#therefore: feminist icon

[ohthewh0rror]

Tom Riddle, feminist icon.

[spacerockfloater]

Cersei Lannister & Rhaenyra Targaryen:

Are forced to marry someone they don’t love, so they find solace in the arms of a family member and commit incest

Seduce members of the Royal Guard

Have their husbands murdered because they didn’t like them

Have three bastard kids

Commit atrocities to claim the Iron Throne

Betray their allies when they feel threatened

Rule with fire and blood

Live in constant paranoia so they murder innocent servants whom they believe will betray them, even if said betrayal would be a direct consequence of the way they treat their subjects

Are hated by the people

and lets us not forget the -

But no, please go ahead and tell me all about how Rhaenyra is this feminist icon who has the divine right to rule over hundreds of thousands of people because her daddy said so, therefore if I don’t support her I’m a misogynist.

[galactic-rhea]

It's ranting hours sunday for me: Y' know, I think when people complain soooo much about Padmé getting with Anakin, they're failing to see a lot of things. BUT ESPECIALLY...That it was her choice, and if speaks a lot of her character and personality.

She was already done dirty by the movies by getting so many deleted scenes, but then if you try to take away the agency she had on marrying a human disaster or her choices, like her forgiveness/understanding, it's actually undermining and flattening her character.

The fact is that she's actually very similar to Anakin, she's stubborn, deeply traumatized, compromises a lot for the sake of others and loves beyond reasoning. We, the audience, know that Anakin will become Darth Vader and one of the most iconic villains of history; so everything he does can be seem as a red flag that really isn't there.

From Padmé's POV, Anakin has done terrible things, but it's capable of incredible acts of love and compassion. They're in circumstances that aren't normal at all, she was queen at 14, and he was born a slave and joined the space wizard monks and his normal is kill or be killed. Our modern and omniscient POV can't be applied onto them because there's no point of comparison in this sci-fi-shakespearen tragedy-soap-opera-fantasy.

Besides...she was actually right in the end, and I don't believe is "feminist" or progressive to take away a big part of her core personality, that actually had repercussions in the whole story, and make her out to be either unaware and naive of marrying a monster, or (the worst one, imo) being jedi-mind-tricked-brainwashed-abused by her husband.

The "right, correct, girlboss and queen" actitude does more damage than help, leave Padmé to be a person. A person who wanted to have a fairytale romance with some guy who would fight for her and makes her laugh.

Also, the hell why you wanna blame her for something Anakin does, come on. That's a whole other can of worms, though. My point is, that trying to avoid or re-work-or re-contextualize the fact that she chose Anakin despite him literally telling her about murdering a whole village, is actually changing a big chunk of her personality traits.

She was a child queen, then a politician at the edge of an inminent war, manipulated by the same guy that groomed Anakin into a massive murderer, saw her people being taken into camps, had assasination attempts weekly and had to rip off of her individualism by becoming a public figure, giving up her sense of being a person by having several almost identical decoys, she had to stop being just Padmé to be Queen and then Senator Amidala and she did all of that showing little to no emotion.

Then Anakin does all what she herself had to rip off of her in order to be a politician: Honest, passionate, and able to show emotions; like love or anger.

She has morals and she represents democracy and justice, in a way. But I fully believe that inside her she had the same passionate anger and love capable of burning the galaxy that we know Anakin had, which makes them different sides of the same coin, and I think she realized that. Anakin perhaps didn't , as he never stopped of seeing himself as a slave and therefore inferior, whereas he held Padmé very highly, but I think Padmé saw them both as equals. She didn't have a "I can fix him" mentality, she had a "We're the same, we're both lonely, confused, hurting and scared of losing everything. And if he's like me, then I know he can do the right thing for love."

In other words: She was as insane as her husband, she only seems normal because she wasn't put into the monk warrior order and groomed by the devil for over a decade. (And I don't mean insane as, 'she's crazy for loving a murderer' harley quinn style, I just meant it on a daring, hopeless romantic and tenacious way)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading updates: august 2024

the good news is that I did a lot of reading this month, the bad news is that honestly? I think that my birthday month has had the biggest percentage of literary letdowns, duds, and outright bullshit than any other month of this year so far.

but at least there's plenty to talk about, so let's get going!

Unlearning Shame: How We Can Reject Self-Blame Culture and Reclaim Our Power (Devon Price, 2024) - uh oh gamers, we're starting on a doozy! I've enjoyed both of Price's previous books very much, but with Unlearning Shame I couldn't help but feel like I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I wasn't getting what I had signed on for. the issue, I think, could be corrected by an adjustment to the title, which seems to be promising a very broad tackling of the concept of shame and is therefore making some pretty big promises. in reality, the book is much more narrowly focused than that, interested primarily in the shame that arises in the activism-minded when they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of awful things in the world and their perceived inability to do anything about it. fairly early on Price introduces an apparently relatable anecdote about himself and a friend having mutual breakdowns in a grocery store because they were both so paralyzed by the conundrum of trying to buy the most ethical groceries possible, and I realized this book was maybe not really for me or my particular experiences with shame. I think this book will be really helpful for a lot of people for sure, would love to pass it on to a lot of my freshmen, but overall it did not live up to the expectations I brought to the party.

