#international women's day 2018

[brian-in-finance]

Twitter

Photo: IFTA, 15 February 2018

Remember International Women’s Day 2024?

[tomhardymyking]

On this 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲, I want to make a special mention of 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹: our beloved director of 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎 3 (also screenwriter, producer and great friend of 𝗧𝗼𝗺) ✨

I can't wait to watch what these two have done together for the film 💓🥰

⠀⠀⠀⠀

En este 𝐃𝐢𝐚 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐣𝐞𝐫, quiero hacer una mención especial: 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗹, nuestra querida directora de 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎 3 (también guionista, productora y gran amiga de 𝗧𝗼𝗺) ✨

No puedo esperar para ver qué han hecho estos dos juntos para la película 💓🥰

⠀⠀

[zee-rambles]

So, two things. One: I’m trying to unlock my twitter account so that I can push the #pizzapigeon and #saverottmnt campaign to a bigger platform (even though there be monsters on Twitter and I got locked after making one post, my first one, which didn’t violate any rules I read).

And TWO

Happy International Women’s Day to the BEST APRIL!

For anyone out there that is looking for a girl that is written well, is tough, smart, funny, and isn’t there to be a love interest but part of the team, look no further!

[coochiequeens]

Does this guy have citizenship in New Zealand? Would this impact this guys chances of gaining citizenship?

The trans activist at the center of controversy after assaulting English women’s rights advocate Kellie-Jay Keen in Auckland, New Zealand, is a representative for the United Nations who was invited to speak at the UN on International Women’s Day, March 8, a revelation that is now beginning to circulate on social media.

Eliana Rubashkyn, also known as Eliana Golberstein and Eliana Rubinstein, is a male who identifies as transgender and intersex, and uses “they/them” pronouns. Rubashkyn is originally Jewish-Ukrainian from Colombia, but currently lives in New Zealand. He has worked with the UN as a Program Officer at ILGA World (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association).

Rubashkyn boasted about assaulting women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen on March 25 during what was supposed to be a peaceful women’s rights demonstration. Keen, also known by her moniker Posie Parker, had arranged for a speaking tour of New Zealand centered around giving women the platform to express their thoughts on gender ideology. But Keen was forced to cut the tour short after being met with extreme aggression at her first stop in Auckland.

As Keen stood in the rotunda at Albert Park in central Auckland, where the event was scheduled to be held, a mob of trans activists broke through the barriers. With no police in sight, Keen began to express concern about the safety of herself and her supporters as she streamed live on YouTube.

Among the hoard of trans activists was Rubashkyn, who had managed to get inside the bandstand by lying about his identity. As Keen approached, he then dumped a liter of tomato juice onto her and her security. Videos of the incident have since circulated on social media, and Rubashkyn told a local news station that he was able to approach Keen because he lied about his identity, and “they were not thinking that I am a trans person, because I’m intersex and trans but they can’t tell.”

In a statement on the act, Rubashkyn claimed that he targeted Keen because “her words are blood because they are killing our people.” He continued: “That tomato juice represents the blood of the people she is trying to kill.”

The last murder of a transgender person in New Zealand was in 2018. Zenith Campbell was murdered by Paddy Woods, his long-time boyfriend. Since Campbell’s death, however, two transgender New Zealanders have been charged with violent crimes — one of whom tortured a young girl to death.

On social media, Rubashkyn boasted of the attack on Keen, leading many women’s rights advocates to hone in on his Twitter feed.

The images of Rubashkyn at the United Nations were first revealed by women’s rights advocates, and then quickly shared by popular detransitioner Oli London,.

While many were shocked by Rubashkyn’s presence at the United Nations on International Women’s Day, his connections with the intergovernmental organization date back years.

While a student studying at the Taipei Medical University in September of 2013, Rubashkyn visited Hong Kong to update his passport. He had begun taking estrogen the year prior and wanted to update his photograph, but the Colombian consulate in Hong Kong was the closest place he could do it. 

After arriving in Hong Kong, Rubashkyn claims he was subjected to mistreatment by the Hong Kong border authorities, and contacted the UN High Commissioner for Refugees through Amnesty International. The High Commissioner provided Rubashkyn protection under the stipulation he surrender his passport, at which point he was allowed to enter the country.

Without a passport, Rubashkyn became a stateless person, and was effectively stuck in Hong Kong for several months where he faced deportation back to Colombia. While in Hong Kong, Rubashkyn fought to have his legal gender marker changed to “female” in contravention of Hong Kong law, which stipulated that a person must go through genital alteration prior to being legally recognized as the opposite sex. In April of 2014, with the assistance of the United Nations, he became the first transgender person to be recognized as his self-declared “gender” in Hong Kong despite not having undergone any surgeries.

By late 2014, Rubashkyn had been moved to New Zealand where he then fought for refugee status and was granted asylum in May of 2014. The next year, he paid for his Israeli boyfriend to meet him in Auckland where the two married while Rubashkyn studied at a local university. 

According to his LinkedIn, Rubashkyn currently works as a pharmacist, and he is also a Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Officer with the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association via the United Nations.

It is currently unclear what actions, if any, will be taken against Rubashkyn for his attack on Kellie-Jay Keen during the March 25 demonstration. According to the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961, Rubashkyn may have committed assault when he threw tomato juice on Keen and her security guard. The legal definition of assault is very broad in New Zealand, covering any situation where an individual directly or indirectly applies force against another person’s body. Community Law New Zealandnotes that this “includes when you do this indirectly – by throwing something for example.”

But despite Rubashkyn admitting to the act, the Prime Minister of New Zealand has refused to state whether any assaults committed during the Let Women Speak demonstration will be properly investigated by police.

During a press conference today, The Platform reporter Sean Plunket asked PM Chris Hipkins if he could give “general assurance” that justice would be pursued. 

“Those are matters for the commissioner of police,” Hipkins responded curtly, re-stating the line when pressed further.

By Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve is the Co-Founder of Reduxx, and the outlet's Chief Investigative Journalist with a focused interest in pornography, sexual predators, and fetish subcultures. She is the creator of the podcast Women's Voices, which features news commentary and interviews regarding women's rights.

Of all people they could have quoted why did it have to be Oli London? Couldn’t they find a detransitioned person with less controversy?

[justbackgroundnoise]

Sophia Bush could have dated me instead of Ashlyn Harris. Just saying….

[katrafiy]

I think about this image a lot. This is an image from the Aurat March (Women's March) in Karachi, Pakistan, on International Women's Day 2018. The women in the picture are Pakistani trans women, aka khwaja siras or hijras; one is a friend of a close friend of mine.

In the eyes of the Pakistani government and anthropologists, they're a "third gender." They're denied access to many resources that are available to cis women. Trans women in Pakistan didn't decide to be third-gendered; cis people force it on them whether they like it or not.

Western anthropologists are keen on seeing non-Western trans women as culturally constructed third genders, "neither male nor female," and often contrast them (a "legitimate" third gender accepted in its culture) with Western trans women (horrific parodies of female stereotypes).

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors and jargon used to obscure the fact that while each culture's trans women are treated as a single culturally constructed identity separate from all other trans women, cis women are treated as a universal category that can just be called "women."

Even though Pakistani aurat and German Frauen and Guatemalan mujer will generally lead extraordinarily different lives due to the differences in culture, they are universally recognized as women.

The transmisogynist will say, "Yes, but we can't ignore the way gender is culturally constructed, and hijras aren't trans women, they're a third gender. Now let's worry less about trans people and more about the rights of women in Burkina Faso."

In other words, to the transmisogynist, all cis women are women, and all trans women are something else.

