I’ve been following this since the early 90’s when pre-internet, we nurses on night shift would swap the newspapers trying to wrap our heads around the concentrated campaign of genocidal rapes of Bosnian and Croatian women in the former Yugoslavia.

Radovan Karadzic the master mind behind the atrocities is arrested ~ the end of a man-hunt.

From Woman’s Space

After 14 years on the run, mostly hiding out in Eastern Orthodox monasteries, Radovan Karadzic, who masterminded the campaign of rapes for genocide of Bosnian and Croatian women in the former Yugoslavia in the early ’90s — in which millions of Bosnian, Croatian and Albanian women were raped, tortured, murdered, raped until they conceived children and forced to bear those children — has been arrested.

Natalie Nenadic, who worked with some of the rape survivors, wrote of the rapes as they were happening:(warning, potential trigger material)

Serbian (military) are committing genocide through mass rape and serial rape ending in death and mass rape and serial rape in order to produce what they consider Serbian babies to populate and maintain the Greater Serbian state. Corpses are also raped. Women’s breasts are sliced off and their wombs ripped out. …These rapes are committed on the Serb occupied territories of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, in different types of concentration camps and in rape/death camps, in which the victims who survive the initial massacres and deportations are interned. If women are already pregnant…their bellies are ripped open since those babies are not Serb. Birthing women are left to die in ditches. ..the majority of women and girls who survive the various types of Serbian concentration camps …have been interned in them for at least 21-28 days to ensure pregnancy.

…[Serbians] also use rape as a public spectacle to induce women to leave their homes and never return. These sexual atrocities are done “for Serbia”. Sometimes they are filmed as they are taking place. The film footage…the pornography of genocide…is used as propaganda in which the identities of the victims and the aggressor are switched…

ETA: See post seven for new link (for some reason it won’t let me embed it here.)

Re: Olga.

In all my years of studying douchebaggery, never have i encountered anything like this. It’s such pure and unadulterated douche that I wish I could bottle it and use just a drop of it at a time.

The back story on this is that a girl named Olga was out with her friends in the Marina district of San Francisco (known for being a popular hang out for douches), and she talked to this guy named Dmitri for all of two minutes. Then she gave him her card and said “give me a call.” The above is the messages he left. Listen to the whole thing, it just keeps getting better and better. I won’t even tell you my favorite parts because i don’t want to ruin anything. Just listen.

“Prossy Kakooza is a 26-year-old woman seeking asylum in the UK. She fled Uganda after suffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexual orientation.

Prossy had been forced into an engagement when her family discovered her relationship with the girlfriend she met at university, Leah. Both women were marched two miles naked to the police station, where they were locked up.

Prossy’s inmates subjected her to gross acts of humiliation. She was violently raped by police officers who taunted her with derogatory comments like ‘’we’ll show you what you’re missing’’ and ‘’you’re only this way because you haven’t met a real man’’. She was also scalded on her thighs with hot meat skewers.

Prossy was eventually taken out of prison after her father bribed the guards. Her family had decided they would sacrifice her instead, believing this would ‘’take the curse away from the family’’.

Whilst her family were making arrangements to slaughter her, Prossy managed to flee to the United Kingdom to seek asylum.

When Prossy went for treatment to her local GP’s surgery in the UK they were so shocked by the extent of her injuries they called the police.
She was taken to the St. Mary’s Centre in Manchester, and she is still receiving counselling there for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Prossy’s asylum application has been refused by the Home Office, who acknowledge she was brutally raped and burnt because of the medical evidence, but have dismissed these appalling attacks as ‘’the random actions of individuals’’, and state she can be returned to a different town in Uganda.

This judgement ignores the clear danger to gay people throughout the country where the penalty for homosexuality is life imprisonment.

Also, in Uganda, you cannot settle in a new town without a reference from your previous village, and on the basis she is a lesbian, Prossy would be subjected to similar persecution wherever she went.

We consider that if Prossy is sent back, she faces the continuing threat of incarceration, and further sickening attacks - which next time may be fatal.

Prossy is a highly educated woman who can be a productive member of society.

