PRESS RELEASES
For Immediate Release, July 29
StopPatriarchy.org / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com / @StopPatriarchy
Press Contact: Sam R., 415.312.2506
Interviews Available w Sunsara Taylor and activists heading to Mississippi
Stop Patriarchy Heads to Mississippi, Bringing Science & Women's Lives into Abortion Battle
Take Patriarchy By Storm - Mississippi 2015 - Abortion on Demand & Without Apology!
Featured Event
Friday, Aug. 7: Webcast Live from Jackson, MS - 7pm CST - Viewable at StopPatriarchy.org
People's Hearing for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology, featuring Diane Derzis (owner of Jackson Women's Health Organization, "Pink House"), Sunsara Taylor (writer for Revolution, initiator of StopPatriarchy.org), and many more...
With abortion in the national spotlight - centered around videos unscientifically equating fetuses to babies, and trying to portray abortion providers as monsters who are profiting from murder - Stop Patriarchy will be heading to Jackson, MS, home of the last abortion clinic in the state, and fighting to change the terms of the abortion battle nationally, and put women's lives back into the center of the debate through independent political resistance.
In a recently published article, "Stop the Lies and Attacks on Planned Parenthood! Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!", Sunsara Taylor states: "It is more important than ever for people who do not want to see women forced to have children against their will to speak openly and boldly about the tremendous positive importance of abortion rights. It is important to counter the lies being spread, including through reading and spreading this article about what a fetus and an abortion actually are. And it is critical that people join in politically resisting and refuting all the lies and attacks being made against Planned Parenthood—and against any other abortion providers who may come under attack."
Over the course of 10 days in Mississippi, Stop Patriarchy will bring a defiant spirit to shine a light on the abortion rights emergency, and issue a rallying cry for a national movement that is uncompromising and unwilling to rely on politicians or courts to win this fight. The group will disrupt business as usual, bring the science of abortion and the need for women's liberation to nearby communities, stand with the courageous escorts and clinic staff, and culminate the mobilization with a nationally webcast People's Hearing and rally.
Given recent moves by politicians to defund Planned Parenthood, which would have devastating consequences on women's lives, on top of an ongoing assault on abortion rights nationally, Mississippi - with only one clinic in the state, hanging in legal limbo - represents a concentration of the abortion rights battle.
In their call for a mobilization to Mississippi, Stop Patriarch states: "It is immoral to abandon these women, but it is delusional to think that what happens in Mississippi won't affect women everywhere if we do not turn the tide."
The group is in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to support the trip, and has received support from feminist author/poet Marge Piercy, and artist/playwright jessica Care moore in the form of book donations. Diane Derzis has also generously donated three free abortions at the "Pink House" for low income women in Mississippi as a pledge "perk".
BREAKING PRESS: "Taking Patriarchy By Storm" by Lori Sokol, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-sokol/taking-patriarchy-by-storm_b_7891736.html
This initiative comes as part of a larger summer project to "Take Patriarchy By Storm", which has included bold and defiant actions for abortion rights and against all forms of oppression and degradation of women (which have included pop-up protests at porn stores).
###
StopPatriarchy.org / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com / @StopPatriarchy
Press Contact: Sam R., 415.312.2506
Interviews Available w Sunsara Taylor and activists heading to Mississippi
Stop Patriarchy Heads to Mississippi, Bringing Science & Women's Lives into Abortion Battle
Take Patriarchy By Storm - Mississippi 2015 - Abortion on Demand & Without Apology!
Featured Event
Friday, Aug. 7: Webcast Live from Jackson, MS - 7pm CST - Viewable at StopPatriarchy.org
People's Hearing for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology, featuring Diane Derzis (owner of Jackson Women's Health Organization, "Pink House"), Sunsara Taylor (writer for Revolution, initiator of StopPatriarchy.org), and many more...
