Hey guys, I'm back from Europe!
…the bad news is that my laptop completely stopped working a week ago, so I still won’t really be on Tumblr much, because I don’t have money for a new one.
May 2012
“Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you can come to your senses.”
— Socrates (via sweetlyric)
“I know it’s racist, but…”
—people who don’t understand that there is no “but” for PoC (via ethiopienne)
Mind the Gap
Without writing, we would all hopelessly crumple to the bottom of subway station tracks as we collectively failed to ‘Mind the Gap.’
And while we're on this overall subject...
…can I just say that it really hurts that, whenever people talk about the history of DADT, and they bring up the murder of Barry Winchell, they claim that it was because of his sexual orientation?
Quick recap: Army soldier Barry Winchell was in a relationship with a trans woman, Calpernia Addams. As a result, he was harassed (which his superiors did nothing to stop) and, in the end, murdered. Cis LGB activists seized on this as part of their anti-DADT campaigning, seemingly giving very little thought to the fact that the relationship for which Winchell was murdered was, in fact, straight.
Yes, I get it — the army thought he was gay, and he was harassed and ultimately murdered because he was perceived as gay. But he wasn’t gay. Maybe he was bi; I don’t know. But he was in a relationship with a woman. And you know what else? The reason he was perceived as gay was transmisogyny — because his tormentors didn’t believe Calpernia Addams was a woman.
Stop erasing that, cis LGB folks. Stop saying that he was murdered because he was gay, as that erases the reality of what happened, and does exactly nothing to stop it from happening again.
“I just want to tell you what it’s like not to have Planned Parenthood…you have to give your kids Ramen noodles at the end of the month to fill up their little bellies so they won’t cry. You have to give them mayonnaise sandwiches. They get very few fruits and vegetables because they’re expensive. It subjects children to low educational attainment because of the ravages of poverty.
…
And let me tell you, you know the public policy has treated poor children and women who have not had the benefit of Planned Parenthood with utter contempt.” —
…
And let me tell you, you know the public policy has treated poor children and women who have not had the benefit of Planned Parenthood with utter contempt.” —
- Representative Gwen Moore, via Ebony (via iamdrtiller)
“I feel too much. That’s what’s going on. Do you think one can feel too much? Or just feel in the wrong ways? My insides don’t match up with my outsides. Do anyone’s insides and outsides match up? I don’t know. I’m only me. Maybe that’s what a person’s personality is: the difference between the inside and outside. But it’s worse for me. I wonder if everyone thinks it’s worse for him. Probably. But it really is worse for me.”
—Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (via heavyheartbeats)
- An Athlete: What was the greatest moment in sports history?
- Me: Viktor Krum caught the snitch but Ireland won.
- I’m not racist, some of my best friends are bl-
- I don’t hate the LGBTQ community, but I feel like marriage is betw-
- I’m pro-life because it’s wrong to kill a ba-
- I’ll start showing women respect when they act-
- If your people want equality, they have to-
From my post about volunteering for Lilith Fund, my local abortion fund.
[TW: discussion of termination of wanted pregnancy]
___________________________
This final story had me in tears. I was sobbing. As with B (the first story above), I was listening as Heather spoke with A. A had recently moved south and found out she was 9 weeks pregnant. This was a devastating event for her.
She is a married mother of 2. Her first pregnancy was ectopic. During her second, which led to her first child, she had pre-eclampsia. With her third pregnancy and second child, she had eclampsia, a gran mal seizure, and died on the table. The doctors revived her and informed her that for the rest of her life, if she has another seizure, she will die. So, A is on major medication for her heart, blood pressure, anti-anxiety, and anti-seizure.
When she got pregnant, the doctor informed her that the medication would kill the fetus but if A went off her medication, she herself would die.
At this point in telling her story, A is crying pretty hard and with a small, sad voice says, “This is so hard because I so want this baby.” It was an incredibly devastating moment.
Adding insult to this difficult situation was the useless and unnecessary Texas mandatory waiting period law that says that people who get abortions in Texas have to wait a full 24 hours between the sonogram and the actual procedure. There are exceptions, though they are few. One of them is that if you live over 100 miles from the nearest clinic, you only have to wait a few hours so that you can get the procedure on same day. A lived about 95 miles from the closest clinic and so, on top of everything else, was scrambling to find either someone to stay with or additional funds for a hotel room, as well as looking for someone who could take her and stay with her for that much time.
I ended up talking to A the next week. Heather had told her that if she was unable to get all the funds she needed to call back and she would see if LF could make up the difference. That is what ended up happening.
I called A to tell her we would cover the last $70 or so. She was incredibly thankful. When I got off the phone with her, I turned to my partner and I said, “Lilith Fund saved that woman’s life. I helped save that woman’s life.” And then I cried.
