If You Don’t Like It, Then Leave
This is one saying that is sure to get me thoroughly pissed off every time. Beyond that, it’s flat out disappointing.
Most of the time it’s used to refer to anyone who doesn’t agree with the rules or standards of a place. Most recently I’ve heard it used to refer to anyone not patriotic enough to support Australia Day. So my objections in this instance exist on two levels.
1) Australia Day is celebrated on the day the First Fleet landed in Australia. To quote Wikipedia (*shudders*) “the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.” So we actually spend one day of every year celebrating the event that led to the persecution and opression of the Aboriginals. And if you dare to mention this, or even just dare to avoid any kind of celebrations, you’re unpatriotic. How evil I am to not want to celebrate other human beings despair. Most of the people I’ve raised this objection to have said that given no one remembers the history of Australia Day, it’s no longer racist or problematic. This is full of white privilege and ignorance. Not everyone has forgotten. Aboriginals, just for a start, still remember what the day means.
2) This country pretends to be a democracy. In a true democracy, if you don’t like something, you have the right to protest. When the government does things wrong you have the right, if not the duty, to protest and to attempt to hold them accountable. Sayings like this are a way of silencing dissenters, and they will are not helpful for anyone.
The last thing I’d want to mention is that this kind of sentiment, in this country, is normally directed at immigrants. Now moving beyond the irony here given the history of Australia Day, immigrants have as much right and duty to question the government as anyone born here.
Stupid Sitcoms and Oblivious Men
Both combine to make me bitter.
A couple of nights ago I had dinner with a few friends and one of them turned the TV on afterwards. The show he wanted to watch so desperately is called ‘The Rules of Engagement’ and I had never had the misfortune to encounter it before this night. I hope I never see it again.
There were two plots running through the episode we saw, and both were so chock full of misogyny, I don’t know how anyone can claim women are seen as equal human beings, I honestly don’t.
David Spade, possibly the biggest Giant Baby (TM) to ever walk the Earth, featured in the first. His character had decided he had fallen in love with a woman the first time he saw her, but had no contact info for her. His ‘brilliant’ plan was to ride the elevator in her apartment building for a week til he saw her again. When he did see her again (need I add that she was blonde, gorgeous, thin and had big boobs? I didn’t think so), she freaked out at his stalking and sprayed pepper spray in her eyes. Part of me cheered at a TV show actually depicting stalking having some negative consequences for once.
Then the two men I was watching it with said that his big mistake was mentioning he’d been in the elevator for a week as it made him sound like a stalker. So there’s no problem with the stalking itself, you just have to be sure to hide it from the victim. They also described her as over reacting. Clearly it’s a perfectly normal reaction for a guy who has only seen a woman once to stalk her in an elevator for a week. But for said woman to be scared when confronted with this? Overreacting, of course. I deserve a reward for not ‘over reacting’ to their comments.
The second storyline involved two married couples wherein the men spent the entire twenty minutes demeaning and sidelining their wives just for the sheer fun of it.
The thing about these shows and the way they depict the sexes is, they’re offensive to men and women. If I was a male, I (hope I) would be genuinely appalled at being depicted this way. Honestly, these shows are doing none of us any favours. So it would be nice if the men joined our side for once and did the arguing for us. Might save us the energy to fight for things like reproductive rights and an end to sex slavery.
Just Joking
Alright here’s the scoop for all you men out there who think you’re allies.*
Making misogynistic comments and then laughing at the look on the face of the closest feminist, and laughing at her as she starts a rant is not the behaviour of an ally. It hurts the cause more than you realise. It also shows that you’re an arsehole. Stop it.
If you truly honestly think you’re a feminist ally, and please don’t call yourself a feminist**, then ACT LIKE ONE. It is NOT funny to say hateful mean shit and then laugh at the reaction.
If you really agree with feminist thought, you’d know how horrible this shit is. Just. Stop. It.
*Blame Scrubs for the wording there. It’s a damn addictive show and I’m almost finished watching Season 2 for the fourth time.
