big fat feminist: Archive

“

Here is the thing, okay? Coming into a feminist conversation with, “Have you considered that sometimes women acquire free drinks at bars?” is like walking into graduate school during Philosophy finals and saying, “Have you considered that the color blue that I see may not be the color blue that you see?”

Imagine you are the guy who just walked into that Philosophy class and laid that shit down. Imagine the class full of students who have worked very hard and committed themselves and sacrificed to be here, students who have spent several years of their lives learning about this subject. Imagine now their feelings when you go to the head of the classroom with a smirk on your face and demand the professor give you an A for effort. Imagine now that they think you are a douchebag asshole, because they do, and because you are. You are a douchebag asshole because you are obviously so self-centered, arrogant, and completely ignorant of the world around you, that you thought you could walk into a high-level course with no background and no work and say something profoundly simplistic and totally unrelated and also everybody should congratulate you for having done this thing, so brave, so provocative.
[….]
You are not asking us a real question. You are simply illustrating, for all to see, your own ignorance. You are saying, “I have not considered the implications of the question I have just asked. I have not taken the time nor effort nor commitment to sit down and ask myself this question. Instead, I have come into your philosophy classroom/office/feminist blog and shat out my question with a smirk, because I believe that my two seconds of thought are worth more than your long-term analysis, because I believe I am worth more.”

” —

Fugivitus: A few things to consider when you find a feminist blog (via absolutely-spiffing)

Exactly! This can also be applied to conversations other things as well(racism, trans* issues, etc.) Usually, the person asked has already lived (or living) the experience that you’re asking about.

(via chasingdevon)

May 31, 201211,363 notes

#gif #feminism #EXACTLY #FUCKING EXACTLY

Play

May 31, 201215 notes

#melissa harris-perry #feminism #watch this whole thing it's amazing

“The reality is that fat people are often supported in hating their bodies, in starving themselves, in engaging in unsafe exercise, and in seeking out weight loss by any means necessary. A thin person who does these things is considered mentally ill. A fat person who does these things is redeemed by them. This is why our culture has no concept of a fat person who also has an eating disorder. If you’re fat, it’s not an eating disorder — it’s a lifestyle change.” —

Lesley Kinzel (via curvesahead)

I will always reblog this because it is so so important.

(via infinitetransit)

I just want to nail this to every stable surface I can find. I cannot count the amount of times that I’ve seen fat folks being encouraged, cajoled, and even forced into behaviors that would be recognized as disordered eating/exercising patterns in thin folks.

Pretty much everything that’s done on shows like The Biggest Loser would be called out as pro-ana/pro-orthorexia in a thin person. Exercising past the point that it hurts, to the point where you’re throwing up, even injuring yourself? Berating yourself because you didn’t lose ENOUGH weight this week? Constantly talking about how fat is weakness and thinness will make everything better, about how you can’t stand to be your current weight anymore? Emphasis on weight as a sign of how much control, strength, and worth you have? Viewing food as bad, as a temptation to sin? Constant sharing and talking about tips on how to minimize food intake, how to lose weight?

That sounds exactly like every pro-ana/pro-mia blog I’ve ever seen. It’s also what fat people are told we need to be doing to ourselves until we’re thin.

(via madamethursday)

May 31, 201226,014 notes

#quote #body policing #body-positive

sparkamovement:

Just four days left to get your applications in to join the SPARKteam! Perks include:

Being part of a totally rad and amazing group of girls & women working to change the world and getting results.

Amazing opportunities—our SPARKteam members have been interviewed on radio, television & in print; spoken at international conferences; and met with execs at major companies to talk about making media a better place for girls of all stripes.

Getting paid to write.

Having your writing published on our website & in our extensive network (including outlets like HuffPo)

Hanging out with your fellow teammates for an intensive activist & media training in Vermont in July (all expenses paid!)

And MORE but I can’t tell you all the secrets!

Click through for requirements, deetz, & how to apply. Right now we’re especially looking for high school girls, girls of color, & lgbtq girls (we mean all of those letters—trans* girls are welcome & encouraged to apply!) in order to make sure our movement is truly encompassing the experiences, needs, & desires of all girls, but we welcome applications from all girls & young women 13-22. Apps are due June 4th!

May 31, 201246 notes

#Signal boost

May 30, 20121,785 notes

#consent #sexuality #sex education #health

Let's Talk About Binding!

bustygirlcomics:

tattooed-love-boy:

BINDING: for trans*folk, genderbenders, cosplaying, drag, whathaveyou!

