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hoydenabouttown_feedI was going to add a quicklink to this clusterfuck in comments on the Open Thread, but then I realised that I had too much to say for the comment input box.
Over the weekend I’ve been following some of the FTB live-blogging of the second Women In Secularism conference (aka WISC2), and enjoying the speeches of thoughtful activist women on various topics. I didn’t bother to click on anybody’s liveblogging of the welcoming speech, because welcoming speeches are all pretty much the same, right? Welcome and thank you to the attendees, here’s the speaker lineup, the vendor stalls are in the lobby and the bar’s over there – isn’t that the job of the opening speech? With a few encouraging soundbites thrown in to get the audience excited? Usually 5-10 minutes, tops?
Well, I missed something different. The opening speech was given by Ron Lindsay, CEO of the event sponsor, the Center for Free Enquiry (CFI). Ron apparently thought that all those traditional aspects of a welcoming speech were entirely superfluous for WISC2, and instead dedicated half of his 30-minute opening talk to ‘splaining privilege and how feminists were misusing the concept to silence men and how all this fed into the divisive controversy etc etc
No mention of the sustained intimidation campaigns waged against women who have pointed out that atheism/skepticism/secularism is not immune from the same sexism/racism etc as the religions they’re rejecting, and that those campaigns are specifically designed to silence those women from speaking out at all ever, not just asking them to listen in certain spaces for a short while. The lack of respect and blatant hositility demonstrated by that sustained silencing campaign was obviously far less significant to Lindsay than (surprise) how Feminists R Doin It Rong.
Lindsay bizarrely equates social justice advocates asking those who are privileged along one or more of the axes of oppression to “shut up and listen” to those who lack those privileges with women being utterly forbidden to speak in houses of worship in many religions i.e. Lindsay is equating a request for the generally dominant group who have many platforms to step back and let others lead a discussion at the front of a platform for a change with a religious taboo whereby the generally subservient social group who has no platform is forbidden to speak at all in sacred spaces. He even explicitly labels requests for the privileged to stay quiet and step back for once as dogma.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think the concept of privilege is useful; in fact it is too useful to have it ossified and turned into a dogma.
By the way, with respect to the “Shut up and listen” meme, I hope it’s clear that it’s the “shut up” part that troubles me, not the “listen” part. Listening is good. People do have different life experiences, and many women have had experiences and perspectives from which men can and should learn. But having had certain experiences does not automatically turn one into an authority to whom others must defer. Listen, listen carefully, but where appropriate, question and engage.
I started my talk with that reading from the New Testament which unmistakably assigned women a subordinate role. Both the symbol of that oppression and the vehicle for enforcing that oppression was silence. Enforced silence is always and everywhere the enemy of truth and progress. If someone is forbidden from speaking, you are obviously not going to hear what they have to say.
As many others have already pointed out, how Lindsay thinks anybody can listen if they don’t shut up? I dunno.
As an opening speech, this effort undermines the whole purpose of the conference. Might it possibly have been an interesting addition to the speech roster somewhere in the middle of the program? Maybe. But as an opening speech from the event sponsor it’s simply bizarre, does nothing to encourage the women in attendance, and does everything to encourage the already hyper-active flying monkeys.
such_heightssuch_heightspurplefringe for watching umpteen drafts of this. Premiered at the Vidukon 2013 premieres show. Subtitles forthcoming, afraid I haven't had time to make them yet! Spoilers through 7x06.languagehat_feedThis is another in my occasional series of posts bringing to light unjustly forgotten inhabitants of the byways of history (see, for instance, Sofya Engelgardt). Reading Catriona Kelly's excellent A History of Russian Women's Writing 1820-1992
Zinaida Afanasievna Vengerova (Russian Wikipedia) was born in 1867 in Helsinki (then, of course, part of the Russian Empire). She attended the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg and studied French literature at the Sorbonne; she also took courses in Vienna, England, and Italy, and met many of the leading lights of European literature. One of her first publications was the article "Poety-simvolisty vo Frantsii" [The symbolist poets in France]; Bryusov said it was a "revelation" that sent him to the bookstore to buy Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Maeterlinck. She lived in London from 1908 to 1912, lecturing on Russian literature (and again in 1914, when her nephew, the director Alexander Tairov, stayed with her); she wrote articles in French («Lettres russes») for the Mercure de France (1897—99) and the Revue des revues and in English for the Saturday Review (1902—1903), introductions to the collected works of Schiller and Shakespeare, and a number of entries for Brockhaus and Efron (available at Lib.ru); her collected critical articles appeared in three volumes (titled Literaturnye kharakteristiki [Literary characteristics]) from 1897 to 1910, covering the pre-Raphaelites, Oscar Wilde, Ruskin, Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, Emile Verhaeren, and of course the French symbolists, among others. And back in Petersburg she was an intimate part of the Gippius-Merezhkovsky circle; it was presumably around this time that she visited the Nabokov household on an occasion commemorated by VVN in the Paris Review interview:
H. G. Wells, a great artist, was my favorite writer when I was a boy. The Passionate Friends, Ann Veronica, The Time Machine, The Country of the Blind, all these stories are far better than anything Bennett, or Conrad or, in fact, any of Wells's contemporaries could produce. His sociological cogitations can be safely ignored, of course, but his romances and fantasias are superb. There was an awful moment at dinner in our St. Petersburg house one night when Zinaïda Vengerov, his translator, informed Wells, with a toss of her head: “You know, my favorite work of yours is The Lost World.” “She means the war the Martians lost,” said my father quickly.(Note his characteristic refusal to use the feminine ending on Russian names.) Via Gippius and Merezhkovsky she knew the terrorist/novelist Boris Savinkov, and her translation of his 1909 novel Конь бледный appeared in 1917 as The Pale Horse. I'll let the Dictionary of Russian Women Writers take it from there:
