I rang the literary editors of a few ‘respected’ papers and asked them how much space they were giving to women writers in their ‘review’ sections. Perfectly predictable response. They all said the allocation was fair. One said it was equal, and one prominent editor went so far as to say women are dominating the reviews!
… What happened when I asked who was doing the talking in mixed sex conversations? Well, it was the women of course. And then when you get to measure it you find that women get to talk about 10-20% of the time in conversations with men. A woman who talks about a third of the time is seen to be dominating the talk.
And what happened when I asked teachers who got their attention in class? Well, it was all equal, wasn’t it? No preferences there. And you measure it and find that girls get about 10-20% of the teacher’s attention. Any more, and the boys think it unfair - and go into revolt.
So what do you think I found with the reviews?
I would have predicted about 10-20% of the space went to women’s books. Well, it is less than 6% of the column inches. And the reasonable editor who thinks that women are getting more than their share is one of the worst offenders. Poor boys! It really tells you something when they think only 94% of the review section is not enough, doesn’t it? When 6% for women is too much you get some idea how much men think they are entitled to - as a fair deal.
I have never understood the logic of Pro-Choice people.
I will never understand the logic of Pro-Choice people.
“It’s not a baby until…” ….I’m sorry, the basic biological structure of that “tissue mass” can not be anything other than human. What other creature would that “tissue mass” grow into besides a human?!
And no, I’m not Pro-Life because I’m a Christian. Yes, I’m a Christian and yes, I am Pro-Life…the two do not always need to go hand in hand.
In biology, we use specific terminology to describe organisms at different stages of development. This clarity of language allows us to be precise in our research and communication.
“Baby” is a colloquialism for “infant,” which is defined as the stage of development between birth and one year. Prior to birth, an organism is neither a baby nor an infant, it is a fetus.
That organism is a fetus for most of pregnancy: from nine weeks gestation until birth, exactly. Before that, it is an embryo. Early embryonic stages include the blastocyst (75-100 cells), the morula (32 cells), and the zygote (1 cell).
Scientists and pro-choice individuals who understand science do not argue that a zygote, embryo, or fetus is not human. We know very well that these organisms came from human gametes and have the potential to grow into independent, sentient human beings. At no point does the species convert to moss, penguin, or nematode, and it is rather intellectually dishonest to imply that any pro-choice argument includes such an error.
The real issue at hand is “is a zygote/embryo/fetus a person with all the rights and responsibilities of personhood?” And the answer to that question is no, because zygotes/embryos/fetuses are not required to produce passports, be counted in the census, or perform any other action required of all citizens from birth.
The other major question is, “what rights do people have?” No born human has the right to use another’s tissues, organs, fluids, or entire body without the donor’s explicit consent. We do not force individuals to donate pieces of their body, even if a recipient will die without the donation. We don’t even allow nonconsensual donation from cadavers, meaning that if we outlaw abortion and force pregnant people to continuously donate their bodies without their consent, we are raising fetuses to a level of rights that born people do not have, and we are dropping pregnant people to a status lower than that of dead bodies.
That is the logic of the pro-choice argument.
And of course being anti-choice and Christian don’t go hand-in-hand. I’m a thoroughly pro-choice Christian, partially because I understand the respect and grace that Jesus had for all people, women* included. I know the person who went around feeding the poor, healing the sick, and nurturing the outcasts of society would not force people to be pregnant against their will, and certainly wouldn’t doom impoverished families to starve because they could not feed another child. I also know that the bible makes it clear that the Christian god does not consider fetuses to be people with full personhood rights.
This is realllllllllly weird lmao
This is really NORMAL.
Except we never see it-so it is terrifying and uncomfortable when it happens.
(Mostly because people would laugh or be unkind)I own a sex shop. Once a woman bled on our chair during an interview. She was horrified and felt ashamed because it was in some way unprofessional. We weren’t bothered. We said ‘what better place to work on being ok with your body than at a feminist sex shop?’
Bleeding is normal and dealing with it is one of the most pervasive ways women are complicit in their silence.Some men bleed too. How would you react to that? For many men who are Trans the act of bleeding is a security threat.
Fuck off with your lolz.
(Source: cycleofmisery)
In French you don’t say “I’m on my period” you say “Les Anglais ont débarqué” which translates into English as “The English have arrived.” I find that beautiful. The English. Small Englishmen are pouring out of your vagina. They are here. There is no stopping them.
This website delivers tampons, pads, and chocolate to your door every month.
Not only do you get to choose the date (and change it if necessary) but for $15.00 per month you get to choose any combination of 30 tampons, pads, and panty liners (choose from Kotex, Playtex, and Tampax). The box will also include chocolate and a gift that will vary from month to month.
*cries*
It’s like the girlfriend I’ve never had in a box!
I like this.
It’s like someone cares I’m bleeding to death.They give you chocolate too?????
This is so beautiful!
… I… I need this.
Sure, it’s not fitness-related, but I figure some of you will enjoy this.
(Source: areyoujustgettingby)
Women invented all the core technologies that made civilization possible. This isn’t some feminist myth; it’s what modern anthropologists believe. Women are thought to have invented pottery, basketmaking, weaving, textiles, horticulture, and agriculture. That’s right: without women’s inventions, we wouldn’t be able to carry things or store things or tie things up or go fishing or hunt with nets or haft a blade or wear clothes or grow our food or live in permanent settlements. Suck on that.
Women have continued to be involved in the creation and advancement of civilization throughout history, whether you know it or not. Pick anything—a technology, a science, an art form, a school of thought—and start digging into the background. You’ll find women there, I guarantee, making critical contributions and often inventing the damn shit in the first place.
