That Lady Eve

Australian lesbian and women's liberationist

[noah-wyles]

she's the best of us

[marbleguard]

the way so many shows, especially historical shows, will be like, "and let's throw in some PROSTITUTES to liven things up a bit, what a nice titillating garnish to add to our period piece" makes me want to kill all male screenwriters forever and ever

[immortalremnantriver]

Susana Trimarco disguised herself as madam and walked into brothels across northern Argentina, searching for her missing daughter among women trapped in sexual slavery and in the process, she sparked a movement that would free over 3,000 sex trafficking victims. It began in April 2002, when her 23-year-old daughter, María de los Ángeles Verón, left for a doctor's appointment in their city of San Miguel de Tucumán and never returned home. Frustrated by a police investigation she believed was deliberately sabotaged by corruption, Trimarco obtained the names of known pimps and sex traffickers from police files and launched her own search. She posed as a buyer interested in purchasing the captive women and girls - some as young as 14, who could be traded for about $800. One rape victim told her she had seen María drugged, with swollen eyes, in a trafficker's home that doubled as a holding place for newly abducted women. But by the time Trimarco could follow the lead, her daughter had been moved. Though María was never found, Trimarco's relentless pursuit transformed her into one of Argentina's most powerful human rights activists and forced sex trafficking onto national agenda. "The desperation of a mother blinds you," she says. "It makes you fearless." Through this dangerous work, Trimarco discovered the full scope of sex trafficking and corruption within the police and judiciary that kept women trapped in forced prostitution. "The police would hand [the trafficked women] back to the criminals," she recalls. "They used to say: 'Don't leave me. Take me with you.'" Trimarco ended up becoming the personal guardian to 129 survivors of sex trafficking, sheltering them in her home and helping them reunite with their families. Trimarco's relentless advocacy forced change at highest levels. Her work helped lead to first law, passed in 2008, making human trafficking a federal crime; the subsequent reforms have led to thousands of people being rescued from sex traffickers. These successes, however, have come with high personal cost to Trimarco: she has suffered many reprisals over the years including countless death threats, having her house set on fire, and several attempts to run her over in street. As more trafficking survivors and families of trafficking victims reached out to her for help, Trimarco says, "It came to a point where I just did not have capacity to help them all. That is when I decided to open a foundation." In 2007, she founded Fundación María de los Ángeles, a non-governmental organization focused on helping people escape from trafficking and lobbying for legislation to prevent it. Her efforts focused on her daughter's disappearance eventually resulted in trials for 13 people, including several police officers, in 2012; all 13 were acquitted, a ruling that prompted outrage by many and led to impeachment proceedings against three judges. In December 2013, Tucumán Supreme Court reversed acquittals and convicted ten of defendants, who received sentences ranging from 10 to 22 years in April 2014. But despite it all, Trimarco still hasn't found out what she wants to know most: what happened to her daughter. Some witnesses say she was murdered - although her body has never been found and others say she was taken overseas. Twenty-three years later, Trimarco's work continues in her daughter's name and for all survivors. Her foundation remains at the forefront of the country's fight against human trafficking, recently helping to dismantle trafficking rings in 2024 and 2025. In recent years, the foundation has expanded its role as a legal plaintiff in trafficking cases, ensuring survivors have representation throughout the judicial process. Now in her seventies, Trimarco remains internationally recognized for her work, though her search for answers about María's fate has never ceased. "Every woman I help somehow helps María," she reflects. "They represent hope in this new life of mine."

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

‘Heroic actions are a natural tendency’: why bystander apathy is a myth

Modern research shows the public work together selflessly in an emergency, motivated by a strong impulse to help

“The notion that people panic and run screaming for the exits is a Hollywood fiction,” said Prof Stephen Reicher, an expert in group behaviour at the University of St Andrews.

“Characteristically, people stay and help each other,” he said. “We found this during the 7/7 attacks on the underground and the 1999 attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in London, where people looked after each other even though they feared other bombs.

“In our own research on the Leytonstone tube attack in 2015, there was an amazing level of spontaneous coordination by bystanders: some directed others away from danger. Some distracted the attacker. Some confronted the attacker. Each was able to act because of the others. Heroism was a feature of the group, not just the individual,” he added.

Prof Clifford Stott, a specialist in the psychology of crowds and group identity at Keele University, agreed. Modern research, he said, showed “bystander apathy” was a myth. Instead, strangers often work together in emergency situations with highly sophisticated unity.”

[cephalopodvictorious]

Bystander apathy is a myth invented by the New York Times to cover up that the police were called by several residents of the building, but the cops refused to act. The cops then told the Times that 38 people just watched her die (a seemingly arbitrary number and a physical impossibility based on where the attacks occurred), and the Times ran with it. In fact, Kitty was alive when the cops got there, and was being held and comforted by one of her friends who lived in the building because one of the people who saw her get attacked from across the street called her friend to go get her. Because people care.

