It took every fiber of my being not to tag this with some choice usernames.

(Source: emmyc)

Princeton University psychologist Susan Fiske took brain scans of heterosexual men while they looked at sexualised images of women wearing bikinis. She found that the part of their brains that became activated was pre-motor - areas that usually light up when people anticipate using tools. The men were reacting to the images as if the women were objects they were going to act on. Particularly shocking was the discovery that the participants who scored highest on tests of hostile sexism were those most likely to deactivate the part of the brain that considers other people’s intentions (the medial prefrontal cortex) while looking at the pictures. These men were responding to images of the women as if they were non-human.

The Equality Illusion (via lesilencieux)

scary.

(via fuckyeahfeminists)

(Source: thoughtfulcynic)

stfueverything:

The classroom is not the beach, young lady. But it’s not a convent, either. So why are administrators and busybody parents so fascinated with teenage girls’ boobs, butts and thighs? We’re sick of adults imposing arbitrary moral standards on female students’ attire for fear they’ll “distract” their fellow classmates. The dress code itself isn’t necessarily the problem; it’s the reasoning behind it.

“Generation Fabulous” blogger Vivienne Wagner/most embarrassing mom of the week recently attended* her 8th grade son’s “Academic Awards Ceremony” (Fancy!) and was so shocked to find “exceptionally bright and disciplined” girls pursuing “hoochie-ism” that she took photos of said teen hoochies and titled them “examples of why I’m glad I don’t have daughters.”

SEXPAND

“Now it should be clearly stated that these must all be absolutely exceptionalyoung women,” she stressed. “Academic awards, after academic awards, after academic awards were claimed by these girls.” Which means…what? That a 14-year-old’s value doesn’t have anything to do with how many inches of thigh she’s showing at graduation?

SEXPAND

Lindy once reminded us that the definition of modesty is historically related to“womanly propriety.” (Blergh.) It’s a gendered term that implies certain behavior is appropriate for virtuous women and certain behavior (tube tops) is not. “The idea that society can tell you how much of your body to reveal or hide implies that your body does not belong to you,” Lindy wrote. Exactly. Parents like Wagner — or, way worse, school administrators — who impose rules mandating how much skin girls are allowed to show based on their personal beliefs regarding good girls vs. slutty mcsluts imply that women are responsible for covering themselves up so as not to tempt men (or, you know, general ruin).

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Here are some recent school dress code controversies:

A New Jersey school prohibited girls from wearing strapless dresses to a dance; as a compromise, board members said they would allow single-strap gowns and clear spaghetti straps.Reason? Some parents said they were told that strapless dresses would be too “distracting” for boys.

A Northern California middle school banned girls from wearing tight pants.Reason? They distract boys.

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A Minnesota high school went one step further and banned girls from wearing tight pants with short tops. Reason?The look can “be highly distracting for other students.”

A Cincinnati high school asked two girls to leave prom for being “inappropriately dressed.” Reason?Appropriate dresses “can have no curvature of the breasts showing.” Too bad for adolescent girls who’ve progressed beyond training bra status!

Of course, not all school administrators who set dress codes are puritanical Scrooges who secretly jerk off to the skimpy tank tops they confiscate on the regular. Teen girls are systematically hypersexualized and objectified and some teachers (we hope) don’t want them to play into that and think they have to wear tight clothes to be admired. But if the purpose is not to hypersexualize or objectify, maybe don’t take photos of their headless bodies, or set arbitrary rules that seem geared towards making teachers feel comfortable rather than ensuring the well-being of teenage girls.

This is pretty basic stuff: teaching teenagers that girls shouldn’t wear certain clothes if they don’t want to distract or tempt boys is just like telling women to avoid dressing like sluts if they want to be raped.

Sexist middle/high school dress codes hold girls responsible for having girly bodyparts. But what does a nonsexist dress code look like? Certain attire isn’t appropriate for school — just like you wouldn’t wear a crop top to court (unless you’re in the Bling Ring) or workout gear to a wedding — but “appropriate” can’t mean “antithesis of whore.” I’m honestly not sure. Any teachers/know-it-alls (we kid, we kid) in the house want to share their thoughts?

