blake kathryn
Monterey Bay Aquarium
tumblr dot com
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Claire Keane
Kaledo Art
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Mike Driver
Three Goblin Art
todays bird
⁂
Not today Justin
DEAR READER
Stranger Things
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
Cosimo Galluzzi
🪼
No title available
Keni
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Paraguay
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
@annoyedradfem
So why aren’t we allowed to criticize something that actively leads to an increase in violence against women, 88% of it contains violence against women, it literally changes brain chemistry, it contributes to sex trafficking, and often isn’t allowed to be further studied due to irreversible and damaging effects?
Oh that’s right, because porn is more important to men than women’s safety.
I want 2 start of by saying I do not consume porn nor do I condone the consumption of it, it’s evil and disgusting as goes for sex work. But I don’t know what 2 say when someone argues back about the women that do actually want to make something like an onlyfans, strip, sell their body, etc. 100% willingly because they want to and want the money. “It’s their body they can do what they like” “it’s empowering for them” What are you thoughts on sex work like that and why? Feel free to add on
i’d say:
porn and prostitution are the only two industries where women outearn men doing the same work. what does that say about our economy, that the only way for a woman to compete financially with a man is to get naked or fuck strangers?
or:
if porn and prostitution paid minimum wage, so you could choose between bagging groceries or fucking strangers, what would most women choose? alternatively, if bagging groceries paid the same as porn, how many women would still do porn?
so you see, it’s not that they really want to do these things because it’s empowering, they just want the high salary that porn and prostitution can provide to young, unskilled women in a lousy economy with no safety net.
To add to the first point, those women out earning (and also those who aren’t out earning) men are also expected to put themselves at much much higher risk of temporary or permanent physical and emotional harm, up to an including internal organ damage, exposure to hiv/aids, and infertility.
If women want to out earn men in that industry, they have to take on extreme physical and emotional risk that men are not required to take.
Establishing typical osha safety standards that are required in all other industries (safety gear, protection from hazardous material, protection from sexual harassment and assault, health insurance, etc) would stop the industry in its tracks and would make it nonfunctional. The industry could not survive if the same standards applied to all other risky jobs were required.
What other industries rely on workers to be exposed to hazardous conditions and fluids without protection?
What other legal industries require such different expectations of risk and safety from employees based on biological sex?
And to add to the second point, if all people had a universal base income, and were able to actually make informed, free choices about their careers, how many women would still choose to put themselves at risk (risk of pregnancy, rape/assault, stds, ptsd) doing prostitution? The industry cannot survive with only consensual workers; the demand is far too high for only consensual prostitutes to fulfill.
The industry requires coercion (economic, physical, mental/emotional) and human trafficking/rape slavery to provide enough supply to meet the demand. Without rape slavery, the industry as we know it would cease to exist.
What other industries rely on coercion, rape, and slavery to continue to function?
What other industries would cease to exist if they were required to uphold ethical standards of treatment?
Like other industries that depend on slavery, the prostitution and pornography industries must be held accountable for their crimes.
My response is “even if there are some who consented, can you tell which ones they are when viewing it? No. You can never be certain.”
And I also mention that consent must be freely given without any risk of loss, suffering, or violence if withdrawn.
When sex becomes paid, withdrawn consent will result in financial loss, potential suffering by way of hunger or housing insecurity or unpaid bills, potential violence coercion or force on set.
That is not consent.
In short, If there’s any threat when consent is withdrawn, it was never consent to begin with.
So, I was particularly interested in the comments about OSHA standards and ended up finding this source. It essentially breaks down how prostitution and pornography could never be OSHA compliant. (They have citations at the bottom of the page.)
For example, consider:
Workers must be protected from exposure to blood borne pathogens and other potentially infectious materials. Essentially, unprotected exposure to bodily fluids is a no-go. So already:
Every sex act would involve contact with bodily fluids and must all be listed and regulated by the industry
Condoms would be an absolute minimum. Failure to use a condom (and we know many Johns will demand or bribe the woman to go without) would break regulations.
