feminisms

From a questionnaire of the French feminist movement Les Petites Marguerites (active in the 70s):

Question: “Who is best suited to decide the number of children you have?"
(a) The pope, who doesn’t have any;
(b) the president, who’s having a hard enough time with his own;
(c) the doctor, who values the life of your fetus more than your own life;
(d) your husband, who plays with them for a few minutes each day when he returns from work;
(e) you, who carry, bear, and raise them.”

(from The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s by Richard Wolin)

Racism is bad but sexism is ok

The Guardian tells the story of the judicial process that opposes the Chelsea captain John Terry and the QPR's defender Anton Ferdinand over a supposedly racist incident that took place during the match between the two teams on 23 October 2011.

Back then, Terry has shouted to Ferdinand: fuck off, fuck off…fucking black cunt, fucking knobhead.

A first moment of stupidity: Terry admitted he was using racist insults but he said he only did so “sarcastically”. As if sarcasm justifies the act of insulting.

A second moment of stupidity: the very target of racist insults, Anton Ferdinand said that being called “a cunt” was fine, “but when someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level and it’s very hurtful”. As if using pejoratively the name of female body parts is acceptable while mentioning skin color is not.

No, our dear Anton, racial insults are not more serious or more grave than sexist abuses. Nor does racism justify sexism. Both stay at the same level of unacceptability.

I hope your wife/girlfriend will sue you.

sexualization of beer drinking

Images from a menu in a cafe in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.