Cunt (31 page)
Authors: Betty Dodson Inga Muscio
I’ve developed a dazzle camouflage tactic for phone solicitors:
“Hi, this is Larry Laforge from the Fireman’s Benevolent Vinyl Siding Association,
how ya doing this evening?”
“Oh, hi. I don’t speak English.”
“Uh, you don’t speak English?”
“No, no. Not a word. We don’t speak English in this house.”
“You sound like, uh, you speak pretty good English.”
“Yeah, I know. People tell me that all the time. Thanks for the compliment!”
“Uh, so. Well, thanks.”
“Sure, anytime.”
Click.
Say people are starting to wonder about what you knew that might have stopped terrorist
attacks on huge buildings filled with people. You don’t want people to wonder about
this at all. You think it is none of their business. Even though you received warnings
from at least six international intelligence agencies and even though your attorney
general stopped flying on commercial planes a few months before two airplanes slammed
into the buildings (), you really, really must insist that it is no one’s business.
So you find someone to blame and you hand out all these press releases/articles with
fill-in-the-blank bylines, that lay irrevocable blame on the someone you picked, say
the head of your bureau of investigations.
Maybe you even had this person all picked out in advance, because you figured one
day people might start asking you questions, even if it takes, say, eight months.
Maybe this person became head of the your bureau of investigations only one week before
the terrorist attacks, and actually allowed himself
to be placed in the position of blame for the express purpose of being blamed in your
stead.
I mean, you would always love them for taking the blame, and do everything in your
power to make sure wonderful things happened for them, it’s not like the person being
blamed will necessarily even suffer for the terrorist attacks on huge buildings filled
with people.
Maybe the person who catches the blame will, as a result, have more power than before.
Maybe it could be a win-win situation.
This is a dazzling example of dazzle camouflage.
It works.
All the blame and questions are simply too dazzling to see you in there anywhere,
but you are there.
You are there.
Mr. Mueller’s childlike promise to work harder to “connect the dots” is designed to
protect his political superiors from blame by changing the subject—to the notion that
bureaucratic bungling, not political corruption, is the problem. (John R. MacArthur,
“He Waved Away Warnings,”
The Globe and Mail
, June 4, 2002)
You can’t believe Bush is truly a man of nuanced intelligence because that implies
that he probably did know something about the possibility of a terrorist attack and
how it could fortify his political career, but you can’t call him flagrantly stupid
because that’s unpatriotic and un-American and embarrassing, and hence you’re just
left with this feeling of unease and vague despondency about the nation’s overall
direction and whatever happened to your civil liberties. Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance
is patriotism. We don’t want to believe the Bush administration could’ve done something
to prevent the horrors of 9/11, can’t imagine Bush would use the tragedy to bolster
his re-election hopes while simultaneously pummeling Afghanistan into docility in
the name of oil pipelines and his friends in the military-industrial complex. Increasing
piles of evidence be damned. It’s just too painful. (Mark Morford, June 7, 2002, SFGate.com)
What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing,
cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of
facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate
government administration and media are on the level with us this time.
Americans remind me of survivors of domestic violence.
There is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get
re-broken again.
There is another way in which this situation reminds me of domestic violence. One
of the most popular tactics of an abuser is to isolate their victim from the community.
The abuser belittles family, friends and neighbors until they just stop coming around.
If you read the newspapers and put together a comprehensive look at how the rest of
the world feels about the U.S. right now, you will see that we are being isolated
from the world in a very similar manner.
I think people in other countries are wise to this abuse tactic because all the protests
I read about make a
huge and formal
distinction between the American people and the present corporate/presidential administration.
It seems like we should be reaching out to this community, and not allowing ourselves
to be boxed in.
All in all, I wish we were more like the people of Venezuela.
I don’t know what will be happening in Venezuela in the next few months—it could get
ugly—but in April 2002, the Venezuelan population took to the streets and demanded
the return of their president after an attempted U.S.-backed coup.
I imagine Venezuelans have experienced the U.S.A.’s version of how their country should
be run enough to know that it doesn’t serve them.
