So I’ve been up for a reasonable space of time now. Still shithouse at the tech-y side of things.
“About” this website? Well, given the title and tagline, it seems relatively self explanatory.
I got jack of sitting around twiddling my thumbs and pretending I’m *ok* with how things “are”. There is a lot of injustice in this world, a lot…I’m not going to pretend I think this website will address, fix, or even touch on all that injustice. It’s just a blog where I can rant and poke fun at and rail against injustice or bigoted idiocy.
It was inspired by the reaction of the Australian media when George Bush came over to visit. David Hicks was being held in Guantanamo Bay and we were not being given any answers about when he would be charged or returned, when he would be allowed proper access to a lawyer, what evidence there was against him, or what would happen. No matter what a person has done, or is purported to have done, you do NOT suspend the rule of law. And yet, this is precisely what was done in this case.
Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle stood up and began to ask George Bush to answer questions about when David Hicks would be returned to Australia, and the intervention staged to *shut them up*, to *protect* Mr Bush from their words, their questions, was swift and disturbing. In a democracy leaders must face questions, and elected members of parliament, surely have a right to ask them.
The aftermath was widespred slamming of the behaviour of Mr Brown and Ms Nettle as being “impolite”, outrage and anger were generated over how “impolite” they had been. A man was languishing in an overseas prison, a no mans land, being denied access to a lawyer, held without proper charge and without the prospect of a trial, kept in a prison where rumours of abuse and torture were rife and Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle were getting spanked for asking QUESTIONS?
When we are talking about suspending the rule of law, when we are talking about the life of a citizen stuck indefinately in a prison not on our soil and not on American soil, and we are being told to shut up and not ask questions, the only acceptable response is “Fuck Politeness”.
The point of this blog is not a claim that it can *fix* these big inequalities, it can’t. But I can carve out a space of my own to say a big, huge, hollering “Fuck Politeness”. If it is impolite to ask question and criticise, then consider me the Queen of Rude – on this blog I’m gonna swear, shout, poke fun at, criticise, make sarcastic remarks about anything that is bothering me at any particular moment. Some posts will be jokes, some will be angry rants. The point is, I don’t believe in the sort of “politeness” the Australian media was calling for at that time, the sit down, shut up, there’s nothing wrong here, we’re all a big happy family type of “politeness”. I believe in friendliness and civility in day to day interactions, but I also believe that there’s an awful lot of offensive shit out there, that needs a mocking and a slamming and I’m here to bring it – not because I’m “better” or “qualified”, just because there is value in talking back, value in refusing to be “polite” and silent, value in sharing these sorts of counter arguments and mockeries.
This isn’t an ‘intellectual’ site, my writing is critically and culturally informed and I hope it is engaged and reflexive, but when we cut to the chase - it’s a site for ranting. The writing is often sarcastic and deliberately exagerated to make a point, or for the sake of humour. I will engage if I feel you are sincere in engaging with the points at hand, but I will not engage with idiocy, deliberate misinterpretation, bullying, condescencion or bigotry. So there. (Pokes out tongue at trolls and bigots).
Anti-Feminists? Bigots? Reactionaries and muntheads? Racists and homophobes? It’s a left wing site called FuckPoliteness, a site subtitled “political ranting and humour”. Take the hint people.
NOW: Comments policy:
Not to be too childish, but this is my blog. I made it. I came up with the name, I registered, and I wrote each post. I am well happy to engage with any questions or constructive feedback. I will NOT allow comments which *I* deem to be intimidating, I will not allow comments which *I* deem to be the same old horse-shit trolling. You have plenty of spaces to vent your misogyny or racism. Go do it elsewhere and stay the fuck off my site. If *I* think you are a pain in the arse, or offensive, in any way, shape or form, I will delete your comment and “spam” you* - right in the face. I’m sure you’ll cope. Since it’s *my* blog, I get to call the shots on what is trouble making and inflammatory.
Just to make super-extra, extra-super sure we’re totally clear on this, I’ll include my certificate of authority below. Have a nice day kiddies.
*Spam you as in mark you as spam, not send you spam.
It’s true. I have for a number of years told Had Enough that she could be the next Germaine Greer. Against the stereotypical portrayals of Greer as mad and excessive (and without reducing her work to an essence, or having to agree with the whole thing), I always believed this was a compliment to pay another woman. In fact, to label a woman as excessive for having firm opinions which challenge men and male dominated societies, is simply another form of violence. Had Enough is opinionated, passionate, angry, committed, joyful, and in spite of her disclaimers regarding writer status, has a very competent command of language! And a fucking great sense of humour to boot!
As young women, we (and by ‘we’ I refer to Had Enough and myself) are riding on the so called “post-feminist” wave: as if equality has come to be, as if overt and covert forms of gender subjugation are no longer relavant to discussions in the public or private sphere. This blog, amongst other things, seeks to contest this designation of the now as “post”.
Hope this suffices for an introduction into the world of “Had Enough”. More will follow, especially as fragments of political rantings/essays appear and dialogue is generated.
