make love not war.

“All girls continue to be taught when they are young, if not by their parents then by the culture around them, that they must earn the right to be loved — that “femaleness” is not good enough. This is a female’s first lesson in the school of patriarchal thinking and values. She must earn love. She is not entitled. She must be good enough to be loved. And good is always defined by someone else, someone on the outside.”

—	Bell Hooks

Bitchfaces.

You think you're cool? Think again.

Stop. Stop talking. I'm about to slap you.

Do you see these glasses on my face? THEY'RE the reason I'm smarter than you.

I CAN'T SEE.

I JUST SAW FUCKING JUSTIN BIEBER. I'm gonna poo.

I got new glasses! I have horrible vision, 20/300 or something. I'm nearsighted.

sniff the pits

Yoo. This is just a really weird rant. The last two paragraphs are in honor of SlutWalk.

I don't even know what I'm talking about. EW I just drank luke warm milk and it's literally so disgusting I actually want to barf it up. Ew that was so nasty.

The other day/yesterday, in Health and Wellness class, we were talking about what we'd like to talk about (ha). We were also talking about offending people with what we wear, and I was just like, "aw fucking ey." Like, if you wear a shirt that says, like, "DIE REPUBLICANS" obviously that's offensive, but to me, wearing a shirt that has a few swear words on it is entirely not offensive at all. My super best friend Natalie who is awesome, was all like, "How are you supposed to even know what's offensive if we're told to suppress everything we believe in," which is just too genius for words. My school doesn't have a dress code, other than the obvious of like, don't come to school naked, don't promote drugs/alcohol, etc, so I feel like it's really hypocritical of them to tell us we can't wear "offensive clothing" when there aren't even guidelines as to what "offensive" is. I think if a person wears a shirt that expresses an opinion, they have the right to wear it. And OH MY GOD. In middle school, they were like "Your skirts can only be 4 inches above your knee, because otherwise it's distracting for your male classmates AND your male teachers." Um, EXCUSE ME? First of all, don't teach children to be ashamed of their bodies, or that they need to cover up their bodies because the human body is "distracting." Like, what shit heads. Not only that, but WHAT A FUCKING DOUBLE STANDARD. They tell US GIRLS, that we can't show "too much leg/boobage," and yet it's TOTALLY OKAY for guys to sag. I'm not saying guys shouldn't be allowed to sag, I'm saying if girls have to "cover up," then guys should too. I can't wait to bitch slap half the teachers in my middle school. They sucked fucking shit. Obviously there are boundaries, but just SHUT YOUR FACES UGHHH. And ALSO, distracting male teachers? NASTY TO THE EXTREME, EXCUSE ME? HOW NASTY IS THAT? Oh, and then they were all like, "no cleavage." Well, excuse me if some girls have big boobs. Does that mean they need to wear turtlenecks? WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOCIETY?!?!?!?!?!

I'm trying to get back into doing outfit posts and stuff, but my outfits are really boring. I'm just getting really into art as well as doing well in school, and although I love fashion and clothes, I'm sort of tired of experimenting and wearing crazy shit, feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and blah. I completely admire and love the people who are so outgoing with the things they wear, and I've always been like "be like tavi, be fearless" but I feel awkward wearing these really crazy ensembles that don't express who I am. I think I'm just going to allow myself to just naturally fall into step with my style. I think fashion and self expression are beyond important, but I'm also figuring out that there are other ways of expressing yourself other than through getting dressed, such as art and expressing your beliefs and opinions in situations. Like, the other day, my friends and I were talking about how this guy was facebook stalking my friend, and we were just laughing at how it was kinda funny, and then my friend was like "It's okay for girls to facebook stalk, and like really old photos of people, but guys can't do that." And I just said "Well that's a gross double standard."

I also feel like it's really hard to like... express to people why slut shaming is wrong. My friends were talking about how this girl at our school had had sex with this one guy multiple times, they weren't even friends, blah blah, and how she was such a slut. And like, how are you supposed to be like "don't slut shame," because some people may not understand what slut shaming is. It was also annoying because the guy she was having sex with was having sex with the girl just as many times as she was having sex with him, OBVIOUSLY, and yet my friends didn't even blink an eye. I think blogging and Rookie have opened my eyes to so many double standards and so much sexism (and it's sad, because girls can we sooooo sexist towards other girls!) and it's just like, how do you explain to people why it's so wrong?

