In spite of his straitlaced, conservative public persona, however, Schwanke was posing online as a pastor and youth minister with less-than-holy intentions toward the young girls of his flock.

In the persona of “h*rnypastor,” Schwanke claimed to have been a youth minister for 20 years, telling one correspondent, “with my pool at my house I find lots of chances to ‘counsel’ the girls.”
He was netted by Australian undercover police conducting an online sting. The Australian authorities reported Schwanke to U.S. officials, who raided his home in August.

Schwanke was in possession of a vast trove of illegal images. According to court documents, nearly every email in the “h*rnypastor” account contained images or accounts of child exploitation and abuse.


TSG said that no evidence exists to support Schwanke’s claims of being a pastor. His LinkedIn page identified him as an emergency medical services worker. He is an avid Civil War re-enactor, who, when he isn’t online railing against “feminazis,” enjoys giving “talks to school groups about the American Civil War.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/18/tea-party-patriot-arrested-for-swapping-child-pron-using-pastor-email-account/

10. Women should shut up in public

With so much sexist shenanigans this year, you would be forgiven for forgetting this little doozy from the then Socceroos coach, Holger Osieck, in June. Chagrinned at being directed where to sit by a female organiser at a press conference, Osieck quipped: “There is a saying - women should shut up in public.” Osieck later apologised, saying he didn't “mean anything by it” and has “been married for many years”. Because married men - like those with daughters- cannot possibly be sexist.

9. Huma Abedin blamed for her husband's sexting

If you are a fan of blaming women for everything, then this one is for you. A Fox News commentator absolved serial sexter Anthony Weiner of his indiscretions because of his wife's Muslimness. Democrat politician Weiner, you see, simply wasn't sexually attracted to Huma Abedin who is a top aide to Hillary Clinton, “because she is connected with Islamists who want to kill us”.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd had a different-but-not-really take on it. “When you puzzle over why the elegant Huma Abedin is propping up the eel-like Anthony Weiner, you must remember one thing: Huma was raised in Saudi Arabia, where women are treated worse by men than anywhere else on the planet.”

Yep, because only Muslim wives stand by their wayward husbands - right, Hillary?


8. Miley Cyrus uses black women as props

Ah, Miley Cyrus. Where would 2013 be without you? While mainstream feminism rightly defended Cyrus from slut-shaming, at a time when feminists of colour are becoming increasingly disillusioned with mainstream white feminism, it was disappointing to see white feminists persistently gloss over Cyrus' penchant for objectifying the bodies of black women. For a rundown on the – wait for it - intersection of race and sex in Cyrus' We Can't Stop video, see this concise but excellent analysis by Jezebel's Dodai Stewart.

More:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/chauvinist-picks-the-most-sexist-moments-of-2013-20131217-2ziur.html

"Related
Reddit Forum Encourages Users to Spam College With False Rape Reports
Self-styled "men's rights advocates" used their Reddit forum yesterday to organize a spam campaign against Occidental College's… Read…"


An Occidental College spokesman confirmed to Gawker what was suspected earlier today: Online trolls from Reddit and elsewhere disrupted their online anonymous sexual assault reporting system with hundreds of sarcastic, caustic false rape reports.

"Late Monday, the 16th we started seeing a stream of what we would call suspicious reports that were being submitted" to Occidental's Google-based assault reporting form, said Jim Tranquada, director of communications for the Los Angeles college, which has faced scrutiny in recent months for underreporting sex assaults involving its students.

That's about the same time that commenters on Reddit's r/MensRights subreddit began discussing plans to spam the college's reporting system with phony accusations.

That system received about 400 separate assault allegations in 36 hours. "That's far more than we have ever received in the past," Tranquada said. "The sheer number of reports was suspicious."

Unlike their counterparts in other industrialized countries, abortion providers in the United States don’t simply perform abortions. Because of all the ramifications of the abortion wars in this country—the restrictions on the use of public funds, the scarcity of facilities that are able (or, in the case of hospitals, willing) to perform abortions for sicker women, and, most crucially, the overrepresentation of the poorest women in America in the population of abortion recipients—U.S. providers have become de facto social workers, fundraisers, and travel agents, to name just a few of their ancillary roles.