"But Kat, you're not Indian or Pakistani. You're not a hijra or khwaja sira, why is this so important to you?"

Have you ever heard of the Neapolitan third gender "femminiello"? It's the term my moniker "The Femme in Yellow" is derived from, and yes, I'm Neapolitan. Shut up.

I'm going to tell you a little bit about the femminielli, and I want you to see if any of this sounds familiar. Femminielli are a third gender in Neapolitan culture of people assigned male at birth who have a feminine gender expression.

They are lauded and respected in the local culture, considered to be good omens and bringers of good luck. At festivals you'd bring a femminiello with you to go gambling, and often they would be brought in to give blessings to newborns. Noticing anything familiar yet?

Oh and also they were largely relegated to begging and sex work and were not allowed to be educated and many were homeless and lived in the back alleys of Naples, but you know we don't really like to mention that part because it sounds a lot less romantic and mystical.

And if you're sitting there, asking yourself why a an accurate description of femminiello sounds almost note for note like the same way hijras get described and talked about, then you can start to understand why that picture at the start of this post has so much meaning for me.

And you can also start to understand why I get so frustrated when I see other queer people buy into this fool notion that for some reason the transes from different cultures must never mix.

That friend I mentioned earlier is a white American trans woman. She spent years living in India, and as I recal the story the family she was staying with saw her as a white, foreign hijra and she was asked to use her magic hijra powers to bless the house she was staying in.

So when it comes to various cultural trans identities there are two ways we can look at this. We can look at things from a standpoint of expressed identity, in which case we have to preferentially choose to translate one word for the local word, or to leave it untranslated.

If we translate it, people will say we're artificially imposing an outside category (so long as it's not cis people, that's fine). If we don't, what we're implying, is that this concept doesn't exist in the target language, which suggests that it's fundamentally a different thing

A concrete example is that Serena Nanda in her 1990 and 2000 books, bent over backwards to say that Hijras are categorically NOT trans women. Lots of them are!

And Don Kulick bent over backwards in his 1998 book to say that travesti are categorically NOT trans women, even though some of the ones he cited were then and are now trans women.

The other option, is to look at practice, and talk about a community of practice of people who are AMAB, who wear women's clothing, take women's names, fulfill women's social roles, use women's language and mannerisms, etc WITHIN THEIR OWN CULTURAL CONTEXT.

This community of practice, whatever we want to call it - trans woman, hijra, transfeminine, femminiello, fairy, queen, to name just a few - can then be seen to CLEARLY be trans-national and trans-cultural in a way that is not clearly evident in the other way of looking at things.

And this is important, in my mind, because it is this axis of similarity that is serving as the basis for a growing transnational transgender rights movement, particularly in South Asia. It's why you see pictures like this one taken at the 2018 Aurat March in Karachi, Pakistan.

And it also groups rather than splits, pointing out not only points of continuity in the practices of western trans women and fa'afafines, but also between trans women in South Asia outside the hijra community, and members of the hijra community both trans women and not.

To be blunt, I'm not all that interested in the word trans woman, or the word hijra. I'm not interested in the word femminiello or the word fa'afafine.

I'm interested in the fact that when I visit India, and I meet hijras (or trans women, self-expressed) and I say I'm a trans woman, we suddenly sit together, talk about life, they ask to see American hormones and compare them to Indian hormones.

There is a shared community of practice that creates a bond between us that cis people don't have. That's not to say that we all have the exact same internal sense of self, but for the most part, we belong to the same community of practice based on life histories and behavior.

I think that's something cis people have absolutely missed - largely in an effort to artificially isolate trans women. This practice of arguing about whether a particular "third gender" label = trans women or not, also tends to artificially homogenize trans women as a group.

You see this in Kulick and Nanda, where if you read them, you could be forgiven for thinking all American trans women are white, middle class, middle-aged, and college-educated, who all follow rigid codes of behavior and surgical schedules prescribed by male physicians.

There are trans women who think of themselves as separate from cis women, as literally another kind of thing, there are trans women who think of themselves as coterminous with cis women, there are trans women who think of themselves as anything under the sun you want to imagine.

The problem is that historically, cis people have gone to tremendous lengths to destroy points of continuity in the transgender community (see everything I've cited and more), and particularly this has been an exercise in transmisogyny of grotesque levels.

The question is do you want to talk about culturally different ways of being trans, or do you want to try to create as many neatly-boxed third genders as you can to prop up transphobic theoretical frameworks? To date, people have done the latter. I'm interested in the former.

I guess what I'm really trying to say with all of this is that we're all family y'all.

[reasonsforhope]

LGBTQ+ organizations and allies are celebrating Michigan for becoming the first state in three years to pass comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislation, which now heads to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to be signed into law, finally passed after decades of court battles and hold-ups from Republican legislators.

The bill passed in a 64-45 vote in the Democrat-led House on Wednesday. It amends the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include LGBTQ+ people among its protected groups. The law forbids discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodation within businesses, government buildings, and educational facilities on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, marital status — and now, LGBTQ+ identity.

Democrats had tried introducing various LGBTQ+ non-discrimination measures over the last 40 years, according to the bill’s gay sponsor Sen. Jeremy Moss (D). However, the attempts were repeatedly voted down by Republican-led legislatures. Last January, Democrats took control of the full legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years, finally giving them the chance to pass the protections.

In July 2022, Michigan’s Supreme Court issued a landmark 5–2 ruling that ELCRA already forbade discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as forms of discrimination based on sex and gender. This followed a 2020 Michigan Court of Claims ruling that said ELCRA didn’t ban anti-gay discrimination as well as a 2018 vote by Michigan’s Civil Rights Commission interpreting ELCRA as protecting LGBTQ+ people from religious-based discrimination...

When the House voted to pass the historic bill on Wednesday, a crowd in the House gallery broke into applause, Bridge Michigan reported. Republican House members had tried adding amendments that would’ve carved out exceptions for religious people to continue discriminating against LGBTQ+ people. None of these amendments passed into the final bill.

Gov. [Whitmer] has signaled that she will soon sign the bill into law. In a Wednesday tweet, she noted the observation of International Women’s Day and wrote, “I’m celebrating trans women who have continuously led the way, despite constant threats to their lives and liberty. I’m proud that we’re finally in a position to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to protect LGBTQ+ Michiganders. Let’s get it done!”

-via LGBTQ Nation, 3/9/23

Note: If it's not clear from the language, this is basically a done deal--the bill signing IS ABSOLUTELY GOING TO HAPPEN.

As scary as things are right now, there are so many of us fighting to protect ourselves, our communities, and the queer and trans people around us.

This comes only a day after Minnesota's governor signed a landmark executive order that guarantees the right to gender-affirming care and prevents the state from complying with any other states' attempts to interfere. via them.us, 3/9/23

There is hope, and there are so many people fighting for us.

[gasstationlady]

right person, right timing, right? | a charles leclerc social media au | pt. 1

pairing: charles leclerc x figureskater!reader (fc: jennie kim and some yuna kim)

after almost a decade, monaco's two-time olympic women's figure skating champion, y/n l/n, moves back home for her retirement.

notes: y/n's career is inspired by kim yuna's career! hopefully it’s not too confusing to read and follow 😭

disclaimer: typos. swearing. chatgpt french. i'm not the most educated in figure skating, so pls excuse any mistakes! photos aren't mine, nothing here is factual.

masterlist ⋆ next

nbcsports

92,932 likes

nbcsports Y/N L/N announces retirement after 2024 World Championships

The Queen of Figure Skating has taken her last bow.