Bandages VS. Binders

Bandages:

Don’t bind with bandages! Ever!

Using bandages to bind is harmful and may cause: shortness of breath, bruising, broken ribs, fluid build-up in lungs, long term health effects, etc! Yuck!

You have other options! Bandages are not one of them!

Binders:

Bind responsibly!

Proper binders are sold through the ‘Net with all the great effects of binding with (fewer to) no side effects!

Wear longer! More breathability!

Binders can be purchased relatively cheap; new, used, or through a big brother program!

Never wear a binder that is too small!

Caution:

Never bind for more than 8 to 12 hours at a time!

Never sleep in a binder!

If you feel sick or out of breath, take off your binder!

Let’s be honest, as I’ve spoken about before, I am sick and tired of seeing people glorifying Ace bandages as a method of binding. Be it through art, literature, photography, videography, or otherwise, it’s not uncommon to see trans*folk bound via bandages. Time to raise awareness on this matter is long overdue, and I’m hoping to spread the word.

Don’t use bandages to bind, Ace or medical or otherwise! It does not matter how stretchy they are, it does not matter if they were advised to you through a “professional”, they are not safe.

Stop glorifying Ace bandages to bind!

If you cannot afford a real binder, look into used sales or big brother programs, there are dozens around tumblr that are eager to help! You always have options!

Spread the awareness, spread the facts, bandages are harmful to bind with!

Many of you BGC readers have asked me about Binders, either for regular or short-term wear, and I didn’t have any thorough sort of info on the subject. Hopefully this will answer the majority of questions and clear up some misinformation.

May 30, 20122,997 notes

#binders #bandages #binding #trans*

If you are a white girl, a black girl or a black boy, exposure to today’s electronic media in the long run tends to make you feel worse about yourself. If you’re a white boy, you’ll feel better, according to a new study led by an Indiana University professor.

Nicole Martins, an assistant professor of telecommunications in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, and Kristen Harrison, professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, also found that black children in their study spent, on average, an extra 10 hours a week watching television.

“We can’t deny the fact that media has an influence when they’re spending most of their time — when they’re not in school — with the television,” Martins said.

Harrison added, “Children who are not doing other things besides watching television cannot help but compare themselves to what they see on the screen.”

Their paper has been published in Communication Research. Martins and Harrison surveyed a group of about 400 black and white preadolescent students in communities in the Midwest over a yearlong period. Rather than look at the impact of particular shows or genres, they focused on the correlation between the time in front of the TV and the impact on their self-esteem.

“Regardless of what show you’re watching, if you’re a white male, things in life are pretty good for you,” Martins said of characters on TV. “You tend to be in positions of power, you have prestigious occupations, high education, glamorous houses, a beautiful wife, with very little portrayals of how hard you worked to get there.

“If you are a girl or a woman, what you see is that women on television are not given a variety of roles,” she added. “The roles that they see are pretty simplistic; they’re almost always one-dimensional and focused on the success they have because of how they look, not what they do or what they think or how they got there.

“This sexualization of women presumably leads to this negative impact on girls.”

With regard to black boys, they are often criminalized in many programs, shown as hoodlums and buffoons, and without much variety in the kinds of roles they occupy.

“Young black boys are getting the opposite message: that there is not lots of good things that you can aspire to,” Martins said. “If we think about those kinds of messages, that’s what’s responsible for the impact.

“If we think just about the sheer amount of time they’re spending, and not the messages, these kids are spending so much time with the media that they’re not given a chance to explore other things they’re good at, that could boost their self-esteem.”

Martins said their study counters claims by producers that programs have been progressive in their depictions of under-represented populations. An earlier study co-authored by her and Harrison suggests that video games “are the worst offenders when it comes to representation of ethnicity and gender.”

Other research is starting to show the impacts of other kinds of entertainment sources, such as video games and hand-held devices. It indicates that young people are becoming creative at “media multitasking.”

“Even though these new technologies are becoming more available, kids still spend more time with TV than anything else,” Martins said.

Interestingly, the young people were asked about their consumption of print media, but the results were not statistically significant.

Martins conducted the research while she was completing her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, as part of a larger longitudinal study done with her co-author, Harrison. They sought out certain school districts in Illinois because of their diversity, but African-Americans were the predominant minority group.

