stelmarias:

To JK Rowling, From Cho Chang, by Rachel Rostad (x) 

pocproblems:

This isn’t what it sounds like. I’m not going to point out some racism that I saw while I was watching spongebob but I am going to try to make a parallel between the episode Squirrel Jokes and why racist (sexist, homophobic, etc.) jokes are harmful and not to be taken lightly. 

This is my unorthodox way of illustrating why telling people to “lighten up” isn’t going to cut it. I thought using spongebob might simplify things.

So you have this friend, right? They aren’t too witty, not the funniest person in the world. They’re trying to tell these jokes and none of them are hitting. So they turn to the obvious: the racist joke. The joke based off of a racist stereotype. The one that will be an immediate hit with any bigot because “brown people! What’s up with that??”

And people are laughing! People think this joke is hilarious. This laughter is encouragement. This laughter is justification that what your friend said is totally cool because look at all the people who are totally cool with it.

But you’re not feeling totally cool with it… You’re surrounded by people who are laughing at you. Who are laughing at your friends and your family. And you’re singled out and alone. You laugh along but you feel dirty and ashamed. 

So you talk to your friend when the two of you are alone. But what does your friend say? Lighten up. Lighten up and laugh at yourself. The joke was harmless! So you believe them and just go on with your life.

But then you’re out in public again and you hear people whispering behind your back. You hear them whispering the same prejudices and stereotypes that were the center of your friend’s joke! Have these jokes really affected people’s perceptions so much? Are they really internalizing these stereotypes and basing you and your entire character on something that was supposedly a joke? How can it be a joke if it hurts you like this? How can it have been a joke if people are touting it like it’s fact?

And then people are passing these stereotypes along to their children. The absolute kicker. That joke? That light-hearted joke? Has just infiltrated the minds of the next generation. That joke has perpetuated a racist and dehumanizing stereotype. And now not only will you be dealing with racism from people your age, but from their children as well. 

Hope this clears some stuff up, I tried to make it as simple as possible.

irresistible-revolution:

pugletto:

When you guys ask, I deliver.

I think especially in the case of digital art, there are ways to correct the whole “whitewashing because of lighting/filters” thing. Oftentimes it’s as easy as setting a lightblue layer to act as a universal shadow, for dark images. Kind of like laying a wash, with traditional art. It’s all about foundation.

Color theory is important because certain colors act and look differently on different backgrounds. It’s up to us to acknowledge this sometimes and accommodate for any potential “loss of skintone” against the backdrops we implement.

^^^

unrealisticfangirlfantasy:

confidentinmyskinn:

rhosyncalypso:

weasleyappreciationblog:

nick-lang-is-twilight-sparkle:

the-feminist-librarian:

feministdykeslut:

slutshamersonfb:

TRIGGER WARNING

This is a Scottish anti-rape PSA that is a direct response to blaming a rape victim for dressing like a slut. What do you think? Is it effective?

ummmmm YES.

we need PSA’s like this in the U.S. asap. this video gets to the point of what rape culture is and is very serious about it.

WIN WIN WIN WIN

Wow, absolutely. This was amazing, and it was only thirty seconds.

this is fantastic

This!! Show this in the states! 

Fucking brilliant

brilliant.

anwarsdreams:

gifsfln:

Jon Stewart, sounding more and more like a politician at the Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium with Bill O’Reilly.

Follow GIFs From Last Night on Twitter | Tumblr

womenwhokickass:

Catiria Reyes “Lady Catiria”: Why she kicks ass

• She was a Puerto Rican drag performer, film actress, and transgender beauty pageant winner, who was one of the main performers at the New York City Latino nightclub La Escuelita, where she entertained crowds for almost two decades. She was the first person to win two titles at the Miss Continental pageant in Chicago, and was an advocate for AIDS awareness.
• She announced that she was HIV positive at the 1996 Miss Continental show during her last performance as reigning title holder.For this, she had a $1,800 gown made, which was plain black with an AIDS ribbon in rhinestones as the collar. She also had her crown done over in red to match. She played a prerecorded tape, explaining that she was sick and needed everyone’s support, and then did her number. Over 2,000 people attended this performance.
• In addition to winning many beauty pageants across the nation, she is the only “queen” to have embraced the Miss Continental Plus (For Plus sized Models)in 1993, a crown she took home ~ then set her sights on the original Miss Continental, lost weight and become that years Miss Continental, a feat that never repeated again by anyone.
  She was crowned Miss Continental in 1995, the most prestigious of all drag queen pageants in America.
• Numerous drag queens and transgender performers such as Candis Cayne, Angel Sheridan, and Mistress Maddie have credited Lady Catiria for her role as a mentor and friend.

