About

“This is a revolution, not a public relations movement” is a quote from Gloria Steinem, in an email to Raina Kelly, the author of this post about feminism, and stumbled across by way of this post from guest poster Bluemilk, posting at Hoyden About Town. I “yoinked” the quote because it seemed to hit on the point of it all really: you’re arguing for radical change, not to be Ms Mainstream Popularity. Also I liked how attributing the quote showed the interconnectedness of feminist discussions.

Re the title Fuckpoliteness:

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.

The name was inspired by my reaction to the reactions 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. If you want to claim that democracy and the rule of law are legitimate/something to defend by way of force, then 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 “rude” 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 indefinitely in a prison, not on our soil and not on American soil, so not subject to the rules of the legal systems we created to deal with all situations, the legal systems we claim to be good, legitimate and the basis of our ‘lifestyle’ we so vigorously want to ‘defend’, whenever we’re talking about big issues and mistreatment and we are being told to shut up and not ask questions because asking questions is not polite, the only acceptable response is “Fuck Politeness”.

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.