shakesfail

catandkitty: man remember when I used to read shakesville every day for like five years and how it...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:37:02 -0400

man remember when I used to read shakesville every day for like five years and how it was the first place I ever found support talking about being a rape survivor until Melissa called me a rape troll and banned me for agreeing with another poster who said that her uncritical praise of a rapist was wrong

casketscratcher: Look at how surprised I am that Melissa McEwan is telling British people how to...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:36:25 -0400

casketscratcher:

Look at how surprised I am that Melissa McEwan is telling British people how to feel about Margaret Thatcher’s death because she’s “married to a Scot.”

Look at all that surprise.

Submission: Thanks for the triggering, Melissa.

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:29:28 -0400

I spent last night mostly sleepless dealing with my issues of depression, anxiety and insomnia all because of being rather publicly lambasted when I posted in good faith on Shakesville (which I have rarely done. I don’t usually read the clique-ish comments at all). I’m done. I’ve removed it from my RSS feed and my twitter. I couldn’t sleep because, as a decent person and a feminist, I took it to heart when Melissa called me out on things I hadn’t seen in my post when I wrote it. Do I think her criticism has some validity? Yes. But the sleep I lost and the anxiety triggered - which I’m sure she wouldn’t give a shit about if I told her - made me realize that this is not a person I want to bother reading. I wish I could get last night of my life back. I feel her tone was pretty harsh and I’m afraid to post anything more than the apology I posted as soon as I saw her comment.

I posted:

“I second ElvisVF101 above. The few photos I’ve seen of Haiti or Cuba were heartbreaking. These people had so little before Sandy and have even less now. I live in NYC and when I hear people in the suburbs where I work [complain] (I had originally, unthinkingly, used “bitch” here) about the power outage, I think, “Imagine if you lived in Haiti! STFU!”

Of course, there are plenty of poor people here in NY who are in terrible shape. I’m getting less and less able to tolerate the privileged people here in my library who are upset they can’t charge their smartphone at home. (They can come to the library to do it though!) I’m lucky, the effect of Sandy on my life is a mere annoyance. Many others are experiencing devastation.”

I wasn’t referring to everyone who has come into my library to charge their devices since the outages caused by Sandy, just the few who behave like privileged assholes. And while I can see that invisible disabilities might be there, they also may just be privileged assholes. Plus, I have invisible mental health issues myself. And she triggered them. And now that I have better perspective on the situation I’m pissed. Her reply, which felt like a slap in the face, was:

“Misogynist slurs are a violation of the commenting policy, even if they are (mis)used as synonyms for complain.

I will also note that it a privilege to believe that a lack of power and inability to charge a mobile phone at home is not a very serious problem for some people. People with disabilities and/or chronic illness — which are not always obvious; that’s why the term invisible disability exists — that make both traveling just to charge phones and risking not having a usable phone in an emergency are more numerous than you evidently believe.

Not everyone has (or can afford) a landline. Some people with a landline, like myself, lose it when they lose power, because they are digital lines.

And someone with an invisible disability who, per your observation, can get to the library, might have to use up an inordinate number of spoons to do it.

I will ask you to be more considerate of the people with invisible disabilities for whom this should also be a safe space, including me.”

In my years of being a feminist and reading feminist blogs, I honestly can’t recall people getting up in arms over the colloquial usage of “bitch” to mean “complain.” I’ve seen “lame” called out as being ableist, and while I’m trying to avoid using that word, I can’t help but think that the original usage of “lame” is far out of disuse in our language. I don’t think I’ve ever used lame to describe someone with a physical disability in my 40 years on this earth.

I was trying to comment on how terrible I think it is that the islands affected by Sandy aren’t getting more coverage, and the privilege I see during my workday, but apparently that makes me an ableist asshole. I’m going to take myself and my invisible disabilities and go read feminist blogs that aren’t so hypersensitive and can provide more intelligent analysis than calling everything “garbage” and using the word “fart” a lot.

Submission

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:23:13 -0400

Melissa’s recent post “Learned Hatred”, about the racial innocence of children, is so clueless and glurgy. It’s way off to imply that children, even young children, aren’t aware of their race and the impact it has on their lives.

Submission: Name Calling, My Ass.

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:22:54 -0400

I once got scolded for rearranging a “garbage nightmare” politician’s name (Mitch Daniels became Ditch Maniels!). Apparently, my flippant comment was made in bad faith, was triggering for people that had been bullied or teased as children, and was completely inappropriate.

