Lost post-grad genderqueerdo wanderer working through self-awareness and empowerment. Veggie-lover, biology & nutrition student, and hopeful nutritionist. I knit, learn code, paint, lindy-hop and I like to surround myself with kitschy creepy cute crap, with spikes. I'm an egalitarian that focuses on patriarchy, conflict resolution and communication.
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- ? Jun 10th 2013The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows.“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things.”The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”
Distinguished sociologist Erving Goffman noted that women in photographs are often portrayed in compromising or submissive situations such as having the head turned upwards to expose the neck or in a contorted stances often with light self-touching. Such poses invite the gaze of the viewer and make the subject of the photograph seem vulnerable and exposed to sexualization.
as highlighted by the image, Erving Goffman made it known that these poses were problematic because if we saw any reversal of the gender roles, we perceive it as weird or strange. this image shows a man posing in a feminine fashion… men are very rarely posing like this in professional photography.
essentially, if our instincts tell us something is strange about a person in a photograph, it is representative of the demand of gender display in advertisements.
This kind of thing is super interesting to me. Other ways women are photographed but men rarely are include;
Standing on one leg/legs crossed and weight all on one leg/leaning on someone or something - The woman is vulnerable and incapable. She literally can’t stand (exist) alone.
With their head cropped out of the image or with their eyes down - This goes back to Madonna and Child and is totally entwined with the whole subject/object problem. The (male) viewer is the active subject, the woman is the passive object. You’re allowed to look because she sure as hell isn’t going to do anything, her body exists for you. (Hello rape culture.)
Not dressed - This isn’t such a big deal if the woman is photographed alone but often photos will depict naked women and fully dressed men, often in suits. The implications of this are pretty obvious.
Cut/Bruised - Vulnerability again. To be honest I’ve seen these kinds of images more on tumblr than I have anywhere else, they don’t seem to have made it into mainstream photography quite as much. But Tumblr is super fond of headless semi-dressed women with grazed knees. I guess in some way you could agrue that these photos show the strength of women, but I personally don’t buy that. For the same reason I don’t like this theme used domestic violence ads, I think it only serves to re-victimise the women.
Obviously there are also some really great photographs of women that don’t do any of these things, and some photographs that use these themes for legitimate reasons.
Always reblog, because this is so damn provoking.
(via mexicatiahui)
Arizona bill would jail trans people for using the ‘wrong’ bathroom
Republican legislators in Arizona are attempting to pass legislation that forces transgender people to only use public restrooms, dressing rooms and showers associated with the
gendersex listed on their birth certificate. According to the Associated Press, conservative lawmakers are proposing the legislation in response to a human rights bill passed by the city of Phoenix which prohibits gender identity discrimination in public accommodations.Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh of Phoenix is leading the charge to make it a criminal offense for transgender people to use public restrooms not associated with their birth
gendersex.According to U.K. paper The Independent, violation of the new law would be a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by fines as high as $4,000 and up to six months in prison.
Gay state Rep. Tom Simplot told theIndependent, “This kind of extremist legislation is exactly what brings criticism to Arizona and compromises our work to make Phoenix an accepting and competitive city.”
Activists say that opponents of the human rights bill’s choice to characterize their legislation as “the bathroom bill” is inflammatory, as is their decision to stoke fears of sexual predation.
Simplot said the bill would criminalise the “very nature” of being transgender, adding “they’re creating a problem that doesn’t exist.”
(via theraceproblem-deactivated20130)
People who think that no one uses welfare/food stamps to actually buy things they need can tell that to my hungry 11 year old self who wouldn’t have had decent lunches or meat (at all) without government assistance.
Oh, and who might have gone hungry if there had been drug testing involved. Thanks. I’m glad that you know more about my life than I do! If only I had realized sooner that my mom wasn’t really buying food with that money! I mean, I don’t know what she was doing with it, since our lives were fucking awful at that point and we had a grand total of zero luxuries (I shared a room with my mom! In the basement of my grandma’s condo! I did laundry for the whole house to earn enough dimes to buy myself sodas and candy!), but really, please, enlighten me.
