♀ year zero ♀

23. Radfem. Punk rock. Anti-capitalist. Gender-critical. I love girls so much. Female only space.

[ultra-cryptic-deactivated202312]

Hey gyns, I wanna tell you about the one thing that basically destroyed my dysphoria and gave me so much confidence in myself, my body, and my womanhood: doing difficult manual labor with other women.

In high school and the first part of college, i was very dysphoric and thought I was non-binary because I thought I “wasn’t like other girls” because I didn’t fit in with misogynistic stereotypes. I couldn’t escape libdem ideas and always felt claustrophobic. Classic. I also was severely depressed and had an eating disorder that landed my in the hospital and almost got me removed from university. I had no self confidence and felt disconnected from other women.

Then, right after college I landed a job on a wilderness trail crew with the US Forest Service. By some stroke of luck I ended up on a four-woman crew. They were some of the most amazing, strong and hard working women I’ve met.

We spent the days using crosscut saws to remove fallen logs from the trails (think old-timey logger two-person saws), chopped smaller logs with axes, moved huge boulders with our bodies, and hiked 10-12 miles a day carrying about 60 pounds of gear each. It was amazing. Over one summer we cleared about 300 miles of trail, just the four of us.

It was an awakening for me. While I’d done manual labor growing up, it was always in the presence of men. With men, they insinuated I wasn’t as strong, tried to do my work for me, or showed off, etc. With my crew of awesome ladies, the environment was so different. We were strong, yes, but we met difficult tasks with effective communication and creative use of our body mechanics, instead of “brute strength.” There was no derision, no judgement, no mind games that there would have been if men were present.

Throughout the summer I stopped thinking of myself as non-binary. I stopped feeling shame in being a woman, and began to feel connected with my body for the first time in years. I started believing in myself again.

Doing manual labor with women honestly changed/saved my life, and I encourage all women to find a similar experience. I understand not everyone physically can do physical labor, but I guess my message is this: regardless of what the task is, do hard things with women. Learn, cultivate skills, work, and work hard with other women. It will teach you, fulfill you, and truly empower you. Seek out opportunities to complete your work away from men and you will flourish.

[illalwaysbehere]

I love this post for many reasons.

1) Congratulations, OP. I’m proud of you for finding healthy ways to cope with your dysphoria and embrace who you are.

2) The cure to internalized misogyny is women. Spending time with other women. Talking to other women. Sharing with other women. Befriending other women. Finding solidarity and camaraderie with other women. Realizing you’re not alone. Getting away from the influence of men and realizing their perceptions are not universal.

3) This is why both conservatives and trans activists want to eradicate female-only spaces. If women talk, alone and away from the watchful eyes of men, they realize they have quite a lot in common, which leads to the veil lifting. Healing. Solidarity. Organization. Class consciousness. Feminism. And men can’t have that.

[howieabel]

“Think about the strangeness of today’s situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it’s much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.”

— - Slavoj Žižek, Žižek! (2005)

[guerrillatech]

[trying-to-be-sweet]

And in case y'all were under the impression that he works hard to make that money, he's publicly proud of not doing a whole lot of hard work at all. He also revealed that he doesn't allow office birthday lunches and thinks his sexiest quality is that he does the dishes. This man is a leech and contributes nothing to the world, not even measly sales tax.

[makebesnake]

Every single 'low skilled' worker has worked harder in one day than Bezos has in his entire life

[stimman4000]

worst trend of 2020 is instagram influencers with a large audience starting an onlyfans for bikini pics or whatever, making 10-20k their first week, and then posting about how easy it is to an audience that includes tens of thousands of young girls, who are going to start one at 18, end up having to do much more hardcore stuff to make any money, still not make nearly as much as those people do because they aren’t famous to begin with, and then be stuck with nudes of them online for the rest of their lives. i’m not anti sex work but people talking about it like it’s a quick and easy way to make money with no negative impact on you at all is... deeply irresponsible

[stimman4000]

like i know several people, both online and irl, who’ve done this and quit because they had their pictures sent to parents/friends, felt pressured to do things they were uncomfortable with, found themselves in bad situations with other models/ “photographers”, or were worn out and emotionally exhausted by being seen as a sex object/product instead of a person-all for 300-400 dollars overall. if it’s something you’re considering please be aware it’s not how these people portray it

[rneadowsoprano-deactivated20211]

With this specific topic I think it’s so important to remember that onlyfans has a recruitment system that operates very similarly to a multi level marketing scheme, and all these women with large followings on Twitter encouraging their followers to make onlyfans are getting a chunk of all the money they earn. The top earners on OF are not just making money off their subscribers, they’re making a killing off the recruitment bonuses from everyone in their downline’s earnings. That’s why they try so hard to sell it as the best job ever.

