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Fun-Fem Roundup: Long Island Serial Killer May 14, 2011

Posted by FCM in entertainment, feminisms, meta, pop culture, prostitution, trans, WTF?.
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as many of you are probably aware, law enforcement on long island, new york has a serial killer on its hands.  and when i say “serial killer” in this case (and as is often the case) i mean a mass-murderer of prostituted women.  and a man is doing this, obviously.  although we all have to pretend that it might be a woman doing it, until we know for sure right?

this isnt the first time this has happened in the area.  long island was also the birthplace of one “Joel Rifkin, a Long Island resident who killed at least nine prostitutes in New York City between 1989 and 1993.”  bold mine.  and those nine (nine!) are just the ones we know about, and represent half of his total known-vicitm count which appears to be 18.  in the current case, 10 bodies have been found decomposing on a long island beach in the last year; four have been identified as prostituted women who found johns on craigslist.

recently it was discovered that the area has been used as a body-dumping ground for awhile; in addition to the four women who were advertising on craiglist (which are believed to have been killed by the same man i mean genderless, sexless human, possibly female) the other bodies are now believed to include other known prostituted women who have been missing for years, and one man and a female child.

so those are the facts, and of course this has made national news.  so what do the fun-fems have to say about all this?  about the safety of prostituted women in the face of the predictable, normalized and routine violence of their johns; about the inherent harms of PIV-centric sexuality to women (okay thats a stretch, and its not like they will ever come clean about that one will they?) or about the fact that we are related to, living next to and partnering with male-bodied persons who believe that prostituted women are essentially warm meat, to be killed and consumed (or consumed, then killed) and thrown away?  or that the cops dont really care about it, because nobody really cares about prostituted women, or any woman?

and how about…the acceptance and persistence of male PIV-entitlement that runs so deep and wide that essentially all women and all men everywhere believe that men are absolutely entitled to PIV-on-demand from any and all women, all the time?  and that raping and killing (or killing then raping) prostitutes is the way some men “have sex”?

welp…see for yourselves.  when i searched the ever-popular fun-fem blog feministe for “long island serial killer” this is what i found:

one result, and its not even about the long island serial killer.  its about “lost.”  the TV show.  and some ads.  now thats good feminist commentary!

next, i performed the same search over at the fun-fem hub itself, feministing.  heres what was returned:*

two hits.  one is about the polar bear club (WTF?) and the other actually does pertain to the long island serial killer!  yay!  so feministing is doing better than feministe, but not by much.  when i read the article, however, this is what i found.  from “Protect Don’t Prosecute: Amnesty for Long Island Sex-Workers“:

Many of you may have heard the the [sic] awful details of a case on Long Island in which the remains of a total of ten people who were killed while apparently doing sex work were discovered on a beach in Long Island. Four identified bodies were women, but they haven’t disclosed the sex of the remaining six bodies.  [yes!  because some of the victims might be men i mean they might actually be human.  one of them *might* even be a transwoman, or a male prostitute, which seems especially compelling now that one of the victims has apparently been identified as a young man.  now that would be worth writing about!]

[some fun-fem] has launched a campaign requesting amnesty for all prostitution related offenses. Amnesty needs to be promised for all sex workers for people to be able to come forward with information about this case.  [see how sneaky that is?  all prostitution-related offenses.  not all prostituted women.  this includes amnesty for johns too!  yay!]

bold, red, italics and brackets mine.  this is feministings summation of the issue:  its “awful,” (at least they didnt say it was “shocking” i guess?) that some “people” (not women) were “killed” (not murdered by men) while they were “working” (yep, just another day at the salt mines!)  and…amnesty for johns!

so help me out here people: should i even bother going to the curvature?  sure ok why not.

i really did save this one for last, i wasnt even going to go, and i wrote this entire piece without knowing.  but in the end was this:

no results found.  could it be any more obvious that an active, experienced radical feminist HUB is desperately needed, and that people seeking out feminist commentary, including (but not limited to) commentary on current events need an alternative?  no.  no, it probably could not.

*since writing this piece, i see that feministing has added one!  when i searched “long island serial killer” on feministing today, 5/14/11, a third hit appeared which is a transcript of a speech given by “friend of feministing” [some fun fem] to rile up the crowd for slutwalk.  heres the phrase that returned this post as a hit to my keyword search:  “Right now, there’s a serial killer loose on Long Island, and the police aren’t doing fuck all about it because he’s mostly killing sex workers.”   okay!  and this unfortunate sidenote i mean gratuitous reference to a decidedly sexxxay current news item is going to be remedied or even affected at all by slutwalk, how, again?

