"A woman with a goody closet doesn't need to pay for head"

I seriously encourage people to get involved in the current swedish debate about feminism. It's tremendously fun!

Here is how you do it: Read Pär Ströms book Mansförtryck och kvinnovälde. Put book down. Open a bottle of red wine. Watch some gay porn. When that doesn't erase the memory of that stupid book, try pouring bleach into your brain.

Now you can start getting into the flamewars debate that goes on in blogs and comments and of course on expressen.se. What you'll need is: A lot of time, a computer, and something with alcohol in it.

• Whenever someone uses the argument that although it doesn't seem like it, "many people" actually agree with him in private letters and emails where they write things like "keep up the good work" and "I agree with you", you drink.
• Whenever someone claims that the mere fact that the feminists are sooo upset about Pär Ström's book means he's already won, you drink (then look up the word "victory" in a dictionary where you find that no, that's not the definition at all).
• Whenever someone from the feminist camp thinks it's completely fine to start a sentence with "I haven't actually read Pär Ström's book, but here's what I think about it..." you drink.
• Whenever someone claims that nobody "dares" to agree with him/her even though they all actually really do and how he/she alone has the courage to take a public stand against wrongdoings, you drink. And imagine the person who said it dressed as Batman.
  

By now you may feel a bit confused. Yes, there are a lot of different opinions and terminology and sides to keep track on. But mostly it's the alcohol. And the only thing you actually do need to remember is the word "humanism". Humanism, you see, is the cure for everything that's wrong and unequal in the world today, who-hoo! The difference between humanism and feminism is that humanism is about equality between women and men. Yes. Because, as everyone knows, feminism is about equality between women and giant squids.

Everytime someone uses the term "humanism", you drink.

Have fun playing!

---
PS. Det här är en fantastiskt bra intervju, en som äntligen låter Pär Ström tala till punkt, och låter honom trassla in sig i rätt rejält i sin förklaring av vad mansförtryck är. Läs hela intervjun. Fucking bookmark it.

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om feminism, jämställdhet, batman

"Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex."

The problem with the current swedish feminist-antifeminist debate is a lack of semiotics. At some point you just gotta start analysing all those fancy words you're using.

And that's also my problem with it, that people who call themselves anifeminists or humanists or whathefuckever seem to think this debate is about running around and proclaiming to be "for equality" and selfcongratulatory explain that "I believe in equality for BOTH men and women!" and, well, yes, great, but what does that mean? In my experience, having once jumped from being a determined antifeminist to a third-wave-feminist, you need some Feminist Theory to back up all that pretty, pretty talk about equality. For instance, you need to determine what gender is, if you're gonna talk about it, what is innate and what is culturally constructed. You need to look at your own behavior in a critical way, and, well, we all know some people have a real problem with that, claiming it makes them feel "blamed" for something other people have done.

I do think some things are already set in motion and are thankfully not gonna be stopped by us arguing about -isms. For instance, I think the generations after us will never understand our willingness to put labels on sexuality. To actually think we could make up three or four categories for fucking, and then expect that to, you know, work. To care so much about where does this fit in? that we forgot about the fact that nothing in nature is that fussy. And I suppose, in that view, why would anyone care about theories and academia if what everyone say they want is absolut equality between the sexes anyway? Isn't that what we're hoping the fourth wave feminism is gonna be about anyway; redefining feminism, emphasizing other things than the feminists before? I mean, this is not really unheard of. Things progress. My grandparents had to teach their daughters that they could go to university and have a career in whatever job they wanted even if they had children, my parents had to make sure me and my sister knew that our sexuality was completely and totally our own and that nobody had the right to decide with who or how we chose to have sex, and I, in turn, will one day have to teach my daughters if I ever have any that they should never surrender any of the rights they now have just because a lot of very outspoken people will try to claim that the "outdated feminism that forced women to become like men" is the reason for most if not all of the modern world's difficulties. Funny how it goes, huh?

So should I just be glad there is a debate at all? Does it really matter what camp you're from if everyone has the same goal and change is a good thing anyway? It's just that, I don't really think the Swedish antifeminists and feminists do want the same thing, even if they both mention "equal rights." When a history-less, antifeminist who has never read Kristeva or even Susan Faludi starts being called an authority on "true" gender equality, I'm afraid all stuff - stuff that I care about - that seems too nit-picking will just be discarded as "feminist nonsense." While I do love it that people state that they don't classify people based on their gender, I still think that you need to do more than just say it out loud.

