Stephanie Rogers believes the protesters recognize the intersecting oppressions of gender, race, class, and sexuality, but there are still some sides she wishes she didn’t see.
I’ve been 100% on board with Occupy Wall Street since it began almost a month ago. I wrote about my experience protesting with them on October 5, and—leading up to the Times Square Occupation—I almost had goose bumps. I was ready to take the square. And then, it happened—I browsed Facebook. In my defense, I went to the Facebook community page for Occupy Wall Street to find out exactly when and where I should meet my fellow protesters, but instead, I found a YouTube video posted by the page administrator that more than seven hundred people had shared and on which hundreds of people had commented. I had to watch it. I wish I wouldn’t have. The “comedian” ranted with so much repressed disdain for women that it couldn’t help but leak out, turning his tirade from something intended to critique Wall Street and the Banks into an opportunity to degrade women directly; when he ranted about the true Economy Tankers, or the mainstream media, or those who don’t support the movement, he conveniently addressed them as an abstract and general “you.” I created a transcript of the entire video just to make sure I wasn’t going all woman and not understanding comedy and getting unnecessarily pissed about little things that don’t matter. Let’s see! Video and transcript below, with bullshit in bold:
The New York Times, the highly respected New York Times, did a great article yesterday about Occupy Wall Street. The entire report revolved around how Occupy Wall Street is a big pain in the ass to the area’s public bathrooms. Now there’s two things you need to know about the last sentence I just said. A: I’m not kidding. B: The double entendre was unintended. There will be several more of those in the following three minutes, and all of them are unintended except for seven. The New York Times, which is a so-called liberal media outlet, is more concerned about the harm done to the public restrooms than they are with the harm done to the American people by corporations and Wall Street titans who make Charlie Sheen’s moral compass look like that of Harriet Tubman. As billionaires continue to shit all over this country like it’s a bathroom near Occupy Wall Street, the media is more worried about the bathrooms near Occupy Wall Street? Are you fucking serious? Get your head out of your ass, and maybe you’ll be able to better see your priorities. This world is a shit storm of greed that desperately needs mopping up. We’re talking about people’s homes, people’s lives, people’s dreams, and the media wants to make it about the discomfort of millionaires who live around Liberty Square? The article said mothers have trouble getting strollers around police barricades. God forbid the revolution should get in the way of your evening stroll with pookie wookie. This may not be a revolution in the traditional sense, but this is a revolution of thought. Americans are tired of greed over good, profitable pollution over people, war for wealth over the welfare of average workers. This is a thought revolution, and the revolution will not be sanitized. It will be criticized, ridiculed, intentionally misconstrued, and misunderstood. But it’ll push through. Shit all over it all you want, but the floodgates are open now. The revolution will not be tidy. The revolution will not fit with your Pilates schedule. The revolution will not be quiet after 10 pm, and it will not fit easily into a mainstream media- defined paradigm. The revolution will affect your bottom line. The revolution will affect you whether you ignore it or not. The revolution will not be dissuaded by barricades or pepper spray, driving rain, police raids, or ankle sprains. It’s like the postal service on steroids; pepper spraying us is like throwing water on gremlins—the more you do it, the more of us show up. The revolution will be annoying to the top 1% and those who aren’t open minded enough to understand it. The revolution does not care if you satirize it; you still won’t be able to jeopardize it. The revolution will not wait until after your hair appointment, your dinner party, tummy tuck, or titty tilt. The revolution does not care about your lack of intellectual curiosity. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be digitized and available on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere real ideas are told. The revolution will not be hijacked by your old, tired, rejected political beliefs. The revolution will make politicians squirm, bankers bitch, elites moan, and those with Stockholm Syndrome scream, “Hit me, punk criminal assholes. Shut up and do what our captors told you. There’s a sitcom on about a chubby guy who hates his wife, and we’re supposed to watch it. Now fall in line.” The revolution will not be monetized, commercialized, circumcised, or anesthetized. Good god, don’t you get it? Greed is no longer good, and it’s not god. The thought revolution is here to stay whether you give two shits about it or not. The revolution would, however, like to apologize for shitting all over your apathy. Now pick a side.
