Belfast – 12/03/12 – “I’m still here ” – Comedy Night
58 minutes ago
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
0
Anyone who follows my twitter account @imisaninja will know that my phone was stolen two weeks ago. I was upset at the inconvenience and downright crappiness of being robbed but I felt secure in the knowledge that my phone was insured and I had kept up to date with my payments. Then this happened...
My Phone Insurance Nightmare
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| image pinched from http://lifeinfitzville.blogspot.com |
Friday, February 17, 2012
2
The Men.
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Reading the comments sections of any online publication is generally considered bad for one's blood pressure. Considering that many commenters adopt pseudonyms and avatars that obscure their identity, it's not surprising that they feel free to vent their opinions, frustrations and prejudices about whatever or whoever they wish, without fear of friends, family and employers discovering their inflammatory views. Recently I've noticed a backlash against feminism under articles and posts on gender. Without exception, each time the subjects of gender, rape, abuse, women or domestic violence comes up a group of male (and it has to be said some female) commenters react by either making outdated sexist jokes or manipulate the forum to air their frustrations about the wrongs done to men. I often use race as a comparison to highlight the shortcomings of this argument, and I will do so again.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
2
An open letter to E4 and the creators of The Inbetweeners
Hi there,
I just posted a comment to this effect on the inbetweeners page, but at the risk of sounding like a random spammer, I felt a longer explanation of my request was warranted. First off, I would like to say I love the Inbetweeners. I find them outrageously funny for the simple reason that the characters are so unlikely, their behaviour so outlandish that it could only be hilarious. That was until I realised that a great many young 'men' were taking the themes and behaviour exhibited in the show to heart, without a trace of irony.
This is not your fault. And you are under no obligation to do anything about this. I realise the show is light-hearted and all about lad culture and banter and all that, and so realise that to touch this subject it would probably take the show to a place you never intended on going. It might even affect your viewership, hopefully for the better.
To give you some background, an online 'Lad's Mag' called UniLad, (devoted to shagging and the general fluting around of blokes on campus) was recently the subject of a twitter sh*tstorm over an article that condoned rape, stating that as 85% of rapes went unreported, you had good odds of not being caught. The site was shut down and has been the subject of blog posts, tweets and Facebook posts worldwide, including coverage on Huffington Post UK and BBC News. A quick Google or twitter search will give you a good many results including screenshots of the now deleted material. The site apologised on Facebook and twitter and took the site down leaving the apology as a placeholder for the next 10 days when they said they'd cleaned up their act and relaunch.
The university attended by the founding 'lads' is seeking disciplinary action and I'm happy enough that they'll be dealt with appropriately (one hopes anyway). The next problem is the matter of their facebook page. Aside from the misogynistic crud they post regularly, even since the main site was shut down, there are the 500+ comments under the apology that continue to spew sexist and violent vitriol against women, including "rape the bitch", "Stab the c*nt" and "90% of people enjoy gang rape" among the more choice comments.
What does this have to do with E4 and the Inbetweeners? I notice that many of the 70K fans of the page quote from the show, and reference it directly. They also alter quotes such as "ooh! Rape friend", directly associating the Inbetweeners scripts with sexual violence. Banter is all well and good, and as you can see from my blog, or tweet stream, I'm not exactly a prude. But the trivialisation of rape is something we can all agree is troubling.
I would like to see a public statement issued to the fans of the Inbetweeners that neither the show's actors nor creators support rape culture, and condemn the use of rape as a subject of fun. Furthermore, I would like the show to publish numbers to rape support groups and the Rape Crisis network in the UK and Ireland for anyone who has been adversely affected by this story or anyone who is harassed on this level.
The Inbetweeners is a comedy show, and I don't expect you all to have a 'moment' and bring the show down. But if you could change even a fraction of the minds of some of these lads, you might make the female fans of the show feel a bit safer and even stop a rape from happening. I appeal to you, as women, as a fan and as a friend, please do something about this.
Yours,
Siobhán Schnittger
I just posted a comment to this effect on the inbetweeners page, but at the risk of sounding like a random spammer, I felt a longer explanation of my request was warranted. First off, I would like to say I love the Inbetweeners. I find them outrageously funny for the simple reason that the characters are so unlikely, their behaviour so outlandish that it could only be hilarious. That was until I realised that a great many young 'men' were taking the themes and behaviour exhibited in the show to heart, without a trace of irony.
This is not your fault. And you are under no obligation to do anything about this. I realise the show is light-hearted and all about lad culture and banter and all that, and so realise that to touch this subject it would probably take the show to a place you never intended on going. It might even affect your viewership, hopefully for the better.