Consent
I believe I’ve seen a comprehensive description of consent once before. Figured I’d contribute as it’s a subject that bears repeating.
Consent is:
- Non-coercive: If you’re cojoling, threatening or otherwise trying to “convince” someone to engage in a sexual act with you, you are breaking consent. If you asked 16 times and got 15 No’s and 1 Yes, you still did not adequately obtain consent. Also, you’re a weak individual.
- Not fixed: What I mean by this is you shouldn’t take for granted that after asking once for consent that you now have consent forever. It’s not like landing a gig as a Supreme Court judge. You don’t have consent for life. It should be continuously negotiated.
- Dynamic: Related to the above note, consent for one act does not necessitate consent for all acts. Consent is not an EZ Pass. It should be re-addressed constantly for different acts.
- Conscious: Yeah, I want to believe I don’t have to explain this one. Bad enough I had to list it. But ok, yes, an inebriated/asleep/passed out or otherwise not fully coherent person cannot consent. There, you can’t say no one ever told you.
- Unambiguous/Explicit: Assume all of the following to mean “no.” — “Maybe,” “I’m not sure,” “Not yet,” “Kinda,” “Wait a minute,” …I could go on.
- Not contingent upon sexual interest nor sexual arousal: We know. Blue balls are a motherfucker. Still no excuse. Neither your NOR the expressed/implied interest of any potential partners is an invitation to any act. Also, neither your nor the (assumed) arousal of anyone you might want to have sex with is an invitation. Yes, someone might be aroused and still not want to fuck. Crazy times. I know.
- Not compensatory: Yeah, that dinner and a movie were nice. Still not an invitation to fuck. And if you thought it was, you’re a world class asshole.
- Not something that requires a qualifier: No one needs to explain why they are not granting you consent. No is enough.
french numbers never made sense to me either
- france: ten
- france: twenty
- france: thirty
- france: forty
- france: fifty
- france: sixty
- france:
- france:
- france: sixty ten
- world: france what are you do—
- france: four twenties
- world: france stop it
- france: four twenties ten
- world: france that doesn't even make any sense
- france:
- france:
- france:
- world:
- france:
- world:
- france: hundred.
- <p> always reblog</p>
“Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself.”
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (via couture-kitty)
THIS JUST IN
- No matter how racially specific an author is about the color of a character’s skin, ethnic/racial background, there will always be an excuse to make them white.
- No matter how offensive and erasing it is to intentionally change the race of a character of color, it is always “okay” as long as you’re “just roleplaying” - and if anyone has a problem with it is just being “childish” and “prejudice”.
- IN OTHER WORDS: it’s perfectly okay to be a racist little assfuck because changing a CoC white in no way, shape, or form implies my obvious state of subconscious racism.
But when folks wanted to make Peter Parker black, white people lost their fucking MINDS.
When Miles came up in the show for Spider Man, white people LOST THEIR FUCKING MINDS.
When an African Muslim man was showcased as Bruce Wayne’s representative for France in the comic books, white people LOST THEIR FUCKING MINDS.
When a Desi woman went to the Hobbit and the racist fucks told her NO BROWN PEOPLE even though IT IS CANON, white people lost their fucking minds AND somehow turned it into “the niggers are acting uppity!!!”
When a black man played Heimdall, White people LOST THEIR FUCKING MINDS. Funny how nobody said a word about Asano as a Hogun….
When black POC in the Hunger Games showed up as Black in the movie, white people ACTIVELY SAID THEY DIDN’T FEEL BAD WHEN A LITTLE BLACK GIRL WAS IMPALED WITH A METAL SPEAR SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE SHE WASN’T WHITE.
Fuck white people.
I still remember the flip outs over Helga Hufflepuff. No race was ever specified and yet there were 8768579575 angry posts from people who didn’t know shit about history but who had managed to convince themselves that a WOC in Medieval Europe with any kind of power or wealth was impossible. Never mind the physical evidence to the contrary, or you know recorded history. Nope, we were all talking crazy to think POC could have been involved in the creation of Hogwarts.
Girl, you know black people didn’t fucking show up ANYWHERE and weren’t doing ANYTHING until the white folks came into the country of Africa and gave them darkies civilization. /sarcasm
The EPIC Blaise Zabini meltdown still makes me laugh after all these years.
“Remember, The Avengers is a team movie — and there’s no “I” in team.
There is, however, an “I” in Iron Man.” —ROBERT DOWNEY JR. (via karlnylander)
There is, however, an “I” in Iron Man.” —ROBERT DOWNEY JR. (via karlnylander)
Harry Potter series from Hermione's point of view:
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
- Hermione Granger and the Time I Got Two Idiots Out Of A Crisis
