Thoughts From The Peacock Angel

punkkidcatholic:

White Supremacy is alive, well, and endangering the lives of my classmates.

There’s this kid you probably haven’t heard of: Noah Steadman. There’s no reason you should have heard of him until now, but now I am asking you to remember his name and to spread it to everyone you can. Noah Steadman is a self-proclaimed White Supremacist who moderates 4chon (basically 4chan for people who were kicked off 4chan for being too racist). Over the course of a couple of months he has been threatening the wellbeing of the students of Bard College at Simon’s Rock; now he has put the college’s staff, faculty and students in concrete danger, having been threatened with, among others, corrective rape, shooting, and bombing. Read the statement below, written by a friend of mine, for a detailed description of what has happened, and remember: Noah Steadman is a White Supremacist and a danger to our community.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to draw attention to a situation at my college, Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts, that is and has been threatening the physical and emotional security of myself and my fellow classmates. It takes some time to tell this story; please bear with me. This is a desperate call for coverage, assistance, and dialogue.

We begin on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, when an unknown person or group drew multiple swastikas on the wall of a common area in a dormitory. This elicited an email from the administration condemning the graffiti and requesting information as to the perpetrator. To the best of my knowledge, this is all we know—any action taken by the administration after this point would be confidential information.

Shortly thereafter, a student (Noah Steadman) circulated a flier on campus questioning the relevance of Diversity Day, a yearly Teach-In initiated several years ago by students during which students and faculty hold workshops on issues of diversity, oppression, and identity. The “Diversity Day Challenge” was to name five benefits of Diversity “besides ethnic food and music.”

Admittedly, this might initially seem, to an external observer (and it did to many people on campus), a fairly benign piece of agitation. For many of us, however, this flier generated immediate outrage. If you are not acquainted with our school, Simon’s Rock is an early college (with both an A.A. and B.A. program, accredited through Bard College) that accepts students who have not yet earned their high school diplomas. We are an extremely small liberal arts institution, largely isolated from the surrounding area. I remember that when I applied, the Princeton Review had ranked us as the #1 gay-friendly college in America. We are a small and intimate community of people who, by and large, were discontented with the educational opportunities offered to us, namely the often terrifying and prison-like environments of American public and private secondary education. Both Bard and Simon’s Rock pride themselves on combating inequality and oppression through educational methods; Bard’s prison education initiative is one notable example. Simon’s Rock provides extensive scholarship to students of color, international students, and Diversity Day is but one example of the institutional and pedagogical commitment to fighting inequality that made many students, until recently, proud to anticipate calling this school our alma mater.

A substantial portion of the student body, and I proudly count myself among them, experienced indignation and outrage at the distribution of this flier. The demeaning and marginalizing wording of the flier had apparent connections to the language and ideology of the reactionary right-wing. To us, the denial of minority students’ identities, cultures, histories, sufferings and struggles was clearly explicit, not implicit, in the document. It represented the perpetuation of hundreds of years of racial, gender, and sexual oppression. We saw the violence of that question, especially considering it’s author, a cisgendered, able-bodied white male. We understood that it was a very real threat to the integrity and security of the school community.

Determined to rise above the taunting tone of Noah’s challenge (“you could win a Macbook Air!”), the existing coalition of identity-based student groups on campus made photocopies of the document and cut them into strings of snowflakes, human figures holding hands, and the like, putting them up in a collective student space. Within hours, a document was posted next to them declaring Noah’s first-amendment right to free speech, decrying student outrage against him as hate speech, and asking people in support of Noah’s right to express himself to sign their names. The threat we initially (and correctly) sensed being leveled against our community continued unabated.

I fully appreciate that, at this point, many a reader would be experiencing the same reaction that the anonymous poster of this statement did: if Simon’s Rock is committed to diversity, how is it just to criticize one student’s opinion, which surely he is entitled to? weren’t people overreacting? how is any of this a threat to student safety? granting the offensiveness of Noah’s challenge, doesn’t it still legitimate him to call further attention to it? These are the sort of misconceptions, understandable but by no means acceptable, which have brought us to the point we are at today.

