Worth a read.
Forwarded from Ginasketch.
Reading about Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearings for Secretary of State today, I saw her words about violence against women in the Congo, and I was so happy I laughed and then sobbed a bit. For the last eight years violence against women and girls, in America and elsewhere, has skyrocketed. Rape is used as a tool of war, of oppression, of terror against the world's most vulnerable. It's been this way, well, since forever, but at least in the former Yugoslavia people acknowledged the horror of it. That horror has been swept under the carpet during the Shrub years. To hear an elected official, soon to be the head of our diplomacy efforts, acknowledge this and then state that this will be a priority in the incoming Administration made me wildly happy.
The Commander happened to walk by as I laughed. He asked what was funny. I replied, "Not funny, just happy and relieved." "Oh, really? Why?"
So I told him.
He didn't get it.
I asked him, "Commander, do you know what fistula is?"
He said he didn't.
So I told him.
"A fistula, Commander, is what happens to women in the Congo when they are raped as a tool of war. They are gang raped by a group of roving tribal guerillas. They are raped until their vaginas and rectums are torn and bleeding. Then the guerillas put the barrel of a gun into a woman's vagina, and pull the trigger. The gunshot wound rips their genito-urinary tracts apart. It destroys their bladders, their rectums, their wombs. If these women do not die immediately, they leak urine and feces through multiple orifices. If they do not get medical attention within two days, they die horribly and in agony from sepsis. This torture is inflicted upon 100,000 women in the Congo every year. THAT, Commander, is what Senator Clinton is talking about when she says that stopping the rape of women in the Congo is a priority."
He looked pale.
I continued.
"You see, Commander, when you think of a terrorist, you think from a straight white American military male perspective. You get an image in your mind of a guy with brown skin, hijacking a plane or a cargo ship, maybe with a dirty bomb or ricin. You see someone who can be stopped with the right amount of law enforcement and military intelligence, and an operation to stop an attack. Women, particularly minority and lesbian women, have a slightly different perspective."
He said he didn't follow.
I told him that was okay, just to listen, and he might understand better. I continued.
"See, men fear being embarrassed and rejected by women. Women fear being harassed, stalked, raped, beaten, broken, and murdered by men. Women in the Congo fear being gang-raped and shot in the vagina by men. Women in America, especially minority women, fear being harassed, raped, and not believed, or blamed because they 'drank too much' or 'dressed provocatively' or simply because society doesn't care if a woman is raped unless she's white and rich and some important man's wife or daughter. Lesbian women fear being stalked, harassed, assaulted, and raped by men in an attempt to 'fuck them straight,' and then ignored by police who think lesbians aren't 'real women.' For women, terrorists are not necessarily men with explosives who are making a political or religious statement by killing themselves and/or a lot of other people. Terrorists are the men who shoot women in the vagina as a method of torture. THAT, sir, is why I am so pleased at Senator Clinton's words. She acknowledges that systemic rape of women as a tool of war is a form of terrorism, of torture, that it is an international problem, and it needs to be stopped. No one is the Bush Administration bothered to think about the women of the Congo, or the women of Iraq or Afghanistan, or even the U.S. military women whose rapes and murders are being covered up because women's lives are expendable to them. That's not true anymore, and it makes me HAPPY."
The Commander looked a little unsettled.
Good.
Keori: Fucking with the straight white christian privileged male paradigm full-time since 1992.
