November 17: People Take to the Streets Against Pornography and Patriarchy
November 25, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader and supporter of the movement to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement & Degradation of Women.
We're just getting in reports from yesterday's coordinated national actions by people answering the call to "Take it to the Streets! Stop the War on Women."
Chants rang out yesterday from downtown Oakland, to LA on a busy Hollywood street right on the "walk of stars," to New York City near Union Square, to downtown Seattle, and more.
"Women are tattered, tortured and torn, by the word of the Pope and the images of porn!" "I don't know but I've been told, women are getting mighty bold! We won't shut up, we won't submit! We won't stand for woman-hating shit!" "It's bullshit, get off it. Women aren't for profit!" These were small but determined cores of people. And everywhere we drew forward enthusiastic support as well as people pissed off that porn was being challenged or abortion unapologetically fought for.
In Oakland, people marched with a banner, "Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution." One organizer in Oakland wrote, "We took turns speaking both bitterness and inspiration, projecting our voices out to the street, and down the cavernous, echoing hallway of a porn store."
At every action, we spread the "7 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO END THE ENSLAVEMENT AND DEGRADATION OF WOMEN" palm cards, both "If you can't imagine SEX without PORN, you're FUCKED!" and "Abortion on Demand & Without Apology!" Thousands were distributed around the country—including at an indoor rodeo in northern California, after the planned action was called off due to a heavy rainstorm! Everywhere we were loud. We were angry. We had many, many conversations and I have to say, we had fun!
"DANGER: CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN!" crime scene tape ended up on misogynistic ads, porn stores, and a Hooters.
In New York, where people came together for an "End Patriarchy Pageant," one young woman wore an orange prison jumpsuit, scrolled across with what we're told to commonly think why women are in prison: "MURDERER" "JUNKIE" "WHORE" "BAD MOTHER" "DYKE." And she held up a large fact sheet exposing the reality of women in prison: "Women are the fastest growing part of mass incarceration—especially Black, Latina and increasingly immigrant women... It is estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 women are imprisoned for killing their abusers... 33 states allow prison officers to shackle female prisoners to their hospital beds while they are in labor and giving birth."
Taking the reality show "Toddlers in Tiaras," the sexualization of younger and younger girls and "fetal personhood" to its logical extension, one protester in NYC showed up with a tiara and a pageant sash across her "pregnant" belly saying "#1 Prettiest Fetus." She handed out sonogram "head shots" that showed the fetus wearing a tiara with the blurb, "Isn't she sexy!"
At the end of each event, people announced the next planned action from this movement. We're calling for people to come to Washington, DC on January 22, 2013 on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to stand up for abortion and birth control and to challenge the so-called "March for Life." From what was read in NYC: "This January, as tens of thousands pour into DC in the ‘March for Life' to further shame and enslave women, join us in standing up to demand ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY! A woman who cannot decide for herself when and whether to have a child is not free. Forced motherhood is female enslavement. And when women—half of humanity—are not free, then no one is free."
Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!
End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
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