#anarcho-feminism?

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

African Social Spiders: these spiders live in colonies that can contain up to 2,000 spiders, most of which are female; they hunt, forage, maintain their web, and raise their offspring as a group, without any dominance hierarchy or caste system

This communal behavior is extremely rare among spiders, which are normally solitary creatures. The African social spider (Stegodyphus dumicola) is one of the few species that has been identified as a true "social spider," forming colonies and living in communal nests where the spiders work together to hunt, forage, build webs, and care for their offspring.

Above: an African social spider feeding the young spiderlings of her colony by regurgitating food for them, exhibiting a level of maternal/allomaternal care that is relatively uncommon in both spiders and insects

African social spiders can be found in various parts of southwestern Africa, where they will often build a dense silk nest in the branches of a thorn tree and/or shrub. Most of the spiders in the colony are female (more than 85%, according to some studies) and the species itself also has a female-biased primary sex ratio, as researchers have found that female embryos develop in more than 80% of the eggs that the spiders produce.

Above: a group of African social spiders working together to subdue their prey, which will be taken back to the nest so that it can be shared with the rest of the colony

There is no evidence that any dominance hierarchy or caste system exists within S. dumicola colonies. The spiders all cooperate to complete a variety of tasks, such as hunting, repairing the web, foraging, defending the colony, caring for the colony's offspring, etc. While none of them are exclusively assigned to a single task, many have a primary role that they fill, often based on their physical size and condition.

Above: close-up photo of S. dumicola

This species also engages in extreme allomaternal care, meaning that many different spiders (including both mothers and "allomothers") all share the responsibility of caring for the colony's offspring; even the unmated females help out with brood care. The mothers/allomothers tend to the eggsacs, regurgitate food for the baby spiderlings, and even engage in matriphagy, which means that they will eventually be cannibalized by the babies.

From The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior:

... some proportion of females do not reproduce – sometimes as much as 60% – but remain as helpers, contributing to foraging and brood care (allo-mothering). Both breeding females and virgin allo-mothers regurgitate food for colony offspring and eventually let the young consume their bodies. ...

Young that are raised with both mothers and allo-mothers show higher survival and growth than young raised by their mothers alone, suggesting a clear fitness benefit of cooperative breeding.

Spiders of this species generally measure about 2.5 - 3.5mm long; they can be found in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini.

Sources & More Info:

Science Direct: Social Spiders

Current Biology: Quick Guide to Social Spiders (PDF)

Phys.org: Untangling the Social Lives of Spiders

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: The Age & Evolution of Sociality in Stegodyphus Spiders

Entomology Today: Social Spiders Divide Labor According to Body Size & Condition

Animal Behaviour: Extreme Allomaternal Care by Unmated Females in a Cooperatively Breeding Spider

National Geographic: Baby Spiders Eat their Mothers

University of Portsmouth: Social Spiders Have Different Ways of Hunting in Groups

Behavioral Ecology: Spider Societies Mitigate Risk by Prioritizing Caution

Behavioral Processes: Warring Arthropod Societies

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology: Does the African Social Spider Stegodyphus dumicola Control the Sex of Individual Offspring?

[governmentcheeseboy]

True freedom will not be a possibility until everyone understands that all oppression is interconnected, and none of us can be free until we are all free.

[anarchist-art]

[bellasophies]

Porn and prostitution being claimed by the left is sickening. As a leftie, the narrative around porn and prostitution bans from others on the left rejecting it is so strange. Porn is sexist and racist. But these people are either in on it (watching it or making it) or stupid. The sex trade industry is misogyny on its face, it has been rebranded as “liberating” by lefties and pornographers.

[tiefrotemaus]

on men

gosh, I hate men, sometimes, but honestly all the time, I hate how they dominate everything, even debates that aren't even about them.

[miochimochi]

Finished the back of the unity jacket. Need to think of more to put on this one. Mainly trying to think of something to paint on the hood. Maybe a black head?

[mourntomidnight]

Fyi South Korea has a pretty bad history of genuine r*dfem/t*rf extremist movements that have committed literal violence in and out of the country there and that’s why I was always sus of movements like 4b. Which fyi is a very fringe movement that doesn’t represent why the birth rates in South Korea are declining (which is just a very intense cost of living crisis).

