alright, pals. it’s been really real, but i think this blog has come to an end. if you’re interested in finding me elsewhere, send me a message and we’ll keep in touch. ♥
To anyone who has ever told me that I'm too young to label myself as lgbtq+
By your logic, it’s too early to label as straight. (But that’s the default in this world) If anything, labeling myself as pansexual at this age is perfect. I’m opening myself up to anyone, which will help me to explore my sexuality. I won’t have to freak out if I find myself having a gay crush. I can just be me.
When straight people say, “Well, how do you know your sexual preference? You’ve never even had a sexual or romantic encounter with anyone of the same sex,” I respond with, “And neither did you at my age, and yet you knew you were straight. Why’s that? Because you found the opposite sex attractive, right? Now, think about that for a second. That’s the way I feel about both sexes.” People I have come out to, please listen. I am pansexual, alright? Stop trying to talk me out of it.
ALRIGHT AMERICANS TODAY WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT A THING.
How to make sure our pal Bernie Sanders wins the primaries so he can be our president:
1. First of all, what are primaries?
Well friends, it’s a preliminary election that decides the presidential candidates for each political party. If Bernie loses the primaries, he will NOT be able to become our next president. So for that reason it’s INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT that we all get our butts to those polls when the time comes. Here are the known or expected dates for the 2016 Democratic Party Primaries:
February
Monday, February 1: Iowa
Tuesday, February 9: New Hampshire
Saturday, February 20: Nevada
Saturday, February 27: South Carolina
March
Tuesday, March 1: Alabama; Arkansas; Colorado; Georgia; Massachusetts; Minnesota; North Carolina; Oklahoma; Tennessee; Texas; Vermont; Virginia
Saturday, March 5: Louisiana; Nebraska; Kansas
Tuesday, March 8: Mississippi; Michigan
Tuesday, March 15: Florida; Illinois; Missouri; Ohio
Tuesday, March 22: Arizona; Utah
Saturday, March 26: Alaska caucuses; Hawaii; Washington
April
Tuesday, April 5: Wisconsin
Tuesday, April 19: New York
Tuesday, April 26: Maryland; Connecticut; Delaware; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island
May
Tuesday, May 3: Indiana
Tuesday, May 10: West Virginia
Tuesday, May 17: Kentucky; Oregon
June
Sunday, June 5: Puerto Rico
Tuesday, June 7: California; Montana; New Jersey; New Mexico; South Dakota
Tuesday, June 14: Washington, DC
2. Okay cool, now I know when I need to vote!
But do you know in some states you can ONLY vote for Bernie if you are a registered Democrat?
STATES THAT ARE OPEN PRIMARIES (you do NOT need to be a registered Democrat to vote for Bernie):
Alabama
Michigan
North Dakota
Arkansas
Minnesota
Vermont
Georgia
Missouri
Wisconsin
Hawaii
Montana
STATES THAT ARE CLOSED PRIMARIES (you MUST be a registered Democrat to vote for Bernie):
Delaware
Maine
New York
Florida
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Kansas
New Jersey
Wyoming
Kentucky
New Mexico
STATES THAT ARE TOP-TWO PRIMARIES (you vote on candidates regardless of their party affiliation so you do NOT need to be a registered Democrat to vote for Bernie):
California
Nebraska
Louisiana
Washington
STATES THAT ARE HYBRID PRIMARIES (these vary between open and closed, and often depend on the current party, so if you live in one of these states you WILL need to find out the protocol for the 2016 presidential primaries):
Alaska
Maryland
Rhode Island
Arizona
Massachusetts
South Carolina
Colorado
Mississippi
South Dakota
Connecticut
New Hampshire
Tennessee
Idaho
North Carolina
Texas
Illinois
Ohio
Utah
Indiana
Oklahoma
Virginia
Iowa
Oregon
West Virginia
3. Okay, so how do I register to vote/as a Democrat?
Worried because your state has closed primaries or you’ve never used your constitutional rights to vote before and you think registering will be a terrible, vigorous, process?
DON’T WORRY FRIENDS.
Registering to vote is so easy, let me walk you through it.
Here is an online form you can mail in (available in multiple languages) that also gives you step by step instructions depending on your state. If you live in New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, unfortunately you can NOT use this method.
For any state, you can check the following places to register in person:
State or local voter registration and/or election offices
The department of motor vehicles
Public assistance agencies
Armed services recruitment centers
State-funded programs that serve people with disabilities
Any public facility that a state has designated as a voter registration agency
Here is another link of states where you can register online, if you’re an anxious nugget like me.
