Just Another Wallflower @justanotheremptysmile - Tumblr Blog

My sociology professor had a really good metaphor for privilege today. She didn’t talk about race or gender or orientation or class, she talked about being left-handed.

A left-handed person walks into most classrooms and immediately is made aware of their left-handedness - they have to sit in a left-handed seat, which restricts their choices of where to sit. If there are not enough left-handed seats, they will have to sit in a right-handed seat and be continuously aware of their left-handedness. (There are other examples like left-handed scissors or baseball mitts as well.)

Meanwhile, right-handed people have much more choice about where to sit, and almost never have to think about their right-handedness.

Does this mean right-handed people are bad? No.

Does it mean that we should replace all right-handed desks with left-handed desks? No.

But could we maybe use different desk styles that can accommodate everyone and makes it so nobody has limited options or constant awareness that they are different? Yes.

Now think of this as a metaphor. For social class. For race. For ethnicity. For gender. For orientation. For anything else that sets us apart.

muscari-melpomene

WHY DOESN’T THIS HAVE MORE NOTES?

sandersstudies

Because I posted it about 90 seconds ago, calm down.

chanelbagsandcigarettedrags

sixpenceee

A rainbow appears in the sky as lightning strikes during a rainstorm on May 13, 2012 in Haikou, China.

Photo credit: China Foto

terriblenight

Gays are getting angry

abridgetonowhere

jasper-rolls

there’s a difference between “just do a little yoga it will cure your depression forever :)” and “going for a run won’t solve your problems but it will make you feel a little better and that’s the first step” but this site seems to treat them as the same thing

marylizabetha

Taking care of yourself is still good even if it won’t cure you. Cleaning my room won’t cure my anxiety or make me less lonely but it is a healthier environment to live in.

love-personal

thepowerwithin

“As long as you wake up in the morning, you are still in the game. As long as you’re breathing, you are still a fighter. Nothing can stop you from moving forward. Absolutely nothing.”

— Nicole Addison @thepowerwithin

leohearts

“You wake up every morning to fight the same demons that left you so tired the night before, and that, my love, is bravery.”

—

empower-females

positivi-bees

Being a good friend isn’t always agreeing with what your friend does and how they act. Sometimes, being a good friend is telling them when they’re maybe not being such a great person and trying to steer them in the right direction.

recoversuggestions

weskit-deactivated20141112

babygeena

My Queen.

optimysticals

I do love Dolly.

tellmeoflegends

Here in Tennessee, Dolly has an organisation called The Imagination Library. It donates books that she chooses every month to EVERY CHILD born in Tennessee from the day they’re born until they turn five. TWELVE BOOKS A YEAR FOR FIVE YEARS EVERY CHILD! Thank you, Dolly Parton!

lonely-girls-are-depressed

siickangel

coolsaddad-blog

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.

feels-for-the-fictional

I have been waiting for this post all my life.

marzipanandminutiae

They are indeed purple, But one thing you’ve missed: The concept of “purple” Didn’t always exist.

Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”

A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.

So roses are red. Violets once were called blue. I’m hugely pedantic But what else is new?

ineptshieldmaid

My friend you’re not wrong About Homer’s wine-ey sea! Colours are a matter Of cultural contingency;

Words are in flux And meanings they drift But the word purple You’ve given short shrift.

The concept of purple, My friends, is old And refers to a pigment once precious as gold.

By crushing up molluscs From the wine-dark sea You make a dye: Imperial decree

Meant that in Rome, to wear purpura was a privilege reserved

For only the emperor!

The word ‘purple’, for clothes so fancy, Entered English By the ninth century

.

Why then are voilets Not purple in song? The dye from this mollusc, known for so long

Is almost magenta; More red than blue. The concept of purple is old, and yet new.

The dye is red, So this might be true: Roses are purple And violets are blue

.

squeeful

While this song makes me merry, Tyrian purple dyes many a hue From magenta to berry And a true purple too.

But fun as it is to watch this poetic race The answer is staring you right in the face: Roses are red and violets are blue Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.