A Separate Peace (John Knowles, 1959) - so I wanted to reread this because someone on here sent me an ask about, I don't know, my favorite required high school reading or whatever, and I said it was A Separate Peace but then I realized it's been over a decade since I read the book and I had to go see if it still actually held up. and god, does it EVER. this is such a brutal and heartbreaking novel, beginning in the last carefree summer that best friends and roommates Gene and Finny will experience before their final year at their boys' private school and their seemingly inevitable draft into WW2. although Gene is seethingly jealous of Finny's seemingly effortless charisma, popularity, confidence, and athletic prowess, the two boys are also inseparable - until a tragic injury changes the course of Finny's life forever. this book is a mess of unspoken pain, from the looming end of innocence on a global scale to the intimate ache of loving your best friend so, so much and having no healthy way to express it because you're a repressed little rich boy in the 1940s.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (Rita Chang-Eppig, 2023) - Chang-Eppig's debut novel follows the career of Chinese pirate Shek Yeung, also known as Zheng Yi Sao, immediately following the death of her husband, fearsome pirate Sheng Yi. you've probably seen a post or two about her floating around on this very hellsite, calling her a pirate queen and accompanied by this image:

Chang-Eppig isn't interested in portraying Shek Yeung as any kind of heroine or feminist icon; over and over again it's acknowledged that she's simply a woman who has survived massive hardships and will do whatever she needs to do to survive. manipulation? spying? extortion? torture? murder? you name it, she's done it, and she does not feel remorse. while the novel wasn't a knockout for me either in terms of plot or prose, it's nice to see an entry into the trend of "retelling" stories from history and mythology centered on women that isn't determined to justify every step a maligned woman ever made. Shek Yeung is what she is, and her story makes for a gritty, bloody adventure.

Victim (Andrew Boryga, 2024) - this book is pure sleazeball fun; if you've ever wondered what I consider a romp, this is it. Victim follows our manipulative king Javi Perez as he builds a writing career for himself by turning in one essay after another about racial discrimination that he never really experienced, inventing stories of hardship caused by racism and poverty from his college application essay to his school newspaper to the story that finally brings the whole lie crashing down when he stretches the truth too far. the novel is written like Javi's apology in the wake of getting #canceled, and while I do sometimes feel that this premise makes some of the writing seem a bit implausible (why would you admit that!!!) it's a fun setup for a scandal that would have been a bloodbath on the twitter of old. come get your mess!!!

Bad Girls (Camila Sosa Villada, trans. Kit Maude, 2022) - this is my first time reading Sosa Villada's work but OH BOY, do I need to seek out more. this is a skinty little novel following a dramatized account of the travesti (or transgender) women who live and sell sex in Córdoba, Argentina. the women build an unsteady but beautiful and magic-infused family under the protection of the ancient Auntie Encarna. the protagonist (who is named Camila Sosa Villada, no relation I'm sure) watches as her unconventional family grows, changes, and frays over time, struggling to find ways to stay afloat in a world that see them as disposable. Sosa Villada's turns of phrase are brilliant and searing, and she weaves fantastical elements so nimbly into her narrative that it's utterly believable to see women becoming animals and courting headless men in the streets of a modern city. strongly recommend for fans of Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars.

Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism (Aileen Morteon-Robinson, 2000) - this book serves as a scathing literature review indicting Australia's white women anthropologists and feminist scholars for the ways in which they've dehumanized and discredited Aboriginal women, stripping them of the right to be authorities of their own experiences and barring them from a white-centered feminist movement. Moreton-Robinson's account is excellent, contrasting the wok of white women academics with the accounts of Aboriginal women to reveal exactly how massive the disparities in understanding are. as a USAmerican previously aware of Australia's colonial history but unfamiliar with the specifics, it was jarring to discover exactly how similar the mechanism of colonial violence are between my country and Australia, with countless genocidal parallels to be drawn. one particular highlight of the book comes via my purchase of a 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new post-script by Moreton-Robinson in which she dissects and responds to various criticisms of the book at its time of release, taking several critics to task for the belittling tone they used to describe her work and the tools white feminists use to absolve themselves of blame in the face of critique from women of color. fascinating and thorough articulation of Moreton-Robinson's point, and deservedly blistering. I love when academics call each other out by name.

The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance (Sabrina Strings, 2024) - so the thing about this book is that there are really good PARTS. Strings is still an excellent historical writer, and I found a lot to appreciate in, for instance, the segments on the history of Black American pimp culture and the analysis of Playboy and Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl. the more personal segments, where Strings contorts herself to fit her own failed relationships into the narrative she's building, are decidedly less consistent in their quality, with some feeling like they would have been better off staying between Strings and her therapist. there's a long and convoluted digression about Sex and the City, and a strange anecdote towards the end in which String recounts a phone call with a friend's college-aged son who, String believes, was masturbating during the call. a yucky experience, to be certain, but I'm not sure it justifies Strings filing a police report against the youth and his mother, who she accuses of having groomed her on the son's behalf. she also casually drops in the same chapter that she considers herself pansexual because she's attracted to trans men in addition to cis men? idk man!!! this book was so uneven that I found myself genuinely questioning whether Strings' first book, Fearing the Black Body, is actually as excellent as I remember it being. I'm pretty sure it is, but god it sucks to get shaken so hard that you have to wonder!

