Words and Stuff

Healthy Harold taught me all I know.

[pitchblackgo]

[thedailysimpson]

[quasi-normalcy]

No, I’m serious, if women all got together and went into electrical engineering or automotive repair en masse, then ten years later people would be talking about how it was a “soft field” and it would pay proportionately less than other fields.

Likewise, if men moved en masse to bedeck themselves in sparkles and make-up, then suddenly you’d get a bunch of editorials talking about how classy they look.

None of these things are inherently masculine or feminine; none of these things inherently elevate you or drag you down. But whatever women are seen to do is automatically seen as being inherently more frivolous than anything men do. And shaming women for not pigeonholing themselves into a narrow range of acceptable “masculine” behaviours is just going to result in the goalposts getting moved once again.

[an-gremlin-deactivated20160222]

This is literally what happened to basically every field women have entered. The opposite happens when men enter. Computers used to be a “woman thing” until the guys who did it got really mad about how badly their job was viewed and realized they could fix it by forcing out women.

[meariver]

Also happened/ is happening with the fields of biology and psychology….

[quasi-normalcy]

I honestly wonder how much of the backlash against public education in the last generation has been due to teaching becoming a woman-dominated profession.

[warpedellipsis]

Fashion used to be a men’s thing. Then women got involved in the late 17/1800’s, so men went the other way because it came to be seen as “frivolous” and “anti-intellectual” to care about how you looked. Add in the homophobia that arose around that time, bam, staid bland dress. Ditto leggings/tights, that are now called attention-whoring when on men they were required to show you cared about your figure and had the money to pay for such a fitted item. 

People want to say misogyny doesn’t exist, that male privilege doesn’t exist. Look beyond “living memory” and you’ll find that’s what drives the “inexplicable reversals” society seems to make on many things. Hell, just look beyond your own society, and you’ll find out that what’s considered “for men” elsewhere is held in high esteem while here it’s scoffed at purely because it’s “for women”: 

Skinny jeans are the height of masculinity in several east Asian societies, rather than being seen as “gay” in the USA because of their association with femininity. 

Medical fields in Russia are valued like kindergarten teachers are here, because it’s women who are the doctors instead of men.

Love and romance are highly valued in eastern countries, because men are interested in it too—of course they would be, surely you want to share your life with someone? Here, it’s strictly a women’s subject.

[darksnowfalling-deactivated2020]

The field of anthropology as a whole illustrates this.

Significantly higher proportions of females compared to males are currently entering the fields of archaeology and biological anthropology, and as this occurs, the prestige, funding, acceptance as valid kinds of science, etc, are fading quickly.

This has already occurred with linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology in particular went VERY quickly from being seen as a manly, scientific discipline (e.g., Franz Boas, Bronisław Malinowski) to being seen as a touchy-feely female thing.

[maxofs2d]

Let’s examine a traditionally male-dominated role that is very well-respected, and well-paid, in many parts of the world — that of a doctor. In the UK, it is listed as one of the top ten lucrative careers, and the average annual income of a family doctor in the US is well into six figures. It also confers on you significant social status, and a common stereotype in Asian communities is of parents encouraging their children to become doctors.

One of my lecturers at university once presented us with this thought exercise: why are doctors so highly paid, and so well-respected? Our answers were predictable. Because they save lives, their skills are extremely important, and it takes years and years of education to become one. All sound, logical reasons. But these traits that doctors possess are universal. So why is it, she asked, that doctors in Russia are so lowly paid? Making less than £7,500 a year, it is one of the lowest paid professions in Russia, and poorly respected at that. Why is this?

The answer is crushingly, breathtakingly simple. In Russia, the majority of doctors are women. Here’s a quote from Carol Schmidt, a geriatric nurse practitioner who toured medical facilities in Moscow: “Their status and pay are more like our blue-collar workers, even though they require about the same amount of training as the American doctor… medical practice is stereotyped as a caring vocation ‘naturally suited‘ to women, [which puts it at] a second-class level in the Soviet psyche.”

