Femina Potens propagates some bullshit
Jun. 26th, 2009 10:52 am![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badgerbagA sucky thing to get in my inbox for the last two weeks, Femina Potens' promotional emails for Michael Rosen's photography shows; I wrote to them to ask them to respond to my thoughts and they haven't replied except to send me more generic advertisements for the show.
Total fail there. What the hell are they thinking?
WARNING: TRIGGERY THINGS IN THE LINKS if you hate sexual abuse.
Explanation of Rosen's sexual predation on young women
Even more explanation of Rosen being a jerk-off and I mean that literally
"Thanks", Femina Potens! Nice to have "my community" right behind me!
No, it's more important to suck the cock of this skank ass guy because he has a fancy camera, I guess. Fuck him and fuck you!
Extra warning, don't go to Femina Potens' show.
ETA::
I have emailed a bunch of folks about this with a much calmer and non-ranty letter. I feel that the first few times I dealt with this, I was clearly not loud enough. I have now told everyone I could think of who might care, directly in email cc-ed publicly to everyone else it was sent to.
Here's what I think should happen.
Actually, do go and please support Femina Potens. But, go and politely confront and talk with them, Micheal Rosen, and whatever of his photo models show up. Ask them what they think about this incident and how a person should be held accountable. Ask the models if this happened to them and be supportive of them.
What do you think of that as an activist way to deal with this problem within a community?
Total fail there. What the hell are they thinking?
WARNING: TRIGGERY THINGS IN THE LINKS if you hate sexual abuse.
Explanation of Rosen's sexual predation on young women
Even more explanation of Rosen being a jerk-off and I mean that literally
"Thanks", Femina Potens! Nice to have "my community" right behind me!
No, it's more important to suck the cock of this skank ass guy because he has a fancy camera, I guess. Fuck him and fuck you!
Extra warning, don't go to Femina Potens' show.
ETA::
I have emailed a bunch of folks about this with a much calmer and non-ranty letter. I feel that the first few times I dealt with this, I was clearly not loud enough. I have now told everyone I could think of who might care, directly in email cc-ed publicly to everyone else it was sent to.
Here's what I think should happen.
Actually, do go and please support Femina Potens. But, go and politely confront and talk with them, Micheal Rosen, and whatever of his photo models show up. Ask them what they think about this incident and how a person should be held accountable. Ask the models if this happened to them and be supportive of them.
What do you think of that as an activist way to deal with this problem within a community?
![[identity profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
You seriously rock.
Also, the incidental knowledge that exploding vulva golf balls exist brightened my life just that extra little bit.
That sucks.
But you rock.
Is this the same Michael Rosen who has been around alt.polyamory off and on for years?
They're thinking, "Whatever brings in the benjamins!"
Funny how I can't be a featured performer there in a women curated show, but he can come in unchallenged.
How many anal scenes does it take to screw the community?
I'm sorry you're still dealing with this bullshit. Keep speaking out.
FP is a non profit space so this really had nothing to do with money. The gallery struggles to keep our doors open to remain a resource for the community.
Michael Rosen is not exhibiting at Femina Potens. He is exhibiting at MR S Leather Store with a gay male exhibited. Femina Potens remains a gallery and performance space featuring artists who are women, trans, and persons identifying outside of the gender binary system in an act to combat the misogyny that exists with in the art world.
I don't know who you are so I don't know if you have submitted work but if you are interested in performing we have an open mic at Sizzle the 2 friday of every month that is open to all and we have an open mic for film that is open to all. Feel free to email me with further concerns feminapotens@gmail.com
I've dedicated my life to serving the community and creating a space for artistic expression and dialogue. The anal scenes that I have done have not "screwed the community". The issue being brought up is one of Michael Rosen's behavior with a model. Up until this morning I've never heard anything negative about Michael Rosen. His work was based on the quality of his portraits of the gay male community. This body of work was appealing to Mr S Leather. So Mr S Leather is housing his work. I'm sure Mr S was unaware of any problems with Michael in the community just as I was unaware. We give visibility to over 60 visual artists a year and it would be impossible for us to have a back ground check or for us to know if something like this had happened. Our greatest support goes out to Liz and I'm happy to create space for dialogue if it is needed.
wishing you the best.
tina
I believe you when you say you weren't aware of this until yesterday.