** Any ally who insists on calling himself a feminist against the wishes of the very group he’s purporting to support, isn’t. No fighting about this in the comments. I don’t want to hear your excuses. I just want you to figure out how to be an ally.
smh gets it VERY wrong
Dear Reporters at smh (specifically, Chris Johnston and his editors, but y’all can feel free to pay attention),
When you are reporting on the rape of a child that spanned four years of her life, starting at age 14, it is NOT, under any circumstances whatsoever, ok to report it as a ‘sexual relationship’.
It is rape. It is pedophilia. It is a horrible disgusting thing that should never have been done to somebody, let alone perpetrated by someone in a position of care over the child.
And no, I don’t care if you were merely reporting what the school friends told you. Still not appropriate. It’s not a consenting sexual relationship between two adults. (Also, given that you didn’t use quote marks around the phrase, you can’t claim you’re just reporting a straight quote).
Get your act together smh. This is unacceptable and disappointing.
Sincerely pissed off,
Whyimbitter.
MEMO TO MEN IN ACADEMIA
You can do a feminist reading of a text without being a woman.
It is 100% possibly to read a text from a feminist lens without possesing a vagina. There is no need to follow up the comment “very good feminist reading [male name]” with “I am woman, hear me roar”.
I don’t care if you’re joking, you’re an idiot and it wasn’t funny.
University On Campus Day
And wow do I have some shocking things to talk about after a full day at uni. What is wrong with people today?
I’m not going to put it all in one post because I will need breaks in between to stop me having an aneurysm at the stupidity and ignorance of people I’m forced to attend class with.
So the first comment I’m going to look at comes from Main Arsehat. I’ll refer to him a lot over the next few posts, and so will shorten it to MArse. I’m not giving him the abbreviation MA because that’s an academic abbreviation he doesn’t deserve.
I supported my wife through pregnancy and the first years of the kid, it’s her turn to support me through university. She had her turn, now it’s my turn to stay at home with the kids and study for my degree.
Alright men, listen up. Your wife taking time off work to pop out kids is NOT the same thing as you taking time off to faff around at uni. He’s not doing something like engineering, or teaching, or something with an end career in sight. He’s doing Philosophy. My point being, this degree isn’t something he needs to do to follow the path of success and help support his family. It’s something he wants, and he wants it for himself alone. Not even the same ballgame as taking time off to give birth.
Second point, taking time off work to do the physically and emotionally draining (I assume) task of popping the kids out is not the same as taking time off work when they’re two or three to hang out with them. Even staying home for however long is needed AFTER they’re born is not the same thing.
This guy needs a major smackdown and his wife needs some super awesome feminist friends to help her give it to him.
Internet woes.
My internet at home is no longer working. This sucks. The stupid macho tech guys that I rang to help me fix it were worse than useless. First, I had to go through not just a voice menu, but a voice troubleshooting guide. It was so bad and basic it made me cry. Finally I gave up and said ‘consultant’ to indicate they needed to put a real human being through as soon as possible. And then they did and I wished they hadn’t. A smarmy arsed male came on the line and asked if I was suing a router to connect. As it so happens I am, but I’m computer literate enough to know that it’s NOT the router currently causing the problem. They don’t care. He told me that I need to connect the modem directly to a computer or they couldn’t help me. I tried to explain that this would take longer, and that it doesn’t perform as well on our computers when we do it that. Mr Man advised that what I was saying doesn’t make sense as computers perform better and the connection would be faster connected directly to my computer. I hung up on him and went to work.
When I got home, I rang and got a different male on the phone. I explained to him it was not the router that was causing the problem and that if he insisted on connecting the modem directly to the computer, he would need to talk me through the connection process as neither of our computers are already set up and it’s more complicated than just plugging it in. Dude asked me exactly which lights WERE lit up on my modem. I told him AGAIN which ones they were and he replied with “well it’s not the router then” NO SHIT SHERLOCK. So after asking me AGAIN if I’ve reset the modem, checked all the plugs etc, he said he can’t fix it and he needs to send someone out.
Can you believe it??? Colour me annoyed.