With abortion in the national spotlight - centered around videos unscientifically equating fetuses to babies, and trying to portray abortion providers as monsters who are profiting from murder - Stop Patriarchy will be heading to Jackson, MS, home of the last abortion clinic in the state, and fighting to change the terms of the abortion battle nationally, and put women's lives back into the center of the debate through independent political resistance.
In a recently published article, "Stop the Lies and Attacks on Planned Parenthood! Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!", Sunsara Taylor states: "It is more important than ever for people who do not want to see women forced to have children against their will to speak openly and boldly about the tremendous positive importance of abortion rights. It is important to counter the lies being spread, including through reading and spreading this article about what a fetus and an abortion actually are. And it is critical that people join in politically resisting and refuting all the lies and attacks being made against Planned Parenthood—and against any other abortion providers who may come under attack."
Over the course of 10 days in Mississippi, Stop Patriarchy will bring a defiant spirit to shine a light on the abortion rights emergency, and issue a rallying cry for a national movement that is uncompromising and unwilling to rely on politicians or courts to win this fight. The group will disrupt business as usual, bring the science of abortion and the need for women's liberation to nearby communities, stand with the courageous escorts and clinic staff, and culminate the mobilization with a nationally webcast People's Hearing and rally.
Given recent moves by politicians to defund Planned Parenthood, which would have devastating consequences on women's lives, on top of an ongoing assault on abortion rights nationally, Mississippi - with only one clinic in the state, hanging in legal limbo - represents a concentration of the abortion rights battle.
In their call for a mobilization to Mississippi, Stop Patriarch states: "It is immoral to abandon these women, but it is delusional to think that what happens in Mississippi won't affect women everywhere if we do not turn the tide."
The group is in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to support the trip, and has received support from feminist author/poet Marge Piercy, and artist/playwright jessica Care moore in the form of book donations. Diane Derzis has also generously donated three free abortions at the "Pink House" for low income women in Mississippi as a pledge "perk".
BREAKING PRESS: "Taking Patriarchy By Storm" by Lori Sokol, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-sokol/taking-patriarchy-by-storm_b_7891736.html
This initiative comes as part of a larger summer project to "Take Patriarchy By Storm", which has included bold and defiant actions for abortion rights and against all forms of oppression and degradation of women (which have included pop-up protests at porn stores).
###
For Immediate Release - July 16, 2015
StopPatriarchy.org
Press Contact: StopPatriarchy.Media@gmail.com
Breaking with a Losing Strategy & Going on the Offensive for Abortion Rights
Take Patriarchy By Storm 2015: Mississippi, July 31 - August 9
Abortion on Demand & Without Apology!
* Forging a New Path - What is unique and crucial about work of Stop Patriarchy?
* Mississippi Plans - 10 days of "Take Patriarchy By Storm"
* August 7 "People's Hearing," featuring Diane Derzis, owner of last clinic in MS
* Recent history of Stop Patriarchy
Forging a New Path:
Six states have only one abortion clinic left, dozens of clinics are being forced to close their doors, and abortion rights are being banned at earlier and earlier points in the pregnancy. What will it take for people who care about abortion rights to re-examine the strategy of "laying low," talking about "healthcare" instead of abortion, and pandering to "family values" and traditional religious ideals in the abortion debate? All this compromise and searching for "common ground" with fascists and theocrats has only meant losing ground.
Stop Patriarchy is forging another path, and urgently calling on people across the country to ditch all passivity and reliance on the Democratic Party, and start raising hell. There should be no confusion about what the battle over abortion rights has always been about: control over women. The anti-abortion movement must be confronted and openly denounced as a woman-hating program that would rather see women driven to desperate measures to self-induce, than have women running around with any shred of independence. As long as millions of people believe this is a matter of personal opinion that can never be resolved, or that the movement to abolish abortion has any moral legitimacy whatsoever, pro-choice people remain demobilized.
The strategy is simple, and the need is great:
1) Take on a national assault on women, nationally: raise a movement that can and will respond to attacks on abortion ANYWHERE as an attack on women EVERYWHERE.
