Posts tagged truth
Tears don't mean you're losing.
Keeping things the way they are because that’s just how you’re familiar with them is problematic, due to most everyone in comic fiction being a white, cis-gendered guy. It’s not an overtly racist distinction you’re making, which is why you seem to feel you’ve come to it without prejudicial racial bias (“similar conclusions can be reached by different arguments”), but it actually IS racist by way of exclusion. “Don’t do something directly racist, but also just keep things how they’ve always been” is racist [and heteronormative, and sexist, and cis-sexist, and so on] because “how things have always been” are white, cis-gendered, and male. Therefore, you prefer things to stay white, cis-gendered, and male. The world has changed, but you want these characters to persist as vestiges of an outdated, slanted view of society.
(Source: jhenne-bean, via mia-culpa)
I need the sea because it teaches me: Come on America! What are you doing?
I AM A PROUD AMERICAN, REALLY I AM…BUT, I JUST SAW ONE OF THE MOST UPSETTING CLIPS IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. NOT MANKIND, MORE FANGIRL-KIND. SHERLOCK AND WATSON, THE BROMANCE/ROMANCE OF THE MILLENIA. WITHOUT SHERLOCK AND WATSON WE WOULDN’T HAVE ANY OTHER…
Anytime you use headcanon slash to bemoan a female character’s presence, your argument becomes automatically invalid. Depending on the ferocity of your bemoaning, your argument is also sexist. If your argument hinges on homophobia, when the duo in question are dude-bro, canonically straight men who only get it on in fanfiction, you are wrong in so many clusterfucked ways I despair for humanity.
And finally, when legions of young women are protesting the onscreen presence of beautiful, talented women of color in favor of no-homo! wink-wink straight white men, and you find yourself among those legions, you need to take a long hard look at the media you consume, think critically about why straight white men are everywhere, and sit the eff down.
(via humanpieceoftoast)
Hal Sparks | You’ve been saying those phrases backwards. Now, stop it. (x)
This makes too much sense.
The obsession with marriage also sanitizes the history of queer struggle. Stonewall was not a wedding, it was a riot, led by the very queers who are now erased from the public image of gay equality. Drag queens, trans people of color, young queers, and butch dykes fought systematic violence and in Sarah Schulman’s words, “[…] arose to change society, to expand rigid gender roles, to break down confining social mores of privatized families and to defy the consumerism that accompanies monogamy and nuclear family lifestyle in the United States.
(via baby-eater)
Here’s a friendly reminder:
-You cannot be sexist toward men. Sexism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against men but you CANNOT be sexist toward them.
-You cannot be racist towards white people. Racism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against white people but you CANNOT be racist toward them.
This is not difficult.
(via squintyoureyes)
{redacted} asked: So you know how Tumblr enjoys portraying a romantic relationship between two straight men and turning their platonic friendship into their gay fetish fantasy right? Well I wanted to know, because I have seen you (rightfully so) speak out against this but then I have also seen you (mostly with animated shows) turn around and ship Azula/Mai or Artemis/M’gann or Korra/Asami. Isn’t that doing the same thing? Turning the platonic into a fetish fantasy? Genuinely curious.
I’m glad you asked me this, because I’ve seen others pose this question/concern before and I think there’s a sort of disconnect or fallacy happening in terms of what is and what isn’t inherently problematic.
A few things, as I see it:
There’s an element of fantasy to ALL shipping whether it’s canon or not, whether it’s queer or not. At the end of the day it’s fun. Shipping same-sex couples isn’t automatically fetishistic any more than shipping heterosexual couples. This doesn’t mean I don’t have problems with the WAY some members of fandom go about it in discussions or in fiction, but that’s a case-by-case thing. And furthermore, not being a gay man I’m not qualified to speak on what is or isn’t fetishizing gay men.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with shipping canonically ‘straight’ people in queer relationships because a) non-canon ships happen all the time, and b) straightness in media is a default presumed position, which means VERY few characters actually bother to IDENTIFY as straight in canon, and in fact expressing interest in someone of the opposite gender does not necessarily mean someone is straight.
Which is to say, for example, shipping Artemis with Wally is no different than shipping her with Kaldur is no different than shipping her with M’Gann. And certainly one can’t even call a character like Azula straight with ANY degree of surety. It’s all about the things we assume or choose not to assume and there’s nothing wrong with that.
