Stacks on - VAGINAS!

In response to an article lamenting crafters’ apparent need to “put a vagina on everything” (where are these wonderful people? I wanna play with them!)a very clever indeed Etsy seller has created this ‘Vagina on Vagina’ tampon holder.



It is a detatchable vagina pin on a vagina purse and it is genius. I am very proud to be putting this vagina blog post on top of the vagina pin on top of the vagina purse. Vagina on vagina on vagina! Put your vagina comments on it!

Stacks on VAGINAS!!!

Don't stop the press! Cunts in print!

Today I quite like trad media, and one publication in particular - Frankie magazine. In their latest edition they showcased different creative collectives from around the country including Craft Cartel (the rad craft group I run with Rayna Fahey). So far, so ace, but the really really really ace bit is that, in their infinite wisdom, they decided to print the answers we gave to most of their questions verbatim including (the ace-est bit) the word 'cunt'. They didn't have to. They could easily have snipped it off or blanked it out (all other print publications who have written anything about us have done so) . Frankie is a sweet, whimsical little periodical and I thought it would hit the cutting-room floor as quick as a blush. I have rarely been so happy to be proven wrong. Frankie is no lightweight, Frankie has guts: Frankie rocks.


Therefore you should all go and buy a copy immediately. Apart from the joy of seeing the word 'cunt' in mainstream glossy print, you can get a chunk of really handy tips about green renting from Cartel stalwarts Cate & Chris (wearing their greenrenters.org hats) PLUS read contributions from at least two of my fuck-sisters ('fuck-sisterhood', of course, referring to the relationship between two women who have had sex with the same man at different times). The last probably isn't much of a selling point for most of you (particularly as the man in question has been quite prolific so the coincidence is kinda small) but, for me, it added a nice spice to an already enjoyable read.

"What's one thing we should know about the group? We don't find the word 'cunt' offensive. Why would you? They're deep, warm and delightful. Rotarians, on the other hand, are disturbing."

Dawn Fraser split my lip

I didn't see her coming. I tuned in to the morning news & there was the 71 year old swimming champ talking about how she responded to a potential burglar, he came running out & grabbed her around the throat so she:

"grabbed him around the ear and hair and kneed him in the groin"

& then I grinned & then my lip split.

71: legend. I don't usually advocate violence but Dawn, you can split my lip any time.

Oh bother!

Starting to get sick of my emails bouncing back at me with messages like this:

"The MessageLabs Content Control service has identified that an
email sent by you may contain inappropriate content
according to the policy rules established by either your organisation
or the intended recipient's organisation.
RULE: Profanity"

Cannot get myself to type 'c**nts' though, or, even weirder 'cnuts'. Wacky double-speak web nannies! This is not 1984!

WTF

Sometimes I get so caught up in my little circle of lovely, enlightened friends that I forget what a crazy old world it is - I lose perspective. When this happens I switch on Benny Hinn.

Have you seen it? I've never actually sat with the program before but in the wee hours of yesterday morning, huddled in my doona hiding from the wild wind and wilder nightmares, I tuned in. Oh My God. I tried to find a YouTube clip of the segment I saw to share with you but no such luck (curse). It was beyond bizarre. A lot of talk about false prophets and Anti-Christs and dramatic doom culminating in a sneak peak of one of the female leaders strumming a guitar and singing to a weeping follower. As the woman wiped tears from her eyes the voice-over intoned -

'Tune in tomorrow as blah-blah (the leader's name eludes me) sings to a
woman who was date-raped, became pregnant and considered an abortion'.

For Real. Crazy crazy world. Next time I think I'll just stay in bed and sweat out the nightmares.

Slayed by CUNTS!!!!

Now why would anyone suggest I am partial to cheap & hyperbolic headlines, hmmm? Surprising but true - some Craft Cartel members have dropped out of the fold, offended by the title of our next Trashbag, 'CUNTS!' (which is going to be awesome, by the way, head to our facefuck invite to RSVP).

