Florida Uterati

"Feminism is anti-sexism. A male who has divested of male privilege, who has embraced feminist..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:09:13 -0400

“Feminism is anti-sexism. A male who has divested of male privilege, who has embraced feminist politics, is a worthy comrade in struggle, in no way a threat to feminism, whereas a female who remains wedded to sexist thinking and behavior infiltrating feminist movement is a dangerous threat. Significantly, the most powerful intervention made by consciousness-raising groups was the demand that all females confront their internalized sexism, their allegiance to patriarchal thinking and action, and their commitment to feminist conversion. That intervention is still needed. It remains the necessary step for anyone choosing feminist politics. The enemy within must be transformed before we can confront the enemy outside. The threat, the enemy, is sexist thought and behavior. As long as females take up the banner of feminist politics without addressing and transforming their own sexism, ultimately the movement will be undermined.”

- -bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody

just going to emphasize that last sentence again: As long as females take up the banner of feminist politics without addressing and transforming their own sexism, ultimately the movement will be undermined.

(via browndenim)

"The best way to dehumanize someone while claiming you’re not is to believe you are just the same...."

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:46:06 -0400

“The best way to dehumanize someone while claiming you’re not is to believe you are just the same. You erase their experiences and perspective, their struggles and obstacles, their unique way of having to deal with those things in a world that also erases them. With the words, ‘but humans are humans’ or the bullshit dramatics of ‘we all bleed red’ normal people can simply pretend that if we all did things the way they did, then everything would work out okay. But, yes, we all bleed red but you don’t treat a papercut the same way you treat a gash, you don’t treat an infected wound the same way you treat one that isn’t, you don’t treat a wound to the leg the same way you treat a wound to the gut. You are not acknowledging someone’s personhood when you ignore the very things that make their lives different than yours, and when you refuse to understand that their circumstances have given them their own perspective that is just as valid as yours. More valid in fact – their perspective about their experiences that you haven’t been through is far more valid than anything you could ever think about it.”

- The danger of worldviews (Speaking when the world sleeps)

Truth bomb if I ever saw one.

(via ikenbot)

humanrightswatch: A 15-year-old girl hoes cotton in Texas....

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:54:20 -0400

humanrightswatch:

A 15-year-old girl hoes cotton in Texas. Unauthorized migrant farmworker women and girls are exceptionally vulnerable to sexual abuse. Geographic isolation, language barriers, fear of deportation, and the desperate need for work make it very difficult for them to report abuse, much less get help.

© 2009 Robert Romano

Read more.

"A List of “Men’s Rights” Issues That Feminism Is Already Working On Feminists do not want you to..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:46:43 -0400

“

A List of “Men’s Rights” Issues That Feminism Is Already Working On

Feminists do not want you to lose custody of your children. The assumption that women are naturally better caregivers is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not like commercials in which bumbling dads mess up the laundry and competent wives have to bustle in and fix it. The assumption that women are naturally better housekeepers is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to have to make alimony payments. Alimony is set up to combat the fact that women have been historically expected to prioritize domestic duties over professional goals, thus minimizing their earning potential if their “traditional” marriages end. The assumption that wives should make babies instead of money is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want anyone to get raped in prison. Permissiveness and jokes about prison rape are part of rape culture, which is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want anyone to be falsely accused of rape. False rape accusations discredit rape victims, which reinforces rape culture, which is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be lonely and we do not hate “nice guys.” The idea that certain people are inherently more valuable than other people because of superficial physical attributes is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to have to pay for dinner. We want the opportunity to achieve financial success on par with men in any field we choose (and are qualified for), and the fact that we currently don’t is part of patriarchy. The idea that men should coddle and provide for women, and/or purchase their affections in romantic contexts, is condescending and damaging and part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be maimed or killed in industrial accidents, or toil in coal mines while we do cushy secretarial work and various yarn-themed activities. The fact that women have long been shut out of dangerous industrial jobs (by men, by the way) is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to commit suicide. Any pressures and expectations that lower the quality of life of either gender are part of patriarchy. The fact that depression is characterized as an effeminate weakness, making men less likely to seek treatment, is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be viewed with suspicion when you take your child to the park (men frequently insist that this is a serious issue, so I will take them at their word). The assumption that men are insatiable sexual animals, combined with the idea that it’s unnatural for men to care for children, is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be drafted and then die in a war while we stay home and iron stuff. The idea that women are too weak to fight or too delicate to function in a military setting is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want women to escape prosecution on legitimate domestic violence charges, nor do we want men to be ridiculed for being raped or abused. The idea that women are naturally gentle and compliant and that victimhood is inherently feminine is part of patriarchy.

