socstudies

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NASA released the clearest pictures yet of our neighbours in the solar system

Oh and of course us

Honourable mention

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February 5, 2025 | 9:45pm

Starting my reading at this time was not a great idea but it truly was the time where both my mind and body felt calm, tired and relaxed enough to sit still and decipher theoretical texts.

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I have been wanting to do this poll for a while. I am a pen and paper stan all the way, I could never study on digital notes, and yet so many people in uni walk around with just their laptop. I added a third option because I once met a guy who just sat in lectures and listened and that was enough for him, so if I met someone like that irl it means there's definitely more weird people (affectionate) online.

In the tags tell me what you voted for, what level of education you are currently in, and what is your main subject of study (idk if asking to add age and place would add more insteresting infos so do what you want I'll honestly read everything)

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the problem with this coffee shop is that it’s too cute and too expensive and my wallet cannot keep going here every other week

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I can't find your paper about radfems!! Can you answer to this with the link? Sorry but the link in your original post says page not found and in the reblogs I can't see a link at all

hi! thank you for looking for it, I appreciate that :) I actually deleted it off substack bc nobody seemed to like it and I got scared that I'd said something super dumb....... but I'll post it here bc I kinda said what I said? I guess?

When Rory Gilmore said '“I live in two worlds, one is a world of books,” I fear a lot of radical feminists relate too much.

Over the last two years, partly as a result of my degree, I've been becoming very interested in contemporary, post-choice radical feminism. By that I mean I enjoy watching those online spaces from afar and was considering writing my dissertation on them, not that I consider myself to be a part of them. I definitely wouldn't label myself as being a part of any specific strand of feminism while I'm still learning and reading, but I have found these online spaces so rife for potential analysis on the state of social movements in the 2020s.

On Tw*tter, there is an oft recycled debate on whether being a feminist and participating in ‘feminine’ things - such as wearing makeup or shaving your legs - are mutually exclusive. It starts with somebody saying that they can still be a feminist and do those things and ends with somebody saying you can't be a feminist and do those things and is repeated ad nauseum until there are no more legs left to shave.

In one way, there is definitely a case to be made about these practices being anti-feminist. When a women shaves her legs, she is reproducing the norm that that is something a woman should do, regardless of her intention or her conflicting beliefs. Shaved legs reproduce beauty standards that some argue are indicative of wider attitudes towards the aging female body, that are a form of biopower, and that need to be overcome before feminism can progress.

Not shaving is seen as unhygienic and the whole thing started when razor companies wanted to sell their products to women. By purchasing their products, you are supporting the woman's hygiene industry which uses advertising to continue normalising what a woman should do and what she should look like. And don't forget the pink tax on ‘razors for women’…

The only way to discontinue these norms from the cycle of social reproduction is for all women to stop shaving altogether. However, with the 41% of UK women identifying as being a feminist, why is it that 85% shave their legs? Shouldn't that number be closer to 60% if participating in normative femininity is antifeminist?

The thing is, contemporary radical feminism fails to account for the disconnect between feminist theory and female reality. Acknowledging that feminine beauty practices are harmful to perceptions of women is all well and good, but why is what actually happens when a woman stops participating in these practices not also being considered?

Stereotypes around women who do not shave, wear makeup, or participate in other beauty practices for the sake of the feminist movement depict them as unhygienic, impersonable, and isolated from life course milestones - particularly those relating to men: marriage and childbearing. Does the quote, “a bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives,” ring any bells?

Online, people who point this out - that choosing not to participate in these practices does not make you immune to the consequences imposed for social deviance - are accused of falling victim to cognitive dissonance.

Feminists may still choose to shave because they are acutely aware of how society views women who don't. Often in these conversations, the experiences of trans women are not considered because online radfem spaces do not accept trans people, especially trans women. However, their experiences are very interesting and important to consider when discussing gender and feminism related issues, not only because they are real people with real experiences who should not be made invisible because of transphobia, but because it is through the subversion of gender norms that things that which are taken for granted can be made visible.

One such way is how trans women must balance their transgender identity with their feminist identity. While researching for this article, I came across an interesting blog by Dr Ruth Pierce, a trans women who shared her personal experiences with balancing these two identities. She shared how she, at the time of the post in 2012, decided to shave her legs because: '“[her] fear is that people will look at [her] hairy legs and [think] ‘urgh, she's actually a man!’”.