Today, violence is being explicitly threatened by white supremacists targeted at our school property, administration, and the student body. Maps of campus, images of students, and personal information has been circulated accompanying frenzied battle cries for the sake of the “white race.” Let me ask you, who is in danger here? I have extremely good reason to believe that Noah Steadman is currently contacting white supremacist activist organizations to bring further attention to this situation. As I write this, students on campus and at home for Thanksgiving break are wondering if their lives are in danger, or if we are going to get a call or an email informing us that acts of violence have been committed towards our classmates or teachers. And in reality, we have been living in this state of fear with little respite for more than two months.

In light of our concerns, students were told to suppress their worry; someone else was taking care of campus safety, namely the college’s Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Committee which adjudicates claims between members of the college which breach the college’s policies on discrimination, harassment, and diversity. For a while, then, Noah was nowhere to be found on campus and we were able to breath a sigh of at least partial relief. Rather abruptly, however, Noah appeared back on campus, and many students were left confused. The feelings of threat and fear returned with a vengeance. In response, a group of students wrote up a document addressing the school’s attitudes and actions around identity based oppression and held a demonstration expressing their disapproval with an institution that colludes with the bloodstained legacy of patriarchal violence.

A student made video documenting the protest was posted on youtube. Shortly after being posted, a barrage of explicitly hostile and violent comments were posted in response to the video. (“Gas these socialists. Hitler was right. WHITE POWER” is just one representative example of the flavor of comments). In addition to the youtube comments, an online forum was discovered where the details of Noah’s actions and our community’s responses to them were being discussed by Noah and others. These comments expressed White Nationalist sentiments of praise and admiration for Noah and vehement hatred for the “Marxists, faggots, and dykes.” Violent threats (bombs, shooting, rape) were made, specific students’ images and information shared.

We refuse to passively accept the continuation of a violent history of systemic inequality which attempts to control our interpretations of freedom, inequality, and being. Moreover, we assert our agency to create a society that allows us to participate in speech that is genuinely free.The attitude I described above, the attitude of conciliatory apologetics, free speech, tolerance, and civility, is precisely what myself and my classmates are fighting against. It assumes that words and feelings are expressed in a historical void of objective universalism, that all speakers enter conversations on equal footing, and that words have no substance other than the ideas and concrete objects they signify. What students like myself have been arguing for the last two months is that when a person coming from a place of innumerable privileges publicly questions diversity on our campus, they are bringing the full weight of systemic oppression and violence hundreds of years old to bear on each and every other student. We have been arguing that Noah’s ability and “right” to express his opinions is in direct confrontation with the very existence of every Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Indigenous, Gay, Lesbian, Female, Transgendered, Disabled, Queer, Jewish, Muslim, non-White, non-Christian, non-Male, non-Heterosexual, non-Cisgendered, person in our community. And for some reason, utterly incomprehensible to myself, people still don’t get why we have been saying this. Perhaps the literal threat of harm, written out, will prove galvanizing enough.

We feel it is urgent that stories such as this one reach the general public especially in light of pervasive sentiments that trivialize identity based oppression, and ideas that attempt to demonstrate that we live in a colorblind, post-race society. These are not issues of the past; they characterize the immediate present, and without necessary attention will intensify into our future. As is clearly exhibited by our story, race hatred and identity based violence thrives both on the internet and in our material lives. We have a duty to uncover it and deny it the legitimacy it attempts to claim. Please spread this story. It is crucial that people be made aware of the threats made against us and the severity of this situation before groups such as FIRE and American Renaissance (who we know Noah has personally contacted) get involved.

Here is a link to a dropbox containing screenshots of several threads Noah started on an image forum, in which you will find numerous threats of violence and countless affirmations of white supremacy, including Noah’s own account of his meeting with the school and the map of campus he posted with bulls-eyes indicating the locations of the 1992 shooting at Simon’s Rock, as well as the International Center. One further thread, which I do not believe is contained in the screenshots, can be found here.