guerrillamamamedicine:

New Egyptian TV channel - ‘Mariya’ - featuring only fully face-veiled women [Niqabis Only] - Ahram Online

akio:

The first Egyptian satellite channel completely operated by women wearing the full face veil (niqab) is set to be launched 20 July, which will coincide with the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The channel will be named “Mariya” after one of Prophet Mohamed’s wives, who was a Coptic Egyptian freed slave.  A full niqabi film crew will manage and operate the channel, including TV presenters, producers, directors and correspondents.

The channel will air its programmes through the ultra-conservative Islamic Umma Channel for six hours every day. The majority of the programming will focus on the niqab and married life.

The channel will be exclusively managed by women. Men will be prohibited from working in or appearing on Mariya, and even participating in phone-ins during live programmes.

El-Sheikha Safaa Refai, a preacher who will head the channel, said that Mariya programmes aim to educate Muslim women about their religion.

“Our message will be directed at Muslim women, to teach them the Sunna (practices) of the Prophet Mohamed,” Refai told Al-Ahram Arabic news portal Thursday.

Refai pointed out that this is not the first time niqabi women work in the media, adding that they have already been working as presenters in several religious channels over the past few years.

She insisted that the niqab is the proper Muslim attire as stipulated by Islamic Sharia law.

Refai went on to label any woman who does not wear the full face veil as “uncovered,” stressing that theniqab is a “red line” that cannot be crossed.

She indicated that Mariya plans to feature only niqabi pundits. However, if the channel airs a programme about an issue and cannot find a niqabi expert, they will host a non-niqabi and give them two options: either to wear the niqab temporarily during the programme, or have their faces blurred out while the programme is being broadcast.

However, Refai added that this does not mean that they will be “excluding anyone” explaining that Mariya aims to bring back the dignity of niqabi women who were oppressed and fired from their jobs over the past few decades.

Among the programmes that will be featured on Mariya is “Memoires of a woman,” which will discuss marital infidelity, with the focus on women cheating on their husbands.

The channel currently has 30 niqabi TV presenters. They also have a temporary male director, Mohamed Dunia, who will be replaced with a niqabi woman soon, according to Refai. Similarly, the “uncovered” camerawomen Mariya has hired for the timebeing will also soon be replaced.

The head cover (hijab), the more common Islamic attire in Egypt, was banned on Egyptian TV channels during the Mubarak era. It was, however, common in a variety of religious satellite channels.

News about Mariya caused shockwaves across the Egyptian media sector.

and 

Refai refused to reveal who is funding the channel.

gingerhaze:

Hunger Games comics! Spoilers maybe.

feministdisney:

The Muppets Feminist Disney Mini-Review

Overall Score: 2.7 out of 4 (see details at bottom)

This will be a review with a bit less depth (“mini”?) because I normally re-wind a lot when I’m writing but since I just saw this in a theatre a week ago I can only work off of that (so apologies if I paraphrase instead of correctly quoting, etc).

I liked that the first time we see Mary in the movie, she’s teaching the kids how to put a car together!   She rolls out from under it with a wrench or something in hand in order to say hi to her boyfriend and all the kids Boo when she tells them it’s time for Spring Break or whatever.    I just thought that was a cool moment because it’s exactly what you don’t expect when you find out she’s a sweet, pretty school teacher (the preferred job of many of women in romantic movies? lol…).   

Although I’m always wary of missing a line somewhere, I’m pretty sure this movie doesn’t pass the Bechdel test.   And even though there are some female muppets (Janice), the vast majority of them are male and so Miss Piggy often ends up being the token female among the muppets, which I can only imagine would have been more pronounced/noticeable if it wasn’t for Mary’s presence in the movie.

And more from here:
“Unfortunately, the movie seemed to struggle a bit with how much independence to give its women characters. While Miss Piggy continues to use both karate chops and more traditionally feminine wiles to get her way, and Mary repairs cars and electrical circuits without breaking a sweat, the two have the same ultimate goal: marriage.”

