Posts tagged feminism
The Spiral Dance
"Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess." - Donna Haraway
Feminist Disney: also can I just note that all those movies, now that I think about it,...
also can I just note that all those movies, now that I think about it, also use one of my least favorite “easy empowerment” tropes, “the lady is forced into a restrictive corset”?
I just want to be like “Great, thank you, empowering movie, finally the women of America will find, inspired by you,…
(via thelastgoodkiss)
Female toplessness is legal in a lot of places in the US (although not where I live), and I’d be meeting the letter of the law with a couple of Band-aids. But I have a gut feeling that if I go anywhere that there are people—and particularly anywhere there are children—nobody’s going to be too happy about my Band-aids. The enforcement is social; women just don’t go around topless in the US.
It bothers me because it’s unequal, but it also bothers me in its implications: that my body is inherently sexual, and a man’s body isn’t. It feels like men are being viewed through the first-person lens of “it’s nice to feel the sun on my skin, and I don’t mean anything by it” and women are being viewed through the distinctly third-person lens of “it’s inappropriate for me, a heterosexual man, to see her sexy parts.” It ignores the experiences of people who are turned on by male chests and somehow manage to contain themselves when they see one.
(via m1nou)
mom: “what are you doing?”
me: “I’m on tumblr.”
mom: “the feminist cat website?”accurate to both tumblr and my life
(Source: farahjoon, via thelastgoodkiss)
Social Justice Problems
i don't give a fuck about men's feelings: pet peeve
Okay. Mini-rant coming up. It really bugs me when guys say, out of the blue, with no provocation, “I don’t really like high heels” or “I wish girls wouldn’t wear so much makeup” etc etc. It’s not that it’s wrong to have a preference, it’s that nobody asked you and it’s…
Argh, it drives me nuts when some (obviously well-meaning) guy chimes in the comments on a post about something like unrealistic beauty standards, body hair, weight, etc., to say “Yeah, I don’t get why our culture is so messed up. Personally, I prefer women with hairy pits!” I want to reach through the internet and shake them. Because, dude, it’s NOT ABOUT YOU. What arrogance to think that all those poor womenfolk with low self esteem needed to hear was that you, random dude on the internet, would like to fuck them.
(via m1nou)
Queer women and (in)visibility
Last Saturday I was driving to see Pamela Melroy speak about being only the second woman to command a space shuttle mission, when I heard a story on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered about the impact of television on public opinions about gay people. Since I used to write about gay people on television, I was really interested in this piece, which featured an interview between host Guy Raz and Edward Schiappa, a professor of communications studies at the University of Minnesota.
So, this was a 5-minute piece on the radio. I knew that they couldn’t get too deeply into the nuances of LGBT representation on television. But you know what pissed me off? It basically dismissed — and then erased — women from the dialogue. [Continue reading]
(via sarahreesbrennan)
Critique of the quality of the series aside, the issue that frustrates me the most in all of this “50 Shades of Grey” hubub is the way women are talked about in relation to reading for sexual pleasure. It’s either looked upon as cutesy, in a “mommy porn” sort of way, or otherwise it’s something to be ashamed of and hidden amongst the other books in your Kindle. So…which is it? Is this something to be tittered about amongst the other moms as they wait to pick up their kids from school, or is it something that grown up, autonomous women should feel shame and embarrassment over?
I vote for neither. I say that while “50 Shades of Grey” wouldn’t have been my first (or heck, even 50th) choice for the book that gets us all talking about this genre of literature, here we are. So, let’s talk about it like actual adults, and not treat it like the sideshow spectacle that it’s become. If this had been a book marketed toward men, would we be seeing the same sort of equal parts derision and patronizing reactions? Would the media dare coin the term “daddy porn?” Of course not.
Clever girl.
Recently, on my Humorless Feminist Shrew pinboard, I mentioned that modesty standards for women’s attire contribute to the rape culture. The man I’d repinned commented that he took this to mean I’d called him a rapist, and he was not a rapist, therefore feminism was wrong, etc. We’ve all heard this particular argument before.
But I happened to be thinking about Jurassic Park at the time, and realized it’s a near-perfect illustration of the difference between being a rapist and contributing to rape culture, which anti-feminists so often like to gloss over.
And now we get to talk about Dennis Nedry.
Dennis Nedry is not a velociraptor. He is a programmer, and he certainly has his faults, but he did not actually mutilate nor devour anyone on Isla Nublar. His actions, however, certainly made it much easier for the velociraptors to devour many people, including Samuel L. Jackson and the glorious Robert Muldoon.
Bonus point: velociraptors will attack anyone vulnerable, regardless of how that person is clothed.
In sum: rape culture means that you help shut down the fences that keep us safe from predators. Don’t be That Guy.
We never talk about people who need or want abortions as living things. All the focus goes on embryos, because for some reason, they’re more important than the people who are carrying them.
(Source: erosum, via jessicavalenti)
Here is the thing, okay? Coming into a feminist conversation with, “Have you considered that sometimes women acquire free drinks at bars?” is like walking into graduate school during Philosophy finals and saying, “Have you considered that the color blue that I see may not be the color blue that you see?”
Imagine you are the guy who just walked into that Philosophy class and laid that shit down. Imagine the class full of students who have worked very hard and committed themselves and sacrificed to be here, students who have spent several years of their lives learning about this subject. Imagine now their feelings when you go to the head of the classroom with a smirk on your face and demand the professor give you an A for effort. Imagine now that they think you are a douchebag asshole, because they do, and because you are. You are a douchebag asshole because you are obviously so self-centered, arrogant, and completely ignorant of the world around you, that you thought you could walk into a high-level course with no background and no work and say something profoundly simplistic and totally unrelated and also everybody should congratulate you for having done this thing, so brave, so provocative.
[….]
You are not asking us a real question. You are simply illustrating, for all to see, your own ignorance. You are saying, “I have not considered the implications of the question I have just asked. I have not taken the time nor effort nor commitment to sit down and ask myself this question. Instead, I have come into your philosophy classroom/office/feminist blog and shat out my question with a smirk, because I believe that my two seconds of thought are worth more than your long-term analysis, because I believe I am worth more.”
(via m1nou)