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures (Phoebe Gloeckner, 2002) - another book that I had to read for class, years ago! I read Diary of a Teenage Girl in one of my gender and women's studies classes in my undergrad, for a class with a title along the lines of Girlhood Stories in Fiction and Film. Gloeckner's novel (though heavily informed by her own life, she insists that it's a work of fiction) sees its young protagonist, Minnie, navigating a great deal of sex, alcohol, drugs in 1970s San Francisco. I started thinking about the book because I was listening to a trio of episodes of You're Wrong About in which Carmen Maria Machado guests to talk about the pervasive sham that is Go Ask Alice (great series, check it out) and I started thinking about Diary, which is so much less preachy and didactic and is, you know, actually drawn from a real teenage girl's diary, unlike Go Ask Alice, and lacking Alice's preachy didacticism. as a diary based on a real diary this book is largely lacking in any particular plot (the most consistent through line is Minnie's ongoing and tumultuous sexual relationship with her mother's 35 year old boyfriend), but if that's not a turn off then you'll find yourself rooting for Minnie to find her way all the way to the uncertain but ultimately optimistic conclusion.

One and Done (Frederick Smith, 2024) - okay, so. this is a romance novel that I picked up because I saw a review talking about how it's an incredibly realistic depiction of working at a university. now that's obviously an insane thing to look for in a romance novel, but I like romances, ESPECIALLY gay romances, and I work at a university, so I figured sure, I'll bite. spoiler alert: it's not great. I posted some examples of the prose here, and even if the two protagonists talked like actual human beings it wouldn't make up for the stale-ass plot or devastating lack of chemistry they have going for them. more like One and Glad to Be Done With This Book That Isn't Very Good, am I right, ladies?

Seduced (Virginia Henley, 1994) - guys, I'm gonna be so fucking real with you. this is the most batshit novel I've ever read, period, let alone the most batshit romance novel. this book was the winner of a poll I ran on patreon last month in which my wicked patreonites got to nominate romance novels of their choosing for my next reading project and voted amongst themselves to crown a winner, and against all odds and my own light attempts to sway the voters, Seduced won it all. this book has everything: a historical setting, a bold young lady disguising herself as her own brother, wildly unchecked orientalism, a murderous cousin, high society scandal, and some of the most torturous sex scenes I've ever encountered in my life. truly this write-up cannot do justice to what I have experienced; I've already promised by patreonites that I'll have to do a little youtube live in order to fully express the extent of my dissatisfaction.

and that was the month of August, babey!!!

[vivianwine]

It is so funny that so many people accusing some fans for being misogynistic. And meanwhile they say:

“Rhaenyra is the heir because her father made her!”

But normally heir shouldn’t be chosen because it is decided the moment they enter this world that they are the heir. Personally as someone who believes gender equality, first born (whether it is a girl or a boy) should be heir.

But these “feminists” will not say Rhaenyra should be heir because SHE IS FIRST BORN instead they will say Viserys made her so!

Love, you should be saying that she is the first born therefore she is the heir. But unfortunately I couldn’t came across these people as much I wanted to.

( I am talking about some Rhaenyra fans pls don’t come at me for this post.)

And there is this other thing I wanna talk about. I really wonder if Baelon were to survive, would Rhaenyra still fight for the throne?

I mean if she were to be this feminist icon, they wanna make us believe it, she should fight for it no matter who she is going against to cause she is the eldest, she should be on throne. Right?! Because this is how gender equality works.

But I don’t think she would. She probably would marry Harwin or Daemon and live her life at its fullest.

So according to this she is not some feminist icon and she will never be.

And also in this case can we all agree that for some fans, not fully supporting for Rhaenyra has nothing to do with being misogynistic?

(Btw I decided that I am team neutral. For me neither Aegon or Rhaenyra deserves to throne. Aegon according to books is a rumored rapist, eww 🤢, and fully alcoholic and Rhaenyra is basically someone who is egoistical, self-centered and dumb. So I am not gonna support either of them.)

[wilcze-kudly]

I really want to see your post about how Katara is forcefully matured by the fandom, please!

Ok, while I wasn't ready to make that post in earnest, and frankly never might be, here's some of my cursory thoughts on the topic. I'd gladly talk about it in detail more but also ✨️fear✨️

So, let's get the obvious out of the way. Katara is a 14 year old. A child, barely a teen. In fact, the entirety of the gaang is made up of children.

Now, I haven't been fully active in the atla fandom in quite some time, mostly lurking on the peripheries, because the fandom is a shitshow. One of the reasons being the fact that most fans cannot, for the life of them handle the Gaang's inherent childishness.

This isn't just a Katara problem. Other than her, Aang suffers the most for the egregious crime of being a 12 year old survivor of a genocide. Suki is, of course, mainly ignored. The interpretations of Toph can vary wildly, from her being horrifically matured to being dissmissed as a chaotic, rude child. Zuko and Sokka's immature moments are looked at more permissively, being an angsty boi™️ and a goofy goober respectively.

I do find it odd that Aang doesn't get the "boys will be boys" pass, but ok, we'll blame it on him being... bald? a nice boy? not concerned with his own masculinity?

As for Katara, her maturity is treated like... a given. She's the mom of the group, the proverbial love interest, the feminist icon, the badass fighter, the trailblazer filled with feminine rage. The trophy wife to Aang, the (Lore Olympus style) Persephone to Zuko's Hades.

And true, she is, or at least can be, a lot of these things.

However she is, first and foremost, a child. This fact is presented to us on a silver platter in the first episode, when her and Aang are penguin sledding.

Katara : I haven't done this since I was a kid!

Aang: You still are a kid!

