Tuesday 22 April 2008

A Message from Sam Berg, just to clarify something...

Now, I'm being told that there is a lot of vitriol being said about Sam Berg, me and others over the pro-porn blogosphere right now and I've not even had a look as I am not interested. As I said before, I don't go to *their* places anymore as I don't care about what's being said about me by a sad bunch of people who don't even know me and who pathetically don't have anything better (?) to do than trash rad fems on their blogs. I perfectly know that all the nonsense pro-porners talk, the jeers and the gender-specific name-calling they sometimes use clearly show pornography's negative effects on them, as I have said before. . .

So why don't I care about what pro-porners say about me? Because I know that these people are all so full of it, obviously. . .

But, although in my previous post I'd said that "the next post I'll make on this blog will not be about the same subject. I'll go back to doing my patriarchy-bashing and exposing the harms of pornography and prostitution" (count on it next time for sure), I'm merely posting this message from Sam, upon her recent and urgent request, in order to clarify something because serious lies and misrepresentations are apparently being said about her right now over the "sex-poz" blogosphere. Here it is from Sam:


There are a lot of lies being told about me right now. I’m used to that because it comes with the pro-woman activism that kooky kid called life dropped into my lap like an unexploded bomb, but it’s rather concentrated at the moment. Most of it is nonsense, like that I’m trying to get the pro-sex work group kicked off campus (I’m not) or that I’m afraid to debate sex workers (I’m not) or that I said RenEv made threats personally to me (she didn’t and I didn’t say she did), but there is one very serious bit of business tucked into the ever-heaping distortions that I feel must be addressed.

Renegade Evolution is saying that I sent her threatening private emails. I have never emailed RenEv. Not once. What would be the point?

So where did the supposed emailed “threat” come from? I think I know, and I think you’re all going to want to learn what I know, because the pieces are fitting together for me very clearly for the first time.

Remember that person who committed fraud by lying to one of Genderberg’s moderators about being anti-pornography and anti-prostitution so they could spy on our private forums and then release words from there publicly? If you need or want a recap about the violation of women’s safe space that happened one year ago today in April 2007 you can read this post at Sinister Girl's.

Caught up? Good.

Also in April 2007, the aforementioned lying person started a hate blog called “Radical Feminist Terrorism” where the person who stole private writings from Genderberg [forums] spewed her vituperative guts out with such psychotic absurdities as:

“You can't really understand the hatred that is embodied in many of the posts on Genderberg. Many members of that forum simply do not see other women as human at all.“

“I am not sure why the belief that women should be free to live as they wish is so dangerous. I do know that to many in the Genderberg this belief in women's freedom is utterly inexcusable. They will do anything to destroy it.”

“While many will claim that Genderberg is a "safe space" my belief is that there should be no safe space for those who work to destroy women. There should be no dark corner where ANYONE can get together and plot against or foster hatred of women.”

“There is no evil that these haters of women will not stoop to. There is no vile act of malice they cannot justify. They will do anything in their power to destroy or silence anyone they disagree with. In their hate they are trying to destroy her. In their blood lust for a purge they are trying to force Renegade Evolution to reveal who I am. They want to close the hole so they can go back to plotting against women in the dark.”

“In my time on Genderberg I read more hatred of women than I ever read or saw in pornography.”

Seeing how loony the anonymous Radfem Terrorism blogger clearly is, I brushed off replying substantively because the raging dementia speaks for itself.

Throughout May and June the moderators at Genderberg worked like demons to try and figure out which of the 100 or so members was the leak. We ask every member a series of questions before approving them and we were going member by member to try and restore some of the lost sense of security that made one prostituted woman feel she had to leave Genderberg. By early July we pooled our research and figured out that the leak was someone who registered as “Miriam” with a bunch of hooey about being anti-pornography and caring about prostituted women. I deleted “Miriam” from the memberlist and sent her the following email on July 5, 2007:

“I feel bad for you because you've obviously been seriously fucked up by people in your life, but if you don't back off slagging on radfems you're going to force my hand.

I can prove you committed fraud when you lied to moderator deedle about your gb membership, and I can prove you were the one who leaked Pony's words. Because you're a pathological liar, you're probably thinking you can lie your way out of this just like you've done other times.

You can't.