Also, as a child of a drug addict, this law fucking terrifies me. The idea that some kid who is trying to cope with having an addict for a parent (not always easy) also might go hungry or without new clothes or whatnot because some privileged assholes think poor people have to be suffering saints to qualify for help literally makes me cry to think about.
(via stfuconservatives)
YAAAS TO ALL OF THIS
(via love-resist)
All these bullshit “welfare reform” laws that are designed to fix some imaginary problem in the system that doesn’t exist all comes out of the perpetuation of the “welfare queen” stereotype that we love to vilify all the time.
When we think welfare we think poor black woman who’s having babies for extra government benefits who’s really just taking the government handouts to buy drugs, candy or brand new shoes or some shit…
Making laws based off stereotypes is NOT how we combat poverty. Its how we make the issue even worse
(via newwavefeminism)
If my mom didn’t have foot stamps she would probably be not able to afford the frugal below poverty line living that she does now. My mom has been unemployed forever, deals with a serious case of bipolar and can barely keep track of conversations while having them. She smokes sometimes to help and if drug testing inhibited her from getting aid me and my brother would probably have been seriously fucked.
(via little-audrey)
- ? Mar 27th 2013- ? Mar 24th 2013Day 13 of White History Month: Chinese Immigrant Exclusion from the United States
The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 attempted to establish a friendly relationship between the United States and China, in contrast to earlier actions the United States had taken against China. From this, you would not predict that Chinese immigrants would be the first group whose immigration would be restricted, as in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, or completely barred from immigration and citizenship, as in the Immigration Act of 1924.
Chinese immigrants first arrived in significant numbers in the late 1840s, around the time of the California Gold Rush. Until gold became scarce, tensions were low and violence was not common against Chinese immigrants. Chinese immigrants who stayed in the United States were recruited to work on the First Transcontinental Railroad. Later, Chinese communities developed with restaurants, laundries, fisheries, domestic work, and an assortment of shops.
Chinese Americans had cohesive communities, but were recruited and manipulated by white factory owners. Chinese Americans were unknowingly used as strikebreakers, providing unions with anti-Chinese propaganda. Chinese Americans accepted low wages since they often sent money back to their families in China, so white workers argued that they brought their wage potential down. This was untrue, as many Chinese American workers did difficult, menial, and sometimes life-threatening work that white workers were hesitant to accept. Propaganda, intimidation, and violence did not force Chinese immigrants out of the country, so numerous pieces of legislation were put into law.
Anti-Chinese Immigrant Legislation
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted immigration, which also prevented many of the young Chinese immigrants (who were largely male) from reuniting with their families, and due to anti-miscegenation laws, from forming families.
The California Alien Land Law of 1913 (expanded in 1920 and struck down by the Supreme Court in 1946) prevented Asian immigrants from owning land. The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted immigration to the United States to a number of groups (such as gay people, alcoholics, “feeble-minded persons”, and anarchists), but only singled out people from a constructed “Asiatic barred zone” which included much of Asia (and included parts of China).
During World War II, China was a major ally to the United States, leading to the Magnuson Act of 1943. This act reversed the complete ban on Chinese immigration put in place by the Immigration Act of 1924, allowing Chinese immigration and also the naturalization of select Chinese Americans. However, it still limited Chinese immigration with a yearly quota of only 105 visas to Chinese citizens. This was disproportionately low, as the Immigration Act of 1924 allowed yearly immigration of two percent of the number that was already present in the United States as of 1890. This meant that at the very least, 2,150 Chinese citizens should have been admitted to the United States. Only in 1965 were Chinese immigrants allowed back into the United States in larger numbers.
Many historians attribute the Chinese Exclusion Act to insecurity over employment and wages, but they gloss over the racism. No other immigrant group was recruited for the benefit of United States citizens and particularly wealthy industrialists, and then singled out for exclusion. Additionally, Chinese immigrants were held to be racially inferior and made a scapegoat for economic problems. Chinese immigrants were viewed as impossible to assimilate, yet Irish immigrants continued to pour into the United States. Additionally, the Immigration Act of 1924 may have restricted immigration from European groups, but it meant that Asian Americans were barred from entry and also from possible naturalization.
This was not simply nativism, but also racism.