NBCSports writer Kyle Smith tweets word that Y/N L/N, whose bid to become a fourth-consecutive World champion was narrowly denied today by the United States's Carolyn Rivers, has confirmed that she will retire at the age of 25.

The Monegasque superstar will end her stellar career with the 2018 and 2022 Olympic gold, three world championships, and the distinction of never finishing off the podium in her senior-level international career.

Read the rest of the article now on our website.

View all 508 comments

user no. fucking. way. please say sike rn

user God I don't blame her, figure skating is turning into math these days. She deserved that gold.

user ik monaco is depressed as hell rn LOL bc same

↳ user The way that's so accurate because imagine the #1 athlete representing your country is all of a sudden retiring. 😭😭 Monaco literally only has 2 Olympic medals EVER and they were both won by Y/N, if that doesn't say how significant she is to the country then idk.

↳ user i heard they even nicknamed her "Ice Queen Y/N" 😭😭

↳ user Yes, she is called "La Reine des Glaces" in Monaco!

user no hate to carolyn at all but she isn't rlly a complete skater. i'm extremely disappointed with the judging today

user wow i suddenly can't read

user Nooooo not my favorite skater ☹️

user i can't imagine watching a competition without y/n present :( such a major loss for the fs community, but i wish her the best in her retirement! 🥺🥺

user she just did one of the best performances i've ever seen, just to end up winning silver?? make it make sense fr

yourusername

liked by _kagavovskay_14, mlnmarta and 140,861 others

yourusername chez moi est là où est mon cœur, je t'aime monaco 🇲🇨 SEE TRANSLATION home is where my heart is, i love you monaco 🇲🇨

View all 1,816 comments

graciegold95 Beautiful 💞

↳ yourusername 💞💞

user are you quiting skating forever? :(

↳ yourusername i’ll be taking a break for a while but i will always skate, just not competitively! ❤️

user Nous regretterons de vous voir compétitionner, mais nous espérons que vous passerez une retraite incroyable, notre reine des glaces. SEE TRANSLATION We will miss watching you compete, but we hope you have an amazing retirement, our ice queen.

↳ yourusername Merci beaucoup ❤️ SEE TRANSLATION Thank you so much ❤️

isabeau.levito 🥹❤️❤️

mae_meite Je te souhaite tout le meilleur, jolie 💞 SEE TRANSLATION Wishing the best for you, pretty 💞

user so beautiful

user Bienvenue chez toi ! SEE TRANSLATION Welcome back home !

user i can’t be the only one wishing for charles and y/n to reunite (and get back together) now that she moved back to Monaco 😅

↳ user STOP BC LITERALLY ME TOOO 😭😭😭

↳ user omg i thought i was the only one who remembered they dated

y/nupdates

5,211 likes

y/nupdates Y/N attending a fundraising event in Paris! This is her first appearance since announcing her retirement three weeks ago 🥹

View all 55 comments

user I already miss seeing her on the ice 🥲

user omgg her wearing chanel is everything

user aww she looks so happy!!

user How did charles fumble her

↳ user i'm pretty sure that it was just the wrong time for them :(

↳ user Ik that they broke up bc she moved to Canada for skating but why couldn't they just do long distance 😩😩

user y/n will forever be my celebrity crush 😍😍

leclerc16

2,332 likes

leclerc16 Charles in Paris with fans today!

View all 30 comments

user seeing everyone surrounding him overwhelms me and i’m not even there 😩

user am i delusional for thinking he’ll somehow see y/n in Paris 😭😭

↳ user I mean they also both have been in Monaco the past two months and so far no interactions between them 😐

↳ user well no interactions that we know of 😁🤔

user charles looks so bf here

yourusername

liked by chanelofficial, lorenzotl, arthur_leclerc and 160,323 others

yourusername merci @/chanelofficial de m'avoir invitée 💞 SEE TRANSLATION thank you for inviting me 💞

View all 433 comments

chanelofficial 💞💞

user face card never declines

user so pretty 😍😍

user omg not arthur AND lorenzo liking this pic?? 👀

↳ user the logical side of me thinks it’s normal bc they all grew up together but at the same time it’s kind of sus since it’s usually just Arthur liking and not both🤔

↳ user 😭😭😭

user wait i’m confused why did she retire at such a young age?

↳ user It’s actually quite common for competitive figure skaters to retire “early.” Y/N hasn’t stated an official reason but I’m assuming the physical and mental exhaustion just got to her, especially because the sport has been favoring difficulty over artistry lately 🤷‍♀️

mlnmarta

liked by yourusername, charles_leclerc and 33,522 others

mlnmarta Les aventures avec sa tante Y/N sont ses préférées ❤️ SEE TRANSLATION Adventures with her Aunt Y/N are her favorite ❤️

View all 193 comments

yourusername le temps avec Chiara est mon préféré 🥰 SEE TRANSLATION Time with Chiara is my favorite 🥰

user the cutest duo 🥹

user Why is this y/n girl suddenly everywhere

↳ user umm y/n and marta are childhood friends lmao they’ve always posted each other! i think the internet has just amplified everything recently

user so does y/n have no job now lmfao

↳ user I'm like 98% sure she's gonna end up being a figure skating coach or an influencer or both

↳ user guys she's literally still working with her sponsors and i don't think they're dropping her any time soon

↳ user Chilllll she deadass just retired

user NO WAY CHARLES LIKED

yourusername

liked by charles_leclerc, lorenzotl and 597,390 others

yourusername Je voulais juste remercier tous ceux qui sont venus me soutenir lors de ma dernière présentation à Monaco. Je suis infiniment reconnaissante. Ce n'est pas la fin, mais plutôt le début d'un nouveau chapitre. ❤️

I just wanted to thank everyone who came to support me at my final showcase in Monaco. I’m endlessly grateful. This is not the end, instead it’s the start of a new chapter. ❤️

View all 2,104 comments

yourbestie À couper le souffle. Je t'aime ❤️ SEE TRANSLATION Breathtaking. I love you ❤️

user je n'ai pas pu m'empêcher de pleurer en regardant 😭😭 SEE TRANSLATION i couldn’t help the tears from falling while watching 😭😭

user you’re amazing 🫶🏼

chanelofficial 💞💞

adidas A true queen 👑

user WAITTTTT CHARLES LIKED

↳ user It’s aggravating to see Charles constantly being mentioned in Y/N’s comments. Other than that, this is a reach. I think everyone is forgetting that Y/N is highly respected in Monaco so it’s not unusual for Charles to like her photos. You can even check; all of Charles friends and other well known individuals from Monaco are also in her likes.

↳ user lmfaoooo it’s truly not that deep girl, it’s okay to smile

user her adding in her own translation is so real of her 😭

user There will never be another skater as graceful and talented as you 🥺🥺

f1gossip

12,388 likes

f1gossip Charles Leclerc seen with ex-girlfriend Camille Dubois driving around Monaco. Many fans were convinced he was back with a different ex, Y/N L/N, after Charles and his family were spotted at Y/N’s retirement showcase last week. Always Mr. Indecisive 👀👀

View all 116 comments

user bruh 😐

user This is crazy wtf i’d be pissed if i were y/n

user CAMILLE AND NOT Y/N BYEE i’m sliding down the wall punching the air sobbing bc what the hell

user i’m going insane contemplating the possibility that y/n and charles were always just friends and never had any intentions to get back together

user not what i wanted to see first thing in the morning 👎

user guys was it all in our heads

[herstory-storiesaboutwomen]

Women in Syria Have Created a Feminist Commune Free of Patriarchy and Capitalism

By Prachi Gupta  |  December 3, 2018 | 5:20pm

With the aid of women’s rights groups and volunteers, a group of women in Syria have created a self-sustainable feminist commune outside of the structures of patriarchy and capitalism.