Further, condoms as they are may not even meet the current standards required for risk reduction to be considered adequate. (For example, some masks are not considered adequate to protect medical workers from airborne pathogens. Condoms may not meet necessary be adequate to protect from STDs or other infections.) If this is true then there would already be no possible way to meet OSHA safety standards for most forms of sexual activity.
And if we could consider condoms to be adequate? Then we still have to consider:
OSHA standards would effectively ban any form of oral sex even with protection since “Mouth pipetting/suctioning of blood or other potentially infectious materials is prohibited.”
Gloves would be required for any activity where “it can be reasonably anticipated that the employee may have hand contact with blood, other potentially infectious materials, mucous membranes, and non-intact skin…” (so all sexual activity)
Masks, eye protection, or face shields would be required “whenever splashes, spray, spatter, or droplets of blood or other potentially infectious materials may be generated and eye, nose, or mouth contamination can be reasonably anticipated”. It’s common in pornography for men to ejaculate on women’s faces. Will that practice be banned or require a face shield? What about kissing? Or other activities involving the mouth? How would the risk threshold for “sprays” or “spatters” be determined?
Furthermore, direct skin-to-skin contact is not compatible with OSHA regulations governing exposure to potentially infectious materials. Will aprons or gowns be required for both parties?
OSHA requires testing to be completed whenever there is potential exposure. How will testing of “sex buyers” be enforced? If every sex act constitutes an act of exposure will both the prostituted woman and the buyer have to be tested after every sex act? Or just between each john? Tests take time to conduct so how will the intervening without results be handled?
It’s true that “Obviously the OSHA standards were not created with sex work in mind, however that is irrelevant to the key point being made here—namely, if these are the regulations deemed necessary to protect worker safety in every other work environment in which exposure to potentially infectious material is a risk of the job, why should they not apply in the context of “sex work”? If selling sex is work like any other form of work, then the safety of these workers is just as important to protect as the safety of workers in other contexts.”
But, wait, there’s more!
How will sexual harassment be evaluated and handled? Pimps often demand sexual activity from the women they exploit. That would obviously have to be banned under regulations between a “supervisor” and an “employee”. What about “buyers”? How does one determine when a transaction ends and harassment begins?
More to the point: “Submitting to unwelcome sexual acts as a condition of employment—getting paid for sex—is sexual harassment; submitting to sexual harassment is the job.”
Further, how would civil rights be considered when sex is for sale? It’s illegal to deny someone a service to a member of a protected classes because they are member of the protected class. Does that mean “sex workers” cannot refuse sex in such cases as well? Would this not be a form of legal coercion into sexual activity? How would you differentiate between rape and this legislated rape?
If an industry absolutely cannot meet OSHA standards what do you do? Declare an exemption? How would you justify such an allowance for an industry based on noncompliant activities? Is it defensible to strip entire groups of worker’s rights? How will this impact other industries? Is it justifiable to create loopholes in sexual harassment or civil rights laws? Is it moral? How do you eliminate abuse from an industry built on exploitation?
Disgruntled and confused porn users demanded the hard research data, so I went into the basement to find my dusty copy of Zillmann and Bryant’s book. It will take me a while to screenshot, caption, and post it all.
The two photos above reference a 1982 experiment which measured the effects of prolonged pornography consumption on test subjects’ recommendations for rapist prison terms.
Male and female subjects were divided into three groups and exposed to either 6 regular films (control group), 3 regular films and 3 porn films (intermediate exposure), or 6 porn films (massive exposure).
Three weeks later, they took a variety of questionnaires and inventories. One asked them to recommend the prison sentence for a hypothetical rapist. The chart above shows the difference in what they recommended by group.
Conclusion: both men and women exposed to porn recommended reduced sentencing for rapists compared to those in the control group.
Consider that in 1982, watching 6 porn films was considered “massive exposure.“
Also consider whether the judge and or jury members deciding your rapist’s fate may have watched more than 6 or more porn films.
