the streets are alive @thestreetsarealive - Tumblr Blog

gyns is it a cult when you reblog a post

10000000 men repeat the genius teachings of older, more dead men, such as "what if we did good" and "life and love are maybe ok" and "other living things deserve to live possibly" or "[content stolen from a woman]" or "[literally he just stole it]", that's cool. that's real culture. but 100 women share a neat post and that's delenda est. just shut it down.

karlovycross

The Gentle Wind

byjove

also, deer are simultaneously satan’s weakest and strongest soldiers. they die like hamsters or survive things that really should have killed them. biting the dust from an internal hemorrhage after jumping over a fence or surviving 10+ years with an arrow imbedded in their side. fate rolls the dice on every injury and they either get a 0 or a 20. keeping them alive is hard. killing them is also hard.

theconcealedweapon

Yet again, more proof that capitalism was never about "freedom" or "small government".

unknowledge

males only have one "religion" and its to denounce that their mothers created them from her own body and that philosophical rejection is patterned so clearly over thousands of years over west asian and european spiritual thought its actually boring

laurierrose

i for real salute every braless barefaced shaved headed and body- & facial-haired woman

magnificentempress

i am doing my part mostly

laurierrose

thank you for your service ma'am

shoppinghauer

Your obsession with appearances has harmed us in the following ways: 1) its anoooyiing

sapphos-catpanions

i’m sorry, but i feel like we give men plenty of space to cry whenever they need to. didn’t achilles break down in tears over hector’s body? didn’t jesus weep? did johnny cash teach the weeping willow how to cry?

get the actual fuck out of here with “in our culture we teach boys to suppress their emotions” when western literature and art is full of heroic men who cry, when it actually exalts their tears and elevates them into profound significance. get OUT of here.

sapphos-catpanions

meanwhile, “girl crying” is a porn category. fuck off forever

andro-genesis

When girls are too happy and having fun, it’s cringe.

When girls are afraid, they’re paranoid.

When girls are sad or depressed, they’re attention seekers.

When girls cry, it’s frivolous or annoying.

When girls are angry, they’re crazy.

Which sex has a “mental illness” inherently attached to them? Hint: the root word of hysteria

But yeah boys are taught to suppress their emotions

furryprovocateur

"#MeToo ended eroticism and made men uncomfortable to express sexual attraction" is such funny rhetoric. like you're not even a little unsure about the implications of that?

hadesoftheladies

Hey I'm sure you get a ton of asks. But I've just recently began truly stepping out of the libfem stage of my life and it feels like I'll never be able to go back. I think the thing that annoys me the most all in all is the intellectual cowardice of people in the trans movement.

Any questioning of trans women's misogyny? Block and stay safe. Discussions about how saying you're trans doesn't immediately give you the material experience of the oppressed? Block. Nuanced takes on sports and female biology? Block. Talks about prostitution and porn being misogynistic? Block.

It's all like this, they never try to engage. They will never ask themselves any questions because radical feminism is made to be seen as a highly contagious disease you must protect yourself from. I'm still scared to be "found out" and I admire your bravery to not hide like me despite the probably massive amount of harassment you get.

I actually don’t get that much harassment, but thank you for the compliments. Most of my online interactions are positive bc Im surrounded by intelligent, empathetic, curious women. I also block and delete hateful shit. But I think you should go easy on yourself. You don’t have to broadcast your beliefs to anyone and it takes a lot of bravery to leave a high-control group. I should know, I was raised evangelical and fundamentalist as a kid with OCD. It was nuts.

To me, the current trans discourse is very much reflective of the ideological legacy of Christianity in places like the UK/US, and the radfems that have compared TRA talking points to religious ones are very astute in their observations, I think. But I think it is far more effective to understand these kinds of people than judge them (or understand while judging 💀). Why people enter and stay in high-control groups like cults, certain religions or pseudo-religions like evangelicalism or gender ideology, is because they have high social and emotional stakes within these groups. Human beings are hyper-social animals compared to other species, so any social group that monopolizes identity (“you need to invest more financially, emotionally, socially in our cause or you’re a bad person”) while dangling the threat of rejection or ostracization (“if you love us unconditionally we’ll love you unconditionally”/“if you turn on us we’ll turn on you”) is guaranteed to acquire and maintain a following with enough charismatic leaders because it registers as a life or death scenario in the human brain. leaving feels like death, and staying survival.

the thing you must understand about high-control groups and why they’re so effective is because they appeal to basic human instincts. if you’re someone typically ostracized by a community (say you are gay or a sex worker) then the promise of forgiveness and inclusivity may get you (many of these groups recruit with a “come as you are/you’re loved as you are” message). they promise acceptance for the marginalized (though it’s always conditional and never analyzes why they were marginalized in the first place), innocence for the guilty, transformation and purpose (a new start, a new you), and exceptionalism for the mediocre. for TRA spaces that may look like “you can be anything you want! you can change your sex or personality and become anyone!” and “you aren’t like those ordinary cis people. your suffering is unique! you’re queer! you’re different!” for evangelicals it looks like “Jesus can make you new and whole again! The Holy Spirit will transform you!” and “You are sons and daughters of God! Destined to rule the earth!” So these high-control groups break down a personal/individual identity (insisting that they’re too small and helpless and worthless on their own) in order to give them a new identity centered around the group. This makes them feel bigger, more powerful, but also more under threat should they take back their individuality.

