catnip cardigan @catnip-cardigan - Tumblr Blog

Y'all ever open a book on a new subject, read a little bit, and have to put it back so you can process the way in which your mind was just expanded?

headspace-hotel

The textile book: okay here is some of the ways that textiles are important to human life

me: Okay!

The textile book: Clothes separate the vulnerable human body from the conditions of the outside world, and in doing so absorb the sweat and debris of human existence, accumulating wear and tear according to the lives we live. In this way, various lifestyles and professions are represented by clothing, and the clothing of a loved one retains the imprint of their physical body and their life being lived, as though the clothes absorb part of the wearer's soul

Me: ...oh

The textile book: The process of weaving a garment and the process of a child being formed in its mother's womb are often referred to using the same language. Likewise, when a baby is born, a blanket or other textile material is the first material object it encounters and protects it. Textiles can create the idea of two things being inextricable, as with being "woven together," or can create the sense of separateness, as with a curtain or veil that separates two rooms or spaces, even separating the living from the dead, or separating two realities, such as a performance ending when the curtain falls

Me: ...oh God

The textile book: Odysseus's wife Penelope undid her weaving in secret every night to delay the advances of her suitors. In this way she was able to turn back the passage of time to allow her husband to come home. Likewise the Lakota tell a story of an old woman embroidering time by embroidering a robe with porcupine quills. If she finishes the embroidery, the world will come to an end, but her faithful dog pulls out the quills whenever her back is turned, turning back the clock and allowing existence to continue.

me: ...is...is...is that why we refer to the fabric of space and time?

The textile book: The technological revolution of textile making is sadly underappreciated. The textile arts are possibly the most fundamental human technology, as once people created string and rope, they could create nets for catching fish and small animals, and bags and baskets for carrying food. In the earliest prehistoric times, the first string or cord perhaps came from sinew, found in the body of an animal. Because of this perhaps the body of a living being could be understood as made of a textile material. Indeed textiles have the function of preserving life, as with a surgeon stitching back together the human body or bandages being placed on a wound. Textile technologies are being used to create life-changing implants to restore function to injured parts of the body, as though a muscle or tendon can be woven and made in this way. Cloth can be used to create a parachute that will save a human's life as they plummet out of the sky. Ultimately, the textile technologies are used to enter new parts of the universe. [Photo of an astronaut and details explaining the astronaut's suit]

Me: STOP!! MY MIND IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS

headspace-hotel

The book is "Textiles: The Whole Story" by Beverly Gordon

unlettered-heathen

:D this is it! The post that got me to borrow this book from my library! This book is constantly rewiring my brain and parts of it constantly slap me in the face when I am going thru daily life and notice textiles.

Like, fiberglass ANYTHING can be considered a textile! Paper? Textile! Chain link fence? Textile!

And more than ever now when I see something like fabric on a couch or mosquito netting I wonder just how much work it would have taken if it was non-factory made. How many people have still had their hands in making it now.

I never understood why so many cultures placed such importance on textile gifts as ritual, like many native americans gifting blankets. I get it now.

Tons of other stuff too and it's all the time!

And I'm only halfway through!

Anyways OP thank you for bringing this into my life it's literally reshaping the way I think in a way I'm constantly in awe of <3

(the book if anyone was curious)

foodforthineownminds

Here! I found it in an online archive!

It functions as a digital library, so you have to sign in and wait your turn. I'm not sure why you have to do that with a digital book, but it's free so i don't care.

304 p. : 27 cm

theconcealedweapon

Some women are conditioned to be fragile and weak, and to believe that it's a sin to outperform a man. Her feminism would involve allowing women to be strong.

Some women are expected to be strong at times when they can't. Her feminism would involve reassuring her that it's okay to not be strong.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're too stupid to ever amount to anything. Their disability activism would involve reassuring them that they're capable.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're smart and gifted, and are expected to live up to impossible standards. Their disability activism would involve allowing them to fail, make mistakes, be stupid, etc.

Some children are constantly reminded "you're the child, I'm the adult" in order to deny their autonomy. Their youth rights activism would involve treating them like an adult at times when they feel ready for it.