To give you some background, an online 'Lad's Mag' called UniLad, (devoted to shagging and the general fluting around of blokes on campus) was recently the subject of a twitter sh*tstorm over an article that condoned rape, stating that as 85% of rapes went unreported, you had good odds of not being caught. The site was shut down and has been the subject of blog posts, tweets and Facebook posts worldwide, including coverage on Huffington Post UK and BBC News. A quick Google or twitter search will give you a good many results including screenshots of the now deleted material. The site apologised on Facebook and twitter and took the site down leaving the apology as a placeholder for the next 10 days when they said they'd cleaned up their act and relaunch.
The university attended by the founding 'lads' is seeking disciplinary action and I'm happy enough that they'll be dealt with appropriately (one hopes anyway). The next problem is the matter of their facebook page. Aside from the misogynistic crud they post regularly, even since the main site was shut down, there are the 500+ comments under the apology that continue to spew sexist and violent vitriol against women, including "rape the bitch", "Stab the c*nt" and "90% of people enjoy gang rape" among the more choice comments.
What does this have to do with E4 and the Inbetweeners? I notice that many of the 70K fans of the page quote from the show, and reference it directly. They also alter quotes such as "ooh! Rape friend", directly associating the Inbetweeners scripts with sexual violence. Banter is all well and good, and as you can see from my blog, or tweet stream, I'm not exactly a prude. But the trivialisation of rape is something we can all agree is troubling.
I would like to see a public statement issued to the fans of the Inbetweeners that neither the show's actors nor creators support rape culture, and condemn the use of rape as a subject of fun. Furthermore, I would like the show to publish numbers to rape support groups and the Rape Crisis network in the UK and Ireland for anyone who has been adversely affected by this story or anyone who is harassed on this level.
The Inbetweeners is a comedy show, and I don't expect you all to have a 'moment' and bring the show down. But if you could change even a fraction of the minds of some of these lads, you might make the female fans of the show feel a bit safer and even stop a rape from happening. I appeal to you, as women, as a fan and as a friend, please do something about this.
Yours,
Siobhán Schnittger
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
4
Yes... that's me. A great loutish dyke in a flannel shirt, hairy legs and armpits and don't get me started on the lady garden... it's like fooking Narnia down there. Enough clichés then? Good.
Now that's over with, I'd like to say that I do actually like Rugby, I don't shave my legs as often as I should and my husband and I happen to like it 70's playboy style. None of this has anything to do with feminism. Also... I like bras.
I wasn't always a feminist. I didn't really know what one was, growing up. I have four brothers and they treated me basically the same as one of the lads. Well OK, they pulled their punches, but that was mostly because I was, and still am, really very small. My point is they treated me, more or less, as an equal. And I didn't know any different until I was in my mid-twenties.... No really.
I was convinced I was solely into girls in my teens and only really hung around gay people in gay bars and all we did was get drunk and high and have a laugh, amongst the rows and drama everyone goes through when they're young. It wasn't until I'd left college, and started working that I started to twig something wasn't quite adding up. I noticed that women were treated a bit differently, that we were expected to do odd jobs around the office that blokes didn't have to do. We made more teas, we cleaned up a bit more, we weren't invited to as many outings or if we were on a night out we were expected to behave 'appropriately' while the blokes went out and smashed things. And if a woman behaved out of the norm, then she was made out to be odd, or lesbian or some other such weirdo. We had to dress a certain way, and then be flattered when a bloke acted like a sleaze ball. Then there was the office banter. The casual jokes about race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and then... rape.
When you're brought up in a home full of trauma, and learn to swear like a sailor by the tender age of four and you're still shocked by the locker room talk in the office, then you know something is quite wrong. You see the rule in my home, amongst my brothers, was 'Don't be a Dick' (and never touch Owen's tapes). You can say what you want, do what you want and take something pretty far before you cross the line, but the line was clear as day and we knew not to cross it. My mum is probably a bit of an accidental racist, she says things she shouldn't about Nigerians and Muslims, but I know for a fact that if she saw someone in trouble, she would throw herself in there and help them, even if it was just calling the Gardaí, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. And if any of us had said the 'N' word or called someone queer she would have slapped the white off our asses quicker than we could say Michael Collins. And when it came to joking about the violent abuse or rape of women, well, let’s just say that there are few things my mother would do time for murder for.
When my mother was growing up, women could still be raped by their husbands, legally. Fathers and husbands beat women up and down the country, girls were thrown into institutions if they became 'wayward' or pregnant. They were refused jobs and treated as lesser citizens and serfs by men. She would tell you that she's glad that times have changed. But joking about things that happened to women on a fairly regular basis would be like joking with a black person about the days when they could be owned by their white masters and given as gifts to one another to be molested raped, beaten or killed on a white man's whim. There are just some things, that are so horrible, so deeply and importantly wrong, that to joke about them, crosses the line. In short... you're being a dick.