2) Change the terms and imbue millions of people with moral certitude that abortion is not murder, fetuses are not babies, and women are not incubators. Not only is there NOTHING wrong with abortion, but to the contrary, forcing a woman into motherhood against her will is a form of enslavement.
3) Refuse to wait for the courts or the politicians to take the correct stand, and bring a fierce outpouring of righteous fury "from the bottom," a force of people increasingly unwilling to compromise about women's lives & liberation.
Take Patriarchy By Storm 2015: Mississippi
Stop Patriarchy will take on the national attacks on abortion rights from the frontlines in Jackson, Mississippi for ten days this summer.
Why Mississippi?
The Deep South is where the battle around abortion rights is most acute: where lack of access is disproportionately affecting Black and poverty-stricken women. It is also a window to the future for all women if this direction is not immediately reversed. In the entire state of Mississippi, there is only one abortion clinic left! This clinic is a last refuge for women for hundreds of miles throughout the state who find themselves pregnant but do not want to have a child. It is also the target of unrelenting Christian fascist harassment, legal attacks, and threats of closure. It is currently only able to stay open because of a temporary court order which is blocking a law that would close it down. The people who work at and support this clinic ("The Pink House") are heroes. In the face of vicious attacks they refuse to "lay low," they remain unapologetic about abortion, and unflinching in their fight to keep the clinic open.
HIGHLIGHTS WILL INCLUDE:
1) Clinic escorting and outreach to build support for the last clinic in the state, the Jackson Women's Health Organization, and to build support for Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!
2) August 7 "People's Hearing": a nationally web-cast program that will focus on the true dimensions of the emergency. This speak out will feature Diane Derzis, ownder of the Mississippi clinic, and combine the insights and experiences of community leaders, health care providers, and a wide-range of others to expose the human cost of clinic harassment and clinic closings.
3) Street theater, defiant “social interventions” (taking banners and stickers boldly out to crowds wherever they gather), and “pop-up protests” that call attention to the ways that women continue to be degraded and abused by rape, by the porn culture in this country, and by arbitrary laws that restrict access to birth control and abortion.
WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED, FROM STOP PATRIARCHY
#RaiseHellJ1 - Defiant national protests for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology on day that sweeping restrictions were set to take effect.
Roe v. Wade 2014 - Stop Patriarchy brought the annual "March for Life" to a halt in Washington, DC.
Abortion Rights Freedom Ride 2013, 2014 - In 2013, Stop Patriarchy traveled across the country to build resistance to the attacks on abortion rights, going to the states most severely affected. The actions drew support and attention from notable figures such as Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Morello, and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j6i9jUl1IA - Austin Statesman short piece on Stop Patriarchy members getting arrested at University of Texas
StopPatriarchy.org
Press Contact: StopPatriarchy.Media@gmail.com
Breaking with a Losing Strategy & Going on the Offensive for Abortion Rights
Take Patriarchy By Storm 2015: Mississippi, July 31 - August 9
Abortion on Demand & Without Apology!
* Forging a New Path - What is unique and crucial about work of Stop Patriarchy?
* Mississippi Plans - 10 days of "Take Patriarchy By Storm"
* August 7 "People's Hearing," featuring Diane Derzis, owner of last clinic in MS
* Recent history of Stop Patriarchy
Forging a New Path:
Six states have only one abortion clinic left, dozens of clinics are being forced to close their doors, and abortion rights are being banned at earlier and earlier points in the pregnancy. What will it take for people who care about abortion rights to re-examine the strategy of "laying low," talking about "healthcare" instead of abortion, and pandering to "family values" and traditional religious ideals in the abortion debate? All this compromise and searching for "common ground" with fascists and theocrats has only meant losing ground.
