Sunday, June 5, 2011

Racist Anti-porn Feminists




UPDATE 6/11/11 iremythpurr has written a blog post responding to this one (which she conveniently does NOT link to.) In it she claims not to be racist and that she would appreciate not being misrepresented. The irony of this statement coming from her is comical because later in the post she says, "She also names former antipornstar youtuber antiquelens as racist without backing it up either." Anyone reading this blog post can clearly see she is lying proving her disingenuousness for what it is.



I came to YouTube on November 23, 2009. Some of the first people I met were the feminists who opposed all forms of sex industry and for this reason I have come to call them “antis.” This is not what I called them at first; however, because at that time I knew nothing about the “Feminist Sex Wars.” I knew nothing about how truly contentious the issue has become and how it has almost completely divided feminism. I only knew that I was the only openly self-identifying feminist that I knew of and I was hungry for a little feminist fellowship. Many that oppose the sex industry say that it's racist and I'm sure in some cases this is true. But I have another story of racism...and this is it.



There were four: NuclearNight, Antiquelens, jedimasterbooboo and DianaBoston. From the beginning things were tense between the YouTube anti-porn feminists and I. I used to be a stripper and my first videos were advice videos for strippers; save your cash, don't self-medicate, etc. Now that I look back I can see how they merely tolerated me; partly thinking that they might show me the light, partly to make an example out of me. They would make condescending remarks about me rooted in politics I didn't quite understand at the time and didn't recognize.



This doesn't mean I didn't stand up for myself when I did see something wrong with their arguments or when they would say things about the sex industry that I knew from experience were just wrong. In fact, NuclearNight (a Marxist feminist); now iremythpurr, went through a phase of reading from The Industrial Vagina by Sheila Jeffreys; usually after a video exchange with me. Now looking back I realize she wasn't doing this just because she liked the book but also to dig at me and paint a picture of some of the things I must have done as a stripper for her subscribers to laugh at. This also marked the beginning of our more heated exchanges. Antis just don't like to be told that they're wrong and; as I have witnessed since, they will offer all sorts of fallacious rationalizations for their squashed assertions when proven wrong.



Jedimasterbooboo; now Aliceinhats/boobootoob, was nice to me for a while and always seemed to skate along the edge of the group but made it clear where her loyalties were when I started challenging the others on their claims. Antiquelens is not on YouTube anymore. That is her story to tell but even though she was vicious and even dehumanizing in her critique of sex workers when my docs were dropped by DianaBoston she was the only one among the antis who stood up for what was right and spoke out against it. I have a feeling; were she here now she would not stand idly by and condone the racist attack I have been on the receiving end of. She does seem to have strong principles when it comes down to it. Even though I don't agree with many of her positions and don't appreciate her venom I do respect her on some level and hope she is doing well.



This brings me to DianaBoston/AuntieDiana1969/SaelPalani/Girlonfilm1969. A self proclaimed: deist, pagan, Caucasian (Jewish/Italian), former “prostituted woman,” radical-socialist feminist, artist and “eccentric” who swears that; though she lives in Canada, the radiation from Fukushima is making her sick. I must specify she is Caucasian/white because it is relevant to this post and the discussion on race relations within feminism in general.

I cover most of the conflict I've had with her in the ONE other blog post I've done mentioning her so I won't go into much detail but I will say this; most of our conflict is a result of me confronting her on her abuse of others in the name of “feminism.” I AM a feminist, a Latin (Mexican/American) woman, former sex worker and current sex worker's rights advocate. Feminism is very important to me and I know it's reputation is in much need of some rehabilitation so when I saw her using it as an excuse for her abusive behavior I just couldn't let it stand unchallenged. I will also mention now that by her own admission she is also suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder and chronic depression; something I try to keep in mind when dealing with her so I do hold back with her quite a bit.



The race based abuse started a few months ago. D0llsnatch; one of her fellow YouTube anti-porn feminists, called me a “chola” in a comment section. For those of you who don't understand this term it is a female, Mexican, gang member of a certain type. I have known cholos/cholas before. They are hard people. One must understand; though, that the conditions of their lives have made many of them have to be hard. Anyone who claims to understand anything about the intersection of class oppression and race oppression should understand this. When taken at face value with no understanding of the conditions of their lives they are often exploited as the stereotype of the Mexican/American woman: violent/impulsive, uneducated, promiscuous with many children at a young age and “low class.”

