The Tammys, Egyptian Shumba.  1963

Bourgeois in 1975, wearing a latex cast of her work Avenza

Patti Smith and Dutch art therapist Bettie Ringma in CBGB’s, late 1976 (photo by Marc Miller).

“Patti Smith was hanging around at the bar, but no one was taking pictures of her because she was super-shy.

She posed with me and then just went away: some musicians are like that, they’re not into socialising. They’re just artists.”

Bettie Ringma

Where there you have it, folks. And my friend and I were right with our suspicions, sadly. But now, I’ll actually discuss it because Maureen finally revealed a huge piece of why she was kicked out of Babes In Toyland.

Kat and Lori just didn’t like Maureen’s open-letter to Joan Jett about not speaking up about Jackie Fox’s sexual assault. Honestly, Maureen has my support, and in my opinion, asking a bandmate to not address the silence of rape victims is just disgusting.

“Don’t get involved” - that is the same nasty mindset that has been used for decades and centuries to shut out victims of sexual assault and ignore the atrocity caused by the rapist. Don’t be like that, folks. DO get involved. DO speak up. Never be afraid to speak against sexual assault.

- And if you’re excluded/banished from certain things because you’re not afraid to address sexual assault openly and make others uncomfortable with breaking the silence that sexual assault victims have been forced into, then you really don’t need to be apart of those things, as they just contribute to the silence. Rapists and rape apologists need to be called out, not ignored and coddled.

But do you see WHY most sexual abuse victims are afraid of speaking up against their rapists/abuse? Because we’re constantly throwing this backlash to those who come forward to talk about their experiences and those who defend rape victims. Maureen was struggling to pay bills and feed her child, BECAUSE SHE SPOKE UP AGAINST RAPE. THIS IS WHY RAPE VICTIMS ARE AFRAID OF SPEAKING UP.