Solve For XX

Who the fuck even knows what this blog is about anymore.

[fancytunaprince]

THE A DOES NOT STAND FOR ALLY. YOU CANNOT CAST OUT ASEXUALS BECAUSE “THEY’RE STRAIGHT” AND THEN ALLOW STRAIGHTS IN BY CALLING THEM ALLYS. CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO. BRUH.

[dykecoded]

no one arguing it’s supposed to be straight people. The “A is for Ally” argument is based on the idea that it exists so closeted lgbt people could participate in the community without outing themselves. I don’t really care either way and I think lgbt+ covers it, but most people who want A to mean Ally aren’t actually arguing for straight people to be let in.

[endtheoppressionolympicss]

No matter how often I read posts explaining this, I don’t understand it. Could you pls explain it to me?

Like, to me, there’s two scenarios:

Scenario one: straight people know ally stands for closteted people. This scenario doesn’t make sense because it would automatically out them. So this can’t be it.

Scenario Two: straight people don’t know. In this scenario you’ll have to let straight people in the community because they’re allies. Otherwise you’d have to tell them which would out closteted people.

So either you’re lying when you say that “a stands for ally” doesn’t let in straight people or you want to out closeted people to them

[kuroba101]

And why can’t closeted/questioning people just be included under the appropriate letter?

[ethereal-business-cabaret]

When there’s an event that includes “A for Ally”, the assumption is that not everyone at the event is necessarily LGBTQ. That way someone can get away with being parsed as “straight” because it’s not assumed that everyone there is cishet. There will also be allies that are genuinely cishet in attendance.

It’s not that “ally” always means “closeted person”, it’s that “ally” can be a catch-all for basically “everyone else as long as they’re cool with LGBTQ folks”.

[unfit-dreamer-deactivated202109]

So asexuals just get left out? I understand not wanting/being able to be out, but to use the A for “allies” (whether an actual ally or closeted/confused/whatever that person’s situation is) while we asexuals don’t get any recognition is pretty shitty.

I understand making allies feel included, I understand giving the cover to people that may want/need it.

BUT to leave out an entire group of people fucking sucks.

For the longest time while the lgbtqa+ was growing, I spent YEARS trying to figure out why saying I was bisexual (later pansexual) just never seemed to fit. If it weren’t for this website, I STILL wouldn’t know that I’m demisexual.

Normally I don’t get involved in things like this in case I’m misinformed, but I’m really emotional about this and I think it’s really shitty to cut out a whole group of people. I get it, the allies care, they’re supportive, I don’t want to make anyone feel unwelcome, but they’re still not lgbtqa+. (Plus, you can still be called an ally without it having to be in the acronym, that’s why they’re called ALLIES, they’re a SEPERATE group helping the main group.)

So, my point in the end is that, yes, it may help some to use the A for allies (for WHATEVER reason), but it hurts those of us that lose our representation.

(And, just so I don’t forget, not even gonna sugar coat it: I don’t give a fuck if the A was even ORIGINALLY for allies. It should be for asexuals.)

[ethereal-business-cabaret]

It’s not a mutually exclusive thing (most spaces I’ve been in also incluce a-spec folks), I’m just trying to explain what the deal is with “A for Ally” since an earlier post got it all jumbled.

[jellyfishdirigible]

Ally-hate is rooted in a tragic ignorance of our history and it variously breaks my heart and pisses me off. Once upon a time, being an ally wasn’t a badge straight people bragged about, it could ruin a person’s life. Supporting and protecting your out friend family member could be almost as risky as being out yourself. Allies were part of our community, they risked ostracism, loss of employment, even personal violence, to stand with us, to fight for us, to nurse our dying and bury our dead. Allies included straight parents that not only embraced their out children, but opened their hearts and homes to people whose families had rejected them. Allies included straight lawyers and politicians who worked to secure and protect our rights instead of playing it safe by turning our cases down. Allies included nurses, doctors, hospice carers who compassionately cared for HIV patients, when everyone else was afraid. Allies included people who risked everything to smuggle unapproved HIV medicines to people who needed them. Allies included celebrities and public figures who risked career suicide to advocate for us. Please, kids, learn our history.

