The existence of #YesAllWomen has left me feeling completely disgusted and drained. I find the whole campaign offensive, but I just lack the energy to do anything about it.
Overall, it is depressing. I'm depressed.
That's been the case for a while and I began pulling away and making changes, but it has been hard. #YesAllWomen is a huge slap in my face. I think that's because the Social Justice movement as it's seen on Tumblr has made an obvious appearance in one of my favorite Social Media outlets...twitter.
And it's not a good thing.
I wish to gods I don't believe in that I could have the energy to stand up to these people, but as I have learned here...what's the point? It serves nothing.
Those who spout out how it's "not our job to educate you" are clearly just saying such because they outright refuse to have any sort of dialog with anyone who has a different viewpoint. Going as far as to label people as white, straight, and male when they aren't. It truly shows the absurdity of these people.
But hey. I am a stubborn asshole myself. That's why I kept trying to talk, yell, and scream at these people as well. I refuse to live in a world of segregation. I refuse to live in a world where women are apparently inherently weak and fearful...because #NoNOTAllWomen live in fear!
I refuse to live in a world where certain brands of racism and sexism are okay. Where certain forms of bigotry is okay and even celebrated.
And to do so ultimately means cutting that toxicity out. Because when I leave the internet, I find wonderful women who think "teach men not to rape!" is absurd. Wonderful women who agree that not all men are terrible and/or violent people. Wonderful women who think claiming men to be oppressors is wrong and inaccurate. Wonderful women who fucking get it.
I need to make a better effort to keep this bigotry and toxic thinking away from me.
I’ve said this before and I’ll point it out again -
Menstruation is caused by change in hormonal levels to stop the creation of a uterine lining and encourage the body to flush the lining out. The body does this by lowering estrogen levels and raising testosterone.
Or, to put it more plainly “That time of the month” is when female hormones most closely resemble male hormones. So if (cis) women aren’t suited to office at “That time of the month” then (cis) men are NEVER suited to office.
If you are a dude and don’t dig the ladies around you at their time of the month, just think! That is you all of the time.
And, on a final note, post-menopausal (cis) women are the most hormonally stable of all human demographics. They have fewer hormonal fluctuations of anyone, meaning older women like Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren would theoretically be among the least likely candidates to make an irrational decision due to hormonal fluctuations, and if we were basing our leadership decisions on hormone levels, then only women over fifty should ever be allowed to hold office.
While I agree with the ultimate point that the argument women shouldn't be in leadership roles (such as POTUS) because of menstruation is bullshit...the logic used in this post is also bullshit.
And I seriously hate seeing people spread misinformation to back up a point that I strongly agree with.
Definitely true that women have both estrogen and testosterone in their system. Also true that for both men and women, hormones rise and fall.
For women estrogen levels do lower when shedding their uterine lining. The rising of estrogen (with the aid of Progesterone as well) is what helps the uterine lining to form, thicken, and provide a suitable environment for sperm. All true.
PMS can vary widly from person to person and medical professionals aren't even sure what causes PMS in women. With that fact alone, it is pretty absurd to even consider the idea that women aren't capable of being in a high stress leadership role.
But let's look at the original point.
Do the low periods of estrogen result in women's hormonal levels closely resembling male hormones? Fuck no.
First, just looking at the numbers itself shows how ridiculous this thought is. For the average adult male, their testosterone levels range at 270-1,070(ng/dL) and for women it is 15-70(ng/dL). It just doesn't even begin to compare.
High levels of testosterone have been shown to leave men feeling energetic, decreased need for sleep, easily distracted, irritable, but also in some cases depression. Low levels of testosterone usually lead the opposite and most certainly causes depression in men. Studies on testosterone levels have been inconsistent over the years. With that said, it has been shown that natural rises of testosterone in men occur when participating in competitive activities.
For women, high levels usually result in obvious physical changes. (Hair loss on head, excess hair elsewhere, ect.) Low levels usually result in decreased libido, fatigue, dissatisfaction, and even depression.
While most people associate testosterone with aggression and libido...it also helps in red blood cell production and bone density. (Bone density being extremely important to women who are at a higher risk of osteoporosis and similar conditions.)
With ALL THAT SAID...no. Women's hormones (and the effects of them) do not "closely resemble" that of men. That's bullshit.
Hormonal imbalances will cause a lot of problems for both men and women. These effects will vary from person to person and as we age.
