Every single member of the Cabinet and every single senior official and every single journalist, judge, lawyer, activist and citizen who isn’t doing something to stop this “horror show” of crime against women, is doing exactly that: watching the long episode of torture and murder without batting an eyelid or lifting a finger. We watched this show 18 times last year. We have watched it seven times already this year.
P.S. I’ve been reminded today that it’s wise to remember that the make-up thing is probably a red herring. She probably displeased her uncle in some way – perhaps he wanted to have sex with her, or wanted her to marry someone and she refused – and was therefore slandered.
OK, so now that I am done rolling on the floor and screaming with laughter into the ruined rug (bloody red wine), I’d like to share this video with you all:
It’s funnier if you understand at least some Arabic, but even if you don’t – if you’ve ever been to Jordan, especially to neighbourhoods such as Abdoun in Amman, you’ll get the gist.
P.S. One of my boyfriend’s cousins is in this. He’s the cute one. Well, they’re all cute. But you know. The extra-special related-to-boyfriend type cute. 😉
This op-ed in the Kyiv Post is a bizarre mixture of truth and utter BS. For what it’s worth, I’m willing to believe that the author means everything she says. Unfortunately, half the time she says stuff that makes me feel like stuffing glass shards beneath my eyelids.
For example, this:
I won’t tell you anything new if I say that Slavic women are less emancipated and more feminine than Europeans or Americans. And by less emancipated, I don’t mean uneducated or illiterate. I just mean they depend on men much more than women in the West. Men take advantage of this dependence as much as they can.
Is 100% spot-on, I think
Unfortunately, she then follows up with this:
And when a woman says that appearance is not important, I bet that she is not attractive. I mean, please, have you ever seen a good-looking feminist? I haven’t. Oh, actually I did. But he was a man. And gay.
This gross ugly feminist is not amused.
Now, I’m no Angelina Jolie (Rudya makes the point that more men fantasize about Jolie than, say, Angela Merkel), but I, at the very least, am able to take a decent picture.
I resent Rudya’s assertion that all feminists are unattractive, just as much as I resent the implication that lack of conventional attractiveness somehow makes a woman irrelevant. This viewpoint is particularly popular in Ukraine, in part due to poverty and misogynist traditions, and to see Rudya defend it on the basis of “realism” makes me think that she is missing the point.
Yes, we will never get anywhere unless we admit the problem of sexism. But Rudya, it seems, wants to stop there. I’d love it if she were to correct me on this point. But I am not holding my breath.
In reading Rudya’s piece, I have to question why a blanket statement on “all Ukrainian women” is even needed. Say what you want about culture, stereotypes don’t do us any favours. Rudya herself has experienced stereotypes – she relates a particularly disgusting episode in Germany – so why perpetuate them?
Why is an obviously intelligent woman engaing in this? Why is the Kyiv Post enabling her?
Friends who have commented unfavourably on the article have reported that their responses were deleted. The only strongly negative response that has been published quickly comes under fire – apparently the author if said response is just an uppity Western woman, who’s probably overweight or whatever, so clearly, we can write her off.
I’d like to start a dialogue with both Rudya and the editors at the Kyiv Post as to what is actually going on here, and why some of us find the article extremely problematic. Will keep you posted as to whether or not I am successful in my efforts.
You are a sexual predator. Your non-apology on the subject was pretty bloody telling. The fact that you have the gall to continue linking feminist sites after your release is – while certainly not surprising – plain gross. You obviously want to make this issue go away; it’s not going to happen.
Were I back to being nineteen years old, in college and discovering the world of feminist blogging, I’d most likely have no idea as to who you actually are. Which is why I don’t want any women coming along and being fooled by you.
“Take a few penitential years in the wilderness for reflection, dude, and even then, don’t claim the mantle of a feminist blogger. That horse done left the barn.”
If you felt a tiny bit guilty about what you did, you would not be putting on this icky little farce. As much as I hate to give you the attention that you obviously crave, I’ve got no choice. People, women especially, need to be warned about your creep-tastic ways.
So if you’re reading this, guys and gals, stay AWAY from “feminist blogger” Kyle Payne. Break out the garlic and wooden stake if he links to you.
Just saw this BBC story about fighting, quite literally, sexual harassment in Egypt. Could not be more impressed. Karate is a good step forward, and this sort of thing makes me want to re-inroll in tae kwan do here in Amman. Of course, some attackers escalate to violence when the woman pushes back, we all know this. It happened to me when I was a child and unable to defend myself, but I do not regret saying “no” at the time, though it has taken me a while to recognize my “no” as something important; it was defiance that not even my attacker could negate, even though he probably came close to actually killing me.
I don’t think there are any easy choices one can make when one is attacked. Each situation is compounded by specific factors, and in each one, you must make a split-second decision that can change the entire outcome. This is something I will never get tired of repeating on this blog – one of the worst things about being attacked is that you can never do anything right, according to society. If you acquiesced, it means you should have fought harder. If you fought, you should have acquiesced.
But being able to fight back is important regardless of outcome. Until global society begins to recognize these occurences as profoundly wrong, as opposed to something that women “like” or else “invite,” our level of safety will not significantly increase. My philosophy, inasmuch as I am prepared to have a philosophy on this one, is that we need to take what we can get. This is why I’m down with dusting off that martial arts uniform.
Natalia A. 