res odi & amo

Photo

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:18:37 +1200

“Ultimately, only certain extremists live in swamps. The violent extremist Anders Breivik was also...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:28:42 +1200

“Ultimately, only certain extremists live in swamps. The violent extremist Anders Breivik was also given a habitat, but that of the lone wolf, magically extracted from the swamp of bloggers, politicians, activists and journalists that provided him with ideological sustenance and inspiration. Despite their violent presence on Britain’s streets, the swamp of the EDL is not listed for drainage.”

-Gavan Titley, writing in The Guardian

I like what Titley has to say about the effect language has on how we think about terrorism. I only wish that this article were longer, and talked more about the way “Islamic” terrorism is stripped of its context - the political/anti-colonialist motives of so-called “Islamic terrorists” are discarded in favour of a narrative that says, simply, “they attacked us because they’re Muslim, and therefore they hate us.” There’s no need to think about the context more deeply; no need to consider the decades (or centuries) of Western violence against the “Muslim world”,definitely no need to consider the violence levelled at individual countries or communities. “They hate our freedoms,” Bush said the week after September 11, and that’s been as far as the conversation has gone for most of the eleven years since then.

bin Laden himself saw it pretty differently: in his 1996 “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places”, he makes it pretty clear his main concern is the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia; it’s dressed in religious language, but his goal was a political one. (Since this is the internet, I feel like I need to clarify I’m not endorsing bin Laden or even commenting on the validity of his goals; I just think it’s important yo acknowledge that he didn’t hate “freedom”, he hated “America”, and those definitely aren’t interchangeable terms.)

More recently, look at the response to Lee Rigby’s murder; compare what his murderers said to what the media responded to. His killers deliberately targeted a soldier; they saw it as retaliation for the thousands (over a thousand in May alone) of victims of British and American foreign policy, embodied by soldiers like Rigby. Again, their argument uses religious language, and they may have felt solidarity with those victims because of their shared faith, but their actual motivations were as political as they were religious.

And then, look at the response to people like Breivik, or, the day before Rigby’s death, Dominique Venner (whose violence may have been self-directed, but that doesn’t guarantee it will be seen as apolitical - remember when the US government labelled the suicides of several Guantanamo detainees “asymmetric warfare”?) - both of whom explicitly stated their political goals, both of whom had explicitly Islamophobic goals. Venner had served a prison sentence for his membership in the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète! They’ve been stripped of their politics too, but instead of being reframed as the product of a “warped vision of Christianity”, they become just the actions of “crazy”, “sick” individuals (which is of course a problem in itself).

—-

…and while I’m rambling about the language of religion and violence, it would also have been good if there had been space to talk about how we use Islam as a metaphor for all religiously-related violence - in India, Hindu nationalists have been labelled the “Hindu Taliban”, the same with conservative Christians/Republicans in the US (both groups responsible for violence against Muslims, it should be pointed out) - neatly erasing the violent histories of other religious groups (why not the Hindu IRA? assuming it’s even necessary to compare “Hindu violence” to that of other religions), while reinforcing the idea that violence is a problem that’s inherent, and unique, to Islam.

not a photoshop

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:20:57 +1200

not a photoshop

clothes are hard ok

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:03:20 +1200

clothes are hard ok

internet feelings

Fri, 31 May 2013 02:24:49 +1200

internet feelings

i’m really angry with myself for how unhappy this is making me

Sat, 25 May 2013 04:16:31 +1200

i’m really angry with myself for how unhappy this is making me

and i know parading my anxiety around like it’s an endearing personality trait is a stupid,...

Sat, 25 May 2013 03:30:42 +1200

and i know parading my anxiety around like it’s an endearing personality trait is a stupid, childish thing to do (to put it mildly). but this is something i have wanted extremely badly for the last three years, and been convinced i would never have, and am now convinced i will screw up, and i wish i knew how to deal with that fear and that i had someone to talk to who would offer me more than platitudes.

i’m finally, unexpectedly, in a position where i can afford to go back to university, and...

Sat, 25 May 2013 03:26:11 +1200

i’m finally, unexpectedly, in a position where i can afford to go back to university, and i’m in tears at the thought of having to write anything longer than a paragraph.

"The person questioned in the hospital was a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by..."

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:10:29 +1200

“The person questioned in the hospital was a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by a bystander after he was seen running from near the scene of the explosion, said a law enforcement source who spoke with someone involved in the FBI’s investigation. The Saudi man, believed to be a university student in Boston, is cooperating with the FBI and told agents that he was not involved in the explosions, and that he ran only because he was frightened. Investigators did not characterize the man as a suspect. No one had been arrested or charged as of late Monday night.”

