Critical Social Justice

21, female. This blog is dedicated to fighting for the rights of marginalized groups while still remaining critical of some of the tactics that others use to do so; more importantly, I hope to shed light on the fact that the two aren't mutually exclusive.

[colorsofsocialjustice]

So, you don't oppose social justice... you only oppose people who fight for social justice? How does that work, exactly?

I can’t speak for everyone, but generally being “anti-sj” means opposing the tactics and arguments that the social justice community on tumblr often uses. So the issue is not with equality, or addressing racism/sexism/etc. The issue is with people on this website (and some others, e.g. twitter) lying, self-victimizing, and harassing, among other things. “SJW” is meant to refer specifically to this brand of activist. It’s often simpler to call yourself “anti-sjw” or “anti-sj”, though it’s definitely less clear.

- Mod Navy

[lornagonigall]

If they want to make ‘Suffragette’ as realistic as possible, I hope it shows the suffragettes hating black women/lower/middle class white women getting votes and shaming men into going to war.

[saiyajinlegacy-deactivated20151]

I’d also like them to stop re-writing history/spreading the myth that men could vote before this point in history, when in fact only land owners (ie. the 1%) could. Honestly, this lie needs to stop. It’s the crux of so many feminist arguments but in reality…

[criticalsocialjustice]

So earlier today I took yet another stab at sending a private message to a friend after she posted a feminism-related Facebook article that I disagreed with. (I’ve gotten into the habit of doing that lately, but usually people just ignore it.) I was anxious about it, but I’m very close with this girl so I thought I would give it a try.

Anyway, I just ran into her a few minutes ago. I panicked at first because I didn’t know if she had seen it yet, but when I got the picture that she’d been buried in work all day I realized she didn’t know yet. Either way, as we were chatting I gradually worked up the nerve to tell her that I had seen the article she posted and so I sent her a message because I didn’t really agree with it and I wanted to discuss it with her.

And her response? Total excitement. She told me she had something to look forward to after her big project was done, and she acted like I had just told her I found a cure to all of her life’s problems. Definitely a bit foreign to a conflict-phobe like myself, but I’m just so relieved to know that not only is she not ready to cut me off for disagreeing with her about social justice, but she’s actually excited that her friend has opinions about things she cares about and wants to discuss them with her.

If the debate goes anywhere, I’ll post an update, but for now I’m just so relieved and I just wanted to share that. :)

[dearfeminists-deactivated201604]

Dear Feminists,

Why is it that if a woman comes out to disagree with your rhetoric you try and harass her into silence? Like if Meryl Streep comes out and says she’s not a feminist since believes men and women experience equal sexism you disrupt the premier of her movie? Or when the CEO of Yahoo Marissa Mayer says it’s easier for women to get promotions and become CEO’s in the work force then men you send her messages threaten to murder her and her family? How is terrorizing anyone that disagrees with you empowering women?

[yrbff]

How We Treat Mental Illness Vs. How We Treat Physical Illness

[memewhore]

God, seriously.

[mooncalfe-deactivated20231020]

also, i like these weird character designs.

[pansexual-christian-deactivated]

“I am a feminist, and I recognize that my movement and some of its most vocal members have done harm despite the good intentions. It’s known that people frequently misinterpret and/or twist it to fit personal agendas, and we’re working to change that. There are other movements with the same or a similar ideology, and though I might not always agree with their ideals and members, I respect their decision and opinions on things as long as they don’t disrespect the existence and choices of others.”

“Feminism means EQUALITY, so if you believe in equality, you’re a feminist, PERIOD. Non-feminist girls don’t love themselves, non-feminist boys are misogynist pigs. People who are transphobic/racist/sexist are not REAL feminists, get it right. If you disagree with me, you’re a cis white male middle-aged sexual predator.”

