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Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:56:48 -0400

thegirlfromprague: feminspire: alyssakorea: Tumbling over the...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:20:08 -0400

feminspire:

alyssakorea:

Tumbling over the past year and a half has made me see the problems of gender roles that exist in media, but sometimes it gets to the point where I over analyze every single piece of television or film that I come across. (However this in no way means that I think feminist media criticism is wrong, or should be avoided!) Mostly I just over think everything.

This is awesome!

I have been talking about this with my friends a lot these past few months. People are overanalyzing everything. I’m not saying there is no racism and sexism all i’m saying that sometimes, just sometimes when someone bump you on the street it could be an accident it doesn’t necessarily means he hates you because you’re gay/black/woman whatever.

We should continue fighting. There is still a lot of things that are not okay in this world but this over correctness does sometimes more damage than is useful

1. It’s not slut shaming. It’s realizing that the female body is objectified rather than respected. Saying a woman is dressed for male users is different from slut shaming.

2. I have never had a problem with a female warrior character.

3. I have problems with stereotypical female characters or characters that I think could be stronger. I do this to both male and female characters.

thegirlfromprague: feminspire: alyssakorea: Tumbling over the...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 03:00:43 -0400

thegirlfromprague:

feminspire:

alyssakorea:

Tumbling over the past year and a half has made me see the problems of gender roles that exist in media, but sometimes it gets to the point where I over analyze every single piece of television or film that I come across. (However this in no way means that I think feminist media criticism is wrong, or should be avoided!) Mostly I just over think everything.

This is awesome!

I have been talking about this with my friends a lot these past few months. People are overanalyzing everything. I’m not saying there is no racism and sexism all i’m saying that sometimes, just sometimes when someone bump you on the street it could be an accident it doesn’t necessarily means he hates you because you’re gay/black/woman whatever.

We should continue fighting. There is still a lot of things that are not okay in this world but this over correctness does sometimes more damage than is useful

I still totally critique almost everything.

"Oh hell no you better listen the fuck up dickwads I was about to go to sleep and then this bullshit..."

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:01:34 -0400

““Oh hell no you better listen the fuck up dickwads
I was about to go to sleep and then this bullshit showed up on my dash and you have all earned yourselves fedoras so sit down, shut up, and educate your stupid asses.
“Putting them in the friendzone”? I’m sorry did you mean “I was nice to a girl and I cared about her and I’m bitter because she didn’t want me back?” Or was it “I believe that if I love another person they’re a bitch for just wanting to be friends.” Perhaps it was “I treated her (or pretended to, rather) like a person instead of a sexual object and now she’s not being a sexual object for me like I deserve.” No, wait, it’s “friendship with a girl makes me angry because I’m a self-entitled shithead who feels like if I want to be with a girl she has to accept that regardless of her feelings or else she’s a total bitch.”
The friendzone is the concept that a girl wanting to be your friend is somehow this inherently awful thing. Like, wow, did it occur to you that she thought you were, I dunno, FRIENDS? Did it occur to you that maybe she doesn’t feel romantically towards you but she still wants you to be part of her life because she thinks you’re a great person? I mean, if this is your reaction you’re wrong, because if you think friendzoning is a thing then clearly you’re a fucktrumpet but that’s beside the point.
Women are not machines you put niceness coins into until sex comes out. There are no punchcards to fill out to get to sex that you are apparently entitled to.
There is no friendzone, there are only people who don’t know how to behave like they’re not five-year-olds who don’t know how to take “no” for an answer.
Now I’m going to sleep. Disrespectful misogynistic asswagons.””

- Presumably a young woman on Tumblr responding to boys’ frantic cries of being put in the ‘friend zone’ (via samjoetemple)

"The young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee..."

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:57:24 -0400

“The young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.”

- Senator Saxby Chambliss on what’s behind the military’s sexual assault crisis: hormones.

(h/t Mediaite)

Endocrinology with Saxby “Gee Whiz” Chambliss. Don’t learn your science from your senators, kids. Or your sense of compassion. This statement is a pretty easy target — but rape isn’t a result of hormones, which is to say, it isn’t the result of sexual desire. And the people who seek to explain its presence in our lives by pointing to sexual desires and temptations are looking for answers (or excuses) in all the wrong places. Those explanations only offer repeat justification for using sex as a means to be violent towards others — or for expressing sexual desire in violent, indiscriminate, aggressive, controlling, and selfish ways.

(via thepoliticalnotebook)

"Why Society Still Needs Feminism Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women,..."

