#Congolese liberation now

[profound-thots]

a link to an article with more info 🍉🇵🇸🐄

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

i watched conclave and now I really want to know more about all the drama with cardinals, how do you find out about that kind of stuff?

Ohhhh boy. Where to even begin?

Well, to start with, a lot of the cardinals in Conclave are based on real people! Bellini is obviously Carlo Maria Martini (right down to having a surname that's a mixed drink), especially in the book, where he's apparently Italian rather than Italian-American (I love that, unlike with Lawrence, who's also Italian in the book,* they didn't change his name; Stanley Tucci is eminently capable of playing an ItAm guy named Aldo Bellini <3). Martini was a "liberal" Archbishop of Milan who for much of the 90s was widely expected to succeed Pope John Paul II but ended up stalling out at the 2005 conclave.** Tedesco has a lot in common with Raymond Burke, an archconservative cardinal who's still alive and very vocal in the media, although Burke, conversely, is American rather than Italian. (America unfortunately has a very conservative local Catholic Church in general these days.) Tedesco and Burke even look similar, right down to the campy, "muffled sounds of 'Good Luck, Babe!' playing in the distance" fashion sense and body language. Tremblay has a similar career trajectory to Marc Ouellet, who, like Tremblay, was widely respected and seen as pretty middle-of-the-road until serious scandals started coming out. Adeyemi doesn't seem to be based on or inspired by any one real person, but the virulent homophobe who isn't that reactionary otherwise is a very common type of sub-Saharan African cardinal, perhaps most prominently represented currently by Fridolin Ambongo Besungu. Like with Adeyemi, I can see Ambongo picking up steam but then imploding over the course of the next IRL conclave, although it would be uncharitable to Ambongo to assume it would be for the same reasons. And so on.

(Benitez is an ideal, rather than someone inspired by a real person or ideological type, but there are cardinals who've had similarly high-stress and altruistic career and life trajectories, like Marco Zenari, Pierbattista Pizzaballa (which is seriously his name),*** and, in fairness to him, also Ambongo, who is Congolese and is regularly physically threatened by political and paramilitary forces within the DRC.)

As to how one learns more about this, you could start by setting news alerts for some of these people's names--Matteo Zuppi, Luis Antonio Tagle, Pietro Parolin, Peter Erdo, and Victor Manuel Fernandez are other names to potentially watch--or reading some books that have been written recently about the current politics of the Church, the Curia, and the Francis papacy. There's one called In the Closet of the Vatican that is incredibly scurrilous, as its title would suggest, but a rip-roaring read if you're not too concerned about forming possibly-unfair negative opinions of some of these guys. There are also writers like Austen Ivereigh and (gag) Edward Pentin who've made whole careers of being Vatican Inside Baseball Understanders, especially since Pope Francis was elected in 2013.****

In general I'd say Conclave is a very good representation of the way these people think and act, especially the constant tension between venal ambition and genuine belief that they are participating in a divine agency in the world. The tendency in non-Catholic and even some Catholic circles is to assume that only the former is present, but people are complicated.

I hope some of this helps, anon!

*I looked it up and in the book he's called Jacopo Lomeli. I've never seen this surname before, but apparently some real people do have it.

**The Catholic Church has its own ideological spectrum and there are ways in which liberal, progressive, conservative, etc. are not very useful terms, but for broad purposes they work here.

***Patriarch of Jerusalem, the only Palestinian cardinal (cardinals are counted as "from" the countries that they lived in when they became cardinals, not necessarily the countries they're from originally; in his case his country of origin is, unsurprisingly, Italy). As you might imagine, he's been in religious news a lot lately.

****Francis, or Jorge Mario Bergoglio as he was then, is widely believed to have been the runner-up at the above-mentioned 2005 conclave, which produced Pope Benedict XVI.

[adropofhumanity]

the 10 crises the world must not look away from:

1. SUDAN

24.8 million people in need of humanitarian aid. a still-escalating war brings sudan to the top of the watchlist. fighting has more than doubled humanitarian needs in less than a year and displaced 6.6 million people- bringing the country to the brink of collapse. more people are internally displaced within sudan than in any other country on earth. in darfur, human rights groups have reported mass killings and forced displacement along ethnic lines.

2. PALESTINE

3.1 million people in need of humanitarian aid (gaza and the west bank). gaza enters 2024 as the deadliest place for civilians in the world. i*****i airstrikes and fighting have had a direct and devastating impact on civilians that will continue to grow as hostilities persist into early 2024, at least. with more than 18,700 palestinians killed, 85% of the population displaced, and over 60% of gaza's housing units destroyed, people living in gaza will struggle to recover and rebuild their lives long after the fighting ends.

3. SOUTH SUDAN

9 million people in need of humanitarian aid. the war across the border in sudan threatens to undermine south sudan's fragile economy and could add to political tensions in the run-up to the country's first-ever elections. meanwhile, an economic crisis and increased flooding have impacted families' ability to put food on the table. a predicted fifth year of flooding could also damage livelihoods and drive displacement.

4. BURKINA FASO

6.3 million people in need of humanitarian aid. as the burkinabè military struggles to contain armed groups, violence is rapidly growing and spreading across the country. roughly 50% of the country is now outside government control.

5. MYANMAR

18.6 million people in need of humanitarian aid. the conflict in myanmar has spread significantly since the military retook political power in 2021. 18.6 million people in myanmar are now in need of humanitarian assistance - nearly 19 times more than before the military takeover. myanmar has seen decades of conflict, but in oct. 2023, three major armed groups resumed clashes with the government. over 335,000 people have been newly displaced since the latest escalation began.

7. MALI

6.2 million people in need of humanitarian aid. dual security and economic crises are driving up civilian harm and humanitarian needs. conflict between the military government and armed groups will likely escalate.

