#and is like the epitome of white woman feminism

[minustwofingers]

*not to be a hater bc i do enjoy her music and respect her art* taylor’s fanbase terrifies me and the amount of people who infantilize her scare me!

[venusintheblindspots-blog]

More on the dynamic between Rhaenyra and Nettles…

One of my biggest qualms of ASOIAF, is the inherent racism displayed in the text, and the fandom, when discussing characters like Nettles, Elia, Baela, Laena and Rhaena.

My introduction to ASOIAF was House of the Dragon, and after watching, I was an avid team black supporter ( still am, Rhaenyra was Viserys’ heir).

After finishing the main series, and watching half of Game of Thrones, I reread Fire and Blood, focusing mainly of the Dance of Dragons.

Of all the interesting characters during the Dance of the Dragons, the one that caught my eye was Nettles, the first and last rider of Sheepstealer.

Her introduction alone was enough for me to fall in love with her :

“Unlikely dragon rider”, “the first and last rider of the dragon Sheepstealer”, “fearless”, “cunning”

Very little is known of Nettles’ upbringing, as the accounts of Eustace, Munkun and Mushroom are biased with racism, classism, misogyny and second hand information.

I’m not particularly sure if it was George’s intention, but the language used by Gyldayn and the a portion of the fandom is a prime example of how black girls are robbed of innocence and agency when being accused of ‘wrong’.

Going back to her relationship with Rhaenyra, the two women are not on equal footing. Rhaenyra was awarded privileges even other noble women in the realm could only dream of,(not that she lived without suffering, she still faced misogyny & sexual abuse), as opposed to Nettles, who lived as a commoner with nothing to do but survive.

Coming around to the Dance of Dragons, Nettles fights for Rhaenyra’s claim as the rider of Sheepstealer. She grieves Rhaenyra’s children, and the loss felt in war.

Daemon and Rhaenyra’s are implied to have an open marriage in Fire and Blood.

Mysaria is Rhaenyra’s Mistress of Whisperers during the Dance of the Dragons, with no implications of animosity between the two. Yet, upon the hearing of Daemon and Nettle’s rumored romance, Rhaenyra is angered?

Rhaenyra’s disdain for Nettles reminds me of another harmful dynamic in real world history,- a jealous white woman, and a young black girl being cut by the blade of her vengeance. Rhaenyra dehumanizes Nettles, going as far as to call her a creature and demanding a brutal death for Nettles, so that Daemon could be free from her ‘sorcery’. She cannot conceptualize how Daemon could be attracted to Nettles, so she accuses her of using magic to bound him to her.

Their dynamic reminds me of the relationships between wives of white slaver owners and the enslaved women that their husbands would abuse sexually. The blame is never casted on the husband. Whether or not Nettles and Daemon had a romantic relationship or a father-daughter one, she did not deserve the treatment Rhaenyra gave her.

To close this, I still like Rhaenyra as a character. She’s interesting in a sense where, regardless of what she’s done, she was the better option for the Iron Throne, especially if we are going off of her character in the show. However, she still reads to me as the epitome of white feminism. Her fight is for no one else but herself.

[jewishbarbies]

I personally think Taylors whole appeal is that she tells people, through her bland music and even blander personality, that it's okay and even celebrational to be completely fucking mediocre in every aspect.

There's a reason her biggest base is white suburbanites. Their lives are the epitome of bland and mediocre, not to sound like a bitch but it's the truth every house the same, hoa nonsense, two to five kids who predictably play soccer/dance/gymnastics so their days are gobbled up by children and they have zero personal lives. They're usually shackled to partners they hate but would never say that out loud unless under extreme stress. They're borderline alcoholics but hide it behind "mommy needs her juice" wine culture.

Taylor Swift, if she was not a celebrity, would 1000% be living the exact same life and that's the exact crux of her popularity to me. They want excitement but in the ~oh let's be naughty~ gay voice way, and Taylor's music provides just enough to them (despite being painfully tame and masquerading as "I'm actually a bad girl" cringe shit) that they can live vicariously through her, pretend for five minutes they're in love with a british actor with an exciting life or the american football player constantly going on dates.

She tells them through her every action that basically, it's okay to be the most stereotypical white woman on earth and nobody should shame them for it. It also empowers them in white feminism, being able to stay silent on issues because they don't actually give a fuck, and hang out with racist pieces of shit because "hey you can't blame a woman for the decisions of others!".