Katara is a child forced to mature. Her circumstances forced her to try to fill her mother's place and to fight for those who couldn't do so themselves. The fandom brands her as a mom friend. Sees her purely as an icon of empowerment. Or worse, degrades her character to being a love interest.

(im talking about both sides of the kataang/zutara debate. I have my biases, but I'm sure there are kataangers who treat her like this as well. I simply have encountered very few of them.)

Her story, while yes, has many themes of female empowerment is in huge part, a tragedy. The tragedy of a young girl forced to grow up much too soon.

Sadly, this is rarely spoken about. It's not spoken about directly and therefore a lot of the fandom doesn't see this. (Or simply doesn't want to see it)

This is not to say that Katara's more mature aspects should be dismissed or buried. She displays a lot of maturity for her age, to the point of being able to go toe to toe both intellectually and physically with the (admittedly usually incompetent) adults of the show. Additionally, she evolves as a character through the durtation of the show.

But a huge chunk of her maturity being forced and therefore unhealthy is a key aspect of her character.

I think what upsets me the most is that while the critiquing the idea of Katara being treated as the mom of the group in fanon is becoming more and more common, the treatment of her as something akin to a YA protagonist is on the rise.

Both these interpretations are so insulting to the character of Katara, what is wrong with you people?

I'm currently rewatching atla with a focus on Katara as a character (while also trying to give zutara a chance I am doing my best guys) and her childishness is an integral part of her. It's sad to see her treated as an adult by the fandom. And honestly unsettling, especially with how much of like a child she acts.

I wanna finish my rewatch before I give my full ramble on the topic. I also wanna look more into the many different opinions people in the atla fandom have on Katara's treatment by the show. Though even trying to skim the surfce was like injecting lemon juice directly into my tear ducts. Also I really, really don't wanna get sent death threats again.

I want to give the topic of Katara my full attention. However I don't think I'll ever make this post, actually. The atla fandom is a rabid horrid pack of creatures and I'm not sure if I wanna engage with all that.The post would probably bash a lot of things considered key arguments for Zutara, since, looking at Zutara through a child's doesn't exactly scream 'romance' and do I really want that on my blog?

Katara's role as a child isn't valued as much as her role as a woman and I just don't want to deal with people calling me mean names for talking about a little girl being traumatised.

I'd be glad to have a discussion but I made this blog mainly to have fun and enjoy a piece of media I like. I met some truly amazing people whom I can have really great discussions with, even if we don't agree. I don't want to jeopardise that by being a pretentious dick on a soapbox.

Call this and the last few posts I made on Katara me testing the waters.

[theflashjaygarrick]

One thing I keep thinking about is because superhero comics are simultaneously niche and cultural icons, the general public understanding of characters can be starkly different to the actual medium. Often this is harmless fun but it can be a problem considering arcs about female and minority characters often suffer in the realm of reprints and adaptations, and therefore never have the same impact on the public consciousness. And I think this explains the erasure of Oracle.

Yes, Killing Joke was misogynistic as hell and as a massive Barbara fan I have serious issues with it. But then what Kim Yale and John Ostrander did with Oracle in year one was moving, beautiful and undeniably feminist. I'm not disabled but I got serious chills reading the story and it is honestly one of my favourite comics. From there she grew to become a staple in the DC universe and helped launch the wildly successful Birds of Prey superhero team.

And she was a disabled hero who was psychologically complex and kickass in a fight. She also was seen as an attractive woman who had love interests like Dick Grayson. She got to train the next generation of Batgirls. As Oracle Babs thrived.

Not to mention according to Scott Peterson's article on DC women kicking ass, the creative team at the time were seeing an overwhelming positive response to Oracle from people who saw themselves on the pages of a superhero comic for the first time thanks to Babs:

"we were the ones getting the mail from disabled fans. We were the ones reading letters about how much Oracle meant to them, how much it meant to see someone in a situation so much like their own, someone who by then had been come such an important part of the DCU, treated with respect and admiration by not only Superman and Black Canary, but by the Batman, a guy who treated pretty much no one with respect." (Scott Peterson, 2011)

But if you look at the mainstream perception, her success is less obvious.

Batgirl has always struggled in adaptations, and Oracle even more so. The versions of Oracle that have been translated onto film and TV haven't caught in public imagination in the same way, to the point she was straight up cut out of the recent Birds of Prey film.

Not to mention Killing Joke is one of the most iconic Batman stories of all time that not only has been reprinted countless times but was one of the select few comic arcs to be adapted into animation. Contrarily, Oracle Year One was reprinted in English once after the original date: the Batgirl 50 years celebration. This collection is expensive and not something you would buy without considerable investment in the Batgirls. It certainly isn't one that would show up if you google 'best batman comics'.

If you see this you understand why people marginally invested in DC mythos considered her return to batgirl was seen by some as a feminist move, rather than an ableist one. Gone were her years of development, one of the most powerful information brokers in DC, and two other beloved Batgirls. And the real insult: killing joke was still canon. Yes, they kept the misogynistic violence and ditched the disability rep and the character growth. And that is despite the fact Killing Joke was made to be part of an else world, not main continuity.

[touchingtheegrass]

Earthspark spoilers ahed

All this talk about Starscream being evil again just proves to me you guys would never match her freaks.

She's a feminist icon who believes women should have the right to their own body's and therefore aborted two kids on screen. What a legend🙏🙏🙏

[lemonhemlock]

Do you think Jaehaerys Targaryen counts as an Usuper?

