, spoke for him.
Why was never Kira this hope?
The writers always cast Kira as the side character to powerful men. Like Bareil and Shakaar, most noticeably. She was just as capable as any of these guys. She fought in the war, she had contacts in the government, she had ties to the Federation. (I realize that Kira being more closely linked to the government would disturb her place on Ds9, but let’s ignore that for the moment).
The episode “The siege” is such a good example here.
In “The siege” Kira basically saves Bajor. She and Dax fight their way to Bajor to deliver some proof to the chamber of ministers that the bad guy is bad. They use their skill, imagination and power.
Here we have Kira, this fighter and actual Bajoran hero, getting to the chamber of ministers and saving the day. And all of this is apparently so that a dude that hasn’t actually done anything can become a legend and a hero.
It is such an anti climax.
I absolutely feel that if Kira Nerys had been Kira Charlie, she wouldn’t have been repeatedly reduced to a side character in her own story. The fact that the people that were actually hailed as heroes or important were always men says something.
It can be argued that Kira never wanted glory. And sure, that is a perfectly good story line for her. She has always fought in the dirt against the odds, no thought to glory. But then the writers never needed to write the stories that constantly made her the sidekick instead of the main act.
I wish this didn’t exclude black women, as if we aren’t being murdered in our homes & in the street…as if the loss of our loved ones is somehow completely removed from what’s going on…as if women aren’t out here trying to hold onto the dreams, hopes, & lives as they’re being stolen as well.
I could not agree more and I’m so sorry. Black women do not get the respect and recognition they so deserve:
“Without qualification or deflection, we must address the very real fact that perpetuation of White supremacist capitalist patriarchy depends on the state-sanctioned murder, mass incarceration, and vilification of Black men. Power and dominance is typically contextualized within the construct of cisgender masculinity, leaving the brutalization of Black women, even when it mirrors that of Black men, as an afterthought.
It is understandable, though not acceptable, that Black women often find ourselves on the fringes of these conversations. Even when we are front and center it is usually to prove our fidelity to Black men and their unique struggles. Very seldom is the violence inflicted upon Black, female bodies by law enforcement positioned as pivotal to justice movements; rather our lived experiences as victims of the state tend to be peripheral and anecdotal.
This invisibilizing of Black women is systemic. That uncomfortable truth is evident in President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative that leaves sisters out in the cold and equally clear in the vitriol hurled at those of us who insist that the institutionalized needs of Black women must be addressed in tandem with the needs of Black men.
It becomes even more clear when Black people becomes Black men by default.
In at least one article, which blatantly cherry-picked names from “Operation Ghetto Storm,” a comprehensive report created by researcher Arlene Eisen and published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a list was compiled of 20 victims of police murder and not one woman was listed.
According to Dr. Treva B. Lindsey, an assistant professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University, this kind of gender-exclusive narrative is all too common. “Prevailing narratives around Black violability and anti-Black racial violence pivot around Black men and boys,” said Dr. Lindsey. “Both historically and contemporarily, when many people working towards racial justice around the issue of racial violence, the presumptive victim is a Black male. From lynching to police brutality, the presumed victim is a Black male. Therefore, Black women and girls are viewed as exceptional victims as opposed to perpetual victims of anti-Black racial violence. Our narratives around racial violence, unfortunately, have yet to evolve into ones that are gender inclusive. Black Victim=Black Male.”
Yes, we must have justice for John Crawford, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. But we cannot forget about Yvette Smith, Eleanor Bumpurs, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tarika Wilson, and so many others whose stories hover on the edges of obscurity.
Police departments across the country serve as enforcement for White supremacy and the criminalization of Blackness is not reserved for Black men. This is not so much a call for intraracial, gender reciprocity as it is a call of nuanced racial awareness. We must be aware of the ways in which we legitimize that only Black men’s pain matters. We, especially those of us with platforms, must be purposeful in speaking the names of Black women who have been victims of police brutality. We must be cognizant of the devaluation of Black women’s lives and how internalized patriarchy informs our own prioritization of the Black male victim.
