#this is what radblr should be about <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[radioactiveradley]

join me in pell (piss hell)

Let's talk kidneys!

Your kidneys are situated:

Inferior to the liver and the suprarenal glands

Superior to the ureters

Anterior to the posterior wall of abdomen and diaphragm

Posterior to the peritoneum (sack with yer guts in it)

Their job is to:

Regulate blood ions (like sodium) and control blood pH

Maintain blood volume (by extracting or conserving water)

Secrete hormones

Excrete toxic waste (urea, ammonia, creatinine…)

Guess what shape they are. Go on, guess.

YEAH THAT’s RIGHt – IT’S BEAN TIME, BITCHEs

[CW: beneath the cut you will find CT images of kidney trauma]

(and here is some very basic anatomy, sketched on… that same bean)

The renal cortex + renal pyramids together form the PARENCHYMA, aka the functional bit of the kidneys (aka where your peepee is made)

But HOW is that peepee made, I hear you cry?

Lemme introduce you to my good friend

The Nephron

The afferent arteriole carries blood to the Glomerulus (which isn’t actually some weird DnD spell – just a knot of arteries surrounded by the Glomerular Capsule!) This arteriole then slims down considerably to form the efferent arteriole. This pressure increase forces loads of waste products and water out of the bloodstream into the glomerular capsule – but the holes in the arteriole wall are too small to release blood cells, plasma proteins, and other large molecules. This part of the nephron is called the ‘corpuscle’ (again, not a DnD spell). It’s where your blood plasma gets filtered!

The arteriole then follows the nephron around its windy path, wrapping around it at several points – notably the proximal/distal convoluted tubules, and the Vasa Recta that runs parallel to the Loop of Henle. To horrifically simplify a complex process, this provides lots of opportunities for secretion (Bad Stuff to be squeezed out of the blood – those dangerous ions and waste products we talked about earlier!) and selective reabsorption (Good Stuff (water) gets squeezed back in). It’s a careful balancing act, orchestrated in part by hormones! The end result (theoretically) is that all the stuff you DON’T want is shlorped into the nephron as urine, and all the water you need is shlorped back into the blood.

Once your kidneys have produced your peepee, it takes a fun rollercoaster ride through a series of ducts and tubes! Collecting duct -> papillary duct -> minor calyx -> major calyx -> renal pelvis -> ureter -> urinary bladder -> urethra -> you know the rest.

Your kidneys produce 180 litres of fluid a day (aka, a hell of a lot) but most of this is reabsorbed in these little nephrons, with water & useful solutes going back into the bloodstream! As a result, you only pee about 1-2 litres a day (though I swear I feel closer to the 180 litres some days)

Because kidneys are SOOOO important (your body does NOT like to be full of urea/ammonia/sodium, or acid!) they’re really, really vascular (lots of blood supply). They receive up to 25% of your resting cardiac output! So, when you’re just chilling, literally 25% of your blood is being gobbled by those hungry, hungry kidneys!

This means the kidney is VULNERABLE TO TRAUMA.

Although kidney trauma can be picked up on Ultrasound, we will take anyone who has suffered abdominal trauma through to CT, as you get better pictures there! We usually use a multiphase protocol – a longer scan, basically – to show us the extent of the injury, with a non-contrast phase (shows calculi clearly), an arterial phase (evaluates any injury to the renal arteries), a nephographic phase (shows renal lesions clearly), and a delayed phase (shows bleeding and injuries to the urinary collection system). Basically, contrast quickly moves to your kidneys from your blood stream, and filters through the collection system – so if we give a bolus of contrast and watch it flood through the renal arteries, then wait a little while, we can see how the kidneys are processing it or if it’s spilling into the surrounding space.

Kidney trauma is graded from 1 (no laceration but a haematoma (bruise) within the kidney capsule) to 5 (kidney torn away from renal vascular system and dying as a result, actively bleeding, structure of kidney shattered). Here’s a grade 5 (Left (looks like the right side of the image)) in comparison to the normal healthy kidney (Right (looks like the left side of the image)). Note the massive visible laceration + huge haematoma!

Loooooads of other stuff can go wrong with your kidneys too – but that’s a whole other post! Which I will make, one day soon, because it's super fascinating!

