Ex Cathedra

Amber Rhea, who is on top of my list of the people I would hate the most to have after me when I do wrong, wrote a brilliant list of how to be a feminist ally. I won’t quote them all here. Read them on her site and the sites she’s linked to.

I can add only one more: be clear to yourself and transparent to others about who your words and actions are really empowering.

And no sooner did I post this than I heard many of the ramifications of “feminist” and “advocate” Kyle Payne allegedly assaulting a woman.

I’m gravely suspicious of the whole “advocate” role Payne claimed. Exactly who does that role empower?

My put is there are no advocates, there are no male feminists, there are no allies, there are no cookies.

There are only people doing the right thing with people they respect and care about. If we men can’t be clear with ourselves and transparent with others about what’s behind our words and actions, we’re being useless or worse. And if we aren’t inner directed enough to take that, we need to tough it out.

You’ve probably heard of Lawrence King, the boy who was murdered in his school because he was too effeminate for a few of his classmates.

That kind of thing is over! Please join us in observing theNational Day of Silence : April 25, 2008 Click that link and find out how you can get involved.

Most important of all, if you’ve got kids from middle school through college, ask them to find out about it and make up their own minds.

[I]s sexism worse than racism, so we need to vote for Hillary because things would change more, or is racism worse than sexism, so we need to vote for Hillary because Obama can’t win in the general?

Because we’ve definitely heard both. I don’t know how many Clinton supporters have made the former, from Gloria Steinem to Geraldine Ferraro, and for those of us sitting on the sidelines of these two profoundly complex and privileged people getting caricatured as their race and sex, it’s annoying. And such comments are definitely not moving the discussion forward.

As I’ve said time and time again, to say flatly that one is worse than the other erases the intersections of race and gender, rendering black women invisible and white men normal, denies the way factors such as ability and class play into the lives of the candidates, and ignores the multiple narratives on race and gender that work differently to prevent people from reaching various aspects of their potential. – - Alex Blaze in Bilerico

There’s more in Blaze’s article, including a question by Chris Matthews that made my blood run cold:

Discussing Sen. Barack Obama on the April 1 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): “Let me ask you about how he — how’s he connect with regular people?

Regular people?

But that’s because regular people are white.

Matthews didn’t really make a mistake, because the continuing narrative of the corporate media is that whiteness is rightness; maleness is rightness; straightness is rightness; ability is rightness; speaking English is rightness; religion is rightness, just so long as it’s both Christian and “Christian enough” ; wealth and power are rightness.

“Boo hoo hoo,” say the “regular” Americans. “You must be feeling oppressed. You must want a payoff, a ride on the gravy train. If you aren’t straight, rich, white and able, it’s your fault. There must be something wrong with you. This is the land of free markets and unlimited opportunity.”

I’m outraged and I’m severely tempted to other these obtuse little creatures of privilege, but they need to be brought into America, if only out of compassion.

If you haven’t been living in America for the past 30 years and need to catch up, here’s a Google video of Malcolm X speaking on The Modern Racist Paradigm

Replace “racism” in that speech with  sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, or any of the sicknesses that make intersectionality necessary, and he’s still speaking the truth.

(On hearing of Charlton Heston’s death) “Now we can take his gun!!! hurry!” – Alex Fields ( on Facebook)