withcrafts - Tumblr blog

[withcrafts]

I left tumblr for a while because not only was it getting a little too crazy on here for me, but because it seemed like half of radblr was coming out of the woodwork to be racist and ofc why tf would I stick around for that??? But now that I'm back there's a whole bunch of y'all investigating women for being intersex. Not only are the posts I've seen just utter speculation, but the amount of people just rallying behind the lack of information and just going along with whatever idiot speaking the loudest nonsense really just shows that things are falling apart even worse than before. I'm going back on my break and hopefully all this bullshit will have died down before I decide to poke my head back in here.

[withcrafts]

Simone Biles has now the most Olympic medals in USA gymnastics history (8)

[withcrafts]

how about you co quette a job

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lotta people seem to think the issue with the salem witch trials was that witchcraft is bullshit and not that mob justice is unreliable, inhumane, and fosters widespread paranoia and compulsion rather than protecting literally anyone from harm

[withcrafts]

Woman as the “other”

Woman as the “…. And everyone else”

Woman as the “anyone that’s not a man or manly enough”

I’m fucking tired of women being treated as “other” for being female. We are half of the human race. I’m sickened that everyone with a disorder or who isn’t traditionally masculine is put into a category with women. As if it’s males versus everybody else.

Men’s spaces and events are preserved while women’s spaces and events are “open and safe for anyone!”.

Keep males and intersex out of female sports, spaces, and our definitions of ourselves.

Separate categories for different people so that everyone has a safe space.

[withcrafts]

I don’t understand gender ideologues who claim to also be gender abolitionists. If the goal is to eradicate gender, how does actively identifying with the construct of gender—and attributing such personal, sentimental value to it on top of that—move us closer to that goal?

How does redefining the word “woman” into a prescriptive gendered category, rather than allowing it to remain as a descriptive sexed category, move us closer to that goal? It doesn’t. It patently does the opposite.

[withcrafts]

Two more women have alleged that the bestselling author Neil Gaiman sexually assaulted or abused them, extending the timeline of his misconduct across five decades.

According to the new claims – which Gaiman denies – he

pressured a mother-of-three to have sex with him in return for letting her live with her daughters at his property in upstate New York; and

– made her sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for a $275,000 payment to help her cope with post-traumatic stress and depression following their sexual relationship.

A second woman says he jumped on her “out of the blue” in an “aggressive, unwanted” pass in the 1980s, when they were both in their twenties.

The women came forward after Tortoise published accounts last month of two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Gaiman while in otherwise consensual relationships with him.

One of these women claims he assaulted her in an outdoor bathtub within hours of meeting her, when she was 22 and he was 61, and went on to have rough and degrading sex with her over the course of three weeks. The other woman, who met him as a teenage fan, says they began having similar sex when she was 20 and that he penetrated her against her wishes when she was 22.

While Gaiman’s account denied any non-consensual sex with the two women, their allegations raised questions about whether he had reasonable belief in consent for sex with them given their vulnerability. Gaiman asked one of them to sign a non-disclosure agreement, the first of two known NDAs he signed with former sexual partners, suggesting weak confidence that his account would survive public scrutiny.

The two new accounts — published today in a new episode of ‘Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman’ — have been corroborated through documents, emails, and messages seen by Tortoise as well as through interviews with friends and family who the women confided in. Gaiman did not provide any on-the-record response to multiple detailed requests for comment on either set of allegations.

Caroline Wallner lived in a house on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock, New York between 2014 and 2021 with her three young daughters and, until 2017, her husband. Alongside her work as a ceramic artist in a studio in a barn on the property, Wallner and her husband worked for Gaiman and his then wife Amanda Palmer, including doing property maintenance, gardening, and grocery shopping. Gaiman had moved to the area to teach at Bard College.

Around the time Wallner’s marriage ended in 2017, which she said devastated her emotionally, Gaiman told her ex-husband that there was no more work for him on the property, which had provided the family’s main income. Wallner and her daughters were now dependent on Gaiman for work and housing. While she was in this situation, Wallner, then 55, said that Gaiman began pressuring her for sex.

Wallner said: “There were little hints of, ‘we’re going to need the house’. And I remember saying, let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out. That’s when he would just come to my studio and make me give him a blowjob”. There is no suggestion of physical force, but rather of coercion in light of her housing and family situation. Wallner said: “And he can say it was consensual. But why would I do that? It was because I was scared of losing my place”, characterising Gaiman’s treatment of her as “sexual abuse.”