“One of my biggest issues with these two  having the same motivation is that they both only have One motivation and goal. All the other (male) characters have more than one goal and motivation throughout the movie.   Walter wants to save the theater, reunite the Muppets, and find his place. Gary wants to be with Mary, and he wants his brother to be happy but struggles with maybe having to let go of him. Kermit wants to save the theater, be with the family that is the Muppets and re-kindle his relationship with Miss Piggy. Even Animal has two goals: wanting to save the theater AND to control his wild side.   -Bitch Flicks

On the other hand, both Miss Piggy and Mary are fairly assertive in their desires and are willing to leave, rather than linger, if the situation with their boyfriends is ultimately not in line with their relationship expectations.   A positive take on Kermit’s character:

“Jim Henson created Kermit in the Free To Be You and Me-fueled culture of the ‘70s, when people were itching for different role models for kids—ones that didn’t play into the tired gender stereotypes of previous decades. As a mother of a son? I totally appreciate that. Kermit is a relatable character that my son can look up to.” -Bitch Magazine

Someone noted when I previously posted about seeing The Muppets is that “the Moopets” (fake puppets their businessman enemy wants to replace them with) seemed to exhibit some problematic stereotypes.  

The fake Piggy seemed to illustrate either some trans stereotyping or queer stereotyping /villianizing (from the Bechdel test on the Muppets: “It was my impression that “Miss Poogy” is a male character (boar?) in drag.”); when I saw it I thought she was just supposed to look like a stereotypical “hardened older woman” (which is some stereotypes in itself) but most on other sites say it was supposed to be a stereotype of a drag queen or a trans* woman (because it is a stereotype and not a reflection of reality, the lines in how these different identities are presented/which ones is being alluded to, are sometimes blurred). And the fake Rowlf just seemed like he was supposed to be… black??    Neither of these things are, obviously, bad, but it’s bad when the antagonists in this film are- as often happens in movies- coded as being things society typically sees as less ideal.   It reinforces the subconscious notions people have that such people are “seedy” etc. when a movie chooses to portray them as criminalish, mean “low lives” intent on ruining the purity of the Muppet brand or w/e.   It can also be rather otherizing; I would have never assumed Rowlf the dog was “white,” and yet the fact that his evil version is “black” seems to suggest that most of the characters are de-facto white unless otherwise noted.

  The evil businessman’s later statement/mini-speech about the Moopets indicated that they were “edgy” and “what the world is looking for now” while the Muppets were too innocent and wholesome.   “Edgy” and “urban” in our culture are basically code words in advertising for “I’m going to use black people in this commercial to appeal to an urban market,” and the fact that many of the Moopets are dressed like rap icons doesn’t seem to do anything except reinforce the idea that things like rap are being “forced on us” by bad businessman who don’t understand our real desires for… [white] wholesomeness?

That whole section is not completely clear to me so it might be over-critiquing it but it did feel like a very… particular set of characteristics were given to the Moopets.

Some of the humor in this movie seemed to center in a lot more 90s/less PC understanding of the world.   Another section that grated a little was the “hobo Joe” or whatever he was named who randomly showed up in the audience when they’re having their big debue.  No- what actually happens is, hee shows up and establishes trash cans and a nice little hobo fire.   And him being a hobo there is just supposed to be “really funny” because hobos and homeless people are just haha weird!   They also make a point in the movie of joking about how he doesn’t count- Kermit is bemoaning the lack of audience and Hobo Joe exclaims, “Hey!  I’m right here!”   So, while it’s understandable Kermit wanted more than 3 people in the audience, having “hobo Joe” respond with this does reference the reality that homeless people are often assumed to “not really count” as people that matter.   And then at the end of the movie they have Jack Black tied up and carry him off- against his will- saying “The Hobo King!”    Shady jokes…

But what really struck me about this scene is what happened after we left the movie theater.   We actually passed a homeless person on the street, and right as we were passing him, one of the girls I had seen the movie with exclaimed loudly, “Hey look!   It’s hobo Joe!”   Since we were speaking in English I just hope he only knew German, but that moment really hit home to me that even a so-called “harmless” joke can really be hurtful.   And what always strikes me and makes me really uncomfortable about jokes about homeless people is knowing that many of them suffer from mental illnesses that have caused them to be homeless.  And obviously there are a number of other factors that can result in someone ending up living on the street- many of us are closer to this possibility than we realize.   It can often take just one over-priced hospital visit or one period of unemployment to edge one into street life. 

