12.11.11

OVER IT- EVE ENSLER

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!) getting raped by their so-called "comrades."

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.

I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of the United States.

And I'm over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.

Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.

I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime -- the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters -- film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes -- while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you?

You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape.

And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old.

And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape.

And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too understanding.

We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine -- once and for all -- what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape.

There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.

ONE BILLION WOMEN.

The time is now. Prepare for the escalation.

Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape.

Because we are over it.


huffington post link
http://twitter.com/eveensler

9.11.11

REUBEN AND KEENAN

Salute to Reuben and Keenan

links:

Facebook group:


29.10.11

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN MONTH

Violence Against Women Awareness Month 2011 Team invited us for a live twitter chat about street sexual violence. To follow up and continue the conversations look out for #VAWAM on twitter.

http://twitter.com/VAWMonth


9.10.11

3 DECADES OF LIRIL SOAP ON TV

The Liril soap adverts have changed in the most subtle of ways over the decades.
The first Liril soap advert on indian television in late 1970s early 80s until 2000.
What caused the minor shifts? morality? censorship?


Liril advert early 80s


Liril advert late 80s


Liril advert early 90s


Liril advert late 90s



Liril advert early 2000


24.5.11

Action Hero Playlist:



Is there a song that puts you in the Action Hero mood? Let's build an action hero playlist > May 25- June 10 It could be a song that uplifts you....inspires...builds courage...reinforces a belief...calms you...angers you....lights a spark... Your Action Hero song


(could be about cities. walking. about saying 'I never ask for it'. about strangers. who knows! send it and we'll add it. could be one song or more)

If it's on youtube-send us the link.We'll add your name to the list here and link you to your song. If your action hero song isn't online, do write down the lyrics OR better still sing it yourself/upload it and email the link. Any language of course (but do send in the English translation please) Don't forget to ask those around you (mum.grandma.friends.relatives.domestic-help.neighbourhood-vendors?)

blurtblanknoise@gmail.com subject title Action Hero Song

Send it! Let's SING! Action Heroes building playlist:

  1. Jennifer Hughes Jail Weddings Tough Love
  2. Prineet Kaur Sohal - Nina Simone Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter
  3. Shohini Sen - Nancy Sinatra These Boots Are Made For Walking

  4. Satoko Yamaguchi -Yoko Ono Woman Power

  5. Monica Mody - ost DOR Yeh Hausla

  6. Rhea Daniel - Fiona Apple A Mistake

  7. Pooja Ghosh - theme song Power Puff Girls

  8. Nainy Sahni- ost Lakshya Kandho se hain milte kandhe

  9. Annie Zaidi- ost Ek Thi Ladki (There was a girl) Lara Lappa

  10. Must Bol - Frou Frou Holding Out For a Hero

  11. Amruta Mehta - LES Artistes Santo Gold

  12. Jasmeen Patheja - Petula Clark Downtown
  13. Satya - Raat

  14. Inderjit Kaur

  15. Rebecca Winslow - Helen Reddy I am woman

  16. Micropixie

  17. Aurina Chatterji - Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine

  18. Mandy Van Deven - Le Tigre's On Guard

  19. Trishima Mitra Kahn - Ani Di Franco 32 Flavors

  20. Deepshika Arora - Shubha Mudgal Mann Kee Manjeere

  21. Cole Walks - Mutya Buena Real Girl + Chantal Kreviazuk Weight of The World

  22. you?

29.4.11

Email from Anon-

Hi Blank Noise,
Have you addressed the issue of unsolicited mobile phone and internet harassment? It's quite a rampant form of harassment, the cons of advancements in technology. Just three weeks ago my friend had an unpleasant encounter with such a prankster. I have been at the receiving end too, for the past two weeks now I have had someone following me on Facebook, my email & my cell phone, info that I am generally careful about giving out. All my personal info is set to be private to be shared with people who I add as friends alone.
The options to counteract such incidents seem limited and ineffective.
An FIR against this offender with his mobile phone number as his only
info guarantees no action against him. The most the police will do is
maybe call & warn him, which is futile. It actually happened to this
friend of mine three weeks ago. This stalker has gathered a lot of
details on me, I have no assurances for my safety if this person also
happens to know where I live.

I thought you may have some suggestions/ideas on how to tackle such
offences & offenders & bring them to book.

Truly,

Anonymous


Thank you!


