The Opinionated Bastard

Clash of the Pompus: The Opinionated Bastard vs. PMS Media

[Ed. Note We got this submission/fake interview from some group calling themselves PMS Media. We passed it along to The Opinionated Bastard to see what would happen. He was a little harsh on them, but their mutual ranting was more interesting then their individual ranting…

We start with the “interview” between someone calling herself “Suzy America” and someone else called “Skunkrising”. Both people are from PMS Media.]

Suzy America: Why is Independent Media important?
Skunkrising: Alternative-Media presents news and stories from perspectives that Corporate-owned Main-stream media does not represent. Everyone knows there are many sides to a story. If we want to live in a true democracy, we need to have access to as many issues and sides of stories as possible. If we want to participate responsibly in a democracy, then we need to be well informed about how the decisions we’re making affect the day to day lives of all. Alternative media puts the power to represent the people back into our own hands, (ideally, many different hands.)

Well, as an independent journalist, I have to agree that it is good to have lots of viewpoints. However, all that blather about Corporate-owned Main-stream media is utter malarkey. We live in an age where getting access to other points of view is easier then it has ever been before. The real issue is that many people don’t seek out those alternative viewpoints.

Why? Because 90% of most independent media is BORING! Come on, you sent a fake interview to the local art paper to spread your pointless propaganda. Even the flaming liberals that run this paper felt you deserve to be mocked or they wouldn’t have assigned me, their token conservative, to respond to you.

Let the mocking begin.

Suzy America and SkunkRising? Ugh. Those are terrible names. How about Princess Lesbia and Darth Lesbar? Sure, YOU’LL probably find them insulting, but I have a readership to entertain that probably doesn’t want to listen to the choir interviewing the preacher.

Ok, blather on some more.

Princess Lesbia: Why Feminist media?
Darth Lesbar: Alternative Media with a Feminist lens is important because the main stream ignores us!! There needs to be a popular discussion on the status of women and queers in society. Feminist critique is an absolutely necessary perspective to be considered if we are to create any real social change that is relevant to over half of the world population! Women are terrorized by rape and violence (by strangers and familiars!) in almost every society around the world, in times of peace and in times of war.

In the future, could you use only one exclamation point at a time? Preferably only one per paragraph? Thanks…

So because you guys made a couple of videos, women will stop getting raped and mugged? Wow, talk about delusions of grandeur…

Our society teaches rigid gender roles that conditions men to act out violently and conditions women to accept abuse as the norm. The far-reaching effect of this value-system needs to be exposed and taken seriously by society, and especially by activists for
social change. Feminist-Media is an effective tool for creating community dialogue.

Whenever I read a phrase like effective tool for creating community dialogue, I always reach back and check to make sure my wallet is still there. Does that happen to anyone else or is it just me?

Mass-Media is a male dominated realm. Even with-in the indy-media scene, there is less access to technology and funding for women, queers, and people of color. If we want a well informed free thinking public, we need many diverse people behind the cameras and in the editing rooms telling their stories and framing the shots.

Well its pretty obvious that neither of you have actually worked in Mass Media. I have, and I don’t exactly remember a lack of representation of homosexuals or women. Pretty much exactly the opposite really. All that vegetarian food on the craft table. Ugh.

Princess: P.M.S. Media is an unapologetically radical
eco-anarcha-feminist media team. Can you explain what all that means?

Darth: Well, we are environmental-activists, we’re anti-capitalist, anti-government, anti-war, we’re feminist and anti-racist. All of that together makes us radical on pretty much every front! We are constantly working to connect the dots between the isms. Our work includes confronting our high and mighty oppressors, as well as our peers and co-horts, and ourselves on our socially conditioned shit. That makes us radical and we swear sometimes.

You’re all of that, AT THE SAME TIME? Doesn’t that hurt? Oh, I get it. You just graduated from Art School. Ah, it’s all becoming clear now.

No doubt we can improve the environment, end war, improve the lot of women, and end racism by all sitting down and holding hands. (Since we’re not allowed to use capitalism or government to achieve those ends.)

I want to know why the liberals and lefties are so condescending and oppressive to their radicals? The right wing supports their radicals, while the left squashes us, so they can fit in better with the mean-stream!

Why? Because you’re freaking nuts that’s why. Enough with the exclamation points already!

The sky is falling! For real this time! This is not a cry of wolf! The very last of the Old Forests are being leveled, the last of the sacred mountains are up for desecration (savethepeaks.org) the waters are poisoned, privatized, drying up. Women are suffocating under heavy full-body wraps on one side of the world, and on the other, women are stripped naked, except for some high-heels, to be judged by a consumer society. So many diets, so much pain and suffering because of some false standard of beauty, a literally plastic sexiness! Women from every economic status experience violence in our own homes, and threat of rape-violence on the streets. Women are being stunted and abused physically and spiritually and all around the world, because they are women. Many people have come to believe that this is a “natural” state of affairs. But it is not natural; it has been instituted through out hundreds of years of patriarchal colonization.