EACH STATE HAS A SPECIFIC DEADLINE TO REGISTER IN TIME FOR PRIMARIES. IF YOU NEED TO REGISTER, MAKE SURE YOU FIND OUT WHEN THAT IS AND REGISTER BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
If you do end up having to register in person, do not be afraid friends! You are doing a very important and brave thing.
4. Alright, so I know when I have to vote, I am registered to vote, and if my state has closed primaries, I registered as a Democrat! I’m done now, right?
Nope, there’s one last thing! If you’re like me and unable to get to a voting poll, whether or not it’s due to school, work, your health, or being out of your state/country, you need to fill out an ABSENTEE BALLOT FORM!
This link contains not only the absentee ballot forms of every state, but some even have more voter registration forms as well!
DON’T FORGET. DEADLINES EXIST.
Write it in your planner, your calendar. Post it on your ceiling. Write it in ketchup on your burger. Tattoo it to your arm. Whatever helps!
AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, WHATEVER YOU DO:
Do not brush this off. Do not assume, well I’m just one person, what is one vote going to do? Bernie can win without little old me.
That’s wrong. You and your vote is so incredibly important. Bernie cannot win without you. Without us.
So please. Read this. Spread this. Register. Get ready to vote. Bernie promises to do his best to better America. Let’s do our best to get him there.
Aries: they love deeply but don't necessarily want to admit it. enjoys scarier/darker stuff. introverted. wannabe rebel. communicating/ conveying feelings isn't very easy for them. passionate. have some kind of edge/darkness to them. ambitious. restless. watch out when they're pissed.
Taurus: stubborn. logical and practical. wants to talk about feelings. can be insensitive but loyal. intelligent af. adores music. grammar, punctuation, spelling freaks. for some reason does goofy voices and makes weird noises a lot. lives on the computer. hilariously clever.
Gemini: probably won't hesitate to throw someone else under the bus to succeed, but is friendly and nice. soft spoken, quiet. intimidatingly smart. athletic as hell. cute sense of style.
Cancer: soft squishy lil lovebugs. when they find their passion they go and do it. will love you forever. struggles with self love/respect. makes very good points in arguments. really likes food. odd obsession with animals.
Leo: egotistical and self-glorifying, but owns up to mistakes and apologizes for them. though if they're embarrassed by it they tell you to shut up. likes to be the center of attention. honesty about feelings is not their forte. just wants to be loved. hugs and cuddles are their fave, any kind of touching really. suck at texting. commitment issues.
Virgo: pretentious. super smart, probably in a lot of advanced classes. struggles with depression and self-image. looks to make deep connections. insightful. always knows obscure facts. really likes video games. awkward.
Libra: super understanding. on your side 100% of the time. amazing listeners. artsy. good with their hands. deep problems at home. gets annoyed pretty easily. puts on a mask a lot. trust issues. creative. rants for hours. twinge of sadness about them. can be really negative. has great hair.
Scorpio: kinky. excellent huggers. wants to help but kinda sucks at it. arrogant. great friends. saying "I love you" isn't natural for them. smart. tries. knows they've fucked up but doesn't do much to stop or fix it. a mysterious heaviness to them. abhors ignorance/stupidity. doesn't know how to handle breakups.
Sagittarius: boss ass bitch. motivated. intelligent. works hard. very understanding. cares about you. flips out at little things. wants fulfilling relationships. artist. listens well. family issues. not always honest about how they feel. strong. confident. full package.
Capricorn: quiet. judgey. soft and gentle huggers. aren't very concerned with relationships. hard to talk to, but want you to talk to them. will probably make it in business. articulate with feelings.
Aquarius: kind. hot as hell. craves physical contact. easy to befriend. fun to spend time with. honor roll af. manages emotions healthily. well-rounded individual. points out interesting things. stimulating conversation. there for you.
Pisces: innocent and doe-eyed. super cute. in advanced classes, as they should be. empathetic. caring. defensive of their friends. will always love that one person. easy to talk to. fully immerses themselves in their music genre. tries to be threatening but isn't. avoids conflict. bubbly. can miss the point a lot.
non-binary =/= genderless. non-binary people are people who aren’t strictly male or female. some are both. some are neither. some feel vague connections to one or the other. some are fluid between male, female, or nothing. so pretending that non-binary people don’t/can’t go by gendered terminology or pronouns is frankly ignorant.
staff You are recommending that I follow a nazi blog I blocked last night. Your site promotes anti-semitism to Jews. Your site shoves Nazi Swastikas in the faces of Jews. It’s bad enough that the Nazi blogs seem to be sprouting up like weeds on a site that claims to have an anti-hate policy, but to actively promote them to people who have taken the steps of blocking these blogs is beyond the pale. Clean this place up. It’s turning into Stormfront.
