Feminism Intersectionally

[About Us (desktop)]. [Tags]. Intersectionality: Various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality. Kimberlé Crenshaw, 1989.

[intersectional-feminists]

Librarian anon. Thank you for replying so quickly! I definitely appreciate the input. You're right, it would be censorship to remove them just on the basis of the author, particularly when the books have such positive messages. I'm a rape victim myself, so I admit that I likely overthought the situation somewhat. My next project after this one will be adding children's books about consent and bodily autonomy, so I can add to one conversation without taking away from another. Thank you again!

No problem! That sounds like a great project indeed. 

- Nyx

[intersectional-feminists]

I have a question. I'm white and I work at a library. I was recently put in charge of the kids' sections, so I decided my first priority was to make sure that non-white kids had as much positive representation as possible. I came across a stack of the Little Bill books by Bill Cosby, and I'm unsure what to do with them. Should I leave them on the shelves, or withdraw them in light of the rape accusations against Cosby? I just wanted some outside input. Thanks for your time!

I don’t know that much about the books themselves, but from a quick google search it seems like they’re positive empowering books for children. I wouldn’t remove them because there are rape accusations filed against the author. 1) if you’re saying accusations it means nothing is concretely proved, as of yet.2) if an author does something unacceptable it doesn’t necessarily make their products, such as literature, unacceptable. It may show another layer of possible interpretation, but unless that message is readily visible (like the main message of a book being promoting rape or something), it doesn’t change the value of the book. Plenty of famous authors have been thoroughly despicable people irl. As a modern example think of Orson Scott Card’s books in the Ender’s Game series that are widely popular. (And you can look up what kind of a person Card is.) 

and most importantly 3) removing books on any grounds is censoring of information. And I am against that on principle. If we allow this one book to be censored, what’s to stop another from being as well? and another? what are acceptable reasons? who decides? What’s to stop people from censoring everything that goes against their existent views? How will people learn anything different, that challenges their understanding? 

Thanks for the ask, hope this helped. Let us know what you choose to do.

- Nyx

[sidneyia-deactivated20210826]

I realize most people on here are too young to remember the Bush years but when you guys frame your SJ posts as “you hate[x]!!! why do you hate [x]???” it sounds an awful lot like how Bush supporters would scream WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA???? whenever anybody would criticize the president. 

So that’s something to consider if you want to reach people over 25. Because most of us have an extremely negative conditioned response to that type of rhetoric.

[glorious-spoon]

Yeah.

[shinelikethunder]

There’s a surprisingly sharp generation gap on Tumblr–when I first got on the site in 2011 it was between high-school age and college age, but I don’t think it’s defined primarily by life stage or maturity level, because it’s tracked steadily upward ever since. Anecdotally, right now the split seems to be centered around age 23, plus or minus a couple of years on either side, which corresponds roughly to the birth years 1990-1994. My hypothesis for the generation gap boils down to “how old were you on September 11, 2001?” Those solidly on the older side of the gap were at least vaguely aware of a pre-9/11 political landscape, witnessed how disruptive the first term of the Bush administration was, and have a visceral reaction anything that smacks of neoconservatism or Religious Right propaganda. Those on the younger side attained political awareness in a world where the changes wrought by the Bush administration were the new normal, and their right-wing bogeyman uses Tea Party and GamerGate rhetoric.

So for the record, Bush-era “innovations” that unnerve the FUCK out of people on the older side of the generation gap:

- Casual acceptance of fear as an excuse for hatred and pre-emptive retaliation

- An “ends justify the means” approach to stamping out the slightest trace of vulnerability, no matter how repressive the means, or how slight or unlikely the potential harm

- “If you’re not marching in lockstep with us, you’re one of THEM, why do you hate all that’s good and noble?” / “Dissent and safeguards against the abuse of power just give aid and comfort to the enemy” / “Don’t you SEE that insisting that the protections of civil society apply to THOSE PEOPLE is just going to GET OUR PEOPLE HURT, YOU’RE HURTING PEOPLE YOU MONSTER”

- Anything that smacks of religious-fundamentalist logic or rhetoric

These things are not normal. These things are not how just societies are built. They are the hot water that an entire generation of lobsters has been raised to swim in without noticing. The undercurrents in the internet movement calling itself Social Justice that disturb the older generation are, essentially, the dirty tactics of the Bush administration and its unholy marriage of neocons and fundies–rebranded with a new set of acceptable targets, but with the tactics themselves unquestioned. Are they the younger generation’s fault? Fuck no. They’re what happens when the most culturally and politically powerful nation on Earth tries to pretend it’s moved on from the Bush years, but without ever having confronted the devastation those tactics left in their wake, dismantled the self-sustaining fear-and-repression machine, or held the perpetrators accountable for their officially-sanctioned torture, shredding of civil liberties, and thinly-justified wars of aggression.