So let's look for a second at these various stigmatizing qualities.

1. A chola has to be tougher then everyone else because growing up in the barrios of this country can be dangerous especially when getting a cop to come to your neighborhood to actually HELP someone can be like pulling teeth. Many sex workers have told me they were raped by the very cops that tax payers are paying to protect us. This is also the reason many of them join gangs. The price can be high but sometimes that's the only protection there is.

2. Uneducated? Sometimes. But when you look at how much money governments give to inner city schools compared to schools in more well off neighborhoods does it really make sense to degrade someone based on that? Not only that but now with the GOP push to cut so much education funding in order to make a path for charter schools it may just get worse. Is that the fault of an inner city kid whose parents work two sometimes three jobs? Poverty IS oppression and in my opinion it is also a form of violence. Talk about blaming the victim.

3. Promiscuous with many children at a young age: The fact is that many Mexican/Americans are Catholic and if there's one thing the Catholic church doesn't like it's contraception. Comprehensive sex education is hard to come by in the U.S. and don't get me started on “abstinence only” non-education education. I have spoken to so many woman who rely on Planned Parenthood for their reproductive health services that this GOP push to completely defund it is very troubling to me. But let's look at another aspect of this. Oppressed people cling to each other for support and sometimes they place so much hope in the next generation knowing that not all of them will make it. But sometimes; like my mother, they do. She will be the first person on either side of my Latino family to get her doctorate. Oh, if my grandma could see her now.

4. “Low class” How a socialist or a Marxist feminist can insult someone by calling them “low class” is beyond me but that's what I have been called...several times. These people go on and on about oppression and denouncing their “white privilege” but have no problems pulling rank with it when a brown woman gets too out of line. Yes, I am low class. I was not born rich. I was not born white. I am self educated because formal education has always been just out of reach for me. Yes, I am low class and these women obviously think it's one of the many things; along with my skin color, that's wrong with me.


So d0llsnatch called me a “chola” and I confronted her with it and it's racially stereotyping associations and from there it just snowballed into one big brown bashing, anti-porn feminist, racist hatefest. Once she saw that it was something that bothered me the language became more and more frequent and then Diana picked it up...and ran with it.



Diana has been confronted for her transphobia, slut-shaming/whore-bashing, racism against Chinese people and homophobia all while swearing up and down that she's a victim, that people are out to get her and just “stirring up drama.” Of course she blames me for all of it. If some random stranger crosses her she accuses them of being a “div troll” even if I've never seen them before in my life. Every thumb down she gets on her videos she blames on me. Every time she does anything bigoted and hateful and is confronted for it she says it must be my fault in someway. She is obsessed. To date she has made approximately 80 videos about me telling lie after lie and calling me a “whore,” a “cunt” etc. The point is she's quite disturbed. If it were just her I would just chalk it up to one woman's obsession but all her anti friends cheer on her every slut-bashing remarks...and now they've begun cheering on her racism.



Her first all out racist attack came in a three part video she uploaded on another site called i-tube. Even though she claims she uploaded it off of YouTube to keep it from getting “flagged,” given the vile and overtly racist nature of the videos it's pretty safe to assume that she did this to hide from the greater YouTube community that openly frowns on racism. On this site one can “promote” a video to get it more views and that's exactly what iremythpurr did. As if all this weren't bad enough these women seem to have appointed themselves the champions of the poor oppressed women of color of the world. Like many antis they seem more content to champion what they think we need rather then listen to any of us or treat us with respect if we step out of line. In her 30 minute diatribe she continually calls me a “chola,” “fat chola,” and a “fucking Latina bitch.” She also seems to go on and on about how much smarter then me she is that she almost seems like she's trying to convince herself.

Racist attack video 1
Racist attack video 2
Racist attack video 3

If you look at who has been promoting these videos you'll notice there are many other YouTube, anti-porn feminists and their fan boys that seem to share her racist sentiments. Their channels are:
iremythpurr
29harveydinio
Zaimren
LordClydeofOMAR
AngryPunkPixie
DesertLaser
and a few others.


In this video I confront her and iremythpurr on their racism and let them know that NO ONE who would use someone's race as a tool of abuse has any place appointing themselves to speak for them.