*That link is care of my BFF Google cache; Wagner took the original post down a few hours after posting. Maybe the parents of her sons’ classmates weren’t super pleased that she was shit-talking their kids on the internet?

Yo, MRAs. You want to protest real shit? How about a system that teaches children that men can’t control their sexual urges and are inherently rapists? That’s kinda more important than YouTube comments being enabled.

oppressedbrowngirlsdoingthings:

rcabbasi:

peteschult:

lesilencieux:

“Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.”

Sara Yasin, Is the Hijab Worth Fighting Over?

Actually, I am sympathetic to the “it’s my choice” point of view, but for the choice to be valid, it really does have to be a choice of that woman, not of some oppressive cultural standard that the woman has internalized and has convinced herself that she has chosen.

You know what, fair enough. But here’s my question: do Muslim women get the benefit of the doubt for having made this decision of their own accord, or is that a privilege reserved for others? Because I seriously doubt you extend the same logic to both sides of the spectrum. I doubt that when a woman walks down the street in booty shorts, you analyze the circumstances of her “choice” because it really does have to be that to be “valid” and not some oppressive cultural standard that she’s internalized, right?

It’s hypocritical, racist, and stupid to imply that Muslim women lack the capacity to make their own conscious decisions about what they wear, as if that ability lies solely in the domain of white Western women who, funnily enough, also make decisions about their appearance within the context of a patriarchal society. But apparently when Western women do that, it’s their own progressive, liberated thinking making the choice.

It’s been said so much but obviously needs repeating — the hypersexualization of women and enforced modesty are the same thing. Both define the value of women in relation to the male gaze. Both present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment.

You know what is ridiculous about people like this? That they believe that they know more than the women who wear the hijab themselves. They, an outsider, has the audacity to figure out exactly why women wear hijab and then suddenly they have more knowledge about the hijab than Muslim women do.

thisisrapeculture:

mygreenchemicaldayofromance:

mendthebroken:

acid-child:

supergreak:

halffizzbin:

thechronicleofshe:

pinkhairedlesbianadventures:

coachela:

rehability:

sadaholic:

loudwhisperss:

teenage-drrtbag:

If only all men were like this.

If men were all like this the world population rate would be so slow

There are guys like this you’re just too busy putting them in the fucking friend zone to see that

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

reblog for the comment

Oh hell no you better listen the fuck up dickwads

I was about to go to sleep and then this bullshit showed up on my dash and you have all earned yourselves fedoras so sit down, shut up, and educate your stupid asses.

“Putting them in the friendzone”? I’m sorry did you mean “I was nice to a girl and I cared about her and I’m bitter because she didn’t want me back?” Or was it “I believe that if I love another person they’re a bitch for just wanting to be friends.” Perhaps it was “I treated her (or pretended to, rather) like a person instead of a sexual object and now she’s not being a sexual object for me like I deserve.” No, wait, it’s “friendship with a girl makes me angry because I’m a self-entitled shithead who feels like if I want to be with a girl she has to accept that regardless of her feelings or else she’s a total bitch.”

The friendzone is the concept that a girl wanting to be your friend is somehow this inherently awful thing. Like, wow, did it occur to you that she thought you were, I dunno, FRIENDS? Did it occur to you that maybe she doesn’t feel romantically towards you but she still wants you to be part of her life because she thinks you’re a great person? I mean, if this is your reaction you’re wrong, because if you think friendzoning is a thing then clearly you’re a fucktrumpet but that’s beside the point.

Women are not machines you put niceness coins into until sex comes out. There are no punchcards to fill out to get to sex that you are apparently entitled to.

There is no friendzone, there are only people who don’t know how to behave like they’re not five-year-olds who don’t know how to take “no” for an answer.

Now I’m going to sleep. Disrespectful misogynistic asswagons.

Wow. Fucktrumpet, Asswagons? You are amazing at swearing. Like seriously amazing.

FUCKTRUMPET.

Women are not machines you put niceness coins into until sex comes out. 