So if I were to do the annoying geezer thing (at the ripe old age of 27) and Address The Youth, I guess what I’d say isn’t just that most people over 25 get an overwhelming urge to throw up in their mouths at the slightest sign you’re playing “but why do you hate freedom” Mad Libs. (Although that’s true.) It’s more than that. It’s that “why do you hate [x]???” belongs to an entire toolbox of fear/attack, ingroup/outgroup, and absolutist tactics that we’ve left lying out without bothering to re-affix the giant warning labels that they aren’t normal, or necessary, or even effective over the long term, however tempting they may be for a quick fix. And that it’s okay to refrain from using them.

The bad guys will not win if you ease off the attack a little and give your opponents room to tell you where they’re coming from. Opening yourself up to argument-counterargument with Bad, Unacceptable, Forbidden ideas is a form of vulnerability, but finding and evaluating the weak spots in your beliefs ultimately strengthens them and strengthens your ability to win people over to your side. Doubling down on the repeated assertions that you shouldn’t even have to argue and that disagreement is harmful or immoral is an alluring way to get what you want in the short term, but it produces superficial compliance out of fear rather than genuine agreement, and the backlash it causes is ultimately more dangerous than the vulnerability of opening yourself to disagreement. And it blinds you to the possibility that you may not be entirely in the right. This isn’t some MRA sneak attack to manipulate you into ceding ground. This is how discussion normally works in a functional society. You have been handed a dysfunctional, toxic system for exchanging ideas, in online SJ as well as in wider politics–and no, it’s not normal or effective, and no, you do not have to buy into that system’s claims that it’s the only thing standing between the innocent and an orgy of destruction and victimization. 

[glorious-spoon]

The strangest thing about this is that I would not consider myself particularly old (does anyone?) but I was in my late teens on 9/11, and yeah. This is exactly what I find unnerving about the approach of some younger people to SJ issues. For a long time I just put it down to (im)maturity, but I’m really starting to think that there’s something fundamentally toxic and broken about the way our country has been approaching these things for the last 15 years or so. That kind of black and white, ‘if your fave is problematic then they’re basically the antichrist’ thinking that demonizes and squashes any kind of disagreement is really unhealthy, and it’s something that is learned.

[sidneyia-deactivated20210826]

Same, I’m 30, married to someone older than me, and we have a lot of friends in their 40s/50s. People I encounter on a regular basis comment on what a “baby” I am.  I was 15 on 9/11. I’m not like. Ancient. But there is a definitely a difference between how people my age discuss issues versus how younger folks discuss them. Neons have really done a number on out ability to talk about stuff. 

[cupidsbower]

This would explain a lot about how fandom conversations have been going down recently. The absolute us/them nature of some of them, and the way SJ tools are used to bully people in order to win an argument.

I thought it was largely to do with Tumblr being a poor design for actual conversation, but this makes more sense, given the patterns I’ve seen.

[judeoceltische]

I…think that most of the people on Tumblr will get older. The no holds barred, right or wrong, FUCK YOU surety is part of being a teenager. Then you get it knocked out of you and learn to nuance. Both phases have value. What I’m saying here is that I think it’s more developmental than generational.

[terrasigillata]

I don’t understand what this has to do with 9/11

[medusamori]

9/11 largely serves as a convenient symbolic marker for a severe shift in public discourse– I was 14 when it happened and I very clearly remember the before-times socially and politically and the after, when there really was a huge public shift in the way things were discussed, and how people in my age group and a  little younger responded to things like “national tragedies,” “us vs them,” good vs evil" etc?

Kind of dumb example but I think is illustrative– when we were 12/13, the year before 9/11, a group of kids went to DC and New York and visited all the war memorials. People whose uncles and fathers had fought in Vietnam visited the wall and Arlington, were moved, went through all the ceremonial stuff, but not to the point of dramatic hysterics. Maybe two/three years after 9/11, many of the same kids went to Pearl Harbor while we were on tour in Hawaii and everything was prefaced with this really jingoistic Us Vs Them language, and half the group spent the entire time bawling performatively. There were also a lot of recriminations for not engaging in the theatrics, because it wasn’t showing Proper Respect to Our National Heroes, none of whom any of these kids could have known because they all died in 1941.