All this is to say: imagining platonic homosocial relationships as romantic is not the problem as I see it. Not on its own, neither with men nor with women. And I have actually never spoken out against that? Which is where I think the disconnect is.
My issue with fandom’s hyperfocus on white dudes fucking each other is not an issue with slash or with the queering of heteronormative narratives.
It’s an issue with the misogyny and racism that’s usually coupled with that. It’s ignoring, erasing, bashing female characters. It’s ignoring characters of color, even slashable men of color, in favor of white dudes. It’s LOSING THEIR SHIT every time a woman gets near one of their bromances. It’s appropriating queer rights rhetoric to claim that casting a woman of color in an iconic white male role equals a loss of queer representation that never existed in the first place. It’s conflating their porn with my liberation. Often while ignoring the existence of queer women and femslash. And more than that, it’s the fact that somehow, some way, it happens in every single fandom I’ve ever encountered and often on quite a large scale. It’s the trends that make me sad, that showmakers notice on the internet and at conventions, then cater to down the road when it comes time to write the next season or the next show, to the point it feels like a cycle of erasure and mind-numbing sameness that will never end.
is why I, personally, have little interest in white dudes fucking. So I guess it’s one of those fine distinctions, for me, but I wanted to make it clear.
(via waterfights)
Some sort of scientists believe that if the Library of Alexandria didn’t burn down or the Dark Ages never happened, we would be 300 years advanced in technology. :>
This is depressing. l:
This isn’t something I would normally reblog on FyeahAsianHistory except this is why this blog exists. This is EXACTLY why this blog exists. Let’s put this in perspective of the very limited knowledge I have on both the Western European Middle Ages/Medieval Period/ quote “Dark Ages”, and Egypt in this time period plus everything I know about Asia as a whole.
This? This is bullshit. There’s no nice way to say it. Was the Library of Alexandria a huge, devastating loss? Absolutely. But it was “lost” more than once, and it was certainly burned before Christianity at least once and there was more than one branch of the library. Take a quick look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria there are sources saying Muslims destroyed it, and sources saying Christians ordered to have the “temple” burned down.
So on that account, it’s a load of crap. On other accounts: As any Medievalist will fervently tell you, the “Dark Ages” is a very misleading term. Loads of cool things happened during the Middle Ages in Europe. But look at Asia. Look at say, Islam which collected new libraries, brought back those “lost” Greek and Roman works, started Universities, invented the astrolabe. Look at the Silk road towards the beginning, and hell, even onwards. WHAT ABOUT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. India’s Chola Dynasty Maritime power. How about China’s first standing navy with “junk” ships? What about moveable type printing invented by the Chinese? Gunpowder warfare? How about a freakin’ odometer? WHAT ABOUT COFFEE? Hospitals? Female Surgeons.
Try looking up “Islamic Golden Age.” Really, just try it.
What was the “Dark Ages” for Europe (which is highly debateable) was the Golden Ages of Islam, the end of the Classical Age in Japan, and a period of awesome invention, innovation, and exploration for China and through several dynasties to boot. Say, there’s a funny little thing called “Pax Mongolica” and it lead to a lot of good things.
Listen, Europe and Christianity may have dun goofed a little, and some of the consequences will never be the same, but while they were on a bit of a downer, the OTHER HALF OF THE EURASIAN CONTINENT WAS DOING PRETTY OKAY. Really.
I run this blog because I want people to know that The West, Christianity, and Europe are not solely responsible for the successes or failures of the human race and innovation. Because I want people to know that before the Bible, there was Gilgamesh. That in the 11th century, a Japanese woman composed the world’s first novel. That people in the Islamic world translated the texts we consider so important in the Western Canon of Greek and Roman literature today. That India, Japan, China, and much of the Islamic empire all had golden/classical periods occuring during this time period. China became the first country in the world to use paper money in their banks.
Listen guys, if I want you to take away one thing, it’s that just because Europe sleeps doesn’t mean the world doesn’t make leaps and bounds.
(via kheldara)
at first it made me :(
then it made me :)
hahah i got to the second bit and stopped being angry
Oh gosh second part. Yes. It’s like stealth education. <3
(Also if you’re depressed and anxious does that mean you can see the whole of Time? *stares into infinity*)I CAN SEE INTO THE VORTEX. ALL OF TIME AND SPACE IS MINE.
