Rape is also a war tactic, the UN says

I didn’t post about this before because I thought that there was just so much other stuff being said about it out on the internet. But it keeps coming up that people haven’t heard yet, so here it is. The UN Security Council a few weeks ago voted unanimously for a resolution to call rape a war tactic. Read this article for more

The news that led to this vote is all very sad, in the same vein of all of the other extremely sad truths about sexual violence: the rape of female military soldiers by their fellow soldiers; the rape of Iraqi women by U.S. soldiers; and more rape (graphic) if you don’t believe that one; the rape of female contractors working in the middle east by their own co-workers all while the military hushes things; the sale of children from poor countries to camel racers in the UAE to be used as starved, beaten, camel jockeys and sex slaves; the sale of girls into the sex trade all over the world in poor countries and the men from wealthy countries who support it; the belief in much of the middle east, in African countries, and in parts of Asia that girls and women are worth no more than the worth of an animal; genital mutilation of girls and boys in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish religions; the teaching of sexual shame to little girls and boys; domestic violence everywhere, it’s all everywhere.

The only comment I have for this, and the UN’s 2003(?) declaration of rape as a casualty of war, is…Why’d it take so long? Why do women always come last. Why is it acceptable for peace and aid workers to rape little girls in the countries in which they are sent to relieve suffereing? It’s all very sad.

Flexing Feminism and Basic Human Rights

Lots of other bloggers have commented on the vile hate messages women bloggers get from the troglodytes out there in cyberspace. They aren’t men, they’re boys with Internet access without adult supervision.

Some time ago I read a news article about this, and sadly, some women bloggers stopped blogging because a few of these knuckle-scrapers sank to threats, and possibly knew where the women bloggers lived.

Which brings to mind a sad fact of the Internet: if you’re a woman and you’ve secured anonymity, you can blog in safety. On the other hand, gender bigots and woman haters out there also have anonymity, and if they know enough about you, they can make threats from behind the mask of anonymity—or worse, carry out those threats.

Still, women bloggers do have a good degree of safety and anonymity, and the troglodytes can’t stop us from blogging. They know it, and that’s what drives them around the bend.

Bloggers who use Internet anonymity as protection from threats or physical harm are not cowards, but only the most pathetic cowards use that anonymity to threaten others.

They can’t do a damned thing about what we say, can’t stop us from saying it in public. So we should take courage in that. When overgrown boys throw hissy fits at us because they hate us and our freedom, we take it as high praise, as an encouraging sign that we’re stronger than them and their hate, that we’re reaching goals they want to withhold from us.

Still, I recall fondly graffiti I saw years ago on a wall in London: “Take the toys from the boys.”

Feminism, by definition, needs to show attitude. Real attitude.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has done it again

I had to read this article twice, because I couldn’t have read it right the first time: First off, the title of the article calls this guy Barlow a “Polygamist” and not a pedophile and rapist; second, they didn’t arrest him on the aforementioned charges. Unfortunately, the second time around didn’t settle my outrage.

What does this statement by authorities mean: “But at this point, Dale is not being arrested, and we are working cooperatively with them, and we made very clear to them that they have made a mistake.”? Is that the way men who rape girls but have lots of money get slapped on the wrist? “Don’t do it again or we’re gonna call your Ma,” type of shit? Let me ask you this Mister Authority: What exactly was the mistake? Since Barlow isn’t being arrested for anything?

Not only does the 16-year-old girl in question say she was beaten and raped, but she already has a child with 50-year-old Dale Evans Barlow and is in a “Spiritual marriage” with him. Pause. ..no wait, let’s pause again-HOW IS THAT NORMAL?

And “Barlow served 45 days in jail and is on three years of probation after pleading no contest last year to charges of conspiracy to have sex with a minor.” Still not enough evidence? When police raided the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ ranch last week, they found over 400 children, most of whom were girls….where’d all the boys go? Who are the mothers of these children? Of the 11 to 17-year-olds, how many of them are “married” and having sex with this guy, or other grown men?

How is this not a really easy case-closed crime against girls and women?