[the-real-seebs]

I never “cast out” asexuals for “being straight”. If people wanna come do activism, and they’re not total assholes about it, I’m pretty much fine with that.

I got into this community identifying as “an ally” something close to 30 years ago. If you’d asked me then I woulda said I was a straight dude. (It wouldn’t have occurred to me to add the “cis” qualifier.) These days I’m gender-ambiguous, maybe a trans girl, married to a gay guy. Life’s weird.

But I will tell you straight up, I faced more hostility and more threats to my health and safety for being an “ally” in the late 80s and early 90s than I do now for being a vaguely-masculine-looking person with nail polish and a husband.

[penisactivist-wench-deactivated]

When men try to control women they don't ban makeup , corsets and hair products because there is nothing intimidating about beauty and femininity. What they do try to restrict access to is money, land and resources because that is actual power!!!!

So please stop spreading the idea that pretty privilege helps women access anything of substance. There's no privilege in sinking time, money and resources whilst trying to appeal to the men who create these standards. Your payoff is idealistic and conditional, dependent on your ability to be the everyone's fantasy. And in the real world your self definition isn't collateral. Do not play this game.

Please don't use the argument that men wanting to give you stuff so that they can eventually use one of your holes is a privilege. My heart can't take it 💔.

"The true privilege is not having to care at all about how you're perceived. Your body is a vehicle for you to enjoy life, and it's not a coincidence that men who have real power often look healthy but dress casually and definitely don't bother with the constant body modifications young women subject themselves to. Health and comfort is the combination that provides foroptimal experience; being healthy and comfortable is everyone's genuine preference for themselves, and what we should aspire to all other things being equal. "

[lurlur]

Isn't it a bit funny that J.K. Rowling, supreme terf and racist, has a male alter ego?

[opabiniawillreturn-deactivated2]

yes it's hilarious that she had to pretend to be male so her books would sell because we live in a misogynistic society.

[cecaeliawitch]

j.k. rowling never claimed using a male pseudonym made her a man 💀

[ms-hells-bells]

“alter ego” she’s not a fucking rapper 😂

supreme terf is pretty iconic tho

[pillarsalt]

[mrspankhurstsraspberryjam]

Really enforces the message for a cockroach to say how beautiful homosexual love is.

[pillarsalt]

This is actually a phrixothrix beetle.

[mrspankhurstsraspberryjam]

Nobody cares. It's a shitty cartoon. It's poorly rendered and has no detail that would make identification possible. But also have you thought that maybe a cartoon of an insect opining on the beauty of homosexual love reverses the message. Outside of a few entomology enthusiasts no one wants their lives and loves validated by any insect except possibly bees and ladybugs.

[pillarsalt]

I think beetles are graceful and beautiful. I use invertebrates in all my art lol, the animals I draw are purely decorative. You seem to be looking for reasons to get mad on the internet, you know you don't have to do that?

[mrspankhurstsraspberryjam]

No I'm giving you feedback you desperately need your bug art is poorly rendered but also tone deaf in the extreme. If it sees a greater audience than women who coddle you because they're stupid excited for something radfem it will end you. Because a broad audience will not see this the way you seem too. The impact of your work is insulting not uplifting. If you are so fragile as a human and an artist that you cannot even consider how an audience to interpret this image that you will never grow.

[gender-critical-analytical]

girl if you have a deep seated fear or repulsion for bugs you can just say that

[masterseimei]

Art is mainly how the majority will interpret it.

How the majority will interpret this is that only the lowly and disgusting would celebrate same sex attraction.

Being willfully obtuse isn't cute.

[sapphicgem]

i’m like actually so confused as to why some ppl think cardi b raped men??? i’ve spoken to (argued with) multiple men who adamantly believe that cardi b confessed to drugging and raping men. even tho that was never in question and also what tf would she even get out of that. was it a rumor or something? why do so many men believe this?

