Only Women Bleed.

"Je ne suis pas de celles qui meurent de chagrin,Je n’ai pas la vertu des femmes de marins."

[geisterseher]

Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Baron Redesdale (1837-1916), The Attaché at Peking (1900)

[oxane]

Natalja Gontsjarova (1881-1962)

[black-hearted-bat-deactivated20]

[adrenaline]

via soup.io

[turndecassette-deactivated20171]

(found a bigger, yellower version of  ‘Bathing Women I’, 1938, by Yuki Ogura. I haven’t been to the spa in a very long time and this picture puts me at ease)

[nobrashfestivity]

Vera Chytilová  Daisies, 1966

[hushaby]

vintage everyday: Mask Series with Saul Steinberg Photographed by Inge Morath, 1959-1962

[theseportraits]

Rosa Naynon, Vaudeville bird act, 1907, J. Willis Sayre Photographs

[wolfcunt666]

Light Witch

[cinearche]

[art-nimals]

Jules Didier (1831 - 1914), Société Protectrice des Animaux (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), oil on canvas, Sotheby’s

[tremendousandsonorouswords]

Karl Brjullov, The Last Day of Pompeii (detail), 1830-1833

[feyminism-blog]

The premise of the film project is simple: a woman is asked to read an excerpt from a personally elected body of literature. (x)

[sweaterkittensahoy]

It’s called “Hysterical Literature,” and I have never seen a better example of questioning why it is that educated women (whether self or otherwise) always seem to be showcased as having no interest in sex. They all choose interesting books, and they all get off, and it’s fabulous.

It’s also brought forth a lot of comments (on youtube and otherwise) and WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THIS. IT’S SO DIRTY, and I feel that’s part of the point: Why is this considered so scandalous? It’s just sex. In fact, we don’t even SEE the sex, so the only thing that could be making people uncomfortable while watching it seems to be watching a woman enjoying getting sexual pleasure.

And maybe some of those people just aren’t into voyeurism  and that’s cool. But I’m betting a lot of them just don’t like to consider that maybe they think women having sexual pleasure is weird and that they think that you can’t have sexual pleasure as a woman and also have other facets and appreciation for “finer things.”

What I’m saying is, this whole series gives me a lot of thoughts.

[combatbrodom-deactivated2013042]

Always reblog because Hysterical Literature is the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a long while. 

[pyrlian]

Pretty sure I’ll wanna watch this later soooo

[amazonpoodle]

I think some reasons for why the people who probably do watch porn are made so uncomfortable by Hysterical Literature are a little more involved, since there’s definitely a decent market for porn in which women masturbate solo. It’s not JUST that each woman is experiencing sexual pleasure, it’s the combination of a bunch of aspects that are specific to this series:

each woman is without a partner, so she’s not servicing anyone;

she’s without a partner, so her attention is focused inward — this is completely about her enjoyment only;

she’s without a partner, but she does have a vibrator and her own body, so she isn’t dependent on any other human for her orgasm;

she’s reading a selection of her own aloud with some serious dedication, demonstrating that there are things she finds just as interesting as sex;

we don’t get any of the visuals or the melodrama or the POV that are usually considered to be the point of porn, so we can’t be titillated by her body (or her partner’s body/actions, or her reactions to her partner’s body/actions) — we don’t get to see what’s causing her pleasure, we only see how it makes her feel.

The whole production is actually super-dismissive of mainstream (straight) porn and its primary audience (dudes), in that it’s not particularly staged for the viewer’s pleasure (there’s no pretense that there isn’t a viewer — it’s just not about them) unless the viewer happens to be a person who gets off on the idea of women having some fantastic selfish orgasms, even when the viewer is in no way invited to imagine themselves participating. :D

FANTASTIC.

[ace-and-ranty]

I love this simply because I sorta just love seeing people feeling this good. Specially the fourth one, I just stare at her beaming and thinking “hey, it looks like this is awesome, so happy for you!”

[mamasam]

I’ve only seen a bit of these videos (the fourth gif is Stoya, a porn star, who reads the most beautiful excerpt about love) but I’ll add that what I also think makes critics so uncomfortable with this project is that for the first minute or so you are just listening to the woman read while showing no arousal. It is forcing the viewer into a (slight but still) personal connection before any sex comes into play. You are hearing a woman speak the words she wants and you the viewer are not receiving any reward for this, even if you do enjoy voyeurism. 

I really love this idea of empowerment. The idea that, “I am going to say something, and I am going to feel something, and you might enjoy both—but I am doing this for myself and my own enjoyment.”

[strugglingtobeheard]

I’ve only watched the black woman’s video where she reads from Toni Morrison and it was awesome. I love this too cause as a “smart woman” I am constantly desexualized by my peers. Yay

[frank-e-sleep-no-more]

took a moment to watch the one with Sole. I have no additional coments, just that I still have a smile on my face.

[o-faces]

Hysterical Literature always merits a reblog.

[danishprinciple]

[taleth-deactivated20150519]

we’ve been here since the dawn of time

[skysquids]

and we’re not going anywhere.  get used to us.

[paisleyasfuck-deactivated201812]

forever reblogging

[only-women-bleeed]

Printemps après printemps, je me suis assise devant mon miroir. Maintenant, je me lasse de tresser des bourgeons de prunier dans mes cheveux. J’ai passé une autre année sans toi, frissonant à chaque lettre. J’ai pleuré jusqu’à l’automne, mes pensées allaient au Sud à tes côtés. Même les portes du Paradis me sont plus proches que toi désormais.

Li Qingzhao

[hellanne]

Poetry is the way I fuck you when you’re gone.

Nicola Cayless, Literary Sexts (via dirtyberd)

[gypsyastronaut]