The idea that being born with a penis/testicles means that you’re biologically programmed to be an aggressive, domineering, violent, selfish asshole and there’s simply no way to avoid it is patriarchal propaganda meant to excuse men’s violence (especially against women), and to convince women to blame themselves when men are violent against them, and any feminist who tries to repackage this view in their analysis of “biological sex” is what 11/10 experts call a sucker
Not to mention that numerous anthropological accounts have already disproven any kind of ‘natural’ relationship between ‘biological sex’ and cultural behavior. Thinking that ‘biological sex’ has a universal set of behaviors cross-culturally is not only ethnocentric but complicit in reproducing colonialist and imperialist discourses that work to impose a EuroAmericanist worldview, by force, onto others.
Some of Ontario’s most influential universities and colleges are members of a business lobby group calling for the full repeal of Bill 148, which includes laws designed to protect domestic abuse victims and prevent employers from forcing sexist dress codes on women.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce is Ontario’s leading business lobby and is callingfor a full repeal of the bill. The Chamber is comprised of numerous businesses and institutions who make up its membership.
According to the membership directory website, the Chamber’s membership includes influential universities such as the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and York University.
there’s this guy on twitter who floods the timelines of women who are getting rape threats from the alt-right with pictures of his very cute dog tucker
he calls it the ‘daily tucker service’ & ppl who are looking to drown out hate in their timelines can subscribe to it.
I just thought that you should know, in case you were losing faith in humanity.
I love that he is simultaneously this guy and the guy who can barely get out the word “lovemaking” when describing what Take Me To Church is about during a radio interview
When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:
“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”
Any now whenever anyone in my life, either a friend or a client, frustrates me, disappoints me, or pisses me off, I just tell myself They are doing their best. Their best isn’t that great today, but I have days where my best isn’t that great either.
Op I’d like to thank you for sharing this. Ever since the first time I’ve read it I’ve held it in my mind and it really has helped me to be kinder to others and to myself.
I feel like a lot of well-intentioned people make a lot of very grave mistakes because of the fundamental misconception that violence is always only discrete acts between individuals – and the related misconception that every interaction starts out with a clear slate and remains nonviolent until one individual personally physically attacks another.
Without an understanding of systemic violence, someone resisting violence is going to look like they’re initiating it.
It scales up and down. If you don’t see the environment of terror an abuser fosters, a victim resisting control looks like they’re starting fights. If you don’t understand that someone is hoarding tonnes of food they can’t possibly eat while their neighbours starve, it looks like the starving person is initiating injustice when they steal a little back to survive.
If we want to successfully survive and resist fascism, we need to educate people about the very concept of systemic violence.
We need to talk about it over and over again, until every single person has been introduced to the idea that violence can be in the background working away, that it can happen bureaucratically, that exploitation is violence and hoarding resources is violence and that championing a violent cause is already violence even before the first physical strike.
We need to educate people about what violence is, so that they have the context necessary to even see huge injustice occurring, let alone resist it in the name of reducing violence – instead of holding back out of the fear that to resist is to initiate violence.
Violence is already happening, and inaction supports it. On the understanding of that fundamental fact hinges all hope of ending it.
i think an aspect of rape culture that we don’t talk about often enough is the whole myth that ur first time is supposed to be painful and a bloody mess. like i know the myth itself has been addressed and debunked many times but we don’t talk about how intrinsically that is linked with rape culture. the normalisation of sex that causes physical harm and pain from the minute u become sexually active is so tragic and awful? like generations of girls have been lied to and told that it’s ok for you to physically suffer during ur first time having sex and so many boys have been convinced it’s not their responsibility to make sure that like….doesn’t happen? the number of conversations i’ve had with girl friends and we’ve exchanged stories of our first times and so many of them were in so much pain they told their partner to stop and he was like “dw it’s supposed to hurt” and carried on…..? or friends who casually mention bleeding for literally days afterwards ??? like that’s something that’s totally normal and not a sign of serious physical trauma? rape culture is honestly so disgusting and so pervasive and women have to put up with so much and im like so tired of it
The vast majority of women who bled during their first time with PIV, or their first few times, were actually bleeding from their interior vaginal walls because they weren’t aroused enough for penetration. The hymen exists to protect the interior of the vagina during fetal development and it begins to wear away starting at birth. Most women who are ready and going slow will not experience any pain let alone bleeding. It’s not a “safety seal” for a woman’s sexuality.
This is all so heartbreakingly true. The first time I had sex he got MAD that i didnt bleed because he thought I lied about being a virgin. I tried to tell him I was just really turned on and it felt good for my first time but he broke up with me shortly after because “ All girls are suppose to bleed their first time, its how we know theyre pure” LEGIT THAT WAS THE REASON.
Queer Fiction Writer 