Wed, 29 May 2013 13:16:42 -0400

“

Why Society Still Needs Feminism

Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women, it’s a weapon we hold between our fingers when we’re walking alone at night.

Because the biggest insult for a guy is to be called a “pussy,” a “little bitch” or a “girl.” From here on out, being called a “pussy” is an effing badge of honor.

Because last month, my politics professor asked the class if women should have equal representation in the Supreme Court, and only three out of 42 people raised their hands.

Because rape jokes are still a thing.

Because despite being equally broke college kids, guys are still expected to pay for dates, drinks and flowers.

Because as a legit student group, Campus Fellowship does not allow women to lead anything involving men. Look, I know Eve was dumb about the whole apple and snake thing, but I think we can agree having a vagina does not directly impact your ability to lead a
college organization.

Because it’s assumed that if you are nice to a girl, she owes you sex — therefore, if she turns you down, she’s a bitch who’s put you in the “friend zone.” Sorry, bro, women are not machines you put kindness coins into until sex falls out.

Because only 29 percent of American women identify as feminist, and in the words of author Caitlin Moran, “What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? Did all that good shit get on your nerves? Or were you just drunk at the time
of the survey?”

Because when people hear the term feminist, they honestly think of women burning bras. Dude, have you ever bought a bra? No one would burn them because they’re freaking
expensive.

Because Rush Limbaugh.

Because we now have a record number of women in the Senate … which is a measly 20 out of 100. Congrats, USA, we’ve gone up to 78th place for women’s political representation, still below China, Rwanda and Iraq.

Because recently I had a discussion with a couple of well-meaning Drake University guys, and they literally could not fathom how catcalling a woman walking down University Avenue is creepy and sexist.
Could. Not. Fathom.

Because on average, the tenured male professors at Drake make more than the tenured female professors.

Because more people on campus complain about chalked statistics regarding sexual assault than complain about the existence of sexual assault. Priorities? Have them.

Because 138 House Republicans voted against the Violence Against Women Act. All 138 felt it shouldn’t provide support for Native women, LGBT people or immigrant women. I’m kind of confused by this, because I thought LGBT people and women of color were also human beings.
Weird, right?

Because a girl was roofied last semester at a local campus bar, and I heard someone say they think she should have been more careful. Being drugged is her fault, not the fault of the person who put drugs in her drink?

Because Chris Brown beat Rihanna so badly she was hospitalized, yet he still has fans and bestselling songs and a tattoo of an abused woman on his neck.

Because out of 7 billion people on the planet, more than 1 billion women will be raped or beaten in their lifetimes. Women and girls have their clitorises cut out, acid thrown on them and broken bottles shoved up them as an act of war. Every second of every day. Every corner of the Earth.

Because the other day, another friend of mine told me she was raped, and I can no longer count on both my hands the number of friends who have told me they’ve been sexually assaulted. Words can’t express how scared I am that I’m getting used to this.

Because a brief survey of reality will tell you that we do not live in a world that values all people equally and that sucks in real, very scary ways. Because you know we live in a sexist world when an awesome thing with the name “feminism” has a weird connotation. Because if I have kids someday, I want my son to be able to have emotions and play dress up, and I want my daughter to climb trees and care more about what’s in her head than what’s on it. Because I don’t want her to carry keys between her fingers at night to
protect herself.

Because feminism is for everybody, and this is your official invitation.

”

- Caitlin O’Donnell, Drake University. (via on-another-note)

le-benaddict: I’m not sure Benedict is aware of what he did...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:59:01 -0400

le-benaddict:

I’m not sure Benedict is aware of what he did there.

I want John Green Benedict Cumberbatch to get together and talk about this. Make it happen! NOW!

thepoliticalnotebook: somersaultmag: IT’S HERE… Somersault’s...

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:55:33 -0400

thepoliticalnotebook:

somersaultmag:

IT’S HERE… Somersault’s spring music issue!

Check out our free, downloadable pdf magazine for essays by David Grossman, Qainat Khan, Alexia Chandon-Piazza, Corinne Grinapol and your two editors, Evan Fleischer and Torie Rose DeGhett, not to mention beautiful artwork by Gregory Muenzen. Check back here throughout the day as we post the essays to this Tumblr so you can reblog and otherwise share them individually.

Happy reading!

For those of you who weren’t around this morning… the individual essays are all posted to our Tumblr!