It's actually so insidious when people deflect on her behalf and say it's her fans that promote bad behavior or make her look bad but when has she ever addressed her fans in any way that'll not stoking the fires of their diet qanon fan culture? She has never in the history of her career reprimanded her fans. That's a choice, a purposeful one at that. Because it gives her the same old shield of well I can't be blamed for the actions of others, and it sends the same message to her fans so it's a fucked up circle of "I'm blameless!!! It's sexist to blame me it's not my fault my boyfriend/husband is a piece of shit!".

She gives people permission, essentially. Permission to be boring as fuck. Permission to be a shit person. And unfortunately tons of people LOVE being given permission to be assholes, even arbitrary permission from a celebrity. So to me that's why they'll defend her until they're blue in the face and panting, because she's their permission to suck

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Propaganda why Peter Pan is insufferable:

Never growing up isn't charming, it's harmful and irritating. The story isn't about Peter Pan, it's about Wendy, who has to realize she can't be a successful mother to someone who refuses to learn or grow. Book Peter is even worse than the movie or stage musical--he kills his own Lost Boys just for fun and forgets about it immediately.

He finds physical harm amusing and sees it as just a game. Then he braggs with the suffering he inflicted on his victims.

I hate Hook more but Peter Pan was a little shit who just let a bunch of shit happen to Wendy for no reason

Propaganda why Wanda Maximoff is insufferable:

Turned a Jewish Romani character into a woman from a Fictional Eastern European country, plus she wore a cross necklace.

Brainwashed and tortured an entire town and got no punishment because she felt bad and ran away.

Imprisoned, mind controlled, and traumatized an entire town but received no punishment because OBVIOUSLY she was the REAL victim.

A lot of this has already been covered in anti Wanda circles but the speed run version is that she volunteered to be experimented on by Hydra, became a villain for them, murdered a bunch of people, felt worse about the “death” of her chatbot sex toy than about literally anything else that happened, ENSLAVED A CITY TO PLAY OUT HER CHATBOT SEX TOY FANTASY (and not for nothing, this prominently included enslaving a Black woman), tried to girlbossify said enslavement, then tried to brutally murder a girl of color in exchange for making her 100% fictional, never-existed-in-the-first place, vibrators-don’t-have-semen-so-how-was-this-supposed-to-work “children,” who didn’t even like her in her fantasy hallucination and who could blame them. Tldr MCU Wanda is the epitome of fake white feminism.

[tjmystic]

I'm not tagging this because I'm genuinely afraid of stans, but J.K. Rowling, Taylor Swift, and Nicki Minaj occupy the same weird part of society now. By which I mean that most people either:

Like them (gross, but often because they're misinformed); or

Dislike them for the wrong reasons ("Christians" hating mentions of magic, misogynists hating a successful young woman who other women tend to enjoy and who is "stealing the spotlight" from football, racist misogynists hating a successful Black female rapper).

Meanwhile, I:

Hate them because they are, in order, a TERF cunt, the epitome of capitalism masquerading as uninvolved white feminism, and an utter bitch of a pick-me who tears other women down while supporting literal sex offenders and pedophiles.

And it is very hard to determine what people actually mean when they say they like or dislike these women.

[evansbby]

No because the defending of celebrities is not limited to white male celebrities, they include white women as well! Like I'm sorry that taylor swift is not the epitome of feminism and her feminism is not even intersectional. And swifties will jump at you and be like um you're sexist. Ma'am I'm literally a lesbian woman of colour!!!!

My answer to that ask wasn’t referring to people writing paragraphs defending celebs. It was about the grown ass women on here writing paragraphs and paragraphs about how his relationship is PR 😭😭 bro literally married her in two ceremonies, is wearing a ring and spoke about marrying her on a live interview and there’s grown ass women on here acting like they know him better 😭😭😭 the silliest thing I ever read was “he never smiles when he talks about her, but he smiles when talking about his dog” LIKE BFFR I saw the interview and he was smiling plenty when talking about her, y’all just don’t wanna admit you’re delusional and you found other delusional people online and y’all feed into each others’ delusion this validating it. Grow up lol.

ANYWAYS bestie sorry I went off on a tangent, I was just confused what your ask was referring to or if you just said it out of nowhere? I do agree but I think Taylor Swift does get a lot of criticism… like there are plenty of people out there who don’t like her and say the exact thing you’re saying. There are also plenty of swifties who acknowledge her faults yet still like her for her music and persona which is fine imo.

[numnumart]

The way certain parts of the English One Piece fandom treat Yamato is hilariously reflective of their regressive views irl + (end of Wano manga content) why Oda kind of messed up with the bathhouse scene.