[femkilljoy]

Women’s labor <3

[hclgbtqiabts-deactivated2023062]

Glass clif phenomenon

[the-hairypotter]

ok yes, so society places unfair beauty standards on men “be tall, be muscular, but not too tall not too muscular, etc.” but the fact of the matter is that when men don’t obtain those standards it’s ok! society doesn’t say “well you’re useless now” even when looking at the ugliest man society will say “well he’s smart, he’s funny, he makes a lot of money” what have you, even if those things aren’t true, ugly men are still given value and ugly women are not. so if we could please stop saying things like “well yeah, but society gives men unobtainable beauty standards too” that would be great because they are just not the same.

[laurierrose]

unattractive men retain their humanity, unattractive women do not

[spector]

shelley duvall was ROBBED by hollywood, absolutely fucking robbed, SHE was the star of the shining (1980), not jack nicholson, she was the emotional anchor of that movie and she carried it ON HER OWN, all nicholson had to do is squint funny and thats it, meanwhile she was out there crying and screaming and shrieking and running ALL WHILE antagonized by the director who felt like he had to flex his misunderstood loner genius muscles or some shit. years later and when people talk about the shining they either discuss the joker or cube rick when they should be talking about how shelley duvall made the terror of that movie REALLY, TRULY POP. like what was i even doing in 1980??? i sure as hell wasnt defending her talent and hard work i was busy not existing like an absolute fucking fool and i can never atone for that

[horrorcoolgirl]

Her screams and her terror were too “ugly”. There was no way for men to paint her fear and pain as “erotic” the way they do with other actresses and even women in childbirth:

Her fear was too real, too visceral. It wasn’t a beautiful mask like movies usually demand their actresses to keep up. Her crying wasnt Hollywood tears, doe eyes or soft pleading.

This was real female fear in response to male violence. Real, unbridled, and agonising. And that’s truly what men don’t want to see, so they laughed and mocked her off the screen.

[apjvff]

guys: fight each other all the time

girls: support each other and share hand cream

[dreamqueensweetism]

Lol no. Girls are bitches to each other more often than not. If it isn’t to your face it’s behind your back.

[apjvff]

maybe they are mean to you only. everybody in my group is supportive and we share hand cream.

[buckys-a-babe]

My world changed forever when I stopped looking at other women through the lenses that society had given me.

I learned how easy it is to ask a stranger for a pad.

I learned to share my lotion.

I learned how quick women are to compliment.

I learned how easy it is to make a girl smile.

I learned how to find good sales - hint: compliment an item and you learn where it was purchased and if it was on sale.

I learned how to see fear on a face across a bar.

I learned how to step in.

I learned how to ask for help with my eyes.

I learned about bathroom friendships and how deep they can feel for their short lived lives.

I learned how to signal complex thoughts and ideas through straw placement and head tilting.

I learned how to feel safe and make others feel safe.

Girls are so good.

[tenpennylemonade-deactivated201]

The world is seriously a better place now that I enjoy the presence of other women. I haven’t had a single catty incident since I stopped hanging out with exclusively dudes and not-like-other-girls. 

I am like other girls and other girls are wonderful. You can never have too many sisters. 

[lavahag-deactivated20190627]

I’m so glad I learned to love women.

[beegoould]

Same. It changed my life. It saved me.

[livesickdieill]

also no one can tell me that boys don’t bitch about each other behind their backs because i’ve seen it so many times so everyone needs to stop with this “boys just fight face to face” retoric because it’s bullllllllshit

[kitsune-gari]

They convince us we are catty bitches going to fight with each other because they are afraid of female solidarity.

[gallicinvasion]

When you’ve been taught all your life that it’s impolite to refuse, that you’re rude if you say no, then you haven’t been given the tools to vocalize your own boundaries. This means men can (and do) take advantage of your fear of being seen as a bad person. This puts you in harm’s way.

Female socialization is not just inconvenient. It’s dangerous.

[piss-bong]

2020 for me has just been “am I stressed because of a global pandemic and an increasingly fascist far-right government, or am I just struggling to exist under capitalism” and I’m really getting tired of it

[piss-bong]

2020 mood

[runcibility]

In 2016, everyone was taking online personality quizzes to find out what superhero, Disney princess, or 90s sitcom character you were. I took one of these myself (I'm Batman, if you were wondering)....