Now, if there's anymore confusion about the history of the word “chola” or why the way Diana used it constitutes racism alowlyapprentice made a video addressing these very questions.





I've made just about all I'm going to make of this on YouTube so to close the issue there I put together a little comedy piece to show the antis how ridiculous their perception of my "gangster" behavior really is. I think it also helped to cut some of the awkwardness my subs may have felt to have witnessed this race baiting. Now that I watch it again I think I came off more like a male cholo but oh well. It was funny anyway.





Yes, I've made all I'm going to make of this on YouTube. How fitting that they would chose now to ramp up the racism nice and high. Diana has created a sock account on i-tube called DivsCellulite. On it she has uploaded a video comparing me in a video I did purposely for comedic reasons to Laura Chinchilla Miranda; the first woman president of Costa Rica giving a formal speech. As you can see below.



This video is blatantly racist for a number of reasons.

1. In the beginning she criticizes my use of "Spanglish."
This is a common criticism many Latino-Americans face sometimes even from our own. Many second, third etc. generation Latino-Americans find themselves in a position to have to navigate this gray area of intersection sometimes having to wear a mask to fit into whatever group we may be around. Around other Latinos we may be told that we are not Latino enough. Often it's because; like me, many of us don't know Spanish but for a few English/Spanish hybrid phrases that seem to be the mark of our merging cultures.

This criticism coming from another Latino is one thing because we share the same oppression. Coming from a Caucasian; who seems to using it as a way to abuse and degrade, is quite another. So many people forget that; like Native Americans, we were here first and we too had our land stolen from us. Now, most white people I know understand this and would NEVER mock my culture or ethnicity but these Caucasian, anti-porn feminists are NOT among them. Coming from a Caucasian, mocking my "Spanglish" is like saying "We conquered and raped your people and culturally displaced you to the point that we have FORCED your language to begin to change and now we're going to rub it in your face by mocking you for it." And YES "forced" is correct. In many States there is a great deal of stink made over statements like "Please press ONE for English." And Bills like S.B.1070 are being adopted or introduced in many states including Arizona, Utah and Georgia a.k.a. the "Show me your papers" bill.


2. Ethnic Body Shaming.
Once she shows the clip of me, she takes great pains to call me fat. I'm not a small woman. This I have no problem with but women of different cultures are often body shamed especially concerning differences in our bodies that may be a little more specific to our ethnic backgrounds. Latin women do tend to have more voluptuous bodies. There is also a different dynamic to this I'd like to touch on. It's the body shaming of ethnic women by white women. It harkens back to the Hera complex.

Zues; the Greek sky god and ruler of all other gods, was notorious for not just seducing women behind his wife's back but also rape by deception and rape by force. Rather then hold him accountable for this injustice against women; as any real feminist would, she instead punished the women; sometimes quite cruelly. When I see a racist, white woman body shaming a woman of color I see Hera all over it. Not because interracial relationships are oppressive today but because; historically, interracial rape has been. Desperate to hold their preferred position of wife under that oppressive patriarchal structure; and thus maintain her access to her husbands resources, she was put in a position to have to look at the rape victim as competition. Some women still play that old game, competing for the patriarchal defined preferred female position by abusing other women they view as a potential threat.


3. Assigning Value
But the final racist aspect of this video that I will touch on is this: By putting herself in a position to compare me with President Miranda, this white woman is claiming for herself the authority to assign value to various women of color like an old fashioned slave owner.
A slave owner mentality she seems to have no problem displaying when she thinks I DESERVE it i.e. "when the dumb chola gets out of line it's ok to beat her because she's not being a 'proper' Mexican by my superior white standards." She also seems to take advantage of the fact that society in general is more aware of black oppression then it is of brown oppression. She's displayed every kind of racism outside of outright calling me a "spic" or a "wet back" which can't be far away because she's crossed every other line of human decency concerning race there is.

Just a couple of her racist comments:





This last one was a comment she left under a video a male Marxist feminist named MaoistRebelNews2 made to me and apparently racism is ok with him because only he has the ability to moderate his own thread. I tweeted this post to him in case he missed the racist comment and he still neglected to moderate the racist comment. Guess he's not an ally to women...or Latin women of color at least. And being a member of a minority does not make one immune to racism as I pointed out to him respectfully.





