Sometimes I Wish I Had Had an Abortion.

Good Men and the Women They Haven’t Me Too’ed

“I know that there are monsters amongst us, lurking behind the grins manufactured by the same small town orthodontist we all share. ”

A few months ago, I was having a beer with an old friend. We were both in from our respective big cities, fleeing COVID and quarantine to visit our tiny, hometown tucked away in a forgotten mountain valley. We were reminiscing, rehashing old jokes and memories, and providing each other highlights of the years past and future plans. As old friends are always bound to do, we landed on relationships: past, present, and hopeful.

Since the kickoff of #MeToo, I’ve noticed that progressive men are very quick to bring it up. Constantly making sure I know they understand “Me Too.” Not harassment, or misuse of power in the workplace, sexist microaggressions, abuse, or rape. No, these good men always call it “Me Too,” like it’s a verb bored high school students conjugate in French class, “Je ne Me Too jamais les femmes,” or a noun, synonymous with an ancient curse or alien abduction, “Did you hear? Me Too came for him.” Every date. Every male co-worker. Every platonic friend. What do you want? A slow clap for not being the biggest prick in my life today? God forbid you men do the bare minimum in life and not assault women.

Photo by Marcus Herzberg from Pexels — *Photo by* ***Marcus Herzberg*** *from* ***Pexels***

So, this friend was like every other good man I know right now. He pulled out his rolodex of booty and let me know, to the best of his ability, that he has never Me Too’d a woman.

I asked, “How do you know?”

His answer was simple and respectful, “I asked.”

The night moved on. Other friends came and went around us, sitting down for awhile, dishing out quick one liners, than continuing on with the musical chairs of a small town bar scene, where everyone does know your name, as well as your address, your parents’ landline number, who your junior high school crush was, the color of your braces, how many kids your junior high crush has now, the number of MIPs you racked up, how many times your junior high crush has been to jail, who punched your v-card, oh and your junior high crush’s cell number, let’s text him and see if he’ll come out!

During this, someone sat down at our table that I didn’t recognize. He had the bland face of someone considered generally good looking, but not striking enough to be anything other than a long forgotten heart-scribble in a thrown away yearbook.

I leaned over to my friend and asked him, “Who is that?”

“John Doe” he said. “Oh. The rapist?” I asked.

My friend’s face immediately changed. Thunder struck his eyes. “Where did you hear that?”

“I don’t know. Everyone just knows.”

“Well I know you have a big mouth. So you better know what you’re talking about before you say shit about one of my best friends.”

I was confused to say the least. If the situation had been reversed, my reaction wouldn’t have been disbelief. Hurt maybe, but not disbelief. But then, as a woman, I know better. I know that there are monsters amongst us, lurking behind the grins manufactured by the same small town orthodontist we all share. But why was it that my friend, this good man, who I think so highly of and has always shown everyone profound respect, who not an hour before told me he understands what women go through and is self-conscious of his own actions, why is it that instead of approaching what I had said from a place of empathy, or curiosity at the very least, instead met it with incredulous anger?

I know that my comment probably came off as flip and I know that it was shocking news for my friend to hear. And he was right. I didn’t have all the answers. I didn’t know the full story. I didn’t know who was involved. But I knew enough. I knew through the women’s whisper network to stay away from him. I can’t even pinpoint for how long I’ve known. I did my best to explain this to my friend. And while I didn’t know every factoid of the situation, I attempted to convey that this is what women in town said about John and what they said wasn’t gossip, but a warning. This is what women whisper in your ear in the bathroom if they saw him flirting with you at the bar. This is what women whisper in your ear when they see him walking down Main Street hand-in-hand with a young girl you hope will be okay.

I don’t think I did a good job of explaining this. I was mad, he was mad, and we were both about seven beers in. At one point, he wasn’t sitting next to me anymore, and I can’t even remember if we said goodbye to each other that night.

This night continues to bother me and scratch at my bone marrow. I talked with other girlfriends about my outrage at the hypocrisy of the good men in our lives and feeling powerless at my inability to find the words to convey how I felt in the moment. Then the other day, during my morning shit scroll, I saw it. A photo of a woman with a sign at a protest was going viral and it summed up everything I was unable to verbalize that night. “Why does every woman know another woman that has been raped but no man knows a rapist?” Doesn’t add up, does it? I

don’t think my friend is a bad man. I think he’s actually pretty great. I just need the men in my life to start doing the math.

Originally from Wyoming, Emma is a former Democratic political operative turned writer. Since leaving politics, she can be found mouthing off, watching baseball, and reading Stephen King. Follow her at @enlaurent on Twitter.

Hayley Headley 11/13/20 Hayley Headley 11/13/20

Avocados are Murder

“Meat is murder” has been a pro-animal rights slogan since the 80s. When the Smiths first released their iconic slogan, they couldn’t have envisioned the life the term would take on. Since then, PETA and many other rights groups have taken it as a crusade against mainstream meat-eating. While many (not all) vegans make the switch to support animal rights or the environment, few consider the human cost of their eating habits. Produce like avocados and quinoa have become staples of the vegan diet.

The problem is that while the mass production of meat is labor-intensive and environmentally harmful, the mass production of these vegetables is no different. This is especially an issue in the cultivation, shipping, and mass consumption of the avocado.

Avocados are labor and water-intensive fruits. Recently, as the popularity of Latinx food and avocado-based cuisine has erupted in the West, the pressure on farmers has become overwhelming. Green gold - as it has come to be known, is slowly destroying the ecological equilibrium of Latin America’s once vibrant and diverse farmlands.

According to UNFAO stats, avocado is officially grown in 71 countries for export, trade, and mass consumption. Its top ten producers are almost entirely located in the Americas, but none has suffered more than the world’s third largest exporter of the fruit - Chile.

For the past ten years, central Chile has been experiencing a megadrought. The worst of its kind in 1,000 years. Rainfall has severely decreased, particularly in the areas that surround the metropolitan city of Santiago. In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that over 50 municipalities are official “agricultural emergencies.” To add to this new state of emergency, El Yeso, a major water reserve that serves Santiago and the surrounding areas, is experiencing an unforeseen strain. All of this comes as Chile is emerging as a global agricultural powerhouse.

In Petorca, a city just three hours outside of the capital sits the “gold mine” that is Chile’s avocado farms. One would think that these farmers should be reaping at least some of the profits of their lucrative cultivation. But the opposite is happening.

The boom in demand for the fruit has sucked the region dry - both figuratively and literally. All the water from the quickly drying water source is spent on growing avocados that the Chilean people almost certainly will not consume. This is the result of just a decade of big avocado companies descending on the Valiproso region.

The companies swarmed in and have not only taken much of the labor that small and more environmentally conscious local farmers but their very life source. The water crisis has been the leading cause of migration in the region. More and more families have been forced out of their homes, communities, and cities because there is no water. The town of Petorca and its surrounding area have become uninhabitable.

At the core of the issue is water rights. This crisis actually began back in the 80s when huge avocado plantations began to crop up on the foothills of the Andes on the fringes of smaller farms in the valleys of Petorca. Under the Pinochet dictatorship, in a time when neoliberalism was sweeping over much of the continent of Latin America, water rights were privatized. These firms came in at just the right time and they bought the water rights when they bought the land.

Since then the overwhelming abuse of the once ample river has caused many farmers to give up their land to these huge plantations and move out of the area. The rivers now run dry, water is more expensive than ever, and the locals are suffering.

The people of Petorca, have been crying out for the government to cease the exportation of these avocados. Many view their exportation is the theft of the little water that is still available. These concerns have been in the background of Chilean politics for years, but the issue cannot possibly be ignored any longer.

The avocado market has exasperated the drought. While civilians are forced to drink water from tanks that make regular deliveries to the most affected regions, big mono-crop farms get to abuse the safer water sources even further. The issue has already created hundreds of internally displaced climate refugees, and as the strain on the water supply continues, this number will only grow.

Small farmers have two options; continue to suffer from the harshest effects of the drought, impending widespread poverty, and dwindling government support, or move. Many are making their choice, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the nation. As more people have to flood metropolitan areas like Santiago, the strain on basins like El Yeso will only increase.

Avocado production needs to be heavily regulated, but there is still a more significant global food production problem. This drought is being caused, at least in part, by a natural cycle that would take place with or without the Chilean people. Still, it would have never been this dramatic or destructive if it weren’t for the agricultural industry’s large-scale monocropping agrarian firms that have come to coopt food production in much of the global south.

The issue expands far beyond Chilean avocados or even avocado production. The fact that a trend in a country over 4 km away can result in the worst drought in 1,000 years is terrifying. That should make us rethink how we consume.

A culture of year-round seasonal fruit and exotic cuisine is killing entire ecosystems and industries.

Many people are vegan or vegetarian with the best intentions and with great concern for the environment, climate change, and the farmers on the other end of the production chain. But if we genuinely want to help farmers in the global south, we need to pivot away from our current consumption habits.

Avocados are murderous, not because they are born of any animal’s flesh, but because their mass production erodes the very ecological system that made their production possible. All over the world, small farmers are being pushed out of their usual farmlands; some are even forced to give up the trade entirely because of big agricultural firms. Ones that have little if any concern for the environments they destroy.

The unspoken cost of our comfort is all too real to the people of Chile - to farmers all over the global south.

As the people in towns like Petorca and the rural areas of Valiproso continue to wrestle with the erosion of their way of life, the onus is on us to make a change. We need to do more than simply be vegan or vegetarian; we need to eat local and consider more seriously the food miles that accompany our favorite dishes.

Hayley is an emerging writer and journalist who works hard to create work that is fiercely feminist, anti racist and anti oppression on a whole. You can check out more of her work and content on her instagram @hayley.headley

Shelby St. James 11/10/20 Shelby St. James 11/10/20

I’m a Sex Worker and This is How I Spent Election Night.

I’ve voted in exactly four presidential elections, and that makes me feel both older and younger than I’d like to admit. This is the only one I've participated in where I've been an actively working sex worker however, and it really changed how I felt both about politics and about my role in our greater society.

The first time I voted was for Obama, and he won my first year in college. Life felt hopeful, and inspiring. The second time I voted, I was living on the west coast pursuing my dreams of being a writer, with barely two pennies to pinch together. My friends and I celebrated with cheap beer and stale weed, in a basement apartment in LA. It was dirty and grimy and I loved it. I felt like we had really taken a positive and permanent turn as a country, that things were turning out alright. We had gotten out of the worst recession in living memory and all my friends and I had jobs, had places to live. Hey, I was living in a closet under the stairs (earning me the affectionate nickname of Harry) but it was where I wanted to be, and I felt like I was playing a part I could easily escape at any time. We were lucky, then.

The next election in 2016 found me living abroad in Berlin. I had gathered a small group of friends in my flat to celebrate in anticipation of a Hillary win. As the night wore on, we stopped cheering, and eventually, there were tears. I couldn't believe that I was so far from home, and that we not only missed our chance to elect our first female president, but that we had handed our democracy to Trump. The cheap wine tasted like vinegar in our mouths, and I stayed in bed the next day, skipping my classes and not answering my phone. For the next couple of weeks as I wandered the streets of the city, shopkeepers or random people would stop me when they heard my accent and ask 'are you American?' For a long time I lied and told them I was from Vancouver, that what happened down there in the United States hadn't happened to me. I was in denial, and I was ashamed.