Stop Patriarchy is forging another path, and urgently calling on people across the country to ditch all passivity and reliance on the Democratic Party, and start raising hell. There should be no confusion about what the battle over abortion rights has always been about: control over women. The anti-abortion movement must be confronted and openly denounced as a woman-hating program that would rather see women driven to desperate measures to self-induce, than have women running around with any shred of independence. As long as millions of people believe this is a matter of personal opinion that can never be resolved, or that the movement to abolish abortion has any moral legitimacy whatsoever, pro-choice people remain demobilized.
The strategy is simple, and the need is great:
1) Take on a national assault on women, nationally: raise a movement that can and will respond to attacks on abortion ANYWHERE as an attack on women EVERYWHERE.
2) Change the terms and imbue millions of people with moral certitude that abortion is not murder, fetuses are not babies, and women are not incubators. Not only is there NOTHING wrong with abortion, but to the contrary, forcing a woman into motherhood against her will is a form of enslavement.
3) Refuse to wait for the courts or the politicians to take the correct stand, and bring a fierce outpouring of righteous fury "from the bottom," a force of people increasingly unwilling to compromise about women's lives & liberation.
Take Patriarchy By Storm 2015: Mississippi
Stop Patriarchy will take on the national attacks on abortion rights from the frontlines in Jackson, Mississippi for ten days this summer.
Why Mississippi?
The Deep South is where the battle around abortion rights is most acute: where lack of access is disproportionately affecting Black and poverty-stricken women. It is also a window to the future for all women if this direction is not immediately reversed. In the entire state of Mississippi, there is only one abortion clinic left! This clinic is a last refuge for women for hundreds of miles throughout the state who find themselves pregnant but do not want to have a child. It is also the target of unrelenting Christian fascist harassment, legal attacks, and threats of closure. It is currently only able to stay open because of a temporary court order which is blocking a law that would close it down. The people who work at and support this clinic ("The Pink House") are heroes. In the face of vicious attacks they refuse to "lay low," they remain unapologetic about abortion, and unflinching in their fight to keep the clinic open.
HIGHLIGHTS WILL INCLUDE:
1) Clinic escorting and outreach to build support for the last clinic in the state, the Jackson Women's Health Organization, and to build support for Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!
2) August 7 "People's Hearing": a nationally web-cast program that will focus on the true dimensions of the emergency. This speak out will feature Diane Derzis, ownder of the Mississippi clinic, and combine the insights and experiences of community leaders, health care providers, and a wide-range of others to expose the human cost of clinic harassment and clinic closings.
3) Street theater, defiant “social interventions” (taking banners and stickers boldly out to crowds wherever they gather), and “pop-up protests” that call attention to the ways that women continue to be degraded and abused by rape, by the porn culture in this country, and by arbitrary laws that restrict access to birth control and abortion.
WHAT YOU MAY HAVE MISSED, FROM STOP PATRIARCHY
#RaiseHellJ1 - Defiant national protests for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology on day that sweeping restrictions were set to take effect.
Roe v. Wade 2014 - Stop Patriarchy brought the annual "March for Life" to a halt in Washington, DC.
Abortion Rights Freedom Ride 2013, 2014 - In 2013, Stop Patriarchy traveled across the country to build resistance to the attacks on abortion rights, going to the states most severely affected. The actions drew support and attention from notable figures such as Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Morello, and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j6i9jUl1IA - Austin Statesman short piece on Stop Patriarchy members getting arrested at University of Texas
For Immediate Release, June 27, 2015
StopPatriarchy.org / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com / @StopPatriarchy
Press Contact: Joan Hirsch, StopPatriarchy@gmail.com
Stop Patriarchy Organizing Defiant #RaiseHellJ1 Protests in U.S. Cities as Sweeping Restrictions Force Widespread Abortion Clinic Closures on July 1
On July 1, Stop Patriarchy will take its bold and defiant stand for abortion rights and women's liberation into the streets in cities around the country. These new laws constitute an all out assault on women, will leave 600 mile stretches in between clinics, and are part of banning abortions earlier and earlier in pregnancies. As a call to action on StopPatriarchy.org states:
"We will stand, side by side, carrying the faces of women who died from lack of safe, legal abortion. We will read their stories. We will wear faux bloody pants, representing the women who lost their lives, and those who will die, as a result of the escalating assault on this basic right. We will RAISE HELL and demand that women be treated as full human beings!"