She has a right to be free with her sexuality, which is causing no harm to anyone, and she has a right not to be raped, attacked, or murdered.”

YOU CAN HELP by signing this petition

I have received this request from Dianne.

“Do you know a woman or group who deserves to be recognised for their work around violence against women?

The Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize is a commemorative award made annually to women and groups who have done exceptional work to combat violence against women and children, and have raised awareness of this issue, whether through writing, campaigning or activism. The aim of the individual prize and the group award is to recognise and reward outstanding and often unsung contributions to the fight against violence against women and children.

Emma Humphreys was a writer, campaigner and survivor of male violence who fought an historic struggle to overturn a murder conviction in 1995, supported by Justice for Women and other feminist campaigners.

The annual prize of £1,000 is awarded to an individual woman who has, through writing or campaigning, raised awareness of violence against women and children.

Alongside the individual prize, the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize judges choose the recipient of a group award, established to recognise the unsung work done by many women’s groups and organisations. This award, while it does not at this time carry any financial reward, marks the outstanding contribution of women’s organisations who work in this embattled area and whose creativity and resourcefulness have resulted in developments that combat the prevalence of male violence.

The awards aim to provide recognition for work against violence and to bring it to the attention of a wider public.

Last year’s winner of the individual prize was Suswati Basu, a survivor of gang rape who was subsequently charged and cautioned by the police for perverting the course of justice because of alleged inconsistencies in her account. She fought and succeeded in overturning the caution and has subsequently spoken publicly about her experience at the hands of the police.

The winner in 2007 of the group prize was Mothers of Sexually Abused Children, a support organisation for non-abusing parents.

For more information and a nomination form, please go to Here

The deadline is June 30th, so start writing!”

see more crazy cat pics

To continue with feminist-lite* and other stuff that will not make the patriarchy go ~bang~ anytime soon.

We here at sparksville proudly present you with the Institute for Wotsits Research - delving deep into the feminist phenomena of - “aremenbetterthanwotsits?” Regular readers will recognise that this is a frequent and persistent query presented here on sparksblog and we are committed to examine this on-going question in an ethical and scientificy manner.

Stay tuned for findings and peer reviewed articles folks.

* Third person sparks is doing madz things with graphs at the mo - which is not a good idea.

Giant cheesy tubes basking on the sunny windowsill…

I am a bit lost for words at this latest story of perverted father - daughter relationship. However, several words do spring to mind - sexually and emotionally abusive, boundary-less, controlling, coercive, devoid of any empathy and downright creepy. And here’s the link. (Warning, disturbing and maybe triggering)

A US chat show (Tyra) had a segment really on an 18 year old adult film actress called Summer. Nothing new in that. Except her manager is her father. And her manager is “responsible” for her grooming including her brazilian wax.

You getting the muse here? You think it is starting to sound like a porn narrative, yeah, funny so do I except this “father” gets to act out his porn fantasies - in public. With his eighteen year old daughter.

It starts off with him patronising her about ensuring she’s packed “sexy clothes” and then rounds off by telling her she shouldn’t be in a relationship as “boyfriends are not really conducive to this business”. What business? He’s taking her for her first day at one of Nevada’s brothels. His managerial advice - “Always make sure your make up is right as you have to be every man’s fantasy”. On delivering her to the brothel Summer is in tears and obviously having second thoughts - he response “the decision is made, this is what you want to do, I don’t want to sound unsympathetic but go in there and think happy thoughts”. But, thing is, she obviously doesn’t want to do this. I mean how is this not abusive and coercive? I mean what (sane, rational, empathetic, caring) father would behave in that way? (Debates about the rights and wrongs of prostition aside, that really isn’t the point I’m making here).

Is the word “groomed” grating on you, perchance? In addition, who sanctioned this young womans public humiliation?

Oops sorry, that’s the porn factor.

Just beam me up Bat Woman.

I guess there was a time in the not too distant Victorian era when the extent of women gardening would have probably limited itself to delicately weeding the pansy bed whilst kneeling on a silken kneepad. For the middle classes of course, but that’s another story.