I guess to conclude this I'll say that this idea of "justified" racism is nothing new. This idea of "we're trying to liberate you and if you don't submit to that we are going to show you just how bad things can really be for you" is nothing new. It's nothing new to people of color and it's nothing new to sex workers. The blatant lack of respect these people have seems to be sick throughout much of the movement. While they are trying to impose their ideology on the world and "alter society" the most oppressed among us are suffering NOW! And they need practical help NOW! The only way they will ever get it is if people stop trying to "save" them in the way they think is best for us poor oppressed people and
LISTEN TO US!
Believe it or not we ARE smart enough to know what is best for us. This paternalistic repression is every bit as bad as patriarchal oppression. In fact...BIG SHOCK...they're the same THING! We Latinos have been though so much. We've had our land stolen. We've had our blood stolen and we've had our voice stolen for too long. Making all this known is my own little way of contributing to the fight and I'm not going anywhere. If my grandmother could make it our of poverty in Mexico to a good full life here in the U.S. and raise seven successful children and more grandkids then I care to break my writing flow to figure out then this; what these racist, anti-porn feminists are putting me through, is nothing. I honestly believe that most of them don't really care about us at all. From the way I've been treated and the way I've seen antis treat sex workers and women of color just like me I can't help but believe it. Well, I won't be part of their agenda. I won't let them exploit my oppression and the suffering of MY people; sex workers and Latinos, and turn us into nameless, voiceless poster children whose suffering is profitable for them. I hope to see more women like me speak up about these things. We are the only ones who can liberate us. And we will...someday.


18 comments:

  1. Hang in there chica! It's not easy being a warrior of justice!

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  2. I've seen a bunch of your vids -- probably most of them. I don't remember hearing any Spanglish, and it wouldn't matter if there was any. Economically, you're low class, but you have a lot of class. I've never seen you use the low class tactics that Diana uses.

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  3. @greeny Thank you mu friend. I actually do use a little when I'm being silly or joking mostly.

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  4. well said blog. this is the first blog i've read from you. the tactics they use are disgusting. I hope you continue to debunk these racist morons.

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  5. @medusa That's true, but who would do a chola immitation without it (unless they didn't know any)? They're just looking for any little excuse to criticize. By the way, I wonder how Nuke feels about all her friend's fat jokes. She ain't tiny either.

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  6. Intelligent post which is more than I can say for the crap I saw posted by Diana. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after reading her messages to you. She has gone bat-shit crazy is all I can say! As her ex and a Latina I hope she finds this blog and reads how appalled and sickened I am by her racial BS.
    Radiation my ass she is just plain sick in the head..

    S. Marquez

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  7. @Lechuza Thank you for your comment. I don't know what it must be like to find out you dated someone for so long how was secretly racist about your own people. All I can say is

    I'm sorry.

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  8. So much history of this going back to the early days of radical feminism. Read up on the Combahee River Collective, which was had an early critique of the racism in the radical lesbian-feminist movement of the 1970s.

    And the thing is, this is not ancient history. It was close to two years ago that there was a serious implosion among some of the old-line radfems over racism. It seems that a radfem woman of color blogger who used the handle Celie's Revenge had her participation in the Off Our Backs collective called into question. It seems some of the established white leadership asked her if she had "ulterior motives", implying that she was a stealth sex-poz of some kind. No reason for this treatment was given, and there was suspicion that it was racially-motivated. This had major repercussions among both on- and offline radical feminists, and by the time the row was over, the already-troubled Off Our Backs publication folded their 40-year old publication, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff (aka, "Heart") a major radfem blogger ceased blogging for some time (and was no longer an important blogger when she came back), and Nikki Craft, a long-established radfem antiporn activists, drifted off into radical ecology activism.

    Much of this isn't online anymore, but some details here:

    [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]

    So, yes, the race problem with radical feminists has some history, and it's not surprising that somebody as ignorant as Diana would repeat the very worst of it. Of course, looking at today's implosion among the radfems, this time over Israel and Zionism, it appears that Diana is now more isolated than ever in her own vileness. Nuke will continue to have some credibility in extremist radfem circles, but not really anywhere else, and certainly not in any kind of reality-based community.