[masterseimei]

I had to cut out a childhood friend because he said her drugging men was the same as Cosby drugging and raping women he had power over.

He had no delusion about Cardi sexually abusing anyone...

[helloitsbees]

[helloitsbees]

target demographic

[helloitsbees]

train bloggers i am kissing you on the cheek like the godfather

[d3nt4l-d4m4g3]

If it's not too personal, why did you choose to transition? And when/how did you realise it wasn't right for you?

There were a lot of reasons why I chose to transition. first of all, I had never felt like I was good at being a girl—it was like every other girl had gotten a girl handbook and I hadn't. I felt like there was something wrong with me. I had never been happy. I had never felt like I was okay to be myself. Didn't help that I was gay. And the splitsecond I saw a way out at the same time I was at a rock bottom, I took it. I wanted to live. I wanted to be happy.

I realized medical transition wasn't right because it was exhausting me, not making me happy at all. The name change made me dissociate beyond belief. The pronouns thing made me feel guilty—I knew that everyone I knew was lying to me, and my only options seemed to be let the people I love lie to me or estrange myself from the people I love. For a while I thought, if i can just push through it to the part where I pass/get all my surgeries, that's when I'll be at peace. After all, "second puberty" is supposed to be awkward, right? call me a pussy but in 3 months I realized that was too big an if.

I was nonbinary for 2 more years. I liked giving myself permission "not to be a girl"—that meant, I stopped holding myself to the standards of femininity. I felt like I had stopped feeling shame about who I was—that was because I felt shame about being a girl, and I wasn't a girl. Instead of cutting out the shame I cut out the girl.

The pandemic happened, which sort of dissolved the trans reality to me because my life couldn't be a performance for others. I was just... my body, in a house, day after day. And that was so surprisingly peaceful.

It was in a women's rights class that I was introduced to sex-based rights, and I just couldn't ignore how I was not any different from the women and girls we were talking about across the world or in history. I was introduced to radical feminism, which taught me there's no wrong way to be a woman. You're a woman or you're not. And I was.

Unsexed, I was a coward. And I decided I didn't need to hide anymore. I had outgrown such crutches.

[kittyit]

An employee called a co-worker by the wrong gender pronoun—then received a death threat

"She just lost it."

interesting how the title of the article was changed to “received a death threat” instead of the more active language of what actually happened included in the link - was threatened with a knife. if misgendering (even unintentional, non-malicious) is violence, this woman deserved to have a male coworker wielding a knife tell her “I’m going to kill you for calling me he.” does that sound right to you, really?

[tervenfebfem]

“The transgender employee clenched the knife, lifted it up to the co-worker and threatened her, saying she was going to kill her for calling her the wrong pronoun.” This is an immediate threat of physical violence. This is an immediate threat of death.

[owls-garden-deactivated20231123]

Of course it was a man

[sabotabbys-deactivated20220523]

isn't it interesting how tras can make jokes about homophobia but god forbid they even make ironic jokes about transphobia. it won't be the first time i see stuff like "🏳️‍🌈🚫" kinda meme or "this makes me homophobic" or "i'm feeling violent about the gays today" or them """reclaiming""" the f*g slur despite not being gay

but never in my life i've seen them saying stuff like "this makes me transphobic" or "i hate trans ppl" or them claiming the tr*on slur. if you're a trans gay person why don't you reclaim the tr*on slur and make ironic jokes about transphobia too 🤨🤨

[semifinaldestination-deactivate]

I can’t believe a bunch of men were like “actually, women have it easier when it comes to mental health because everyone already assumes you are weak, irrational, crazy, and stupid 🥺” and a significant amount of feminists were like oh shit good point

[callioscope]

see also: "Female rape victims have it easier because everyone already expects women to get assaulted"

[vegradfem]

Or the worst one, men saying “at least you’re alive” and saying its worse to be murdered, because all men fear is death. A woman should be grateful that she’s alive after she’s raped. 

