name one native american intellectual off the top of your head, name one native american actor or actress off the top of your head, name one native american senator, one native american news anchor, or an author or a tv personality or a singer or a poet or a comedian, name a single native american teacher you’ve had, can you? probably not
ok so now think of one native american cartoon character you know of or a sports team relating to native americans whether it’s their actual name or their team logo, or a town you live in or near with a “native” name bet a lot of these things came to you right away i bet you didn’t even have to think
needing native representation in media, education and government are not decoy issues, the commercialization and appropriation of native cultures are not decoy issues, the lack of native representation is institutional oppression at work
White people specifically need to reblog this, I don’t CARE if it makes you uncomfortable–that’s the point. Listen to Native voices about Native issues PLEASE
The Power of Feminist Political Imagination by Vivian Dixon
To unburden women from the yoke of patriarchy, we must understand who we are as humans and how to change ourselves. Everything we know, everything we see and do, is governed by the clumsy yet elegant mind that nature has gifted us. We all share the same material reality, but none of us react to it dispassionately or without bias.
All of us are swept away by our imaginations, enchanted by our fancies, taken in completely by the glamour of our perceptions and interpretations. Even in our most earnest efforts to be serious about reality, we cannot help but be tantalized by the possibilities and uncertainties lingering just beyond our immediate grasp, and we cannot help but be swayed by the way our biased gleanings color the world around is.
So we are capriciously buffeted by our imaginations, as humans, and this is both joyous and horrible. Our imaginations can become a cage, shackling us to fear and rage, or conversely it can uncage our worst desires. Processes of socialization can unleash terrors, inculcate in us a deep-seated belief in our own superiority and demonically tempt us to selfishly become the tormentors of others. And imagination can delude us every step of the way that our actions are just, and good, and correct.
Women have suffered a great deal at the hands of men because of this.
Imagination can become a limitation. We may imagine that, if our world is intolerable, that another world is not possible. This is how it is, it can’t be any other way, we may as well get used to it: these are dangerous falsehoods, but how frequently we imagine they are true. Women are taught to imagine it so.
Yes, there are all kinds of imaginations. To name a few, hopeful imagination, a despairing imagination, a racist imagination, an imperialist imagination, a capitalist imagination, a patriarchal imagination.
And a revolutionary imagination.
The revolutionary imagination arises from revulsion at an existing state of affairs and is nurtured by the notion that shared efforts might be made to change that state. Patriarchy has existed since the dawning days of settled human living, and while it is starkly real and not imaginary it gnarls the imagination in accordance with its dictates. As John Berger points out in “Ways of Seeing”, patriarchy socializes men to observe women, alter them and treat them according to their desires and whims. Accordingly, patriarchy takes up residency in the imaginations of women, and perform careful surveillance on themselves in order to adhere to the expectations of men. To preserve this arrangement, violence has never been off the table, and where violence is not overtly used, psychological controls are prevalent.
In revolt against these circumstances, women have weaponized their imaginations for millennia. Even where revolution could not yet take material form, these acts of imagination were never irrelevant symbolism. How could it be irrelevant that Artemisia Gentileschi fought tooth and nail to secure her place in the suffocating chauvinism of the Renaissance art world, survived sexual assault and lived to pass on an artistic statement of defiant rage in the form of her “Judith and Holofernes”? Can we deceive ourselves that myth-making, be it Joan of Arc’s martial gender nonconformity, or the divine abortions performed by St. Brigit of Kildare, has not inspired countless women? Has it not awakened us to the truth that the world can be made so much more wonderful when we dispose of patriarchal traditions?
Even the smallest bit of hope can set our whole imaginations aflame, illuminating new possibilities for the future. It is beyond our capacity to count the number of women, raised in a heteronormative society, who discovered themselves as lesbians reading bleak tales of lesbian tragedy when nothing else could be found. Author Lillian Faderman noted this pattern in her study of 20th-century lesbian life in America, with interviewees and written archives describing the importance of Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness” or any number of dime store novels depicting the woeful wages of lesbian “sin” in the 1940s and 1950s. Even these torturous condemnations allowed for the realization that to be lesbian was possible, and if it was possible to be a lesbian, maybe it was possible to meet other lesbians.