I encourage everyone who sees this post, Jewish or otherwise, to reblog it. Tumblr has been ignoring the growth of Nazism on this site for too long. It needs to end.
Her dreadlocks felt empowering – so why get rid of them? Read how she learned about cultural appropriation the hard way, and you'll learn how to be a better ally and feminist.
This is how you ally, white feminism.
Oh yeah, and fuck you Allure Mag !
This White Feminist Loved Her Dreadlocks – Here’s Why She Cut Them Off
August 2, 2015 by Annah Anti-Palindrome
I felt the societal pressures of womanhood come on like a plague.
It seemed like one day I was building forts and catching lizards, and the next I was sucking in my gut, picking at my face, and navigating an inescapable shame about my body – a shame that I’ve now spent the last twenty years trying to shirk.
I remember being ten years old and grieving my girlhood – that short period of time when I was allowed to exist without a preoccupation of my physical appearance constantly looming in the front of my mind – a time when my self-esteem wasn’t rooted in whether or not I was pretty enough, skinny enough, busty enough, sexy enough.
Time passed and the more unattainable and oppressive heteronormative femininity felt, the more I grew to hate myself and everybody around me.
In my late teens, I finally gave up. I cobbled together an outfit with layers suitable for all types of weather and didn’t change out of it for an entire year.
I let my leg and armpit hair grow long, and I let the hair on my head spiral into a nest of cords, matts, and tangles (a hairdo I would later ignorantly and appropriatively refer to as dreadlocks).
I ran away from home – started hitchhiking all over the country, going to feminist music festivals, entrenching myself amidst the company of other (mostly white) grrrls who were shirking their feminine hygiene routines (shaving, bathing, hair combing, general beauty maintenance regimens of all types, really) in order to really “stick it to the patriarchy.” (It was a thing, okay?)
We idolized musicians like The Slits, Babes in Toyland, 7 Year Bitch, Ani Difranco, L7, and Switchblade Symphony – all feminists who wrote songs about smashing mainstream beauty standards – all bands featuring white women who wore their hair in dreadlocks at some point or another during their musical careers.
What It Was Like Being A White Girl with Dreadlocks
In navigating through a predominantly white, feminist punk subculture, I never gave a second thought to whether wearing my hair in dreadlocks was offensive — at least to any one other than to The Patriarchy.
Having dreadlocks was part of what allowed me to stop obsessing over my appearance.
As long as I had them, the pressure – well for me as a cis gender white woman – to achieve mainstream, heteronormative beauty standards was off the table.
I suppose I felt empowered by this form of rebellious self-exclusion (the alternative being forced exclusion because I simply failed at womanhood).
While I did run into the occasional asshole on the street who called me a “filthy dyke,” my whiteness led people to read me as “quirky” and “alternative”.
I wasn’t followed around by security guards every time I went into a store. I wasn’t hassled by the cops for hanging out with my friends on street corners. I wasn’t hauled off to jail on the presumption that I was a gang member just because of my nonconventional appearance.
To further my point, being a white grrrl with dreadlocks, as well as someone who wore clothing scrappily held together by safety pins, dental fIoss and band patches, I was still considered employable and trustworthy.
Without any regard to personal qualifications, even with an incarceration record and no college education, I was often given responsibilities that put me in positions of authority over my co-workers of color.
Despite my rebellious appearance, I enjoyed a level of tolerance from authority figures and society at large that can only be attributed to my whiteness.
Everything changed when I stopped traveling, started investing in local activist projects, and began building a broader, more multiracial community.
For the first time, my peers had lots of questions and critiques about my choice to wear dreadlocks.
The responses other activists had to my hair ranged from mild irritation to downright anger.
People were constantly making comments under their breath when they passed me about “cultural appropriation” – I had no idea what that meant.
Some friends eventually suggested some readings and resources that would help me understand.
I read them and learned more about the history and symbolism of dreadlocks in the US in context to black folk’s resistance movements against white supremacy. I learned that black folks in the US with dreadlocks are not seen as “quirky” or “alternative,” but as “dangerous” and “militant”.