Given how dangerous it can be to be a trans person, it is not surprising that they may chose to participate in traditionally feminine beauty practices if it reduces this risk.

In answer to the question of whether you can still believe in feminist theory while not enacting it in the real world, I instead ask you what is the purpose of feminist theory that does not take the real world into account?

By not taking all of this into account, contemporary radical feminism calls to mind the days of armchair anthropology which was completely removed from the people being studied. We can all agree that beauty standards have negative consequences, what we need to agree on is what to do about that. Going forward, there is a necessity to ask questions about what can realistically be done to reduce inequality, rather than enacting repetitive debates that achieve nothing for the movement except the isolation of potential supporters.

Thank you for reading! This was written in one sitting on my phone after I came up with the title during a sociology class this morning, so it’s not written as well as it could be, BUT, I really wanted to share it and hopefully have a discussion on this topic because I (clearly) find it soooo interesting. :)

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a guide to passive academia

read slowly. page by page, paragraph by paragraph. don’t rush your books—let the content settle properly.

listen to lectures while doing other things—getting ready, cooking, on the subway. passive learning makes revision so much easier.

study in environments that feel comfortable—a quiet library, cosy at home, or a nice café with good coffee.

annotate with intention. a single well-placed note is more effective than cluttered, wordy sentences, especially in academic reading.

don’t stop a good study session. if it flows, lean into it. let yourself stay in the moment.

read outside of school. don’t limit yourself to your studies—if something interests you, explore it further.

constant revision. got a minute? glance at your notes. familiarity deepens understanding effortlessly.

candles for late-night study sessions. candlelight can be easier on the eyes than harsh artificial lighting, especially compared to screens or fluorescent lights.

spend time in museums. become familiar with artists and exhibitions, read the little signs, and write down interesting observations.

read philosophy, but don’t rush to have an opinion. let the questions linger, explore different perspectives, and give yourself time to see where you stand.

keep a brain dump notebook. always in your bag, ready for any passing thought. don’t worry about making it pretty—just write it down and return to it later.

find friends who care about academia. discussing what you’re learning makes it feel like conversation, not study.

my insta: @ malusokay

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I did write a whole response to you before realising that you hadn't even read my post because the link didn't work (I just added it now). So what was the point in you writing all that when you hadn't even read what I had to say???

I wrote about the problem with online radfem discourse for my substack and you can read it here :) it's about whether you can still call yourself a feminist if you do anti-feminist (according to radfems) things like shaving and wearing makeup!

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This post wasn't me treating radfems as a punching bag, it was me trying to argue that the repetitive debates on twitter about this aren't helpful or realistic. About the yelling at you instead of men thing, first of all I wasn't yelling or being aggressive in any way, second of all, my whole point (and I do concede that clearly I didn't get this across very well, but I'm still learning) is that it isn't constructive to rehash the same ideas in feminist spaces because that's like preaching to the choir. We all know the root of these issues, what we don't all know is how to have constructive conversations within feminist spaces about where to go from here. The current state of feminism is not conducive to half of the population deciding that they no longer care about fitting into society.

I wrote about the problem with online radfem discourse for my substack and you can read it here :) it's about whether you can still call yourself a feminist if you do anti-feminist (according to radfems) things like shaving and wearing makeup!

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I wrote about the problem with online radfem discourse for my substack and you can read it here :) it's about whether you can still call yourself a feminist if you do anti-feminist (according to radfems) things like shaving and wearing makeup!

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09.02.25 🌠 i wasn't sure whether i'd be able to write three term papers in one and a half months even before i found out one is twice as long as i'd thought. now all i can do pray and sacrifice a lamb.

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catching up in my commonplace book, with han kang’s greek lessons

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Lab report writing after dinner – deriving Bragg's law for photonic crystals. Felt like lighting candles because it's dark and freezing outside and this is as good an occasion as any!

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sometimes u just gotta drink a glass of water and accept that you’re an extremely complicated person

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i’m absolutely loving my continental philosophy class !! i’ve had a lot of personal stuff going on which has made classes and schoolwork a lot harder but i love this class !

we talked about an argument against the ontological argument for the existence of god, which was so clear and interesting !! we’ve been talking about kant and hegel and i finally feel like im understanding hegel, at least a little bit !

it’s very different from analytical philosophy, but i’m really enjoying this !

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missing late summer...