The village of Jinwar—a word that roughly translates to “woman’s space” or “women’s land” in Kurdish—is in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also known as Rojava), which became a de facto autonomous region in 2012 amid the ongoing Syrian Civil War. According to Kurdish news outlet ANF News, the village is primarily for women whose families suffered violence by ISIS, which massacred Yazidi men and raped and tortured thousands of women. Widows and women without families can all apply to live there as well. Jinwar opened on International Day Against Violence Against Women, November 25, with 30 homes, a school, museum, and medical center.

[armaegddn]

hi guys! i know there's not a lot of you here on my account but i hope you will rb and share this as i've seen little to no coverage of this in international media.

Bangladesh has followed a quota system for high paying government jobs till 2018, where 30% of the seats were reserved for the descendents of the freedom fighters who fought to liberate our country against pakistan in 1971. due to mass student protesting in 2018, the quota system was scrapped, allowing more eligible students to secure the jobs.

The quota system was then reinstated this year with 56% of the seats reserved: 30% for the descendents of freedom fighters, and the rest for women, minorities and the disabled. University students are yet again left to suffer due to rising rates of unemployment in government jobs. The children of freedom fighters are given more priority by the government as an act of nepotism, so they can plug their own people into the jobs, putting the university students at a massive disadvantage.

On July 15th, the students of Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University started a peaceful protest march with the slogan #QuotaReform. They were met with resistance by the Bangladesh Cchatro League (Cchatro meaning students), a government organisation known for its violence. They launched at the students with weapons such sticks and sharp blades and later guns and ammunition. Police soon surrounded the protests as well and shot at multiple students, threw tear gas, sound gas and other forms of ammunition into the campuses.

7 students have lost their lives so far and there are hundreds injured with many hospitals refusing treatment. A 2 year old child was shot today...

The students have all been kicked out of their halls, and yet they are still protesting through the nationwide shutdown today (18/07/24). Our Prime Minister refuses to acknowledge the government's own violence towards THEIR CITIZENS.

I beg everyone who sees this to interact with and stay as educated about this to their best ability. #QuotaReform is barely trending anywhere and media coverage is difficult in Bangladesh due to the control of the government. The most we've able to do (those who are unable to protest on the streets) is share the news on our social media and spread awareness. Please take some time out of your day to talk about this. This country was built on the backs of student protests. We are reliving the student massacre of 1952 but instead of Pakistan its our own government and police firing at us...

Please rb and educate yourselves on this topic to spread awareness and if there are any Bangladeshis here going to protest please be safe we are all praying for you.

[mysunshinetemptress]

You Promised

Disclaimer: angst

Leah Williamson x reader

To say you and your girlfriend played the same sport just at different levels was an understatement.

Leah played for Arsenal in the WSL and is Captain of the Lionesses on the international stage whereas you played for and Captained Newport Pagnell FC an East Midlands women’s regional football team.

Now you where proud to play for them every time you walked out onto the pitch it was like you had led out an army ready to battle for the next 90 minutes. Only it was a pitch in the back arse of no where and the changing rooms where prefabricated buildings and your subs bench wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit but you wouldn’t change it for the world this was your team.

Dating a world class football player who had captained the English women’s team to European champs meant that many people began to have opinions on her life and in turn yours, and most of the time it was about the different levels you both played at.

Both yourself and Leah grew up in Milton Keynes and although you where a life long Arsenal fan you hadn’t began playing till the later Leah’s of primary school, unlike Leah who had been playing at Arsenal since the age of 8. You had both met later in secondary school and a friendship soon blossomed, your parents would often find you both either playing, talking or watching football together, but it didn’t take you long to realise that you both played at different levels.

It had become something you where rather insecure about. Watching as Leah made her senior debut in 2014 you had also been chosen to play on the women’s first team but your success would have to wait as you celebrated Leah’s and you honestly didn’t care as long as Leah was living out her dream and happy you would never care to celebrate yours. That was until recently.

Leah had asked you out on the night of your 20th birthday stating she simply couldn’t wait anymore and if it meant fucking over an amazing friendship for an even better relationship she would do just that. The first four years had been blissful. Leah played at Arsenal and had won the WSL as well as the FA cup and each time she just had to look into the stands to see your gleaming smile telling her how proud of her you where. Leah had played on the youth squads for England but in Russia in 2018 you had stood next to her family to cheer her on as she made her senior debut, as well you where the first person she called after Sarina Wiegman had asked her to be captain of the Lionesses heading into the euros, ultimately you had been asked to become the Captain of Newport Pagnell the same day but not wanting to take away such a moment from her you kept it quite. You had been there at every match of the Euros and had ultimately burst into tears at the sound of the final whistle on the 31st of July grabbing Amanda as you both sobbed with pride for the English captain, who had jumped the barrier and ran up the steps to kiss you right after. You had been there to witness all of Leah’s best moments from the minute you met, but you had also been there to witness her hardest moments. You had been sat in the west stand of Leigh’s Sports Village with Amanda and Leah’s cousin Holly hair still wet from training when she had gone down. Amanda had immediately grabbed your arm out of instinct before you stood stating you would go check on her. You had found her tear stained lying on physios bed “oh darling.” Leah had immediately burst into tears once more at the sight of you before explaining what the medic team had told her. There wasn’t anything you could do but hold her and listen wishing for it all to be wrong. Sadly it didn’t workout that way and it had been announced your girlfriend had torn her ACL and would be unable to Captain her team at the World Cup this summer.

It had been a selfish wish one that you immediately felt guilty about but you had hoped with this forced break Leah might attend a few more of your matches, maybe meet the team and the girls who had become some of your best friends, normally she either had training or was playing in one herself whereas you had a job as a teacher and trained night and played on Sundays. But what you had really hoped for was to turn to see Leah standing beside the pitch cheering you on as your team played their final match of the season and one that could potentially see your team winning the league.

“Lee, my love.” You had walked through the front door expecting to find your girlfriend sitting on the couch typing away on her computer, instead you found her in the kitchen with Lia Walti “oh hey Wally .” Lia stood pulling you into a hug “Y/n how are you.” You smiled dropping you bag before picking up the girls cups and refilling them making one for your self “I’m good Wally tired but good how are you.” Leah grabbed your hand pulling you to the chair beside her resting her hand on your thigh “I’m good, thought I would come check on this one since I’m out for the rest of the season as a precaution.” You smiled “thank you, speaking of how is your ankle I watched it after it was hard to watch no idea how you did it.” Leah squeezed your leg “she’s just built different love, you have to be to play at our level.” You froze slightly at what Leah was implying but chose to ignore it instead asking Wally if she was staying for dinner.

You lay in bed head on Leah’s chest as she stroked your hair softly “Lee.” Leah hummed “I was wondering if you would come to my last match on the 27th kickoff is at 2pm.” Leah smiled “I’d love to my girl.” You squeezed her gently “only if you want to.” Leah kissed your head “I promise to be there my love I want to be there.” You kissed her jaw before settling back down content with Leah’s answer.

Leah was still asleep when you woke up Saturday morning getting all your things ready to head to meet the team for the last match of the season. You ran back up the stairs after making yourself breakfast before leaning over to kiss her head “I’ll see you shortly Lee.” You had taken your jersey from last season and left it on her night stand hoping she would wear it before running out the door.

