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#Dismantling reproductive rights
free-range-tiddies · 1 year
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I wish Christians were actually being attacked the way they say they are. They're pushing America further into hell, and it's Bible Thumpers creating the laws that endorse it. You are not being attacked. You are winning at every single turn, bro.
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kthulhu42 · 5 days
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I saw a post saying "If porn and prostitution were empowering men would be doing it" and while I absolutely agree I would add:
"If porn and prostitution were empowering men would be fighting to prevent women from doing it at all"
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chiekodivine · 1 year
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Hi I hope it's ok to send this, but I'm a genderqueer/Transmasc... I reblogged your post about older men trying to manipulate young girls because I totally agree... It makes me sick just knowing there are men out there like that. But thank you so much for posting it. If we ignore the problem it does nothing.... It wasn't online, but pre transition, if someone had told me that... It would have saved me. I'm thirty years old now and do have a wonderful partner who is older, but I look back and wish I would have waited for him instead now that I'm older and more mature.... Because this version of me is going through a lot of healing and reconnecting with my inner child. Maybe things would have been different.
sadly, i think the world is afraid of girls and women who know their worth. it's so obvious, politicians trying to take away contraceptives and abortion, the recent rise of traditionalist values, the "divine feminine" being pushed as method to be submissive and get a man, old men calling adult women washed up and damaged, andrew tate and his fans, republican men telling women to get married under the basis that women will follow their husbands, old men invading women's spaces.....the list goes on. i will always be an advocate for young women (and all the other dolls). people seem to have issues with the idea of young women dating within their age range, and more than that, staying single all together. I want women to think for themselves. what do you want? who do you want to be? what standards do you have for yourself that others don't live up to? is your need for validation worth more than the love you have for yourself? women today are being told that men's frustrations with ending up alone is our problem. however, it's not. women now have the chance to make life what they want it to be without the leash of a man telling her what she can and cannot do. i'm sorry no one was there for you in your younger years. maybe a way of healing your inner child can be to advocate for those who don't have a voice either. the trauma inflicted upon us by the patriarchy will continue until it's dismantled.
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Every goddamn time I think I have a handle on my depression and anxiety, the federal and/or state government does something so godawful, my executive function takes a nosedive
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intersectionalpraxis · 4 months
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I just emailed the United Nations Women's Office in Geneva, Amnesty International, Oxfam Canada, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) about the lack of period care in Gaza. It is frustrating to see that international organizations have not set up a fund specifically to help Palestinian people who need this. Having one resource to help with this shortage, Motherbeing, is not enough for millions of people.
Period care is health care. I don't want anyone to tell me that emailing international organizations about this is either silly or not important because not having adequate access to this can cause serious health ramifications -from infections to illnesses and later reproductive health issues.
Pregnant women in Gaza are also continually suffering right now -of the thousands of women that were supposed to give birth over these past few months -they have not had safe and consistent access to care during their trimesters. I have spoken about this before -but we need to keep amplifying this issue as well.
Women's health in Gaza has been under under crisis for a while now, and we KNOW this is part of a zionist's larger agenda -to attack women and children especially because they see them as some of the greatest threats. So please do what you can -send those emails, call your representatives/MP's and demand a ceasefire. Demand more than adequate medical care -which includes period care -reach those in Gaza who need it.
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Original post where Hind Khoudary is reporting:
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To say I'm bitter-sweetly fortunate my TL has been full of feminists talking about Palestine -while at the same time I have seen a plethora publicly turn away, ignore, or remain silent on it because of money or greed or worry about their social or financial capital (celebrities and 'influencers' -we know who you are) -I'm just embarrassed for them.
When I first started my journey into feminism as a first year well over a decade ago (and as someone who used to be ignorant about so many things until I started my process of learning/unlearning/educating myself) -I am resoundingly grateful for that beginning. Being able dig into intersectional theory, listening to activists from all around the world about their struggles, passions, and efforts to liberation -and I still continue to do so.
Reading about the importance of decolonization in tandem with dismantling the heteropatriarchal capitalist machine -I always know the importance of solidarity and ally ship as a result of years of study -because the power IS with the people -and our voices do matter -the system, time and again, wants you to believe you don't. And for those feminists who aren't using their platforms or voices to encourage and demand a ceasefire -or any and all ends of systemic oppression -you have blood on your hands. Feminist and women's movements aren't meant to be something you cherry pick.
