Currently, circulating the Israeli (and Hebrew speaking, obviously) Left leaning blogosphere a story of rape is being told.

The woman in question, who bravely wrote her story, in her full name, regarding the crime against her body.
The author, Eshkar Eldan Cohen, published her story on the social commentary website and magazine "Ha'Oketz" (העוקץ - The Sting) that focuses on the intersection of non-Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicities (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ethiopian), the occupation and class disparity.

The perpetrator is a known personality in the Left milieu.
He committed this rape twenty years ago.
He is a known harasser. From the descriptions, I feel that I know of him, but that's not what I want to talk about.

The article by Cohen has over thirty comments (not a lot, but quite a few for a site of that nature and an article of this kind) and one of the recurring themes in many of the comments were:
"Why didn't you go to the police" and "Why don't you tell us his name"

Those two things are what I want to talk about.

The very question (and it's variations) "Why didn't you go to the police/press charges/tell someone/etc." is victim blaming.
Yeah really, it is.
By saying that she should have said something places all the responsibility on her, especially when the incident, as most of them are, are without violence that leaves bruises. Force doesn't have to entail physical restraint and doesn't have to leave marks upon the body.

This guy was a personality back then, as such, he was probably held in high regard, spoken about as a "good guy", creative, "nice", wouldn't hurt anyone.

The social imperative that we're taught about remaining silent when it comes to rape and sexual assault is far more powerful than the abstract notion of justice.
The shame of losing bodily integrity, of knowing that the history of who came before the rapist is somehow relevant (it isn't) and the knowledge that because rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are a spectrum of what is considered a woman's worth in society.

Which is not much.

When you request the identity of the perpetrator, when the person who was victimised refrained from giving it in the first place you're being obtuse at best and completely disrespectful of someone's right to privacy at worst.
She didn't give the name for a reason.
The main reason is that it would be libel.
Because other than her story (and a few other people, maybe), there is no proof that he actually did it.

There are far more rape victims than there are rapists, because rapists are repeat offenders and they rely on the silence and social shame that comes with the crime.
Usually, they're quite convinced they didn't rape anyone. They were doing what comes naturally.
Taking what is their due.

This is what a rape culture looks like.

This story is circulating in Hebrew, as mentioned, but as an Israeli blogger who writes primarily in English I decided I had to write about it. This is happening now and should be known, all the time.

Because silence is violence. Speak up. Shame is one of the most destructive emotions in existence and it should be eradicated where we are able to do so.

You discover that Howard Zinn passed away.

Well.

I suppose it's time to read his book, right?

Edited to add 29.01.09: Dude, J.D. Salinger died as well.

Is this supposed to be the year of Authors Dying? I'll keep my eyes open.

When I read this headline, I felt the top of my head blow off:

Chief rabbis: Abortions are delaying redemption

( Article under the cut )

This may come off as simple Crazy Talk by religious leaders. But these religious leaders as states, are government workers. They get paid by our taxes and they make numrous decisions regarding the validity of Jewish identity (and invalidating non-Jewish or "not Jewish enough" identities).

I'd also like to state, in case this isn't common knowledge, that abortions are not, in fact, easily accessible in Israel.
It is a medical procedure which, when obtained under "government regulations" forces women who do not want to be pregnant to go through a committee made up of a gynecologist, a social worker and another doctor in a different capacity (GP, Psychiatry, etc) so that they can decide whether the woman in question can have an abortion.
Permission is granted automatically when the woman in under 17 or over 45 and cases of rape and/or incest.
If you are over 17, under 45, married or single, if you do not have a pre-existing condition which puts you at risk you have to lie - about your mental health usually, that being pregnant is causing you to have suicidal thoughts and feelings.

This is what government "approved" medical abortions look like. There is a huge black market in Israel for women who can pay privately for abortions. Any doctor found giving this service is prosecuted and sentenced to five years imprisonment for operating outside the approval of what I like to call "The Shaming Committee".

Never before have I seen the religious establishment put their foot in and I blame Efrat (which I shan't be linking to) - the so-called non-profit organisation which is basically a pro-life organisation that claims to aid women financially in order to help them have the baby because abortion causes misery. They claim they give a woman options.
Yes, clearly, when they're trying to outlaw the measly access women have already to safe, medical abortions!

In Israel, unlike in the US and Ireland, the abortion debate is very covert, we're a very pro-natalist nation. So, while sex-ed 'round here is good because there is talk of prophylactics and hormonal birth control, termination of pregnancy is viewed as something of a taboo.