In 2016, everyone was taking online personality quizzes to find out what superhero, Disney princess, or 90s sitcom character you were. I took one of these myself (I’m Batman, if you were wondering).

In 2017, the fad suddenly vanished. Then we found out Cambridge Analytica had been using online personality tests to secretly mine user data and create personality profiles to divide Democrats against each other, manipulate swing voters, and help elect Trump.

Now it’s 2020, and suddenly these quizzes are back. And I see even many of my most politically astute friends are taking them. If we’re not going to learn from the past, I guess we deserve whatever we get.

https://www.facebook.com/apiper/posts/10157287692029232

[aqueerkettleofish]

While we’re on the subject….

Your birthdate and month will get you your stripper name AND tell the whole world information that can be used to steal your identity.  Same for quizzes that ask about your first pet, the street you grew up on, etc. A couple of years ago I started working on a parody of those quizzes, where it was your mother’s maiden name, and a different value for each of the last four digits of your SSN, but decided not to finish it because some jackass would reblog it unironically.

[ailurinae]

your birthday and month are public information, the records can be looked up regardless. I’d be more worried about the questions that look like the backup security questions websites often have (where did your parents meet, what was your first car, what was your first pets name, etc) (which are a terrible idea by the way, and the entire infosec community is against them)

[runcibility]

Hey, I don’t mean to pick on you specifically, but I’ve seen this sentiment a lot in response to this, and I want to kindly and gently point out the gist of this post.

There are certainly plenty of people who want to find ways to get at your personal information so they can use it to scam you or open lines of credit in your name.

That is not what this is about.

This is about gathering data on what you do and do not like, what your political temperature is. It’s about finding out the things you are sensitive to, what your personal pressure points are, so you can be gently pushed in one way or another.

For example, if they load the questions towards finding out what angers you the most, they can use that to stoke a sense of outrage in specific, targeted ads against you on Facebook. If you’re angry about sexism and misogyny, they’ll craft questions to gauge that, and you’ll suddenly get targeted advertisements and news articles about how your favorite candidate is actually sexist.

By the time it’s debunked, it’s too late.

I think we all like to believe that we can just… logic our way through our day. But fundamentally, the human operating system is so full of emotional buffer overflows that it’s impossible to fully resist manipulation. The best you can do is to avoid situations where you’re likely to have someone gather useful data to do just that.

It’s 2020. We have to be paranoid not because it’s cool or hip or fun, but because it’s absolutely necessary.

If you’ve got time, I highly recommend listening to the interview Terry Gross did with Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistle blower.

(Again, I want to stress that I’m not picking on you specifically - I’m just expanding on a point seen often in response)

[runcibility]

So I see that this one is “doing the numbers” again. It’s important to understand that, as of yesterday, we now have an even bigger and clearer understanding of the sinister data usage of the Trump campaign to spread voter disenfranchisement: https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-trump-campaign-strategy-to-deter-millions-of-black-americans-from-voting-in-2016

   It reveals that 3.5 million Black Americans were categorised by Donald Trump’s campaign as ‘Deterrence’ – voters they wanted to stay home on election day.

   Tonight, civil rights campaigners said the evidence amounted to a new form of voter “suppression” and called on Facebook to disclose ads and targeting information that has never been made public.

   The ‘Deterrence’ project can be revealed after Channel 4 News obtained the database used by Trump’s digital campaign team – credited with helping deliver his shock victory to become president four years ago.

   Vast in scale, it contains details on almost 200 million Americans, among more than 5,000 files, which together amass almost 5 terabytes of data – making it one of the biggest leaks in history.

   It reveals not only the huge amounts of data held on every individual voter, but how that data was used and manipulated by models and algorithms.

   In 16 key battleground states, millions of Americans were separated by an algorithm into one of eight categories, also described as ‘audiences’, so they could then be targeted with tailored ads on Facebook and other platforms.

   One of the categories was named ‘Deterrence’, which was later described publicly by Trump’s chief data scientist as containing people that the campaign “hope don’t show up to vote”.

   Analysis by Channel 4 News shows Black Americans – historically a community targeted with voter suppression tactics – were disproportionately marked ‘Deterrence’ by the 2016 campaign.

   In total, 3.5 million Black Americans were marked ‘Deterrence’.

   In Georgia, despite Black people constituting 32% of the population, they made up 61% of the ‘Deterrence’ category. In North Carolina, Black people are 22% of the population but were 46% of ‘Deterrence’. In Wisconsin, Black people constitute just 5.4% of the population but made up 17% of ‘Deterrence’.

