Female journalist struck by Algerian player after World Cup loss

As you may have noticed from my string of recent posts about the World Cup, soccer has been on my mind lately.

Yesterday morning I watched the USA's rather dramatic 1-0 defeat of Algeria, a win that came in stoppage time and was a necessary outcome if the USA was to advance to the next round of play.

Today I read that after the game, Algerian player Rafik Saifi slapped a female Algerian journalist, Asma Halimi, without provocation. Halimi struck him back.

I understand that losing a World Cup game must be an emotional experience, but that is no excuse for striking a woman, or anyone else. Sadly, violence against women on soccer game days is not unheard of.

Violent mating habits of certain invertebrates

Two days ago I was watching a show on Animal Planet called "Monsters Inside Me" and one of the cases on the show was of a woman who was being infected with bed bugs. That's when I first heard of "traumatic insemination."

Traumatic insemination is a mating practice that takes place among some species of invertebrates (including bed bugs and even some spiders). The process apparently differs slightly depending on the species, but generally involves the male piercing the female's back and injecting sperm into the abdomen.

Of course I had to do more research on this topic and came across this piece (including pictures that may be NSFW) about male seed beetles whose penises are covered with spikes that injure the females. It also discussed the violent sexual practices of some other species which made me cringe while reading.

Despite explaining how the female seed beetle has developed some defenses "so that the damage inflicted by the males doesn't affect her too badly," my new knowledge of the violent mating practices of some species was rather disturbing because it seems that females of many species are no strangers to sexual violence.

Monster-ous Advertising: Monster Energy and violent masculinity

As some readers may know, two of my biggest interests as a feminist are gender and advertising. The messages advertising sends are important to understand. They help reinforce our understanding of the world, especially the gendered aspects. These messages are everywhere and they can hardly be ignored.

I work at a convenience store on my college campus, and a few weeks ago I was stocking a cooler of Monster Energy drinks when the violence associated with their drinks became unavoidable. To start with the name Monster and their logo which is the letter "M" made out of three claw marks. Both the name and the image convey a certain level of animal aggression that carries through to all the products that they market. I took some pictures on my phone to post here.

Notice the product name above (M-80) and how the zero resembles the cross hairs on a sight of a gun (the Khaos drink also uses this tactic).

I think the Monster Assault* was the most disturbing to me. I know that part of my strong reaction was due to the fact that sexual assault has been a very hot topic at my college, so seeing the word assault automatically put some very troubling ideas in my head. I will not say that Monster's choice of drink name in any way was intended to imply anything relating to sexual assault, but that does not free them from the consequences of the choice.

At a very practical level, what is the point of calling an energy drink "Assault"? Not only does it give no indication of the drink's taste, but it is a word with numerous bad connotations. What are we to think about this product? That it helps prepare one for assault?

No. Monster is playing a typical advertising game in which a very aggressive, even violent, masculinity becomes as much of a product as the drink that the company is actually trying to sell.

I make the assertion that the violence being marketed here is masculine for several reasons.

First, violence and aggression are generally viewed in this society as masculine traits. In the gender dichotomy we are taught to think in/live by, women are associated with a timid femininity. Men, on the other hand, are associated with an assertive, agressive, and even acceptably violent masculinity.

Second, if you view the Monster Energy Drink website you will find a section entitled "Monster Girls" that showcases the type of women that men are supposed to find attractive (thin, big boobed, hardly dressed, sexually available -- look at the bios).

Clearly, these drinks are meant to be masculine. They are meant to appeal to men.

The problem, therefore, lies in the violent aggression in the words used on Monster products. Buying into the masculine = violent stereotypes to sell products only perpetuates troubling ideas about gender. If boys and men are taught to believe (from TV, family, friends, magazines, and even energy drinks) that in order to be real men, they must be violent, or at least be interested in violence, the implications are frightening. Such beliefs can manifest themselves in numerous, problematic ways. Verbal violence, domestic violence, sexual assault. All of these are very real problems that are added to when violent masculinity is sold to boys and men everywhere they turn.

In a society where only one kind of masculinity (that is agressive and has no room for compassion or other off setting characteristics) is accepted and being taught to our boys and men, it is no wonder that violence is such a problem.