That was four long years ago. Now, I live in New York City and make art while also doing sex work on the side. The impact of Covid on my professional life has been unbelievable, and turned my incredibly busy intimate life into a barren desert. In some ways it was a crisis, as I found myself jobless like countless other people in the country, and yet because of the nature of my work I wasn't able to apply for unemployment relief. I did have many clients who still wanted to see me, but what had been for so long a safe haven for men to come and see me, and to escape the stress of the world became just another risk. I started setting up digital-only appointments, and answered many, many emails from clients who worried about me, and who were struggling to take care of their mental health under all the stress.

The past couple of months have seen a slow but steady return to some normalcy, with many sex workers such as myself becoming more and more familiar with ways in which we can minimize our risk, and with increasing ease of access for Covid tests making it easier for our clients to meet with us, it’s been getting gradually easier. While it was nowhere like it used to be, it felt good to be able to see my darlings.

Last week was the election and it put me in a very different sort of space. For months I'd been binging podcasts, watching the news until nearly sunrise, and feverishly scrolling through social media, consuming every poll and new article or projection about the election, and that was when my inbox started flooding. Loads of clients old and new started to contact me, with subject lines such as 'need to escape the news cycle for a bit' or 'I can't bear to watch this election alone.'

The night of the election, I met with a wonderful man whose only request was that we didn't talk about the election. We laid in bed and held hands and stared at the ceiling like we were in a French new age film. For awhile, we forgot that there was an election at all, and while it was always lingering somewhere in the back of my mind, it felt really good to get away from it for a moment, to have a valid reason to not look at my phone.

The next day, even though the election hadn't been called yet, I met with another regular of mine who wanted me to meet him in Connecticut, which I gladly did. When I saw him, he looked exhausted, and had the washed out and messy appearance of an unmade bed. I haven't slept all night, he told me sheepishly, and I just wanted you to help me feel like things were going to be okay.

I saw two other people that week, who both said things along the same lines. I don't want to worry about the election for awhile. I'm so tired, and so worried. It's too late for me to do anything about it, all we can do is wait, and I want to wait for a little bit with you. I felt the burden of their exhaustion, and I was tired from caring for them, and yet I felt like it was an essential duty in many ways.

It reminded me of something I saw being shared earlier in the pandemic on twitter, that while we have relied first and foremost on the medical experts; the doctors and public health leaders to tell us what's going on and how to protect ourselves, after that, we turned to the artists. Many of us started reading again for the first time in a long time, or we watched shows that we had never gotten around to seeing before. Loads of us bought art supplies and took online classes in painting, DJing, or playing guitar. We turned to the artists, to the writers, to the creators and the creatives to hold us up and give us hope. And in the same way, as the stress of the year wore on and the trauma and anxiety of the election outweighed the fear of the pandemic, I was reminded of the ways in which in times of emotional need, my clients can turn to me for healing and escape.

So I didn't spend my election night, or week, watching the news and chewing my fingernails. I spent election night holding hands with someone while talking about our favorite sushi restaurant that does super cute takeout boxes, and about Schitt's Creek. I spent election week going on an urban hike to get a great view of the city and talk with someone about how Max Richter's take on Vivaldi has been keeping them sane. I got to pet a client’s dog. I got to write emails to people to give them hope, and to suggest reading Normal People by Sally Rooney if they needed something to distract them. I spent the election caring for people who were exhausted, worried, hurt, and afraid, and it felt good.

The election ended for me on Saturday, when I heard my entire neighborhood erupt in cheers, clapping, and honking. The war isn't over but a big battle was won. And I am reminded by my week, even though it was exhausting, that the way we move forward isn't isolation, anger, or obsession. It's with gentle care.

Hayley Headley 11/6/20 Hayley Headley 11/6/20

The Colonization of Porn

As millions of people flock to OnlyFans to enjoy local sex work, there is a sense of nostalgia for those 90s kids who can remember a time before free porn. OnlyFans represented a reprisal of that golden era of video sex work where women and their producers were getting wealthy from their content creation. For a long time, there was a sense that the golden era of pornography was long gone.

In the 90s, porn was something you bought. Different producers had websites and hard copy videotapes that people bought and paid for with real money. It was nearly impossible to come across sexual content like that without paying. But even then, life was finding a way. In chatrooms on obscure websites, men and teen boys alike were exchanging passwords and subscriptions so that they could access a world of online content for free.

This idea of subverting and circumventing the traditions of buying and selling pornographic content was novel in the 90s, that was all about to change. One unique kid in these chatrooms was concocting a business model that would radicalize porn, sex work, and the world at large. This man’s name is Fabian.

Where casual consumers saw the porn industry of the 90s as a treasure trove of content locked behind a series of paywalls, Fabian saw an opportunity. He was looking at the bigger picture, and that led him to create a site that is so ubiquitous with theft and abuse that producers and actors alike fear it.

The German “entrepreneur’,’ entered the industry by buying up existing sites and bringing them in as subsidiaries. This was the first in a long line of changes that would soon rapidly transform how we produce and consume porn.

He bought a company called Mansef and another called InterHub, the latter of which created what Fabian described as “the youtube of porn.” It was with this naivety that he began the colonization of the porn industry.

Mansef soon became Manwin, which later came to be known as MindGeek. The adult film conglomerate that consumers know and love. When Fabian bought them out, Interhub had just developed Pornhub and Redtube, and they had no idea how huge (and profitable) it would soon become. But much like most other capitalist inventions, it will come to oppress more than it benefits.

Manwin and their subsidiary Pornhub was forging a new path. The idea wasn’t unique, and neither was the infrastructure, but having the finances and confidence to make the site what it is today was something wholly unique to Fabian.

At a time when many sex workers were unable to access banking, the supreme irony of Fabian’s ability to obtain a loan that would soon erode their incomes cannot be lost on us. All the same, he got the loan and began to expand his platform. Soon he was the prince of free to access porn, and everyone else was just the benefactors. At least, that’s what he thought.

That was a half-truth; the problem is that saying Pornhub, Redtube, Youporn and all the other MindGeek properties are “ the youtube of porn” is that their business models are different. Youtube encourages users to create independent content, and there are heavy regulations on copyright infringement. Pornhub, however, actively incentivizes theft. The business is built on screen recording, downloading, and reposting content that someone paid to create and view elsewhere.

Moreover, the company has only expanded on that model since its inception. Jon Ronson spent a year following the effects of the flood of free porn on the internet, and what he found was unsurprising yet thoroughly unnerving. From custom porn to virginal sex offenders, the take away was obvious- free porn isn’t good for us.

Fabian was the first colonizer of the porn industry. He entered, wielded his privilege, money, and power to overhaul every step of the porn production and consumption process. He built on a long history of white men changing industries for the worst. Much like Bezos has co-opted the delivery market, Fabian robbed pornstars and producers of their power and gave it to consumers and the Montreal tech bros.

This is another reason why the Youtube comparison falls through because porn is shameful.

We live in a society that is obsessed with sex but shames sexual commerce. In the 90s, when production companies hid porn behind paywalls, porn was something you could do more casually. It was a thing you could leave behind, do until you are 20 and get a “regular” job. People couldn’t recognize you, and if they did, they were too embarrassed to mention. Now, we have become more and more comfortable with sex, but only if we aren’t paying. Fabian found a way to capitalize on that and profit from the sense of shame and discomfort that comes from a society that feels female bodies should be free for the taking.

He has made being a pornstar so much harder. Quality has been thrown out the window in favor of volume. Women (and men) in the industry have to film more and more videos to get less money. All the while, they were becoming more and more replaceable. The sex industry has always been a space for high turnover, but the introduction of pornhub also stole the art and creativity that used to dominate the industry. It’s all prepackaged cookie-cutter content that demands the women seem younger and younger and the sex to be more violent. Regardless, many porn actors have attempted to persevere in the face of adversity to no avail. At the end of the day, their hard work is stolen, reposted, and they realize they can do nothing to fix any of it. DMCA takedowns are too time-consuming and futile, only for the same person or a different one to post the same video to a site that remains apathetic to the creator’s plight. Even worse, you couldn’t leave. Or at least, it wasn’t as easy as it once could have been.

But, that was just how things were; that was the new normal for the porn industry. For years, the women (and men) behind and in front of the camera found ways around it. Whether it was making custom porn for high-income men with particular tastes or other kinds of sex work, they were still making a living doing what they loved, and in many ways, that was all that mattered. For a long time, it felt that the power would never be given back to the women (and men) who enjoy creating this content.

That was until OnlyFans popped up. Initially invented for social media influencers, Only Fans soon broke the sex work industry in the best way possible. Suddenly, women (and men) in the sector could make absurd amounts of money safely and consistently by posting content that ranged from not-safe for Instagram booty pics to kink and nudity. The important part was that the power was once again in the hands of the sex workers.

Only Fans was like custom porn meets Instagram and Patreon. You subscribed (or followed) your favorite creators for a monthly fee; once you could view their page, you could request personalized videos at an extra cost. The prices were all set by the performers. This was radical. OnlyFans was branded as a safe haven for sexual commerce, a renaissance. Just like that, we were back to paid-for local porn.

The site has yet to succumb to the colonial forces of pornhub, but there is a more immediate threat to the space. A side effect of having such a low barrier to entry was yet again, rich white celebrities (in this case) could co-opt the space. At first, it started with lightly disruptive content. People posting mildly sexier photos and get paid - sure.

But all hell broke loose in late August this year when Bella Thorne destroyed the “economy of Only Fans.”

After she entered the platform in mid-August, she made 2 million dollars in her first week. To make matters worse, posts began to circulate claiming that Thorne had posted a single nude which sat behind a hefty paywall of $200. As hundreds flocked to pay to see this elusive photo, they quickly realized these were all lies. As requests for refunds mounted, the team behind the site was forced to find a solution.

OnlyFans had to push for monthly, not weekly, payouts. Moreover, they began to limit their monthly fees and tip amounts. All this, for one white woman drunk on her privilege and ability. Thorne came under fire for her actions and claims that all these changes are being made for her documentary. She essentially claims that she accidentally destroyed the site’s pro-sex work infrastructure for an experiment.

If more and more celebrities begin to flock to OnlyFans and dip their toes in the water of sex commerce, it is uncertain what more changed the site will have to make to keep up. There is an overwhelming fear amongst sex workers that this is just the first in a long line of changes that ultimately ends in their renewed oppression.

Porn is still stigmatized, and as comfortable as we are watching it, we still don’t seem quite as okay with paying for it. The reasons for that are wholly patriarchal, and they speak to a desire for female sexuality. Fabian came to colonize sexuality, not necessarily with patriarchal intent, but with a capitalist one. He is a perfect example of how female and sex worker oppression is rooted in capitalist ideals. OnlyFans is just one rejection of that model, and even it falls under threat.

As a world, we need to question where our porn comes from and if we like that place. Our options are simple, go local, or contribute to yet another system of oppression.

The Whorticulturalist 11/4/20 The Whorticulturalist 11/4/20

The Day After.

By the whorticulturalist.

It's the day after election day and I'm so exhausted that I can barely focus my eyes on the work I have to do in front of me. I feel sick, my lower back aches, and my eyes are already burning. The blinds are pulled shut and my curtains are drawn. My apartment, which is usually full of music or podcasts, is blissfully silent. I want it to remain that way, I want to preserve the fragile tendrils of certainty and safety I feel.

