#the exorcism is lead by pandora

[curiouslymyown]

The skittles dealing with a possessed Barty and having to preform an exorcism on him is just normal Saturday night activities

[aridara]

Verifying a list of “hateful feminist quotes”. (From S to Z + groups and anonymous individuals)

Final part of my rebuttal at all those lists that are supposed to show how feminism is evil, but in practice shows how anti-feminists rely on an extremely inaccurate (and, in some parts, deliberately lying) list.

"Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated."

Margaret Sanger

False.

"The most merciful thing a family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it."

Margaret Sanger, founder of planned parenthood

True, but extremely edited; not hateful. I’ve bolded the parts that anti-feminists didn't bother to include in the list:

"Thus we see that the second and third children have a very good chance to live through the first year. Children arriving later have less and less chance, until the twelfth has hardly any chance at all to live twelve months."

"This does not complete the case, however, for those who care to go farther into the subject will find that many of those who live for a year die before they reach the age of five."

"Many, perhaps, will think it idle to go farther in demonstrating the immorality of large families, but since there is still an abundance of proof at hand, it may be offered for the sake of those who find difficulty in adjusting old-fashioned ideas to the facts. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it. The same factors which create the terrible infant mortality rate, and which swell the death rate of children between the ages of one and five, operate even more extensively to lower the health rate of the surviving members."

(Yeah, anti-feminists cut out a LOT.)

Also: she was talking about using birth control to deal with unwanted pregnancies. Not about using infanticide to kill already-born children.

“I do want to be able to explain to a 9-year-old boy in terms he will understand why I think it’s OK for girls to wear shirts that revel in their superiority over boys.”

– Treena Shapiro

Unverifiable.

“In general, I support a girl’s right to offend any member of the opposite sex who happens to cross her path. In fact, I’d much rather see a little girl wearing a shirt that mocks boys than one that turns them on.”

– Treena Shapiro

Also unverifiable. In fact, I think it's not even hateful at all: it points out a double standard where there's a lot of men's shirts that mock women, while a lot of women's shirt are designed to look "seductive" to men - and the reverse doesn't happen.

(Small diversion: while I tried to look for this quote's source, I found this ebook. The 2-3 pages I read sound like a book version of these "List of hateful feminist quotes" lists.)

[insert literally any quote from the SCUM Manifesto]

Valerie Solanas

I won't give a different rating to each individual quote, given how these kinds of lists tend to have many, many, so fucking many quotes from Solanas. I'll only give a general rating.

Usually, in these "hateful feminist quotes" lists, all of the Solanas quotes are true and hateful, and come from the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) manifesto she wrote in 1967. However, I’m doubtful that they count as “quote by a famous feminist”, considering that:

SCUM was never founded - it stopped at its manifesto;

Feminists’ opinion of SCUM at the time was divided between “What is wrong with you, Valerie?” and “This is satire in really bad taste”;

Feminists’ opinion of SCUM today is divided between “What is wrong with you, Valerie?” and “Who the hell is Valerie Solanas?”;

Absolutely nobody, feminist or not, condoned Solanas’ attack on Andy Warhol; and

Solanas's attack on Warhol wasn't motivated by her feminist beliefs.

“We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men.”

– Elizabeth Cady Stanton

True, possibly hateful. But I want to point out something: this quote is from 1890. This is what anti-feminists believe modern feminism to be? Really? Haven’t they heard of how feminism isn’t a monolith, how there have been various discussions, schisms and revolutions during feminism's history, how there’s a lot of positions and criticism - oh, right, I forgot, feminism is evil and has always been the same since the dawn of time, duh. (# sarcasm)

“The more famous and powerful I get the more power I have to hurt men.”

- Sharon Stone; Actress

Almost 100% false. It also seems that Sharon either wasn’t a feminist during those years, or chose to not display her feminist beliefs back then. In either case, Sharon Stone cannot be considered a significantly important feminist by any stretch of the word.

"If the classroom situation is very heteropatriarchal--a large beginning class of 50 to 60 students, say, with few feminist students--I am likely to define my task as largely one of recruitment...of persuading students that women are oppressed,"

Professor Joyce Trebilcot of Washington University, as quoted in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women.

Hm, this is an interesting one.

It’s unverifiable. Yes, AGAIN. No, it doesn’t count that it’s (supposedly) in Christina Sommers’ book “Who Stole Feminism” - she still needs to source the quote. As far as I can tell, Sommers mught've just made that quote up and falsely attributed it to Trebilcot.

