Sometimes A(N)

At the time, it was exciting. Here I was, a teenage kid, not even old enough to have my driver’s licence, and here comes this 20 year old man in college who was interested in ME, who liked ME, who wanted to be with ME. He always complimented me on how mature I looked/acted/behaved. He always said “there may be an age difference but we’re pretty much on the same mental level.” I believed him. I felt special.

Then he introduced me to his friends, who were also young men in their late teens and early 20s. They made sexual comments toward me and touched my hair without my consent. I laughed it off even though I was very uncomfortable and was shocked to see that my “boyfriend” did nothing to stop his friends from harassing me. In fact, he laughed with them.

He started getting more and more aggressive with his sexual pursuits. At the time, I was a “virgin” in every sense of the word–I had only shared a few heated kisses with some previous boyfriends–and I was not ready to be sexually active; I didn’t want to do, as he said, “what women are supposed to do for their man.” Eventually, I stopped fighting him just to get him to stop harassing me, even though I cried, said “stop”, and shook my head throughout the entire ordeal. But I suppose I’m still not the “perfect victim” because I didn’t physically fight him or run away, right?

It happened several times. He raped me several times. He single-handedly ruined my teenhood.

When I was closer to 17, I finally found the strength to cut off ties with him. Since then I found out he was sexually involved with multiple other women at the time we were “together”, at least one of them I KNOW was also another underage girl. I found out from his friends and his mother–not him. He didn’t give a shit how he hurt me, the girl he supposedly wanted to marry; he didn’t care that he could have exposed me to god-knows-what. I had to get myself tested for STDs just so I could sleep at night. When they all came back negative, I cried for hours in relief.

Today he is living comfortably with a woman and considers himself a “father figure” to her young child. He lives mere blocks from a high school. It sickens me.

The experience has made me especially protective of teenage girls. We are living in a society that tells us statutory rape “isn’t really rape” and has no emotional impact on the victim, a society that tells us that underage girls are evil seductresses who purposefully try to overpower grown men. 

We blame the Lolitas and not the Humberts.

Age of consent laws exist for a reason. Statutory rape laws exist for a reason. Because teenagers, regardless of how “mature” they seem, do not have the mental capacity to be in consensual and healthy romantic/sexual relationships with adults.

“Age doesn’t matter!” they scream, “Love is love!” But ask yourself why a college-aged man would want a girl who’s barely halfway through high school? They are at completely different stages of life, and the years of experience he has over her makes it easy for him to manipulate her. What can a 15 year old girl give a grown man that a woman of his own age group couldn’t? A fulfillment of his pedophilic/hebephilic fantasies? A relationship where he can easily dominate, manipulate, and abuse?

If he cared about you at all, if he loved you as much as he says he does, he would wait until you have had a chance to grow up and live your life.

And to be honest, even though I tried to make this as general as possible, this goes for a lot of predatory age gaps, even those that are technically “legal”.

                    Discover Radical Feminism                  

Radical Feminism:

Authors, Theorists, Ideologues:

Sheila Jeffreys

Janice Raymond

Gail Dines

Catharine MacKinnon

Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin has a lot of gender critical and anti-porn books. Bell Hooks is also a black woman who has written a lot of books, and her book Ain’t I A Woman deals specifically with the intersections of misogyny and racism. This page (http://radfemresource.tumblr.com/resources) also has numerous sources.

Hope this helps!

On systematic male against female violence:

Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing (Anthology) , http://www.dianarussell.com/f/femicde%28small%29.pdf

THE ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE OF THE TERM FEMICIDE

December 2011, written by Diana E.H Russell, Ph.D

Femicide – The Power of a Name

The Rise of Femicide: Can Naming a Deadly Crime Help Prevent It?, by  Aaron Schulman. The New Republic. December 29, 2010

On the issues that pornography presents feminists and ways we can challenge them:

Making Violence Sexy (Anthology), http://www.dianarussell.com/f/makingviolencesexy%28smaller%29.pdf

On the psychological and behavioral consequences of pornography consumption:

Ph.D Diana E. H. Russell, “Pornography & Rape: A Causal Model”. Vol. 9, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), Published by: International Society of Political Psychology.