So do the bare minimum, or don't call yourselves feminists.
I also don't have a 'template' per-say, since I just wrote them out individually and edited them, but if anyone wants to me post something generic so they can make their own to send to these organizations please let me know.
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docwritesshit · 10 months
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Helloo!!
Could I request a MK and Red Son poly x reader fluffy oneshot? If you don't do poly, just Red Son is fine!!
Of course! And I love writing poly dynamics dw
Word count: 534
It was like any other day, waiting at Pigsy’s noodles with your regular order while your delivery bf ran across town and back, the minutes ticking bye till the end of his shift.
You didn't mind though, passing the time by FaceTiming your other partner while they complained about something or another that was wrong with their latest project or innovation.
“And the nerve of this robot always pushing my buttons is not what I programmed it for!” Redson exclaimed, wisps of hair framing her face while they lit up and smoked to mirror her own frustration. You giggled,.
“Awwww, don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll come up with a solution like you always do.” You punctuated this statement with taking another bite of your food. Redson sighed at your optimistic antics, but that was a reason they were glad he was stuck with two sunshines.
“Oh no, what happened now?” MKs voice came up from behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist as he placed his chin on your shoulder to get a peek at Reds.
“Just a robot that got on my nerves. It’s already dismantled and in reproduction though, so it’ll be fine in a bit.” Redson summarized. MK smiled, turning to you and kissed your cheek.
“Well that’s great! Let me get changed and we’ll be right over flambé.” Mk dashed to the back, and from the sounds of it, sprinted up the stairs to get ready faster. Redson groaned, making you look back at your phone.
“Why must robots push my buttons? Both of you do anyway.” He grumbled, pushing some loose hairs from his face. You smirked.
“And who’s fault is it that? Remind me who started this relationship?” You pondered, tapping your finger to your chin in an exaggerated manner. Redson scoffed, taking the phone from its place and holding it to her face.
“I’ll come get you, so make sure that noodle boy knows they don’t have to use up the gas or mystic energy.”
You hummed in acknowledgment, and Reds ended the call. Not 10 seconds later, MK came stomping back down the stairs and almost crashed into you.
“Ok! Let’s get going-“
“MK, Reds is getting us. No need to rush.” You informed him. MK froze and looked back to you, giving you a sheepish grin.
“Right. I forget the guy lives in the desert.”
You chuckled, and right on cue, both of you felt a sudden heat wave roll into the shop, and Reds walked through the curtains.
“Hurry up, we don’t have all day.” She said. MK gave a giggle, approaching the demon bull heir and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, earning a red face and smoldering hair.
“Hello to you too beautiful.”
You rolled your eyes, placed a few bills on the table, and slid up to the pair swinging your arms around their shoulders.
“C’mon, let's get out of here.” You said. Redson mumbled in agreement with an enthusiastic ‘whoop’ from MK. Fire surrounded you guys, taking you to wherever your heart wanted.
You knew there wasn’t anything that could make you all leave each other, and that fact warmed you more than a fire ever could.
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gatheringbones · 1 year
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[“…. right from its psychoanalytic beginnings, mental illness was connected to amorality, a legacy that is challenging to distance ourselves from, and amorality was connected to femininity. Although we have come a long way, assumptions about the superiority of rationality persist in our field, at least within Anglo and Western dominant paradigms. For example, the field of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) rests on the assumption that we can literally exercise mind over matter. CBT does view a connection between thoughts, emotions and behaviors but mostly intervenes at the level of thoughts and behaviors, trying to change “distorted thinking” and “maladaptive behaviors.” There is an almost unspoken assumption that “rational” thoughts and behaviors are always morally superior and to be preferred in the field of mental health.
It is no accident, in my opinion, that rational thoughts and behaviors are stereotypically associated with masculinity and, more specifically white and Anglo masculinity. Even though gender seems to be but a minor branch of topical interest in psychology and mental health, gendered assumptions run deep in our field. It’s rare that anyone questions bold assertions, made by mental health providers on a daily basis, on how “men and women work.” Those assumptions are, after all, foundational to many theories and approaches.