Source: Zillmann and Bryant, ”Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations.“ 1989
It’s funny how only women who defend other women are told that they can’t speak for all women.
A woman who critizes anything about the headscarf must be a racist bigot. A women who points out how prostitution harms prostitutes is a “swerf” and “whorephobic”. A woman who encourages girls and women to feel confident without make-up is met with “Uhm, actually, some women like make-up”.
The reverse never applies. If a woman brags about how much money she makes with her Only Fans account, nobody tells her to stop encouraging girls to share explicit pictures of themselves, because some of them might want to enter a prestigious career when they are older, where these pictures could became a liability.
When a women talks about how much she loves make-up nobody shuts her up with an “Uhm, actually, make-up is exepensive! Not all women can afford make-up, you capitalist bourgeois pig!” Or “Uhm, actually, some women are sick or disabled! They don’t have the energy or motor skills to apply make-up, you ableist monster! Have you ever thought about women with ALLERGIES, huh?” Or “Uhm, actually, some women have to care for babies. Do you know how hard that is? Are you aware that babies cry at night? Why do you force young mothers to waste time on covering their faces with coloured paste, when they barely get enough sleep? Do you know that sleep deprivation is torture? Why do you hate mothers so much, you horrible MEMA (= mother excluding make-up apologist)?”
Sounds extreme, but pro-women statements are regularly met with this kind of spite, exaggerations, accusations and intellectual dishonesty.
As a girl or woman, raise yourself to be an intellectual. Raise yourself to be a reader, a traveller, a curious explorer. Raise girls who are independent livers and thinkers, who are critical of standard narratives and status quos and societal and religious dogma. Girls and women will never benefit from being naïve, stuck in one place, unaware, ignorant, out of options, close minded etc besides deriving from these states a false sense of safety, but the patriarchy reaps massive profits from afflicting these conditions.
i feel like a lot of radical feminists aren’t activists. and i understand that to a point, i do. everyone can’t do the work. reading theory and comprehending it and discussing it is heavy enough in and of itself. and this work isn’t for everybody. it’s hard, it’s real, it’s scary, it’s dangerous. but i wish there were more radical feminists actually taking part in real activism outside of the internet.
I feel this. For inspiration, here is a list of assorted radical feminist activism ideas. This is by no means comprehensive, and I welcome additions.
Weiterlesen
I want to add an example for more inspiration:
At the women’s march, a girl handed me a thin booklet demanding for equal representation of women in the arts in the school curriculum. The booklet had the amount (in percentage) of women taught about currently in art class, several examples of women that could replace the overrepresented men for each epoch and quotes by (art) teachers (and more but I gave mine to a friend so I can’t consult it anymore). As far as I know the school curriculum has not been changed (yet) but these girls did something!!
Thank you so so so much for this post @ zombiemarydaly!!! I think the most important internet activism we can do is encourage real life activism. Thank you for the inspiration and motivation!
Your addition is the best thanks of all!☺ Combining education with related demands is a powerful tactic.
Having any call to action along with the information builds momentum even if you do fail to get your specific changes. Now people are angry, know their strength, know who opposed them, and are paying close attention for a chance to try again.
Thanks to @womanispolitical for starting the discussion. She really hit on some fundamental truths of activism. It has got to eventually get active! With concrete projects and goals. But it is not easy.
Not everyone has to do the most, just some.
You did deserve so much better without having to fight for it.
It is a burden, and we will have to carry it together. But not one of us should feel guilt for feeling unready or tired.
starting period product/sanitary cloth crafting and distribution group from scratch: https://zombiemarydaly.tumblr.com/post/629739882411180032/hiya-i-currently-live-in-one-of-the-most
radical writing project @radgoblin is doing: https://radgoblin.tumblr.com/post/629742921406644224/radical-writers
about that "male firefighters actively sabotage equipment that female firefighters use"you said... were there documented cases or just something you personally noticed?