I opted to never comment again after that. I wasn’t sure what the limit would be.

Just thanking you for this tumblr. I have a blog post about Shakesville only being a safe space for the blogmistress (ick) and I noticed people are getting to it by searching "shakesville drama" and "shakesville cult. " I Googled same and found so much! Glad to know I am not alone among feminists in thinking Liss is crazy and abusive. When I told her not to call her sick body garbage, because as a cancer patient I find that triggering, I was told I am a piece a shit and "deeply silencing."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:22:08 -0400

I’m so glad you and other shakesville refugees were able to use the blog as a resource. That was the goal all along. When I was there, it was so disturbing to see already vulnerable people being subjected to emotional abuse by Melissa. I think she’s reined it in a bit since she’s been forced to confront feedback (I know for a fact that she checks this blog), which is a secondary benefit.

Oh, and sorry to everyone for being so slow to publish submissions and respond to questions. I’ve been especially busy with work, school, family and friends, and I’ve only been able to check the blog periodically.

Fail Fandom Anon - Shakesville

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:38:05 -0500

Fail Fandom Anon - Shakesville

submission

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:26:00 -0500

For a place which is all about safety, I never feel safe posting there and end up (Trigger Warning) all my posts over EVERYTHING, and that’s when they allow anybody to post, which, due to whatever issues with Disqus has been way less!

Total shutdown

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:34:24 -0500

I am so grateful I found this! I have had a growing anger towards shakesville for a long time. It was one of the first feminist blogs I read and it really opened up a lot of things for me. However, now I feel like I can never disagree. I am a radical (anarcha-feminist to be exact) and so I have my own perspective on things. I have been well aware that if I post my opinions, I will get shut down real fast. Most recently on the isralie gaza open thread.

Melissa: A couple of notes: We have managed to have thought-provoking and civil threads in this space on previous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, and I trust that can happen again. If the thread gets ugly, it will just be closed. Please comment thoughtfully—and bear in mind that neither Israelis nor Palestinians are monolithic groups; among Israelis are people who agree with the Netanyahu administration’s actions and people who condemn those actions; among Palestinians are people who agree with Hamas’ leadership’s actions and people who condemn those actions. There is not consensus among diaspora populations, either.

I don’t have much to say, except this: My position remains, as it has always been, one of frustration with leaders and sympathy for all involved. It’s not that I don’t care (or have an opinion on) who’s intrinsically got the more principled position; it’s that sometimes, at a certain point, being right becomes less important than doing the right thing.

My comment:
I have a really hard time reading this rhetoric. Just like we explain to right wingers that pro-choice and pro-life are not two sides of the same coin, neither is the violence between Israel and Palestine. Israel is an occupying force, invading lands that are not their. They are imprisoning and bombing civilians. They are restricting food and resources into occupied territories. The narrative the mainstream media is creating is just not true. I cannot condemn an oppressed group for resisting, I cannot condemn Palestine violence because I have no idea to live the world that is their reality.

Melissa:

Can you please identify the “rhetoric” that drew the equivalence you are accusing someone (?) of drawing in this space?

Because I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

Me:

“My position remains, as it has always been, one of frustration with leaders and sympathy for all involved. It’s not that I don’t care (or have an opinion on) who’s intrinsically got the more principled position; it’s that sometimes, at a certain point, being right becomes less important than doing the right thing.”

This part right here in your original post. Correct me if I am misinterpreting, but I cannot see how there is “right thing” for Palestine in these circumstances. It is not up to us, those of us in the west to cast value on their response. Only the oppressed can decide what is the right way to deal with their oppression and in this case, Palestinians are clearly the oppressed group.

Several of the comments take this route as well, @Donnals and just the general sentiments that “peace will never come through violence.” Look, it is not up to us to decide what resistance is the right path for Palestine. And it is not within our knowledge to know either. Only, they can decide that (and they have their own conflicts in tactics).

Melissa:

I did not assert that I had “decide[d] what resistance is the right path for Palestine.”

I also did not say that I thought Palestine needed to do the right thing.

You are making accusations based on things you have attributed to me that I did not actually say. That’s how flame wars start.

And since I have company over this evening and have neither the ability nor desire to mod a flame war, I’m closing this thread.

And boom. Shutdown!

