Help Biting Beaver: A call to arms

Beaver trying to escape, originally uploaded by whelal2005.

 

PluckyPunk is rallying the progressive blogosphere in support of our colleague Biting Beaver, a blogger who got pregnant after the healthcare system withheld emergency contraception until it was too late.

Read Biting Beaver's EC nightmare and the traumatic aftermath in her own words.

Biting Beaver's words have reached thousands of readers over the past few weeks. She's putting a human face on the emergency contraception issue. But Biting Beaver sacrificed a lot to share her story. She's been chased off her own blog by vicious trolls, including people who are sending her recipes for poisons and telling her she doesn't deserve to live.

Don't let the wingnuts silence BB. Don't let their abuse go unanswered.

Visit Plucky Punk to find out what you can do to help BB and defend reproductive freedom for all.

Comments

[plucky punk]

Yay! Thanks for linking to this!

[cfrost]

I've never heard of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Guess I'll be sending them some dough. The fact that such an organization even need exist is sickening. I'm about pissed off enough to turn some nice fat pro-lifer fundie fuck into some delicious prosciutto.

[San Francisco Knitter]

Fucking hell. I'm sending BB some cash and have just posted about it. I'll also be writing an article about this. Stay tuned....

[Aerik]

I'm going to put this up in my blog. http://thescienceethicist.blogspot.com/

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Absolutely horrifying. I've never posted on or read Biting Beaver until just now, with a post of support, but no matter what she's written to draw such a reaction (assuming it's not just because of the EC post), it's awful.

cfrost, I'm trying to say your last sentence aloud three times fast. Failing.

[Who is I?!]

There's a reason why people are flaming her and etc. And no, it's not because everybody's antifeminist and prone to rape as she claims. It's because her views are extremely flawed (I don't buy that our society is becoming increasingly patriarchal; infact, its quite the opposite. Plus, pornography is in no way a means to "secure your domination and establish self superiority over the other gender), and she is seriously putting her child into danger. She has been hurt, and I symphatize, but she's taking her anger out on the world (the world of men, mind you, not "womyn").

Only radical feminists find her opinions worthy of serious discourse. Most find it funny. She brought this on herself.

[CoolAunt]

Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | October 15, 2006 at 07:44 PM

"There's a reason why people are flaming her and etc. And no, it's not because everybody's antifeminist and prone to rape as she claims. It's because her views are extremely flawed (I don't buy that our society is becoming increasingly patriarchal; infact, its quite the opposite. Plus, pornography is in no way a means to "secure your domination and establish self superiority over the other gender), and she is seriously putting her child into danger. She has been hurt, and I symphatize, but she's taking her anger out on the world (the world of men, mind you, not "womyn").

Only radical feminists find her opinions worthy of serious discourse. Most find it funny. She brought this on herself."

Yeah, so funny that they're threatening her life. That's bullshit, as is the rest of your comment is bullshit. People aren't cyberstalked and threatened due to flawed thinking and blog posts that others disagree with. Further, her child is not in danger because her thinking is flawed or because she posted at her blog ideas and opinions that others disagree with. No, it's been those like yourself who disagree with her that have endangered her son and threatened her life and safety to the point that she's gone into hiding.

Why have you silenced her? Because you believe her thinking to be flawed ? Because she posts ideas and opinions that you disagree with? Because you believe that she hates men and although she poses no threat to you whatsoever, she must not be allowed to say so?

Bullshit! You've silenced her because you know that your precious porn does, indeed, secure your domination and establish self superiority over the other gender. And although she poses no threat to you, every woman who speaks the truth about porn and how it says nothing true about women but instead tells the truth about men, poses a threat to your supposed freedom to porn. Your sick desire to orgasm to images of the sexual degradation, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse of women is worth more to you than BB's freedom of speech rights - the right to express her opinions - and even her right to live and breathe on this planet. If it's true that she hates men, well, it's no damned wonder to me.

[The person above the person above]

This bullshit is precisely why nobody likes BB, or any feminazi. In response to any argument, they instantly become defensive, instantly start to insult, and pull the same shit out of their ass. They seem to always have a pre-existing mindset that all males are part of a secret patriarchy order trying to silence women. Guess what? WE'RE NOT. I don't think women should be degrading, I don't think BB should be silenced, I don't even look at porn. Yet you make such presumptions, and so does BB; therein lies the flaw.

Yeah, so funny that they're threatening her life. That's bullshit, as is the rest of your comment is bullshit. People aren't cyberstalked and threatened due to flawed thinking and blog posts that others disagree with. Further, her child is not in danger because her thinking is flawed or because she posted at her blog ideas and opinions that others disagree with. No, it's been those like yourself who disagree with her that have endangered her son and threatened her life and safety to the point that she's gone into hiding.

I didn't say it was funny that they're threatening their life. I said that others find it funny when somebody expresses such an absurdly stupid viewpoint, that every male is evil and oppressing. Did you even read what BB has posted? She said she wished to abort her child, and many other nasty things. People are concerned for that kid's safety, but of course, in your biased view, you only see BB as a saint and everybody else as evil incarnate. Sure, whatever.

Why have you silenced her? Because you believe her thinking to be flawed ? Because she posts ideas and opinions that you disagree with? Because you believe that she hates men and although she poses no threat to you whatsoever, she must not be allowed to say so?

I didn't silence her. What the hell are you trying to get at? Am I not allowed to express my opinion, now? So the perfect world is where females can say all they want, and nobody can respond? I see.