Perhaps it is Edythe Eyde, writing as “Lisa Ben” who might best exemplify the awe-inspiring power of feminist political imagination in enabling lesbian life to become a reality. In the staid, heterosexist 1950s, in her idle hours as a secretary in LA, she furtively created the all-time first lesbian zine, “Vice Versa”. She combed fervently through the dross of popular culture and literature to find those irreplaceably precious glimmers of lesbian possibility and share them with an audience of a few dozen people per issue. In time, her social horizon widened, from a few clandestine evenings in the LA lesbian bar scene, to a populous group of lesbian friends and acquaintances. The possibilities became less and less limited. Pop culture analysis gave way to activism in the mainstream. A small audience for Vice Versa became a wider audience for pioneering lesbian magazine “The Ladder”. Such activism opened up the possibilities of imagination in more and more minds, and as decades passed ideas of new possibility became material realities. And although the fight is not over, major victories have been secured in the push to make the planet safe for lesbian existence.
So with these anecdotes in mind, let’s seriously ask ourselves. What is intolerable about the existing world for women? Do we have a culture that teaches women that their only worth comes in objectifying themselves for men? Does compulsory heterosexuality persist, are women pressured with shame and with violence against being gay in many parts of the world? Could there be persistent forces of socialization that tacitly condone sexual abuse and rape, could the justice system give a pass to perpetrators and abandon survivors? At great personal cost we endure a political mainstream which restricts women’s bodily autonomy, an ongoing history of imperialism which continues to victimize women to the greatest extent, an economy where women are financially immiserated and even have their sexual autonomy robbed from them because of it. These realities compel decisive action, but we will only take that leap if we believe with every fiber of our being that such action is possible and meaningful.
Let us remember that, out of millennia of abuse, of domestic confinement and every kind of restriction and violation, feminism became possible and then became real because women imagined that things could be different and collectivized that imagination. Let us remember that every victory for women has opened up new horizons of possibility for countless other women, let us remember that every material change that allowed women to bond with one another, to share hopes and grievances, to build community and solidarity, allowed new peaks of imagination to be realized and vault our material gains ever further and further.
In keeping with that, let us dramatically re-imagine the world before us. A world with no confinements for the possibilities of womanhood, with no “place” or “role” or “duty” to restrict women to. A world where women are not brutalized by countless hidden cruelties, where acts of sexual violation are unthinkable and never tolerated, where women are not subject to insidious racism, or homophobic bigotry, or treated as chattel, where women are never dispossessed and there are no “lower classes” to dispossess them into.
Let our art reflect this unfettered imagination. Let it be not meek and timid, let it spur us to combination, to collectivize, to articulate demands and never back down from them. Less passive political detachment. More “Red Detachment of Women”.
A world after patriarchy, and all its attendant oppressions, is plausible. We have seen glimpses of it in every advancement made by women and by feminism, be it revolutionary Russian women smashing the feudal myth of “men’s work” or lesbianism breaking apart the confines of the closet. If the world isn’t where we want it to be, that just means our work is incomplete. Together, let us finish it and rebuild the world in a new and better image.
Vivian Dixon is a freelance writer and weekly podcast host currently living and working in Massachusetts. In her free time she enjoys archive digging and crafting. Accompanying artwork by Paige Colwell @evilmarrypopins
“Dear Uterus, My deepest and most sincere apologies for not using that marvelous egg of yours and getting pregnant, but there’s really no need for you to be doing the most right now. So as the dementors continue to suck my soul out via my uterus, I can only hope that the menstruation gods smile down upon me and cause these pain meds to kick in. Sincerely Yours, Management”
We’ve all been there. That magical time of month when every woman has her own personal Shark Week. Whether you’re the most fabulous Lipstick Les in the world or the King of the Butches, we all have a period. And when that glorious time of the month that our uterus decides to host a Civil War reenactment comes, we’re forced to make a pivotal choice. Pads or Tampons? Let’s start with pads. Sanitary napkins, also known as pads, are pretty much exactly what they sound like. They come in either regular or with wings to help them fit securely on your undies. Most people who wear pads admit to choosing them because they are safer to use over longer periods of time when your flow is heavy. They’re also great for women that are uncomfortable with insertion, which quite a few lesbians have issues with. Many women are opposed to pads because after a few hours, the accumulation of menstruation on the pad begins to have an odor. When asked about pads, one professed pad hater said “Pads stink. Period. No pun intended.” When it comes to tampons, you probably fall into one of two categories. You either: A) played sports and therefore had to wear tampons to be able to effectively crush the competition without ruining your uniform and/or washing machine; or B) tried tampons on your own at a young age and had a terrible, painful experience and now have PTSD every time you see anything remotely tampon shaped. I personally and unashamedly fall into category B. I initially didn’t know how to put it in all the way and had to walk around with this weird limp, but luckily I decided to give tampons a second chance and haven’t looked back since. The reason many woman refuse to wear tampons is the thought of shoving something up their lady region kinda weirds them out. No fears! Pads may be your thing.