Exposure to Pornography As a Cause of Child Sexual Victimization

Stolen Innocence: The Damaging Effects of Child Pornography- On and Off the Internet

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/VAW02/mod2-6b.htm

The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships (2007/2008), http://www.antipornography.org/Price_of_Pleasure_doc.html (Warning: censored nudity but some of the content remains graphic and disturbing. Potentially triggering).

Pornography FAQ (http://catwa.org.au/?q=node/67 ):

How is pornography related to prostitution?

Pornography and prostitution are often thought of as completely separate entities. In many parts of the world, this is even reflected in law where pornography and prostitution hold very different positions; pornography is often privileged as a form of ‘representation’. Pornography, however, is filmed prostitution. Both pornography and prostitution involve the sexual use of women in exchange for money. Often, the only difference between the two is the presence of a camera. Pornography can also be seen to increase the legitimacy of prostitution, by depicting the commercial sexual exploitation of women as entertaining, glamorous and acceptable. In addition, pornography is frequently used by pimps to ‘season’ or train women for prostitution and in a rather cyclical relationship, women used in prostitution are often also used in pornography.

Shouldn’t pornography be protected as free speech?

It is important to note that pornography is not speech but rather filmed acts of prostitution. Pornography is not merely the representation of sex acts, but involves the filming of real sex acts, performed by real people. Arguing that pornography is speech, ignores the realities of how pornography is actually produced and also ignores the harm to women that pornography both generates and reinforces.

Read: Only Words, by Catharine MacKinnon Isn’t porn just harmless sex?

There is no such thing as harmless pornography. Many people believe pornography to simply be sex between ‘consenting adults’ rather than understanding pornography as a multi-billion dollar industry. Pornography is not ‘just sex’, it is a particular construction of sex which involves the commercial sexual exploitation of women for the purpose of men’s sexual pleasure. Pornography harms both the women who are directly abused in the making of it, and also women as a group more generally. It promotes a model of sexuality which is incompatible with women’s equality.“[P]ornography plays an important part in contributing to sexual violence against women and to sex discrimination and sex inequality” - Catherine Itzin Pornography: Women violence and civil liberties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 (p. 1).

Isn’t pornography a good sexual outlet for men?

The idea that pornography creates a useful sexual release for men, assumes that men have uncontrollable sexual ‘urges’ which require an outlet. It also assumes that pornography use is acceptable and healthy. Neither is the case. Pornography use is harmful to the women used in creating it, and pornography creates and reinforces harmful ideas about women, sex and sexuality; for example, that women enjoy or welcome unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault. Rather than reducing the likelihood that men will act out, it creates a culture in which women are increasingly objectified and viewed as commodities. Such a culture helps to fuel, rather than prevent, acts of sexual violence.

Doesn’t opposing pornography make you a prude?

Many people assume that the only reason to oppose pornography is because you find it personally ‘offensive’ or are ‘anti-sex’. Opposing pornography means that you oppose abusive sexual practices that harm women, not that you must oppose all sex. Nor does opposing pornography have to be about arguing that its content personally offends you. From a feminist perspective, it is not necessarily explicitness or the depiction of sex which is the problem with pornography. It is not about offence and decency, but about harm. “What is objectionable about pornography…is its abusive and degrading portrayal of females and female sexuality, not its sexual content or explicitness” – Diana Russell Dangerous relationships: Pornography, misogyny, and rape. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998 (p. 5).

What is pornification?

Pornification, sometimes referred to as pornographication or ‘raunch culture’ is the increasing distribution and acceptance of pornography as well as the fragmenting and blurring of pornography and pornographic imagery into popular culture. Pornography and pornographic imagery are infiltrating popular music videos, outdoor advertising, fashion and art to name but a few. While pornographication is sometimes viewed as simply the increasing acceptance of sexual themes in media, it is actually the promotion of a particular model of sex which is harmful to women. The mainstreaming of this type of pornographic sexuality which fundamentally objectifies women, is already harming the development of young women and girls. The American Psychological Association, for example, has linked the rise of this unhealthy model of sexuality to increases in mental health problems such as eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression. See: Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2007). Available from:http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.