What this illustrates perfectly is this — women are not devalued in the job market because women’s work is seen to have little value. It is the other way round. Women’s work is devalued in the job market because women are seen to have little value. This means that anything a woman does, be it childcare, teaching, or doctoring, or rocket science, will be seen to be of less value simply because it is done mainly by women. It isn’t that women choose jobs that are in lower-paid industries, it is that any industry that women dominate automatically becomes less respected and less well-paid.

http://cratesandribbons.com/2013/12/13/patriarchys-magic-trick-how-anything-perceived-as-womens-work-immediately-sheds-its-value/

[bons-sonos]

“Men may cook or weave, or dress dolls or hunt humming birds, but if such activities are appropriate occupations of men, then the whole society, men and women alike, votes them as important. When the same occupations are performed by women, they are regarded as less important (Mead, 1949, p. 159).” https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-19279160/in-a-complex-voice-the-contradictions-of-male-elementary

[tk-tako]

“The wage gap is a myth”

[80slesbiab]

SNL REALLY DID THAT™

[cdaae]

Visit Original Link

Leslie Odom Jr. and Javier Munoz, 7-18-15

[broninjarobin]

Alright, arm your pussies. It's time to fight back

[broninjarobin]

The Heartbreak of Breaking a Heart

How do you love

When your heart isn’t in it

How do you kiss

When it just feels inconvenient

You say I love you

I feel nothing

I say, I love you too.

It doesn’t feel right

My heart never lies

But it aches with the idea of hurting you

I don’t want to put tears in your eyes

That was never what I set out to do

You can barely say goodbye,

At night when we part,

I wonder how you’ll feel

After I break your heart

- This has to end. I’m so sorry

[broninjarobin]

Unplugged

I don’t give my dog the attention he deserves.

Whilst I’m busy living life as best I can

He stares in through the window

Paws on the sill

Waiting for me to come out and play

It kills me.

Life is just too hectic sometimes

And I try to give him as much of my time as I can

But It isn’t enough

 I try to make our walks together special

I allow him to sniff every tree, every flower and yes,

Every poo

 His lifespan is significantly shorter than mine

So it’s the least I can do,

To give him some of my time,

He deserves it just as much as my work or study does

 My phone comes with us on every walk

I listen to music

He listens to the sound of our steps

Pad Pad Pad

Thump thump thump

A beautiful melody

That I hadn’t heard

Until

Today.

As we were walking along

My phone died

A modern horror story, I know

I was riddled with annoyance

How would I entertain myself now?

When I was younger, the streetlights dictated when I came home

Now it’s my battery percentage

 So I turned us around, cutting our walk short

My dog strained on the lead looking confused

But Hey, the phone was dead

What was the point?

 Little did I know,

That though my phone had died

A piece of me that had been dead for so long

Was about to come alive

 Having no music for the walk home

Shifted my awareness to my surroundings

I really looked at them for

What felt like

The first time in forever

By really looking

I saw my world for what it was

Absolutely, mind crushingly beautiful

We took the long way home

If you look at the world through your own eyes

And not the eyes of your phone

You see so much more

You see the beauty of our reality

You see every flower

Every ray of sunlight

Every piece of glowing life around you

And it revives you

 The world is so intricate

There’s so much to see

I’ve been worrying about likes

If my status’ are funny enough

If I’m posting too much

Or Too little

When really what I should’ve been worried about

Was getting outside

Getting enough sun

Breathing enough of our fresh, clean air...

I should only be worried about living enough life.

About experiencing every second and not treating it as background noise.

 At this moment in time

Everyone I loved was happy, healthy and alive

That is, incredible. 

All that is our life is not promised to us

Not one second

It can all be taken away so fast

And we’ll never know when how or why

 As we walked I stared at my dog

Finding room in my heart for more love and filling it just as fast

My dog looked so happy

A scruffy sort of happy

The sort of happy that keeps my heart warm at night

He stared up at me with those big brown eyes,

The exact colour and shade of my own

And I felt our connection deepen

Happiness was in the air

I smiled down at him,

Feeling

A tinge 

Of sadness

That 

It won’t always be like this

It can’t

I will get old

My dog will get older

…I have to enjoy this while I can

 Technology has been stealing me away from these moments for too long

The clock never stops

But one day my life will

I have to change

I can’t spend 365 of my days online,

and call that a year well lived

That is just not living.

I have realised the solution to this addiction.

I don’t need to delete my Facebook

I just have to delete my all-consuming need for it

 Easier said than done

But I’ll get there

If I remember that

Life is better than likes

and that

Living in the now is better than living through a screen

 Without headphones in

I heard many things

A woman laughing joyfully at a leaf stuck on my dogs’ face

Her children and I joined in on the laughter

Complete strangers

Creating a beautiful melody of laughter,

The exact song that the world needs

 A small child, eyes wide and full of wonder, jumped in delight

“It’s a puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!” he cried and as we crossed paths

“that’s a very cute dog miss”

My heart melted

All these things I would have missed with headphones in

 Life is beautiful

And I’ve been missing it.

