#radical perspectives

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Nick Heather - Radical Perspectives in Psychology - Methuen - 1976

[balkanradfem]

[leonardcohenofficial]

like i do not think we have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to interesting and meaningful theatrical storytelling / i am someone who is wholeheartedly and directly invested in the development and production of new theatre (as this is quite literally part of what i do for a living) and yet i can count on both hands the number of new plays i've read and/or seen this year that i would consider groundbreaking in terms of content form aesthetics politics etc. and the plays and playwrights that purport their work to be oh-so-radical and "out there" and avante-garde rarely are doing anything i find remotely novel + the plays and playwrights that have stuck with me most this years are ones created by artists who i think are invested in (not to sound hokey but) what the art itself is doing and what reactions are drawn upon viewing it and what bigger conversations can occur when we engage with this particular piece of storytelling in this moment

[bilboyagathechickenfootedhobbit]

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls

Mona Eltahawy

[mithliya]

i feel like some of you do genuinely need to go offline tho bc of all things to have a victim-complex about, being simply told not to date men should not be one of them. that is quite literally what every woman has been raised to believe her purpose is. women are literally treated as inferior failures with no value if we, for whatever reason (including innate sexuality), do not want to be with men. you will live through your boyfriend being called jakey, and you will also live through being told you're not a radfem because you have a boyfriend. it will not kill you, i promise. you will be ok. go offline, kiss your precious boyfriend, and maybe go on a nice picnic date together so you can remember just how normal and accepted, even encouraged, heterosexual relationships are.

[modelsof-color]

when it comes to self love , we know it's all about making decisions , decisions that will hurt us because at first it feels like we're " betraying" old convictions .

it's important to be aware of it , on emotional and mental level , aware of these decisions haunting us until the day it won't anymore , and awareness is half of the battle

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Tried out some style and perspective stuff and gave Radical Miku a slight design change

[secretmellowblog]

When I say "Victor Hugo's depiction of Jean Valjean's grief over losing Cosette is a reflection of Hugo's own grief at the death of his daughter" I'm not just theorizing-- some lines from Les Mis are basically just ripped word-for-word from Hugo's poems about the death of his daughter. Here are a few of them. Leopoldine drowned horribly with her husband only a few months after they were married; she was only nineteen. Jean Valjean's paralyzing fear of Cosette's marriage, his misguided useless rage at her husband, and his violent grief over losing her and never being able to see her again, is heavily influenced by Hugo's own grief. I have trouble finding good English translations of some of Hugo’s Leopoldine poems online, and would appreciate better links to English translations if anyone has them. But In A Villequier, one of Hugo's poems addressing God with furious grief over the death of Leopoldine, he writes:

Consider again how I have, since dawn, Worked, fought, thought, walked, struggled, Explaining Nature to Man who knew nothing of it, Lighting everything with your clarity; That, facing hate and anger, I have done my task here below, That I could not expect this wage, That I could not Foresee that you too, on my yielding head, Would let fall heavily your triumphant arm, And that you who saw how little joy I have, Would take my child away so quickly!

Which is almost word for word just Jean Valjean's:

I have left my blood on every stone, on every bramble, on every mile-post, along every wall, I have been gentle, though others have been hard to me, and kind, although others have been malicious, I have become an honest man once more, in spite of everything, I have repented of the evil that I have done and have forgiven the evil that has been done to me, and at the moment when I receive my recompense, at the moment when it is all over, at the moment when I am just touching the goal, at the moment when I have what I desire, it is well, it is good, I have paid, I have earned it, all this is to take flight, all this will vanish, and I shall lose Cosette, and I shall lose my life, my joy, my soul....

And this from the same poem:

I keep seeing that moment in my life when I saw her open her wings and fly off! I will see that instant until I die, the instant, no tears needed! where I cried: the child I had a minute ago— What? I don’t have her any more?

Is a similar sentiment to this angelic description of Cosette “taking flight” away from Jean Valjean:

Cosette, as she took her flight, winged and transfigured, left behind her on the earth her hideous and empty chrysalis, Jean Valjean.