Even when gender is not mentioned at all in certain theories, in practice people tend to apply them differently with “male and female” clients. It’s even rarer that the whole premise of two gender is put into question and, when it is, it only seems to pertain to transgender and/or nonbinary people, leaving the main tenets of gendered thinking in dominant culture untouched and unquestioned. Mental health with and for transgender and/or nonbinary people then becomes its own specialist branch, which means the rest of the field can continue undisturbed in their assumptions about men and women, as long as we keep to our turf and don’t shake the cisgenderist foundation of the whole discipline. This too is a colonizing and capitalist approach. If we’re kept separate from one another, we can be better controlled and, most importantly, there can be more specialties, and therefore more certifications and trainings to be sold and bought.
Even in the field of family therapy, where systemic thinking could open a different conversation about gender, all too often we fall back on established stereotypes and pseudoscience about gender as a rigid binary. Yet, I have found that when I can support people in connecting genuinely to gender as a historical, social and cultural construct, a better understanding of one another can emerge across differences that are made to look chasmic by people who are invested in selling solutions specific to “men,” “women,” and “transgender and/or nonbinary people.” Unfortunately the discourse that men are from Mars, women are from Venus and trans people from Transylvania (at least according to The Rocky Horror Picture Show) is familiar to people and, like many other popular discourses, is reproduced effortlessly by providers and researchers who are also brought up within these dominant paradigms.
Sometimes people acknowledge that what they’re working with are issues like toxic masculinity, but they’re reluctant to then broaden the lens to indicate how larger systems support the reproduction of such harmful, colonial binaries. This means that, ironically, while working to dismantle toxic masculinity, they also keep reifying it by framing their work as being with “men” or “boys.” I can understand how the latter is more marketable than the “smash the colonial patriarchy” approach I am proposing in this book but I truly believe that if we don’t start questioning the rigidity of the gender binary altogether, for everyone, we will keep running around in circles to find ourselves in the same places, or maybe just a few inches over to the left.”]
alex iantaffi, from gender trauma: healing cultural, social, and historical gendered trauma, 2020
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kdero · 11 months
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After last summer's Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed states to ban abortion, urologists across the United States saw a dramatic surge in the demand for vasectomies.
Normally, vasectomy procedures peak towards the end of the year, but the mid-year Court decision led to an unexpected increase in demand in 46 states.
The greatest increases in patients undergoing this elective procedure were in states that implemented "trigger bans" severely limiting abortion access. These states experienced an average increase of 41% in vasectomy rates between July and September, compared to 26% in other states. States such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah saw rates rise by more than 40%.
The post-Dobbs patients opting for vasectomies tended to be younger than the typical candidates. Data from Komodo revealed a small but consistent drop in the average age of patients undergoing vasectomies in the latter half of 2022.
Motivations behind this trend varied among patients. Some men expressed concerns about the lack of a reliable backup if their primary contraception method failed in the absence of abortion access, as vasectomy has a success rate of over 99%. Others were motivated by the fear that vasectomy itself could be outlawed next. Among this younger demographic of patients seeking to take control of their reproductive responsibilities were men who saw their decision as an act of solidarity with women.
Due to longstanding patriarchal constructs, vasectomy is viewed as a sacrifice for many men, involving recovery time and potential risks, along with misconceptions and concerns about its impact on masculinity. In reality, recovery time for this simple 30-minute outpatient procedure is 2-3 days, and there is no clinical evidence to support the notion that a vasectomy leads to a decreased sense of masculinity. The procedure does not have any direct physiological or hormonal effects on masculinity, sexual function, or masculinity-related characteristics.
In fact, by opting for vasectomy, men share the responsibility of contraception and alleviate the burden on women. By doing so, these men further embody the traditionally masculine traits of responsibility, self-reliance, decisiveness, and courage through taking an active role in family planning.
While the overturning of Roe v Wade has decimated women's rights in America, the increase in vasectomies following the ruling may be seen as a small consolation, a small step toward the long aggrieved concept of gender equity. As more men take proactive measures to dismantle the patriarchal idea that both conception and contraception are solely "women's issues," they act as leaders showing others the intrinsic value in the dignity and selflessness of their decision.
While our nation's leaders continue to restrict the rights afforded to pregnancy carriers, we are fortunate to have a younger generation of the impregnator class recognizing the devastating, often deadly effects of these laws and mastering the art of doing something about it.
