26 June, 2009
· Filed under activism, art & literature, body politics, discrimination, exploitation, feminism, general assholery, obama, racism, sexism, world · Tagged Ana Fernandez, cancer, children's books, midwives, Neda Agha Soltan, obama, passports, transphobia
Metro Victim’s Family Getting Anti-Immigrant Hate Mail/Calls
A fund for the Ana Fernandez’s family has been set up here.
There Will be Blood: Neda Agha Soltan’s Post-Mortem Image in the Media
via Muslimah Media Watch
[I]nstead of being put to rest, [Neda's] final, bloody image is being strewn across blogs and Twitter.
Where were all of these interested parties when the dormitories in Iranian universities were raided last week? There were plenty of pictures that were just as jarring and horrific. Neda is not the first person to die in this. She’s not the first person whose death has been captured on video camera, either. But she was young, slender, and pretty, and so Western media images are obsessed with watching her die over and over.
The entire post, and the other post that’s quoted from What Tami Said are excellent reads. I watched some news footage of Neda dying, and the entire thing had blurred out people’s faces (including Neda’s) in order to protect them. Then at that last moment, they unblurred Neda’s face after she was shot. I was horrified because 1) I think it’s disrespectful and voyeuristic to put that out for the world to see, so I really didn’t want to see that, and 2) they were clearly exploiting her bloodied image for their own gain. It pissed me off.
Holly at Feministe Highlights Trans Discrimination
Particularly the fucked up nature of the site Tranny-Alert.com:
I don’t care whether the motivation is about how exotic trans folks are, or exposure of “suspected trannies,” or trying to get some fabulous fierceness rubbed off, or mockery, or fetishization. Unless you are actually informing people that they’re being photographed to go on a “Spot the Tranny” website and getting their consent, this kind of activity is totally immoral on top of threatening. In some cases, it’s actually illegal. [...]
By taking photos of women on the subway or at parties and publishing them as “suspected trannies” on the internet, by posting personal ads from other sites that you think are “trannies,” by making fun of trans people’s clothes and bodies with your “comedic element,” you are pretty much just as bad as that guy who was foolishly messing with Mimi Plastique on the train. I don’t care if you support the biggest federal lobbying group for trans rights that you could find. That doesn’t excuse the bullshit you’re perpetrating on individual women.
For those of you who tweet, #trannyalertfail. Spread the word.
More links after the jump:
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21 June, 2009
· Filed under animal rights, bullshit advertising, cultural appropriation, exploitation, feminism, general assholery, sexism, world · Tagged Che Guevara, Lydia Guevara, PETA
via The Abolitionist Approach
The organization willing to exploit all other forms of oppression to promote its animal rights agenda has struck again. For its first South American ad campaign, PETA’s enlisted Lydia Guevara, Che Guevara’s granddaughter, to pose semi-nude to promote the “vegetarian revolution.”
I’m tempted to spout off into a rant, but I think Gary L. Francione puts it best:
This ad trivializes the struggle for social justice that Che believed in and for which he gave his life. Can you imagine Che Guevara “going naked for liberation rather than be a U.S. puppet?” No, of course not. [...]
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20 June, 2009
· Filed under activism, exploitation, general assholery, general government fuckery, human rights, immigration · Tagged Cirila Baltazar Cruz, MIRA, Pascagoula
via Shakesville
I don’t even know what to say, I’m so angry.
Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to her baby girl in November of 2008 at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS. She speaks very little Spanish and no English, as her native language is Chatino, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, Mexico that is spoken by some 50,000 people.
The hospital provided her with an “interpreter” who is from Puerto Rico and does not speak Chatino, the language of the mother. Because of the language barrier and the misunderstanding by the hospital’s interpreter who only spoke Spanish and English, a social worker was called in.
The hospital’s social worker reported “evidence” of abuse and neglect based on the following:
* The “baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;”
* The “mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula.” (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* “She does not speak English which puts baby in danger.”
Ms. Baltazar Cruz’s baby was snatched from her after birth at the hospital and given to an affluent attorney couple from the posh Ocean Springs who cannot have children.
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14 July, 2008
· Filed under discrimination, exploitation, general assholery, prison system, sexism · Tagged Brooklyn, false arrest, Monica Gonzalez, NYPD, prostitution, Sean Spencer
Monica Gonzalez was arrested in Brooklyn last November on charges of prostitution. The evidence? She was walking alone at night, and allegedly had a condom in her possession (a fact she refutes). The arresting officer also claimed she had been arrested for prostitution before (Her record is spotless, though the arresting officer, Sean Spencer, has been sued in the past for false arrest).
In reality? Gonzalez had an asthma attack earlier in the day, her medication wasn’t working, and so she decided to walk four blocks to the emergency room later that night, get some help, and be back in time to send the kids off to school in the morning.
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18 June, 2008
· Filed under exploitation, general government fuckery, rape, sexism · Tagged Daniel Day, Days Inn, Supreme Court of Georgia, Melanie Ross, Representative Burke Day
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now, mostly because I wanted to wait until summer/travel season really kicked in. But please, if you’re travelling this summer, boycott Days Inn.
via Feministing
Melanie Ross thought Daniel Day [the son of Georgia Republican state Rep. Burke Day, whose family founded the Days Inn hotel chain], her college classmate, was fun and a decent date – until they were having sex and she told him he was hurting her. She asked him to stop – and he didn’t. After that, Ross broke up with Day, and avoided him.
Unfortunately, because of events a month later, Ross is now suing Day for civil sexual battery.
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29 May, 2008
· Filed under exploitation, human trafficking · Tagged Amado Torres Vega, child trafficking, Mexican babies, Reynosa, Rio Bravo
via The Monitor (though the comments are rank with sexism and classism)
REYNOSA – Amado Torres Vega sees his work as a simple act of charity.
He rescues newborn children from a life of poverty in Mexico and helps place them with financially stable couples in the United States, he told Mexican police this week…Over the past year, they say, he bought at least 15 children from poor Mexican women and sold them to adoptive parents in the United States. Some of the women reportedly got pregnant over and over simply to collect a paycheck.
According to Mexican authorities, they include:
* a 39-year-old mother who told police she carried three children to term for Torres so she could pay medical bills for a 9-year-old daughter suffering from bone marrow cancer; she would also save the babies’ umbilical cords for Mexican stem cell treatments on her daughter before selling the newborns.
* and a 21-year-old suffering from AIDS who got pregnant and sold a child to pay for her own care.
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