Gee, and you wonder why you’re getting marginalized with rants like that? You want to reach people? Talk about something interesting, don’t scream about nonsense. You want to talk about the oppression of women? Point out that any society that oppresses women eventually ends up oppressing men. Talk about the fact that on any given day under the Taliban, ten percent of the “women” under burkhas were actually men, wearing the burkha so they could travel unmolested. Point out that if you teach a young man to read, you improve his economic situation. If you teach a young woman to read, you end up teaching her, her husband, and her children. Where would you spend money on education?

Its not just women who are getting raped. The Taliban is old news, look at what’s happening in Rwanda if you want to see real horror. Family members forced at gunpoint to rape other family members, and you’re worried about high heels?

Did you know that in Iran recently, women just stopped obeying the clothing restrictions? It’s started this quiet revolution. Lots of interesting stuff to talk about these days.

Screaming? Screaming is BORING.

Radical Feminism is the appropriate response to the destruction, lies, and bombs being dropped on The People and the Earth!
Join us!

Passion is good and often appropriate. Unfocused, incoherent ranting is not.

The People is another one of those phases that makes me hold onto my wallet with both hands.

Princess : Where have you shown your work?
Darth: We toured through the mid-west for two months before the elections in an attempt to educate and inspire folks to get active. We screened our movies on campuses, info-shops, radical feminist sex-toy stores.
Most recently we screened “Our Bodies Our choice”, starring the Radical Cheer and Noise Bloc and Ni Una Mas on the MS. Magazine Post Election Cruise.

Yeah, lots of Bush voters hanging around in those venues. I’m sure you changed a lot of minds there. P-R-E-A-C-H-I-N-G T-O T-H-E C-H-O-I-R anyone? Hello?

Princess: What are your current projects?
Darth: We’re working on a short video project called RED WINGS. We asked guys outside of a bar near Cornell College in Ithaca, New York what they thought of their girl-friends periods. Their responses were disturbing.

Wow, I actually might want to go see that. I can’t imagine a lot of 20 year old males having anything very insightful to say about “chunky days”, but I’m sure they said some funny things instead.

On the other hand, my wife and I were married for 5 years before she worked up the courage to ask me why I sometimes miss the toilet, so squeamishness is not just confined to the male sex. (FYI, sometimes guys get TWO streams so you have to pick one. Now you know.)

We’re also in the process of story boarding our first feature length project. It will be an investigation into Feminism Big and small. We plan to interview the celeb feminists and womanists and activists who are not feminists, and, anarchist-feminists. We need some funding on this one! Please donate to our video vision!

You want money? I thought you weren’t capitalists? Oh, you’re not against money, you’re against making money. How’s that going for you?

Princess: What is your vision for pms future?
Darth: P.M.S. Media is a tool for our activism. We plan to develop a feminist indy-media site, with reporters around the world. We plan to have a quarterly Radical Feminist magazine. We’d like to facilitate media trainings for youth and feminists. We have a long list of movies we’d like to make. We would like to have enough money to pay our rent. We’d like to inspire a revolution of heart!

P.M.S. Media? I guess “Women in Comfortable Shoes Media” was taken then?

Princess: What can people do if they want to get involved?
Darth: Give us money.
Again with the money?

[Then they listed 20 items that basically boiled down to “give us stuff” They asked for everything from CD-burners to massages.]

So capitalism is bad, but materialism is good…We’re just material grrrls, living in a material world…

[NOTE TO EDITOR: I pretty much left this announcement of theirs as is, but you’ll probably want to edit it down a bit. I’d bug them for contact information too…

p.m.s. media will be showing 4 documentaries at cline library on February 9th at 7:00

P.M.S MEDIA PRESENTS: A V-DAY VIDEO-VIGIL
Cline Library
February 9th, 7 PM, $3-$5 donation (no one turned
away
for lack of funds)
4 P.M.S. MEDIA documentaries!

“Ni Una Mas” a 7 min. short which documents the International Action on V-day 2004.
Amnesty International and V-day organizers joined with housands of activists in a procession across the El Paso border, into Juarez, MX to bring attention to the
kid-nappings and murders perpetrated against hundreds of young women there. The entire community is terrorized by the femicide that has been ongoing for over 10 years.

“Our Bodies, Our Choice! A Documentary of the March for Women’s Lives, Starring the Radical Cheer and Noise Bloc!” The March for Women’s Lives took place in April, 2004. Over a Million people marched to demand reproductive freedoms. It was the largest gathering at the US capital in history! 19 min. 40 sec

“Star Spangled, A Flagumentary What does the American Flag mean to you?
A video short exploring diverse sentiments about Old Glory 29 min.
Starring local Flagstaff people on the street!
Interviews from across the country!

“Red Wings” a probing investigation into Guys attitudes about their Girl Friends Periods. PMS MEDIA records drunken dudes outside a bar near Cornell College as they speak frankly about their experiences with womens’ Monthly. approximately 10 min..(prescreening of a longer work in progress)

P.M.S MEDIA is an unapologetically radical-eco-anarcha-feminist independent media team.

P.M.S. MEDIA is currently based in Flagstaff, AZ.

Hey, while I think you guys are nuts, one of the great things about America is that we’re all entitled to be nuts in our own ways. I recommend everyone go see your stuff. Creating stuff is hard, and even if I don’t agree with you, I think its important that there be people like you in our society. Diversity of opinion is a good thing. Keep up the good work!