It's surreal, to say the least, that we've finally made it here. I can still remember this day in 2016, and the feeling of hopelessness and betrayal. I was living abroad in England at the time, and as I went about my day and ran my errands, I was asked by many who recognized my accent what I thought about the election results. I didn't want to talk about it with strangers though, I didn't want to cry in public, so I just told everyone that I was Canadian. I didn't want to take on that responsibility, I was ashamed of how low we'd come.

There was a heavy feeling in my heart, as a woman, a sense of oncoming doom. I already felt tired thinking about the fights that were to be had. Maybe even back then, maybe I was already starting this magazine in my head. Just like back then, this week I'm thinking that this is not the end, but the beginning of something huge. I want to think about all the ways that this election, and this presidency have galvanized a lot of people to participate in their communities in ways they had never previously imagined. And I think about all the thoughtful energy created. People are paying attention, and people are beginning to care.

It's too early to say whether or not we are too late. It's too early to know whether or not we're going to be able to save the world in time. I feel even more lonely when I think about how more people voted for Trump in 2020 than they did in 2016. We need to change this. We need to change it all.

Last night I took a walk through the city to observe what I could. I could see streets that were eerily empty, and sports bars with election coverage on their tvs. I stopped next to a woman who was helping a homeless man, and when she walked away, the man told me that she had stolen his phone. I paused to look at graffiti on the sidewalk and a man leered at me and asked me to get a drink with him. I saw the empty hotels of SF with their rooms selectively lit up to make the skyline a choppy row of glowing hearts. I went home so tired, but I didn't sleep. I didn't sleep at all.

This isn't the end, this is just the beginning. This is us realizing, as we did back in 2016, that there is no end to the work to dismantle patriarchy, white supremacy, and exploitative systems of colonization and capitalism. We are tired, but we are determined. The tide is turning, and we will have our turn.

Hayley Headley 11/1/20 Hayley Headley 11/1/20

Understanding The Second Armenian Genocide

Disclaimer: This article is heavily biased in favor of Armenia. It does not effectively represent the plight of the Azeri people. For personal reasons, I am not capable of doing that. If you would like to seek out information from the Azerbaijani perspective, feel free to check out this source: https://www.dailysabah.com/

It has been just over a month since fighting first broke out in Artsakh (aka Nagorno-Karabakh). Since then, the region has seen even more violent attacks on civilian populations and was declared to be going through a genocide. There is so much to say about what has been happening and what hope there is for the future. The following is a semi-comprehensive round-up of some of the most significant events of the past month.

In the second week of fighting, there were reports of Turkish and Israeli artillery being used to fire on Artsakh. As the conflict continues, more and more reports are being found to prove that the same nations calling out for a ceasefire are fueling the war with weapons. Israel has historically been Azerbaijan’s biggest arms dealer (surpassing even Russia), and they show no signs of slowing down. Despite Armenian descent, they have reaffirmed their commitment to fulfilling their billion-dollar arms deal with the nation.

Syrian boots hit the ground in the second week of the fighting, as Turkey’s bought and paid for rebel troops were deployed. Turkey has been using Syrian mercenaries for a while now, recruiting them to fight wars in Libya. Using poverty as a recruitment tactic, they have been able to supply their allies in Baku with the manpower they need to keep this war going.

Coming off of those reports’ heels, members of the Dutch Parliament called for action to aid Armenia in the war. In early October, MPs signed a resolution that condemned Azerbaijan and called for the government to bring this issue to a conclusion at this year’s EU summit.

Similarly, in opposition to Azeri oppression, Greek politicians have been leading the charge in the EU parliament to condemn President Aliyev. They have been pushing to revoke all visas for Azeris in Europe with diplomatic passports - essentially sending all the politicians, foreign ministers, and diplomats currently residing within the Schengen/EU area back home.

Nothing has come of these pushes for further action.

The fighting has spilled over into civilian settlements on both sides. Armenia attacked the Azeri city of Ganga; this comes as a presumably reactionary move to the attacks on similarly populated regions by Azeri forces. Not to mention the attempt to strike the capital, which occurred in just the first week of the conflict.

Since the first week of fighting, Russia, France, and the United States have all negotiated three separate peace deals. Humanitarian Ceasefires are generally agreed upon by two parties that are brought to the table by a third party. Often, as in Artsakh, this third party has a vested interest in the conflict, whether monetary or military.

After two failed attempts at establishing this tentative peace, the US brought the two nations back to the table. They established a ceasefire that went into effect Monday morning and was promptly broken as Azeri forces continued to shell military positions in Artsakh.

This came as, over the weekend, Genocide Watch declared a genocide emergency in the Artsakh region. Fear that this war may turn into a genocide is not new, but what the GW says that a genocide is underway. What does that mean?

Genocide is defined in the second article of the Genocide Convention as:

The performance of these acts with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Not every war can be declared genocidal, but the war in Artsakh is notable for various reasons.

Number one is that Turkey has used the mislead of war to do this in the past. In 1915 the first Armenian genocide took place, and Turkey utilized the distraction of World War 1 to commit these heinous acts in secret. Turkey’s heavy involvement in this war had always sparked fear since the early days of the war. Those fears are now being realized in the worst way imaginable.

Genocide Watch recognizes 10 stages of genocide. If you are familiar with political theory, they resemble Allport’s scale of prejudice and discrimination. The organization says that the situation in Artsakh is close to approaching the most advanced stage. If we don’t act now, the world will give Turkey and Azerbaijan all they need to pretend this never happened.

Turkey got away with the genocide of 1915, and Erdogan pledged to do it again. The prime minister has said that the nation is a continuation of the Ottoman empire. An era of Turkish history characterized, at least in part, by genocide and imperialism. He is committed to returning Turkey to its former glory, one which begins with the murder of Armenians for their territory.

When the United Nations was formed, the world said they wouldn’t stand idly by and let another genocide happen again. Yet, in the face of an active threat, the West is silent; the UN is silent.

As Azeri airstrikes encroach further on the civilian territory, it is only a matter of time. Erdogan is committed to upholding his end of the bargain. The question is if we will do what is right.

Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA 22) sent a letter to his constituents as the US announced their ceasefire deal with the two nations. Saying: “I am hopeful this ceasefire will bring an end to the unacceptable, belligerent actions taken by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia.”

With all due respect, Congressman, your hope isn’t saving anyone. The Armenians in your district need more than just your hope, more than just your words; they need action. Their families back home are being slaughtered as your government provides security aid to their enemy. These people are crying out for their lives, and you are telling them, whether directly or indirectly, that you don’t care - at least not enough to do anything. There are genocidal heads of the state bringing about their extermination, and you “hope” they do better?

There is no need for hope when you can create change.

The United Nations, the EU parliament, the United States, all of these nations and collectives are calling on hope when the power to stop these attacks lies in the palm of their hands. This is no longer a war, no longer a debate about state sovereignty - every action and inaction taken since the 23rd of October is an act that aids this genocide.

Peace deals won’t work. Denouncing Azerbaijan won’t work. Only real and sustained actions to halt Azerbaijan in all their operations will work. Azeri and Turkish forces are searching for a much greater goal, one that these bodies can prevent them from reaching.

Now isn’t the time to respect agreements or trade deals. It is time for action.

Azerbaijan has given up all pretense of decent warfare, opting to partake in the severe destruction of forest areas. Recently videos have surfaced of the white phosphorus being used to set the forests near Armenian villages ablaze. This is just the latest in a long series of heinous acts that have characterized this war. While white phosphorus is not prohibited under international law, its use is frowned upon near civilian areas.

Armenia first accepted women into military service training in 2013, but very few women have been urged to join since then. Last week, however, the prime minister’s wife announced that she and 13 other women will be deployed on the frontlines in Artsakh soon. This just reflects that the nation is being stretched for resources and soldiers.

Over 1000 young men, most of them just 18 or 19 years old, have fallen fighting this war. As of the 26th of October, 300 to 400 civilians were reported dead, and that number is only projected to grow as Azeri airstrikes extend further into Artsakh villages. According to the BBC, on the 10th of October, over 70,000 people have been displaced on the Armenian side of the conflict.

The first Armenian genocide was background noise to Western interests, don’t let this be the same. Get involved, show up to the protest, call your representatives.

International bodies and treaties like NATO limit the actions that European nations and the US can take. That doesn’t mean that nothing can be done, and the US has found a way around these rules in the past.

Here is what you can petition your representatives to push for:

Contract a private military
1. The US is currently utilizing private contractors to represent their interests in Syria. This is in no way a violation of the constitution or the law. Moreover, while the act might irritate Turkey, it is permitted by NATO.
2. It is possible for other nations as well, especially those with the money to employ mercenaries.
Petition the Security Council to sanction arms sales to Azerbaijan
1. This is an option for anyone from a security council nation (mostly); this includes the UK, Russia, France, the United States, and China. The non-permanent member nations like; Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Germany, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, and Tunisia.
Petition your government to stop selling arms to Azerbaijan
1. There are many countries that are providing aid, funds, and arms to the Azeri army. Check if your government is and if they are, call your representative in the national government.

Many of us are not able to do that, but what we can do is donate!

If you have anything to give, donate to the Armenia Fund and help people on the ground.

Guest Author 10/30/20 Guest Author 10/30/20

NOT JUST A HASHTAG

Feyi Apampa is a Nigerian student currently doing her undergraduate degree at Clark University. Though doing her degree in Psychology and Biology, Feyi takes interest in Nigerian Politics, with the hope of seeing the country change for the better in the years to come.

The #ENDSARS/SWAT hashtag has been circulating around social media for quite a number of days now. On the 8th of October 2020, protests broke out across many locations in Nigeria after a video of a SARS officer shooting a young man was released.

What is SARS?

SARS is the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigerian police force formed in 1992 after the rise of violent crimes in Nigeria, with the sole purpose of investigating crimes such as armed robbery, kidnappings and theft. However, they appear to have had a different agenda, for what we now see is these officers acting like those that they were supposed to apprehend.

SARS officers abuse their power in so many ways, from kidnapping, to torture, to sexual violence, to murder- the list is extensive . Not to mention the fact that the Nigerian police force was ranked THE WORST in the world in 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index. This is why #ENDSARS is trending.

“The men of SARS stopped me at Yaba, got into my car, and said that I’m a yahoo boy (a fraudster) because I was wearing gold chains, owned an iPhone and there was cash with me. They drove me to their office in Surulere and held me there till I paid 50k (about 131 USD). One of them gave me his number to keep in touch.”

“I was bundled to the station like a criminal, I was extorted. One innocent person was assaulted with a cutlass at the police station”

“When armed robbers were breaking into my apartment in July., I called SARS and they told me they had no petrol in their vehicle. The robbers spent 2 hours robbing my entire street uninterrupted.”

“Met a lady today who was picked by SARS in Ibadan, searched, then driven 12 hours to Abuja. They asked her for money, she told them “do your worst.” They did. Framed her and locked her up for 42 days without contact with her family who thought she was dead.”

SARS has become a game of who can hunt down Nigerian people, specifically youth, with dreadlocks, nice clothes, nice cars, piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, laptops and expensive phones.

If any of these apply to you, be careful, you might be next.

So what has the government said in response to the #ENDSARS movement?

On the 11th of October, the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank MBA signed a statement about the dissolution of the SARS unit stating that:

1. The Inspector General of Police has dissolved the SARS unit across the thirty-six State Commands and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with immediate effect.