8. SOMALIA

6.9 million people in need of humanitarian aid. somalia faces heightened conflict and climate risks after a record drought. more recently, widespread flooding has displaced more than 700,000 people and will likely continue into early 2024.

9. NIGER

4.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid. a coup in july 2023 triggered massive instability that risks a rapid worsening of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country.

10. ETHIOPIA

20 million people in need of humanitarian aid. communities across the country are facing the twin threats of multiple conflicts and the likelihood of el niño-induced flooding. the nov. 2022 ceasefire between the government of ethiopia and the tigray people's liberation front (TPLF) continues to hold in northern ethiopia, but other conflicts, particularly in the central oromia region and in amhara in the northwest, are fueling humanitarian needs and raising the risk of a return to large-scale fighting.

11. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

25.4 million people in need of humanitarian aid. weak state capacity has exposed many congolese to one of the world's most protracted crises, driven by conflict, economic pressures, climate shocks and persistent disease outbreaks. now, a resumed offensive by the M23 armed group is driving up conflict and humanitarian needs. the country enters 2024 with 25.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance - more than any other country on earth. the magnitude of the crisis has strained services, created high levels of food insecurity and fueled the spread of disease.

— via my.linda__ on instagram

[pumpacti0n]

Reading the room

"A prevailing sentiment is that now is not the time to criticize Biden because SCOTUS & the Heritage Foundation have declared war on the left & Project 2025 - the White male Christian Evangelist mission - which was, in part, tested on a few African regimes in exchange for "aid" - is finally coming home to roost, so "vote blue no matter who!"

We should seemingly ignore every lie, every 2000 lb. bomb, every weapon shipment, and the literal piles of dead & obliterated bodies we've seen every day for the past nine months because if we criticize Biden or point out the Dem party's complicity in genocide, it will complicate what we must defend against in November.

Nevermind the illegal settlements and land grabs in the West Bank, the torture and abuse of Palestinian hostages, nevermind the under-counted death toll, the expanding war, the disdain for international law, the ceasefire ploys to continue the genocide, the lies direct from the president's mouth, nevermind the added funds that Biden and democratic mayors across the country are giving to militarize the police and build Cop Cities because November is just around the corner.

Now is not the time to point out what Dr. King, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture and so many of our revered elders have told us about "liberals", or to bring up Fannie Lou Hamer's "Nobody is free until everybody is free", or to point out that Biden is opposed to expanding the court, or that the Dem Party elite endorsed candidates to run against Black progressives that called for a ceasefire, or that actual climate defenders have abandoned Biden, or that he has "green-lit" more oil drilling than his right-wing predecessor...

The prevailing sentiment is that we should forgo any leverage we may have as voters, that this is no time to demand more from our handlers, we should let them kill or exploit as many Palestinians, Congolese, Haitians, South & Central Americans and Asians as they want because we got an election coming up in November and if we don't ignore what these same blue folks are doing in our names outside of the country and vote blue, the red ones are gonna take away our rights at home.

Now is not the time to educate voters on the Dem Party's center right policies or to point out how a coalition of progressive 3rd party candidates could carve a path for citizens to actually achieve the policies they dream of and break the corporate hegemony, or to point out how a mass social movement, already underway, could be mobilized to force the power out of the hands of those who hold it over our heads, pointing to what we should fear from the other side, while making zero concessions to our demands.

Now is not the time to make demands or correlations between the fight against the gender binary & the readily accepted political party binary. Now is not the time to educate, push, or think, now is the time to fear!

Now is not the time to point out that Black Americans comprise 25% of the world's prison population and that the policies that imprisoned them were drawn up by Biden and imposed by Clinton. Now is not the time to bring up the Clinton's involvement in Haiti, or Obama's war crimes in the Middle East. Now is not the time to bring up the Middle East or America's imperial agenda readily endorsed by both parties or to acknowledge it as part of white supremacist ideology.

Now is not the time to learn any lessons from the "mask-off" moment that would align anti-Zionism with antisemitism, or to question the US military's role as the world's largest fossil fuel consumer, or to question what game the Biden administration is playing with Israeli billionaires to facilitate greater mineral extraction in the Congo. Now is not the time to think globally or to connect the dots between what its imposed on the global majority for our so-called comforts at home.

Now is not the time to understand what LandBack means in relation to climate, colonialism, genocide or to make any amends, right any wrongs, redirect our agendas, beat down corporate or foreign lobbies...No, no, no! Now is the time to fear.

Now is not the time to hear how you sound, to point out how you got got, to remind you that you could actually transform society if you decided to hold a meeting tonight, to call your friends and family, to organize, create think tanks, food banks, community policing organizations* that force out the men in blue (the silent partners in your ..."no matter who" slogans).

Now is not the time to point out that the bloodbath you're avoiding is already overflowing with blood, that your self-centered focus is exactly what the bloodthirsty expect from you so that they can carry on with business as usual, or that you've allowed fear to diminish your concerns to the point of voting for business as usual."

[source]

[dazedasian]

Donate Now to Help the People of Congo 🇨🇩

Have you ever wanted to support Congo but felt unsure where to start? You’re not alone! It can be difficult to figure out where and how to start, but last year we were blown away by the creative ways people just like you found to make an impact. From bake sales to birthday fundraisers to things we never would've thought of, this community went above and beyond, and it made all the difference.

We only have 21 more days to raise $245k for Congo!

So we’d love to share some of these ideas with you and inspire you to get involved in your own way. Here are just a few of our favorite ideas from last year's End of the Year fundraiser (their socials are linked below if you want to follow their work and check out how they did what they did!):

Dev the Pineapple is the real deal! Not only does she create the most compassionate and evocative artwork, but Dev combined her amazing art with comfy t-shirts (are your homies pro-liberation??) and sold those, raising thousands of dollars for Congo, Sudan, and Palestine solidarity efforts.