For more information on vasectomies and providers in your area, visit plannedparenthood.org
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bluedalahorse · 11 months
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Young Royals, parenthood, and reproductive autonomy (a meta I guess)
Especially with season 3 approaching, people talk a lot about whether or not Wilhelm will accept or reject the throne. This is often framed in terms of Wilhelm’s love for Simon, as well as his ability to own and express his queer (albeit as of yet unlabeled) identity. We also discuss this in terms of what sort of symbolic leader Wilhelm could be for Sweden.
There’s one question I want to add to the mix, when we consider Wilhelm’s future: to what extent is Wilhelm willing or eager to become a parent someday?
To build upon that a little further: to what extent is parenthood a choice for Wilhelm in a system where he is expected and required to father an heir, and probably a spare as well? What does his reproductive agency look like in that situation?
Now, I don’t want to turn this into a discussion of the reproductive mechanics of the line of succession. I know a lot of folks have speculated ways that can or can’t be addressed, and have talked about issues like surrogacy laws and adoption and whatever else. I also know there’s the possibility of the throne going to some relative or another. I’m not interested in that right now! Instead, I want to focus on the practical and emotional aspects of what it means for Wilhelm to contemplate future parenthood.
So let’s ask some more questions: does Wilhelm actually want children? If so, at roughly what age does he want kids? About how many kids does Wilhelm want? If he wants more than one kid, about how spaced apart does he want to have them? What are his views on how to parent? These are all questions that Wilhelm should have a choice to contemplate on his own, but likely won’t as long as he remains crown prince. The social norms of the monarchy likely dictate that becoming a parent happens at a certain time and pace, in a particular manner. Moreover there’s a certain prescribed way it has to all be presented to the public. Finally, Wilhelm knows that by having a kid while in the role as monarch, he would set that kid up for some of the same things he went through as a child, unless he takes extra care to break and dismantle toxic cycles. His child would be an heir to the throne and certain things would be expected of that child, the way they were of him.
The upshot of all of this is that YR raises questions about Wilhelm’s reproductive autonomy and future in a way we don’t usually get to see for cisgender male characters in teen dramas. (I would also say we get an intimations of this with August and Erik, as well—we’ve seen the way the royal court has exerted their influence over both when it comes to relationships and sexuality.) These kinds of conflicts and dilemmas usually only come up when they involve characters with uteruses. So it’s interesting to see the way that YR plays with this idea of reproductive autonomy, and extends the discussion.
Possibly a take that will bug some of my fellow fans, but I’m going to say it anyway: this is why I think Sara having a potential pregnancy or pregnancy scare could be on theme for season 3. I’m not saying it’s definitely gonna happen. What I am saying is that if it did happen, it would fit in with the show’s themes and dramatic questions as already established and would be more than just “drama.” (Drama in a program classified by its genre as a drama? You don’t say!) Sara would have to contemplate some of the same questions that Wilhelm contemplates about parenthood and parenting, and you could parallel their two arcs quite effectively. 
Now, obviously they would also be in very different situations with different things at stake. Wilhelm’s class situation and reproductive organs are naturally different than Sara’s, so they’re naturally going to experience this parenthood differently. Sara would also have to engage with this question on a bodily level, as she’d be the one carrying a pregnancy to term, and that is a nine month process that takes a lot out on the body even in “healthy” pregnancies. (Pregnancy tends to be tougher for people with autism, too.) Finally, Sara will have to think about her own parents a lot, and what she absorbed from them. What does it mean for Sara to contemplate parenthood when she herself is the child of an abusive relationship?
Now, I want to point out that we’ve also seen YR use this strategy of parallels between characters for exploring other issues. Felice and August both struggle with perfectionism and body image, but that plays out differently for them due to differences in gender, race, and family structure. Simon and Sara grapple with similar questions about relationships and being in love and season 2, but experience that differently due to gender, sexual orientation, and neurotype. Simon and August both struggle with trauma around fathers with drug addiction, that causes them to engage with drugs in unsafe ways (August mostly by using, Simon mostly by dealing), but we know they’ll be seen differently by others because of their class. And so on. Part of what YR does so well is the way it shows how human beings can hold experiences in common, but still be divided in how they experience them based on systems that reinforce a social hierarchy. Paralleling Wilhelm and Sara around dramatic questions of future parenthood and reproductive autonomy could be really illuminating.
