Myanmar Panty Protest: "Send Early, Send Often!"

Kerry Howley | October 20, 2007

I'm fully behind this:

Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters there, a campaign supporter said yesterday.

"It's an extremely strong message in Burmese and in all Southeast Asian culture," said Liz Hilton, who supports an activist group that launched the "Panties for Peace" drive this week.

The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power.

"You can post, deliver or fling your panties at the closest Burmese Embassy any day from today. Send early, send often!" the Lanna Action for Burma web site urges.

The address for the DC embassy is here. More on the polluting power of women in Buddhism here. The New Light of Myanmar accuses monks of threatening to send women's underwear to one another here.

Comments

Brian Sorgatz|10.20.07 @ 12:52PM|#

This is a great story on many levels.

Are slutty women the Ewoks to Myanmar's stormtroopers?

|10.20.07 @ 12:54PM|#

Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters there, a campaign supporter said yesterday.

I unselfishly volunteer for the collection squad. /snark

Anything to express our disapproval is OK by me.

Bingo|10.20.07 @ 1:07PM|#

It's all a clever ruse on behalf of the Myanmar regime to monopolize control of the world's panty supply. After all the panties are under the Regime's control, the United States will no longer be able to enjoy things like Victoria's Secret catalogs or rap videos and the entire country will grind to a halt. A grand scheme that could have wide reaching effects, we will never know what hit us.

Unless of course its all part of a grand conspiracy to make boyshorts more popular in which case I support it to it's fullest.

Brian Sorgatz|10.20.07 @ 1:10PM|#

Not only do I encourage women to do this, but I hope they intentionally put brown and red stains in those panties before mailing them.

If totalitarian Buddhists accuse women of being impure, women might as well play along.

|10.20.07 @ 1:21PM|#

I think the "right shirts" girls need to start sending their bikini briefs as a show of solidarity.

TLB|10.20.07 @ 1:43PM|#

Much better idea: put them in ziploc bags and auction them off on eBay, then use the proceeds to stage protests at Chinese embassies.

Of course, this won't catch on the U.S. It's been a long time since our "liberals" protested the bad guys.

|10.20.07 @ 2:04PM|#

Won't this backfire? I thought collecting underpants eventually leads to profit?

|10.20.07 @ 2:21PM|#

If this spreads to college campuses, it could bring back the panty raid!

|10.20.07 @ 2:30PM|#

Kerry, honey, while I'd be more than happy to be polluted by you, the whole discussion of the "polluting effect of women in Buddhism" is what we Buddhist scholars call, technically, "bullshit." While, indeed, Kobo Daishi and his pilgrimage made Ominesan a place of veneration for Japanese Buddhists, the "impurity of menstrual blood" and unclean status of women is from Shinto, the pre-Buddhist shamanism of Japan, not from Buddhism. It's no more part of Buddhism than is the fact that we American Buddhists tend to have services on Sundays.

|10.20.07 @ 2:55PM|#

"...the "impurity of menstrual blood" and unclean status of women is from Shinto, the pre-Buddhist shamanism of Japan, not from Buddhism."

So Buddhism differs by culture? Amazing!

...except in America, which is the true Buddhism? Did you even read what she linked?

By the way, this objection strikes me a bit like saying that the unclean status of women in the Bible is from Zoroastrian influences, not Jewish.

And what would Buddhist scholars say your argument gained by calling Kerry "honey"?

GILMORE|10.20.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Neither here nor there, but I was reading the 'The New Light of Myanmar accuses monks of threatening to send women's underwear' link above, which had this inspiring comment from Eric "stop calling me cockbreath!" Dondero =

Eric Dondero | September 26, 2007, 8:55am | #
Must be kind of odd for the cynical libertarians at Reason and others, to be on the same side of President Bush for once. Bush, yesterday took a strong stance in fighting for freedom and democracy in the totalitarian state...

I think he was referring to the non-sanction sanctions that have been doing nothing for 30 years that Kerry mentioned yesterday. But that would be cynical of me. Meaningless gestures are good 'stances' I guess.

Panties in the mail however... A++! They should sping-load'em and shit like those snakes in a can...Panty Grenade! My power is sapped! external destructionists!

