The Wellington Young Feminists

A social group of like-minded people who share information and hold events relevant to gender equity in New Zealand. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Open to all self-identified Wellington feminists (and supporters from elsewhere) who are interested in a feminist social club. Come and play, we're a fun bunch! var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-21867777-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[esa-nopalxochitl-deactivated201]

Indigenous Queer Art by Demian DinéYazhi’ on Etsy

[florxdexrebeldiax]

“…indigenous peoples from Bolivia stated that they know another world is possible because they see that world whenever they do their ceremonies. Native ceremonies can be a place where the present, past and future become copresent. This is what Native Hawaiian scholar Manu Meyer calls a racial remembering of the future”

Indigenous Feminism without Apology  by Andrea Smith https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/indigenous-feminism-without-apology/

If we lived differently before, we can live differently in the future.

(via florxdexrebeldiax)

[wellingtonyoungfeminists]

TW: Sexual violence, rape "Sexual violence doesn’t just mean rape. It can be anything from getting your arse grabbed at a party or bar, or being inappropriately filmed or photographed when you might have had too much to drink (or when you’re sober!). Check out our poster below – she’s definitely not OK with it. What would you do to help? #AreYouThatSome1" The Let's Stop Sexual Violence Campaign launched this week- an NZ initiative to raise awareness about the signs of sexual violence, to encourage young people to share their strategies for  not letting this stuff slide anymore. I love this, I love approaching sexual violence from an ethical bystander point of view- a crucial part of changing our pervasive and damaging rape culture. Click thru to be taken to their facebook page https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/p720x720/10438978_466656830138580_6030065824973454170_n.jpg

[jonathantylerh-deactivated20170]

Tweets concerning UCSB shooting, misogyny, and masculinity by Imran Siddiquee, Director of Communications for The Representation Project, the organization behind Miss Represenation and the soon-to-be-released documentary The Mask You Live In

[bowtiemoustache]

#YesAllWomen

[kierongillen]

Oh man.

[class-war-hooligan-deactivated2]

Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.

Margaret Atwood  (via softwaring)

[fuckyeahmeganhilty]

When we come together to #sayNOMORE, we can help create a safer world for men and women, boys and girls. #NOMORE #NOMOREexcuses (x)

[whatever-joey-deactivated201410]

[wellingtonyoungfeminists]

TW, needless to say. This is powerful and depressing and so so important. whatever-joey:

#YesAllWomen is trending on Twitter right now.

This is very important. 

Right now, men just need to shut up, read these and learn. We HAVE to do better.

[wellingtonyoungfeminists]

We have been told for a long time that the best way to deal with this sort of harrassment and violence is to laugh it off. Women and girls and queer people have been told that online misogynists pose no real threat, even when they’re sharing intimate guides to how to destroy a woman’s self-esteem and force her into sexual submission. Well, now we have seen what the new ideology of misogyny looks like at its most extreme. We have seen incontrovertible evidence of real people being shot and killed in the name of that ideology, by a young man barely out of childhood himself who had been seduced into a disturbing cult of woman-hatred. Elliot Rodger was a victim - but not for the reasons he believed.

http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/05/lets-call-isla-vista-killings-what-they-were-misogynist-extremism

[zombielit-deactivated20240310]

"If your ancestors cut down all the trees, it’s not your fault, but you still don’t live in a forest."

- Pam Oliver, a professor in the UW-Madison sociology department, explaining the historical roots of racism in the United States to her undergraduate students (mostly middle-class and White).

[owning-my-truth-deactivated2022]

Imporant message for all white people who say “well it’s not my fault that slavery happened!” while forgetting that they still benefit from that legacy tremendously to this day.

[thisiseverydayracism]

Important.

[pudica-girl-deactivated20140520]

Because women of colour experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by men of color and sexism in ways not always parallel to experiences of white women, antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms… The failure of feminism to interrogate race means that the resistance strategies of feminism will often replicate and reinforce the subordination of people of colour, and the failure of antiracism to interrogate patriarchy means that antiracism will frequently reproduce the subordination of women

Kimberle Crenshaw in Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color (via pudica-girl)

[will-work-for-progress]

11 Trans Artists Of Color You Should Know In 2013

[wellingtonyoungfeminists]

Art has been an important site of resistance and identity making for trans people of color. We’ve used the medium to share our stories, document our lives and express our humanity. Fortunately for us, we are living in a media moment that thirsts to understand the trans experience.

[attndotcom]

[fuckyeahfeminist]

Fight for your sisters, not just your cis-sters.

[themilitantbaker]

Fat politics are near and dear to my heart, not only because I’m quite the fatty myself, but also because all body inequality has a lasting effect on every single person involved. 