So let’s review the Pros and Cons of both pads and tampons:
So which should you spend your hard earned money on? Well that’s entirely up to you. There are times when either pads or tampons will work best for you. My suggestion would be to try both and see which one you like more. And for those of you who are like me and had a bad tampon experience and are scared to try them again or have just never tried them before, I encourage you to try them your next period. You may just discover you like them. If not you can always go back to your trusted, handy-dandy pads. And for those of you who want to pull off the Ultimate Protection Period Combo, try using an Ultra Thin pad WITH a tampon! This will keep your undies and clothes more secure than Fort Knox. Most importantly ladies and gentleladies, stay leak free and have a kick ass period!
Written by Myeisha Webb, artwork by Molly Van Roekel
The first weeks under the new administration have been exhausting. A blitzkrieg of executive orders, new legislation, and confirmation hearings bombarded us daily. As constituents struggled to reach their representatives, protests of all kinds erupted nationwide, forcing Congress to listen despite full mailboxes and disconnected switchboards. Thousands of people with no previous interest in politics found themselves glued to the news, making phone calls, and taking to the streets. This unrelenting pace is exhausting, but progress is hard work and requires solidarity on all fronts. The Trump administration’s backstepping on immigration bans, the stalling of the ACA repeal, and the cancellations of meetings with Harley-Davidson and Disney’s CEO were direct responses to overwhelming mass resistance.
The protests immediately following Trump’s inauguration set the tone for the kinds of activism seen throughout the presidency so far. The Women’s March on Washington took place the day after Trump was sworn in, and was hailed as peaceful and nonviolent. The Disrupt J20 protests, which took place on Inauguration Day, however, were seen as the exact opposite. The mainstream media blamed this primarily on the destructive actions of anarchist elements. More self-aware elements of the left afforded the relative peace of the Women’s March to the privileges and protections which white women enjoy in this country. Alli H., a participant in both the Women’s March in Portland and the J20 protests, said, “One night they were tear gassing and roughing up protesters and then the next day there’s pussy hats and flowers...and everyone’s excuse was that the event from the night before [referring to J20] wasn’t permitted.” One of the most striking differences noted wasn’t activist behavior, but the nature of the police response and opposition. Many women’s marchers tried to distance themselves from the J20 protests, touting the lack of arrests made at the march and celebrating the genial atmosphere of women in solidarity. Those comments were made without historical context, and outside of the lens of intersectionality. As the past two weeks have shown us, all types of direct action are necessary in the pursuit of meaningful change, as long as we do not let oppressive state forces divide us.
Through the combined tactics of congressional advocacy, peaceful expression of solidarity, direct action protests, and militant anti-fascist demonstrations, noticeable change has already taken place: The House of Representatives ended their attempt to strip the Ethics Committee of the authority to independently investigate members of Congress on conflicts of interest and other ethical violations. The Veterans Administration gained exemption from the governmental hiring freeze. 500,000 green card holders and dual citizens received exemption from the immigration executive orders, and the Department of Defense ensured exemptions for Iraqis that worked with the United States military, and federal judges have deemed the current immigration executive order as unconstitutional. Phone calls to members of Congress critically affected Betsy DeVos’s confirmation as Secretary of Education, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast a historic tie-breaking vote. We must maintain momentum on all fronts in order to continue this trend. All of this was accomplished through ground-level protests at airports, near-constant phone calls to representatives, and anarchists forming community networks to provide physical support and defense for those victimized by racist street attacks.
The most obvious example of success through combined tactics is the controversial University of California at Berkeley protests. While many decry the use of “violence” in protests, several student protesters voiced their support of the black bloc tactics. Students and faculty voiced their concerns at the danger of inviting Milo Yiannopoulos to speak, citing his history of harassment and incitement of violence: “When Yiannopoulos visited the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, on Dec. 13, he spoke in his public lecture about a transgender student at the university in derogatory ways, going so far as to project a picture of this student during his lecture, which was simultaneously broadcast on the Breitbart website. (Most of his talks are live-streamed onto the Breitbart site, as the UC Berkeley talk is likely to be if it goes ahead.) She was in the audience and he projected an older photo of her, referring to her as “he” and remarking that “the way you know he’s failed is I can still bang him.” He continued to ridicule and vilify her in front of the live campus audience and the online audience. The student was so disturbed by this experience that she withdrew from the university, feeling betrayed by the administration that had granted a platform to a speaker known to operate in this way and had failed to intervene and protect her from harassment. In a similar fashion, Yiannopoulos often makes use of a “target cam” during his lectures that zooms in on students in the audience and projects their images in front of the audience without first securing permission, as he speaks in derogatory and insulting ways against them and to them.” Legally, in the United States, hate speech is permitted as a kind of free speech. This means the government cannot censor this type of event. However, UCB has the right to deny a speaking engagement to anyone violating their regulations, as they see fit. Letters from faculty and students to the administration began the resistance. When ignored, protesters took to the ground, surrounding the building where Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak. With chants and signs, they supported the marginalized he would have targeted. Still, the university refused to cancel the event. Then, anti-fascist supporters showed up, destroying property, breaking windows, lighting controlled fires, and strategically using police barriers. The other protesters who were there can be seen in videos protecting the antifascists and helping them avoid the police. All of this together cancelled the event- preventing the spread of hate speech and violent rhetoric.