(Source: pansypunx, via lipsredasroses)

Really Chloe?  You’re worried men won’t find you attractive after they see you with a prosthetic cock?  Cry me a fuckin’ river.

Not to mention, Chloe’s clearly never seen porn if she thinks men aren’t into women with dicks.

Are you cis? Ok.

Are you scum?  No?  Then shut up, it specifically states that this is about scum.  If you’re not scum, continue to not be scum and go about your daily business.

Unless you are scum, there is literally nothing about this that should hurt your feelings.

Am I less likely to trust you if you’re cis?  You betcha.  You know why?  Because you have privilege I don’t, which means it’s easy for you not to notice it and use it in fucked up ways.

Does this mean I think all cis people are scum?  Oh for fuck’s sake, no.  There are lots of cis people I love and adore and am good buddies with, they’re not scum and never will be, but they’re also not the ones whining about this shit.

So a guy sends me a really long creepy fetlife message repeatedly calling me “Girl”, and “slut” and telling me about his monstrous cock, his fondness for being a daddy, his “little girl/wife” (his words) and the affair we are “TOTES GOING TO HAVE.” and about how he wants me to model for his glamour shot style photography.

I told him to A: refer to me as an adult, because I am one, B: Use my preferred pronouns, and that there’s no way in hell I could ever possibly be attracted to him because I like femmes, and I get this:

You know my primary concern was to offer you modeling work, nationally published modeling work. Play or anything of the sort was merely an afterthought. However I refuse to work with uptight, crazy bitches who reek of drama and bullshit which is what you are. You have a vagina and are female excuse the fuck out of me for not using your preferred bullshit ass pronoun. Secondly you uppity hag I’ve fucked better than you, am married to better then you. And will continue to do so. So dismount your high horse which is really just a pile of horse shit and grow up.

Yeah, cause photographers with any level of professionalism totally tell me aaaaaaalllllllllllllll about their dicks.  Also, before I turned him down he was talking about how my “beauty inspires poetry, art, music” *snerk*

I know you’re trying really hard, but AGGGGGH all of the trans people you ever have on are either victims or criminals.  Can we maybe have one or two who are just side characters?  Why can’t a trans person ever be the red herring or the witness or the WHAT THE FUCK EVER ELSE?  Also just FYI not all trans people rigidly conform to socially expected gender roles.  

Also PRONOUNS!