Yes, but over Aerea and Rhaella, not Maegor!

Maegor was an usurper himself, over Prince Aegon the Uncrowned, who should have inherited the throne by Andal law, as the eldest son of King Aenys. After that, the laws of succession state that a daughter (Aerea) comes before an uncle (Jaehaerys). Therefore, Rhaena (as the rightful king's lawful wife) should have been Queen Regent until her daughter came of age and, until Aerea had children of her own, her twin sister Rhaella would have been her heir. Maegor himself had claimed the rightful heir (Aerea) as his own heir, at least until he produced children of his own. Feminist icon!!*

Basically:

Aenys -> Aegon -> Aerea -> Rhaella -> Jaehaerys -> Rhaena (in her own right) -> Alysanne -> Maegor

[sarafangirlart]

The whole feminist thing with Medusa being victim of rape from Poseidon and punished by Athena. Whom a lot people believe to be feminist when actually demeter is there she challenge Zeus. Do you know about lilith being the first woman before eve thing? Yeah lot people claiming her as feminist icon for not submit to Adam and do people forget? She killed babies rape man and harming pregnant woman

Yeah ppl think woman harms man therefore she’s feminist. Medusa doesn’t have a single source where she helps a woman, while Athena does (tho she also has myths where she harms women but that’s another story). Demeter isn’t really feminist either since she definitely harmed countless women by basically inventing winter, but she’s still iconic and a great mom and anyone who puts Zeus in his place I will defend with my life.

[mjunhinged]

Radical Feminism - Getting Started

Hi there, and welcome! A lot of young women find themselves lost when first identifying themselves as RadFems, and this post aims to diminish that. I will be summarizing the main ideas of radical feminism and attaching resources below. My asks are always open, so please never hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

📖Definition

The internet defines radical feminism as follows:

"Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation."

While that definition is somewhat broad, I would say that it is fairly accurate. Radical feminists believe in a complete restructure of the current system, into one that does not unjustly favor and prioritize men.

🗝️Key Ideas

~Female solidarity before everything else.

~A woman is defined as an adult human female. Women are oppressed because of our sex.

~Radical feminism is for ALL women, regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexuality, or nationality.

~Gender roles, and gender as a whole, serve only to oppress women.

~Bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom are human rights.

~The sex industry is an entity that rapes, abuses, and objectifies women. Sex workers deserve liberation.

~Modern pornography encourages the abuse and rape of women, and is therefore immoral.

(I almost certainly missed some ideas here. This is by no means an exclusive list, just main ideas that are common amongst RadFems).

🗒️Subsets of Radical Feminism

Radical feminists are not a monolith, and even within this political ideology you will find offshoots. Some of these include (but are not limited to) gender critical feminism, socialist and Marxist feminism, black feminism, and lesbian feminism.

🗣️Commonly Used Abbreviations

These are some terms and abbreviations that I see commonly in RadFem circles, that may be confusing to newcomers.

TERF: Trans exclusive radical feminist. Often used as a derogative, a TERF is a radical feminist that does not believe that males can self identify as women.

TIF: Trans identifying female. A female who now identifies as a man.

TIM: Trans identifying male. A male who now identifies as a woman.

TRA: Trans rights activist.

👥Organizations

These are some organizations that align with RadFem ideology. Against, not an exhaustive list.

ICONS

The International Council on Women's Sports is one of the leading organizations fighting to keep women's sports free of sex based discrimination.

https://www.iconswomen.com

Women's Liberation Front

A gender critical RadFem organization that fights for women's sex based rights in legal and political spheres.

https://womensliberationfront.org

Women's Declaration International

Another radical feminist organization that advocates for women's sex based rights.

https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/about/

🩷Radblr

The Radblr (RadFems of Tumblr) community is growing everyday! Some common tags used by this community will be attached to this post.

[fierceawakening]

The other thing that’s kind of irksome about the idea that if I don’t understand the Jewish yearning for Israel it’s because I have a white perspective is…

Guys, most of my family except my parents is Greek Orthodox. I thought of myself as pure blooded (though jokingly, not in a “this makes me superior” way) until my aunt discovered through DNA testing she’s 75% Italian.

Greek is right there in the name. I KNOW what an ethnoreligion is.

It’s true I was personally not RAISED Greek Orthodox. But why wasn’t I?

Not because my mom was white. Because my mom was a feminist, and deeply offended by patriarchal religious traditions. And also was deeply offended by the idea that Greeks should have our own enclaves, when as she understood Christianity “it’s about Gods grace for all people.” She left the Orthodox Church in disgust. I was raised Methodist instead.

So I wasn’t raised in an ethnoreligion. But I’ve BEEN to St. Katherine’s many times, and my keepsake from my deceased grandma IS an icon OF ST KATHERINE because that’s the church that gave it to her in thanks for pious community service.

Im not leery of homeland rhetoric because I do what other whites tell me to do without thinking of ethnicities. I’m leery of homeland rhetoric because I very literally was raised by someone who rejected it and was very frank with me about why.

So when someone says I don’t understand ethnic identity I hear my older relatives who loudly lament people “not understanding that the traditions are beautiful, not stuffy” and nudging in unsubtle ways and not understanding why I… went back to… being… a Methodist.

I think of the food I eat, the holidays I celebrate, the anger I still carry that no one taught me Greek. The yearning to visit… and the fear I won’t belong.