I didn't out you before because I have a soft spot for seriously fucked up women like yourself, but I'm not above initiating legal action to show the ex-sex workers in my little community that their privacy and continued peace of mind is something I take very seriously. If you cared about sex workers one tenth as much as you manipulatively tell people you do then you would not have violated a sex worker-heavy community like you did.

Stop telling lies, Miriam. You're not as good at it as you think you are.”

Now ask yourself why RenEv thinks my email to Miriam threatening to reveal that I know Miriam wrote the "Radical Feminist Terrorism" blog was somehow a threat to reveal personal information about RenEv.

-- Sam Berg.


I'm guessing that's another side of another story again exposed now, as I can see. Thank you so much for your honesty about this email, Sam. I can imagine that (1) you were protecting Genderberg's security & privacy and (2) you were very angry at the facts that Pony's words had been leaked from G'berg's private forums by somebody and that rad fems were being trashed on the pro-porn blogosphere (as usual). I also believe that the clarification was important, which is why I'm posting this.

But now, honestly, I do not want to talk about those pro-porners' names ever again on my blog (in future posts -- I'll let rad fems comment on what they will here in case they want to say anything). I do not want to talk about these names anymore after that due to the fact that, as I have said before, they aren't worth paying attention to even though I spoke in defense of Sam as they clearly went way too far in their nastiness this time with the way they treated her regarding the issues that surrounded that porn panel. . .

(BTW the post over at Heart's on the W&M panel and her comment thread were very interesting)

They'll carry on bashing us as if that's all they're capable of and I'll be carrying on bashing patriarchy and pornstitution meanwhile. . .


Edited to add: See also the similar post at Laurelin's on Sam Berg responding to her detractors, and Laurelin's little comment thread that follows it. Also, check out the comment thread at Witchy's.

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12 comments:

Maggie said...

I had somebody in moderation say that I should perhaps have said "who aren't familiar with my writing or general philosophy" instead of "who don't even know me". Well, perhaps I should have added "who aren't familiar with my philosophy and my work in general" (unless when sometimes taking nearly whole articles from my blog without even asking me for copyright permissions in order to either discredit me or encourage an online targeting of me or trash me on their blogs), I've seen it before.

As for "engaging with the pro-porn material being a great deal more productive", no thanks, I gave up! I've already seen their blogs with all the nonsense (IMO), the taunts, the jeers, the (sometimes) pornified remarks and (sometimes) the insults before so I'm not interested this time, not worth paying attention to. If what you (whoever you are) were saying in particular was "NOT about ME" but "what you believe to be flawed" (and I don't believe so), fair enough. However, I will not deny the online targeting and trashing of rad fems by pro-porners as I have seen it all happen before with my own eyes (even a while before this particular case) and I've been told by rad fem friends of mine who recently went to look "over there" on the other side that this is currently happening again in some places...

Anyway this post was mainly to clarify something about Sam... That was the main purpose of it.

Anonymous said...

I wish they'd leave us the fuck alone. It doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon though.

They enjoy their S&M games too much.

Anonymous said...

>>>>They enjoy their S&M games too much.

As usual Delphyne, nail, head, bang. The mentality is all too clear.

Maggie said...

I'm guessing that what Delphyne and Laurelin meant by the sentence "They enjoy their S&M games too much" is that pro-porners really enjoy the sadism they get from targeting us on their blogs and trying to hurt us; they enjoy that kind of sadism (I just mentioned) too much thus they can't be able to stop their nasty targeting of us and leave us alone (which would be too much to ask of pro-porners). I think that is what Delphyne and Laurelin meant.

And these men, who support pro-porn women, have no intention of supporting freedom of speech for radical feminists, which is why they attack us so often. That's what I believe.

Anonymous said...

Yep, that's what I meant.

The men who attack us are the worst. They reveal themselves with every breath- how many times have we told them not to act like dicks to women? we have outed their tactics time and time again. they will only listen to the women who tell them what they want to hear, whereas pro-feminists have a duty to listen to all feminists, 'sex pos' or radfem, or whatever.

I am always surprised at their audacity. They come to my blog abusing me, and then get pissy when I refuse to publish their pathetic and cowardly ramblings. What the hell do they expect? I don't take shit from men like them; they expect their voices should be heard everywhere, no matter how inappropriate or juvenile.