While I firmly believe that, if Sara has a pregnancy situation/pregnancy scare, Sara herself should be centered in that particular plotline, we also know such a plotline would likely involve August as the person who donated half the DNA of the fetus in question. Which then throws August’s arc into a suddenly very real and frightening place: he’s in a position where he could perhaps in the most basic sense fulfill the “destiny” ordered of him by the Society and by the machinations of the royal court members who want him as Wilhelm’s backup. (We know what that phone conversation he has with Jan-Olof is really about, and again I remain grossed out.) 
And yes, we also know that August has exercised his capacity to seriously harm others multiple times throughout seasons 1 and 2, and that he is about to be in serious legal trouble for leaking the video. Even without that, what would it mean for him to have to think about these questions of parenthood when he hasn’t fully processed the trauma and grief of losing his own father, or had a chance to heal his fractured relationship with his mother? Whether you come at the horror of August fathering a child from the angle of August as someone who has relentlessly hurt others, or from the angle of August as someone with deep, parent-related pain of his own and minimal support to navigate that pain, I think ultimately what we’re being shown here is the ruthlessness of monarchy as it relies on reproduction to keep itself going. Does it matter that an heir to the throne is loved and celebrated for who they are and given therapy for their trauma, as long as the heir exists, reaches adulthood, and one day produces another heir?
Which then opens up another question that I think once again applies to Wilhelm, and maybe Sara as well. If having children is a way to maintain and preserve status for the upper classes, what does that mean for Wilhelm? Can Wilhelm believe his mother loves him, if having children is more a mandate for someone in her position than a choice? This may be a question Wilhelm has to sit with, and it’s possibly something Kristina needs to sit with too. Has Kristina ever considered Wilhelm a loving choice she’s making, rather than a destiny? I think this would be a great opportunity to explore Kristina as a person, and not just as a royal or a mother.
Meanwhile, having children is expensive and consumes time and energy, and someone who is working class and autistic like Sara is going to have fewer resources to deal with this situation. Luckily, as someone who lives in Sweden, she has safe and reliable access to abortion (glaring at my own horrendous country here) which I imagine will be the option she would end up choosing in that kind of plotline. But that doesn’t mean she won’t have to stress over her situation or face gossip or even negative press attention because of it. Not to mention the way Sara’s own conscience may weigh on her, if she’s pregnant with the child of someone who harmed her brother, her (ex?) best friend, and other people so dramatically? Is there a part of her that would kind of want the child anyway, perhaps in another circumstance? What would it mean, to want that child? This sounds like something Sara and Linda could discuss, and maybe come to understand one another on.
Lisa once said one of the dramatic questions of Young Royals was whether or not people become their parents. If we are going to engage with that question, one way to raise the stakes around it is to make the question of parenthood and reproductive autonomy more real and urgent. Again, I’m not saying this will happen. This is not a season 3 prediction post. But I do think if it did happen, it would be in line with what we’ve seen from the series and its exploration of families and privilege.
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scarlok · 2 years
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Language battles should not distract us from the true injustice raised by the potential repeal of Roe v. Wade: the removal of the right to privacy and bodily autonomy for 51 percent of Americans. But something is lost when abortion-rights activists shy away from saying women. We lose the ability to talk about women as more than a random collection of organs, bodies that happen to menstruate or bleed or give birth. We lose the ability to connect women’s common experiences, and the discrimination they face in the course of a reproductive lifetime. By substituting people for women, we lose the ability to speak of women as a class. We dismantle them into pieces, into functions, into commodities. This happens in many ways. This week I also saw an Axios editor rebuke a New York Times reporter for writing “surrogate mothers” rather than “gestational carriers”—as if the latter phrase were not dehumanizing, a whisper away from “vessels.”