Hey, fuckpoliteness! I thought I’d let you and your readers know that I’ve created a new radfem discussion/consciousness-raising forum, which I’d like to personally invite you to join. Please read about it at my blog or join it here. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you there.
Laceyfish
So I came by for a look, saw your header picture “What happened to DISSENT in this county” and laughed so hard teh Missus came in from the next room to see what was wrong with me …
… Hmmn, things can be easily misinterpreted on blogs, and I’m not sure how you meant it to be viewed. But I thought your photo was one of the most gloriously self-contradictory (and thus subversive) statements I’d ever seen – political graffiti, the essence of dissent. I don’t know if that was your intent, although I’m guessing it was. But anyway, as for your thesis – go for it !
Yeah. I was out running an errand for a law firm I worked for and I spotted that piece of graffiti. Dissent *did* feel like a pipe dream at the time, the Howard government had won their third term in office, something I had felt was impossible given the blatant lies they’d been caught out in, and the country felt like a small(in the sense of mean not geographically), hard, hostile, smug self-satisfied place. I saw this and it made me want to cry. It *was* dissent, which made it doubly wonderful but the question echoed. What the fuck HAD happened to dissent in this country? When did we decide that we accepted government lines and lies that hurt people, and politically skewed writing by government funded ‘think tanks’ as ‘proof’ that self interest and heard heartedness and lies and the overthrow of the rule of law were ok?
It became the focal point for a multimedia ‘answer’ to the question, photography of protests, of chalkings, of posters, of forums, set to music, with me trying to place myself ‘in’ the project using writing to describe the blurred effect where my hands were shaking with emotion. Anyway. Technically the project was dodge-city, but it was a good process (one that triggered me saying ‘Yeah fuck it, I’ll try my hand at things that interest me instead of hiding) and the question still stands. Day in and day out we read stories of rape and violence against women, and in the same newspapers we’re reading trash telling us that women ARE just gold-diggers/sluts with only themselves to blame/idiots/manipulators…and on and on. Or articles encouraging us to forget the awful truths and just get on with the job of being properly ‘pretty’ women. Well…that was a longer reply than I was intending!
But that’s what great.
Sounds like there is a still a melange of protest, humour, anger and contradiction boiling that photograph. What a powerful metaphor. It’s a dialectic in action, constantly recreating meaning, life, and hope.
hahahahaaha, my god, you guys are douchebags.
Oh. You cut me real deep just now Fuck You. Your wit is truly incisive and deeply deeply affects me. I will cry myself to sleep on my giant pillow tonight for I cannot withstand the force of your arguments. How will I cope knowing how I have failed your Mighty Intellect? Run along.
“I will NOT allow comments which *I* deem to be intimidating, I will not allow comments which *I* deem to be the same old horse-shit trolling. You have plenty of spaces to vent your misogyny or racism.”
In other words, you do not allow freedom of speech and freedom of expression on *YOUR* site? Ok, as long as you are prepared to make it clear that you do not allow the truth here, you do not allow free expression, that you have annointed yourself as ‘the one and only authotrity’…
Oh…isn’t that just like a feminist? They want to suppress other peoples expression while presenting hate speech and misandry. There is no honesty and no freedom of speech in the feminist movement. Just take a look at feministing.com. Any dissenting statment is immediately removed because any thinking person cannot sustain the myth of feminism in the face of the truth.
Your little rant here is simply one more good example of it. Good luck ms. fuckpoliteness. You have no idea what is coming. You have no idea how much you are going to need good luck.
If you want to know you can start by searching for aspartame….and you will find that your MALE masters who feed you ‘feminism’ are also poisoning women with aspartame…
You are victims of the same powerful men who are programming you with feminism…that is soooooo funny to us men. You might want to also check out BPA in plastics, mercury in vaccines, fluoride in the water, aluminium in the deodorants. Basically, the very people you are abusing and fighting with ‘feminism’ are the men who would ordinarily protect you from those men who are poisoning and killing women and children in large number….covertly of course.
Oh..you don’t know that women and children are being killed in large numbers? Never heard of ‘breast cancer’? Where do you think that came from? It came from research by MEN and was injected into society by MEN in order to kill women and to reduce the birth rates. Same as feminism, it was introduced with one aim to reduce birth rates. And if you look around the world you will find it has….Oh..but better not let that little bit of truth be exposed here..
I allowed your comment in full because reading it in full gives people a chance to see your ‘logic’ at work. Aspartame and breast cancer? Go seek some help
Kewl, Ok I think what sucks me in here is the photo first cuz nothing pisses me off more than apathy which we seem to have oozing out of our collective middle class ears right now. Then the name is pretty classy too cause fucking politeness never got me anywhere I really wanted to go even if my mother did brainwash me with it (sorry mum). But the crowning glory is really this page and the motivation. I used to watch Kerry and Bob in the house when I worked there and their honesty and commitment to some basic principles of humanity, particularly their courage with Mr Bush stood them head and shoulders above every other politician in the land…as it says on one of my emails sigs “Once we were larrikins with a taste for defiance; now we are lapdogs with a thirst for conformity.” Cheers