Legalisation of Prostitution

Brothels without Walls: The Escort Sector as a Problem for the Legalization of Prostitution, bySheila Jeffreys 2010

What Happens When Prostitution Becomes Work? An Update on Legalisation of Prostitution in Australia. A paper by Mary Sullivan, 2005  (CATWA)  

Submission to New Zealand Parliament, CATWA 2003

Prostitution Culture: Legalised Brothel Prostitution in Victoria, Australia  Sheila Jeffreys 2002. Talk given at Swedish Ministry of Gender Equality Seminar on the Effect of Legalisation of Prostitution. Stockholm, 6 November 2002.

The Legalisation of Prostitution: A failed social experiment, by Sheila Jeffreys

Legalising Prostitution is not the Answer: The example of Victoria, Australia by Mary Sullivan and Sheila Jeffreys

Trafficking

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2000) (Known as the Palermo Protocol)

A Guide to the UN Trafficking Protocol (2001)

Sex Trafficking and Human Rights

Marriage Trafficking  

Pornography and Pornification  

The global industry of pornography is growing rapidly. The business of pornography is now worth in excess of $57 billion worldwide. More than $10 billion is generated in the United States alone. Pornography is an industry which, like prostitution, makes its ever increasing profits from the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Women in both the pornography and prostitution industries suffer abuse and violence. Despite this grim reality, tolerance for pornography is increasing in Australia and many other Western nations. Through the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’ or ‘pornification,’ pornographic imagery and even pornography itself are gaining legitimacy and a degree of glamour and cultural chic. Porn stars are becoming household names, advertising mimics pornographic conventions and poses, and Playboy is not just a magazine but a global brand that markets everything from clothing to stationery. The mainstreaming of pornography is also changing our conceptions of sexuality. Women are increasingly becoming required to perform sex acts straight from pornography in their everyday heterosexual relationships, and the pornographic model of sexuality is harming girls’ and women’s concepts of self. As pornography continues to become more prominent and pornographic imagery becomes more ‘mainstreamed’ we become accustomed to living in a pornified world in which it is acceptable that women and girls can be bought and sold.

Boyle, Karen (ed). (2010). Everyday Pornography. Oxford: Routledge.

Dines, Gail. (2010). Pornland: How Porn has Highjacked our Sexuality. Melbourne: Spinifex Press.

Dines, Gail & Jensen, Robert & Russo, Ann. (1998). Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality. New York: Routledge.

Dworkin, Andrea. (1979) Men Possessing Women. New York: Pedigree Books.

Long, Julia. (2012). Anti-Porn: The resurgence of Anti-Pornography Feminism. Zed Books.

Tankard Reist, Melinda & Bray, Abigail (eds) (2011). Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry. Melbourne: Spinifex Press.

Tyler, Meagan (2011). Selling Sex Short: The Pornographic and Sexological Construction of Women’s Sexuality in the West. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Strip Clubs

Read CATWA’s indepth report on strip clubs in Victoria (2010).

The sex industry and business practice: An obstacle to women’s equality, by Sheila Jeffreys 2010

Jul 2014: Business women suffer discrimination because of the male executive culture of strip club visits.

Jul 2014: Executive director of UN Women Australia calls for zero tolerance of strip club visits

Dec 2010: ABC radio interview with Sheila Jeffreys on ’Why strip clubs are harmful to women and the community’. Includes transcript

Dec 2010: Corporate functions and Christmas parties at strip clubs

On the feminist activist struggles against woman-battering, rape, misogyny (Right Wing and Left Wing), gendered oppression, hatred of lesbians, prostitution, pornography, societal stockholm syndrome, female-only spaces and more.:

Letters from a War Zone, by Andrea Dworkin

Our Blood, by Andrea Dworkin

Right-Wing Women, by Andrea Dworkin

Pornography: Andrea Dworkin (1991) - Documentary

Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by Andrea Dworkin

http://radfem.org/dworkin/

Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller

Femininity, by Susan Brownmiller

Rape In Marriage, Diana Russell

Women-Only Spaces: An Alternative To Patriarchy, by Jennie Ruby

Exploring the Value of Women-Only Space, by Kya Ogyn

Women, Health and the Politics of Fat, Amy Winter, in Rain And Thunder, Autumn Equinox 2003,   No. 20

