I reject your reality and substitute my own

sistermarymargarita:

afro-khaleesi:

awetterversionoftheskies:

th3skinny:

If you’re not a feminist, you either don’t know what feminism is, or you’re a bag of dicks. 

That is all. 

good caption

No, screw the snide ass caption that’s actually ridiculously fucking ironic, given the graphic. And while we’re at it, screw the graphic too. I have a policy for my blog that I won’t get too ranty, because that leads to trolls and death threats anon hate and other things that I don’t feel like dealing with, but I’m tired of stifling myself just for sake of not offending the white people of tumblr. But this graphic? NO. Alright, no. No.

NO. I’m so sick and tired of this 77 cents banner being raised in the name of women everywhere. Because it’s bullshit. And let me tell you why. Because this is only true under certain circumstances. These are statistics if we’re only looking at white people. White women make 77 cents to a white man’s dollar. White women make more than men of color. As for us women of color? We don’t have the luxury of making 77 cents to *anyone’s* dollar. Women of color make even less money than white women do. And it would be lovely if these things were acknowledged in the discussion for equal pay, but for some reason, it is consistently brushed under the rug. When we talk about the gender wage gap, and tout the facts that are only applicable to white people while ignoring the reality of the gap between white women/MoC and white women/WoC, and make them the universal numbers, there’s a word for that: erasure.When feminism, once again, takes white women’s struggles, and says “women” have only gained 18 cents when the reality is the only women who gained that are white? NO. I’m tired of it.

In terms of this post, it’s an even bigger slap in the face that the image suggesting equal pay uses a woman of color, while all the listed statistics before it fail to mention where women of color fit within the wage gap scale.

This isn’t an attack on whoever created these graphics. It’s just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m tired to death of this whole “77 cents” battlecry. What about the women who only care about statistics for white women as opposed to all women? I’m sick of it being spread around while the most important little details of that statement are constantly omitted. I’ve been a strong believer in feminism for a long time, but it’s hard to be committed to something that consistently fails you and acts as if you don’t exist. I don’t think that makes me a dick, because you know, I’m tired of feminism consistently erasing women of color, and making white women’s experiences out to be all of our experiences (and in turn erasing us), and then shutting us out when we speak up about it. This graphic is true, in terms of white women and white men. But what about the rest of us? Where do I, a woman of color, fit into this feminist cry for equal pay, when my situation which is a product of my gender and my race, is erased, and I get slapped with a 77 cent label that doesn’t fit me but I’m just supposed to wear it anyway? Feminism is supposed to be about all women, but right now, I’m only seeing one type of women represented. Again. When are we going to discuss feminism through intersectional lenses and stop acting like everybody’s experience is universal? When are we going to stop saying women make 77 cents as if that’s inclusive of all of us? What about Native American women? Black women? Asian women? Hispanic women? Latinas? Aren’t we women too? Do our numbers not matter enough? Is the fact that we make even less somehow divisive?

I know I’m gonna get all sorts of “you’re not a feminist” protestations and accusations of being divisive, and even accusations of sounding angry, I’m sure. But you know, I don’t care. Because at this point, I am angry, I’m absolutely furious, and so sick and tired of this happening. Because frankly, if your feminism ignores the fact that not every woman’s experience is universal, and continues to fight using the most privileged women as the standard under the guise of “all women,” while ignoring the vast majority of us and our struggles, then I don’t want any part of it. My feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit. And right now? It’s complete and total bullshit, y’all.

P.S. I have feminist ideals, but don’t identify myself as a feminist because I’m sick of the erasure, but somehow this makes me the dick? This makes me ignorant of what feminism is? Please. Feminism is about all women. But time and time again, I see nothing but information on white women. Guess what? That’s not all women. That’s a fraction of women, that’s some women, and if that’s who feminism is about, then let’s not get up in arms when people look at shit like this and say “white feminism” because frankly, that’s the more accurate title.

You’re right.  Completely right.  Here’s the thing (and by the way, I’m a white woman, so no, I don’t know what you’re going through): feminism is a movement.  Movements that are successful, generally, narrow their focus to a few simple tenets that the general masses can understand.  When people are looking for a cause to which they can devote their time and energies, they don’t want to hear right off the bat all the ways in which it has to struggle to be inclusive just because people are naturally diverse and you can’t shove them under labels as if they were sweaters. 

People (especially white people, given where we are historically and how we got there) want labels for things they can’t understand because they want to assimilate them into their own worldviews, rather than changing their worldviews, because that’s just too unsettling and difficult.  People are scared of what they can’t comprehend, so their solution with which to allay the fear is to search frantically for pigeon-holes.  A social or political movement with no pigeon-holes is often, unfortunately, dismissed as too scattered, too unfocused, or dismissed by the 100%-grade-A assholes as something made-up for the sake of political correctness.

Unfortunately, I don’t think “feminism,” as we understand it now, can get very far unless it takes the female gender as a whole and shoves us in a box labeled “Not Men.”  The fact that women of color often face different challenges and prejudices, ones that white women don’t have to deal with, is much more likely to be filed under “racial problem” than “gender problem.”

This is so very not cool.  As you said, how are women of color supposed to feel included under the sociopolitical heading of “women” if their issues are not being realistically addressed under that heading?  And how are they supposed to be represented at all when their specific issues are being edged out by white women’s statistics on one side and those of men of color on the other side?  And then there are all the differences between people of different colors and genders that we often don’t bother to take into account, either.

I don’t have a solution to this.  I wish I did.  All I can say is I’m glad you’re not just sitting uncomfortably under a label that doesn’t work for you.  And I can promise to always do my best to avoid assuming that I know what women as a whole need or want.  Because a lot of the groundwork, unfortunately, has to be laid by white people.  I don’t know when that will change in this country; I hope it’s sooner rather than later.  There’s the top of the vicious circle right there — the fact that many more ears perk up when the words start coming out of a white man’s mouth.

I would like to point out how fucked up is the graphic above, because Uhura makes 0 cents for every dollar a man makes. Because men make 0 dollars. Because, my dearies, there are no money in Star Trek, people are not paid, all their needs are provided for by the fleet.

(via namusvk)