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  9. Good job putting it all out there Div, I did not know the Chola shit started with Doll... hmmm

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  10. @iamcuriousblue Wow, the racial divide runs pretty deep among radfems. You always have such great info and links. Thanks for your comment and for tweeting this post. This abuse of sex workers and women of color has gone on far too long.

    @Satanrobot Yea, surprising huh?

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  11. Great blog post. As someone who holds a graduate degree in psychology, I can tell you that you simply cannot force an individual(s) to accept beliefs & ideology. The individual must come to change their views organically.

    This is the problem with radical movements; they don't take into account basic human behavior. They fail to recognize that the majority of people fall within the Bell Curve and that they occupy the ends. The ends of a Bell Curve are the smallest parts, but reflect the largest deviations from the norm.

    Also, when an individual's ideology becomes the sole way they define themselves and how they view others, it moves from an ideology and into a cult. For instance, I'm an ethical vegan, but it isn't the only way I define myself and I recognize that it is a lifestyle choice I've made, however right and just I believe it to be. There are some radical vegans who, if they had their way, would force others into the lifestyle. And like I mentioned before, you simply can't do that. The decision must be arrived at organically.

    I've seen the radfems criticize liberalism and declare it a soft option or as somehow inferior because liberalism is more about individual change than changing the whole of society.

    Again, you cannot force this. For society to truly change, the individuals in it must change. Revolutions that overthrow one system, tend to get overthrown later because the individuals who had the revolution forced on them, rebel.

    This is what is wrong with the radfem position and why I reject it. I consider myself a feminist, and while I do accept portions of radical feminism (e.g. the concept of patriarchy), I recognize that it will inevitably fail because it seeks to change by force.

    As far as sex work goes, I wish that women (or men) weren't put into a position where they might have to go into prostitution, or any other type of sex work, to simply survive. That isn't a free choice in my opinion. However, if a woman or man truly wants to go into the work, and enjoys it, then by all means, they should be allowed to do it without being shamed about it.

    And considering that there is real abuse going on now, simple ideology and rhetoric will not fix the problem. Real solutions are needed now! This is why I support sex worker advocates who are working to achieve these solutions.

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  12. There is no cure for the kind of ugliness. Maybe she will be "classy" enough drown in her Chanel soon.

    One can dream. ;)

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  13. I've had close relationships with two people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, & it is no walk in the park -for either party. I believe BPD is one of the most isolating mental disorders out there; almost surprisingly so due to how the typical BPD sufferer is often of above average intelligence, & seems more than capable of excelling in society, but there's so much more going on beneath the surface.

    In all honesty, I no longer have much to do with either person; consider me biased if you so choose. I admit it. I couldn't hack it. I hooked onto the BPD mention because consistently remaining in "good standing" with someone with BPD is a rare trick, indeed. I'm not at all surprised those who have fallen out of favor have quickly found themselves targets of abuse. The line between "friend" & "foe" was a tightrope for which I had little skill to walk; especially given the line's propensity to so drastically swing from one to the other, time after time.

    As far as the racism issue goes, I'm glad you've come to a point where you feel you've said all you needed to say. The bitch of it is, it shouldn't have needed to have been said at all.

    You are a gorgeous, funny, intelligent, classy woman. That shouldn't need to be said, either, but damn...it's nice to hear from time to time, eh? XD

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  14. I just read your update on iremythpurr/nuke or what ever she decides to hide behind.. I have a comment for her just in case she decides to make a trip back here to see what's up.

    Sadly, a lot of people forget (or never knew) what racism really is.. the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
    So you think that you are superior and we Latin people are inferior to your race.. that people of one race are worth more than a person of another race.
    Whatever you call it, the main thing is that whenever you use labels to disrespect another person, it is wrong!

    Yes, I have had a personal run in with this supposed feminist.. (Feminism is about women period.. It is race neutral)
    She left a racist comment on my old channel on YT, I closed the account because of her comment..
    Briefly put "she said I was Mexican and smelled like a burrito" the context of her poem to me. She has never met me, she has never talked to me. BUT~ she felt the desire to leave a racial poem on my page because of a falling out between myself and Diana..
    Makes me wonder with people like her and Diana..
    Will the next generation of Hispanic kids have a fundamentally different idea of what it means to be Hispanic in America?

    One hopes so.

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  15. I'm NOT one of them.
    yasminevinck

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  16. I'm not really anonymous... this is tattooskin72. Well written blog post.

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