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If we are not willing to invest in the very programs that will help pull some of our poorest Americans—single mother led households and women of color—out of the spiral, then we are not rebuilding the economy. We are only as strong as our most vulnerable, as the saying goes. To continue a national discussion on unemployment and the recession without acknowledging that our women and children are suffering the most, not because we aren’t able to implement programs and pass legislation like universal, affordable child care, paid sick days, increased food stamp benefits, fair pay standards and more but because we aren’t willing to do so, is something we must own up to and do something about if we are to rise above these hard times and come out stronger than we were when we headed into the recession.
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When we think about the elite 1 percent in a position of economic and political power in America, we have to recognize that those elites are predominantly straight, white men. Their position of power is upheld by patriarchy, by white privilege, by heteronormativity. If we want to dismantle oppression in our society, we can only hope to do so by recognizing the ways in which these various systems of oppression intersect and support one another. That doesn’t mean we can’t focus on the economy as a nexus of inequality; clearly, the occupation of Wall Street speaks directly to fighting corporate power and economic privilege. But we cannot imagine creating a society rooted in equality without fighting for all forms of equality, and that includes embracing feminist values.
I can’t give a deep analysis of sexism or attitudes towards women in the movement as a whole, but as a comedian and woman myself, I have to agree with the author on her points about his comments. First of all, comedians (or “comedians”) are angry people (all of us), and political comedians are certainly especially angry (extra big fuel for fury). In doing bits or rants, especially with standup types, it’s totally inevitable that bits of the subconscious come to the surface- our dark sides. Things we might normally hide we get to say in a monologue like that.… Read more »
Thanks for commenting!
But did everyone immediately stop reading after the YouTube transcript? I go on to argue pretty adamantly that, while sexism and racism are bound to exist in any movement that claims to represent 99% of the population, the organizers of OWS and their solidarity camps are doing a stellar job of putting programs in place to combat these issues.
Stephanie — I think you’re right… most people stopped after the YouTube clip (that’s the trouble with video, sometimes… they give us an excuse to skim the words). Thanks for sharing your post and your thoughts, and especially the Ms. article – I think the questions you raise are really appropriate, and that any protest movement should be honest about the presence of latent prejudice and inequities within its ranks… even the most righteous people and movements in the world are guilty of having blind spots in their ethos. I hope, despite some of the negative comments above, that OWS… Read more »
Yes. Everyone did. Its long, boring and crazy.
If his comments aren’t sexist, then where is the pigeonholing of men? Where are the shaming comments about playing too many video games and masturbating yourself to sleep every night after watching hours of porn? Or caring only about expensive cars or executive position? Men don’t deserve to be characterised that way, just as women don’t deserve to be pigeonholed as only caring about hair appointments or pilates classes. If he were trying to make fun of everybody using stereotypes, he would have found plenty of material to use against both sexes. But he chose to only make fun of… Read more »
I’ve pushed a stroller, taken Pilates classes, hosted a dinner party, and gotten a haircut. Does the comedian hate me? (Still haven’t gotten a tummy tuck or titty tilt, but never say never.)
The “Occupy [insert urban area here]” phenomenon is incredibly diverse. You can find people spouting all sorts of wonderful and horrible things in protest. You can find a million different spokespeople all trying to represent their take on the movement. I’d be absolutely shocked if there were no hint of sexism anywhere within the protest movement, as if it would be the most purely progressive milieu in the world. I think it’s laughable to search for any sort of ideological purity in the Occupy City X movements. I bet you’ll even find some genuinely wealthy people “slumming it” downtown. (And,… Read more »
I’m all for including women on GMP. I never liked sites that exclude posters by gender. I’m commenting on this post in particular, as being vapid and irrelevant. She is making mountains out of molehills – indicting the entire OWS movement based on mild criticism that uses female yuppies as an example. He compares Charlie Sheen unfavorably with Harriet Tubman. Maybe someone should yell misandry!