The team had been on a high the minute you had all met at the clubhouse the excitement of the last match and potentially winning the league had set you all into a buzz as you all danced around the changing rooms getting ready to go out for warmups. “Anyone special coming Skip.” You turned looking to your best friend and teammate Tegan Mallor, you couldn’t help your cheeks get all read “oh is the wife making an appearance.” You laughed “she’s not my wife yet haven’t asked haven’t been asked but yes she told me she was coming as well as her Mum and cousins plus my parents.” The girls cheered at the thought of the Lioness captain coming to watch the final match.

Walking out on to the pitch for warmups you looked over to see your parents stood on the sidelines with Amanda,Holly,Ben,Jordan and a few others of the Williamson/Baker bunch it had made your heart swell at the sight you had grown up with no siblings and so Leah’s cousins and brother had taken on that mantle, but you couldn’t help but notice Leah wasn’t here yet. Putting it down to her being late you got on with training and put your captain head on ready to win.

The first half had gone terribly, the opposition had scored twice all in the span of 10 minutes of each other and you found the girls began to lose hope, you had never been more grateful for the half time whistle grabbing your team into the changing room and trying to hype them back up “what’s going on this isn’t the bunch of girls that where dancing around this morning we have 45 minutes to do this 45 that’s plenty of time turn it around come on.” The girls had jumped up and began running back out as the second half began. You turned looking to the sidelines hoping to catch your girlfriend but instead it had been the same group you had seen at training, Holly had caught your eye and shrugged letting you know she had no idea where Leah was.

The next 45 minutes flew in and your team had managed to tie the game but with a minute to go you had found yourself screaming for a cross in at the edge of the box from Tegan. The team held their breath as you sent a scream to the top right corner before they all piled on top of you screaming as the red blew the whistle stating the match was over and you had won both the match and the league. You all stood running to your family’s on the sidelines grabbing your dad into a hug as he cried “oh peanut I’m so proud that was amazing.” You squeezed him letting go as you hugged your mum before moving to Amanda “that was incredible darling no one deserves it more.” You pulled away thanking her before hugging everyone else “where’s Le.” Everyone froze “Go celebrate we will talk after.” You sighed shoulders sagging in disappointment “she promised.” Holly squeezed your arm “I’m sorry Y/n.” You shook your head “can I take him with me.” You turned asking Jordan if you could kidnap her son to help raise the trophy wanting to move away from their pitiful stares “want to go with Auntie Y/n buddy.” The baby simply smiled raising his hands for you to take him as you thanked Jordan and walked off to get your medal. “I’m going to kill her.” Holly punched Ben in the arm before Amanda spoke “you will have to get in line.”

You had been stood in the changing room dancing with the girls when Tegan had tapped you on the shoulder showing you her phone. You felt your stomach drop as you watched your girlfriend hobbling around the pitch at meadow park wearing a Rafaelle jersey as the girls shook hands and did their lap around. “I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up it was so stupid.” Tegan grabbed your arm “hey it’s her fault she let you down ok you asked her to be here and she said no promised you she would ok.” You nodded turning to pack you bags just wanting to get home and change before heading to Amanda’s house for dinner.

You had arrived at Amanda’s and where currently sat on the floor playing with Jordan’s son while you laughed and talked about your summer plans when Leah had walked through the door “Hey.” You ignored her calling out in the hall as you talked about what you where bringing to Ibiza with Holly as well as possible things to do with Ben, “I’m bringing four bikinis max but my mum wants me to bring a rash vest if we are going jet skiing this year Ben after I came back the same colour as a strawberry last time.” They all laughed as Amanda grabbed Leah from the hall taking in her appearance dressed in an Arsenal jersey “you are in big trouble missy.” Amanda didn’t get to say anything else as you walked in with Jack (made up the name) resting on your hip, you stopped watching as Leah turned a smile taking over her face “Hi gorgeous.” You turned looking to Amanda “we thought we would come ask if you needed a hand with anything.” Amanda walked over taking Jack from you “no all good darling, I’ll leave you both to talk.”

You sighed turning to check the food as Leah went to grab you hand “hey what’s going on.” You shook your head “you promised.” Leah looked at you confused “what.” “You promised me you would be there, I thought you would be there, do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to tell my teammates your coming and then not show up only to see you all over instagram at Meadow park Le.” Leah shook her head “what are you talking about be where Y/n I have no idea.” You cut her off scoffing “oh my god you didn’t even remember, your telling me you didn’t care enough to remember.” Leah was getting annoyed now “what are you talking about.” You huffed not wanting to raise your voice “my match, the final match of the season where i captained my childhood club to win the league the one I asked you to come to the one you promised you would only to never show.” Leah froze “Y/n.” You shook your head “I left my jersey out for you to wear to it, I thought since you where injured you might come to just one of my matches heck even the most important one but you stood me up to go see Arsenal at Meadow park.” Leah sighed “it was Rafa’s last game.” You rolled your eyes “it was the most important match of my career.” Leah scoffed “you don’t have a football career Y/n your a teacher that’s your career not football for crying out loud your acting like I missed a World Cup final or a match at the emirates I missed a match in a field where the toilets are porta potties,the teams stand on the sidelines at half time and a bunch of wannabes pros run around so sorry I chose to go a more exciting match to support my friend in her last one for an actual professional team.” You felt tears spring to your eyes begging them not to spill over “so supporting your own girlfriend..” Leah scoffed “come on Y/n seriously I get bored watching you play at least my matches aren’t mind numbing.” You froze as Leah slowly began to realise what she had said “y/n” “ no your right, I don’t think I can do this anymore Leah.” Leah looked at you confused “do what Y/n let me explain please.” You shook your head “I can’t be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t support me they way I support them it’s not fair and I’m so tired of it Leah I really am and I’m so sorry because no matter how much I love you because believe me I really do I can’t keep being the only one putting in the effort or support so I’m done.”You began to turn to walk back to the living room where you knew everyone could hear “Y/n.” You just shook your head walking into the room collecting your stuff as Leah walked in behind you “eh thank you for coming I’m so sorry I can’t stay for dinner I have eh I really have to go.” Amanda stood up not bothering to look at her daughter “Y/n.” You shook your head “it’s fine enjoy dinner I’ll see you later.” You brushed last Leah and headed straight out the front door. “Mum I.” Amanda shook her head “I don’t know who you are but you are not the girl I raised the girl I raised would have understood how important today was for her girlfriend she would have been rushing the pitch after watching her girlfriend score the winning goal, the girl I raised would have been there point blank.” Leah felt her eyes fill with tears “they won.” Holly nodded standing up “your girlfriend led a team who hadn’t won a game in ten years to wining the East Midlands league in a season and she scored the final goal.” Leah shook her head “I didn’t mean it.” Amanda laughed “I have known you long enough and so has Y/n to know that you did and you know she is insecure about not being enough for you as a human being and as someone who plays football yet you told her today right to her face that those fears where true. I’m sorry I can’t even look at you right now.”

Leah stood hopeless “Holly I…” Everyone stood up leaving the room as Leah was left to think about what she had said “oh god what have I done.”

[gownegirl]

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY! — Legally Blonde (2001) — Gone Girl (2014) — Crazy Rich Asians (2018) — Wonder Woman (2017) — Little Women (2019) — Hercules (1997) — How to Get Away with Murder (2014 - 2020) — Suspiria (2018)

[lilly-chou-chou]

Evolution of Gyaru

Hello everyone the long awaited post is here!! Sorry for the delay I has gone back to my he country to celebrate Lunar New Year.

As we all know Gyaru was and still is one of the most important fashion movement in the history because it's roots of opposing the "good girl" and "submissive" societal views of women that Japan had imposed into them.