There was a bit of a interweb storm today about an online 'lad's mag' who posted a story that appeared to condone rape, as the odds were in favour of a rape going unreported.
One tweeter quoted the website's founder Alex Partridge's Facebook status from earlier in the year
The site 'apologised' for the article on twitter and Facebook , but has yet to post an apology on the main site. The apology is somewhat of a non-event when you examine the content of the rest of the website. A quick twitter search will dig up quite a few dodgy articles, an unusual amount focused on rape, sexual assault and rough and violent sexual encounters with women. Then there are the comments from Facebook fans under the apology. Calls for feminists, complainants and anyone who doesn't like the article to be beaten, raped or in some cases strangled. Now I don't believe that the majority of these comments are serious but there's the odd one like...
That make me worry. A recent article in Jezebel highlighted the worrying correlation between the comments in well known lads mags and those of convicted rapists.
The thing is, when you joke about rape... how can you be sure the person you’re talking to hasn’t been raped? You have a one in four chance that the person you’re speaking to is reliving the worst memory of their life. All because you are so far removed from the experience that you think it's funny. It's abstract to you because you can't imagine how awful it would be. People who are raped don't make jokes about it. Children who are abused don't laugh about it afterward. They never, ever get over it and if you're thinking your right to freedom of speech, trumps their right not to have to relive the horror of someone forcing sexual violence upon them, then you're wrong. End of story
Some people think that there isn't a need for feminists, just decent human beings. And there's certainly an argument for that, but so many people call themselves decent human beings while at the same time discriminating against other people based on their gender without even a twinge of conscience. Many of the commenter's under that Facebook post consider themselves right-minded individuals just having a bit of a laugh or 'banter'. They would probably even baulk at racism, some at homophobia, ironically. But when it comes to women, it's taken that because women in the west 'have it so good', it's a tongue and cheek, harmless laugh.
I wasn't born a feminist. Shit like this made me one. When I realised it was OK to treat me differently because I have a vagina, when I realised that half the planet was treated less human than the other because of their gender, when I realised that people my age and younger, not just some old school grandpas who were set in their ways, talked about women like they were fuckable living dolls... I realised I was a feminist and so will always be.
Update: The UniLad site is down for 'maintenance'. Rumour has it William Hill bookies have withdrawn sponsorship. Result! Can I get a chest bump??
Another Update: The story just got Huffpo'd! Hollah!
Hairy Fucking Feminist... And Proud
Now that's over with, I'd like to say that I do actually like Rugby, I don't shave my legs as often as I should and my husband and I happen to like it 70's playboy style. None of this has anything to do with feminism. Also... I like bras.
I wasn't always a feminist. I didn't really know what one was, growing up. I have four brothers and they treated me basically the same as one of the lads. Well OK, they pulled their punches, but that was mostly because I was, and still am, really very small. My point is they treated me, more or less, as an equal. And I didn't know any different until I was in my mid-twenties.... No really.
I was convinced I was solely into girls in my teens and only really hung around gay people in gay bars and all we did was get drunk and high and have a laugh, amongst the rows and drama everyone goes through when they're young. It wasn't until I'd left college, and started working that I started to twig something wasn't quite adding up. I noticed that women were treated a bit differently, that we were expected to do odd jobs around the office that blokes didn't have to do. We made more teas, we cleaned up a bit more, we weren't invited to as many outings or if we were on a night out we were expected to behave 'appropriately' while the blokes went out and smashed things. And if a woman behaved out of the norm, then she was made out to be odd, or lesbian or some other such weirdo. We had to dress a certain way, and then be flattered when a bloke acted like a sleaze ball. Then there was the office banter. The casual jokes about race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and then... rape.
When you're brought up in a home full of trauma, and learn to swear like a sailor by the tender age of four and you're still shocked by the locker room talk in the office, then you know something is quite wrong. You see the rule in my home, amongst my brothers, was 'Don't be a Dick' (and never touch Owen's tapes). You can say what you want, do what you want and take something pretty far before you cross the line, but the line was clear as day and we knew not to cross it. My mum is probably a bit of an accidental racist, she says things she shouldn't about Nigerians and Muslims, but I know for a fact that if she saw someone in trouble, she would throw herself in there and help them, even if it was just calling the Gardaí, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. And if any of us had said the 'N' word or called someone queer she would have slapped the white off our asses quicker than we could say Michael Collins. And when it came to joking about the violent abuse or rape of women, well, let’s just say that there are few things my mother would do time for murder for.