  When we hate one type of body, we start to hate them all. We compare and critique, hating our failures and then hating others who appear to be more successful. Then we start to hate those who are failing more than us so that we don’t feel so bad about those guys that we hate because they’re succeeding! Hate. Hate. Hate. It’s a lot of hate, and it’s vicious. VICIOUS I tell you!

  And it goes oh so much deeper than that. Body hate is internalized at a very young age; killing our sense of self-esteem and teaching us that we must change in order to be okay. 

  Guess what?81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat. And they’re more afraid of fat than they are of cancer, war, or losing both of their parents. 

Because of this, a survey of girls 9-10 years old showed that 40% of them have already tried to lose weight. Body image is closely linked to self-esteem and low self-esteem in adolescents can lead to eating disorders, early unsafe sexual activity, substance use, and suicidal thoughts. 

95% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. Certain eating disorders have a 6x higher mortality rate. Low self-esteem is closely linked to depression and over 60 Americans commit suicide everyday due to this diagnosis. Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies, and only 4% would openly call themselves beautiful.

  And it’s all for naught.

  It’s all for nothing, y’all. There is no truth in the lie that certain bodies are good and certain bodies are bad. All bodies just are and whatever that looks like is okay. Not only okay, but perfect, I would say!

The reality is that everything we believe about body worth is wrong. We’ve learned to hate certain shapes and sizes because of American history and the economic story hidden within. In “Why We’ve Learned to Hate Ourselves”, I talk about the organization of class systems, the creation of Patriarchy, Tuberculosis, WWII, and newly independent housewives. ALL of these things have been building blocks for the best business scheme in history. We have been given an idyllic body that is presented as gospel; one that 95% of women in this country are not born with, and then we are told that we must somehow achieve this impossible physique. Preferably by attempting to purchase perfection through creams, diet pills, surgeries, laser treatments, special cereals, and expensive meal replacements.

  We buy all of these things so that we can somehow, mayyyyyybe someway become something that, yeah… we will never be. I will never become the worlds definition of perfection. Most of my friends around me won’t either. In fact, the large majority of women will never achieve the ideal female figure that we’re taught to worship. Ever. And so, with failure hanging heavily around our necks, we stunt our opportunities, relationships and quality of life. 

Though this is need not be, it currently it is and affects us all.

While body hate leaves no person unscathed, there is a group that it sure does like to hang out with an awful lot… The Fatties.

Those Fatties, I’ll tell you what. They exist solely to flaunt themselves as a repulsive and diabolic mockery of what bodies are supposed to be. HOW DARE THEY TAKE UP SPACE ON THIS PLANET. Are ya still with me?

I say this facetiously of course, but know that those few sentences above resonate for more people than you care to count. And this is why we’re here today.

I loved the Feminist autocompletion series, and I am well versed in what the internet has to offer when you type in things like feminism, sluts, gender equality and other supposedly controversial words. I personally spend a lot of time researching body image related subjects and so I’m also aware of what gems pop up when you type in something like, say, “fat people”.

I may be used to reading this kinda junk by now, but that doesn’t make it any less alarming when the top searches for fat people include things like: fat people are disgusting, don’t have feelings, deserve to be bullied, and should die. This immense hatred baffles me; a persons body shape is so benign that it only affects those who inhabit it. Yet, it is socially acceptable to hate, loathe, harass, antagonize, persecute and bully a person based on a clothing size.

If you’re needing a reminder of what bullying is, here’s a quick gist:

    So, real talk.

  The reality is that fat shame, hate, and oppression is THE most encouraged form of bullying that we face today. It is not only highly prevalent, but it is cheered on by the majority that believes that larger bodies are inherently wrong. This is aided and abetted by all media; both in entertainment material and advertising. In fact, it’s quite UN-popular to stand in favor of fat acceptance, and god forbid you preach of fat love.

We have a long way to go.

There are shelves of books dedicated to why this is (and we don’t have the space to explore that entire concept in one post) but lets be sure to remember this: we have been conditioned to loathe and fear a fat body. We are not born a body bigot, we learn it. We absorb lucrative lies and judge others (and ourselves) based on this made-up law of superficial worth.

  Okay, but lets say that I’m wrong (I’m not) and that bigger bodies are bad (definitely not) because by having them you’ve somehow failed (you haven’t). Okay, say all those things have a grain of truth, and fat is indeed some sort of social failure. This is still not reason enough to hate, hurt, and bully another human being. Especially when the subject of contention is something that has nothing to do with you or anyone else. No excuse.

