As long as men have gone to war, they have kidnapped women and children for sexual slavery. According to historian Gerda Lerner, military conquest led to the enslavement and sexual abuse of captive women in the third millenium BC. In The Creation of Patriarchy, Lerner writes, “As slavery became an established institution, slave owners rented …
Conquest: on the inseparability of militarism and prostitution Read More »
I began with the conviction, shared by most feminist thinkers, that patriarchy as a system is historical: it has a beginning in history. If that is so, it can be ended by historical process. Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy You can read this essay in Turkish here. This essay draws heavily on three …
This piece starts with an explanatory note and story about the article to follow. The article itself – which is about gender authoritarianism – begins below the italics, if you prefer to skip. On November 30, I wrote this article at the suggestion of a well-known columnist, who passed it on to New Zealand Herald …
Censored piece: Jeez, Louise – may we have our own thoughts, please? Read More »
To say the least, there are echoes of the Emperor’s new clothes in our annual Pride Parades. Since 2013, Auckland’s Pride board has received significant state and corporate support to run an annual festival famed for extravagance and exhibitionism in the heart of New Zealand’s biggest city. Meanwhile, the public is supposed to accept a …
Pride, police, politicians, pundits and prison abolitionists: What's going on? Read More »
Last updated: 31.03.20 Previous: 29.03.20, 01.08.19, 26.01.19, 23.01.19, 22.01.19, 30.12.18, 28.12.18, 27.11.18, 15.11.18, 13.11.18, 3.11.18, 21.10.18, 17.10.18, 12.10.18, 10.10.18, 2.10.18, 29.09.18 Military spending According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending now exceeds 1.3 trillion dollars. Source: Aric McBay, “Civilization and other hazards”, in “Deep Green Resistance”. Murder and male violence A …
By the numbers: The oppression of women and girls globally Read More »
In New Zealand, “restorative justice” (RJ) advocacy is currently in vogue. In August, the government held a $1.6 million Justice Summit with restorative justice high on the agenda. At the time, Victoria University was wrapping up a free online course catering to over 1,800 students called “Restorative Justice and Practice: Emergence of a Social Movement.” …
#MeToo and the call for "restorative justice": Are they compatible? Read More »
“The justice system is the core of patriarchy,” Gudrun Jonsdottir told me. Jonsdottir has been part of the Icelandic women’s movement since the 1970s, a movement that initially drew attention to the prevalence of incest in Iceland – fathers raping daughters – before setting up refuge shelters. Through those shelters, women discovered the extent and …
Original sin: How the law makes a crime of being female Read More »
This report gathers findings from a range of sources, as well as including anecdotal material on unresearched aspects of women’s status in New Zealand, to paint an overall picture of the more urgent aspects of women’s status and encourage readers to make critical connections. Last update: 30.10.19 Previous: x.10.19, 26.07.19, 08.04.19, 21.11.18, 29.09.18, 27.09.18, 22.09.18, …
The status of women in New Zealand: A summary of findings and independent working report Read More »
My sister had to run away to the jungle. There are a lot of things we have experienced. Terror from the Indonesian government itself – killing people in a subtle way. They give injections to pregnant women – but it is not the right medicine… it kills the baby. Esther Tapnesa on living under the U.S.-backed …
The demons within: On liberal opposition to Nazism in the face of popular eugenics Read More »
This is a collection of facts and statistics relating to gender identity, catered to a New Zealand audience. Who identifies as transgender? Heterosexual adult males comprise the majority of adult-to-trans people (Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts). Though transgenderism is often represented as indigenous, these men are mainly white. The overwhelming majority retain their male genitalia. …