All these fights over pronouns, not even acknowledging the character's psyche itself, to further their own ideology. Just like how TRAs (especially agp males) use vulnerable girls to further their own ideology without even acknowledging the girls themselves having either mental health problems, autism, past abuse/trauma, internalized homophobia, normal discomfort with puberty, gnc behaviour, etc. They love using woc and infertile women as shields too it’s disgusting.

Yamato is female and idolizes Oden. Yamato wants to BE Oden, she even claims she IS Oden, but that doesn’t mean she’s “trans masc”, you can headcanons that sure but the thing is, oden was free, but Yamato is shackled to an island with bomb-cuffs by her own father who definitely wanted a boy and not a girl, she is kaidos daughter who was beaten, starved, and just abused to the point where she’s now in full-time cosplay being someone else to escape her reality and who she is. It’s sad. Why do tras want to take this strong female character away from women and girls? The patriarchy is crazy!!

It’s also completely detached from the reality of Japanese culture as well as the female sex in general. These people love to whitewash anime with their privileged, luxury beliefs. Yes, gender ideology is the epitome of white feminism. These Colonizers bro.

It might be surprising for some weebs but Japan is not a paradise. It’s imperfect like everywhere else in the world. The misogyny there is insane! Sexism/Traditional gender roles persist there. They even have women-only train cars because of how common groping/SA is.

Also, homosexuality and cross-dressing aren’t completely shunned there, it’s historically documented and all that. Same-sex marriage isn’t allowed in some places there and whatnot but at least they aren’t slaughtered and ostracized.

Anyway, this is where Oda’s choice to put a male in a female bathhouse comes in. Kiku is male, and Yamato is female. Kiku bathed with males his whole life. At the end of wano yamato bathes with males and kiku bathes with females. Of course, this case is unique because it’s not a public bathhouse and Nami and them know and trust Kiku and consent to his presence being there in the bath with him (a male bathing in front of women and children 💀 at least Hes not a bad person and covered himself with a towel. He’s an effeminate male/apparently a “woman at heart” which is a Japanese saying yet he acknowledges that he’s male and will never be a woman, actually, it’s kinda ironic how they ascribe womanhood being a feeling of femininity/conforming to regressive sexist gender roles because it’s really telling and fits in/suits the regressive nature of gender ideology), but the message it sends the English fandom is completely identity-politics related.

At least in the case of Yamato, she is treated and seen like a girl by characters like Sanji and Brook (nosebleed etc, not that it's good she's sexualized) and Luffy/zoro don't care.

Why do the English fandoms of anime love putting identity politics in everything? It’s so annoying… But anyway,

Males shouldn’t be in female spaces, and men (adult human males) cannot become women (adult human females) this shouldn’t have to be said, especially in public female spaces for the sake of safeguarding women and girls. Female-only spaces are statistically necessary! And as a WOC who was abused by males in every possible way since early childhood (read my pinned post where I put my article), it honestly actually broke my heart how Oda put a male in the bath and it got celebrated by the homophobic misogynists that are TRAs and even the fellow teen girls captured by this cult. It's not Oda's fault,, he's a product of his culture and times and it's not his fault how his audience interprets his work.

Anyway, Oda did at least show Yamato is female so many times in the manga, vivre cards, and even in the recent colour spread where he put Yamato in the girls-only colour spread and left out kiku. The meltdown over that was funny.

Well, at least the people who like to headcanon characters as trans have this. I wish they’d leave us alone tho. Unlike most transwomen (who resemble the crossdressers in Ivankovs kingdom/Kamabakka queendom in appearance and behaviour), kiku actually “passes”/LOOKS like a woman character. Also, I love Kiku's eyes so much that every time I draw from the day of his introduction I always add something like those little zigzags to eyes. He is such a cool character! I kinda wanna draw them both again. Rant over ig, see you next time ❤️

[rollercoasterwords]

HELLO HAVE I SENT YOU ONE YET. IF NOT I AM SO SORRY MY DARLING I THOUGHT I HAD. BUT!! ALLOW ME TO RECTIFY IT NOW!! ☕️ a steaming hot beverage for you...in exchange for your thots on...well lets do it lets go all in shall we. lets tackle taylor swift if you will its me and you against the world xx for a LESS risky option though i appreciate you may not want to be run out of town with pitchforks so: honest opinion on your least favourite foods xx the more controversial the better xx

RIDI!! u are going to get me burned at the stake my beloved but. well truly i have been keeping my silence on this topic for so long and i'm feeling a bit frisky this tuesday morning so let's get into it xx

(to my dear sweet swiftie friends PLEASE look away i am about to go full hater mode i'm so sorry but i simply cannot hide any longer xoxo i still love u guys no matter what)

ok so first thought about taylor swift is that i don't like her. let's just put all the cards on the table right off the bat i do not like that woman one bit.

