I’m tired of black hair being use as a litmus test of internalized hatred/whiteness. Women alter their body all the time. Every woman that happens to fall with something normative (which is a lot of fucking people) doesn’t hate herself. But we love to hold this standard to black women like “oh you’re not black enough because your hair reflects THE WHITE MAN”
Stuff like that is said by people who don’t understand that
1. Black women still get a lot of shit for natural hair. My own mom was UPSET when I came home for the summer post BC. This is the environment we grew up in. This is society. Not every black woman will be taken seriously in a workplace or treated with respect with natural hair and that needs to be acknowledged by the black bougie elite that thinks their natural hair makes them “more black”
2. We can comment on normative beauty standards that affect EVERYONE without cherry picking who to judge the hardest. Critiquing a black woman with a weave is just like being one of those “I’m a better feminist because I refuse to change my last name when I get married” - what’s the point? Let’s play the “I’m a better black feminist because I abide by arbitrary standards” game and NO ONE WILL WIN.
Like I said, obviously we should critique beauty standards. We should note that television and commercials that make us feel like we’re a piece of shit if we don’t spend all our money to look as Eurocentric as possible. But the point is to give us the CHOICE to freely determine how we want our bodies to look without someone else butting in with how we OUGHT to look to be “authentic enough.”
And that’s how I feel about that lol
(but seriously tho, the fuck it would look like to approach a black chick like “our relaxed hair tells me our hate yourself and love white supremacy - why do you hate your own blackness so much?” - cause I know black women who are starting to get treated that way and it’s NOT NECESSARY)
P.s. unless you’re going to be the one common through my hair and styling it every night - dont tell me how to do it.
Thanks for the Q!
Amazing how they often get away with citing the freedom of speech - no, that doesn’t give you the right to be a douchebag and get away with it.
PS: Quote credits: Bob Chipman aka MovieBob
— “Feminism’s Future Young Feminists of Color Take the Mic” Daisy Hernández (via brazenbitch)
I’m not in a rush to lose weight. It isn’t my number one goal. Why? Because I’m not utterly disgusted by the person I see looking at me in the mirror. Which is an amazing feat in this society and culture. Don’t get me wrong I’m not completely in love with it either, but who is? We’re always told we need to change, alter and improve our appearance by people who are oddly invested in other other people’s physical appearance.
But with that being said I do plan on eventually getting a gym membership, working out and losing weight when I move to Boston later in the summer. But what annoys me to no end is when other people feel the need to tell me that I need to start losing weight and I need to start RIGHT NOW.
It’s like, what the hell? The absolute worst thing anyone can do is to get conditioned to want their body to look a certain way for other people and not themselves.
This is why being healthy is so difficult. We don’t measure health in actual healthy practices. We measure it in “how fast can you lose weight and have a certain figure.” we don’t teach people to value healthy and responsible exercise routines and habits - but instead to take dangerous diet supplements, develop adversarial relationships with all food, and go to the gym like its their job.
Losing weight isn’t a job or an obligation. It’s a prerogative that an individual should set out for themselves. But dr.oz and everyone out there puts people out on these boom-bust weight loss routines where people burn out in the gym and treat food like the enemy. Then they abandon the “routine” in a few weeks and feel like a failure and hate themselves. Then the process stops again.
If someone wants to develop a different eating regimen or exercise on a regular basis, that’s fine. But we don’t live in a culture that can just trust that people know how to do that on their own. We don’t trust others with their own body and have to throw pressure into the mix.
Basically if you’re trying to lose weight and people feel the need to tell you that you’re not doing it fast enough - tell them to mind their own goddamn business. If someone can’t trust you to know what is healthy and appropriate for your own body then they must not trust you to wipe your own ass either. You don’t tell other people how to do that, so don’t give unsolicited weight loss advice or set limits on a body that ISN’T YOURS.
That just doesn’t make sense to me. Expecting someone to speed up a process that’s happening with their body that is neither natural or healthy.
