September 2011
“Telling women that they should merely abstain from reading and/or participating in YouTube threads—or other places online and offline plagued by unfettered misogyny—is akin to telling women their choices are to tolerate sexual harassment in order to participate in it, or segregate themselves and necessarily limit their opportunities in the public sphere. In addition to unfairly punishing women, that’s also a tacit endorsement of openly expressed misogyny. No matter how authentic the genuine feelings of concern that may motivate such a recommendation, when someone advises a woman to disengage herself from a public space in which misogyny is rampant, one also necessarily, if unintentionally, communicates the message that her contributions to that space are not valuable enough to fight to protect. By slow increments, every unmonitored space thusly becomes uninhabitable by any woman not willing to suffer—and indulge—misogynist bullies.”
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Melissa McEwan (via greaterthanlapsed)
This applies to just about any space where others are using oppressive language/actions and why the “If you don’t like it, don’t read it” attitude is extremely problematic.
(via cctcd)
DAMN. So spot on.
(via faded-as-my-jeans)
Bill Nye the Science Guy
BILL. BILL. BILL. BILL.
OMFG SCIENCE RULES
FUCK YEAH IT DOES
Inertia is a property of matter.
“Women are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness. We feel compelled to pursue abstract notions of beauty, half realizing that such a pursuit is futile. When women reject this form of oppression, they face ridicule and contempt. Whether it’s women who refuse to wear makeup or to shave their legs, or to expose their bodies, society, both men and women, have trouble dealing with them.”
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Naheed Mustafa (via berrym)
This is especially difficult if you want to pursue any type of “professional” career. It’s sickening.
(via guinnevere)
“Privileged people will demand facts. Statistics. Your stories about oppression? Your experiences? They are not enough to convince privileged people that what you have experienced is real. After all, you are not a white man. Your experiences don’t automatically gain the “normal and natural” status. Your experiences may not be credible at all. They have no reason to believe your stories, because again, as white men, they don’t and can’t share them. Nevermind that all they have is anecdotal evidence, their personal experience to back up their beliefs. They are white. And male. And many other normal, natural things that make their opinions and experiences normal and natural…and yours kind of aberrant and not trust-worthy.”
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Robot Heart: Sex, Religion, and Politics (via amberlrhea)
so true.
(via so-treu)
god, i HATE the way anecdotal evidence is wholly dismissed in academia. IT IS IMPORTANT. IT IS.
(via tigersmilk)