I LOOKED INTO THE HEART OF ANXIETY. AND ANXIETY LOOKED INTO ME.
(Source: yaeltiferet, via arobynsung)
White feminists:
When you discuss the wage gap, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Only white women make $0.77 to a man’s dollar.
- Black women make about $0.68 to a man’s dollar.
- Latina women make about $0.58 to a man’s dollar.
Intersectionality matters.
And men of color make less than white women.
(via baby-eater)
Let’s get one thing straight here: I love my son; however, I am very aware of the fact that I was too young when I had him. Too young to fully grasp the the situation I was in, too young to understand the choices I had, too young to take my options seriously, and absolutely, without a doubt, too fucking young to be a mother. So when I notice someone getting attacked about their choice to have an abortion or give their child up for adoption, I tend to lose my shit.
Let me start you off with a list of reasons why I sure as shit HATE being a 21 year old mother:
- The father of my child is a dumb ass, but he genuinely loves his son, so I have no right to keep his child from him. The father should be just as involved as the mother. However, it took a very long time to explain to him the importance of ALWAYS placing his son in a car seat when taking him for a ride ANYWHERE, the ongoing issue of hygiene (brushing his teeth every day, making sure he changes his underwear and socks daily, bathing him regularly, etc) to this day is a concept that he can’t seem to grasp, the importance of having discussions with me instead of yelling at me in front of our offspring, he still can’t manage to stop smoking in the house the two days a week that our former embryo is with him, and heaven forbid he actually teach him something that would help him in school.
- I have still not gone to college due to the fact that his father is so lax with rules and attentiveness that I am certain if I left him in his care that he would become extremely unruly or possibly just walk out of the front door, unnoticed, and promptly get lost/stolen/something else horrible.
- I cannot take my son with me if/when I go to school because I will not be able to see him enough to properly raise him since I am poor as fuck and will absolutely be working while attending school.
- I am not one of those little girls who dreamed of being a mommy when she grew up. That thought never crossed my mind. My son was the second baby I had ever held (the first one by choice, as the first one had been forced upon me).
- I am selfish. I think of myself first, and then my sons wants. The things he needs are always a top priority, but honestly, I think of myself first foremost.
- I am not financially stable.
- I am not mentally stable.
- I am literally SO stressed out about being a parent, that I cry about it every fucking day.
- I have fucked up my own life so badly. It is terrifying of thinking about how badly I’ve already screwed his up by deciding to raise him when I was 17. People who say dumb shit like “Nobody could raise him better than his own parents” are sincerely ignorant to the world of adoption. I don’t even understand where that logic comes from.
- My body is disgusting. I loath it entirely. My metabolism has slowed way the fuck down, my tits are about a size smaller and not even close to cute unless I grab a push up bra and pray to the cleavage gods that today my rack can look decent, my stretchmarks do not please me under any circumstances, and my c-section scar scares the hell out of me when I glimpse at my naked body in the bathroom mirror. Not to mention the fact that I have back problems and my period has been insanely messed up ever since I stopped breast feeding.
- I’ve been in love once in my life. One time. And he couldn’t handle the fact that I have a son because, like me,he is nowhere near ready for a child.
- Also, I live in a town that I hate and cannot leave because of my little guys father.
So really, go ahead and tell girls that if they are “mature enough to make the decision to have sex, than they are mature enough to deal with the consequences”. Go forth and spread your wisdom about the similarities between inserting a dick in your vagina and raising a fucking child. Tell girls that they don’t have the right to decide what to do with their bodies, no matter how mutilated and destroyed they become in the process of pregnancy. Tell us that we should keep our legs closed and our mouths shut, and I will sit you the fuck down, tell you about the joys of young motherhood, and tell you to shut the fuck up and let every girl make her own goddamn decision without being scared of being publicly stoned to death for making the wrong choice. Don’t scare little girls into being moms. Seriously. There are things that I absolutely love about being a mom, but I would have loved them more like ten years from now. Instead, I have a fucking migraine and am the kind of exhausted that you can only achieve when trying to chase after and understand an angry four year old boy all day while hoping to God that one day, I can once again sleep through the night or possibly have a career, social life, and maybe even a love life. Actually, I would settle for a day where I don’t cry. Fingers crossed!
(via perdito)