Minion of URKOBOLD|10.20.07 @ 3:10PM|#

"COLORAD", HONEY, YOU ARE WHAT WE TAINT SCHOLARS CALL, TECHNICALLY, A JERK.

AND YOUR PANTIES HAVE BEEN REJECTED FOR THE PROTEST, AS YOU HAVE BUNCHED THEM TOO MUCH.

|10.20.07 @ 3:50PM|#

The on-site results are announced from the Values Voter Summit. Here are the real numbers from FRCBlog.com:

Mike Huckabee - 488 - 51.26%
Mitt Romney - 99 - 10.40%
Fred Thompson - 77 - 8.09%
Tom Tancredo - 65 - 6.83%

Jennifer|10.20.07 @ 3:50PM|#

The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power.

If only Than Shwe had been raised in America, like Chas Martin, he'd understand that what really saps Buddhists of power is having a black cat cross their path.

|10.20.07 @ 4:13PM|#

Did Tom Jones stage a coup d'etat in Myanmar?

B|10.20.07 @ 4:29PM|#

Am I the only one who read this and wondered what Burmese rock stars like to have thrown at them?

Brian Sorgatz|10.20.07 @ 4:47PM|#

Should I mail jockstraps to feminist leaders I don't like?

Kap|10.20.07 @ 5:05PM|#

Is this step 2?

|10.20.07 @ 7:07PM|#

"Your bra bomb better work, Nerdlinger Tin"

|10.20.07 @ 8:35PM|#

Wouldn't this be a form of torture?
I'm just sayin'.

|10.20.07 @ 8:47PM|#

"If only Than Shwe had been raised in America, like Chas Martin, he'd understand that what really saps Buddhists of power is having a black cat cross their path."

Have Buddhists ever encountered a Magic 8-Ball?
Boggles the mind, don't it?

I guess it goes without saying they already do know the predictive powers of the Chinese fortune cookie.

|10.20.07 @ 9:23PM|#

step one...collect underpants

step two....?

step three...profit

|10.20.07 @ 9:46PM|#

step two....?

Question mark my ass.
Step two is SNIFF!

Are you some kind of pervert, negatore?

Guy Montag|10.20.07 @ 9:54PM|#

Related note: The "Panties for Piece" can be delivered to me in person.

OT: Kerry, I saw a sign at the WTO meeting that said something like "Debt Oppresses Women". Is this an attempt to return to the dowry system?

Guy Montag|10.20.07 @ 9:54PM|#

meeting == protest

Bingo|10.20.07 @ 10:11PM|#

step 1: establish military junta
step 2: indoctrinate with superstitions involving slipe-n-slides, large quantities of whipped cream, and Kerry.
step 3: violent crackdown on anyone viewed as a dissident, repression of freedoms, impending genocide
step 4: Kerry sends herself to me in protest of our terribleness
step 5: ????
step 6: profit!

Currently accepting applications for junta members.

thoreau|10.21.07 @ 12:44AM|#

Great, now Warren's going to break into a Burmese embassy.

Good luck, Warren. Stick it to Than Shwe any way you can!

|10.21.07 @ 2:59AM|#

GILMORE said: "Panty Grenade! My power is sapped! external destructionists!"

I laughed pretty hard when I read this one.

I wish I could infiltrate the mail room of the Burmese junta.

|10.21.07 @ 3:37AM|#

I'm tempted to send them my Peaches "Fuck the Pain Away" panties but I don't know if I can part with them. Must give this serious thought.

|10.21.07 @ 10:41AM|#

I've often observed that as one of Kerry's threads grows longer, the probability of some geek becoming lewd and obnoxious approaches one.

And this was a great post, but I can't help but wonder if she was thinking, what would happen if I started a thread where they usually end--maybe I'll post something about sending panties in the mail? ...maybe then the thread will rise to the top?

I guess the answer is that as one of Kerry's threads about the power of panties grows longer, the curve to the bottom becomes even more steep.

