.
It’s 12-12-12!
~Stuff I pinned at my TIAW and Wisdom boards.
~I’ve been toying for awhile now with the idea of splitting the Awesome from the Angering and creating a new roundup here which I fancy I’d like to call the Friday Fury. I’m not sure if I will or not, and I have a lot of reasons both to want to and to not want to. But if I do, this is the sort of thing that would fit well into the Friday Fury.
~Where Jenny Lawson and Amanda Palmer make me cry. TIAW is about women learning to love themselves wholly. That means physically, as well as what’s on the inside. That means the parts that are easy to love and the ones that are hard to love – both inside and outside. Your weaknesses make you you. And you are beautiful.
~This iconic image isn’t quite as innocent as you might think. To be fair, I have read that the post this article is based on is quite biased and includes some comments taken out of context. I think the point, though, is that a man forcefully (as evidenced by the photo) kissed a total stranger without her permission. That is not cool on any level.
~This article is rad. I don’t agree with 100% of it, but this quote: “FOR FUCK’S SAKE, CAN’T WE EXPRESS OUR DISPLEASURE WITHOUT BEING BELITTLED OR PATRONIZED OR THE OBJECTS OF BIAS?” and this quote: “If your uterus is fucking erupting lava into your pants, you have the right to mention that shit.” and also bonus points for the Skesis/Gelfling mention. The part I take issue with is the declaration that menstruation is “horrifying.” I kind of find such a statement oppositional to the entire point of the article. Which, as I understood it, is that menstruation is normal, if painful and uncomfortable, and that we should be allowed to discuss it the way we discuss other normal things. We don’t call these other normal things horrifying. Anyway. We do have the right to – no, we have the responsibility to – talk about it. Loudly and often.
.
~Stuff I pinned on my TIAW board.
~Have you seen that video about gay guys marrying chicks to, like, get back at straight guys for not supporting gay marriage or something? There have been a couple of response videos. Thing is? When you put all these videos together it turns into a discussion by everyone else about who we get to marry. It makes it feel like women are, once again, just an item to be bargained for. Ugh.
~For many years now I’ve been wary of complimenting someone on their weight loss. I didn’t fully understand why until I started doing all this work here with you guys and over at SOAM. But it boils down to the fact that complimenting someone on their weight loss is adding my voice to the Thin-is-Better ideology. It is one thing to compliment someone on working hard to make changes that are healthy for their whole lifestyle, and another entirely different thing to comment on a smaller size without having any information about how they arrived there. Guess what? You are beautiful no matter what you weigh. Really. This post is long, but beautifully written.
~Gender-specific toy marketing has come up a lot lately, undoubtedly because the Season For Shopping is well upon us now. But it’s not just us grownups getting in a tizzy over this. The little ones are just as upset (only they are, perhaps, more adorable about it).
~Rape in South Africa: the vaginas fight back. I love this bit: “When critics complained that it was a medieval punishment, Ehlers replied tersely, ‘A medieval device for a medieval deed.'”
~20+ examples of thin privilege.
.
~Stuff I pinned at my TIAW and Wisdom boards.
~Fat at the gym <-- I haven't read anything as inspiring as this in a long time. This is my favorite bit: "I am fat and happy in places where I should be fat and shameful, and denying this stereotype is a political action in my eyes."
~Except this. This is at least as inspiring in a totally different way.
~Looking for an article overflowing with snark about The War on Men? (No, you read that right. A Fox News article declared there is such a thing recently.) Look no further, here’s a great post in response to the absurd claim.
~Can’t get enough snark as response to sexism? Here’s a fantastic letter written by a news anchor, noting all the archaic, sexist shit she’s had to deal with.
~Brenda Chapman, the woman who wrote Brave, was hired because she has a vagina. True story. However, her femaleness may have helped make Ariel and Belle the strong(er) princess characters that they were.
~Last week I shared some links to some stories about gender-specific toys and others which broke those barriers. Today I’ve got a post about a Swedish toy catalog that decided to throw gender to the wind and show both boys and girls playing with all the toys. Winning! What’s more is that Jen, the author of the post, asks that we all write to thank them so they’ll know we appreciate it. We can change the world, people.