furthermore, by the point they’re “in too deep,” they recognize that should they leave, they won’t have friends waiting for them outside the high control group, because the high control group has drilled it into their heads that they’re hated and will always be hated for what they are. they face being even more alone than they were before. it can be very discouraging in itself. so coming at them with hostility is almost guaranteed not to work.

there’s also a reason most of the recruits in such groups tend to be women and girls, who are looking desperately for some form of unconditional social support. they tend to be the ones most likely to face abuse in these high-control groups because as women they have more to fear in general, both in terms of retaliation from the in-group or humiliation and mockery from the out-group. so they’re more likely to stay put the worse it gets bc they’re paralyzed by fear. women and girls recognize whether consciously or subconsciously that less grace is afforded to them on all social levels. so, for these people, I’d say the best approach is to approach them with curiosity and give them a sense of safety. some of us got free by asking questions, some of us got free by experiencing genuine love and kindness and true acceptance. many people in high-control groups struggle with self-acceptance, which is why they cling so hard to identities and social perceptions. they also usually have a lot of anxiety.

so don’t despair. Many of the people in these groups are capable of climbing out. Both you and I are proof. So instead of being embarrassed about our pasts, let’s empathize with ourselves so we can better understand others and help them however we can. we may not bring them the whole way, but even lifting the window to allow in a little bit of light is enough. I promise many of them can do wonders for themselves with that smidgeon of light. Most women and girls are exactly like us, no matter how bizarre their beliefs or behavior may be. ❤️

hadesoftheladies

the reason it's difficult to argue abortion with anti abortionists is because for the statement "women's right to bodily autonomy is more important than a stranger's life" to make sense to you, you have to already believe that

women are full human beings (even when they're not wives or mothers)

women have zero moral obligation to sacrifice themselves or produce offspring for society

there is no divine purpose to female anatomy and the purpose of a woman's body is entirely determined by her own self.

women have an unconditional right to defend themselves from violence and suffering of any kind

they legit cannot wrap their heads around that

hadesoftheladies

I like it when the example shows up to prove my point for me.

thecoolradcoffin

hope this explains it

invaderxan

it does and I hate it, thank you

lunarriviera

important update

niggazinmoscow

THIS RIGHT HERE

afronerdism

You guys are dangerously close to realizing specifically what kinds of people they keep from voting and why.

molothoo

I want to drill this into everybody’s head:

The United States of America has the highest prison population in the world

Black Americans and Latin people make up the majority of this population (many of whom are non-violent offenders)

Federal Prisons in America require that their state keeps their prisons at a maximum occupancy at all times.

The 13th amendment did not entirely abolish slavery…just one form of it. It remains legal through industrial prison system

scretladyspider

Oh and we have privatized prisons which allow companies to actually make money off of keeping people incarcerated

dantalaois

odinsblog

Here’s what’s really perverse: prisoners, who cannot vote, still get counted in the U.S. Census. The more prisoners a county has, the more representation it gets, even though the prisoners cannot vote. See how that works? The more black and brown people they lock up, the more government resources and political representation they get. Even though those prisoners have no say and cannot vote.

If county-A has a population of 50 voters but no prisons, and county-B has a population of 50 voters and 50 prisoners, the county with the prisoners gets more government funding and more political represention. This is sometimes called “prison gerrymandering” and it is used in redistrictring.

Not so fun Fact: Southern states that reliably vote for Republicans also have the highest prison population in the United States. (source). So mass incarceration is a double whammy. It’s both a form of voter suppression and a tool to strengthen white people’s political power.

hadesoftheladies

I understand the feeling of horror men inspire by their inhumane actions, but to make them out to be an alien species whose actions have no rhyme or reason in human society is to mythologize them, which gives them more power over you mentally. Men want women to think of them as invulnerable and inhuman when it intimidates them. But they’re neither of those things. Stop buying into patriarchal mysticism. There is no spiritual virus infecting men. There is no ancient ritual that corrupted them. There is no inherent moral or intellectual difference between men and women. The capacity for both to do good or evil is equally real. Fear is a beloved weapon of the oppressor bc it makes for easier indoctrination. Men have certain physical advantages, but I guarantee you those physical advantages—maleness itself—are not what keep men in sociopolitical power. If it were, musty-old grandpas wouldn’t have control of your armies. It’s ideological. Men’s maleness (e.g. their physical strength) is mythologized, and you have to de-mystify what you think about them in order to begin resisting them. Because you CAN. Because they’re just human beings. As Ursula K LeGuin said, people once believed in the divine right of kings, too.