Some children are treated like adults in order to justify increased expectations or to downplay abuse against them. Their youth rights activism would involve allowing them to be a child.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to oppression. Each individual person's experience is different. Whatever trauma is caused by their oppression, the activism should focus on undoing it.

bscoolart

I feel your pain.

catnip-cardigan

This hurts!

durlog

good evening! what the fuck

catnip-cardigan

Sneezing is one of the most miserable feelings in the world wtf was up with that guy

holespoles

Chinese artist Shou Xin creates the most wonderful cats with just a few pencil lines

Girls don’t want boys, girls want the 1924 “Stars” bottle of Dans la Nuit by René Lalique for House of Worth

#antique #house of worth #dans la nuit #rene lalique #art deco #art nouveau

we made quite a pair in the morning

we both tend to traffic in dreams

seeing it now, from the outside

you kept all your dark ones from me

—

you say that your love makes you honest

then you’re caught with your hand in the till

oh i know you

want to

i just don’t believe that you will.

eldritchbauble

You're just a mammal. Let yourself act like it. Your brain needs enrichment. Your body needs rest. You feel hunger and grow hair. You need to pack bond with other sentient things so you don't become unsocialized and neurotic. You are biologically inclined to seek dopamine and become sick when chronically stressed. "Hedonism" is made up to place moral value on taking pleasure in sensory experiences. I am telling you that if you don't let yourself be a fucking mammal, as you were made, you will suffer and go insane. No grindset no diets no trying to be above your drive for connection. Pursue what makes you feel good and practice radial rejection of the constructs meant to turn you into a machine. You're a mammal.

eldritchbauble

I am so serious about the way people are taught to view themselves as separate from and above any other animal being the root cause of a lot of problems. You're not better than a beast.

eldritchbauble

This post has really made the rounds so I have to say - this mentality changed me overnight. I had this realization that all of the fumbling over self love I did for years just needed... this. Once I internalized that I'm just a creature, it got so much easier to take care of myself.

I've started treating myself like I would a dog that's going to chew through the house when it's bored. I walk myself. I seek activities that make my brain feel less like depressed sludge. I ask my body what it needs; I rest, I enjoy rest. I don't see it as a waste or unproductive. I see it as allowing my body to do its job of working better. I lean into appreciating my natural features. I'm a hunk of flesh. I can be ugly. I can decide that ugly is appealing. I can not care. Whatever. I started emphasizing little things that nourish my relationship(s), shelving distractions more, so I can relish the time I have with loved ones. I specifically pursue pleasure--dopamine--not just quick hits from scrolling social media but getting off my ass. Engaging. Cooking myself nice meals and making fucking art, man. Things that make my spirit feel more alive than I have for years. I ask myself what it is I want rather than only doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And it doesn't mean shirk every responsibility, it means recognizing you're one of your fucking responsibilities. It's reordering. I realized I'm going to die happy or unhappy and either way I'm just as dead in a given amount of years, and I choose to die happy and fulfilled.

Everything else can get fucked ad infinitum.

Call me a hedonist, I'm saving my own life.

it’s just one day i fell asleep

and now all day, all night i dream

i am the first one i deceive

if i can make myself believe,

the rest

is easy.

vaspider

So… I got a notification from the State Department at like 8 PM Pacific that my passport was approved, and I was quietly thankful and stunned bc my legal gender in Oregon is listed as X, or undeclared, and that's what's on my passport. I'm pretty sure someone(s) worked late to get the X passports done today.

I was already really grateful to whoever in the Seattle Passport Office worked late to get these things processed on the last Friday before That Man gets back into office... and then I got a notification that my passport shipped at fucking midnight Pacific and whoever got that shit out the door so it couldn't be picked up on Monday and like, denied and shredded?

They're my fucking hero.

vaspider

So... I heard from a friend of 20+ years who works for the State Department who confirmed to me in so many words that they can assure me, without specifics, that "all of the suppositions you have made here are true."

So... yep. Passport folx at the State Department really did work incredibly long hours this week just... shoveling every passport out the door (and prioritizing the ones that might be A Problem come Monday) and yes, they did On Purpose make sure that all of them weren't just DONE but MAILED and out the door and in the hands of the USPS so that they can't be told to pull those passports back and deny/destroy them.

This also means they got the OK for the mountains of overtime from the Biden administration to get that done.

This is what I mean when I say that the Good Work is often not glamorous and that we have to prioritize things which actively and immediately better the lives of our siblings. The State Department worker who was still in the office last night at midnight Pacific time stuffing my passport into an Express Mail envelope and making sure that it was in the hands of USPS has done more liberatory work for the trans movement than 100 people endlessly auditing the language others use to describe their lives ever will.