Uncle Iso swung into action, also raising funds for Congo, Palestine, and Sudan. How? This rock climbing enthusiast asked his friends and followers on Instagram to make a donation to Friends of the Congo and several other charities, screenshot the receipt, and send it to him. For each donation that exceeded a certain amount, Unc climbed a wall, recorded and shared it to Instagram, and posted the receipts in the video. He raised several hundred dollars for Friends of the Congo's partners by doing this!

Yana the Artist, an incredibly talented musician and TikTok influencer, wrote, produced, and published a song to TikTok's music library. Yana promoted the song on TikTok and IG letting folks know that she'd donate the proceeds to Friends of the Congo. She wound up raising over $40,000 for frontline organizers in Congo by combining her love for making music with TikTok resources! Incredible!

For real, if you really want to make an impact, there's no shortage of fun, creative, and engaging ways for you to make your mark while doing what you love!

If these still aren't landing with you, here are a few more easy ideas to make a difference:

Host a virtual movie night and donate the proceeds.

Organize a book club around Congo’s history and channel the discussions toward action.

Celebrate your birthday or holiday season wishlist by asking for donations to FOTC.

Your creativity and drive can create ripples of change. Imagine what’s possible this year when we all come together in support of Congo’s liberation. Share these ideas with friends and let’s make an impact!

[ptseti]

ZIONISTS IN HAITI & AFRICA!

Zionism, a political ideology that many say has hijacked Judaism to pursue settler-colonialism in occupied Palestine, does not end at the borders of the state of Israel. Zionist businessmen Gilbert Bigio and Dan Gertler cast a shadow over the economies of Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and occupied Palestine.

Bigio’s business in Haiti, the GB Group, has been involved in ‘infrastructure development’ projects, telecommunications services, oil and gas, and real estate ventures. That has raised questions about Zionist interests in a predominantly African country struggling to overcome the legacies of colonialism and foreign intervention. Bigio, born in 1935 to a Sephardic Jewish family in what is now Syria, is considered a de facto leader of Haiti’s Jewish community and is an honorary consul to Israel. Like many other Zionists, Bigio is reportedly not religious but participates in Jewish cultural activities.

Similarly, human rights activists have criticised Gertler for disregarding environmental and human rights standards as he does business in the DRC. The United States imposed sanctions on Gertler in 2017 for human rights abuses and corruption. However, Israeli financial media outlet @TheMarker claims to have a recent recording of Gertler admitting he skirted those sanctions to pursue a $1.5 billion mine in the DRC. Gertler was born in 1973 in Tel Aviv, learned the diamond trade through his father and grandfather, and started a diamond business after completing mandatory military service.

Since the late 1800s, foreign forces have collaborated with Congolese leaders to exploit the heart of Africa, worsening existing socio-economic disparities and fueling violence. More than 7 million people are internally displaced in the DRC while conflict rages in the country’s eastern provinces.

In this video, TikTok creators iamlaurachung (of @theslowfactory) and @kevin.ug make the connection between Zionist entrepreneurs like Bigio and Gertler and our liberation struggle.

[shotofstress]

Usa white youtuber casually saying that now there is technically no enslavement and the only that there is, hear me out is prison work. Yeah, bc can I expect that a white woman fron usa despite being leftist lesbian jew descendant acknowledge that all the trinkets, clothes and food and anything she owns was in 98% percent made by Global South enslaved people, specially women and children and the well known statistics of how we were never have so many enslavement than in this age. ? No, of course not, what I was expecting right? Whitness is one hell of a drug but not worst than being middle class usamerican bc that will put all categories that you belong is a second place bc being gringa will be the primary point no matter what and no matter what you belive or think of usa or yourself. Enslaved congolese people? Never heard of them. The fuckton of global south people doing enslaved work? Nop.

Erase nonbinary queer artists identities to call them lesbians even when the artists themselves said there were neuter, now this bs. Everything always so casual, so matter-of-factly, so i-know-better-than-most that keeps reminding me what always global south fighters says since ever: usa nor western ppl gonna save us. Is always global south being there for the rest of the world, from picking your food to traveling across the sea to kill the fascists to protect you and liberate you from camps and prisons.

But hey, she has a yt channed so must know better that others and can't accept when someone correct them.

[jyndor]

we as us american voters need to stop obfuscating about whether or not we think kamala harris will be materially different from joe biden on palestine. we must acknowledge that a vote for kamala is a vote for a genocidal administration, while of course a vote for trump is a vote for another genocidal administration - but one that is not actively committing genocide. whether or not a trump administration will hypothetically be more genocidal is important but needs to be contextualized by the very real and current genocide being committed by the biden administration. hypothetical or reality? that's what we must contend with, and what liberals and democrats are yelling at palestinian americans and their allies to ignore.

the dnc wouldn't even let a palestinian american speak - not even one of their choosing. not even a TOKEN. they do not care about palestinians, they won't even say their names. they and congolese people, sudanese people, haitian people etc barely even got a MENTION from most speakers. delegates and attendees stuck their fingers in their ears literally to keep from hearing the protesters. these people may even have sympathies - statistically speaking they do - but what do they do with their relative access? nothing.

don't get it twisted, I know in my gut that trump will not stop the genocide, and I know that he will commit genocidal mass deportation which absolutely IS genocidal. there are very legitimate reasons to not want trump to win if we care about genocide. obviously I do not want him to win which is why I have been begging the dems to appeal to the broad demographics of their own base of voters who do not support the genocide in gaza.