I'll say it for the zillionth time: throwing terms of abuse at feminists such as 'right wing', 'Stalinist', 'nazi', 'fascist','feminazi' is beyond puerile and quite frankly a fucking disgrace. Aside from the fact that using these terms to designate women who have merely stopped you abusing them on their blogs is a huge insult to those who suffered under Stalin, Mussolini or the Nazis, it is a disingenuous tactic designed to link 'right wing' and 'radfem' in people's minds. Five minutes' attention to the most basic radfem theory will teach all the stupidity of such a comparison.

Oh and if these pornified men don't want to be compared to johns or porn-users, why the hell are the defending these men they are so anxious to separate themselves from? if you think women should be available for you to buy, you have the mentality of a john, end of story. It's not rocket science.

Put briefly: if you don't want us to say you're being a dick to women, don't be a dick to women. Change your behaviour and stop passing the buck. Personally, I'm sick of women having to take responsibility for bad male behaviour. If you want my respect (which i doubt you prize highly), you have to earn it.

Anonymous said...

While the John's smirk - as women argue for "our rights" to suck their dicks...

Anonymous said...

Do you ladies happen to know for sure where we can listen to a podcast of the debate panel at W&M? I looked over at heart's blog and she cited a website to go to but there's no podcast posted there. Sorry if this is random, but I am very interested in this whole thing.

Maggie said...

Lara, I'm really sorry, but I have no idea...

Hopefully, somebody who sees your comment will know about a podcast of the debate panel (if there's any) and provide us with a link.

Or perhaps you could ask Delphyne (on Laurelin's blog - I left a link to Laurelin's post at the end of my post above)?

Best to you.

The Fabulous Kitty Glendower said...

I am so sick of the pro-porn crowd. I am sick of feminists having to divert from what they want to do to defend themselves from these people. But as long as this goes on, I must admit, it is a compliment. Yes it is, back handed yes. If we were nothing, was not a threat, they would go away, but they don't, that is telling.

I say keep up the great work!

Maggie said...

Thank you, Kitty. :)

I agree. You're right. We're a threat to the patriarchal status quo that these pro-porners are maintaining so viciously, which is why they refuse to leave us alone.

But we will not go away, whether they like it or not, we will keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

I don't really have anything to add, as I have had a rant at Witchy's and elsewhere. That rant was the result of staying fairly much silent for over a year, as they continued to trash me. One outburst in a year isn't bad!

For the record, RenEv admitted on her own blog (in the comments of a thread back in April/May 2007) that Miriam was her middle name. Now she denies that the Miriam who joined GB under false pretenses was her. The co-incidence is just amazing. I wish I had the same chance of winning the lottery.

But anyway, worse than RenEv is her little sockpuppet kennerson, who continues trashing me and other radfems unabated. He is pure pornified scum. You are a worthless piece of shit kennerson. There is one quote you may use of mine kennerson, post it, post it a lot.

The only reason I reposted the Bees/Wasps posts was that 'people' (I use the term loosely) like kennerson kept posting them. The dickhead even posted the Bees post in response to something I had said on a trans thread. Oh WTF was that about? He didn't/couldn't deconstruct what I said on trans so he posts my Bees? Apparently excessive wanking to porn damages the male brain - kennerson being the case in point. My 'study' is conclusive.

Sorry Maggie, I derailed. I haven't said anything for a year on this stuff, it was good to get it out. I feel better now. :P

My parting thoughts to the pro-pornies, to bastardise a famous quote, "let them watch porn [and leave us the fuck alone]".

stormy out.

Maggie said...

I understand you for being so angry, Stormy, and "derailing".

The dreadful way these pro-porners treated you with all their repeatedly nasty online targeting is so heart-breaking to me. :(

I can imagine how they clearly made you so badly lose your temper with all their repeated online targeting and trashing of you. I hope you'll be feeling better sometime.

Take it easy. And take care of yourself, Stormy. :)

I'm on your side, no matter what *they* think.

I agree with you: What's there to defend about porn? This woman-hating propaganda material is absolutely everywhere. *They* merely want to uphold the patriarchal status quo, that's why they can't stop targeting and trashing us. We are "bothering" their agenda.

We'll just have to ignore them in the future, that's the best we can do...