2. All officers and men serving in the unit will be redeployed to other Police Commands, Formations and Units.

3. A new policing arrangement for tackling the offences of Armed-Robbery and other violent crimes will be unveiled to the public soon.

4. A Citizens and Strategic Stakeholders Forum will be launched to provide an avenue for citizens to regularly interface and advise the police authority on issues touching on the general public.

5. To deal with the report of crimes committed against citizens, an Investigative team will be constituted which will include Civil Society Organizations and culprits will be punished.

What has been the response of the youth and general public?

As said by Bashir Ahmad, the personal assistant of president Buhari, SARS was “reorganized” in 2017, “overhauled” in 2018, “disbanded” in 2019 and now “dissolved” in 2020. For the past 4 years the government has promised the removal of SARS, but that hasn't been the case. Nigerians are tired of empty promises, and have demanded:

1. The immediate release of arrested protesters

2. Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for the families of the victims

3. Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconduct (within 10 days)

4. In line with the new police act, psychological evaluation and retraining (to be confirmed by an independent body) of disbanded SARS officers before redeployment.

5. Increase of police salaries so that they are adequately compensated for protecting the lives and property of citizens.

So much has happened concerning the protests since it started a couple of weeks ago. By the 19th of October, Nigerians and allies all over the world had donated money to be used for food, water, ambulances and other support and had raised over 74,727,649.14 NGN (approximately 195,662 USD) in the currencies of USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, GHS, KES, and BTC. The response from some Nigerians in the diaspora has been overwhelmingly positive with protests in various countries, including the UK, US and Canada.

20.10.20 – The Lekki Tollgate Massacre

In Chapter 2 part 14.2 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, it states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” The government has broken this, multiple times, but the events of the 20th of October 2020 mark the worst way this constitution has been broken. On this day at 11:49am WAT, the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu issued a 24-hour curfew to start at 4pm, in order to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional right to protest against police brutality, claiming that the protests have been infiltrated by criminals. This gave Lagosians about 5 hours to spare and prepare. With Lagos being home to about 20 million people, 5 hours is such little time and as a result, people were met with gridlock traffic and crazy long queues in various places like grocery stores with the fear that the curfew may be extended.

Despite the initial 4pm curfew, peaceful protesters still decided to meet at the Lekki Tollgate, which has been the main center of all the protests since they began on the 8th. Sometime before 4pm, the CCTV cameras at the Lekki Tollgate were uninstalled and around 6pm, the lights at the tollgate and surrounding areas were turned off. At approximately 6:45pm tweets from the scene of the protests started to alert people that soldiers arrived at the scene and opened fire allegedly resulting in the loss of about 78 lives and counting (although the figure is now debated), with many others injured and in critical condition. While this was ongoing, the Lagos state government tweeted an amendment to the initial start time of the curfew, moving it till 9pm, all while the shooting is happening. What were the protesters doing at the time of the massacre? Sitting down, waving the country’s flag, and singing the national anthem. For many, their final words being “peace and unity” the last line of the first stanza of the Nigerian national anthem.

So who is responsible?

With videos and live stream recordings circulating the media, the Nigerian army was quick to label their involvement and the killings of protestors as fake news. On the 18th of October, it was reported the army was to intervene in the protests, with a deployment under the name “Operation Crocodile Smile VI.” The acting director of the army’s public relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said that the army “is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively”.

In addition to this, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Lagos state governor, also known as “the Grand Oppressor of Lagos State”, has since fled the country and claimed that he had no involvement with what happened, despite the popular belief he is the beneficial owner of the the Lekki Tollgate amongst many other properties in the area, such as the Oriental hotel, and the popular news channel, TVC.

The current governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has since stated that “forces beyond [his] control]” are responsible, and even went on to say that there were no fatalities in a press release, which the pubic asserts is a blatant lie, as many watched the live broadcast by a popular Nigerian DJ who livestreamed most of the protest on Instagram, on which someone was shot and killed live.

My heart is heavy, my country is bleeding. Never in my 18 years of life have I ever felt more confused. Nigeria, the most populous Black nation in the world, is in shambles. Innocent people are being murdered! The silence of the wider Black community and the rest of the world is deafening. WE ARE NOT JUST ANOTHER HASHTAG! I urge you all, Nigerian or not, to raise awareness! Use your voice! Nigeria needs you now more than ever. For 60 years, we’ve been suffering. For 60 years, we’ve been exploited. For 60 years, we’ve been promised a better Nigeria. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. All my life, I’ve seen countless Nigerians go into poverty; I have seen everyday pain and suffering. How can minimum wage be 30,000 NGN ( approximately 78.50 USD)and a COVID test be 50,000 NGN (approximately 131 USD)? How does that work? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE! What happened to the better Nigeria we were promised? We, the “lazy” youth (as the president called us), have woken up and we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

All I have left to say is this:

Sanwo-Olu! You’ve been caught in all your lies!

In the words of Stephanie Mbachu, Buhari! “You’ve been a bad, bad boy!”

Tinubu! You can run, but you can’t hide!

The blood of innocent Nigerians soils all of your hands. Blood on the flag, blood on the land, blood on your hands!

To JIMOH ISAQ. AYOMIDE TAIWO. PETER OFURUM. CHIKA IBEKU. CHIBUKE ANAMS. IFEOMA ABUDU. CHRISTIAN ONUIGBO. EMMANUEL EGBO. VICTOR MADUAMAGO. CHIDI ODINAUWA. STEPHEN AGBANYIM. TONY ORUAMA. TIYAMIU KAZEEM, MUS’AB SAMMANI. KOLADE JOHNSON. ONOVO MATTHEW. CHINEDU ANI. PRESCIOUS ODUA. RICHARD GORA. CHIJIOKE ILOANYA. LINDA IGWETU. DANIEL TELLA. HARRY ATARIA. JOHNSON NNAMEKA. FEMI BELLO. CHIMA IKWUANDO. GODGIFT EKERETE. GABRIEL OWOICHO. TINA EZEKWE. MODEBAYO AWOSIKA. DANIEL ADEWUYI. CHUKWUEMEKA MATTHEW. CKIKA IBEKU. AZUAMAK MADUEMAGO. RINJI BALA UZZIEL. TIYAMIU KAZEEM. JOSEPH EIDONOJIE UGBENI. ANITA AKAPSON. CHIBUIKE DANIEL IKEAGUCHI. ANTHONY NWOKIKE. PAULINUS OGBONNA. IFEANYI OZOR. CHINEDU MENIRU. AUGUSTINA AREBU. EKENA ISAAC MEGBE. EMEKA OJINZE. ADEMOLA MOSHOOD. ISMAILA ANYINLA. MIRACLE. JOY NDUBUEZE. SUNDAY.

OKE-OBI ENADHUZE.

and many others, who have lost their lives to the hands of SARS and the government, your deaths shall not be in vain, we promise you that. We will fight till the very end. Rest in eternal peace.

“We want a Nigerian society where the child of a nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody”

-Aisha Yesufu (2020)

Hayley Headley 10/30/20 Hayley Headley 10/30/20

Starting a Business: The Story Behind Carbon Masks

Living in a pandemic is a great challenge. Navigating a new world of regular quarantines and social distance has been hard for everyone. One industry that has certainly grown amid this economic decline is the mask industry. Masks are becoming a huge part of our lives, wearing them is something that will be carrying over into 2021 and beyond so feeling safe and comfortable in them has to be a top priority. People all over the world have begun to sew masks and help the community around them. One such company that has started up in the middle of this pandemic, is Carbon Masks.

Carbon Masks began as the brainchild of Sandra, her sister, and their friend. Sandra was home, stuck in quarantine, and just talking with her sister and their friend. What they wanted to do was make something relevant to the times we all found ourselves living in.

Sandra Leow, via Carbon Masks — *Sandra Leow*, via Carbon Masks

Sandra had just been sent back to her home country of Malaysia as our school in the Netherlands struggled to handle the beginning of the pandemic. Her sister and their friend were similarly stuck in between the lives they used to live and the ones they found themselves living. As Sandra put it, they wanted to:

“Incorporate elements of functionality and aesthetics”

This was their ultimate goal going into this. Though Sandra admits she didn’t know much about what this would practically entail. It was a new experience, running a business and starting one from the ground up. But, there is no time like the present so she and her team got to work. We talked a lot about those early days and what it was like trying to find a supplier and researching materials.

They decided to start small and keep it local. They found their initial supplier and began working on a prototype. This first sample, as Sandra will tell you herself, was horrible. It was unusable and just not what they were looking for. They had no choice but to pivot, which led them to their new supplier.

This was the first of a few setbacks the brand faced over its 4-month existence. Their launch was kind of messy, their supplier was unable to deliver on time, their customers were frustrated. To put it honestly; “It was a shit show”

It was hard to manage, finding a balance between projecting confidence to their customers, and admitting their faults. These delays put a lot of strain on Sandra who was managing customer relations, and it marred the image of the company for a while. But this was just another setback, and the team was ready and eager to push past this.

“It wasn’t sustainable at all, but we got through it and now it is finally more stabilized”

Something, she highlighted as being incredibly important to resolving these issues was honesty and personability. She retold stories of sitting behind her computer for hours responding to the 50 to 100 emails they were receiving daily and even more Instagram DMs. On that note, she advised that small business owners need to be careful and considerate about the needs of their customers.

After sorting out all of these issues, their customer base and they could focus on the product. As Sandra said, she and the team wanted to make something functional and aesthetic, so a big question on my mind was; how do they actually function?

We got into the science behind all of it in our conversation. This being her first business venture and obviously, her first time making masks it took a lot of research at first. Eventually, they found a system and style that was reusable, stylish, and effective in protecting against the virus. About the science of the masks themselves, this is what Sandra had to say:

“Before standing the brand I knew nothing about fabrics or the specifications of designing a mask, or anything like that. Carbon Masks are 3-ply, providing three layers of protection to reduce the spread of aerosol transmissions.

The outer layer is made of a moisture-wicking cotton knit material. The water repellent nature of the outer layer blocks respiratory droplets and aerosols from coming into contact with the wearer's face. This is important as many respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19, spread through large droplets from coughs and sneezes.

The middle filter layer is made of a reusable meltblown nonwoven filter material, similar to a surgical face mask.

The inner layer is made out of a soft, breathable cotton-microfiber material—absorbing and containing oral droplets. In addition, the interaction between the inner layer and outer layer material produces an electrostatic charge that increases the mask's aerosol filtration efficiency.”

Carbon Classics, via Carbon Masks — *Carbon Classics,* via Carbon Masks

All of this is a part of their current line of Carbon Classics. The product itself is resonating with their customer base, so much so that they have recently expanded into Thailand and Hong Kong.

Right now they are keeping their team small, with the core team only having three members; it has been quite a journey in the past four months. I was curious to know about the challenges Sandra may have faced going into business as a young Southeast Asian woman. Funnily enough, because there has been very little indication given about who is actually behind the masks she has been free of such direct criticism. That may change as they plan to become more visible owners in the future (fingers crossed this doesn’t happen).

I asked Sandra more about what she sees for the future of the company and herself both post-pandemic and in the more immediate future. “We’re thinking of [expanding to] Singapore and the US as well actually”. They have found that people are ordering from the US (though the shipping is prohibitively expensive). They are eager to make their way into new markets soon.

