some good stuff

[undergroundpanther]

Good links!
While films like SNUFF 'entertain' male viewers, the military has offered hands-on expereince. Veterans Richard Hale reports that on the way to Vietnam troops were told, "There's a lot of loose ass over there men, and they just love GI dick. And best of all they are only Gooks, so if you get tired ofthem, you can cram a greanade up their cunt and 'waste' them " Many soldiers seized the opportunity; stories of wartime atrocities abound. "This is my rifle," the troops chant,"This is my gun," they slap their crotches;"One is for killin, the other's for fun." Four hundred thousand Bengali women were systematically raped by Pakistani soldiers; how many women have our boys raped? After all women have been bounty in every war. Misogyny and homophobia are basic components in military indocrination. "When you want to create a solidarity (sic) group of male killers," goes the Marine philosophy, "you kill 'the woman' in them."

http://www.spunk.org/texts/anarcfem/sp001097.txt

It is difficult to talk about “masculinity�? and “femininity�? without someone objecting that I’m blaming men. I’m not. I’m trying to, as all those “feminist studies agitprop�? people have done, to interrogate the categories of masculine and feminine and understand them in terms of power. But, I still hold, as I’ve written before, that there is something
primal in the fear of penetration, of being overpowered, of fellatio, even, that lends a physical element to all of this. I don’t know how to get around this problem. We know where the roots of homophobia lie; misogyny it seems to me, should be more accurately labeled gynophobia.

http://www.culturekitchen.com/lorraine/blog/education_and_the_fear_of_the_feminine


But what 19th and 20th century women were really peeved about was less the lack of a penis than the lack of all the privileges that went with the penis.

After hundreds of years of being told "I'm sorry dear, but you don't have a penis -- sit down, shut up, and spread your legs," the female gender got mighty uppity and began demanding the vote, equal pay, contraception, and finally even orgasms. So in a sense, Freud was right -- a lot of women really did want to cut the penis down to size. (Of course some more literally than others.)
http://www.rotten.com/library/sex/castration/


Will women joyfully throw off the burqua? I doubt it. Women who are denigrated, made fun of, humiliated, harassed, and beaten year after year begin to believe the propaganda. Witness women in the U.S. who have been abused, verbally, sexually, and physically, stalked and killed. Fear can immobilize. Only in recent years have women in the U.S. been escaping violent environments – their own homes – to go to safe places. Organizations such as WEAVE give them and their children assistance. But no one, and no organization, tells men to clean up their act.

http://www.rthoughtsrfree.org/feminist.htm

[antigone382]

1. Thanks!

I was able to read the first link...really cool finds.

:hi:

[ismnotwasm]

2. A couple of thoughts

When my daughter was in the military, it was common knowledge that women had to work harder for promotions, that "old-timers" felt women had no place in the military. When she was stationed in Afghanistan, the entertainment, among others, included "Hooter's girls" (My daughter said they were nice young ladies but she was pissed-- Called me "Mom! the HOOTER'S girls are using my shower!!!)

One of the things that absolutely horrified me was her report that female soldiers were actually prostituting themselves to male soldiers. Not a common occurrence from what I understand, still I was almost sick. And then, of course are the rapes of women military personal. I know a woman with severe PTSD from an incident that involved a superior officer.

She was stationed in Kandahar. Evidently there is a group of men--married with children that dress as women at times, and engage in homosexual sex. They would say "Women are for making babies, but men are for pleasure" They did not consider themselves homosexual in a "American" context.

My daughter also volunteered for female search missions. One of the things in poor dessert countries is lack of water and lack of hygiene. The women in Burka's are hiding more than there faces, without adequate knowledge, and health care those Burka's are hiding the shame of health conditions that are killing these women.
Lastly, my daughter is considered a combat veteran. She came back changed in a variety of ways. She is bitter against the military, what she saw in Afghanistan made her completely against the death penalty in any circumstances. She has a far more liberal view of human rights and humanity dignity, although politics usually disgusts her. Especially when she was deployed, she felt politicians were playing word games with soldiers lives.
Now one of her jobs was dealt with weapons, she is an expert at those ultimate penetrating phallic symbols. She has no affection for them as competent as she is, she saw what happens with incompetent or insane use.

So as a female soldier, I wondered if her responses to war and weaponry differed from a males? From talking to other vets, only the ones with the false uber-masculinely that some men wear as masks it seems. Fear of mental (vs actual) castration? Possibly. It's all a horror and a gender tangle that comes from gender expectations.