Let me describe to you what kind of world gender abolitionists actually dream about: When a child would be born it’s biological sex, being an actual physical reality, would be noticed but not a single assumption regarding the child’s personality would be made based on it. Growing up, children would be free to chose what toys and clothes they prefer. If they want to play with toy trucks or dolls, it would be fine either way. If they want to dress comfortably or in frilly colorful dresses, it would be fine. Regardless of the child’s biological sex. Certain personality traits would not be encouraged in members of one sex and discouraged in the other. Females would be free to be strong, brave and assertive and males would not be shamed for being shy and soft spoken. No female child would be called a tomboy and no male child would be called a sissy. No kid would ever be bullied for what we in our gendered world call “gender expression”. When children would reach puberty they would still be free to dress how they want. Females would not be pressured to wear clothes that reveal their bodies and males would not be shamed if they chose to. Everybody would have a free choice of accessories, which would not be categorized as “men’s” or “women’s” but people could should whichever they liked. Or chose to not wear accessories at all if that’s what they are more comfortable with. Females would not be pressured to keep their bodies slim, soft and hairless. Males would not be pressured to be athletic and muscular. Expectations of femininity and masculinity upon the body would not exist and affect negatively people’s relationship with their own body. Everyone could choose a career without fearing stigmatization within that particular field because of their biological sex. The most important thing would be competence and not what someone has between their legs. Domestic work would not be considered “women’s work” and would be shared equally between the sexes. Biological sex would only be thought about when relevant. Like for example in regards to issues surrounding sexual activity, reproduction or treatment of medical conditions related to a person’s biological sex. And everyone would be free to be themselves without ever having to worry about gender expectations. Nobody would feel the need to repress certain parts of their personality and exaggerate others in order to fit into some gender role that is being forced on them. Gender abolitionism is not about restricting people’s choices but about giving them greater freedom.
http://burningax.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/a-gender-free-world-boring/ (via genderheretic)
-Sofia
(via askaradfem)
every time a GNC woman jumps ship and IDs as some category of “not a woman” it feels like she’s thrown her hands up and said “FINE you were right, I was being a woman the wrong way and it’s because I’m NOT one” but it’s celebrated as a victory rather than a crushing defeat for the rest of us who choose not to hide from our own reality. I get wanting to opt out of misogyny, but it’s just not possible...
in fandom, "who's the top and who's the bottom" is heteronormativity to the highest degree. it is quite literally a progressive, "queer" way of asking "who's the man and who's the woman in the relationship?"
the top is always the more masculine one, big and strong, owning the bottom, doing the penetrating. the bottom is always the more feminine one, referred to as "wife," "princess," "babygirl," being owned by the top, being penetrated. and 9 times out of 10, this top/bottom bullshit is in reference to a M/M pairing— you want a traditional heterosexual couple but you're so incredibly misogynistic you can't even bear the presence of a woman even if she is being degraded, so you make the "bottom" take her place.
I just saw one of the many ways that rape culture is subtley normalized in media.
I won't say what show I was watching because I don't want any spoilers, but the main character is a shifty guy who's meant to have a good heart regardless, and we're meant to sympathize strongly with him. He tricked a drunk woman into having sex with him by telling her a direct lie about who he was. She woke up horrified at being lied to and he went through his morning routine undisturbed by her outrage or her abrupt departure. The writers try to make it an amusing and light-hearted situation, like, "Boys will be boys! What a scoundrel, how funny, right?"
It isn't funny. It's sexual assault.
Imagine being the sort of "person" who lies to someone in order to get them to sleep with you with the understanding that they wouldn't come near you if you were honest about yourself; knowing that you were subverting their right to be selective about sexual partners and treating them like an object for your use rather than a human being who has the right to decide who has access to their bodies. Yet this is what this man did, and the show just moved on like it was no big deal instead of addressing what it actually was: a sign of a soulless, exploitative sexual predator, and someone no one should be sympathizing with.
There are SO many examples of this. Did anyone ever see those dumbass movies from the early 2000's, Superbad and 40-Year Old Virgin? The former is entirely about two teenage moids trying to get their classmates drunk so they'll be incapacitated enough to have sex with them, fully acknowledging that the girls would regard it as a mistake...
"𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆 '𝗔𝗵 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁-𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝗜 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝘂𝘆? ' 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲!"
The latter is about a man getting advice as to how to manipulate women into sex, which in one scene involves targeting women who are so inebriated that they're stumbling out of the bar. The men in the movie compare "drunk bitches" to gazelles and themselves to tigers, openly admitting that they're predators.
"𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘀. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲? 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗗𝗡𝗔, 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 "𝗧𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲." 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁, 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 "𝗧𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗸 𝗯*𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀."
This all plants the idea that there is nothing serious about men preying on women; that it's even funny in it's own way. A lot of times, these men even have their happily ever after (or something closely resembling it) with the woman they preyed upon. I'm not even 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 to think of examples and tons of them are crashing down on me. Another is the Breakast Club, where John Bender insulted Claire the entire time, made her cry, attempted to fucking 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 under the table...
And yet at the end she kisses him multiple times and gives him her diamond earring.
Why? WHY? It makes me want to scream, cry, and vomit! I feel such despair at all of this because it's EVERYWHERE. The message of "Yeah just let men do what they want to you okay, it's normal, dont be such an uptight bitch, it's just what guys do and it's not a big deal" is all over the place and it's no wonder women have such a low standard for decent behavior from males. It's intentional. You have a million shitbag males in movies and shows who you're told to like and to root for while they abuse women who adore them at the end, after all they've done to them. Why would you not believe this is all normal when you're seeing it wherever you turn?
Sometimes it feels like such a huge problem, so all-pervasive, that I just want to throw in the towel. But ALL through my most impressionable years, no one pointed out any of this to me. No one said, "Look at what they're trying to make you believe is normal. Isn't that disgusting and pathetic?" 𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 talks about it, and I wish someone had! So if even ONE woman becomes more vigilant about the messages she's being fed through these storylines, and the way these situations are portrayed as normal, funny or charming, and these characters as "good guys" when actually they are 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 and NONE of this is normal or okay...
Then it was worth writing a post about.
sick of normal girls appropriating weird girl culture. you had friends in school you don’t get to reblog these posts
Dear misandrists,
In case you haven't heard it today, you're all hostile, aggressive, psychotic and a threat to men everywhere.
TRAs criticising a female author: CANCEL JKR I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOVED HARRY POTTER. I'M GETTING MY DEATHLY HALLOWS TATTOO REMOVED AND BURNING THE BOOKS I OWNED! FUCK ANYTHING MADE BY TRANSPHOBES!! ALSO THE PLOT WASN'T THAT GOOD AND THE CHARACTER NAMES ARE SHIT AND SHE'S A RACIST NAZI HOLOCAUST DENIER NAZI NAZI RACIST!!!
TRAs criticising a male author: ...well yeah Hussie wrote the r-word a few dozen times throughout homestuck and they also made Dave say the n-word once but it's ok because we should separate the art from the artist guys... Besides Dave is aracial anyway! Respect Hussie's pronouns please they're nonbinary 🥺 anyway here's an essay about why every character is trans uwu
every modern pop feminism idea can be explained by this one chimamanda meme though?
queer theory? sex work is work? bdsm and hardcore kink as feminist acts? twaw? the idea of makeup being empowering? bimbo feminism? girl brain and boy brain? choice feminism? men can be vulnerable babies let them cry uwu? rape didn't exist in indigenous cultures before colonial influence? fgm affects men too because a penis can be a female organ and fgm = circumcision?
one thing i dont think we talk enough about is how pretty much every sex ed resource for lesbian teens tells them they should be open to sex with male partners
i remember being 14/15 and googling how lesbian sex worked and just being confronted with site after site telling me that lesbian sex sometimes includes a penis and it was uninclusive and closed minded to think otherwise :)))
i guarantee you no girl or woman searching for lesbian sex ed resources is looking for advice on how to blow a guy or have piv intercourse, theyre looking for advice about sexual relationships between biologically female partners
i think people underestimate how ashamed and broken it made me and other lesbians feel to read that over and over. after reading those resources i felt so hopeless that i tried to force myself to be asexual because it was the only socially acceptable way to rule out having a male partner
constantly adding these ~helpful reminders~ is like telling lesbians that they just haven't met the right guy yet, and there is no context in which they should forget it
some of these were government affiliated websites insisting that exclusive homosexuality didnt exist, or at the very least that it was unthinkable and unpeakable
its a very impactful and insidious form of homophobia
Story: *medieval setting where a lesbian disguises as a man to marry the woman she loves, be able to practice sword fighting, and to avoid being married by force to a man*
The comments: omg transmasc?? Egg?? Whether she's a lesbian or transmac, it's still a 🌠queer🌠 story 🥰