In 1998, they voted Hugo Chavez into office. His “platform” was the Bolivian Revolution,
a reference to one of South America’s heroes of independence, Simon Bolivar. President
Chavez has spent the last four years giving Venezuela back to the people, after forty
years of a two-party rule that represented the country’s elite (sound familiar?).
Some of these elites—involved with Venezuela’s oil industry—muscled Chavez out of
office. (Wherever there’s a problem, there’s oil. Venezuela is our third largest supplier.)
America was—as far as I’ve been able to discern—
the only country in the world
that did not report this as a coup. U.S. papers reported that Chavez had suddenly
“resigned” because members of “civil society” were fed up with his silly nationalization
of Venezuela’s resources.
Bullshit.
In an interview on Buzzflash.com, journalist Greg Palast speaks on the bullshit nature
of the U.S. press coverage of the attempted coup in Venezuela:
There was a report straight out of the United States State Department that Hugo Chavez,
on April 12th, had resigned as President of Venezuela. This is a complete fabrication,
lie, garbage, nonsense. And the
New York Times
, the
Los Angeles Times
—every major paper in the United States ran it. And by the way, PBS ran it as a stone-cold
fact. And the entire factoid—the entire garbage nonsense of this was nothing better
than a false press release from the U.S. State Department. Pure propaganda.
The military revolted; the people took to the streets and nonviolently freaked.
Within two days, President Chavez was back at Mira Flores, the presidential palace.
(There’s a lot more to this story and it you want to check it out go to gregpalast.com.)
Venezuelans were willing to have a goddamn neon yellow canary when
their
government was taken away from
them
, even though the coup-backing “media”
broadcast sitcoms
while President Chavez was spirited off by greedy men the U.S. would much rather
deal with. Mr. Chavez’s main flaw seems to be his unwillingness to allow U.S. oil
giants to plunder Venezuela’s resources.
Our resources are being plundered too, but we don’t have a President Chavez, and we
don’t have a population of people who are willing to turn off their teevee and stop
this utter nonsense.
The day after Arundhati Roy broke my heart with her words, I went to a (locally owned,
independent) bookstore where Robin D. G. Kelley was reading from his new book,
Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
This proved to be one of those instances where the universe decides it’s time to save
my ass from utter despair.
Freedom Dreams
is about how the fight for freedom occurs in the mind. I have long suspected this,
but
Freedom Dreams
(I am reading it as I write this postscript) is showing me exactly how.
An excerpt:
Too often, our standards for evaluating social movements pivot around whether or not
they “succeeded” in realizing their visions rather than on the merits or power of
the visions themselves. By such a measure, virtually every radical movement failed
because the basic power relations they sought to change remain pretty much intact.
And yet it is precisely these alternative visions and dreams that inspire new generations
to struggle for change. (Preface, p. vii)
We’ve been getting shafted for a long time now. We have fought, and the freaky little
white men have prevailed. The stories of our fights are glossed over in the freaky
little white men’s history, which is partly how they have prevailed. Now they are
poised to kill the earth, and this is not about signing petitions and attending protests.
This is about eradicating fascinations with celebrities who contribute nothing to
our imaginations. This is about telling our stories, poetically employing our imaginations
in the actions of our every day lives. And this is about loving each other.
When I saw Robin D. G. Kelley reading, I wondered how frightening it must be to come
out in public and talk to people about love and imagination. He is an academic, a
noted historian, an analyst of social movements, a professor at New York University.
He is not “supposed” to talk about the power of love and imagination. To do so places
him in danger of being invalidated by his peers. Maybe I am projecting, for I have
been publicly belittled for speaking of such things, but this book is obviously very
close to his heart, and he is incredibly courageous for speaking of love in such hate-filled
times.
What does it say about our culture when it is considered “dangerous” to talk about
the power of love and imagination?
What really set a fire under my ass is when Professor Kelley discussed how social
movements are not necessarily huge groups of people making things change:
“Sometimes, it just takes one person, like Ivory Perry of St Louis—a Civil Rights
activist who sometimes chained himself to monuments or cars and blocked traffic for
miles to draw attention to certain struggles for social justice.”