Helen Lewis, The Abortion Debate Is Suddenly About ‘People,’ Not ‘Women’, 14 May 2022
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arithmonym · 10 months
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camilla and palamedes, age 13: we get to solve an old mystery and read a fragment of a love letter written to a lyctor! :–)
camilla and palamedes, age 15: as the leaders of the sixth house, inaction makes us complicit in a system which violates reproductive rights and autonomy!!! 😬 guess we’ll have to dismantle the system ourselves! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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NEW FIC JUST DROPPED!!! weary of losing is an exploration of sixth house worldbuilding as it relates to their Reproductive Weirdness. (also, it’s about the mortifying ideal of being a fifteen-year-old bisexual librarian on mercury.)
it’s in the same universe as (i see you) holding your breath with your arms outstretched. this fic is set when they’re 15 and that one is set when they’re 19, but feel free to read either first. :)
before reading, i’d recommend reading the mysterious study of doctor sex if you haven’t done so already! it’s my favorite piece of TLT bonus content published by tamsyn muir and it’s essentially the source material for this fic.
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justarandomgirly · 10 months
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Demi Lovato:
It’s been one year since the Supreme Court's decision to dismantle the constitutional right to a safe abortion, and although the path forward will be challenging, we must continue to be united in our fight for reproductive justice. I created ‘SWINE’ to amplify the voices of those who advocate for choice and bodily autonomy. I want this song to empower not only the birthing people of this country, but everyone who stands up for equality, to embrace their agency and fight for a world where every person's right to make decisions about their own body is honored.
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kittyit · 8 months
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Most online left x right debate are so devoid of nuances, to the point of being boring. Unfortunately, messing up the reality of what both ideologies support is very dangerous, it has real life consequences.
Speaking specially about women who think we have to allying with conservatives “to protect women, girls and children”, I have news for you: right-wingers don't give a single damn about women, girls and children. Some will try to counter this statement with “b-but the left...” and let me say this: as a socialist black radical feminist, I have felt lost many times in left spaces due to the blatantly misogyny/homophobia and also the tokenization of racism that is often assumed as “racism is taken more seriously than misogyny/homophobia” which isn't true in slightest but I have never thought that the right was the solution. Not because right = essentially bad and left = essentially good, if it was true, the blatantly misogyny, homophobia and racism in leftist spaces wouldn't hit so hard as it does, however they have an essential difference: right-wingers want to perpetuate a world full of inequality across class, race, sex, sexuality, nation, etc because they benefit from this social structure. The leftist goal, however is dismantling all the exploitation and oppression.
They're radically different, even though in the practice we see people advocating against things that oppress them, while wanting to keep things that benefit them. This is why I get upset with how brocialists talk passionately about how cruel is to take advantage of the lack of choice of economic vulnerable people but supporting the whole sex trade with the stupidest neoliberal rhetoric, it's because their class analysis is filled with male supremacist lengths and we should defy that, not supporting people who are already powerful and are not only using you feeling lost and hopeless in a fake agreement in positions that aren't even the same. The case is: it isn't socialism that is incompatible with feminism, it's sexism/homophobia/racism that is incompatible with socialism.
The root of conservative opposition to queer, trans and non-binary is purely homophobia and misogyny. Homosexuality is a threat to the male supremacist capitalism, since this system exist to control women's presumed reproductive capacity in order to get more workers who will keep the current system alive to the next generation of the oppressors.
They see trans people and queers as freakers and this treatment is reserved to feminists(even the male-centric ones), lesbians, gay men and bi people too. Why do y'all think conservative men react to our complaining about the misogyny of TRAs with a total mockery “We told you it would happen. It's all because you feminists wanted to destroy the natural order”. The “natural order” means the misogyny and homophobia feminists have been standing against since day one because it's the reason why we oppose to queer theory in the first place. Not because of hatred, not because we're “exclusionary” but because queer theory and practice are antifeminist, since they ignore/dismiss and in some aspects even support the existence of female oppression and fighting it is the solely reason why feminism exist.
And in all this mess, what is often forgotten is how queer theory and the classic right-wing sexism have a lot of more in common than radical feminism will ever be. Radical feminism can also crashes with queer theory in some points (surprise girlies!!!) and it still doesn't mean we all are the same.
i hope you'll make a blog and write some essays like this :)
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queer-reader-07 · 7 months
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ok buckle up cuz we’re talking about ✨religious trauma✨ today (i’m allowed to sparkle emoji it this is entirely a self insert meta)
ok so aziraphale in the context of religious trauma. specifically, why i think his character is one of the most accurate and real portrayals of religious trauma in media. and i want to explore that because i’ve seen it talked about a little bit but my raised catholic turned queer trans self has some more thoughts.
