what-i-call-a-blog1

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash—and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed.

nathaniel hawthorne whining and pissing himself in eighteen fifty five over the fact that women were writing better and more popular stories than his shit shit shit trash shit piece of shit awful didactic shit novels (via sashayed)

this again bc //selfie culture// in 1855

(via bananaleaves)

#REAL TALK #women have been very successful writers since the eighteenth century at least#like commercially #making bank #and COMPLETELY COINCIDENTALLY around the same time we see the rise of a new definition of ‘culture’ #that begins to separate out the idea of ‘real’ art from commercial success #HMMMM #always distrust that rhetoric #100% of the time (via zlot)

^^^^^YEP. i think a lot of people are under the impression that like, the reason there are so few women on class reading lists and in anthologies when it comes to pre-WWII american literature is just because it was difficult and rare for a woman to get writing published, and extra hard for a woman to become a critical and/or popular success as a writer. THIS IS LITERALLY A HUGE LIE. 

in america in particular, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it’s super common to see literary magazines publishing more poetry and fiction written by women than by men. the number of women publishing books of poetry, essays, fiction, social commentary, you name it, was like…ridiculous it’s so big. an actual fuckton of the best-selling american novelists, poets, and essayists of the nineteenth century were women. and this carries through into the beginning of the 20th century. and it’s not solely upper-class white women getting published: between like, 1860-1935/40, a number of black women were publishing works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, a few native american women were getting published, LITERALLY LIKE A MILLION “pioneer moms” published memoirs (so. many. pioneer. mom. memoirs.), and working class women were writing nonfiction, social commentary, memoirs, and poetry. SO MUCH THINGS. 

the reason this isn’t reflected in people’s class reading lists or in big “canon” anthologies is basically because pretentious “literary” white mens have spent the last half-century or more writing AND teaching that ENTIRE nineteenth century genres/styles of literature are the definition of trashy bad unoriginal cliched writing. 

and those ENTIRE genres/styles they summarily kicked out of the “real literature” club just happen to be disproportionately made up of works written by women. so much very coincidences, right? hahahaha NOT. just some 100% prime calculated misogyny, racism and classism. 

but it’s not like i have feelings about that or anything. nope. no feelings here. feel free to move along, nothing to see here, have a nice day. 

(via this-reading-by-lightning)

AHHHHH I read an article this week about women’s language and history and writing by Gilbert & Gubar and it’s just full of his butt-hurt men getting their strop on because women have started to write.  Hemingway’s shitty poem about women poets really did confirm that I DO NOT LIKE HIM.

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

one part of the male gender role I can’t stand is thinking that being irritating and pissing women off is funny???? every man I’ve met thinks that’s hilarious and gets mad when I’m not into it. like why did no one teach them to shut the fuck up

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

When I was 17 my appendix ruptured because I thought I was just having period cramps and didn’t go to the hospital so don’t tell me PMS symptoms are no big deal

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

I mean, once you start overachieving, people expect things from you. Like what people? You know, the world… Teachers, parents, other kids.

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

how can you not see ableism as a feminist issue

autistic girls, especially black autistic girls, are misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed because of the focus on white cis boys and how they present as autistic

disabled girls and women often have their consent violated, both in medical procedures and otherwise, our bodies and minds are often not considered are own and we are dismissed as not having the capacity to make our own decisions

on top of that many disabled girls are seen as delusional and their speaking out about the abuse they have face, by whatever communication method, is often seen as them making things up and over reacting

many disabled women are fetishised and seen as an outrageous ‘thing’ to fuck, but are not seen as human

disabled girls, especially physically disabled girls, do not live up to ideas of beauty in our society and often have extreme self esteem issues

disabled women and girls face more shit than you could ever know and I need you to understand

Ableism. Is. A. Feminist. Issue.

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

Thinking about compulsory heterosexuality as it applies to wlw is so interesting to me because women’s heterosexuality is built on so much more than just “you must be attracted to men” because it’s often really tightly bound up with “you must be attractive to men.” And the thing is that those two things are so closely associated that they kind of become interchangeable with one another?

It’s why women who don’t put in the work needed to meet heteronormative standards of beauty are called lesbians and it’s also why some lesbians are told they’re too pretty to be lesbians because it’s assumed that if you are attractive to men then you must seek out that attraction because you like them and vice versa.

But the need to look pretty (for men, it’s implied) is reinforced on so many other levels besides that; like men will dismiss your opinions by saying you’re probably not attractive, you learn how to do makeup from this super early age, you’re told that you wont get a job unless you show up to the interview emulating a really specific type of femininity.

And eventually this becomes so automatic that you don’t even know that you’re doing it; for a long time I would meet a guy and immediately wonder if he liked my hair or if my makeup looked too overdone or if my shirt was too tight. And because attraction and a desire to be attractive were so linked in my head, I just assumed for a long time that I was more attracted to men and attracted to a lot more of them than I am. Because if I was worried about how I looked around them that must mean I was attracted to them, right?

It’s taken me a really long time to sort through that impulse, and I still reflexively do it when I meet some guys. This isn’t because I find them attractive; it’s just that I’ve grown up in a society that’s told me over and over and over again that my worth is measured in my appeal to men.

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

At 23, JK Rowling was broke. Tina Fey was working at the Y.M.C.A. Oprah had just gotten fired from her first job as a TV reporter and Walt Disney had declared bankruptcy.

Read This If You’re 23 And Lost by Heidi Priebe (via twentysomethingstate)

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

For years I have pulled stars from my body: Here is the joy, here is the grief, here is the slaughter I have shaped into stars. I have polished the stars & buried them.

Jeremy Radin, from the “Dear Sal” series, published in Nailed Magazine  (via gaypreaker)

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

Diverse YA reads for each sign:

Aquarius: MORE HAPPY THAN NOT by Adam Silvera Pisces: OTHERBOUND by Corinne Duyvis Aries: ORLEANS by Sherri Smith Taurus: SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli Gemini: WRITTEN IN THE STARS by Aisha Saeed Cancer: LIES WE TELL OURSELVES by Robin Talley Leo: AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir Virgo: ABOUT A GIRL by Sarah McCarry Libra: UNDER THE LIGHTS by Dahlia Adler Scorpio: NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED by Hannah Moskowitz Sagittarius: UNDER A PAINTED SKY by Stacey Lee Capricorn: SERPENTINE by Cindy Pon All the above are recently published, brand new and shiny! More diverse: black YA leads! Hispanic / Latina / Latino YA leads! East / Southeast Asian YA leads! Queer YA leads! Genderqueer and transgender YA leads! And many moooooore~

[what-i-call-a-blog1]

All too often women believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget. In actuality, when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of harm’s way.

bell hooks (via copstab)

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It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (via theashleyclements)

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