   The disproportionate categorising of Black Americans for ‘Deterrence’ is seen across the US. Overall, people of colour labelled as Black, Hispanic, Asian and ‘Other’ groups made up 54% of the ‘Deterrence’ category. In contrast, other categories of voters the campaign wished to attract were overwhelmingly white.

   The 2016 campaign preceded the first fall in Black turnout in 20 years and allowed Donald Trump to take shock victories in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan by wafer-thin margins, reaching the White House despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

   Trump’s digital campaign, called ‘Project Alamo’ and based in San Antonio, Texas, involved a team from the now defunct British company Cambridge Analytica, working with a team from the Republican National Committee. Two senior members of the Cambridge Analytica team are working on the Trump 2020 campaign.

   Cambridge Analytica collapsed after investigations by Channel 4 News, The Observer and the New York Times in 2018.

   Facebook is facing calls to ban political advertising, following an international backlash over the use of its platform to spread misinformation, disinformation, and suppression during election campaigns.

   The Trump campaign spent £44 million on Facebook ads alone during 2016, posting almost six million different versions of highly targeted messages that were pumped directly into the feeds of target voters across America, helped by a Facebook employee embedded within the Trump campaign.

   But many of the ads were so called ‘dark posts’, which could vanish from recipients’ feeds once a campaign stopped paying for them.

   It means no complete public record exists of the ads posted on Facebook during the 2016 campaign or the audience lists used to target voters. The platform offered no ‘Ad Library’ at the time.

   Without Facebook or the campaign itself revealing the information, it means it’s not possible to ascertain exactly how potential voters in the ‘Deterrence’ group may have been targeted on Facebook.

   But Channel 4 News has uncovered evidence that the campaign did target Black voters with negative ads designed to crush Hillary Clinton’s turnout.

   These included videos featuring Hillary Clinton referring to Black youths as “super predators” which aired on television 402 times in October 2016 and received millions of views on Facebook.

   In one confidential document seen by Channel 4 News, Cambridge Analytica admitted the Trump campaign did target “AA” (African Americans) with what it called the “Predators video” – spending $55,000 USD in the state of Georgia alone.

[scorpiobitch88]

Compliance causes a shocking realization that must be registered by all women. That is, to be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, and yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves. It is a tormenting tension and it must be borne, but the choice is clear.

Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

[mysharona1987]

[psalmsinthedark]

Can we stop being rude to first world Christians?

We don’t face the same struggles as our brothers and sisters in other places but it still sucks to lose friends (esp close ones), family, jobs, and other opportunities because of your faith and live in a society that largely hates you and finds you to be an acceptable target for hatred and mockery for standing fast in your beliefs.

You can acknowledge the persecution of Christians around the world while still having compassion for those who suffer in less severe ways.

[butchviking]

one of your beliefs is that women should be subservient to men. no, we can’t stop being rude to sexists. stop believing shitty things and we’ll talk.

[homosupremacist-deactivated2022]

Christians believe natural human homosexuality is a sin. Fuck christians in whatever part of the world

[radical-heretic-deactivated2021]

Maybe people will stop hating you when you stop using your fictional guy in the sky to justify misogyny and homophobia 😀

[hellstarremina-blog]

no. ❤️

maybe stop relying on a book that blames women for “original sin”, encourages rape and homophobia, and is currently used in first-world countries as a basis to oppress others.

we won’t consider not mocking you, but maybe it’ll get you to realize that modern-day christianity is a shithole and deserves all the shit flung at it. ❤️

[rosalesbeausderholle]

How the FUCK do first world christians suffer? At all? You guys are literally the majority religion here?????

[againstpollution]

pff as longs as you actively try to stop abortion access, gay and women’s rights and indoctrinate your children into a belief system that teaches them misogynistic gender roles and that they are wrong for being same sex attracted…i wish you were actually being discriminated against and suffering. sadly u r not

[bullydyke-deactivated20210902]

why are so many really religous Christians so manipulative lmao

[cringecorpsinc]

“Can we stop being rude to first world Christians?” 

[spookyterf]

no ❤️

[antiplondon]

https://twitter.com/LouMycroft/status/1307277261444395008

[radfemarchive-deactivated202304]

No plastic surgery or any form of aesthetical body alteration brings the person subjected to it one concrete beneffit other than the consciousness of looking pleasant to others, "for myself" is a capitalist/patriarchal facade to stimulate femininity by giving it a false, fabricated sense of autonomy.

A certain feature is only perceived as unadequate when it is compared to upheld adequate, nothing is fundamentally aesthetically unadequade in the human body; beauty is cultural.