As long as women’s natural body hair is called disgusting and inappropriate while men’s isn’t, I am a feminist.
As long as I can’t watch an episode of a popular sitcom without having to sit through multiple sexist comments or “jokes”, I am a feminist.
As long as women have to face the rational fear of being sexually assaulted every time they walk home past dark while men don’t, I am a feminist.
As long as misogyny exists in any country in this world, I am a feminist.
As long as women are being raped, then stoned to death or forced to marry their rapist, I am a feminist.
As long as companies promote men to manager when there are women who are equally as or better qualified, because they find that men look more authoritative, I am a feminist.
As long as women (her choice of clothes, her friendly nature, her weakness, her choice to drink alcohol) get blamed when men rape them, I am a feminist.
As long women’s opinions on online social networks are dismissed with phrases like “tits or gtfo”, “get back to the kitchen”, “are you pms’ing?”, I am a feminist.
As long as dressing like a women is degrading for men and as long as men are insulted with phrases like “you throw like a woman”, clearly implying that being like a woman is shameful, I am a feminist.
As long as both men are women are expected to work, but taking care of children and the household are still largely considered a woman’s job, I am a feminist.
As long as boys and girls are treated differently, expected to act differently, and surrounded by different toys and colours from the day they are born, I am a feminist.
As long as topless women aren’t allowed in public unless they’re on the cover of a men’s magazine, I am a feminist.
As long as women who have sex frequently are generally told they are “sluts”, “lacking self-respect” and “lacking morals” by both men and women, while men who frequently have sex are “just being men” and it’s “natural for them”, I am a feminist.
As long as there are places where women have to pay more for health insurance than men, I am a feminist.
As long as men experience situations with equal gender representation as female-dominated, and don’t consider a group discussion equal unless there are significantly more men then women participants (as has been proven), I am a feminist.
As long as there are men who think it’s their wife or girlfriend’s duty to have sex with him whenever he wants, I am a feminist.
As long as the word feminism (“the movement aimed at equal rights for women”) has a negative connotation, I am a feminist.
As long as misogynist people exist, I am a feminist.
(via daysihadwithyou)
You’re RIGHT! The movie Precious, which originally was a novel, does not represent YOU. It was a story, about an African-American young woman, trying to find her way in a world that was abusive, bleak, increasingly isolated and seemingly uncaring of her plight.
However, there were signs of light and hope for her. We leave feeling that maybe, just maybe, when a human being endures the monstrous ugliness Precious experienced, a person can come out the other side and triumph.
That singular story ultimately speaks to humanity’s spirit. I’d like to think that any of us can see/read that and find inspiration.
However, what is unique about the work of Precious is that it is not a typical story told, in Hollywood, or ANYWHERE. Young, disenfranchised black women are ignored and, too often, erased by society and in many cases, their stories are purposefully stepped over to tell stories about young white women and their plights to find a boyfriend, in a sea of mayonnaise men who look like Ryan Reynolds.
The reality is young Women of Color are a group so often ignored; in society, in cultural, legal and political representation, in educational institutions ; that it has become quietly acceptable. We accept that we are under, or worse, completely misrepresented to the universe. We are stepped over, on the daily. It is the construct and fabric of our country and it something that we, as a group, continue to battle.
Your beloved show? Portrays a group of white, privileged women who have never, EVER known or experienced what Precious did. Is that a stain on their character? No. Is that something that should cause them to hang their head in shame? No.
But your show is not unique. Your story, your spoiled, obnoxious, selfish characters? They’re not unique. They’re not special snowflakes that are experiencing something that no one has NEVER known or fully grasped. In fact, sadly, we all know women, sorry, girls like them. And the story you’re telling, we’ve all heard it before. If the only edge you’ve got is that your lead character is not perfectly thin and Hollywood beautiful, then why don’t you click over and watch Mike and Molly, Raising Hope, SNL, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation to watch bright, intelligent, aware women address womanity and humanity with humor and gravitas.
Furthermore, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but your IMDB listing for your glorious show details that EVERY SINGLE Person of Color is nameless and faceless. They are maids, people on the street and homeless. In NEW YORK CITY, in 2012, that is patently wrong, offensive and unfuckingacceptable. The thing about Precious, as a story, is her world was small, but when she expanded her experiences, she encountered SO MUCH, including different people. Imagine that! And that was in the SAME New York you, supposedly, portray.
Do you have eyeballs in your eyeholes? Do you have ANY awareness, whatsoever?
Wait, don’t answer that.
It must be nice to be so self-assured in your assholiness. It must be so comforting to take solace in your sheltered fuckery. It must be SO awesome to be ignorant of the world. I wish I had that luxury. I wish I had the privilege to ignore and discredit other experiences, even ones that I don’t know myself. But I possess some things that clearly evades your grasp. These things include sympathy and empathy, critical thinking, and a curious mind that wishes to step outside of my world. I don’t accept what was handed to me because, welp, I want more. And not just for myself, but for humanity.
It realize it must be hard when you don’t HAVE to do that. And as a Woman of Color, I won’t settle for the shitty hand society deals me. But you shouldn’t either. You shouldn’t mock what others actually live from the comforts of your guilded loft in Lower Manhattan.
You’re right. You were not represented in Precious because Precious was about one woman’s growth and success, despite adversity. It wasn’t a story about a spiteful, hateful dick with no redeemable qualities.
A story none of us need to watch because who wants that anyway.
I’ll take Precious any day and you can go fuck yourself.
Love,
rosasparks
reagan-was-a-horrible-president:
Millions of people all over the USA support this Republican “logic”.
Recall All Republicans 2012!
“We have a serious budget problem, so obviously we need to pass a household rule that if Becky gets knocked up she has to keep the baby. It’s only fair.”
(Source: nohelp)
(Source: daughterofzami, via capriciarae)
Leslie Arfin is a writer for the new show “Girls.” I believe this is a response to critics and online haters raising the question that there are no people of color (or diversity in general) on a show set in New York, where more than 60% of the population is a minority. So this happened.
it’s a good thing ‘girls’ is absolutely awful.