That these religious leaders are piping up on an issue does not bode well.

It fucking pisses me off!

[Error: unknown template qotd]

Quoi?
What kind of internet user thinks up these questions?

In short, I wouldn't ban any book. Really. No, not even The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, not Mein Kampf, not Huckleberry Finn.
Not any hate-mongering, free-love-ing, right wing, left wing... what have you.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to tell the kid who may or may not be interested in a book to be aware that every book presents and represents a certain stand-point and that it's usually better to be not take every piece of writing at face value.

Literary merit is for book critics, not for critical analysis.

I'd prefer to steer teens towards work that doesn't implicitly (or explicitly) state that some people are more human than others - because that would just make me a hypocrite. But I think that disallowing those subjects simply make it harder to fight and oppose the ideas and ideals which exist - having them where you can see them, makes it easier to argue and fight against.

That's what I think.

Don't let Roman Polanski evade justice and sign Art Does Not Excuse Rape.

Pass this along, re-tweet, make a post.

This whole story is beyond ridiculous and as I said before, this is not just about Polanski any more.
What this is tells young girls, young boys, everyone in fact, is that if you are rich enough, powerful enough and/or have enough friends in positions of power, your life and pain is basically worthless.

This is currently the kind of world we live in, in which rapists get to have apologists because they make beautiful and powerful things and tell us a compelling story... we have the responsibility make sure these story tellers do not get off scott free for committing crimes in which someone else's body, humanity and rights are trampled upon.

That's all.

Caster Semenya on suicide watch.

Colour me unsurprised and royally pissed off.

I've been keeping up to date on the story ever since Germaine Greer's transphobic comments regarding the affair.

I have about ten tabs open with articles and blog posts all talking about Semenya.
Many people are talking about the issue, as well they should.

To me, it reads as a cautionary tale to those women who dare to be exceptional, who dare to toe the line of the gender assigned to them at birth, of women who cannot (visibly) be intimidated by a man.

We will crush you, if you dare. The same goes to any gender non-conformist. Caster Semenya had the misfortune to be a good runner, she beat the European competition (in Berlin no less) and was then (almost literally) dissected in public to make sure that she didn't have an "unfair advantage".

The intersection of sexism, racism, colonialism, gender essentialism and the problematic state of women athletes in track and field sports all seemed to coalesce in the most destructive way possible on this woman, whose life (not to mention career) has gone down the drain.

The public eye, the policing of what is considered appropriate identity will kill you dead if you dare step out of line and show that you are good at what you do.
Your identity, that thing you spent so much time moulding and attuning and making your own is shattered by the fact that the medical institute insists that we are as our bodies say we are.

Biology is destiny.

Various hair products, plastic surgery, body-modification parlours and trans people who go through hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery (top and/or bottom) tell a different story.

A woman's body is up for public consumption. Add racism into the mix and you have the masses demanding she be made "presentable".

It was the beginning of the end when I saw that Semenya had been made over. Her androgyny (pic before makeover) became a source of contention in the aftermath of her win. Moreover, the history of black women's bodies being forced to conform to Euro-centric beauty standards and the issue of how black femininity is culturally lesser than white femininity also raised the level of what Semenya needed to do in order to compensate, nay, publicly apologize for the fact that she's a masculine woman (pic after makeover).

In the article The Unforgivable Transgression of Being Caster Semenya, the author expands on the fact that black women (people of African descent in general) have historically been targeted as gender non-conformists, or even failures:

South Africans aren’t the only ones angrily comparing Semenya’s treatment to that of Saartjie Baartman, the nineteenth-century Khoisan woman who was exhibited throughout Europe as a sexualized monstrosity. White audiences guffawed, prodded and poked at her exposed body, which they laughingly demeaned as that of a “Hottentot Venus”: the inverse of European standards of beauty. Challenging Semenya’s femaleness, people now assert, is imperialism all over again.

I'm loath to call gender essentialism imperialism, but different kinds of oppression do often come from the same place.
The policing of identities and bodies into the dominant world order and subjugating those identities and bodies in order to maintain that world order.
The gender binary is the world order.
And it kills.

What I really enjoyed in the article linked above was this paragraph:

[I]nstead of insisting upon the naturalness of her gender, how about turning the question around and denaturalizing the world of gender segregated, performance-obsessed, commercially-driven sports, a world that can neither seem to do with or without excessive bodies like Semenya’s and their virtuosic performances?

