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  • MONDAY APRIL 10 2006 4:37 AM

Feminist Author Says Piercings and Tattoos Are Mutilation, Blames Gay Self-Hatred

Think your tattoos or piercings are harmless fun, simply cool or pretty? Nuh uh, says Sheila Jeffreys. The British feminist and author who teaches at the University of Melbourne in Australia is claiming nipple piercing, tattoos, breast implants, cutting and amputee fetishes are all expressions of the same pathological impulse, one triggered by an abusive, male-dominated society. It’s self-mutilation, whether you do it yourself or pay someone else to perform the act for you.

The cutting up that girls do secretly in their bedrooms, the nipple piercing that is performed in high street studios, breast implant surgery, sex reassignment surgery, are connected. They are all forms of self-mutilation, and increasingly the cutting is carried out by proxies for a profit. They are responses to low social status, sexual and physical abuse or severe emotional distress created by a male dominant society which does not accept women’s varied body shapes or condemns homosexuality.


Apparently this trend entered the mainstream due to the influence of self-hating homosexual men.

The forms of injury provided by these studios and independent operators ranged from bellybutton piercings to the extremes of spearing straight through the torso as carried out by the Californian ex-advertising executive Fakir Musafar. The practices stemmed from two main sources, punk fashion and gay male sadomasochism.
Gay male fashion designers placed pierced models on their catwalks, and helped to inscribe a practice that had symbolised gayness, onto the bodies of conventional young women and some young men.

The practices of mutilation that are being carried out on the bodies of women, girls and vulnerable categories of men in the early 21st Century are savage and increasing in their brutality. Underlying the demand for these practices is the despair of those with low social status, particularly women and gay men. The harms of misogyny, sexual and physical abuse and gay-hating, create the ability of those who self-mutilate to disassociate emotionally from their bodies, and to blame their bodies for their distress.


Jeffreys, who became a lesbian in 1973 not because she wanted to fuck women but instead to show her commitment to feminist revolution, also claims 10 to 15 percent of piercings become infected, breast implants were invented to make Asian women sexually attractive to westerners during the post-WW2 occupation of Japan and that heterosexuality is more oppressive than apartheid. At least one of her critics seems to think she blames lesbians who enjoy make-up and pornography for derailing feminist revolution.

Someone should hook her up with a complementary SuicideGirls membership. It'd give her enough source material to generate books and papers and proclamations for the next hundred years, if her brain didn't explode on first contact.

 

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Comments
frisinator

frisinator

Forney, TX
May 2004

APR 10, 2006 12:47 PM

Everytime I hear one of these self appointed experts spert out their latest diatribe, it makes me think of the kid in elementary school who badly wants attention and will say anything to get it. How about people having freewill and getting tattoos or piercings (I have both) because they think they are works of art ? Or it could be a queer that made me do it....how stupid can you be?

SupriseYoureDead

SupriseYoureDead

Astoria, NY
February 2006

APR 10, 2006 12:47 PM

Hmm, I was never abused. I am, by most standards, a normal mentally healthy person. I dunno, maybe I am crazy for puting ink on my body. I guess no one likes someone who "self-mutilates", but... no one likes a pretencious bitch either. Sorry lady, you have your opinions, I have mine.

Holy_Mountain

Holy_Mountain

West Palm Beach, FL
February 2004

APR 10, 2006 12:48 PM

As with any group, there are good feminist and there are bad feminist. This is an example of a bad feminist haha.

CharlieLove

CharlieLove

Fiji
March 2006

APR 10, 2006 12:57 PM

i like being sliced....

FrankMask

FrankMask

Saint Paul, MN
June 2003

APR 10, 2006 01:02 PM

Hedy said:
my, my. we're all a bit touchy, so to speak, about our collective predilections for tattoos, piercings, and het sex aren't we? miao!!



It's all we've got.