BTS|10.21.07 @ 11:07AM|#

Alright, Ken! Now we have Godwin's Law and *drumroll please*
SHULTZ'S LAW:
"[A]s one of Kerry's threads grows longer, the probability of some geek becoming lewd and obnoxious approaches one"

|10.21.07 @ 11:38AM|#

Ken Shultz,
Watch whilst I give this thread the wedgie and pull it up to where you wish it to be.
Teddy Kennedy already calls "party" "potty," so why shoudn't all the political parties change their names to _______ Panty?
First, who would notice? Aren't most people a little dyslexic?
But imagine the visuals: The Libertarian Panty could say the Democratic Panty pulls theirs to the left to engage in promicuity. And say the Republican Panty pulls its to the right from the rear in preparation for inserting it's own head.
And the Libertarian Panty could proudly just wear its panties on its head where they rightly belong. Right, Ken?

dhex|10.21.07 @ 2:36PM|#

I'm tempted to send them my Peaches "Fuck the Pain Away" panties but I don't know if I can part with them. Must give this serious thought.

better yet we can send peaches to myanmar.

ZING!

BakedPenguin|10.21.07 @ 3:26PM|#

I can see the New Light's headline: Foreign Destructionists Setting Up Hostilities with Skyful of Panties!

|10.21.07 @ 6:37PM|#

Foreign Destructionists Setting Up Hostilities with Skyful of Panties!

How many panties could you deploy from a squadron of B-52s? At least a skyful.

|10.21.07 @ 7:12PM|#

"How many panties could you deploy from a squadron of B-52s? At least a skyful."

And they thought Agent Orange was bad stuff!

BakedPenguin|10.21.07 @ 7:28PM|#

J sub D - Panty them back to the Stone Age!

Awzar Thi|10.22.07 @ 8:42AM|#

The protest is innovative, but ironically it depends upon the willingness of women to reinforce a belief of the innate superiority of men over women that is held not only by Burma's generals but also by most men in the country. Men are potent; women are weak. Thus women's genitalia--especially if menstruating--are dangerous to men's potency.

Day-to-day this means, among other things, that men in Burma actively avoid having contact with women's lower garments, and that special restrictions are placed on the hanging of women's washing that do not apply to men's articles. Perhaps the organisers of the protest should have considered these features of the "culturally insulting gesture" before going ahead with it. Who is really being insulted?

|10.22.07 @ 8:49AM|#

I'll ship off an old threadworn pair tomorrow.

Now here's the question - which is more effective, the white granny panties or the hot pink g-string?

Or shall I send one of each? Advise me, fellas :)

|10.22.07 @ 8:52AM|#

Awzar Thi, it's not insulting to me at all. This fear of my undergarments is their weakness, not mine. Anything that will exploit their weakness is fine by me.

Russ 2000|10.22.07 @ 9:41AM|#

Any reports of the voodoo butter underpants arriving in Burma?

|10.22.07 @ 12:06PM|#

That's the way your hard-core internal, external destructionist works. I first became aware of it during the physical act of touching panties...Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I-I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred.

T|10.22.07 @ 12:22PM|#

Thus women's genitalia--especially if menstruating--are dangerous to men's potency.

Yeah, especially after prolonged contact. I usually want a nap afterwards, and have no potency left at all.

|10.22.07 @ 12:31PM|#

I'd be concerned about the unintended consequences. ...if there are some pervert, non-believers there within the junta, before you know it, it'll be, "Send more panties or the bunny gets it!"

|10.22.07 @ 3:41PM|#

Ken; just what every woman yearns to hear, "The rabbit died." ;)

中国鹰派联盟Chinese Hawks|10.23.07 @ 5:15AM|#

Boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics 抵制北京奥运会!

GILMORE|10.23.07 @ 11:43PM|#

Awzar Thi | October 22, 2007, 8:42am | #
The protest is innovative, but ironically it depends upon the willingness of women to reinforce a belief of the innate superiority of men over women that is held not only by Burma's generals but also by most men in the country. Men are potent; women are weak. Thus women's genitalia--especially if menstruating--are dangerous to men's potency.

Azwar, I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

FWIW, whether the women of burma care or not, seems moot to the point of whether or not to mail ones panties to the junta