Take the case of Laverne (not her real name), a patient who recently came to a clinic in the South. She has numerous medical problems, some quite serious, including a history of hemorrhaging after the deliveries of her children. At the time of her contact with the clinic, she was just under 23 weeks pregnant—a condition she was late to discover because her periods had stopped due to one of her medical treatments. Given her fragile health status and her history of difficult births, her obstetrician strongly advised an abortion.

Given her health problems, stage of pregnancy, and high risk for catastrophic bleeding, the abortion clinic’s medical director felt it was safest for her abortion to be done in a hospital. The clinic staff did locate a nearby hospital that was able to do this abortion, but the cost would be $7,000—an utter impossibility for Laverne. Her family was financially destitute. She had recently lost her job due to her health problems, and her husband had been fired for leaving work and rushing home when one of their children called to say she had fainted. Her household included several other dependent relatives. There simply was no way to come up with $7,000.

The clinic director sprang into action. She put out a message on a listserv of abortion-providing colleagues and asked for help. Several people responded immediately, including the medical director of an abortion clinic in a West Coast hospital. The director offered that her facility would provide the abortion at considerably less than the $7,000 figure that had been quoted earlier. A staff person of the Southern clinic then called the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which was able through several of its funds to cover the cost of both the procedure and her travel to the West Coast. Laverne’s medical records were faxed to the hospital.

- See more at: http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/12/17/the-hidden-work-of-abortion-providers-lavernes-story/#sthash.Uko5qIHd.dpuf

Global Voices: What have you discovered about the pro-gender equality movements thanks to new media?

Coral Herrera: I am amazed by social networks because they have opened doors and windows for me to the entire world, they have broaden my horizons on all levels of my life: at the intellectual, personal, and professional levels. Before connecting to the world, I felt very alone with my books and my research, but now I sense that there are a lot of people who are also writing and sharing, with whom I can debate, build up, and deconstruct collectively.

When I got connected to these networks, I entered into contact with a diverse group of women who fascinated me because they allowed me to meet other realities beyond what I had known in Spain. I'm amazed at the struggle of peasant women, Afro-descendant woman, indigenous women, migrant women, victims of trafficking, factory workers, domestic workers, disabled women, and being able to come into contact with them has allowed me to grow beyond the Euro-centric feminism in which I was living.

Besides meeting with activists, it was fascinating to connect with feminist writers who were not only still living, but were also very active on social networks. Being able to follow them on a daily basis and to get to know them so “up close” allowed me to connect with feminist organizations and online publications from all over Latin America, and that was how I began to expand my networks and make contact with the groups of egalitarian men and LGBT activists, and with the queer groups that are slowly emerging.

On Friday, President Obama nominated Vice Admiral Michelle Howard to be the vice chief of naval operations. If confirmed, Howard will not only be the first woman to become a full admiral, but will also be the first woman and the first African-American to hold the Navy's number 2 position.

This isn't Howard's first time breaking the glass ceiling. She was the first African-American woman to command a U.S. Navy warship, as well as the first to command an expeditionary strike group at sea. She was also the first female Naval Academy graduate to become a rear-admiral.

Howard herself has spoken out on being a minority woman commanding a warship. As she told Time:

"For some of the sailors, it was a big deal—not because of the woman thing, but because of the African-American thing. I literally had people coming up, wanting to have their picture taken with me—this is the first time this has happened, where a minority woman has had command of a ship.
She also praised the Navy for prizing meritocracy over racial or gender preference: "What's great about the Navy is that, despite the few knuckleheads that exist, there are a lot of folks who are professional and who will grade you on your performance and not on how you look."

In many ways, the argument that women should be fully equal to men has won in the public discourse. Sure, a lot of people still fight against equality, but they often pretend that it’s about something else—fetal life, religious liberty, women’s “choice” to make less money—because even they know openly stating the belief that women are a subclass of people put here to serve men tends not to go over very well with a general audience. Women’s education rates and income are going up. Violence against women is going down. The attacks on reproductive rights are escalating, but that’s in part in response to the fact that women themselves, especially younger women, are increasingly comfortable with the belief that they are the decider when it comes to what happens to their uterus.

