feminist killjoy reporting for duty
It’s easy to be considered a misandrist when men are socialized to feel entitled to women and our time. So, if you ignore them, you’re a misandrist. If you insist they leave you alone, you’re a misandrist. If you focus on building healthy female-centered relationships over relationships with men, you’re a misandrist. Misandry is basically, prioritizing your agency, autonomy and fellow women, over men in a society that teaches you that being feminine relies on giving into men’s feelings of entitlement.
(via angrywomanistcritic)

thisgingerisback:

Angelina Jolie announces a double mastectomy to save her life, people get fucking pissed and act like she’s lost everything that’s made her worthwhile in the first place, AND YOU WONDER WHY I FUCKING HATE THE “SAVE THE BOOBIES” TROPE.

BECAUSE NO ONE ACTUALLY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE WOMAN’S LIFE. WOMEN JUST HAPPEN TO BE ATTACHED TO A PAIR OF BREASTS. WOMEN AREN’T WORTH SAVING—BUT YOU BET YOUR ASS THE PUBLIC WILL BE IN A RIOT IF A GOOD PAIR OF TITS IS IN DANGER.

rosalarian:

Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, in case you hadn’t heard. How dare she remove those ticking time bombs from her chest, amiright? Like, hasn’t she learned by now that her body is public domain and we all get to vote on what she does with it? Sheesh, how selfish can ya get.

yarnzipangirl:

wanting queer people in your media does not mean wanting queer pornography in your media any more than having straight people in your media means wanting straight pornography in your media

it’s like saying that romance is only valid when people fuck on camera, a fact which 99% of fairy tales and Disney films would point out as false.

the existence of queer people is not difficult to show without mucking up a story that has nothing to do with romance because the existence of straight people is not difficult to show without mucking up a story that has nothing to do with romance

it’s like saying that you can’t have a character who waits tables in your story because the book isn’t about a restaurant.

why is this so difficult?

Indeed, the idea of ‘winning the girl’ – of overcoming female objections or resistance through repeated and frequently escalating efforts – is central to most of our modern romantic narratives. (Female persistence, by contrast, is viewed as pathetic.) And the more I think about instances of creepiness, harassment and stalking that culminate in either the threat or actuality of sexual assault, the more I’m convinced that a massive part of the problem is this socially sanctioned idea that men are fundamentally entitled to persist. Because if men are meant to persist, then women who say no must only be rejecting the attempt, not the man himself, so that every separate attempt becomes one of a potentially infinite number of keys which might just fit the lock of the woman’s approval. She’s not the one who’s allowed to say no, not really; she should be silent and passive as a locked door, waiting patiently while the man runs through however many keys he can be bothered trying. And if he gets sick of this lengthy process and just breaks in? Well, frustration under those circumstances is only natural. Either the door shouldn’t have been there to impede him, or it shouldn’t have been locked.

infinitetransit:

isn’t it funny that lesbians are presumed to hate men, have turned away from men, or never experienced the ~prowess~ of a man

we’re talking about a preference that actively centers around women and they still try to make it fundamentally about men

person: she--
me: it's he.
person: *condescending smile* well, on your birth certificate--
me: yeah, it also says ' 8lbs, 6 oz ' -- a lot has changed over the years
lasiguanaba:

Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial Gaze. 
 exotic white ppl we see u

lasiguanaba:

Maya Women reversing that White Settler-Colonial Gaze. 

 exotic white ppl we see u

I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I’d prove myself a moron, and I’d be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: “Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?”
Indulgently, I lifted my right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, “Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them.” Then he said smugly, “I’ve been trying that on all my customers today.” “Did you catch many?” I asked. “Quite a few,” he said, “but I knew for sure I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.
Isaac Asimov (via damp-earth)
Black women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see Black women. White women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see women. White men wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see human beings.
Michelle Haimoff, on privilege (via homoarigato)
If media covered America the way we cover foreign cultures

jahanzebjz:

Yet another massacre has occurred in the historically war-torn region of the Southern United States – and so soon after the religious festival of Easter.

Brian McConkey, 27, a Christian fundamentalist militiaman living in the formerly occupied territory of Alabama, gunned down three men from an opposing tribe in the village square near Mobile, the capitol, over a discussion that may have involved the rituals of the local football cult. In this region full of heavily-armed local warlords and radical Christian clerics, gun violence is part of the life of many.

Many of the militiamen here are ethnic Scots-Irish tribesmen, a famously indomitable mountain people who have killed civilized men – and each other – for centuries. It appears that the wars that started on the fields of Bannockburn and Sterling have come to America.

As the sun sets over the former Confederate States of America, one wonders – can peace ever come to this land?

3 percent of the decision-making in media comes from women. That means 97 percent of how women are portrayed is decided on by men.

Independent Lens, PBS
“Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines”

It also means that 97 percent of how men are portrayed in media are decided on by men. Something to remind MRAs and their ilk of when they complain about the stereotype of men as inept slobs, bad fathers, etc in media and advertising.

(via karethdreams)

WBUR Correspondent: “We’re going to bring in a Chechen expert to see if his Chechen background has anything to do with this.”

All of our backgrounds are relevant to our actions. But when Adam Lanza was identified as the shooter at Sandy Hook, I didn’t hear any reporters discuss the need to bring on experts of the suburbs as a cultural phenomenon to understand the actions of this person. After the shooting in Aurora—which also involved a heavily-armed, bomb-making young man, I didn’t hear a reporter bring on experts on Lutheranism, or—imagine this—the violent culture of the United States—to gain clarity on James Holmes’ actions. When the perpetrator of violence like this comes from a dominant culture, that culture is not interrogated to understand the individual’s actions. Instead, the conversation is about their failings as an individual—“mental illness,” “what went wrong,” etc. But when it’s someone from a marginal group—or an oppressed group like Muslims, they can only be a representative of an entire group of people—and that group is presumed violent as a whole culture.
Khury Petersen-Smith (via feminist-space)