rising*

media matters*

So I came out for this evening as it was a valid effort in taking back the night. I am in the media & I am very busy. I am happy...doing really well & really lucky. My photographs are hanging on the same walls as a Mapplethorpe, a Warhol, a Walker. I have a show coming up in Paris and then Art Basel. I am over the moon.

I am happy & excited & I am a feminist!

I am part of a group of women who know the importance & value of being alive during this time. I put this knowledge into action in many ways. One of them is in a willingness to take to the streets with little more than paper & pen. Our voices will be heard. It is time to reclaim the balance. I wish we had big money behind us & lots of time to mastermind something with far greater impact. Sadly, it is the lack of funding in the women's movement that does not allow us to really rise as we must. But change is coming. Cells of powerful and affluent women are coming together in ways never seen before. I have circled the globe twice baring witness to our growing strength in numbers. These are amazing, talented, fun, brilliant women who care about not being raped and blown away for entertainment's sake - whether it is in a theater or in the fields - hunted like deer as men kill & destroy what is beautiful for sport.

We have the right not to remain silent. There are far more than 16 of us; there are more than 3 billion women and 3 billion men who are impacted daily by the poison that misogyny spreads.

As media makers this is the greatest responsibility of our time. Words are the most powerful & shaping tools that we have.

Life came from women - we are the givers of life - and if someone wants to take that for granted, as many do, then there becomes a terrible dis-ease on Earth and all suffer. This amazing sample of concerned citizens, both female & male, who came out that night are testaments to the American Dream and to freedom of speech. They put the grrr back into grassroots. Tucker Max expects all the glory of freedom of speech and yet systematically takes it away from those voicing another opinion by photoshopping their protest posters to read the opposite of what is intended. This is virtual rape & censorship perpetrated by Tucker Max and his Frat Boy Mob.

Yes, I wish you had shown up at that Bank of America to witness hundreds taking back the night and standing up against the mainstreaming of misogyny and detrimental themes of sex & violence. The degradation of women has become a multi-billion dollar industry; porn shops sell shelves of movies about the raping of young girls, old women, and everything in-between...

And now Tucker Max wants to take that to mainstream theaters where children walk by his posters.

For each woman who gets raped there is a chain reaction: the lives of entire families are destroyed. It is no laughing matter and it is the laughter which allows the rape to be so systematic.

Like the dehumanizing of Jews in Hitler's Germany, this is no less serious an issue. It is a toxic poison spreading rapidly. I hope next time there are thousands of us and that we can bring forth the strength in numbers to reclaim our birth right to walk the streets in freedom & in safety. Let's all meet again next Tuesday. Anyone interested contact me. I will have pictures posted on my blog from the evening: www.lovephotography.org (click on the top right corner)

We were just getting warmed up. Next time we can take a billboard out in Times Square. We have more tools than we realize and enough are people sick of this mess. It is time to clean-up and take charge.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: I take my rights seriously. This does not make me an angry feminist. Rather, it means I am awake, conscious, caring, and an active citizen.

Revolution begins with Personal Evolution.

Let's all raise our voices - let's come together. It is a time of celebration and of coming into our rightful power.

I advocate responsibility, an awareness of the consequences of our actions. We all know the effects of propaganda & brainwashing. We all know that humor is sometimes used to dehumanize. The military uses this same tactic all the time: let's make jokes about "rag heads" and then we can just shoot at them and rape them. It is an act of war to make 'em scream. It will be real funny...just like killing pregnant women!

Tucker Max and George Bush Jr. are similar characters with a dangerous amount of privilege; they appeal to the lowest common denominator: greed, mockery of the value of human life, and the need to kill & destroy for ego's sake.

I wish I lived safely in a land in which my being was respected and in which I did not have to worry that if a fellow woman is late to a meeting that she has not been dragged into an alley.

-peace & healing between us.

*************

Maybe we could all agree just to look at ourselves a little more and to have a little common respect for our shared humanity and the sharing of this planet.

I know many amazing men and women. I know all of us are hurting in ways and it is often hard for us to bridge communication with each other. Books like "Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus" and "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" become bestsellers because we live in a capitalist society that bases its never-ending sales pitch on our insecurities and pitting us against each other.

There are people hurting in the world - these are our shared stories. Many women are acting out roles perpetuated by propaganda which keeps this nation afloat and which leads us to believe that we as women are ascribed a value based on our appearance: cosmetics, diet pills, botox, willingly cutting our bodies open to fill cyber roles. Men like Tucker Max are truly sick and should be treated accordingly. I am not advocating the death penalty or suggesting that we burn him on the stake, however. That is what has happened for thousands of years: we seek revenge and therefore spin in ever greater circles. We have come to a place where we look in the mirror and we are all plastic or hopped-up on steroids. We are snorting coke. We are fucking like machines...and our humanity is lost. Anything but the airbrushed must be destroyed! And that which does not fit these criteria must be senseless. The hunter and gather is locked away in a cubical, working a job he hates to make money to feed the retail therapy of a 'gold-digging' wife. But let's not forget that women own less than one percent of the world's property and wealth, and in many places women are traded like cattle via wedding vows that silence them even further. We must break the chains because no one is happy. Tucker Max is mad, the feminsts are angry, and people are just getting on with their day-to-day lives...but the currents affect us all.

As Max has used his artistic voice to share his stories so honestly, we can see that these are the uncomfortable truths of our time. We should thank him for bringing them to the surface so that we can address them in public forums as we are doing here.

I would like to dare us all to take a long look in the mirror until we can start to dissect what we see...until we see who we are; what we can do to heal ourselves because we all need to heal. Dear people: this is a beautiful time to be alive. We can be willing to stop long enough to see that another world is possible...not only possible but on the way.

We are the shapers of our own destiny. Let us be mindful of what we ask for. All of us - stop - take a moment to consider deeply - beyond the neon lights or the silver screen: What is it we are seeking? And do the moves that we make take us closer or farther away from that goal?

There is no need for us to keep calling each other names as it defeats the purpose of evolution. We are here with the time to write back and forth; we are the ones with the time to help set this world straight and to create balance. There is room for us all step-up to the plate and to make life amazing.

I do not need to be drunk to get some or be able to take some - and I am certainly not interested in going to Hell after so much hardship in this life.

I am interested in creating paradise here on Earth between us all by camping down and taking note. Peace is possible. Joy matters and we have a value of zero dollars per day. Life for men and womyn and femyles and males could be better. Let's not just bring our parents' shit forward - whatever sickness your mamma and your pappa and your schools placed on you...why don't we all just let it go?

Open up to the power our generation possesses.

Let's make more movies, have more debates.

I pray for the best in us to come forth in this moment.

We are never the same person twice.
Change is the only constant.

May we all change in ways that respect the humanistic boundaries that exist and by upholding the safety and dignity of each other through the actions we take.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

These are things that came to light a century ago.

I am looking for the innovative and this is an invitation to everybody - to just make it good and to hold ourselves accountable.

May your journeys be safe and blessed.

//peace//

Why Tucker Max is the new George Bush Jr. & reclaiming who we are outside the politics of stupid...//peace

Layla says:
My belief is that we are all doing something - we are all trying - but carrying different worries, fears, egos, pains of our own that make us battle over and over. The truth is that underneath it all, we are looking to be connected in healthy ways - women and men do not want to be forever stuck in a battle of the sexes.

Let's start talking about some really new ideas! I dare us! Come on...we have been playing "boys against girls" since pre-school. Instead, let's see what adult ideas we can muster up. ox