Feminists hate patriarchy. We do not hate you.

If you really care about those issues as passionately as you say you do, you should be thanking feminists, because feminism is a social movement actively dedicated to dismantling every single one of them. The fact that you blame feminists—your allies—for problems against which they have been struggling for decades suggests that supporting men isn’t nearly as important to you as resenting women. We care about your problems a lot. Could you try caring about ours?

”

- (via undead-rockstars)

This is probably the most awesome post I’ve seen all day.

(via thisfightisntover)

What it’s like trying to talk to Massachusetts GOP Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez about abortion

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:34:13 -0400

standupfordownthere:

"I suspect it’s difficult for men to imagine a world in which their bodies have long been..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:21:49 -0400

“I suspect it’s difficult for men to imagine a world in which their bodies have long been inextricably linked to their value as an individual, and that no matter how encouraging your parents were or how many positive female role models you had or how self-confident you feel, there is an ever-present pressure that creeps in from all sides, whispering in your ear that you are your body and your body defines you. A world where, from the time of pubescence on, you can feel the constant and palpable weight of the male gaze, and not just from your male peers but from teachers and sports coaches and the fathers of the children you baby-sit, people you’re supposed to respect and trust and look up to, and that first realization that you are being looked at in that way is the beginning of a self-consciousness that you will be unable to shake for the rest of your life.Even if they are never verbalized, the rules of bodily conduct for females become clear early on: when school administrators reprimand you for the inch of midriff that shows when you lift your hands straight in the air or youth group leaders tell you that the sight of your unintentional cleavage is what causes godly young men to fall, you learn that your body is dangerous and shameful and that it’s your responsibility to cloister it in a way that is acceptable to everyone else. You learn that your body is a topic of public debate that everyone is entitled to weigh in on, from a male classmate telling you that those jeans make your ass look huge to the male-dominated United States Congress dictating the parameters that rape must fall within to be considered legitimate. To be a woman, and to live life in a woman’s body, is to be held to a set of comically paradoxical standards that make you constantly second-guess yourself and jump through a million hoops in pursuit of an impossible perfection.”

- Stop Catcalling Me (via albinwonderland)

This is a fantastically clear and salient account of extremely confusing experiences which I have never been able to accurately verbalise. Amazing.

(via ideas-are-bulletpro0f)

fucking this!

(via damaged-and-fallen)

"Yes, false rape accusations happen. Run the protocol anyway. I’ve heard that perhaps the military..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:20:58 -0400

“Yes, false rape accusations happen. Run the protocol anyway. I’ve heard that perhaps the military has the highest number of ‘em. True or not, RUN THE PROTOCOL ANYWAY. Because in 15 years of investigating rape accusations, I can count those that panned out as false on one hand. Meanwhile, the one time I almost skipped the protocol, the one time I almost didn’t believe a petty officer, because I was naive as an investigator and a young woman, because her commanding officer described her as “a party girl, always late, always out drinking, don’t bother with this one”, she turned out to be the victim of one of the most brutal assaults I’ve ever investigated. She shouldn’t have still been -alive-, let alone up and making the accusation. So let me repeat: five false accounts in fifteen years. And one time I almost failed a woman ‘cause of the bullshit way it’s normal to talk about us. Take your shipmates’ word, and then run the protocol. Every. Single. Time.”