but I am tired of seeing americans act as if we have to vote for kamala to defend palestinian lives - for which there is no tangible evidence. go ahead, vote for kamala - I believe in strategic voting. but all my life I have seen democrats drag themselves right. I have no reason to believe that kamala harris will be any different, not just because I don't believe she wouldn't actually be able to be any different than obama or even biden, but because democratic voters have given me absolutely no reason to believe WE as a collective will behave any differently during a kamala harris presidency than we did during joe biden's or barack obama's, etc.

we will lie to ourselves and get defensive and punch left as always. we will feel safe to go to brunch and take our eyes off of the government because they're dressed in our team colors.

the truth is we value our civil liberties more than we value the lives of others. because voting alone isn't going to do much at all - but if we have ever shown any history of backing our votes up with direct action and mass mobilization, I would feel a lot more confident in our ability to push kamala left. I think she is susceptible to pressure. but I don't think that pressure is coming.

the problem is that we will not do that. and we will be back in 2009, and it's really maddening but I also do not see a good alternative because if I do not want to vote to enable genocide then that means trump too. we have to be ready to work within our communities to push back against deflection and obfuscation from liberals.

I am not an accelerationist, I think trump would be a grave disaster for the world. I also am not deluding myself about who kamala is. she will be president of the united states and that means she will be the most powerful person in the world. memeing about her girl bossing or whatever is distasteful when she is currently second in command of a genocidal administration.

there cannot be no honeymoon period if she wins. but there will be - and we will have to deal with OBVIOUS PSYOPS trying to sow discord between marginalized groups globally and domestically while our government continues committing genocide in multiple places in the world.

but also... just remember that none of us started out with the politics we have now. don't accept liberal nonsense but also don't engage with it if it's just online dunking shit. that's something I've learned over the past year or so. they're really scared and they should be. if you're in real life community with them, that's very different- but we have to learn to communicate better (this is what fd signifier talks about in a video recently).

[ryn-holt]

So I’ve been trying to make a clearer statement about how I feel about liberals who stay silent on the multiple genocides happening, but then will try shame you into voting for Biden.

One thing that makes me extremely emotional about it is the willful ignorance of it all? The acting like this is a small party disagreement, like student loans or tax reform. This is bodies, this is genocide plain and simple, so if you don’t want to seem like a privileged asshole you need to admit that. And I’ve noticed that the vast majority of posts don’t. They don’t admit what they are asking what you are voting for.

When the world is having a global movement of pain and suffering, and we are now deciding what is ok. If we are ok with our freedoms and safety at the very express oppression of others. Which of course is nothing new, of course this is America one of the biggest colonial powers in the world. A country built on the bodies of Native Americans and on the backs of black people. This country isn’t new to oppression of all types.

But we are seeing a mainstream agreement of ‘This is enough. I don’t want my comfort and safety at the expense of others.’ And when you come against that, you gotta know how you look.

I don’t want a Trump second term. I’m trans, I’m autistic, but I also understand that I’m white and I’m not the one who’d get screwed over the most.

I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re truly think that the best way to help Palestinian, Congolese and other peoples is by voting for Biden, then go vote. But blind support of a President doesn’t make him rethink any his policies. It gives him incentive to do whatever the fuck he wants because he knows he has supporters. By attempting to shut down any conversation (whether you mean to or not ) you’re uncritically supporting essentially a race to the bottom.

Because I hate to tell you guys this but, if Trump doesn’t win this, he’s going to try again. Any if he is by some chance dead or in jail, someone worse is going to run. Where do you draw the line? Where do you say, lesser of two evils is all fine and good but I can’t support this anymore. Or will you always follow the Democrats simply because at least they’re not Republicans?

Voting at this point is a stop gap it’s by no means the solution. Our government is headed becoming more fascist by the day and voting for Democrats doesn’t stop that. What are you doing outside of voting for Biden? Are you calling your representatives? Are you protesting? Are you organizing? Or is voting the only thing you have in your bag?

Because I’ve noticed that when people do talk about voting for Biden no matter what, they have no further ways to help. Which is something leftists get clowned on for all of the time. If you actually want people to vote for Biden you need more than shame and fear. People have completely lost hope for change, what are you doing to bring that hope back?

If you genuinely want people to vote for Biden you have to show some hope, some real proof that if they do their voices will be heard. What a lot of people see is a lose lose game, it’s no wonder that they want to break the game. You need to admit why people don’t want to or have conflicts about voting for Biden, and have an honest conversation with yourself and other people.

I want to believe that we can change the system, that we won’t always have to dread Election Day for the rest of my life. When you are asking people to vote for Biden, are you genuinely looking to change the system or just simply uphold it for your own convenience?

[communistconsumerist]

The S in S&M Stands for Surveillance: How #Girlboss Feminism Thrives Through the Sex-bot 

Sell your sex, doll—be dynamo! Encased in Thierry Mugler’s “superrealist” masterpiece—metallic in its conception, Hajime Sorayama-ified in its eroticization—Zendaya’s techno-Venus seems to scream just about that and nothing more. Blood diamonds, reaped and gathered by Congolese children, trickle down her plexiglass body, smudging all that is silvery about her skin with streaks of success. The actress seems to have superbly #girblossed her way into fame. Hence, she can embrace her sexuality now like never before! It is clear: She is the Standard—a fem-bot that has “made it”. Sans the stripper-bot facade that the model in Mugler’s ‘Cirque d’Hiver’ (as Thierry "Manfred" Mugler titled his couture collection) performed on the catwalk, however—wearing the same bodysuit underneath a dress, torn off in haste, plaguing peepshows through terrorizing binaries set between human and artifice—Zendaya’s 2024 reconstruction of the sex-bot falls into the consumable traps of conforming eroticism.

