I care very much about the Jena 6. Wore black.
But until the Lesbian 7 matters to the American public – or at least to progressives and feminists — as much as the Jena 6, I won’t be posting about the Jena 6 beyond this much.
The way the Lesbian 7 has been ignored by progressives and feminists is beyond discouraging, is inexcusable.
Heart
Tonight, for the first time in YEARS, I watched television. News. And the whole time I watched about that story I kept thinking, what about those six women who are battered by our culture and legal system, who’d marching and carrying signs and chanting for THEIR rights, with that being on the international tv news?
Who. Where.
Seven. And “who’s”
You know what I meant.
I’ve contacted a distant acquaintance – a friend of a friend of a friend – about them, a lesbian woman with some pull at a local radio station. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully the story will start to get some play.
Or Dunbar Village, where is the outcry for Dunbar Village. I want justice for the Dunbar Village victims dammit!
It is all about the Menz. The Menz pissing contest.
While I feel that the Black students in Jena were treated unjustly, the outpouring of emotion and support is making angry. The rallying cry “MEN IN JEOPARDY!” brings all the protestors out of the woodwork. Sharpton saying it’s about ‘justice, not race’ is laughable in the face that I certainly haven’t heard him say anything about the Lesbian 7.
The support for Genarlow Wilson angered me too, particularly after I found out that a second girl, a 17-year-old, DID accuse him of rape at the same party, but the charge was thrown out because she was drunk. I’ll support her, thanks very much.
but the charge was thrown out because she was drunk
WTF?!? Consent isn’t even possible when you’re drunk beyond a certain point — shouldn’t that bolster her charge?!?
And yeah, I was sitting at my university’s registration office today watching the whole thing on CNN and thinking, “I wonder if most of these people have even heard about what went down in New York.” Justicewalks, I hope your friend does pull some strings…People really need to wake the fuck up.
I am going to contact KPFK/Pacifica. I was a guest there *once*, not sure how much that will help. I know that Aletha and someone else here, not sure who, approached Amy Goodman on the Democracy Now boards asking her to pay some attention to the Lesbian/New Jersey 7. They were ignored.
Really it is hard to deal with my rage over this. These are the most *marginalized* of marginalized young women — black, dykes, young, poor, a few of them single moms. They’vwe been all but ignored, including by “progressives,” the Left, feminists, the whole goddamn world.
Heart
Heart, that was Melissa who contacted Amy Goodman. I wrote about this for my blog in response to your July entry (under the category Men Terrorizing Women, see Judge throws book at lesbians for self-defense), asking
Apparently the answer is, never. Meanwhile they rot in jail, all but forgotten.
I have beeen thinking about trying to do something for the Lesbian 7, but I don’t know what to do. I live in New Jersey, not close to Newark where they are from, and they are imprisoned in New York.
I think I will write a letter to the editor about them.
WTF?!? Consent isn’t even possible when you’re drunk beyond a certain point — shouldn’t that bolster her charge?!?
As I understand, it impaired her credibility. She was at the party and drunk, so obviously she was ok with sex.
Snort. The original way Wilson was portrayed, as if it was some grand romance he had with this 15-year-old, was a crock of bs too. He was one of multiple guys who got oral sex from the younger girl. She swore it was consensual, but I have to wonder about that too.
Well,
Pubescent girls are being trained now to perform oral sex to groups of boys in a lineup to prove their “hawtness” and “koolness” and to establish a semblance of heteronormative social identity – because of course, there is no other.
Actually, they’re being raised from toddlers to be hawties and sex-pozzies.
Mary
If you would like to help support these women, FIERCE!, a queer youth community organization in New York, has information on what you can do:
http://www.fiercenyc.org/updates_events/index.html
You can write them letters of support, or for other ways to contribute contact one of the people listed in the flyer linked on that page.
Miranda at #5– Thank you for writing this. I feel similarly. I find myself getting angry at the protest coverage and then I get mad at myself for doing so– I’m not angry at the protesters, I completely support them! I just keep thinking of those women rotting in jail and how most of those protesters don’t even know what really happened to the 7. They have probably never even heard of the case, or if they did, they got O’Reilly’s version of it.
I so angry at the MSM, I just want to throw something at the TV screen. I’m so sick of how women are either derided or completely ignored, of how violence against women is whitewashed, sexualized or erased.
I didn’t see the support of Genarlow Wilson. It makes me sick to think about it, but here again, the media has made him into a model student who simply had sex with a willing girl. They’ve painted a clean, acceptable portrait of what happened there– roundly ignoring the gang rape of the 17 year old girl.
I also caught the controversy over the Iranian president coming to Columbia U to speak this morning. Lots of talk about this past offensive statements about the Holocaust, lots of talk about his supposed involvement in the Iraq insurgency. No mention of how he treats his own female citizens. The horrible oppression of women in Iran that’s happening right here and now! Nothing! URGH!!!
Who is the mainstream American women’s issues reporter equivalent to The Guardian’s Julie Bindel?
Heh … Maureen Dowd of the NYT?