KushielsScion

KushielsScion

Gardendale, AL
May 2004

APR 10, 2006 01:30 PM

This woman just needs some serious deep-dickin'...although I can't think of who you could pay to do it.

Isadore

Isadore

HOPEFUL

Mesa, AZ

APR 10, 2006 01:40 PM

Wow. She must've had some twisted upbringing herself to make such a call about "everyone else". I sort of feel sorry for her, having lived her life based only on political principles & not actual enjoyment of life!!! shocked

I like my tattoos & piercings. And I don't cut myself. I am attracted to the same sex, but not because of any political affilitation! Geez!!! That's some crazy shit right there! surreal

Feild

Feild

Quakertown, PA
December 2004

APR 10, 2006 01:46 PM

Spica said:
The problem with feminism (and it's male counterpart) is bigotry. You don't do what you do because you love someone else, you do it because you hate them.
Women don't need to be empowered; being equal to men (who happen not to be anyone's enemy) should be the goal.

This lady is just like some 15-year-olds I know: she proclaims herself a lesbian just because she's too scared to touch a penis.




I would agree totally with that statement. It's comparable to "reverse rascism". Instead of insisting that everyone is a valuable, equal, and precious individual she's taken an easy (and predictable) aggressive stance based on fear and (as Spica said) bigotry.

Unfortunately, we can only speculate about her wang phobia, though it does seem plausible.

Opaque

Opaque

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

APR 10, 2006 01:54 PM

haha
wow.

this made my day. i'm glad someone's finally figured me all out.

Kinto

Kinto

Marina Del Rey, CA
February 2003

APR 10, 2006 02:14 PM

She is right. All males are on this planet only to destroy Womankind.

What sad, simplistic, pathetic bullshit.

Edited to add: The scary thing is that she must have many followers that are convinced she's 100% right.



[Edited on Apr 10, 2006 2:17PM]

blackhalo

blackhalo

Edmonton, AB
October 2005

APR 10, 2006 02:16 PM

I agree.

I can see how the connection can be made between low social status and piercings and tattoos, because, although I'm a hetero white male, it's because I come from a low-income family, who are just as much in low social standing.

I think she's a bit of a bitch about it, though.

Maybe not that I agree with the complete theory, especially the focus on homosexual men, but that I think she has a point about linking teenage girls' self-mutilation...

The base idea of it seems to ring true, though.

blackhalo

blackhalo

Edmonton, AB
October 2005

APR 10, 2006 02:21 PM

Spica said:
The problem with feminism (and it's male counterpart) is bigotry. You don't do what you do because you love someone else, you do it because you hate them.
Women don't need to be empowered; being equal to men (who happen not to be anyone's enemy) should be the goal.

This lady is just like some 15-year-olds I know: she proclaims herself a lesbian just because she's too scared to touch a penis.



Agreed.

EDIT: I have a huge problem with extreme feminism, though... Any movement that's goals are to become superior to anyone else is wrong in my books, whether it is the Crusades or the Nazi movement, it's ridiculous.

[Edited on Apr 10, 2006 3:27PM]

CHRISsuicide

CHRISsuicide

Charleston, SC
September 2005

APR 10, 2006 02:23 PM

Fucking FUBAR!!! mad

CaptainAmerika

CaptainAmerika

Washington, DC
July 2005

APR 10, 2006 02:32 PM

Obviously nonsense. This sort of thing gives feminism a bad name.

julianbleach

julianbleach

Australia
October 2005

APR 10, 2006 02:39 PM

This is funny, coming from so close to my home! Im from Sydney. And while we have the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, a greatly celebrated event of equalism and tolerance, the rest of the Australia (including Sydney) can, well, sometimes be a little close minded.

We seem to be a contradictive (cant spell!) bunch. We have a strong punk/indie/goth scene but only few places to express and vent it, we have the gay mardi gras but yet gay marriage is still illegal!?

I dunno, this just confuses me. Im all for free expression and tolerance of all beliefs as long as nobodys harming anyone at the end of the day!

END RANT...

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