Mar 152012
March 15, 2012
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Earlier today, I wrote a post about an Occupy poster that I felt was misguided, patriarchal and sexist. Occupy Posters which had posted the poster in the first place did not care for the criticism, and compared me to the GOP and then intimated that I was a movement infiltrator. Others chimed in to support my position and that proved too much for Occupy Posters which scrubbed the unfavorable comments and banned us from the discussion. But have no fear, I saved most of the conversation before it disappeared and you can see what it said before it got censored:
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Lucinda Marshall: This poster perpetuates women blaming and Occupy Patriarchy calls on it to be removed. http://www.occupypatriarchy.org/2012/03/15/occupy-poster-says-its-up-to-non-voting-unmarried-women-to-stop-the-war-on-women/
Occupy Poster Says It’s Up To Non-Voting Unmarried Women To Stop The War On Women » Occupy PatriarchYes of course if unmarried women aren’t voting, they should if they believe in t…See More9 hours ago · · -
Nancy Coscione: Victim blaming?!…are you all helpless victims?! This poster merely states statistical facts and suggests that those who do not bother to vote are at least in part responsible for election outcomes…yeah real “victim bashing” going on here. Wake up, or don’t…5 hours ago · ·
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Occupy* Posters:@Lucinda Marshall You’re kidding, right? Do you realize how silly you look? Posters are not treatises. They make one simple awareness-raising point, because they don’t have space beyond that. No “blaming” is going on here at all. The point is clear. UNMARRIED WOMEN, PLEASE VOTE! This is the same point made by the data source for the poster, http://www.voterparticipation.org/whose whole operation is geared to getting out the votes of young, unmarried women, who they say factually has lower voting participation than other groups.But actually, I cannot distinguish what you are doing from a GOP operative posing as a concerned progressive. So that was to be expected, so you can go on as you were.
3 hours ago · · 1 -
Sarah Jones:You patronising wee fuck, so someone has a critique of what you post and you slander them accusing them of being a GOP operative.Telling people to please vote isn’t going to get them to vote, people don’t vote for various complicated reaso…See More3 hours ago · · 3 -
Jacquie Leanne: Yawn. Is this some ultra-sexist version of “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain?” -
Occupy* Posters: I’m gonna chock up Lucinda Marshall as part of this: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/infiltration_to_disrupt_divide_and_misdirect_20120224/?lnInfiltration
In its first five months, the Occupy movement has had major victories and has al…See More2 hours ago · · 1 -
Occupy* Posters: @ Karen Neko
> maybe that fact that no party speaks for or to
> unmarried women (whatever that means) is the REAL
> reason they don’t vote.If you had taken the time to check the source for the poster before commenting, http://voterparticipation.org/you would not have said what you did.
You’re part of the Rising American Electorate — the unmarried women, people of c…See More2 hours ago · · 1 -
Occupy* Posters: @ Sarah Jones:
> you slander them accusing them of being a GOP
> operative.Actually, I said “I cannot distinguish” it from that. Finding non-distinction between two things does not imply an accusation of the two things being the same. But this points to the issue here: you appear to be reading things into something that just is not there.2 hours ago · · 1 -
Occupy* Posters: @Karen Neko:> cause like men, women all vote the same…sheeshActually, if you had taken the time to read the source for the data for this poster, they find that the demographic of unmarried women, especially among minorities, overwhelm…See More2 hours ago · · 1
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Lucinda Marshall: Hilarious, who do you think I am infiltrating for?2 hours ago · · 1
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Dani Madrone: Occupy Poster person… you’re behaving like a patriarch. Why don’t you listen to the justified complaints about your sexist poster so you don’t continue to make the same mistakes.2 hours ago · · 1 -
Mave Gibson: I agree with others – I don’t need to hear about how women are oppressing themselves. What utter bullshit. Also, this graphic pretends that voting is the answer when it’s rarely made sweet f all of a difference. A lot of people don’t vote because they don’t feel there’s any option that represents their interests. Gah this whole thing just sucks.2 hours ago · · 1 -
Dani Madrone: Looking over some of the other stuff on this page, it looks like Occupy Posters is an advocate for the democrats. Doesn’t take much to try to co-opt a social movement in the interest of a political party.
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Shireen Mitchell: Are you serious? People are making so many assumptions with this. Let me go find the rest of the black portion of the pie. I love how people manipulate stats like this. -
Occupy* Posters: @Lucinda Marshall: I can’t tell, because you are against a simple poster carrying the simple message of a woman-run organization, voterparticipation.org, that is concerned with raising the civic participation of their demographic. I see you imposition-ally reading into it – “Occupy Poster Says It’s Up To Non-Voting Unmarried Women To Stop The War On Women” – something that is no where to be found in the poster, nor in the organization seeking to raise voting among the demographic, which, they say, overwhelmingly vote for Dems when they do vote. So in their actual practical affect, you appear to be engaged in suppressing potential votes for Democrats, regardless of whatever your actual intentions may be.:2 hours ago · · 1
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Mave Gibson: Ok, so totally un-liking this. Your responses are as bad as the original image.
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Occupy* Posters: http://mobile.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/03/single_women_are_the_new_swing_voters_but_which_way_do_they_lean_.html
mobile.slate.com
When headlines announced last weekend that the “Obama Campaign Plans Big Effort …See More -
Liza Cowan: Hey, Occupy Posters…who are you anyway? You can’t distinguish Occupy Patriarchy from a GOP operative? I think you need to do some research. And it would help not to be so defensive to critique. It’s not pretty.about an hour ago · · 1 -
Dani Madrone: Isn’t it great when those who advocate for the rights of women are completely unwilling to listen to the voices of women?
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Lucinda Marshall: You can’t tell? Do you work for the CIA or something? Seriously, this has nothing to do with the organization you keep linking to and everything to do with the poster.
There were a few more comments that unfortunately got scrubbed before I saved them, but you get the idea. Many thanks to those who chimed in so supportively. This conversation has been a good reminder about why we indeed need to be discussing misogyny and patriarchy within the Occupy movement.
Wow, yes its all womens fault that this country is fucked. Just like we are put in the spotlight and become the main debate between dems and reps concerning our vaginal practices. Abortion contortion. This is exactly why woman don’t vote, here it is 2012 and old white men are talking about abortion on tv, which is super demeaning, while at the same time no one is doing anything about offering FREE or BETTER BIRTHCONTROL. Woman are disenfranchised. This is why we do not vote. Who exactly are we voting for anyway? Bullshit American Politics go suck a dick…Pardon my Profane Existance…
I wonder how voterparticipation.org gets the impression that it is represented by the Occupy Movement at all. Was this ‘campaign’ approved by an Occupy GA? I’m tired of political organizations using the name of Occupy to further their own cause. Most Occupiers I know have stuck to the original intent that the Occupy Movement is about social and cultural change and awareness, not politics!
Can’t there be disagreement about the poster, and maybe a suggestion for changing it, without hostility, blame, name-calling, and accusations? Don’t we have an agreement to treat each other with respect, to protect each other, to assume good intentions? The poster just states some facts. Some people assume the intention is to “blame the victim.” What if the point is “Here’s another demographic we could be reaching out to?” Please don’t assume bad motives for a sister you don’t agree with.