Does that mean I find ethnic pride unpalatable because of white culture? I mean maybe, white culture has a way of slithering into people’s brains and sticking there.

But like… I remember reading Plato’s Apology for the first time in college, and just spending the evening sobbing because Socrates not only thought like me and talked like me and got pilloried for asking the Wrong Questions like me but was one of my people.

That has never stopped being one of my Important Memories and it never will.

So I think I’m maybe not as oblivious as people want to think. I’m leery of “these are Our Traditions and thus they are holy and beyond reproach” because I was raised by someone who was also leery of it, and taught me to be, and explained it in ways I still find deeply convincing.

Please don’t boil all the complexity off and say “it’s because they’re white” or “Methodism is Christian and Christianity presents itself as universal so it can stick its nose in everywhere and therefore so do they.”

Disagree with all of me, not a paper doll of me.

[the-fire-within0]

Hey idk your history or anything but Lilith is closed to non-Jewish people.

Hey there, anon. I'm open to discussing Lilith, but whether Lilith is a closed practice for non-Jewish people is a bit complicated. First, I'm not sure about your background. Second, I don't know your intentions behind asking. Third, I'm unsure about your research on Lilith or your own beliefs. I'm not trying to be rude; I just want to clarify a few things before we proceed to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

I believe it's important to understand Lilith both as a specific figure and as a symbolic one. Although I rarely engage with Lilith in my practice, I acknowledge her occasional presence. While modern portrayals frequently depict Lilith as a feminist icon and "goddess of fertility," or "mother goddess," these views do not trace back to traditional beliefs about her or what she was associated with. She is represented as the complete opposite of these newer tellings.

Regarding that, there is archaeological evidence of Aramaic incantation bowls and amulets used in Semitic regions to ward off Lilith or demons. She is a demon associated with lust, miscarriage, and child abduction, with her name's etymology linked to screech owls, night bird, night creature and the night ("laylah," Hebrew). She is primarily a figure in Jewish apocryphal works. However, it is possible that the inspiration for Lilith came from the Mesopotamian demonic goddess Lamashtu, who in which, bears much resemblance to her.

In Mesopotamian mythology, "Lil," "Lilītu," (Akkadian) "Lilû" (masculine version) refers to a group of disease-bearing wind spirits/demons rather than a single demon. Additionally, the image on the Burney Relief plaque is unlikely to be Lilith, as scholars have suggested that it might represent Inanna/Ishtar or her sister Ereshkigal instead. Another aspect to mention is that "ardat-lilî" refers to the ghosts of young women who died without experiencing sexual fulfillment or marriage. Therefore, they would attempt to seduce young men. The term "ardat-lilî" translates to "maiden lilî"/"phantom bride." They were described as a troubled and restless spirit associated with negative sexuality and the wind. They are suggested to be a form of succubi, believed to possess the ability to fly and enter houses through windows. There's a bit more of an explanation of ardat-lilî within the book Women in the Ancient Near East. (You can just ctrl + F to search keywords).

Another thing to point out that Lilith within the Hebrew bible is only mentioned once in

Isaiah 34:14, NRSV, "Wildcats shall meet with hyenas; goat-demons shall call to each other; there also Lilith shall repose and find a place to rest."

However with this translation alone, scholars suggest that it is associated a type or class of demon (similar to the Lilītu). Lilith can also be identified in the Dead Sea Scrolls as a "singular entity" but there isn't much detail that goes further than that.

11QpsAp, "And I, the Sage, sound the majesty of His beauty to terrify and confound all the spirits of destroying angels and the bastard spirits, the demons, Lilith. . ., and those that strike suddenly, to lead astray the spirit of understanding, and to make desolate their heart."

In this translation, there is a reference to Lilith in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510–511). For more information about 4Q510-511.

In rabbinic literature, the Babylonian Talmud, during the exile, Lilith poses much more of a threat to men if they were to sleep alone,

Shabbat 151b, "It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith."

There are mentions of the appearance of lilith (lower-cased on purpose), with depictions of having long hair and wings.

Niddah 24b, "Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: In the case of a woman who discharges a fetus that has the form of a lilith, a female demon with wings and a human face, its mother is impure with the impurity of a woman after childbirth, as it is a viable offspring, only it has wings."

The notion of Lilith as the "first woman" primarily stems from satirical literature like the Alphabet of Ben Sira.

Honestly, interpret this however you like. There are countless theories, different ways to interpret texts, and various personal beliefs. Even if you see everything as just lessons and don't take it seriously, that's your choice. If someone wants to explore and learn about Lilith or liliths, I'm personally not opposed to it—as long as they understand her/their exact origins. Some people practice demonolatry or just conduct extensive research in demonology, so it's hard to make definitive statements. That's why I find it complicated to say that an entity, demon, deity, or anything similar is closed. Additionally, converting to Judaism is NOT an easy process. From what I know, Jewish people would not want to work with demons. They would prefer to ward them off or avoid any involvement with them altogether, and or whatever their standpoint might be since not one individual is the same.

It's also important to note that Lilith isn't part of Christian theology (this goes to anyone just learning, honestly). The Christianized version of Lilith I'd like to think is very washed-down or "declawed."

If you'd like to discuss any potential errors in my statements, feel free to reach out. Please provide relevant links to support your points, and avoid generalizing one person's opinion as representative of everyone or an entire group, not only that, it's good to be respectful while discussing, that's all I would ask and kindly appreciate.

