I’m convinced that writer’s block doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to say. Writer’s block means you’re afraid to say what you really have to say.
—Sandra Cisneros (via zorascreation)
(via catladysoul)
relevant and important
Really though, been cycling through these on repeat.
I need to do these. Mostly I’ve been cycling through coping mechanisms that make me feel worse in the end.
(Source: sadteenlesbian)
Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.
interesting
I’m white. So I have white privilege.
I am disabled - so don’t have healthy/able-bodied privilege
I am bi - so don’t really have straight privilege but often benefit from it anyway (I could choose not to be out to my colleagues in my last job for example)
I am a woman - and so don’t have male privilege
I am cis
I am from a relatively wealthy background and have an amazing education - and therefore have massive privilege from this.
So what does that all mean?
Well, I am fascinated by all the posts I am seeing at the moment from other white people trying to deny racism or claiming that ‘whites can be oppressed too’. It is horribly sad that people are so caught up in their own privilege that they literally can’t hear what they are saying and can’t put it in any kind of societal context.
Denying white privilege often seems to come as a response to people of colour trying to set up any kind of space of their own or celebrate non-white-centric culture. It hugely reminds me of all the deeply commited and ‘ethical’ male protesters who reacted with such rage that women at the Occupy protests tried to create safe women only groups (this was after women had been raped and assaulted) or tried to talk about challenging the patriarcial systems that Occupy fell into so quickly.
If you have privilege I believe that it is your responsibility to continually look out for the way it is limiting your perception of the world and making you less than you could be. No one has the responsibility to educate you. I know I need to challenge my own privilege and push myself outside of my own comfort-though zones if I want to be better.
For me interacting with non-disabled people can be exhausting because they are really comfortable with the way the world is set up for them. And just can’t / won’t understand the barriers (physical and prejudice based) which stop me from interacting as I want to.
Harry Potter readers, remember the weird statue thing in the Ministry of Magic - the one with all the different form of magical beings looking worshipfully at the Witch and Wizard? When you have privilege it is so easy to start thinking that this is how non-privileged people should look at you. Just in case you were wondering - they really don’t. And shouldn’t.
Black Memento Bead Necklace, Vivienne Westwood
Want. Really want
(Source: littleraspberry, via warthogs)
Even if we put aside the question of fetal personhood and assume that a fetus should have the same rights as a born human being, giving that fetus the right to use another person’s body for its surivval would give it privileges that born people do not have. In no other case is a person legally compelled to use their body and their internal organs to sustain another’s life. We do not require parents to donate kidneys or even blood to their children, and we do not require anyone to be a good Samaritan and risk their life or health for another. It is difficult to imagine a case in which we would legally require a father to keep his child physically attached to his body, using his organs for survival, physically impairing him, and requiring him to miss work and possibly undergo surgery, for nearly ten months.
It would be difficult to make the case that the child (or full-grown adult) has a right to use their father’s body for survival. Yet this is exactly what opponents of abortion rights argue— except the body in question is female,
—
Offensive Feminism, Jill Filipovic (via hymnsuponyourlips-)
This is SO useful. Great analysis.
(via honestandunapologetic)
Conservatives, go home. You’ve lost this one.
(via dank-potion)
I am grossed out that it’s necessary to explain this. Society >:(
(via youlittlearsonist)
(Source: downrightlinear, via youlittlearsonist)
Losing My Religion
This. For me it was evangelical Christianity. A religion which attempted to hurt me and destroy me and make me hate everything which is good about me and other people. Escaping was the only reason I am still breathing.