1. No Trigger Warnings On Fic: For the love of all that’s good, if you’re going to write about potentially triggering stuff (like rape, or eating disorders or whatever) FUCKING PUT A FUCKING WARNING ON IT!
2. Using eating disorders/self injury/abuse/etc for dramaz!: I have no objection to stories that include well written use of horrible things.  I’ve experienced horrible shit, and I sometimes include these experiences in my fiction, but the lack of understanding, the ignorance, and the generally crappy bathotic way these fics are written just pisses me off.  Other people’s pain is not yours to use to make your fiction seem edgy, not yours to use as a prop in your poorly thought out plot.  Not to mention that trauma/mental illness is often used as a way to make a character good n’ vulnerable for the romantic advances of another character (because that’s totally the way to start a healthy relationship).
3. Erases/White Washes POC Characters: So often in fanfic characters of color are dropped entirely, or their ethnicity forgotten, or there’s always what happened to poor Blaise Zabini after fandom found out he’s of African descent (almost no mentions in fanfic ever again).  
4. Believes That In Order To Be Submissive in Bed You Have To Be Weak: You know what really irks me about ukefication?  The assumption that in order to be a bottom you have to be weak, needy, clingy, and incapable of taking care of yourself.  I’m submissive and I will tell you, I am one badass mother fucker.  I run a business, take care of myself, and am (if you hadn’t noticed) assertive, opinionated and downright pushy about things I care about, and I am undeniably submissive in bed.  There are passive people who are dominant in bed and so on and so fourth.  Yeah…
5. Assumes That All Effeminate Men Are Gay:  You know James from Pokemon?  You know what the major argument against Rocketshipping (Jesse/James shipping) is?  The fact that James likes to wear women’s clothing (he likes it A LOT, if you didn’t notice).  Fandom assumes that wearing women’s clothing = gay.  Goddamnit, no.  James is a girly guy, he might be gay, he might be straight, he might be bi, or pan, or ace, or whatever, but his effeminacy has no bearing on his sexual preference.
6. Assumes All Gay Men Are Effeminate: I can’t even… just… fuck… goddamnit.  Guys, when a character comes out of the closet he does not immediately start getting pedicures.
7. Doesn’t Believe In Sexualities Other Than Gay and Straight: In fandom THERE ARE NO PANSEXUALS, BISEXUALS, OR ANY OTHER SEXUALITY THAT ISN’T TOTALLY GAY OR TOTALLY STRAIGHT!  Want to write a slash fic about a character in a straight relationship?  OMG they totally realize they’re gay and promptly dump their partner!  Could we maybe, maybe acknowledge that other sexualities exist, please?
8. Is Ableist As Fuck:  Fandom thinks that all disabled people are magical martyrs who need to be saved with someone’s MAGICAL PENIS (or the TWU WUV of an abled person) Yeah.
9. Believes Trauma Can Be Fixed With Sex: Fandom thinks that all trauma, and mental illness can be fixed with the power of TWU WUV! and sex.  I mean twu wuv is nice, but I’ll fix my own damn self thank you, and as much as I love genitals (as I’ve said here) they are not magic, and are not equivalent to SSRIs and years of therapy.
10. Believes All Sex Workers Are Abused/Forced Into It or Believes That Sex Work Is Super Easy and Hyper Glamorous: Sex work is… work.  It’s much like a job doing anything else, sometimes it’s great, sometimes it sucks, sometimes it’s coercive and exploitive and horrible, sometimes it’s not.  Most of the time it’s like “What do you want to order for lunch, oh shit my shift’s in five minutes” in other words LIKE EVERY OTHER JOB EVER.  Don’t even get me started on when it treats sex workers as lazy social parasites.
11. Believes Trauma Makes You Evil/Excuses Evil: Look, redeeming the pretty villain by giving them a “tragic past” is so messed up for so many reasons.  For one you’re saying that “trauma makes you a bad person” yeah, just think about the implications of that one. You definitely want to suggest that people who have bad things happen to them will become bad.  Secondly, the idea that trauma excuses evil is a big damn problem because it suggests that people who have bad shit happen to them have no free will anymore, essentially reducing them to a non-human status “oh, they’re just a survivor of gang-rape, they don’t know any better” Yeahhhhhh, go stand in the “I’m a shithead” corner until you can behave.

•  Misgenders Trans* Characters: Even people who LOVE a character will do this ALL THE FREAKING TIME. Grell Sutcliff is a she not a he, thank you very much.  I take this one particularly personally because I’m genderqueer/genderfluid and I get misgendered all the time and it really freaking HURTS.  Using the correct pronouns for people is a basic sign of respect for their humanity.  Call them the wrong one and you might as well be calling them “it”.  A trans woman and a cis woman in a pairing is yuri, a trans woman and a cis man is het, a trans woman and a trans man is het, a cis woman and a trans man is het, a trans man and a trans man is yaoi (even if they’re both completely non-op and boobs and vaginas are involved), a trans man and a cis man is yaoi and so on and so fourth.  Yes this is still true if a trans person is completely non-op and uses their genitalia.

•  Hates Female Characters/Femininity With A Passion: Look feminine women aren’t evil, and wearing a dress and cooking doesn’t make one a weak subservient damsel in distress.  Also just because a character gets in the way of your OTP doesn’t mean she’s necessarily a bad character.  I see a lot of really disturbing internalized misogyny and I really hate it. 

