Friday, April 27, 2007

In reference to the current inter-feminist dust-up

I REALLY don’t want to get involved in all this. I’ve read the thread over at WitchyWoo’s place, and to be perfectly honest I think StormCloud is being a gigantic asshole, and I’m not at all sure why more of her cohorts don’t see that.
HOWEVER several women who participate in the GenderBerg forums have expressed concerns that, since clearly there has been a leak, some of their personal information might be out there floating around on the Net. That, I think, is an entirely valid concern. I’m not very familiar with GenderBerg, have only visited a couple of times, but I do know that many women who are survivors of abuse and forced prostitution hang out there. Some of these women may well have shared information which could be used to identify them there, feeling able to do so because they thought that that information would never be made public outside the inner circle. That makes a lot of sense. Given that there has clearly been a breach in security and someone has shared info from the private part of the site, I can see why people would be feeling nervous. Some of these women may simply not want their privacy invaded, others may fear actual retaliation from former partners etc. I can certainly sympathize with that. That’s a very valid concern.
Since I was one of those who re-published the excerpt that Ren Ev published on her blog I wanted to do what I can to address those concerns. So, in the hopes that it may help put some of those people’s minds at rest...
As far as I am aware no personal information has been revealed. Nothing that could be used to identify any one seems to be out there. If it is out there I haven’t seen it, although I don’t think anyone really knows what the person who revealed that part I published intends to do next. I haven’t seen any private information making the rounds. It’s possible that I’m just out of the loop, but I don’t think so. As far as I know, everyone’s personal information is safe.
If such information was to come my way I would not publish it, nor would I pass it on to anyone else. Not ever, not under any circumstances. I think outing is wrong, period, and I think that sharing information which could threaten someone’s safety is REALLY wrong. There are a lot of crazy people out there, and many of them do not like feminists very much. So, if anyone who is a GenderBerg member and who is worried about their personal info being out there is reading this, I just wanted to make that clear. Just because I published that one excerpt does not mean that I will be sharing anyone’s personal information. In fact, if that excerpt contained any personally identifying info I would never have published it in the first place. Critiquing someone’s viewpoint is one thing, threatening their privacy or their safety is another thing entirely.

As to the more general idea of separate rooms…honestly, I think it’s a lousy idea. I’m not going to stop writing about radical feminism. I’m not about to consider any political movement off limits. I will of course not comment on anyone’s blog if they ask me not to, but avoiding the entire issue? Nope, not doing that.

9 comments:

belledame222 said...

nice, sensible, thank you.

SallySunshine said...

Yes, I agree with Belle. Great post.

I've read the threads over at Ren's and at Witchy Woo's. I haven't commented on either forum about the issue. But, it's a lack of basic human decency and class in my opinion to "out" people, or even just threaten it. And did I mention it's rather childish as well? What a lame tactic to resort to. This whole concept of "outing people" is just beyond what I even considered could happen in the blog universe. How did it come to this?

I mean, I think, in most cases, anyone could be potentially "outed" as we've all, now and then, written something personal or what not about our lives. If anyone wanted they could compile info on just about anyone and "out them." Certainly others may have more to risk by being "outed", but, at the same time, aren't we all in a way "outing" ourselves just by the simple fact that we maintain a very public forum to facilitate the exchange of ideas?

Anyway, who knows if I'm making any sense. I've had too much to drink and I am blogging. Eh. Not a good combo. But, Cassandra, I'm glad stumbled across your blog, you're a kick ass girl! Glad to know ya! ~SS

P.S. Your breath play post was fascinating! More please! I wish I had more experience being a dom, it’s something I’d like to get into, with men at least. However, I like being the submissive one with women.

Trinity said...

very well said.

Cassandra Says said...

Belle, Trin - Thanks.

Cassandra Says said...

sallysunshine - Aw, now I feel loved.
The whole outing thing is pretty shocking, especially when directed at one feminist by another. OK, so they don't acknowledge Ren as a feminist, but whatever else they think she's definately a woman. Feminists threatening to out other women, knowing how many crazy men there are out there who want to do harm to women who are self-identified feminists...did they think that through? That one of those batshit crazy MRAs that post nasty comments on Ren's page might try to use any info posted to track her down?
The whole thing really makes me think less of this particular group of people - not just SC but all the people who sat there quietly and let it happen. How can anyone think it's OK for feminists to treat other women that way? I know that Ren said something rude and hostile to them, but her comment was pretty clearly just a fit of temper. What SC is doing is calculated nastiness, which is a far worse thing IMO. It demonstrates actual malicious intent. And they don't seem to see that at all.

I will write more BSDM stuff eventually. Interesting that you'd want to sub with a woman but not a man. I don't want to sub in any context, but I don't have the same sense of visceral rejection towards the idea with a woman as I do with a man. I only tried it once with a man and...let's just say that didn't go well. I really can't tolerate being sub to men at all.

belledame222 said...

but whatever else they think she's definately a woman

actually, last i glanced in there one of the usual suspects was back to the "she COULD be a man" business, so back all the way to square one.

how they reconcile that with the outing business, well...like i could explain the rest of it. at this point i am pretty well convinced that the lot of them are as inept as they are horrible.

it's tricky; on the one hand, people that out of touch with reality are dangerous because they're likely to do shit that people operating according to Earth Logic wouldn't do; on the other hand, it also tends to make them rather spectacularly ineffective at anything that involves paying attention to how the world actually operates, i.e. politics. especially when they have no leverage to begin with (unlike our reality-challenged government, who came in with a rather formidable arsenal of power and money).

belledame222 said...

anyway, back to more pleasant subjects:

i've never subbed to a man. on the whole, it doesn't -interest- me as much, although i expect there could be contexts where i'd be into it, depending on various factors.

but in general, straight male top female bottom (whether in a BDSM or vanilla context) has always been the configuration that least interested me, even before i knew there were names for such things or that i might be engaging in any of them.

belledame222 said...

well, when i say never subbed: there was at least one occasion where a male was using implements on me, but i don't really think of that as -subbing.- if anything, i was subbing to the butch woman who was running that scene, and he was subbing to her.

belledame222 said...

I wish I had more experience being a dom, it’s something I’d like to get into, with men at least. However, I like being the submissive one with women.

yeah, i relate to that as well. although i could definitely get more into topping women as well. and while i like vanilla with women just fine, again, men, well...

the more i go on the more i realize...eh, well, it's too late at night for those ruminations, they require too much thought.

something about having different -tracks- for my eroticism, that seem to originate from different places but aren't necessarily the one more powerful than the other, just...different qualities.

there aren't enough words for these feeling-states, least of all any having to do with erotic desire and even less so for "nontraditional" ones. i mean, i can talk about the -acts-, we all can do that; but as far as how it -feels-...what gets stirred up, what attraction or desire is, what the various hungers are...that's harder.