HOLY FUCK I LOVE YOU

everyone better read that long amazing comment!!!!!!!

REBLOGGING FOR THE COMMENT. Also, there is nothing wrong with casual consensual sex. This goes for both men and women. You don’t have to love the person you’re sleeping with in order to sleep with them. Sex is intimate but it’s not always romantic. Nobody is a slut or a whore for just casually sleeping with someone. Safety and consent are mandatory; love is not.

THAT COMMENTARY

Bolding on the commentary mine because goddamn.

whoneedsfeminism:

I need feminism because…

- if I socialize with a group of people from work, then I must be “fucking or dating one of them.”
-I shouldn’t have to fear my reputation and respect from my shipmates being slandered and jeopardized.
-if you’re a female in the military, you’re either a whore or a lesbian.
-the validity of what i say and my ability to perform at work should not have to be compared to and weighed against my male counterparts to be deemed adequate.
-I can’t come to work without the fear that my SHIPMATES are going to bully and harass me.

A little background… I’m a 19 y/o girl in the United States Navy. I work as an Aviation Machinist’s Mate, I repair and troubleshoot plane engines. I LOVE my job, nothing is more satisfying than coming back to my room covered in grease with dirty camis and coveralls. 

The first week I was here, I got stuck at the grocery store on base and my ride wasn’t coming. Three people from work came out and offered me a ride, and I got invited to a cookout the next day. After that weekend, I was asked by my supervisor if I’d met anyone yet/gotten out, and I replied that I went to a cookout with those people. That was all that I said - I went to a cookout at their house, and that was it. Because that WAS it.

About 3 weeks later, rumors had been spread that I was dating one of them and that one of my friends was dating the other. I actually found out that a girl in my work center was contributing to the rumor, after I snapped at her on a bad day she commented to one of my shipmates, “She’s just mad because she had to break up with her boyfriend because the command knows.” … knows what? I broke up with my boyfriend from Atlanta 3 weeks ago, and now I’m single and currently talking to a girl out in California from school. I am preoccupied with about a million other things, why would I be trying to date anyone here? Everyone is an ASSHOLE and not worth my time because all that guys want in the Navy is a good fuck and then to talk all about it. 

In short, I should not have to come to work and watch every little thing that I say, have no-one to confide in, because it may be seen as something else and then turn into a huge rumor/lie that was spread by these people that are my “SHIPMATES”, people who are supposed to have my back all along the way. I need feminism to feel comfortable and confident at work without the fear that my reputation and career, as well as the ones of those kind people involved, is being jeopardized because I met some cool people and people misconstrue that as fraternization.

I shouldn’t need feminism because I shouldn’t have to defend myself to my own fucking comrades.

Please pardon the language and length. 

Teachers are often unaware of the gender distribution of talk in their classrooms. They usually consider that they give equal amounts of attention to girls and boys, and it is only when they make a tape recording that they realize that boys are dominating the interactions.

Dale Spender, an Australian feminist who has been a strong advocate of female rights in this area, noted that teachers who tried to restore the balance by deliberately ‘favouring’ the girls were astounded to find that despite their efforts they continued to devote more time to the boys in their classrooms. Another study reported that a male science teacher who managed to create an atmosphere in which girls and boys contributed more equally to discussion felt that he was devoting 90 per cent of his attention to the girls. And so did his male pupils. They complained vociferously that the girls were getting too much talking time.

In other public contexts, too, such as seminars and debates, when women and men are deliberately given an equal amount of the highly valued talking time, there is often a perception that they are getting more than their fair share. Dale Spender explains this as follows:

The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.

In other words, if women talk at all, this may be perceived as ‘too much’ by men who expect them to provide a silent, decorative background in many social contexts. This may sound outrageous, but think about how you react when precocious children dominate the talk at an adult party. As women begin to make inroads into formerly ‘male’ domains such as business and professional contexts, we should not be surprised to find that their contributions are not always perceived positively or even accurately.