These next years are gonna be real hard. Find something tangible to do for yourself and others, however small, and do it as hard as you can.

amieruby

Jewish queer people deserve to be safe in queer spaces.

alabastermask

@starflutters im going to take you at your word that you want to be a jewish ally and invite you to reflect on your tags

the problem here is that you have made several assumptions and leapt to a conclusion

your logic is extrapolating the statement far beyond its original point and assuming various negative implications.

“jewish people feel unsafe in queer spaces” becomes “jewish people feel unsafe because queer people are more likely to be pro-palestine” becomes “jewish people think that being pro-palestine is antisemitic” becomes “jewish people want palestinians to die”

now i’ve obviously taken these assumptions further than you did, but i do so to illustrate a point. this automatic instinct to assume the worst when seeing a jewish person make a post you agree with is one of the ways antisemitism manifests. this is one of the things that make jewish people feel unsafe. constantly having people assume you mean something you don’t is incredibly frustrating, and having it happen constantly drives people out of spaces.

in the future, i invite you to try to notice when you make these automatic negative assumptions, and not give them as much weight. if you agree with the statement that jewish people deserve to be safe in queer spaces, just reblog it. it’s as simple as that. and importantly, put your belief into action by addressing antisemitism in queer spaces.

ida-backwards-intherain

One of the reasons I don't feel comfortable in a lot of queer spaces is precisely because there are so many people who say shit like those tags. I do not feel safe around people who make those kinds of assumptions when I talk about antisemitism.

neurodivergent-loverboy

[Image description: a screenshot of tags from Tumblr user @/starflutters that say "ok so i'm reblogging because i support this, i support the text of the message, i agree, but the subtext is that Jewish people are unsafe in queer spaces because queer spaces are overwhelmingly pro-Palestine, so it's implied that to be Jewish is to be Zionist and to be against the actions of the state of Israel is to be anti-Semitic, which is a priori false, but nonetheless i do support Jewish people and Jewish queers in their personhood, complicated message". End ID.]

vaspider

"The devious Jew must mean all of these secret things i assume they mean but didn't say" hmmm yes and again, why do you think Jews don't feel safe in community with you?

paliaconfessions

Tamala took all the flowers out of the switch version I saw her

lordworm

Reblog to make it die faster

cherrycilly-deactivated20250605

Like to charge ,Reblog to cast

jonny-r217

Oh this hits good

aka-maayan

aslkdlskjlkjfdlf

lannamichaels

*cackles*

[A post on r/Judaism by u/benMogh

It’s November 1st and I see tons of stores putting trees in window displays today. Isn’t this too soon? Can’t we all agree not to start decorating for Tu Bishvat until Chanukkah is over?]

The comments are also golden :D

soberscientistlife

what-even-is-thiss

I went to a school district where it switched over to free lunch for everyone when I was in high school and before that I saw people go into lunch debt and have to take the cold lunch set aside for kids that couldn’t pay and it was always embarrassing for them. And technically those people’s families didn’t qualify for free lunch. But still their families couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for their lunch.

Once everyone got free lunch though there was no more embarrassment for anyone. And I started eating breakfast at school too because the breakfast my family gave me wasn’t always enough and I didn’t wanna be a bother by asking for more or asking for money to get breakfast at school. A lot more people started eating breakfast actually. Everyone got hot lunch. Everyone benefited. Poor families that couldn’t afford it, lower middle class families like mine who could put the spare money to use elsewhere, and anyone who just wanted extra breakfast and a hot lunch. It was an incredibly positive change for everyone.

Free school lunch makes life better for all students and also removes a layer of logistics that everyone needs to keep track of. The lunch line started going way faster because instead of waiting for people to add money to their lunch accounts we could just scan our lunch cards and move on.

undeadentropy

We have such a long way to go to unlearn capitalism, if there can be literally any debate in whether we should feed children. Literally what is the point of a society that can't even get that right? Why the fuck do we do anything?!

It's crazy that we need proof that doing basic good things is a good thing

inamindfarfaraway

Shoutout to the maned wolf, which is technically neither wolf nor fox but has its own genus called Chrysocyon! Why -

why are your legs so long?

I mean, intellectually, I understand that it’s because you live in grasslands and have evolved to be able to see over the grass, but emotionally… why? Are they?? Like that??? Surely there was a way to make your body more cohesive and proportional-looking?