And the moment when Jean Valjean realizes she’s in love with Marius, and has been “lost” to him without him realizing it:

The unprecedented and heart-rending thing about it was that he had fallen without perceiving it. All the light of his life had departed, while he still fancied that he beheld the sun.

This from the poem Demain dès l'aube, where Victor Hugo describes visiting Leopoldine's grave:

I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts, Without seeing anything outside, without hearing any noise, Alone, unknown, back bent, hands crossed, Sad, and the day for me will be like night.

And Jean Valjean walking to Cosette's house, but never able to enter or speak to her:

There [Jean Valjean] walked at a slow pace, with his head strained forward, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, his eye immovably fixed on a point which seemed to be a star to him

This bit where Hugo talks about his faith weakening/cursing God in vain after Leopoldine’s death:

Consider how one doubts, O God! when one suffers, how the eye that weeps too much is blinded, how a being plunged by grief into the blackest pit, seeing you no more, cannot contemplate you.

Is similar to Jean Valjean’s spirtual self weakening and his consience “taking flight” at the idea of losing Cosette:

Any one who had beheld his spiritual self would have been obliged to concede that it weakened at that moment. (...) Grief, when it attains this shape, is a headlong flight of all the forces of the conscience. These are fatal crises. Few among us emerge from them still like ourselves and firm in duty.

Victor Hugo agonizing over his dreams of growing old with his daughter in A Villequier:

You make loneliness return always around all his footsteps.(...) As soon as he owns something, fate takes it away. Nothing is given to him, in his speedy days, for him to make a home and say: Here is my house, my field and my loved ones!

Jean Valjean:

“As one family! No. I belong to no family. I do not belong to yours. I do not belong to any family of men. In houses where people are among themselves, I am superfluous. There are families, but there is nothing of the sort for me. I am an unlucky wretch; I am left outside.

Victor Hugo's poetry in A Villequier again:

in the midst of cares, hardships, miseries, and of the shadow our fate casts over us, how a child appears, a dear sacred head, a small joyful creature, so beautiful one thinks a door to heaven has opened when it arrives; when for sixteen years one has watched this other self grow in loveable grace and sweet reason, when one has realized that this child one loves makes daylight in our soul and in our home,

Jean Valjean:

this man, who had passed through all manner of distresses, who was still all bleeding from the bruises of fate, (...) merely asked of Providence, of man, of the law, of society, of nature, of the world, one thing, that Cosette might love him! That Cosette might continue to love him! That God would not prevent the heart of the child from coming to him, and from remaining with him! Beloved by Cosette, he felt that he was healed, rested, appeased, loaded with benefits, recompensed, crowned. Beloved by Cosette, it was well with him! He asked nothing more! Had any one said to him: “Do you want anything better?” he would have answered: “No.” God might have said to him: “Do you desire heaven?” and he would have replied: “I should lose by it.”

Victor Hugo begging God to talk to his daughter again:

Let me lean over this cold stone and say to my child: Do you feel that I am here? Let me speak to her, bent over her remains, in the evening when all is still, as if, reopening her celestial eyes in her night, this angel could hear me!

Jean Valjean thanking God for letting him speak to Cosette one more time:

The good God says: “‘You fancy that you are about to be abandoned, stupid! No. No, things will not go so. Come, there is a good man yonder who is in need of an angel.’

I think the ending of Les Mis never made complete sense to me until I realized that Jean Valjean isn't grieving like a parent who has watched their child grow up; he is grieving like a parent who has just watched their child die.

[lesbionia]

Contrary to popular belief, being a lesbian and being a feminist are not the same thing. I deliberately refer to myself as a lesbian and a feminist—rather than a lesbian feminist—to denote the separation. 

I think that most radical feminist works about lesbianism are homophobic to some degree because they posit lesbianism as a political choice, which it is not. Homosexuality might be politicized, but it is an innate and unchangeable characteristic, which makes it inherently apolitical. To me, there is little difference between the claim that being gay is a choice that comes from radical feminists and the one that comes from the religious crowd, in a sense that neither speak to my truth. 

I still consider myself a radical feminist because I believe in women's liberation and dismantling male supremacy, and I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bath water. But I do think that being a lesbian and a radical feminist is sometimes a strange and frustrating experience, and that it's good to talk about it once in a while. 