/rant over - woosah
they probably cannot identify because they’re humanity is erased from those texts. they’re humanities continue to be erased because marginalized authors don’t fall in line with the “classic” model those texts set. this is a legitimate reason and if you think worshiping your author is more important that listening to voices that are never represented in “classic literature”…
you need to check yourself
lets not even go into what even qualifies as classic
This is going to be one of my last desperate pleas for responses to be included in my senior research project. Been seeing this float around tumblr and have experience using tumblr to advance activist/political organizing goals/ideals? tell me about it!
and again - thanks to everyone who’s written in thus far. If I could send you baked goods digitally I definitely would!
Hi! So, if any of you remember I’ve been doing my senior research design, loosly, on the internet and activism. (you can get a full description there). I’ve already gotten a lot of help and tips for where I should start my research, but now I would love to include statements and short survey responses from anyone on tumblr that identifies as an activist (in ANY way - I don’t only need responses from any particular “type” of activism. I want to know what YOU do) that can explain the ways tumblr or twitter (or any online medium) act as space/supplement/channel for you and the activism/advocacy/awareness spreading work you do. If you mainly channel your activism and the work you do online - I’d LOVE to hear about you and your online experiences. and if you do lots of other activist things offline and in addition to the cause - please tell me!
More specifically if I could get statements on (in addition to whatever you feel is relevant):
- Ways in which you use online tools (tumblr/twitter) to facilitate/engage in counter-hegemonic/anti-heteropatricarchical racist structures, and what this has done for you/your ability to be an activist
- How has online tools connected you to a wider network of activists / a safe space for your activism/advocacy
- Have you ever used the internet, twitter or tumblr to raise money and/or awareness for any causes/non-profits/campains that meant a lot to you/that you have been working for? How do you feel your efforts affected the overall movement?
- Used your online space to advertise for a ralley/conference/activist even and then used that same space to re-connect, debrief about even afterward
- Gotten in any cool twitter arguments with prominent figures over an issue you care about? (I know this happens a lot with pro-choice advocacy and hash tags like #mooreandme)
- just plain tell me how maybe the things you learned, or resources you may have found on the internet has made you a better activist overall
and basically just send me any messages with any experiences that you believe would be vital to be included in my research. Obviously I really believe in what I’m researching or I wouldn’t have picked this topic - but I also need to graduate college in a few weeks so, if that’s an added motivating factor to you going to the above link or clicking here and hitting submit, by all means!
No story is insignificant.
and of course, thanks in advance!
Hey! just my daily shameless self promotion of the voices and responses I still need for my research project. All of those who have written in so far, thanks SO MUCH. I’m curious to hear from anyone who has participated in walks or rallys (or even organized their own) through social media. Well, that and literally any other experience of internet merging with activism. I’m already learning a lot, keep them coming!
Hi! So, if any of you remember I’ve been doing my senior research design, loosly, on the internet and activism. (you can get a full description there). I’ve already gotten a lot of help and tips for where I should start my research, but now I would love to include statements and short survey responses from anyone on tumblr that identifies as an activist (in ANY way - I don’t only need responses from any particular “type” of activism. I want to know what YOU do) that can explain the ways tumblr or twitter (or any online medium) act as space/supplement/channel for you and the activism/advocacy/awareness spreading work you do. If you mainly channel your activism and the work you do online - I’d LOVE to hear about you and your online experiences. and if you do lots of other activist things offline and in addition to the cause - please tell me!
More specifically if I could get statements on (in addition to whatever you feel is relevant):
- Ways in which you use online tools (tumblr/twitter) to facilitate/engage in counter-hegemonic/anti-heteropatricarchical racist structures, and what this has done for you/your ability to be an activist
- How has online tools connected you to a wider network of activists / a safe space for your activism/advocacy
- Have you ever used the internet, twitter or tumblr to raise money and/or awareness for any causes/non-profits/campains that meant a lot to you/that you have been working for? How do you feel your efforts affected the overall movement?
- Used your online space to advertise for a ralley/conference/activist even and then used that same space to re-connect, debrief about even afterward
- Gotten in any cool twitter arguments with prominent figures over an issue you care about? (I know this happens a lot with pro-choice advocacy and hash tags like #mooreandme)
- just plain tell me how maybe the things you learned, or resources you may have found on the internet has made you a better activist overall
and basically just send me any messages with any experiences that you believe would be vital to be included in my research. Obviously I really believe in what I’m researching or I wouldn’t have picked this topic - but I also need to graduate college in a few weeks so, if that’s an added motivating factor to you going to the above link or clicking here and hitting submit, by all means!