[x] (via neighborly)

As a teacher, I give girls what I hope is a lot of attention.  I don’t know if I give girls their fair share, but I aspire to, especially after noticing that boys are willing to use their greater share of teachers’ attention to get girls who they feel aren’t being quiet and docile enough punished.  I have therefore acquired a reputation for “caring more about the girls.”  This has had two marked results: Some straight boys have gotten more hostile toward me, and most girls have gotten more confident around me.  This makes me think I’m doing something right.

Longer thoughts on how this phenomenon relates to sexual harassment in classrooms, if you’re interested: The girls figured out I won’t report them if they hit boys who are sexually harassing them, I’ll only report the boys.  This led to an increase in how often girls got the last word and boys got smacked in my classes, and, also, to a DECREASE IN HOW OFTEN GIRLS GOT SEXUALLY HARASSED.  The sexual harassers seem to have been depending on the sort of “equal blame” and “retaliation is never warranted” and “don’t hurt others’ feelings” perspectives so many schools try to instill in kids; the sexual harassers were usually the ones bringing me into the situation by saying, “Miss, she hit me!  You should write her up!”  Once they figured out I was only ever going to respond, “If you don’t treat girls like that, they won’t hit you,” the girls got more confident and the sexual harassers largely shut the fuck up.

In schools, fighting against sexual harassment is often punished exactly the same as, or more severely than, sexual harassment — a lot of discipline codes make no distinction between violence and violence in self-defence, and violence is ALWAYS the highest level of disciplinary infraction, whereas verbal sexual harassment rarely is.  Sexual harassers, at least in the schools I’ve been in, rely heavily on GETTING GIRLS IN TROUBLE WITH HIGHER AUTHORITIES as a strategy of harassment — creating an external punishment that penalises girls for and therefore discourages girls from fighting back.  Sexual harassers are willing to use their greater share of floorspace to ask to get girls who won’t date them punished.  By and large, teachers do punish those girls when they swear or hit.  Schools condition girls to ignore sexual harassment by punishing them when they speak up or fight back instead.

Once the sexual harassers in my classes understood that girls wouldn’t be punished for rejecting them, they backed off around me.  And there started to be a flip in what conversations I get called into — girls are telling me when boys are being nasty (too loud and dominant), instead of boys telling me when girls are being uncooperative (louder and more dominant than boys think they should be).

(via torrentofbabies)

reblogging again for the wonderful commentary.

(via partysoft)

(Source: colinfirthhasmoved)

misandrywarhol:

miss-love:

mattrenez:

igotaloveshekeepsmewaiting:

melodiesintheair:

jarpadd:

I suggest all females watch this. 

*i suggest all humans watch this.

THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED WATCHING FOR ALL HUMANS

I’m a 17 year old white guy living in middle class America. I’ve never exactly been a supporter of feminism because that kind of thing has never really affected me personally. I don’t notice it and I don’t care about it. But in nine minutes this video has made what is truly a serious problem extremely apparent. Those “why I need feminism” posts or those slut-shaming or rape culture campaigns never convince me of anything. But this video actually did I think.

tl;dr This video kicks ass, just watch it.

Stop what you’re doing and watch this

this is one of my favorite movies ever

#lol the 17 yr old dude’s comment tho ok.

(Source: dave-bowman)

[F]or the first several years the SAT was offered, males scored higher than females on the Math section but females achieved higher scores on the Verbal section. ETS policy-makers determined that the Verbal test needed to be “balanced” more in favor of males, and added questions pertaining to politics, business and sports to the Verbal portion. Since that time, males have outscored females on both the Math and Verbal sections. Dwyer notes that no similar effort has been made to “balance” the Math section, and concludes that, “It could be done, but it has not been, and I believe that probably an unconscious form of sexism underlies this pattern. When females show the superior performance, ‘balancing’ is required; when males show the superior performance, no adjustments are necessary.”

“Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests”, FairTest.org

And then people urge me everything is fine, of course it is, when you’re ignoring statistics that is.

(via cwnl)

Why it’s even harder to take the “arguments” of assholes like this (linking to my last reblog of that since that addresses the “sexism against boys” in education concept).

(Source: fairtest.org)

Muhafiz, In Custody (dir. Ismail Merchant, 1993)

(Source: dhrupad)