a lot more under the cut
i’m sure we’ve all seen the “why would aziraphale leave crowley?” “why would he go to heaven?” “doesn’t he know heaven is bad?” posts. or some flavor of the same idea.
and they seem to be coming from the same crowd who also think that aziraphale going to heaven was “out of character”. which isn’t true if i’m being perfectly honest.
when we look at aziraphale through the lens of trauma, his actions begin to make a lot more sense. he is in an abusive and toxic relationship with heaven. and we all know (or at least we all should know) that leaving toxic/abusive environments isn’t an easy feat. and more often than not, abuse victims are very likely to end up in an abusive situation again.
aziraphale only knows heaven. while he and crowley have both seen that heaven doesn’t always do the best things (e.g. killing everyone in the flood, wanting to kill jobs kids, armageddon 1 AND 2), crowley has seen first hand that heaven is bad. crowley has fallen (or sauntered vaguely downwards), he’s been told that he isn’t worthy of heaven. that he isn’t enough. and he knows that what heaven does is so often wrong. he see that, because heaven already cast him out. why would he bother defending them?
but aziraphale only has heaven and has only ever had heaven. yeah he doesn’t agree with heaven or God on all fronts but heaven is still the right side,,, right? heaven is still his side.
aziraphale is comfortable with heaven. he’s used to it. and admitting to himself that heaven is toxic or problematic or bad would dismantle everything he’s ever told himself. it would mean admitting that he is a part of that toxic/etc institution. and possibly complacent in it.
(side bar: i would argue he isn’t complacent. we’ve seen him defy the will of God or heaven multiple times. see: giving up the flaming sword & lying about it, saving job’s kids and lying about it, stopping armageddon)
speaking from a personal perspective here: religious trauma is a beast to deal with. and a lot of people with religious trauma (myself included) go back to The Church over and over again despite being burned by it so many times.
for me it was knowing that The Church didn’t care about my reproductive rights. and knowing that they didn’t condone my queerness. and knowing that they think i’m somehow sinful for the music i listen to or the clothes i wear. and knowing that they believe my friends who are wonderful people and i love deeply are doomed to eternal damnation because they aren’t catholic.
aziraphale is the same way. for him it was being shown over and over again that heaven doesn’t care about him. doesn’t care about humanity. doesn’t care about what he thinks. doesn’t care (and in fact actively hates) the one being he loves more than anything. doesn’t care about anything but “triumphing over hell” (whatever that means).
but he kept going back. and i kept going back. i kept going to sunday mass for years after i figured out i was queer. i kept going long after i settled on my leftist politics that are far too radical for the catholic church. and aziraphale kept going back. despite having worked side by side with a demon for millennia. despite heaven wanting to kill his best friend/lover/most important person. despite wanting to destroy humanity (not just in armageddon, the flood did happen).
it takes a lot of work to even begin stepping away from toxic and abusive institutions. aziraphale gets better. season 1 is very “i am an angel you are a demon we cannot work together (but also we definitely are)” but by season 2 we have “our car” “my former people” “i thought we carved [this fragile peaceful existence] out for ourselves”. he’s beginning to realize that heaven does not have his back. he is on a side with crowley. they are in it together.
and yet. he still goes back to heaven. after all this time. all the failed attempts to get heaven to hear him out. why is he going back now? after a love confession from the demon he loves more than literally anything ever.
because he wants to enact change. he wants to finally see heaven rebuilt so that humanity is safe. so that the things he loves about the world are left unchanged. and most importantly, so crowley is safe. and he can only do that if he fixes heaven, right?
i know i’m not the only one who’s thought to myself “i’d be more religious if only i could fix The Church” or something adjacent. this idea that it’s an institution that can be fixed. when in fact, organized religion can’t be fixed. the structure it’s built upon is inherently flawed. personal faith is beautiful and i value my own, but organized religion will always bear systemic issues and oppressions.
aziraphale wants to be the change. he wants to fix it. that’s why he went back. he didn’t reject crowley. he didn’t leave crowley because he doesn’t love him back. he went back because he loves crowley. he went back because if he fixes it, crowley will finally be safe.
and i for one, want to see him succeed. i want him to be able to actually fix heaven. i want him fighting tooth and nail to make the world a safe place for the love of his life.
i want him to succeed in the change the rest of us never managed. i want him fulfilling what was mine and so many others dreams.
