Bite-Sized Subversions – challenging thoughts about everyday things – Page 3

Apr 27

excerpt from Pornography and Civil Rights, MacKinnon/Dworkin

By Peg Tittle in pornography

Pornography [also] engenders sex discrimination. By making a public spectacle and a public celebration of the worthlessness of women, by valuing women as sluts, by defining women according to our availability for sexual use, pornography makes all women’s social worthlessness into a public standard. Do you think such a being is likely to become Chairman of the Board? Vice President of the United States? Would you hire a “cunt” to represent you? Perform surgery on you? Run your university? Edit your broadcast? (p.48, emphasis mine)

Worth repeating.

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Apr 25

Postscript to 13 Reasons Why

By Peg Tittle in feminism, men, sexism

In case anyone’s still watching 13 Reasons Why (and see my lengthy post at https://www.hellyeahimafeminist.com/13-reasons-make-movie-maybe-write-novel-without-acknowledging-elephant-room/) … Tyler’s getting raped is presented as SO MUCH WORSE than either Jessica or Hannah getting raped. OF COURSE.

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Apr 21

Internet access inequality

By Peg Tittle in uncategorized

Sent this letter to Rogers, don’t expect a reply, but thought it worth posting here .as well ..

Hello Rogers:

I have just discovered your Internet 25 plan whereby people can get 450GB/month for a mere $70. I live three hours north of Toronto; the only plan available to me is 7GB/month for pretty much the same $70 ($60, actually). I pay $20 for every additional 10GB, which is to say I’d pay almost $1000 for the same 450GB. Not only that, my 7GB comes at a snail’s pace of 0.1-2.4mbps, compared to, probably, something closer to 50mbps.

I understand the difference in speed; I access through space, not fibre. And I understand that due to the low population density where I live, fibre’s not gonna happen. (Pity you can’t piggyback on the electrical or phone lines that already exist.)

What I don’t understand is the difference in GBage. It doesn’t cost you any more whether I get/use 7GB or 100GB, does it? The tower is the same; you don’t pay for more air for the GB to travel through.

So, could you please explain the rationale for this gross inequality of service?

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Apr 20

If Michelangelo had been a woman …

By Peg Tittle in feminism, gender issues, sexism

Great McSweeney’s list here!

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Apr 20

If Laurel Hubbard was actually a woman…

By Peg Tittle in gender issues, trans

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Apr 15

South Park on trans sports … Hilarious!

By Peg Tittle in ethics, gender issues, sports

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Apr 10

Funny how male violence …

By Peg Tittle in feminism, gender issues, sexism, violence

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Apr 07

Examples of Western Privilege

By Peg Tittle in uncategorized

A list well worth reading:

25+ Examples of Western Privilege

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Apr 05

Where will you draw a line?

By Peg Tittle in feminism, gender issues, sexism

Where will you draw the line?

I know I’m going to sound like a prude, but fuck it. I’m not. (And evidence for that claim falls into the ‘too much information’ category.) So, I’m going to ask:

If men want you to wear shoes with high heels and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear bras designed to push up your breasts and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear clingy leotards/tights/leggings without a skirt and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear wide-necked shirts that fall off your shoulders and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear short shirts that expose your belly and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear tops with plunging necklines that expose your cleavage and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear halter tops that leave everything uncovered except your breasts and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear very short skirts that expose your bum when you bend over and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear thong bathing suits that leave your ass cheeks completely uncovered and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to wear pasties that leave your breasts completely uncovered and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

If men want you to be totally naked and it becomes fashionable to publicly sexualize yourself in that way, you’ll do it?

Where will you draw a line?

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Mar 29

An addendum to Ghodsee’s Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

By Peg Tittle in feminism

Apparently many men fear that socialism will encourage parasites—people who won’t work because, due to socialism, everything they need will be paid for anyway. Hm. I suspect they’re thinking of people like themselves. Men would rather be unemployed than accept a job that’s beneath them. That is, jobs they consider fit only for immigrants or women. They’re the welfare bums.

Show me women who are freeloaders. Welfare moms? Explain to me how a woman can work if she has a child under six years old to look after. She’s supposed to leave it unattended for eight hours? She’s supposed to pay $10-$20/hour for daycare on a $10-$20/hour job? There would be nothing left for things like, I don’t know, food, clothing, and rent. Well, I hear some guy say, she shouldnt’ve gotten pregnant in the first place. No, YOU shouldn’t’ve fucked her. In the first place.