Please read
Freedom Dreams.
A young woman named Selemawit Tewelde hit this point home. Ms. Tewelde is a teenager
in Philadelphia who does not want her school to be privatized, and thanks to her and
a handful of other youth’s actions, her school probably won’t be.
A lot of students probably think, “I don’t care, since nobody’s asking me how I feel
about what’s going on with this,” she says. That’s how everything gets messed up.
Young people start to feel powerless, but they’re not. They’re very powerful—and they
need to understand that. (
Mother Jones
, May, 2002)
My only addition to this is that “young people” aren’t the only ones who are very
powerful.
Yesterday I felt like shit, so I rode my bike around town and repeatedly grafittied
“The revolution is not being televised” in paint pen. It was a “pointless” action,
but it nonetheless healed me to do this. It was an act of love for that “hooligan”
Arundhati Roy. It was an act of self-love. I don’t expect it to change the world,
but on the other hand, I know it will.
Inga Muscio
Los Angeles, California
June 2002
Revised and Updated World Domination Version
As Derrick Jensen so lovingly explained in his introduction, we’re fucked.
We’re more fucked now than when I first wrote
Cunt
, and back then I was primarily focused on women (though I inadvertently excluded
tranny folks). I know that women are the poorest people on the face of the earth.
I am more committed to the freedom of women than I ever have been. There are, however,
many people who are not women, and I am committed to their freedom as well. The first
Cuntlovin’ Guide to the Universe was geared toward women creating community.
Everyone is in this together, now.
If a rich white frat boy from the Connecticut suburbs is willing to face himself and
the past he represents in order to totally resist the forces that are shaping our
world, then I am not of a mind to exclude him.
Since we’re all fucked, I don’t see any point entertaining any limitations.
This resource guide is not only more inclusive, but also bigger than the last one.
I figure people need more resources this time around. I’ve included as many listings
as I can possibly cram in, and in exchange, opted to forgo the lengthy descriptions
I am so fond of.
If something is listed in here, rest assured, it proactively contributes to a world
envisioned around the premise that life, lived realities and the planet are sacred
and must be protected at all costs.
While the Cuntlovin’ Guide to the Universe has expanded significantly, it is still
not even close to a comprehensive listing of all the products, businesses, services,
organizations and events working to end white male domination. The present universe
of resistance and revolution is massive, to say the least.
We got us murderers, morons, neo-fascists and liars in our midst. It is not difficult
to figure out what they’re up to (making money) and how they are going about it (plundering
the earth’s resources) and what their goal happens to be at present (domination of
the planet).
We are living in incredibly interesting times.
Saving the planet and everything on it is certainly a daunting task; but see, push
has come to shove.
Every moment you choose inaction, a freaky little white man carves a few more days
off our collective life span.
Let’s roll.
Guerrilla News Network
GNN rules. In-depth interviews, analysis, special investigative reports, the works.
Vociferously anti-corporation and anti-freaky little white men. guerrillanews.com.
Independent MediaCenter
News and views from around the world and your own backyard. Sites in most major cities
in the world report on protests, actions and atrocities the mainstream media steers
right clear of. indymedia.org.
yellowtimes.org
Yellowtimes.org offers readers an alternative to “the exploitation of public figures,
the distortion of real world problems, and the exaggeration of unimportant events.”
Buzzflash
The quintessential news source, with links to articles and news sites all over the
world. Buzzflash also features articles from the English-speaking European and Indian
press. They have a pro-Democrat slant, which I’m not inclined to trust, but they feature
the largest, most comprehensive listing of articles available. buzzflash.com.
worldpress.org
The site for
World Press Review
magazine, a compilation of articles from newspapers around the world. The print version
makes intensive forays into specific issues, while the website is updated daily. Special
rates for educators and students.
