This is from the slut walk. One of the arguments is that girls ask for rape because they wear slutty clothes, short skirts, tight, low-cut tops. This girl is an example of the fact that rape victims can look like anyone, you, me, this girl. Rapists. Dont. Discriminate.
I promised a long time ago that I’d reblog this whenever I saw it on my dash. No regrets, it breaks my heart every single time.
an incredibly important message, rape is rape. no one is ever asking for it. a woman has the right to dress how ever they want - it is society that identifies risque dressing as ‘asking for it’, and in my opinion, that way of thinking needs to be diminished.
Always, always reblog.
you can see the brokenness in her eyes, and her little smile.
I can only imagine what kind of strength it took for her to wear those clothes again after what happened to her while she was in them
i can’t believe people say they “ask for it” they obviously don’t that’s why its called rape?
deep
Combating the Cult of Domesticity
There will always be some degree of inequality of the sexes. There will always be crusaders for equal rights, burning bras and shattering glass ceilings, but for every independent-minded woman, there will always - always - be some woman, somewhere, negating the efforts of equality fighters by accepting her seemingly undeniable fate as the subservient sex.
But, one can’t place all the blame on weak-minded women. Oh, no. Unless men can come to terms with the fact that we, as human beings, can no longer be expected to contort ourselves into an apron and pearls and fit into the Cult of Domesticity, there won’t be much progress. So long as the male population continues to oppress and (in some cases) abuse women, there won’t be a chance for gender equality to really flourish.
Though the Western world if far, far better off than developing nations, and more women can be seen breaking through the glass ceiling, rising in the world of business or politics, there is still a certain amount of respect that men have trouble giving to these women - women who have worked just as hard as they have, and deserve every bit of it.
Still, in America, as in many first-world countries, the opportunities for women far outweigh those given in the developing world. At least in modern nations, rape is a crime and therefore can be reported as such. Developing nations are notorious for their violence against women, yet some of them have the lowest rate of reported sexual abuse (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap-crime-rapes).
Coincidence? I think not. In these areas, it is commonplace - expected, even - for young girls to be sold into brothels, acid to be thrown into the faces of no-longer-desired wives, and genitalia to be mutilated, as is tradition. Take, for example, sex selective abortions. Although illegal in over 180 nations worldwide, it is still prevalent in countries such as China, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan - to name a few. Places like China, that still openly practice sex-selective infanticide, and other developing nations in which the value of a male child is far greater than that of the female, continue to be a thorn in the side of equality crusaders world-wide.
Women all over the world need to take responsibility for our evolution as equals. There’s a balance we all must find between us and men. We should not need a man to feel complete, significant, or secure. We should appreciate them, their company, and the relationships they can offer to us, but know our own worth, and not take oppression lightly. All it takes is for one woman to say, “It’s okay”. But it is not okay.
I don’t know exactly what a feminist is. I only know that I am called one whenever I say something that distinguishes me from a doormat.
Rebecca West, 1893-1983 (via cato-approvs)
Be Healthy: You might be a feminist if...
Lately, I’ve been seeing a disturbing trend among young women on tumblr. It’s this “well, I believe in equal rights, but I’m not a feminist” thing. Like somehow “feminist” is a dirty word. You don’t have to hate men, burn your bras, or be angry all the time to be a feminist.
If you think it’s…
(Source: Yahoo!)
Don’t let Congress gut the Violence Against Women Act. Take action with us.
(Source: amnestyusa)
The Barbie Problem
I recently got into an argument about Barbie. Even though I’ve far surpassed the age when Barbies are appropriate company, she’s still everywhere. Somehow, the subject of the expectations Barbie sets for girls was broached, and a friend of mine said, “Everyone is always going on about barbie. No one ever hears about how GI Joe dolls affected us men.”
The thing is - and correct me if I’m wrong - GI Joe didn’t have nearly the same effect as Barbie had on young girls. Not to say that Joe didn’t affect boys. I’m sure a few more boys wanted to join the army, in hopes of being just like their favorite action figure. But boys, it appears, never became obsessed with paradigms of perfection like girls have. From the time we were little girls, women have always yearned for perfection. And it’s expected of us. There’s pressure from both sides - girls are afraid that they won’t be as popular and that boys won’t like them if they’re not the prettiest, skinniest girls (which, unfortunately, is pretty much true in American society). And who taught young girls what perfection was? Barbie, of course.
To begin with, young kids are extremely impressionable. So hand a little girl a seemingly perfect doll, and of course she’ll want to be just like her. Dress like her, talk like her, have a house and a car and friends like her. Even if looking like Barbie means being wildly unhealthy and not being able to stand straight (not with breasts like those and a waist that small!). It’s still something we, as young girls, always dreamed of. And now we look at the media, at girls grappling with eating disorders and low self-esteem, and we ask ourselves - what went wrong?
I’ll tell you: having a doll that is the supreme avatar of unreachable perfection as the model for young girls. And even though Barbie has become more and more diverse as our culture has grown - Asian barbie, African princess barbie, Native American barbie - she’s still remained the same size. Why not make a mold for a barbie that is proportionate? Hell, forget proportions. Just give society a barbie that is believable.
So when a man tells me that GI Joe was just as influential as Barbie, I can’t help but argue. Barbie has always been, and will continue to be, the standard by which women measure themselves. When size 0 models start dieting because they’re not thin enough, you know you’ve got a problem.
Cover the Night? Remember that?
People around the world are out covering the night for Kony 2012 - a worthy cause, I assure you. But, despite the massive explosion that Invisible Children made when they first released their video on March 7th (it went viral overnight, many thanks to Diddy and his twitter), the movement has seemingly lost much of it’s momentum. Attribute it to public masturbation scandals or insanely long shipping times of Kony merchandise, but whatever the reason, there’s no denying that it’s presence has shrunk considerably.
The video blew up all over the social media - twitter, facebook, tumblr - but seemed to vanish just a few days later. People tout the idea that “we can’t actually do anything about it”, and sure, technically speaking, they’re correct. But if we can’t do something, we can sure raise awareness. And that’s what people are missing. It isn’t about charging into African nations and dragging a warlord out by his ears. It’s about spreading the word, spreading hope, and spreading the realization that there are things going on out there in this world that we can be a part of.
Every generation has had something to fight for. Abolishing slavery, Prohibition, Civil Rights, Vietnam. Kony was this generation’s chance to stand up, speak up, and act out. Circumstances like this don’t come around every day - we’re lucky to have them once in a lifetime. Maybe Kony won’t vanish like the children he abducts do. If the goal was to make him as visible as possible, it has to be done. And it doesn’t need to be just this one day - 4/20 was already far too notorious. There are still 364 more days to make sure this man doesn’t keep flying under the radar. Kony 2012 shouldn’t stop when the sun rises on Saturday.