The rush to compare Semenya to Saartjie Baartman, while obvious for nationalistic reasons, misses something crucial. Baartman was exhibited and castigated for what the imperialist eye took to be her abberant femininity. A better comparison here would be to the many trans bodies (like famed jazz pianist Billy Tipton[link added by eumelia) who have been disciplined and punished for their female masculinity.

One of the first things I learned when I became immersed in feminism was that society isn't the way it is, it's how we think it is.
Or rather, it's how we see ourselves as part of it.
That's why racism is systemic and there is a difference between a white person calling a black person a "nigger" and a black person calling a white person a "cracker".
The personal wound to either goes without saying, the history of the words are different and the affect that history has over our minds, bodies and social groups is severe.
Apartheid may be "over" in South Africa.
The disparity between those who Have and those who Have Not remains largely unchanged.

Caster Semenya is paying the price of being too good. Of being a woman whose biological body is now considered medically inapplicable to her gender. She may be Intersex (ETA: a fact that was leaked to the press before the results actually reached her. Classy), but she's a woman and she's being punished for not being female enough.

The article The Sad Saga of Caster Semenya writes:

[I]t is important to note here, critically, that Caster Semenya has always been a woman, has always defined herself as a woman, has lived her life as a woman, has to this date considered herself to be a woman, not transgendered, not a transman. It is critical to note this here as to understand both the statement to come as well as what a public scrutiny of gender is like.

It is a horde of people thinking they have a right to decide where you belong with only an ignorant impression of your gender proclivities and expression with zero understanding of your internal sex. And their opinion is to be given credence over your own. Transpeople undergoing Harry-Benjamin style therapy for “permission” to transition know this feeling very well. It is humbling, infuriating, and leaves you feeling powerless and adrift.

And for her there’s no point at the end of it, just the threat of the removal of everything that has brought you joy, the threat that all of this can be taken away because you were suspicious. Now the public and an arbitrary standard noone fully understands can remove the one passion that has defined your life and remove from you the dream of a little girl (to compete, perchance to medal in the Olympic games, to bring honor to your country and family, and most importantly to yourself).

Gone in an instant.

Emphasis mine

Anyone's perception of self would be undone by the unbearable melancholy of one's identity being forcibly yoinked from pillar to post because of public demands, because gender is a prison even when you supposedly overcome it. Which is what woman athletes do of course, over come the infirmity of their weaker bodies - and they're still not considered to be worthy of same attention as men athletes, because the best woman will always be lesser than the medioce man. Suck on that Billie Jean King.

In conclusion:
Well, it doesn't end here. I hope I don't wake up tomorrow morning and discover that Caster Semenya ended her life because society deemed her unacceptable. The trauma is undeniable, the humiliation is beyond comprehension.
Gender essentialism continues to be the building block of oppression as we live it and no one is safe from the assault on the self if you dare to toe the line.
Failing in your gender, it's a killer, literally.

'Twould appear that there is some contention on the interwebs (and IRL of course) whether sci-fi/fantasy fans and authors of colour exist.

Obviously, you do.

You can prove your existence by a shout out here at deadbrowalking.

Me?
Have I mentioned my peachy ass?

So goes the saying.
Al Capone is reputed to have said that... it's funny that Chicago brought forth a man of that calibre, no?
Huh.
Maybe... not so much.

[Error: unknown template qotd]

What a wonderful question on these here elections days.

I went to vote with Mummy at around 10-ish. I was quite excited seeing as it was my first general elections, as I've mentioned before.

I'd like to address these three options through through the prism of Israel Politics.

I'm an Optimist because I voted positively on the issues and not against a candidate that I found nauseating through a vote that would make me need to have a shower once I got home. I voted for a party which barely has any mandates in the Knesset, but which did the grey work and actually passed laws that were social and environmental. I've heard the MK's and candidates speak and while there are problems, they're not problems that can't be fine tuned, tweaked or dealt with.

I'm a Pessimist because I don't think that anyone of the Prime Ministers to be will be good for the country. I don't think any of them hold any of the People's interests at heart, nor do I believe any of them have the ability to plan more than a year a head.
If someone with some actual fore sight bothered to try and run for PM, they'd be eating dust, because the People (you, me, us) don't have any fore sight either.
We don't have much of a memory either.
Hence by Bibi Netanyahu will be elected Prime Minister.
Again.