- - JAG lawyer, speaking to my husband’s plant during Sexual Assault Prevention Month. (via circusbones)

"You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:16:58 -0400

“You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple the unemployment isn’t interested in purchasing the assets of the generation who just blew an enormous housing bubble and kept it from popping through quantitative easing and out-and-out federal support? Curious.”

- When comments are better than the article, Atlantic edition (“The Cheapest Generation: Why Millennials arent’ buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy”)

"Calling race a “social construct” does not mean that the biological ancestry — and specifically West..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:12:35 -0400

“Calling race a “social construct” does not mean that the biological ancestry — and specifically West African ancestry — of African Americans is mythical. It also doesn’t mean that my ancestry has no actual implications. (See the map of sickle-cell density above.) And in the future, it may mean even more. Ancestry — where my great-great-great-great grandparents are from — is a fact. What you call people with that particular ancestry is not. It changes depending on where you are in the world, when you are there, and who has power.”

- Ta-Nehisi Coates (via theatlantic)

awkwardsituationist: “not natasha,” a photographic essay on...

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:22:56 -0400

awkwardsituationist:

“not natasha,” a photographic essay on eastern european sex trafficked slaves by dana popa

(documentary, the real sex traffic; film, lilya 4-ever)

nhaler: ATTN:The FULL Foucault/Chomsky debate has been...

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:31:44 -0400

nhaler:

ATTN:The FULL Foucault/Chomsky debate has been uploaded May 7th, with full English subtitles for the first time ever.

Full transcript here.

In 1971, with the Vietnam war in full swing and radical social movements destabilizing the social, political and cultural order throughout the Western world, Dutch philosopher Fons Elders invited two of the world’s leading thinkers — the American linguist and activist Noam Chomsky and the French social theorist Michel Foucault — to debate a thorny and perennial question: is there such a thing as an “innate” human nature…

The resulting dialogue has been described as one of the most original, provocative, and spontaneous exchanges to have occurred between contemporary philosophers… >continue<

mirkwood: thefrogman: I believe that there are a small group...

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:20:12 -0400

mirkwood:

thefrogman:

I believe that there are a small group of women who hate men just for being men. I believe that the textbook definition of the word misandry fits that description. I believe there are bad things that happen to men. I believe those issues should be addressed. I do not believe that a fringe group of women who hate men can be blamed for those issues.

Misandry was a dead word until recently. A group of men who feared the progress of feminism revived the word and used it to undercut the movement. They like having the power being a man provides and they don’t want to lose that. So they created a movement, found a bunch of legitimate issues that affect men, and tried to blame women for those issues. They called this misandry. It’s like conservatives using buzzwords like “death panels” to make people fear health care. They let people assume it meant Obama wanted to kill your grandma. They let their cute little phrase infect the minds of good people and convince them of falsehoods.

People are telling me that men cannot report rape without getting laughed at. They say this is misandry. It is the fault of women who hate men. But that just doesn’t make any sense to me. When I seek a logical explanation, it seems more likely that this is because men are supposed to be strong and women are supposed to be weak. And rape has been viewed as something that happens mostly to women. So if it does happen to a man, they must be weak. How did this idea of men=strong and women=weak start? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because of misandry. It is an ancient patriarchy collapsing in on itself.

Feminism is about fighting inequality. It’s about erasing the strong/weak perception ingrained into our society. Misandry, as the term is often used today, is about trying to blame women for anything bad that happens to men.

If you want to fight to fix issues that affect men, go for it. But I would really consider distancing yourself from this term. It is used to evangelize folks into a movement that is very problematic. A group that can’t handle scrutiny of their comic books and video games, so they send death and rape threats. A group that calls women sluts and think they ask for rape if they show too much cleavage. Those are the people who coined this term, and you should want nothing to do with them or their language.