Canada had similar legislation
Chinese Immigration Act of 1885
which placed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants coming to Canada, forcing them to pay a fifty dollar fee to enter the country. In 1900, the fee was raised to one hundred dollars.
Chinese Immigration Act 1923 aka Chinese Exclusion Act
which banned all Chinese immigration to Canada, even those with British nationality. The Act came into effect on Dominion Day.
YSL then and now
Do you see how powerful those first images are? Flawless black queens.
some of them white women look like actual feet.
the soles, to be precise.damn
What most people outside of the couture world don’t know is that Monsieur Laurent was a revolutionary on another front: he tore down the barriers which excluded Black women from the world of high fashion.
After hearing of his death supermodel Naomi Campbell told New York’s Channel 4 News that, “My first Vogue cover ever was because of this man, because when I said to him ‘Yves, they won’t give me a French Vogue cover, they won’t put a black girl on the cover’ and he was like ‘I’ll take care of that,’ and he did.”
The New York Times online was flooded with responses, and comments from around the world, regarding Laurent’s death. Deborah Ward of Chicago, Illinois, summed up his impact on Black women in fashion, “I became of a fan of Monsieur Laurent when I was a young girl. I awed at his fashions on Black Models on the pages of Ebony Magazine. Very few designers showcased their fashions on Black Models. He was the first. ” Laurent was also regularly featured in the Ebony Traveling Fashion Show, based not only on his clothing, but due to his friendship with the matriarch of Black publishing, Eunice Johnson, who is also the producer of the annual 50 year old show.
Monsieur Laurent was also the first couture house in Paris to feature Black models on his runway, which opened the doors for such models as Iman, Pat Cleveland, Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Veronica Webb, Alek Wek, Liya Kebede, and, his muse, Katoucha, who preceded him in death, with a mysterious fall into the Seine on February 29, 2008. According to Target Market News.com, African American women spent more than $20 billion dollars on apparel, yet fashion houses continue to ignore them on the runways, and as important customers. Yves Saint Laurent not only used Black models on the Paris runways, but he used them in print ads, and also considered Black women when designing his top end cosmetics. His commitment to positive representations of Black beauty gained him devoted followers, including celebrities like Halle Berry, who was recently seen carrying his luxe purse, the Downtown Tote.
Continue reading at NowPublic.com: Yves Saint Laurent’s Quiet French Revolution | NowPublic News Coverage
(Source: howtobeafuckinglady, via theuntitledmag)
- ? Mar 23rd 2013
welp
Yup. And if you feel the need to berate people because they don’t find you funny, it’s probably because you’re not fucking funny.
yes yes yes
(via alexandraerin)
True story.
(Source: iloveronpaul, via scumblebee)
I wonder how many minuets of silence was observed by America in their memory. Or was American time too precious to be wasted in the names of these brown bodies?
Neha Ray
Panjwayi Massacre. Don’t forget.
(via socialismartnature)
(Source: neharaysays, via socialismartnature)
- ? Mar 14th 2013- ? Mar 9th 2013
Georgina Beyer, the world’s first openly trans mayor and member of Parliament, was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1957. She is of Maori descent.
At the age of 16, Beyer left school to pursue acting, against her mother’s will. In her 20’s, she began working on the Wellington gay scene…
I got dressed in my traditional Indian regalia, but there was a man, he was the producer of the whole show. He took that speech away from me and he warned me very sternly. “I’ll give you 60 seconds or less. And if you go over that 60 seconds, I’ll have you arrested. I’ll have you put in handcuffs.”
- Sacheen Littlefeather in Reel Injun (2009), dir. Neil Diamond.
You can watch the original speech here.
(Source: feu-follet, via twerkjabi)
- ? Mar 8th 2013For women’s day, I wanted to commerorate amazing African women who’s contributions to society have gone virtually unnoticed by the larger media. (from left to right).
Wangari Muta Mary Jo Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental NGO focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. Furthermore she was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d’État, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed a very distant second in the 1997 presidential election. Later, she was elected President in the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. She successfully ran for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf is the first and currently the only elected female head of state in Africa.
