Posts tagged yes this
Inept
who has too many thoughts
The standard liberal feminist or egalitarian stance here is that it is patriarchy that genders war. Sexism decrees that women are too weak, too delicate for the battlefield so it must be left to the bigger, stronger, braver men. The solution, they argue, is for equal combat roles, equal conscription, equal numbers of women and men doing the killing and dying. I find that obscene. In what moral universe is it a better to have as many women slaughtered on the front line as men? As a culture we have always tended towards casual indifference to the deaths of ordinary men, and been comparatively sensitive to the loss of ‘innocent’ women and children. It’s the first value that needs changing, not the second.
(via brute-reason)
The food movement has been slow to recognise the fact that worker rights and working conditions should be a key part of any discussion about the ethics of food. Reforms to the food system need to incorporate workers and their welfare, not just better farming practices, more humane treatment of animals, and other measures focusing on food as an end product. Food is also a process, and the people involved in that process have a right to fair treatment, something they don’t have currently. The continued marginalisation of farmworkers and the focus on other issues in the food movement speaks poorly of the movement overall, and reveals some telling attitudes about labour, race, and entitlement.
(via peroxidepirate)
This actually bothers me much more than the arguments against self-diagnosis coming from professionals. Why?
Because the claim that people who self-diagnose are just “doing it for attention” or because they think it’s “cool” is the exact same claim frequently made about people who get diagnosed professionally.
…
However, there’s a difference between someone who’s feeling sad for a few days and refer to themselves as “depressed,” and someone who’s been struggling for weeks, months, or years, and who has read books and articles on the subject and studied the DSM definition of the illness. The former may not even count as “self-diagnosis,” but rather as using a clinical term colloquially–just like everyone who says “oh god this is so OCD of me” or “she’s totally schizo.” (This, by the way, is wrong; please don’t do it.)
(It’s also likely the case that some people self-diagnose because they havehypochondria. However, the problem is not that they are self-diagnosing. The problem is that they have untreated hypochondria. Maybe diagnosing themselves with something else will get them into treatment, where a perceptive psychologist will diagnose them with hypochondria and treat them for it.)
Even if some people who self-diagnose are wrong, I still think that we should refrain from judging people who self-diagnose and take their claims seriously. Here’s why.
YES TO ALL OF THIS
People tend to discount mental illness, and one case where this really comes up is with anxiety disorders, which are often written off as being, well, all in the patient’s head. The seriousness of anxiety disorders isn’t understood, and they’re viewed as something that people get over or are capable of suppressing; observers don’t understand what it’s like to have severe phobias, social anxiety, or other conditions associated with severe anxiety. They don’t accept the fact that for some people, these conditions can cause severe impairment.
(via brute-reason)
When someone says something like what Frog Naveen did, our first reaction is often to re-assert to them the ways in which we identify with what they accept as normal and “correct”: “I’m straight, I shave, I’m thin, look at my face, I would be considered attractive by society’s standards.”
Instead of just this knee-jerk reaction, turn the spotlight back on the individual by asking why these things matter in the first place: Would feminism be less “valid” if the movement was completely comprised of queer, hairy ugly girls? Why do they encourage us to differentiate ourselves from our feminist sisters?
Their assumption thatthese identities are less worthy feminist voices, and that we would implicitly agree by choosing to distance ourselves from “the unideal feminist,” highlights the work feminism still needs to do.
YES. This reminds me of when Rush Limbaugh said “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.” Aside from the fact that it wasn’t, why the fuck shouldn’t ugly women have access to mainstream society? Ugly men sure do.
(via sexxxisbeautiful)
: Ask a man to explain his success and he will typically credit his own...
Ask a man to explain his success and he will typically credit his own innate qualities and skills. Ask a woman the same question and she will attribute her success to external factors, insisting she did well because she “worked really hard,” or “got lucky,” or “had help from others.” Men and…
(Source: pollums)
It’s Not Just About Delaying Gratification | Geek Feminism Blog
So in fact, the marshmallow task isn’t necessarily a measure of willpower, but also a measure of environmental stability, which ties into socioeconomical status, parenting type, and many other things, and it may be these variables that are contributing to success later in life. Hopefully this message about the inherent classism of the earlier interpretations filters through to psychology popularizers as well as the scientific community.