This isn’t the article I recalled, but an example anyway:
Morningstar was hired but given a 90-day probationary period; for men it was 30. Then the gear theft and tampering started. Her gloves, hoods, and radio vanished (2007); her mask was sabotaged (two weeks after 9/11). She found what appeared to be semen on her bed (2012). Clothes continued to be stolen and destroyed. Word of the harassment rose all the way to Mayor Don McIlroy, and the department issued a warning against equipment tampering, but nothing substantively changed.
Another:
Her concerns included having her firefighting gear tampered with several times
And another:
Ever since Judy Brewer became America’s first female firefighter 45 years ago, women have been hazed in the fire service, including sabotaged oxygen tanks and glass in their boots.
More:
You're living twenty-four hours a day in a firehouse and nobody will talk to you. Shit in your boots. Women at the front end of a fire hose and a fire scene and the water gets cut off from her.
I can’t even find the article I had in mind (it was around four or five years ago), but it looks I didn’t need to.
And men wonder why women don't want to go into male-dominated career fields. 🙄
I love when MRAs are like "women make men do all the hard and dangerous jobs" while the women who do enter those fields have to put up with men trying to kill them
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/female-firefighters-bullying-sexual-harassment-fifth-estate-
Female firefighters face bullying, sexual harassment, fifth estate finds About 600 of Canada's 22,000 firefighters are women, and workplace issues can be hard to negotiate
What the FUCK
I know it’s comforting to believe humans are shaped completely by socialization and it’s the reason why one group of people would oppress another, but socialization wasn’t there from the beginning of earth, and it started from somewhere, and if we’re going to analyze and criticize patriarchy we have to look at the root, who started the male and female socialization, for whose benefit is it being carried out?
Male socialization is of their own creation, it’s just men being true to themselves. Since they established patriarchy why wouldn’t they make a system that gives them freedom to be who they really are? If you look at the differences between male and female socialization, males get shown from early age that it’s okay to indulge in all of their needs and wants, it’s okay for them to do whatever their nature tells them to do, it’s okay to give into their impulses and passions, it’s okay to get violent to get what they want, it’s even okay if they enslave, rape, destroy, kill, force, wound, torture, it’s fine, they should be able to get away with it, and even get admired and praised for it! It enables them to be true to themselves, it’s a lifestyle that supports their nature and even celebrates it, if you look at male created systems and representation, they’re all celebrating the male nature, they’re celebrating the wars and destruction and rape and trauma and they claim it’s all “victory” of their kind!
Female socialization in turn is constantly being told no, nothing you are or you do is good enough, you shouldn’t even want to be anything, except if it happens to fall into small spectrum of “whatever is convenient to men”. All of your qualities that men can’t use for their benefit are worthless, all of your effort and energy has to be spent on men or it’s wasted, your nature has to be suppressed, you actually get told what your nature is and if it’s not that, you must not be a woman, we’re socialized to consistently go against our feelings, our instincts, our desires, our knowledge, our needs and wants, even worse, we’re told that we’re not allowed to have any, and accept “whatever men say are female needs and desires” as if they’re our own.
Patriarchy shows the true nature of men, while hiding the nature of women. But true nature isn’t overwritten by socialization, because if that’s true, there would be no resistance to it, by now we’d all be fembots, not even thinking we exist for anything other than men. But we are resisting, no matter how much they socialize and brainwash and enslave and torture us, our true nature is fighting thru, we’re fighting to see who we are and what we’re like, for every generation women are standing up to our socialization and our oppressors and screaming and fighting to find a way out, to be able to live up to our true nature, to stop the torture of living suppressed.
