Tumblr Round-Up: Sept 1 - 9

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Stuff I wrote/commented on

• Commentary on the idea that Catholics can't "pick and choose" what to believe.
• Can anyone recommend progressive adventure/fantasy novels?
• I am now watching Lost Girl
• Thoughts on what we can label as religious oppression
• More thoughts on religion as the cause of 9/11 (tl;dr: it's not)
• The US is really to blame for Nickleback
• Some thoughts on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Reblogged

• Why do you have to nitpick?
• Hey, it's okay...
• A take-down of a post about a study on the connection between abortion and mental disorders. And another take-down.
• Canadian's attitude towards the US change
• A discussion of marriage as a human right
• What is this even? I don't know, it makes me happy.
• Juana Galan
• A chart comparing labour standards around the world.
• Opinions are not shiny, sparkly magical unicorn eggs that nobody is allowed to disagree with or destroy with logic.
• List of rape myths
• Re: Privilege
• You don't owe prettiness to anyone
• Iconatomy
• On being anti-"political correctness"
• Inclusive feminism is the only feminism that makes any sense
• Danny Glover's Haiti film lacked "white heroes", producers said
• Stephen Harper is the Annoying Childhood Friend
• "9/11 Changed the World"
• 36 Reasons Why You Should Thank A Union
• The Transfeminist Manifesto

The Invisibility of Women Warriors

Ukrainian guerillas, 1944

I was watching a BBC World War II documentary about the Eastern front. It focused quite a bit on the partisan fighting in Ukraine. It was a while before I realized that the only footage they showed, and the only interviews they conducted were with male partisans.

My grandfather was part of the Ukrainian resistance during the war. And I have researched the activities of Ukrainian nationalists during WWII. So I know that there were more than a few women partisans - one of them even had her autobiography published in English (unfortunately I can't remember what it's called).

The documentary also showed local communist activists who were targeted by the Nazis - again none of them women. When there were certainly women among them - my grandfather's aunt was one of them.

Throughout the documentary, the narrator talked about German and Soviet atrocities carried out against the local populations for their support of nationalist partisans. Even against "women and children". Erasing the fact that there were women who were actively involved with the partisans. And assuming that it was somehow more reasonable to kill men who were not active partisans.

This post on Feministe criticizes the common MRA line that women ought to be more grateful to men because men are the ones who built society and fought in wars, blah blah blah. The idea that it has only ever been men who fought is, of course, bull shit. The assumption itself makes it easy to ignore any evidence to the contrary, obscuring the trials and sacrifices that women experienced as active fighters in war. It's a self-perpetuating myth, that is reflected throughout pop history.

Image is property of Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse, here on Flickr.

It's About Power

I've been catching up on feminist blogs, including a piece that Amanda Marcotte wrote for The Good Men Project called "The Solution to MRA Problems? More Feminism". The article is pretty much exactly what I think whenever I read anything by an anti-feminist "men's rights activist". Some of whom turn up in the comments to that very article. One individual who calls themselves thehermit wrote,

Equality would probably help everybody, the basic problem is, that feminism never was equality. Not at all.
Do they want 50% women in the congress? Of course. 50% of directors of big companies? Sure. 50% of homelesses? 50% of workplace deaths? …….
Oh wait, they only want half of the GOOD things.

Doing History Badly

I'm watching this show on History Television called Ancients Behaving Badly. It examines the behaviour of historic figures and places them on a scale between psychopath and goal-driven killer. It's incredibly cheesily done. The episode is about Julius Caesar.