Graça Machel, (17 October 1945) is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the third wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela and the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel. She is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights and in 1997 was made a British dame for her humanitarian work. attend University of Lisbon in Portugal, where she first became involved in independence issues. In that university, she earned a scholarship from Romance Languages. She is fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and English, as well as her native Tsonga. She returned to Mozambique in 1973, joined the Mozambican Liberation Front(FRELIMO) and became a schoolteacher. Following Mozambique’s independence in 1975, Machel was appointed Minister for Education and Culture. She married Samora Machel the same year. Following her retirement from the Mozambique ministry, Machel was appointed as the expert in charge of producing the groundbreaking United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children.
Birtukan Mideksa (born 1975) is an Ethiopian politician and former judge. She is the leader of the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party. she joined Addis Ababa University where she graduated from Law School with a Bachelors Degree in Law. She practiced law at the 3rd district of the federal judiciary. She joined the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice party and later Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) after a coalition of four parties. After election or 2005, her party won over a third of the seats. As a result, Birtukan was convicted of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned and later founded UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) with the same principles followed by CUD.
Hafsat Abiola (born 1974 in Lagos) is a Nigerian human rights activist, founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), which seeks to strengthen civil society in Nigeria. Abiola graduated from Phillips Academy in 1992 and Harvard College in 1996 and later received an honorary doctorate from Haverford College. Abiola is the founder of China-Africa Bridge, which promotes mutually beneficial cross-cultural collaboration between China and Africa. In 2000, Abiola was honored as one of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum. In 2003, she was elected as a Fellow of the Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. In 2006 she was nominated to be a founding councilor at the World Future Council. Also in, 2006 she raised funds by organizing performances of The Vagina Monologues in Nigeria. Since May 2008 she is also a Councilor at the World Future Council among 49 other well known personalities.
Niemat Ahmadi is the Darfuri Liaison Officer with the Save Darfur Coalition. A native of North Darfur, she promotes cooperation between the coalition and the Darfuri diaspora within the United States and abroad, focusing in particular on the role of Darfuri women in the peace process. She is a Founding Member of the Darfuri Leaders Network, a coalition of more than 20 domestic Darfuri organizations working to promote peace and security in Darfur.
(via womenwhokickass)
- ? Mar 8th 2013- ? Mar 8th 2013Meet Aparna Bhola, India’s teen sex educator
“There’s nothing to giggle or be shy about; there’s no shame in it. It’s important for us to learn about these things. Be totally bindaas (carefree) and ask me questions,” says Aparna Bhola, with a wide smile.
It’s a hot Sunday afternoon, but the stifling Mumbai summer air does nothing to curb the enthusiasm of the girls surrounding her. Aparna, a spunky 16-year-old, is in the midst of giving a group of her peers a candid sex-education class, and today’s topic is pregnancy. She leads the class confidently, dispelling superstitions with funny stories and apologizing disarmingly for her chalk drawing skills.
Aparna is member of a nongovernmental organization called Kranti, meaning “revolution,” which strives to give young women rescued from prostitution access to education and new opportunities. She was teaching the class as part of a partnership with an organization called Project Crayons, which runs a shelter for girls in Mumbai’s Malad neighborhood.
The daughter of a sex worker, Aparna grew up in Kolkata. Her mother, Malti, was married when she was 9 and was beaten by her husband. When she ran away and returned to her hometown in the Sundarbans, her aunt took her to Kolkata under the pretense of sending her to school. There, Malti was sold into sex work for 10,000 rupees ($180 at current exchange rates) when she was 12 years old. When she initially refused to be a prostitute, the brothel owner stuffed chili powder in her genitals to force her into submission, says Aparna.
Growing up in red-light districts, Aparna says she was distressed by the way doctors routinely mistreated sex workers because of the stigma against their profession. Her mother, diagnosed with uterine cysts, was unable to get treatment for them because of the bias against sex workers. Aparna remembers a niece being refused treatment by a doctor who said he didn’t want to bother with such poor people.
When sex workers like Aparna’s mother would become pregnant, the “doctors would treat them so badly,” Aparna recalls. “They would yell at them, and even slap them sometimes. They would say things like ‘You go and pick up anyone’s child and come to me with your stomach swollen. When you were doing it, you enjoyed yourself and now what happened?’ ”
These encounters made Aparna want to become a gynecologist. Even when she was younger, she would share with her friends and peers whatever sexual health-related information she could find.