My little brother is only 22 months younger than me but he doesn’t really remember the day at all, and doesn’t really remember anything about the politics or big news stories from beforehand, whereas I very clearly remember having an opinion about the 1996 election and my The Talk with my mom was kicked off because of the Clinton impeachment. 9/11 kicked off a lot of the worst of what we see in American political discourse today, and so people who don’t remember it as clearly or the time before may have different outlooks, especially in the States.

[taikonaut]

On the one hand this is a fairly enlightening take on the somewhat rabid state of what passes for online discourse these days.

On t’other, remind me again why we haven’t built a wall around America yet?

[postcardsfromspace]

This is a fascinating conversation. I think there’s more to it than this–the way digital social spaces intersect with social phenomena informs the discourse hugely–but there’s a lot here worth considering.

It also occurs to me that a lot of us who were old enough not only to remember 9/11, but also to be aware of the shift in public discourse around it, are also old enough to remember the Cold War, or at least its last lingering throes. 

I’m 32, and I grew up with parents who were very active in the nuclear freeze movement. One of the fundamental truths I absorbed very early was that us-vs.-them absolutism and refusal to compromise and engage in good faith with ideological opponents wasn’t just stupid; it was deadly–potentially on a massive, global scale. I remember projects to hook U.S. kids up with penpals in the U.S.S.R. in hopes that we’d learn to see each other as people and so maybe not end life on fucking Earth if by some miracle our parents didn’t beat us to the punch.

And that approach was critical to the peace movement in general: humanizing the enemy. Trying to find points of connection; to learn to disagree humanely. That was a core, fundamental value of my childhood, in ways that were very closely and directly linked to the contemporary geopolitical scene; and they’re philosophies that continue to profoundly inform and steer my discourse and my approach to conflict–personal and political–as an adult.

Which is part of what scares the shit out of me about the discourse I see online, especially from the left: it’s all about radical dehumanization. I see people who are ostensibly on my side casually call other human beings trash or garbage or worthless. Scorch earth. Go to unbelievable lengths to justify NEVER engaging. Meet overtures to peace or steps toward change with spectacular cruelty.

I mean, I’ve seen variations on this exchange more times than I can count:

“[group x] are people, too.”

“No, they’re not.”

And then people LOL, and I don’t even know where to start, because–No. You do not say that. You do not EVER say that. EVER.

And I can so easily imagine how terrifying it must be to grow up in that–to be 15 or 16 or 17 and just becoming, and trying to find and place and grow into yourself in that kind of violence, and–

–to paraphrase someone profoundly and complexly flawed and still a person worth paraphrasing: Remember, babies, you gotta be kind.

[crisontumblr]

cryingalonewithfrankenstein I feel like this might interest you?

[cryingalonewithfrankenstein]

Oh yes, it does.

I was barely old enough to understand, at nine, what happened on 9/11. I more or less grew up in Bush’s America, but bathed in the politics of previous times. The more I came to understand the actual political milieu I was surrounded by, the more I disbelieved it. Surely someone was going to stop this? But no one did.

I only have a few memories from before 9/11, but my reading intake was mostly written by left-leaning Americans who remembered better days and were dismayed by Bush’s administration because Jesus, what, how did we come to elect this clown twice?

My pre-college schooling was in well-to-do, white, Republican areas, so when I left my books, I was surrounded by exactly the kind of jingoistic craziness people are talking about here… and because I was very young, it seemed “normal” unless I stepped back to look at it. 

It’s hard to believe that Bush has been out of office for seven, nearly eight years. The black-and-white dichotomy rhetoric mentioned above became rampant during his administration, and it has never really left. 

I grew up in a political atmosphere that is absolutely bananas to try and explain, choked with “[group x] are subhuman filth and you are UNAMERICAN if you disagree” rhetoric. I don’t know if younger Americans can really understand, emotionally, what growing up like that does to you. 

It’s like spending your young adulthood in a bath of acid and viciousness, and when you look back you can’t believe you ever survived. I’ve been running from those Bush-era politics since 2008. Maybe earlier, but I don’t know when I first became aware that my country was in very bad hands.

You can get a pretty close simulacrum with historical study, but, like, you weren’t there, man. 

That’s why I get nervous and jumpy around this new wave of tumblr-lefty / tumblr SJW discourse. Because they use the exact same rhetoric I’ve been hearing from the hawkish, deluded American right my entire life, but they claim to be fighting for the “other side”.