Women have made those contributions in spite of astonishing hurdles. Hurdles like not being allowed to go to school. Hurdles like not being allowed to work in an office with men, or join a professional society, or walk on the street, or own property. Example: look up Lise Meitner some time. When she was born in 1878 it was illegal in Austria for girls to attend school past the age of 13. Once the laws finally eased up and she could go to university, she wasn’t allowed to study with the men. Then she got a research post but wasn’t allowed to use the lab on account of girl cooties. Her whole life was like this, but she still managed to discover nuclear fucking fission. Then the Nobel committee gave the prize to her junior male colleague and ignored her existence completely.
Men in all patriarchal civilizations, including ours, have worked to downplay or deny women’s creative contributions. That’s because patriarchy is founded on the belief that women are breeding stock and men are the only people who can think. The easiest way for men to erase women’s contributions is to simply ignore that they happened. Because when you ignore something, it gets forgotten. People in the next generation don’t hear about it, and so they grow up thinking that no women have ever done anything. And then when women in their generation do stuff, they think “it’s a fluke, never happened before in the history of the world, ignore it.” And so they ignore it, and it gets forgotten. And on and on and on. The New York Times article is a perfect illustration of this principle in action.
Finally, and this is important: even those women who weren’t inventors and intellectuals, even those women who really did spend all their lives doing stereotypical “women’s work”—they also built this world. The mundane labor of life is what makes everything else possible. Before you can have scientists and engineers and artists, you have to have a whole bunch of people (and it’s usually women) to hold down the basics: to grow and harvest and cook the food, to provide clothes and shelter, to fetch the firewood and the water, to nurture and nurse, to tend and teach. Every single scrap of civilized inventing and dreaming and thinking rides on top of that foundation. Never forget that.
“Judgments”
I took this last year, but in retrospect, I think it’s my strongest piece from high school.Working on this project really made me examine my own opinions, preconceptions and prejudices about “slutty” women and women who choose to cover all of their skin alike. I used to assume that all women who wore Hijabs were being oppressed, slut-shame, and look down on and judge any woman who didn’t express her sexuality in a way that I found appropriate.
I’d like to think I’m more open now.
These wonderful infographics about reproductive health were recently released by The Guttmacher Institute, a foundation which aims to advance knowledge of reproductive health worldwide. They also bust myths surrounding abortion and reproductive health with this super amazing tool called “science.”
These infographics show the often sad realities of abortion in America — for many facing unintended pregnancy, it’s a nearly unattainable, expensive procedure with barriers that worsen for those who are in poverty or are people of color.
girls, when you’re feeling sad, just remember:
- a vagina can go back to it’s original size after taking something 20x its size
- a penis will end up looking like an empty potato sack that’s been run over quite a lot if it does
you can do this girl
be as resilient as your vagina
Resilient Vagina-havers FTW
(Source: notkorra)
What if
all women were bigger and stronger than you
And thought they were smarter
What if
women were the ones who started wars
What if
too many of your friends had been raped by women wielding giant dildos
and no K-Y Jelly
What if
the state trooper
who pulled you over on the New Jersey Turnpike
was a woman
and carried a gun
What if
the ability to menstruate
was the prerequisite for most high-paying jobs
What if
your attractiveness to women depended
on the size of your penis
What if
every time women saw you
they’d hoot and make jerking motions with their hands
What if
women were always making jokes
about how ugly penises are
and how bad sperm tastes
What if
you had to explain what’s wrong with your car
to big sweaty women with greasy hands
who stared at your crotch
In a garage where you are surrounded
by posters of naked men with hard-ons
What if
men’s magazines featured cover photos
of 14-year-old boys
with socks
tucked into the front of their jeans
and articles like:
“How to tell if your wife is unfaithful”
or
“What your doctor won’t tell you about your prostate”
or
“The truth about impotence”
What if
the doctor who examined your prostate
was a woman
and called you “Honey”
What if
You had to inhale your boss’s stale cigar breath
as she insisted that sleeping with her
was part of the job
What if
You couldn’t get away because
the company dress code required
you wear shoes
designed to keep you from running
And what if
after all that
women still wanted you
to love them.- Carol Diehl
(Source: utes4lyfe)
“Empowered” and “sexy” are not universally synonymous. That a woman is not a sex kitten does not mean that she’s any less comfortable or empowered or any of that stuff. See above, re: not a homogenous demographic. Stop making sexiness a universal demand. Let some characters be unsexy. And for f*ck’s sake, please, please stop drawing women who are injured, or dead, or being tortured, or punching bad guys, in sex-kitten pin-up poses. That is bad visual storytelling, and it is INCREDIBLY creepy. Let women be heroes for the sake of heroism. Women don’t have to be damaged or traumatized to be strong, or to want to make a difference. Corollary: Dropping rape into a backstory is not a panacea for making a female character complex and gritty.
Imagine you have a daughter. Imagine the kind of women you’d like her to want to grow up to be. Write them. Write women you’d want to be friends — really good friends — with. Write women you’d get in arguments with. Write women you’d be legitimately scared of. Write women like your mom, like your aunts, like your wife, like your friends, like your nieces and nephews and daughters and bosses and friends. We are not aliens… This, too, goes back to “doing things.” A lot of the time, male characters act, and female characters are acted upon. Let female characters make difficult choices — and sometimes choose wrong — and have struggles and the same real victories. Because without those things, they’re not characters; they’re just window dressing.