(Have you ever heard of a stag horn calculus? It will put you off holding onto your pee FOR LIFE. If you're sitting there kinda needing the loo but not going... GO NOW. PLEASE.)l

[michellezagenda]

I read this on another post....."having sons isnt a betrayal to feminism!!! you can still be a feminist and have a son" LOLLL shut it.

The brainrot some fake feminist women have. You really think you can birth another future rapist and still claim you care about female liberation....what a joke. And I think what angers me the most is that celibacy and not birthing sons are pretty easy feminist action and they cant even do those. Seems like they are pretty comfortable under patriarchy then.

The thing is all women believe their son is different. Years ago before my celibacy when I was still with my ex I saw how he treated his mom...he was sweet,respectful and caring....but that kindness to his mom didnt stop him from raping me though sooo....Boymoms just gotta remember: he might be nice and good to you...but you are not the only woman on the planet. He might carry your groceries and help you clean the dishes but behind your back he is raping women. But then again boymoms dont care about what their sons do to other women as long as their sons are nice to them. Women like this are betraying feminism and other women. You put your male worship over your desire for liberation. Its frankly pathetic.

I love your blog and keep calling those type of women out :). The only real feminist can only be celibate women and/or female partnered women. No sons and no husbands.

i was just having a conversation the other day with some woman who thinks she will be raising a good son… lmao. it’s delusion at its finest. I feel like when women say that they feel some guilt for bringing another potential freak onto this earth. Most men love their moms because they’re coddled by them then go to take their anger out on women especially women who don’t act like their mothers. It’s a weird situation..

everyone wants the feminist label while simultaneously finding actual feminist beliefs and practices to be too extreme

thinking deeply about something especially about women who birth males is actually misogynistic and we should all stfu and sing kumbaya around the bonfire bc that’s real feminism. ignoring women who happily participate in and encourage the patriarchy. not everyone could be a feminist ! i believe no one on radblr is actually radical

Also, thanks ! :) <3

[redditreceipts]

Hi! I wanna create my own radblr/fem blog but I’m scared ppl I know will find it?

have any tips?

hey :) first of all, sorry for the late answer, I have been a bit busy for a while, but yeah

so I can just say the things that I do to keep safe:

get a separate Google Account for your tumblr

invent a totally new username for your tumblr and your Google account that doesn't give any clues about other usernames or your actual name and is ideally completely made up

enable multi-factor authentification on your new tumblr account

if you're especially worried, get a VPN for your account

so this is a bit of a difficult issue, but there is a balance to be had between sharing personal information to connect with others and withholding personal information to not get found. You should definitely think about what you share on here.

I personally only open this account on my PC. I can't access my tumblr account from my phone, so I don't send my account to anyone accidentally.

use an EXIF data remover to remove any information from your images

I would never open my account or any gender critical tumblr account in public

if you save images for your blog on your computer, you can name the folder something like program_data.3(v) or stw.setup.zt or something, so it looks like a system folder

The thing is that in the end, it is always possible that people in your personal life will find out. I personally have not posted anything that I wouldn't be able to defend in real life, and the most important people in my life know about my blog.

[degenderates]

What would almost-terf talking points look like? Genuinely curious because I never see stuff like that, though I may just not be aware of it. Thank you in advance ❤️

hey! no worries, it takes a lot of being on the internet (unfortunately lol) to notice the patterns of how online terfs talk about gender and make their stuff palatable for the masses, so here are a few pointers. keep in mind that people who post this kind of rhetoric aren't always terfs and you should be skeptical of ANYBODY who tells you that there are a complete set of "rules" you must follow or subjects you must avoid. think for yourself, but also be careful. with that being said, here are some things i've noticed after being on the trans internet for a few years:

1- "radfem"/"radfem-safe"/"radblr"/etc. usually they're a terf they just dont want to add the te- to the acronym. funny thing is they're not all that radical lol.