[colorsofsocialjustice]

What truely makes my skin crawl is that everytime someone points out the absolutely insane tactics sjw's use on here, someone goes "That's just code for not wanting to get called out or for minorities to have a voice tbh!!!!". Uuuuuuuuugh for fucks sake NO, this is about harassment, fear mongering and spreading deliberate misinformation being seen as completely justfied because 'our cause is good'. It scares me that these people genuinely do not grasp how deconstructive their behaviour is.

Or how hypocritical it is to say that harassment, fear mongering, and spreading misinformation is okay when they do it, but if anyone else does and they don’t approve, then it’s bad. 

- Purple

[turnmybraindown]

Okay: You should not wear a hijab ifyou don’t at least understand what it means to Muslim women.

Not Okay: WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER HAVE DREADS OR BINDIS OR ANYTHING MADE BY POC OMG RACIST TURDS

Okay: No race should have more privilege than another, equality around the globe is what we need.

Not Okay: Friendly (✿◕‿◕) reminder (◡‿◡✿) that [race] should (✿◕‿◕) all just (◡‿◡✿) die already (ʘ‿ʘ✿) uwu uwu uwu

Okay: Here is a list of multiple credible sources that prove my point/disprove your point.

Not Okay: NOEP YOU’RE WRONG I’M RIGHT BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME LOL

Okay:  Racism is a belief that one’s own racial or ethnic group is superior, or that other such groups represent a threat to one’s cultural identity, racial integrity, or economic well-being; (also) a belief that the members of different racial or ethnic groups possess specific characteristics, abilities, or qualities, which can be compared and evaluated. Hence: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against people of other racial or ethnic groups (or, more widely, of other nationalities), esp. based on such beliefs. (Oxford English Dictionary)

Not Okay: Racism is a system built upon oppression and whites can’t be oppressed because they are in power!!!!

Okay: Empowering women

Not Okay: Degrading men to empower women

Okay: Empowering men

Not Okay: Degrading women to empower men

Okay: I did some research on the possible medical illnesses that I may have before my appointment with a therapist.

Not Okay: I 100% have autism because I have all the symptoms, you’re classist if you think I can’t diagnose as well as my doctor!

Okay: Feminists support equality of the sexes at its core, but some feminists have lost this idea and are now trying to do to men what men have done to women throughout history. We need to remind people of that and call out those who degrade men.

Not Okay: Man-haters are not feminists, feminists are always perfect, also if you aren’t a feminist you hate equality.

Okay: Vaccines are mostly safe. Adverse effects can happen, but they are uncommon and not nearly as dangerous as the diseases vaccines protect us from.

Not Okay: Vaccines are killing and sterilizing people and causing autism and Big Pharma is making a huge profit off of our dying children!

Okay: Circumcision of babies is a horrible thing.

Not Okay: Circumcision of babies is a horrible thing unless it’s a boy.

Okay: I’m an asexual trans man. I experience gender dysphoria and I am not aroused by sexual activity. I have always been like this but only recently realized it.

Not Okay: Yesterday I was a non-binary trans special boy grey-ace demiromantic sapiosexual, but today I feel like I’m more of a trigender heteroromantic pansexual. Tomorrow I will probably identify as a homoromantic cupiosexual genderfluid. I can choose these labels as I see fit.

Okay: I am bisexual. I am interested in both men and women.

Not Okay: I am bisexual, but I am only interested in the opposite sex. That still makes me bisexual, check your privilege!

Okay: I get uncomfortable when I see [trigger], and I should be careful about what I search on the Internet.

Not Okay: These are my triggers and if you don’t tag these I will report you for harassment because I get actual panic attacks from seeing ramen noodles!

Okay: I’ve got this mental illness where I have multiple personalities, and I’m doing everything I can to get rid of it.

Not Okay: Our kin types are God, Naruto, Liam Neeson, Markiplier, foxes, tampons and Obama. We are a multiple system and people are ableist because they tell us we are ill, but we’re normal!

from: http://thezombiequeen83.tumblr.com

[failisuck-deactivated20151124]

When you’re so intent on swaying public opinion that you completely ignore how charts (and numbers) work. 