So making fun of them for “being homeless” just seems extra wrong considering how often it’s really just a symptom of a larger problem.   And even beyond that, I think jokes like that just tend to be dehumanizing and paint homeless life as some sort of club rather than an unfortunate, unplanned economic reality that has just happened to happen with other people.   “Hobo life” isn’t really magical, it shouldn’t be the butt of our jokes, especially when homelessness is already poorly understood in the US.

Overall, it was a decent movie and even though they are worth noting especially due to their occurrence frequency in many movies, the problematic parts were limited in how much time they were given on screen and they were not the main points or used as the focus of the film.

———————

Promotion/Equal Voice given to women: **~

Representation of Women present (are they more than typecasts of female stereotypes etc): ***

Racism/Classism: **

LGBTQ representation: ** (no one present, but no queer villain coding)

Gender Binary adherence: **~

cassket:

saucy-sarah:

There’s more:

Students Teaching About Racism in Society is a Student Org at Ohio University. I’m the President, any questions… MESSAGE ME! :)

I love this, I hope there’s a Native American one as well.

 THIS. IS. AWESOME.

brolypoly:

launch-san:

SELYPAAAA!! omg so epic

omfg they’re all perfect but sweet jesus that selypa is god damn amazing

paintingcircles:

gaywrites:

Though homosexuality is still a “disorder” to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Adventists who disagree with this concept made an It Gets Better video. It’s extremely powerful - they even include links where Adventists can talk to older Adventists who have already come out. More.

If you have a religious background and you’re afraid of being who you are because of it, you must watch this video now. 

This is important.

rachelpressedberry:

acheleheya:

theducksinthehat:joshsternberg:pantslessprogressive:

@SeanEldridge, Political Director for Freedom to Marry.

As Assemblyman Micah Kellner said, “Marriage Equality just passed the NYS Assembly for the 4th time. On to the Senate.”  

Oh my lord.

 #Good news for my future

OUR future!! :)

timekiller-s:

i-manface:

delisubthefemmecub:

queerlythere:

paristhroughthewindow:

thetendergravityofkindness:

inkstainedqueer:

“Fuck Heteronormativity” sung to the tune of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me”.

OMG! I have such a huge crush on them!

Lyrics:
You’re on the phone with your partner
Zie’s upset
Zie’s going off about something that you said
You should probably just apologize to hir

I’m in the room, it’s a typical Tuesday night
I’m listening to the kind of music zie doesn’t like
Because zie and I have different taste in music

Not everything in the world needs to be
Part of some big dramatic hetero fantasy
Waiting for the day when you wake up and find 
Your fantasy doesn’t fit me — I’ve been queer the whole time

If you could see the multiplicity of ways
People live their genders and sexualities every day
You’d say with me
Fuck heteronormativity
Fuck heteronormativity

Walking the streets with you in your worn out jeans
I can’t help thinking this is how things ought to be
Because of the dominant romantic narrative that rewards these kinds of things

And you’ve got a smile that could light up this whole town
But it doesn’t come out much when you keep getting mispronouned
I know our love didn’t come with a script
But those get written by people like T-Swift

Sometimes you wear short skirts
Sometimes you wear t-shirts
Sometimes you wear both
And sometimes you wear neither
I like you naked
And I like you clothed
I really just like you
I think you’re fucking great, I suppose

If you could see the multiplicity of ways
People live their genders and sexualities every day
You’d say with me
Fuck heteronormativity

Queer romance is so commonly erased
From songs and stories and histories — it gets replaced
But it shouldn’t be
Fuck heteronormativity
Fuck heteronormativity

I remember how my gender was policed
How my body was controlled
How I couldn’t ever enact
The masculinity I was told to
Dominant narratives of romance
Leave so many bodies out
Let’s hear those silenced stories
Let’s really, really shout

If you could see the multiplicity of ways
People live their genders and sexualities every day
You’d say with me
Fuck heteronormativity

Romance takes so many different forms
Let’s free it from the limits of societal norms
Sing it with me
Fuck heteronormativity
Fuck heteronormativity

WEEPING.

Still my favorite person evarrr.

BEST THING I’VE SEEN ALL DAY

oh, i just love this.

I previously posted the best thing you will see all day (The Riot Mag’s open letter to Reese Witherspoon). This is the best video thing you will see all day.

 I love you, I love this video, I love these lyrics, I love this dude, and I love everything this post chooses to be. :’) I needed this after the horrid backward well-meaning but totally off-the-mark reese speech. Girl meant well but by god was it awful.