“Essentially we would want to focus on a certain product. I think what’s really important for a business is to know your focus. You can create all the products in the world but if they do not perform well individually, it is not a sustainable way of running a business. We do not want it to only be present during this pandemic but also beyond the year 2020[...]Ultimately, It's about how you want to create a product that will last throughout the shift in time.”

Right now, they are in the process of releasing their new collection of masks. Beyond that, it’s really about utilizing their resources. They are focused on moving forward, creating more collections, expanding color ranges, and features. “It’s also about how you can be the best in the market.” That is something that remains consistently on their minds, and it informs their research and development efforts.

I got Sandra to tell me a little bit about the new collection which is coming out next week.

“Our new collection is called Carbon Air. Basically, although our masks are breathable, we are driven to improve our product offerings. The main goal is to differentiate our Carbon Classics and this new collection, Carbon Air. We wanted to incorporate new features to diversify and most importantly, improve our product. Some of the new features include a new material, thinner earloops with adjustable straps, and a thinner inner mesh layer. Although we understand the difficulty in creating a one-size-fits-all mask, our main goal is to try to accommodate different face shapes and sizes..”

All of this is in an effort to “acknowledge the limitations of our current mask collection and to diversify and better accommodate the interests of our customers.”.

Carbon Masks as a brand makes me really excited. This pandemic has been devastating for so many people so it is exciting and reassuring to see people bringing such innovation to different markets. It is especially inspiring to see young BIPOC women doing it. I am excited about the future of this brand but also the future of business as more and more women like Sandra start to take up space in it.

If you want to buy a mask from the company or just stay up to date on where they are expanding to check out their website and Instagram.

Hayley Headley 10/28/20 Hayley Headley 10/28/20

Reconciliation and Reform; Chile's Long Awaited Plebiscite

On Sunday 25 October, Chile finally voted to change its constitution. The Chilean people have been awaiting this moment for decades, and whether they are conscious of it or not that single moment will be redefining their nation and national identity for years to come.

In 1973, Augusto Pinochet commanded his junta army to storm the streets of Santiago. In a coupe aided and abetted by the US government, as a part of Operation Condor, the general took control violently. Usurping and brutally murdering the opposition party effectively quelling any sense of dissent among the people.

Over the coming months, activists and leftists that were even remotely associated with the opposition or any potential resistance movements were locked away and imprisoned. The national stadium became a center for the egregious and murderous displays of right-wing malice that would become synonymous with the name Pinochet. The stadium was a place of joy yet the early days of the dictatorship saw it desecrated by bloodshed.

A symbol of the duality of their tenuous democracy.

When the stadium was too full the junta constructed new torture chambers in the north of the nation. They held tens of thousands of prisoners, killing, and discarding the bodies of many of them. An estimated 3,065 people have been confirmed to have died as a result of the dictatorship. While there are more than 40,000 people who are known to have been political prisoners, tortured, and made to disappear. All of them suffering at the hands of a leader poisoned by his own power. To this day thousands of people are still missing, leaving their mothers and families to search for them.

Pinochet changed Chile forever, and the greatest vestige of his tyrannous rule is the 1980 constitution. Among his first acts after usurping power was to abolish the constitution of 1925. This left him and his supporters with the lofty task of rewriting the constitution, which they did. At the behest of their hostile dictator, the regime and their team of right-wing judges and lawyers produced a document that extended the power of the executive.

The original council that was charged with designing a new constitution completed their first draft in 1978 but infighting prevented this draft from going anywhere. Finally, Pinochet and his military junta ceased control of the drafting process and produced a final document that enhanced the presidential powers and lengthed the transitionary period to secure himself essentially unlimited power over the government, another 8 years of undemocratic leadership, and eligibility in the next democratic election. The greatest authority Pinochet granted himself as a part of this new constitution is found in Provision 24. This was the section of the document that gave way to his most vile acts as a dictator, but these expired after the 8 year transition period.

The permanent articles of this constitution, however, lend themselves to an abuse of presidential power to the detriment of the Chilean people. Article 8 essentially condemns alternate ideologies, allowing for the arrest of individuals who espouse beliefs that aren’t supported by their government. The next few articles secure presidential authority above congress, and thus, above the will of the people. Pinochet worked diligently to actively seek out ways to assert his will, and to allow any possible future president to do the same.

Moreover, Pinochet was fiercely neoliberalist and he folded that ideology into his constitution as well. This left Chile with a system that ultimately values profit over people. With no constitutional way to reform the economic systems which Pinochet redesigned for his own profit, the people are left to deal with the impact of a truly free market where privatisation and inequality run rampant.

This new constitution was then put to a plebiscite on September 11th. The vote, however, was severely manipulated. When a movement to leave your vote blank to show your discontent began among centrists and leftists alike, Pinochet declared that any blank vote would be a “yes”, and since he destroyed the registration ledger, every Chilean over 18 was expected to vote. Spreading propaganda about the bright future this constitution offered and actively sicking his military and police forces on the opposition. The vote was illegitimate.

The constitution itself has been denounced by international onlookers and Chileans alike as a fractured document -- its very conception tainted by an era of dictatorial rule and suppression of the people.

But this is how the people lived, under a “president” that was clear on his consideration for the will of the people. His transitionary rule was just as brutal as the years before, but now he pushed through policies that would forever change the economy and life of the people.

Finally, after 16 long years of uninterrupted power, Pinochet and the junta held their final plebiscite in 1988 aimed primarily at securing more years of power. Activist groups who realized that this was their chance, their opening to finally bring about the return of democracy. The campaigning soon began and the final vote of 56% NO brought an end to the dictatorship. A return to democracy then began, officially ending Pinochet’s cruel reign in 1990.

Chile’s democracy remains fractured, the wounds of this era are still healing. They are still attempting to exorcise the terror that was visited upon them just 47 years ago. It has been a long and arduous journey to get to the place the nation is in today, and still the remnants of Pinochet’s reign linger on.

His free-market policies and the privatization of social security continue to widen wealth gaps and impoverish the poorest 90% of Chileans. His campaigns against the opposition have left people missing to this day. His constitution still holds power over the very people he terrorized.

Of course, various presidents have edited the 1980 constitution but the document remains lacking. Many academics and activists have been coming for the full reconstruction of the constitution for years, but those desires were first realized in 2019.

Chile is no stranger to protest, especially in its most recent history. The youth have found a voice through protest and the most recent ones have called for a variety of changes. High school students first began protests anew in 2019 over a spike in the price of metro tickets. This was the tipping point that started the nation down this path.

The students were soon joined by thousands of their compatriots as they called out for major economic, political, and constitutional reform. President Sebastián Piñera, whose brother originally constructed the privatized social security system that was a cornerstone of the reforms the youth were calling for, responded with violence initially. He declared a state of emergency and put the military to patrol the streets, the first time any action like this has been taken since Pinochet.

In the face of mass arrests, hospitalizations, and even murders as a result of the unrest, the protestors were unwavering. They continued to voice their demands, especially as coronavirus and the resulting shutdowns widened the wealth gap in the nation. It all came to a head this past Sunday when Chileans all over the world got their chance to vote.

Polls closed at 8 pm Sunday night and as the counts came in celebrations broke out as Chileans everywhere got what they have been waiting for. An overwhelming majority voted for a new constitution to be written by a constitutional council.

This may not bring an end to the socioeconomic tensions, but it’s a start to a journey of healing that should have begun in the 90s. This is the first step to a new Chile, one that is truly ready to crawl out from under Pinochet’s shadow.

Hayley Headley 10/23/20 Hayley Headley 10/23/20

Is This Really Feminism?

Though today many self-identified feminists would rather bicker about semantics, feminism has a long history of fully embracing all women and all people. There are debates over when “feminism” as we know it today truly started. Most, however, accept that any movement that sought out the advancement of women’s place in society can be considered feminist regardless of how the movement itself identified. These are generally called “proto-feminist movements”.

The feminism we are acquainted with today was born at some point in the 18th century when women in the West were facing violations of their most fundamental rights. They couldn’t work, vote, or be independent in any meaningful way. White feminism was based on the principles of gaining access to the labor force and voting rights, but it was an exclusive group. Picture the suffragettes, dozens of women meeting in secret putting together their fight, asserting themselves through civil disobedience, entering local government, and starting their own publications. Or Rosie the Riveter, the image of wartime womanhood, giving women a surprising entry into the workforce. Feminist organizations were fighting for women’s most basic rights but the fruits of that labour were only accessible for a particular group of women.

Intersectionality wasn’t introduced as a feminist issue until the 80s. Intersectionality expanded feminism’s purpose and intent - made it accessible to more women (and men). Since the black feminist theorist, Crenshaw, first introduced the idea of intersectionality, feminism has changed and expanded. It came to include trans rights, queer rights, and more women than ever before. Suddenly, feminism was for all women.

This radically changed who and what feminism stood for. Now it became more than just a bid for rights or access, it became a mission to uproot the patriarchy on all fronts. It made feminism for men; trying to extricate themselves from the toxic notions of masculinity that trap them. It made feminism for trans and genderqueer people; understanding that the gender binary exists only to exacerbate patriarchal oppression. It made feminism for black and brown women a world over; feminist principles had been wrapped up in the ideals of Western white women, but intersectionality pushed that envelope.

Intersectional feminism is an ever-expanding discipline because feminism is ever-evolving. Everyday women (and men) are identifying new facets of patriarchal oppression and finding new ways to tackle and approach them.

However, the expansive nature of this constantly changing school of thought is getting harder and harder for the average person to fully grasp. It makes answering the question: “who is a good feminist?” nearly impossible. There is an indispensable value to asking that question though because being a good feminist has meant a lot of things over the years. Today, while feminism has become a fully-fledged discipline with many academic papers, it is also easier than ever to learn about. With the advent of social media and free search engines, comes a wave of educational material that is readily available for a generation of budding feminists.

That being said, it is also easier to derail than ever. Feminism has become a more diverse movement since the introduction of intersectionality. It has a myriad of branches that offer a different perspective and reading of principle feminist texts. Moreover, in a turn of events that seems ripped from the 1960s, many feminists have taken to arguing over who feminism supports. Now, some would say there is no answer but to me, the answer is undeniable - feminism is for everyone.

It must be working towards the dismantlement of the patriarchy, and the simple fact is that the patriarchy oppresses everyone - including those who support it. There is no sense or basis to the question because exclusionary feminism isn’t feminism.

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF), isn’t feminism (contrary to the beliefs of the famous author, JK Rowling). Trans men and women were crying out for their rights long before modern feminists accepted them. Their fight isn’t dependent on feminist support but it is emboldened and aided by it. Their oppression under a patriarchal system is undeniable, and we cannot claim to be feminists if we don’t support those who fall victim to this transnational system of oppression. Moreover, we cannot claim to be in opposition to the patriarchy if we uphold it in our organization. The gates of feminism should be open to everyone with feminist values and that includes trans women and men more than it does any TERF with a Twitter account.

‘Feminism’ that fails to stand with our black, Latinx, Asian, and indigenous brothers and sisters, doesn’t deserve the label. Women of color, both where they are a minority and when they are a majority in the world, face oppression for their gender and color. The fight that black indigenous people of color are facing is the greatest aim of feminist liberation. It is the all-encompassing condemnation of every form of colonial, capitalist, patriarchal oppression. There is no feminism without BIPOC individuals, just as there is no feminism without women.