Traps Mugler’s winter circus refused to replicate.

Yet, times have changed since then, and sex dolls have become the new feminist sexy. Consent is king, and participatory pornography is liberating. Screening the hot and hustle of womanhood through fashioned surveillance has made of clothing new confinement. 

At first sight, Mugler’s clothed cyborg may not align with Donna Haraway’s—author of A Cyborg Manifesto—illegitimate robo-offsprings of papa patriarchy. These successors reject the marital exchange of bestiality in favor of hybridizing the machine and the organism, eliminating essentialist understandings of humanness, and mediating translations of sex into genetic engineering and reproductive technologies. Thus, they are removed from the sciences and technologies that thrive in their ardent reproductions. Ardent reproductions, in the sense that medicine is dependent on military power, which is dependent on the government, which is dependent on the media, which is dependent on fashion—all of which are controlled by papas (also: the phallus). Mugler’s robot has transparent windows—the flesh underneath being her nipples and breast fat, her stomach and legs. Her chest cherries are furthermore circled with metal, adding extra emphasis to the lactiferous ducts once necessary for breastfeeding, now simply sexy.  

Unlike Haraway’s genderless cyborg, the she-bot is a wearable prosthetic—a femmed up version of hypervisible femininity. A depiction of classic womanliness made shiny with Sorayama-varnished lac. A fetishized She, wearing windows for the scopophile.  

Yet Mugler’s she-bot moves. She poses.  

Where Sorayama’s sex-bots display themselves to be looked at—merely appearing, not acting—Mugler’s she-bot mimes the magnetism of the stripper next door, imbued with the intention to attract attention of the phallus while simultaneously policing it. Distinctly mechanical, her striptease unsettles the divide between artificial intelligence and “biological” desire, unsettling the papa and killing the boner. Instead of giving the she-bot a second, Mugler foregrounds her performance of the fashion piece instead. She disrobes herself—subjects herself to being ogled—and prostitutes her body to inorganic materialization. To the likes of Walter Benjamin, this has always marked fashion’s relation to the body, yet the she-bot's sex-appeal succumbs to that of a different inorganic than peters buoy up from. Her mechanical frame has another raison d’être, rendering visible the performance of fashion and its close kinship to materializing the female body and its various transformations—making the She an object, triumphing over Her death while actively defying Her mortality. She gazes in reflection and looks back.  

Much like feminist theorist Craig Owens sees the peep show to be an inversion of the patriarchal Panopticon, Thierry Mugler’s couture shifts “the gaze” and steers surveillance. The designer was known for transforming his women into insects and robots of various kinds, forging breast plates out of molded plastic, and creating stilettos out of steel. He would exaggerate the femaleness of his models with exoskeletons—similar to that of the she-bot—attaching handlebars to bustiers, and turning models into multitasking motorcycles and motorcyclists. As long as he had bodies to work with—those that could act out his grotesque imageries—the designer would play the role of a playwright. He would sculpt shapes that were infernal in their inauguration—consistently becoming, downgrading, and regenerating. His theatrics would embrace drag artists as well as “the overweight” and “elderly”. Individual identity is absorbed into cloth, after all!

The essence of Mugler body lies not in its surface, but in its heights and cavities—a body that is becoming, as Bakhtin would put it. In Thierry's collections, women's sexualites are performed rather than made innate. These performances are ones of “untrustworthiness” that stage the surveillance camera opposite to the sex-bot, capturing the peeping Tom instead of patriarchy’s prostitute.  

In ‘Cirque d’Hiver’ she emphasized the staged-ness of sold sex. Now, on the sand-covered red carpet, she swims upstream the patriarchy and sells her sex on the socking great stage.

Blood rushes through the penis once again. The women have won! 

So has Zendaya, clad in Mugler’s metallic robo-armor, whose sheer plexiglass inserts ever-so teasingly unveil another bodysuit. Stepping into the premiere of Dune: Part Two, re-engineered with prostheses, the actress is physically pruned into the role of sand warrior Chani, personifying the #girlboss said character represents. Because as much as she appears in the phantasies of the phallus, Paul—around whom the narrative of Dune is strap(ped)-on—she is a fighter, a strong independent woman, who happens to be perplexing and peculiar enough to the extent she can be desired, and made into a fellow’s porn-tasy. Such independence is interlaced within the actress' selfhood as well, who has now stepped out of the image Disney once set out for her, covering her bareness with concrete cotton and conflict diamonds she has worked her way up for to pay. She can finally take charge of her sexy! 

...We have yet to let go of the phallus.  

Next to her co-star Anya Taylor Joy—whose character is inspired by matriarchal cult leaders, as Catholic as they come—it becomes even more evident what image of womanhood is deemed to be congestible these days. Nobody desires a nun whose selfhood is pinched within the precincts of tradition (even if she is wearing archival Dior). Yet where Zendaya does not bare herself to mislead the phallic gaze into a performance of staged sex, she sells her sex as an individual act of liberation—one that does not operate against Owens’ Panopticon, but rather Sorayama-ifies itself to become a fetish. Her necklace, shimmering shinily against her silver frame, only highlights how alienated the superstar is from her erotic capital. One she has staged to be economic and social. Where being an individual has centered itself to be of most importance when it comes to self-formation—as opposed to Dior’s veiled marking of an agency that regulates itself within a collective conceptualization of devout femininity—sexual emancipation has reorganized the fashioned body into a consumer practice. A practice based on individual action, or so they say (the papas). Yet this “action” has sprung out in the minds of surveilled subjects who have disciplined themselves to internalize their own hypervisibilities. Minds that are ever-so aware of the gaze, ever-so traditional.