This graphic was shown during the Planned Parenthood hearing. There is no y-axis shown, and the arrows imply that abortions are happening at a higher rate than cancer screenings and prevention services. This is completely false. If you look at the numbers, though, (which were too small to be seen by those at the hearing) you can see that the 935,573 cancer screening and prevention services greatly outnumber the 327,000 abortions that were provided, despite their misleading position on the graph. It’s no surprise that the chart was made by “Americans United for Life,” an anti-abortion group. 

Politifact has corrected Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s misleading graph, and theirs is shown below:

Here’s another Politifact graph including the other services that Planned Parenthood provides:

Graphics were from this Politifact article: Chart Shown at Planned Parenthood  Hearing is Misleading and “Ethically Wrong”

[sexologist]

Cervical cancer is pornographic now

Because vagina.

A mother is trying to ban a book about the true story of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cervical cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or permission and used to make some of the most important medical breakthroughs in modern medicine, “paving the way for treatments and cures for diseases including polio, cancer, and AIDS. At the same time, the book raises difficult questions about bioethics and race relations”.

Why does this woman want the book banned? Because vagina. Because the book describes Lacks’ discovery of a tumor on her cervix, via her vagina.

But it wasn’t enough for this Puritan mom that her 15 year old child got a different reading assignment so he wouldn’t have to learn about the horrors that vaginas exist. She wants the school district to ban the book, for everyone, so that the other 59,000 students can’t read it either. She “just feel[s} that strongly about it being out of the hands of our children.” And because she has feelings, no one else can have access to that 

It reminds me of when in 2010, a school district removed the unabridged Anne Frank; The Diary of a Young Girl from the curriculum because a parent complained about Anne’s use of the words “vagina” and “clitoris” when writing about her self discovery.

Genocide is offensive.

A family being locked in an annex for two years, hiding from a gas chamber is offensive.

If you read Anne Frank’s story, and her vagina is what offended you, you need to find your missing humanity.

Cancer is offensive.

A woman being treated like a human petri dish at the only hospital that admitted black patients is offensive.

If you read Henrietta Lacks’ story, and her vagina is what offended you, you need to find your missing humanity.

This is the type of stuff I want to explore, unpack, and get others to think about critically in my Sex and Censorship museum (which I’m still fundraising for, by the way). Why are people seemingly so disturbed by sex but not brutal violence and dehumanization, like genocide and human testing? How did it come to be that one lone sex-phobe can yield such disproportionate power over others? How do issues of race, class, and gender come into play with censored sexual expression? Things I want to explore in my museum.

[psychocherrybomb]

"Eww I am not a feminist i believe in equality of both genders."

Well i dont like to break the bad news but then you apparently are a feminist, oh and you are also a morron. Congrats on both!!

[tuhmblr-iogic-blog]

You can be an MRA and believe in equality.

You can be a feminist and believe in equality. 

You can be an anti feminist believe in equality. 

You can be an egalitarian and believe in equality.

Feminism is a movement and an ideology. It has no monopoly on equality for both genders. 

[belligerent-barbie]

Yelling at someone for having different or non-progressive opinions will never change them. All it will do is make the person defensive and even more stubborn on the subject.

An effective way of educating people is EXPLAINING your view and RESPECTFULLY presenting another perspective on the subject rather than INSULTING them and just calling them “ignorant”, “uneducated”, “judgemental” or the very popular “problematic”.

[cheshireinthemiddle]

“If you believe in equality then you’re a feminist”

“What? But you’re a woman. You have to be a feminist!”

“There is literally no reason to not be a feminist.” 

 “Anyone who makes feminism look bad is an extremist!”

“But those aren’t real feminists”

“If you aren’t a feminist, you just don’t know what feminism is!”

“Yes we know there are a lot of bad feminists. We just ignore them.”

