[My main Tumblr can be found over at myasphyxiatedmind]
If you want your ask replied to privately, just put '****' before you start typing.
My name is: Michelle, but most people call me Dark online.
My gender-pronouns are: They/them/their.
I am: 26 years old, a feminist, liberal, an atheist, an omnivore, and an ISFJ.
The Feminist: Intersectional, body positive, pro-choice, and sex positive.
My privileged identities include: Female assigned at birth (trans* privilege), white, able-bodied, allistic (?), dyadic, monogamous.
My non-privileged/oppressed identities include: Gender-fluid, fat, gray-a, neuroatypical, and gay.
I have: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder.
I like: Pets & animals, animal welfare, pet care & pet care education, ~*SCIENCE!*~, anatomy & physiology, roleplaying, anime/manga, computer & video games, rock & metal music.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
It only took Pokémon 14 years to have a black NPC and 17 years to allow you to play as a POC. So inspirational.
prior to gen 5 all of the games took place in japan. how many black people do you see in japan
They took place in the Pokémon world. How many redheaded Water-type gym leaders do you see in Japan?oh snap~
boston police looking for a “dark-skinned or black male with a black backpack, wearing a black sweatshirt”
please watch out for your brothers, fathers, sons, and loved ones
keep them inside tonight
You’re Probably Not Really a Nice Guy (x)
(Source: i-like-blue-boxes)
Redefining Body Image: sistahmamaqueen: followers, i need your help. please re-blog and share...
followers, i need your help. please re-blog and share w/ anyone who might be willing to help!
a few of you have heard about my independent study that i’m doing this semester focused on the commodification of trans women of color bodies specifically in regards to sex work.
a portion of my independent study is to conduct 2 oral history interviews.
the most important part of this is getting the practice, I hope that I don’t have to use the interviews for my final paper, but it is a possibility because it’s been extremely hard to find any sort of materials or evidence focused on trans women of color doing sex work.
i’m looking for some folks to interview [this can be over the phone or skype] and in order to be eligible:
- be a trans woman of color
- have been involved in or currently involved in sex work [any forms acceptable]
a little bit about me: Lexi, a fierce and amazing trans woman of color and femme. Currently a senior in Women & Gender Studies at San Francisco State University.
Little disclaimer: As a student I don’t have funding and this isn’t an official research project, however if you require some form of compensation for your time I am definitely willing to cook you something or send you a small gift card of your choice.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask!
Thanks!
It is true, of course, that white guys do not have a monopoly on appalling behavior. There are plenty of young black and Latino boys who are equally desperate to prove their manhood, to test themselves before the watchful evaluative eyes of other guys. But only among white boys do the negative dynamics of Guyland seem to play themselves out so invisibly. Often, when there’s news of young black boys behaving badly, the media takes on a “what can you expect?” attitude, failing to recognize that expecting such behavior from black men is just plain racism. But every time white boys hit the headlines, regardless of how frequently, there is an element of shock, a collective, “How could this happen? He came from such a good family!” Perhaps not identifying the parallel criminal behavior amoung white guys adds an additional cultural element to the equation: identification. Middle-class white families see the perpetrators as “our guys.” We know them, we are them, they cannot be like that.
Michael Kimmel, “Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men” (via lavenderlabia)
(Source: damn-iwasgoingforthoughtful)
When PoC say they don’t mind your racist shit:
I used to be the one who said, “I don’t mind.”
”I’m Asian and I don’t mind”
“I’m a woman and I don’t mind”
“I’m queer and I don’t mind”
- So why don’t the rest of you just lighten the fuck up.
In fact, I’m Asian and I think it’s funny.
It’s just a joke.
You say it because there is a place inside of you that hurts and it shouldn’t.
You think it’s weak. You think, who the fuck cares?
Maybe you say it because you’ve heard it so many times that you’ve become desensitized to hurt, and you accept it as normal.
Or maybe you say it because you’ve made yourself blind to injustices so you never hurt at all.
I laughed. I laughed at the jokes and the stereotypes. I laughed because I made myself laugh, and the sound of it covered up my discomfort, and my shame.
When you laugh enough, laughing becomes second nature.
Not caring becomes second nature. And then, you eye everyone who does care with disdain. They have no sense of humor. They’re too sensitive. You’re better than them. They make the rest of us look bad.
They’re being a bad minority.
or
They’re so annoying. They’re the reason why people hate feminists.
What I actually meant when I said “I don’t mind” is:
Please accept me
Please think I’m special
Please make me one of you
And what they heard when I said “I don’t mind” is that it’s okay.
It’s okay to laugh at someone for being Asian - my mother, father, my grandparents; my cousins, my aunts, my uncles.