My love and my rage remain in Ferguson and Los Angeles and Staten Island and Beavercreek, Ohio, as we fight this full frontal assault against Black men. But we must all do our part to amplify the stories of Black women whose lives have been taken, then swiftly forgotten.” LINK
The most searing indictment of male gynecology is the book by Dr. John M. Smith entitled Women and Doctors (The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992). After spending nearly twenty-five years in gynecological training and clinical practice, Dr. Smith paints a dismal picture of the woman’s specialist. “Male gynecologists, like all men, go through the kind of ‘attitude setting’ that occurs in the proverbial locker rooms while they are growing into manhood.” Dr. Smith, whose practice was in Colorado Springs, says that “It is common and acceptable among practicing gynecologists to speak about their patients bodies, sexual behavior, or medical problems indiscriminately, in terms that are demeaning and reflect a lack of kindness and respect.” (p. 27) Becoming more explicit, he charges them with eroticizing the medical scene: “It is a rare male who is able to see women day in and day out, examine their bodies, hear details of their sex lives, and not only never have a lascivious thought or abuse that access but always remain clinical…” (p.29) He confesses that “I have had a colleague invite me to do an exam on one of his patients under the false guise of a consultation because ‘she has a body you won’t believe’.” “I have seen a physician walk out of an exam room and tell a hallway full of doctors and nurses about the disease his married patient had contracted as a result of an affair. I have seen more than one gynecologist walk into an operating room where another doctor’s patient was already asleep for surgery, lift up the sheet, admire the patient’s breasts, and continue his conversation without pause.” (p.27) Dr. Smith concludes dramatically: After twenty-four years of medical education and clinical gynecological experience, it is my opinion that males should not be gynecologists. The role properly belongs to women.” (p.29)
—(via cvheavylion)
Courtney Demone is a trans woman currently undergoing hormone replacement therapy and, as such, is starting to grow breasts.
Given this opportunity, she has a found a brilliant way to #FreeTheNipple.
Demone is launching the hashtag #DoIHaveBoobsNow and will post topless images of herself on Facebook and Instagram, “until those networks decide that my breasts have developed enough to be sexualized and worthy of censorship”
Apparently at my niece’s school the girls have started chanting “underwear” during class anytime they see a boy’s boxers from his pants being too low to protest against the teachers dress coding them for bra straps.
Abortion was not just legal—it was a safe, condoned, and practiced procedure in colonial America and common enough to appear in the legal and medical records of the period. Official abortion laws did not appear on the books in the United States until 1821, and abortion before quickening did not become illegal until the 1860s. If a woman living in New England in the 17th or 18th centuries wanted an abortion, no legal, social, or religious force would have stopped her.
Reminder that records of contraception and abortion exist all the way back to 1550 BCE in ancient Egypt!
This was a really fascinating read. Until the early 19th century, abortion was legal until “quickening,” or when the pregnant person first felt the baby kick - anywhere from 14 to 26 weeks into the pregnancy. Society only began to condemn it when people decided white, middle- to upperclass women weren’t having enough children soon enough in their lives, and when male doctors started taking over traditionally female health care fields, like midwifery.
Yep, shockingly enough, it’s never, ever been about the life of the fetus - only about misogyny, racism, and classism (ableism, too, though the article doesn’t discuss it).
The bolded is hella important.
From the first article: “Increased female independence was also perceived as a threat to male power and patriarchy, especially as Victorian women increasingly volunteered outside the home for religious and charitable causes.”
Quick reminder that the modern pro-life movement didn’t even begin until the 1970’s. Conservatives were angry about the birth control pill and Roe v. Wade, and so the pro-life movement was developed as a TARGETED response to women’s lib and reproductive rights. In a lot of non-Western countries, the idea that an embryo is assigned any value or rights at all is just mind-boggling.
Really interesting article from writer Catherine Nichols:
“On a dim Saturday morning, I copy-pasted my cover letter and the opening pages of my novel from my regular e-mail into George’s account. I put in the address of one of the agents I’d intended to query under my own name. I didn’t expect to hear back for a few weeks, if at all. It would only be a few queries and then I’d close out my experiment. I began preparing another query, checking the submission requirements on the agency web site. When I clicked back, there was already a new message, the first one in the empty inbox. Mr. Leyer. Delighted. Excited. Please send the manuscript.
Almost all publishers only accept submissions through agents, so they are essential gatekeepers for anyone trying to sell a book in the traditional market rather than self-publishing. There are various ways of attracting an agent’s attention, but sending query letters is the most accessible. The letter describes the novel, the author, and usually includes the first pages of the manuscript itself—the equivalent of what a reader might see picking up a book in a store. Agents can let silence speak for itself, write back with a rejection, or ask to see the novel.
I sent the six queries I had planned to send that day. Within 24 hours George had five responses—three manuscript requests and two warm rejections praising his exciting project. For contrast, under my own name, the same letter and pages sent 50 times had netted me a total of two manuscript requests. The responses gave me a little frisson of delight at being called “Mr.” and then I got mad. Three manuscript requests on a Saturday, not even during business hours! The judgments about my work that had seemed as solid as the walls of my house had turned out to be meaningless. My novel wasn’t the problem, it was me—Catherine.”