You see, Sparks & Co have been doing a spot of minor landscape gardening - in public. Yes, “public” is the problem here - even though we often partake in landscape ventures they are usually hidden from the civic gaze. So, more often than not these are typically concealed projects, where we are usually left in peace to poodle around laying paths in secret gardens, or rearranging decorative stones and pots around a pond. We also do occasional work for an “estate,” (the landed gentry that is - not Scotswood Barbed Wire Hoystey Car* Estate) you know where Tories say “hoyce”** for house and you hear the occasional ‘the hunt’ mentioned as in yes the FOX sort. It’s fine actually, no bother to be had and there is a definite lack of sight seekers on their extensive ’estate’ So I guess what I’m saying is that apart from some visiting members of the public, medical / herbalist students and other various minor assortments to our main project, we don’t really do humans.

Anyway, this new venture - located next to a busy car park and serving a rather large rural town involved full public scrutiny. Raised up from ground level due to the steep incline of the road the garden served as a sort of ’stage’ for the ’oddities’ also known as women doing hard manual graft.

Every five to ten minutes a passer by (disproportionately male I may add) felt forced to offer some paragon of advice, disbelief, encouragement or hails of “can you do my place next pet?” These ranged from “Ha Ha you two will never get all of that cleared” or “sure you can manage those paving stones?” to “ He He have you buried him under there” (at this stage we did have a grave size heap of earth in the centre of the plot so I got the joke - for the fiftieth time)

Now let me introduce the electricians who worked in side the house doing electric things while we outside got on with garden things, all trying to pull the practicalities of an expanding business together (the client also owns next door and this is the point - the gardens have to match) Three of them in the team and the apprentice was definitely about twelve. It’s undeniably symbolic that this work is taking place at the offices of a child psychologist (who is also a friend of my colleague - yes nepotism is cool)

Mr boss lecci is fine and asks serious questions regarding which sort of plants would grow best in this terrain and what sort of membrane would we be using for the ‘decorative stones’ and so forth. However, little greenhorn insists in repeating that we should have used a rotavator. As if we were too dense to weigh up hire cost and cast a jaundiced eye on the freaking minuscule-ness of it all and not forgetting the quaint twisty steps needed for access…while he clutches his Zoo magazine.

While he clutches his Zoo magazine…

So, after about the fifth delivery of his superior dudely wisdom I reply “well yeah maybe you should read the Beano or maybe even the Dandy but yanno I‘m not in your face suggesting it” says she while calmly rolling another Golden Virginia feminine allusion destroyer. Young lad and his repeated suggestion scurry indoors never to be seen again while his mates laugh in a cruel manner. Poor boy.

Now colleague and I afforded no conclusive societal analysis as to how or why two women gardening in public should generate such interest from all sexes across an age range of about four*** to ninety. However, we did come to the decision that when heavy graft is involved men assume superior knowledge and cannot wait to dispense advice and wisdom whether it is asked for or not. On the other hand, as much as some of the ’suggestions’ deeply vexed my last nerve***** we did have some good banter and a few laughs. However, one important lesson was learnt by a barely out of adolescence lad… do not offer advice to Sparks when you are clutching a Zoo magazine.

Now that is just asking for trouble.

* Hoyce is different from Hoystey. The former is “house” in upper-middle class English language dialect. See ** for latter.

** Stolen car chase.

***Young boy of about four wanted to know if we were making a fishpond. No? Oh well, could he still come back tomorrow to watch.

**** “last nerve” - Twisty. No plagiarism here folks

Local pastime here…

Filmed by daughter J & Co.

I think it would be difficult to cram any more offence in to this advert, which looks like something a sixteen-year-old male would conjure up not realising that his highly unoriginal and done to death sexism is hardly innovative or clever. In addition, up here in my neck of the woods a “bike” is often a reference to a woman who has had many sexual partners, which just rounds up nicely with Smack my Bitch Up*. If fact I am just going to have to stop right there or I will be here all day just stating the freaking obvious.

What?

