Is that an anti-Ukrainian propaganda piece in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

The original text of this piece has been removed. I am not usually in the habit of sweeping my screw-ups under the carpet, but I didn’t want it to generate Google hits that would, once again, paint Ukraine as a country of evil barbarians. In the original piece, I was expressing outrage that Hitler toys are on sale in Ukraine. Well, apparently, they’re on sale in Britain as well, except that the BBC did not report on that in the video that they have mysteriously removed (without issuing a formal retraction or clarification). What was also misleading was the fact that the video made it seem as though Hitler toys are going mass-market in Ukraine, which is simply not the case.

Here is an essay on the matter. I’d like to add that Ukrainian channels such as STB were also reporting on the story, which made it seem balanced at the time.

I don’t know about the ethical issues of selling Hitler toys. Some people view them merely as collectible items for a niche market that do not, in and of themselves, promote Nazism. To be honest, they creep me out. I don’t doubt that Ukraine has problems with Nazism (like Russia and Germany), and they also creep me out (in fact, they terrify me).

You know what else creeps me out? Propaganda.

Thanks to the reader who alerted me to this situation.

Since I’m abroad, I was, in fact, thinking about ordering “It’s A Jungle Out There”

… And then I saw this on the “Dear White Feminists” blog whose sub-headline reads, appropriately, “Quit goddamn fucking up.”

I think my occipital lobe just broke.

Jonathan Swift this ain’t. The images are racist and both author and publisher ought to have realized that. I sincerely hope that they will engage people on this subject.

Holly has more.

{UPD}

Here’s the contact page for Seal Press. Tell them this is unacceptable. I know I will.

{UPD Two}

Seal Press has issued an apology.

{UPD Three}

Amanda’s comments on the Feministe thread are… to put it mildly… well, just look here:

If there’s a concern about how quickly I responded, I would like to point out that I was unaware until this morning of this latest dust-up that has a point to it. As I responded as soon as I knew, I can’t see that I could have done anything else.

Not even an “I’m sorry guys, a major f#ck-up has occurred.” Just dismissive language about a “latest dust-up” that does, egads, have “a point.”

Not cool. Not cool at all.

Traveller Meme: Why I Want To Crawl Under A Bed

So I am in Jordan now. Yay Jordan. I hope I can settle here for a while, and I hope things will be cool with the magazines (please spread the word about both GC & AC if you love me – and keep in mind we are always looking for cool new contributors).

Two major banks picked the same week to screw me over, so now finances are a mess, and I’m hanging on for dear life. It’s only the grace and kindness of the people around me that keeps me from crawling under a bed with a blankie and backpack stuffed with comfort food, refusing to emerge for the next month.

I need to be petted right now, and told that everything is going to be OK. I’m telling that myself, but I’m not nearly loud enough.

I am le tired.

Dear Feminist Bloggers of the Radical Persuasion: What Choices *Are* Neutral?

I recently saw the eternal argument of “willing s*e*x-workers are hurting people with their choices” crop up at Witchy Woo’s in response to the possibility of Renegade Evolution (a s*e*x-worker, if you haven’t been paying attention lately) being disinvited to speak at a forum at William & Mary (the situation has since been resolved, but another speaker dropped out in response to Ren being invited).

I don’t really wish to respond to the overall substance of Witchy Woo’s post; it’s acrimonious, and I’m moving this week for the 4th time in 9 months, and I just can’t deal with acrimony without feeling as though my head will explode. This particular argument did stick out at me, however:

Liars. [Willing s*e*x-workers] lie. They negate the lives of those suffering for the choices they make…

OK. I can respond to this one without gnashing my teeth and/or sobbing from sheer exhaustion.

Here’s my question: what sort of choices don’t have the potential to cause suffering? Do you ride the bus to work? Congratulations, you’re helping screw-up the environment. Enjoy an occasional cup of coffee? Egads, what about the farmers? Even those fair-trade beans aren’t always healthy for their economic status in the long run. Take a nice vacation to a resort town? Tourism has its dark underbelly too.

Now, I don’t wish to imply that our response to the idea of harm should begin and end with defeatism and/or nihilism. I’m not asking anyone to go, “hokay, humans are screwed,” and shrug, and turn up the TV, and turn away.

What I am asking is for a little bit of context. And humility. And basic respect.

Human beings are like flies trapped in an endless web, and any individual twitch has the potential to send reverberations far and wide. What do we do with that? We focus on basic harm reduction. On defining personal autonomy and responsibility.

In this specific instance – Talking about how it’s just those selfish, willing s*e*x-workers are hurting others simply by virtue of said willingness strikes me as disingenuous. Here, the action of selling one’s body is essentially being defined by whether or not it is performed out of choice. If you’re unwilling, you’re a “good” kind of s*e*x-worker. This smacks of the fetishization of victimhood, personally, not to mention this whole Biblical idea of the repentant Jezebel which, while it can be compelling, doesn’t really reflect daily reality for most people, methinks. Oddly enough, patriarchy does the same thing with rape: there are “good” victims and “bad” victims.

Honestly, why not listen to all s*e*x-workers, especially since the ones who are in the trade by choice can be the first line of defense against the enslavement of others. A s*e*x-worker who just wants to be able to do her job does not stand to profit from keeping those who are forced into this business locked up in cages. On the contrary.

And anyway, there’s nothing radical for blaming s*e*x-work for the world’s ills. Patriarchally inclined individuals have been doing this for millennia.

My left @ss-cheek is more radical than that.

But hey, guys. Hey. As Ren would say, What’s the Plan?

For more, ah, strongly-worded responses, see here and here.

Dear Nazischweine Of *All* Nationalities

As we say in the former Soviet Union – Hitler kaput.

I don’t believe it’s grammatically correct, but I do believe it gets the point across.

On this day, let us raise a toast to a quick and dishonourable end of your bullshit ideology and all of its wormy bastard spawns in all corners of the good earth: from St. Petersburg to Iowa and beyond.

Forever and ever.

Amen.