Where Zendaya’s sex operates around a type of self-branding—in which eroticized clots of cutis are framed within individual parcelization—she is ultimately hustling! Within this scopic regime, her tinman body is removed from its perfomative context and once again made to-be-looked-at. All she is, then, is plate pieces of metal—to be sold in a market that thrives on erotic evaluation, and to gain. The cracked chunks of children's cuticle, and the droplets of sweat within her diamonds may be as segregated from her sympathy as her girlbossism is, given her self-sexualization thrives on bodily competition and corporeal commodification. Both are situated in a consumer system where women’s difficulty to stabilize their symbolic and economic value is solved through sexual self-value—made individual, but catered to the cock. Objectifation, made feminist, only benefits the Shes that gain and are successful.

Ultimately, the only winner is the man.  

Startling as this is—Mugler’s she-bot has both defied and acquiescenced, shriveled the phallus and made it swell. Ultimately, she marks the template sadomasochist—both in her positionality within the panopticon, and with her sexed performances of the self (in all its organicity and artificiality). Time will tell if she manages to break out of her current surveilled confinement, but in the meantime she will continue to stage herself with all her silvery sheen. What Zendaya’s resignification of this boundary breaking She has come to show then, is what #girlbosses do best! To thrive within the patriarchy is to challenge the phallus—only when defiance sells.  

◆

Works referenced: 

Ekardt, P. (2020). Benjamin on Fashion. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350076013 

Greer, K., Kane, L., Leonard-Rose, M., Morrison, M., Staveski, C., Freeburg, R. S., Couch, N., & Bench, H. (n.d.). Spectacles of agency and desire: The grotesque body. Spectacles of Agency and Desire: Dance Histories and the Burlesque Stage. https://scalar.usc.edu/works/spectacles-of-agency-and-desire/the-grotesque-body.2 

Haraway, D. (2013). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the late Twentieth Century. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203955055-16 

Owens, C., Bryson, S. S., & Watney, S. (1992). Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA21071736 

◇

Related readings: 

Illouz, E. (2021). The End of Love: A Sociology of Negative Relations. John Wiley & Sons. 

Morrison, E. (2016). Discipline and Desire: Surveillance Technologies in Performance. University of Michigan Press. 

◆

Related reviews:

previous | next

[votava-records]

Tikanga - - - Fulu Miziki Kinshasa Music Warriors

Fulu Miziki is a collective of artists who comes straight from a future where humans have reconciled with mother earth and with themselves. This multidisciplinary collective of artists is based in the heart of the Congolese capital city Kinshasa and was founded by Pisko Crane. For several years now, it’s founder Pisko has spent an amount of time conceptualizing an orchestra made from objects found in the trash, constantly changing instruments, always in search of new sounds. Couples of years ago, Pisko Crane joined efforts with performing artist Aicha Mena Kanieba who, with Le Meilleur, DeBoul, La Roche, Padou, Sekelembele, and Tche Tche formed the Eco-Afro-Futuristic punk ensemble Fulu Miziki. Making our own performance costumes, masks and instruments is essential to their approach of Fulu Miziki’s musical ideology. Their unique sound supports a pan-African message of artistic liberation, peace and a severe look at the ecological situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the whole world. For Fulu everything can be recovered and re-enchanted.

[beardedmrbean]

DR Congo has declared Rwanda's shooting of one of its fighter jets an "act of war", amid mounting tensions.

Rwanda's government said it took "defensive measures" against a plane that had violated its airspace - a claim denied by DR Congo.

Although the plane landed safely, this is a major escalation following months of conflict in DR Congo, which has forced 400,000 people from their homes.

DR Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group.

Rwanda has denied this and blames the Congolese government for the unrest in mineral-rich eastern DR Congo.

In the 1990s, Rwanda twice sent troops into its much larger neighbour, sparking a huge conflict involving at least nine countries that led to the death of millions of people.

Africa Live: The latest updates from around the continent

Why Kenya's army is joining the DR Congo conflict

Images shared on social media show a Sukhoi-25 aircraft being shot at while flying at low altitude between the towns of Goma in DR Congo and Gisenyi in Rwanda, which straddle their common border.

Other images show water being used to put out a fire on the plane's right wing after it landed at Goma airport. DR Congo says the plane suffered no "major material damage".

In a statement, DR Congo's government accused Rwanda of "sabotaging" the implementation of a recent peace process agreed upon by the opposing sides in recent talks.

The Information Ministry went on to say that DR Congo "reserves the right to defend its national territory and will not be threatened".

"The government considers this umpteenth attack by Rwanda as a deliberate action," the ministry said.

However, Rwanda said this was the third incident involving a Congolese fighter jet in its airspace and asked its neighbour "to stop this aggression".

Last November, another Congolese Sukhoi-25 jet briefly landed at Gisenyi airport in Rwanda. Kinshasa said the fighter jet had "mistakenly landed" there.

Could this lead to war?

This is the closest the two countries have come to a direct confrontation in recent years.

The suspicions and tensions date back nearly three decades and are a spill-over of the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which more than 800,000 people were killed - mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Some of those responsible fled into what is now DR Congo, as a largely Tutsi rebel group led by Paul Kagame, now Rwanda's president, took power.

Rwanda said it sent its troops into DR Congo to stop attacks by Hutu militias but its troops were also accused of looting the region's mineral riches, as were the forces of other countries which intervened.

Those tensions remain unresolved to date with sporadic escalations over the years, however in recent weeks, they have intensified significantly.

While denying allegations of backing the Tutsi-dominated M23, President Kagame has also questioned why no-one is talking about a separate rebel group it accuses DR Congo of backing - the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which includes some of the alleged leaders of the genocide.

The M23 has taken control of several towns and villages in the North Kivu province in the past year.