[artofjim]

worked on this for the 25th Anniversary voice cast reunion at a local con this weekend.

Prints Available Traditional Ink, Digital Color

[jamesmirandabarry]

Listen radblr,

I agree with you that people who were born female have certain oppressions they face because of their anatomy. I share many patriarchal oppressions with you when it comes to my body.

That being said, I am socially a man and will never be seen as a woman in society. If you saw me in public, you would not think I was female. I present myself as a man and live as one day to day, because this is what feels right and happy to me. Because of this, I don’t share some of the social oppressions that women face and I would not enter social spaces for only women because that is not how I am read— even though I am female, women would be uncomfortable if I entered their space because I look like a man.

I wish more of you could reconcile that instead of resorting to “women are adult human females and all adult human females are women,” when it’s a bit more complicated than that. Speaking from experience, I can tell you there’s a grand difference between the social category of sex and the anatomical one.

[womenstruation]

Perhaps as a result of the masculinisation of Back women, nowadays hyperfemininity has somehow become a necessity to being a Black woman who is proud of her Backness. As a young woman who has no interest in make up, wigs /weaves etc. I often stick out amongst other Black women my age, which doesn't bother me too much. What does bother me, however, is the constant implication that I somehow must be "white-washed" as a result or some self hater who knows little about Black culture. I have to constantly field accusations of knowing nothing about my country of origin and nod along to well meaning "jokes" that I'll end up with a white husband.

[balkanradfem]

I've managed to curate my small misogyny-free space both online and in real life, and now I'm no longer used to misogyny, it's no longer normal to me. So when I accidentally glimpse it, I'm not desensitized to it, I'm always shocked and unbelieving.

If I notice a m*n talking about a woman like she's 'just some ***' I'm immediately aware that this is in fact a demonic creature who needs to be burned. If I see anyone using a slur against women or pretending women are at fault for any of the world's issues, the hair on my neck stands up at the unbelievable amount of hatred.

Anyone implying that women should be in any way controlled, punished, forced to do anything against their will or dedicate their lives to anyone but themselves, is preposterous and villainous to me, I'm at loss that someone could even think that way about a half of the human population who are creators and administrators of life.

I know I am in a bubble, but it feels different knowing deeply in your heart that all of this is not normal, that casual or normalized hatred against women is absolutely insane, that it's sharp and painful and dehumanizing at every turn. It's insane to realize that women just have to live like this, believing all of that is normal, that I once lived like this, wondering what was wrong with me and why I couldn't just be what everyone was expecting me to.

I think still, if I can make a small space without this hate present in it, without anyone or anything implying we should be anything but free, anything but full complete human beings with absolute control over our lives, then we can strengthen and grow these spaces, and get more women in, have more women experience what life is like when hatred is removed. There is hope for women.

[ticklingtimetickstotest]

This gives goosebumps. Articulate 👏🏼

'It's not an act of love if you make her.'👑

[thedreadvampy]

I guess a question I actually have is what would it actually look like to build communism/radical leftism in the imperial core?

I do believe (when I can) that we're living through a transition away from the imperial age, and that necessarily requires loss for people in Northern Europe and North America.

To be clear, that isn't an argument against it. In the imperial core there are things we are very very used to having which a) we aren't entitled to and b) cost a disproportionate amount to the rest of the world. and in a post-colonial future we could see a flattening of social and economic inequality (if we made it happen).

but I increasingly think there's a difficult tension in building liberation movements within the borders of countries which built and are at the heart of the current hegemon. And then at the same time, NOT building liberation movements within our own countries isn't really an option, both because a) we have to live now and letting ourselves continue to get fucked over by power is just pointless self-harm and b) because the internal collapse of these systems is part of the external collapse of the imperial order.

buuuuuut a lot of the current leftist movements in the imperial core are very much based on improving the lot specifically of people within the country and idk when/if that starts to run counter to a global restructure of power?

[facelessoldgargoyle]

blah blah transitioning makes you hotter, transition is good for your mental health, transition gives you the body you’re always meant to have. Fuck you, I should be able to transition because it’s my will. I’d still rather be an ugly, unhappy man than any kind of lady.

Mods asleep post Andrea Long Chu’s “My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy.”