Women say ‘Don’t Think About My Vagina!’
It's the last thing any man should be imagining, according to campaigners
In a provocative new initiative, women across North America will be donning “Don’t Think About My Vagina” buttons over the next few weeks. Launched by the NoVa Foundation, the button initiative is part of a $34 million dollar campaign aimed to help women feel more secure in their bodies, while stressing to men the importance of obtaining enthusiastic and ongoing consent to think about a vagina.
For too long, men have felt entitled to imagine women’s bodies for their own pleasure.
“It’s demeaning,” said actress and human rights activist Lia Van Elk, best known for her role in Pheasant Lore. “I don’t want some random guy thinking about my vagina.”
Van Elk’s hashtag #NoVa has since gone viral, and she finds herself at the forefront of a mass movement of women resisting sexual objectification.
Sheila Rothman, a community worker and textile artist, sees the movement as long overdue. Speaking to SheForShe, the American organization that has stepped up to support NoVa on social media, she said “My vagina is not a fantasy object for the male mind. NoVa helps me short-circuit predatory ways of thinking.”
This kind of initiative stretches at least as far back as the 1970s when cinema theorist Laura Mulvey published her groundbreaking essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1973), which argued that the camera eye in film is always male, turning women into objects of “the male gaze.”
According to University of Buffalo women’s studies professor Lynn Davies, “Why shouldn’t acts of the masculinist imagination be understood within the same phallocentric economy, with the woman a commodity in phallic space?”
It’s a concept that is challenging for some. “It seems as if it’s yet another way to blame men for everything,” said one skeptical observer, who preferred that his name not be used. “I should be able to think about whatever I want.” Some men, however, have been very supportive. Justin Shorten, a second-year pre-med student, hoped every man would take the message to heart. “It’s long past time for men to grapple with the harm caused by our privilege,” he said. “I’m already thinking differently about va--, about what I’m NOT to think about.” He acknowledged that it will take time for him to gain full self-control.
Lesbian writer Sheri Wells stressed the importance of inclusion: “Taking back one’s vagina from masculinist control is important whether we were born with one or not. I want to see trans women fully involved.” Wells also questioned how lesbians would be served by the campaign, pointing out that “Unfortunately, many lesbians stop thinking about their partners’ vaginas fairly early in the relationship. The challenge is, sometimes, to remind them that vaginas exist. So that’s a tricky issue.”
Still in its early days, the campaign has sparked conversation and awareness, and pundits are optimistic that it can have a lasting impact.
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Can a Sexual Assault Be Consensual?
A Brazilian performer and playwright may be in legal trouble if it is determined that The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella, a play that will be performed in Australia in early June, involves onstage sexual assault.
In the play, a woman is drugged into unconsciousness and then has a speculum (a medical instrument) inserted into her vagina by performers. The penetration of the woman with the speculum seems to be “consensual”—after all, it is what the author and main actor agreed should be performed—but some legal experts aren’t sure it’s legal.
Carolina Bianchi, whose performance art deals with topics such as femicide and anti-woman terror, is the author, director, and main actor in the play, which will be staged at the upcoming Rising Festival in Melbourne. Foregrounding the trauma of rape, the performance recreates a sexual assault Bianchi says she experienced over a decade ago. On stage, she induces incapacity by ingesting tranquilizers. Once she is unconscious, a group of women insert a speculum and tiny camera into her vagina, so that audience members can witness her post-assault gynecological exam.
It's not exactly the sort of theater experience that most audience members are seeking when they prepare for a night of entertainment. But is it a crime?
Australia now has strict rules about consent. Consent must be active, ongoing, and sober. Bianchi is definitely not sober, and she gives no ‘Yes.’
One legal analyst explains that she is, in effect, both directing and participating in a criminal act that usually results in a non-parole incarceration period of 10 years.
“Under Victorian law, sexual penetration doesn’t have to be for a sexual purpose; it’s enough if an object manipulated by someone […] penetrates someone’s vagina,” notes Melbourne Law School Professor Jeremy Gans. “There’s an exception for medical or hygienic purposes, but the purpose has to be genuine, not just mimicking medical acts, as here.” Gans also notes that “The law [by which an unconscious woman cannot give consent] was likely aimed at situations of involuntary unconsciousness, but it nevertheless very likely applies to voluntary unconsciousness, as here.”
According to Gans, even audience members could be co-participants in criminal sexual assault, since they are technically assisting in and encouraging the crime.
If she is charged with sexual assault, the Brazilian women’s activist would be the first woman to be criminally tried for sexually assaulting herself. There have been cases in which a woman married herself, but so far none in which a woman was her own sexual assailant.
Feminists advocates, who have been adamant that a woman cannot consent to sex when she is unconscious—even if she consents in advance—have so far not addressed this particular instance of unintended consequences.
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If you found these two April news stories interesting, you might want to consider which one is NOT an April Fool’s joke (don’t look at the links). Hard to say? Ain’t it the truth!
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The original:
https://planetwavesfm.substack.com/p/cc656ca9-d7b6-4b23-816a-fcff61ed60ba
Hello all, and good evening from New York.
My personal favorite English professor has asked me to explain how the concept for the Don't Think About My Vagina pin came about. I am thrilled she based a satire on it, and got it to many people and I love the comments below that brought out many layers of the issue I was commenting on.
My original concept was for a DTAMV teeshirt -- the cute little babydoll style. In 2018, I was assaulted by a local group of claimed "feminists" for my common sense coverage of the MeToo movement. You can find that whole scenario here, with all the supporting documents. I have a feeling many who frequent this Substack will find it interesting and even see plenty that I have not seen. That was way back in 2018.
https://planetwaves.net/bad-moon-rising-wicked-game-eric-francis-coppolino/
One of the ways I exposed the fraud was with satire. It really is a useful tool and the lord has blessed me with a modest gift. And as part of that, I designed a shirt at Rush Order Tees using their online design tool, and posted it to Facebook. I credited the shirt to the "Hudson Valley Feminist Collective," which I have basically taken over by doing so many spoofs of them (this included a flyer that said "Forced Vaccination is Rape" during the covid scam).
Earlier this year, I learned that an organization called the NoVo Foundation, led by Peter Buffet, the son of billionaire Warren Buffet, had created the whole campaign against me and paid off organizations an amount comparable to what the FBI offers for one of their most wanted terrorists — depending on how you count, a total in six figures, or seven. Not a bad bounty for the reputation of a horoscope columnist.
So I decided to re-brand DTAMV and credit the "NoVa" foundation, to send them a little thank you message. Buttons along with the press release added above were widely distributed throughout the city of Kingston, New York (a little upstate berg north of NYC) of which Buffet fancies himself student body president, bribing everyone and everything (except me).
That's the basic story!
Anyone in the United States who wants one of these buttons, send a SASE to Chiron Return, PO Box 4141, Kingston, NY 12402. If you want a packet of them, send a check for $5 and I'll send them in a padded envelope.
Thank you Janice for all of your kindness, intelligence and genuine loving support for men, and for being my own personal English professor, which I hope you don't think is too objectifying.
xo
efc
Let's make a deal, ladies. We will stop thinking about your vaginas when you stop thinking about the size of our bank accounts.