Any theory of gender, if it’s to have any meaning or usefulness or validity at all, must speak to the actual full realities of gender. And that requires speaking to the actual realities of gender variance. All of them. Not just whichever ones you can slot into the pet theory you refuse to abandon for fear of losing a political edge, or fear of admitting to having been wrong. It requires speaking to the actual lived experiences of human beings, all of them, not telling certain people that their lives are wrong, or don’t exist, so that you can continue believing whatever makes you comfy or meets your particular political goals. Your degrees, ambitions, publications or worries over how a fact might be misinterpreted do not trump anyone else’s actual existence. Views must be adapted to fit the facts. Otherwise, yours is just another inaccurate worldview imposed by the privileged on the actual world, and the lives within it.
Otherwise, you’re not addressing the social dynamics of gender. You’re covering them up, and thereby perpetuating the problem.
- Natalie Reed, Fourth Wave: Part Two (via kiriamaya)
(via amodernmanifesto)
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To lay at night with my own thoughts. That is freedom.
- Lucas Ferdinand (via whatokay)
(via artisomnia)
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I seldom raised my voice in protest [while my friends sexually harassed women] because I didn’t want to be uncool, to be perceived as ‘less of a man’ or challenged on why I found it necessary to defend women. This is what sociologist Michael Kimmel identifies as a deep form of homophobia: the fear that other men would challenge me, question my manhood, or even call me gay. This very fear led me to silently harass women and allow the others to vocally harass. I now realize that my worries of being pushed out my peer group could be tied to multiple forms of violence against women - when we create conditions where young men are constantly fighting other men to prove their manhood, what they will do to get props or accepted can escalate to dangerous levels. Ending gender-based violence is not about telling our sisters and daughters how to protect themselves, it should be about talking to our boys and men about what we say to each other, what we allow to be said, and why we don’t stop when someone is being put in harm’s way.
- Dr. L’Heureux Lewis (via internal-acceptance-movement)
(Source: msandrogynous, via amodernmanifesto)
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