EDIT: Yes, by all means, if you liked this as much as you say you do, link to it. Filter, un-filtered, I care not. Bring it on. Deletion and bannination of MRA trollz is only a click away. You'll notice there are plenty of strong, intelligent, truly good men who hang out here and don't whine about how meeeeaaaaan I am for pointing out the utter horror that is being gang-raped and shot point-blank range in the vagina as punishment for being born female. If MRA trollz don't like it, they can go cry into their stale beer over at RedState or Freeper land or wherever they sluff off to these days. My lj. MINE.
thanks to ginasketch and keori
Reading about Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearings for Secretary of State today, I saw her words about violence against women in the Congo, and I was so happy I laughed and then sobbed a bit. For the last eight years violence against women and girls, in America and elsewhere, has skyrocketed. Rape is used as a tool of war, of oppression, of terror against the world's most vulnerable. It's been this way, well, since forever, but at least in the former Yugoslavia people acknowledged the horror of it. That horror has been swept under the carpet during the Shrub years. To hear an elected official, soon to be the head of our diplomacy efforts, acknowledge this and then state that this will be a priority in the incoming Administration made me wildly happy.
The Commander happened to walk by as I laughed. He asked what was funny. I replied, "Not funny, just happy and relieved." "Oh, really? Why?"
So I told him.
He didn't get it.
I asked him, "Commander, do you know what fistula is?"
He said he didn't.
So I told him.
"A fistula, Commander, is what happens to women in the Congo when they are raped as a tool of war. They are gang raped by a group of roving tribal guerillas. They are raped until their vaginas and rectums are torn and bleeding. Then the guerillas put the barrel of a gun into a woman's vagina, and pull the trigger. The gunshot wound rips their genito-urinary tracts apart. It destroys their bladders, their rectums, their wombs. If these women do not die immediately, they leak urine and feces through multiple orifices. If they do not get medical attention within two days, they die horribly and in agony from sepsis. This torture is inflicted upon 100,000 women in the Congo every year. THAT, Commander, is what Senator Clinton is talking about when she says that stopping the rape of women in the Congo is a priority."
He looked pale.
I continued.
"You see, Commander, when you think of a terrorist, you think from a straight white American military male perspective. You get an image in your mind of a guy with brown skin, hijacking a plane or a cargo ship, maybe with a dirty bomb or ricin. You see someone who can be stopped with the right amount of law enforcement and military intelligence, and an operation to stop an attack. Women, particularly minority and lesbian women, have a slightly different perspective."
He said he didn't follow.
I told him that was okay, just to listen, and he might understand better. I continued.
"See, men fear being embarrassed and rejected by women. Women fear being harassed, stalked, raped, beaten, broken, and murdered by men. Women in the Congo fear being gang-raped and shot in the vagina by men. Women in America, especially minority women, fear being harassed, raped, and not believed, or blamed because they 'drank too much' or 'dressed provocatively' or simply because society doesn't care if a woman is raped unless she's white and rich and some important man's wife or daughter. Lesbian women fear being stalked, harassed, assaulted, and raped by men in an attempt to 'fuck them straight,' and then ignored by police who think lesbians aren't 'real women.' For women, terrorists are not necessarily men with explosives who are making a political or religious statement by killing themselves and/or a lot of other people. Terrorists are the men who shoot women in the vagina as a method of torture. THAT, sir, is why I am so pleased at Senator Clinton's words. She acknowledges that systemic rape of women as a tool of war is a form of terrorism, of torture, that it is an international problem, and it needs to be stopped. No one is the Bush Administration bothered to think about the women of the Congo, or the women of Iraq or Afghanistan, or even the U.S. military women whose rapes and murders are being covered up because women's lives are expendable to them. That's not true anymore, and it makes me HAPPY."
The Commander looked a little unsettled.
Good.
Keori: Fucking with the straight white christian privileged male paradigm full-time since 1992.
EDIT: Yes, by all means, if you liked this as much as you say you do, link to it. Filter, un-filtered, I care not. Bring it on. Deletion and bannination of MRA trollz is only a click away. You'll notice there are plenty of strong, intelligent, truly good men who hang out here and don't whine about how meeeeaaaaan I am for pointing out the utter horror that is being gang-raped and shot point-blank range in the vagina as punishment for being born female. If MRA trollz don't like it, they can go cry into their stale beer over at RedState or Freeper land or wherever they sluff off to these days. My lj. MINE.
thanks to ginasketch and keori