C'est gentil d'être normal.

Cynical idealist.

[rainhann]

ok this is “earring magic ken” who was introduced in 1992 (and discontinued shortly thereafter)

basically mattel had done a survey and discovered that girls didn’t think ken was “cool” enough

SO someone had the bright idea to research coolness by sending people to raves which, at the time, were mostly hosted & attended by gay men. so they went to these raves and took notes on what the fashions were and finally landed on this outfit, mesh shirt & all 

this doll became the best selling ken doll in history, mostly because gay men bought it in droves. (many of them said his necklace was supposed to be a cockring) but mattel and a number of parents weren’t very amused and discontinued the doll 

[muffinsandmatriarchy]

OH MY GOD YOU’RE LEAVING OUT THE BEST PART

SO

MAGIC EARRING KEN. This bitch gay as HELL. supposedly the aforementioned rings on him are for “magic earrings” and clip on charms. These charms are advertised as totally COMPLETELY heterosexual, not gay at ALL, see there’s a Barbie that also has Magic Earring Action with clip on charms! Ken wears them to match, because he’s STRAIGHT

Here’s the issue: THERE IS NO MATCHING BARBIE. Magic Earring Ken is out here straight up wearing cock rings on his jacket with a thinly devised advertising ploy to make it SEEM not-gay. But it’s DEFINITELY GAY. (And if you’re thinking, why cock rings? Well way back in 1992 gay culture was HUGE on wearing cock rings, it was the in-style. Everyone who was gay wore one, even women; you sewed them to your leather jacket, and the placement indicated some of your sexual preference. In case you were wondering, Ken is a Bottom.)

AND IT GETS BETTER. Magic Earring Ken was on the shelves for six weeks before they pulled him. In that short amount of time? Magic Earring Ken became the BEST SELLING Barbie Doll Mattel has EVER SOLD. LET THAT SINK IN. SIX WEEKS. And now every time these wheezy old hetero windbag execs go to look at their sales board, they’re forever haunted by Magic Earring Ken at the top of their charts.

Gay as hell, Cock Ring Bottom Ken, the Best Selling Mattel Doll. Pride.

[harperjenkins]

please take the time out of your day to read about Magic Earring Ken™

[but-is-it-gay-tho]

gay history

[oldshowbiz]

Beautiful Downtown Burbank. 1969.

[nevver]

Some velvet morning, Li Hui

[loumargi]

Queen of the Night Mila von Luttich (Austria, 1872-1929)

[loumargi]

Utagawa Hiroshige

[refinery29]

This is what a real, qualified OBGYN will tell you about what women feel when they get an abortion

Dr. Willie Parker, who is trained as a gynecologist and OBGYN, is a hero for the pro-choice movement because he’s honest about the undiscussed aspects of getting (or not getting) an abortion. Watch how he gives a consultation.

[afunnyfeminist]

That last statement about regret is so important, because so many people don’t understand what it is or what causes it. Anti-choicers exploit this by manipulating pregnant people and creating doubt, which only increases the likelihood of regret, no matter what decision the pregnant person makes. You know what is best for you, even if it takes some time to figure it out.

[profeminist]

[profeminist]

More posts on Dr. Willie Parker

[outforhealth]

Willie Parker is a HERO among common people! 

[skygenders]

I was doing some digging in lgbt history i have discovered the lesbian avengers and oh my god 

they ate fire in front of the white house 

[skygenders]

just in case you were wondering trans women were included!!

(x)

(x)

[ignoblebite]

You have to read about these amazing, badass ladies. Fire eating became their symbol, here’s a blurb on its origin.

[It] grew out of tragedy. Last year, a lesbian and a gay man, Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock, burned to death in Salem, Ore., after a Molotov cocktail was tossed into the apartment they shared. A month later, on Halloween, at a memorial to the victims in New York City, the Avengers (then newly organized) gave their response to the deaths. They ate fire, chanting, as they still do: “The fire will not consume us. We take it and make it our own.”

[arthistorianmindswirls]

Leonard Raven-Hill, The Serenade

[wetheurban]

Nightscapes, Elsa Bleda

Based between the cities of Istanbul and Johannesburg, photographer Elsa Bleda has a unique aesthetic that is both cinematic and dystopian. In her latest work ‘Nightscapes’ she examines the city of Johannesburg after dark.

Instagram.com/WeTheUrban

[bettastudies]

I made some affirmations for myself and decided to share them with all of you. please do not reupload.

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

Edith Wharton, author of notable fiction like The Age of Innocence (1920), Ethan Frome (1911), and The House of Mirth (1905), was a lot more than just a writer of fiction. For instance, she authored this book, Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904) and was an avid garden designer and interior decorator. 

It’s also said that the phrase “keeping up with the Jonses” was coined in reference to her family. 

[fuckyeahvintageillustration]

Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. Published 1904 by The Century Co., New York.

See the complete book here.

