“Over the years we got kind of obsessed with all the Dawns we didn’t get to see. Why is the female spectrum empty in the middle where awkwardness and mixed feelings should be? And what about romantic comedies and the pleasure we guiltily got from them, and can you love something even if it programs you? Remember the Old Spice Guy and how incredibly he crystallized this abstract aggregation of things that added up to “mascularity,” to “the man your man could smell like”? We were trying to figure out the female side of that; what’s femscularity? At what point do these performances become parodies?”
Lili Loofbourow, here. Also #gauchegirlcanon?
“Ridzual called natrium “sodium” and kalium “potassium”. For the duration of his first week at school he wore dazzlingly white hi-top leather sneakers instead of the whitewashed canvas shoes everyone else wore. The shoes didn’t last long–they were really too cool to be regulation. But it didn’t matter that Ridzual had to give them up to the discipline teacher a week after he had started. The aroma of leather hung around him forever after, even when he was only wearing Bata like the rest of the class.”
From Zen Cho’s “The House of Aunts”. It’s only when I am suddenly hit by an image this recognisable to me (those SHOES, OMG) that I realise how rarely I find that recognition in general.
“To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang” by Rachel Rostad
Regardless of your opinion on the Harry Potter books (I’ve been madly in love with them since way back in elementary), you should watch this video. Be sure to actually listen to the poet and not immediately jump to the defense of the books that you love. It’s okay to love something and acknowledge that it has flaws.
Watch it, it’s absolutely brilliant.
Other people’s words.
a poem i made using snippets of messages i’ve received on OKCupid
(Source: cybernymph)
“It’s easy to be considered a misandrist when men are socialized to feel entitled to women and our time. So, if you ignore them, you’re a misandrist. If you insist they leave you alone, you’re a misandrist. If you focus on building healthy female-centered relationships over relationships with men, you’re a misandrist. Misandry is basically, prioritizing your agency, autonomy and fellow women, over men in a society that teaches you that being feminine relies on giving into men’s feelings of entitlement.”
The DIY Couturier: To the person who wrote "21 habits of happy people"
I have depression. I had spells off and on - chronic depression with a tendency to bottom out every once and a while - starting around age 13. When I moved to Toronto I had no idea I’d be actually hurting myself further - I developed seasonal depression, because where I was living (Calgary) had 25…
Please read the whole of this.
“In short, before we discuss how FEMEN is engaging in somewhat problematic dynamics with women of color feminists throughout the Middle East & North Africa region, we should recall that their chosen method of protest is certainly not exclusive to white European feminists. Have we forgotten the naked protests that have taken place in Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya and Uganda for over a century? While the conversations surrounding FEMEN’s growing presence in the MENA region certainly highlight valid arguments about Western feminism and how it relates to other notions of feminism/womanism throughout the globe, what I find to be the greatest example of liberalism is that they’ve managed to convince us that they own the method and in some ways, how we understand our own nakedness.”
From this excellent piece, discovered via Sunny Singh on twitter.
“Some of us (but not you)
are so loosely moored
to our bodies we can
barely walk a straight line,
remaining (most days) only
marginally conscious.”
From “Sea Foam Palace” by Amy Gerstler (via Chaosbogey)
“Sexual coercion is an indistinguishable part of the entire spectrum of unfreedoms and coercions which define family structure in India and whose main targets are its women and children. Consent, coercion, duties, demands and rights are so inextricably intertwined that it will be near impossible to target one without undermining other aspects, whether it is the lack of choice about marriage and motherhood, or son-preference or even, living assigned gender roles, to list just a few more prominent ones.”
From here.
“N.Y.U. originally asked Carson to conduct a “public conversation” about “Antigonick” with Judith Butler, the superstar academic gender theorist. Carson said there was nothing in the world she would enjoy less. (This was not so much a reflection on Butler as on conversing in public.) Carson suggested this performance instead, with Butler cast in the part of Kreon the tyrant.”
So, everything about this profile of Anne Carson is great (the bit where she’s working with one of the guys from Sigur Ros and they plan to hire 10,000 Estonian singers in particular) but this just stood out. I love it.
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