No story is insignificant.
and of course, thanks in advance!
— Marianne Kirkby, in ‘Six weeks to OMG: The diet that will make you disappear.’ Read more here. (via guardiancomment)
So i’m going to keep reblogging this to make sure that any self-identified actvists who are willing to help me out see this =)
I need a ton of responses so I apologize in advance for the constant self promotion throughout these next few days :/ But i’ll stop clogging your dashboards as soon as people start sending quotes in, YAY!
Hi! So, if any of you remember I’ve been doing my senior research design, loosly, on the internet and activism. (you can get a full description there). I’ve already gotten a lot of help and tips for where I should start my research, but now I would love to include statements and short survey responses from anyone on tumblr that identifies as an activist (in ANY way - I don’t only need responses from any particular “type” of activism. I want to know what YOU do) that can explain the ways tumblr or twitter (or any online medium) act as space/supplement/channel for you and the activism/advocacy/awareness spreading work you do. If you mainly channel your activism and the work you do online - I’d LOVE to hear about you and your online experiences. and if you do lots of other activist things offline and in addition to the cause - please tell me!
More specifically if I could get statements on (in addition to whatever you feel is relevant):
- Ways in which you use online tools (tumblr/twitter) to facilitate/engage in counter-hegemonic/anti-heteropatricarchical racist structures, and what this has done for you/your ability to be an activist
- How has online tools connected you to a wider network of activists / a safe space for your activism/advocacy
- Have you ever used the internet, twitter or tumblr to raise money and/or awareness for any causes/non-profits/campains that meant a lot to you/that you have been working for? How do you feel your efforts affected the overall movement?
- Used your online space to advertise for a ralley/conference/activist even and then used that same space to re-connect, debrief about even afterward
- Gotten in any cool twitter arguments with prominent figures over an issue you care about? (I know this happens a lot with pro-choice advocacy and hash tags like #mooreandme)
- just plain tell me how maybe the things you learned, or resources you may have found on the internet has made you a better activist overall
and basically just send me any messages with any experiences that you believe would be vital to be included in my research. Obviously I really believe in what I’m researching or I wouldn’t have picked this topic - but I also need to graduate college in a few weeks so, if that’s an added motivating factor to you going to the above link or clicking here and hitting submit, by all means!
No story is insignificant.
and of course, thanks in advance!
Patsy Mink, Author of Title IX, Hawaii state elected official.
A woman who makes me proud to be a woman, proud to be from Hawaii, and proud of my heritage.
Hi! So, if any of you remember I’ve been doing my senior research design, loosly, on the internet and activism. (you can get a full description there). I’ve already gotten a lot of help and tips for where I should start my research, but now I would love to include statements and short survey responses from anyone on tumblr that identifies as an activist (in ANY way - I don’t only need responses from any particular “type” of activism. I want to know what YOU do) that can explain the ways tumblr or twitter (or any online medium) act as space/supplement/channel for you and the activism/advocacy/awareness spreading work you do. If you mainly channel your activism and the work you do online - I’d LOVE to hear about you and your online experiences. and if you do lots of other activist things offline and in addition to the cause - please tell me!
More specifically if I could get statements on (in addition to whatever you feel is relevant):
and basically just send me any messages with any experiences that you believe would be vital to be included in my research. Obviously I really believe in what I’m researching or I wouldn’t have picked this topic - but I also need to graduate college in a few weeks so, if that’s an added motivating factor to you going to the above link or clicking here and hitting submit, by all means!
No story is insignificant.
and of course, thanks in advance!
