FeminiStAs

Blog curated by the Feminist Society of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. We're passionate about promoting gender equality on campus and in the world around us.

[thelatestkate]

[greelin]

“you’ll understand when you’re older”

i am older and i understand absolutely nothing

[afabhysteria]

#i actually understand less

[thepoliticalnoteboo1deac]

Yet Gwen dared to be who she was — dared to present the way she saw herself, as a young woman. And when men began to see her the way she wanted to be seen, she decided not to tell them about her history. And when they found out, their hate and disgust drove them to murder her.

“The First Murdered Trans Woman I Mourned”

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Above, BuzzFeed staff writer Meredith Talusan remembers the 2002 murder of Gwen Araujo, a teenaged California girl beaten to death for being transgender. 

(via thepoliticalnotebook)

[huffpost]

This Poet’s Message To Anti-Abortion Politicians Deserves A Hell. Yes.

It’s the first electrifying line from poet Theresa Davis, who, in just three minutes, takes on every politician who has ever tried to block the reproductive rights of women in America. 

[thatfeministkilljoy]

“Women will make up rape stories because they gain so much popularity from it!”

[a-eliz]

Things that are not okay.

[plannedparenthoodla-deactivated]

Before having sex, it’s important to talk with your partner about what you need and what you feel comfortable with.  It’s not always easy to talk about sex, but it’s important because no one can read your thoughts.

If you’re not ready to talk openly with your partner about sex, you may not be ready to be sexually active.

Ask yourself:

1.     Am I in a healthy relationship?

2.     Do I feel like I can say what I need to say in my relationship?

3.     Do I listen to my partner about what’s bothering them?

4.     Do I feel comfortable saying “no” and “stop” to my partner? Will they listen?

5.     Can I talk with my partner about using condoms and birth control?

For more information, visit www.plannedparenthood.org/teens

[baffle-them-with-bullshit]

And so you have to lead.

[twistedsoup]

And this is exactly why almost every woman I know is terrified of being anything less than perfect. 

[stafeminists]

I’m sure at this point, you all will have seen the response to consent workshops for university freshers. Titled “this is not what a rapist looks like” triggered something within our committee; mainly the idea that there isn’t a set look for a rapist. In fact, more often than not, people will know who their rapist is. More specifically, rapists look like people.  

Why Lawlor, the author of the original article, felt angry enough at being invited to a consent workshop - the invite for which did not mention either gender or rape - to sit there with a sign and say he was not a rapist is a bit beyond me. He says “Like any self-respecting individual would, I found this to be a massive, painful, bitchy slap in the face. To be invited to such a waste of time was the biggest insult I’ve received in a good few years. It implies I have an insufficient understanding of what does and does not constitute consent and that’s incredibly hurtful. I can’t stress that enough.”

Consent is rarely taught as an important issue in schools as part of sex education. We could work on the assumption that everyone knows what it means, but as the age old saying ‘to assume makes an ass out of u and me’. Instead of launching an attack, calling consent workshops a slap in the face, they should be celebrated as a move in the right direction for universities, helping educate students about the importance of consent; regardless of whether they already know. 

We invite you to support these consent workshops and #checkconsent. 

[commongayboy-deactivated2018082]

Television needs more bisexual representation like this

[f-ckyeahfutbol]

Exactly like this.

[whatbigotspost]

bi-sassquatsch said:

Thought I might give the new American Horror Story season another shot after last week’s season premiere legit disgusted me but then made the mistake of looking at the comments on the show. In case you haven’t watched it, there is a rape scene in the episode that is so violent and gross and drawn out that it was almost unbearable to watch. How people find that “hysterically funny” or “fun” is seriously beyond me. 

[stafeminists]

customer: is this product cruelty free?

me: actually, under capitalism, all products are made with cruelty, exploitation, and violence at their heart

customer: *nods understandingly* can i speak to your manager

[whatbigotspost]

kiwithefoxycatcoon 

 Haha so cool! You get to make the perfect girlfriend! Look so funny girls! Guys get to make a girl and it costs money! You’re only perfect if you have big boobs! Ladies only cost $5! #sarcasm

_____

Golly gee! It sure is hard to find a woman who has all those things! Ha! Ha! I get it! 

[maaarine]

(x)

[hey-okk]

Amazing

[peraltiago]

[twistedtwinsproductions]

*slow clap*

[exgynocraticgrrl-archive-deacti]

To say that feminist criticism of gender is effectively an incitement to violence against trans people, and trans people of color in particular, is logically and legally absurd. Such political speech does not meet the test for harm. The outrageous claim that gender critical feminism is equivalent to violence is meant to shame us and any potential supporters into silent agreement with the circular identity-logic that prohibits discussion of the material basis of women’s oppression. It is false and manipulative to assert that analyzing gender as a social construct that unequally distributes power between the sexes is in any way responsible for violence against trans people.

A Gender Critical Response to: A Statement of Trans-Inclusive Feminism and Womanism, By Elizabeth Hungerford, September 19, 2013 (via exgynocraticgrrl)

[rapeculturerealities]

Soldiers keep girls as young as 12 as sex slaves in South Sudan ‘rape camps’

The abduction of women and girls for use as sex slaves -– some of them held indefinitely, tied up with hundreds of others in secret rape camps — is a disturbing new aspect of South Sudan’s 21-month conflict, already characterised by well-documented war crimes and human rights abuses.

Nigeria’s ‘Chibok girls’, abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014, and Iraq’s Yazidi women taken as sex slaves by Islamic State are well-known.

But the plight of perhaps thousands of South Sudanese women and girls from just a single state, abducted and subjected to repeated, brutal rape and slave-like working conditions has remained hidden until now.

[meple-leef]

[misscherrylikesthediscourse]

GPOY