During 90's with Namie Amuro being the first idol ever to popularize the Gyaru culture created a huge wave of community in all over Japan which eventually created many subcultures under it, over the years gyarus blossomed for 2 decades heavily but around early-mid 2010's the culture slowly died because people were now really trying to shun them out of the society, gyarus was losing it's popularity and old gyarus were getting to age of finding jobs or trying to get married yet the culture is still alive. There have been multiple support and love coming from international fans too.

Egg magazine, which is holy grail for us gyarus followers is still up and running to this day <3

Today i'll show you just a little glimpse of modern gyaru. Hopefully this will help new followers too.

Gyaru of the past:-

So let's start with how gyarus are usually seen, pictures below are gyarus from their peak eras so definitely from 90's to 2000's. They are all different subcultures but they all have one thing in common the eye makeup, gyarus were and are still known for their beautiful luscious eye makeup. They are what you call

They were our guide, our mothers and everything! Gyaru has always been the most supportive community to ever exist, over here women were allowed to cuss, they were allowed to be brash, they were allowed to have male friends without the judgement of two goody shoes with insecurities, they were allowed to wear clothes that liberated them doesn't matter short or modest.

People often forget that gyaru exists more than manba, agejo and kogal, few of the modest and lesser knows subcultures are amekaji and roma gyaru, although amekaji is is blue eyed perfect grass is greener on the other side take of American inspired fashion. Either way it is one of the most fun subculture to exist.

We as gyaru followers ow everything to these past mother figures, without them and without brands like alba rosa, D.I.A and MA*RS we and egg Magazine teaching us what? How? And why? We would never thrive in this era. We owe it to them all even after decades and decades the magazines, scans and tutorials on YouTube by the OG gyarus have done it all <3

Modern Gyaru:-

The pictures below are the present models of Egg magazine. The last OG gyaru issue was stopped in 2014 which was Egg last physical print of magazine but in 2018 Egg came back as online magazine.

A lot has changed in gyaru world. Long gone are the days of owning specific clothing brand or even wearing clothes that resemble even the least of typical gyaru fashion. The only key point which hasn't changed is eye makeup because that is utmost necessary thing for a gyal to have.

Over the years of almost dying to again alive fashion culture the meaning of gyaru has changed a lot, from dressing like the OG gyarus we have now evolved to the whole "gal is mind" mindset, now in this era dressing up as gyal doesn't mean that much because you can still have pointy acrylic nails, iconic eye makeup, wear casual clothes and still be a gyaru.

These days even the gyaru slangs have changed so much like instead of poyo, atonsu, pachikoku now we use yarirafi, kyun-desu, daijuobu-so?, tobu-zo and so on.

Although there are egg models that still somewhat follow OG gyaru fashion like @ / mahiroisme (left) and @ / kae. 06256 (right) on IG.

Conclusion:-

By this post I just wanted to show that as time passes it is inevitable that everything changes and fashion changing is a no brainer. What is hate is companies capitalizing and making their own rules for lure in newbies gyals who would do anything to "fit in" and ring the nostalgia bell for old gyarus and all I have to say is that no, you don't have to spend 100-500$ on eBay trying to find the OG gyaru brands because you can definitely wear your own casual clothes and still be a gyaru because if egg magazine who raised whole generation of x gen, millennials and Gen Z of gyarus then who are we to judge them?

Although if you still wish to dress up like OG then I definitely recommend finding clothes that match the subculture that you want to follow for example I follow agejo, Tsuyome and kogal so I shop in Amazon, local stores, Instagram stores, I order clothes fr abroad the most helpful and fast way to do that finding a vendor and my vendors are all from Instagram. Hope this helps.

I will meet you all in my next post bye gyals <3

[vavuska]

Imane Khelif.

In 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, Khelif participated for the first time, where she ranked 17th after being eliminated from the first round.

In the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia, where she ranked 33rd after being eliminated from the first round against Natalia Shadrina.

Khelif represented Algeria in the lightweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was defeated by Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.

Khelif participated in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, she faced Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the final and was defeated.

She is not a warmachine. Khelif is a biological woman. Khelif is NOT transgender or transsexual. In Algeria, the country that Khelif represents, transgender identity is prohibited, changing sex or gender is not allowed in official documents, nor are medical or hormonal treatments allowed to transition to another sex. If she was transgender, Khelif would not be able to rapresent her country at all nor travel with an official passport with a female identity!

However, pop up this rumor she was disqualified from 2023 IBA's Women's World Boxing Championships due to high levels of testosterone. Later this was debunked by the same organization. Potentially, could be doping and it was all covered up by sport industry.

Edit: This disqualification happened three days after Khelif defeated Azalia Amineva, a previously unbeaten Russian athlete. The disqualification restored the Russian boxer's undefeated record and IBA has huge ties with the Russian government: the president Kremlev is a Putin supporter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the IBA under Kremlev's leadership. The IOC has also been alarmed by the fact that the IBA's only sponsor was a Russian state-owned energy company (Gazprom) that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Imane Khelif is a UNICEF ambassador, which could again have been seen as a problem by Russian-led IBA, since UNICEF condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. IBA's allegations that Khelif had failed unspecified eligibility tests are suspicious, expecially because no medical evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), cleared Khelif to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event. The IOC noted that Khelif was a woman according to her passport and that this was not a "transgender issue".

She defeated Angela Carini in 42 seconds at the 2024 Olympics, after Carini decided to withdraw citing intense pain in her nose.

This remember me the 'Caster Semenya' case: after Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.

In 2019, new World Athletics rules came into force preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification, unless they take medication to suppress their testosterone levels. Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

As Khelif, Semenya is cis and has been accused by many people to be trans. Her story has, again, been used and abused to support the anti-trans agenda, claiming that two ciswomen are trans and are unfairly competing with women due to their superior "men strength".

I think Angela Carini was anxious and scared by days of reporter and far-right rumors about how Khelif is incredibly strong and unbeatable, even if Carini has better statistics and more victories in her career than Khelif herself (who was already a Olympics athlete), she was strumentalized by far-right propaganda and made a scene during the match due to anti-trans panic.

J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk, as always, had their small moment of shaming athletes. Most of people think that Carini has been strumentalized by anti-trans Italian propaganda and after being called out for harassing a cisgender woman, she claimed to be sorry for not having respected her adversary during the match.

Edit: more important thoughts on the matter in a detailed political perspective in Italy - A New York Times article develops more extensively what I wrote here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/olympics/boxer-quits-gender-angela-carini-imane-khelif.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Edit 2: Imane Khelif spoke against cyberbullism.

Edit 3: Since in those past days we talked a lot about cis women being called men for not meeting western TERFs standard, I should resurface this old post about how a group of Chinese cis runners were wrongfully called "men" by TERFs.

Edit 4: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling have been named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Edit 5 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif interview

Edit 6 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif won gold medal in boxing. Appreciation post.

[wei-ying-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those of you who don’t know, I decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s queer cinema syllabus, which is comprised of 9 units. I have completed four of the units (here is my queer cinema syllabus round up post with all the films I’ve watched and written about so far). It is time for me to make my way through Unit 5- Lesbians, which includes the following films: The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995), Bound (1996), Water Lilies (2007), Saving Face (2004), D.E.B.S. (2004), Set It Off (1996), The Handmaiden (2016), Carol (2015), Imagine Me and You (2005), Two of Us (2019), Rafiki (2018), and The Color Purple (1985). 

Today I will be watching:

Rafiki (2018) dir. Wanuri Kahiu

[Run Time: 1 hour 22 minutes, Language: Swahili, English, Available on: Tubi, Google Play, Apply Play, Amazon Prime, YouTube rentals]

Summary: "Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

Cast:

Samantha Mugatsia as Kena Mwaura

Sheila Munyiva as Ziki Okemi

Here is what I have learned about Rafiki (main source is Wikipedia):

Rafiki was adapted from author Monica Arac de Nyeko’s short story Jambala Tree. 