Now that you do, I'd like to know if you personally will ask Mr. Rosen about the incident.
This is a pretty fucked up thing, and I'm glad you're talking about it (and sorry it happened to you in the first place).
I'm unsure who was emailed at FP or how your response hasn't gotten to me until now but please direct any concerns my way. My name is Tina Butcher and I'm the executive director and founder at Femina Potens. The exhibit that you mentioned is not a Femina Potens exhibit. It is part of our FP Edge program and is an exhibit on gay male culture that is showing at Mr S Leather Store. Our FP Edge program is based on connecting female, trans, queer and erotic artists with sex positive businesses, cultural centers, and community clinics. Our organization is a non profit art gallery and resource for the community so curating our artists most definitely is not a money based choice. We base our curation on community relevance and the quality of an artists work. And for our FP Edge exhibits we also work with the venues on fulfilling their needs and their communities needs. I've known Michael Rosen and modeled for him several times and have never had him act anything but respectful to me and at the time my girlfriend who he also photographed. I've only heard respectful things said of Michael and his work. This is the first time I've ever heard anything about Michael Rosen disrespecting a model. When we curate exhibits for our gallery and when FP Edge curates for our community venues we base our choices on the quality of the work. Their is no way for us to know an extensive history of each of our artists. That being said in no way do I support disrespecting a model or making them feel uncomfortable. Being a model and adult performer I'm very aware of making yourself vulnerable in front of other people and to have a photographer or producer not respect your boundaries isn't acceptable. It seems like there is a need for dialogue between you and Mr Rosen to work through this experience. Please feel free to contact me at feminapotens@gmail with any inquiries. Sincerely,
Tina Butcher
Best wishes for you and FP,
Liz
If you are sending out emails from a Femina Potens address to promote this show, I am wondering why it is surprising to you that people understand the show as being one sponsored by/curated by Femina Potens.
Also, this strikes me as inappropriate:
It seems like there is a need for dialogue between you and Mr Rosen to work through this experience
Suggesting that there's "a need for dialogue" between perpetrators of abuse and victims of abuse who have given public, detailed testimony of the abuse seems like derailing to me. Perhaps others have different perspectives, but it is hard for me to read that response in this context.
Rosen doesn't need to "work through this experience," he needs to stop abusing models.
I hope you will reconsider this response.
Julia Sullivan
I had the opportunity to pose for Rosen twice, linked
through community members who were in the book you mention.
I met him, and was too skeeved out by him to consider
posing.
I got some flack for being uptight, but you know? I
think maybe trusting myself was the right thing to do.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, but my heart is so
warmed to read the story of your having called him on it
at the CSC function.
You are one of my sheroes!
++++++++
Hello,
I'm writing to you all because I perceive you to be community leaders for feminist, sex positive queer/genderqueer women especially in the SF Bay Area. I am perturbed that despite years of my having spoken out in private and in public spaces about the photographer Michael Rosen's continued actions, he has a show coming up at Femina Potens, a queer and feminist space in SF.
The short version of my story: in 1993 or so, I looked up from what was supposedly a professional photo shoot with Rosen, in theory a safe, community member, who knew everyone I knew and was trusted by them, to find Rosen jerking off. When I got mad, he begged me never to tell anyone and explained how I would ruin his life and his career by telling. He begged me not to tell his wife, or my girlfriend, or anyone in the BLW community because the community trusted him and his standing would be ruined if they found out and they wouldn't let him publish their pictures in his books. He said he had never done it before and would never do it again. The original offense was gross, creepy, and idiotic, but the way he tried to make me complicit in my own sexual abuse by attempting to play upon my sympathies was actually worse.
At the time, I told many people in BLW and in my extended sex-positive communities about this and how upsetting it was. I was told that it would tear apart the community, it would bring us negative attention. This was right around when Dragon was arrested. Despite my feelings that Rosen's actions especially the plea for me to lie and keep silent, were damaging to me personally and potentially were being repeated with other young women who came to him alone, I was told by my own community that I shouldn't talk about it.