- boston globe

a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by a bystander after he was seen running from near the scene of the explosion

So I guess if you’re a brown person you can’t even run away from an explosion without being suspicious. See you later, I’m going to go throw up everything I’ve ever eaten.

(via shoor)

duhdoydorothy: thegoddamazon: zuky: angryasiangirlsunited: T...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:03:55 +1300

duhdoydorothy:

thegoddamazon:

zuky:

angryasiangirlsunited:

The new kid in school needs a new name! Or does she?

Being the new kid in school is hard enough, but what about when nobody can pronounce your name? Having just moved from Korea, Unhei is anxious that American kids will like her. So instead of introducing herself on the first day of school, she tells the class that she will choose a name by the following week. Her new classmates are fascinated by this no-name girl and decide to help out by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from. But while Unhei practices being a Suzy, Laura, or Amanda, one of her classmates comes to her neighborhood and discovers her real name and its special meaning. On the day of her name choosing, the name jar has mysteriously disappeared. Encouraged by her new friends, Unhei chooses her own Korean name and helps everyone pronounce it —Yoon-Hey.

A lot of my PoC immigrant friends would have needed this book when they were young. You can purchase the book here.

- Yazmine

Looks very cute and positive. Most of my own childhood memories concerning my name at school have to do with fighting those who mocked it and having it mispronounced by teachers.

OMG. ;_;

hello menstuation, i definitely just teared up at the synopsis of a children’s book i’ve never read

ebenezerjonessdiary: It seems there are a few of us on here that know what perfection is. I’m not...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:01:00 +1300

ebenezerjonessdiary:

It seems there are a few of us on here that know what perfection is. I’m not gonna lie, I was a fan of Foot Critic until I came here. While his response to Aristocrat was funny despite Aristocrat having been dead right, the bottom line is this: I would rather have sex with my sister than suck on Keira’s toes. The thought of even touching them is repulsive. Those of you who claim to have foot fetishes will touch,rub,suck,f*ck, and as some of you say, “wank” to feet that are comparable to a homeless man. Some of you are sick to call those repugnant, manly-shaped, fungus-bitten clawlike banana-boats “beautiful”. If I could, I would vote to have her removed from this site. Keira, you are wonderful and charming… but you should never go out in public with those dogs. If needed on set, hire a Foot Double for films that require it.

imagine if keira ever found this post

trying to get a “”“conventional”“” job is the most exhausting...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:38:34 +1300

trying to get a “”“conventional”“” job is the most exhausting process i think i’ve ever been through

i’m not qualified to do anything, something which is entirely my own fault, and i don’t know how to convince people to give me a chance anyway

Photo

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:48:42 +1300

"Fantine cuts off her hair for money and we cry. Hathaway cuts off her hair (also for money) and we..."

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:40:08 +1300

“Fantine cuts off her hair for money and we cry. Hathaway cuts off her hair (also for money) and we nod admiringly. What a brave performance, what a dedicated actor, what a good feminist.”

- Johanna, at Tits and Sass (via melissa)

things to be grateful for: people care about me way more than i give them, or myself, credit for.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:30:50 +1300

things to be grateful for:

people care about me way more than i give them, or myself, credit for.

i have a burn mark in the shape of an upside down triangle on my shin

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:38:21 +1300

i have a burn mark in the shape of an upside down triangle on my shin

everythingbutharleyquinn: a-necessary-fiction: everythingbuthar...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:59:17 +1300

everythingbutharleyquinn:

a-necessary-fiction:

everythingbutharleyquinn:

chat-with-quill:

ms-doodle-pants:

big-poppa-snorlax:

bearded-snorlax:

Holy shit

The One.

She is fighting invisible agents.

I’m really disappointed that this is so over sexualized because pole dancing is really cool

It should be a fucking olympic sport like with unitards and shit

okay, so first of all: this example is not “over sexualised” - this is someone who very possibly has never done a day’s worth of stripping in her life performing some moves in a dance studio. She’s very likely to have had a lifetime of dance and gymnastics training behind her and decided to take poledancing classes when it became the new hit craze. She’s learned in a formal class environment.

But poledancing was developed by strippers in a stripclub environment. Many of those strippers also had a lot of dance and gymnastics and cheerleader training behind them and they developed pole moves partly as a way to kill time when the club was quiet. They taught each other in an informal setting and innovated and created for themselves. Without getting paid explicitly to do so.

Their talent at being able to do things like this has never been recognised. Even though the first pole schools were opened by strippers and taught by strippers, it has now been appropriated by hundreds of people who have never done sex work and who have no respect for sex work, who think it is “sad” that poledancing has a history inextricably entwined with sex work, who only view poledancing as a legitimate artform once it becomes detached from its sex work context despite the fact it was conceived and built in a sex work environment by sex workers.