Have you experienced harassment on the web?
Have you b
ee
n harassed by phone calls and text messages from unknown people?
How do you define web based harassment/ intimidation or phone based harassment? list- stalking, sexting (sending unwanted sexual messages on mobile
phone) How did you respond to it? (did you find yourself changing your mobile phone number . email id etc or did you confront it?)How was this experience different from the threat of being sexually assaulted / harassed on the street?
Send in your thoughts. suggestions. strategies aka Action Hero stunts to blurtblanknoise@gmail dot com
Your responses will be shared on the Action Heroes blog by May 21

Delhi teenager skips school to avoid stalker (Jan 2011 report)

New Delhi: Six months back, 15-year-old Maya's (name changed) life was full of fun and frolic just like any other school-going girl. Then one day, while on the way to school, she was stalked by a group of guys who started hurling comments and abuses at her.

As this harassment continued for several days, Maya's scared parents stopped her from going to school and did not even allow her to venture out of her home. Today, she is virtually under 'house arrest' for no fault of hers.

Her parents are a worried lot as repeated complaints to the police have not yielded any result so far. As such Maya, who was a student of class 8 of Rajakiya Sarvodaya Vidyalay in Khanpur area, was forced to drop out from the school.

"The problem started in August 2010 when a local goon Sripal started following my daughter. He often passed vulgar comments at my daughter while she used to be on her way to school. Fearing that any harm might come to her, we stopped her from attending the school. We lodged a complaint with the police but they didn't take any action. The situation worsened and the stalkers continued to harass her even after she dropped out from the school. Whenever she used to go out of the house, they troubled her repeatedly," said Ram Kumar (name changed) father of the victim.

Kumar again lodged a complaint against his daughter's stalkers in October but police still remained inactive. "The inaction of cops has encouraged the stalkers further. Right from the day my father lodged a complaint against them, they became more abusive towards me. Whenever they see me out of the house, they start chasing me and pass vulgar comments. At times they even tried to molest me. The whole colony watched their act but nobody came to my rescue," said the victim.

Besides Kumar's complaint, there is another complaint lodged against these accused for eve-teasing and use of vulgar language. Still the police seem to prefer inaction on the issue. When contacted by MiD DAY, the police officials said that they will be able to comment after they investigate the case.

Residents of the area say the accused operate as a gang and often indulge in such unlawful activities in the Lal Kuan area of Pul Prahladpur area.


>>>>

1. do you know someone who missed school for avoiding 'eve-teasing'?
alternatively- do you plan your daily route/ activities to avoid sexual harassment on the streets?
2. have you ever filed a police complaint? if yes- what followed?
if no- why not
3. do you experience sexual harassment from the same person everyday- if yes what are your strategies? how do you respond to it (neighbourhood/ bus/ college/ workplace)
4. Have you been a 'spectator who changed the scene'- i.e instead of watching the 'tamasha'- you got involved and supported the survivor of violence?
5. Are there any follow ups of this report?

25.4.11

24.4.11

This is the last week of the CSA Awareness Month:
Link


If you would like to add to the discussion or know somebody else who would, please note that entries (personal accounts, resources, feedback etc) can be

a. mailed to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com OR
b. posted as FB notes and linked to the FB page OR
c. posted on your own blog with the badge and "CSAAM April 2011" in the heading and linked to the main blog OR
d. linked or posted on Twitter tagged twitter.com/CSAAwareness OR
e. sent via some/all of the above methods

Some topics are suggested here.

You can also show your support by displaying our logo on your website. Here is the code:



Please do remember to send in a mail with all necessary links (or just your input) to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com .

(Thanks, Blank Noise, for the support -- from the CSA team.)

29.3.11

ACTION HEROES BELIEVE IT'S IMPORTANT TO RE- EXAMINE SWEAR WORDS:




Action Heroes contribute:

Maesy Angelina, Indri , Trishima Mitra Kahn, Hemangini Gupta , Annie Zaidi, Bedatri Chowdhury, Farya Lokhandwala , Katheeja Talha, Parmeet Soni, Ghisak, Eddie Avila, Mohnish Moorjani, Sharmila Joshi,Dianne Sharma Winter,Vivek Rao, Noopur Raval, Nilofar Ansh, Megha Sharma Bhagat ,Amit Kendurkar, Tamanna Sharma, Anubhav Pradhan, Sidharth Verma, Satoko Yamaguchi ,Rustam Mody,Ampat Varghese Varghese, Kuber Sharma, Jaipal Hellmich, Rani Kamal, Trisham Dey, Nilofar Ansher, Keyser Sozie( Sepia Verse), Desdemona14, Jose Carlos Teixeira, Irmasanthi Danadharta,Pushpa Moorjani, Aman Zaidi, Anwesha Dutta, Anjali Rawat, Sharmila Joshi, Aruna Shekhar, Sowmiya Manickam, Orlaith Delaney, Ashish Asgekar, Soumya Chandrashekhar, Naksha Erappa, Simrin Mehra Agarwal, Bhooma Padmanabhan

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120542711356175&index=1