The exact opposite can be said for men, they have no reason to ever resist patriarchy because they are already living their true nature, yeah even the “sensitive” and “non-conforming” types, they’re all fighting only to be appreciated and valued more within the system, but never to destroy the system because it’s still all in favour of their nature, some just want to be coddled even more within it. If men’s nature was the opposite of patriarchy they would already bring it down, but they have shown zero intention to do anything like that, and defend it with all they got.
two rules to live by:
1. if you create a sacred caste of men who cannot be questioned or accused, abusers will do whatever they can to join this caste
2. if you create a group of women it's acceptable to shit on, even when there are valid critiques to be made of said women, men will take that criticism and apply it as viciously as they can to as many women as they can get away with
I know I'm pulling my tinfoil hat on to type this, but what fucks me up the most about these changes (aside from, ya know, everything) is that they changed the color of her eyebrows, which now means that she is dyeing her hair to make it that red color. Just by a simple color change they have forced a fictional character into that ritual. I am convinced men aren't attracted to any actual look, they are simply attracted to displays of you wasting your fucking time to alter your appearance.
"men aren't attracted to any actual look, they are simply attracted to displays of you wasting your fucking time to alter your appearance."
100%
also by "barely no curves" he means she's wearing clothes
“Males were hunters because they were stronger”
Nope males were scavengers (i.e. took left over meat from already dead prey) because they were expendable
Lose a few males to big predators while they’re out scrounging for meat? No big deal. Lose a few females? Much bigger deal, much harder for your population or group to definitively make it to the next generation
Sorry men you’re not that great 🤷🏼♀️
Men’s only purpose is to shoot their spunk and die.
They know it, too. It’s why they think their orgasm is more important than anything else.
^^^ omg lmao that is mind-blowing
Tbh this is why straight males are ready to do anything to impregnate a woman, even if it kills them, and this is why they hate women so much
They realize they’re nothing without women reproduction-wise. And since reproduction by many ppl seen as sort of “legacy” and continuing to live through children they see it like a death sentence and a “worthless” existence
And because women are much pickier and are meant to be in control of reproduction, it means that realistically most men would never get to reproduce. And they see it as an attack
So they hate women, and enslave women and brainwash women into thinking we’re the cattle who need them, and not the other way around
Absofuckinglutely and this is why you see the disgusting way men talk about women and how they discuss their “reproductive strategies”. Literally everything a man does is to have sex. They’re so fucking pathetic!
This is why all male dominated, male led, created-by-male religions focus crazily on “women’s place” and controlling women’s wombs. to keep themselves relevant and important bc deep down they know they’re replacable. Just like how the parasitic y chromosoid keeps blocking the parthenogenesis ability in the offspring female’s X to make sure male-ness sticks around.
God I love that I sparked this conversation I love you all
Linguistic anthropology tells us that language evolves because speakers need to describe something. Basically.
So think of all the slurs men use to refer to women, and remember that men have always felt they needed to describe women in subhuman, degrading ways. Their language reflects their perception of reality.
This is fucking gross.
Ah. Another day of people disguising misogyny as anti-racism.
People will post/tag shit like this and white liberal women will still beg for their approval and care. It's sickening.
Oh a white woman went missing ,a win for the people of colour yaaaay!!!/s
Freaks
she’s dead. like. sure, the media is paying more attention because she’s a pretty white woman. that isn’t her fault. that didn’t help her at all. she was still brutally killed by her fiance, her body dumped unceremoniously in the middle of nowhere. she was killed. being white did not stop her from being another woman killed by her male partner.
we can have these conversations on a macro level about who the media does/doesn’t pay attention to, but on an individual level? gabby’s still dead. she was killed. murdered.
being white did not save her. being a woman is what damned her.