NOW before we get into it i will say i do enjoy some of her music i did very much like folklore and of course she has quite a few classics under her belt that will always be bangers and karaoke go-tos. i myself can be found belting "dear john" on roadtrips from time to time xx

that being said however what truly activates my haterism when it comes to taylor swift is that i think she is the EPITOME of capitalist girlboss feminism and she gets away with it because her fans have deified her to the point that any criticism of anything she does results in people getting ripped to shreds and called misogynistic lmao. for example when people called out the fatphobia in her...which music video was it? antihero? whatever the recent scandal where a few brave souls called out her fatphobia and the swiftie mobs were like SHE HAS BODY IMAGE ISSUES!!! like yeah babes....she can talk about that without publicly perpetuating fatphobia....grow a few more braincells please xoxo

but like even aside from that example. taylor swift is an incredibly privileged white woman who is deeply invested in capitalism and is actively harming the planet and hoarding wealth in a way that i find frankly unethical. and yet she is very good at portraying herself as "woke" and falls back on "i've experienced sexism!!" anytime people start to critique her, and then her rabid fans go on the attack and she just gets to sit pretty on her private jet with everyone acting like she's god's gift to earth. i think u should be able to enjoy someone's music and still acknowledge the ways in which they are both complicit within and actively benefiting from corrupt systems of power.

another thing that bothers me is the whole "is she gay???" thing. like whether or not she's gay makes no difference to me because she is certainly not queer and if u don't understand the difference between those two things. well i recommend reading up on homonormativity xx

and finally. the cherry on top of my haterism. well boys i just do not think ms. swift is all that talented when it comes to songwriting. sure sure as i said there is plenty of her music that i enjoy. however there is also plenty of her music that i find boring and uninspired. like i'm sorry "draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" <- THAT is the person who u think is the greatest lyricist of our generation??? baby that is a forever21 graphic t-shirt from 2014. PLEASE get a grip.

[princessmo]

i'm gonna be so annoying about the barbie movie when it comes out. i'm an annoying white woman but not the kind that thinks taylor swift is secretly gay or the kind that thinks legally blonde is the epitome of feminism. i'm a pretentious allison bechdel type of annoying white woman. i'm like if she was femme

[stranger-rants]

(3) I'm not saying that fans have to like Nancy, if she's someone they don't relate to its fine. I even agree that she is now the epitome of young white feminism, entitlement, her family republican support roots and middle class privilege. I do agree it was assholeish of her on how she treated Jonathan (while i still understand her anger towards Tom Holloway and the sexist, hostile and creepy old coworkers) she should have said sorry to him just like he apologized to her, the fact that she can't make girl friends her age besides Barb, how she treated Robin in S4 that was harsh at moments and unconsiderate i could go on..

(4) She can definitely be still up to be questioned and the talks on why the whole girlboss rep that the Duffers swear they bring but fails miserably every time. I need to add that Steve himself should also get the same exact treatment in this case. But none of his fan favorite cult sees that because he said sorry, changed for better and they all bought into his so called "character arc" which is not even a good one or not even there, they even bought the whole mediocrity of him being a "gay ally" (this even comes from me as a fanom bisexual Steve truther). It's so weird to me how he's always treated as such a catch with all this people being like "Nancy doesn't deserve Steve this and that" but maybe that there is also just me as well...

5, Last one i promise) but this whole anti and villain narrative treatment she gets from the fandom in which she does not deserve any single chance of nuances, a proper arc, her being seen or listened, chances to redeem herself and make up for her wrongdoings. The fact that they go far to literally laugh at her privacy and autonomy being technically ripped, exposed and violated, so far to the point she should be punished for her friend's death just because she had sex well, this people so give the vibe of the individuals you would never trust to openly talk about your SA/harassment/abuse situations to. Says a lot of little concerning vibes, that are just as low and bad as the anti Billy behaviour we've got to see from time to time. I do comprehend none of these characters are real but there's that; makes me cringe how this has just increased in Womens rights month and the fact these things are coming from mostly women, which is kinda sad.

I'll end my point saying that yeah, it speaks volumes.

