Women Hating (#YesAllWomen)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Rebecca Solnit, Amy Goodman, Aaron Mate, Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org)

UCSB and UCLA students mourn at candlelight vigil at UCLA on May 26. This deadly shooting rampage has sparked a conversation about gendered sexual violence in the U.S. just as the infamous bus rape did in India. Why do we tolerate the abuse of half the society? (David McNew/Getty Images/ksdk.com)

Maybe "not all men," but yes all women

Santa Barbara is grieving after a 22-year-old man [the privileged son of one of the makers of "The Hunger Games"] killed six UC Santa Barbara college students just after posting a misogynistic video online vowing to take his revenge on women purportedly for sexually rejecting him.

 

UCSB (Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images)

The massacre prompted an unprecedented reaction online with tens of thousands of women joining together to tell their stories of sexual violence, harassment, and intimidation. By Sunday, the hashtag #YesAllWomen had gone viral. 

In speaking out, women were placing the shooting inside a broader context of misogynist violence that often goes ignored.

In her new book, Men Explain Things to Me, author and historian Rebecca Solnit tackles this issue and many others. "We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it’s almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern," Solnit says. "Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, BUT it does have a gender." More

Yes, all women (Digital Vision/Getty Images)

(The Tennessean) Twitter users are responding by the thousands in the wake of a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California. Friday night by a man who pledged revenge on women who had rejected him. Suspected slayer [and self-proclaimed "alpha male"] Elliot Rodger killed six people before [allegedly] taking his own life. In YouTube videos and a manifesto he detailed a "war on women." More

Stephen Colbert vs. Angry Asian (comedy)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Colbert; Suey Park (Angry Asian Woman); Josh Zepps

So long as we tolerate remnants of the patriarchy and colonization, are we free? (FEMEN)

(95Colbert) Stephen Colbert responds to the controversy was epic humor, irony, and biting satire. It is the genius of wit that redeems a person not in need of redeeming.

 

The eye roll that turned the tide (Huff Post)

Suey Park has a point, more than one, but anger is no way to express it. Here she tackles the white male and the racist patriarchy in general menace by attempting to take down Josh Zepps, who was concerned enough to let her air her side of the controversy on Huff Post Live. She may have explained, but she may also have made things worse by biting the hand that holds the mic. Indeed, there is racism in  this country, and some fight it with satire. Others with anger. Which side is Park on when we could all be together? (And, privileged Josh, let guests talk).

FEMEN activists agitate for Muslims, too

Woody Allen pointed out that liberals are like fish that eat each other. There are bigger pieces of plankton to pry from the sea, Suey. So please aim it at those guys rather than worrying if all of the rest of us are PC enough to end sexism, racism, stereotyping, bias, prejudice, and inequality with you. If we join forces, each approaching the cultural inequities of the day in our own way and as a team, we can bring about a better world. If we squabble, aren't the real movers-and-shakers, the problem-makers, just loving it as they multiply and coat this baby blue watery planet in green slime?

• VIDEO: Angry white male may nevertheless have a point
• VIDEO: Another white male gives his analysis on Park
• Herbal alternative:  the healing wonders of Yucca Root
• FASHION: Is Vogue trivializing domestic violence?
• LAPD shooting: How to keep public out of police stations?
• Elections: Garcia, Dunn head to Long Beach mayor runoff
• 2020 Commission issues blunt challenges to City of LA

Retrospective on Radical Feminism (audio)

Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Moira Rankin, Deborah George, From the Vault (FTV 409)

According to author Masha Gessen, Pussy Riot's Nadia was inspired by the radical history of women's liberation in the West. It inspired her to awaken a movement in Russia (AFP).

 

Russia's Pussy Riot

Guest host Lynn Ballen, producer of KPFK (L.A.) Radio's "Feminist Magazine," introduces "A Retrospective on Radical Feminism."

It was produced in 1980 by Moira Rankin and co-produced by Deborah George for Sophie’s Parlor Collective, the oldest women’s radio collective on the air at Pacifica’s youngest station, WPFW in Washington, D.C. Composed of interviews, actions, and music, it includes:

• AUDIO podcast: PLAY in new window (or download)

Oh, ladies, do behave! (MO)

Alix Kates Shulman, activist and author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, is interviewed and reads from her book, Burning Questions. 
Fannie Lou Hamer, founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, recalls the physical abuse she suffered in prison in a 1966 KPFA (Berkeley) interview. 
Joan Byron, a member of The Furies, [which as part of the Lavender Menace was] one the first radical lesbian separatist groups describes, their reasons for organizing. 