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Talk Hard

textbooks

edited anthologies

'think piece'
collections

Sexist shit that pisses me off 2nd edition

articles

"The Inconsistency of Not Licensing Parents"
"Assisted Suicide and Unassisted Suicide: What's the Difference?"
"The Verbal and the Implicit: Forms of Violence?"
"Legislating Prenatal Care"
"We License Plumbers and Pilots - Why Not Parents?" At Issue: Is Parenthood a Right or a Privilege? ed. Stefan Kiesbye (Greenhaven, 2009); Current Controversies: Child Abuse, ed. Lucinda Almond (Thomson/Gale, 2006); Seattle Post-Intelligencer (October 2004)
"A Humanist View of Animal Rights"New Humanist September 99; The New Zealand Rationalist and Humanist Winter 98; Humanist in Canada Winter 97
"Permitting Abortion and Prohibiting Prenatal Harm: Reconciling the Contradiction" presented at the Bioethics and Medical Ethics Section at the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy (August 1998)
"Rational Bases of Identity: Toward Cultural Anarchy" Humanist in Canada Autumn 96
"Identity Politics as a Transposition of Fraser's 'Needs Politics'" The International Journal of Applied Philosophy Summer/Fall 1996
"Sexual Activity, Consent, Mistaken Belief, and Mens Rea" Philosophy in the Contemporary World 3.1 Spring 96
"Suicide, Assisted Suicide, and Euthanasia: Issues of Consent" Humanist in Canada Spring 96

book reviews

have been previously published in Canadian Woman Studies, Herizons, Humanist in Canada, The Humanist, and The Philosopher's Magazine - contact Peg for acknowledgement details.

The Apartheid of Sex, Martine Rothblatt
Breaking the Abortion Deadlock, Eileen L. McDonagh
Compulsory Pregnancy, John M. Swomley
Cracking the Gender Code, Melanie Stewart Millar
Democracy's Oxygen, James Winter
The Ethics of Genetic Control, Joseph Fletcher
Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide, Dworkin, Frey, and Bok
The Frailty Myth, Colette Dowling
Galactic Rapture, Tom Flynn
Is the Pope Catholic?, Joanna Manning
Moral Panic, John Fekete
Profiles of Female Genius, Gene N. Landrum
Reincarnation, Paul Edwards
Resources for Radicals, Brian Burch
Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher
Who Stole Feminism, Christina Hoff Sommers

A McSweeney’s List

fiction

stageplays

Impact An extended confrontation between a sexual assault victim and her assailants, as part of an imagined slightly revised court process, in order to understand why they did what they did and, on that basis, to make a recommendation to the court regarding sentence does not go … as expected.

What Happened to Tom Tom, like many men, assumes that since pregnancy is a natural part of being a woman, it’s no big deal: a woman finds herself pregnant, she does or does not go through with it, end of story. But then …

Aiding the Enemy When Private Ann Jones faces execution for “aiding the enemy,” she points to American weapons manufacturers who sell to whatever country is in the market.

Bang Bang When a young boy playing “Cops and Robbers” jumps out at a man passing by, the man shoots him, thinking the boy’s toy gun is real. Who’s to blame?

Foreseeable An awful choice in a time of war. Whose choice was it really?

screenplays

Interested parties, please contact Peg

Exile (full-length drama) Finalist, WriteMovies; Quarterfinalist, Fade-In. LJ lives in a U . S. of A., with a new Three Strikes Law: first crime, rehab; second crime, prison; third crime, you’re simply kicked out – permanently exiled to a designated remote area, to fend for yourself without the benefits of society. At least he used to live in that new U. S. of A. He’s just committed his third crime.

What Happened to Tom (full-length drama) Semifinalist, Moondance. This guy wakes up to find his body’s been hijacked and turned into a human kidney dialysis machine – for nine months.

Aiding the Enemy (short drama 15min) When Private Ann Jones faces execution for “aiding the enemy,” she points to American weapons manufacturers who sell to whatever country is in the market.

Bang Bang (short drama 30min) Finalist, Gimme Credit; Quarter-finalist, American Gem. When a young boy playing “Cops and Robbers” jumps out at a man passing by, the man shoots him, thinking the boy’s toy gun is real. Who’s to blame?

Foreseeable (short drama 30min) An awful choice in a time of war. Whose choice was it really?

Boston Legal: Bang Bang (spec script) Semifinalist, Scriptapalooza.

My Life in Danger (short drama 3min) When does attempted rape warrant self-defence of deadly force?

Crime of Passion (short drama 3min) The perfect solution to crimes of “passion”

Night Moves (short drama 3min) A one-night stand turns into something much, much more.

The Hook (Up) (short drama 3min) An alternative version of “Night Moves”

The Missing Link (short comedy 3min) Two women and an alien enter a bar…

short video scripts

The Price is Wrong Remember “The Price is Right”? Well …

Take Care of Your Mom While I’m Gone She’s an adult. She needs a ten-year-old to take care of her?

Size Matters What if women were the taller sex? Ask any short man.

If Then The end of our lives as we know them. Can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

Are We Having Fun Yet? Anti-violence-on-tv public television spot

Home for the Holidays A Christmas reality show.

What is Wrong with this Picture? Nothing. There’s no reason women can’t be the superordinates and men the subordinates. But life’s not like that (yet).

The Mr. America Beauty Pageant A spoof of the Miss America Pageant

Minding Our Own Business A collection of skits (including “The Price is Not Quite Right,” “Singin’ in the (Acid) Rain,” “Adverse Reactions,” “The Band-Aid Solution,” and “See Jane. See Dick.”) with a not-so-subtle environmental message

Rot in Hell A soapbox zealot and an atheist face off…