Poledancing is not “overly sexualised”. It IS a sexualised dance/athletic art and rightly so - it belongs to strippers and it is strippers who made it. Its beauty and athleticism and skill doesn’t change because it was used in a sexualised environment to help its practioners make more money (although now it is seen as just for middle-upper class non-sex workers to pay big bucks in a formal class environment to learn to titillate boyfriends and husbands whilst staying appropriately fit!). That’s a part of its history. Sexualised things are not inherently worth less because of their sexual nature. To believe so is just to devalue the hard work of the sex workers who innovated it and that is done more than enough as is.

Poledancing is still cool and amazing and requires great skill and talent to execute even MORE SO when it is sexualised. Just being able to perform it impressively is one thing; being able to make it a fluid part of a character performance (which is what stripping entails) is another. If you can’t appreciate that, you don’t understand it, so STFU.

NOT TO MENTION- Poledancing has BEEN considered a sport/performing art (combining gymnastics and dance) in non-erotic environments, as well (Chinese acrobats, hello). You have to be fit and athletic to perform these movements, which requires a great deal of strength, endurance, and control, not ‘inherent sluttiness’ or whatever the hell ms-doodle-pants was trying to say, there. The place appears to be a dance studio, so… what even.

Pole gymnastics isn’t considered the exact same thing as pole dancing, but is a traditional MALE sport in India, known as mallakhamb, derived from an exercise for WRESTLERS.

Reblogging again, because

I wish I had a “congrats on missing the point” gif because DAMN did you miss the fucking point.

I think it’s pretty fuckn clear we’re not talking about pole gymnastics but specifically about pole dancing, the type that originated in strip clubs.

My point was that the erotic environments don’t detract from the skill required for pole dancing. Your point seems to be BUT IT’S NOT ALWAYS EROTIC AND SO THEREFORE MORE VALID EVEN STILL! Which is whorephobic. Which is what I was moving the discussion away from. This art doesn’t become more valid in non erotic environments.

And ‘inherent sluttiness’ or whatever doesn’t make it less valid either. Again, another point I made was being able to present poledancing as erotic and sexualised is actually part of the skill in performing it, not just sheer athleticism.

Jesus, whorephobes, can you just please gtfo.

poststop: deer culler, urewera.

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:49:00 +1300

poststop:

deer culler, urewera.

"I used to complain about having to come out here to work,” she says. “I had nothing to complain..."

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 02:12:15 +1300

““I used to complain about having to come out here to work,” she says. “I had nothing to complain about compared to now.” And this is the statement that sticks with me, a statement so simple and yet so clear, a statement which demonstrates that, despite how Dana’s supposed advocates, her would-be protectors – anti-prostitution campaigners – characterise sex work and how she experiences it, Dana herself knows the difference between a bad situation and a worse one. She is now in the latter. The support organisation I work for is severely underfunded (just over a year from now, it will be forced to cease service provision altogether). Waiting lists for drug treatment are lengthy, and missing an appointment, no matter how valid the reason, can land someone back at the end of the queue. When women like Dana are stopped by the police, sometimes they receive sympathetic treatment, but really it’s a lottery. There’s a serial rapist going around, but even though the women know about it, some of them are taking their chances with him anyway because there are so few clients to choose from. Maybe he’ll just be a bit rough, they rationalise. His behaviour escalates.”

- Taking Ideology to the Streets: Sex Work and How to Make Bad Things Worse

i spend so much time hating myself for being ugly it doesn’t even make any sense

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:12:34 +1300

i spend so much time hating myself for being ugly it doesn’t even make any sense

res odi & amo

Photo

“Ultimately, only certain extremists live in swamps. The violent extremist Anders Breivik was also...

not a photoshop

clothes are hard ok

internet feelings

i’m really angry with myself for how unhappy this is making me

and i know parading my anxiety around like it’s an endearing personality trait is a stupid,...

i’m finally, unexpectedly, in a position where i can afford to go back to university, and...

"The person questioned in the hospital was a Saudi national, who was report­edly tackled and held by..."

duhdoydorothy: thegoddamazon: zuky: angryasiangirlsunited: T...

ebenezerjonessdiary: It seems there are a few of us on here that know what perfection is. I’m not...

trying to get a “”“conventional”“” job is the most exhausting...

Photo

"Fantine cuts off her hair for money and we cry. Hathaway cuts off her hair (also for money) and we..."

things to be grateful for: people care about me way more than i give them, or myself, credit for.

i have a burn mark in the shape of an upside down triangle on my shin

everythingbutharleyquinn: a-necessary-fiction: everythingbuthar...

poststop: deer culler, urewera.

"I used to complain about having to come out here to work,” she says. “I had nothing to complain..."

i spend so much time hating myself for being ugly it doesn’t even make any sense

"The person questioned in the hospital was a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by..."