#womens issues

[pisceanpharies]

[daily-daydream]

Just a reminder: when someone says "we no longer have a need for feminism," here are just a few things that are still happening in the Southern U.S, specifically in the Appalachian region, to this day. I can attest to this since I grew up there originally

Many women are still encouraged to get married young and can get married as early as 16-17 years old with the permission of their parents. It's not uncommon for young women to get married right after graduating from high school or college

Domestic violence is extremely common and overlooked by officials and the police

Religion is used as a tool to enforce this. Marriage counseling is often conducted by pastors rather than licensed therapists, and the few real therapists that practice use religion in their methods

Women are always expected to submit to their husbands due to religious traditions. Submission includes doing whatever he says, obeying without question, and enduring abuse. If you are abused, it is your fault for being "rebellious"

This extends to blindly obeying fathers, male relatives, and anyone else deemed as an authority figure

There are a handful of Christian denominations that exist in the region that literally separate men and women during church or other gatherings, and they are not allowed to interact.

The same denomination enforces women to not cut their hair, shave, wear makeup, or own pants.

Sex education is extremely limited for many, and women are taught to simply do whatever pleases their husbands

Gender roles are heavily enforced. While nobody will necessarily stop anyone from doing as they please, bullying is common. Women are expected to be experts in the kitchen, know skills such as sewing and mending, and be interested in child-rearing

Sapphic women are often disowned by their families.

Many women there now attend college, but it can still be frowned upon by certain communities if they do so

Patriarchal standards are heavily enforced. The man is always seen as the "head of the house" and men are almost always put into leadership positions

Feminist ideology is often viewed as toxic, and churches will even go as far as to consider it demonic

So yes, while equality has improved in many areas, please remember there are many who still need feminism today

[hurlingirl]

"Puriteen" Hey, so a literal child not having sex, and yeah, I'll say it, even being averse and repulsed by sex, should not bother you as a grown adult, or as anybody really.

You are a predator. Stop pressuring children to enagage with certain things, especially things revolving around sex. Gosh, as a teen it totally ticks me.

It becomes even more insidious because I mostly see it used towards young girls with relatively normal views about sex and porn (such as recognizing certain dynamics in sex & how its approached, or how porn is exploitative and harmful). But because they aren't porn brain-rotted and porn drunk, they're a "puriteen".

And I cannot stress this enough, even if those girls were averse or repulsed by sex.. did you ever stop to think about how that and the fact girls and women are sexually assaulted and abused at such high rates are connected?

No? Probably not. Leave people, especially women and girls, alone

[pixiecorn]

Is being scared of men normal for other women? I remember being little and being either extremely uncomfortable or frightened of my friends fathers and older brothers when I would visit. Then growing older and being consumed with an uncontrollable sense of fear and unease talking to guys my age even when they're not doing anything wrong.

[cancel-me-daddy]

Just being a woman and existing makes you a pick-me at this point

People took this very necessary and cathartic term and overused and abused it to the point where it’s just used to degrade women no matter what they do, instead of for the women that genuinely think they’re better than other girls or humble brag about being different. Most don’t even know what pick-me means anymore. It’s now just being used for women who don’t follow all social norms, women who are friends with guys, or even over-the-top feminine women (like calling Hachiko from Nana a pick-me is just…. really??)

A pick-me is a girl who puts other girls down to make herself seem more attractive.

A pick-me says things like “I only hang out with guys because girls are too much drama.”

A pick-me is those girls on Marilyn Manson or other rock youtube videos (around 2013 it was an epidemic, not sure if it still is) talking about how her generation sucks and going “teehee I bet I’m the only girl here” in hordes.

A pick-me is a conservative woman who kisses up to men and hates feminism, that the lonely desperate horny incel men don’t want to touch with a 10 foot pole.

Now the term is just being used to shit on women you don’t like, and its lost its meaning. A lot of insecure women are using it on women who just happen to have a lot of guy friends and aren’t even weird or cringey about it.

You can’t be a girl and have a guy friend group anymore. And that is a form of seeing gender as real and wanting people to conform to gender roles. It’s like the basic straight people that don’t want their partners to have friends of the opposite sex or breathe the same air as people of the opposite sex. It’s lame and regressive.

At that point you’re literally being the insecure disney channel mean girl. Like you’re actually being what pick-me’s think all other girls are like.

In the early 2010’s you HAD to be “not like other girls” and have supposedly niche interests and the pick-me term wasn’t around yet and everyone just ate this up. The tumblr posts of “Other Girls vs Me” that blatantly tore down other girls as well as the pick-me YouTube comments were met with overwhelming love and positive reception.

But now it’s so far in the other direction that now you HAVE to be friends with only girls and like Taylor Swift (who ironically wrote the most pick-me song of a lifetime??) and be girly but not too girly.

It feels like you can’t just have more than one type of woman exist at the same time without one of them shitting on the other.

[leannareneehieber]

HELLO!

(Yes, this is me as Sarah Winchester for Halloween. Also, yes, this is pretty much my general wardrobe give or take a lace layer. Yes, I wrote a long chapter in this book about Sarah Winchester because I really love her and find her to be fundamentally misunderstood.)

I just wanted to drop by and say it's still Women's History Month and it's still a GREAT time to read about historical women and how their stories resonate with us today. BONUS: you can do this through ghost lore! Here's how!

A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS examines women's history by using ghost stories; unpacking how we talk about women, alive and dead. Available wherever books are sold, in paperback, audio and digital! Retailer links here!

Word-of-mouth is so important for books like ours, so if this book interests you, could you please share? Thanks so much and Happy Haunting!

[blue3delphi]

Next year I’ll be starting a woman’s support club at my school. Our main goals will be donating to DV shelters and women’s homeless shelters, raising awareness about women’s issues/providing connections to resources, and just creating a safe space in general for the girls of my school

If anyone has any ideas of what else we could do or any advice for me I’d really appreciate it :)