Anais Nin, From the Vault (FTV 408)

Betty Friedan renounces her position on the lesbian issue she had dubbed the "Lavender Menace" and supports the sexual preference resolution at the 1977 United States International Women’s Year Conference in Houston, Texas. 
Carol Downer, one of the founders of the Los Angeles Feminist Health Clinic, speaks about the need for women to control their own bodies and have access to abortions. 

Manhandled Femen topless activist (femen.org)

Edith Barksdale Sloane, Executive Director of the National Committee on Household Employment, is interviewed about the need for basic services for women. 
Donna Keck, a founder of Women: A Journal of Liberation, speaks about race within the women’s movement.
Activist Cynthia Washington speaks about all the aspects of oppression including racism, classism, elitism, sexism, and ageism.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the support of Pacifica listeners. It also thanks its partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

  

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. Buy a CD copy by phone at Pacifica Radio Archives: (800) 735-0230 extension 262. 

• PHOTOS: favorite funny women

Pussy Riot to be freed early

Wisdom Quarterly; Freepussyriot.org

Pussy Riot supporters everywhere don balaclava masks (msnbcmedia.msn.com)

  

Nadya was previous missing (Guardian)

Pussy Riot is an anonymous Russian feminist performance art group formed in October 2011. 

Through peaceful public performances that voice how basic rights are under threat in Russia today, while expressing the values and principles of gender equality, democracy (self rule), freedom from religious oppression, and freedom of expression that are contained in the Russia's Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the CEDAW Convention.

Pussy Riot supporters (scpr.org)

Members were serving a harsh sentence on charges of “hooliganism” for their one-minute performance on Feb. 21, 2012 in a priests-only section of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The investigator’s report claimed the performance was an act of "religious hatred." The intention of the performance was actually to draw attention to the special relationship between Pres. Putin and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. There was also a punk "prayer" to the Madonna, the Goddess or feminine divine, to drive Putin away.  

Amnesty was just announced that will free the members early -- as well as freeing the Greenpeace demonstrators arrested on false charges for a peaceful action to call attention to drilling for oil in ecologically sensitive area previously uncontaminated by the petroleum industry.

Early release

Two early release possibilities for both Masha and Nadya

RAPSI reports that the court that sentenced two Pussy Riot members to prison for committing hooliganism in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior overlooked possible grounds for mitigating...

Masha's mother heads to Nizhny Novgorod + Nadia's husband heads to Krasnoyarsk

RAPSI reports that Nadya or Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are subject to a recently approved presidential amnesty and may be freed before the New Year, attorney Irina Khrunova told RAPSI on Wednesday....

Freepussyriot.org advocates for release along with these supporting organizations: Wisdom Quarterly, The Voice Project, The Voice Project, Amnesty International, Austrian Green Party, European Women’s Lobby, Free Muse, Human Rights Watch, Index of Censorship, PEN International, Russia’s Human Rights Council, Russie-Libertés, Riot Grrrl Berlin, Shatter Japan...

Where's Pussy Riot's Nadya?

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; TheGuardian; Buzzfeed; News.Radio.com

Pussy Riot member Nadya (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) in defendant's cage during court appearance in April (Maksim Blinov/AFP/Getty Images)

  

Good, hope they burn her at the stake

(UPDATE: Nov. 4, 2013): The Russian prison service has announced through the Interfax News Agency (via The Guardian, 11-02-13) that Nadya (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been sent to another penal colony, although she has yet to be heard from or seen since the transfer more than ten days ago.

Power to the people (willworth.co.uk)

The saga of all-female Russian punk band Pussy Riot has taken a chilling turn as the band member has been missing for the past 10 days, according to relatives.

Tolokonnikova’s disappearance can be traced back to when the 23-year-old musician was being transferred from a prison colony in Mordovia.

“There’s no proof she’s alive, we don’t know the state of her health,” Tolokonnikova’s father told Buzzfeed. “Is she sick? Has she been beaten?” More