A perfect example of how the results of scientific research are not “objective” but rather filtered through existing biases and misconceptions. This is an experiment that basically everyone who studies psychology should be familiar with, but its socioeconomic implications have gone unquestioned until recently.
STAAAAAAANDPOINT THEORY
What I Mean When I Say I’m Sex-Positive
- I think freedom of sexuality is something that we all need and very few of us have
- I think sexual pleasure is a legitimate thing to want and ethically pursue
- I do not judge people for the (consensual) sex that they have or want
- I will not tolerate slut-shaming
- I will not tolerate hatred of people based on gender or orientation (including asexual)
- I will not tolerate hatred of sex workers
- I believe comprehensive, honest, non-judgmental sex education is necessary for public health and happiness
- I think understanding of sexual consent—what it is, why it matters—is sorely lacking in society and crucially important
- I reject preconceptions of what kind of sexuality a person should have, whether these preconceptions are based on gender, age, culture, disability, survivor status, or basically anything else
- I value people’s individual freedom of choice in determining their sex lives (including the choices not to have sex)
What I Don’t Mean
- Everyone should have sex
- Everyone should have kinky, non-monogamous, exhibitionistic, pansexual sex
- Accepting someone’s sexuality means you have to participate in it, watch them engage in it, or hear about it in detail
- Nothing related to sex is ever hurtful for anyone
- Feminism should be all about sex
- Sex fixes everything
I am a gay woman of colour. I have studied Gender and Sexuality for four years, am getting my Masters in the same, have acted for many years in drag, and want to eventually write a book about Drag and Gendered Performance.
And here is what unnerves me a little about the androgyny on Tumblr. I feel alienated by it. For the simple reason that my body/mind/sexuality is left out. Androgyny is an aesthetic. But it is also gender performance, an intellectual perspective and a sexual identity. I am androgynous. Not by aesthetic always. My clothing may reflect it sometimes. I spend a lot of time in drag, and my gender identity encompasses every breast-bind, every change of shadow on my face. But it is not my only body. And I have many bodies, and many mental states, and many bedroom moves – and they are androgynous.
Don’t get me wrong. Aesthetically androgynous women are GORGEOUS. Aesthetic androgyny is GLORIOUS. I am uber attracted to androgynous ladies. Have dated quite a few. But it is not the only androgyny. And sometimes, I want people to remember me. To recognize that you don’t need to know me to consider the possibility of a particular identity. To remember that this identity lies in my stride, in my gender performance, in my mind. To know that I can bend my gender to match you, to contrast to yours, and to fit my will. And all of it is authentic, is genuine, is mine.
I use my makeup to gloss my mouth and shade my eyes sometimes, and to texture my facial hair and draw on a mustache sometimes. The same tools on the same body. The same mind in the same body. A combination of masculine and feminine in the same body.
See me. I can be anything from femme to super butch to quite a motherfucking sexy drag king. I’m not going to wax Foucauldian about gender identities, because I want to break it down to this – androgyny is more than its popular representation. It is something that is visceral, and I do not want it underrepresented. And I am nervous because I don’t want to encroach on the aesthetically androgynous groups, but I want to make myself heard. ANDROGYNY IS OF THE MIND. Beyond all else.
Sometimes it looks like me. Like this.
This is important; also I’m posting this because god damn, this person is fine.
(via sexxxisbeautiful)
White women and black men have it both ways. They can act as oppressor or be oppressed. Black men may be victimized by racism, but sexism allows them to act as exploiters and oppressors of women. White women may be victimized by sexism, but racism enabled them to act as exploiters and oppressors of black people. Both groups have led liberation movements that favor their interests and support the continued oppression of other groups. Black male sexism has undermined struggles to eradicate racism just as white female racism undermines feminist struggle. As long as these two groups or any group defines liberation as gaining social equality with ruling class white men, they have a vested interest in the continued exploitation and oppression of others.
bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From margin to center (via orindamoraga)
DING DING DING DING DING
(via sexxxisbeautiful)(via sexxxisbeautiful)