In the context of a national surge in restrictions on abortion rights and birth control (over 330 restrictions have been introduced nationwide this year), the new laws set to take effect on July 1 are expected to close nearly half the existing clinics in Tennessee, ban the safest and most common procedures for performing an abortion after the first trimester in Kansas, and unless the Supreme Court steps in, close all but 8 clinics in the huge state of Texas.
"It is absolutely necessary for people to put themselves out there, to tell the truth, to put their bodies on the line, because that is just what is demanded of us right now. July 1 is going to be a day for people all over the country to take to the streets and demand abortion on demand and without apology, and we are not going to allow women to be slammed back in this way, treated as nothing more than breeders," says Riley Ruiz, an activist with Stop Patriarchy.
These actions come in the context of a summer long initiative to "Take Patriarchy By Storm!", which has included weekly actions drawing attention to and fighting against the many ways that women are degraded, abused, and oppressed throughout society.
Stop Patriarchy, known for their dramatic actions in support of abortion rights, recently took a national stage when activists - holding banners and huge pictures of the women who died when abortion was illegal - brought the "March for Life" in Washington DC to a halt for nearly an hour. The group also drew support from people nationwide, and much controversy, for holding protests outside premieres of "Fifty Shades of Grey", calling out the mainstreaming and acceptance of women's degradation through the film.
###
StopPatriarchy.org / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com / @StopPatriarchy
Press Contact: Joan Hirsch, StopPatriarchy@gmail.com
Stop Patriarchy Organizing Defiant #RaiseHellJ1 Protests in U.S. Cities as Sweeping Restrictions Force Widespread Abortion Clinic Closures on July 1
On July 1, Stop Patriarchy will take its bold and defiant stand for abortion rights and women's liberation into the streets in cities around the country. These new laws constitute an all out assault on women, will leave 600 mile stretches in between clinics, and are part of banning abortions earlier and earlier in pregnancies. As a call to action on StopPatriarchy.org states:
"We will stand, side by side, carrying the faces of women who died from lack of safe, legal abortion. We will read their stories. We will wear faux bloody pants, representing the women who lost their lives, and those who will die, as a result of the escalating assault on this basic right. We will RAISE HELL and demand that women be treated as full human beings!"
In the context of a national surge in restrictions on abortion rights and birth control (over 330 restrictions have been introduced nationwide this year), the new laws set to take effect on July 1 are expected to close nearly half the existing clinics in Tennessee, ban the safest and most common procedures for performing an abortion after the first trimester in Kansas, and unless the Supreme Court steps in, close all but 8 clinics in the huge state of Texas.
"It is absolutely necessary for people to put themselves out there, to tell the truth, to put their bodies on the line, because that is just what is demanded of us right now. July 1 is going to be a day for people all over the country to take to the streets and demand abortion on demand and without apology, and we are not going to allow women to be slammed back in this way, treated as nothing more than breeders," says Riley Ruiz, an activist with Stop Patriarchy.
These actions come in the context of a summer long initiative to "Take Patriarchy By Storm!", which has included weekly actions drawing attention to and fighting against the many ways that women are degraded, abused, and oppressed throughout society.
Stop Patriarchy, known for their dramatic actions in support of abortion rights, recently took a national stage when activists - holding banners and huge pictures of the women who died when abortion was illegal - brought the "March for Life" in Washington DC to a halt for nearly an hour. The group also drew support from people nationwide, and much controversy, for holding protests outside premieres of "Fifty Shades of Grey", calling out the mainstreaming and acceptance of women's degradation through the film.
###
For Immediate Release, February 13, 2015
StopPatriarchy.org / @StopPatriarchy / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com
Press Contact: Sam at StopPatriarchy.Media@gmail.com
Sunsara Taylor available for available.