2- gender essentialism. this is one of the most insidious i think, because it's so well disguised, or simply poised as common sense. this can include anything about men and women being inherently different, whether this is about sexual violence, sexuality in general (including types of queerness), love, understanding/intuition/empathy, certain skills, whatever. sometimes it's just a joke but be careful because humor is a form of persuasion as well, just easily able to avoid blame. the reason why gender essentialism is terfy is because it posits that gender is immutable. ie. can't change. women are inherently like this, so someone who identifies as a man now will never get it, even if they end up being trans later. though some of these takes might have an addendum of, "trans women are women" or something like that, supposedly being inclusive of trans ppl, they don't account for people who aren't secretly eggs their whole lives. sure, a transfem who always knew she was a girl might be "included," but not a trans person who lived as their agab for their first 20, 30, or even 40 years. etc. tldr: this kind of rhetoric reveals how people truly feel about gender difference regardless of what they claim to support.

3- "male/female socialization." this one's tricky because yes we as humans in a society are socialized and yes that includes gender (which is a social construct in and of itself), but the vast majority of times i've seen this phrasing used is by terfs, so much so that if trans people want to talk about gender socialization, we have to use other terminology. the problem here is that folks' "current" gender is considered null and void due to how they were raised. this one is sort of the opposite of the phenomenon of "including" trans people in gender essentialism--it blocks us out from our actual gender in favor of seeing us as what we once were.

4- a weird fascination with militant genetalia. urls or bios that include stuff about vaginas and cunts killing people or whatever...i'm not against this, but most people who have this on their blog are terfs lol. aside from the jokes, people who see phallic imagery as something inherently violent or the penis as a body part as violent instead of like, the person as violent (if they are) is a big one. i guess the militant vagina is like reclaiming this somehow. i'm not sure. but it's a thing.

5- gatekeeping queerness. people who try to limit queerness to being lesbian/gay/bisexual, acephobes, arophobes, people who have this very basic understanding of queerness as same-sex attraction. sometimes they hate the word "queer." people who don't understand queerness as a culture and a way to play with gender and identity and presentation as well as sexuality, or as a political entity. queerness isn't just about being gay or straight. now not all acephobes are terfs, but because terfs have admitted to using acephobia to induct people into being radfems, and most terfs are acephobic....well. that's just one example, of course, but the point stands. anyone attempting to divide the queer community is inherently sus to me.

and finally, 6- if you download shinigami eyes, people marked as terfs show up in red. be careful because sometimes people mark others as red out of malintent, but if the person is showing other signs of being a terf and is red, they probably are one, lol. hope this helps, and other people feel free to add on! as always, take my post as just the observations of one individual, as a grain of salt!

[fthistumblershit]

Sorry you’re so easily upset, but saying you’re an adult responsible for managing your own triggers and symptoms isn’t pseudo-psychology, it’s just a fact. I know personal responsibility is uncomfortable especially for ED sufferers but there will always be triggers. The philosophical and political affiliations of the community you immerse yourself in doesn’t preclude those individuals from saying things that you might personally find upsetting or triggering. You clearly have a lot of negative emotions to sort through and I’d advise you to step away from social media if you’re having difficulty managing them and are so upset and unbalanced by what strangers say to each other on tumblr. If you choose to relapse it’s on you, not someone who said something you found fatphobic.

I see you're taking the "you're hysterical" route right now.

1. I'm easily upset by unknown people not showing their face and telling me who I am, what I feel, and what I should do. Especially when they're condescending about it. It happens when you're a human being.

2. When I say it's "pseudo-psychology", I mean that there are many currents in nowadays psychology that have many different perspectives on how to deal with trauma, trauma-response, boundaries, and triggers. So, I'm not saying that being an adult who should be responsible for their triggers is not a fact (I said it myself); I'm saying your approach to psychological problems isn't a proven one nor the only one.

3. Honestly, the fact that you think that I, again a person you don't know, struggle with personal responsibility is absolutely beyond me. My sense of personal responsibility is none of your concern. I assure you I'm a functional adult which has achieved many important things in my life (at least I consider them so) that in other times I would have thought impossible. Really, you don't have to be this concerned about my mental health or my sense of adulthood. I'm doing fine. And that's according to professionals. Ofc, now you'll say I don't seem to be or that you don't believe me or whatever trick you might have up your sleeve. Idc.