Finally, while we think that the patriarchy doesn’t oppress white men (especially wealthy ones), it does. Machismo (or toxic masculinity), cages men in a prison of emotional seclusion and incites violence in them. It is easy to see this as benefits because undoubtedly white men are the biggest beneficiaries of patriarchal oppression, but they are also losing their own autonomy to identify themselves outside of this image. Feminism has to include men because feminism has to liberate everyone - not just a few.

“Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism” is a hoax in the same way that feminism that centers only on white femininity is a hoax. Feminists need to fight for more than the liberation of all women but for the liberation of all people. We need to show up for every protest because where there are rights being violated, there is almost certainly a patriarchal system violating them.

Centering whiteness or heteronormativity prioritizes palatability over people.

We are living in a time where feminist activism is supremely important to creating real and long-lasting change.

Evil is so loud right now, we can’t afford to be fighting each other when there is so much to oppose. We are living under governments that are benefiting from the inability of activists to unify and call out for their goals. Letting a few loud fake feminists derail the entire movement, at a time so close to revolutionary change, will be our greatest failure. We need to leave those “fake feminists” behind and keep seeking out the goals of feminism that isn’t palatable, that supersedes and goes beyond the demands we had before, that seeks justice for everyone, not just a few.

The Whorticulturalist 10/22/20 The Whorticulturalist 10/22/20

STD Testing at Home: My Experience with NURX

My experience with NURX, the at-home STD testing service.

I was not paid to endorse or use NURX, I bought and took their STD test out of my own curiosity.

In the first couple weeks of the pandemic, the questions were all about the essentials. What's going to happen to me? Will I be able to get toilet paper? Will global distribution chains of food dry up? There were many immediate concerns such as these while we huddled indoors and bought camping equipment, pasta, and sourdough starters. But as the months wore on, other less pressing issues started coming to the forefront.

One of the pressing ones for me was the question of reproductive healthcare. My normal clinic was closed except for emergencies, and I didn't think my regular STD checkup would be considered one, although mentally I was close. As a sexually active person who is also polyamorous, I am usually fastidious about STD and sexual health checkups and until the pandemic, I would go every three months or so. But now, I didn't know where to go. It was starting to make me feel anxious, and I wanted to put my mind at ease, and take care of my health.

Almost as if by magic, the internet daddy Google started advertising Nurx to me via instagram and facebook and all of the other unmentionable places I lurk on the internet, and I was immediately interested. A STD test you could take at home? Perfect for quarantine. Nevertheless, I hemmed and hawed about getting it because I was unsure if it was as reliable as it said it was, and also it came with a decent price tag, whereas previously, all of my STD tests were free through my insurance. Not knowing when the pandemic would end though, I decided that it was worth a shot.

When the kit came, it was packaged in a cute little box that opened up in such a cute way I was almost disappointed that there wasn't shoes or chocolates inside. There were many different packages and labeled bits and bobs, but the instructions were really easy to read and easier to use. It was definitely a bit weird and uncomfortable to do the tests myself, but it was outweighed by my genuine curiosity and slight feeling of glee in doing these on my own. Finally, I can play the Doctor my mom always wanted me to be.

One throat swab and one vaginal swab later, I was left with the blood test. You use a little disposable lancet to prick the side of your finger and then you squeeze several drops of blood onto a little tab. I think of the many times I've been to the lab to get this test done, and how they've always taken two or three vials of blood out of my arm. Can they really accurately test me with just one finger of blood on a little business card? Time will tell. This process is not for the faint of heart, it does hurt a tiny bit, but surprisingly, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, and I could easily do it again if necessary.

After all of that, I packaged everything up neatly and put it into a little box to send back to the company. Postage is already prepaid so I just took it to my local post office to tip into the mail slot. It took about 10 days to get my results back, which is a little longer than they promised on the website (but considering the overworked state of healthcare in this pandemic I was more than willing to give them a break), but I got my results by text, email, and then through the private messaging function on their website. All negative! Yay for me.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. I really enjoyed the process and overall, it took me fifteen minutes maximum to do all the testing bits (I had to wait until the blood card fully dried before I could put it back into the packet which took a bit longer) but honestly, it was a lot more convenient than having to go to the clinic. A feature that I also liked was that you could reach out to your designated provider via the website at any time with your health questions, just as you would at the doctor's office. The cost can be a bit prohibitive, I think it was about $200 dollars for me overall, but during a pandemic in which my usual methods of sexual health monitoring aren't available? This worked just fine and I'll definitely be doing it again.

Guest Author 10/18/20 Guest Author 10/18/20

Tracey Emin- My Kind of Artist

As Oscar Wilde said, ‘There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about’ that cannot be said for controversial and iconic British Artist Tracey Emin. Not many artists have been exposed to fierce public scrutiny in the British Media like Emin. As a result, she has been criticised for being nothing more than a biographical documentarist, narcissistically playing her life out on stage in the form of neon lights, tapestries, and mono prints. Her public appearances in the media with stories of sleeping around, getting pissed, (she was sponsored by Bombay Sapphire Gin) and depression have contributed to her uncalled-for public reputation as the “Bad Girl of British Art”. Persecuted by moral judgement she was listed at position 41 in the Channel Four programme 100 Worst Britons in 2003. However, in the same year she ranked 41 of the most important people in the art world by Art Review raising her above David Hockney and Damien Hirst. Like Marmite you either love Mad Tracey from Margate or hate her.’

Photo credit: Arthur, the digital museum — *Photo credit:* *Arthur, the digital museum*

Emin was born in 1963 in Croydon, London, UK and grew up in the seaside town of Margate, Kent. Her parents ran the Hotel International and the business crashed when she was seven. At that point, her parents split up. Emin’s difficult childhood turned traumatic when she was molested at eleven on a beach and raped at the age of thirteen. When recollecting the incident of the beach she writes in Strangelands: “He ran his hands all over me, and I pulled at his willy until a giant spray of white covered my limbs.” Emin has said “When living in Margate sex was a form of escapism, on the beach, down an alley, green, park or hotel.” In ‘Strangelands’ she writes “When I was 14- 15 there was nothing to my life but dancing and sex. I would go to nightclubs and dance then I would meet someone and have sex. It was fine and easy nothing to do but think with my body, like a bird I thought I was free.”

Despite having no qualifications and leaving school at thirteen, she managed to get accepted on an art degree course in Maidstone. She received a first and went on to the Royal College of Art . She met Carl Freedman an art curator and in his 1995 mixed show Minky Mandy she produced her famous tent ‘Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-1995’ . Inside the tent she had sewn and embroidered the names of anyone she had shared a bed with. One could argue that this controversial piece was the one that launched Emin’s career into the public eye but her ‘arrival’ was undoubtedly her appearance on a Channel 4 debate at the 1997 Turner Prize, which she famously walked out off during a live discussion saying she was ‘drunk and wanted to be with her friends.’ In ‘Strangelands’ she recalls her friend Gillian a fellow artist ringing her the next day and relating the highlights to her of the night before. “But I was not on tv, I blew it to celebrate with you. Very funny Gillian. What a wind up. Hey Gillian get off the phone, my hangovers too bad. Just take your humour somewhere else.” It was only when she opened the Guardian that day and was splashed all over the page that it all came flooding back to her.

After a mini mental breakdown in 1998, Emin spent four days straight in bed, lifeless, vodka and cigarettes her only companion. Around her bed lay empty bottles, cigarette packets, condoms, blood-stained knickers, contraceptive pill packets, reflecting the grim state of Emin’s health. When she left the bed to go to the bathroom, she noticed that the bed itself was a work of art – Her inspiration was to display her embarrassing depravation. Her own unwashed unmade bed that conveyed anguish, depression, and sexual behaviour which revealed one of the bleakest moments of her existence, so she turned it into an installation. My Bed 98 was nominated for the 1999 Turner Prize. The nomination received backlash from an art world not yet ready for Emin’s conceptualism or a woman so open and frank about her emotional health and sexual encounters. The bed sold for 3.77 million dollars in 2014.

Confessional art brings controversy and debate. By its nature, it tends to provoke intense reactions. While some people find confessional art inspirational and relevant, many others consider it distasteful. Some even simply deny that it is art at all. Speaking of Emin’s art Julian Stallabrass a critic said ‘It’s so unmediated, I wonder if it’s art,’ whilst Chair of Arts Council England Nicolas Serota said “The Young British Artists like Hirst and Tracey Emin made art that people could understand, even if they didn’t like it. Since then the commercial art world in the capital has burgeoned.”

Emin uses the raw material of her self-mind, body, and soul. Nearly all the experiences Emin draws on for her art are based on her body, like her relationship with sex and the devastation of her abortions. “I realized I was my work, I was the essence of my work”, she said on ITV’s Southbank Show in 2001. Art becomes, as it always has for Emin, more about a life as art. Plato asserted that when artists are making or performing art they are imitating. Emin’s work relates everything we could ever want to know about her life. Her sadness and happiness are her art. Bad luck, shit men, poor sex, treacheries, anorexia, mental health, infidelities, and survival. In Strangelands she penned:

“I remember, when I was about ten years old, working out that I would be thirty-six in the year 2000. It seemed so far away, so old, so unreal. And here I am, a fucked, crazy, anorexic-alcoholic-childless beautiful woman. I never dreamed it would be like this.”

Emin has consistently supplied an autobiography, relating to the harrowing events of her past, so that her work can be read like a confessional. However uncomfortable her disclosures appear: troubled childhood, absent father, abortion, rape - they provide an absorbing storyline and they help to explain the underlying emotional reasons for her work which include jealously, fear and revenge. Emin is a possessor of her own sexuality. She is not a silent passive object. She is not subject to patriarchal conditioning: for want of a better example, ‘the-women-on top’. She sticks her middle finger up to the sexist art-historical and popular images that trivialize women. She celebrates sexuality and reclaims her body for herself. Emin is raw in her work. She is direct and uninhibited, tough on men; she is the voice of the single metropolitan female, telling it like it is. She is a champion for the disillusioned generation. Her new feminist is a formidable, self-reliant personality with a sharp, unflinching voice. Emin has re-invented feminist perceptions, the power bitch boasting an uncompromising, seedy eroticism. Emin’s work is her real response to her environment, the world that she deals with. Her work is about surviving as a woman. Her art speaks volumes to any woman who has struggled through a disadvantaged background.

In 2011 she was made the Royal Academy's Professor of Drawing, one of only two female professors in the history of the institution. Whilst today Emin steers away from the subversive topics of her earlier work, she still powerfully addresses the most emotive qualities of life. Like her most well-known sign on the wall of London’s St Pancras station that reads: ‘I want my time with you’. In the recent ‘self-isolation’ she revealed new autobiographical paintings called ‘I thrive on solitude.’ During the lockdown she said “I’m in it for the long haul, this is the last stage of my life and I am really going to make the most of it,” she insisted. “I’m not going to fuck up like I have in the past. I expect my work to change dramatically over the next year and if it does not, I will be disappointed. I am very excited to be going into this new phase.”

Emin’s work is liberating. Womanhood and female tragedy as subjects are interesting and fascinating art. In an era where it is still considered shameful to discuss women’s issues, where period talk is still considered appalling, abortion is taboo, and cunts and vulvas are not what a nice lady says, she forces us to look at reality right in the face. By displaying ‘My Bed’ she revealed not only her own conflicts and suffering but the battles many women face in the process of finding themselves. Emin has systemically contested the continuing male bias of the cultural world/gender imbalance, playing a critical role in changing both the art industry and the ways in which we see our world. Many have accused her of pandering to the lowest form of voyeurism, but ‘Mad Tracey from Margate’ brought attention to issues that desperately needed it, and still do. Emin’s work remains more important than ever.