The forces of several east African countries have joined the Congolese army, with the support of UN peacekeepers, in fighting against the group.

Earlier this month, its leaders agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw from territory it had taken but fighting broke out once again on Tuesday morning, hours before the Congolese fighter jet was shot at.

[tacticalhimbo]

i really wanna know what the queer liberals who keep shoving vote blue no matter who think of us in the red states. of us who have not benefited a single bit from this blue presidency. from one that has done fuck all to actually protect us.

what has biden done for us queers in florida? for my siblings in tennessee. for those in alabama, oklahoma, texas? what has biden, or any democrat on the national level, done about this

because if they did give a shit, they'd use executive power. they'd try to help establish initiatives to prevent these states from going guns blazing. they wouldn't work in tandem with the heritage foundation to begin laying the financial pathways for project 2025 to become more of a reality than it already is.

if they gave a shit about anyone other than rich white folk, they wouldn't have funded cop city. they wouldn't have removed accessible covid testing and healthcare. they wouldn't have allowed roe v. wade to be repealed by actually using their power to veto a bill. they wouldn't begin laying the financial pathways for project 2025 to become more of a reality than it already is.

so tell me... how the fuck is a blue president, who can supposedly appoint two people to an arbitrary legal system, going to help me? protect me? protect my bipoc siblings? how, then, when they can't even veto the most fundamental shit now?

and why should i be forced to sacrifice the well-being of palestinians, congolese, sudanese, and so many more... for a false promise?

[boricuacherry-blog]

A Brief history of Joseph Mobutu's kleptocracy

In 1965, the country that is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo underwent a coup d'etat after which Mobutu Sese Seko assumed the presidency. A dictator aligned with the western interests, he established a predatory state. The state machinery was used to serve his personal will and those of his allies. While the dictator grew his wealth, the Zairean government was unable to provide basic public services, writes Felipe Honorato and Guilherme Freitas.

In May 1960, Congo held its first national election. Patrice Emory Lumumba was elected the country's first prime minister just a month before the Congo gained independence from Belgium. Lumumba, who was one of the biggest figures of pan-Africanism, was a nationalist and always defended the self-administration of the Congo's mineral wealth by the Congolese. The western powers, in the context of the Cold War, feared that Lumumba, Congo, and its strategic mineral resources would join the soviet sphere of influence.

Less than a month after the Congolese independence from Belgium, the state of Katanga declared independence from Congo, a move that could have driven the country into bankruptcy. Katanga contained most of the Congolese mineral wealth and was responsible for 45 per cent of the national GDP at the time. Katanga was soon followed by South Kasai, the biggest producer of diamonds in the world, sparking a crisis in the newly independent country.

Just a few months later, in January 1961, Patrice Lumumba was captured, tortured and murdered by Katanguese forces. After Lumumba's death, Congo erupted in provincial rebellions, fueled by mercenaries and Belgian troops. The situation only stabilized in 1965, after a coup established a dictatorship.

As early as the end of the 1970s, the difficulties facing the country was beginning to generate a growing dissatisfaction with Mobutu. In 1977 and 1978, opponents of the dictator tried to take control of the country in the 80-day War and the Shaba War. International support for the regime was decisive in defeating both attempts.

The End

The First Congo War took place between 1996 and 1997. The Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo, an anti-Mobutu group backed by the military alliance headed by Rwanda, reached Kinshasa on May 17, 1997.

[stevishabitat]

DW (English): Congo: Is Rwanda behind the attacks on displaced people?

What happened last week in the IDP camps? According to witnesses to Friday's shellings, government forces positioned near the camps had been bombarding the rebels on hills further west since early morning, and, according to one activist, "the M23 retaliated by throwing bombs indiscriminately." Kambale Kiyoma, a displaced Congolese, described what happened when the IDP camp where he lives with his family came under attack. "We woke up in the morning to find that shells were being fired from here at M23 positions. After a while, the M23 retaliated," Kambale said, adding that several shells fell at camps in the area. Kambale said that he feels abandoned and wants the government to restore peace.

Safi Kasembe, another IDP, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency that the Congolese government has installed artillery weaponry in the camp — which puts their lives in danger. "I'm here because of the war. We fled our villages, and now we've taken refuge in this camp for displaced persons, but unfortunately, even here, we're hit by bombs from rebel positions." There are also artilleries installed in the camp, and it's these exchanges of fire that put us in danger and cause the death of some of us. The situation is unbearable, and we are suffering enormously." Bombing victims remembered Meanwhile, at a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the bombing, members of several citizens' movements denounced the upsurge in violence in eastern DRC and called for justice for the people killed in last week's IDP camp shellings. "The people who fled the war, the people who today find themselves in displaced person camps, where they should be finding refuge and safety," said Christophe Muyisa, a member of Filimbi, a Congolese political movement that seeks increased youth participation. "Unfortunately, the bombs pursue them right into their places of refuge."  "They don't need aid or assistance. They need peace and security to return to their homes. So, all the aid today, which is a mockery, a hypocrisy on the part of the international community, we ask the government not to give a damn," Muyisa added. Josue Wallay, an activist from Fight for Change, a civil society movement that advocates for social justice, said that eastern Congo had become uninhabitable. "The people who have fled their villages and have sought refuge are unfortunately dying of hunger and being inflicted with yet another atrocious death, bombed and killed," Wallay said. US demands accountability The United States has condemned the attack and called on Rwanda to punish forces behind it, not backing down from charges that Kigali is meddling in its neighbor's affairs. Asked if the United States stood by its claim, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, "We absolutely do." "The government of Rwanda must investigate this heinous act and hold all those responsible accountable. And we have made that clear to them." Rwanda denies involvement Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo retorted that the US accusation was "ridiculous," writing on social media platform X that Rwanda had a "professional army" that would "never attack" a camp for displaced people. Look to the lawless FDLR and Wazalendo supported by the FARDC for this kind of atrocity." The tweet refers to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu group founded by Hutu officials who fled Rwanda after orchestrating the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, while Wazalendo is a Christian sect. In a separate statement on Sunday, Rwanda said that the attempt by the US Department of State to immediately and without any investigation place blame on Rwanda for the loss of lives in the refugee camps was unjustified. "Rwanda will not shoulder responsibility for the bombing of the IDP camps around Goma or the security and governance failures of the government of the DRC," the statement said.

