Equality Or Bust

An Open Letter To Thinspiration Blogs

3:07 Feb 11^th, 2012 | 886 notes

Dear Thinspiration Blogs,

At first I didn’t really understand you. I mean, I’d heard of the “pro-ana” blogs that lurked in dark corners of the internet, encouraging starvation and promoting anorexia. But thinspiration blogs are more mainstream. You show up on the Pinterest homepage in the form of “diet plans” that allow nothing but lemon water for a week. You show up on my Tumblr dashboard in the form of photos of concave stomachs and protruding rib cages, or food diaries with 500-calorie totals. The phrase “thigh gap” is actually a popular blog tag now, shorthand for pictures of skinny legs that don’t touch. The gist of it? You are getting harder and harder to avoid.

I could write about how scary it is that these blogs have found such a huge audience. I could write about the flaws of our weight-obsessed culture, or the fact that the vast majority of these blogs are written by young women for young women. But mostly I want to write about how you make me incredibly sad.

I think about the girls who write blogs like this and how much they hate their bodies, how they believe their worth is tied only to their physical appearance, how their definition of beauty is so tragically narrow.

I think about the girls who repost pictures and text from these blogs and how they will never be satisfied, how they will never look down at their thighs and see strong muscles and soft skin, only dimpled fat.

I think about the girls who are actually feeling OK about themselves until a thinspiration photo or quote shows up in their orbit and tells them to reconsider.

I think about myself when I was 13, chubby and depressed, bullied at school. I used to lie in bed at night and think about cutting the fat off my stomach with scissors. Today I came across an “inspiring” photo of a girl trying to do just that. How would I have handled these messages? Would I have followed a thinspiration blog? Or worse: would I have written one?

Sometimes I click on thinspiration links to see who is posting them. Almost every time it’s a teenage girl. So here is it what I want to say to you: as long as you are focused on thinspiration you will never truly know inspiration. You will never learn to delve deeper than skindeep. You will never be able to dream about anything bigger than a certain number on a scale or an exposed collarbone. Someday you will look back on your teenage self and want to protect her. Why not start now?

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” is a huge lie. Self-love is delicious, and so is cheese and chocolate cake.

Love,
Winona

(Source: thefrisky.com, via chethanee)

CHETHANEE /cher-ther-nee/ (n) - mind: There's is Nothing Wrong with Dark Skin

4:55 Feb 9^th, 2012 | 3,250 notes

chethanee:

vanachexfortune:

You don’t have to come from Africa to have dark skin. You can come from any part of the world and be born with a darker shade of skin.

Instead of demonizing dark skin. Understand the beauty in color.

I have dark skin, and for many years I had been ashamed and hateful about it due many factors that I have previously discussed on my tumblr. I didn’t have confidence, I didn’t feel beautiful. I certainly do not want others to feel the same way as a I once did. Let’s change old ways of thinking. DARK SKIN IS BEAUTIFUL!

3:27 Dec 11^th, 2011 | 198,342 notes

fuckyeahrainbowhair:

fallingfate:

rapeculturemakesmeangry:

This is from the slut walk. One of the arguments is that girls ask for rape because they wear slutty clothes, short skirts, tight, low-cut tops. This girl is an example of the fact that rape victims can look like anyone, you, me, this girl. Rapists. Dont. Discriminate.

I promised a long time ago that I’d reblog this whenever I saw it on my dash. No regrets, it breaks my heart every single time.

an incredibly important message, rape is rape. no one is ever asking for it. a woman has the right to dress how ever they want - it is society that identifies risque dressing as ‘asking for it’, and in my opinion, that way of thinking needs to be diminished.

(via grandmanoiseverything)

9:36 Dec 4^th, 2011 | 467 notes

Leather: wearing someone else’s skin
Many of us have seen shocking images of foxes or minks suffering in cages on fur farms or being gassed, electrocuted or skinned alive. As a result many people now reject fur. However, leather and sheepskin continue to be in high demand. Rarely do we question the fact that leather and sheepskin are also the skin of an animal, which has been tanned and treated with a cocktail of chemicals to avoid decomposition and obtain the desired colour. While many people would think twice before wearing fur, they make an exception for leather or sheepskin because it is usually thought to be a ‘by-product’ of the meat industry. In reality, they are far from being by-products: paying for leather and sheepskin adds substantially to the slaughterhouse value of the dead animal and financially supports the meat industry. The multimillion pound leather industry is such big business it would sustain itself even if the meat industry were to end tomorrow.
See inside a cow slaughterhouse, filmed by Animal Equality investigators:
http://vimeo.com/4270529

Leather: wearing someone else’s skin

Many of us have seen shocking images of foxes or minks suffering in cages on fur farms or being gassed, electrocuted or skinned alive. As a result many people now reject fur. However, leather and sheepskin continue to be in high demand. Rarely do we question the fact that leather and sheepskin are also the skin of an animal, which has been tanned and treated with a cocktail of chemicals to avoid decomposition and obtain the desired colour. While many people would think twice before wearing fur, they make an exception for leather or sheepskin because it is usually thought to be a ‘by-product’ of the meat industry. In reality, they are far from being by-products: paying for leather and sheepskin adds substantially to the slaughterhouse value of the dead animal and financially supports the meat industry. The multimillion pound leather industry is such big business it would sustain itself even if the meat industry were to end tomorrow.