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intersectionalpraxis · 5 months
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Why do you tag feminism on posts that have to do with palestine? Lol
Why wouldn't I? How is what's happening in Palestine, not a feminist issue? From criticizing and demanding we dismantle and destroy systems and structures of oppression (such as capitalism and white supremacy), to say we must decolonize the academy, formations of gender/gender binary, and knowledge production (to name a few). There are MANY feminists whose lived experiences encompass interlocking and interconnecting issues, and at the heart of it lies liberation and freedom from oppressed forces and governments.
But if you want to talk about Palestinian women being disproportionately targeted by the IOF, how thousands of them have not and still aren't able to give birth safely and adequately because there's little to zero care for any trimester. What about the sexual violence when Palestinian women are detained and interrogated in IOF conditions -and are often humiliated in ways specifically meant to degrade them? What about when an IOF finance minister said Palestinian women are part of the "Hamas infrastructure" because they are giving birth, and he said they should essentially be sterilized via their deaths. Those are only a few issues that are specific to Palestinian women.
Feminism/feminist movements feature a range of issues, which yes -include the campaigning of the right to vote, pay equity, having safe and accessible reproductive health resources, to talking about gendered violence, to name a few, but it should also include intersectional elements too -something white feminists do not consider often and that's problematic.
Feminists in solidarity with a moment to end a violent occupation, why wouldn't that be natural? There are many types of feminism too, and those who talk about the importance of Indigenous land back movements. Just like how people talk about not sanitizing climate action movements -there is not climate justice, for instance, on occupied land. So many issues interconnect is what I'm trying to say.
Tagging feminism in my posts is because I need more people to see that anyone being treated unjustly in this world should be something we should be talking about.
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shinobicyrus · 2 years
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It cannot be overstated just how earth-shattering Alito’s leaked Supreme Court opinion is - not simply for its dismantling of womens’ bodily autonomy (though that in itself is egregious enough) but also for how it goes about overturning the foundational precedent Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey are built on: the right to privacy and the due process clauses as outlined in the 14th Amendment.
Roe and Casey work on the precedent that the “privacy” of the 14th Amendment can be applied to a woman’s personal medical decisions. This is what’s called an “unenumerated right,” or a right that is implied to exist based off of what other laws say. For instance, the right to a public defender isn’t stated in the constitution at all, but was implied to exist because of a Supreme Court decision in 1963. Alito’s opinion however, asserts that a right must “must be deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition.”
The fuck does that mean?
Y’see, as an Originalist (like Amy Coney Barrett), Alito is concerned with the original public meaning of a law at the time it was written.
To an Originalist, since the 14th Amendment was drafted in 1868 - a time when most states criminalized abortion - to apply a “modern” interpretation of privacy to abortion like Roe did twists the 14th Amendment beyond what the drafters would have ever intended or even considered, which to Alito and other Originalists like him is Constitutional anathema.
So why is this legalese important?
Simple: while Alito insists that Roe v. Wade is a special case because abortion is a unique issue, that doesn’t change the fact that his Originalist interpretation of the 14 Amendment will topple that privacy precedent, setting a brand new legal precedent that can be applied to a huge number cases that were also decided on the 14th’s Privacy and Due Process clauses. Rights that may also lack the “history and tradition” that Alito so treasures.
What other unenumerated rights does this endanger? To name a few:
Interracial marriage (Loving v. Virginia)
The right to a public defender (Gideon v. Wainwright)
“Miranda Rights,” or a person’s legal rights being read to them by police during arrest (Miranda v. Arizona)
The right to buy and use contraceptives (Griswold v. Connecticut)
The illegality of sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas)   
Same-sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges)
Overruling Roe and Casey isn’t solely a horrible miscarriage of justice for women’s reproductive rights. If the legal logic of Alito’s draft carries into the Court’s final decision, then the legal precedence that toppled it will be legitimized and could theoretically be applied to...well. Pretty much all modern civil rights.
Now, Alito assures us that Roe is a special case and that other decisions such as interracial marriage (Loving) or contraception (Griswold) are in no danger of being overturned. They are decided law, so we have nothing to worry about.
Except...that’s exactly what a few recent Supreme Court nominees said about Roe, as well.
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