*The Prodigy reminds me of my work in a drugs rehab where they enjoyed extreme popularity. My clients reckoned that “smack my bitch up” was in reference to “smack my heroin up” (which was also challenged for its sexism)… Of course, when withdrawing from substance dependency folks will regularly perceive reference to drugs from a never-ending resource of every day objects and interactions. Therefore, I have never really found out.

Anyway, just in case I suffer a flood of trolls enlightening me as to the subtleties of The Prodigy’s lyrics.

It‘s all about context.

Via echidne of the snakes

I’ll just reproduce this article in full. Warning, may contain triggering material.

By Caroline Norma

ABC news radio reported on the morning of International Women’s Day that a 17-year-old girl had been raped in Brisbane. The newsdesk copywriter must have had a strong coffee that morning because she decided to include the bold description that “ten men stood over the girl masturbating while each of them raped her in turn”.

This snippet of information, plus the inevitable news that the men took photos of the girl while they abused her, provides the clues women need to understand why this rape occurred, and what it means for our lives in Australian society.

Pornography users will immediately recognise the brand of rape the men used against the girl. There is a genre of pornography called “bukake” in which men stand around a single woman masturbating and ejaculating while they wait their turn to orally penetrate her. The anti-pornography documentary Pornography: the musical features footage of bukake scenes being produced, as well as a heart wrenching interview with a woman immediately after being filmed in bukake pornography. Readers can also consult the Internet, of course - it is teeming with bukake pornography sites.

As revolting as we might think it sounds, it’s important to keep in mind that men are watching and masturbating to bukake pornography in the name of pleasure and fun. The pornography industry makes more money than the mainstream entertainment industry, so we can assume it’s not a few men that are enjoying themselves with pictures of men spraying their ejaculate all over naked women.

Consuming pornography is no longer the pastime of a few men on the margins, nor is it an activity that is marginal to the lives of men. Catharine Lumby’s recent study reports that only 7 per cent of surveyed users could imagine their pornography use to be harmful in any way.

It’s hard to believe the ten men would have perpetrated the pack rape on the spur of the moment. The girl was picked up and taken back to an inner city apartment after meeting a man in a nightclub. The man then called the nine other men to come over. It was reported in The Courier-Mail (March 7) that this inner city apartment “had been rented for the night by the group of men”. Presumably they all knew each other - they were all between the ages of 18 and 22. And they must have known each other well enough to trust that no one would feel a sudden pang of conscience and upset the highly organised operation.

How has a rape club managed to flourish in the tropical surroundings of sunny Brisbane? What is leading men to come up with the idea that getting together with a bunch of friends to rape a woman might be a fun way to spend a Saturday night?

Boys from the Melbourne suburb of Werribee hit upon the idea last year, and now, it seems, in Brisbane. Could this be a new trend? Maybe Lumby and her friends could chart the rise of rape clubs in Australian society and even predict new developments in this exciting Australian subculture. They need only look to pornography to find out what these innovations will be.

The 17-year-old girl who had bukake pornography made out of her probably struggles to exist these days. She would have been frightened out of her mind on the night the men pack raped her, and the death threats they subsequently made against her couldn’t have helped her sense of personal security.

She probably worries about her pictures appearing on the Internet, and perhaps even dares to think about the men who will have a good time looking at her abuse. This probably leaves her wondering how she’s going to get through the rest of her life. Her rape club assailants, who were apparently smiling in court during their bail hearing, now face the prospect of jail, but not the prospect of a lifetime of mental anguish.

The girl might take some comfort in the fact that Australian society lurched to offer some response to the crime. The Queensland police worked on the case for six months, and the Crime and Misconduct Commission played a part in bringing the men before court.

On the Monday morning after news of the rape was broadcast on Saturday March 8, graffiti appeared on the wall of a sex shop in Brisbane’s inner city suburb of Highgate Hill reading: “10 man rape: porn imitation?” Feminists have already planned a rally outside the court where the men will appear on April 21.

But none of this will change the conditions that foster rape clubs. Pornography has made it very sexy to hurt and humiliate women. To date there have been few acts of resistance to the sex industry. This has to change.”

Kudos Maggie Hays.