Protests Against 50 Shades Strike a Deep Chord and Pick Up Around the Country
Friday, February 13
NYC: 7:00 pm EST AMC Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village
Oakland: 7:00 pm PST Regal Cinema Jack London, 9100 Washington Street
Saturday, February 14
NYC: 4:30 pm EST AMC Empire 25, 234 W. 42nd Street
Los Angeles: 7:00 pm PST Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village
Oakland: 7:00 pm PST Regal Cinema Jack London, 9100 Washington Street
Seattle: 6:30 PST Sundance Seattle Cinema, 4500 9th Ave NE
Protests will continue today against 50 Shades of Grey, as the international bestseller is on its way to making millions in its cinematic adaptation. Last night, Stop Patriarchy began protesting the film throughout its opening days for “romanticizing women’s enslavement.”
Speaking about last night’s protest outside the Regal Union Square Cinema in New York, Sunsara Taylor said, “Huge numbers of people thanked us for protesting 50 Shades because they recognize that it promotes abuse of women, for others this was new and they especially need to hear that stalking, whipping, terrorizing a woman is not 'love' it is abuse."
“This is stalking, abuse, domestic violence, and torture, dressed up as a ‘love story’”, said Taylor. “A multi-billion dollar industry of violent and degrading porn is indoctrinating boys and men with the idea that the torture of women is arousing. Now, Fifty Shades of Grey is selling this dangerous 'fantasy' back to women.”
At premieres around the country -- in NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, LA -- Stop Patriarchy will be in front of theaters with big signs and fliers to oppose this movie, to challenge movie-goers, and to send a message that in real life women who enter into these kinds of relationships - glamorized in the film - often end up in domestic violence shelters and even dead. Three to four women in the U.S. are killed each day by a current or former male partner, and one in three women worldwide are raped, sexually assaulted, or beaten in their lifetime.
Stop Patriarchy has a history of defiant and media-catching protests against the current restrictions on abortion. In what some see as a surprising comparison, the flyer they will be distributing at the theaters points out:
“In this society where women are still shamed for having or enjoying sex, Fifty Shades of Grey might look “edgy” and “rebellious.” It is right to rebel against sexual repression, to fight the cult of "purity" and virginity that is pushed on women and girls, and to ferociously defend women's right to abortion and birth control. But let's be clear: 50 Shades is NOT a rebellion against any of this! It is a distorted house-of-mirrors reflection of the same patriarchal view of women that created those repressive sexual “norms” and rigid gender roles. There is no fundamental difference between the Christian fascists who want to reduce women to objects who breed children for men and the Christian Greys who want to reduce women to sex objects to be used and abused for male sexual pleasure. Women are neither – women are full human beings.” (FULL FLYER)
Stop Patriarchy plans to talk to movie-goers and blog about the reactions all weekend long, in rolling, ongoing, escalating protests. See StopPatriarchy.org for updates through the weekend.
The Fifty Shades series has already drawn sharp criticism, boycotts, and condemnation by Domestic Violence organizations and feminists in the U.S. and abroad.
###
StopPatriarchy.org / @StopPatriarchy / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com
Press Contact: Sam at StopPatriarchy.Media@gmail.com
Sunsara Taylor available for available.
Protests Against 50 Shades Strike a Deep Chord and Pick Up Around the Country
Friday, February 13
NYC: 7:00 pm EST AMC Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village
Oakland: 7:00 pm PST Regal Cinema Jack London, 9100 Washington Street
Saturday, February 14
NYC: 4:30 pm EST AMC Empire 25, 234 W. 42nd Street
Los Angeles: 7:00 pm PST Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village
Oakland: 7:00 pm PST Regal Cinema Jack London, 9100 Washington Street
Seattle: 6:30 PST Sundance Seattle Cinema, 4500 9th Ave NE
Protests will continue today against 50 Shades of Grey, as the international bestseller is on its way to making millions in its cinematic adaptation. Last night, Stop Patriarchy began protesting the film throughout its opening days for “romanticizing women’s enslavement.”