"But the prejudice will follow you. What will save you is tacking into the love of the work, into the..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:12:48 -0400

“But the prejudice will follow you. What will save you is tacking into the love of the work, into the desire that brought you there in the first place. This creates a suspension of time, opens a spacious room of your own in which you can walk around and consider your response. Staring prejudice in the face imposes a cruel discipline: to structure your anger, to achieve a certain dignity, an angry dignity.”

- Former software engineer and current author Ellen Ullman had a fabulously thoughtful op-ed in The New York Times about her experiences being female in the tech world, and speaking about the changes she’s noticed (not ones for the better, really) in the world of coding and software for women.

I love this last paragraph (the one quoted above) in particular, partly because it’s so real but also so genuinely hopeful. It has real promise but it casts no illusions over what it means to be female in any sort of man’s world. Ullman is talking about a prejudice that women far afield from the world of coding can instantly understand. It may not be phrased identically, but the language of dismissal, neglect and prejudice is at its heart universally recognizable and understood, as is the process of structuring the reaction to it.

Definitely read the full op-ed.

(via thepoliticalnotebook)

"Sometimes you get the sense that these magazines’ cultural writers have very little experience with..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:53:02 -0400

“Sometimes you get the sense that these magazines’ cultural writers have very little experience with the entire American culture, and prefer to make their grand analyses based on what people they know in the gentrified parts of cities like New York and Los Angeles were talking about at brunch last weekend. The type of young person that magazine writers come across most frequently are magazine interns. Because the media industry is high-status, but, at least early on, very low pay in a very expensive city, it attracts a lot of rich kids. Entitled, arrogant, spoiled, preening — those are the alleged signature traits of Millennials, as diagnosed by countless magazine writers. Those traits curiously align perfectly with the signature traits of a rich kid. Have you seen your intern on Rich Kids of Instagram? If so, he or she is probably not the best guide to crafting the composite personality of a generation that fought three wars for you.”

- Elspeth Reeve, “Every Every Every Generation Has Been The Me Me Me Generation,” The Atlantic (via andrewtsks)

As a millennial, I’m busy appreciating the fallout from Joel Stein’s article (whose unfairness I’d explain, but why bother when Elspeth Reeve just did). I’d also direct your attention to this post by Matt Bors, in which he said, among other things:

Maligned as a bunch of shiftless, tech-addled children raised to think they’d all get trophies, Millennials are trying to build careers out of the ruins of a job market. Amid a group that’s supposed to be a bunch of entitled kids, all I see around me are young people juggling multiple jobs and unpaid internships while trying to blot their (trigger warning!) student debt from their minds.

Essentially, you can either repeatedly report the accurate and nauseating facts about national student loan debt, ridiculous internships and unpaid work, low minimum wage and un/underemployment in the 18-25 set, OR you can label us a generation of useless, self-obsessed hipsters. And I’m going to stop there, because actually arguing against this article is at this point completely unnecessary (see the entire rest of the Internet for the last three days. I imagine if you just search “uggghhhh” or “shut up joel stein,” they’ll get you to the right places).

(via thepoliticalnotebook)

thumbcramps: hi guys! this is a comic i made for a final in my...

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:18:14 -0400

thumbcramps:

hi guys! this is a comic i made for a final in my comics in literature class. we had to do a research paper on a topic we’d discussed in class and then accompany it with a comic with a relevant subject. my paper was about hyper-sexualization of women in comic books, but i decided to broaden it out here as well as personalize it and make myself the subject and discuss something i’ve been subjected to in the convention circuit and on the internet as well as thousands of other women, as well as give a cue to thought about how the comic book industry as well as the video game industry and even just media in general (all of which are male dominated) push such ridiculous pressures onto girls and women.

also, it feels kind of silly to have to add this since i hope it’s obvious, but i am very aware that there are men that don’t subscribe to this attitude, and am incredibly grateful that these issues are brought to light to people other than the ones that are subjected to it.

anyway haha i have literally been staring at this for 9 hours i don’t even know which direction is up anymore. thanks for reading!!!

A Bit Weird...: thewagegap: guys: uh why do girls care so much about being skinny?...

