March 9th
5:14 PM
5:14 PM
February 10th
4:52 PM
4:52 PM
"[I]t is important as activists and feminists to understand that certain gender relations have become racialized. In other words, the relations between Muslim men and women have been made to be something unique and different from non-Muslim gender relations, and much worse and dangerous than relations within (non-Muslim) white and middle-class segments of society. These representations of Muslim men and women, according to Mikdashi are products of an “architecture of discourse,” referring to the intentional uses of ideology and discourse to normalize the racialization of such bodies. The narrative that Muslims, and specifically Muslim men, pose a threat to democracy and civilization as we know it has been essential to the justification for the War in Afghanistan, which has been portrayed as a means of saving burqa-clad women from the Taliban."
January 27th
4:38 PM
4:38 PM
"When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior: illogical, weak, vain, empty. The world teaches you that the way you exist in it is disgusting — you watch boys cringe backward in your dorm room when you talk about your period, blue water pretending to be blood in a maxi pad commercial. It is little things, and it is constant. In a food court in a mall, after you go to the gynecologist for the first time, you and your friend talk about how much it hurts, and over her shoulder you watch two boys your age turn to look at you and wrinkle their noses: the reality of your life is impolite to talk about. The world says that you don’t have a right to the space you occupy, any place with men in it is not yours, you and your body exist only as far as what men want to do with it. At fifteen, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. At almost thirty, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met still somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. They are children. They are children."
— Stevie Nicks. (via valjeans)
(Source: whisperingwordsofwisdom, via becauseiamawoman)
January 3rd
3:31 PM
3:31 PM
what reclamation of slurs are:
- utilizing a word that’s been used to harm you, choosing to strip it of its oppressive context and using it colloquially with those who share the same desire to take back what’s been used to hurt themwhat reclamation of slurs aren’t:
- being part of a marginalized group (ie. being a woman), flippantly degrading people in your marginalized group (ie. other women) by using gendered slurs when you disagree with/dislike/are mad at them, especially when people in said marginalized group haven’t expressed a desire to use or have those slurs used on themlike please, can we not recontextualize what are supposed to be acts of empowerment for our own selfish agendas?
(Source: maarnayeri)
1:49 PM
"But it’s not really as easy as blaming Michelle Obama for not being as radical as we want her to be. Racist constructions of black motherhood play a large role in how she is perceived, and she has to work double time to avoid being cast as an “angry black woman.” Michelle Obama had to win the appeal of the American mainstream with qualities that make her seem like she’d be a good First Lady: being feminine, appeasing, and focused on home; being successful in her own right (but willing to give it all up for her husband’s career and her children’s well-being) is just an added bonus. Her choice (even if on behalf of their PR team!) to play up her more traditional leanings has a lot to do with the fact that American conceptions of black motherhood not only are racist, but harmful in how they position black motherhood in opposition to white motherhood as a type of failure.
Don’t believe me? Think about how differently Sarah Palin’s campaign coverage would have looked had she been a black woman. Palin was a working mother with five children, one of whom, Bristol, was a teenager and pregnant while Mom was on the campaign trail. If Palin had been black (or Latina for that matter) she would have been cast as ignorant and uneducated and characterized as a drain on the system. Heteronormativity is not just about being straight; it is also about class, race, and lifestyle choices."
Don’t believe me? Think about how differently Sarah Palin’s campaign coverage would have looked had she been a black woman. Palin was a working mother with five children, one of whom, Bristol, was a teenager and pregnant while Mom was on the campaign trail. If Palin had been black (or Latina for that matter) she would have been cast as ignorant and uneducated and characterized as a drain on the system. Heteronormativity is not just about being straight; it is also about class, race, and lifestyle choices."
— Samhita Mukhopadhyay (via wretchedoftheearth)
(via rebelion-silenciosa)
December 30th
10:45 PM
10:45 PM
"For women, the need and desire to nurture each other is not pathological but redemptive, and it is within that knowledge that our real power is rediscovered. It is this real connection which is so feared by a patriarchal world…Interdependency between women is the way to a freedom which allows the I to be, not in order to be used, but in order to be creative. This is a difference between the passive be and the active being."
— Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (via spelmanites)
(via naturalhairteens)
December 27th
4:30 PM
4:30 PM
One of the things I love about tumblr is the push towards fat visibility. Awesome images of beautiful, wonderful, awesome fat people are not hard to find.I love finding blog posts like this, especially if the blog posted an image that showed up in a more mainstream outlet, like magazine spreads, commercials, print ads. It’s sweet to see fat bodies presented in a positive context. I don’t think the world has nearly enough photos, drawings, or gifs of fabulous fat bodies, and thankfully tumblr is here to fill the void.
But I’mma need everyone to stop showing said fat bodies without stretchmarks. I’m tired of drawings of fat people who have no stretchmarks; and I’m sick of photos that have had the stretchmarks photoshopped out. I don’t care how pretty the image looks, when you erase the stretchmarks off fat people’s bodies you erase fat people. We will never learn to accept fat bodies if the portrayal of these bodies are missing one of the fucking hallmarks of fatness: stretchmarks. Removing them is fatphobic and antithetical to creating a body positive movement. Period.
It was bad enough when stretchmarks were being erased from non-fat bodies, but seriously—keep that shit away from us. We really don’t need our body issues compounded further by this shit.
November 25th
6:13 PM
6:13 PM
"The world is not full of Attractive People and Unattractive People. It’s full of people who are attractive to some and not to others. I hear from trolls all the time who complain that they don’t want to be “forced” to find nasty, ugly fat women attractive–which utterly baffles me, since the last thing I want to do is encourage fat-hating dicks to date fat women. You don’t find fat people attractive? Fabulous. Don’t date them. I will find a way to pick myself up and move on without your love. But to assume your lack of sexual interest in fat chicks must be universal–or that the mere existence of self-confident fat people having healthy relationships somehow “forces” you to find fat attractive–is the height of fucking narcissism."
— Kate Harding (via bunnicula)
(Source: sluteverbabe, via shannonwest)
November 21st
1:43 PM
1:43 PM
I want to talk about intimacy. I want to talk about desire. I want to talk about fucking. I want to talk about touch.
I want to talk about how Black and Brown bodies are denied these things. I want to talk about how Black and Brown bodies thirst for these things. I want to talk about how whiteness constructs Black and Brown bodies in opposition to these things.
I want to talk about how Black and Brown bodies are rejected by other Black and Brown bodies. I want to talk about how we can’t always find comfort in each other because we’re so busy finding comfort in whiteness.
I want to talk about how Black and Brown bodies tear themselves a part for these these things. I want to talk about how Black and Brown bodies struggle for these things. I want to talk about how it’s never enough.
I want to talk about intimacy. I want to talk about desire. I want to talk about fucking. I want to talk about touch.
(via rebelion-silenciosa)
November 11th
12:49 AM
12:49 AM
November 4th
1:01 PM
1:01 PM
"
So tell me. How far can I walk on my own at night? How many metres, exactly, can I walk unaccompanied without having to fear for my life?
How many drinks am I, an adult woman, allowed to have after work on Friday night before being dismissed as a “party girl” or “asking for it”? How high can my heels be, and how short a skirt can I wear, before being implicated in any crime against me? And, just so that I’m clear, how many metres can I walk to get myself home?
And if something happened to me, how harshly would I be judged? If I vanished on that walk to my front door, what would you have to say about me? Would I be tut-tutted at for not accepting the offer of an escort home? Would idiots take to Facebook to admonish me for supposedly leading some guy on?
Would do-gooders and commentators and Twitterati-types take my parents to task for not raising me to act sensibly? Would they lambast my friends and lovers for not taking adequate care of me? Would everyone in my life suffer because I exceeded my allocated metres of solo walking?
Would every media outlet in the country view my disappearance as an opportunity to point out that, as it happens, women have more to fear in our world than men?
Would you, quietly, at the back of your mind, think that if I’d just stayed home with my partner, like a good wife and woman, none of this would have happened to me?
Are you just looking for one big, smug fucking excuse to say that you told me so?
And just so that we’re absolutely fucking clear, how many metres am I allowed to walk on my own at night?
"—
http://itotallyhaveablog.wordpress.com (via neophytical)
I will always reblog this. Because it’s relevant to my life.
