Vagina Boat Has Woman Arrested; Sex Workers to Out MPs For Seeking Their Services

Image via Tumblr.
This week in feminism, I’ve got some good news: While the Morgentaler Clinic in New Brunswick is closing, there’s a plan in place to save it (at least temporarily). And the coolest woman to grace this planet is officially the Japanese artist who has created a vagina boat. That’s right: A real boat molded after her own vagina.

But are you a feminist who hasn’t yet been angered this week? Looking for something a little different? If so, never fear, because I’ve got you covered with the most ridiculously anti-woman Tumblr ever.

So, let’s get on with it.

Screencap via the Morgentaler Clinic.
Save New Brunswick Women from Having to Travel Out of Province For an Abortion

You may have heard by now that New Brunswick’s only abortion clinic is closing on July 18. But Reproductive Justice NB is rallying to #savetheclinic, and there is a fundraising effort going on right now so the group can lease the clinic in order to ensure women have access to safe abortions.

They admit it’s a temporary solution, but it’s a hell of a lot more than the government will do. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives (which are essentially the very same thing in NB) have issued any response to the group’s call for help.

Now, there’s a way to stand up and circumvent that.

Screencap via Twitter.
Sex Workers Fight Bill C-36 By Getting A Little Bit… Personal

To fight back against the incredibly harmful and backward Bill C-36, Ottawa sex workers are compiling a list of all MPs who regularly use their services. Particularly Tory MPs.

I am so, so excited about this. At Slutwalk last week, Heather Jarvis thanked everyone for being present, and for being part of a revolution. I’m choosing to believe there is a revolution going on right now when it comes to women’s rights, and sex workers are leading it. They’re the ones fighting for an end to body policing and laws designed to oppress women and repress everyone’s sexuality.

Now, as stodgy old white bread crusts in parliament try to make sex work illegal by criminalizing clients, sex workers are turning the tables by playing their game—and making them the criminals in the process.

I’m not going to name names of politicians I hope to see outed—but I cannot

to see this list. I hope sex workers in other areas decide to pick up the torch and do the same with politicians in their own communities—then we may actually get somewhere in stopping C-36 in its tracks. Screencap via the Guardian.
Normalizing And Celebrating the Pussy Is Highly Illegal in Japan

My hero of the week is undoubtedly Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi. She made an actual 3D scan of her pussy and scaled it up to the size of a boat. This woman is making it possible for pussy lovers to be fully, completely and thoroughly ensconced in pussy.

Of course, she was arrested for it. Japanese authorities thought her project merited “obscenity charges,” because she emailed a scan to funders of her campaign so they could get their fingers on their own pussy boat.

The 42-year-old artist has been trying to normalize the vagina for years.

"When I pronounce the word 'vagina,' men especially get very angry with me," Igarashi says. "Don’t be angry. Vagina is just a word."

Unfortunately, people are angry, indeed. Igarashi faces charges that will either land her in jail for two years, or she’ll receive a fine of 2.5 million yen ($25,000 USD) if convicted.

There, there, men and prudes! Vaginas aren’t scary; they’re fun and awesome! And if you agree, there’s a change.org petition to free Igarashi and let the pussy vessel roam free and un-oppressed.

Igarashi has been making and decorating molds of her vagina for years. Because it’s taboo to talk about the vagina in Japanese culture, she was simply curious about whether hers was “normal.” She even decorated some vagina molds to look like little dolls!And golf courses! Igarashi-san, will you be my new best friend, please?

Image via Tumblr.
People Misunderstand Feminism Entirely, Make Tumblr About It

This past week, I discovered one of the most horrendously ignorant websites I have ever had the misfortune to stumble across.

People, largely women, have taken to Tumblr to announce all of the reasons Why We Don’t Need Feminism. It features statements I can only assume are being made by people who have never read a single feminist work or had a discussion with an actual feminist. Though it started out with photos of women holding up signs with their anti-feminist statements, most all of the statements are now anonymous.

A few choice quotes from some hyper-intelligent anonymous posters:

“[sic] We dont need feminism because, why does it matter how women are viewed? Shouldnt we be teaching everyone that it doesnt matter what other people think. Not that you are a person because you arr told you are by others. Not sure if that made any sense.”

“I don’t need feminism because us women can do it all, we can vote, have casual sex, have babies and still have a fulfilling career, or be stay at home mommies. We can do anything we want.”

Srsly, tho, library cards are free! Photo via Tumblr.
Honestly, you know what? I feel truly sorry for these women. Is feminism failing? Or are these girls choosing willful stupidity over any sort of engagement with the real world? Either way, I sat and drank a bottle of wine and angry-read this thing for at least half an hour. I couldn’t look away. Here are two more gems:

“I do not need feminism because I am a Christian, and I believe that we should value all children of God, not just the female or the male ones. Supporting any movement that excludes on the basis of gender goes against a spirit of true tolerance that can only be reached through a valuing of all people as equal in God’s eyes.”

Oh, rly? So because you’re a Christian, the fact that an American woman can expect to make only 77 cents on every dollar a man makes is just fine. The fact that one in five women you love WILL be sexually assaulted is fine, because God is on your side! And the fact that your ass and titties are salivated over by people who think they deserve access to your body is also just 100 percent fine. And this

“I do not need feminism because women in America have more rights than women anywhere else”

Yeah? Well if you work for certain companies, you’re hard-pressed to control your own uterus. And if you happen to get raped, it’s likely no one will believe you. But you know who thinks you should have powers of bodily autonomy, and who will believe you and fight for you if you are raped? Feminists. Further, it is unbelievably insensitive to undermine the importance of women’s rights in countries OTHER THAN ‘Murica. FYI.

Young ladies who don’t need feminism? I’ve seen many of your photos on this site, and you are very young, and very smug-looking. It must be properly

to stew in your own cluelessness and avoid taking responsibility for anything, to feel as though there’s nothing to fight for. But if you truly think you don’t need feminism, I challenge you to spend a day researching the inequalities in this world, or even, you know, to read a single newspaper, and come away feeling the same.

Image via Flickr user theogeo.
Thoughts On PUAs

Last week, VICE published my interview with a former pick up artist. Lots of dudes emailed me to elaborate on my thoughts regarding pick up artists as a whole.

For the record: I think the majority of that community is reprehensible at best, and emotionally and physically abusive at worst. (Yes, trying to force sex on someone showing “last minute resistance” is abusive. No, she doesn’t want it, AT ALL, if she is literally shoving you away). I do not sanction cooking up plans to manipulate women you find particularly stupid into bed.

That said, I think some people become involved in the community because they’re simply awkward and looking to meet someone, and aren’t quite sure how to do so. That was my subject’s story. Should he be vilified? I don’t know him well—we spoke for half an hour—and he isn’t perfect, by any means. Neither am I, neither are you, etc. Let’s just get over that fact for a sec. But he wasn’t an evil satyr on a hump’n’dump quest, either. He just wanted to learn how to approach women. There are layers here, and if the feminist community pushes people away whose participation in these communities was truly innocent, we’ll only nudge them further down that path through our alienation.

It’s important to listen to why people become involved in PUA activities so that we can figure out why it goes to its extremes. Rape is not about sex—it’s about power. The same goes for the deliberate attempt to manipulate women into bed—we tell men much of their power lies in their ability to make a sexual conquest. Why and how, exactly, do we do this? Without exposing the answers to these questions, we won’t understand the deep disrespect these men have for women. It’s not likely any real change can be made until that is understood.

Finally, if any of this is making you feel sad or frustrated and you have five minutes, watch this video of amother talking about how awesome her trans daughter is for a better pick-me-up than cocaine. @sarratch