I ever so dearly want to keep thing positive on my tumblr…but I suppose I am too stupid to do that…
I promise posts like these will be infrequent in the future…but I am feeling extra dumb tonight.
I am also typing this on my phone in bed, so you know…expect some typos and mis-autocorrected stuff.
I think the issue quite a few people have (including me) is that we feel that we can be heroes and stand up for what is right.
So when we see “injustice” we want to uphold our beliefs and defend all the people who are or could be getting hurt. We want to protect them.
The reality though is that everyone holds what is important to “stand up for” differently.
It doesn’t matter if you have 100 followers or 100,000, someone else out there will disagree with you and find a way to point out your perceived flaw.
While I consider myself someone who has a bit of pride in my beliefs, I certainly don’t go around telling other people what to do.
I can’t imagine these people as real people existing in the real world…because there is no place for them there.
It does suck that the majority of my posts are positive ones about SPG and silly stuff, but that the few ones about me trying to point out tumblr’s flaws in response to negativity slung our way are the ones that fester with me.
There are about a gazillion things posted on on tumblr about Bunny, Sam, and I that I wish I could defend and explain away….but it turns into a thousand different nit-picks based on a thousand different agendas. It’s impossible to sit down with each person that spews some false information or negative thing and correct them. There is just too many people and not enough time.
The worst part is it’s not really a lot of people to begin with. One person says something and then it turns into something else and before you know it it’s just hear say in text form. It degrades in a matter of seconds until you’re eventually Hitler.
Sure it’s hilarious to us (and other people) at first at how ridiculous it is, but then it pops up later thanks to a few select people with an agenda and too much free time.
There’s no injustice done.
People didn’t die.
One of us didn’t slew hatred around like it was fun and games.
One of us simply made a humorous comment to another band member on tumblr about chopsticks, referencing a live video blog we just did…or one of us said we liked a movie on tumblr and linked to some controversy and said we still enjoyed it despite that….or one of us made a super obvious sarcastic joke post on tumblr with tags explaining the joke verbatim.
Where’s the controversy of our family-friendly act having a song about people burning alive in a space station as a man watches on in horror?
Where’s the controversy of the robots having fist fights on stage and jabbing knives and brandishing guns at each other?
Nowhere!
You know why?
Because the only controversy that exists for Steam Powered Giraffe is on tumblr.
We can literally post the same thing to multiple social streams (which we do….my twitter, Facebook, and tumblr are all linked) and despite the same amount of audience tumblr wins the piss-on-everything award.
Hey, that’s not to say tumblr is all bad….
We get awesome and positive messages daily too, but let’s face it…
The only way to live in the positiveness would be to hire someone to sift through our inboxes and filter what we see.
OR we could simply stop sharing ourselves with the Internet.
We get it, the Internet is negative.
No matter how many positive things are out there, there will still be people on the Internet spreading negative stuff.
I don’t think anyone is ignorant of that, including us.
But this stuff doesn’t come up outside of tumblr. People don’t go out of their way to misconstrue stuff in real life to the extent that tumblr does.
From our point of view, these people all want something from us…
Either a very specific apology for a very specific thing in a very specific way with a very specific meaning….or to admit something very specific and learn a very specific thing to do a very specific thing very specifically right for the rest of your life.
I’ve seen it all.
I’ve apologized for very few things on tumblr, and most of them have been to very specific people who specifically let me know that they were hurt by something posted or somehow got flack from tumblr over something they reblogged or commented on from us.
These are personal messages.
But I think we have pretty good heads on our shoulders, and while some of these people might think we are ignorant and blinded by our own arrogance or something, I think we have a good judge of what is right and wrong within a realistic degree of error.
We are entertainers and artists.
We are not diplomats.
I know the majority of tumblr can see how backwards it is for these select people to get upset and lash out at us.
I know it’s only a small amount of people in the grand scheme of things….
But even still, I cannot believe how many childish people exist in the world through tumblr.
I’ve read hundreds of thousands of messages and posts on tumblr.
These aren’t stupid people.
These aren’t uneducated people.
These aren’t grammatical and language impaired people.
No….
These are people who are misinformed thanks to tumblr.
It’s a cycle and I can’t believe no one else can see it.
These people then shout “That’s well and all, but how about not making fun of [insert thing]”. It’s always something though.
It is always ONE THING for every person, and that one thing is a different thing for each person.