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:13:12 -0400

A Bit Weird...: thewagegap: guys: uh why do girls care so much about being skinny?...:

thewagegap:

guys: uh why do girls care so much about being skinny? it’s so annoying
guys: ew fat chicks
guys: why do girls care so much about shopping and romance and nail polish lol so annoying
guys: ew crazy butch lesbian manly feminazis why can’t they act more feminine lol
guys: why…

I’m back in the land of reliable internet connection and have an actual computer I don’t...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:36:49 -0400

I’m back in the land of reliable internet connection and have an actual computer I don’t have to pay for. YAY I can use tumblr again. =)

If Elijah is back….then it sounds like I need to watch TVD...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:20:52 -0400

If Elijah is back….then it sounds like I need to watch TVD season four…

The Political Notebook: And we say goodbye to the Violence Against Women Act...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:04:26 -0500

The Political Notebook: And we say goodbye to the Violence Against Women Act...:

thepoliticalnotebook:

VAWA was passed in 1994 and has been easily reauthorized in years since. This year happened to be an exception, with Republicans unwilling to pass an expansion of the bill. Thanks to House Republicans (they’re really winning friends and influencing people all over the place these days), VAWA is no…

Don't Forget to Be Awesome: The Small But Epic Politics of Nerdfighters

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:08:45 -0500

somersaultmag:

How two brothers and a legion of fans are aiming to decrease world suck and increase empathy. Read this story in Somersault’s free pdf issue!

By Taylor Kate Brown (Taylor Kate Brown is an online writer with the BBC, but the internet has always been her home. She tweets at @taylorkatebrown.)

On August 16, 2009 John Green sat down on his porch and looked directly into a camera. Above his face was the title: The healthcare overhaul explained via pig. It was not a partisan screed about overweight healthcare pigs or welfare moms. John had recently gone to the Indianapolis state fair, saw the largest pig the state of Indiana had to offer that year and come to the conclusion that it was an excellent metaphor for the US healthcare system.

“Walkin’ Tall — the World’s Largest Boar who can’t walk – reminded me a little bit of America’s health care system,” Green said. “Depending on your perspective, he’s either impressively huge or distressingly huge.”

Green wasn’t just shouting into the YouTube void. (He wasn’t shouting at all, because in John Green’s world that’s not necessary when you’re using your brain.) As a YA novelist, John Green slings metaphors for a living, but for the past few years he’s ended up with a part-time gig as a videoblogger and as the unofficial co-mayor of a growing Internet community. He is one half of the five-year YouTube experiment turned full-fledged online community: VlogBrothers, started with his younger brother Hank, as a way to connect from across the country. “Hello, John. By now you have received my message that we will no longer be communicating through any textual means.”

“Good morning, Hank. It’s January 2nd, 2007. I just spent 2 hours and 13 minutes downloading your 2 minute and 1 second video, which can mean only one thing: that I’m at mom and dad’s house – the last residence in the United States of America with dial-up internet.” So began the first back and forth of John and Hank Green’s yearlong experiment to reconnect with each other without “textual communication,” which meant no emails and no texts. Instead they would be able to call each other by phone, and more importantly, were required to send each other a video blog every weekday. Hank would start on Monday, then John would respond on Tuesday, back to Hank on Wednesday and so on. There would be punishments for breaking the textual communication barrier, chosen by the non-offending brother, and challenges - partially to give them something to talk about, partially because they were brothers, and that’s what brothers do, even when they are full-grown men.

“In the end, text is a very empty form of communication,” Hank told NPR at the end of the year, describing the brothers’ relationship before the vlog. “When you go from actual physical presence to spoken word and then another step we moved to text, it becomes a much more shallow way of communicating.”

John, the elder brother, was 29 and recently married to Sarah. They lived in New York City and he was in the process of writing his third book for young adults. Hank, then 26, lived in the college town of Missoula, Montana, and was also recently married to a woman named Katherine. He ran the environmental-techie blog EcoGeek, and in his spare time, messed around on this guitar.

At the beginning both brothers spoke slowly and haltingly, speaking face on into the camera. Sometimes they’d cut in footage they’d filmed during their day. Hank’s first video shows footage of a New Year’s eve party. They did it for a whole year, carried video cameras around with them, making friends and complete strangers give the introduction to some videos. As the year passed, the brothers spoke and cut faster. More importantly, they started speaking directly to the viewers outside the brotherhood. And then they gave them a name: Nerdfighters.

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Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:48:54 -0500

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 02:50:45 -0500

Sorry about the Crown Duel spam…I just can’t help but do that to keep from dropping...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:44:00 -0500

Sorry about the Crown Duel spam…I just can’t help but do that to keep from dropping everything I’m doing and read it. No time.

"Memory warps time, as it does the sights and sounds and smells of reality; for what shapes it is..."

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:42:49 -0500

“Memory warps time, as it does the sights and sounds and smells of reality; for what shapes it is emotion, which can twist what seems clear, just as the surface of a pond seems to bend the stick thrust into the water.”

- Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith (via countingpetals)