Comments on: Intersectionality, or why Carrie Bradshaw speaks for few women http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/ Feminism and Gender Issues at Princeton University Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:51:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: LSG http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-891 LSG Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:19:54 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-891 Nope. I'm saying that a stereotype that was created and promoted in order to make sure white people looked at black people with fear and loathing is false. Nope. I'm saying that a stereotype that was created and promoted in order to make sure white people looked at black people with fear and loathing is false.

]]> By: UT http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-881 UT Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:06:21 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-881 "The fact that something has been repeated many, many times doesn't make it "truth.""<br /><br />And yet, what you are saying, without evidence or statistics, is that the fact that it is an old meme makes it false. "The fact that something has been repeated many, many times doesn't make it "truth.""

And yet, what you are saying, without evidence or statistics, is that the fact that it is an old meme makes it false.

]]> By: LSG http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-877 LSG Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:57:08 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-877 I'm really happy you're writing here, Nidya, and especially happy that you're writing about intersectionality -- I think your voice will be a very valuable one here, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I'm very sorry to go totally off track, but I want to address the delightful commentators who decided to grace your first post with their presence. <br /><br />There can be dozens of meaty conversations about the intersection of sexual assault and race or ethnicity, and the depictions of them in the media. We can't have them all immediately, especially not in the comment section of an unrelated post. (Also, I think it's very important to note that women of color have been blogging about these things and having these conversations for a long time now -- check out Renee at Womanist Musings or BrownFemiPower at Flip Flopping Joy, for a start.) However, I do want to point out that Uncomfortable Truth's post is playing into a sexist, racist construct that is prevalent in our society -- I think we should be aware of that. <br /><br />In our society, historically and currently, black men are often depicted as sexual dynamos luring white women away from white men, and/or sexual predators preying on white women. This image, in its various forms, has been used to attempt to justify racism for hundreds of years -- The Birth of a Nation has some particularly vivid storylines about this very topic, I've been told, with white women hurling themselves off cliffs to escape rape by slavering hordes of black men. And remember this cover (http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact_celebrities/2008/03/large_cover.jpg), modeled after King Kong, with Lebron James roaring at the camera, his arm around Giselle Bunchen's waist as if he's about to carry her off? <br /><br />Black women and girls, on the other hand, are often depicted as being promiscuous and therefore "unrapeable." (For an example: http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/2008/07/22-yo-black-woman-to-11-year-old-black.html) Black women are also classified in this narrative as "unattractive" in comparison to white women, and this ridiculous and subjective judgment is used as evidence they aren't/can't be raped. Which is twisted in several ways. <br /><br />So not only are Uncomfortable Truth's statistics VERY suspect (Can anyone even find them? I can't, and I looked in earnest -- though I did find something similar on a white supremacist site) he's playing into the narrative that "black men rape white women but white men don't rape black women," a well-worn racist trope. The fact that something has been repeated many, many times doesn't make it "truth." <br /><br />Avilet, yes. In poking around on the DOJ's website, I did find some interesting statistics on differing reasons given by black and white women for not reports crimes. If you're interested -- http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv06103.pdf I'm really happy you're writing here, Nidya, and especially happy that you're writing about intersectionality — I think your voice will be a very valuable one here, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I'm very sorry to go totally off track, but I want to address the delightful commentators who decided to grace your first post with their presence.

There can be dozens of meaty conversations about the intersection of sexual assault and race or ethnicity, and the depictions of them in the media. We can't have them all immediately, especially not in the comment section of an unrelated post. (Also, I think it's very important to note that women of color have been blogging about these things and having these conversations for a long time now — check out Renee at Womanist Musings or BrownFemiPower at Flip Flopping Joy, for a start.) However, I do want to point out that Uncomfortable Truth's post is playing into a sexist, racist construct that is prevalent in our society — I think we should be aware of that.

In our society, historically and currently, black men are often depicted as sexual dynamos luring white women away from white men, and/or sexual predators preying on white women. This image, in its various forms, has been used to attempt to justify racism for hundreds of years — The Birth of a Nation has some particularly vivid storylines about this very topic, I've been told, with white women hurling themselves off cliffs to escape rape by slavering hordes of black men. And remember this cover (http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact_celebrities/2008/03/large_cover.jpg), modeled after King Kong, with Lebron James roaring at the camera, his arm around Giselle Bunchen's waist as if he's about to carry her off?

Black women and girls, on the other hand, are often depicted as being promiscuous and therefore "unrapeable." (For an example: http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/2008/07/22-yo-black-woman-to-11-year-old-black.html) Black women are also classified in this narrative as "unattractive" in comparison to white women, and this ridiculous and subjective judgment is used as evidence they aren't/can't be raped. Which is twisted in several ways.

So not only are Uncomfortable Truth's statistics VERY suspect (Can anyone even find them? I can't, and I looked in earnest — though I did find something similar on a white supremacist site) he's playing into the narrative that "black men rape white women but white men don't rape black women," a well-worn racist trope. The fact that something has been repeated many, many times doesn't make it "truth."