3 and 4. I know they'll always be triggers because you never fully recover from an eating disorder, partly because we live in a very sick society that hates women and fatness. You really, really don't have to tell me that, thank you. I was in therapy for many years and not with an anon, but with actual professionals who knew me personally. I have never implied (but after all, this is my third language) that I expected the community I "immerse myself in" to be nice no matter what, or walk on eggshells with me, because that's absurd and frankly inconsiderate. If not right down abusive. What I meant was two things that maybe were easily confused with one another: that I was potentially triggered by the rudeness, as in name-calling, mocking, etc. used by some people on this website; and, separate from that, that I was shocked (not triggered) by the apparent ignorance and prejudice on radblr related to the intersection between female fatness (not EDs) and medical misogyny. So, to correct your point, No, I wasn't expecting radblr to be nice to poor me with their opinions on that subject. They can have all the opinions they want, but one can always express themselves in a civil manner when exposing them, especially when talking about very sensitive subjects.

5. This is just insulting, to be honest. Don't worry! I'm not triggered. I'm just stating my opinion. Again, you stranger on the Internet who don't know me and seems to be adamant on worrying about my health, I wouldn't know what to tell you about my negative emotions. I don't usually measure them. When someone makes me angry, I express my anger as healthily as I can, trying to be assertive but not aggressive. When I'm sad, I try to cope by being functional and dealing with my responsiblities (job, house chores, master's, family and friends) as best as I can and try not to dampen anyone's mood in the process. When I'm horny, I masturbate and feel much better afterwards. I'm unable to tell you how many negative or positive emotions I have on a daily basis; I can assure I also have very positive ones, like feeling loved or achieving new things in my professional and academic life. I'm not upset nor "unbalanced" (you meant to say "hysterical" but stopped at the last moment?) by what strangers say to each other on the Internet. I am upset (because I'm a human being) by insults, mockery, prejudice, etc. regarding someone's physical appearance or diet because it was worded aggresively and maliciously. If someone insults you and you're affected by it, it's your responsibility to manage it, but you have a right to feel it and defend yourself. On the other hand, if someone talks about weight, physical appearance, and dieting in a neutral or respectful manner, I don't feel triggered at all.

7. May I say, that your rhetoric is somewhat reminding me of DARVO tactics with all the gaslighting and guilt-tripping. "If you CHOOSE to relapse," something "YOU FOUND fatphobic." If I relapsed, it'd mostly be my responsibility, sure, but you don't choose to. In that moment, it's already out of your control. And, ONCE AGAIN, I haven't relapsed. I was talking about a potential trigger. I've fought with this for many years without a single relapse, but I know this illness well enough to recognise potential triggers. And again, these posts are appearing on my dash. I don't follow these people.

8. Last of all, why are you so invested in my mental health all of a sudden? Do you send anons to every recovered bulimic/anorexic on Tumblr? I understand my initial post might have striked controversy but a psychological profile seems a bit exaggerated. And, look, I'm sorry if my sarcasm strikes you as me being "unbalanced" or being "easily upset." But I think, unfortunately, we agree to disagree.

Now, I have work tomorrow and it's quite late here, so if you could leave me alone, I'd thank you immensely. Btw, I'll leave Tumblr whenever I see fit. It wouldn't be the first time, nor the last. But that's my choice and my reasons to stay in it.

[rad4learning]

A lot of women around radblr seem ultra risk averse, whether they are coming from the perspective of the risks of engaging in feminine practices (and I am including dating in this) or the risks of not engaging in feminine practices.

If you’re coming from a perspective of Life Strategy for the Empowered Woman there may well be times when the gains are greater than the losses for e.g. wearing makeup, particularly if you have already invested in acquiring this skills and materials. But I would be astounded if the vast majority of women, including women connected to radblr, who engage in these behaviours are more often doing it strategically than anxiously.

In some women's haste to push against this they will be like "why do they do this?? can't they see the risks of doing it?? so dumb to do it given the risks." As if it's their role to decide what other women's risk tolerance should be. Outside of radblr, I cannot tell you how many "yes I will travel home alone at night - not in a car - as a young woman" conversations I have with well-meaning people who seem to think I should be limiting my life more than I am willing to. Yeah I'd rather the risk of running through the park at night than the risks of reduced fitness (literal example). Convincing me to run or not wouldn't be feminist, changing law enforcement to increase consequences for anyone who attacked me would be. Btw, a so-called "positive masculinity" trait of "being a protector" can manifest in this way. "I am a good man who won't have you exposed to danger (from other men) by doing this". I.e. as a "good man" I will protect you from your own decision making. It's controlling. So many people will first assess stories about this through the lens of "was she being reasonable" (would I take that risk? would I want a woman I cared about to take that risk?) and not the lens of whose decision it is to make.

