Over It—Eve Ensler

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don’t have a sense of humor, and women don’t have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don’t think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!) getting raped by their so-called “comrades.”

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.

I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of the United States.

And I’m over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.

Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.

I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it’s their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime — the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters — film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes — while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you?

You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren’t you standing with us? Why aren’t you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape.

And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old.

And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape.

And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It’s been too long now, we have been too understanding.

We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine — once and for all — what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape.

There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.

ONE BILLION WOMEN.

The time is now. Prepare for the escalation.

Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape.

Because we are over it.

crisisgroup:

Southern Africa: SADC Failures Allowing Zim Crisis to Unfold | All Africa 

By Alex Bell

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is facing calls to urgently rectify its failures, which have allowed the crisis in Zimbabwe and other parts of the region to unfold.

A new report by the International Crisis Group has described SADC’s many weaknesses, which have “prevented the leadership bloc from effectively dealing with threats to peace and security in the region.”

FULL ARTICLE (All Africa)

Photo: Lokal_Profil/Wikimedia Commons

http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/264187-obama-no-doubt-roe-v-wade-could-be-overturned-if-romney-wins

If anyone has been listening to the political news recently, you might be aware that if Romney does in fact win that this could easily mean the end to abortions under any circumstance. This means completely removing Roe v. Wade and removing Planned Parenthood to name a few outcomes. Our generation and our mothers’ generations never had to deal with life without these things. It was even commented by the Republican party that it was “the will of God” if a woman was impregnated when she was raped therefore she must keep her baby. Think of the torture. Think of the torture of looking into that child’s face one day and seeing the face of the man who once committed such a horrible act on this woman! How is it that MEN in the office think they can hold the power of WOMEN’S sexual livelihood?! It is absolutely ridiculous. It’s ok to them until their own daughter is raped and must keep her child. It’s ok for them because let’s face it, the wealthier upper class, white men can just fly these women out of the country for abortions so they’re safe right? What about the lower class African american and latina women? What’re they going to do? Women will find a way to have an abortion if that’s what they want even if it risks shoving a wire up their vaginas, risking infection, or risking their own lives. Also, by removing Planned Parenthood it removes free birth control for women who cannot afford it. Who cares though right? Who cares if these men can still buy Viagra to “get it up” while women have nothing? This is complete and utter bullshit. It is also justified under a religious aspect, but guess what OUR CONSTITUTION EXPLICITLY CLAIMS A SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. Wouldn’t this be constitutionally wrong?! You cannot impose your own religious beliefs on the rest of your FREE country. No. Take a step back america and check yourself.

Teaching is in fact a profession and should be given the credit for what it is. It should be considered one of the highest professions there is due to the fact that it is the system which holds the future in the palms of its hands. Without this profession chaos would certainly ensue. 

azspot:

Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR)

kaelestia:

Much improved, do it for you, and not for anyone else. Feel better, don’t look better.