I guess The Who were right: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[whatis2plus2]

Since joining Tumblr, I’ve met a lot of young queer people. Look, I’m a bisexual man in a gay relationship, and I’m approaching 30. I was still a kid when Matthew Shepard’s story was being covered on the news. I remember thinking, “I better keep my mouth shut about these feelings I’m having.”

And then I met Dominic when I was 12, and people could see how in love we were. And we got the shit beat out of us. The year I met him, some kids in the grade above me held me down against the bleachers in our gym and stomped on my hand until my fingers broke. Instead of sending me to the nurse, the teacher sent me to the assistant principal to explain the situation. She asked why the kids had beat me up. I said, “They were calling me gay.”

Her response was, “Well, are you?”

My, “I don’t know,” earned a call to my parents, and I was outed. Efforts were made to keep me from seeing Dom. Throughout high school, Dom’s stepmother intensified these efforts. He slept in the basement of the house. Although he was an incredibly talented student, he was prohibited from participating in any extracurriculars. He suffered a lot of physical abuse during those years.

The day he turned 18, he packed up everything he had and walked to my house, and we’ve lived together ever since. Things are better, but they’re not perfect. I’ve had trucks pull up next to me at stoplights and, seeing the pride sticker on my car, through old drinks and garbage into my window. I no longer speak to my dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been to see them for Christmas or Thanksgiving in years. One of my uncles had cornered me at Thanksgiving when I was 17 and said, “I’m not going to judge you, but I’d be happy to break your neck so God can do the judging a little sooner.”

I joined a support group for trans and intersex people. When I joined, 40 people attended regularly. Within the year, the group was half the size it had been. Some couldn’t make it anymore, because they were staying at the shelter, where their stay hinged on them agreeing to instead to attend homophobic sermons. Some were put in correctional therapy. Five of them died. Three of those, I didn’t know, but I knew Alex, the 19 year old who was fag-dragged in Kentucky and died a day later in the hospital, and I knew Stephanie, who went home to Alabama to care for her mom in hospice and was beaten to death with a baseball bat by her mom’s boyfriend.

Tumblr is not reality. The dynamic here does not reflect the dynamic out there. Here’s the part where I finally make a point, and it might be extremely unpopular - but guys, value your allies. Value each other. We are met with enough hate in our daily lives to enter an online safe-space and meet more hate from our own, over petty things. Don’t go after one another over every little thing you find problematic.

Learn to see nuance. Maybe the word “queer” bothers you, and you see a gay man using it as an umbrella term. Maybe someone called a trans man a trans woman because they’re confused about terminology, but the post where they did it was voicing support for the trans community. Maybe someone is just asking a question, wanting to learn more. Stop. Attacking. These. People.

Allies are being driven away. Members of our own community are being ostracized. Others are feeling nervous and estranged, and it’s largely because of places like Tumblr, where the social justice movement is quickly becoming violent and radical. I am begging you, stop nitpicking “problematic” things and start directing your efforts to create real change. When it comes to comes to your allies, forget the “social justice warrior” mentality and put down your torch. Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving. And I’m certainly not saying that your anger doesn’t have a good place - when you are met with bigots on the street, congress members who want to pass hateful laws, violent protesters, abusive parents, prejudiced teachers, that is when you need to be a warrior. That’s when it counts. In the real world. When you have the opportunity to protect people from real harm. Attacking your would-be allies via anonymous asks is just going to lose us ground in the long run. And we don’t have time for that, not when trans women of color are being murdered every day, not when states are still fighting against marriage equality, not when there are politicians in office who believe that trans people are possessed by demons, not when we’ve just lost 50 brothers and sisters to one gunman, not when the media won’t even admit that the attack was homophobic.

Please step back. Look at the big picture. Look at where we are, globally. Don’t just log on to your safe space and attack your allies over small missteps. That’s like washing the dishes in a house that’s on fire, kids. Let’s fight on the battlefield, and when we come home to each other, let’s just focus on bandaging up our wounds so we can go out and win the war.

[cryingalonewithfrankenstein]

I got old and tired long before I thought I would, but the way I see things is that “social justice” as practiced on tumblr is essentially an ouroborous. It’s people with good intentions going all People’s Front Of Judea and tearing each other to bits for ideological purity while the house is burning down. It’s one big self-perpetuating cycle, and I chose to tap out.

I can only tell you the way I see things. I’ve seen some very impassioned responses to this post, and I hope I don’t tread on a huge amount of toes by trying to lay out what I think.

Keep reading

[pastellish-deactivated20210606]

The moon was in love with her.