Justina Jameson is an emerging writer from the UK. When she is not writing at the weekend, she can be found holding down a 9 to 5 as a Senior Administrative. Justina has a Social Welfare and Community Degree which examines the quality of human life in a society in all its dimensions. She feels strongly in female empowerment and believes that women should make personal and professional choices that they want and not let society make them very guilty about those very choices. Justina likes art,dogs, books, laughter and lives with her long tern partner and their dog Cooper-Star.

Hayley Headley 10/16/20 Hayley Headley 10/16/20

Learning to Rethink Your Value

Everyone is scrambling to find meaning in the midst of this pandemic, throwing themselves into new hobbies, discovering making sourdough, etc. While these are all wonderful experiences, I think in these times of economic degradation we need to find value in new things. Unemployment all over the world is skyrocketing and that is placing radically new strains on families everywhere. Now, more than ever our understanding of our value and time is rooted in economic gain and output.

One thing I have been trying to learn especially getting back into school is to redefine my value. We live under a capitalist system and the few times we get to subvert the system are small but invaluable forms of resistance. Being still, loving yourself, - these are all unspoken forms of activism.

Capitalism demands that we spend every second of every day creating, producing, and working. But the world is constantly changing, we can’t always be working - especially now. For months we were all stuck at home, and instead of finding peace within ourselves, we sought out work. The one question that should be on our minds is do we truly enjoy work or do we think it’s the one thing that gives us value? Especially as lockdown restrictions are slowly being lifted (for better or worse), and many of us are getting the chance to get back to our old lives.

How are you valuing yourself, your time, and your mental space?

Let’s talk about you first. Beyond thinking your the hottest thing to walk the earth since its formation, do you appreciate your body? Even the parts you don’t love? Be honest - think about it.

Here is the thing, regardless of how much you love your body or how you see it, it is valuable. Even when you are just being still, your body is still working so that you get to live. That is a function you can’t deny. It keeps you breathing, makes sure oxygen gets where it needs it to go, and it does all of that without asking anything extra of you.

Whether or not you love every bit of yourself, appreciating it, feeling happy with it is activism. Body positivity has been co-opted by influencer culture but it was built on a platform of accessibility and disruption. If you have a body that you actively appreciate then, you are already disrupting a system that preys on your self-hatred.

You don’t need to post about it or even be loud about it. The key to it is to truly appreciate all that your body does and to help it function. Eat healthily (but we will settle for just eating), drink water, and be satisfied.

As you go back into “normal” life, redefine what body positivity is for you.

Now, we come to the question of time. The saying “time is money” is probably as old as capitalism itself, but we are failing to get to the heart of that. Yes, time spent relaxing could be time spent working, but the sole reason for living is not working.

It doesn’t matter if it is a job you love, work is hard, and it will wear you out. Take time for you and only you. Not for your friends, not for your family, take some time away from any social obligation and just vibe.

Stop demanding production out of relaxation. You don’t need to do a face mask or have a wash day to be caring for yourself. Be still.

Take that time you spend being still to repair your mental space. Personally, trying to find a balance between work and school is exhausting. Not just physically, but mentally.

Something I have been trying to learn; is to not turn every other thought into a new article or research paper topic. It got so bad that it felt as though all my thoughts had to be productive or useful. But when you start to think like that, your other thoughts lose their intrinsic value.

We have to divorce ourselves from this system that consistently asks us to produce more and more content.

This is all about protecting yourself, your time, and your mental space.

Art by Keelin Montzingo — *Art by* *Keelin Montzingo*

How do we put that into practice?

You have to be willing to challenge yourself. Here are some things that have been working for me over the past week:

Do nothing!

This week I challenge you to do nothing productive for a whole day. The real challenge is not thinking about being productive. When I say do nothing, I mean truly free yourself from any sense of obligation. Don’t think about work, don’t do work, don’t even look at anything to do with work.

Close your tabs, don’t open moodle (or any other site related to school/work), try to truly forget that you live a life filled with tasks and duties.

2. Feel great about yourself!

Look in the mirror, take any time you might have spent critiquing yourself, and be positive. Sometimes, I find myself thinking these subtly negative thoughts. My inner voice says:

”Oh, that part of me is great, kind of makes up for this other thing I hate”.

“Hmmm, that part of me looks worse today than it did before” or,

“Ehh, at least I look cute in photos so it doesn’t matter if I don’t look as good in real life”

That kind of thinking is harmful.

If you think like this you have a new challenge this week. Now, when you find yourself looking into the mirror, smile, and think of something you are grateful for and happy about. Hype yourself up!

3. Know your own worth.

I mean this in every way but especially, know the value of your time. Don’t waste it on people you don’t enjoy being around or people who don’t respect you.

Trust, it isn’t worth it.

When you start understanding your value and respecting yourself, you will know when others don’t. Once you recognize that they don’t respect you in any meaningful way, you can stop taking sh*t from people.

This week, only make time for things (and people) you value and people who value you.

Take these small things into account as you go through the next week. Use them to redefine how you value yourself, your work, and your time.

Keelin Montzingo studied Communications at the University of Massachusetts and Modern and Contemporary Art at Christies. In 2017 she returned to painting propelled by her insight in art history and commercial markets which gave a contradictory and fascinating perspective of her subject matter. Recent exhibitions include ‘Creatures’ at Olsen Gruin, 2019 and ‘Shifting Skins’ at Leonard Tourne, 2018. Her upcoming solo exhibition ‘Cosmic Latte Nostalgia’ will open in London in 2021.

Guest Author 10/13/20 Guest Author 10/13/20

Stop Saying ‘People’ When You Really Mean ‘Men’

“Humanity doesn’t have a violence problem, we have a male violence problem.”

Humanity doesn’t have a violence problem, we have a male violence problem. It sounds confronting when you hear it put in such clear terms, but denying reality won’t change reality, whereas accepting and discussing it might.

The numbers don’t lie.

Some women are violent, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the majority of violence, whether against women or men, is perpetrated by men.

For those few of you who’ve been living in an alternate universe, I’ve included links at the bottom citing what we already know. Men are a lot more violent than women, across the board. Men throughout all cultures, ethnicities, men of all colours, creeds, and religions are much more violent than women—to each other and to women.

Men are the main instigators of war, commit at least 90% of all violent crime, and behave as though raping women in wartime is an aperitif.

Allow me to pause here for a second to allow the ‘not-all-menners’ to step away from the keyboard. If you’re not a violent man, you’re not under discussion, nor are my fiance, my son, or my brothers. Just as you know when you read an article about scientists searching for a cure for cancer they don’t mean all scientists, you already know “men” doesn’t mean “all men.”

How did this happen?

Nobody knows.

You can posit whatever theories you like, and they are plentiful. All we truly know is that somewhere humanity took a wrong turn. Some men, at some point, decided that the simplest way to get what they wanted was to use violence to get it. And they did that because they could.

Somewhere, at some time, physically stronger men decided that it was okay to harm others if their immediate whims were satisfied. Somewhere, somewhen, men started suppressing the knowledge that women are human too. Other men quickly learned they had to be violent to have their whims satisfied, too.

Women began being taught that defending themselves could lead to being beaten raped and murdered. Of course, women not defending themselves leads to them being beaten raped and murdered too, so women being taught to be subservient just makes it easier for violent men to harm women. But when you live in a society shaped by the most violent men (and we do) that sort of clear thinking logic is difficult to apply.

“It’s tempting to assume male dominance is the natural state of human society. It isn’t.”

We can apply all the theories we want. But the truth is, it doesn’t really matter why we have ended up living in such a dangerous, violent world run by dangerous, violent men. The reality is, we unfortunately do.

Sugar and spice and all things nice—men just can’t help it.

If we all woke up tomorrow and women were just as physically strong as men, many of your cherished myths about what is “natural” female behaviour would be dispersed fast. I know I’ve never remotely resembled a submissive or placid little doll who’d be happy to let you stomp on her rights. But that’s irrelevant because we won’t wake up in that world tomorrow.

However, what is relevant is that violent men are, for the most part, choosing to be violent men.

How many times have you seen the man who just snapped and couldn’t help himself from assaulting or murdering a woman at the local supermarket, church, school run, PTA meeting—or even the local pub? You haven’t. And if you claim to have seen this, you’re in the tiny minority. Even in a place where alcohol is regularly consumed, it is almost unheard of for men to “just snap.”

They wait until the woman is unprotected and choose to assault her away from protective eyes.

On almost every occasion violence occurs, men are choosing that violence. It is a choice. It starts as a choice to use violent language and moves into violent behaviour which ends, a lot more often than it should, in the rape and death of women by men.

Make the link.

The Make The Link Organisation discusses the link between sexist jokes, speech, and behaviours, and more violent behaviours. Turning a blind eye to ugly slurs and insults means you are turning a blind eye to potentially dangerous men.

Please don’t pretend you don’t already know that men who speak in foul terms about women are dangerous men. There is a direct link between sexist or misogynistic behaviours and “jokes” and more dangerous behaviours.

Why It Matters.

Language shapes attitudes. Attitudes shape behaviour. We police ourselves.

Our ape brains accept what the society of other apes accepts as normality. The majority of the time we naked apes will go along with the majority consensus. Blame evolution. Only when we actually make the effort to remove a behaviour from society do we see real change.

Remember when women weren’t allowed the human right of voting? Remember when people smoked everywhere, planes trains and automobiles? Remember the hardened believers telling everyone they couldn’t change anything, it was just the way it was and always would be?

And yet change things we did.

The vast majority of behaviours complied with by societal agreement are not policed by any outside source. It would be an unmanageable system. Without being aware of it consciously, we agree to social terms when approved by the majority, and for the most part, as social apes do, we go along to get along.

And male violence is taught to children, normalised, accepted and winked at, at every level of society. From kindy to the grave we make excuses for and turn away from male violence. The why of that isn’t really the issue. The issue is that we can change this.

And one easy way to start that change is to remove the bubble wrap around speaking about male violence. Stop worrying about hurting men’s feelings. Start thinking about pushing back and changing things for the better.

When reporting the news, commenting on an article, writing a post on Facebook, or out in the real world, indeed anywhere at all, if discussing male violence and male crimes, say so.

Say men kill women. Say men kill men. Say men are responsible for at least 90% of all violent crime. Say men start wars. Say men murder one another in horrific amounts. Say the word men if you are talking about men.

Violence didn’t kill her. A man killed her. Do not use the word people if you mean men.

If you imagine we already do this, I’m afraid you’d be wrong. Really look at the words people use and the headlines. Read things critically. Then name the problem. Let “people” see the extent of the problem the world has with male violence.

A First Step

The first step to forcing those men responsible for most of the violence in the world is to actually speak about their violence as being unacceptable in a loud clear voice. If we make the effort, as “people” to state the facts about male violence clearly, if we call out men for their violent behaviour instead of hiding behind the word people, we drag the problem into the light.

We can only do that by naming the problem. The problem is not human violence. The problem is male violence.

Once in the light, the second step should be speaking up loudly, often and regularly (when safe to do so) on how it is totally unacceptable that these men are so violent. Never victim-blaming. Never pontificating. Simply stating that violent men are disgusting men, they are choosing to be violent, and we want them to stop it. Make it clear that these men should and must stop it.