May 30, 20122,245 notes

#racism #sexism #television

“Stop trying to “get it together.” The biggest lie we’re told when we’re growing up is that soon as we’re adults, as soon as we’re in college, finish college, get that job, have that steady income, find that someone special, “find ourselves,” find that perfect house, get that retirement fund, have those children, everything will fall into place. Here’s a secret: it won’t. Every new development in your life, good or bad, big or small, will come with its own very special set of challenges. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be. But the myth is perpetuated throughout life, perhaps now more than ever with happy status updates on Facebook and blushing bride/happy multi-tasking mommy blog posts. What these success stories don’t tell you is what is going on behind closed doors. They don’t tell you that your friend who is so over the moon with her new baby had to apply for food stamps. They don’t tell you that your fantastic, involved professor struggles with depression. They don’t tell you that your happily married friend still has nightmares about her abusive ex. They don’t tell you the cousin who just got that jealousy-inducing job opportunity is thinking of breaking up with his boyfriend of 10 years. What closely interacting with people from all backgrounds on the Internet for over a decade has taught me is that no one “has it together” in the way we think they do. So stop trying to have that as your goal, because you are just setting yourself up for massive failure.” —Nanna Freeman (x)

May 30, 201211,428 notes

#quote

PSA:

If you are responding to this post with some variation of “why don’t we just stop using the word ‘hate’” you are operating from a place of privilege as well as from a fundamental lack of understanding about how privilege works. You’re not making any particularly new, interesting, or even relevant points. You are simply wrong, and what’s worse is that by being wrong about this particular issue, you’re contributing to the standing culture of a privileged party dictating what an oppressed party is and is not allowed to do or say. In other words, you are essentially supporting oppression.

Cut that shit out.

May 29, 201221 notes

#privilege #feminism #kyriarchy

“In the instances when POC say shit like ‘Oh I can’t stand white folk’ or ‘Damn white people’, they aren’t saying ‘Oh I think they are inferior, I want to humiliate them, abuse them, enslave them and wipe out their people!’, they’re saying ‘Damn, after a couple hundred years of white people thinking I’m inferior, humiliating me, abusing me, enslaving me, and trying to wipe out my people, I don’t wanna deal with them.’ The context is completely different.” —

Briana (via absinthedisco)

Reblogging every time I see it.

(via dr—grumbles)

Thank you.

(via mehreenkasana)

THIS CONCEPT IS NOT THAT FUCKING HARD.

May 29, 201221,905 notes

#gif warning #privilege

“Though no one would ever think of using the term honor violence (we reserve that descriptor for brown people who live somewhere else, motivated by religious something-or-other or tribal something-or-other), one-third of women murdered every year in the United States are killed by their intimate partners. In 2005 that amounted to 1,181 women, or three women every day. To put that in perspective, the UN estimates there are 5,000 honor killings every year in the entire world. 5,000 in a world of 6 billion versus nearly 1,200 in a single country of 300 million. In other words, a woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.” —

A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Feminists. (via popmuslim)

A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.

(via silverqueen)

Let me reiterate that for you all …

A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.

(via dank-potion)

I think you’ve missed a crutial point though, let me point it out:

A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.

(via themindislimitless)

I think that being repeated so many times is fantastic for Western fauxminists and “egalitarians” that think all issues here are “fixed” (or “reversed” so that men are oppressed) so now we just need to go save the brown women in other countries.

(via stfufauxminists)

May 29, 20126,396 notes

#domestic violence #gender violence #misogyny #racism

baileythebookworm:

sparkamovement:

fuckyeahlesbians:

sparkamovement:

We’re hiring!

The SPARKteam is a core group of girls and young women (ages 13-22) armed with fierce writing and creative arts skills, a willingness and desire to learn and grow, powerful ideas, bold strategies for change and the creative prowess and leadership skills to be a voice for SPARK Movement. SPARKteammates are passionate about challenging the sexualization and objectification of women and girls and promoting girls’ sexual rights and healthy sexuality.

We want to stress that being on the SPARKteam requires a time commitment of between 10 and 20 hours per month depending on what’s going on with you and with SPARK. SPARKteam members are expected to:

Do two “actions” per month. Actions can include blog posts, performances, videos, media appearances, op-eds, & other similar things—if it’s related to our mission and you can document it on our website, it probably counts!

Post and discuss SPARK blogs on at least two social networking sites per month. Pushing SPARK content to your networks is a huge part of what we do—reposting on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. is super important!

