If you think feminism is bad, you should check out patriachy...

Feminism in all its simplicity, is about womens rights. Some have skewed the argument and made stupid claims about what they believe it is. Lazy women who dont want to work(or do anything at all), often use the feminists of the past as something to blame for all their problems. Women who have spent their entire life consumed by men are often brainwashed into whatever political ideals he has, all in the name of gaining his affections(please see: "He's Not That Into You" for further reading). Men subjected to intervention orders, most often because there was a need for it to be in place, have created their own mythological tale on what they believe feminism to be. Some are psychopaths who have in their worklife, bullied their way to the top of the corperate ladder, used to going home to their perfect victim. They have a masterful tale on what they believe feminism is. In fact, these types are so driven and obsessed at changing the structures itself to purport these fanciful notions on what feminism is in their sadistic mind. Compulsive liars, that comes with the title, would have you believe that any women that stands against a mans right to beat her senseless and have her body removed without a whisper is a god given right. Such types would probably go to lengths to even create a religion out of it...whoops, they already have.
In reality, they would never say to you straight out, "I want the right to rape, beat, murder and do what I please to women". There are too many humanists out there that would be outraged. So tact is the game of these losers whom seek sadism as a source of pleasure at the cost of womens human rights. The perhaps, less educated tend to ask why not address all human beings at once in protecting rights for that not to happen to them. Racism and slavery towards african americans continued well beyond the signing of the declaration of human rights. In order to deal with the issue that targets a particular group of people, the group needs to be acknowledged. One needs to think what might have happened had everyone simply referred to generalising the issue on slavery and racism and if anything at all might have been resolved. There were various tricks and tactics to condone violence, slavery and other horrific aspects towards these people and no different to the experience of attacks towards women today. Whilst laws significently clarify that such acts are illegal, often perpetrators of racism attacked subversively. eg. Klu Klux Klan and white power(comparable to black shirts or Fathers for justice groups. Their lobbying is skewed and attracts media attention to provoke hatred and incite the same type of violence towards women. One tactic, is to abscond with the children or use court orders to inhibit her freedom of movement and dictate her daily routine as so she will give in and return to him. Some have been known to use the children by attacking them over the phone, so that the mother will comply in distress to the childs screams.
Further subversive lobby groups, have managed to formulate laws to impinge on the evidence gathering and prevent victims from being able to speak of these crimes. Throughout history, there have always been tyrants, but lesser acknowledged are the ones who repeatedly attack those in the home and justify it as a "right". For as long as women and children are targeted, there is a need to protect them, monitor the laws that are harming them and ensure that they can thrive in the international community as any other fellow human being. That is the heart of feminism and deep down everyone knows that women and children deserve it. They both deserve to be respected and not harmed emotionally, socially, physically and systematically. They deserve to live above the poverty line with dignity and freedom as any other person enjoys. Naturally children are acknowledged here, simply because mothers; the least voiced amongst feminists are always thinking of them and wanting to see their rights realised too.

International Womens Day

Today marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day and I wonder why on earth we are celebrating it. Its become not a day where real action and insight is provoked on advancing the position for women, but a “show day” where we celebrate the few who were acknowledged as outstanding women. There are more women than I could count that deserve acknowledgement as outstanding. Perhaps those who knew how to create bombs and undo the ongoing oppression with terrorism could be acknowledged for choosing not to. Perhaps we can celebrate the fact that only three percent of corporate psychopaths are women. We could celebrate the fact that only a small portion of the female population are hired to kill people when their government orders it so. We can celebrate the fact that due to the fact that women make up a small portion of the worlds leaders, police force and military – we have not contributed greatly towards the ongoing hunger, corruption and violence.

But I do not celebrate women’s day as it was not really our day, but a “show day” where the male dominated media really celebrated how we really have no part in how society runs, there is no real place for us here – except to serve men. Occasionally, there might be women co hosts to compliment the ego of its host or a token women to participate on boards and the occasional female political women that is not really there to promote the rights of women, but for our entertainment. A way of saying, “No need to fight for women's rights, everything looks equal here”. I cannot help but know that the clothes I buy, the food I eat and the home I reside in is controlled, designed and made by men. It might be why our clothes are made not to last as long or provide adequate resistance to the weather and generally cost more than it does for men. It might be why we are constantly being told to “Loose weight” and become frail, because it “Looks good”. Good to whom? It might be why our homes are designed to feed into the ever consuming male dominated market that eats away at the life that surrounds us as we know it. It could be why there is a competition on which city has the worlds tallest building that strangely resemble the shapes of men's anatomy.