[not-the-shinigami-eyes]

Consent can be revoked at ANY time for ANY reason. The rules don’t suddenly change for you just because you’re part of a minority.

I like this guy’s response though

[hating-alison-ashley]

They really do think they are the only player characters and everyone else is npcs, hey?

[roachclit]

one of my trans female friends wants a hysterectomy :(

[gatlaca-deactivated20220925]

my mom had a hysterectomy when she was 35 due to a large uterine fibroid. (btw, hysterectomies are completely unnecessary for uterine fibroids, no matter how large or inconvenient. read a book called "the hysterectomy hoax" to learn more - myomectomies are more complicated so lazy, misogynistic doctors prefer hysterectomies).

the surgery ruined her life. she spent years on HRT. her brain to this day does not function at it's old capacity. she lost her ability to balance as well.

your uterus is not vestigial. it is not an unimportant organ, and it's function is not only childbearing.

now I am in my 20's, I have the same condition as my mother. I was told that I should just get a hysterectomy, but knowing how it still impacts my mother 20 years later, I never will unless I have uterine cancer (which is highly unlikely even with lots of fibroids, fibroids are benign).

I will say that to just "want" to have your uterus ripped out is a massive privilege. There are women who have had no choice.

Hatred of the female body is the root of all of this.

[grinderhash-moving-deactivated2]

such a male coded cope to say “yeah well a male god made your soul before your mother made you”

[onlyhereforchaos]

I think we as queer people all know the “oh” moment where you realize you’re not straight/cis but no one talks about the “goddamnit not again” moment where you thought you completely figured out your gender/sexuality only for you then to discover another label and have to start the whole process over again

[sonia-marmeladova]

these posts are so funny. they prove how much of a game, how fake this all is. everyone realizes it.

[sonia-marmeladova]

you change your mind seeing a new label because gender and sexuality are a consumerist hobby for you.

[antiplondon]

Imagine being this boring!

[masterseimei]

Imagine having such a flimsy identity that a new combination of ugly colors gives you an existential crisis.

[imeverywoman420]

Life is not inherently sacred yall there is 7 billion bitches on earth abortion is fine like theres enough people. Like whats not clicking. Why do we need 7 billion bitches on the planet. If you believe a fertilized period is “life” and aLl lIfE iS SaCReD why arent you vegan. Pussy.

[ms-hells-bells]

when you want to fight for women’s rights, but don’t even have the mental fortitude to not use misogynistic slurs as insults.

we’re never getting out. 

[cereal-before-milk]

VAGINAS AND JAPAN

What would happen if in a country like Japan, which has a festivity on phallic symbols (Kanamara Matsuri), a woman decides to exhibit art whose main concept is the vagina? Maybe you already know the answer or you can imagine it or maybe not, anyway this is what happened to Megumi Igarashi, a mangaka, artist, sculptor, feminist and activist, whose mission is to free Manko.

❀ MEGUMI IGARASHI

also known by her stage name Rokudenashiko, which means good for nothing, she was born in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, on March 14, 1972. Unlike her sister, who was a perfect girl, Megumi wasn't a good student, wasn't even good at sports and wasn't a very formal girl either. Igarashi was also bullied, although she was so insensitive that didn't even realize she was being bullied. In 1990 she moved to Tokyo to study philosophy at Kokugakuin University. Shortly after graduating in 1994, she began to devote herself to manga, even winning an award from the Kodansha publishing house in 1998. Making manga made her less and less excited due to the competitiveness, but Igarashi found a refuge in experience reporting manga or of reality (taiken rupo).

In 2002 Megumi got married so she began to introduce her sexual experiences into her works. She created a manga about infidelities (something that happened in their marriage on both sides) and as the society in which she lives they only get angry with women and men are usually forgiven, but very few people in Japan managed it understand, so didn't have many sales. When discussing her sexual experiences, she realized that no female mangaka drew pussys. Megumi says that all the feminist artists' portraits of vaginas she had seen were sad and dark, showing how difficult it is to be a woman, but she wanted to show a more cheerful and colorful vision of the vagina and make it a pop icon, just like the penis in her country.