photo via whitekaffir.tumblr.com

blurbs about power and evolution

The following are some cool passages I found on tumblr. I agree 100% with both. When I was first reading the Riot Grrrl one, I was like "WTF is this shit? How can we be expected to forget about a feminist movement that is awesome?" but then I read the last line, about Riot Grrrl being an evolution I was like FUCK YES. I think rather than obsessing over the Riot Grrrl of the 90s, we need to evolve it and make it valid for today. I encourage everyone to read both blurbs. I know some people consider reading a burden, but this is some cool fucking stuff that I'm sure you will find really interesting and eye opening. Feel free to comment with your thoughts and opinions!

~~~

A reminder on why we need to focus on ourselves, rather than others. Written by Cassie.

No, for real. We do. I love riot grrrl as much as the next girl in a band who does the occasional Bratmobile cover. But let’s put that scene to rest. Let’s leave it in the ’90s.

There’s a whole different scene these days— with some of the old spirit, but with some new faces, the new forum that is the internet, new possibilities for gender expression, some new experiences (and not-so-new-experiences, like racism) that the old riot grrrls never really spoke to. 

I think about this a lot, with my comic Riot Grrrl Problems, which I’ve hit a stand-still with. Because I, as a Latina, am really trying to wrestle with the idea of tackling race in what’s supposed to be a funny comic. I thought of revealing Katie as someone who had a brown mother, but I realized the whole point of the cartoon is “White Girl Problems” with a punk filter. I want my white protagonist to say something racist at a show. I want her to be confronted with brown punx in her precious white space, and I want her to handle it poorly, I want her to think about the stuff she’s never wanted to think about, I want her to grow the fuck up because at some point, all riot grrrls have to grow the fuck up, all of them are gonna have to face a world that they’re not familiar with, people who don’t care about their zines or their music or their circular discussions about how it’s perfectly a-okay to like sex.

Riot grrrls started their scene because they wanted it to grow and to evolve. So let’s do it. Let’s come up with something good.

~~~

“In pop culture, girls who crush hopelessly on guys they can’t have are painted as just that – hopeless. Over and over again, we’re taught that girls who openly express sexual or romantic interest in guys who don’t want them are pitiable, stalkerish, desperate, crazy bitches. More often than not, they’re also portrayed as ugly – whether physically, emotionally or both – in order to further establish their undesirability as an objective fact. Both narratively and, as a consequence, in real life, men are given free reign to snub, abuse, mislead and talk down to such women: we’re raised to believe that female desire is unseemly, so that any consequent shaming is therefore deserved. There is no female-equivalent Friend Zone terminology because, in the language of our culture, a man’s romantic choices are considered sacrosanct and inviolable. If a girl has been told no, then she has only herself to blame for anything that happens next – but if a woman says no, then she must not really mean it. Or, if she does, she shouldn’t: the rejected man is a universally sympathetic figure, and everyone from moviegoers to platonic onlookers will scream at her to justgive him a chance, as though her rejection must always be unfounded rather than based on the fact that he had a chance, and blew it. And even then, give him another one! The pathos of Single Nice Guys can only be eased by pity-sex with unwilling women that blossoms into romance!”

—	Lamenting the Friendzone, or: The Nice Guy Approach to Perpetuating Sexist Bullshit  (via waschbar)

boys and girls and gender

The whole concept of gender is just really weird. Two different types of humans/animals in general, male and female, and our society has defined male and female. It's sick and twisted and confusing. Society has told us that there is a right way to be a girl and a right way to be a boy. Gender stereotypes go both ways, and the stereotypes are very evident in both genders when depicted in society. I don't want to go into what these stereotypes are, but I just find it so weird that being a girl is THIS and being a boy is THAT. I don't think our bodies should make us so different, which is why it's so hard for me to grasp why two people with the same body can't be married legally. Gender isn't even REAL. It's just a figment used to explain the differences between the bodies of males and females. It definitely ties in with equality, but if people are still striving for equality, why do we still even have GENDER? Gender shouldn't even exist! Or should I say, the stereotypes and the ties that define gender shouldn't exist. I am a girl, you are a boy. My name is Eva, yours can be Tom. Other than that, we are completely the same. We are different people, but we are the same. I think sexist people, and misogynists, like... they're hating themselves. We are one species, and we are all connected. If you hate black people or white people or gay people or girls or boys or whatever, you are really just hating yourself, because those people are YOU. Racism and sexism and all that shit is just ridiculous. You are hating what you are, and you are hating the evolution of what you and what your species has become. I'm honestly just so confused right now, and I feel like what I wrote is really confusing because my thoughts are still jumbled and spastic. POOP. GENDER JUST SHOULDN'T EXIST. Because if two girls/two guys can't get married, I shouldn't even be able to marry a boy because we are all the same! We are ONE, which sounds cheesy and annoying but gender is just a figment and a cliché. I love being a girl, but I also hate the stereotypes that come with being a girl. Everything you feel you need to do is a stereotype, and everything you feel you need to do that a guy doesn't need to do is a stereotype, other than like, tampons and periods and stuff like that. A lot of girls don't feel pretty without makeup, because this stereotype has been formed that girls look prettier with makeup than without, while with guys it's "weird" if they wear makeup, and it's all just a big load of stereotype crap! It ties back with "there is no right way to be a girl/guy" but it's so much more than that! Like, of course if you're a girl you can look as masculine as you want if that's what you like, but it goes so much deeper, because the fact that the word masculine is more so a descriptive word for guys than girls, and that when it's used to describe girls it's basically saying they look more androgynous and "manly" or whatever is a stereotype and a double standard and is just discrimination within the whole field of gender. Like, why is masculine a descriptive word for males, or used to address males? And how come when it's used to describe girls it's saying they look like a dude? And when people say guys look feminine, it's saying they look like girl, which is just generalizing a shitload because a lot of girls do or choose to look "masculine!" Like, WHAT IS THIS?!?

I'm probably reading into this too much but I'm just questioning a lot of stuff, which I think is fine. My opinions may make no sense and be weird and totally obscure, but I'm okay with that because at least I'm attempting to question what is right and wrong and just society in general. What do you guys think about this, and what I just talked about?

And, since life shouldn't be this or that and life should just be LIFE, I will once again post one of my favorite songs and music videos by Noah and the Whale called Life is Life.