The Bystander Effect Started from a Lie

You have just been attacked. How likely is it that someone will come to your help? If you remember the infamous case of Kitty Genovese in 19

[moosepower]

I will always re-blog this. The story of Kitty Genovese’s murder has gone down in history as a story about everyone watching it happen and doing nothing and none of the story is true.

[kraymergal]

I took the time to read all of the sites linked here, and here's the TL;DR, because although I absolutely believe in humanity's inherent desire to help one another, the point of the essays linked are being sort of lost here. There is a bit of nuance that should be recognized (but don't worry, even with the nuance the conclusions still HEAVILY lean in favor of humanity).

Bystander Apathy is not real. Onlookers will not watch on uncaring, the 38 witnesses claim was indeed faked for a headline (by a reporter and a cop), and everyone who did actually witness the murder of Kitty did something to help (most of the people who could have fit the bill of those fictionalized 38 had no way of actually seeing what was happening, and the attack itself was not nearly as prolonged as the story tells). It was the police facilities of the time that fell short, as is always the case (911 did not exist for another four years, this case was actually what hurried 911's creation, and when they finally did arrive they were annoyed and curt, their ego getting in the way of their effectiveness). The ONE guy who saw the scene and ran away, the originator of the quote "I didn't want to get involved", was both drunk at the time AND a gay man (which was illegal to be), he had good reasons for not wanting to jump to Kitty's side if the cops did arrive at the scene. But even then he didn't just run away, he climbed across the roof to a neighbor's house and told them to call the police on his behalf. Even in his niche, comparatively helpless situation, he still did everything he could to help.

The Bystander Effect, on the other hand, is real. In a situation where a bystander sees something happening, they can be paralyzed by indecision. Out of fear of accidentally making the situation worse or just not knowing how to effectively help the situation, they'll freeze, only able to watch the scene unfold. In these cases, they usually only need an authority figure to tell them what to do, and they'll spring into action, because they do, fundamentally, want to help. It is not caused by apathy, it is caused by unsureness.

But even though the Bystander Effect is real, it must be recognized that it is rarely found in situations like Kitty's. Situations like her's, where it is very obvious how one can help, that unsureness will not come. The most common place the Bystander Effect is found is in formal testing environments, where the subject's fear of somehow screwing up a test they don't fully understand triggers the unsureness.

In the vast majority of real-world situations where bystanders witness someone in need, they WILL help. In fact, and this is paraphrasing from one of the pages linked, the more people who see it happening, the MORE likely people are to step in.

[die-rosastrasse]

I wish they stayed like that for the whole year 🌸🌼

[wildermouse]

current mood: I need to explore a deep misty forest very far away

[simena]

Anna Lea Merritt

[simena]

[barbienefertiti]

[pro-birth]

it’s even worse when people try to spin it as a privileged role, rather than an unpaid job that may or may not have been forced into the woman due to limited resources for childcare, poor protection of maternity rights, and other issues.

No, it’s not a privilege to be the unpaid labor that enables someone else to gain financial resources; it’s a vulnerable place to be that can go VERY badly VERY quickly. People will flaunt “behind every successful man is a woman” until they realize it stipulates the unsupported work of a homemaker.

Being a homemaker is not a privilege — but men and other workers are privileged to have a homemaker enable their success.

[sacred-portal]

[obsob]

spell caster >:3

✶print shop!! ✶

[grendel-menz]

burning food is an inherited trait

[gatekeeper-of-witchcraft]

EXTREMELY minor gripe, I love those radfem graphics about womanhood being separate from stereotypes and still being a woman without performing them, I really do

but it kindaaaa chafes me when those graphics are still like. aesthetically feminine.

[catsruleokay]

feminist infographics if I had my way

[the-rad-menace]

Hell yeah

[alicelawstan]

i want to turn on the tv turn on a random movie and it’s directed by a woman, it’s written by a woman, the lighting was done by a woman, the cinematographer was female, the score was written by a woman, the foley artists were women… i want to go see the orchestra and the conductor is female, the trombone section is all women, the cellists are women, the programme is music by women, the artistic director is a woman, the orchestra manager is a woman, the person who booked the venue is female, the double basses are women…

[anjomecanico]

People are so indoctrinated by patriarchy that mentioning something neutral like "men on average are physically stronger than women" will get you accused of saying women are inferior to men. Like, nobody said that, you are the one who believes physical strength equals worthiness and value as a human being and is projecting it on completely neutral assumptions.

[sodiumvaporss]

i do have to say that no matter how shitty any sort of media is or how shitty your own creations are. always remember

[graveyarrdshift]

women's thighs. you agree. reblog.