*sigh*

Here's one email from a (now former) Craft Cartelian:

Hi Casey,
I am a member of this group in facebook, and am just wondering, why do all your session titles have to have expletives in them? It's always " clits/ cunts " etc...is it that you are trying to make some sort of feminist statement with regards to a woman's sexual organs? Or am I just reading too much into this...? Think about, if a men's group had " reclaim your cock" in their title, do you think you would find it sexist and offensive? Perhaps not, but I think it's unnecessary, I find it offensive, it intones to me a lack of imagination when it comes to writing. I am at a loss- I think you will lose members as opposed to gaining them.
There are millions of other words in the English language- try some different ones!
-
No longer a member

And my response:

Hi,

Thanks for dropping me a line - I do appreciate you explaining you position and your feelings rather than just disappearing silently. Unfortunately it's not a surprise that some are offended by our use of the term 'cunt'. The reason the next workshop is titled CUNTS is precisely because the word is deemed to be the most offensive in our language and I find that offensive. I think it is wrong that a word that describes a part of the female body doubles as a derogatory slur and I think it is through positive use of the word and positive discussions about female bodies that this will change.
I don't think the correlation to a 'reclaim your cock' group holds because the word 'cock' simply doesn't have the same negative power as 'cunt'. Why is that? What is it that's so horrifically scary about female genitalia that makes this word the worst swear word we've got? These are the questions that I hope will be raised and discussed at the workshop. To shy away from using the word 'cunt' would just be perpetuating the negativity and fear associated with it.

Regards,
Casey

my cunt growth is getting unruly

My dapplings on the web are starting to resemble my lounge room. For those who haven't waded into my house recently, that's kind of like an art supply store post-apocalypse, post-looting, post-3 million years of nuclear fallout and weird re-vegetation. I'm dropping bits and pieces all over the place. Normally what I do when things get really messy is shut the door and go into a new room which is what I'm going to do now.

Last weekend I went on an awesome cunt-flinging mission with a crew around fitzroy - I've put some words up about it on the new blog section of the Craft Cartel website so, rather than add to my web chaos, I'll just re-direct you there.

xox

Mass Media Massacre

So far I have managed to incorporate cunts into every Trash-bag Rehab we've held at Craft Cartel. This month we had two projects, the first involved re-censored magazines via the under-appreciated art of decoupage, blanking out bits we found offensive and inserting neglected words such as cunt where we thought appropriate. We then distributed the much-improved media items to doctors waiting offices and bus-shelters right around this fair town.

Here's a copy of the ziney low-down for anyone who missed out:









plus we were entertained by:

Alt-Burlesque artist AnAmontAna a.k.a. Diva von Dada again amused and bemused with a compelling media dissection which involved a toaster, naturally.

& Emilie Zoey Baker, spoken word queen was freaking awesome. Fannyist indeed.

The materials were simple...




(Still life with blu-stick)

But the results, for the first project at least, were super:


Yes, yes he does.

My personal favourite


Glorious.



This one was made by a professional poet (as if you couldn't tell)


The second project, where we were supposed to use junk mail to decorate the letters of a big banner spelling 'BUY LESS CRAP' which we would then display at some shopping mecca didn't really go according to plan.... people got all creative on me! They wouldn't stick within the bloody lines, bless them. So while the resulting work is a fascinating discourse on the chaotic and rampant nature of consumerism in today's society (...or something...) it isn't actually legible.

No matter. I plan to shamelessly manipulate their anti-media-manipulation work so the banner can be read & we'll display it at our next flock 'n' flog which is coming up real soon, subscribe to Craft Cartel for details.

Out.

Even I find this disturbing

I think it's the foot.

nabbed from Craftster

My first time was special

I've never said cunt on radio before. I always thought it was just absolutely forbidden but then recently a woman who is quite an expert on cunt-related matters told me that it's cool as long as you give some warning.

So I did it for the first time.

The lovely women from RRR were a little bit ruffled - they thought they might get in trouble. Not for 'cunt' though but for 'clit' (?!). Strange world. Never mind, I've heard the first time's always a little bit awkward.

cunts get flung & flickr'd

How gorgeous is this image?

Nabbed from the flickr site of Mr. Mark Burban & depicting a pair of cunts flung on the corner of Smith & Gertrude, Fitzroy

"a word you don't say on television"

Jane Fonda said 'cunt' on air. The Today show decided to apologise for this. The current top news items on the show are a baby who got a pencil stuck in its neck and the 'story' behind the release of some racey pictures of a beauty pageant runner-up. I am eagerly awaiting the apology for these.



"We would do nothing to offend the audience." Well, I find your blandness offensive, but I guess I'm not really your audience.

Intrepid cunts venture into the deep dark south

Melbourne, for those who haven't had the pleasure of visiting, is a city divided. Quite literally - down its middle flows the Yarra River and though you could swim from bank to bank through the slow coffee water in under five minutes people just. don't. cross. You'd think it was a sky-high electric barbed wire fence patrolled by cannibalistic lepers, the way we avoid it. We're Northside or we're Southside and, except for in extreme emergencies, we stick to our own turf.