See inside a cow slaughterhouse, filmed by Animal Equality investigators:

http://vimeo.com/4270529

(via fuckyeahcompassion)

8:25 Dec 4^th, 2011 | 1,809 notes

tobia:

»kwesiabbensetts:

(c) Kwesi Abbensetts:
Who is the joke and who is the Joker?
Am I really of “Post-Black-ness”? Is that my new heritage?
“Post-black art is a phrase that refers to a category of contemporary African American art. It is a paradoxical genre of art where race and racism are intertwined in a way that rejects their interaction. I.e., it is art about the black experience that attempts to dispel the notion that race matters. It uses enigmatic themes wherein black can substitute for white.[1] Some suggest the term is attributable to the 1995 book The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson.”

(via tobia)

Q&A: Feminism (11/24-12/4)

7:39 Dec 4^th, 2011 | 17 notes

feministglee:

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Sometimes I get so annoyed that I can’t even respond to it because it just seems like a lost cause. I get hit with that accusation a lot because I’m a feminist and a lesbian, so obviously I just sit around all day and think about how much better the world would be without men. Drives me crazy.

I would tell them to come back to earth and take a look around, first and foremost. We might have equal rights, but we do not have equal access. If an issue affects mainly women, you can guarantee that it’s not a top priority. The majority of Americans living in poverty are women. Access to birth control and abortion is non-existent in many parts of the nation. Sometimes states like good old Kansas decide to decriminalize domestic violence as a way to trim their budget. These are women’s issues and not enough people care. These are a few of the many reasons why feminism is still needed.

This is when you break out intersectionality and let the real fun begin! To say that all men are better off than all women would be silly. To say that all straight people have it better than all queer people would be silly. Thankfully, the idea of privilege doesn’t suggest this either!

There are so many different combinations of existence, you know? In my mind, it’s like those mix-and-match books that I remember as a kid. They would be separated into three different sections - the head, the top half of the body, and the bottom, and you could create any combination you wanted. That’s the human race. No two people share the same struggles or advantages. Acknowledging privilege does not mean that we believe that every single person gets dealt the same hand, but that we are aware that certain advantages are generally given to certain groups of people.

No, you’re right, there’s nothing wrong with finding a woman’s body attractive. I see objectifying as taking an aspect of someone’s identity and making it the only aspect of their identity. “I’m totally going to hit that pussy” is a good example - suddenly this woman is not a woman at all, but rather just a vagina. Does that make sense?

I agree that there are some societal expectations for men that are unfair. Tough Guise is a great documentary about this. However, and this may be a very stereotypical feminist answer, but there are just so few disadvantages for men that I just don’t think it really comes into play at all. It’s like telling a blind person that you know how they feel because you have to squint to read the paper if you’re not wearing your contacts.

Also, just something to think about re: men and childcare…the many reason that men aren’t expected to take care of children is because it’s below them. Behind every “oh look at Mr. Mom, isn’t he cute folding clothes and changing diapers, what a good little house-husband” comment is thinly veiled contempt for women.

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Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One

10:16 Dec 4^th, 2011 | 10,904 notes

1. You’ve Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond
The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.

2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value
The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.

3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value
Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers™ advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original “value.”

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS
Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats
Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.

6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People’s Rights
Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.

7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds
More than one-half of the world’s diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.

8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa
There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.

9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors
Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.

10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling
Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 billion small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

(Source: rubyvroom, via pdaervo-deactivated20120407)

8:01 Dec 3^rd, 2011 | 268 notes

prettywar:

waltdisneyconfessions:

I was actually really disappointed when Tiana turned out to be a working-class waitress instead of a princess, as the early previews had hinted at. Us black folk have enough movie heroines who are working class or poor trying to fight against racism/classicism, and I had really hoped for us to finally have some royalty or a born-princess, But it’s another typical black story of a hard-workin’ black gurrrl trying to rise above the odds (although she may be a good role model.) It’s overplayed and I was hoping Disney might break the mold. I know it may be ‘unrealistic’ to have a black princess, but since when does Disney care about realism?

This is a really, really good point.

And it really isn’t even that unrealistic. There has been and probably still is black royalty.

Even if we made it white royalty, couldn’t a woman of color marry a white prince? And then the story could be about her or her daughter. There are options, Disney.

Australia's ruling party endorses gay marriage

7:04 Dec 3^rd, 2011 | 71 notes

Article by Kristen Gelineu for The Associated Press, Updated December 3.12.11

This is progress.

My only issue is that it’s a conscience vote. Yes, conscience vote, honest opinion, seems like a fair idea etc - but as it says in the article, a number of Labor members are opposed to the change, so I worry that it’ll be unsuccessful and the government will take that as a cue to stop trying.

I understand that there are some issues which seem to warrant a conscience vote, rather than a vote according to party policy - but the consciences of a bunch of politicians, largely of a similar demographic, are not equivalent to the consciences of every Australian, and this cross-section is not large or diverse enough to represent society with regard to such a contentious issue.

Democracy works by letting the population elect those who share their views to represent them, and society elected these representatives according to the policies they stood for, but same-sex marriage wasn’t in the Labor agenda at that stage. Voters’ opinions towards marriage equality wouldn’t have been part of their decisions to elect who they did - so these people don’t truly represent society on this issue. If they happened to, it would be sheer luck.

Given that voters didn’t get to vote for or against gay marriage legalisation in the last election, I think that needs to happen - if we’re having a conscience vote, it needs to involve the consciences of all Australians. Otherwise real democracy has not been achieved on this issue at all.

- H

4:11 Dec 3^rd, 2011 | 6,605 notes

newwavefeminism:

thegoddamazon:

salamseeker:

4futurer:

It’s funny how it’s always the Muslim woman who is “oppressed”

Forever Reblog.

Welp.

Yeah, because its fine if the women look like us. But if they have brown skin, it must be a terrible tool of oppression - we need to show these people how to act civilized.

It bothers me how much our American exceptionalist attitude truly does still translate into our invasion and interference into other cultures/countries/governments business and practices. It’s been our tradition since 1442…