Not only that, but the quote  looks like it has been truncated. Considering the level of this list, I’m quite suspicious every time I see some ellypsis.

By the way: Sommers? Really?

“Men are animals. Don’t you think so?”

– Ireen von Wachenfeldt, radical feminist leader in Sweden

True and hateful, apparently (given that she quoted SOOOLAAANAAASS). Here's the link to the Wikipedia page on her - you'll have to run it on Google Translate or similar, though.

On another note: of all the quotes in anti-feminists' lists of "hateful feminist quotes" that are actually hateful quotes, it's noticeable how many of those come from Solanas alone. It’s almost as if anti-feminists focus excessively on her, and use her as the base that forms their opinion of all feminists.

I wondered if the woman married to a pig had read this ... Did that mean that all over the globe, in all innocence, women were marrying beasts? ... Why are so many men really beasts? "

Jeanette Winterson "Oranges are Not the Only Fruit" 1993, pp.71 -76

Fictional. The novel is about a lesbian girl growing up in a Pentecostal community. At one point, various religious people from that same community take the main character and her girlfriend, and subject them to exorcism.

In response to a question concerning China’s policy of compulsory abortion after the first child, Molly Yard responded, “I consider the Chinese government’s policy among the most intelligent in the world”

(Gary Bauer, “Abetting Coercion in China,” The Washington Times, Oct. 10, 1989).

Unverifiable. There is no trace of the quote in the "Washington Times", but I think that I found the original source: the American Life League, an evidently anti-abortion group. You'll forgive me if I treat that source with all the respect it deserves.

...

We aren't done yet, though! Here's some more quotes from organizations or unknown individuals!

"We are taught, encouraged, moulded by and lulled into accepting a range of false notions about the family. As a source of some of our most profound experiences, it continues to be such an integral part of our emotional lives that it appears beyond criticism. Yet hiding from the truth of family life leaves women and children vulnerable."

Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women.

Unverifiable and not hateful. It sounds like they’re talking about how a lot of assumptions and myths about “proper” families have lead women to believe that abuse is a “normal” part of a relationship.

MALE: represents a variant of or deviation from the category of female. The first males were mutants...the male sex represents a degeneration and deformity of the female.

MAN: an obsolete life form... an ordinary creature who needs to be watched...a contradictory baby-man...

TESTOSTERONE POISONING: ... ‘Until now it has been though that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from "testosterone poisoning."

From 'A Feminist Dictionary; ed. Kramarae & Triechler, Pandora Press, 1985

Unverifiable. The book DOES exist. What does NOT exist, is scans of it. Nor are there extensive citations of it - the only ones around are the same ones anti-feminists uses, same ellipsis and all. And, frankly, whoever first wrote this list has done such a sloppy job fact-checking this list that, by this point, I don’t trust them if they said that the sky is blue.

"Women have their faults- men have only two: everything they say and everything they do."

Popular Feminist Graffiti

Goddammit. Yet ANOTHER joke from a collection of jokes. No indication whatsoever this was from a feminist.

"Men, as a group, tend to be abusive, either verbally, sexually or emotionally. There are always the exceptions, but they are few and far between (I am married to one of them). There are different levels of violence and abuse and individual men buy into this system by varying degrees. But the male power structure always remains intact."

Message on FEMISA, responding to a request for arguments that men are unnecessary for a child to grow into mature adulthood.

Oh, now you’re just grasping at straws - misattributed. This quote is not from the FEMISA staff; it's from an e-mail sent to FEMISA. Come on - I thought this was a list of hateful quotes from *relevant* feminists - not from any random anon down the street!

"Clearly you are not yet a free-thinking feminist but rather one of those women who bounce off the male-dominated, male-controlled social structures. Who cares how men feel or what they do or whether they suffer? They have had over 2000 years to dominate and made a complete hash of it. Now it is our turn. My only comment to men is, if you don't like it, bad luck - and if you get in my way I'll run you down."

Letter to the editor, signed: "Liberated Women", Boronia Herald-Sun, Melbourne, Australia - 9 February 1996

Unverifiable. Once again, the only places where this quote pops up are lists of “hateful feminist quotes”. And judging by the quality of this list, that isn’t nearly enough.

“The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist”

(National NOW Times, January, 1988).