Or … wait a minute … GAIL COLLINS at the NY Times.
She has a column this morning.
She’s a new columnist there, of the female persuasion.
Mary
I don’t know how effective it will be, but there’s a petition online to free the Lesbian Seven:
http://www.petitiononline.com/theseven/
There are 609 signatures at the moment.
Class issues.
I had another thought about the Jena 6 compared with the New Jersey/Lesbian 7. The Jena 6 incidents/arrests took place in the South, and how our country and media love to hold to the lie that racism of this type only happens in the South and not elsewhere.
The New Jersey/Lesbian 7 incidents took place in the Northeast, in New Jersey, and we all know nobody there is racist.
Snort.
Oh quite true. The further north you go, the less racism. And finally when you cross the 49 parallel, why there’s NONE AT ALL. Everyone knows there’s no racism in Canada. Or intolerance of any kind. Zip.
Signed it, Magpie! Now it’s 616. .
Note to Octogalore: Sure, other bloggers/journalists have written about the New Jersey 7. My point is that this has not been remotely, nearly, even close to what has been written about/done for the Jena 6. Where are the demonstrations in support of the New Jersey 7? Where are the blog and website banners as we see everywhere for the Jena 6? Where is the ongoing pressure for media attention, support, help?
It’s here on my blog for sure. But it sure is not many other places; to wit, a petition with 609 names on it for the Lesbian 7, going on four months after the fact.
And no, I’m not going to approve your comment. Sorry.
Heart
If you go to the Incite site (and I have linked to it, and to other articles about the Lesbian 7), it thanks the “dozens” of protesters who showed up.
As opposed to, I think, thousands who showed up recently for the Jena 6.
My point here is, if we’re going to defend the Jena 6 to the hilt — AND WE SHOULD — we should be doing AT LEAST as much for the Lesbian 7.
Heart
I think the difference is between sincere concern about injustice with the Lesbian 7, and mindless me-too’ism with the bloggers ’supporting’ the other. Surely there are some on that issue who are truly concerned; but as for the sushi entre and its ilk, this is just them wrapping themselves in the cloak of holier-than-thou. More lefty banality and civil rights issue as social event.
I went to the list of links to blog posts about the New Jersey Seven sent to me by Octagalore. Out of 26 links, only a few were dated post-June, the time of the arrests. Many mentioned the Lesbian 7 only in passing, or linked in a way that it wasn’t obvious the Lesbian 7 was even listed. At least one of the links had nothing to do with the Lesbian 7, that I could find. Many were links to newspaper articles, again dated back in June. I found one recent link, and I think the post there is great.
I am saying, if we’re going to shout Jena 6 to the high heavens, as we should, let us also shout Lesbian 7 to the high heavens, as we also should.
In depth coverage. Banners. Demonstrations. Media.
Heart
We need a Lesbian 7 logo for our blogs.
Aww forget Octagalore. Allow one comment through and next thing you know the Jena 6 will be about how BDSMer’s and other pornhogs are oppressed in southern towns.
NO MEANS NO! Now beat it!
Okay, who is crafty and can make a powerful Lesbian 7 logo we can circulate around? I could make one if I were home, but I am limited here at work.
Someone? Anyone? We could link it to the Myspace page with all the info on how to help.
Also in the list was the link to Queer Women of Color’s post of September 13, but I dedicated a whole post to that already.
Also the dissembling gets tiresome. I said the situation is being ignored by feminist and progressive bloggers. That’s exactly what I said. It is true.
What would the logo consist of? I’ve got artistic ability, though not as much skill when it comes to computer graphics.
Chloe, I was thinking just something stark and striking: Free the New Jersey 7 or Justice for the New Jersey 7, possibly silhouetted women behind bars, or something like that?
That sounds like something that would be good to do in stark, high-contrast black and white. Inking might be good. . .I’ll see if I can whip up something.
Update: It’s halfway done. Heart, I’m sending you the work-in-progress of the logo through email. Hope that method is ok.
Hey, women, Chloe is talented! You should see her great work in progress.
Okay, I’m willing to see the great work. Please tell me how.
Hey, ekglendower, so far Chloe has sent me her drafts, her pencil drawing. She wanted my input. I presume since I told her I LOVED what she’d done, she will finish it, and then I’ll post so everybody can put the new banner on their blogs.
Hmm. I bet we could even make t-shirts and stuff like that!
Heart
I’m currently in the process of inking it, but I was just wondering about the New Jersey 7 . .. I didn’t see any coverage on them at the HRC website so I figured I could write to them and urge them to give the story more exposure.
Is there a link to a good article about what happened to those women that I can include in the message?
Hey, Chloe, here’s a link to my original blog post which contains links to a number of other articles:
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2007/07/08/in-support-of-the-lesbian-seven-i-believe-patreece-johnson-renata-hill-venice-brown-terrain-dandridge-chenese-loyal-lania-daniels-and-khamysha-coates/
Message sent! Thanks
. .and as an update, Heart, I’ve finished the graphic and emailed it to you.