The UN defines sexual abuse as actual or threatened sexual contact by force or coercive conditions. The UN’s refugee agency, where Gaiman is a goodwill ambassador, has described the allegations against him published by Tortoise as “very serious”, adding that it is “assessing the detailed reporting”.

During Gaiman’s oral sex with Wallner, she said “he used to say to me ‘Call me your master. Tell me you want it. Tell me you want it.’ He would choke me sometimes.” Wallner recalled one incident where she had fallen asleep reading in bed: “When I woke up, Neil was in the bed and he put my hand on his cock.”

Wallner said that whenever she resisted his sexual advances, Gaiman would tell her Palmer wanted the house back where she lived with her three daughters, as well as the studio she worked in. Wallner recalled one occasion when she said Gaiman told her: ‘‘but you take care of me and I’ll take care of you”, understanding it to be a reference to what she called the “sexual trade”.

Gaiman’s position is that his relationship with Wallner was entirely consensual and denies any wrongdoing with her. His account is that their sexual encounters were instigated by her.

Palmer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

When Gaiman left the Woodstock property during the Covid pandemic, Wallner said she felt “so, so relieved”. But then Gaiman began sending her sexually explicit photos and videos of himself, asking her to send him ones of herself. After Wallner stopped answering Gaiman’s sexual video calls, in June 2021, she said his business manager told her to vacate the property by December that year.

Gaiman’s position is that this request was always a possibility, as Wallner had been living there with her family rent-free for the preceding six years. This position does not acknowledge Wallner and her ex-husband’s work for Gaiman and Palmer while she lived on the property.

Gaiman’s business manager initially offered Wallner $5,000 as compensation for leaving the property, requesting that she sign a confidentiality agreement. The area saw the highest house price growth of any US metropolitan region during the pandemic, so Wallner asked for more time to find affordable housing for her and her daughters.

Wallner said she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress during this period with the financial support of a friend. After finishing her stay at a therapy centre, Wallner emailed Gaiman’s representatives on 9 December 2021, saying she had tried “to come up with an amount that I feel justifies signing a release that in essence takes away my agency to speak freely about what I went through. 300K is what I came up with. 150 for the real estate issues and 150 for the sexual ‘trade’ issue – something that I am trying to come to terms with. Therapy alone is costing a fortune.”

Gaiman settled with Wallner for $275,000 and a non-disclosure agreement less than two weeks later. The NDA “disputes and denies that Wallner has sustained any losses, damages, or injuries for which Gaiman is legally responsible.” Gaiman’s position is that he settled with her to avoid expensive and protracted litigation.

The NDA prohibits Wallner from talking about Gaiman with “family members, friends, associates” and from filing, reporting, or prosecuting any action or proceeding in “any court, governmental agency, or before any tribunal whatsoever or wheresoever”. If Wallner is asked to make disclosures by a “valid legal process”, the NDA says she must give Gaiman 20 days notice and help him resist disclosure.

New York courts have voided NDAs that sought to frustrate official investigations and, across the US, NDAs are void when they attempt to limit reporting of criminal allegations by an alleged witness or alleged victim.

Gaiman’s position is that his NDA with Wallner makes no reference to law enforcement and that there is nothing to report anyhow. His position is that the NDA used language that was deemed appropriate to both parties’ experienced lawyers.

Andrew Brettler, who has acted for Russell Brand, Danny Masterson, and Prince Andrew, represented Gaiman. Wallner said she is looking for new legal representation.

She said she wanted to speak out against feelings of “fear and shame – those feelings don’t belong to me”. She said she wanted to tell her story to support the first two women who came forward, adding “the fact they were the same age as my daughters now was painful to hear.” Wallner said that the trait she shared with the two women wasn’t age, but vulnerability. “Saying ‘yes’ to an exchange with a powerful, wealthy man when you are vulnerable and fearful is never simple or clear,” she said. “Even if it’s seemingly consensual.”

[withcrafts]

like. you're going to get called a terf if you try to approach gender with anything less than full, 100% compliance and submission. it's useless to try to debate these things w nuance, empathy, or even vitriol. at the end of the day, i'm a woman and you're not. you can't be me and you never will be. and i sleep fine and comfortable w that. i have nothing more to say about it. die mad about it.