Unverifiable (supposedly written in 1988). There’s a lot of citations for this particular quote (many from copies of this list), but no image of the original.

“We identify the agents of our oppression as men…….ALL MEN HAVE OPPRESSED WOMEN…..We do not need to change ourselves, but to change men……The most slanderous evasion of all is that women can oppress men.”

–The Redstockings Manifesto

True, but out of context. Once again, anti-feminists have deliberately cut out various parts of the original manifesto. Here's the full quote (the bolded parts are the ones anti-feminists cut out):

"III    We identify the agents of our oppression as men.  Male supremacy is the oldest, most basic form of domination.  All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism, capitalism, imperialism, etc.) are extensions of male supremacy: men dominate women, a few men dominate the rest.  All power structures throughout history have been male-dominated and male-oriented.  Men have controlled all political, economic and cultural institutions and backed up this control with physical force.  They have used their power to keep women in an inferior position.  All men receive economic, sexual, and psychological benefits from male supremacy. All men have oppressed women."

"IV    Attempts have been made to shift the burden of responsibility from men to institutions or to women themselves.  We condemn these arguments as evasions.  Institutions alone do not oppress; they are merely tools of the oppressor.  To blame institutions implies that men and women are equally victimized, obscures the fact that men benefit from the subordination of women, and gives men the excuse that they are forced to be oppressors.  On the contrary, any man is free to renounce his superior position, provided that he is willing to be treated like a woman by other men."

"We also reject the idea that women consent to or are to blame for their own oppression. Women's submission is not the result of brain-washing, stupidity or mental illness but of continual, daily pressure from men.  We do not need to change ourselves, but to change men."

"The most slanderous evasion of all is that women can oppress men.  The basis for this illusion is the isolation of individual relationships from their political context and the tendency of men to see any legitimate challenge to their privileges as persecution."

So, to sum it up:

Systemic sexism is caused by men.

All men benefit from this oppressive system.

Various people have tried to shift the blame for systemic sexism on "the institutions", which wrongly implies that both men and women are equally affected by sexism, and that men have no choice but to act as oppressors.

Various people have also tried to shift the blame on women, falsely claiming that sexism exists because women deliberately "consent" to be subjected to sexism.

Various people fail to see sexism as a systemic problem; instead, they wrongly paint it as a collection of individual acts that have no relation with each other.

When an oppressive system is challenged, the privileged group does not see that as "the dismantling of an unjust system"; instead, it sees that as "unjust persecution, and an attempt to upturn equality".

This is pretty accurate, and isn't hateful.

“We regard our personal experience, and our FEELINGS about that experience, as the basis for an analysis of our common situation. We cannot rely on existing ideologies as they are all the products of male supremicist culture.”

– The Redstockings Manifesto

True, but not hateful. Oh, no, feminists dare to talk about all their personal experiences about sexism and how they feel about it; and they also dare to reject existing sexist explanations of why sexist gender roles are just "natural". How dare they.

Also, why is "feelings" in all-caps like that? Is this the usual jab that women are emotional and therefore "inferior" to the logical men? Because that jab is shit.

FMS stands for: Full of Mostly (Bull) shit; For More Sadism; Felons, Murdereres, Ssumballs; Frequent Molesters Society

From a February 1995 handout at the "Stone Angels" satanic ritual abuse conference in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The conference was supported financially by the Ontario Government

Unverifiable. And frankly too ridiculous to be true.

"All men are good for is fucking, and running over with a truck".

Statement made by A University of Maine Feminist Administrator, quoted by Richard Dinsmore, who brought a successful civil suit against the University in the amount of a $600,000.1995 settlement Richard had protested the quote; was dismissed thereafter on the grounds of harassment; and responded by bringing suit against the University..

Unverifiable. It IS true that Dinsmore sued the university due to, in his own words, “man-hating feminists”; HOWEVER, there’s no mention of the quote itself.

"Masculine sexuality involves the oppression of women, competition among men, and fear of homosexuality." "Rape is the end logic of masculine sexuality." "Male sexuality is negative."

Introductory texts for Women's Studies Courses at UCLA including: "More Power than We Want: Masculine Sexuality and Violence" by

Bruce Kokopeli and George Lakey [Cited in TNV]

Unverifiable.