I left San Francisco and when I returned and encountered Rosen in community space I confronted him directly, but he refused to acknowledge or discuss the incident, and pretended not to know me. I wrote in public space about this and emailed some of you. I heard that even in 2005, Rosen was still perpetrating these same actions -- never on people with any standing in the community but with younger women. And yet now, I see that nothing has changed. Rosen is honored by Femina Potens which in theory is a space for women and their work.
I feel this is deeply wrong. Because I, and those of you who knew about Rosen's actions in 1993 and when I brought it to people's attention again in 2005, didn't say this strongly or loudly enough, the man is still positioned in a place of good standing in the community. Women are still going to photo shoots with him. He has not even tried to answer for what he has done. I believe this is deeply damaging to our community, or what our community might be or might have been.
I would like to ask you to write about this, and to contact Femina Potens with your concerns.
Rather than boycott the show at Femina Poetens, I would like to ask you all to attend the reception and show and confront Rosen personally in a polite way. Ask the models, Did Rosen jack off and then beg you not to tell about it? Did he touch you and then act creepy about it and blame you and make excuses? And, ask Rosen, Did he really think that Lizzard wouldn't speak up, whether at age 23 or at age 40?
That's what I plan to do and I'd very much appreciate some back up and some support. My goal here is exposure, public denunciation, community awareness of a danger to that community, and at best, some polite dialogue with Rosen where he might acknowledge the damage he did and is doing and be accountable. (And frankly, if he wants to jack off while taking photos of young women, fine, put an ad on craigslist and pay for it; make it consensual.) Now, if not this sort of group protest non-boycott action, at the least, I feel I have now told as many people as I can reach, who might reach others. And if you run into Rosen at some other community event, I ask you to please let him know your personal feelings on the subject.
Here are my public blog posts from 2005, if you want the "too long' version of my story and my perception of the damage that lies and silencing can do.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/badger
http://badgerbag.typepad.com/badger
Best,
Lizzard
What night is the show you want backup for?
I'm not at all interested in bdsm, buta few years ago i had someone who is supposed to be a long term 'old timer' in 'the community' try to cajole, nag, and then flat out browbeat me into being his 'submissive'. I knew to tell him to take a hike and i had friends that supported me, but it was clear he had a well honed routine. That had been succesful before.
--Delux
I think this is good.
I don't have anything coherent to say, yet, above the cacophony of emotional responses. But I didn't want to delay in saying that I think that you're doing something really important by speaking about this and I hope that you know that you have an army of supporters at your side as the backlash happens.
And honestly, you can't expect everyone to know about every bit of drama in the community. I think that publicly shit talking Femina Potens is more damaging in the long run- continued emails to the gallery or actually going into the gallery (or making a call) might have been more effective.
Number one, I had one of my friends die yesterday and a house full of guests and I went to the hospital to visit a sick friend and then took kids to the park. So I was both busy, and thinking of other things.
Number two I ranted angrily about getting no answer the first time from FP and instead getting another generic promotional email with Rosen's name in it. Then I edited the post to say I had nothing against Femina Potens and was not trashing them; I've been a supporter and donated to them several times over the years. I then asked that people *do* go to their show and reception and talk to the guy directly in a polite way.
Why would you take offense here? I'm denouncing Rosen, not FP, and asking the community at large including FP people and pretty much everyone I know who would know Rosen, to simply talk to the man about the issue and ask him to address his problem with non-consensuality. Please look beyond my first angry moment of reaction, which was public. My aim is not for anyone to do some kind of drama, ostracizing, or boycotting; it is at this point, awareness, and with the specific aim that anyone who goes to pose for Rosen will bring a friend with them to prevent him from repeating his bad behavior.
Number three, I will write back to Tina, Give me a freaking minute to catch my breath, do you know how many people ahve emailed and called me? Remain calm! I do not threaten your artistic venue or whatever!
I've heard bad things about Rosen before and now I wish I could remember more details. But yeah, Femina Potens should not be ignoring this kind of feedback, WTF are they thinking?
Hope you're OK.
Also. You are an awesome woman