I cannot help but wonder what our world would really look like if women had equal participation and rights in society. I wonder whether women would have shot at children and a journalist in Iraq as though it were a game or whether women would be so eager to destroy marine wildlife to extract oil. In fact women have barely participated in the most destructive acts we hear about on the news everyday. It is not that we are angels, but there is a logical explanation. Our bodies are designed to give life and some of us do. For those of us who have, it seems an extraordinary waste to take life away when it takes so much effort to bring life into the world. In a world dominated by men, many mothers struggle to nurture life under harsh conditions like poverty, discrimination and violence. In fact that’s what most campaigns by women have been about – life. Before patriarchal religions took over, women were truly celebrated as they should be today, for creating and nurturing life. Then “God” took the credit and then it became a competition of whose man – god created life by ironically destroying it. Perhaps it should be written, “She giveth life, he taketh it away”. It would after all have been a bit more honest in how patterns have been woven post patriarchal religion.

If only it were as simple as, “You have your side of the planet and I'll have mine” and see which one does better. I wonder whether half the earth would be blown to bits. Then some survivor asking whether we could, “clean it up”. Because, it was after all, “our fault for leaving them”. I cannot help but wonder as to why our male leaders do not take responsibility for their actions or consequences of their decisions, why we who have little participation in some of the most important life and death decisions are often adversely affected by them. Why we are tortured by having to watch our children suffer. Why we even speak as though the problems of the world today as a consequence of action or inaction when women played and continue to play a very small part. Most of the achievers announced, did it for free. Yet with men's work, there is always a cost. A cost to the environment, our children’s future, to the animals that share this planet and most of all: life. I even wonder whether any increasing of women’s participation is only because men have lost the plot and as many of us are requested to “clean it up”. I therefore consider that in our world today, International Women's day is really a day of mourning. Mourning of what could have been before it got to this stage if women were allowed to equally participate in the last 100 years. Lets hope that the next 100 years are a little saner.

The Mothers Movement and Misconceptions

From the mens movement and even the judicial perspective, the mothers movement are radical feminists. Quotes about hating men, lyrics on a menocide and destroying fatherhood is the menacing picture painted from some groups when referring to the mothers movement and other groups that oppose child abuse. Radical feminism is sometimes defined as,

“The feminist point is that sex is central to women’s oppression. It is through heterosexual desire that women are fitted, and fit themselves, into their subordinate roles in relation to men… It is women’s lot to serve men, to see no alternative to their subordinate roles in relation to men, to gain access to ‘human’ status only through men, and to embrace that as their own identity.” - Denise Thompson, Radical Feminism Today

Many mothers in our circumstances are heterosexual and as much as we respect the work of feminists in general, its not something that a lot of us can relate to. Some of us have new partners, or on the dating scene. We are confronted with both positive and negative experiences. There has not been a women I have met in this movement that has not been able to recall a time in their life where they had a positive, respectful relationship with a man.

Where the mothers movement and feminism meet is upon the understanding that there is a lot of violence against women more than against men and in all too many cases, her only escape is the local morgue. Sadly, the efforts to stop violence against women rarely mention mothers who make up a majority of the statistics. Even the image of violence against women is abstract. It often depicts a single women, but rarely a mother having to endure this with children. In turn, the rest of the community are ignorant as to what actually happens to mothers with children in domestic violence, and sadly they endure the most. If she is able to leave and makes it to a refuge, the family court may view that as "instable" for the children. If she is suffering from trauma, she may be deemed unfit to care for them. If she was permanently disabled, she will be deemed unfit to care for them. What a lot of people don't know or even expect is that the children in most cases will be allocated to the man who destabilized, traumatized and disabled their mother. Most credible research on family violence proves that children are mentally impaired from witnessing it and in most cases they are likely to be subjected to it themselves.

As family violence began behind closed doors, it ends behind closed doors of the Australian

Family Court. Most cases expose children to ongoing violence and trauma without respect or consideration of children or mothers lives. Addressing these issues is the heart of the mothers movement. Its not about representing just mothers, but acknowledging all victims of family violence as a unit that needs to be protected. Their relationship that needs to be respected. When a mother becomes persistent at requesting protection, the courts interpret these actions as a challenge to their power and in turn deal harsh decisions where the mother is restricted to supervised visits whilst the perpetrator retains full custody of the child. These are the problems that the mothers movement seeks to address and something we have done mostly alone without the support of feminist groups and organisations. Alot of us have at least one male family member, sometimes a son that we deeply care about that assists us in reality checking as to whether we truly have stepped on other peoples rights in our course of actions.

Another myth is that because we champion mothers causes, is that we will help abusive mothers. This is where the mens movement continually fails. The whole reason why we do what we do is because we are deeply opposed to violence and child abuse, learning a mother has abused her child is just as abhorrent as any case and there are no excuses. Many of us who have struggled so much to protect our children cannot relate to women that have abused them. We are women who love our children very much and want nothing more than for them to live a life free from family violence.

So if you expected the mothers movement to be something else, I know you will be disappointed.