Unplug your ears

Open your eyes

Fill your heart and your life

With the beauty that is around you

 Our days are numbered

Take time to

Stare at the sky

Register how it feels really looking through your own eyes

This is you

This is your reality

Say to yourself

“This is me”

Feel your heartbeat

Listen to the sounds around you

Let them engulf you

No-one else is experiencing this exact moment

Only you

 It’s hard to achieve true self awareness

But when you do

You get a certain feeling in your stomach

 It’s probably all chemicals and hormones,

But what I think it feels like,

Is life.

Live in the now

Forgive

Forget

Love

Log off

Take a walk

Breathe

 Facebook widens our gaze of the world

But narrows our experience

and hey, I enjoy it as much as the next kid

But we need balance

 To quote my favourite musical

“Life doesn’t discriminate. Between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes”

 Don’t let technology take your life away from you first.

We’ll all die one day.

But that does that even matter if we weren’t living life in the first place?

Reclaim your reality. Unplug. Let the light and love in.

 LIVE.

 -          Maddy

[broninjarobin]

Yeah

“Where did we go wrong with this world?”

When everyone started caring more about facebook likes

And less about eachother

When a gun became easier to buy than a kinder surprise

When a person can get off easily from a rape charge

Because they’re white, male and good at swimming

When an innocent young boy with so much love to give and life to live

Is shot dead

Because of the colour of his skin

We use hashtags to stimulate our compassionate sides

We write posts about current tragic events to show we “care”

We don’t care

If we did- how could we possibly live with ourselves

‪#‎prayfor‬ ‪#‎jesuis‬ ‪#‎thinkingof‬ ‪#‎BREAKING‬ ‪#‎tragedy‬

All we are doing is adding more white noise

To the war that is plaguing us all

Mass Shootings

Massacres

Terrorism

Climate change

Poverty

Forced Marriages

Homelessness

Mental Illness

Suicide

Cancer

Hate crimes

Sexism

Racism

Rape

Assault

Poaching

Genocide

Oppression

Slavery

War

Bullying

Murder

Torture

The list goes on

We ignore it all

Massive world news

Is reported swiftly and lengthily

Everyone knows everything and understands nothing

“Did you hear about-

“I saw that on buzzfeed”

“How bad is-?”

“I’ve used the filter”

“what about the-”

“yes yes- I wrote an open letter about it”

In the age of social media

We know more

And care less

People put filters on their profile pictures

To show support

But What will a filter do

For an innocent person

Blown to pieces in an explosion?

Will your Facebook tribute posts block the bullets

Shot towards children’s skulls?

Likes don’t

Heal wounds

Hashtags won’t

Comfort grieving families

Things become viral so fast these days

but are forgotten just as quickly

we’ve gone wrong when we care more about a gorilla

than we do about refugees

we’ve gone wrong when

people are dying on the streets

blown up

killed in their homes

at school

Nightclubs

Cinemas

Shopping Malls

Hospitals

Cafes

Sporting events

Concerts

and the top story tonight- the new iPhone

A society addicted to technology

But surprised we’ve lost our humanity

There is no app for that

Everyone is always looking down at their phones

And I wonder

Will anyone look up

To

See

The

End

[bwuhbwuhbwuhbwuhbwuh]

Hamilton + Text Posts Part 25/?

[linmanuel]

Okay I’m going full Old Man Miranda here and asking what are text posts and why are they so funny help Old Man out I want to laugh too

[yourbigsisnissi]

I have to love me. Even when the people I love dont love me like I deserve to be loved. I have to love me. For survival. Because people come and go. And they don’t realize how to love me until they leave. But I’m not going anywhere. I can love me. Unconditionally. I can love me like I deserve to be loved.

[michiamocristina]

[psych-facts]

An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being. She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?” I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze. “Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…” “No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age. “I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me. After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up. At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.” As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.” She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.” She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be .When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it! These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE. REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.

[albertbabycat]

[justapassingstranger]

Unmute this. Four seconds of pure joy.

[knightofleo]

Aja Apa-Soura van gogh never saw golden gate van gogh never saw the great wall van gogh never saw christ the redeemer van gogh never saw stonehenge van gogh never saw eiffel van gogh never saw mount fuji van gogh never saw hollywood van gogh never saw taj mahal

more by Aja Apa-Soura: x

[commandersass]

It’s not a bad idea, Stark

This is why Steve and Pepper do all the shopping

[broninjarobin]

Katniss Everdeen...the boy on fire...come to die

[fatisapositiveword]

Why aren’t we talking about this??

[honestlybelievedinyou]

Why haven’t I ever heard this??

[taylorswift]

I’ve never even seen this!!! What vault has this been kept in?