Being anxiety-driven is, I think, an under-discussed aspect of femininity. Cute little anxious hiding away prettily - so feminine it’s not funny. Of course, anxiety goes hand in hand with perceived helplessness, which is obviously connected to actual power disparities. It can be reinforced by rumination and catastrophising. Plenty of people have learnt that they can defuse poor reactions from others by preemptively taking a swipe at themselves or softening their opinions. This can become an engrained habit, which I suspect is why I get anon asks preemptively apologising. I will tell you something: if I don't want to read your ask, I will stop reading it. if I don't want to answer it, I won't. In fact, I appreciate almost all of my asks and respond to a minority.

If you want life advice: Being apologetic and self-undermining can be beneficial and it can also come across poorly and convey unfavourable messages about yourself. Nice girl syndrome is a book on this topic. As tends to be the case with me, my suggestion irt listening to anxiety isn't "never" or "it is unfeminist", it is "Assess the situation" and "actively decide". Anxiety-driven living tends to be unfulfilling. 3/10 do not recommend.

[femmesandhoney]

I just wanted to thank you for being a person with morals and showing some humanity because I’ve recently been so confused about my political beliefs because so many of the radical feminists I was seeing had shown evidence of a lot of racist and white supremacist beliefs and while that didn’t change what I myself believed, it made me stop and step away from the movement, going back to liberal/leftist side while telling myself that that was the best I could align myself with. I still agreed with the radical feminist texts I read, I still believed in what the movement should have stood for, but all I saw attached to the movement was hate. I recognized a lot of the rightful criticism of the movement be proven true. So I separated myself from it. But you reminded me that some people, however loud, are not reflective of the whole. That nuance exists. So thank you for that. So now I am researching and reading, and interacting again with the radfem side of social media. Thank you.

This is very sweet and I'm glad I could help you see there's a lot of wonderful radfems and rad-aligned women out there despite those few who sneak in and try to attach their hateful beliefs onto everything. And at the end of the day, figuring out your own beliefs even if they do not align w any one ideology or political party is more important than anything else, it helps you build a strong foundation for what you yourself believe and how you navigate life. Glad ur back hanging out w us <3 it usually is a chill time more often than not on radblr <3

[bisolationist]

Ooookay I finally found out why I've gotten like 50 fucking messages telling me to kms since new years, and

A) Hey please don't send messages to people on my behalf, especially to wedge it into a completely unrelated argument, and double especially not to support some guy saying "misandry" is just as bad as misogyny. I think it should be pretty clear from my years around here that I do not believe or support that. If there's anything that makes me fucking angry it's my experiences with a female rapist being used as a gotcha against feminists. I'm not a fucking MRA or anti-feminist puppet and my experiences are not yours to use for your weird agendas. Also all sending weird messages about me does is encourage more deranged people to come out of the woodwork and harass me. I don't care if people talk shit about me that's their problem. At most maybe you can let ME know and see if I wanna say anything, but honestly even that gets tiresome because there's blooms where I'm apparently radblr's #1 Worst Man That Ever Lived for things I didn't even say.

B) That said, I have absolutely no idea why that person talking shit about me suddenly made it about pregnancy. *I* was the one from my very first reply to say that it's important to acknowledge physiological differences between men and women, and that things like pregnancy are HUGE factors in how traumatic an assault can be. So IDK why people are putting in words in my mouth about supposedly saying the opposite of what I've actually said? The discussion was about how OP was categorizing rape in a binary of "truly horrific, degrading, and traumatic" vs "bad but not Bad Bad, certainly NOT horrific and it's fucked up that people think it's horrific" and people jumped on to agree and add things like "rape is something that doesn't ruin a boy's life" or "I think most like it actually we need to acknowledge this <3" and increasingly vile shit like that. That goes way beyond acknowledging physiology and misogyny and steps directly into mocking rape victims and minimizing the impact of sexual assault. If me saying "actually all rape is horrific, degrading, and traumatic" and this makes you fucking livid, that's more about why YOU think raping certain people is "not that bad".