I'm a Realist because no matter what happens, we'll drudge and charge through and not much will be different. Because things do not change via a system that is so far removed from those who have voted the Leaders in.

This is, after all, politics.

If I am anything, I am a Cynical Optimist and I believe in the Vox Populi Vox Day and when only 60+% of the Populi cast a Vox... there is not God to speak of, or for.
But I have hope.
Simply because if I didn't, I wouldn't to care.
And then... why would I bother about anything.

I sign this oh so positive entry with a quote:
There's no certainty – only opportunity.
- V for Vendetta

Hebrew and English texts:

Sderot War Diary

Nomika Zion, Sderot, 8.1.09

[...]
Not in my name and not for me you went to war. The current bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name and not for my security. Destroyed homes, bombed schools, thousands of new refugees - are not in my name and not for my security. In Gaza there is no time for burial ceremonies now, the dead are put in refrigerators in twos, because there is no room. Here their bodies lay, policemen, children, and our nimble reporters play acrobatically with Hasbara strategies in view of “the images that speak for themselves”. Pray tell me, what is there to “explain”? [Hasbara literally means "explanation" - Translator's note] What is there to explain?
[...]

Fuck.

Well, that's one way to start an entry about the War and the two years that followed it.

When I was called into to the HQ for war-time reserve I really didn't think I'd be stuck there for a month. I didn't think my life would ever include running on adrenaline, going to the bathroom twice in a twelve hour shift and seeing people blow up.

During that time I did my best to disassociate myself from what was going on (I wore a uniform so ripped and graffitied upon, I put on Pride buttons, I drew Venus symbols on the pants and at every opportunity I sat in half a uniform, just the pants and a tank-top - just so I wouldn't look like I was conforming, despite the fact that I was). I was competent and did my best to help the people I was with, but I never tried to improve my skill, I was there to support my fellow shift members - even doing four shifts in a row so that they could get a proper rest and not fall apart at the seams, somehow, I held myself together and didn't fall apart until six months later.

During the War itself I ignored this intuitive knowledge, just like everyone else. I remember saying things that annoyed the people around me because my belief in what I was doing was pretty non-existent, but I did it because I was told I was needed and I'm just that much of a sucker (though no, knowing what I know now I'd never agree to do this sort of thing again... being an agent of death once, was enough).

In the six months following the War I went through a lot of changes. Most of them can be read in this here LJ, if you're so inclined. Basically, the values I held in theory began to solidify and I really couldn't look back at that month of my life without feeling guilty and helpless - especially because at the time I knew that we had gone on the rampage for bravado and to scare The Enemy into submission and not to really go in and get the kidnapped soldiers (yes, the ones returned to us last week).

It was also during those months that my friends and family realised that something was Wrong. I felt Wrong, like I was outside myself, that I had no control over what was going on inside of me and outside of me. So after many attempts to just talk to my friends about the fact that I don't sleep, am constantly angry, am constantly crying and that I am in a constant state of hate, rage and profound distrust, I actually went and sought professional help.

It was also during this time that I drifted quite far away from the comfy Left-of-Centre politics I had lived the majority of my life - Feminist, racism is bad, the Settlements in the Occupied Territories are the root the Occupation and thus must be removed, etc. etc. etc. All this without any understanding of the machinations that created the circumstances in which carpet bombs were used without notifying anyone on the ground.

And so I drifted Left (I suppose I would be considered Loony or Radical, depending on your perspective) and I feel good being in this place of self-examination and activism, it is probably what has prevented me from stumbling into clinical depression.

Trauma never really goes away.
In Hebrew there is a slang word for someone being messed up over something and never being the same and that is שרוט/ה in English it is "scratched", like a vinyl on a record player, when it hits that scratch there is a warp in the sounds that the vinyl is supposed to emit, but it gets stuck on that warp and the cacophony can be deafening.
It can also carry long distances, two years in measured time.
Most likely for longer.

In the shadow of these events, Haggai Alon (חגי אלון), a political consultant and analyst gave an interview to Ha'aretz reporter Akiva Eldar (עקיבא אלדר) about the goings on behind closed doors in the early days of the War and in the latter days and how many, if not most or all of the terrible, ahem, oversights.
The interview in Hebrew - שבויים בקונספציה.
The interview in English - A painful return to fateful hours.