Which is why I am so very impressed that two of the daring crafters who attended Trashbag Rehab took the gorgeous cunts they produced on the evening, left their beer-stained comfort zone, and bravely ventured to the spray-tanned bleached-teeth south for some flinging action.
















Well done Jade & Andrea - brilliant work.

Can I put a disco ball in the anus, Mum?

Oh good lordy that was fun. Trashbag Rehab was an exercise in cunt-making mania.

At a rough guesstimate, one kazillion freakishly gorgeous people showed up,



collected their respect-your-box kit with needle, thread and basic instructions,



kicked back to tunes from DJ Super Julie



and proceeded to create the most divinely diverse array of cunt fling-ups yet.

The results were wonderful


Though there is reason to suspect that, despite being given diagrams, some of the crafters were quite unfamiliar with the appearance of a cunt...



... they were all made with love & hot love was in the air when the evening ended with the awesome punk-knitting vid 'Marsha' by Kate Just.

My favourite quotes from the event:

"I picked up a cute boy last night but I left my vagina at the bar" -Hannah

"Who ARE these people?" - Passer-by

& from the eight year old son of Bebida Bar's owners "Mum, can I put a disco ball in the anus?" to which she replied "Yes you can, Son, yes you can". Gold.

I wanna do it all again! Which is good, because we are. The next Trashy Rehab will also be blessedly cunt-related: embroidery porn. Subscribe to Craft Cartel & we'll let you know all about it. In the meantime - give your cunt a nice fling xx

Trashbag Rehab!

When I am not delving into cunts I am skitting around trying to scheme up pranks with Kakariki in our Craft Cartel. Also I do a little napping, swimming, scribbling, garden poking, drinking, dancing, kissing, playing with my kitten and staring into space. But lately it has mainly been those two things: cunts and crafts. When I can combine the two it is happy times & happy times are coming very very soon.


On Monday 6th April the Craft Cartel are holding our first monthly 'Trashbag Rehab' event - a hands on radical craft workshop for anyone who's over-dosed on cutesy craft crap. It'll be held in a place dear to my heart - the wonderful Bebida Cafe/Bar at 325 Smith St Fitzroy. Each session we're going to have a different project, musos & a special guest artist/therapist.
Anyone is invited to rock up & use our materials or bring their own craft junk to rehabilitate/swap.

First project : CUNT FLING-UPS!

Plus! We're going to have a special screening of punk-knitting vid - 'Marsha' by sculptural knitting artist Kate Just. Hot.

Plus! Tunes from DJ Super Julie. HOT!

It's four bucks & runs from 5:30 - 9:30pm-ish. Free champagne for early comers. 1/2 price drinks between 6&7.

you should come because it will be awesome. facefuck us if you like.

Fuckin GrauWAHRAUGHAHGRaAAAA!!

A fucking icky grotty little blip on my experience happened in the wee hours of this Sunday morning just past.
I had such a beautiful night on Saturday - the Bankrupt's Ball; theatre & food & wine & dancing & friends & then: ka-splat. I was riding slowly home, enjoying the warm evening air and the lamp light - gathered in still pools red, yellow and white on the empty roads. I've always loved cycling through the night city in summer - it can be so calming, almost meditative. Like swimming laps.
I was halfway down Sydney road when a guy ran out onto the road and started groping my breasts. I have no fucking idea how I didn't fall off the bike. I batted at his hands - pushed them away. It seemed to go on for a long time.

'FUCKING NO FUCKING FUCK OFF' When I managed to push his hands from my breasts he stuck one up my dress and into my knickers.

How the fuck did I not fall off my bike? I think he was grinning. Everything else about him is a blur - he was average height, average build, standard hair chop colour skin bluck. The things I remember are the hands and the snickers.

Then somehow I was past and still on my bike and still cycling and still intact.

'WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!'

I wish this was the first time something like this had happened to me, to anyone. Most of my close female friends have experienced an assault of some kind. It doesn't do great things for my view of humanity. At other times I have been so paralysed with shock that my frozen lips haven't even opened in protest. My silence has been the source of a small sad shame in me, for not 'sticking up' for myself. So this time I took a bit of comfort that at least I'd been able to bark out something 'FUCKING NO FUCKING FUCK OFF'.

The problem is I don't wander around expecting to be treated like a second hand blow-up doll so it's hard to come up with a pithy biting insult on the spot. Therefore I have decided to prepare one in advance which I can then whip out when the need arises. The best suggestion so far has come from my dear friend, Mzzz Erin Tasmania:

"GrauWAHRAUGHAHGRaAAAA!!" to be screamed with tongue protruded KISS style.