Speaking about last night’s protest outside the Regal Union Square Cinema in New York, Sunsara Taylor said, “Huge numbers of people thanked us for protesting 50 Shades because they recognize that it promotes abuse of women, for others this was new and they especially need to hear that stalking, whipping, terrorizing a woman is not 'love' it is abuse."
“This is stalking, abuse, domestic violence, and torture, dressed up as a ‘love story’”, said Taylor. “A multi-billion dollar industry of violent and degrading porn is indoctrinating boys and men with the idea that the torture of women is arousing. Now, Fifty Shades of Grey is selling this dangerous 'fantasy' back to women.”
At premieres around the country -- in NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, LA -- Stop Patriarchy will be in front of theaters with big signs and fliers to oppose this movie, to challenge movie-goers, and to send a message that in real life women who enter into these kinds of relationships - glamorized in the film - often end up in domestic violence shelters and even dead. Three to four women in the U.S. are killed each day by a current or former male partner, and one in three women worldwide are raped, sexually assaulted, or beaten in their lifetime.
Stop Patriarchy has a history of defiant and media-catching protests against the current restrictions on abortion. In what some see as a surprising comparison, the flyer they will be distributing at the theaters points out:
“In this society where women are still shamed for having or enjoying sex, Fifty Shades of Grey might look “edgy” and “rebellious.” It is right to rebel against sexual repression, to fight the cult of "purity" and virginity that is pushed on women and girls, and to ferociously defend women's right to abortion and birth control. But let's be clear: 50 Shades is NOT a rebellion against any of this! It is a distorted house-of-mirrors reflection of the same patriarchal view of women that created those repressive sexual “norms” and rigid gender roles. There is no fundamental difference between the Christian fascists who want to reduce women to objects who breed children for men and the Christian Greys who want to reduce women to sex objects to be used and abused for male sexual pleasure. Women are neither – women are full human beings.” (FULL FLYER)
Stop Patriarchy plans to talk to movie-goers and blog about the reactions all weekend long, in rolling, ongoing, escalating protests. See StopPatriarchy.org for updates through the weekend.
The Fifty Shades series has already drawn sharp criticism, boycotts, and condemnation by Domestic Violence organizations and feminists in the U.S. and abroad.
###
For Immediate Release, February 12, 2015
StopPatriarchy.org / @StopPatriarchy / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com
Press Contact: Joan at stoppatriarchy@gmail.com
Interviews Available.
Stop Patriarchy to Protest Fifty Shades Premieres in Major U.S. Cities
Group Calls on people to "Stop Romanticizing Women's Enslavement - Start Fighting for Women's Liberation!"
Thursday, February 12NYC: Regal Union Square Theater, Broadway & 13th St., 7:00pm
Los Angeles: Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village, 7:00pm
* Full details for Thursday - Saturday Protests in NYC, LA, SF Bay Area, Seattle
This Valentine’s Day weekend, as Fifty Shades of Grey - an international bestseller on its way to making millions in its cinematic adaptation - premieres across the country, Stop Patriarchy will protest the film throughout its opening days for “romanticizing women’s enslavement”.
“This is stalking, abuse, domestic violence, and torture, dressed up as a ‘love story’”, said Sunsara Taylor. “A multi-billion dollar industry of violent and degrading porn is indoctrinating boys and men with the idea that the torture of women is arousing. Now, Fifty Shades of Grey is selling this dangerous 'fantasy' back to women.”
At premieres around the country -- in NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, LA -- Stop Patriarchy will be in front of theaters with big signs and fliers to oppose this movie, to challenge movie-goers, and to send a message that in real life women who enter into these kinds of relationships - glamorized in the film - often end up in domestic violence shelters and even dead. Three to four women in the U.S. are killed each day by a current or former male partner, and one in three women worldwide are raped, sexually assaulted, or beaten in their lifetime.