[theories-of]

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

Three kinds of attraction and why it’s important to know the difference

Aesthetic attraction: “I want to look at you.” You think someone is beautiful, very pleasing to the eye, but you feel no desire to touch them.

Sensual attraction: “I want to cuddle you.” You feel a great deal of affection towards someone and you want to hug them, hold them, perhaps kiss them, but with your hands never straying below the belt.

Sexual attraction: “I want to fuck you.” You want to do things of an explicitly sexual nature with someone.

Why is this distinction important? Because I didn’t realize I was demisexual until the age of 27 because all my life I thought that aesthetic + sensual attraction was the same thing as sexual attraction. I always thought that finding someone beautiful and wanting to touch or kiss them was sexual attraction, but realizing that it’s not, that sexual attraction means actually desiring sexual acts with a person, has changed my life and explained so many things. When I was figuring this out, a number of other people commented that they felt the exact same as me, so I think this is some pretty important stuff to spread around.

Click here if you think might be asexual,  or here if you think you might be demisexual.

[fuckyeahbiguys]

It’s important to know that there are many different types of attraction we can experience as humans. It’s part of what makes our sexual/romantic identities so rich and varied. 

[more-muppets]

bizarropurugly:

luvyourselfsomeesteem:

theseriouscynic:

editingatwork:

halfhardtorock:

Straight men who infantilize women’s friendships have no fucking survival instinct. Like my uncle is always making fun of and rolling his eyes at my aunt’s friend lunches and telephone dates with her lady friends, teasing her like she’s a gossipy teenage girl in high school drama. And my aunt just laughs about it but I know for a fact that if it wasn’t for her best friend K, she would have probably set him on fire by now. 

Like straight men are capable of maybe a quarter of the indepth emotional labor and support women do for each other. Like men can literally have one friend named Bob that they go fishing with once a year and still be content for life. Then they think it’s cute and girlish that their wives have these long term, integrated, emotionally intense relationships with women but like…LOL, it’s not because men don’t need those kinds of relationships, it’s just that they get it all from their wives while offering peanuts in return. PEANUTS.

Like if your woman is on the phone for 2 hours with her friend and you think that’s childish of her, just know that she spent half of that time getting the support that you should be giving her (but are incapable of) and the rest lamenting what a giant fucking baby manchild you are.

This is how homophobia and misogyny hurts men: it makes these kinds of in-depth, deeply emotionally invested friendships a feminine thing to do, and therefore unmanly (and un-straight) for men to do. Men are brought up to shy away from cultivating these kinds of deep and platonic friendships with other men. Because, you know, if you talk to your male friends all the time and hang out with them and cry in front of them and hug all the time and lean on each other (emotionally and physically) when you need support, it makes you gay and womanly. Which is, apparently, the worst thing you can be.

I’ve read articles and personal stories about and by men, talking about experiences they’ve had that have shown them how painfully out of touch they are with their own emotions and their own ability to open up and connect with people, including themselves.

I worry about men a lot. I worry about the number of men who find themselves incapable of providing emotional support for their friends, their significant others, and themselves, all because of how they’ve been raised to bury and ignore their more vulnerable emotions and tactile tendencies because they’ve been taught that this kind of closeness has to be stamped out at all costs.

!!!!! So important.

So so so important

Studies have shown that this sort of emotional shallowness is a leading factor in why men are more likely to be violent, to drown their sorrows in drug and alcohol abuse, and to successfully commit suicide.

They throw all their eggs in one basket with a significant other, or at times a parent, and when problems arise in that relationship, because they have no other relationships to speak of, they quickly turn to destruction.

This is why I often give out advice that people need to expand on their relationships. You literally CAN’T have it all hinge on a single person, it is a horrific idea and it will destroy you and the things and people you love. You HAVE to have relationships with other people.

Anyone with any mental health issue can tell you that the inability to talk it out, the lack of having someone to turn to, makes things go careening downhill, faster than we can catch them back.

Somehow this is considered an acceptable way of being for men, and their lashing out is “just how men are”. It’s more masculine to shoot yourself than to take medication. It’s more masculine to beat your partners than to have a conversation with them. It’s more masculine to bottle everything up until it erupts and people die, than it is to simply ask for help.

And people want to blame women and feminism for it, for “making men afraid”, or simply try to list the likelihood of surviving suicide and avoiding drug abuse as “female privilege” or something that is a nature-given trick of “biological sex”, rather than address the very serious issue of toxic masculinity and extreme, self-destructive hatred of being perceived as anything like women.

- mod BP

[amozon28]

i remember in my intro psych class years ago, we were learning about the importance of long term relationships such as friends and family in adulthood and you need at least 3 really close people in your life the maintain a healthy support system, and we were told to guess how many men have after the age of 25. and the national average is zero. zero. like thats sad

[last-picture-show]

Sally Mann, Deep South, 1998

[houkgallery-deactivated20180511]

Sally Mann (American, b. 1951) Startled Eyes, 2004 ©Sally Mann/Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery

[goldenmythologies-blog]

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