Advice for young feminists? Do something else besides feminism. I’m serious. The feminist blogosphere is oversaturated in my opinion. Please, find something else you love and take feminist theory there. It gets lonely over here in tech and video games – I have a great crew of other feminists but we are a little island in a vast sea. We need more feminist minded business bloggers, feminist theory wielding finance bloggers. Labor organizers with a feminist lens blogging. Can you imagine what Deadspin (the sports blog) would look like with a feminist on staff? Restructure writes about science, tech and feminism – join her! Publish a blog doing literary criticism with a feminist lens! Take on the NYT! Talk about class issues and feminism. Whatever it is, apply your feminism in a different space.

— Latoya Peterson (Source) (via andcouldheplayblog)

(via graciousvictorious)

I know what my family is worth

— Penny Wong, in response to Joe Hockey’s assertion that the best circumstance for a child is to have a mother and a father on QandA last night.

“When you say those things Joe, what you’re saying to me and people like me is that the most important thing in our lives – the people we love – is somehow less good, less valued.” 

What a woman.  (via mindheartandsol)

(via hughbris)

Amendment 1.

A friend from North Carolina recently posted a link to this article.

I didn’t feel it appropriate to challenge her on her Facebook wall, especially since I only got to know her over the course of a couple of days in Beijing.

But I do have to say, somewhere, even though I know on tumblr I’m preaching to the choir, that one line in Leviticus does not a sin make.

If that is the standard, then Christians (like, to an extent, myself) should adhere to the following:

• Refraining from eating rabbits, pigs, and shellfish, such as oysters, shrimp, lobsters, crabs, clams, and others. (Leviticus 11:1-12)
• “You are to make a distinction between the clean and unclean animal and between the unclean and clean bird; and you shall not make yourself an abomination by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.” You can eat some insects like locusts (grasshoppers), but not others. (Leviticus 20:25)
• A woman is unclean for 33 days after giving birth to a boy and for 66 days after giving birth to a girl. Certain animals must be offered as a burnt offering and a sin offering for cleansing. (Leviticus 12:1-8)
• “Complete rest” on the Sabbath day and demands of animal sacrifices to be carried out according to exact instructions. (Leviticus 23)
• A husband must refrain from having sex with his wife during her menstrual period. (Leviticus 18:19)
• Mixed breeding of various kinds of cattle, sowing various kinds of seeds in your field or wearing “a garment made from two kinds of material mixed together.” (Leviticus 19:19)
• “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads, nor harm the edges of your beard.” You may not have “tattoo marks on yourself.” (Leviticus 19:27)

In Leviticus 26:14-16 it says:

“If you do not obey me and do not carry out all of these commandments, if instead, you reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances so as not to carry out all my commandments …I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you shall sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies shall eat it up.” And so on.

The Bible says all kinds of outdated things and even the most extremist, devout Christian doesn’t adhere to them all.

What is truly important is to be a good person, as is generally called for in the New Testament.

At the end of the day, disallowing same sex marriage is doing a great deal of harm to the lives and mental health of millions of human beings. All because of who they love.

Allowing it does no harm to any Christian, nor their children. If they still believe gay marriage is a sin, they don’t have to get one, nor does their church have to perform them.

I didn’t always support gay marriage. For a long time I thought that civil unions (as Australia currently has) should suffice.

What changed my mind was the realisation that though it might be to my family, marriage is not a Christian institution. Do Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists, every denomination of people on the planet, not get married?). In a secular state where everyone is entitled to practice the religion of their choosing, religious arguments should not even factor into the question of how marriage may be conducted.

I’m so disappointed by what happened in North Carolina. I hope people like my friend can eventually tell the difference between being a good, religious person and twisting ancient texts to suit their existing discomfort based on misunderstanding and fear.

Jesus preached love.

I hope one day every parent will accept and love their child no matter the gender of the person they love. Just like my Catholic and Christian parents do.

