Melody Hensley

ORLAN the Feminist

I’ve always heard French performance artist ORLAN described as a feminist, although some dispute that. I went to her official website’s FAQ where she is asked if she is a feminist and she replies,”I am neo-feminist, post-feminist and alter-feminist!

I believe that sex discrimination, machismo and misogyny are inked in all religions, all colors of skin and countries with different degrees. It is the largest apartheid that exists with millions of women who have no right to education, speech, and without access to medical care. Many are sex slaves confined at home and whom we have the right to beat or even kill. It is impossible to break away from this global problem, even though when you are an artist, you have other problems to deal with.

As an artist, there is often discrimination, even when the profesionnal stakes become serious (exhibitions in galleries, museums, public commissions). Women artists in most cases are excluded.”

Her reply is certainly feminist, but I do not know how this is this neo/post/alter feminist. It sounds like standard feminism to me. Is the outrageous ORLAN afraid of being ordinary?

A Chronological Listing of Key Events in the War on Women in the Secular Movement

My husband, Simon Davis, is working on an ongoing project listing the events related to the war on women in the secular and skeptic movements in a timeline:

“… someone new to the topic will probably miss out on many of the key events through no fault of their own, with the subject appearing more unwieldy than it has to be. This has necessitated a chronological examination of the topic in it’s entirety, that provides an accessible and meaningful summary.”

The project has just begun so bookmark the page and check back as more information is added.

A List of Anti-Feminist Tropes

This Atheist Doesn’t Celebrate Christmas

Most atheists happily celebrate a secular Christmas. Not this one. I’ve been an atheist since I was 13. As soon as I realized that I was no longer Christian (or a theist for that matter), I no longer identified with Christian traditions like Christmas. It bothered me when people would wish me a “Merry Christmas!” when they didn’t know what religion I was. I could easily be Jewish or a Jehovah’s Witness. I didn’t want to be a part of the ‘secular Christmas’ that made mainstream Christian traditions the default and left everyone else feeling like outsiders. 

When I tell Christians that I don’t celebrate Christmas they seem a bit shocked at first. Then they usually ask, “What do you celebrate?” I tell them that I find reasons to celebrate at different times of the year, and they seem satisfied. However, if I tell an atheist that I do not celebrate Christmas, I usually get an interrogation. I always receive a long explanation why they celebrate Christmas, and too often I am told that my position is extreme. I’m not doing it right. I’m a curmudgeon. They take it personally how I spend December 25. They take it personally that I have values that they don’t understand or perhaps they feel that their values are implicitly being attacked. I wish my atheist friends could be more like the tolerant Christians I talk to during the holidays. 

My colleague, Tom Flynn, who wrote the book, The Trouble with Christmas, gets the worst of it. He travels around the country giving talks about why the non-religious should not celebrate Christmas. It’s a very educational and entertaining talk. However, he doesn’t get many converts and he gets a lot of backlash. 

I was really happy when I met Tom. He didn’t celebrate Christmas for all of the same reasons I didn’t and he wrote a whole book about it.

If you would like to read more about Tom Flynn’s views on Christmas, here is an article he wrote for the Washington Post in December of 2010.

What are Trauma Triggers?

I’m certainly not going to respond to every misinformed misogynist who attacks me on Tumblr or elsewhere on the Internet, but I think this may be informative for those who have never heard about ‘triggers’. Perhaps you’ve seen a ‘trigger warning’ on a blog or video, but you didn’t know what it was. Or perhaps you’ve heard the word ‘triggers’ and you think you know what it means, but you really don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

I recently posted a video where Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency talks about being attacked by a misogynistic cyber mob. I mentioned that while the video was definitely worth watching, I was no longer able to do so, because it triggered my stress disorder caused by the online misogyny and harassment I deal with on a daily basis. I actually used the word “panic”, as I wasn’t sure if I was ready to ‘come out’ about how much the abuse has affected me.

I know the cyber mob watches everything I do. They take great joy in my pain and every opportunity to mock me. They will use this to mock too.

Some helpful Tumblr commenter informed me that, “Everyone knows that mean words can’t cause trigger effects. Attention Whore.” Emphasis mine.

As absurd as that statement is, I’m going to address it. Almost anything can be a trigger, including just a memory, which is often the case for me. Rather than me telling you what I think a trauma trigger is, I’m going to good ol’ Wikipedia, because I thought it gave a pretty thorough definition:

“A trauma trigger is an experience that triggers a traumatic memory in someone who has experienced trauma. A trigger is thus a troubling reminder of a traumatic event, although the trigger itself need not be frightening or traumatic.

Triggers can be quite diverse, appearing in the form of individual people, places, noises, images, smells, tastes, emotions, animals, films, scenes within films, dates of the year, tones of voice, body positions, bodily sensations, weather conditions, time factors, or combinations thereof. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate, and can sometimes exacerbate post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition in which trauma survivors cannot control the recurrence of emotional or physical symptoms, or of repressed memory. A trauma trigger may also be referred to as a trauma stimulus or a trauma stressor.”

Women in Secularism in Free Inquiry

I was the guest editor for the Dec. 2012 / Jan. 2013 edition of Free Inquiry magazine. You should check it out. It’s about the Women in Secularism conference. What’s the Women in Secularism conference you ask? The most kick-ass non-theist women speakers and (men and women) audience members in one room for a crazy fun and enlightening weekend. Link to my intro piece for the Women in Secularism section of the magazine here.