Free Space: A Perspective on the Small Group in Women’s Liberation by Pamela Allen 1970 Download PDF

Loving to Survive: Sexual Terror, Men’s Violence, and Women’s Lives by Dee Graham, Roberta Rigsby, Edna Rawlings 1995 Download PDF

Nothing Mat(t)ers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism by Somer Brodribb 1992 Download PDF

A deafening silence: Hidden violence against women and children by Patrizia Romito (translation by Janet Eastwood) 2008 Download PDF

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis 2003 Download PDF

Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice by John Stoltenberg 2000 2nd Ed. Download PDF

I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde ed by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall 2011 Download PDF

Beyond the Frame: Women of Color and Visual Representation ed by Neferti X. M. Tadiar, Angela Davis 2005 Download PDF

Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West by Sheila Jeffreys 2005 Download PDF

The Spinster and Her Enemies by Sheila Jeffreys 1997 Download PDF

The Lesbian Heresy by Sheila Jeffreys 1993 Download PDF

The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade by Sheila Jeffreys 2008 Download PDF

The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism Edited by Dorchen Leidholdt and Janice G. Raymond. 1990 Download Full PDF (5MB)

Liberalism and the Death of Feminism, Catharine A. MacKinnon (PDF)

Sexology and Antifeminism, Sheila Jeffreys (PDF)

Woman-Hating Right and Left, Andrea Dworkin (PDF)

Taking Our Eyes Off the Guys, Sonia Johnson (PDF)

Family Matters, Ann Jones (PDF)

Confronting the Liberal Lies About Prostitution, Evelina Giobbe (PDF)

The New Reproductive Technologies, Gena Corea (PDF)

Mothers on Trial: Custody and the “Baby M” Case, Phyllis Chesler (PDF)

Sexual and Reproductive Liberalism, Janice G. Raymond (PDF)

In the Best Interest of the Sperm: The Pregnancy of Judge Sorkow, Pauline B. Bart (PDF)

Abortion and Pornography: The Sexual Liberals’ “Gotcha” Against Women’s Equality, Twiss Butler (PDF)

When Women Defend Pornography, Dorchen Leidholdt (PDF)

Eroticizing Women’s Subordination, Sheila Jeffreys (PDF)

Resistance, Andrea Dworkin (PDF)

Sex Resistance in Heterosexual Arrangements, A Southern Women’s Writing Collective (PDF)

Toward a Feminist Praxis of Sexuality, Wendy Stock (PDF)

Sexual Liberalism and Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Valerie Heller (PDF)

The Many Faces of Backlash, Florence Rush (PDF)

Liberals, Libertarianism, and the Liberal Arts Establishment, Susanne Kappeler (PDF)

You Can’t Fight Homophobia and Protect the Pornographers at the Same Time—An Analysis of What Went Wrong in Hardwick, John Stoltenberg (PDF)

A View from Another Country, Susan G. Cole (PDF)

Women and Civil Liberties, Kathleen A. Lahey (PDF)

Be-Witching: Re-Calling the Archimagical Powers of Women, Mary Daly (PDF)

Not a Sentimental Journey: Women’s Friendships, Janice G. Raymond (PDF)

Femicide Fetishize female vulnerability Handmaidens of the patriarchy Harm reduction/refusal to name the agent Joke’s on women Male bonding over misogyny Male entitlement Mansplaining/women’s perspective is wrong Necrophilia Normalize abuse/neglect Normalize porn/prostitution PIV-centric narrative — Goal is to “land a man” — Normalize exaggerated/simulated female pleasure — Normalize reproductive stress and pain — Pathologize menstruation — Pathologize older women and menopause/fetishize female youth — Rape and rape culture Pornify girl children/infantilize adult women Primacy of the nuclear family Reversal Support patriarchal institutions (medicine/religion/law) Woman as “useful object”