Jessica Valenti, The (Face and) Voice of Third-Wave Feminism and PIV-Positive Rhetoric, Nearly Dies From Pregnancy-Related Complications February 6, 2011

Posted by FCM in feminisms, health, international, PIV, politics, pop culture, WTF?.
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you have got to be fucking kidding me.

jessica valenti, the voice of third-wave PIV-pozzie “young feminists” is stepping down from her position at feministing because she is too old (and elite?) to be the voice of “young non-elitist feminists” anymore.  this in and of itself is practically worthy of its own post.  i mean really.  she gets some respect, some credibility (amongst her own of course), some cash, some security, and her first thought is that its time to pass the torch to someone younger?  of course, because her own stated mission is to “give young feminists a platform to state their position and launch their careers” this was kind of the forseeable result.  we were just discussing this here a few days ago in fact.  shes no spring chicken anymore.  but to build a sunset provision into your own career as a feminist, based on age, is just so heartbreakingly short-sighted and well…pomo.  a perfect example of their own anti-feminist, misogynist ideology biting them in the fucking ass.

as is this:

recently, valenti almost died from pregnancy-related complications, including preeclampsia and resulting liver failure (and one complication that even i had never heard of before, a “variation of preeclampsia” called HELLP syndrome), and delivered a 29-weeks gestated fetus that almost died too.  she now (NOW!) believes that maternal health is an important issue, and she will be addressing it regularly now (NOW!)  i guess these things do matter afterall.  NOW.  now that its affected her, personally. 

because the only thing that matters is the personal lived experience of individuals, and not history, not data, and definitely not the lived-experience of anyone that doesnt (or cannot) experience life in a way that supports your own pomo, sex-pozzie agenda.  now, valenti is asking her supporters to donate money to “womendeliver“, an organization that supports (“fights for” in her words…rawr) maternal health.  whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean, and whomever the fuck that is expected to benefit.  this is what we are supposed to take away from all of this?  this is all anyone is supposed to actually do, in the face of actual shit-and-grit live-reporting on the dangers of PIV-centric sexuality and pregnancy-related complications?  as opposed to, say, making some actual connections and bringing radical awareness and change into our own lives?  even wanted pregnancies are fucking dangerous, and what makes women “want” them in the first fucking place is highly suspect. 

this is of course in addition to any possible critique of the unwanted pregnancies women are subjected to all the time, and the dangers (to women) of PIV-centric sex.  i wouldnt expect any of them to blow a lobe examining that part of it, but they cant even bring themselves to critique the dangers of pregnancy itself.  and how it only affects women, and not men, and that it has affected women forever, billions of them, across time and place.  even women they know.  individually.  and this is key.  they arent examining or even acknowledging how PIV-centric sexuality and pregnancy-related complications affect individual women, even though they are interested in examining everything else, on an individual level.  on this issue in particular, they are wearing blinders, and they arent taking them off, even when it affects one of their most beloved characters.  no, they arent interested in examining this one, at all.  i wonder why that would be?

it distresses and saddens me greatly that valenti had to go through what she herself describes as a harrowing and terrifying medical event, and especially one thats pregnancy-related.  it really does.  the inequity of it all just isnt fair, by definition, and i shouldnt have to fucking say it.  but apparently i do.  because what takes second place in the distressing and saddening competition here is probably this: feministe writes about valenti leaving feministing, and what lead up to her decision to leave, without once mentioning the pregnancy-related complications that almost killed her.  even though valenti herself has written about how important that event was in her life, and how it caused her to “take time away to reflect” and that it directly lead to her decision to leave.  this fucking twenty-something fun-fem took the time to write a tribute to her beloved mentor which by her own admission reads like a fucking obituary, (an obituary!  oh god…it burns) and could only mine the story of valentis life and her contributions for the nuggets that benefitted her, and pomo feminism.  like her dedication to young pomo feminists, and helping them get a leg up in the “how to get rich being a feminist” competition/career track, via the mainstream interwebs.

yes, that might be the worst fucking part.  valenti has now passed the torch to a bunch of twenty-something PIV-pozzies who are so hell-bent on feeding their own narcissism building “careers as feminists” where their own ass-biting agenda is to cater to the young and inexperienced, (as opposed to, for example, telling the truth no matter what, or advocating for women as a sexual class, around the world) and to 100% support PIV-centric sexuality, and already, less than a week after shes gone, its been made entirely clear that none of them have learned anything from this old hags “lived experience” with PIV and pregnancy and none of them ever will.

the latest post from feministe: hatin’ on katy perry.  on sunday.  probably their busiest day (or one of them, and less than a week after valenti announced she was leaving) this is what they lead with.  onward and upward, i guess?