However, there’s one growing trend that, while it’s hard to really get an idea of its size, should be a cause for concern: The number of men online creating communities dedicated to advancing the plain old, unvarnished misogynist belief that men deserve to control women. On “men’s rights” forums and “revenge porn” sites, groups of men are gathering together to find reinforcement for the plain old abusive belief that women who make their own choices about who to sleep with and who to marry are evil, and that allowing women this most basic of freedom is somehow oppressive to men. That there are many men who feel this way is no big surprise, particularly to anyone who knows the extent of domestic violence in this country, violence that is usually rooted in just this belief about male entitlement over women’s bodies. But the fact that they have found each other online and are pumping each other up and feeling more and more empowered by the minute in their ludicrous beliefs should be a major cause for concern.

Two stories from this week show exactly how true it is that these communities are about crafting the belief that women “oppress” men by wanting to be the masters of our own bodies instead of ceding that control over to men. In California, Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the arrest of Kevin Bollaert, who is being hit with 31 charges of conspiracy, identity theft, and extortion for running a “revenge porn” site. “Revenge porn” is a nasty little subset of the Internet where men take naked pictures they usually obtained during the course of a consensual relationship, and they post them against a woman’s will in order to humiliate and harass her. Often, as was the case with Bollaert’s site, the woman’s name, location, and social media information is also provided so that the men who use the site can more effectively harass her.

The name “revenge porn” really points to the fact that this is about establishing the claim that men own women, and women do not get to say no. The men justify putting up the pictures as a form of “revenge.” Revenge for what? Well, usually for something as simple as dumping him. In some cases, the men try to beef up their claim of a right to vengeance by citing cheating or some other relationship infraction. It doesn’t really matter. You have a right to dump someone if they cheat on you, but the belief that you are “owed” the right to “revenge” by stalking and humiliating them is rooted in the belief that you own them and their bodies, and what they choose to do with their bodies somehow is a violation of your rights. While there are (reportedly) a few “revenge porn” pictures of men floating out there, by and large this is a violation enacted by men on women, and reinforced by an Internet community that assures these men they deserve to hurt and abuse women because those women are making choices with their own lives of which the men do not approve.

Thousands of Americans tweeting #NotYourAsianSidekick have sparked a global debate about the way Asian women are thought of.

"Be warned," the Chicago-based rights activist and freelance writer Suey Park tweeted early on Sunday. "Tomorrow morning we will be having a conversation about Asian American Feminism with hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick. Spread the word!!!!!!!" Her very deliberate attempt to create a debate about the way Asian-American women "have to be SMART and PRETTY to be heard and "are objectified by Asian men and White men" was hugely successful. In less than 24 hours, the hashtag has been used more than 45,000 times around the world.

The conversation, which started with discussion of how Asian women are stereotyped, soon spread to cover racism ("Oh look. More bitter liberal non-whites expressing anti-white attitudes," tweeted one user, who was roundly criticised), the under-representation of Asian-Americans in media, dating patterns between racial groups and attitudes towards mental health. Cartoons and humour were shared and the debate also spread around the world, having particular resonance in other Western countries with large Asian minorities. One user in Toronto quoted men who say "I've always wanted a Chinese woman to cook for me" with the reply "I've always wanted laser beam eyes, sadly you're still alive." Another An L in Sydney tweeted: "Change in social attitudes towards Asian women is a long way off, but opening up the conversation is a great start." The British-Asian blogger Sunny Hundal said the debate had resonance in the UK because just like Asian-Americans "we see our faces on social media, but when we turn on the TV we see only limited stereotypes."


Suey Park said the hashtag had arisen out of her frustration at the narrow ways in which the label "Asian-American" was defined, saying #NotYourAsianSidekick would allow marginalized Asian-Americans to voice their grievances. The topic trended in both US and worldwide on Sunday, in part because of Park's own prolific tweeting. "How much longer can we get #NotYourAsianSidekick to trend?" she asked at one point. "I'm getting tired! Fresh voices, please speak now! We need you to keep it going!"