Bullshit! You've silenced her because you know that your precious porn does, indeed, secure your domination and establish self superiority over the other gender. And although she poses no threat to you, every woman who speaks the truth about porn and how it says nothing true about women but instead tells the truth about men, poses a threat to your supposed freedom to porn. Your sick desire to orgasm to images of the sexual degradation, sexual humiliation and sexual abuse of women is worth more to you than BB's freedom of speech rights - the right to express her opinions - and even her right to live and breathe on this planet. If it's true that she hates men, well, it's no damned wonder to me.

I don't use porn. Isn't that funny? How you make such presumptions, I mean. And guess what? The "sexual degradation, humiliation, and abuse" only exists in your minds. When somebody looks at porn, they don't get aroused from their dominance over the other sex, or any of that other bullshit you claim. THE GIRL IS HOT, AND SHE'S HAVING SEX. What is so hard to understand about that? Advocating sexual pornography against a person's will, or something to that extent, is understandable, but the sweeping generalization that all porn is evil and an invention of the ever oppressing male sex is pure bullshit nobody believes in, except you guys (holy shit, did I just refer to you all as guys? do you feel oppressed?).

Radical feminists seem to only be able to twist everything into another way the patriarchy is suppressing females. They point out every little smallest detail nobody even tries to care about. And you wonder why people seem to not agree with you. Here's a hint: it's not the patriarchy trying to silence you. You're just really annoying.

[paul]

Having followed Biting Beaver over several years, I have to say I'm truly amazed. If she said the things she says about men about any other group - about blacks, or asians or Jews for example - she'd be an obvious racist and, depending on where she lives, liable for prosecution for hate speech.

It is true that women's issues are important - access to contraception and abortion are important. It's true that Biting Beaver has had some horrible experiences. None of this excuses her hate speech, any more than a bad upbringing and the myriad social ills of our society exuse a rapist. More importantly none of this excuses what appears, from her own writing, to be the constant emotional abuse she heaps on her son.

Nobody should be the subject of harassment or death threats, but Biting Beaver throws her self-justified anger into the world without caring about where it lands or the damage she does - and then uses the inevitable blowback to rejustify her victim status. It's hard to feel sorry for her.

[I prefer to remain anonymous]

There's a lot of confusion, it seems, about Biting Beaver. I consider myself a radical feminist, but that does not make her views any less repugnant.

Not her views on male privilege, which are more or less right, if acerbic and at times too extreme. Not the fact that she seems to be a fundamentally broken person; after all, if I had been through all that she has, I am quite sure that I would be fundamentally broken as well.

She denies that a woman can rape a man.

This is patently absurd. I'm not about to say that it's remotely common or anything of that sort, but it can and very occasionally does happen, and to pretend that male rape victims are anything less than victims - that they somehow brought it upon themselves - is every bit as repugnant as blaming a woman for the "crime" of drinking from a pre-opened container after she is raped. Perhaps this hits particularly close to home for me, since my best friend was raped by a woman. For the record, I'm not talking about a wide-scope definition of rape that includes harassment, cajoling, etc., but the narrow scope - he went to bed and woke up with a girl on top of him with his penis in her vagina. He had certainly been drinking that night, but not to the point of blacking out. And hell, even if he had been blackout drunk, that is still rape. The fact that he wasn't, and knows for a fact that he in no sense of the word consented, is all the worse.

I think that what bothers me most is that male privilege IS real, and women ARE at a disadvantage today, and feminists should work at stripping male privilege in favor of equality. Biting Beaver sets the feminist movement back because those too entrenched in male privilege to see out of it can dismiss the whole of feminism as being, like her, rather unhinged. And then words like "femnazi" get thrown around, which are just stupid.

[I prefer to remain anonymous]

Oh - in regards to the cyberstalking/death threats, that's largely because someone linked her blog to the Something Awful forums, which are largely populated by straight, white, middle class men ages 18-25 who spend far too much time on the internet and are socially inept. While it is completely disgusting, they do this shit to every blog they disagree with, not just radical feminist blogs. I think they hit Hal Turner awhile ago, and they oftentimes dig up information on other forum members to call their houses and - seriously, this is messed up - threaten to murder/rape them/their family/their pets. Nobody on the forums admits to doing that crap, because most people who post realize it's an awful and un-funny thing to do, but there are fools who base their entire persona on being 'edgy' and 'un-PC,' and therefore amuse themselves by pulling these stunts.

So yes, it's deplorable, but they're not genuinely threatening anyone's life. They're trying to be funny, and failing miserably. They don't understand that the things they do are awful, because they exist in privileged suburbia where you don't have to fear for anything except what Japanese cartoons you should watch. It's the biggest case of "not getting it" that I've ever seen, but I wouldn't call it malicious.

[i prefer to remain anonymous]

Oops - I was wrong. I thought it was Something Awful that did the damage, but apparently it was 4chan, which is another message board that, if possible, is even MORE socially inept. Also, I think it's bigger but I don't really know.

[AnonEMouse]

I sealed BitingBeaver's vagin with wax. No more unwanted pregnancies.
LOLOLOL!!!!1!!!11one

[dex]

she fails! rape her!

[Alathea]

Biting Beaver is without any doubt a disturbed woman who suffers from some kind of psychopathology. She doesn't deserve threats of any kind but she definitely does need complex psychiatric help beyond my ability to diagnose.

I would not want my name associated with a woman espousing so violent and extreme a viewpoint, nor do I believe that her political stance is feminist in any way, shape or form. The poor woman is delusional and deranged. She is to feminism what the Taliban are to Islam; hate-filled polemicists who have co-opted, distorted and perverted a pure and worthy doctrine to reinforce their own reflexive solipsistic lunacy.

Biting Beaver is worthy only of our pity, nothing else.