• Slut Shames Like Woah: I don’t even watch/read Naruto and if I see “I hate Sakura because she’s such a slut” one more goddamn time I’m going to scream.  Slut shaming is really not cool.  People’s sex lives do not determine their worth provided they’re conducted responsibly and exclusively with consenting adults.

• Equates Femininity with Weakness: Wearing a dress does not make anyone weak, bottoming during sex does not equal weakness or even femininity.  Also equating femininity with being a bottom is pretty patriarchal not to mention heteronormative.  Which brings me to:

• Makes the Queer Pairings Super Heteronormative.  I mean “Manly seme/girly uke” ALL THE FREAKING TIME, and no switching ever (I like switching, fics where the top/bottom roles switch get me super hot).  Tall does not instantly equal top and short does not instantly equal bottom.  I know because I’m freaking tall and I’m a total bottom.  My ex?  Three inches shorter than me (without me in my heels) and you know who was the bottom?  Me.  No one has to be the “girl” or the “guy” everyone can just be themselves.

• Uses Yaoi as An Excuse To Write Misogynistic Bullshit: Turning the uke into a negative stereotype of femininity is not any better than writing a female character who’s a horrifically clingy emotional wreck who’s deep seated trauma can only be healed by their lover’s magical penis.  It’s the same negative image of “femininity” just without a vagina.  Your fic is bad and you should feel bad.

• Writes Sex without Research or Experience (which leads to me having nightmares):  What, what, what are you using as lube?  My god no.  Also anal without lube (let alone prep) is going to hurt the giver as much as the receiver, that much friction on a dick is a BAD BAD PAINFUL THING.  Even if you’re writing a brutal rape scene (I’ll get to my issues with the way fandom writes those in a bit) that is not how that works.  Asses do not have hymens, people do not bleed losing their anal virginity.  Blood is designed to coagulate, it does not make good lube.  Salad tossing without a dental dam is a great way to get really sick/dead.  Causing someone to pass out can easily result in death or brain damage.  Also if anal hurts even during prep, you’re doing something wrong.  Face slapping is dangerous, and mother of god the amount of semen your characters produce is so unrealistic the mind boggles.  I understand you’re writing fantasy not fact, but ignoring really basic things ruins the sexy. Again I can understand prodigious semen in a story about non-humans, or even a story where that’s your kink, but if you’re just writing regular type sex… I don’t get why the obscene exaggeration.   Humans produce a teaspoon to half a teaspoon on average.  Yeah there’s not a whole lot.  Also I’m looking at you fics with BDSM content.  Have you ever cracked a book on BDSM let alone actually experienced it?  Yeah, I thought not.  Look, I hang out in the kink scene.  I actually do this shit.  Cuffs fastened so tight they hurt are not sexy, they simply distract from the pleasure and good pain (in my experience) and make me wonder uncomfortably if I’m going to lose a hand, doing actual physical damage is never an appropriate punishment and yes you can inflict an obscene amount of pain without doing lasting damage.  I understand again, that it’s fantasy, but the total lack of research pisses me off.  Also referring to non-consensual acts as BDSM is incorrect and frankly offensive.

•  Writes Actual Rapists as Heros: Now, I understand the appeal of the rape fantasy.  Lord knows I’ve indulged in it in bed (as play) many times.  Having the characters engage in such play is a perfectly reasonable thing.  If they want to roleplay a rape that’s fine, however writing a character getting actually raped and becoming involved with their actual rapist is quite another matter.  Writing a rapist or abuser as a heroic character… is frankly unrealistic.  They don’t change, they don’t get better.  These are bad people.  I know this crap is the entire basis for hurt/comfort fic, but in the end it just feels like lazy writing as well as being patently offensive to someone who like me has actually experienced domestic violence and sexual assault.  If you want to write this and have happily ever after, have the characters role play it in bed.  Isn’t part of the purpose of fiction to explore actual human emotions and actions, even in unrealistic situations?  Yeah.