Your Ideas - What You CAN Do

Social media can be a righteous bitch and can dig someone into a darkened hole when used cruelly to hurt people and groups that are deviating from the norm.

However, it can also bring so much positivity into the world that no one person can truly know about.

Whether you tweet, tumble, or blog (there are those rare few of us!), you have the ability to circulate your ideas to so many people that you may never come across in real life. Use it to your advantage.

Spread love. Make people aware. Teach others what we can do.

Feminism HAS to be the future or we are going to end up in a society that will eventually implode on itself. Together we are all stronger and this idea must be accepted by the collective of human.

It's just that easy.

-E

Baby Steps

Jennifer Lawrence was the highest grossing actor in 2014. Just let that sink in.

Not just that though, all working in the industry in front of the camera are now usually being referred to as 'actors'. Is there no longer a reason to distinguish men from women when they are talented? Does this help actors be more comfortable to be who they are as they will no longer be shoved into a box of what makes them what? 

I know some people hate looking to celebrities for answers or assistance, but they truly can help.

These people fight their own battles as well, but have a further-reaching voice than us simple folk who like to rant to a computer screen by typing vigorously.

Just let us appreciate that progress, however small, is being made and has the ability to grow and prosper exponentially.

We are all ready for that day.

-E

Because I love her

The Need to Just Be

I couldn't imagine what it is like to be told that I am not a person simply because I find that my soul doesn't match what society has told us my body should be. 

This is the basis of my feminism. Just as 'transphobic' has become adopted, it needs to be ascertained that all people are, in fact, PEOPLE. Genitalia and the want to change it does not constitute what makes a person human. As far as we know, there are no other lifeforms besides us and the many kinds of animals that spread far and wide on our Earth.

Not understanding doesn't give way to not letting one be. 

-E

Just a Nice Thought

"Restoring dignity and overcoming a stigmatized status changes our self-image; changes in the self lead to changes in the categories of identity, which in turn precipitate changes in community and traditions."

- Cherríe Moraga

Who we Are

It does NOT matter what a person's role is in life to be considered a person. We are all here and exist together. Let's make it comfortable for us to all know that we are seen and heard.

-E

All that are Man are created Equal

Coming Together as Solution?

"The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking."

-The Combahee River Collective

We are all in this struggle for rights together. The collective knew this in 1977. That is nearly forty years ago which is atrocious of us. Why have we not come together sooner?!

All of us face our own troubles, but by helping one another, all of us have a better chance of achieving our individual and collective goals.

Feminism can no longer be simply about women getting their rights back; everybody else deserves the same rights and we are all able to help each other along the way.

-E

Don't Hate Man

Dear to those Feminists that think hating men is the "solution",

You are wrong and we need to change tactics together.

Hating something doesn't solve anything or produce positive change in the world, I think that it actually hinders it. We can't think of fighting for our rights like fighting a war. Wars are used to avoid discussing the problems and coming to a consensus of how all can be at peace.

Yes, there are some men that cause huge problems in our societies because they refuse to acknowledge women and others as as much of a person as they are. But the key word in that sentence was 'some'. Not all men refuse to recognize that we live in a world where women are not going to just sit down and let whatever is going to happen, happen.

All of us across the gender spectrum should not hate men as a whole people, they are just as much a part of humanity as we all are. We must invite them to participate by showing how society will benefit, not from a matriarchal society, but a stable congression of humans.

Please stop the hate, it makes us look bad.

Best,

-E

Scared to Say You Are a Feminist?

Don't worry, I was too.

Almost all of my life, I decided women that were feminists were horrible people that I didn't want to be around because they would just try to get me to believe that all men are horrible and that we must be better than them. Women must be in charge and that we're oppressed because they are scared of us. 

It seemed, from the outside, that their whole tactic was to attack the problem without doing anything to actually solve it. Why didn't they try to get men to understand why they were upset?

Well, that is what feminism is about now and I no longer am scared to admit that I am one of the people that is associated with the word that leaves a bad taste in peoples' mouths.

To be a feminist is to be a humanist where there is equality for us all.

This is the initial problem. Our present feminism is centered around changing the connotation of the word and how people intercept it, so that in our future, people (men, women, and everybody in between) will be proud to say that they are a feminist.

We will get our world to see this and accept it.

We are all Man.

-E

I'll Just Leave This Here

Human as a Team, Win or Lose Together

I had the pleasure of listening to Malala Yousafzai speak about her fight for women's education last Summer and it was a very enriching experience. This young woman, younger than me even, fought so hard, beat a bullet, and was able to get herself and many others the education they deserved. She is the greatest of example of how small someone may seem, but how they can rise against to fight for what is right, and actually succeed.

I don't agree with the idea that the world is split half and half among men and women because the world is so much more than that, but her notion that some humans are held back holds strong in my mind. We all need and deserve the opportunity to change what is broken and corrupt in this world. We cannot let any oppressors feel as though we are all not together on this front.

Staying connected through our one commonality will make us stronger.