“Feminism is for equality. If we do it then it’s for equality.”

[insideoutnexttonormal-deactivat]

“But you owe us! We secured voting rights for women!”

[mitchfynde2]

Transgender Anger

I’m just gonna come out and say it. If you’re trans and you go on the internet and spew hatred about cis people every day, you’re a peice of shit. No, you being trans doesn’t give you some immunity from critique. It doesn’t give you an immunity from fucking anything. 

You morons go on about how scared you are to go outside because you’re afraid of getting beat up or murdered. How about you stop fucking provoking people who are not even necessarily against you? WOULDN’T THAT HELP YOUR CAUSE? Don’t you think that maybe, JUST MAYBE, being fucking polite and making a case for why you deserve respect might give you a better chance at being respected? 

If you’re genuinely scared, I fucking empathize with you. I may not understand you. Sometimes I may not even WANT to understand you, but I don’t want people to beat you up or be killed. Anyone who isn’t a fucking violent barbarian should be able to empathize with you. I understand that it’s hard. I get it. A lot of people don’t like you and some do threaten you with violence and that’s WRONG and absolutely fucked up. Is that an excuse, though?

When it comes to who you are, do you want to make excuses? You’re probably a good person, but nobody is going to see that when all you do is lash out. There are people who could easily be persuaded to be your ally and you tell them to die because they are scum. Is this who you want to be?

[criticalsocialjustice]

So I’ve made a very small change to my bio in honor of stuff that’s going on today...

[fawningprince-deactivated201701]

A quick guide for anyone adjusting to someone’s pronouns. 

Just correct yourself, its really easy. Please spare trans people your rant about how hard you’re trying to adjust. Chances are the person you misgendered just wants to move on with the conversation. 

We know your sorry, otherwise we wouldn’t be your friend.

[criticalsocialjustice]

You answered a post I wrote on my blog like a year ago, on your old blog and I was thinking about it today in the shower. You said ".. I see come up a lot is sexist comments. Now, I certainly have had more direct experience with this in high school, and I did spend some time being angry about it. But over time I realized that this guy wasn’t a genuine misogynist so much as someone who just liked to push buttons, which is why my constantly trying to prove him wrong was a waste of time."

I think you were thinking too micro about a system of oppression. Like yeah, the guy may not be a genuine misogynist as you put it, but misogyny and patriarchy is insidious. So when men feel entitled to our time, or don’t value the work typically done by women, or pay us less bc we have children they may not be actively trying to oppress us, but it it’s still oppressive.

Okay, I know exactly who you’re talking about and I still remember that situation. I still stand by what I said, and I think you’re missing the point of what that is.

The point I try to illustrate with that situation is not so much that we should refrain from painting those people as misogynists so much as that we need to think about the ways in which we’re trying to solve these problems, and rethink which ones are effective.

All I’m saying is that being angry and trying to get him to see the error of his ways was, in that situation, not as productive as me eventually being able to calm down and deciding to pick my battles–which is something that I still believe feminists have a problem with not doing.

Also, I’m not talking about entitlement to women’s time, not valuing women’s work, or paying women less. I was talking about something that was pretty much on the level of a “your mom” joke. The background is complicated to go into, and much of it came from the fact that I already had a short fuse, but the point is that the problem didn’t get solved until I made the decision to stop trying to change him.

So yes, perhaps in the situations you’re talking about it’s important to make men aware of their oppressive behavior, but that’s a different story. I’m not talking about guys who are unaware, I’m talking about guys who are like, “Oh, trust me, I don’t believe any of what I’m saying. I just like seeing you get mad.” And believe me, I greatly dislike people who act like that. It annoys me, but I truly do believe in not feeding the trolls.

Basically, don’t think I’m saying that we should handle all forms of oppression by turning the other cheek and understanding where they’re coming from. That experience drives me to the opinion of how we should handle one very specific type of situation that I feel like people aren’t going about solving in a very efficient way.