For further reference on the types of r*dfem groups to be aware of it’s:

Just a reminder that men are not born misogynistic, it is a learned behavior and anti men sentiments can quickly turn into transphobia and straight up racism.

[thegutterbunny]

Leftism Tires Me.

I'm just gonna put this here because nobody's gonna see it anyways. I'm just trying to organize my messy ass thoughts. Lately, I've been feeling really disillusioned with leftism, but I don't have the proper words for why. Every time I try to google "leftists are annoying" or something all I get is right wing shit. A lot of this is based on experiences I've both IRL and Online. A lot of this is me struggling to put feelings to words. I feel like my personality just doesn't JIVE right with leftists. I'm pretty materialistic, I love stuff. Mostly books, games, kink gear, and clothes. I drool at other people's wardrobes and goth decorated bedrooms. I don't really care which online stores are the "bad ones". I DO want them demonias. They look cool. I like fan servicey/sexy character designs. They're hot. I want more hot characters that aesthetically appeal to me that I can gawk at. I hate when twitter users and talking heads pretend like they are above such "base tastes". I think people are too uptight about having a squeaky clean record of consuming media. Steering away from problematic artists and art into an ever-shrinking circle of "safe" art and artists. It should depend on what you're personally comfortable with, I think. I've dropped artists that I think are reprehensible. Not ever out of some sense of morality and duty, but because they gross me out and I can't look at them the same. Other artists do or have done terrible things, but that adds to the flavor somehow. Makes them more interesting and worth diving into. Sometimes it even humanizes them. Sometimes the art is SO GOOD I just don't give a shit. The constant emphasis on the collective over the individual is off putting to me. I think rules based on morality always end up having to be made arbitrarily because when building a moral system you ALWAYS run into contradictions and inconsistencies. This is because morality is this thing we made up. We don't find morals in nature. They weren't "discovered". Morality isn't divine. Morality is a TOOL. Which is why this idea that being a small part of something "larger than myself" freaks me the fuck out. Sacrificing pieces of myself... Be it my time, my identity, my aspirations, and my body to a machine called "revolution" is off-putting in an existential way. "Your feelings matter until they don't" is that unspoken leftist creed. Philosophers and philosophy enthusiasts are the most annoying irritating motherfuckers to be around. OH HOW I HATE THEM. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER VENT OR SPILL YOUR GUTS TO A PHILOSOPHY NERD. NEVER MAKING THAT MISTAKE AGAIN.

Sometimes I feel like leftists are more concerned with defending leftism itself than actual people and their feelings. They sanctify the lens they view the world through other then the people they view through that lens. They can be just as biased, stubborn, and incurious as everyone else. Look, not everyone has the time or energy to look through constant studies or be scholars, I get it, but summa y'all just unthinkingly latch onto narratives and refuse to unclutch only because everyone else around you has latched onto the narrative too. The amount of times I've seen someone latch onto a narrative without even thinking about it... Just based on vibes... FUCK. This last one... Speaking as an autistic person... Is rough. Leftist spaces are SUPER cliquey and ran by the same Social Capital rules as anywhere else. There are the same invisible lines to tread here as anywhere else that torture me as someone who's blind to where they lay. Break and self censure yourself to fit in. Nobody's in disagreement. It's just you, and if you disagree we'll all quietly and silently move away from you without a word like everyone else. It depends on the exact space you're in. Whatever friend group or discord server, the feel can "change". People with the most charisma are rewarded with attention, admiration, and a feeling of belonging. Being awkward, shy, quiet, or having the neurodivergent "stench" makes to ostracized. Just. Like. Everywhere. Else. FUCK. YOU.

OK that's enough schizo posting. There's even more I could touch on, but I'm tired and I wanna play Silent Hill 2. If anyone who's read this has the time, what's the diagnosis? What should I do with myself? Am I beyond saving or whatever? I don't even want to "leave leftism" or whatever the fuck, but there's so much... Pressure... here. So much judgement. I want something better for myself but I look everywhere and I can't find it.

[shroobles]

What have you read recently?

I'm working my way through anarchy works, critique of the Gotha programme, blessed is the flame, bullshit jobs, state and rev, and conquest of bread.