Anon Submission

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:26:00 -0400

I received a submission that requested to remain anonymous, so I’ve removed all the identifying elements of her story. I feel like it fits a pattern that is familiar to most of us - an earnest, polite comment from a regular reader followed by bad faith assumptions and hateful bullying.

Hello, please feel free to tell about this or comment on it, but I don’t feel up to telling about it very well or very coherently, and I want to stay anonymous. Besides, I still read Shakesville and believe it or not, I’m a little bit afraid and intimidated over there. I don’t know regular readers over there to know that I’m telling you this. If I sound too paranoid, well…

[Identifying elements of the story redacted.]

I know that I’m fighting too hard for approval and to make myself understood, but by this time I was crying like a baby and on the edge of a panic attack.

Anyway, thanks for this tumblr. Lately I was thinking that Melissa was not always coherent and that the blog wasn’t as good as it used to be. I can see now that I wasn’t imagining things.

-Anon

This woman was left crying and on the verge of a panic attack all because she commented that she wished to help improve the lives of children in her community. Her story is why I have this tumblr. Shakesville tries to be a beacon for vulnerable people in need of a safe space, but they ultimately manipulate, bully and abuse those very members. They’re despicable.

"fucking disgusting. her pedantry is dishonest and manipulative. serious concerns and criticisms—like..."

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 10:41:00 -0400

“

fucking disgusting. her pedantry is dishonest and manipulative. serious concerns and criticisms—like the inappropriateness of praising a man who’s been accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple women on a blog that brands itself as oppositional to and explanatory of rape culture, sexism, and all other oppressions—are shot down, edited, and deleted because, according to McEwan, they’re personal attacks. fuck off, give me a break. her ego is so big, she can’t see around it to real, serious issues anymore.

and lol, never forget “queer-brained”

”

- notacrnflkgirl

"Usually I just think Melissa is kind of a silly bully, but her last line in the Clinton post about..."

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:34:00 -0400

“Usually I just think Melissa is kind of a silly bully, but her last line in the Clinton post about dissenters “pretending to care about rape survivors” really hit me hard. I AM a rape survivor, she is not the be-all, end-all authority and oh my god to set herself up as axiomatically “caring” while the rest of us aren’t is so sick and hurtful.”

- Anon

Shakesville & Clinton: Melissa Shows Survivors the Door (Links Post)

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:23:43 -0400

Shakesville & Clinton: Melissa Shows Survivors the Door (Links Post):

queen-annes-lace-undies:

Tumblr reacts to the latest horror show over at Shakesville (TW silencing and dismissal of rape survivors). I took part in the ‘debate’, posting under the username ‘Cherry’.

In a thread full of feminists cooing over Bill Clinton following the speech he gave at the DNC, Melissa McEwan screens comments from people asking why there is zero acknowledgement at Shakesville of Clinton’s long history of sexual assault and smearing. Dissenters are all banned and the comments are closed.

☞ Write-up of events by itsrootsmustholdthesky

☞ More reactions in this post by coldbitterness

☞ morningchorus discusses the appropriation of the Spoon Theory by members of the Social Justice community

And again, a link to the sf-drama post, the best archive I’ve been able to find with a long list of the many questionable things that have been going on at Shakesville.

The Grossness Continues At Shakesville

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:22:10 -0400

queen-annes-lace-undies:

In an open thread (TW: rape culture), Melissa McEwan continues to screen comments and ban anyone who dares to call her out on the shameful censorship that took place in the Clinton thread. I’m posting any screencaps I manage to get over on my LJ.

Today in Shakesville Cultlogic: Tell Your 13 Year Old to Download the Porn he is Apparently Addicted to

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:46:00 -0400

Today in Shakesville Cultlogic: Tell Your 13 Year Old to Download the Porn he is Apparently Addicted to:

itsrootsmustholdthesky:

TW: CSA (nothing explicit)

Bonus comments include:

gracefulvictory

Personally, I would sit down and watch a porn video with him pointing out why certain aspects are BS. LOL

Watching porn with your 13 year old son = totally responsible parenting!

Phoenix_Rising

My friend whose 11 year old was searching for “boys kissing” got a filter for her home internet and it’s worked wonders. (note, the moms had no problem with the boy wanting to kiss boys, they had a big problem with the boy drowning in explicit sexual imagery that relies on objectification of both “boys kissing”).