Center for Public Integrity
Featuring investigative articles from around the world. publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/home.asp.
mediawhoresonline.com
Whistle-blowers on lame-assed journalists who suck corporate cock instead of reporting
the goddamn news.
mediatank.org, mediachannel.org, mediaed.org
Organizations with opportunities to get involved in activities and events challenging
and changing destructive media images. Seize the news.
butchdykeboy.com
This is not a news site per se, but the news they do post is so comprehensive and
up-to-date, I am including it here in the news section. ButchDykeBoy is a massive,
sprawling trans-activist site filled to the gills with inspiration, stories, information,
events, and daily local postings. Part of the ButchDykeBoy Empire. I love, love, love
butchdykeboy!!!!!
Common Dreams
“Breaking news and views of the progressive community.” Compilations of articles from
some of the thinkingest thinkers of our time. Links to most major shit-talking publications
in the world. Updated daily. commondreams.org.
democraticunderground. com
DU has breaking news, analysis, columnists (“Ask Auntie Pinko”), links to other reliable
news sources and up-to-the-minute discussion threads. Also, they sell cool T-shirts.
americaheldhostile. com
Everything you ever wanted to know about what the Bush administration is up to.
AWOL
The Revolutionary Artists Workshop. The print version of this magazine comes with
a full-length CD of music and poetry, and it’s only five bucks. Perhaps inspired by
the now-defunct
Blu
magazine (RIP) in its awe-inspiring vision. The website has articles, art, merchandise
and, most importantly, links. Consider all of the links part of this guide—they include
Redwire
magazine,
Redeye
magazine and the Black Panther Collective. 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102,
(800) NO-JROTC, [email protected], awol.objector.org.
Hip Mama
Never was and never will be just for mamas. In a country where “three million parents
have attended training sessions to make their families more like mini-corporations”
(according to
Stay Free!
magazine),
Hip Mama
remains the most important magazine in America. P.O. Box 12525, Portland, OR 97212,
hipmama.com.
Stay Free!
This incredibly witty, politically astute magazine comes out around every ten months.
I love
Stay Free!
They’ll send free bulk issues to schools, so demand that your school order it. Also,
subscribe. P.O. Box 306, Prince Street Station, New York, NY 10012, stayfreemagazine.org.
Danzine
A zine, store and networking organization for folks working in the sex industry. danzine.org.
Moxie
A wonderful magazine, with links to many other wonderful sites. moxiemag.com.
Colorlines
Race, culture, action. Published quarterly. In-depth analysis of current events, activism
and general ass-kicking. A brilliant periodical from cover to cover. PMB 319, Oakland,
CA 94611-5221, (510) 653-3415, arc.org/C_Lines/ArcColorLines.html.
Bamboo Girl
“Pro-Filipina/Asian/Asian mutt, pro-female, pro-fuck oppression.” I am
such
an ass for forgetting about
Bamboo Girl
in the first edition of the Cuntlovin’ Guide to the Universe. How could I have forgotten
about this total mainstay? Please forgive me,
Bamboo Girl.
bamboogirl.com.
War Times
A bimonthly newspaper in English and Español, of which I am a proud distributor. Vital,
vital, vital. EBC/War Times, 1230 Market Street, PMB 409, San Francisco, CA 94102,
(510) 869-5156, war-times.org.
Alice
One of my current favorite magazines,
Alice
intelligently and artfully covers an astounding array of topics in each issue. Their
clever tagline: “For Women on the Other Side of the Looking Glass.” alicemagazine.com.
Clamor
“New perspectives on politics, culture, media and life.” Issue #14 is concerned with
the power of youth.
Clamor
is a Become the Media project; BtM also organizes the annual Underground Publishers
Conference, “A weekend devoted to educating ourselves about reclaiming media resources,”
in Bowling Green, Ohio. Subscribe to this vital and ambitious magazine. clamormagazine.org
Soapboxgirls!
A great webzine outta Canada. soapboxgirls.com.
Muffy!: New Girly Life
Cultural criticism, realistic sexual discussions, advice and personal essays for teens.
Puts together cool events. The site’s not extensive—subscribe to the print version.
Muffy!
magazine, 4941 Winchester Drive, Sarasota, FL 34234, muffymagazine.com.
mysistahs.org
A site by and for young women of color. Includes a gallery with poetry, essays and
short stories, as well as information on body image, STDs, teen pregnancy, HIV testing
and emergency contraception. This is not technically a magazine—it’s more of an organization—but
they have lots of feature articles. Check it out.
