My life as an internal life social reformer

Of course, the female body is nothing to be ashamed of – and the argument that if men can saunter around topless, women should be able to as well, is eminently sensible. Breasts are not distasteful – but in this context, the tactic is misplaced. The ideological statement the action ends up reinforcing is this – that showing your breasts is inherently liberating, and covering up is a necessary signifier of sexist oppression. Women’s liberation cannot be reduced to measuring the amount of flesh we’re permitted to show. What is particularly negative is that the protest buys into the rhetoric, pushed by imperialists, that Islam is uniquely oppressive to women.

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That’s not what a feminist looks like.

Women’s liberation cannot be reduced to measuring the amount of flesh we’re permitted to show.

Women’s liberation cannot be reduced to measuring the amount of flesh we’re permitted to show.

Women’s liberation cannot be reduced to measuring the amount of flesh we’re permitted to show.

Repeat until you get it.

(via stay-human)

Thank you! I do believe that the way society confronts female sexuality is a microcosm of how it confronts women in any sphere they aren’t used to seeing women in… but the fact that so many people think that female sexuality and liberation from sexual double standards is the only thing we should be focused on is disconcerting. It takes up so much of feminist discussions when there are so many other discussions we need to be having like: women’s fundamental human rights, women and violence, women and disparities in representation, women and financial security, women and education, women and social conditioning, etc. Obviously, our bodies and our sexual relationships are important but like… that’s not the only thing that’s important. There’s so much more at stake.

(via starbucksandshakespeare)

(via madamethursday)

Why do we have an abortion rate 20% higher than France’s (and more than twice as high as Germany’s), especially considering most doctors here won’t perform them? The answer is any country that has universal health care, where contraception is free, where child care is free or inexpensive, where there is less poverty because people don’t become bankrupt over medical bills — those societies are simply going to have fewer unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

And there the mask gets pulled off the Bart Stupaks and the “Christians.” If the statistics show that countries with government-provided universal health care and nearly-free abortions are, in fact, the countries with the fewest abortions, then why on earth wouldn’t the Right be the first in line to support universal health care?

Because it isn’t about “universal health care.” It’s about controlling women, period. It’s about sticking your nose in other people’s business. It’s about pushing your religious beliefs on everyone else because voices in your head tell you your Jesus is The One — even though your Jesus never said one single solitary word in any of the four gospels of the Bible about abortion or fertilized eggs being human. You’ve just gone and made it up about “life beginning at conception.” Jesus never said that. The little voice in your head said that, the same little voice that wants your grubby paws on women’s uteruses. You need help. Please get some help and leave the rest of us alone, Mr. Stupak and friends.

Womens’ supposed greater sex drive was an argument for their inferiority, but once the assumption became reversed, no one argued that mens’ lustfulness was a sign of a fundamental irrationality that should preclude them from business and politics. Rather than a handicap, a large sexual appetite was positive once it came to be seen as a characteristic of men. Women, being passionless, supposedly lacked the drive and ambition to succeed. Much like sex, the public realm of work was dirty and distasteful, hardly suitable to womens’ delicate sensibilities.

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When Women Wanted Sex Much More Than Men

Really interesting article about how the perceptions of sex (especially sex drive) have basically reversed gender roles in the past few hundred years.

…and no matter what the outcome is, women still seem to end up at home.

(via tooyoungforthelivingdead)

This is why we cant win no matter how much we refute their logic:we have already lost, these are just their justifications to keep us busy.

(via cereal-for-supper)

The goal posts are always moving.

(via nanner)

(via ring-wraiths)

derples:

taking a break from my hiatus for some vagina facts that school didn’t teach you, because I keep getting surprised at how many people don’t know how normal they really are, but then I realize there’s such a huge taboo with talking about your parts because we’re only exposed to perfect pornography bits that make you ashamed of what you have.

Read More

(via thecorruptedquietone)

Would you be surprised if I told you that, according to the Bechdel Test website, only 5 of IMDB’s Top 250 passed all three Bechdel criteria in 2010? Are we really asking too much of the film industry to include two women, who talk to eachother, about something besides a man? Surely this is the bare minimum of female representation we should expect from films. Women populate more than half of the world and yet we are still so often consigned to being the ‘love interest’ whose lives centre wholly around the male protagonist even to the point where the majority of mainstream films in our cinemas seem to find it impossible, in their entire run-time, to imagine a world in which a woman conducts a conversation that is not about a man.

(via misterspock)

Things parents forget to tell their children:

  • Bodies are hairy. No matter the gender, your face will have hair and that is more than okay.
  • Your butthole is going to have some hair too. And maybe your nipples. And your tummy. And where ever else.
  • Stretch marks. Those are a thing. Everyone gets ‘em. If you don’t, you probably don’t have skin.
  • Vaginas smell. Every vagina has a scent. Don’t worry about it! (Unless something seems wrong, then go get it checked out! No need to feel embarrassed or ashamed.)
  • Vaginas come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors. All are beautiful.
  • Penises come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors. All are beautiful.
  • You don’t need to shave anything if you don’t want to. It’s tooootally not mandatory. 
  • Sometimes people get butt acne. 
  • You can have a vagina and want short hair and think dresses are just the worst.
  • You can have a penis and want long hair and think dresses are just the best. 
  • You can wear whatever you want and style your hair however you want.
  • You can even think whatever the hell you want.
  • People might tell you that you are a girl because you have a vagina. People might tell you that you are a boy because you have a penis. People will tell you what your gender is. But in reality, you don’t have to be that gender. You don’t have to be either of those genders. 
  • You are what you are and it’s just the worst thing if you try and hide that.

(via kripke-is-my-king)