*On the back of the Monster Assault can is printed the following: At Monster we don't get too hung up on politics. We're not for "the War," against "the War," or any war for that matter. We put the "camo" pattern on our new Monster Assault can because we think it looks cool. Plus it helps us fire up to fight the big multi-national companies who dominate the beverage business. We'll leave politics to the politicians and just keep doing what we do best - make the meanest energy supplements on the planet. Declare war on the ordinary! Grab a Monster Assault and Viva LA REVOLUTION! www.monsterenergy.com. That's their side of it. I'll leave that without comment, except I wonder what they say about their Monster Hitman energy shooters?

Crashing a car into a PP clinic is a VIOLENT act

There's been a lot happening at the Ford Parkway St. Paul Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota lately. The Archbishop of the St. Paul/Minneapolis diocese showed up at a Good Friday protest that the clinic traditionally uses to raise funds through "sponsor a protester" - by showing up himself, more anti-choice protesters showed up and inadvertently raised more funds for the clinic.

Also, back in January Matthew Derosia crashed his SUV into the front of the clinic, saying Jesus told him to do so. He plead guilty and sentenced to 111 days in jail last week, but the state is now looking to have him committed for mental illness.

Derosia's mother, Georjean Derosia, and the radical Army of God group have rallied to his cause, sending out fundraising emails. In an email explaining her actions to the Minnesota Independant, Georjean wrote, "[It is] the state of Minnesota’s intention to LOCK UP my son for a non-violent protest against Planned Parenthood for THE REST OF HIS LIFE!!!"

I don't know about you, but RAMMING A SUV INTO A BUILDING IS NOT NON-VIOLENT. It is violent at its very core, done with an intent of inflicting destruction. If you hit a person with a car, it is a violent act. Just because he didn't physically injure anyone doesn't mean it's not violence. I'd be willing to bet that the women and men who work in and go to that clinic have experienced emotional violence as a result of his actions.

While I hope Derosia gets the mental help he may need, his actions were certainly not non-violent. I hope Georjean and the Army of God recognize this, because it's certainly not helping their case at all.

Why TV sucks: Part three

I decided that this segment would better be titled "Why TV sucks" so I could include this commercial that I have never actually seen but found via a guest post at Shakesville.



No comment.

Other parts in this newly re-named serious: One. Two.

Why isn't violence against women a hate crime?

I was reading a book and came across stats on hate crimes in the United States, and began thinking about the various signifiers we consider protected under hate crime legislation. It led me to this thought:

Why isn't violence against women on the basis of their gender considered a hate crime?*

I don't necessarily have an answer to this and I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. However, gender (along with race, sexual orientation, disability, etc) is protected under the equal protection clause, so it's notable that it's not included. Protecting gender under hate crimes laws would change how street harassment, sexual violence and rape cases are viewed, in my opinion.

I can certainly think of many acts of violence done specifically against women and girls because they are women and girls.

*Edit - added "on the basis of their gender" added 2/26 at 11:30 EST for clarification reasons.

When the fear and threat of sexualized violence is gone, I will...

The Women's Center at my school is preparing for Take Back the Night and they're going around videotaping people, asking them to finish this sentence:

When the fear and threat of sexualized violence is gone, I will...



What will you do?

Father beaten for protecting daugther from sexual assault

Out of Minnesota:

The father of a 12-year-old girl who tried to keep a young man from groping his daughter at a popular Shakopee amusement park was seriously hurt late on July 4 after he was allegedly kicked and stomped by a group of men in an attack police called "brutal."

The attack on the unnamed man, which happened just outside Valleyfair Amusement Park, resulted in charges against at least six Twin Cities-area men. They were among several people the initial attacker called on his cell phone to summon them to join the assault.

The group beat up the father as his wife and daughter looked on, police said. The man was seriously injured and unconscious when police arrived.

"We see assaults, but that's brutal," Shakopee police Sgt. Jay Arras said.

Arras said the man and his family were leaving Valleyfair shortly before midnight on July 4 when a man "tried to grab the 12-year-old girl in a sexual manner" near the park exit, the father later told police.

They caught the attackers and six men and a 14 year old boy are being charged with third-degree felony assault charges. The father is recovering, but doctors aren't sure how extensive the damage is and are waiting until his swelling goes down.

I'm with Feministing - there are just too many horrific stories about sexual violence, harassment, racism and hatred today.

Wanted: Snuff porn and women-hatin' in a two hour package

Note: this post contains plot spoilers. Entirely predictable spoilers, but nonetheless be warned.

