scegliere: Archive

“

Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

” —(via -sorry)

Jul 27, 201151,832 notes

#english #language

Jul 27, 201112,319 notes

#body policing

Jul 27, 201135 notes

#THIS!!!!!! #abortion #choice #prochoice #pro choice #pro-choice

Jul 27, 2011374 notes

#amy winehouse #support #help #resources

[Trigger warning: violence, rape, sexual assault/harassment] Is It Realistic to Talk About Preventing Violence Against Women If No One Even Wants to Say Out Loud Who's Responsible For It?

sassmasterdeane:

99% of rapes are committed by men.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study in 2001 which found that 20% of adolescent girls were physically or sexually abused by a date.

Studies show that 15 to 38% of women and 5 to 16% of men experienced some form of sexual abuse as children.

The average age at which a child is first abused sexually is ten years old.

One national survey found that 83% of girls reported being sexually harassed at school.

One in four college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years.

The average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen or fourteen.

The estimated annual health-related costs, lost productivity costs, and lost earnings due to intimate partner violence in the U.S. is $5.9 billion.

According to the FBI, 80 to 90% of rapes are never reported.

29% of rape victims are assaulted before they reach the age of eleven.

One in twelve men have admitted to having committed acts that fit the legal definition of rape. However, 88% of men whose actions came under the legal definition or rape were adamant that their behavior did not constitute rape.

Physical abuse occurs in one in four marriages.

In the U.S. three women on average are murdered every day by their husbands, boyfriends, or exes.

It was not until 1993 that marital rape was considered a crime in all 50 states.

One study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that 43% of college-aged men conceded to using coercive behavior to have sex (including ignoring a woman’s protest, using physical aggression, and forcing intercourse).

Men who batter are products of a society that is in deep denial about men’s violence, and when forced to face reality seeks to blame victims instead.

If people have reason to be in denial about the victimization of women they care about, isn’t it even more understandable that they would be in denial about male perpetrators they care about? At least the victims are sympathetic; something bad has happened to them. But who wants to admit that men they care about have done bad things to women?

Rampant victim-blaming artificially makes our ethical choices easier. If the (false) choice is between “She’s a vindictive slut who’s trying to take down one of my boys” and “My friend is a rapist,” it’s a no brainer to figure out which one is the easiest to live with.

All men benefit from some men’s violence against women because that violence - and the threat of it - is a key tool in men’s continued subordination of women, from which all men benefit.

Why are rape and battering constantly framed as a “women’s issues” when they would practically cease to exist were it not for the actions of men? Men are committing 99% of these violent crimes, and the gender dynamics that underlie rape and domestic abuse are woven densely into the fabric of our culture. Designating rape and battering as “Women’s Issues” only reinforces a culture that normalizes violence against women.

Men and boys need to be educated about these issues if we want any of the sickening statistics above to ever change.

(Source - The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help by Jackson Katz)

Jul 26, 2011646 notes

#rape culture #education

Jul 26, 201131 notes

#LOL #YES

“Women don’t lose their minds when they have period-related irritability. It doesn’t lower their ability to reason; it lowers their patience and, hence, tolerance for bullshit. If an issue comes up a lot during “that time of the month,” that doesn’t mean she only cares about it once a month; it means she’s bothered by it all the time and lacks the capacity, once a month, to shove it down and bury it beneath six gulps of willful silence. Those are the things most worth paying attention to. (By both people involved.)” —

Shakesville via Bitch (via joryuu)

Absolutely. My tolerance for bullshit goes down, whereas the rest of the month, I abide by the rules set forth by society for socializing girls, which are, “If you don’t have something nice to say, be polite and keep the peace. No one wants to hear your opinions.”

I guess that means once a month, I act more like a man.

(via likeproust)

And, you know, some of us don’t really experience PMS at all, or if we do, mood-related changes may skew more towards depression, or even euphoria, rather than irritability. There are a couple days before my period where I feel FANTASTIC, like I could conquer the world. Then follow a couple days where I feel like crap. Some women crash and burn because of PMDD. Some women just feel kind of sad. Some women don’t experience much of a change at all.

Everyone is different. No two people are the same! No two moron misogynists are not on fire. Awwww.

(via wtfox-)

There’s also a lot of evidence that the way PMS is framed and treated in Western medicine/society is a lot more cultural than biological, and a lot of the time is rooted in menstrual shame, as opposed to “hormone changes” etc. etc. Obviously this is not true for every menstruating person, plenty of people suffer from PMDD, endometriosis, dysphoria, etc. around their periods. But the widespread, ubiquitous bitchiness, hyper-emotionality, headaches, all that jazz that “everybody” gets around their period? More or less a Western cultural phenomenon.

That doesn’t make the crappiness that PMSing can be any less real for women whosuffer from it — but you see everywhere, from shitty got milk ads to the people opposed to women presidents, this notion that women biologically lose their shit around their periods because of ~science~~ and basically a lot of evidence suggests that that’s more because we’re told from day one that our periods are gross, shameful, need to be hidden, disgusting to men (who are the arbiters of women’s value), etc etc, than because of any changes in our hormones.

(via erikawithac)

Jul 26, 2011772 notes

#PMS #menstruation

stfusexists:

lawsonry:

Feminism… YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

IS THIS REAL LIFE? PEOPLE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS?

