femcel42069 - Tumblr blog

[femcel42069]

Source: The Butch/Femme Photo Project , by Wendi Kali

[femcel42069]

“As the Bechdel Test began to creep into the sightline of mainstream movie criticism, it was notable to see the surprise of some male critics that their favorite movies—One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Goodfellas, The Princess Bride, Clerks, the original Star Wars trilogy, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even Tootsie, when you get right down to it—so soundly flunked it. For many women, the reaction was more of a shrug, along with relief that, finally, there was a simple way to help writers and directors step over an embarrassingly low baseline. To be clear, applying the rule isn’t about snatching away the well-earned status of Raging Bull or The Godfather or even This Is Spinal Tap. As Anita Sarkeesian, creator of the Web site Feminist Frequency, noted in a 2009 video about the rule, “It’s not even a sign of whether it’s a feminist movie, or whether it’s a good movie, just that there’s a female presence in it.” The latter point is something that many people fail to grasp when trying to explain away why their favorite movies don’t pass the test (“But Batman is the hero of the movie! Of course the women characters are going to talk about him!”): the Bechdel Test is not a judgment of quality or nuance. After all, the beautiful, moving Gravity fails the test, while a formulaic rom-com like 27 Dresses passes with no problem. But the test itself is a simple, bloodless assessment of whether female characters are deemed important to a story—and a way to conclude that, most of the time, they aren’t.”

— We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement (Zeisler, Andi)

[femcel42069]

lately i've been doing a lot of thinking about why women are the main supporters of transgenderism, and i think i've boiled it down to three main elements

1. women are socialised to be more accommodating and accepting of uncomfortable situations than men are. this has been discussed at length in the radical feminist tradition and the gender critical movement, but it bears reiterating. women are taught from early childhood to disbelieve their feelings of fear, anger and humiliation for the benefit of men.

2. i'd argue that the description of physical dysphoria is one that almost all women empathise with, because of how alienated women are from their bodies by society, in a way most men are not. even women who would say they are comfortable with their bodies have complicated feelings about having a female body in our society, even if they don't have the framework to express it. therefore, when women are confronted with men who make claims about sex dysphoria, they relate and empathise and some can draw conclusions that this distress aligns them with femaleness (i would argue that all women experience sex dysphoria in a misogynist society like ours but i digress). i think there many women also find solace in the idea that someone else could possibly have their physical distress alleviated and want to believe it is possible to find a solution to it.

In other words, “The body has been made so problematic for women that it has often seemed easier to shrug it off and travel as a disembodied spirit.” - Adrienne Rich

3. women want to believe that male oppression and men aren't really that bad. to comprehend the scale of women's oppression, and to fully understand that the men you know and love are as complicit in it as any other, feels like balancing on the brink of madness. women are desperate for evidence that things aren't as bad as they suspect.

Andrea Dworkin says it best: “Many women, I think, resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships.”

that is part of the allure of the trans movement for these women in denial. breaking down the categories of male and female, and denying the social dynamics therein, means they don't have to grapple with the ugliness of misogyny.

anyone else have thoughts on this? i'd be keen to hear if others on radblr think

[femcel42069]

what does it mean for something to be AI-tainted? why is this bad?

i wonder if e-wasted ~5-10 year old hard drives might become valuable as sources of offline, "less likely to be ai tainted" data to scrape. specifically: schoolwork, photo albums, home movies, things like that. obviously the yield would be much lower than scraping the internet, but the quality (in terms of 'how likely is it NOT to be ai-tained') is going to be far better (feeding ai into ai can lead to problems).

the ethics would be awful but since when have ai companies cared about that?

[femcel42069]

they hated her for saying the truth

[femcel42069]

With no national support or attention, Arkansas women (and a few good men) did what everyone said couldn’t be done. On July 5, organizers turned in enough signatures to qualify an amendment to restore access to abortion in Arkansas.  The amendment will restore access up to 18 weeks for any reason and thereafter has exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, and life and health of the mother.  The amendment had no support from national groups like Planned Parenthood or the ACLU because it didn’t allow for abortions up to the point of viability.  However, polling showed that anything over 18 weeks simply wouldn’t pass in deep red Arkansas, and the amendment will cover 99% of abortions that do occur.

Abortion rights will be on the ballot in Arkansas, thanks to a 100% unfunded volunteer effort! Amazingly good news.

[femcel42069]

*me, answering a girlchild who asked:* yes, that [wild animal] is a girl! Actually, about half the animals you see outside are girls!

*Parents, getting visibly uncomfortable*

*boychildren, continuing to refer to the animal as a he despite my continued emphasized use of she pronoun*

*trans/gendie coworker, getting emotional as he realizes he is just as bad as the rest of the men in calling every animal a he*

*senior staff, annoyed at me for being better at our job than him*

*supervisor, watching me carefully to make sure I am not "rocking the boat" *

*girlchildren, excitedly asking me more questions*: how can you tell she is a girl? Does it taste good when she eats [food]? Is she strong? Does she live in [habitat]? I want to be a marine biologist when I grow up and study only girl animals! Is she a mom? Can I pet her? Does she sleep? Does she dream?

Does she know there is more for her out there? Does she know the world of men can easily be escaped by simply loving wildlife? Does she see herself in nature? Has she killed the mystic man in her mind? Does she know religion, even female-centered religion, was invented to erase the natural world? Does she know she is inherently a part of this world? Does she sleep? Does she dream?

[femcel42069]

Men will never stop and say “you’ve been such a good ally, it’s time to return the favor.” Rebelling just in your head is considered tantamount to murder.

