Uppity-Negro.com

One of the brick walls I've been smacking into trying to write about anydamnthing lately (leading to veiny evil) is how language, particularly having to do with politics, sexuality, or even worse both, has been, oh, let's just say corrupted all to hell.

Can't put all the blame for this on Newt Gingrich and company, but since they explicitly spelled out how to go about it, I will anyway. Fuckers.

Any road up, a quote (of a quote) from Rape Language (reprinted with permission from "Reforging Relationships: intimacy without violence" by David Frazee and Suzanne O'Brien from the Stanford Rape Education Project.):

"I'm not aware of any common English phrases that allow one to express sexual desire in a way that acknowledges both lust and humanity." - Timothy Beneke in "Men on Rape"

Which I stumbled upon searching for more info on the book. I'm still slowly working my way through it; it's one of those things you have to put down and walk away from, from time to time.

Note carefully the word "common" in there, particularly if you're thinking about arguing the point.

And also "phrases," since some of the problems I'm running into, not just with writing but also reading, is a tendency (at the slightly higher, discourse level) to structure narratives, both personal and political, in certain, well-established ways.

That's a mess of a sentence. One very clear example, which ties back into the book, is how rape/sexual assault (and this combines the personal and political; doesn't everything?) is defined, prosecuted, defended against, related, etc.

I really hate that etc. at the end of that previous sentence, but got tired of trying to come up with a better way of ending it that didn't involve a hell of a lot of circumlocution, which ties back to the point of this entry, if it has one.

An example: Sisyphus Shrugged - yet another reason the girls see the world different than the boys:

Three guys on one unconscious underaged girl, with videotape? Repeat after me, campers: She asked for it. You know, before she was unconscious.

At the May 3 start of the Orange County trial of three teenage boys accused of gang-raping an unconscious minor, a defense attorney made a startling assertion: the alleged victim enticed the "sweet," "caring," "kind" defendants into a sexual frenzy and then, while faking unconsciousness, sexually assaulted them. At one point, the attorney, an incredulous Joseph G. Cavallo, blurted out to the jury, "Why isn�t she being charged with this crime?"

And another, Alternet: Rape Nation:

Dorothy Mackey is not alone. She and other women veterans recounted their experiences at the National Summit of Women Veterans Issues in Washington, DC June 19th and 20th. As an officer, scores of women had come to Mackey and told her about abuse and rapes they had suffered, by officers, fellow enlisted men and doctors. Many of the attacks involved servicemen intentionally getting women drunk or drugging them and taking them off base.

"When you are a new woman walking onto a military base, you are like a deer and it's deer hunting season, but you don't know it," she said. "You think you can trust these people, you believe in the mission you are on together."

With that last one, I left out the bit about the ob-gyn visits.

Mostly because they deviate even more from the standard narrative.

As for the one before that, in comments one learns that the jury deadlocked. That article provides a helpful list of ten reasons they may have reached this decision, including:

7. Mysterious "morning after" pill. [Jane] Doe testified that she had no memory of sex�unprotected or not�at the July 6 party, but the next day, she took a friend to a Planned Parenthood office, where she requested the so-called "morning after" pill that blocks pregnancy. Haidl and Spann had used condoms during their July 5 consensual encounters with her, but no one wore condoms during the videotaped gangbang.

Because why say emergency contraception when you can say "so-called 'morning after' pill," with sneer quotes and all? And make the whole thing sound all mysterious, and explicitly mention Planned Parenthood?

Ok, I might edit this for clarity or less rantyness at some point.

When I'm slightly less pissed off.