And that’s it. The VAST MAJORITY of quotes are either not-hateful once we actually see the context (and paste back all the parts that anti-feminists censored behind ellypsis); or, their origin cannot be verified (and therefore we can’t be sure whether they actually came from feminists). Some quotes came from works of fiction and were spoken by fictional characters; they aren’t statements that the author personally made and supported. Of the remaining quotes that are both verified and hateful, a GIANT chunk of them is comprised entirely of Valerie Solanas - which isn’t held in much regard by modern feminists. In fact, I’m pretty sure many don’t even know about her.

[amieravenson]

Magickal Month- December

Magickal Month December December is a month of extremes. There’s the cold and chill outside, and the warmth and comfort of our homes, our families, and our friends. There’s the stress and frustration of holiday shopping, finances, parties, etc., and there are the sweet, happy moments of seasonal joy. It can be incredibly difficult for a lot of people, or it can be the month that people look forward to all year. It can bring out the best and the worst in us. The holidays are full of contradictions. In nature, everything is quiet. A lot of places have gotten their first snows (not here in Georgia- we may be lucky to see some in January or February), and most of the trees are bare. This is the season of muted colors, greys and browns, and of soft focus sunlight filtering through the trees. I love Winter, despite the fact it flares up my fibro and leaves me in pain. It’s just so calm and peaceful and quiet. Outside of malls and shopping centers, that is. I haven’t really seen much wildlife lately, though I’ve been hearing blue jays. I’m mostly concerned for the neighborhood cats, and I’m hoping that their people take them in for the night. Last year, Pandora (a neighborhood stray) had 3 kittens, and only 1 made it through the cold Winter (our Minerva). We’ve since had them both fixed, and while she tends to find her way into the crawl space under our house, I’m thinking we need to build her a warm cat shelter outside from a Rubbermaid container and a styrofoam cooler. I worry about who will take care of her and all of the other neighborhood cats next Winter after we’ve moved. Lunations: December 7- New Moon in Sagittarius, 2:20am EST December 22- Full Moon in Cancer, 12:48pm EST Astronomy: December 6- Mercury goes direct at 4:23pm in Scorpio Geminids meteor shower peaks December 14th. Ursid meteor shower peaks December 22nd. Celtic Tree Month: Elder (November 25- December 23): Endings and new beginnings, completion of the cycle, focusing on greater happiness and your heart’s desire, evaluating what you’ve learned over the last year, cutting loose ends, thinking about your dreams for the new year, judgment, transformation, death and regeneration, fate, the inevitable, exorcism, banishment, prosperity and healing, leaves and berries can be used for protection and breaking spells cast against you. Birch (December 24- January 20): Beginning of Celtic tree calender, new beginnings, making plans for the future, contemplation, resolutions, inception, “Lady of the Woods”, reflects feminine aspects of nature. Renewal, protection, wards evil, banishes fears/builds courage, beauty and tolerance. Holidays (non-Pagan): December 1: World AIDS Day December 2: First day of Advent (Christian) December 3: First day of Hanukkah (Jewish) December 6: St. Nicholas Day December 7: Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Christian) December 10: Last day of Hanukkah (Jewish) December 24: Christmas Eve (Christian) December 25: Christmas (Christian) December 26: First day of Kwanzaa December 31: New Year’s Eve Holidays (Pagan): December 9-10: Feast of the Greek Goddess Athena December 10-11: Feast of Greek deities Aphrodite and Hermes December 13: Feast of the Light Bringer, honoring Juno Lucina and Swedish St. Lucia December 14-15: Feast of Posiedon, Aphritrite, and all Greek deities of the seas December 17-23: Saturnalia/Opalia, honoring Roman god Saturn and goddess Ops December 21: Yule/Winter Solstice December 21-22: Old European festival of evergreen trees December 21-25: Romano-Egyptian festival of goddess Isis giving birth to Horus December 21-25: Greek festival Dionysia honoring Dionysis December 25-26: Greek festival of the wind gods of the eight directions December 25-January 5: Anglo-Teutonic Yule honoring Freyr and Freyja and Balder December 31: Feast of Father Time/Roman god Saturn Themes for the month: Family, friends, giving gifts to people you love, togetherness, long nights, staying cozy in the cold, celebration, joy, festivity, warmth on the longest night of the year. General activities for the month: Getting ready for your Winter holiday of choice, making gifts, wrapping gifts, decorating trees, making cookies, gathering with friends, going out to community events, building fires, drinking hot bevvies, watching holiday movies. Herbs I’m using: Holiday greenery. Wildcrafted holly, pine boughs, and frankincense oil in the essential oil diffuser. Tea for self-soothing as the days get cooler and the fibro flares more and more. Stones I’m using: Rutilated quartz for clarity and pathworking. Petrified wood, my ‘teacher stone’. Clear quartz for the pure, uncluttered energy boost that I need right now, and selenite for cleansing and clearing away the old year. Goddess of the Month: Laetitia, Roman goddess of holidays, festivals, celebration, and joy. Sometimes the holidays can be tough for people who are estranged from their families or work in retail or customer service. I’m honoring Laetitia in hopes that they can find some joy this season.