Won’t somebody think of the objectified men! Also this is totally the same situation. Because gay couples are so well represented in media as it is, so if their kid is curious they could just turn on the TV to see two guys showing affection! (Bonus homophobia for implying that two men kissing is “explicit sexual imagery” compared to a straight couple kissing.)

SaitoHawkeye

Couldn’t you just…take the phone away?

A sensible answer appears! But wait…

Melissa McEwan

General Thread Note: Let’s please comment in ways that don’t imply a Shaker who asked a question of the community in the hopes of support is a fool. If you have nothing better to offer than a snarky implication rvh is a terrible mother who hasn’t considered taking her son’s phone away, don’t comment.

I will shut this thread down with Thor’s Hammer before I let it become some kind of heinous mother-judging pile-on.

ETA. Please note the request is primarily for resources, not parenting advice. That is not incidental.

Oh well, guess it’s back to business as usual at Shakesville. I can’t help but wonder if SaitoHawkeye was banned for promoting “bad faith.”

owlfeathers in reply to Melissa McEwan

rvh asked for “ideas and resources”, I don’t think suggesting the phone be taken away as a first step is a bad faith idea, and in fact, Eric makes a good case for why its an extremely good first step.

Don’t try to confuse Melissa with your Earth logic, owlfeathers. It’ll only come back to bite you in the arse.

Melissa McEwan in reply to owlfeathers

This isn’t up for debate. And my comment wasn’t directed at commenters like Eric, whose comment isn’t snarky, condescending, and shitty — unlike, say, your previous comment which I deleted.

Knock it off.

Yep…

Loads more Shakesville Logic at the source.

Other posts in the Shakesville Cultlogic series.

Pathos & Prétention: Melissa McEwan has gone badshit

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:43:53 -0400

Pathos & Prétention: Melissa McEwan has gone badshit:

citoyenrebelle:

Melissa McEwan has gone badshit insane. And I mean that in the nicest way, coming from someone who’s mentally ill.

Okay, I take that back.

She’s power-tripping. Hard. She won’t be happy until her praising, grateful reader-subjects grovel in submission. And even then she’s dissatisfied. She …

so this shakesfail stuff is great but aren't you worried that the shakers will harass you for using a URL that, they could say, might mislead people into thinking it was the official shakesville tumblr?

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:57:28 -0400

Not really. If they disagree with me, they’re free to voice their opinions. My feelings won’t be hurt, promise.

If they want to file a complaint with tumblr, they can do that too but tumblr’s terms of service state that “parody, criticism, and other fair uses of others’ names are fine, so long as there’s no intention to impersonate or confuse.” I think the title, subtitle, and content of Shakesfail make it plainly obvious to readers that this is a blog criticizing Shakesville. I have no intention to mislead or confuse anyone.

Submission: The Mods want you to fail!

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:17:00 -0400

Thank you for this blog. One of the mods at Shakesville made me cry today because I used the word psychotic to describe a conservative pundit (not one of the bloggers). She jumped down my throat almost instantly. I apologized and said that since I have mental instabilites in my own life and the life of those close to me, I never meant to insult anyone. She jumped down my throat again and said just because I am familiar with mental disorder does not mean I’m not a bigot, without acknowledging my apology. I tried to think of the right way to clarify my point, but realized that this girl was on a roll. She was thrilled I had messed up the ridiculously over the top rule system so she could shame me and make me feel awful. I could have gotten on my knees and begged for forgiveness and she would have still turned up her nose. It’s too bad this is what Shakesville has become.

Freibiergesicht

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:11:00 -0400

Shakesville: I will also briefly note that if you think this post is just about Scots, or whether Scots are/should be offended, you have misread the post. The post very clearly elucidates how the particular stereotypes being evoked play into a tradition of racism that upholds white supremacy.

Comments going on about whether Scots are/should be offended not only miss the larger point utterly; they are a derail from the issue of how even certain stereotyping of white peoples plays into kyriarchal narratives.

And missing all of that in order to make truly juvenile accusations about how I don’t speak for Scottish people really makes you look like you’re too stupid to comprehend the nuance of the post, or, alternately, like a deliberately shit-stirring pissant.

Either way, you may want to reconsider, because there are advanced social justice ideas in the post, and if you’re not willing to engage seriously with them, you’re going to look like an ass to this community.”

shakesville post

Oh my god.