The Frogman. Restoring my faith in humanity one post at a time.

tyleroakley: flozac: the principal at my school made an...

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:14:15 -0400

tyleroakley:

flozac:

the principal at my school made an announcement yesterday that the girls need to start covering up and then i found this in the hallway

BOOM.

Read this now: "'Yo' Said What?"

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:10:30 -0400

Read this now: "'Yo' Said What?":

gaywrites:

Who says it’s hard to start using gender-neutral pronouns? Kids in Baltimore have figured it out.

This NPR piece from a few weeks ago highlights groups of kids who have begun using “yo” to replace gendered pronouns when they speak. Teachers have observed that some kids use “yo” even when they know a person’s gender, but also when they don’t.

Margaret Troyer, a former Baltimore-area teacher, published the first paper showing that “yo” is being used to replace “he” and “she.” Troyer first noticed it while she was teaching middle-school kids in the area.

“Some examples would be ‘yo wearing a jacket,’ ” Troyer says, referring to her research. “Another example from the paper is, ‘Yo threw a thumbtack at me,’ which is a typical middle school example.”

So Troyer began to study her students. She gave them blank cartoons and asked them to fill in the captions — many of the cartoon characters were androgynous.

Troyer found the kids used “yo” instead of “he” or “she” when they didn’t know the gender of the character. But they also used “yo” as a substitute even when they did know the gender.

“They said things like, ‘Yo put his foot on the desk.’ So it was clear from this that they knew it was a male person, but they were just using ‘yo’ to refer to the person,” says Troyer. “And then in other sentences they would use ‘yo’ to refer to a female as well.”

Language is so cool. Kids are so cool.

queensassyofthefatties: Lewis’s law is an observation she made...

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:08:08 -0400

queensassyofthefatties:

Lewis’s law is an observation she made in 2012 that states “the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.” Lewis has written frequently about misogynist hate directed at women online.^[8]

Can we just repeat that a few more times,

“The comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.”

“The comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.”

sorayachemaly: STACY’S MOM or What’s Wrong With Boys, Luscious...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:58:36 -0400

sorayachemaly:

STACY’S MOM or What’s Wrong With Boys, Luscious ‘Lolitas’ and Yummy Mummies?

Remember Stacy’s shagalicious mom? The power pop precursor and PG expander of the mother-daughter porn genre?

From “Little Lolitas” to MILFS - the idea is that we have to calibrate how we:
look,
dress,
stand,
speak,
run,
sit,
eat,
walk,
work,
sleep,
starve,
fix our hair,
shave,
bleach,
cut bits off,
add bits on,
pose,
BE…

in order to remain eternally dewy and optimized for male pleasure and comfort. This will be the case for as long as our equal access to resources, power, safety and everything else is vicarious and contingent on whether or not we are “nice” enough. It’s assaultive. Regardless of a girl’s or woman’s age, this kind of objectification and “sexualization” results in a performance. Doesn’t matter if you you dress up… or undress… there is nothing ironic or empowering about this process and its effects.

natgeofound: A regular at Le Louis IX in Paris, “Caramel” keeps...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:47:23 -0400

natgeofound:

A regular at Le Louis IX in Paris, “Caramel” keeps a client company, May 1988.
Photograph by James L. Stanfield, National Geographic

missrep: In response to Zombie Industries “Ex Girlfriend”...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:44:28 -0400

missrep:

In response to Zombie Industries “Ex Girlfriend” shooting target, hundreds have tweeted #NotBuyingIt to the brand in the last two days. The company is already #4 on our all-time list of worst offenders.

thelyonrampant: How To Tell If A Toy Is For Boys or Girls

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:39:20 -0400

thelyonrampant:

How To Tell If A Toy Is For Boys or Girls

Megan Fox as April O’Neil on the sets of Teenage Mutant Ninja...

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:25:48 -0400

Megan Fox as April O’Neil on the sets of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.