(via missgingerlee)
(via shannonwest)
October 8th
1:04 PM
1:04 PM
"My feminism, believe it or not, is wrapped up in shit-talking. The two are intertwined. In one hand, I carry my ideas and aspirations for me and mine; and in the other, a big-ass stick. While I’m working to create new and better spaces for those who are left behind, I’m making sure that those who opt out of helping me and others in our quest will never live it down. My feminism is vicious for those who cannot be. It is loud and ugly and it will laugh in your face if you give it excuses. It will keep your name in its mouth. It will never have a problem with keeping you on your toes where you belong."
—
The Untitled Mag » On Shit-Talking Your Way Through Life
The benefits of shit-talking, written by Michelle.
(via theuntitledmag)
(via bitchouttahell)
September 27th
11:26 PM
11:26 PM
"African American women and white women have a tense political relationship. Some white women activists relied on racial arguments in the nineteenth-century struggle for suffrage. For example,
feminist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton abandoned the fight for black male suffrage after the Civil War and relied on powerfully articulated racist and anti-immigrant reasoning to make a case for
white women’s suffrage. In the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave white feminists failed to understand that their concerns with workplace entry were not shared by black women, who had long been wage earners. Research suggests that most contemporary black women express little solidarity with feminist agendas they perceive as dominated by the interests of white women."
feminist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton abandoned the fight for black male suffrage after the Civil War and relied on powerfully articulated racist and anti-immigrant reasoning to make a case for
white women’s suffrage. In the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave white feminists failed to understand that their concerns with workplace entry were not shared by black women, who had long been wage earners. Research suggests that most contemporary black women express little solidarity with feminist agendas they perceive as dominated by the interests of white women."
— Melissa Harris-Perry Sister Citizen; Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America (via brashblacknonbeliever)
(via shannonwest)
September 14th
12:31 PM
12:31 PM
a letter (but really just a bunch of sentences) to the white boys who are sad about my white boys poem:
- Firstly I don’t give a fuck. I don’t care if I hurt your feelings – you hurt mine every day.
- Please go read about white privilege.
- Please go read about male privilege.
- Please go read about the patriarchy, about institutionalized racism, about unattainable western beauty standards.
- Please go read about cultural appropriation and the exotification of minority women.
- Google is your friend.
- Please don’t tell me its “unfair” to classify people in that way. LISTEN, it doesn’t matter if you have never ever been racist not even in your head not once. It doesn’t matter if you’ve dated a black girl, or your best friend is a minority, or your brother’s wife is Hispanic. Firstly, it doesn’t mean you can’t be racist. Secondly, it’s not about you.
- Like whatever white boy, I don’t know you specifically and you haven’t insulted me but when I talk about “white boys” I don’t just mean my neighbor, my ex-boyfriend, my professor, the dude i met at the tea shop. I mean white boys throughout history: I mean the white boys who colonized my home, I mean the white boys that tell me what pretty is in ads I see every day, I mean the white boys who run for senator, congressman, and president, I mean the white boys who own businesses and companies, who run governments and schools. I mean the collective existence of white boys that ate quietly at my heart for 20 years so now I had to write that poem.
- And when your entire system, your way of life, oppresses me (because you tokenize me, reduce me to a stereotype you can dress up as for Halloween by painting your face or dressing up like jasmine. because the actions of some other black or brown person somewhere reflects on us all – black is ghetto, arab is terrorist, immigrant is illegal, woman is weak. because we aren’t allowed to be individuals in your world, aren’t allowed to express our agency, aren’t allowed to congregate in groups and find unity with upsetting system) you can’t get mad at me for calling you white boys. and my poem won’t change your life, my poem isn’t oppressing you, my poem isn’t an unfair generalization because as a white boy (as much is it may make you sad) you will never feel what i have felt at the hands of white boys. it’s not racist, its not discriminatory, it’s not problematic.
- if anything its attempting to draw attention to a problem and you don’t want to see it because you’d rather not acknowledge privilege but continue on mumbling about the “post-racism/feminism” society we live where you “don’t see color.”
- But whatever, everything in that poem was true and this post proves it.
- Understand?
