Forced Marriage can "Correct" Gay Men

The U.K.'s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) reports that there was a 65% increase in the calls reporting cases of men in forced marriage in 2009. The unit received 134 calls and emails in 2008, but the following year, FMU received 220 calls and emails reporting male victims.

Last year, men in Britain made up a 14% of the 1,682 forced marriage cases total reported. However, under-reporting has led FMU to believe that there could be a total of 10,ooo British citizens in forced marriage. In addition, they estimate that 20% of these cases involve a male victim.

According to Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne, men find it harder than women to ask for help when faced with forced marriage. With few men coming forward, young men between the age of 15 and 24 years continue to face physical and sexual violence, confinement and at times, being sent to other countries for not complying with their families' wishes.

Why is this happening to men? Hasn't forced marriage usually been a problem for women?

While many think of forced marriage as a crime that occurs against women, men also experience this form of human trafficking. Unsurprisingly, men are subjected to forced marriage because they are gay or their families believe that they might be gay. Reinforcing the societal expectation of heterosexuality, families use forced marriage as a means to "correct" a man's sexual orientation.

I also just want to point out that homosexuality is one reason that some women have been subjected to forced marriage. There is no reason that anyone, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation (or any other reason!), should be forced into marriage.

Photo Credit: BBC News

The Dark Side of Twitter

(Warning: some explicit language ahead. Any foul language in the following post is taken directly from real tweets. There are also multiple references to sexual organs.)

Twitter, there are times when I just hate you.

I wake up, thinking that today is going to be a wonderful day because Gloria Steinem gave me such hope with her interview with Katie Couric (video) and segment on The Colbert Report (video). But no, twitter, you had to mess that up for me.

What do I find among the trending topics worldwide as I start checking our various twitter accounts? Hidden amongst #worldcup, vuvuzela, and a bunch of names I've never heard of I find the hashtag #ifihadapenis.

I think my head may have just exploded.

We live in such a penis-worshiping culture that there's a global trend on twitter about what women would do or be like if they had a penis. And most of it comes down to women saying that they'd screw everyone they'd see or how big their penis would be, how they would whip it out every chance they got. There are tweets using the tag with a question on why is such a topic trending, but none of the hundreds of tweets I've seen since I started this post have looked as how this reflects the type of culture we live in.

This trend is just an example of how our culture today still derides women for being women. Women in today's society are something else, something less because we don't have a penis and we are made to know it. And then when we dare to think outside the box, and imagine ourselves in a different body, we end up reaffirming male stereotypes and the behaviors of masculine hegemony, intentionally or not. The vast majority of the tweets also serve to further belittle and dehumanize women (e.g. "#IfIhadapenis I would be fucking alllll yall bitches #wreckless," "Ima beat that p*ssy out of walls #IfIHadAPenis"). Women, as a whole, have been forced to participate in our own humiliation and degradation.

And those daring attempts to imagine a different sex for ourselves are then taken as entertainment for those who are of the privileged sex. Many tweets from men with the hashtag are about how they do all of these things or how funny all the tweets are. There are a few who don't approve, mostly because they just don't want to know that stuff.

One of the most retweeted tweets of the thread, a top tweet on twitter, is "I see females goin in on #IfIHadAPenis ...pretty funny stuff. But I BET NOT see a single dude tweet #IfIHadAVagina ('_')." My hopes weren't high, but curious to see what was posted on #ifihadavagina I searched it. I wish I hadn't. I have not read so many derogatory, sexist, woman-bashing, homophobic, gay-bashing statements all at once since high school study hall. For those of you who are remotely sensitive to insults TRIGGER WARNING. Here are some tweets from #ifihadavagina: "ANY DUDE THAT TWEETS ABOUT #ifihadapuss or #ifihadavagina is getting publicly banned, unfollowed, and ostracized! Some shit u don't say," "#ifIhadaVagina I'd try to make the vuvuzela sound with it," and "who else would go in on it though? women can't. lol RT @_______: If You're a man going in on #IfIHadAVagina you're gay as fuck."

If anyone out there needed any more proof of why we need feminism today, well here you have it. Abortion rights, equal pay, and female genital mutilation are some of the many topics that have the need for change. But while we are on our soapboxes, at the polls, and at capitol hill, we need to remember that not only is this a political revolution, but a cultural revolution as well. Our struggle will never be truly won if we sit by and watch ourselves be insulted and attacked by hegemonic masculinity. But how do we challenge this?

Twitter can be a horrible, horrible thing. But all the things that can make twitter a dismal place to be, also have the power to make twitter a wonderful tool of social awareness and change. Just imagine if instead of #ifihadapenis trending on twitter, we had #ilovemyvagina or #ilovemybody trending? So I say we reclaim trending topics! Let's turn them away from hateful speech and towards a more understanding, accepting, and feminist attitude! To help in your journey, here are some pro-woman hashtag suggestions for your tweets: #feminist, #feminism, #fem2, #prowoman, #ilovemybody, #ilovemyvagina, #ILMB (short for I love my body), #ILMV (short for I love my vagina), #iamwoman, #iamwomanhearmeroar. All the bolded hashtags have at least one tweet with the hashtag in it. The ones that aren't bolded do not have any tweets, but should. Tweet away, fellow feminist tweeters!
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Photo-credit: respres on flickr.com
Cross-posted at Ode to Patriarchy

U.S. Religious Leaders Paving the way to Homophobia in Africa

There's an article on RH Reality Check today that really caught my attention. "Globalizing the Culture Wars" by Amie Newman summarizes the Political Research Associates report by the same name, that investigates the ties between American conservative religious leaders, U.S. funding and a recent upsurge in homophobic attitudes, violence and legislation in Africa.

You may have heard about the draconian anti-LGBT legislation introduced in Uganda, that would make same sex relations of any sort punishable by life in prison and would also threaten those guilty of "promoting homosexuality" with imprisonment. Not only is this a huge violation of human rights but it would also severely damage HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and other LGBTQ support services. The Ugandan bill isn't the only one of its kind recently and an increase in hateful legislation only leads to increased intolerance, discrimination and violence.

Well, it turns out ultra-conservative American religious leaders like Rick Warren and organizations like the Institute for Religion and Democracy, and others, may be to blame for these upsurges. The PRA Report finds that anti-gay U.S. religious institutions and leaders have developed close relationships with African clergy members and religious leaders and have provided huge financial incentives in exchange for anti-gay stances and support of local anti-gay legislation.

Hmm...why does this sound familiar? Oh yes - I recall that just last week the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities threatened to pull their funding from homeless services in DC unless the DC council changed its stance on same-sex marriage.

So perhaps we shouldn't be all too surprised. But we should be outraged. Not only are U.S. religious figures paving the way to homophobia in Africa, but the U.S. government distributes PEPFAR monies to many of the anti-LGBTQ African religious leaders. That's your tax dollars. And, needless to say, tax dollars that should be spent reducing the occurrence of HIV/AIDS through scientifically-proven practices, NOT anti-homosexuality agendas.

So what can you do? The report details a list of ideas, some of which include putting pressure on American religious leaders, putting pressure on the U.S. government, and raising support for LGBTQ and equal rights activists in Africa - because they need it!