[femcel42069]

had a very sudden idea yesterday, that was just “reduce intensity, reduce frequency, reduce duration”. this kind of thing is close to the style i used to have when i first found gender critical radical feminism as a teenager. i was very focused on trying to convince women to reduce harmful practices like wearing heels, even if they weren’t going to stop entirely.

i’m still against heels, but of course there are bigger things to worry about, and the type of towering high-heels i saw everywhere have gone mostly out of style.

[femcel42069]

Protesting the high school dress code that banned slacks for girls, Brooklyn c.1940

via reddit

[femcel42069]

almost none of the reasons why i support abortion rights have anything to do with babies. really it’s more about the fact that I think the government shouldn’t be able to force you to lend all your organs to someone else and change irreparably in the process. is a fetus a person? I don’t care! If it is a person, I don’t want anyone to be forced to host one against their will! If it isn’t a person, guess what? Nobody should be forced to host one against their will! What’s a soul? What’s a person? When does life begin? IRRELEVANT! A world in which the government can force anyone to manufacture an entirely new human body at the cost of their own is not a world I want to live in!

[femcel42069]

A brilliant metaphor

[femcel42069]

by @soft.strawb (instagram)

[femcel42069]

in the United States women attempt suicide more while men die of suicide more. This is a pretty well known fact, as is the reasoning that men are more likely to use methods like guns, hanging, etc while women are most likely to self poison.

the reason for the disparity in methods is something people love to speculate and argue about. The theories include that women are socialized to care more about what their corpse will look like afterwards, or about the person who will have to clean up after them, and that men are more comfortable with violent methods due to more exposure to violence in their careers, not to mention are more likely to own firearms and be able to make impulse suicides with them. Some people, including mens rights activists, will claim the disparity is simply because women don’t actually want to die when they make these attempts, they are simply cries for help.

the real reasons are probably multifactorial. One important thing to consider is that in cases where more effective methods of self poisoning are readily available, womens completed suicide rates are much closer to mens and in some cases higher. This is true in china, where people often have access to extremely toxic pesticides and many women kill themselves that way. It’s also true of women who’s careers give them knowledge of and access to extremely lethal medication, such as veterinarians and physicians. Also, in countries where assisted suicide is available solely on the basis on mental illness, women are twice as likely to apply as men. So that kind of refutes the mra talking point that women who overdose are all simply making cries for help.

but like, what about these cry for help attempts, also called suicide gestures? Some people outright admit to making them, and I don’t believe everyone who overdoses on a handful of advil truly intends to die. However, the topic is rarely acknowledged and when it is it’s in a highly disparaging, stigmatizing way. Many people have little empathy for those who make them, who are often young women and teenage girls. Few ask what circumstances drive people to feel the need to take such drastic measures to try to get their pain and suffering taken seriously. “Boys/men are told to act tough, and hide their pain, and never ask for help” is a talking point used often when talking about gender and mental illness. “Girls/women are assumed to be melodramatic and irrational, so when they do ask for help, they often aren’t taken seriously, and have to resort to things like suicide gestures to get people to listen or care” is made far less often. Why? Why do so many people consider gendered socialization of the utmost importance when it comes to understanding male pain, but irrelevant when it comes to womens?

[femcel42069]

A few career tracks in skilled trades for curious women:

Arborist: professional Lorax. They care for trees! Tree maintenance, disease management, fertilization, and pest control. They climb trees and use chainsaws while 30 feet in the air. Badass. Definitely a job that you get to see a lot of beauty, being in nature/outdoors often. Average hourly pay in USA in $29 an hour, starting at $15 an hour.

Boilermaker: these women install, maintain, and manufacture boilers and tanks. They create, test, and install heavy metallic structures, including furnaces, towers, heat exchangers, and boilers. Boilers heat liquids, such as water, to generate electricity or provide heat for ships, factories, or buildings. Badass. Big ass tools. Hard hats. Average hourly pay in USA is $19-38 an hour.

Carpenter: you wanna make a bunch of stuff all day? That's what carpenters do, baby. Working primarily with wood, they build, install, and fix structures in residential, commercial, and industrial use. A skilled carpenter has a very precise hand and eye, often covered in dust. The work can either be indoors and outdoors. A highly variable job with highly variable wages.

Electrician: STEM girlies rise up, now's your time to shine (and make bank doing it)! Electricians install, maintain, and repair electrical power, communications, lighting, and control systems in homes, businesses, and factories. If you like science, puzzles, and being introverted, you'll do great. I am honestly not that good with electrical issues, it's like magic and electricians are like wizards to me. Do you wanna be a wizard? Average hourly wage in USA is $19-50.

Elevator Mechanic: it's constant ups and downs for these women. Do you want to feel like a monkey climbing trees but like, cyberpunk? That's an elevator mechanic, installing new elevator/escalator systems, ensuring proper assembly, wiring, and alignment of mechanical components. They conduct routine inspections, maintenance, and servicing. There's something really cool about being able to climb through a building's forbidden, secret innards. This is a great job, but be warned, the unions are small and selective. Average hourly pay in USA is $26-55.

[femcel42069]

if anyone has ever read that lundy bancroft book (why does he do that?), he talks about how certain abusive men who say they “lost control” tend to only break or destroy things the other partner owns, never their own things; they’re very much conscious. they choose to use the anger they feel to intimidate their partner. there’s no loss of control about it.

Men don’t act violently because they lost control. They act violently to maintain control.

[femcel42069]

So, in Brazilian feminism and technology news, the Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill that criminalizes the creation and sharing of nude images and videos created by artificial intelligence.

The text, authored by deputy Erika Kokay (Workers' Party) and reported by deputy Luisa Canziani (Social Democratic Party), sets a penalty of 1 to 4 years in prison, in addition to a fine, for anyone who creates or disseminates “montages or modifications that aim to include a person in a nude scene or sexual act, including the use of artificial intelligence in video, audio or photography."

The bill now heads to the Senate.

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