Can we talk about how when Kel decided to train as the first openly female page
and after being told not to make waves
to try and be just like the boys
she decided to go and wear a DRESS to dinner
EVEN THOUGH SHE WASN’T A FAN OF DRESSES
because she thought it would be a good idea to remind people that she was a girl
and that she belonged there all the same
society: *criticizes girls for being fat, ugly and slutty*
girls: *criticize other girls for being fat, ugly and slutty*
society: what is Up with this Epidemic of Girl Bullying. Girls are just so catty and mean! when I was a Young Lass we never had to worry about this but now with the Tweeter and the My Face, these Real Life Mean Girls can Run Rampant! Golly gee, when boys fight they just hit each other and it's over, but girls are So Horrible.
I was looking up appropriate interview attire because I wanted to make sure I was aware of any updated expectations when I found myself on Forbes Woman. And I thought that was great, I hadn’t know it existed, and I hoped I would be able to get a bit better informed. That was until I saw the first, headlining article that you see above in the picture.
I don’t know the author’s intent with that little sub-headline, but when I read the words: “Investing in women-led companies ISN’T feminism” I was pretty disheartened.
I know that the current, common perception of feminism is aligned with unpopular stereotypes like the Angry Woman or the Man Hater, etc. Somehow, naively I suppose, I had assumed that a reputable publication such as Forbes, a publication that specifically put a section up for women because someone on the ranks must recognize that Business tends to be a boy’s club that is hard for women to break into even in 2013, would actually be pro-feminism and be mature enough to look beyond the common, uneducated dread of it.
The article itself is actually very interesting but I keep coming back to that little headline and I disagree with it and the fact that they felt the need to hide behind it. I hate that even when we’re pointing out clear disadvantages women have in the workforce, we’re supposed to say “I’m not being a feminist but…”
I’m tired of living in a world where feminists are treated like some underground guerrilla force hell-bent on cutting off penises and aborting pregnancies in the dark. I look forward to a time when we can say “Investing in women-led companies is feminist; and your company should be progressive enough to recognize this and adopt its policies.”
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.
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Shakesville: Feminism 101 (via andotherdoublemeanings) BOOM (via lagertha-lodbrok |
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.
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| — | Lindy West for Jezebel: “If I Admit That ‘Hating Men’ Is a Thing, Will You Stop Turning It Into a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?” (via lauratheoutlandish) |
Sociologists use the term “androcentrism” to refer to a new kind of sexism, one that replaces the favoring of men over women with the favoring of masculinity over femininity. According to the rules of androcentrism, men and women alike are rewarded, but only insofar as they are masculine (e.g., they play sports, drink whiskey, and are lawyers or surgeons w00t!). Meanwhile, men are punished for doing femininity and women… well, women are required to do femininity and simultaneously punished for it.
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Androcentrism: It’s Okay to Be a Boy, but Being a Girl… » Sociological Images I think the ‘women are required to do femininity and simultaneously punished for it’ bit sums up 90% of sexism in one sentence. (via shashirosa) |
- Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House
- Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
- Aurora Levins Morales’s Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood
- bell hooks’ Cultural Criticism & Transformation
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses
- Combahee River Collective Statement
- Dorothy Allison’s A Question of Class
- Judith Butler documentary
- Leslie Feinberg’s We Are All Works in Progress
- Paula Gunn Allen’s Who is Your Mother?: Red Roots of White Feminism
- R.W. Connell’s The Social Organization of Masculinity
- Sandra Lee Bartky’s Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power
- Sandra Cisneros’s Guadalupe the Sex Goddess
- Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman?
- Susan Bordo’s The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity
In the game of patriarchy, women are not the opposing team; they are the ball.
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Anita Sarkeesian (via punk-in-park-zoos) (Would reword this to include other marginalized groups as well as women, but yes. Spot on.) |