If you see my self-centered white privileged bullshit for what it is, you’re misreading! Of course, she claims that her post about how offensive “Brave” is to white people because “whiteness is not a monolith” which is true, but somehow the film showing a distinct white culture plays into “whiteness as default” social narratives …. how, exactly? Despite her clear elucidation what I saw was a bunch of SJ concepts used by people of color being appropriated to whine about utterly harmless stereotypes perpetrated by an American media company towards a white western European nationality/ethnicity. There is no racial/ethnic power differential between the United States and Scotland.

Comments said by Scottish people going on about whether Scots should be offended are irrelevant because I am an American of Scottish ancestry! Again, this is where her misuse of SJ concepts turns purely hypocritical. If American media and Americans have the power differential to “marginalize” “other” “appropriate” “exploit” “racially stereotype” and “silence” Scottish people (all words used in the original post about U.S. media representation of Scots) then as an American isn’t she obligated to privilege the voice of an actual Scottish person above her own?

I mean, I don’t actually think so because again, there is no significant racial/ethnic power differential between white Americans and white Scots. Or English. Or Irish. Or Germans. Or - you get the point. American cultural/military/etc hegemony may be terrible but it’s not an excuse to act as if various white western European nationalities/ethnicities are racially or ethnically underprivileged in relation to white Americans. And stating that stunningly obvious fact has nothing to do with upholding whiteness as a monolith, ffs.

As for advanced social justice ideas, yes, the level of SJ jargon and buzzwords used in this post to whine about the supposed marginalization of white western europeans is pretty advanced bullshittery.

Social justice concepts as they relate to whiteness, ethnicity, nationality, and so forth do not exist so white American girls can appropriate these concepts to claim they are oppressed on the basis of their whiteness.

Also I’m a motherfucking Stuart. Come at me, bro.

Freibiergesicht [click to see notes]

but I'm not a hippie: And this is why I stay far away from social justice warriors.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:51:00 -0400

So, the Pixar film Brave has come out. There are several ways a person into social justice can react to this film. They can watch it in the cinema and think it’s great. They can watch it in the cinema and think it’s utter shit. They can watch it in the cinema and think it’s anything between ‘great’ and ‘shit’ and then post about it on their blogs, tumblrs, livejournals and whatever.

Or they can not watch it at all, and write an entire rant on how Brave is the worst thing Pixar has ever done with its stereotypical portrayal of Scottish people and how it oppresses them and gingers.

Thank you, Shakesville, for your wonderful post ABOUT A MOVIE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN, to address the oppression of a group of people YOU ARE NOT A PART OF.

At least one person, laughingscot, points out that, as a white Scottish person, they don’t need Shakesville to fight for them and that they are not feeling oppressed by this film at all.

“Melissa, I’m telling you now, as a white Scottish person, that you don’t have to fight for us. We’ll be okay. We really, honestly, don’t give a damn about these “stereotypes” and in fact find them perfectly funny. I’m sure nobody on Earth actually believes that Scottish people all have red hair and live in little wooden shacks in a mythical wonderland, and even if they do, who cares? We’re not oppressed, we’re not marginalized for being Scottish (yes, even the ginger ones) and there’s nothing we love more than to laugh at ourselves. Yes you can argue that back in our history we were oppressed by the English, but the fact of the matter is those of us who are white are just that: white people living in a culture where white is privileged above all other races. Race =/= culture.”

You would think that as someone who is into social justice, Melissa would listen to the people who are part of the group she believes are oppressed.

But no.

Instead, these people are told to stick to the Shakesville commenting policy, and also that

“Comments going on about whether Scots are/should be offended not only miss the larger point utterly; they are a derail from the issue of how even certain stereotyping of white peoples plays into kyriarchal narratives.

And missing all of that in order to make truly juvenile accusations about how I don’t speak for Scottish people really makes you look like you’re too stupid to comprehend the nuance of the post, or, alternately, like a deliberately shit-stirring pissant.

there are advanced social justice ideas in the post, and if you’re not willing to engage seriously with them, you’re going to look like an ass to this community.”

I guess calling people a deliberately shit-stirring pissant is fine according to the commenting policy.

I understand that things can be problematic and that just because one person of the involved group doesn’t care that doesn’t mean the entire thing is fine. There are sexist jokes that some women are all right with, but that doesn’t mean the joke isn’t sexist.

But carry on, Shakesville. Carry on. Carry on letting Americans post about white Scottish people and how oppressed they, are and carry on shutting down dissenting voices with a ‘you need to read our commenting policy’. I’m sure that will improve things IMMENSELY.

source