Last week I was invited to the Dutch embassy to celebrate the launching of the Nobel Women’s Initiative’s report on sexual violence against women in Sudan. The report is titled “Survivors Speak Out: Sexual Violence in Sudan,” and it is meant to address the situation of “mass rape” and other forms of sexual violence against Sudanese women of all religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Via The International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict.
As a Masters student interested in issues of gender and gendered violence, I was quite excited to be one of three students chosen to represent my university. I, a Mexican of indigenous background and a convert to Islam, was chosen alongside one Christian Lebanese PhD student and a second-year Masters student of Iraqi and Muslim background. Upon arrival to the embassy, the first thing we noticed was the demographic. We were three of the five minorities in a group of more than 50 people. There were only about four men, including the ambassador and a representative from Amnesty international. Whereas demographics may be irrelevant in some contexts, I think the demographics of this event set the tone for what would be an afternoon of drawing dichotomies, praising the big bucks coming from abroad, and presenting few recommendations to solve the issues. As three of the five minorities we were photographed constantly… My Iraqi friend, who is also a hijabi, attracted numerous people who kept asking to take a picture with her. It was like being in the zoo. Nonetheless, perhaps one of the most shocking (but not really) facts was that in an event celebrating the launching of a report about Sudanese women, there were no Sudanese people.
The speakers made a point in saying that the Sudanese government was against the work done by the organization; yet, no other Sudanese representatives from universities or NGOs were invited. There were no black people either… the report was surrounded by the whiteness that put it together and the money that funded it.
This report was presented in front of representatives of the Canadian senate, Canadian Foreign Affairs, the media and various NGOs yet it was more a mingling cocktail party than anything else. Among the three different speeches, the representative of Amnesty International had the most effect on me (and I don’t mean in a good way). He first recalled various issues of gender violence in Canada to try to appeal to the Canadian crowd and make the link to sexual violence in the Third World. However, the situation of the Stolen Sisters in Canada and sexual violence against indigenous women was not among the events mentioned. According to him, gender violence is non-existent in Canada or the Netherlands, which sharply contrasts with Amnesty’s own campaigns supporting the rights of indigenous women in Canada.

So one of the regulars on Reddit’s The Red Pill subreddit — the “TRP Endorsed” contributor who calls himself IllimitableMan — has worked himself into a lather about the coming Whitepocalypse. You know, the impending collapse of civilization that Mr. Man and assorted other racist asshats fear will come about as a result of white women refusing to pop out the required number of white babies to keep it alive. Sorry, due to white women refusing to “shit out” the required number of white babies. (Mr. Man is quite the defender of family values.)

It pretty much goes without saying that IllimitableMan blames feminism for it all. In fact, over the course of his rambling, repetitive, and rage-fuelled 2,000 word rant he manages to blame feminism for the impending death of the white race roughly half a dozen different times.

Here’s perhaps the most coherent statement of his thesis:


"Feminism has infected western civilization, which means by merit of these societies being predominantly white Caucasian, has harmed this ethnicity the most on a global level, reducing its birth rates the most significantly and affecting its various European and anglo speaking cultures the most adversely. …
What we can conclude is that castrating men by raising them to be effeminate whilst simultaneously allowing women too much freedom and self-determination and polluting said women to view men as adversaries leads to a drop in the birth-rate so deep that a society becomes unsustainable, leading to its inevitable collapse."

So why are white women less interested in popping out babies these days? Blame that Alpha Asshole Cock Carousel.

"A fundamental criticism of feminism is it taught women to take on masculine traits, to provide, to work hard, it demonised the sanctity of motherhood, it taught women to value career and the self (an overlap with individualism there) over motherhood and family, 21-year-old White Caucasian girls no longer give any fucks about being a mother and a wife like they did in the 50?s and 60?s, no now they’re thinking about jumping on as much cock as possible, getting a degree, going on holidays … and generally fulfilling the sexual and materialistic elements of their hypergamy. Family and reproduction takes a back-seat."