Igarashi had a complex about her own vagina, as she had never seen another one before and thought her might be abnormal. More or less there came the idea of ​​starting to make molds and art on her vulva. At first the artist was a bit cautious, but when she started receiving a lot of negative reviews and comments like "you must be a really horny girl", she jumped at the idea of ​​dedicating herself to making art with her manko (Japanese slang for refer to vagina).

Megumi wants women to be able to talk about their pussy freely. "Most Japanese women have been brainwashed by their parents since they were children to think that their body, especially their vagina, is obscene. Boys are allowed to talk about the penis easily, even in public, but girls are not allowed. Parents forbid it. I think it leads women to think that our sexual organs are shameful and dirty. If women had more freedom to talk about their vagina, they could ask to use a condom, discuss sexual illnesses, their problems, etc. without being embarrassed, since people feel uncomfortable just hearing man(ko), but the same doesn't happen when they hear the word penis". Verbatim words from her blog 6d745.

❀ MANKO ART

As I said before the main theme of Rokudenashiko's art is her Manko. With that idea always being the center of her artistic concept, she has designed a lot of objects from necklaces, bracelets, to cell phone covers or even a remote-controlled robot.

Within her art collection in 2011 a series was born that she calls Deco-man, which is a play on words between decoration and manko. It basically consists of making molds of her vagina, decorating them and turning them into dioramas where her vagina is subtly camouflaged, like on that golf course or on the moon.

Her star work is a 2 meter Kayak called Pussy Boat. She even cost her freedom to carry it out.

And how can we forget about Manko-chan, her beloved pop icon. A very striking figure with a funny (obviously) slightly anthropomorphic pussy shape that has a manga and a lot of merchandising such as: floats, clothes, figures of different colors, plushies, etc.

She also organizes workshops for women who are interested in learning more about their vagina. And they don't need to bring materials, since Megumi prepares everything.

❀ HOW DID SHE BECOME AN ALLEGED CRIMINAL??

In July 2014, the mangaka was arrested at her home and all her works were seized for violating Japanese law against obscenity. It all begins in 2013 when she wants to raise money through crowdfunding to carry out her star work, a Kayak (pussy boat) with which to take walks.

To all the people who contributed to the project, she sent the data of her vagina so that they could make the 3D project, but despite the fact that it was something artistic / for work, it violated the laws of obscenity, since in Japan it is forbidden to share your private parts. Obviously, Igarashi didn't think her detention was fair at all, since sharing data isn't obscene at all. "My vagina is no different from my legs or my arms," ​​She claimed to the police. And of course it was not fair at all, since the police and the press, from a corrupt system, violated her rights and criminalized Megumi for an act that she didn't even initially have, political, vindictive and far from obscene intentions.

She spent 10 days in jail, during which time a total of 21,000 signatures were collected online to drop the charges against Megumi, and a week later she was released. But on December 3 of that same year, she was arrested again along with Minori Watanabe, a feminist writer and sex shop owner, for displaying an "obscene" object, a plaster replica of Pussy Boat, in Watanabe's store. (everything in a sex shop could be considered obscene, don't bother). On December 24, Igarashi was charged with "exhibition of obscenity", "electromagnetic obscenity recording" and "distribution of electromagnetic obscenity recording medium" and was finally released on bail on the 26th. In 2015 the trials took place to declare her guilty or not guilty.

A couple of curiosities that I have read on her Twitter is that of the 3 judges of the supreme court who handled her case over the years, all were men and in Japan there are also women in the supreme court and also that since she was bored between trial and trial looked for a part-time job.

*a part is not guilty* Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi

In 2016 she was found not guilty, because as the Kayak had such a striking decoration and color it was difficult to relate it to a pussy. She still had to pay a fine of ¥400,000 (€2,800 / $3,100) for having shared her vagina data and everything that the police had seized from her was returned and Megumi was finally able to navigate her kayak.