December 3 card reading December's Reading: This reading was so literal it made me laugh.  It's so very, very tied to this time of year, I love it! First, we have The Devil, which represents temptations.  The early part of December is all about rushing around to make all the parties, buy all the gifts, eat all the food, and drink all the holiday cheer.  This is a hedonistic time of year, when everyone goes off their diets, overspends, and just generally revels in the joy of the season.  So The Devil is a warning to revel within reason- don't go too overboard!  Because.... It's all really about the rebirth of the sun/son/solar deity of choice.  So when the sun rises the day after the longest Solstice/Yule night, we get to be reborn as well.  The King of Wands is the male at the height of his fiery/solar power, and this card is so clearly representative of the energy of the Solstice and the fire of the sun being reborn.  The only thing that would have been more appropriate would have been the sun itself, so I think this is a sign that we need to embody that solar energy ourselves and let ourselves be reborn with the sun. Finally, we have Death.  Death is usually all about a change where something has to be let go so that we can continue on, unemcumbered.  And what we need to let go of is all the negativity, expectations, and goals of 2018 to make way for 2019.  So at the end of the month, we'll have the death of the old year.  So the question is what do you want to leave behind?  Make a list and burn it in the Yuletide fire, and clear your life out for the new things to come in 2019. Our special guidance card especially cracked me up.  It's SO perfect to tie the reading together.  It reads "When I accept the love of the universe as my primary teacher, I will always be guided back to the light."  And since the longest night will be on the 21st of the month, every day after that leads us to progressively longer/warmer/brighter days as the sun builds in power.  We're absolutely, 100% being led back to the light.  The cards are laughing at me, I think. So we're going to party, welcome back the sun, and then let go of 2018 so that we can be led back into the light.  Viola! ******************************** The Christmas Holly By Eliza Cook The holly! the holly! oh, twine it with bay-- Come give the holly a song; For it helps to drive stern winter away, With his garment so sombre and long; It peeps through the trees with its berries of red, And its leaves of burnished green, When the flowers and fruits have long been dead, And not even the daisy is seen. Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly, That hangs over peasant and king; While we laugh and carouse 'neath its glittering boughs, To the Christmas holly we'll sing. The gale may whistle, the frost may come To fetter the gurgling rill; The woods may be bare, and warblers dumb, But holly is beautiful still. In the revel and light of princely halls The bright holly branch is found; And its shadow falls on the lowliest walls, While the brimming horn goes round. The ivy lives long, but its home must be Where graves and ruins are spread; There's beauty about the cypress tree, But it flourishes near the dead; The laurel the warrior's brow may wreathe, But it tells of tears and blood; I sing the holly, and who can breathe Aught of that that is not good? Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly, That hangs over peasant and king; While we laugh and carouse 'neath its glittering boughs, To the Christmas holly we'll sing. My personal tides: I’m already starting to plan for 2019, and I think I may have my phrase for the year. Things are starting to come together to the point that we can start looking for our new home, and I’m excited to change things up. In that spirit, I keep looking around at all this junk I’ve accumulated in the 14 years that I’ve lived here, and I’ve been deciding what’s really essential. Ideally, we’ll move and just take the things we absolutely have to have, and then have a moving sale for the rest, but I really want to get rid of it now. At the very least, I’ve already started packing books up. I’m just ready to let go of all of the old and make way for the new. I expect to give up at least half of my ‘things’. My personal goals: I’ve ordered a Passion Planner this year, and I want to spend the last week of December doing some in-depth planning. I also want to offer a variety of ‘year ahead’ tarot and oracle readings for 2019, so look for those soon. My holiday shopping as about half done as of this writing (November 28), and I should be able to get everything on time, which is a stressful proposition every year. We’re lucky this year to have a little extra cash in reserve, and I’m grateful. Read the full article