There are so much more information in terms of Lilith, with which you can look at through these links since it's a lot harder to fit everything into one post:

A good video to learn from too can be the video from Dr. Justin Sledge/ESOTERICA called Who is Lilith - First Wife of Adam - Ancient Origins and Development of the Myth of the Demon Queen:

[doodlegirl1998]

You made me realize smth on my fic "Redestro the matchmaker" if Mirko is BK with boobs shouldn't she be less popular?

Then again in the smash...it is said Mt. Lady has fans who do have a fetish with her ...which serves to excuse the destruction she causes. Not gone lie, this is way realistic "hot lady can do whatever" so maybe the same logic could apply to Mirko.

Mirko is a hot woman. A hot basin woman so ...her personality and bkness can be "forgive"

But what about Endy and Aizawa? Are they handsome? Sure. Thanks for that Hori😒 but the pretty people privilige works for men too?

Endy's crimes are ignored in favour of war (which makes total sense. No one, admist many murderous villains, will send Endy who is a power house away) but Aizawa's crime is so entirely open and...who says otherwise is a meanie (looking at Monoma with pity. Yes he said bk suck but for sure he said similar to Aizawa)

I think those heroes should be highly unpopular.

Hi @mikeellee 👋,

Miruko is an interesting case.

Among other heroes - yes she should be less popular. Her behavior would not endear her to her peers (she thinks lesser of teamwork and openly expresses this imagine what she says about 'hero teams' to their faces.) There's also the way she's constantly itching to beat someone up which would also put people off her.

However, among fans she's a hot basin woman who is strong and not afraid to show that. She would be seen as a "feminist Icon" and horny teenage boys would love her (as a literal and fierce bunny girl I can see her being the subject of many a horny fanfic in the MHA universe.)

Then there's the other main two you mentioned: yes pretty privilege is a thing and Endeav and Aiz are pretty that earns them some points.

The reasoning for not putting away Endeav for child abuse does sadly make sense as they are in a time of war and need all heavy hitters on deck. (This would have been solved if Dabi had been allowed to kill him but you know... Hori can't have that. 😒) Endeav should also be a lot less popular because of this and in general he's a lot like Bakugou in his anti social demeanor and wish to be the Best. He's also an ass to his fans as his interaction with mini Inasa showed which earns him no points.

Aizawa as a hero is shown to be decent and his quirk is obviously invaluable to the heroes.

But he should be hated by his ex-pupils and their families for ruining thier futures for petty reasons. Realistically, he (and Nedzu) also should be drowning in so much legal paperwork because of his fucked up teaching and 'fake' expulsions that he and Nedzu both become broke.

Can you imagine the outcry if a prestigious university in real life did this and hired someone like Aizawa? The outcry would be MASSIVE and that university would be defunct in no time.

Therefore, realism has no place in MHA when it comes to Hori's faves.

[runawaysiren940]

Wanna ruin your day like I did mine after reading TIM nonsense? There’s some brief infanticide talk.

So apparently this week has sparked an interest in radical feminism for trans identified males. Their urge to colonize never fails. A few popular TIMs on social media are trying to invite others to co-opt radical feminism from “terfs” to make discussions of misogyny more inclusive...to males. Nevermind the women!

And no surprise these conversations are going exactly how you’d imagine. It’s all about disproving sex based oppression, proving that patriarchy hurts males and that sex is completely irrelevant when it comes to misogyny as a whole. Nevermind thousands of years of sex based violence and oppression!

But the really infuriating part is that a radical feminist responded with examples of sex based oppression saying the truth that denying sex denies the reality of misogyny. And those examples included things like female infantcide and you know what the responses were?

“You are alive today therefore you didn’t experience infanticide for your sex thus your claims of sex based oppression are pretty much void.”

…

These are our “trans radical feminists”, folks. These are the men who people are hailing as feminist icons sent to liberate all women. The men claiming that just because YOU were not killed as a baby girl all the others who were…well they died for reasons that could not and should not be determined and you should basically shut up about it because there’s no reason to have the discussion.

TIMS are so fucking evil.

I know not everyone likes Rupi Kaur, but her poem about infanticide has always stuck with me. I wish I could say I'm surprised with how they acted here, but I'm not. The overlap of Tim's and misogynists is basically a circle, even if they think they are special and have woman feels.

[zombieprowl]

Tiktoks and their multiple AI generated batshit stuffs about greek deities that also get reposted as YT shorts, definitely warped the "geneeal knowledge" about many gods. And two I cannot stand are the Ares "was the protector of women" and "Ares ended the age of mythology." And don't get me started on the "babification" of the Aphrodite and Ephaestus marriage where he even gets a glow up to "pretty boy with a mild disability" cause if he needs to be made pretty to justify their love story, I can't even.

Anyway, I think Ares, by his mere dominion was often portrayed much more negatively because popular culture and media teaches us that war = bad. But that same media somehow tells us Athena's take on the same concept is not bad often at the expense of justifying strategic war as somehow being less horrific than "non strategic" war. Both will end up with a body count.

That's not to say I hate Athena and absolutely adore Ares. Both are complex because at the end of the day Greek gods are a myriad of collective "someone said" with both positive and negative aspects and contradictions to make sense of things. Considering, for example, how Ephaestus appears in versions of myths that theoretically predate him and basically he seems to pop up whenever is convenient and it's unclear how that accounts for his birth and age, gods are maleable concepts that come up as needed.