For all that are Man.

-E

Just a Random Thought - Haiku

Our Fem Life is Ours

Human is our Connection

We are all but One

Male Feminists

Link - 6 Reasons Guys Need to Speak Up

Here's the Main Ideas:

1) Feminism is not a threat to your manhood

2) You might already be a feminist and not know it!

3) It's all about how you make a person feel

4) Understand feminism as it exists today

5) Patriarchal society affects us ALL

6) Understand that sexism is a real thing

This article is so necessary for males to understand that feminism doesn't mean that females or any other genders are man-haters and think that they should be tossed aside. It calls upon them and describes how they are a big part of this fight for equality despite what past feminist revolutions have been about. All man are created equal, different of course (and we must celebrate these differences), but still on a most basic level of creation, we are all equal. 

-E

Don't Be Afraid of the Man in Woman, See it as Human

Okay, now anybody that knows me IRL knows that Julianne Moore is not one of my favorite actresses for reasons quite unknown by me. She just happens to be one of those people where you look at them and you're just like 'ugh, I don't like you.'

Sorry, not sorry,

Anyway, despite that fact, I was beyond happy to stumble upon this quote of hers. Her ideas fall completely in line with mine and I am thrilled that more people are thinking this way.

We are all human.

-E

All That I Didn't Know Before

It's preposterous for me to look back on my life before coming to college and realizing how little I was shown of the world.

I grew up in a very small town and was surrounded by conservative Christians who were nice and all, but didn't really talk about subjects that deviated from the norm. But, why would they? I think I knew only one lesbian in high school and she doesn't even call herself that despite having a girlfriend. My parents never really forced any information onto me in a positive or negative manner. But nothing was ever brought up! Looking back, I'm not even sure I knew what transgender was.

I definitely didn't understand the suffering that some people live through who lack the privilege that I may have taken for granted. How could I, a cisgender, straight, and white female, know and understand what it is like to be a transgender, transsexual woman of color? As much as I try to empathize, I will never know what it is like to be in their shoes. But I want to. As different as we might identify, we are connected through our humanness and deserve the same as those at the top of the totem pole looking down at us.

I have come to realize that we are all connected and I am happy with this knowledge. Basic human rights are for all and I'm sorry it took me so long to learn about it.

-E

Yep.

This is all I could ask for.

-E

Emma Watson and HeForShe

Link - Emma Watson's UN Speech Transcript

Emma Watson may have started out as just the girl from Harry Potter that rose to have great fame and beauty, but she has chosen to do so much more. She not only describes a calmer, more effective definition of feminism, but also directly calls out to those who identify as male and asks for their assistance in her mission. I think this is exactly what we all need to make progress toward equality. Some men have been skeptical in the past that women want to change our now patriarchal society to a matriarchy, as if that would solve anything. Watson's way helps alleviate this issue. It calls for a solution to the patriarchal problem without giving either party too much power for the other to not want to help. We do need the assistance of men to achieve a feminist future because they are just as much a part of the spectrum in what makes somebody a human. 

-E

Redefining Gender

What even is gender?

I believe it is a socially constructed term to separate people into categories based on once significant, but not necessarily defining qualities of a human.

There are those with penises, those with vaginas and even those with both, but there are not only three types of people. Judith Butler in her book Undoing Gender describes just this; how there are people that are not even recognized as human because they do not match the criteria related to having a specific gender. (SEE: What Constitutes a Human? - gender doesn't even come into play in its definition). Therefore, nobody is entitled to say that a person is not human.

What would it mean then, to redefine what gender is? Would this make people see that to be anywhere on the gender spectrum doesn't affect their humanness? Would this allow transgender individuals to live more valuable lives as Butler also suggests?

What would it take to change the concept of gender and for people to accept the meaning behind it?

We are all capable of doing this, just as the word femininity changed.

-E

Deal.

And I would be happy to make you one next time :)

-E

Mini Rant About Valeria Solanas' SCUM Manifesto

Just, no.

This is not at all what feminism means to me.

Going up against men, describing them as horrible and saying that they deserve to be below women is the message that makes people afraid to call themselves feminists.

Please don't be one of these people.

We are all made in different fashions but share at least the one commonality of being a part of mankind.

Hate will not fix anything.

And becoming what we are all fighting is even worse than losing the war.

We will not lose this war though by coming together.

Fight for equality among all.

-E

Equality as Balance

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

-Richard Kipling

*This poem teaches so much about life and what it means to be astute while also compromising. Any person can read Kipling's words and apply them to themselves to become a more open-minded individual. It is crucial that we are all able to understand what harmony can be produced from participating with mankind.

-E

For Those Who Have Been Shamed

Link - Hi, I'm a Slut

I personally found this piece of work to be extremely moving. Savannah Brown fights the double standard that men can sleep around while women are judged for doing the same. She uses such powerful words and body language to convey her feelings that women should no longer receive any negative criticism for living their lives as they want to.

-E

Any-body can be Any-who