I get that this is a conversation about misogyny more than race but why are white radfems so afraid to admit that white women are above black women in the social hierarchy due to their race?
so i fucked up and read that article. basically i feel physically sick and im shaking and in tears. the thing that fucks me up the worst is that this is on pornhub. a legal site. i’d always assumed it was tame and that you’d have to go onto the dark web to find actual violence. but no. videos of women being beaten and punched, suffocated, vomiting and almost drowning in toilets, women being hanged. women having pins stuck in their clits. women screaming no and begging it to stop being called a bitch for ‘ruining’ the scene. girls being fucked by their ‘fathers’. women being used and abused. women literally being pissed on and drinking piss. women being gang raped. women being fucked in the ass and then having to eat the shit off the man’s dick. this is legal. this is easily accessible. this is what is feeding the minds of men and boys. what gets me the most is the comments section. pigs complaining that the camera work was shit. or the music was weird. or even worse, the men saying these women weren’t being tortured bad enough and that he could do it better. the likes these get. the men who don’t give a fucking damn about women and girls. looking at these comments i see pure hatred. pure sadistic hatred. i see monsters. men who don’t care about women. men who would see a woman die if it meant he could desecrate her corpse. men who want women to die. and the scariest thing is that these men could be your teacher, your colleague, your taxi driver. one of your friends. your father. no one fucking questions this though. everyone praises the shit out of pornhub for ploughing snow off the streets. or for saying a funny clap back on twitter. no one cares. no one cares about the abuse of girls and women. the only thing these porn makers care about is making money. a women screaming no isn’t enough, if that’s the kink they’re after. if she ruins the scene by passing out that’s her fault. porn watchers only care about power. they only care about orgasms and they don’t care about women.
and mind you, these videos have hundreds of thousands of views.
i shudder to think what isn’t on pornhub, what’s harder to get to. child pornography. actual dead women. further torture and violence and murder.
i’m sick to my stomach.
PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE.
http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftheviolenceofpornography.blogspot.com.au%2F2017%2F11%2Fthe-hatred-of-women.html%3Fzx%3D8e98937d5747a462&t=YjUxN2Q0ZjRmZmY2NjgwMDlkZGVmNWEzMjdkNGJkNWFiMmNmYzViNyxhNkxqVzdBYw%3D%3D&b=t%3AzW5PW8_ndE6ULYf_AE_Y2A&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwhyyoualwayssoradical.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F167548863446%2Fthe-hatred-of-women&m=1
please read at your own risk.
Videos like that are absolutely everywhere on every porn site, with INCREASINGLY more popularity and acceptance, its become rapidly normalized and absolutely no one is talking about it, its so fucked up, but whats more fucking scary is how many people STILL defend the porn industry and say that we’re making it up. Im so tired
Here’s a summary of the article that’s been being reblogged for anyone who can’t bear to look at it. I shouldn’t have. I couldn’t fall asleep until 7 am because every time I closed my eyes, those images were there.
People are wondering why millenial men are more misogynistic than their fathers
please read the link with caution, it is highly upsetting.
I read that article at least a year ago and it still is upsetting.
And you something I don’t remember anyone pointing out one of the most vile cruelties of pornography, those women are forced to claim they liked it, enjoyed it, want more. There were some things in there that reminded me of a violent rape I survived. I almost suffocated on my own vomit (sorry I know that’s graphic) but at least when I’ve talked about the experience even with a man no one ever has implied that it was anything other than a horrific act of violence.
The things that were described in the article are by far worse than what I’ve experienced but I’m willing to bet all of those women have PTSD just like I do. The difference is if I discuss it with someone I have received kindness and support. I fear if I were one of those women and I tried to explain to a new friend about some trauma acquired behaviors, I fear men and even a few women would either try and get porn stories, sex tips, and/or use some kind of choice argument to tell you you shouldn’t be traumatized because porn is fun and empowering.
and this, ladies, is why I am anti-porn. because it is the hatred of women showcased for the world.