(examples of verses from Leviticus taken from here)

—————————————————————————————————-

EDIT:

Hughbris addressed my post by pointing out:

“… the New Testament also condemns homosexuality in the new testament in Romans, where Paul talks about Sodom. Romans 1:26-27: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence [sic] of their error which was meet.””

I was raised a Catholic (now atheist-leaning agnostic, though I have been religious in the past and so do understand it) but I was genuinely unaware that this passage existed; I was aware that there are mentions of sodomy as a sin but I’ve never read the above. In my defence, the woman who wrote the original piece to which I was responding used only Leviticus to justify her argument (as well as other passages that could be used to argue either side depending their interpretation).

I maintain that the Bible is open to interpretation, and interpretations of it have evolved dramatically over the years. I see no reason why a Christian or Catholic cannot interpret the Bible’s message of love over its messages of the evils of same sex lust, as we interpret away so many other apparent restrictions.

Preserving the happiness, well being and lives of people who are same sex attracted is more important, and I think a loving God would agree.

#5. We Were Told That Society Owed Us a Hot Girl.

Does it seem like men feel kind of entitled to sex? Does it seem like we react to rejection with the maturity of a child being denied a toy?

Well, you have to keep in mind that what we learn as kids is really hard to deprogram as an adult. And what we learned as kids is that we males are each owed, and will eventually be awarded, a beautiful woman.

We were told this by every movie, TV show, novel, comic book, video game and song we encountered. When the Karate Kid wins the tournament, his prize is a trophy and Elisabeth Shue. Neo saves the world and is awarded Trinity. Marty McFly gets his dream girl, John McClane gets his ex-wife back, Keanu “Speed” Reeves gets Sandra Bullock, Shia LaBeouf gets Megan Fox in Transformers, Iron Man gets Pepper Potts, the hero in Avatar gets the hottest Na’vi, Shrek gets Fiona, Bill Murray gets Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters, Frodo gets Sam, WALL-E gets EVE … and so on.

Hell, at the end of An Officer and a Gentleman, Richard Gere walks into the lady’s workplace and just carries her out like he’s picking up a suit at the dry cleaner.

And then we have Star Wars, where Luke starts out getting Princess Leia (in The Empire Strikes Back), but then as Han Solo became a fan favorite, George Lucas realized he had to award her to him instead (forcing him to write the “She’s secretly Luke’s sister” thing into Return of the Jedi, even though it meant adding the weird incest vibe to Empire). With Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling played with the convention by having the beautiful girl get awarded to the sidekick character Ron, but she made it a central conflict in the story that Ron is constantly worried that, since Harry is the main character, Hermione will be awarded to him instead.

In each case, the woman has no say in this — compatibility doesn’t matter, prior relationships don’t matter, nothing else factors in. If the hero accomplishes his goals, he is awarded his favorite female. Yes, there will be dialogue that maybe makes it sound like the woman is having doubts, and she will make noises like she is making the decision on her own. But we, as the audience, know that in the end the hero will “get the girl,” just as we know that at the end of the month we’re going to “get our paycheck.” Failure to award either is breaking a societal contract. The girl can say what she wants, but we all know that at the end, she will wind up with the hero, whether she knows it or not.

And now you see the problem. From birth we’re taught that we’re owed a beautiful girl. We all think of ourselves as the hero of our own story, and we all (whether we admit it or not) think we’re heroes for just getting through our day.

So it’s very frustrating, and I mean frustrating to the point of violence, when we don’t get what we’re owed. A contract has been broken. These women, by exercising their own choices, are denying it to us. It’s why every Nice Guy is shocked to find that buying gifts for a girl and doing her favors won’t win him sex. It’s why we go to “slut” and “whore” as our default insults — we’re not mad that women enjoy sex. We’re mad that women are distributing to other people the sex that they owed us.

Yes, the women in these stories are being portrayed as wonderful and beautiful and perfect. But remember, there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by idolizing them.

(Source: jerrymuffinbutt)

No, you can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your “religious freedom.” If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. Religious freedom doesn’t mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

—

President Barack Obama (via arsvivendi)

Did he really say that? Legend.

(via aconcernedyouth)