Well. So. That wasn't very coherent at all. I was gonna work Buffy in there somewhere too, but I've forgotten how now.

You know what you need after this much rambling? You need some wine, some self-loathing, and some drunk self-loathing Dylan Moran.




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"Are you telling me that not only did you invent a secret plan to fight inflation, but now you don’t support it?"

Per Gudmundson angående Andres Lokkos recension av Control:
"Control är inte ägnad att väcka tankar om klassamhället. [....] Men för säkerhets skull ska ändå en sak tilläggas, så att inte en massa lättledda ungdomar i salongerna råkar skriva in Joy Division i popvänsterns historiebok: i valet 1979 lade Ian Curtis sin röst på Margaret Thatcher."

Andres Lokko svarar:
"Ingen krystad retorik kan heller – om vi nu ska ta detta till sin spets - ändra på det så talande slutresultatet: Ian Curtis röstade på Margaret Thatcher, sedan hängde han sig."


Andres Lokko, how so AWESOME?

"I don't regret a thing, the things I do just make me laugh and make me wanna drink"

Blogg-meme! OK, det band name jag fick kunde väl ha varit roligare, men.

The first random article on wikipedia.org is your band name
The last part of the last quote here is you album title
The third picture here is your album cover art

Så här blev min:



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"A palindrome is some kind of elephant, right?"

Var på middag med E och M och K efter jobbet igår. E har precis blivit chef. När blev vi så vuxna?

OK. Jag tror att personer som Pär Ström verkligen tror att de jobbar för jämställdhet genom sitt avstånd till feminismen. De är upprörda, de berättar om hur män de känner blivit illa bemötta av arbetsgivaren när de ville vara pappalediga, eller om hur en manlig bekant fått höra av en kvinnlig socialsekreterare (kvinnlig, inte feministisk, ok? Det är en viss skillnad) att han som man inte kan leva på sin frus inkomster. Och jag tror dem. Naturligtvis tror jag dem. Vi vet att män blir orättvist bemötta pga sitt kön, precis som de även gynnas på grund av sitt kön, och det är heller ingen som argumenterar emot det i debatten. Det som så många däremot inte håller med Pär Ström och hans anhängare om är att denna orättvisa alltså inte skulle bero på det som feminismen menar; att vi har stela, stereotypiska, nedärvda ideer om vad som är "kvinnligt" och vad som är "manligt" som inte på något rimligt vis överensstämmer med de riktiga människor av kött och blod som faktiskt delar den här planeten med oss, och att det är där konflikterna uppstår. Nej, istället skulle det enligt Pär Ströms resonemang bero på att "feministerna" driver det som sin agenda.

Well. Det är en slående bisarr ide. Något har gått fel i deras kunskap om vad det betyder att granska samhället ur ett feministiskt perspektiv och belysa det man ser i den offentliga debatten. Men vad? Är det verkligen så att de bara tycker att feminism låter fel och borde kallas någonting annat?

Cause that would be rather silly. And I'm not having things getting silly.

En annan sak som fortfarande gör mig häpen är när man sitter och pratar med folk om USA-valet och någon alltid skall börja yra om att "Det är så ORÄTTVIST att Hillary kan vinna presidentvalet enbart för att hon är KVINNA! Kön skall faktiskt inte spela någon ROLL!" Mest eftersom det ju inte är sant. Så här är det: Hillary kan vinna presidentvalet i USA för att hon är kvinna och för att USA aldrig någonsin har haft en kvinnlig president. De som nu gnäller över hur orättvist det hela är kunde helt enkelt ha tänkt på det lite tidigare. Jag tycker inte heller om att vara i en situation idag år 2008 där kön (eller, säg, hudfärg) har betydelse för att vinna ett presidentval. Men det är ert fel, inte feministernas, inte Hillarys. Ert.

ETA: Läsvärt inlägg om en integritetsombudsmans ideer om källhänvisning.