[withcrafts]

Trans-rights activists: Terfs hate any woman who doesn't uphold strict gender norms! They hate women who are tall, hairy, fat, ugly, or refuse to wear makeup!!

Also Trans-rights activists: Terfs hate transwomen because TW are super feminine and girly and love makeup and bras and talks with the girlz, and terfs are just mad because they're hairy and fat and ugly and look like men and TW pass better than them

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SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON, MELISSA JEFFERSON and TWANISHA TERRY after qualifying for the women's 100m at the 2024 Olympics Trials

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this is so fucking heartbreaking why do we live in such a cruel world

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Legally you can call D3pp a wife beater but Amber Heard can’t 🫤

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Why should my feminism be kind? Men certainly are not. Why must I whisper when everyone else can scream?

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Femicide rates in Iran up by 60% in two years, report says

A new report has highlighted an alarming trend of increasing femicide cases amid an ongoing pattern of violence against women and girls in Iran.

According to the report by Etemad Daily, in the first three months of the Iranian calendar in 2024 alone (March 20 to June 21), at least 35 women and girls were murdered by their close male relatives, particularly their husbands.

The number is a 25 percent increase from the 28 recorded during the same period in 2023 and a 59% rise from the 22 deaths in 2022.

A massive 85 percent of the murders were committed by the victims' husbands and cases were spread across the country. In 2022, 16 women were killed by their husbands, followed by 15 in 2023, with a sharp increase to 27 in 2024 amid the climate of state crackdowns on women and girls.

Rights activists point to Iran’s laws and patriarchal society based on Islamic law as the primary cause of femicide which has worsened since 2022.

Conditions for women have become so bad that the United Nations branded Iran's policy as "gender apartheid" as state policy legitimizes violence against women.

Honor killings can be carried out for as little as not wearing the mandatory hijab, bringing shame on the family.

UN Women says these gender-related killings are the “most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls. According to the latest UN Women report, globally on average, more than 133 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family.

Speaking to Iran International, Iranian feminist and human rights activist, Mina Khani, highlighted the lack of accurate statistics in Iran amid heavy censorship and corruption, and the state's own involvement in committing femicide.

Official figures suggest numbers even lower than Germany, she said, with massive discrepancies in both the reporting and recording of such crimes.

"In this context, human rights statistics are crucial," she said. "Organizations like Hengaw report femicide statistics in Iran based on the cases they document, as there is no official statistical reference for human rights organizations to rely on,” Khani stated.

Norway-based rights organization, Hengaw, identified that "at least 50 cases of femicide have been recorded in various cities of Iran since the beginning of 2024.

Khani noted "the state's failure to take legal measures to protect women from domestic violence".

She said, "Instead, the regime has legalized violence attributed to honor and gender-based violence against women, and it also engages in state-sponsored femicides".

High profile cases such as Mahsa Amini and Armita Geravand, who both died in morality police custody, exemplify the role of the state, she said, which "has never been held accountable".

Soraya Fallah, an Iranian researcher and women’s rights activist touched on the surge and prevalence of femicide in Iran adding that the situation highlights an “urgent need for serious measures to change laws and address cultural issues in Iran.”

Fallah echoed Khani’s statements, blaming Iran's discriminatory laws for fueling the femicide crisis.

“The Islamic government of Iran has institutionalized unequal laws and their implementation, enabling crimes like honor killings. These laws, such as Article 630, provide legal grounds for such acts, fueling patriarchal violence," she said.

Article 630 of the Islamic Penal Code allows a man to kill his wife and her partner if he catches them in the act of consensual adultery, without facing any punishment. This law exclusively targets women. Additionally, a father or paternal grandfather who kills their child is exempt from the retribution sentence, known as Qesas.

"The Islamic Republic uses these laws to maintain power and perpetuate these issues within society. Comprehensive legal and cultural changes are crucial to address these deep-rooted problems and protect women's rights in Iran," she added.

The state’s crackdown on charities dedicated to supporting women experiencing domestic violence further add to the crisis with the UN calling for legal reform to empower women in Iran.

Amnesty International last year said, "The Iranian authorities’ oppressive methods of policing women and girls and punishes those who dare to stand up for their rights".

"To this day, not a single Iranian official has been held accountable for ordering, planning and committing widespread and systematic human rights violations against women and girls through the implementation of compulsory veiling," it added.

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