Stop Patriarchy has a history of defiant and media-catching protests against the current restrictions on abortion. In what some see as a surprising comparison, the flyer they will be distributing at the theaters points out:
“In this society where women are still shamed for having or enjoying sex, Fifty Shades of Grey might look “edgy” and “rebellious.” It is right to rebel against sexual repression, to fight the cult of "purity" and virginity that is pushed on women and girls, and to ferociously defend women's right to abortion and birth control. But let's be clear: 50 Shades is NOT a rebellion against any of this! It is a distorted house-of-mirrors reflection of the same patriarchal view of women that created those repressive sexual “norms” and rigid gender roles. There is no fundamental difference between the Christian fascists who want to reduce women to objects who breed children for men and the Christian Greys who want to reduce women to sex objects to be used and abused for male sexual pleasure. Women are neither – women are full human beings.” (FULL FLYER)
Stop Patriarchy plans to talk to movie-goers and blog about the reactions all weekend long, in rolling, ongoing, escalating protests. See StopPatriarchy.org for updates through the weekend.
The Fifty Shades series has already drawn sharp criticism, boycotts, and condemnation by Domestic Violence organizations and feminists in the U.S. and abroad.
###
StopPatriarchy.org / @StopPatriarchy / StopPatriarchy.Tumblr.com
Press Contact: Joan at stoppatriarchy@gmail.com
Interviews Available.
Stop Patriarchy to Protest Fifty Shades Premieres in Major U.S. Cities
Group Calls on people to "Stop Romanticizing Women's Enslavement - Start Fighting for Women's Liberation!"
Thursday, February 12NYC: Regal Union Square Theater, Broadway & 13th St., 7:00pm
Los Angeles: Fox Bruin Theater, Westwood Village, 7:00pm
* Full details for Thursday - Saturday Protests in NYC, LA, SF Bay Area, Seattle
This Valentine’s Day weekend, as Fifty Shades of Grey - an international bestseller on its way to making millions in its cinematic adaptation - premieres across the country, Stop Patriarchy will protest the film throughout its opening days for “romanticizing women’s enslavement”.
“This is stalking, abuse, domestic violence, and torture, dressed up as a ‘love story’”, said Sunsara Taylor. “A multi-billion dollar industry of violent and degrading porn is indoctrinating boys and men with the idea that the torture of women is arousing. Now, Fifty Shades of Grey is selling this dangerous 'fantasy' back to women.”
At premieres around the country -- in NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, LA -- Stop Patriarchy will be in front of theaters with big signs and fliers to oppose this movie, to challenge movie-goers, and to send a message that in real life women who enter into these kinds of relationships - glamorized in the film - often end up in domestic violence shelters and even dead. Three to four women in the U.S. are killed each day by a current or former male partner, and one in three women worldwide are raped, sexually assaulted, or beaten in their lifetime.
Stop Patriarchy has a history of defiant and media-catching protests against the current restrictions on abortion. In what some see as a surprising comparison, the flyer they will be distributing at the theaters points out:
“In this society where women are still shamed for having or enjoying sex, Fifty Shades of Grey might look “edgy” and “rebellious.” It is right to rebel against sexual repression, to fight the cult of "purity" and virginity that is pushed on women and girls, and to ferociously defend women's right to abortion and birth control. But let's be clear: 50 Shades is NOT a rebellion against any of this! It is a distorted house-of-mirrors reflection of the same patriarchal view of women that created those repressive sexual “norms” and rigid gender roles. There is no fundamental difference between the Christian fascists who want to reduce women to objects who breed children for men and the Christian Greys who want to reduce women to sex objects to be used and abused for male sexual pleasure. Women are neither – women are full human beings.” (FULL FLYER)
Stop Patriarchy plans to talk to movie-goers and blog about the reactions all weekend long, in rolling, ongoing, escalating protests. See StopPatriarchy.org for updates through the weekend.
The Fifty Shades series has already drawn sharp criticism, boycotts, and condemnation by Domestic Violence organizations and feminists in the U.S. and abroad.
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