I’m not threatened by it. I’m fine with women showing off their bodies. I’m just sick of some of them expecting the rest of the world to kowtow to them.

Again, with the accusations of fear. I am not afraid of women. And I NEVER said that it justified rape; you are a misandrist for suggesting that I said such a thing.

I have my own hypothesis: You are insecure and afraid of male sexuality. It terrifies you to think that there are men out there who you can’t wrap around your little finger. When other men make catcalls to you, you hate the fact that you secretly enjoy it, because it might drive you to cheat. Can I prove any of this? No, not any more than you can prove your vicious ad hominem attacks on me. But I can read between the lines.

I’ve got news for you: I love women. I think that most of the women I’ve met are amazing. I think the same thing of most of the men I’ve met, too. Since I have relatively the same opinion of men and women, I treat them the same way: I judge them by their actions and their achievements, and I do not give any special consideration, positive or negative, on the basis of what’s between their legs. That causes me to be labeled as a sexist.

Guess what? I’ve had men make degrading sexual remarks about me. I’ve had men make dirty jokes at work in my presence. And you know what? I’m not scarred from it. I just told them to shut up and leave me alone, and that was all it took. I am not a helpless little child who runs to mommy and daddy whenever they’re upset.”

…who exactly is afraid of male sexuality in this society? All we’re bombarded with is heterosexual male sexuality! Boys aren’t treated with scrutiny for losing their virginity, advertisements and media are rife with the male gaze. Women are sluts, men are studs, men are supposed to have conquests and women are expected to have regrets.

Let me tell you: I don’t enjoy catcalls. Because catcalls aren’t about sexuality, male or otherwise. They’re about control. They’re about feeling that you, a complete stranger, have the right to loudly assert your unsolicited opinion about my body in a dehumanizing and embarrassing way. And do you know what happens at least half of the time when you ignore or call out a catcaller? They turn violent. They turn angry. They call you ugly, they call you a bitch, they may even threaten you. Don’t believe me? Here you go.

If you want to approach a beautiful woman, there are ways to do it without threatening or harassing. You don’t have the right to approach anyone, you don’t have the right to invade anyone’s space, and you don’t have the right to assert ownership or intent over a stranger’s body, or anyone’s body who doesn’t consent.

I’m not afraid of men who are sexual beings or who are attracted to me. I’m threatened by men who feel a right to assert their opinion over my body in a disruptive and rude manner without even knowing me. No good is going to come from that behavior, and since women who are assaulted are constantly judged for not being careful enough (hey! just like you’re doing!), I’m right to be wary.

Finally, the audacity to claim that your response to dirty jokes, advances, and sexual remarks is how women should be able to react? You are approaching this from a position of power. You are a man. You are not considered by society at large to be an automatic sex object, or an object of any kind. There is not an entire culture dehumanizing and degrading men that backs up these jokes. So while they’re still offensive and wrong, they don’t carry the weight of hundreds of years of patriarchal opinions of women’s place in society and sex. They’re not the same. Please try and understand that.

Oh, and calling out sexists isn’t “running to mommy and daddy”. It’s dealing with it. Stop being a disrespectful ass.

Jul 26, 201155 notes

Jul 26, 201112,130 notes

Jul 25, 201152 notes

Jul 25, 20118,141 notes

#rights #rachel maddow #YES

Jul 25, 20112,164 notes

#inventors #awesome shit women did #erasure #history #ignorance

It’s not just in East Africa that these stories remain unheard. One of the few academics to have looked into the issue in any detail is Lara Stemple, of the University of California’s Health and Human Rights Law Project. Her studyMale Rape and Human Rights notes incidents of male sexual violence as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in countries such as Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. Twenty-one per cent of Sri Lankan males who were seen at a London torture treatment centre reported sexual abuse while in detention. In El Salvador, 76% of male political prisoners surveyed in the 1980s described at least one incidence of sexual torture. A study of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80% of men reported having been raped.

Jul 25, 201128 notes

#rape #torture #sexual torture #male rape

Jul 25, 2011583 notes

stfusexists:

In today’s “what the hell kind of world are we living in” moment of the day (besides the horrific bombing in Norway, from which I am still reeling), consider this story from Britain:

In March, six British soccer players confessed to gang-raping two 12-year-old girls and were sentenced to two years behind bars. But last week, an Appeal Court overturned the sentence, and all of the men were freed.

The reasoning? “The girls wanted to have sex,” said Lord Justice Moses, who was among the deciding judges.

Despite the fact that both girls were well under the age of consent (which in England is 16 years old), their apparent “want” for sex (and the poor quality of that sex) waived this law in the judges’ eyes.
The implications of the decision are severe: “The judges have set a highly dangerous precedent by suggesting that raping vulnerable children is not punishable by the severest sentencing,” said British anti-rape activist Jill Saward.

The judges claimed that the men’s “frank confessions” about the rapes affirmed their “positive good character” and showed that they were genuinely duped into sex. The girls had lied about their ages, saying they were 16 on Facebook, and were dressed to appear older.

So there you have it. Confessing to raping children shows “good character”, and children under the age of consent can consent to sex. Stay classy, justices of Britain.

Jul 24, 2011657 notes

#rape culture #what the actual fuck

Jul 24, 20113,300 notes

scegliere

August 2011

81 posts

July 2011

72 posts