Linguist,
Aside from my comment above, I welcome the female perspective. How can we be better men by excluding women from our dialogues? I thank those women who choose to have the courage to speak their truth here…
Ever been to a party where some obnoxious drunk (M/F) puts a shadow on an otherwise good time? Ever see someone (M/F) in a restaurant who complains about the food and the service no matter how good or bad it is? Ever run across a boss or supervisor (M/F) that try as you might you can’t seem to please? There’s difficult people in whatever group we’re in. Same can be said for OWS. Get a grip, ladies. We’re well aware of the male…. “Jerks”… in our company. As linguist so indelicately put it, We’re here in support of GMP trying… Read more »
As a woman, I don’t take his rant as anti-woman per se, rather it’s anti-Yuppie. Yes, he could have added some male Yuppie examples, but it sounds like what set him off was the charge that the protest is bad because it is inconvenient for Yuppie mothers with strollers, and his reaction was, who gives a fuck? I think he probably ( rightly) saw the mothers-with-strollers thing as a red herring, a form of cynical emotional manipulation designed to turn mainstream New Yorkers against the protest because OMG, it’s bothering the mommies!
I agree with the author that the man who recorded this rant is weakening his message by showing disdain for women. He could just as easily have mentioned golf games and squash, cruises and fancy cars, or other indicators of wealth that are not specifically identified with women. Because, other than the stroller comment, his complaints about what non-revolutionaries might have to miss out on — “your hair appointment, your dinner party, tummy tuck, or titty tilt” — have nothing to do with the physical occupation at all. They have to do with activities women are involved in that he… Read more »
Why is this posted on GMP? This is a long, crazy and boring rant. Typical feminist petty sniping.
One guy, in a long youtube video criticizes upper middle class suburbanites using a few female oriented examples, and suddenly the entire OWS movement is misogynistic?
Are you lost? Go post this driven on Jezebel.
In the reference to Condoleezza, I meant “racist”, not sexist.
Do I detect in Stephanie’s article a bit of misandry? Truth is both sexes have been wounded by their opposites. What I really resent is the implication by some women that I’m somehow responsible for their mistreatment at the hands of other men. I’m not. I’m only responsible for what I’ve done. In relationships we see the best and worst of each other. And listening to women talk about their men – in the majority of instances – it’s the mirror of men talking about women. Look beyond the hubris – we’re all hurting. We’re also on the road to… Read more »
Geesh. I’m a woman and I see nothing in that comedian’s routine that could be construed as hatred of women. He’s just taking aim at the yuppie lifestyle and there are just as many barbs aimed at men.
Word! He’s attacking a particular class of people, not a gender.
There’s not a single shred of evidence that he hates women in that entire transcript, nor in anything else you said in the article. As usual, female supremacists confuse criticizing certain aspects of particular women with hating all women. Just plain bizarre. Feminists must see all women as a monolith.
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This feminist website is grasping at straws. You’re accusations of woman hatred are outright ridiculous.”The Good Men Project”. Who do you think you are trying to shame…self respecting men?
I don’t think potshots at certain liberal women (and men) fits the bill for being misogynistic. This guy uses Harriet Tubman as a bar for morality, but dares to question those who find civil unrest unseemly and you call him misogynistic? Hardly. It’s a call to get a clue. Perhaps he should have included men as potential stroller pushers (I am one, but I try to avoid police barricaded areas all together when walking my little pookie wookie). It is very aggravating to people have are passionate enough about injustices to hit the streets to have their movements limited due… Read more »
I have not been to OWS but have gone to Occupy Orlando. I spoke about the issues important to me which include their issues plus a few more women’s/mother’s rights issues. Everyone I spoke to was interested, was also not educated about the true scope of the problem and when informed about the true history of these issues agreed that it was wrong. I feel I got further in making a non-believer in the protective mother issue into a believer with an occupier than with a non-occupier. They were open minded and not at all misogynist. Maybe things are different… Read more »