Letters, Spaces and Punctuation

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

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:49:11 -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?

”

- Autostraddle (via notaprincessdestinedtobeawitch)

Guys. You need to read this.

(via abaldwin360)

humansofnewyork: Last week, I photographed a young girl on a...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:25:57 -0400

humansofnewyork:

Last week, I photographed a young girl on a bicycle. She told me that she planned to be an artist, because she’d been to an art museum, and “her scribbles look just like modern art.” For some reason I didn’t immediately put her picture on the blog. Which turned out to be a good thing, because I just ran into her again on the subway, looking like this.

"I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and..."

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:07:41 -0400

“I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence, and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong.”

- Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters (via myartisnotforsale)

Are we special or just weird?: My takeaway from The Office and its final season is something I’m...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:15:12 -0400

Are we special or just weird?: My takeaway from The Office and its final season is something I’m...:

confusedtree:

My takeaway from The Office and its final season is something I’m going to try to remember every day for the rest of my natural life and I think it’s really cool that a televised situation comedy that admittedly saw a visible dip in its consistency during its latter years can do that for me

…

So I haven’t seen any of the later seasons of the Office, but this is somehow still one of my favourite posts on Tumblr.

It just speaks to me for some reason.

starllex: this is my favorite post of all time

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:19:15 -0400

starllex:

this is my favorite post of all time

confusedtree: Tonight’s Game of Thrones had a pretty nutty wedding, true, but remember when Ross...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:18:48 -0400

confusedtree:

Tonight’s Game of Thrones had a pretty nutty wedding, true, but remember when Ross accidentally said “Rachel”? Damn

terresauvage: They put socks on Maman while doing groundwork at...

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 23:30:47 -0400

terresauvage:

They put socks on Maman while doing groundwork at the National Gallery of Canada.

hahahahaha cute.

"When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back; Three from the circle, three from the..."

Fri, 31 May 2013 15:07:23 -0400

“

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the greenwitch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.

”

- The Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper (via apensivereverie)

I somehow still have this mostly memorized.

Raptorific: If I ever write a book that’s taught in schools, I want there to be an...

Wed, 29 May 2013 18:35:32 -0400

Raptorific: If I ever write a book that’s taught in schools, I want there to be an...:

raptorific:

If I ever write a book that’s taught in schools, I want there to be an email address right on the back cover that students can email if they think their teacher is reading things into it that I didn’t mean

So that I can email them back:

Dear young student,

It has come to my attention that…

“Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And...

Tue, 28 May 2013 22:41:43 -0400

“Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And sometimes the people who most need to reach out are the people least capable of it.”

What I mean: You are one of the best friends I've ever had. The level on which we connect baffles me. I'm so so happy that I can share my interests, secrets, guilt, faults, joys, and insecurities with you in confidence and receive encouragement to improve and keep being better, and I'm comfortable with the ease with which I can reciprocate those feelings and that support to you as well. We make a great team and I'm really fortunate to have you in my life.

Tue, 28 May 2013 15:44:50 -0400

What I mean: You are one of the best friends I've ever had. The level on which we connect baffles me. I'm so so happy that I can share my interests, secrets, guilt, faults, joys, and insecurities with you in confidence and receive encouragement to improve and keep being better, and I'm comfortable with the ease with which I can reciprocate those feelings and that support to you as well. We make a great team and I'm really fortunate to have you in my life.
What I say: u lil shit

"Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences...."

Tue, 28 May 2013 09:19:41 -0400

““Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. (Roy Ascott’s phrase.) That solves a lot of problems: we don’t have to argue whether photographs are art, or whether performances are art, or whether Carl Andre’s bricks or Andrew Serranos’s piss or Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ are art, because we say, ‘Art is something that happens, a process, not a quality, and all sorts of things can make it happen.’ … [W]hat makes a work of art ‘good’ for you is not something that is already ‘inside’ it, but something that happens inside you — so the value of the work lies in the degree to which it can help you have the kind of experience that you call art.””

- Brian Eno (via spookymanor)

"The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world..."

Mon, 27 May 2013 16:44:30 -0400

“The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It’s also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be.”

- Jada Pinkett Smith (via chubby-bunnies)

love-johanna: me when I talk to swimmers

Mon, 27 May 2013 11:56:32 -0400

love-johanna:

me when I talk to swimmers

Photo

Sun, 26 May 2013 14:37:36 -0400

FYTortall: Fairy tales are NOT all straight white heroes and women sans agency! I swear!

Sun, 26 May 2013 12:04:57 -0400

FYTortall: Fairy tales are NOT all straight white heroes and women sans agency! I swear!:

seananmcguire:

I re-blogged a picture of a little girl, dressed as Tiana, hugging the face actress who plays Tiana at one of the Disney Parks, and noted that everyone should have their princess. And a few people have now contacted me basically going “no, only straight white people can have…

Pre-going out selfies. Because I actually never do these, and I...

Sat, 25 May 2013 20:35:13 -0400

Pre-going out selfies. Because I actually never do these, and I like a bit of self-indulgence once and a while?
My hair is dramatic as a result of my constant quest to be a ginger.

I have to make some kind of big decisions in the next couple of days. I have to decide whether I’m going to take advantage of the privileges given to me as an upper middle class kid and use them to travel the world, work, and learn a new language (effectively extending my adolescents for an indefinite time), or whether I’m going to do the adult thing and go back to school.

I mean I guess both choices are good choices, but I am incapable of making any sort of decision like this without an unnecessary amount of stress.

But I’m going to completely forget about that for tonight I guess?

still a weirdo: grade school sex-education

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:02:08 -0400

still a weirdo: grade school sex-education:

reallyl0vely:

subtitle: what I wish I told my sister before middle school

—

you will get your period one day,
and you will not feel like a woman.
you will feel like your body has betrayed

every promise it ever curled around
your little finger. this is normal.
you will get…

humansofnewyork: “We’ve been friends since we were 13.” “What’s...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:59:19 -0400

humansofnewyork:

“We’ve been friends since we were 13.”

“What’s the most fun you’ve ever had together?”

“Oh, we don’t know…”

“Well, what’s the hardest you’ve ever laughed together?”

“Now you listen here! I want you to write down these questions you’re asking us, pull them out when you’re 85 years old, and see if you can answer them yourself!”

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:08:50 -0400

“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.”

- Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (via tothebatfax)