You know, I really regret not walking out of Wanted and asking for my money back. I also really regret not expressing how much I hated this movie to the male friends I saw it with.

Wanted was about as close as you can get to snuff porn without actually watching something illegal. The movie's only redeemable quality is that the script decided to throw in some existential fate plot themes at the end, just to break up the monotony of violent garbage.

The camera angles made me nauseous. Fight scenes, which were the entirety of the movie, were shot in such a shaky manner that I felt like I had eaten twenty pounds of nachos and then rode state fair rides for three hours straight. Then they were slowed down, randomly, so that the audience could get a good look at the blood and bruises. Know what is the only thing more exciting than two hours of violence? Two hours of slow-motion violence. Oh yeah!

Not only did the movie glorify violence, the protagonist's goal of using such violence is to "be the man". Several times in the story, the protagonist fervently wishes for someone to utter the exact words, "you are the man!" When someone does, it is only in recognition of his violent ways and hot love interest. In case you did not catch that, violence is exciting! Killing people on command, emotionlessly, is the definition of manhood! Where's the moral of the story? When I could find one, it was that the purpose of life is to be as much of a badass violent jerk as possible. Because that's exciting, whereas being a normal citizen is pathetic.

So besides the glorification of violence, what else did Wanted have to offer? The million dollar question, my dear readers, is the hatred of women.

Although there are a slew of men in the film (duh, it's an action film), there are only three women. Let's go over their roles.

1. Janice the fat boss - Janice was the bitchy boss that everyone in the audience should love to hate. Her shrill relentless tone and overly made-up face is supposed to be as comical as her girth. Women in power are fat and annoying, or so the writers of Wanted think. Our protagonist gets his comeuppance by telling her to stop being a bitch (seriously, that's the exact word he uses) and expresses some sort of vague pity for her grotesque fatness, which is apparently the reason why she could be such a horrible person to him.

2. Cathy the ex-girlfriend - Cathy is skinny, but she's also a whore. She sleeps with his best-friend, because that's what women do, you know. Them women always take advantage of teh menz. The only interaction she seems to have with the protagonist is to nag and complain. Then the movie switches to a completely unnecessary sex scene where the audience gets their fill. Because Cathy is skinny, she gets to be fucked. But she's still portrayed as a bitch, and a whore.

3. Fox the assassin - Jolie could have potentially played an empowered female role. Little to my surprise, nothing is further than the truth. I should have known as soon as her code name was revealed as "Fox". Jolie's only purpose in this film is to teach Wesley how to be bad ass, inspire him to magically curve a bullet with his awesome chauvinist powers to avoid hitting her, be the victim of a violent crime as a child to inspire her to kill people, show her bare ass for no apparent reason, make out with him in front of his ex to show that bitch how manly Wesley is, and then kill herself in the process of saving him.

What have I learned from Wanted? Well, I learned that if you're fat and a woman, you're a horrible bitch. I learned that if you are skinny and a woman, you're a horrible nag and a whore. I learned that if you are skinny, powerful, and a woman, you're a pornorific plot device who gets to play second fiddle to someone with less experience than you, have the honor of having sex (or at least appearing to) with the male protagonist, and then kill yourself for him.

I also learned that gratuitous violence is really really awesome if it is accompanied by horrible camera techniques, pointless slow-motion, and a complete void of morality.

Wanted looks and feels like a teenage porn addict and gun enthusiast's wet dream. If I did not know better, I would have thought that it was satire. Of course, the only thing more pathetic than someone thought that this could possibly be a good movie is that seemingly everyone thinks it was a good movie.

(Cross-posted)

Indian woman, accused of being a witch, tied and beaten

A woman in India, accused of being a witch, was tied to a tree and beaten. A journalist filmed the incident before calling the police. The woman suffered no serious injuries, and the authorities arrested "six people, including the man who admitted to hiring her services as a witch. They were due to appear before a magistrate on Friday."

It was reported that such an incident of mob justice was not isolated. Several men were also beaten, one to death, in 2007.

Violence is nothing new. Violence against women is (sadly) not unheard of. But how could this journalist watch this woman be beaten and not do anything until after he had gotten his film footage? The fact that this journalist eventually did call the police shows that they were not completely unaffected by the situation. Why, then, did they not try to get the police involved sooner?