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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in sexual abuse

 END SEXUAL VIOLENCE – WE WILL NOT BE SILENT

 As we begin Pride Month...

 

Hey Smartwater™: your recent “stunt double” ad is seriously f*cked -up.

 

Dramatis Personae:

Actor, sitting next to

Stunt Double: Clothes and hair like actor's, but actor is plain and short; stunt double is tall and handsome.

Doctor

 

Set:

Medical Clinic, Waiting Room

 

Actor: I'm smart. I let my stunt double do the dangerous stuff.

(Actor and stunt double take simultaneous swigs of Smartwater.)

Doctor: (Approaches from behind.) Mr. ___?

(Doctor flourishes clamp of the type used to castrate male animals. Close-up of clamp.)

(Stunt double looks dubious, but gets up and follows doctor.)

Actor: (Calls out to doctor, not looking) Do we get a lollipop after?

 

Well, ha-dee ha ha.

I'll leave aside the numerous examples of stereotyping going on in this ad.

(The castrating doctor is a woman. She's also Asian. The good-looking guy is dumb....I could go on.)

Surely we can all agree that sexual violence against women is intolerable, not to mention unsuitable for an ad meant to sell a product. How, then, is sexual violence against men any different?

On top of which, we're supposed to find sexual violence against a man's body funny? He's cute and dumb; therefore, he deserves it?

As we all know, men never experience sexual violence. Therefore, it's OK to laugh about, right?

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Considering--as a friend and colleague recently pointed out to me--how much "recyclable" plastic never gets recycled (Gods help us
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I recently saw that add for the first time. Good to know I'm not the only one offended by it. Wasn't planning to buy Smartwater
On the Sex Scandals in Christendom, or: Why Religions Need Goddesses and Priestesses

To misquote Euripides: Alas, ill-rule in Christendom.

If you were thinking that the ongoing (and systemic) sexual abuse in the “Catholic” Church was a product of a misguided policy of clerical celibacy, think again.

As it turns out, the Southern Baptist Church, the US's largest Protestant denomination, has the same problem.

Particularly disturbing here is the fact that both churches have routinely acted to protect the organizations themselves rather than the victimized. Equally disturbing is the routine failure of both organizations to report sexual criminals to secular authorities. Christians have a long history of thinking that they're above the law.

One point is only a point. Two points make a line.

Christians of the world: the rest of us are really starting to wonder if this kind of thing is built into your religion.

Abuse of power—and, in particular, sexual abuse of power—is not, of course, only a Christian problem. Given power, human beings have demonstrated again and again their capacity to abuse that power, and by male human beings, alas, such abuse is all too often enacted sexually.

That's why societies—and religions, in particular—need built-in checks and balances.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
In Chief

 Warning: Contains Vulgarities

Abuser-in-Chief

Blowhard-in-Chief

Chump-in-Chief

Dotard-in-Chief

Embarrassment-in-Chief

Flip-flopper-in-Chief

Grabber-in-Chief

Hater-in-Chief

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    To Any Yetis Who May Have been Offended by This Post: My profound apologies for my unthinking Yetiphobia. I am currently enrolled
  • Gus diZerega
    Gus diZerega says #
    A good start except for your slur on yetis... :-)
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Silicon Valley doesn't own English, and long after Silicon Valley is gone, English will still be here. BtW, "Yahoo-in-Chief" is
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I was actually thinking of the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary meaning. 1 : a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulli
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    So nice to read single digit intelligence on PaganSquare.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Snake Rots from the Head

My “crime” was walking while gay.

The car slowed as it drove past. Two guys leaned out of the windows, wolf-whistled, and shouted out sexual comments in my direction.

They were clearly not gay. This was not real desire, however swinishly expressed.

No, their intent was to humiliate.

Because, of course, the worst thing that you can possibly do to another man is to treat him like you would treat a woman.

Gods, I thought. So this is what women put up with.

That abuse of power and concomitant sexual harassment are societally endemic should surprise no one.

Media moguls, executives, and legislators are (finally) getting some well-earned comeuppance. Calls for the resignation of abusers are, at long last, being heard from every quarter.

I say, let's start from the top: with the Abuser-in-Chief and the Chief Justice Abuser.

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Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I was reading as much as I could of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" and it seems that this sort of abuse h
Tarot and #MeToo: Healing with the Cards

Today I have a deep (and for some, triggering) message about tarot magick, inspired by the #MeToo conversation.

This hashtag points out the number of people, both female and male, who have been sexually assaulted, abused and harassed.

...
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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • The Cunning Wīfe
    The Cunning Wīfe says #
    Thank you for this! These are great ideas, and I've been looking for ways to use tarot for more than divination.
  • Christiana Gaudet
    Christiana Gaudet says #
    Thank you so much for reading and commenting. Yes, tarot has many uses - for inspiration, magick, healing and more! Very often, i

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
A Warning to All Students of the Craft

 Caveat discipulus.

(“Let the student beware.”)

There may be some things that unquestioning obedience can teach you.

The Craft isn't one of them.

The Wise take initiative. The Wise know how to say No.

Alas, it needs to be repeated in every generation.

If your teacher wants you to do something that you don't feel right doing, Grab your broomstick and get out of there.

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Pagan News Beagle: Faithful Friday, May 26 2017

Taoism finds an unexpected appeal among young people. A look at the revolutionary spirit of Sikhism. And how a Muslim victim of abuse is making her voice heard. It's Faithful Friday, our news segment about faiths and religious communities around the world! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

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