My favorite text so far would have to be black anarchism by the black rose federation. I think it's a must-read for black and brown people dipping their toes into anarchism, and for anti-racist white people who want a better understanding racism from a black anarchist lens, and the plight of the black/brown american. It doesn't touch too much on female issues, but I still love it.

[no-gods-no-masters-tshirts]

[slyandthefamilybook]

I think we need to have a serious re-evaluation of what "leftist" means bc there ain't no fuckin way authcoms are on the same left as me lmao

[queerpunktomatoes]

Friendly reminder of this quote from Karl himself:

"The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance-hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save—the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor dust will devour—your capital. The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life—the greater is the store of your estranged being."

The capitalist system promotes self-denial, it makes us smaller and sadder, it diminishes the human experience.

[nando161mando]

Afghan women are responding to the Taliban's ban on women speaking in public by launching a campaign and singing out loudly.

🔗 Habib Khan (@HabibKhanT) https://x.com/i/status/1828317148172652880?mx=2

[love-ardour-anarchism]

Yet for a moment, there was light

If the world shall end in flames, in nuclear disaster or be left to drown, her climate devastated then let it here be known that for a moment there was light.

Despite the whole of history, despite the hunger and the doubt, despite those dead of war and cold exposure if this world comes to end let it be known that there was light.

The cataclysmic changes, more dead of heat stroke every summer, more forests burned and coastlines flooded, all horrors beyond wildest dreams in spite of that stood we.

Community and fleeting moments, the memories made among lovers, friends. The way we were, the songs we sang, the ways we tried to thrive and to support each other with heavy boots there on our neck. 

The kindness shared, the food we had, the warmth and care among those left out in the cold and for those moments there was light.

Our hopes, our dreams, your eyes so full of light as you lay in my bed and stared at me with deepest love, and how we pictured future days together.

The way we tried each day to do things just a little better, to do less harm and take less shit.

We saw the sunset there in winter, we watched the sunrise there in spring and yes we fought for what we believed in regardless of the season.

We fought the hatred, braced the world that we’d been living in and tried to bring forth better things and even if it all came down to flames and bombs, and even if our bones lay bleaching in the sun we’d still have tried so hard so for a moment there was light.

.SCRR

[bellasophies]

Middle class liberal feminists make this argument all the time: “I am being sexualised anyway, so I may as well make money from it” this is a terrible argument, why are you not fighting sexualisation, harassment and rape? We all have to fight it. Do not give in to patriarchy. Do not be its tool!

[anarchafeministposting]

Post Directory

Articles

Why Misogynists Make Great Informants by Courtney Desiree Morris

Pushing Back Against Mass Abuse Apologism by Estelle Ellison

The Illusion of the 'Real' Rape Victim by Hannah Summers

Against a Liberal Abolitionism by Lee Cicuta

“Anti-Sex” and the Real Sexual Politics of the Right by Lee Cicuta

Do I Need To Be An Optimist To Be An Anarchist? by Lee Cicuta

Intimate Authoritarianism: The Ideology of Abuse by Lee Cicuta

The Point of DARVO by Lee Cicuta

The Right-Wing Hates Children: The Weaponization Of “Groomer” by Lee Cicuta

The Subaltern is Fucking Speaking! by merc

How Many Rapists Must We Kill? by Mona Eltahawy

Book Review: “Harmful to Minors” by Judith Levine by narcissus

The Elephant in the Room by narcissus

Sex, Desire, and Violence Part I by narcissus

Every Rapist is a Cop Without a Badge (Sex, Desire, and Violence Part II) by narcissus

Thirty-One Thesis: A Manifesto by narcissus

Three Short Arguments About Youth Liberation and Body Autonomy by narcissus

Pedophilia and American Anarchism - The Other Side of Hakim Bey by Robert P. Helms

Restorative Counter-Insurgency: The Colonial Origins of Restorative Justice by sofie

A Brief Introduction to Anarcha-Feminism & Queer Anarchism by Spectral Red

Not a Tradwife or a Girlboss, But a Secret Third Thing (Anarcha-Feminist) by The Ungovernable Feminist

Combat Manarchists by Utopia

One Giant Red Flag, Folded Into A Book by William Gillis

Videos

How The FBI Killed Environmentalism by Anansi’s Library (Not quite on topic, but talks about anarchism and organizing)

Misc

Meme tag