Rafiki was the first feature film to feature two women falling in love to come out of Kenya.

Rafiki was the first Kenyan film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

Rafiki was banned in Kenya for promoting homosexuality after the writer and director refused to change the ending. Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya and can result in 14 years imprisonment, but support for LGBTQ rights is growing. 

The writer and director, Wanuri Kahiu, sued the Kenyan government in order to allow the film to be screened in Kenya long enough to meet the eligibility criteria for entry into the Academy Awards.

The ban on the film was lifted for seven days, and every day it played to a sold out audience and brought in millions of shillings (1 million KES is ~7,700 USD)

Rafiki won Best Narrative Feature at the 2019 Seattle Queer Film Festival and a Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. In total, Rafiki received 17 nominations and 17 awards at various international film festivals. 

This was Samantha Mugatsia’s first role and Samantha won an award for Best Actress from the FESPACO festival.

Wanuri Kahiu is also the cofounder of a media collective called AFROBUBBLEGUM which supports African art “for its own sake.”

Samantha Mugatsia was in another film in 2018 but I do not see additional credits on IMDB, Sheila Munyiva was still getting work as recently as 2023, and Wanuri Kahiu is still working as well. 

So needless to say, this film is incredibly important and successful despite the barriers it found around it. I saw some reviews for this film that mentioned how the narrative was rather simplistic and the characters fairly flat and while I do not entirely disagree, though I also do not consider that to be 100% accurate. I think there are a lot of little moments of dimensionality in some of the characters that make me want to see more of them. Blacksta’s clear romantic interest in Kena and the way in which he is constantly kind and friendly to her to the point where he is the one she goes to for comfort after everything goes to shit only to have his last appearance be him stalking off angry that Kena is “hurting all the people that care about” her when she tells him she loves Ziki. 

Mama Atim being homophobic to the point of a) aiding in the discovery and subsequent facilitation of a gay bashing by the local community and b) not letting Kena touch her when they meet in the hospital where Kena is working as a doctor, only to immediately turn around and tell Kena that Ziki is back in the country, thereby facilitating their reunion and the hopeful ending that got this film banned in the first place. 

Kena’s father being kind and relatively accepting of his daughter’s homosexuality while there are implications around (though never direct references to) the reason he may be divorced, and remarried, with a child on the way. 

Ziki being the one not to care about how much of their intimacy the public may see only to be the one to pull away from Kena after they get caught, because she is experiencing severe consequences for perhaps the first time (that is an assumption on my part, I just know the girl is relatively wealthy). 

All of this to say that often the moments of complexity are small, but they do exist. 

Anyhoo, I think what I am thinking the most about in way of this film is less the plot and more everything else around it. Because this queer cinema syllabus is a warm up to watching BL, the challenges this film had with getting funding (their funding sources all came from outside of Kenya), with distribution, the legal battles Kahiu had to fight to get this film seen in a country she so clearly and deeply loves. Despite that, this film was a success, it broke a number of different barriers, and I will perpetually find it interesting how the prospect of money or positive attention can do so much to get a story out into the world. 

This film promotes illegal behavior, this film was banned from airing in Kenya as a result. Yet, this film still aired in Kenya because someone making a legal ruling gave it a chance to meet eligibility criteria for one of (if not the) most famous awards shows in the world. And at the end of the day it wasn’t even the film that Kenya ended up submitting to the Academy Awards. This film sold out theaters, it raked in cash, it was the first in a number of ways. 

It just makes me think of countries like Korea where, sure, homosexuality is not illegal, but where certain rights are still denied to queer people. Where very few celebrities are openly queer for risk of losing their jobs, yet continues to create BLs that gain international attention. Hell, even Thailand, which has established themselves as a BL soft power, sees many openly queer people struggling to find work in the film industry in spite of how many queer stories are getting pumped out. Also, I will no longer be accepting dead fish kisses from queer shows if the first lesbian love story out of Kenya gave us actual kisses. 

I don’t know exactly where I am going with this, I do not consider the situation of BL and the situation of Rafiki to be identical, just similar. That Rafiki still obtains concessions from a country where being queer can get you incarcerated because it has the chance to be seen in high profile competitions is an interesting, though not entirely surprising, phenomenon. 

About the film itself: I loved the use of color in it, it falls into the same trend of all other lesbian films in that a lot of it is comprised of silent glances between women longing to be together. I think it went for a wider net with a shallower lens rather than a smaller scope and deeper exploration. I felt like the film definitely started slow, but that the relationship between Ziki and Kena developed incredibly fast, to the point where I wondered if they were maybe already together in some fashion before the film even started (not dating, but at least both already having established a mutual interest, etc). I do think Kahiu did a good job of putting enough detail in that it felt like there were other things happening around the main plot to flesh out the world these characters were living in. 

I loved that when we first learn about Ziki’s desires, it is to get out of Kenya, go somewhere people have never met an actual African, and not be like other Kenyan girls. But that when the choice to leave is removed from her, and she is sent to London to escape the societal backlash from being caught being queer, that she does not want to go. I loved that Kena was the one who spent a lot of time hiding her sexuality and her affection for Ziki before they were discovered, only to be the person to try to continue, to be visible, to be with Ziki after they are caught and beaten. 

I thought it was so incredibly brave of Kena to walk up to Ziki’s door, look Ziki’s mother in the eye, and ask to talk to her daughter after everything that had happened the previous night, after being threatened by Ziki’s mother when she first catches them, and insulted by her mother when she comes to pick Ziki up from the police station. 

I am in awe of people who stick to their convictions in cases like this. Wanuri Kaihu, who just wanted to “portray a "normal love story" that acknowledges the heroic challenges of choosing a "difficult love"” and does not see this act as a political one did not back down when faced with the options of removing hope from the ending and letting the film play in her own country or letting these girls meet again, in the sunshine, and have it kept from her own people. It reminds me of Strange Fruit from Unit 4, actually, when Kyle Schickner rejected $6 million in funding for his film because it would not have then been able to make his main character Black and gay. I marvel at how often people do not make those same decisions. 

Favorite Moment

Okay, so. It is a very short and simple moment, only a few seconds long, but from my perspective it is one of the most important scenes in the entire film. Right near the end, after Kena has gone to see Ziki and Ziki has told her she will be sent to London, she goes and sits on a bench by herself. And after a moment someone just quietly takes a seat next to her. It is the other out, gay character who we have seen multiple times in passing. They just look at each other, neither of them says a word. But dear GOD I loved it so much. 

Every time we have seen him before this moment, he is being harassed on the street. He is clearly living an entire life with his own struggle that exists completely outside of Kena and Ziki’s. At one point his face is bandaged, a clear indicator that he had recently been physically assaulted. Every time Kena is present when he is being harassed all she can do is get up silently and walk away. She never stands up for him, she never checks in on him. I actually had a moment of disappointment at one point when Kena storms off and Ziki goes to check on her upset because Kena left her alone. Kena opens the sliding door of the van and I thought for just the briefest of seconds that it might cut to that guy sitting there. 

Instead it is candles, and they have sex, and that is also great and I am glad that scene exists, but I think in the times we are living in now, I was a little sad to see that they were not silently supporting each other. WHICH IS WHY I AM SO GLAD THAT HE DID AT THE END. 

It is so so so so so important to me that this gay man, who has been living his life openly and suffering for it, and knows what it is like just sits down next to Kena to let her know that he is watching, that he is there, and that he understands. And he doesn’t even have to say a fucking word. That is community looking out for each other, and it will be beautiful every time. 