I learned to identify the ways that white colonist mentalities show up in our contemporary, everyday lives.
I realized that I was participating in the shitty reality that, for centuries, white people have felt entitled to taking pretty much anything their hearts desire – entire continents, human bodies, land resources, and, yes, whatever cultural trappings of the communities they colonized that were thought to be intriguing at the time.
The Harmful Messages I Was Sending to the World as a White Woman with Dreadlocks
It finally became clear to me that by wearing my hair in dreadlocks as a white person, the nonverbal statements I was making to folks of color were:
“Look! I can reject all of mainstream society’s expectations of me and still be treated with more respect than you!”
“Your legacies of cultural resistance are so irrelevant that they’ve become nothing more than a fashion accessory to help me evade the expectations of white womanhood!”
“I don’t care that my presence illicitness discomfort and sometimes communicates what is seen as blatant disrespect!”
“I don’t care that my hairstyle symbolizes the kind of white entitlement that has resulted in centuries worth of global, colonial violence.”
Etcetera.
I’m pretty embarrassed to say so… but even after this new stage of awareness I stiiiiillllll had a super hard time letting them go.
Some examples of my last stitch arguments were:
1. “Lots of cultures throughout the ages have worn dreadlocks! I’m part Scandinavian! My ancestors were Vikings!”
To which my friends responded:
Yes, it’s true that dreadlocks are worn in all different cultures around the world, but the context for which they are worn in the US is explicitly rooted in black folks’ (Rastafarians specifically) symbolic resistance to white supremacy.
When white people in the US wear dreadlocks, the power of this symbolic resistance is reduced to an “exotic” fashion trend wherein the oppressor is able to “play,” temporarily, an “exotic other” without acknowledging or experiencing any of the daily discriminations black folks have to face.
2. “We live in an intercultural society. Black women wear white hairstyles, so what’s up with the double standard?”
To which my friends responded:
Black women are told that in order to appear “respectable” in US society, they need to invest an obscene amount of time and energy into making themselves “look more white.”
Due to this fucked-up societal pressure – and due to the institutional power that white people have in determining mainstream beauty standards – it’s not the same.
3. “Nobody can control me! I do what I want!”
To which my friends responded:
…and you know what? You’re white, so it makes complete sense that you’d feel that way.
4. “By wearing dreadlocks, I’m giving up my white privilege to stand in solidarity with POC.”
To which my friends responded:
You are an oppression tourist – a white girl who always has an escape route back to the open arms of white supremacy once she is through rebelling. You can cut them off anytime.
To pretend otherwise or assume yourself a martyr is misguided and offensive.
5. “But there’s a difference between ‘appreciation’ and ‘appropriation’ isn’t there?”
My friends referred me to articles like these, saying:
I’m trying to think of examples of things I respect and how I show that respect. I’m actually struggling to think of a time when I respected something, and decided the best way to show that respect was by taking it. You know how I show respect?
I listen.
I listen hard, I listen deeply, and I listen constantly. I listen to stories, I listen to histories, I listen to learn, and I listen to hear when I’ve misstepped. I listen so I can become a more complete human being.
6. “But that’s not what I mean! What about the purpose they serve me?”
To which my friends responded:
Whether or not you mean to be disrespectful, the statements you are communicating are out of your control. Certain cultural symbols will always have semiotic weight – you wouldn’t wear a swastika pendant just because you thought it was pretty.
The Haircut
I finally cut them off – and when I did, I felt (literally and figuratively) a dozen pounds lighter.
Though I am still pretty “alternative” looking, I’ve learned to stand up against systems of oppression by doing the actual footwork in my daily life. I no longer naively expect my physical appearance (on its own) to do that work for me.
Cutting off my dreadlocks was a form of accountability – an acknowledgment of the ways in which I’ve benefited (and continue to benefit) from legacies of extreme, racialized violence.
Cutting off my dreadlocks didn’t make me an instantly “good white person” or even a trustworthy ally, but it sure as hell dismantled some of the barriers that stood in the way of cultivating deep, meaningful relationships based on mutual respect, trust and solidarity.
As feminists, we do need to continue working hard to dismantle society’s oppressive messages about femininity, but we also need to be thinking about the intersections of race, class, and gender, the ways some of us benefit from the system in which we live, and how we can empower and liberate ourselves without contributing to the oppression of someone else.
and soon, i will say goodbye @iamonlystardust - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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