i am the fire

Melissa. And we are magic talking to itself, noisy and alone.

[bubbtub]

I can't verbalize this in the way I want to, and I don't want to make any woman feel like she's not allowed to complain. But every time I see the uterus personified as an evil entity and periods treated as bad, I low-key cringe. No, your body isn't inherently meant to be pregnant, and no your period is not a punishment for failing to be pregnant. You're not failing at being a woman because you aren't having babies. Your body is not turning against you because you did something wrong. Unless you suffer from an illness that exacerbates your periods, you're just going through a neutral, dare I say good because it's a sign you're healthy, human female experience. This way of thinking feels like the modernized opinions of a medieval priest.

[caluanthes]

STRAUME / FLOW (2024), dir Gints Zilbalodis

[forest-woman]

[niurd]

tile mosaic by polinn

[niallhoranhasthat1thing]

Sabrina Carpenter

Short n' Sweet Tour New York | November 1 2025

[mytearsrricochet]

happy pride month

[average-exxistence]

Happy pride month

[arutai]

Lucy Liu by Jeremy Choh

[antlered-vixen]

I am so tired of short-attention-span, trim-the-fat culture. All writing advice these days is for how to write like Chuck Palahniuk. "Cut 'think', cut 'feel', cut 'wonder' - only action, only pushing forward, show and move and move and move." What if I could emulate this style, and still don't want to? What if I want to write like Henry James, with three paragraphs of introspective musings between each dialogue line? The music advice is, "make it shortform, make it Tik-Tok compatible, make it punchy, hit the refrain as soon as possible." What if I want that 10-minute prog rock piece? What if I want that symphony? What if I want it slow and luxurious and lazy? Movies. Series. Poetry. Bodies. Everything is "trimmed trimmed trimmed trimmed, stripped bare, you have three seconds to win me over, make it airport chic." I don't want to win you over, then, I guess. I want the fat left it. I want the pleasure and the indolence and the indulgence. Fuck this art-advice that's always "your art needs Ozempic."

[berrytart]

okay yeah i do think your filler is off putting and your botox makes you rigid and strange to look at

[tomatoinyourgarden]

I know you think it’s “feminist” to hate on women who already have self esteem and image issues (through no fault of their own, as a direct result of patriarchy) for doing something to help them cope with their fleeting youth - which may or may not have been stripped from them against their will due to years of depression, abuse, oppression, or whatever else - but the truth is that the freedom to get Botox is actually a right feminists have fought for - whether intentionally or unintentionally. Women used to get thrown away when we outlived our youth and beauty - now we have the option to prolong it and change the way we are perceived and treated by society as a whole. We ALL had to grow up too fast. We ALL have to cope with a childhood that ended too soon. I’m no less a feminist than you are simply because I choose to hold onto my youth and beauty because it helps me feel better about my own loss of innocence. This is all just another excuse to hate on women and tear us down. You’re literally letting the patriarchy win by judging women for their personal choices which harm absolutely no one. Please grow up. Not everyone is conventionally attractive or ages gracefully. Some women can cope with that and some can’t. Both deserve love and respect. Have some decency. You’re not edgy for this. You’re hating just like a man would.

[berrytart]

Feminists … have fought… for the right … to use Botox…..

[sadbeautifutragic]

since we're at the halfway point of the year, i'm curious 👩🏾‍💻

have you read at least one book by an author of color?

yes

not yet but i have one on my tbr list

no

Voting ended onJun 3

2026 only!

if you said yes, feel free to leave recommendations in the tags so others can discover new authors!

[ajthebumblebee]

This seems to be what I've learned.

[ajthebumblebee]

[queer-book-character-tournament]

i keep seeing discourse about it so for funsies:

how many books do you usually read per year?

0-5

5-10

10-20

20-30

30-40

40-50

50-60

60-70

70-80

80-100

100+

varies/I don't keep track of that/other

Voting ended onJun 2

[queer-book-character-tournament]

if anyone is looking to add more to their tbr's friendly reminder that we do have a list of all the books that have been in the tournament

[kerovousphoto]

Spring

[swiftgallery]

10.03.12 Elie Saab pring Summer 2013 Fashion Show

[roycohn]

something i've noticed that has become really annoying in the past 10 years or so is this fad of what i've been calling, for lack of a better word, "structural whataboutism." it's that thing where, when faced with a concrete, resolvable problem in your community, your answer is to blame it on a vast, unsolvable issue of structural inequality and then throw up your hands. "there's trash all over the ground in this corner of the park" becomes "well, that's where MEN OF COLOR congregate after their 12-HOUR GRAVEYARD SHIFTS and i'm not going to support a CARCERAL SOLUTION to a CAPITALISTIC PROBLEM. WE NEED TO ELIMINATE POVERTY AND THE SUBJUGATION OF THE WORKING CLASS" and it's like okay but sis. someone still has to go pick up the trash. we don't need a carceral solution, we need more trash cans. you're not going to eliminate poverty and the subjugation of the working class and even if ya did, there would still be trash on the ground. how any of this passes for radicalism within their peer groups i simply don't understand. it's radical laziness more than anything else

[figtreeandvine]

I was on a canoe trip once with a river biologist who worked for the county. After we found and removed a car tire, she started talking about the annual river cleanup her department organized. From a water quality or ecological standpoint, removing shopping carts, car tires, and other macro trash from the river really wasn't that important, she said. The real threat to the river was industrial and agricultural runoff.

"But!" she said:

People who see a clean, trash-free river are more likely support laws to curb more harmful "systemic" forms of pollution. People who participate in river cleanups take pride in their work--their river!--and become evangelists for protecting it.

Immediate action leads to systemic awareness, which leads to systemic change.

[writing-with-olive]

Literally this.

Saying "there's no point in doing something small until the big thing is fixed" is literally just the Glorious Revolution Rapture story all over again, and it's not helpful.

[intolovingmeforever]

Really crazy how love literally is the little things