It’s okay to laugh at women - my mother, my sisters, my friends
It’s okay to laugh at queers - my friends, my lovers
Because they’re friends with a PoC, you see, so they can’t actually be racist, especially if their friend is okay with it.
I said it was okay. So it must be.
Everyone else is just oversensitive. Everyone else is just uptight.
What they heard when I said “I don’t mind” is that if you mind, you don’t matter. Your experiences don’t matter. Because they have this friend who said it was okay.
What I meant when I said “I don’t mind”:
I want to laugh with you; I don’t want to be laughed at.
And what I didn’t know was that just because I didn’t mind, it didn’t make me special. When you laughed at those people, that included me, too.
And what they don’t tell you when you say “I don’t mind,” is that from that moment on, you will be championed as a representative of an entire race/gender/orientation/identity. And your words of “I don’t mind,” or “I think it’s funny” will be used as an example, to put down countless others of other races/genders/orientations.
To say “I don’t mind” is not what makes you strong. It takes far more strength to care, and address the issues. It takes courage to look unpopular, to look “humorless” or to be a “bad minority.”
We should mind. It does matter. If more people minded, instead of feeling like they didn’t have to, then maybe people would start seeing that there is a very real problem.
File Under: Things white people will never feel/understand as they never have to face being ‘othered’ (and no, being a white person in a mostly POC/queer space does not count; you’re still white and still hold the “power”).
People believe that little white kids in the suburbs have the right to live. They have the right to be happy. They have the right to peace. When it comes to black babies in urban neighborhoods, people don’t believe these children deserve to have similar rights. When people say things like ‘I can’t believe this would happen here,’ they are effectively saying that there are some neighborhoods where these tragic outcomes are far more acceptable. I reject this notion entirely, and it is reflective of both white supremacy and classism.
Boyce Watkins, “The World Cries for Newtown’s Children, but Few of Us Think About Dead Brown Babies” (via lavenderlabia)
(Source: maarnayeri)
(tw: pic of desecration of a WoC by white people in the link)
Scientists examine a 15-year-old girl who lived in the Inca Empire, then was sacrificed and remained frozen for 500 years….
Unearthed in 1999 from the 22,000-foot summit of Mount Llullaillaco, a volcano 300 miles west of here near the Chilean border, their frozen bodies were among the best preserved mummies ever found, with internal organs intact, blood still present in the heart and lungs, and skin and facial features mostly unscathed. No special effort had been made to preserve them. The cold and the dry, thin air did all the work. They froze to death as they slept, and 500 years later still looked like sleeping children, not mummies.This is “the maiden” and she is extraordinary. After a CAT scan or two it was determined that she had tuberculosis. Do you know what this means?!?!? It means that tuberculosis was a preexisting condition and not initially brought over to the Americas by Europeans. WOW
I spent hours researching these children a few years back and I have to say, everything about this is extraordinary
Nope, nope nope nope nope nope. I do not like these pictures. They skeeve me out. POC bodies are desecrated by white people even beyond their graves. This disgusts me so much.
wow. this legit turned my stomach.
Especially when any random person can buy POC skulls to decorate your bathroom or for your loved one this holiday season!
Our dead bodies are never safe.
Supreme Court in Mexico unanimously strikes down marriage ban
In a potentially groundbreaking move yesterday, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling striking down a ban on same-sex marriage in the state of Oaxaca, potentially paving the way for an eventual marriage equality law in the rest of the country.
The ruling changes the civil code in Oaxaca to define marriage as between “two people” rather than between a man and a woman.
The court ruled in favor of three same-sex couples who sued the state of Oaxaca for the right to marry. The ruling does not immediately eliminate marriage bans in other Mexican states, but it does set a legal precedent to begin challenging statewide marriage bans, according to the blog AfterMarriage.
While many Mexican states still have marriage bans on the books, in 2010 the nation’s capital, Mexico City, began serving gay and lesbian couples with marriage licenses. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court ruled that marriages performed in Mexico City must be recognized by every other state in the country, due to a constitutional clause that requires states to recognize contracts performed in other jurisdictions.
Woohoo! Decisions like this can be a huge deal to the rest of the country in time, so let’s hope this means good news is on the way for Mexico.
Guess this debunks the whole “people of color are stopping marriage equality” myth. STEP IT UP AMERICA!
If a black woman and a white woman both need emergency obstetric care, a Brazilian doctor will assist the white woman because of the stereotype that black women are better at handling pain and are used to giving birth.
Read the rest of the study at the link, with details on how this racism in healthcare plays out.
(via redlightpolitics)