[anvnaspng]

I’ve been inspired by 19xx pin-up art lately, heres the real girl: (x)

[furlockhound-inactive-moved-dea]

I still think one of the issues with discussing immigration problems is that it’s a minefield because you have:

SJWs that will take no criticism of non-white cultures on one side.

Rabid racists and closet white supremacists using the discussion as an excuse to vent their racist views and no be challenged on the other.

Basically Tweet someone made a while back sums it up well

[illogical-bullshit]

this about sums up my stance in the islam debate perfectly -blue

[friendly-neighborhood-patriarch]

Kinda true

[intersectional-feminists]

Exact.

[intersectional-feminists]

I drew this to show support for the victims in the Orlando shooting. No one deserves this. No matter what your identity, you deserve respect and freedom. (In case you’re not familiar with the various flags, the first is the gay one, second is bisexual, third is pansexual, last is transgender, couldn’t include all of them, so I put the ones I’m most familiar with)

-Danae

[geldark-deactivated20220126]

it’s been a very sad day today. along with being pride month. it’s also immigrant heritage month. 

to my fellow latin+lgbt bloggers: i love you. you’ve all felt this lose more deeply than anyone. i hope for a day when none of you live in fear of expressing your orientation or ethnicity. i want you to know that you are wanted, and important. eu te amo.

[beaniekt]

Blossom 🍊

[recklessdoubts]

I don’t know the model’s name, sorry🤕

[intersectional-feminists]

Labels

I find that we on tumblr get too caught up with the labels. We are all about defining ourselves, which, unfortunately, can lead to boxing ourselves in unnecessarily - not always, but often enough. Squishing ourselves into these boxes can lead to obsession and oversimplifying the world around us. Let’s face it, people are more nuanced than that! 

On this blog, we’re looking at intersectional feminism from another mindset. We’re looking at all sorts of people, and seeing them as individuals, hopefully. We aren’t going to get preoccupied with the actual labels. You can use them in an empowering way if you’d like to, or you can choose not to label yourself. Both are fine. Both are valid. 

This is why I’ve started a minor project: I’m posting aesthetic images of people being...people. (reblogging pictures) Pictures of people expressing themselves in whatever way they choose. I’ll try to post images of trans and cis people, of men, women and nb people, of feminine, androgynous, gender neutral and masculine people, of gay, straight and nonbinary couples, of disabled and able-bodied people, of people of any skin colour, of people of any fashion sense, of people who are deemed “normal” and of people who are not. 

If you have any pictures of yourself or others that you deem aesthetic and human, submit them, and we’ll post them. The only criteria is that it’s a human you’re posting an image of, and that there’s no nudity. 

Thank you all! Add your thoughts politely and respectfully if you’d like to!

[65pinkroses]

A few more shots from this shoot! Because, daisies. Also because we got eaten by mosquitoes for this ಠ_ಠ (do it for the aesthetic, kids).

[theslaycademy]

#LoveIsLove ♥

[clover-vintage]

1959 Glamour

[intersectional-feminists]

The problem with tumblr SJWs

I think it might be, speaking generally, that they allow themselves to fall into the trap where they stop looking for new opinions. Discussion isn’t allowed, because of the whole “you’re privileged; you don’t know” argument - as if that’s an argument! Because guess what, yes, different experiences shape us, but everybody has a right to contribute to discourse, no matter their identity/social background! Minorities and majorities alike. 

So yeah, basically, tumblr SJWerism is preaching open-mindedness but forgetting to apply it to yourself. 

I’ve been there, and it felt so inexplicably wrong. No, we have to allow everybody to talk. That’s the best way to educate people: do not silence them, but let them contribute too. Compromise is essential. 

Also, I’ve been seeing these posts that say at the bottom “Do not engage bigots. Completely ignore anyone who leaves a rude/offensive comment, or you will be blocked.” I know this is coming from a good place. They don’t want anyone to hurt themselves unnecessarily. But actually blocking somebody who argues in the comments (this was instagram) is essentially not letting people discuss. It’s shutting people up, and that is not what our social justice should stand for. 

Add thoughts! (Respectfully and politely). 

-Stefan/Cecelia

[periegesisvoid-deactivated]

Your social justice should be founded on love for others, not on a desire to be the most visibly enlightened.

[intersectional-feminists]

Being enlightened and informed is a big part though, since that is what allows us to understand others. 

- Nyx

[alittlediscourse]

Social justice, in my opinion, should always be striving to do better, not to be perfect in the moment. That means looking up things and listening to other viewpoints and asking questions. It’s accepting that you’re wrong sometimes.

[intersectional-feminists]

Yes!