“I want to work with gynecology to cater to sex workers because I know the issues they faced,” says Aparna, her face set in a determined expression. “If I became a doctor, I could give whatever information the mothers need when they are pregnant. There would be someone to talk to them nicely when they are in pain.”
In the time that she has spent at Kranti, Aparna has stopped drinking, improved her English, gained confidence and branched out into a number of extracurricular activities. She just completed grade 11, and is working toward her dream of becoming a gynecologist. This year she will enter the 12th grade and is planning to take the entrance examinations for medical school.
She also represented Maharashtra state in the Youth Parliament, an advisory group to the state government, where participants recently discussed whether sex education should be introduced in Indian schools.
“I used to think that my whole world is within the four walls of my room, of the house,” says Aparna. “Now I see that there is a big, big world beyond that where many things are possible for me.”
“What I really want is that girls become powerful and aren’t scared of anyone,” says Aparna. “They should think in their minds that ‘I will go ahead and progress and no one can hold me back.”
The list of children Obama has killed with drones and cruise missiles, about half of it, can be pieced together from news reports:
- date: name, age, nationality
- 2009-01-23: Azaz-ur-Rehman, 14, Pakistani
- 2009-02-14: Noor Syed, 8, Pakistani
- 2009-08-11: Ibad Ullah, teenager, Pakistani
- 2009-08-11: Mohammad Arif, teenager, Pakistani
- 2009-08-11: Abdul Qadeer, teenager, Pakistani
- 2009-08-11: Hazrat Ali, teenager, Pakistani
- 2009-08-21: Syed Wali Shah, 7, Pakistani
- 2009-08-21: Naeemullah,?, Pakistani
- 2009-08-21: Faizullah,?, Pakistani
- 2009-08-21: Rahima,?, Pakistani
- 2009-08-21: Shaista,?, Pakistani
- 2009-11-20: Sakeenullah, 15, Pakistani
- 2009-12-31: Zaenullah Khan, 17, Pakistani
- 2009-12-17: Nasser Mohammed Nasser, 6, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Arwa Mohammed Nasser, 4, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Fatima Mohammed Nasser, 2, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Afrah Ali Mohammed Nasser, 9, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Zayda Ali Mohammed Nasser, 7, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Hoda Ali Mohammed Nasser, 5, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Sheikha Ali Mohammed Nasser, 4, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Asmaa Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye, 9, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Salma Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye, 4, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Fatima Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye, 3, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Khadije Ali Mokbel Louqye, 1, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Hanaa Ali Mokbel Louqye, 6, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Mohammed Ali Mokbel Salem Louqye, 4, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Jawass Mokbel Salem Louqye, 15, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Sheikha Nasser Mahdi Ahmad Bouh, 3, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Soumaya Mohammed Saleh Mohammed, 9, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Shafika Mohammed Saleh Mohammed, 4, Yemeni
- 2009-12-17: Shafiq Mohammed Saleh Mohammed, 2, Yemeni
- 2010-01-03: Wajid Noor, 9, Pakistani
- 2010-01-08: Ayeesha, 3, Pakistani
- 2010-02-24: Naila, 10, Pakistani
- 2010-05-21: Fatima, ?, Pakistani
- 2010-05-21: Nisar, ?, Pakistani
- 2010-05-21: Naeem Khan, ?, Pakistani
- 2010-10-18: Naeem Ullah, 10, Pakistani
- 2011-06-15: Shahzada, ?, Pakistani
- 2011-10-14: Abdel-Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki, 16, American
- 2011-10-14: Ahmed Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki, 17, Yemeni
- 2011-10-31: Tariq Aziz, 16, Pakistani
- 2011-10-31: Waheed, ?, Pakistani
- 2012-08-21: Osama Haqqani, 13, Pakistani
- 2012-09-02: Mabrook Mouqbal Al Qadari, 13, Yemeni
- 2012-09-02: Daolah Nasser, 10, Yemeni
- 2012-09-02: AbedalGhani Mohammed Mabkhout, 12, Yemeni
(via apnasahara)