I actually get really annoyed when “feminists” or women in general get really upset when you try to critique their problematic female heroes. Her being a woman doesn’t mean her sole existence has solved inequality, nor that she is above critique. That’s what happens when your idea of inequality is narrow and only focuses on middle/upper class straight women like yourself. “pack up your stuff y’all, we got what WE wanted, battle over, time to go. Wait, what? POC are upset about something? UGH WHAT PARTY POOPERS! Why can’t anyone just be happy for us?!? We can’t have anything!” the most annoying part is that the same people who worship some feminist figures who are still oppressive, and scream solidarity if you deflect, will be the FIRST ones to throw people like Nicki Minaj under the bus. “I mean, she just asks to be objectified.” or sex workers “I need to help you save yourself from degrading yourself!” or women who understand the true meaning of choice “you shave? You want to have kids? Don’t you know there is a better life out there for you?!?” Yeah, I’m done. This Girls fallout has been very telling - in a “internet manifestation of things I’ve dealt with some of the other feminists I’ve met on campus” kind of way
I feel like my answer takes for granted how complicated this issue is and how it needs to be talked about a lot more…
I can see the problem in which rape is constantly and repeatedly framed as a women’s issue. Yes, feminists take on the issue because there is a certain popular culture around rape that is often tied to male privilege, power relations, and cultural expectations that “if you wear this, look a certain way or do certain things with your life then you’re asking for it.” and also the pressures to achieve masculinity in the heternormative sense of “you must prove you’re a man by getting sex by any means necessary.” or how women of color, historically, aren’t even considered rape-able because of the way WOC have been hyper-sexualualized in history, media and even science.
I felt by just saying “yes, a man can be raped by a woman” really simplifies things. Because me just saying yes doesn’t explain - well why is it framed the way it is? and its worth pointing out all the different types of rape that isn’t just man/woman or heteronormative. Yes, rape culture in the contemporary sense is worth understanding because it does impact gender relations and it is factored into how women are perceived within the male gaze - but rape is a way bigger issue. Like prison inmates and how that rape is always written off as a joke. Or how rape that doesn’t even involve a penis, or a man, is written off as not rape at all. We need to just think about this even farther than just “can a woman rape a man too?” There are many different levels of sexual abuse and sex being used as a tool of power & coercion.
idk, random thoughts. feel free to expand or even correct me in places where you see fit. This topic is soooooooo complex and deep.
You can find books on books on books that detail and describe abortion and the history of contraceptives and how society constructed abortion as a women’s issue.
Eugenics and force sterilization of women of color and poor women, on the other hand, is glaringly silent in all of these…
We can discuss how the rhetoric behind abortion is used on contemporary discussions on gender and sexuality - but not how eugenics rhetoric is still used as an attack against poor women with children, and “welfare queens”
Yup. There are interesting (read: troubling) connections between eugenics and Planned Parenthood in its early days, as well as between environmental and eugenics discourses recently.
We can also discuss, as we did in a most excellent course I took on NGOs and nonprofits, the way this is perpetuated abroad. The intersection of saving brown women with eugenics and environmental discourse (the ‘population bomb’) leads to the distribution of contraception with the goal of limiting brown women’s fertility. Predictably the favoured methods are implants, shots, IUDs, sterilization… anything that, once implanted, is fairly hands-off, which simplifies records-keeping and the work in general (because doing sex ed is harder and condoms or birth control pills have to be distributed more regularly and donors and workers don’t necessarily trust their clients to actually use them).
This is a classic example of systemic oppression, because the kind of causes that can get money are the ones that are in line with hegemonic discourses and the interests of the wealthy. And people don’t question the NGO/non-profit system very much, even though it’s set up more to look good and get more money than to really help the people it’s supposed to help. Even when there are really good workers on the ground (and this is not always the case) who understand local needs they often can’t get funding because of the way things are set up.
Sadly I don’t have that syllabus for that course currently, but for anyone who wants to read about how forced sterilization and access to contraception has played out in the States, I highly recommend Andrea Smith’s Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (which addresses other issues as well, and all from an American Indian perspective).
Here’s a link to the google books e-book preview of the above book
can I insert one tangentially related thing on the topic of the population bomb? I remember they made us watch it in social studies/world geography in High School. This idea that unknown people in far distant parts of the world are over-populating, having too many kids and using up the worlds resources and cause the world to explode.
Lets ignore that it is the west, and the world’s wealthiest 20% use about 80% of the worlds resources. But lets teach kids in HS to blame all of the worlds problems on people who live in developing nations who are toiling away to provide us with our coffee, electronics at slave labor prices so we can send NGOs there to sterilize them.
COOL
— This anti-abortion video I’m watching on class. Like, let’s look at the spasms of a fetus during an abortion recorded through ultra-sound and actually determine that this fetus is literally thrashing for its life and legitimately is cognizant of what is going on. I’m actually in a disgusted awe…