I can only hope potential gropers will appreciate such eloquent poetry.

Between The Cracks Interview cut&paste

Something went wrong with the clicking doovielacker so here is the interview cut&paste. or else you can click HERE and (hopefully!) be directed to .exactly.the.same.story. (but with heaps of other awesome articles too).

Why do you think people are so opposed to the word cunt?

I think most people probably don’t really know themselves why they find the word so offensive. The way it is used has become so established - either spat out in extreme anger and desperation or blotted out to just one letter in the media - that it has taken on a kind of mythic madness and power. People just shy away from even thinking about it - it’s reputation is so distasteful that they don’t seem to realize that this word that they feel is so wounding and disgusting is a word that signifies the wondrous place that we all entered the world from. Of course there are those who think that women and their sexual organs are intrinsically evil and I find it perfectly
understandable why these people use ‘cunt’ as a swear word.

Is that a real cunt tattoo on that young lady’s butt?

I haven’t been close enough to give it the spit-&-rub test but I believe so. It’s not the tat that worries me though, it’s more the expression on her face. Quite disturbing.

Do you think that Greg Taylor in part expected and hoped to have some controversy regarding his show?

I don’t know Greg personally but as I understand it the show wasn’t a conceptual one but more of a happy accident - a clay torso he was making exploded in the kiln and he was struck that the cunt fragment was a powerful piece in itself. Of course he can’t have been naive to the provocative impact his work would inevitably have but I don’t believe that stirring up controversy was his stimulus. I couldn’t say the same of my intentions.

What’s the response been like towards your fling ups?

Bemusement / mild embarrassment / hate mail / high-fives

What’s your artistic background?

I don’t have one - at least not a public one - but I think I would wither away if I wasn’t busy creating something or other. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years scribbling in notebooks and scheming up pranks - particularly with my dear friend Rayna Fahey who runs radical craft group Craft Cartel (http://craftcartel.com) with me.

What do you think about creating a global map that is color coordinated to the level of acceptance of the word cunt?

Digging the epic scale of the idea. Does any place accept the word? I imagine a lot of people would get quite hot and bothered about the results: lovely!

Have you used other mediums other than fling ups to dignify cunt?

Undies emblazoned with ‘cunts: deep warm and delightful - NOT offensive’ (subtlety isn’t something I practise on this topic), ‘respect your box’ boxes, Cunt-Catchers (like dream-catchers but with loftier aims), Cunt cakes with jelly beans or cherries as clits and I keep a blog ‘http:/.blogspot/cuntisnotadirtyword.com’ - I did have a facebook group: ‘I don’t find the word ‘cunt’ offensive’ but it got pulled for being “offensive”.
Any plans to bring cunts to other towns to enjoy?

Sure - if anyone invites me - I’d be thrilled to swap cunt for board.

What do you recommend people do to promote awareness about cunt’s kinder side?

Start using cunt as a compliment - as in - ‘you’re a top cunt!’

Between The Cracks

I really cannot think of a more appropriate name for a magazine that has so awesomely decided to feature an interview about my cunts.

Check it in Between The Cracks online. So hip right now.

& while you're there you should check out their feature on Billy Pacak's cunt pipe sculptures. What gorgeous company I'm keeping!

A brief hot fling

We're in the midst of the hottest EVER heatwave here in Melbs & I decided to give these cunt palettes a fling in the sunshine.


They were dangling happily over Canning st Carlton but only lasted a couple of days...


Someone must have climbed all the way up the tree in the blazing heat to retrieve them.
It's amazing the lengths people will go to to get their hands on some cunt.

Dress-ups

I went to a Mad-Hatter's tea-party themed shin-dig the other night which called for some last minute costume construction.


Sadly no-one took my outfit literally.

I like to swing

Corner of Webb & Smith, Fitzroy

This pair of crafted cunts took ages to fling-up so they ended up looking a bit like they'd just been through a marathon orgy, but still beautiful, none-the-less.

Cunt Fling-Ups

A couple of weeks ago it was my birthday so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to gather some friends around



Feed them delicious cunt-cakes made by my ma (note the cherry clits)


And set them to work....



The results were GORGEOUS



So gorgeous that I wanted to share them with the world so flung them up into the sky


This lovely pair of cunts can be seen dangling over KingWilliam st Fitzroy.

More cunt fling-ups to follow x