Attend two scheduled chats each month with the SPARKteam to discuss blog topics, action ideas, get SPARK updates, etc.

Attend two SPARKteam activist training retreats per year, all expenses covered by SPARK.

Check in at least twice weekly on the SPARKteam’s private Facebook group to keep up with the SPARKteam and see what everyone is up to. New action and blog ideas and media opportunities are often posted in the group, so it’s vital that you read it regularly.

This is mostly a volunteer position, but SPARKteam members get paid for the actions & blogs they create. You’ll be paid $50 a month ($25 per completed/published action).

Click through above to read a little bit from SPARKteam member Crystal Ogar on why being on the SPARKteam totally rules, then download the application and get it in by June 4th! Right now we’re especially interested in recruiting high school girls, girls of color, & lgbtq girls in order to keep our ranks and perspectives truly representative of girls’ experiences, but we welcome applications from any & all interested girls ages 13-22.

We’re looking forward to reading yr applications!

Signal boost - SPARK is awesome, you should check it out.

Thank you! <3

Just a reminder, y’all, there are still 5 days left to get in your applications!

You want in on this, people.

I write here! You should too!

May 29, 201298 notes

#signal boost

“I try so hard not to generalize men, you know? I try SO hard. But then the other night I went out with my friends and the car was full and I looked around and realized that every single one of the women in that car had been raped or sexually assaulted and it’s like, how can you not hate them? It’s not fair. But it’s not fair that they do this to us and then act like it isn’t a problem.” —

My friend Marissa, talking at the beach yesterday (paraphrased). (via bigfatfeminist)

Yeah it’s fine to hate rapists and people who sexually assault but it is never okay to just hate all men.

It’s never okay to hate a group of people based on their sex, race, sexuality, etc.

Saying “they” and “them” generalizes all men and that is not okay.

(via definitelyevil)

Mmm. Except it’s not the same thing at all.

May 29, 2012340 notes

#privilege #male privilege #misogyny #sexism #tw: rape #trigger warning

May 29, 2012340 notes

#tw: rape #trigger warning #misogyny #sexual assault #feminism #anger #male privilege

May 29, 201243,595 notes

#fat hatred #racism

what is your opinion of the isthisfeminist tumblr? other than underplaying the importance of viewing things through a feminist lens, i feel like it's the same joke over and over. also it's written by a dude, which makes me wonder about the author's intentions

It’s not nearly as witty as it thinks it is, and it’s not all that funny, either. Though there’s something to be said for the fact that ANY cultural criticism can sometimes fall into tired patterns, making that joke once is pretty much enough.

I’m automatically skeptical of any man who takes it upon himself to critique what women describe as feminism, as a general rule.

May 28, 20121 note

#Anonymous #ask

What would you say to people who don't believe the phrase, "Everyone is Beautiful?" The ones who believe that just certain types of people are good looking while others aren't.

There is no such thing as an objectively hot person. It’s not like everyone agrees that Brad Pitt is the be-all and end-all, or that no one on Earth is more stunning than Scarlett Johanssen.

Really, though? These people are missing out on one fuck of a lot of beauty in the world, which is their problem entirely. Too bad for them.

May 28, 20122 notes

#Anonymous #ask

“Oh, but this is not a matter of “glorifying” obesity. Glorifying obesity would take multiple TV shows depicting fat folks riding unicorns and devouring warm pies whilst counting the bags of money they’ve gained from being fat. Indeed, if simply putting fat people on television was enough to “glorify” obesity, then The Biggest Loser should have done the trick years ago. It hasn’t, because The Biggest Loser is a show built on the humiliation and punishment (self-inflicted or otherwise) of fat people. When we say that putting fat people on television will “glorify” their bodies, what we really mean is that we are uncomfortable giving fat people any attention that is not overtly negative. Because fat people need to be told: don’t be fat. Being fat means you are not entitled to a normal life. Being fat means you are not entitled to love. Being fat means you are not entitled to humanity, much less dignity.” —

http://www.fatshionista.com/ (via melasaurus)(via saturniinae)

Yeaaaup.

(via godlessgirl)

May 27, 20122,503 notes

#fat #fat acceptance #media

Hello from Scotland!

Been taking a bit of a post-graduation holiday. Be back Saturday!

May 23, 20122 notes

#Mod post

May 21, 201218,772 notes

#Gif set #multiple gifs #the angry eye #documentary #racism #privilege

big fat feminist

May 2012

85 posts