These people then might say “Well change your ways!” And to that I would say, you are ridiculous mam/sir, we have caused no offense in any way that should be taken as spreading hate.
Even then…our humor is still on par with the act….but even then these are our personal tumblrs….but even then…. COME ON we are not Hitler!
As I said, I’ve read hundreds of thousands of messages and posts…
I am not overreacting or getting butt hurt either…
I am not a negative person.
I think anyone can tell you that I produce nothing but a friendly air wherever I go. I do not wallow in doom and I certainly do not spread negativity anywhere near Steam Powered Giraffe, it’s fandom, or anything of the like.
With that in mind, for me to have digested all of the stuff I’ve see on tumblr over the two years or so and be appalled by it and witnessed it first hand as a receiving party, I can honestly say with all honesty that tumblr is honestly full of honestly negative people who honestly want to ruin an honest person’s honest day.
At this point I am not even sure what point to make.
Our fans who support us will support us, despite whatever they may or may not like about us, and those that don’t won’t….or worse, go out and try to inform the rest of the world about how we are spreading hate and terrible morals to the world.
There are tons of things I’d love to make a point about to many different types of people, but there simply isn’t enough time in the world and that would be a complete waste of my and anyone else’s time.
This post is pretty much all I can do.
And it’s not even needed.
Look, I was picked on as a kid.
I was bullied.
These people are bullies…they don’t know it because it’s the Internet, but basically anyone who goes out of their way to tell someone else what they did wrong is a bully….sure there might seem like a “fine line”, but eventually you’re just a jerk….and if you think someone else is being a jerk, then let them continue being a jerk, because most stuff is petty.
I don’t like being picked on and that’s why I like defending myself and posting about this stuff.
It’s not smart…
I get that too.
I know I should expel condensed filtered versions of myself online like other semi-celebrities do, but I can’t accept that, not with the thousands of people that send us messages every day thanking us for being able to connect with them and share our personal lives with them.
It’s funny….
I hear it’s “not okay to joke about this or that”, and while I think none of us have done anything in poor taste, I still question “when is it okay?”. Never?
I have a history of self mutilation and cutting myself…
Am I allowed to joke about?
What if I am?
Certainly I have some sort of responsibility then right?
Hey, I have a few long-winded blog posts about my history with cutting, and while I do joke about it in them, that is not the tone of these pieces. No one walks away from these writings and goes “Cutting is a good solution”. No! It’s a terrible solution, and I am sharing it with the Internet in hopes that others out there can relate and make a better choice. THAT’S what connecting is about.
I get hundred of personal messages about cutting every year….
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t know what I can say, other than the same stuff I’ve said before to the last hundred from the year before.
I KNOW I am doing something meaningful to a few people, and while it’s not solving world hunger or defeating an evil super being, it’s doing something life changing (even in the slightest) and I am pretty sure that’s a good thing.
I think we are responsible with our fan base, and any semblance or a person can easily decipher our humor and take away the meaning from it.
Being offended will happen, and while some of us might say “you are way too sensitive” no one is blaming anyone for feeling that way.
Imagine a group of people that you have to convey an idea too, now multiply that group a few times on end and you’ll start to see the impossibility of keeping something as pure as it was intended.
It doesn’t break down at the hundredth person, it breaks down at the fifth, and even if you could rectify or defend yourself to that one person to make it better, could you really do it many more?
How many of those people just want to be correct themselves and have you be wrong?
Fair enough tumblr, we can be wrong, we can apologize for very specific things, but that only goes so far…
How do we apologize for something we didn’t do? Something that was convoluted to the point of a negative feeling rather than as intended? What about hearsay or opinions? Eventually you fall into the same pitfalls any single entity or group trying to communicate to a much larger group.
However, we are just a band, and I think we do a bang-up job letting you all know when our next album is coming out ::coughcough:: Winter 2014 ::coughcough:: or where we’ll be performing next.
Sorry one of our member’s jokes against anorexia and the ridiculous standards of society on women came across as offensive. I suppose it is more important that sarcasm isn’t appreciated by everyone than having a progressive idea.
When we make a big mistake and are covering our mouths you can bet we’ll be singing a different tune….a more apologetic one…
But some of you just loooooove drama, and can’t wait to jump on the band wagon, even if we never even got a band wagon. You all have a great imagination.
You confuse me tumblr.
But not all of you.
Just a few of you.
And YOU know who you are.
That’s right…
I am talking about YOU.
