Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Exposing our Western RAPE culture (Canada)

Not objectified victims but paid models acting within an objectifying culture. Sure it's a fine distinction, but it is a distinction or we wouldn't treat our daughters, mothers, sisters, and girlfriends in demeaning ways. (destinationfemme.com)
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Sex with Jian (bring pads)
Sex is sexy but SEXISM is not.
(WQ) First we lose Michel Martin (host of NPR's "Tell Me More") and The San Francisco Bay Guardian for no reason now this. The most compelling voice on Canadian Public Broadcasting Corporation (Canada's version of NPR and BBC combined) is the former host of "Q" -- sexy, smooth Jian Ghomeshi. But there's a problem.
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White-male privilege? Golden boy?
Accusations surfaced  recently by eight former girlfriends that he sexually battered and/or abused them, "rough but consensual" play he explained. He was fired and has been replaced by a series of guest hosts that cannot hold a candle to his smooth and charming ways.
  
(Global News, Nov. 2, 2014) Jian Ghomeshi: CBC saw "graphic evidence" before firing The CBC released a statement saying they saw graphic evidence former "Q" host Jian Ghomeshi had caused physical injury to a woman. Mike Drolet reports (Globalnews.ca, Oct. 31, 2014).

He is suing the station for defamation of character for slandering him. (Jian, sweetie, send complaints and corrections care of Marco Werman at Public Radio Int'l or Ashley Wells at Wisdom Quarterly if you like). The whole debacle, compounded by the recent loss of the funniest man on NPR, "Click" a.k.a. Tom Magliozi of "Car Talk," is sending shockwaves through the placid world of public radio:

How a Canadian radio host's firing started a global conversation about sexual assault
Jian Ghomeshi, 2014 (Mark Blinch/Reuters)
(PRI) It began as a Facebook conversation on Thursday between two friends in two different Canadian cities. (This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview).
  
Former Toronto Star reporter Antonia Zerbisias and Montreal Gazette justice reporter Sue Montgomery were sharing their own stories of being sexually assaulted. The subject came up because of a story that was in the headlines in Canada.

(Q) Girls' Lena Dunham, accused of molesting sister, is Not That Kind of Girl

CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi was fired from his high-profile show "Q" after his employer was informed that a number of women were coming forward with allegations that Ghomeshi had assaulted them. Police are investigating the allegations, though the CBC has declined to provide specific reasons for why it dismissed Ghomeshi. 
  • (PRI Editor's full disclosure disclaimer/note: PRI distributes "Q" and other programs from the CBC to public radio stations throughout the U.S.)
    In the days following his firing, a number of people leapt to Ghomeshi's defense, and a number of women who claim to be his victims also came forward. Zerbisias and Montgomery expressed frustration with the act of blaming victims of rape [and sexual assault], in general, and the attacks on Ghomeshi's alleged victims in particular.

    So they went public with their own stories of rape, using the Twitter hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported. More

      (Anita Sarkessian/Democracy Now!/Free Speech TV) Gamer Gate: critiquing sexism and violence in video gaming and getting death threats for it.


    Misogyny? Women are 40% of gamers. Anita Sarkeesian, a prominent feminist critic of video games, was forced to cancel a speech at Utah State University last week after the school received an email threatening to carry out "the deadliest shooting in American history" at the event. The email sender wrote: "feminists have ruined my life and I will have my revenge." The sender used the moniker Marc Lepine, the name of a man who killed 14 women, most of them female engineering students, in a mass shooting in Montreal in 1989. Sarkeesian canceled the talk after being told that under Utah law, campus police could not prevent people from bringing guns.

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