Crimes Against Women: The Proceedings of the International Tribunal

On the feminist analysis of beauty standards and oppressive femininity: Beauty & Misogyny, by Sheila Jeffreys

On the feminist analysis of queer theory:

Gender Hurts, by Sheila Jeffreys

Unpacking Queer Politics Download PDF,

LibFem vs. RadFem views on Gender

On the feminist analysis of the sex industrial complex:

The Industrial Vagina Download PDF,

Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry. (Anthology),

Accounting for Pornography, Prostitution, and Patriarchy. by Pala Molisa, PhD student,

Women, Lesbians, and Prostitution: A Workingclass Dyke Speaks Out Against Buying Women for Sex, by Toby Summer, in Lesbian Culture: An Anthology, Julia Penelope and Susan Wolfe,  eds

Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography, Christine   Stark and Rebecca Whisnant, eds.

Sex critical & Kink critical text:

Against Sadomasochism (Anthology)

Ten Lies About Sadomasochism, by Melissa Farley

Unleashing Feminism: Critiquing  Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties, by Irene Reti, ed.

How Orgasm Politics Has Hijacked the Women’s Movement, by Sheila Jeffreys

Intercourse, by Andrea Dworkin

Theological feminist criticism:

Beyond God The Father, by Mary Daly (1974)

Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Mary Daly

The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, Marija Gimbutas

Woman, Church and State, Matilda Joslyn Gage

The Women’s Bible, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Pure Lust, Mary Daly

On the feminist criticism of sexual liberalism:

“The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism” Anthology, (1987, edited 1990), http://radfem.org/the-sexual-liberals/

Incest: The Great Incest War: Introduction to The Secret Trauma

Making an Issue of Incest, Louise Armstrong (PDF)

Activism:

Lone Radical Feminist Actions

Best Strategies to Advance the Global Struggle Against Femicide

Feminists Threaten Larry Flynt: My Personal Contribution

Bin the Bunny. This is an anti-pornography campaign from London. It began in response the opening of a Playboy shop in 2007.

Object. A UK group committed to challenging the objectification of women.

No Porn Northampton. This site, based in USA, contains information about campaigns and many papers and resources relating to pornography.

Routes Out. This is a Glasgow based organisation founded to help women exit prostitution.

Turn Off the Red Light An Irish organisation working for an end to prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland. It advocates the adoption of the Nordic Model.

Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution A UK coalition who believe that prostitution is male violence against women and are working to achieve Swedish style legislation. The site contains many useful links and resources.

Abolicion de la Prostitucion. This web site, in Spanish, was set up by a group of 77 women’s organisations to fight prostitution in that country.

Centre for Women’s Human Rights. This Korean feminist organistion was established in 2005.

The Polaris Project. Anti Trafficking organisation with a focus in Japan and USA

Yes, capitalism is filled with opportunities for corruption: 

but in it’s purest form, it is corruption:

cooperation becomes competition,

productivity becomes profit,

organisation becomes exploitation,

community becomes alienation,

the human becomes the inhuman. 

Yes, rich people take advantage to maximize their profits:

but it is the existence of ‘profit’ in the first place which is the fundamental issue.

Exploitation is not a trick played on a ignorant people: 

it’s the basis of the system which brings that people into existence. 

‘Rich people’ are not rich because they are criminals: 

but because they are members of a class. 

You are not poor because politicians take back-handers: 

you are poor because the wealth of the world relies on your poverty. 

Every day you go to work and do not receive the full value of that work: 

it isn’t a crime, 

it isn’t corrupt,

it is the way in which all wealth is produced, 

you must work in order that you do not starve,

because of your poverty.

Capitalism relies on your poverty continuing:

otherwise, you will not work, you will not be exploited, you will not produce value for capital.

There are no conspiracies: 

the facts are apparent. 

Capitalism announces itself as inhuman through: 

the form of the commodity, 

wage labour, 

private property.

There will be no salvation from the law. 

The law creates the conditions for capitalism and the circulation of capital.

That some people hide that circulation does not change the nature of capital and capitalism.

The answer is not a better and more honest capitalism,

the answer is not shutting down tax havens,

the answer is not taxing the rich,