… the socialization of boys regarding masculinity is often at the expense of women. I came to realize that we don’t raise boys to be men, we raise them not to be women (or gay men). We teach boys that girls and women are “less than” and that leads to violence by some and silence by many. It’s important for men to stand up to not only stop men’s violence against women but, to teach young men a broader definition of masculinity that includes being empathetic, loving and non-violent.

 - Don McPherson, former NFL quarterback, feminist and educator

yuriadventure:

One of the most ridiculous concepts that society promotes is that we should always consider “the other side”, that we should always compromise, that the truth is always “in the middle. The problem with this is that it ignores how many stances and opinions are completely not compatible with each other.

Feminism, anti-racism, and  other similar issues are not a friendly debate. They are a struggle that’s life and death for millions (or, realistically, billions) of people. They are struggles whose only eventual outcome is the eradication of what they fight against (patriarchy, white supremacy, etc). There is no compromise, there is no “truth in the middle”, and there’s certainly no “agree to disagree” about it. Either patriarchy is abolished completely or it isn’t at all; either white supremacy becomes a ridiculous relic of the past as it should be or people of color continue to suffer or be murdered in its name.

These movements can’t “consider the other side” because the other side is actively trying to eradicate them and dehumanize their participants. To agree to be dehumanized under new conditions is not acceptable. MRAs and “equalists” often wonder why feminists won’t debate them, but it’s because they don’t understand that they’re the enemy, not a like-minded person with a different approach.

POSTED June 07, 2013 @ 01:45 WITH 3,040 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: agenderjolras (SOURCE: yuriadventure)
#important stuff

tuimitchams:

therabbittable:

[snipped]

Why must people attack others when they clearly mean well because they’re not using the exact language or being as pedantic as is ‘necessary’. This aggrivates me so fucking much.

Because intent isn’t fucking magical and doesn’t absolve problematic-ness.  If I do something problematic myself I’d try and correct myself and apologize but it doesn’t fix the fact that I caused harm.  Ariana’s statement is based in ignorance, and the fact that she has good intent doesn’t fix that.

POSTED June 03, 2013 @ 23:52 WITH 139,145 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: agenderjolras (SOURCE: heyarigrande)
#important stuff

How unfortunate is it that my parents had to literally force me to wear beautiful parts of my culture because I was afraid of being ostracized, but Selena Gomez can take aspects of the clothing I grew up with and make money off of them? How unfortunate is it that South Asian immigrants and South Asian Americans are Otherized every single day for the way they look, talk, and dress, but Urban Outfitters continues to commodify and make a profit off the sale of bindis – as made popular by American pop stars?

[..] My bindi is not a way for you to present yourself as being friendly to South Asian culture while exotifying it. My bindi is from my mother, put in my drawer because it is another mark of my internalized Otherness, on top of my brown skin. My bindi is tainted by Western celebrities trying to be “cultural” or “bohemian” or “tribal.” My bindi is not just a piece of plastic, my bindi is not for sale, and my bindi is not for you.

 - Anisha Ahuja, “Selena Gomez, What Are You Doing?”

Sex education should focus not just on the mechanics of heterosexual sex and how to keep it safe – important as these are – but on varieties of sex. Sex between girls, sex between boys; the importance of enthusiastic consent – in effect, discussion of how to have good sex rather than just safe sex. The fact that girls as well as boys enjoy sexual activity is important to emphasise. I’ll never forget overhearing a conversation on a bus where a boy was asking a female friend of mine, both around 18, why girls masturbated. That alone demonstrates to me the need for better education.

 - Simone Webb (Underage sex isn’t automatically a problem | Comment is free | The Guardian)
POSTED May 24, 2013 @ 22:18 WITH 1,545 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: dreams-from-my-father (SOURCE: Guardian)
#important stuff

We don’t need to justify ourselves to anyone. We don’t need a reason to be queer. Maybe we were born this way, maybe we weren’t. Maybe sexuality is fluid for some people and not for others. It’s totally irrelevant either way. The message we need to send to heterosexists is not that our sexuality was foisted upon us and that they should be ‘tolerant’ and ‘understanding’. The message is: our sexuality is perfectly valid and none of your business, we offer you no excuses, and we are never going away.

 -

Social Justice League: Fauxgress Watch: “Born This Way”. (via feminismduh)

THANK YOU.