Anti sex “work” because—
Consent can’t be bought
The majority of prostituted women want to exit
Poor women and girls of color are disproportionately funneled into the sex industry
The industry relies on there being a vulnerable and uncared for class of women and girls to sexually exploit
Racism, classism, imperialism, slavery, and colonialism are all embedded in or connected to prostitution
Prostitution is a cause and result of inequality between the sexes
The sex industry is proven to rely heavily on trafficking and exploitation
It promotes violence against women
It is violence against women
Prostitution is inherently violent
The sex industry encourages, promotes, and caters to male sexual entitlement
Under full decriminalization and legalization, prostituted women are still murdered, raped, assaulted, and stolen from by pimps and johns
Women who have escaped from prostitution have high rates of PTSD and other disorders
The industry promotes fetishization, stereotypes, and sexualized racism and racialized sexism against women of color
“Consensual sex work” and human trafficking are inescapably linked (Oof)
The liberation of women and an industry dedicated to the objectification of women cannot coexist
It reduces women to sexual objects and masturbatory aids
The sex industry preys on the most marginalized women and girls
Porn culture harms women and girls (yes, even “feminist” porn)
The normalization of sex as “work” degrades the status of women as a class
These are a few reasons for the abolitionist stance I came up with at the top of my head. The only reason to be pro-porn and pro-prostitution is if one believes that the orgasms of johns, profits of pimps, and pleasure of a few “happy hookers” is worth more than the safety, freedom, and humanity of every other woman and girl.
TL;DR
The sex industry is incompatible with feminism.
I just saw a ted talk called “why sex work is central to feminism” I-
Oh yeah bc objectifying ourselves and selling our bodily autonomy and giving perverted men exactly what they want is totally feminism hahaha wtf
I’ve been listening a lot to Kate Clancy’s Period Podcast and it’s really got me thinking about the dominant cultural narratives around menstruation. Most girls are taught that periods happen when a woman doesn’t get pregnant each month. While this is true, it’s not the only (scientific) way we can ‘explain’ periods, and it’s an explanation that can hurt young girls.
When I heard that my period occurred because I wasn’t getting pregnant, I understood that:
My body “wanted” me to be pregnant and was angry that I wasn’t (so it was “punishing” me with a period)
My body had the capacity to be (healthily) pregnant when I was 13
Eventually, I would have to “please” my body by giving my body what it “wanted” (a baby)
My body was made for pregnancy
These are very frightening thoughts for a young teenager. They made me feel like my body and I were at odds, and that we were constantly hurting each other. It made me very scared for the future in which I would have to have a child, and very angry at my body for doing this to me. I’ve talked to other women about this, and they’ve internalized similar messages, sometimes without questioning it.
Of course, we could partially solve this if teachers explicitly clarified that no, our bodies didn’t “want” to be pregnant, that periods aren’t punishments, and that it’s okay not to have any children, ever. But aren’t there other ways we can talk about menstruation, too? There are a few I’ve thought about:
In S2 Episode 16 Kate Clancy suggested that we could frame it as the “miraculous” regrowth of the uterine lining every month.
We can see it as akin to shedding dead skin (it’s just something that used to be in/on our bodies coming off). It keeps us healthy and renewed.
Personally, I find it soothing to view it as an indicator of health — and not just reproductive health! My period helps show me that my body is working well and I’m eating enough/not putting too much stress on myself.
As this posts suggests, the period might have also evolved so that unviable embryos could be “washed out.” In many ways, periods help protect us, especially when our bodies don’t “want” to be constantly pregnant.
And these are only a few ideas just by thinking a little outside the box… I’m sure someone who was better at science than me could think up more.
Anyways, this post is just to consider how the ways we ‘explain’ menstruation now aren’t always the only ways we can do it, and to consider the ways in which our current explanations are biased (and the ways in which children may understand these explanations).
“The woman who checks her makeup half a dozen times a day to see if her foundation has caked or her mascara has run, who worries that the wind or the rain may spoil her hairdo, who looks frequently to see if her stockings have bagged at the ankle or who, feeling fat, monitors everything she eats, has become, just as surely as the inmate of the Panopticon, a self-policing subject, a self committed to a relentless self-surveillance. This self-surveillance is a form of obedience to patriarchy. It is also the reflection in woman’s consciousness of the fact that she is under surveillance in ways that he is not, that whatever else she may become, she is importantly a body designed to please or to excite.”
— Sandra Lee Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power” (via heteroglossia)