I will say this about what female characters are owed in fandom and that’s the same level of complexity we grant to male characters. That’s what I think any character who represents a marginalized group is owed, and yes it can be frustrating when you’re not given that. It is concerning to see people buy into the Nice Guy trope and the rape culture surrounding young people, especially women and girls. It’s okay to be upset by that, even if the characters aren’t real, and to call it out as such. I personally think that Steve and Nancy are bad for each other because neither of their goals and ideals line up. That doesn’t mean Nancy is The Problem, of course. In fact, I’m tired of talking about her in relation to Steve and vice versa.

I do think this fandom’s treatment of female characters like Nancy can be hypocritical compared to their uncritical adoration of Steve who is really just some guy with a lot of money, but at the same time the way she is positioned as a gun toting “badass” young woman who gets empowering speeches from her Thatcher-loving predator of a mother is what makes her character off-putting to queer fans, many who are gay and/or trans and who’ve spoken up about how aggravating that is. It’s not just women who are critical of her character, and while you’ve already acknowledged these issues I do want to make a distinction between hate posts made by misogynists and criticisms given by people hurt by the glorified politics surrounding the Wheeler family. I know people argue that their children aren’t conservatives by association, and I get that but The Duffers don’t say or do anything meaningful to subvert or deny that.

As a character, the best thing for her would be to branch out and experience new things but she stagnates like Steve because The Duffers don’t let them grow beyond The Girlboss and The Babysitter roles they’ve designated them with. That can also lead to some of the hate she receives, but that’s a writing problem and not something that is inherently wrong with a teenage girl not having all the tools and the knowledge to make the right decisions 100% of the time… which… why should we be expecting that out of anyone anyway.

[blushroomx]

taylor swift is the face of ignorant white woman feminism idk how y'all put up with her or why. she is the epitome of "outrageously rich conventionally attractive able bodied cishet white woman with access to every fucking resource imaginable refuses to do the work of deconstructing her own racism and continually uses her enormous platform to perpetuate her own weirdly misogynistic flavor of white woman feminism" and like her music isn't even good! like the cringe response that shoots through my body when ppl play her songs, why is she such a cult fav what is it about this mediocre white woman that has y'all in such a chokehold

[somuchyoudontknow]

Umm anons sorry but we’re not going to be dismissive of Lana simply due to liking her music, she’s done way too much. I wish growth and enlightenment for her.

If anyone needs a refresher with receipts here you go:

https://www.insider.com/lana-del-rey-problematic-backlash-timeline-2021-1

Ironically she’s done what most deems cultural appropriation as well as associating with racist, what many here claim Alba has done. If Alba is called racist for doing the same…..

I just find it ironic how some anons jumped on that anon for mentioning Lana due to Alba following her. Anon didn’t lie. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[astranva]

Swiftie girl is trending so I’d like to share a take that I’m scared to share because people are so rabid these days. I love Taylor’s work but she is literally the epitome of white woman feminism and her stans need to stop putting her on a pedestal. She isn’t the activist that y’all are painting her to be. She only speaks up when it’s convenient or benefits her.

i’m thankful that i’m in a circle that knows so. we all just appreciate her musical talent and lyrical genius but i see where you’re coming from

[thelonesomequeen]

Here's an interesting alternative viewpoint re: choice feminism. I think yall probably won't post this as it may not jive with your viewpoints, but it's nevertheless an eye-opening read, in case you want to explore some diverse perspectives.// “choice feminism” anon here: Prefacing by saying “ugh!!!” I spend half an hour crafting a beautifully written long ass comment (and I’m an ESL person) and it got eaten by “access denied”.😩 The gist of it was: I see where you are coming from, however I find the article is written from an incredibly US centered POV about feminism while my comment was global centered- Feminism at its global core is women right for freedom to choose (See Iran) As a bon US based women I kindly ask US based women (and ppl in general) to remember YOUR USA based history, culture and experiences due to does not equal the same in other countries (this is true for things like racism): culture, religion, history, experiences- those all make a huge impact on how each country women requires their respective feminism to be. But at the core: it’s about a woman right to choice. The article shared is, IMO as a progressive non US based woman, the epitome of faux progressivism existing in the US- mainly pushed by white passing women, but sadly not only, completely disregarding the stated in the previous paragraph. In fact I find the article essentially stripping women of their agency in a way. Again, just a POV from a non US based woman, with different cultural and history background.