  One of my favorite quotes is from Ragen Chastain who write at Dances with Fat and she says: 

"Fat people have the right to exist in fat bodies regardless of how we got fat, what being fat means, or if we could be thin through some means – however easy or difficult. 

  There are no other valid opinions on this.

   We have the right to exist without shaming, bullying or stigmatization, period.” 

Can I get an AMEN?

All this fat hate has gotta stop.

  As long as we continue to demonize and degrade one body type, we will never reach true body acceptance as a society. And until we reach true body acceptance as a society, we will continue to see low self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, sabotaged relationships, employment inequality, sky high suicide rates, and all sorts of other social infirmities. No more please. No more.

  Every body is a perfect body. There ain’t no wrong or “more right” way to be, and that’s a fact.

SO, YOU’RE INVITED TO MAKE YOUR OWN POSTER AND SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD!

  No need to include the Google autocomplete (unless you want to of course), but feel free to make a poster with your OWN slogan that challenges weight hate and size discrimination! Whatever speaks true to you, make it a poster and share it on The Militant Baker’s Facebook! I’ll be making a photo album to showcase them all and share with the entire world! Hop to it! 

Social revolution awaits! xo,  Jes More at The Militant Baker Blog

[mmatangi]

[raw-r-evolution]

Same

[dressyourselfwithbleedingmadres]

When Francine came out to her very strict mother, it seriously was one of the most inspiring touching things I’ve ever seen. For those of you who are struggling with coming out to your parents, there’s hope.

[arundhottie-roy-deactivated2016]

I hate these gross generalizations about PoC parents who, in white liberals’ eyes, are inherently “more homophobic” (because of their ~culture~) than culturally “enlightened” western parents. As if nonwhite parents of incapable of loving and supporting their children. Maybe its because society likes to focus on the narratives which make our parents out to be the backwards ones.

Why can’t we talk about beautiful things like this?

[madamemonstruosx]

thisssss. if i hear one more white queer talk about, “especially in THOSE cultures,” i will flip.

[laborreguitina]

omg this shit made me cry. so cute and so beautiful. 

[allcatzrule-deactivated20240804]

;-; tears of joy

[m4m-ethnic-culture]

Paris Is Burning is a 1990 American documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved in it. Many members of the ball culture community consider Paris Is Burning to be an invaluable documentary of the end of the “Golden Age” of New York City drag balls, as well as a thoughtful exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality in America.

The film explores the elaborately-structured Ball competitions in which contestants, adhering to a very specific category or theme, must “walk” (much like a fashion model’s runway) and subsequently be judged on criteria including the “realness” of their drag, the beauty of their clothing and their dancing ability.

Most of the film alternates between footage of balls and interviews with prominent members of the scene, including Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja. Many of the contestants vying for trophies are representatives of “Houses" (in the fashion sense, such as "House of Chanel") that serve as intentional families, social groups, and performance teams. Houses and ball contestants who consistently won in their walks eventually earned a “legendary” status.

The film depicts people with different gender identities or communities and their different forms of expression. It also explores how its subjects dealt with the adversity of racism, homophobia, AIDS and poverty. For example, some, likeVenus Xtravaganza became sex workers, some shoplift clothing, and some were thrown out of their homes by homophobic parents. One was saving money for sex reassignment surgery. Yet what makes this film significant is its approach. According to Livingston and according to the reviewers and movie-goers who viewed the film, this documentary is a multi-leveled exploration of a subculture in African American and Latino cultures that proves to be a microcosm of society, which was an underappreciated and arguably underground world that many Americans were unfamiliar with. hrough candid one-on-one interviews the film offers insight into the lives and struggles of its subjects and the strength, pride, and humor they maintain to survive in a “rich, white world.”

Drag is presented as a complex performance of gender, class, and race, in which one can express one’s identity, desires and aspirations along many dimensions. The African-American and Latino community depicted in the film includes a diverse range of identities and gender presentations, from gay men to butch queens to transgender women.

The film also documents the origins of “voguing”, a dance style in which competing ball-walkers freeze and “pose” in glamorous positions (as if being photographed for the cover of Vogue). Pop star Malcolm McLaren (with Mark Moore of S’Express and William Orbit) would, two years before Paris Is Burning was completed, bring the phenomenon to the mainstream with his song “Deep in Vogue”, which sampled the movie and directly referenced many of the stars of Paris Is Burning including Pepper LaBeija and featured dancers from the film, including Willi Ninja.  The single went to #1 in the US Billboard Dance Chart.  One year after this, Madonnareleased her number one song “Vogue”, bringing further attention to the dancing style.

[2398358436-blog]

and it’s on netflix!