feminist thougths

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

In our society, we are brainwashed into being envious of the people around us. We are manipulated into believing that we need to compare ourselves to what media has portrayed to be beautiful. In Margaret Hobbs and Carla Rice’s, Gender and Women’s Studies, there is an excerpt that speaks about body positivity. Titled Activist Insight: Intersectional Body Activism, it explains how our culture and society oppresses women based on body size, shape, and skin color. It discusses the movement of “It Gets Fatter”, another tumblr account that was started by fat people in order to spread body positivity, self-acceptance, and self-love. 

No matter the shape, size, or color of your skin, you are beautiful. Regardless of what society thinks, your body is amazing, your body is the definition of perfection. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

Nelly Oudshoorn, a professor at the University of Twente posted the Introduction to Beyond the Natural Body. In this article, she explain how the female body became sexualized. In the beginning the only difference between men and women was the location of the reproductive organs. They thought they were the same just that a females is in the inside of her body and the mans is on the outside. Men seem to not like the idea of being equal to women therefore they search to find differences between the bodies that would make themselves more superior. They began to sexualize all parts of women’s bodies for their own enjoyment. 

This photo supports the idea to desexualize the female body. Many of us find it uncomfortable wearing something that we enjoy because we fear that men will view it as attention seeking and that we are sexual objects for their satisfaction. Personally, I wish that just as some men do, I could go topless in the summer without being afraid that I’ll be labeled as something I am not. I want to be confident in my body but how can that be possible when to society my body is there just for the enjoyment of men. It is time to desexualize my body, and all women’s bodies. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

naturalness judged

When I was in junior high, rumors that I didn’t understand had spread about one of my classmates. They would whisper about how he couldn’t actually be a guy, how the size of his chest was bigger than all of the girls’ combined. How no matter how hard he tried he would never be able to grow facial hair and how his voice refused to drop like our peers. I could hear them saying that he must be a girl, or used the incorrect term and called him a hermaphrodite. 

It turned out that he wasn’t, he simply just had high levels of estrogen which pills were easily prescribed to balance them out. This kind of situation happens a lot in today’s society. People are singled out, ridiculed, and judged for something they have no control over. In Kate Allen’s How the Practice of Sex-Testing Targets Female Olympic Athletes, she describes how athletic women are oppressed during competitions. They had sex-testing to confirm that every athlete was a woman, but if her hormones did not match that of what was assumed to be normal she would be evicted from competing. Just as my classmate had been ridiculed and singled out, so were these women.

No matter what, what our bodies produce is completely natural. We should not dictate and judge people based on how their hormones affect their bodies. Because no matter what, we are perfect. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

In Anastasia Kousakis and Jessica Valenti’s Why Is America So Obsessed with Virginity, they state that there is in fact no medial definition of virginity. The idea of being “pure” to them is also a myth, this idea of purity is a way for men to try and influence and manipulate young girls into thinking that a man will be able to define her. A woman who is no longer a virgin is considered a “slut” or a “whore, whilst men who are not virgins are celebrated and considered “ladies man” or “studs”. As soon as a woman has sex, she is no longer seen as valuable and desirable. The concept is fabricated to try and oppress and shame women. As the photo above states, men think they have some kind of superiority over us. They believe that they are the key that transforms a girl into a woman. Which is completely wrong, women should not subject themselves to the idea of virginity because it is not the definition that society believes it to be. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

Welcome to all teen sapphics! This is a safespace for all female and female-aligned sapphics! Feel...

This account encourages and creates a safe space for women to engage with other women. It embraces all women, but their main focus is to empower lesbian women. As a feminist, you need to learn how to be accepting and supportive of all sexual orientations which is exactly why this account is important to follow. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

23 years old. Feminist. Ready to resist.

This account reflects majorly around women rights to their own bodies. In her most recent post, she talks about how women should have the right to abortion if they believe it is what’s best without scrutiny. Rights to our own bodies is an important feminist topic. We are now being taught to love ourselves and that we can do as we please with our own bodies 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

my first Chicago winter

This account is good to follow because it highlights the struggles that women deal with every day. It reflects on all issues of out society such as abuse against women, job oppression, issues surrounding sex and orientation, and tons more. 