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"i was born in the heart of a hurricane season"

Sometimes I take a break from writing on ze Novel, and I look at it and go why am I writing this? And I think, why do everything I write have to be so straight? I wanna write something queer, I wanna write this, like, post-apocalypse, surrealistic scenario with blazing skies and hot, scorched landscapes and the few surviving humans having to go into hiding and fight off the zombies from Resident Evil to stay alive and then roaming around on back roads trying to find missing loved ones, having to put their trust blindly in other survivors, and it'll be a story about forged friendships and about what keeps us going when the world has fallen apart around us, and did I mention the zombies, and it'll be gory and bleak and by the end everyone in the book will have gone crazy from the poisonous air and the endless, merciless daylight, and I'll call it "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines".

And then I think, get a grip, girl.

-
Also, why am I still writing this in English? I am back in Sweden, and back at work, now. Hmm, maybe it's my way of refusing to acknowledge this fact.

I wish there was more Russell Brand on my TV. Truly.

"Fuck and kiss you both at the same time"

"Vodka is a very deceptive drink, you drink it and you think 'What is this, this is pointless. You can't taste it, you can't smell it, why did we waste our money on this bloody - why are we on a traffic island?'"

Dylan Moran, how I love him. And his hair.



--
A couple of weeks ago I bought 2 tickets for this but I only just now noticed that the 3rd is a Monday, so how I will force anyone I know to take two days off from work to go to Stockholm and see it with me, I have no idea. My life, so hard.

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"I want a boy so drunk he doesn't talk"

Sometimes I wonder if Pär Ström isn't just playing a big joke on us, that he won't just one day drop the rabid, crazed, wild-eyed act and the irrational theories that feminism is about actively working to conceal that men too can be discriminated by unprogressive, stereotypical gender roles. Or, if that doesn't happen, that he at the very least start doing some actual research.

Dear Pär Ström,
Yes, I realize you have a book to promote but is it really too much to ask that you discuss the "feminist rhetoric" you're so outraged over in a less righteous and more, well, relevant way? We get that you're angry, but you seem to have real problems describing what exactly about feminist theory you are so offended by, except for some indignantly recited "facts" that mostly just show how little you know about the topic. Also, could you please stop confusing the Swedish political party "Feministiskt Initiativ" with the entire political and philosophical movement called feminism, 'kay thanx!

Hugs and kisses,
Sleepless

And what really kills me is that it might actually be an interesting debate around gender roles and what-not, if it just wasn't so batty. But other people say it better than I ever will.

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om feminism, mansförtryck, the drugs don't work

"I want a lover I don't have to love, I want a girl too sad to give a fuck"

2007
There was pär ström, pedofil-hysteri, elise claesson, bevara äktenskapet and marie söderqvist, urggh. But there was also strong coffee, alex schulman and johnny knoxville, yay.

My hate is still big and strong, and during 2007 I learned to hate teh stupid conservative, patronizing, self-serving, antifeminist, trying-(and-failing)-at-sarcasm bloggers and columnists with absolutely no clue about what human nature is all about (but still trying to teach us about it), even more than I used to.

Yes, I can see there's probably a correlation between my living with depression and my love for emo bands. And it's not just the black eyeliner either. There's just something about the way Pete Wentz captures his Jeff Buckley-soundtracked not-really-suicide attempt with the line "hum hallelujah, just off the key of reason" (guh) and about how the line "Sometimes we take chances, sometimes we take pills" makes my medicated brain feel understood and normal. If you think I'm going to start questioning it, you're insane.

Favourite youtube clip that I found during 2007, well, first I was gonna put up another one, but then I remembered the clip where The Used and My Chemical Romance do a cover of "Under Pressure" and that simply HAS to be my favourite because of - mainly - two reasons:

1. Covering a song originally done by Queen and David Bowie, isn't that just asking people to hate on you? So they're effectively a bunch of losers up there, playing their hearts out, and, well, what's not to love about that? Also, knowing how the loveaffair between Gerard Way and Bert McCracken eventually ended puts a sort of grim, wistful tinge to the performance.
2. Mikey Way on the tambourine. They have two drummers, three guitarists, two singers, so why couldn't they have two bassists? Not that Mikey isn't fabulous, swinging those hips to the beat like a stripper on sedatives. But couldn't they at least have given him a microphone for the tambourine?
   
   

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