wanderlustloverfolkchick31.Where is your mobile phone? Toy
2. Your significant other? Significant
3. Your hair? Long
4. Your mother? Amazing
5. Your father? Gone
6. Your favorite thing? Love
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Milk
9. Your dream/goal? Peace
10. The room you're in? Living
11. Your ex? Complicated
12. Your fear? Random
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? PHD
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? Manipulable
16. Muffins? No
17. One of your wish list items? Europe
18. Where you grew up? USAF
19. The last thing you did? Apple
20. What are you wearing? Burberry
21. Your TV? Disliked
22. Your pets? Earl's
23. Your computer? Silver
24. Your life? Joyful
25. Your mood? Patient
26. Missing someone? Yes
27. Your car? Blue
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Internet
30. Your summer? Glorious
31.Like someone? Several
32. Your favorite color? Blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? 5:30
34. Last time you cried? 2012?
pigletwho_daily_feed
who_daily reading list.who_daily will no longer link fanfiction that does not have a header. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Thank you.
og_news, blogtorwho and tardisscanner among others. For additional news please visit googledw and gallifrey_times.)who_at_50: announcement of round six of the Fanwork-a-thon-a-thon and discussion postgreenage_rpg is a panfandom RPG set in a "Pleasantville-esque" style neighborhood; Doctor Who characters are welcome (more)clara_who: ficathon coming up and comm layout will be tinkered with in the futurewho_contest: "Bad Weather" entries due May 20dwstills: challenge #3, enemies
shadowsyra is catching up on the current seriesmissrosetyler is selling a Clara skirt as seen in "Nightmare in Silver"louisedennis reviews "Nightmare in Silver"dieastra has a petition to get John Barrowman to do a concert in Düsseldorfhammard's 50th anniversary countdown: #27boji has a theory about "The Name of the Doctor"ibishtar posts two video clips and two radio spots from "The Name of the Doctor" to doctorwho (spoilers)honeynoir posts "The Name of the Doctor" clips to clara_wholonewytch has meta for "Nightmare in Silver:" The Empire Never Endedboji posts a Guardian article about the finale to doctorwhokristinking posts a Den of Geek article about Trenzalore to doctorwhoboji with a teaser from the episode (spoilers in post)ibishtar posts the Tennant & Smith video (and the Name of of the Doctor BTS) to doctorwho (spoilers)stalkerbunny [Doctor/Master | no rating]onabearskinrug [Ten/Rose, others | M]hawkmoth [Eleven, Clara | PG | spoilers for "The Name of the Doctor"]bas_math_girl [Donna/Ten, Jenny, Martha, Mickey, TenII, Sylvia | PG-13]ellymelly [Eleven/River | T]ddshipper9692 [Ten/Donna | G]locker_monster [Rory, Barbara | PG]stalkerbunny [Doctor/Master | no rating | fusion with Withnail & I]femme_slash_fan has icons from "The Crimson Horror" analyst_1 has an Eleven/Clara fanmix, Who? radiolaires [Eleven, Clara | contains physical triggers (e.g. epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, "stuttery" cuts between 2-3 stills) | no rating]qwertee_feed
fullygoldy
boingboing_feedMarina Litvinenko, widow of Alexander Litvinenko (a British citizen who was assassinated in London by two former KGB agents who poisoned him with radioactive polonium) has accused the British government, Secretary of State William Hague, and PM David Cameron of sabotaging the coroner's inquest into her husband's death. Hague and Cameron intervened in the coroner's hearing to seal key evidence that implicated the Russian government in Litvinenko's killing.
Sir Robert Owen, who is leading the inquest and who has seen the material, characterised it as "documents that examined whether UK officials could have done more to prevent his murder." 's widow says that this is part of "a secret political deal with the Kremlin." This comes against a charm offensive by the UK government to increase Russian investment in Britain.
The former Labour government severed all contacts with Russia's FSB spy agency in 2007 after concluding it had played a leading role in Litvinenko's assassination. Putin is the agency's former chief.
Mrs Litvinenko added: "This is a very sad day, a tragedy for British justice which has until now been respected around the world, and a frightening precedent for all of those who have been trying so hard to expose the crimes committed by a conspiracy of organised criminals who operate inside the Kremlin."
In his ruling (pdf), Owen said the inquest scheduled to take place later this year might now result in an "incomplete, misleading and unfair" verdict.
The coroner said he would consider inviting Theresa May, the home secretary, to hold a public inquiry instead. The inquiry could hear the sensitive evidence buried by Hague in secret sessions.
Alexander Litvinenko widow accuses William Hague of sabotaging inquest 
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