—————————-

No! I’m sorry your ask/submission got eaten after the time you put into typing it up. I hate when tumblr does that 😭 sometimes I’ll type up long replies to you guys and it’ll do the same thing and it’s really annoying. But anyway, thank you for coming back and sharing your perspective! It’s very true that what we think of customs, normalcies, and movements can look different from all over the world. Our idea of things here in the US might look completely different somewhere else. This is why I love being at this blog the most. We can have conversations about so many things that we can learn from when someone else shares a different perspective 🦎

[alrightsnaps]

Im not a fan of how they did things with Eloise's character, I find it to be the peak of whit feminism. But since we are talking about it, I just want her to realise that given the time period it's ok to want children and crave all the "feminine things" she doesn't HAVE to give up her life to being a housewife, but if they do things right and let her be more empathetic and let her choose to be a wife and step mother on her own, I'd really like it. It doesn't make anyone less of a feminist if they get married and crave traditionally feminine things. Although to be fair, I just season 4 to be Benophie and let it end. I really don't want eight season of white feminism where they will make white women girlbosses and when it comes to WOC they ignore their trauma and backstory.

It is peak white feminism cause it's pure performativity and zero essence. She did some small progress in s02 when she attended a women's rights event or two and started reading actual feminist literature but I'm fully expecting s03 to end with her praising Penelope for being an independent girlboss by the finale (also no comment on the fact that she literally needed a man to spell it out to her that LW isn't the epitome of feminism, shondaland should stay the hell away from approaching social justice issues lmao).

The thing is, Eloise's story in the books is not that of a woman who initially rejects marriage, falls in love and changes her mind. It's the story of a woman who freaks the hell out because she's nearing 30 and still on the self because her best friend (who she was counting would stay on the self with her) got married. So she goes and gets herself compromised with a complete stranger and agrees to marry him because obviously playing housewife for him beats being a spinster (horror of horrors). It's...depressing to say the least. And reeks of anti feminism.

But also, sorry but why do we assume that a woman not wanting to get married is just something reactionary and she just needs to realise that conforming to traditional gender roles isn't actually that bad? I'd sure appreciate more characters who defied gender roles and choosing not to get married in the 19th century was pretty subversive. Hell, not marrying or having kids is subversive af right now for women and frawned upon by society.

In any case my issue with Eloise is that they've planned for her to end up with Philip from the beginning and still doubled down on the “I don't want to get married and have kids thing”. Which just cheapens it so much and reinforces the idea that no woman could actually not want to get married and have kids and she just needs some time to mature and think it better and she'll change her mind. Sort of like how when little girls are tomboys and adults go “its okay she'll grow out of it once she hits puberty” because God forbid she grows up to be a gnc woman!

It reduces her entire character to a damn joke and was completely unnecessary. Not to mention that the independent woman trope would've worked much better on Hyacinth imo– I can totally see her hellbent on not getting married because she doesn't want to relinquish her freedom to any man and then falling in love with Gareth and reconsidering as they build a marriage based on an equal partnership.

[disgracedmilfman]

I just had a conversation with a woman that epitomizes everything wrong with white womanhood (at least to me).

She was horribly sick with ailments I won't expound upon, because it's not my place. We were discussing the failures of the American healthcare system, how it dovetails with racism and sexism, especially the intersection of health and abortion rights.

She started complaining that she couldn't get people in her life to vote. Instead of being sincere and telling her, "it's because we are past the point that voting can make a substantial difference, people are systematically disenfranchised, and both major parties are filled with fascists", I told her something softer. I told her that, like the writers of South Park, most ordinary people who are not experiencing adversity are filled with contempt for anyone with strong and passionate beliefs. Most people are complacent centrists, and want the "fringe" people to stop shouting.

She said, "my grandmother was passionate though, and that's why you have the right to vote". This rankled me because I'm not a fucking woman and present as masculine as I can, but I decided not to pick that fight. Instead, I tried to connect with her about feminism. I said "Oh yeah, the suffragettes planted bombs and shit". With clear admiration.

And she said, "No, we got beaten. We got raped. We were subject to violence."

Once again, I want no part of that goddamn we, but I'll play ball: It's not fucking true. Suffragettes did use violence as they saw fit. Suffragettes smashed windows. They assaulted politicians. They beat Winston Churchill with a horsewhip. They committed arson. Suffragettes planted bombs.

Her entire worldview pivoted on feminine victimhood, and she couldn't even see how badass her forebears were. When they weren't being fucking racist, of course. I want to stress that the suffragettes were indeed racist. To claim them is to claim that mixed legacy, and the blood on their hands, which they fucking deserved to take. Because that's how you get shit done. But she would rather beg people to vote and only remember the violence visited upon women instead.