Avilet, yes. In poking around on the DOJ's website, I did find some interesting statistics on differing reasons given by black and white women for not reports crimes. If you're interested — http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv06103.pdf

]]> By: Avilet http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-876 Avilet Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:22:41 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-876 Uncomfortable truths, you're totally right. Feminists never get mad at black perpetrators of rape, sexual violence, and/or domestic violence. This is why Chris Brown is so popular among feminist communities of course. Uh-huh.<br /><br />Also, your use of Dept. of Justice stats on rape is laughable given the extent to which a) rape is a notoriously underreported crime and b) this underreporting is influenced by factors such as race and class. As much as you would like to believe otherwise, the crime of rape has no color. Uncomfortable truths, you're totally right. Feminists never get mad at black perpetrators of rape, sexual violence, and/or domestic violence. This is why Chris Brown is so popular among feminist communities of course. Uh-huh.

Also, your use of Dept. of Justice stats on rape is laughable given the extent to which a) rape is a notoriously underreported crime and b) this underreporting is influenced by factors such as race and class. As much as you would like to believe otherwise, the crime of rape has no color.

]]> By: Uncomfortable truths http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-875 Uncomfortable truths Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:35:05 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-875 Long before the Duke case attracted feminist uproar, I noticed that whenever feminists raise a big fuss about some rape or sexual violence or domestic violence case that they perceived to be a huge injustice, the alleged perpetrator always turned out to be white. It has gotten about as predictable as watching Law & Order. If anybody wants to prove me wrong, you can provide a link to even one feminist column or blog post that wants to bring attention to a rape case where the accused perpetrator is black and the victim is white.<br /><br />The feminists write about rape so often that this should be an extremely easy task, since according to the Department of Justice statistics, each year in America there are about 800 rapes where the perpetrator is white and the victim is black, but about 15,000 rapes where the perpetrator is black and the victim is white. In addition, more than 3,000 gang rapes of whites by blacks happen annually in the USA, but virtually no white-on-black gang rapes. Yet this curious silence. I wonder why? Long before the Duke case attracted feminist uproar, I noticed that whenever feminists raise a big fuss about some rape or sexual violence or domestic violence case that they perceived to be a huge injustice, the alleged perpetrator always turned out to be white. It has gotten about as predictable as watching Law & Order. If anybody wants to prove me wrong, you can provide a link to even one feminist column or blog post that wants to bring attention to a rape case where the accused perpetrator is black and the victim is white.

The feminists write about rape so often that this should be an extremely easy task, since according to the Department of Justice statistics, each year in America there are about 800 rapes where the perpetrator is white and the victim is black, but about 15,000 rapes where the perpetrator is black and the victim is white. In addition, more than 3,000 gang rapes of whites by blacks happen annually in the USA, but virtually no white-on-black gang rapes. Yet this curious silence. I wonder why?

]]> By: 16V http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women/#comment-870 16V Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:57:53 +0000 http://equalwrites.org/2009/09/08/intersectionality-or-why-carrie-bradshaw-speaks-for-few-women#comment-870 The sexual disparity of undergrads has been a hot topic recently also in this side of Atlantic. No surprise there, I guess, since such trend seems to be common in all industrialized countries. In America, something like 60% of today's freshmen are women. The reasons why young men don't go to college are well-known and better listed elsewhere, and now that college degree has become an important signaling mechanism in the job market, this trend is getting worrisome. If nothing else, pretty soon the young white women of America will learn what their black sisters exactly mean when they complain about shortage of educated men to marry. And speaking of which, if I have understood the situation correctly, the white men from the lower socioeconomic strata and the nonwhite men leak out of the education pipeline much more severely than their middle-class white brothers. This is not really surprising, since the societal changes and structures that favour women naturally tend to hurt the marginal males the worst, whereas men who are in a stronger position due to their talents and social position get to skate away completely scot free. This must be a great annoyance to leftists and feminists. (Or at least it should be, if they could ever bring themselves to think about it. But they don't, but rather just avoid the issue and reject it with violent doublethink whenever they are forced to face it.) The sexual disparity of undergrads has been a hot topic recently also in this side of Atlantic. No surprise there, I guess, since such trend seems to be common in all industrialized countries. In America, something like 60% of today's freshmen are women. The reasons why young men don't go to college are well-known and better listed elsewhere, and now that college degree has become an important signaling mechanism in the job market, this trend is getting worrisome. If nothing else, pretty soon the young white women of America will learn what their black sisters exactly mean when they complain about shortage of educated men to marry. And speaking of which, if I have understood the situation correctly, the white men from the lower socioeconomic strata and the nonwhite men leak out of the education pipeline much more severely than their middle-class white brothers. This is not really surprising, since the societal changes and structures that favour women naturally tend to hurt the marginal males the worst, whereas men who are in a stronger position due to their talents and social position get to skate away completely scot free. This must be a great annoyance to leftists and feminists. (Or at least it should be, if they could ever bring themselves to think about it. But they don't, but rather just avoid the issue and reject it with violent doublethink whenever they are forced to face it.)

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