We're gonna rattle this ghost town...

blackinasia: “We should all be feminists” TedxTalk by...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:00:42 -0400

“We should all be feminists” TedxTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This talk is honestly just incredible. As a Nigerian and a fellow Igbo as well, it is beyond moving to see someone like Adichie so eloquently articulate and expound on sexism and the virulent power of patriarchy in the world at large and specifically in the context of her life as an Igbo woman growing up in Nigeria as well. She points out the problems we have in Nigerian and Igbo culture today without pulling punches, and links it into these larger systems of oppression that affect woman globally. Oppression being cast as ”tradition” and a “part of our culture” is not excusable and is just wrong, and as she puts it so well:

“So what is the point of culture… culture is really about preservation and continuity of people… culture does not make people; people make culture. So if it is in fact true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we must make it our culture”

She also calls out the fuckery of MOC who blatantly ignore the intersectional experiences of WOC!

This is amazing, and Adichie takes you on a journey with her before hitting homerun after homerun in the second half of the talk.The only bone I have to pick is with her saying that men “should be feminists as well.” I feel like it’s very inappropriate for us as men to colonize female spaces, and a “male feminist” is a useless term for someone who should just say that he is a “man actually trying to be a decent human being” instead.

Besides that, though, and ending by talking about a “masculine male feminist” (cringe) which are points she touches on just right at the end, I absolutely love this and encourage everyone to grab some popcorn and watch it! She calls it like it is, and I’m so proud as an Igbo person as well. Adichie is just so incredible, smart, funny, witty and on point, and I’m going to have to look for some of her books to read now too!

New Study Shows Anti-Choice Policies Leading to Widespread Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:57:46 -0400

New Study Shows Anti-Choice Policies Leading to Widespread Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women:

blackamazon:

freshmouthgoddess:

girljanitor:

stfuprolifers:

•A woman in Utah gave birth to twins. When one was stillborn, she was arrested and charged with criminal homicide based on the claim that her decision to delay cesarean surgery was the cause of the stillbirth.

•After a hearing that lasted less than a day, a court issued an order requiring a critically-ill pregnant woman in Washington, D.C. to undergo cesarean surgery over her objections. Neither she nor her baby survived.

•A judge in Ohio kept a woman imprisoned to prevent her from having an abortion.

•A woman in Oregon who did not comply with a doctor’s recommendation to have additional testing for gestational diabetes was subjected to involuntary civil commitment. During her detention, the additional testing was never performed.

•A Louisiana woman was charged with murder and spent approximately a year in jail before her counsel was able to show that what was deemed a murder of a fetus or newborn was actually a miscarriage that resulted from medication given to her by a health care provider.

•In Texas, a pregnant woman who sometimes smoked marijuana to ease nausea and boost her appetite gave birth to healthy twins. She was arrested for delivery of a controlled substance to a minor.

•A doctor in Wisconsin had concerns about a woman’s plans to have her birth attended by a midwife. As a result, a civil court order of protective custody for the woman’s fetus was obtained. The order authorized the sheriff’s department to take the woman into custody, transport her to a hospital, and subject her to involuntary testing and medical treatment.

INTERSECTIONALITY CHECK OF THE DAY

It is very important to note that this sort of thing is happening not only to women, but all people capable of pregnancy.

Also, it’s very, VERY important to note WHICH women this is happening to, which I wrote about a few months ago:

When feminists decry the horrific new developments in regard to the criminalization of pregnancy, i.e. people with uteri who are prosecuted and/or sent to prison for refusing a c-section, having a miscarriage or stillbirth, having a mental illness, being perceived as “irresponsible”, et cetera.

White women: “this is happening to women!!!” News stories invariably show the pregnant bellies of white women. The stories are written by white women, and are addressed to white women. (Which is also cissexist.)

This is happening to Black and Native American women like Regina McKnight and Martha Greywind:

First, we describe characteristics of the women and the cases, finding that low-income women and women of color, especially African American women, are overrepresented among those who have been arrested or subjected to equivalent deprivations of liberty.

who are poor, and often living in the South, with its rich history of forced sterilizations and eugenics. South Carolina especially showed preference for sterilizing African American women.