A Gathering of the Tribes
Through its programs and publications, this organization creates a performance venue
and a space for artists and audiences to meet across artistic disciplines, levels
of complexity and definitions of difference. A Gathering of the Tribes publishes
Tribes
magazine and hosts events and readings in New York City almost every weekend. (212)
674-5576, [email protected], tribes.org.
Venus
(magazine)
A massive, intergenerational resource for black lesbians, gay men and their families.
Unlike most “gay” mags,
Venus
is all-gender inclusive. venusmagazine.com
Venus
(zine)
Not to be confused with Venus magazine. This
Venus
is girls and rock ‘n’ roll. venuszine.com.
Multiple Shades of You
A multifaceted e-zine for women of color, from ages five to twenty-five. Brilliant.
msoyonline.com.
To-Do List
The magazine of meaningful minutiae. P.O. Box 40128, San Francisco, CA 94140, todolistmagazine.com.
Doula
See
urbanthinktank.org
in the Kickass Organizations section.
Bitch
2765 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, bitchmagazine.com, (415) 864-6671, bitchmagazine.com.
Bust
P.O. Box 1016, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276, bust.com.
Girljock
PO. Box 882723, San Francisco, CA 94188-2723, (415) 282-6833, girljock.com.
Anything That Moves
Internationally distributed bisexual magazine containing stories, poetry, news and
other information of interest. Theme-based and quarterly. 2261 Market Street #496,
San Francisco, CA 94114, (415) 626-5069, anythingthatmoves.com.
Les Voz
Les Voz, la revista lesbica de Mexico. A lesbian feminist site and print magazine,
in glorious Español. Huge site with many listings, links and resources. lesvoz.org.mx.
Fat!So?
It’s a book, it’s a zine, it’s a social movement. Marilyn Wann is a hilarious genius.
P.O. Box 423464, San Francisco, CA 94142, fatso.com.
Yell-Oh Girls
“Emerging voices for Asian-American girls.” Also a book, a zine and a social movement.
yellohgirls.com.
Z
Everybody knows about Z magazine. Read all of Arundhati Roy’s articles tonight. zmag.org.
Monolid
“For those who aren’t blinking.” The current issue, “Fear and Loathing in the New
Millennium,” examines the culture of fear and hate post-9/11. monolid.com.
Hardboiled
A student-run Asian/Pacific Islander issues news magazine at UC Berkeley. Sponsors
cool local events. 201 Heller Lounge, Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, UC Berkeley,
CA 94720, hardboiled.org.
Tongues
This queer Latina webzine features erotica, essays, poetry and political resistance,
and sponsors events in the Los Angeles area. tonguesmagazine.org.
Dollars & Sense
The magazine of economic justice, run by a collective of graduate students, journalists,
professors and activists. Comes out six times a year and also publishes books. This
mag engagingly explains the world of global economics. 740 Cambridge Street, Cambridge,
MA 02141, dollarsandsense.org
Nervy Girl!
P.O. Box 16601, Portland, OR 97292, (503) 25-NERVY,
nervygirlzine.com.
Rockrgrl
A feminist music magazine that’s been around and adored for a long time. Organizers
of the Rockrgrl conference in Seattle, WA. rockrgrl.com.
Aviva
Webzine run by an international group of feminists in London. Free monthly listing
service for women and groups worldwide. Click on their map of the world to see what’s
shakin’. 41 Royal Crescent, London W11 4SN, United Kingdom, aviva.org.
grrrlzines.net
A really great all-around resource.
Dream/Girl
Encourages creative genius in girls. dgarts.com.
panderzinedistro.com
Pander founder Ericka Lyn Bailey says, “I distribute wonderful zines by wonderful
kids from all over the world,” and she does, indeed. She also prints a biannual catalog
and hosts a pretty dang extensive website.
idealpolitik
This bilingual zine is a joint effort between “Chile and the U$A,” involving folks
from independent, revolution-minded record labels and other organizations. idealpolitik.org.