(via paintwithwords)

and this is why when you ask “why” I’m going to give you a very colorful answer.

(via tranqualizer)

this is basically my philosophy…

(via blackfoxx)

I end up coming out over and over again, usually facing people doubting the legitimacy of my sexual identity. Even my mom, a liberal psychologist without a homophobic bone in her body, told me that she thought I wanted to be bisexual because I thought it was cool. Biphobia, while often unacknowledged, is rampant. I know several closeted bi women who publicly identify as lesbians because they don’t want to face exclusion and ridicule from their lesbian friends. The sexuality of those who identify as “straight” and “gay” is polarized to tail ends of the spectrum as bisexual behavior is effectively policed with shame by both communities. This delegitimization of bisexuality serves to further conceal our presence in the queer community and contributes to my feelings of being excluded.

 - Three strikes, you’re out: Exclusion from the queer community | Good Vibrations Blog 
POSTED May 19, 2013 @ 23:50 WITH 208 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: ace-muslim
#lgbtq #important stuff

PSA

sourgoat:

While you are trying to be supportive saying “Some girls want to be boys and some boys want to be girls, that’s okay.” Is transphobic.

You just completely invalidated their actual gender.

POSTED May 16, 2013 @ 16:19 WITH 1,322 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: sourgoat
#!!!!!!!! #IMPORTANT STUFF #lgbtq

There is little precedent for fat androgyny. Generally our androgynous icons are svelte and lacking in secondary sex characteristics. David Bowie, Tilda Swinton, Katherine Hepburn; these small-bodied, predominately white figures of androgyny have created an aesthetic with little room for deviation. This means that for those of us with bodies that do not conform to traditional standards of androgyny, we are often misread and misunderstood, even in queer spaces.

 - Fat Queer Tells All: On Fatness and Gender Flatness - By Allie Shyer
POSTED May 15, 2013 @ 21:18 WITH 3,752 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: otipemisiwak
#lgbtq #important stuff

Both heterosexuals and homosexuals view bisexuality with misunderstanding, mistrust, hostility, and alienation. These scenarios do not leave bisexuals in the situation often referred to as ‘‘having the best of both worlds,’’ because ‘both worlds are closets’.

 -

from Attitudes and Self-Images of Male and Female Bisexuals by Carol D. Bronn

“both worlds are closets” Ouch. That one hit home (via loveintheshadowsistheonlykind)

My biggest problem is that there is simply no creativity in movies with black casts at all. White people are 12 year old wizards, teens with crushes on vampires and werewolves, fighting blue people, talking fish and toys, and yet the best we get is a movie about the genteel south? Someone please make a movie about two black folks falling in love at a rock concert or a feature film about Storm from X-Men discovering her power, or something, ANYTHING, that goes beyond Black Pain (TM) / White Saviour (TM) movies. Sheesh.

 - A commenter on “Why I’m Just Saying No to ‘The Help’” 
POSTED May 03, 2013 @ 23:49 WITH 8,324 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: atrapforfools
#important stuff

On Periods: Let’s put this shit to bed right now: Women don’t lose their minds when they have period-related irritability. It doesn’t lower their ability to reason; it lowers their patience and, hence, tolerance for bullshit. If an issue comes up a lot during “that time of the month,” that doesn’t mean she only cares about it once a month; it means she’s bothered by it all the time and lacks the capacity, once a month, to shove it down and bury it beneath six gulps of willful silence.

 - Shakesville: Feminism 101
POSTED April 24, 2013 @ 14:55 WITH 64,133 notes
REBLOGGED FROM: taurwen (SOURCE: andotherdoublemeanings)
#important stuff #EXACTLY

Feminist Frequency on race and casting for The Hunger Games

i wish this website would stop glorifying having no friends because actually having no friends sucks and feels horrible 

For you it’s ‘social justice lolz omg you people care too much’

For me, it’s my fucking life.

I don’t patronize issues that don’t directly involve me, because for someone out there, it’s not just ‘an issue’ it’s their LIFE.

You don’t give a shit about people stereotyping and perpetuating negative ideas about marginalized groups? fine. But don’t insult those of us who do care by trivializing and reducing us to ‘social justice warriors’.
You don’t care? then stfu and stay away from our spaces and conversations.