From the report:

For example, in South Carolina thirty-four of ninety-three cases came from the contiguous counties of Charleston and Berkeley.

Regina McKnight suffered a miscarriage due to an infection. She served EIGHT YEARS of TWELVE-YEAR SENTENCE despite the fact that her counsel failed to provide adequate defense.

Martina Greywind was arrested 12 weeks into her pregnancy, and charged with reckless endangerment for being pregnant while homeless. She was able to gain release for a medical appointment. She summarily got an abortion, upon which the state offical position was “Defendant has made it known to the State that shehas terminated her pregnancy. Consequently, the controversial legal issues presented are no longer ripe for litigation.” and the prosecutor commented that it was, “no longer worth the time or expense to prosecute her.”

Michelle Marie Greenup was charged with second-degree murder after a miscarriage, and although the murder charge was eventually dropped, she was only released on the condition that she plead guilty to “improper disposal of human remains”, even though the miscarried fetus could only have been 11-15 weeks at the time.

Rachael Lowe was arrested when she went to try and receive treatment for an addiction to pain medication because she was found to be pregnant. She was forcibly committed to a mental hospital, where she received NO prenatal care and many prescription drugs like Xanax against her will. Despite the court announcing that she would be released, she nevertheless remained in custody for the remainder of her pregnancy under state supervision, and was fired from her job as a result.

Laura Pemberton was arrested at her home where she was attempting a home birth, under the pretext that she was “endangering the life” of her unborn child by refusing to have a caesarian section. A sheriff took her into custody, strapped her legs together, and took her to a hearing in progress, in which she was denied counsel AS SHE WAS BEING PREPPED FOR SURGERY. The judge compelled her to undergo surgery against her will. When she later sued for violation of her civil rights, the judge ruled that the rights of her unborn child outweighed her rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

Out of all these women, only Laura Pemberton is white.

the more thing change the more they stay the same..thi is some dystopic shit.. .

We are gonna talk about the new use of women as props by ” women’s advocates” as a challenge to men

On Being a Mixed Person of Color: landbeforeslime: i’m so fucking tired of this. i’m 21 years old,...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:55:26 -0400

On Being a Mixed Person of Color: landbeforeslime: i’m so fucking tired of this. i’m 21 years old,...:

landbeforeslime:

i’m so fucking tired of this.

i’m 21 years old, shouldn’t i be over my mixed-race identity crisis? when i was 7, that was the first time someone called me yellow. i hadn’t known i was different. i knew i was mixed japanese, but i didn’t know that being japanese would make me…

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:43:27 -0400

dionthesocialist: Bahahaha I just realized the government has been working for a week to explain...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:40:39 -0400

dionthesocialist:

Bahahaha I just realized the government has been working for a week to explain why spying on all our phone records is totally okay because it brings criminals to justice, but the dude who doxxed the stubenville rapists is possibly going to jail for ten years. So funny I could cry.

Cain is for Charlie. Delta is for Cain.: Ok, we are talking about this

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:38:49 -0400

Cain is for Charlie. Delta is for Cain.: Ok, we are talking about this:

jazuthewasianprincess:

wherewildthingsrun:

And why I am a bit mad with JJ Abrams. Quite a bit actually.

While I really do love STID and thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s performances I just want to set the record straight about how this

is no where NEAR the same as this

for way too many reasons:

Kirk’s scene was a testament to how macho and manly he is because he is sleeping with two two girls (who are also nearly naked by the way) while Carol Marcus’ character was just caught changing by this casanova

the shot is over-dramatized, look at that weird ass angle so that you could get all off her body! While Kirk is covered with a blanket and two other humanoids…

She was obviously prepared for this to happen, the push up bra, the glossy underwear, her stature, while Kirk is sort of hiding himself under the covers

Marcus’ scene was awkward. Everyone knew she was changing, everyone got it. She said do not turn around to Kirk, and yet he did, and then she is just ok with him turning and looking like that? She should not be ashamed of her body at all, but she told him not to look and then…ugh. And then Kirk’s again, showed off how cool he was sleeping with two beautiful females like it was nothing.