The left arguing over whether or not the destruction of property is a legitimate means of protest does nothing for solidarity as a movement. It also fails to acknowledge the real focus of anti-fascist and anarchist efforts. Direct and militant action comprises a fraction of their agenda, with most groups prioritizing community building and education. It ignores the historical importance of organizations like these in global civil rights movements, more recently in the Arab Spring. As this resistance moves forward, which it will, we must all stand strong together, and analyze how each of us individually contributes to the larger goals of the unified left. Remember, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Written by EIC Franke Normand, photography by Elliott Estelle (Stand up, Boots on the Ground, This Machine Burns Fascists)
never forget that this was originally meant to demonstrate that lesbian representation was so rare that you wouldn’t even see two named women interact in a platonic manner let alone in a sexual or romantic one onscreen.
With a take of $131 million and counting, “Hidden Figures” is the highest-grossing film among the nine Best Picture nominees at this year’s Oscars. Theodore Melfi’s crowd pl…
You wake up, get dressed, put on moisturizer, and die. You lock the door of your house behind you and get into your car and die. You make it through traffic to work, where you die.
You go out to dinner with your girlfriend and die over appetizers, die over the entree, die having refused dessert. You go out for drinks and die in the restaurant. You have to sneak out of the bar with two shots abandoned on the counter because you’re both broke and you die in the entryway.
You die without ever having lost the weight. You die in dirty underwear, with dirty hair. You die with your fingernail polish chipped. You die holding hands on the sidewalk, or not; you die kissing in the movie theatre parking lot, or not; you die leaning into each other so you can make jokes about terrible dialogue and exclaim over cinematography, or you die going into the bathroom, or washing your hands.
You have an anxiety attack in your bedroom getting ready, thinking about crowds, about strangers, about loud music over which you won’t be able to hear her say whatever she’s thinking. You put on eyeliner, curl your eyelashes, put on mascara and lipstick and eyeshadow in a shade older than your relationship. You think about drinks and dancing, about putting it all down for a little while. You think about bodies moving in the strobe lights. You prop yourself up on your most comfortable high heels and you die.
You die standing up, sitting down, lying. You die with your face wet, with dry eyes, screaming or laughing or begging or cursing or silent. You die and die and die and die and die.
You die because thought is an imaginary sword, and prayer is an imaginary shield, and guns are not imaginary at all. You die because everyone thinks that someone else is David and someone else is Goliath and there you are anyway, living among the Israelites, dying. You die because it is okay to hate someone until they are dead, when the done thing is to pretend they were unanimously loved. You die because their hands are clean and their re-election campaigns are hungry.
You die because someone else’s right to believe in something is more important than your blood’s right to stay inside your body.
When they come for me - when they come for me - when they come for me. O God when they come for me let me be the last one for whom they come. This my only prayer, though I do not dare believe. Give me as much time as You can, and when I die, let me be the last.
Written by Ned Denby with accompanying artwork by Paige N. Colwell (@evilmarrypopins)
Indeed, the lashing out is beginning to look less and less fearsome, and more and more impulsively buffoonish and self-defeating. And there’s a broader pattern developing here, one that undermines a key narrative about the Trump presidency, in which Trump is pursuing strategic disruption and breaking all the old rules and norms to further an unconventional presidency that is designed to render the old way of doing business irrelevant. It’s obvious that all of this is now actively undermining his own designs, on multiple fronts.
Donald Trump is suddenly looking like a very weak autocrat
This is just going to make him even more dangerous than he already was.
A piece by Corpus Ren on body image and beauty standards. Her artwork can be found on her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CorpusRen/ or on tumblr at @corpusren.