[colecionalivros-deactivated2022]

Minha existencia não é sobre quão desejável você acha que eu sou. #repost @liberaljane . . . . . . #feminism #equality #humanrights #timesup #girlpower #feminismo #feminista #drawing #empoderamento #empowering #woman #intersectionalfeminism #aesthetic #girlpower #feminist #anxiety #ansiedade #blackandwhite #mentalhealth #love #selflove #emmawatson #art #autoestima #selfesteem #blackpower #blacklivesmatter #malalayousafzai #malala #drawing https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl1OF3lgdCo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=l9bb0yzv9mb1

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

As a woman, I often find myself wondering how others perceive me. Women are conditioned to seek the appraisal of our peers in the form of magazines, ads, and celebrities.This is a feminist issue. We wish that we would match what society seems to view as “perfect”. But, we need to learn that instead of comparing ourselves to what media portrays the perfect woman to be, we need to realize that we are the perfect women. This photo represents that we are not here on this earth to please other people. We were not fabricated to be a victim of societies cruel norms. As the photo states, “ my existence is not about how desirable you find me”.

[thosedamnliberals]

A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.

– Melinda Gates

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

In history, women have not been given the right to their own voices. There have been years of oppression where no matter what a woman had to contribute, even if it was the right thing, was ignored and waived off due to the fact that she was a woman. Women were not given the right to vote, divorce, property, and more. Today, women have fought hard for the right to their own opinions and the right to express those opinions. Although, as this post states, there are times when finding our voices is hard because we fear the reactions of our peers. We must learn to express our voices regardless of how other people may react, so that we can all become strong women. This is important to feminism because it highlights the success that women have achieved after many years of oppression from our male counterparts. 

[doesthendnlive]

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

the text of the bill here

al jazeera article explaining what happened here (article published 11/14/18)

KEY QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE:

If Congress does not pass legislation protecting the tribe and the legal challenge fails, the Mashpee would be stripped of their right to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over their land.

Jessie Little Doe Baird, the tribe’s vice-chairwoman, told Al Jazeera that loss of jurisdiction would prevent the tribe from running indigenous language schools, tribal courts, and housing projects, as well as its own police.

“We have our own police force, which is important because they’re tribal citizens and since we’ve had our own police force, none of our men have been beaten or shot, which we’ve had before with non-tribal police,” she said.

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

This post reflects the issue of the mistreatment of Native peoples. For centuries, native people have been oppressed, and stripped from their homelands by colonizers. This is important to feminism because when tribes were evicted from their lands before, women were often stripped of their status and forced to move into buildings that were unsafe. Native women were forced to live in poverty, with no access to basic human needs and rights. 

[hellofeministthoughts-blog]

A strong, independent woman.

Growing up, my mother always taught me to be a “strong, independent woman”. When I was 14 years old I kind of lost sight of that. A few years before, I started to follow the trend that my other classmates had gawked over, which was to pawn over magazines. In these magazines were pictures of other girls who seemed too perfect to be true. I started to compare myself to them, everybody thought they were gorgeous and i believed I could never compete. I would sit awake at night, wondering if there was anything I could do to be like them.

I had become the very definition of someone who sought the male gaze. As it is explained in Carla Rice’s Through the Mirror of Beauty Culture, girls and women often begin to notice the attention of boys and men. “... Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at…” (433). As a young woman myself, I started wondering if boys looked at me or thought I was pretty. I was so self-conscious at a young age that I was desperate for someone to think I was beautiful. It wasn’t until a year later that I really dedicated myself to trying to resemble them. I started cutting down the amount I ate, I would throw out the lunch my mother gave me every day, and when I got home I’d say I’m still full from what I had lied about eating. I had let the opinions of other people influence how i took care of myself. I put myself at risk just to appease society. At almost 18 years old, when I finally realized what I had done, I weighed 91 pounds.

When I think about how I looked today, I don’t know what I was thinking. In the mirror, I looked like a skeleton. All of my ribs were visible, my hip bones protrude significantly, my face sunken in… I had to visit the hospital on multiple occasions, they’d prescribe me iron deficiency pills, magnesium, they’d make me drink ensures, anything to try to evade the risk I subjected myself too.

Today, I weigh about 135 pounds, which is around the average weight for someone my height and age. I’ve learned to accept the body I was born in despite what society believes I should look like. I won’t subject myself to the norms any longer. I don’t need the approval of men or any of my peers. All i ever needed was to believe in my own image.I have learned to be what my mother always taught me to be, “a strong, independent woman”