THIS IS WHAT EVERYONE REMEMBERS HER BY It took me a matter of seconds to find this picture. I just typed in “Alice Eve STID” and it was one of the first to appear, the first of many, while it took me quite a few minutes more to find Chris Pine’s and even then I typed in “STID Chris Pine shirtless” and got one picture.

But what really gets me riled up is that JJ Abrams is acting as though they are equal, as though they level each other out, as if there is nothing to get all upset about. He is wrong.

This woman, who is very smart and pretty with her clothes on, is reduced to a pair of boobs, whereas Kirk gets plenty of opportunities to be clear and funny and smart and brave and super macho manly.

I want Marcus to be given a chance to act macho! I want an interesting and likable female character who does not get caught changing.

I am not saying that women who get caught changing and are ok with it are wrong

I am not saying that women should be ashamed of their bodies and hide them so they are not sexualized

I am not saying that women who wear push up bras are wrong

I am not saying that men who sleep with a lot of females are bad

I am not saying that sex is bad

I am not saying that people who are not these things are wrong or bad either

I am not saying these scenes are horrible and should be crucified

WHAT I AM SAYING IS THAT THESE TWO SCENES DO NOT BALANCE EACH OTHER OUT.

THEY ARE NOT EQUAL.

THEY ARE POORLY MADE AND THAT WE AS AN AUDIENCE ARE MEANT TO FEEL OK WITH THEM AS IF THEY ARE BOTH NORMS.

THEY ARE NOT.

STOP ACTING LIKE THEY ARE JJ!

~~good job on the majority of the film, I enjoyed it and would love to see more~~ learn from your mistakes

oh my fucking god bless you

"If we can’t write diversity into sci-fi, then what’s the point? You don’t create new worlds to give..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:37:39 -0400

““If we can’t write diversity into sci-fi, then what’s the point? You don’t create new worlds to give them all the same limits of the old ones.””

- Jane Espenson (from interview with Advocate.com)\

I dunno how many which ways this needs to be said.

(via aragingquiet)

bryanthephotogeek: Samantha Bee is a role model.

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:37:21 -0400

bryanthephotogeek:

Samantha Bee is a role model.

wilwheaton: (via Daily Kos: Data intrusion)

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:36:36 -0400

wilwheaton:

(via Daily Kos: Data intrusion)

: sadhumangirl: assfcuker: ok so lemme do a short thing about virginity/...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:36:00 -0400

: sadhumangirl: assfcuker: ok so lemme do a short thing about virginity/...:

drst:

rabbleprochoice:

saucy-mermaid:

sadhumangirl:

assfcuker:

ok so lemme do a short thing about virginity/ tightness of vagina. Your vagina gets looser as you become more sexually aroused during intercourse. This is why when you normally put a finger in your vagina, its a lot tighter than when you put it in when you’re aroused. The myth that the vagina is tighter when you’re a virgin is caused by 2 things

1) cis men love the idea of “ruining” a woman’s body (as shown by porn) and they get some sort of sick pleasure from thinking that after having sex with a woman, she will never be the same again.

2) women are more anxious during their first time, which results in them being less sexually aroused and their vagina being more contracted.

if your have kids young enough, your vagina will literally return to it’s previous tightness. That’s how elastic it is. There is no way your vagina becomes “looser after having sex with lots of men”. that’s just ~~slut shame-y~~ bullshit.

Men who brag about shit like “her pussy was tight as hell for me. I ruined that pussy” are just bragging about the fact that they couldnt sexually arouse her enough for her to loosen enough. Which means they are awful at sex. They are bragging about being fucking awful at sex.

The only time your vagina becomes looser is with age and after multiple births.

Anyone who tells you differently is dumb.

So many great posts on my dash tonight.

This is completely true.

The vagina has been observed to actually expand in order to prepare itself to hold semen during arousal so if a guy is bragging about how tight the women he fucks are, he’s bad at sex and you should not fuck him.

Also, the bolded. This is also why the myth of the hymen being “broken” after having sex for the first time exists.

The hymen btw basically doesn’t exist. Check out Hanne Blank’s “Virgin” book for more info.

"Look, guys. No matter what a girl does, no matter how she’s dressed, no matter how much she’s had to..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:15:48 -0400

“Look, guys. No matter what a girl does, no matter how she’s dressed, no matter how much she’s had to drink, it’s never, never, never, never, never okay to touch her without her consent. That doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a coward.”

