I suppose in hindsight, I have been better recently. Except for the exhaustion. Still there.
Young. Political. Frequently feminist. Realist. Sarcastic. Anti-child and pro-pets. Dealing with my own personal demons. Trying to see the world as a burgeoning sociologist.
• Ask me anything
Find the Pony
Find the Pony
“
One individual may grasp the full horror of the situation, from the micro to the macro, both her collusion in her own oppression and the massive and institutional brutality of systems like patriarchy, industrialism, capitalism. But the problem with politics is, it’s a group project. One woman or one small group of women isn’t going to transform the culture of rape. And while consciousness raising and political education are key components of any revolutionary movement, if our goal is simply “education” then we’re still firmly liberals, not radicals.
I think it’s crucial to understand what differentiates liberalism from radicalism. I think we can avoid a lot of useless discussions and group traumas by understanding the underlying philosophical currents in various approaches to social change. One cardinal difference is idealism vs materialism. Liberalism is idealist; the crucible of social reality is placed in the realm of ideas, in concepts, language, attitudes. And liberalism is individualist. The basic social unit is the individual.
In contrast, radicalism is materialist. Radicals see society as composed of actual institutions—economic, political, cultural—which wield power, including the power to use violence. The basic social unit is a class or group, whether that’s racial class, sex caste, economic class, or other grouping. Radicalism understands oppression as group-based harm.
”— Lierre Keith (via femalestruggle)
(Source: lierrekeith.com, via socio-logic)
A diver has a very personal moment of dejection at the bottom of the pool during the 2012 CCCA Swimming and Diving State Championships at East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium on Thursday, April 26, 2012 in Monterey Park, CA. (Photo by Suzanne Tylander © 2012) This particular photo represents an emotional moment rarely caught underwater. This particular diver was expected to win the entire event. The diver knew as soon as he hit the water his form was flawed and that he might have just lost it all. I was fortunate enough to witness this moment as it was unfolding underwater. I captured the sequence of emotion just a split second after he hit the water and began to sink to the bottom with a sense of defeat written in his body language This was the image I chose from the series. I have felt this emotion and disappointment before as many athletes do. My chance to capture it underwater was rare but beautiful. It is a moment no competitive athlete wants to relive but something important that many of us can relate to. It is raw and human and real.
(via devilsmadvocate)
Hearing what your voice sounds like recorded, and realizing that’s what everybody hears when you talk.
(via sarcasmdrips)
“Let’s take another example: drinking urine for sexual gratification. The essentialist might say that not only does this have nothing to do with sex, but the practice is gross. People who agree with this statement see it as universally true—drinking urine at any time for any reason is disgusting, and anyone who does it as a turn-on must be sick. Its assertion of universality—that there is something unsavory about the very nature of drinking urine that is inherent in the act itself—makes it essentialist. A social constructionist would look at cases in which people have engaged in this act as part of a sexual repertoire (sometimes called “playing water-sports”) and find that participants often define the act to be sexually arousing or gratifying. In addition, constructionists would argue that many of the same people who think drinking urine is gross also swallow semen or vaginal fluid during the course of sexual activities—both bodily fluids associated with the same area of the body—and think that’s perfectly natural and even arousing. The real difference, the social constructionist would say, is not that these fluids are really all that different or that semen is somehow more clean or pure than urine (indeed, urine is sterile, while semen is not), but rather that we think about, or construct, these fluids differently.”
—
The Social Constructionist’s “Essential” Guide to Sex, Liahna E. Gordon & Sharon A. Abbott (via sociologique)
I love sociology.
(via socio-logic)
“
Like a lot of people with mental illness, I spend a lot of time fronting. It’s really important to me to not appear crazy, to fit in, to seem normal, to do the things “normal people” do, to blend in. It’s a form of assimilation for safety, but something deeper than that, where hiding my own identity for survival is also tearing me apart…
As a defense mechanism, fronting makes a lot of sense, and you hone that mechanism after years of being crazy. Fronting is what allows you to hold down a job and maintain relationships with people, it’s the thing that sometimes keeps you from falling apart. It’s the thing that allows you to have a burst of tears in the shower or behind the front seat of your car and then coolly collect yourself and stroll into a social engagement…
We are rewarded for hiding ourselves. We become the poster children for “productive” mentally ill people, because we are so organized and together. The fact that we can function, at great cost to ourselves, is used to beat up the people who cannot function.
Because unlike the people who cannot front, or who fronted too hard and fell off the cliff, we are able to “keep it together,” whatever it takes.
—
s.e. smith, I Hide My Mental Illness
(Read the whole post. It’s really worth it.)
(Source: tgstonebutch, via aliveforalittlewhile)
“Men who harass women on the street are part of the same spectrum of the rape culture. They use their power and male privilege to intimidate women and restrict their equality. And, like abusers, they use it to control women. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how many women adjust where they walk, what time of night they walk, how many people they walk with, what they wear etc. Street harassers, like rapists, have been able to control women’s behaviour. Even women who have never been raped have learned very early that they are not safe on their streets and their communities.”
—
An article explaining why catcalling isn’t a compliment
(via soalanagoes)
list of things i need to do
- a lot
things im not doing
- any of that
(Source: jvnko, via sarcasmdrips)
