#i realized in that moment that he was a full-blown fascist. i hung up on him and no longer speak to him.

[facelesspassport]

One of my firmest beliefs is that "safe spaces for men" will not solve the issue of male radicalization and patriarchy. If you want men to stop becoming terrorists you need to target the true source of misogyny: male socialization. Once a young boy is taught by his parents that women are inferior to him he is doomed to bigotry, because he lives in a world that will constantly reinforce this idea and reward him for agreeing. As for adult men who are already misogynists, the only way to convert them to feminism is to stop coddling them (and yes, I see all of the "safe spaces for men"/"male mental health" discourse as coddling). Coddling abusers only enables them (and yes, bigots are inherently abusers)! You can not convince an abuser to change by coddling/gentle guidance as this will only embolden them. We can only make men change by holding them accountable for their behavior as a class, period. I think that the best way to do this on a mass scale would be via reeducation camps, but we all know that westerners would see that as unethical somehow. So, our next best bet would be forcing our governments to create feminist programs that aim to do the following: stop domestic violence, "reform" abusers and rapists with court mandated abuser counseling, and educate young people on gender studies, safe sex, and relationship practices. China has a program called "the Ministry of Health and Family" which was created to stop misogynistic violence, and once it was instated their domestic violence rates plummeted. China did not create safe spaces for men to reduce terrorism- they held them accountable and it worked. We should follow in their footsteps. EDIT: I added screenshots and whatnot. nothing to see here, really Im just kinda seething.

I took screenshots of these comments that i made under the original post because I just knew that OP would block me after I wrote this- not because its any harsher than the other replies (in fact mine was pretty tame compared to some of the responses) but because I am spitting straight facts and OP is a misogynist. I just wanted to repost them here for my own safe keeping and sanity ig. I didnt care for the idea of discussing this with OP directly since I knew they wouldnt be interested in a feminist POV, but I was hoping that my comments would be seen by the audience. It bothers me when people make these huge discourse posts and then block certain commenters solely because they dont want their friends to see the opposing responses. It especially bothers me in this case because as we speak OP is fiercely & performatively "debating" with TERFs who obviously wont change their minds- yet they blocked me immediately (though I wasnt interested in directly speaking with them) because they knew my comments made them look bad, and Im willing to bet that they told themselves they "felt unsafe" or something to justify it.

Like, just say you hate women and go... :EDIT over

There should be actual self-help spaces for men (and especially young men) that aren’t just alt-right recruitment centers.

As a person who was a dude the places I wanted to go to with kind people (usually queer people) had at least a few people saying that “men are trash” or “men are inherent dangers” with no pushback and it scared me.

I’m decently emotionally mature and realized that just because some outliers were assholes didn’t mean the whole place was terrible but what about younger or less emotionally mature boys? They see “oh men are trash” and see no pushback then think “Oh. These people do not like me for something I cannot change. These other people (Jordan Peterson fans) like me for who I am (they don’t but they say they do). I will go to the place I feel safer and happier.”

Without a kind safe space for boys then they will go to these toxic places. I used to read a good amount of posts on r/Teachers and a lot of them are saying the boys don’t respect them, love people like Andrew Tate, so on and so forth. This is what happens when the only “safe spaces” for boys aren’t actually safe.

[fangerine]

oh, wow. let’s just get into episode five of the last of us. spoilers ahead.

fate and sacrifice.

in the previous episodes, i accepted sarah and tess’ fate. i knew it was coming, and did their deaths still hit me like a goddamn bloater? absolutely. but i wasn’t entirely hung up on it.

those are the themes of this episode. yeah, they're themes for the last of us in general but in this episode? it’s the main show.

i mentioned in my last post about episode four, that it’s really important to notice the age of sam in this show. in fact, he’s not nine, he’s eight. a year difference but still a baby in comparison to all of the other characters. firstly, kevionn woodard is a little powerhouse. i was so blown away by this kid’s performance. this show is INTENSE and he took it like an absolute champ. second, kevionn being deaf added so many layers to sam, as well as his relationship with henry.

in this world, having a disability makes it so much harder to survive. i mean, if you can’t hear a clicker, you’re kinda fucked. obviously, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the right to survive (although FEDRA probably believes that as i wouldn’t put it past them if their for eugenics, fascist fucks), it just means that you have to innovate and surround yourself with people you trust. that’s exactly why sam needs henry.

but it’s not just that henry needs to be sam’s ears. it’s that sam is, once again, a child, who needs protection regardless of any disability. sam needs his older brother, and henry needs his younger brother. for henry, sam is his purpose and his hope, like ellie is for joel (although the stubborn asshole doesn’t quite realize that yet). of course, this is obvious in game but as the show has done so brilliantly, craig and neil diverge and expand.

it’s what makes these characters’ end so much more tragic.

we hear it in episode four: “henry wouldn’t let sam go hungry”, as kathleen said. even though we hadn’t really seen those characters yet, there was already a hint that henry is like joel: a relentless protector. just a bit more naïve and pacifistic.

and in the beginning of this episode, we see more of that. “he’s scared because you’re scared.”, the doctor tells henry. and just like that, henry puts on a tough face and gives his little brother the courage to face the horrors that await them with a bag of crayons. in the few moments we get with them (in comparison to what we get with ellie and joel), we can see there’s a beautiful relationship there, even more so than the game.

that’s why, i think it was harder for me to accept their fate. like, i really wanted to fuck with their fate knowing full well that there was nothing that ellie, joel, whoever, could do to stop it because that’s just how this world works.

hearing that henry sacrificed his morals to save sam from death before just twisted the knife even deeper. to see death come to them anyways, so quickly, and so so violently was far more horrific to me than sarah or tess.

in those last moments with henry and sam, i truly felt ellie’s shock and pain. 

and i felt her guilt.

she sacrificed her blood for a little boy she had only met a day ago because she believes, or wants to believe, that there is still hope out there. hope for sam miraculously making it through the night. hope for humanity. hope for herself.

sam is ellie’s true wake up call. she’s been told since the beginning of the series that she has purpose in this shitty world. but we know that fate, in this world, is equally as shitty, and sometimes you just can’t fuck with it.

you have to accept it. even when it tears your heart out.