Gods in greek mythology aren't characters in a novel or creative universe. They could behave one way one moment and then in a completely different way the next. If we were to look at the deities in other cultures, we'd find some greek gods mild and vanilla in their most "controversial" actions.

But I digress. The things that do bother me about the whole feminist-juice drinker Ares is that applying the term as we know it and exercise it today to a deity from ages ago is not exactly going to go well because we're applying our modern sensibilities to the anthropomorphic representation of an idea/concept/thing-that-happens. And for his feminist take to fly in today's unrealistic expectations of unproblematicness, the sanitization of the "character" is going to be extreme and often at the expense of vilifying others (like Athena or Ephaestus). And the second One stain shows up, the people who take issue with this will make sure it is known to the world Ares feminist icon isn't so perfect. (Because perfection is totally attainable).

This is one of the reasons Hades got the short end of the stick in popular media until his most recent iterations. Hades was turned into a villanous character (emphasis in the word Character) by merely being the King of the Underworld and then-modern sensibilities making the Underworld the equivalent of a Christian hell, therefore the ruler had to be the equivalent of the devil. (Disney's version actually gives him many atributes that enhance a more demonic appearance)

And likewise we often see Ares depicted as the shitties jock to ever jocked because the bloodthirsty god of war cannot possibly be anything other than a brute because war is bad. Sure, Ares wasn't particularly loved as a god because his dominion was likely seen as necessary if unpleasant. (He'd probably be a lot more popular with Aztecs since warfare was extremely important in the political and religious fields) But like every other deity, he was nuanced and had positive and negative aspects. His having decent relationships to the women in his life doesn't automatically make him a feminist icon by today's standards. Though it doesn't mean he was a certified misogynistic asshole either. The pendulum doesn't have to swing the whole other way.

The whataboutism regarding the fact he had feasts women were forbidden to attend in response to his epithet of being Feasted by women is also kinda meh as if that justifies the misogynistic brutish character are about as Meh as the Protector of mistreated women title.

Ares didn't go down and said "Ok chums, time to feast. Oh and ladies need not attend." The feasts were organized by mortals in his honor and those mortals decided who attended.

His being honored in a feast by women who fought and won a battle was merely a celebration of their victory dedicated to Ares. I guess because they felt their victory was influenced by his aid/favor. This, again, has little to do with him favoring women in some extraordinary capacity, war doesn't necessarily favor men over women or NBs in the battlefield when it comes down to it, whoever stabs the other in the vitals first wins that battle and can choose whether to eat a burger in Ares' honor.

One can choose to hold the belief Ares does look upon the weak and mistreated with hot headed compassion and empowers them with anger and fury to face their circumstances. But that is a personal belief and nothing that should be passed around as a fact about the deity cause, again, they aren't characters with a factual source of "this is how he was 2000%".

Interpretations are not facts. Even I make fun of the whole "Ares and his daddy issues" cause while there is only one source of Zeus telling Ares he's most disliked, I've yet to find anything about Zeus ever showing the littlest bit of parental affection towards Ares (other than agreeing to have him healed and his being his son the only reason why he's not in Tartarus with granpa Kronos). And that is mostly cause I can get away with dumbass videos of Ares singing Linking Park songs.

Then there is the whole "Ares ended the age of mythogy" goddness... no. Let me repeat that one: No. That didn't happen and certaiy not the way Tik tok and YT shorts have popularized in recent years.

Some sources cited that Zeus swallowed Metis because of a prophesized son that would become king of the gods, in other words, repeating the pattern of son defeating and claiming the throne of the father. Yet he went on to have many sons, but Ares is the one born to both him and Hera, his now wife and queen. (Hephaestus and his birth are again a source of headscratches. Was he born before Athena or was he conceived by Hera on her own to spite Zeus for Athena's birth?)

So, going from there, a case could be made that Ares could be the son to overthrow Zeus. Aaaaand that's more or less what DC Comics did. You see, Ares in DC comics is a very powerful being, often times a villanous character cause, again, War incarnate yada yada. But the thing is, he IS powerful and he has even rebranded his dominion to that of Strife because peaceful times meant an absence of large scale war weakens him but strife remains even in peaceful times. Not only that, at some point he kills Hades and claims the throne of the Underworld too.

In the many iterations of the DC Universe and events, there was one time where Wonder Woman asked about why the Olympians had abandoned the world of man, and it was revealed Ares allied himself with other gods (often times the ones depicted as more villanous in modern media such as Sekhmet) from different pantheons and he led them in waging war against the Olympians and won, forcing them from the world of man.

And thus the telephone game of how Ares ended the age of mythology began. Some changes were made to erase the gods of the other pantheons and replaced with some of Ares sons and other supposed allies. And now people are learning that Ares, in defence of humankind, decided to fight the Olympians and force them to stop messing with the human world and ruin their virgins or whatever.

Hades and Ares just can't catch a break from either extreme of the good vs bad gods. No god (other than Hestia probably) was entirely good or bad, and specially not for today's puritanical ways of "unproblematic".

One can enjoy making characterizations of them and adjust them if they want, I mean Lore Olympus and Percy Jackson exist, but getting into the high and mighty "my head cannon is totally a fact" with large amounts of sanitization and therefore vilifying others is like... yeah that's inviting unnecessary trouble.