…
……
Our new album Vice Quadrant comes out Winter 2014.
Reblogging this here because I can relate to a lot of it.
For those of you unfamiliar with Steam Powered Giraffe (a totally bitchin' band btw)...this is written by one of the band members in response to some Tumblr drama among the SPG fans.
Even though it is in response to something specific, I honestly feel a lot of this is true about some of the negative aspects of the Tumblr community. (Bold emphasis is mine.)
...to direct your hate toward anyone who identifies their sexuality as being something other than straight.
...to direct your hate toward straight people.
...to direct your hate toward anyone who is not white.
...to direct your hate toward whites.
Defend your bigotry however you like as you do have the right to be a bigot so long as you don't abuse another person. "It's a joke." "I'm venting." "I've been molested in the past." "It doesn't hurt people." Whatever.
It's still bigotry and that's a very ugly and despicable thing to hold onto.
Kind of crazy how one moment you can be sitting there talking calmly to your therapist about how you feel sad (and it's a manageable kind of sad) and then you break down.
As I speak with him, he usually helps me to come to my own realizations or make sense of my thoughts. At one point I began to say something, stopped, and then began crying. I felt stupid. Why hadn't I made the connection before to why I was feeling this way? Deeper feelings of mine.
I know I am being vague. I have to be on Tumblr.
Therapy tonight helped me start to come to terms with something I have been struggling to let go of. He also helped me put into words how much I loathe certain parts of the Tumblr community. The vile people who make up this community.
Absolutely disgusting and what upsets me more is the fact I have met people like this offline. Thankfully to a much smaller degree, but it still worries me.
I must say that there is some amusement at the idea that those who cry out "It's not our job to educate you!" are the ones who seem so desperate to remain ignorant and disconnected from humanity.
It was just the other day as I was out jogging I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. Desire and motivation to do something positive and healthy for myself.
Everyone is entitled to being offended. You are not entitled to anything by being offended. If you don’t appreciate my satire, that’s perfectly alright. But I will not apologize for you choosing to follow my blog or checking the tags. If you understand that my comments may be inappropriate to your sensibilities, stay away. Block. Unfollow. I will continue to post on the issues that irk me, and I will usually do so with a sense of humor. There is nothing- Nothing that says I have to filter myself or set a better example by your expectations and preferences.
I don’t care if you defend us. I don’t care if you hate us. You can tear eachother apart all day and waste your energy on this stuff if you like. If that’s entertaining for you. I hope the eventual lesson you’ll all learn is that this is silly.
I am in the limelight. The band is becoming bigger. Everything I do will offend at least one person. I understand that as a celebrity I have to deal with this. I’ve never met anyone in my position that didn’t have the same issues.
The ridiculousness of the things you fight about is a game of people wanting to piss on your parade everytime you want to bone one of us. Whether they have an agenda against us personally or have unmeetable expectations for their celebrities doesn’t matter. The internet is a free-for-all feel-like-your-opinion matters because life isn’t fair and I have a keyboard.
It happens everywhere. It happens here.
If you don’t agree with all of this- then stop reading my shit.
I do not owe anyone anything. I don’t have to be a role model. I don’t want to be one. And even if I’m looked up to and have a responsibility for being in the public eye- who the hell cares? I don’t have an obligation to say shit. To be anything other than myself.
If what we say and do is detrimental to our company- then let us reap what we sow. But I really, really, doubt that harvest is going to be filled with turds. For fuck’s sake…it’d be a lot different if we were total asses. But I’m on here consoling troubled kids and trying to encourage folks who are down on their luck and feels, and creating art with positive messages. And that’s better than most of the crap you’ll find on the internet or the rest of the world.
If you feel the need to police the band and other celebrities…and that gives you purpose and a good feeling…do it. Do what makes you happy I guess. If my happiness causes you pain…who am I to judge you?
So excuse me while I write another joke about abortion and fat chicks. Because it makes me happy. All of these sensitive issues are much easier to swallow with humor in my opinion. The unfollow button is there if you can’t handle it.
Or go buy a pitchfork and torch. I’ll sign them at a convention if you want even.
Just do what makes you happy.
Now fuck off, Tumblr. I only came here to see the pictures I took with fans over the weekend.
Commission I did for my friend Lena who was wanted to make a print for a screen printed tee. I used this image as reference for this redraw. I’m still taking commissions now if anyone is interested. PM me for details or a quote.