Favorite Quote

“I wish we could go someplace we were real”

Score

8.5/10

It was not my favorite film, but I am so grateful that it exists, and I hope that the queer people living in Kenya who need movies like this one have found a way to watch it, and I think that the fact this film exists at all is amazing. 

Coming up next, the last film in Unit 5: Lesbians- The Color Purple. I actually just got the audiobook from the library so I am looking forward to approaching the film viewing with more of an adaptation lens on it.

[wintfleur]

⚘ ˖˙𓈒ִֶָ☾.˙ ᰋ ── WHERE’D ALL THE TIME GO?

aka ophelia’s timeline

━━━ ❛ it’s starting to fly

ᯓᡣ𐭩 EARLY LIFE & SCHOOLING !

april 11th, 2002: ophelia is born on a bright and sunny Thursday afternoon in Vernon, British Columbia.

may 9th, 2006: ophelia (4) takes her first ballet class

2008 - 2013: early childhood / elementary school

august 2010: ophelia (8) joined the soccer team and met her now best friend Amber Jameson; they have been inseparable since.

october 2013: ophelia (11) got an ankle injury during a soccer game and sadly had to quit the sport. Her love for ballet was stronger and she didn't want to risk not being able to dance again.

She had to stop dancing for the rest of the year so her ankle could heal, it was miserable for her.

2013 - 2016: start of her teenage years / middle school

march 2015: ophelia (12) joined the theater club and helped make the costumes for their play, in turn finding her love for fashion designing.

april 2016: ophelia (13) went to get her photos taken for her ballet portfolio and was approached by a teen modeling agency.

summer 2016: ophelia (14) went to south korea for a ballet summer intensive program.

She was housed by a sweet family, where she met one of her bestest friends seunghan and his younger brother park sunghoon who is her age. Seunghan is a fellow ballet dancer and went to the training camp with her.

Ophelia became very close with the family, only becoming closer with them as the years go by, she's an honorary park! Seunghan’s parents think of her as their own child and his little sister thinks of her as her big sis!

2016 - 2020: teen years / high school / start of her modeling career

december 2016: Ophelia (14) was on the cover of pointe magazine.

june 2017: ophelia (15) won first place in the Helsinki international ballet competition, in juniors for women.

august 2017: ophelia finished her first wedding dress that she made for her cousin's wedding.

may 2018: ophelia (16) won first place in the american ballet competition

july 2018: ophelia won first place in the varna international ballet competition

was invited to be on jimmy fallon after her win.

february 2019: ophelia (17) made her debut by walking the catwalk and attending the New York fashion week.

may 29th - june 2, 2019: ophelia walked and attended the miami fashion week

september 2019: ophelia walked and attended the paris fashion week

october 9th 2019: the creation of ophelia's youtube channel

Ophelia created her youtube channel so she could have another way to communicate and become closer with her fans.

She mainly posted vlogs of her days as a model and a ballet dancer, and her just traveling and doing random activities with her friends.

december 2019: ophelia walked and attended the NYFW: December pre-fall and fall-winter, fashion week.

february 2020: ophelia walked and attended london's fashion week, fall-winter.

Ophelia meets Ryan James, a fellow model, they exchanged numbers and Ophelia then got in a relationship with him in may.

June 2020: Ophelia (18) graduated highschool with honors.

july 2020: ophelia moved into her apartment/loft in manhattan, New York. With her best friend seunghan.

Throughout 2016 - 2020 ophelia modeled for many different high end brands, her favorites being Dior, Dolce and Gabbana, and GQ.

She was given the nickname “the next model it girl” for her sudden dominating presence in the modeling world.

ᯓᡣ𐭩 JUILLIARD & JACK !

september 2020: ophelia (18) starts her first year at juilliard

february 23 - march 1st 2020: ophelia walked and attended milan’s fashion week

march 2 - 9th 2020: ophelia walked and attend paris fashion week

Throughout the rest of the year ophelia really focused on her ballet career, putting modeling to the side, and focusing on her studies.

march 2021: ophelia (19) won the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP)

may 2021: ophelia won first place in the american ballet competition

july 2021: ophelia won first place in the varna international ballet competition

for the rest of the year, Ophelia modeled for many different brands, but she really just focused on her ballet career and getting more known in the fashion design world.

2022 : breakup era

april 11th 2022: Ophelia (20) broke up with Ryan after finding out he has been cheating on her for many months.

april, may, june, july 2022: ophelia took a break from anything that evolved with modeling during those months, trying to heal from her breakup. Throwing herself into training, practices, and her studies.

august 2022: ophelia modeled for celine as her comeback into modeling

was invited back on the jimmy fallon show where they talked about what she's been up to, the celine shoot, and her comeback to modeling

october 6-9th 2022: ophelia walked and attended los angeles fashion week

november 2022: ophelia was interviewed by WIRED where she talked about ballet and modeling and her love for fashion design

2023: meeting jack

march 3rd 2023: curtis gets traded to the new jersey devils

march 28th 2023: ophelia and Jack meet for the first time at a club and share a kiss.

april 18th 2023: ophelia joins curtis out at a bar to meet some of his teammates, and she sees jack for the first time since the club.

they keep what happened at the bar to themselves (besides Jack freaking out about it to Luke), and pretend to just meet each other for the first time.

april 25th 2023: ophelia and jack run into each other at a bar, things escalate and jack ends up bringing her back to his place where they hook up for the first time.

the next morning they talk about what happened, and how they need to keep what happened between them a secret. They want to keep seeing each other, so they decide to become friends with benefits.

july 2023: ophelia models for calvin klein

july 17th 2023: jack confesses his feelings to ophelia after 3 months of being friends with benefits.

Ophelia didn't take it well and left his apartment in haste (girly was afraid of her feelings and commitment) and they didn't talk for two weeks.

july 31st 2023: ophelia goes to jack’s apartment where she apologizes and asks him on a date.

august 1st 2023: jack and ophelia have there first date and officially start dating (secretly)

november 6th 2023: curtis holds a dinner at his home for his teammates, curtis finds jack and ophelia kissing in the garage and did not take it well.

curtis gives her an ultimatum ‘him or me’ in a moment of anger and that leads to ophelia not talking to either of them for a week, locking herself in her apartment.

november 14th 2023: curtis comes to see her early in the day to apologize for his reaction and what he said, later in the day jack comes to see her and they have a sweet moment, happy that everything is now okay between them.

january 12th 2024: ophelia and jack said i love you for the first time

january 24-28 2024: ophelia walked and attended miami fashion week

february 9-14th 2024: ophelia attended new york fashion week fall-winter

february 16th 2024: ophelia and jack's relationship is exposed to the media when videos and pictures of them at the njd’s family skate go viral.

february 26th - march 5th 2024: ophelia walked and attended paris fashion week

may 2024: ophelia did the 73 questions with vogue

june 2024: ophelia did the “10 things I can't live without’ with GQ

may 6th 2024: ophelia (22) attended the met gala for the first time

ophelia did a get ready with me / last looks with vogue for the met

june 2024: ophelia did diary of a model with vogue

july 2024: ophelia and jack do a couple quiz with GQ

may 2025: ophelia (23) graduates at juilliard

ᯓᡣ𐭩 WHAT'S TO COME !

aka phia and jacks future

. . . to be added

ᝰ.ᐟ 𝓇oro's note. I didn’t add every detail about her modeling and dance career in the ‘julliard and jack’ section, it would have taken forever for me to do that 😭 I will update the timeline as time goes! I hope this helps give you a better understanding about the AU >.<

au masterlist

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