Had she been found guilty, she would have faced 2 years in prison and a fine of ¥2.5 million ($19,400/€18,000), a disproportionate punishment considering what she did. In 2021 Megumi Igarashi could already breathe without worry since she had her last trial (she could still have gone to jail), she paid the fine and is finally free. But not everything was a punishment for Igarashi, thanks to the fact that her case went viral and reached many parts of the world, Mike Scott, singer and guitarist of The Waterboys, became interested in her, he is currently her husband and they both had a son. So for Megumi being arrested became a kind of Tinder.

❀ WHAT IS OBSCENITY? 2016

French edition/ spanish edition

Megumi Igarashi narrates in this manga a bit of her life, everything that led her to make art with her vagina, the days she was in prison and the injustices and absurd situations she has experienced.

Obscenity is full of very interesting reflections on the female body and why it is considered obscene. Spoiler alert: because the man only sees them as a sexual object, but Rokudenashiko proves that it is just another body part. "They can be erotic, but they can also be funny, empowering or adorable."

The manga It a strong criticism of Japanese society, although it can also be applied to many others (I think the whole world shares taboos towards the vagina, maybe not in the same way, but in essence). This criticizes hypocrisy, since of course penises and vaginas are not the same, but not only in form and function but also because of how they are treated/represented in society. Megumi questions the reason for this, because the vagina is disgusting and is never portrayed, why it is talked about with disgust or even it seems as if it is forbidden to talk about it because it generates rejection and yet the same thing doesn't happen with the penis.

A couple of details that catch my attention is how the "Good for nothing" hides her anger with humor. In fact, humor is also used to cover up situations of criticism and injustice and thereby demonstrate the strength of the author, she applied the best way to laugh rather than cry. The other detail is how she never gives a conclusion. This manga that borders on the documentary, doesn't have absolute answers, only guidelines through personal experiences so that you can draw your own conclusions and be more or less on her side. She doesn't try to force you to have her same ideals.

What is Obscenity? is an excellent choice if you want to eliminate the taboos that your society has put in your head about the pussy, see the vagina with different eyes, normalize it, appreciate it much more and turn it into something pop.

Just say thank you Megumi Igarashi and FREE MANKO! <3

[motherrevolution]

people new to prison abolition: “how will we protect our communities from rapists, murderers and pedophiles if we abolish police + prisons?” even though less than 5% of rapists are incarcerated and prisons create an environment of rape and sexual assault

me:

[mithliya]

so women should be expected to be on guard and learn how to protect ourselves from rapists, & pedos, something we are already expected to do, bc..? like is there no better alternative rather than once again putting the responsibility of our safety on us?

[bodenor]

this is hideous. i don't want to have to fight a rapist to the death. i want to never have to encounter a fucking rapist in the first place. y'all are unhinged

[bodenor]

honestly i keep thinking about this post. i can't stop thinking about it, actually. this is how fucking out of touch leftist men are with what being a woman is like. do you think fighting off a rapist is empowering? do you think narrowly avoiding rape is a cool girl power moment? it's not. it's terrifying and violating and traumatizing. it's a reminder that it could happen to us any time. the thought that if things had gone a little bit different you would've been raped will never leave your mind. rape would be instantly solved if men simply decided to stop raping. instead, leftist men want women to spend their time and energy in weaponizing themselves. what will happen when a trained, armed woman fails to stop her rape? what will you do then? what can you even say to her? will you accept that rape as inevitable? how many rapes will you accept? leftist men are unwilling to tell themselves and other men to start viewing women as human. instead they're asking women to spend their time and energy in learning to and fighting off rapists.

[lez0mbie]

and what about drunk women? how will they fight off their attacker? and children? i doubt learning to fight will help them much if their attacker is much bigger. and what about men’s protection of their friends who’ve been accused of being rapists?

[rad-ishfem]

Putting the responsibility on women to protect themselves from rapists is just victim blaming women who will get raped by "not learning self-defense well-enough" or some shit