[opencommunion]

this is what you said:

backpedaling isn’t cute.

most of the world doesn't have time to waste. the longer privileged "leftists" idle in their comfort, the more people will die in the meatgrinder of capitalism, starting with the most vulnerable — like Gazans, like Congolese, like indigenous Sudanese, like the victims of climate disasters in places this empire has drained of resources, like street homeless migrants in the good old US of A. begging the democratic party for crumbs might keep you alive for longer, but it will only make others die faster. to save not only individual lives but entire cultures, we need to move against the empire, not with it.

you are not talking about taking concrete action that would materially move us closer to liberation for anyone. you're talking about rewarding genociders with promotions. you are talking about making sure the party that orchestrated the extermination phase of the Palestinian genocide still get seats in congress. that's not good. like, idk what else to say at this point. I don't like to rely on the cliche of "the right side of history," because I think we should keep our eyes on what's happening now, and because as a historian I know my field is not immune to genocide denial/minimization. but I can't imagine that decent people in the future will look kindly on those who voted for a genocider and claimed they did it for the sake of the victims. please zoom out from your myopic pov and see how depraved your attitude looks.

"US presidential candidate Kamala Harris has denied she considers Israel's assault on Gaza as a genocide, after she appeared to back this view during a speech over the weekend, leading to a massive Israeli backlash. Harris's campaign responded to Israeli criticism over her perceived backing for a comment made by a pro-Palestine activist over the weekend about the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 'That is not the view of the Biden administration or the Vice President,' a Harris aide told The Jerusalem Post."

that was literally a gaffe that she had to immediately disavow. you're grasping at straws to comfort yourself about your decision to vote for a genocider.

"how on earth is removing trump not the obvious choice"? that's what the op is about.

it's patently absurd to say that Trump would be worse for Palestinians because he wants to eradicate them, when Harris is eradicating them right now. right now. it does not get worse than what's happening in Gaza today, now, as I write this and as you read it.

please listen to what Gazans have to say about this.

when both candidates are genocidal, we must turn to actions other than voting for and ever-so-gently "pushing" these genocidal politicians. it's not credible to me that most Harris voters would take any substantive action to "hold her accountable" after the election, when you failed to even threaten to withhold your votes, which is the most basic and easy way to pressure an elected official. it's our responsibility as human beings to do whatever it takes to stop this as quickly as possible, and I don't understand wtf you're waiting for

looking back on how liberal political analysts talked about donald trump during his 2016 campaign, I notice two very important insights that have vanished from the conversation this time around.

1: the dire warnings about the rise of fascism were really centered on trump's followers, not the man himself. what concerned scholars of fascism in particular was that the already well-established neonazi presence in the US was openly rallying around a presidential candidate. trump's campaign emboldened neonazis, but the neonazis were already there — this is why we saw an astronomical rise in hate crimes against many marginalized groups during trump's campaign, before he was elected. trump himself was understood as an opportunist riding the wave of rising fascist sentiment — the wave itself was a bigger concern than the surfer. trump was replaceable. liberals now seem to have forgotten that trump's followers won't disappear if harris wins. the heritage foundation (originators of 'project 2025,' blue maga's favorite boogeyman) won't disappear if harris wins. extreme right politicians — many of whom I would argue are even further right than trump, and more embedded in the establishment — won't disappear. even if you mistakenly see the republican party as the sole provenance of usamerican fascism, republicans won't disappear if harris is elected.

2: the people centered in the crosshairs of trump's agenda were migrants and asylum seekers; chiefly those from south of the US border and from majority muslim countries. the intensified demonization of these groups led analysts to draw parallels with fascist parties that were on the rise in europe. hatred of migrants and muslims is indisputably the primary driver of 21st century fascism, from the UK to India. so tell me why the conversation in the US has shifted to revolve around white trans people? yes, trump supporters are obviously transphobic, but you have to trace this particular manifestation of transphobia to its source, which still comes down to white supremacy and anti-migrant sentiment. when you actually look at the way fascists talk about trans people, it all comes back to the idea that hostile foreign elements invading the country have degraded white christian values. trans people of color have already been targeted for a long time, because we're seen as a sort of vanguard of non-white perversion; this isn't new to us. white trans people are now experiencing increased persecution because transness is seen as infiltrating white families/communities and corrupting their whiteness. I'm not saying we shouldn't talk about the rise of transphobic policies; of course we should. what disturbs me is that anti-migrant sentiment has been shunted to the sidelines of discussions of 'trumpism,' when it is still very much the center of his platform. and that's the part of his platform that the harris campaign has adopted to try and pull voters from him! that's the part of the republican platform that the biden administration advanced with the excuse of 'reaching across the aisle.' and what more extreme manifestation of an anti-migrant anti-muslim platform is there than committing genocide in gaza and then refusing to let gazan asylum seekers (or even gazans with US citizenship!) into the US?

the entire US government, red and blue, is unified around the anti-migrant, white supremacist crux of so-called 'trumpism.' large swathes of the american public, whether they vote red or blue, are enthusiastic about genocidal foreign and domestic policies. none of this stops when trump is gone