Shame As A Societal Tool

Shame violent men into being less violent. Shame is a well-studied tool, and it works.

There will always be a small core of resistant psychopaths, those with cognitive issues, and anti-social deviants. But if you bother to make a behaviour unacceptable (as we have in no way done with male violence) over a relatively short time all but the most hardened recalcitrants will, at worst, minimise their behaviour, and at best, stop it.

“Through the lens of evolutionary biology, shame evolved to encourage adherence to beneficial social norms. This is backed up by the fact that shame is more prevalent in collectivist societies where people spend little to no time alone than it is in individualistic societies where people live more isolated lives.”

Not only don’t we shame violent men, but we also glorify them. We glorify them in the media, in our speech, in our leaders. And then we hide male violence behind the word “people.”

The third step—who knows what that might look like. If we can all, collectively, agree to steps one and two, we can collectively find a third step to move forward.

Make the first step. You can do one thing differently. One thing that matters.

Please stop saying people when you mean men. Because the truth, for some, could be a matter of life and death.

Sources:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23831740-400-the-origins-of-sexism-how-men-came-to-rule-12000-years-ago/
https://makethelink.org.au/make-the-link/whymakethelink/
https://fs.blog/2020/01/positive-side-of-shame/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
https://www.ourwatch.org.au/quick-facts/
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2018001/article/54978/02-eng.htm
https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/domestic-abuse-is-a-gendered-crime/
https://ncadv.org/statistics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628110/

Alison Tennent is Scottish by birth, bloodline and temperament, and Australian since 2002 by citizenship ceremony. She’s worked as a counsellor (Grief and Loss), and in disability and mental health for many years. She is an outspoken advocate for de-stigmatising mental health disorders and challenges, and resides in Queensland, Australia, where the weather offers sunshine one day, cyclones the next. You can find a link to her Medium work here: https://medium.com/@besomandbletherskite

The Whorticulturalist 10/8/20 The Whorticulturalist 10/8/20

Gendered Language

The language we use matters. Whether or not it’s conscious or unconscious, we infuse the words we use with power, agency, and meaning. A wonderful discussion/dissection by guest author Nazia Kamali.

In common everyday terms, gendered language is one that is often biased towards a particular sex; it carries a prejudice which degrades one sex in comparison to another. It needs no explaining as to which is the debased one. In the global cultural scenario, the legacy of patriarchy is so deeply seated that our language system too whether spoken or written has evolved with a bias against women. Within this biased linguistic construct, ‘man’ has become a term which is not only used for a male human being born with a pair of XY chromosome but also ‘being a man’ has become a reference for everything that is of import, demanding respect and recognition. Thus within the ambit of language across all cultures and lands, man became the norm while woman became the ‘deviation’, something/someone who does not follow the original.

Any language in its process of evolution is a product of its society. We speak and listen in a manner in which we are conditioned to. Each word has a meaning which involves a signifier, a signified and a hidden struggle of power associated with the use of that word. For example, when a common person ‘says’ something, it is a simple utterance of a series of words that convey his thoughts, but when a ruler, a king, a commander ‘says’ something, it becomes an order, a thought, a proverb or something equally worthwhile. Within this power struggle, woman has become the ‘signified’ one, which means she is the passive receiver for all that language had to offer. She is the subject who is spoken to and is spoken for, one who listens and obeys. She has become the one who is being talked about without asking for her opinion.

Thereby throughout the centuries, language had developed as one of the most powerful tools of gender discrimination. Sexism has found its way into our lives by means of gendered language where everything that is passive or weak is characterised as female, while whatever exudes power is symbolised as male. Sex determines who becomes the commander and who becomes the follower and language honours this discrimination.

Language that we speak today evolved and seeped into our daily lives through various literary texts. Words flowed from Iliad and Odysseys, and from the pen of Shakespeare and mingled with the lingos, jargons, and vocabulary used by common men and women. The dialogues and symbols used in the classics became our dialogues and symbols. This evolution further enhanced the gender bias as language used for women in most of the ancient epics was derogatory to their dignity. They were objectified and identified in terms of their physical appearance rather than talents. Only the meek and submissive woman in need of protection was fit enough to be the partner of the protagonist. Men though were very conveniently allowed to be manipulating cheats like most lead characters of picaresque novels. Thus women who stood up for themselves, worked hard to make a name, and competed with men became un-feminine, a disgrace to womanhood and were name called, an idea which is quite commonplace even in the twenty first century.

The idea of stereotyping has proved throughout generations that women should display certain warmth in their behaviours, they are expected to be subdued and submissive, someone in dire need of protection while men are allowed to be arrogant and dominating in their mannerism. This prejudice got filtered from literature into the society and thus began the unending cycle of getting inspired from those texts and moulding women into the stereotypical cast.

This happened mainly because of the fact that the ‘higher’ classical genres of epic and poetry were inhospitable to women. Women did not have the benefits of a classical education which included knowledge of languages such as Greek and Latin thus the language construct and culture that came out of these epics and became a part of our daily lives was male centric.

This overwhelming influence of men over classics enshrined overtly masculine qualities and values of virility and martial prowess. Consequently every word that reflected power became masculine by default.

Within the process of this staged evolution, man and authority became synonymous. Everyplace that one looks at from job postings to law and order, gendered words such as policeman, fireman, mankind and chairman abound. These words are a part of the norm that colours the language in bias against women. While we never stop to think of this as wrong, however, the use of such words unconsciously frames the male as absolute. This develops a prototype for that particular role or job. Then an expectation related to that profession develops within which the professional has to behave in a certain way irrespective of their innate nature.

In order to fulfil this language generated expectation, women are supposed to shed their feminine traits and behave as men. A woman who works as a firefighter or a police woman is expected to have a masculine gait and musculature if she wants to excel or be the one to be treated with respect. A woman’s work, mannerism, and output are always questioned because of her sex and that reflects in the language used at the workplace. Women are judged as soon as they make a mistake and called out as if that mistake was made on account of their sex. They are mostly kept out of jobs that involve higher risks as those jobs are supposedly a ‘man’s arena’, thereby elevating the standing of the sex as well as the word associated with it. She isn’t fit for this kind of work. It’s a man’s job after all; is the most commonly used sentence.

As a result of this biased development of language and lexical choices, an asymmetry in status of men and women in our society comes to play. This status awards power to men and hence places them at important position as compared to women. Linguistic, syntactical and grammatical rules are often formed in such a way that feminine terms are usually derived from the corresponding masculine terms. Common examples of the same include - ‘heiress’ derived from ‘heir’, ‘actress’ derived from the word ‘actor’, and so on. This has the effect of making woman disappear from the mental image while talking about the positions/ terms in general. She becomes the secondary while man retains the position of primary.

Sexist language thus breeds a bias that shows men to be morally, spiritually, and intellectually superior as compared to women. The most frequently cited examples for the same include:

Use of ‘man’ to refer commonly to the entire population: The word ‘Mankind’ is used as a reference to the entire population of universe, while when women are specifically being talked about, their sex is emphasised like a ‘sample’. Proverbs such as ‘practice makes a man perfect’ very conveniently use the word to denote men and women both.

Overuse of the pronoun ‘he’: The pronoun has come to symbolise everyone instead of just men. Whenever one talks/writes about a random person whose sex is unknown, the common practice is to use the pronoun ‘he’. This ultimately leads to complete removal of women from the majority. They evaporate from the vision unless being referred to especially.

Use of ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’: Though the new convention to use MS before a woman’s name has been brought about, women are still called as Miss or Mrs depending on their marital status while men are quite conveniently called Mister from the very beginning of their youth till the end. Thus proving that marriage somehow makes a marked change in the status of women while having a negligible effect on men. The effect of this biased use of prefix can be seen in the way a single, divorced, or widowed woman is treated by men in general. They are deemed to be ‘available’ for flirting. A married woman though is given a wide berth in this respect, is often considered incompetent in office work on account of her role in the household. Men on the other hand enjoy all the freedom that comes with the constant prefix. They are never judged on account of their ‘marital status’, neither are single/married men differentiated with while being handed over a project or promotion. Thus the use of language that evolved in our culture through generations becomes a source of burden to women.

Stereotypical words: There are words in English language which are specifically used to praise someone and make them feel glorious. Problem arises when these words are associated with a particular sex. For example, the word ‘manly’ or ‘man up’ is used in the stead of ‘courageous’ or ‘become courageous’ respectively. While calling someone ‘ladylike’ has of late become a derogatory remark used on purpose to make fun of a man for his ineptitude. Men are often called ‘sissy’ if they are scared.

Such use of language marginalises women and creates an impression of a male dominated society. It reduces women to a small sample unit within the universe whose main claimant are men. Such speech patronises women and puts forward the assertion that man is the original, the absolute, the light, while woman is the opposite of that absolute, absence of power, darkness. Reality thus becomes a construct which is mediated by language working blindly in favour of men.

Efforts of many crusaders and linguistics have brought into existence gender neutral language but that is not seemingly enough. Language in the context of countries and culture still use terms that are offensive to women. Anglo American culture has filtered into the language of most English speakers across the globe, who fondly use terms like ‘pet’, ‘love’ for women thus denying them recognition of an individually thinking alert. Woman gets reduced into a creature that needs to be tamed or trained like an animal. This creature is expected to lose its own identity and form a new one that is more favourable in the eyes of men and thus in the eyes of society at large. Hence, gendered language robs them of the chance of being a person with a separate identity.

Moreover, compliments in our language which label culturally likable women as ‘goddesses’, ‘princesses’, deny them the right to be ‘normal’. Since childhood, girls are conditioned to be the ones in need of such nicknames. This affects the choices that men and women make in their everyday lives wherein women while growing up learn that they should strive to be more than just normal humans, they need to put in extra effort to be praised in terms of beauty or behaviour. If they are not looked upon as ‘goddesses’ or ‘princesses’, something is missing from their lives.

Insults hurled at women by people especially men use words such as ‘slut’, ‘tart’, ‘whore’ that mark women as promiscuous or unattractive. Judging women by appearance, calling a pretty woman ‘blond’, has come to an unsaid meaning that she must be of low intelligence. More than half of the stand-up comedians make the world laugh by cracking jokes on hysterical mothers-in-law. Such instances enforce patriarchal control over women through language. These humiliating words and jokes ironically have no male counterparts. There is no male-slut or male-bimbo/male-blond even though there are men who behave the same way as women being termed as slut, bimbo or blond do. Similarly hysterical males rarely make appearances in jokes or literature. Additionally women are taught that men are mean to them because they like them. Thus they are trained to take insults welcomingly.

All these patterns in our everyday language are a reflection of the how deep are the roots of patriarchy in our minds, which has contributed to creating an unequal world for women wherein every remark has a hidden sexist undertone. Ignoring these undertones has become so commonplace that any woman who tries to raise a voice is an enemy of culture, who is raising hell to undo our centuries old traditions. Such women are treated with contempt and

the language used for them is again the one that she has been fighting against. The need of the hour is to un-learn the association of masculine and feminine with words and bring into existence and usage gender neutral linguistic constructs. We need to look for a middle ground in language that defies the power struggle and paints a bias free picture.

Nazia Kamali is a research scholar of Gender Studies. She has written for local news paper as well as research journals. Additionally her poems have been published in anthologies by Cape Comorin Publishers, PCC Inscape and also in magazines. When not hunched over the keyboard clicking away keys, Nazia is busy admiring birds and trees around her.