When my mother was growing up, women could still be raped by their husbands, legally. Fathers and husbands beat women up and down the country, girls were thrown into institutions if they became 'wayward' or pregnant. They were refused jobs and treated as lesser citizens and serfs by men. She would tell you that she's glad that times have changed. But joking about things that happened to women on a fairly regular basis would be like joking with a black person about the days when they could be owned by their white masters and given as gifts to one another to be molested raped, beaten or killed on a white man's whim. There are just some things, that are so horrible, so deeply and importantly wrong, that to joke about them, crosses the line. In short... you're being a dick.
There was a bit of a interweb storm today about an online 'lad's mag' who posted a story that appeared to condone rape, as the odds were in favour of a rape going unreported.
One tweeter quoted the website's founder Alex Partridge's Facebook status from earlier in the year
The site 'apologised' for the article on twitter and Facebook , but has yet to post an apology on the main site. The apology is somewhat of a non-event when you examine the content of the rest of the website. A quick twitter search will dig up quite a few dodgy articles, an unusual amount focused on rape, sexual assault and rough and violent sexual encounters with women. Then there are the comments from Facebook fans under the apology. Calls for feminists, complainants and anyone who doesn't like the article to be beaten, raped or in some cases strangled. Now I don't believe that the majority of these comments are serious but there's the odd one like...
"I'd say rape only happens because wenches can't handle the banter...but I got in trouble for that before haha"
That make me worry. A recent article in Jezebel highlighted the worrying correlation between the comments in well known lads mags and those of convicted rapists.
The thing is, when you joke about rape... how can you be sure the person you’re talking to hasn’t been raped? You have a one in four chance that the person you’re speaking to is reliving the worst memory of their life. All because you are so far removed from the experience that you think it's funny. It's abstract to you because you can't imagine how awful it would be. People who are raped don't make jokes about it. Children who are abused don't laugh about it afterward. They never, ever get over it and if you're thinking your right to freedom of speech, trumps their right not to have to relive the horror of someone forcing sexual violence upon them, then you're wrong. End of story
You're just wrong.
Some people think that there isn't a need for feminists, just decent human beings. And there's certainly an argument for that, but so many people call themselves decent human beings while at the same time discriminating against other people based on their gender without even a twinge of conscience. Many of the commenter's under that Facebook post consider themselves right-minded individuals just having a bit of a laugh or 'banter'. They would probably even baulk at racism, some at homophobia, ironically. But when it comes to women, it's taken that because women in the west 'have it so good', it's a tongue and cheek, harmless laugh.
I wasn't born a feminist. Shit like this made me one. When I realised it was OK to treat me differently because I have a vagina, when I realised that half the planet was treated less human than the other because of their gender, when I realised that people my age and younger, not just some old school grandpas who were set in their ways, talked about women like they were fuckable living dolls... I realised I was a feminist and so will always be.
Update: The UniLad site is down for 'maintenance'. Rumour has it William Hill bookies have withdrawn sponsorship. Result! Can I get a chest bump??
Another Update: The story just got Huffpo'd! Hollah!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
7
Untitled…
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| Kate Fitzgerald. Image sourced from The Irish Times Website |
But for the grace of god, go I…
I’m not a believer but I’ve always had a fondness for that saying. It reminds me that I am lucky, that I have... until now... survived. What happens tomorrow is an unknowable, uncontrollable, unquantifiable thing but for now, at his moment, I am safe. When I read the story of Kate Fitzgerald I felt for a brief time that I was reading about someone I knew and I was struck still and silent. Our paths had walked so closely that I could have tipped my cap at her as she passed. As I read of her suicide, I said goodbye and felt regret for this woman, who had walked so close and yet never met.
Kate Fitzgerald was an accomplished young woman, and at the age of 25, her achievements far outshone my own. She and I were different ages, we looked nothing alike and, from what I have read, our upbringings were very different. The only way in which I could say we were similar was that we were both women, in a similar phase of life, keeping our heads above water with one foot weighted by depression.
When you meet, or even just read about someone whose experience mirrors your own, there is a kind of respect, a marker set down that says ‘I see you’.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
2
Street_Heart
As some of you are aware I'm studying web technologies at NCI. The time has crept up on me so fast my head is spinning and I'm at the stage where it's time to start my end of year project. A classmate of mine, Danny, shares my enthusiasm for the urban arts and we decided to try and make a positive difference with our project. There aren't many times in your life wen you have the time and resources to do something like this, so here goes.
Our plan is to launch a web campaign called Street_Heart, aimed at raising funds for Focus
Ireland. I'm sure I don't have to tell
you that its a crazy time of year for everyone both financially and
work-wise, and with the proposed increases in VAT and cuts to social
protection, everyone has a lot on their minds. In the midst of all of
this there are more and more families losing their homes and many
people, 1 in 7 of them children, are facing down the prospect of spending
Christmas sleeping rough or
in sheltered accommodation.
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