- Vice President Joe “the BAMF” Biden, in a speech launching the federal government’s campaign to fight sexual violence on college campuses (via girl-non-grata)

sherlockspeare: John just wants to dance. Sequel to Wild...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:41:09 -0400

sherlockspeare:

John just wants to dance.
Sequel to Wild dancing John

posttragicmulatto: The number of children’s books published...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:40:36 -0400

posttragicmulatto:

The number of children’s books published annually by/about people of color has not increased in more than 18 years. Last year, less than 10% of children’s books published had a diverse main character - even though the US population is currently 37% POC.

“I’ve heard many times from publishers that ‘buyers at B&N’ believe multicultural books don’t sell. When they are not stocked in these bookstores, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.”
-Kathleen T. Horning, Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Multicultural children’s book publisher Lee & Low Books asked several industry experts ”>why the number never changes.

"reporting the weather: it is not your job to make someone else feel comfortable by what you are..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:39:28 -0400

“reporting the weather: it is not your job to make someone else feel comfortable by what you are going to say. what is your job, is to tell the truth of how you feel; respecting the importance of your own inner weather. you might take time to find the most gentle and honoring way to tell it, but you tell it. you do not, not tell it. how someone reacts, responds, etc… is theirs. and though it may be difficult to watch someone you care about encounter hard emotions, that is for them to work through/their experience. you do not help them or save them by denying yourself air. in fact, you only serve to create more of a distance between you and your own soul; a distance in the true intimacy between you and them. your soul and theirs knows this is not love. this is not love, rigging your weather reports.”

- nayyirah washeed (via nayyirahwaheed)

"Men and women retire at about the same age, but women have less income to rely upon in retirement;..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:37:20 -0400

“Men and women retire at about the same age, but women have less income to rely upon in retirement; their salaries at retirement are, on average, 29 percent lower. This is partly the result of parenting responsibilities: For women, each child reduces her pay. This is mostly as a cumulative effect from time and money lost earlier. But children have no such effect on men’s salaries.”

- Female academics pay a heavy baby penalty. - Slate Magazine (via robot-heart-politics)

I'm interested in attending Tufts. Any information that I wouldn't be able to find out from anywhere else that you think is imperative in making a decision about the school?

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:36:00 -0400

That depends on what you’re interested in, because obviously there’s a lot more to any school than they can tell you in brochures/tours. I think what I wasn’t expecting about Tufts that I fell in love with was the sense of community overlap. It’s a big enough school that there are distinct communities that emerge, but small enough that I found myself running into a few of the same people over and over and making connections with them over our apparently similar interests.

This is part of the second thing I feel like I’ve really gotten from Tufts in particular, which is opportunities. Students do so much work on campus (I mean work as in activism), and meeting new people opens doors to great experiences you can’t get from the administration or an academic department. I’m writing for this year’s student-published Disorientation Guide (aka what you actually need to know about campus during orientation) and speaking on the Many Stories, One Community panel (about diversity of background and experience at Tufts) which I was nominated for by another student. Students have power at Tufts to make differences, and while it’s obviously not a perfect system and I have my qualms with the administration, there are all kinds of outlets for pretty much any passion you may have.

Feel free to message me back if I’m misinterpreting this and you want to know more about the party scene or a specific extracurricular/ department because that’s cool too :) Or if you just have more questions - I kinda love talking about Tufts.

sassymrknightley: every time you spell “jane austen” as “jane austin” a single man in possession of...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:01:43 -0400

sassymrknightley:

every time you spell “jane austen” as “jane austin” a single man in possession of a large fortune dies

drst: johnnybooboo: Who’s the prettiest Lieutenant in Star...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:01:15 -0400

drst:

johnnybooboo:

Who’s the prettiest Lieutenant in Star Fleet

Love that guy.

I've got chips, salsa, and this Bruins game. Let's go.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:41:08 -0400

highfiveshiningstrike: Remember that time Hollywood actually...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:40:08 -0400

highfiveshiningstrike:

Remember that time Hollywood actually whitewashed actual people that actually existed and were still quite alive?