C) Super cool how people in comments in her shit are making excuses about how I'm a "Brain dead moid" and all the shit radfems have been saying to me isn't real harassment or is justified lol. I want any of these people talking shit about me to explain to me off anon why comments like this or this are so based. And that's not even the worst of it by far, there's people openly saying I'm probably the rapist, that they wish my rapist had killed me, that I'm an antifeminist for speaking about my experiences at all, and all sorts of shit. There were weeks where I had to mass delete my inbox every morning because it's just full of people telling me how I'm morally repugnant for not agreeing my rape was No Big Deal (TM). Also, all of this is frankly humiliating. You think I want to talk or think about this all the fucking time? That I want my friends on here to start thinking about me as that guy that was raped? I absolutely hate this more than I can possibly explain for that reason a lone. I also know that I'm one of the few people in a position to speak up about this and I don't think I have to let it slide as no big deal either, but it SUCKS for me.

D) On the whole I agree on a lot of radical feminist's view and am eager to stand up for them and women in general in the capacity that I can, but I'm not a fucking radfem puppet either, sorry. I don't have to pretend it isn't obvious most of the harassment is coming from radfems, and that there isn't a completely deranged rf faction that are ardent rape apologists (both against boys/men but also against girls/women - I spend 85% of my time in GC spaces speaking out against people calling bi women pornographic language when discussing them!). I don't think they're rape apologists *because* they're radfems, but rather rape apologism is something ingrained into just about every culture and people often twist ideologies to make their biases sound moral and upright. Every single ideology has this problem. Still doesn't excuse the fact that the rape apologists within radblr are coddled and defended even by people that claim not to agree with them because people view this as a sports match or something.

[mithliya]

ur so quick to fight any radfem around here but when men are being awful. crickets.

you've got txttletale whos a guy living in the uk,claiming to speak for woc and palestinians. with the most racist and misogynist takes rn cause he equals hamas to arabs and says the rapes are made up. no callout post? no harrassing him?

you've got lesbophobic TRA creeps like white guy animentality who will reblog literally anything with the largest number of notes,just so he can promote his book. the worst trash who uses people's real suffering to virtue signal and make money. no callout,no harrassment.

i'm not a zionist. israel is far worse and has been committing horrifying war crimes for decades. i think the focus should NOT be on what hamas did 5 days ago but on the bombing of gaza and all the people being killed there NOW.

but u know,literally can't reblog any palestine support post because they are all made by these misogynistic losers.

i expected at least the radfems who are qualified to speak for palestine,like u,would try to expose these men and shut them down.

but no,i guess you only stick to harrassing other women for no reason,like you did with ms gay frogs not long ago. that went on for so long and you had so many receips. and i realized I NEVER SEEN you fighting any MAN like this. i can't take you seriously any more.

the first blog u mentioned is a blog i have blocked (who also has me blocked), the second blog u mentioned i’ve literally never heard of in my life.

i literally do not associate with men. i tend not to even bother wasting my time having discussions with them. i follow like 1 gay guy and that’s it. my blog has little to do with men beyond discussions of male violence and their misogyny and things of the sort. i’m not sure why you’re expecting me to go out of my way to *look* for men on tumblr to criticise, it’s not like my blog praises any of them. i already expect them to be awful and beyond helping.

i do associate with women and so if i see something questionable from women i practically associate with, i criticise it. i’ve criticised the “TEHMs” on here before for being misogynistic, and i’ve talked about the annoying men that orbit this side of tumblr but im not gonna go out of my way looking for random people on other sides of tumblr either. i already know the men over there are awful.

also the thing about ms frogs is such a lie lol. i criticised her politely in like 3 posts, it was one incident on one day, and that was it. it’s interesting u want me to look for random lesbophobic men outside of radblr to criticise but to overlook lesbophobia within radblr if it’s perpetuated by women (bc if i don’t overlook it, it’s actually harassment). is lesbophobia only bad if the person is someone i wouldn’t agree with overall?

[bride-of-frankenstein]

its my turn to give my opinion to the whole abortion thing, after like 3 days

my mother is pro-life, does she want to ban abortions? no. she thinks that an abortion is murder, its a child in her eyes. she still wants abortions to be legal, why? because neither doctors or the goverment can decide what to do with a womans body.

my sister, mom and i had a conversation about this as it was a big topic in my country at the time (in short, my entire state only had one single doctor who performed abortions, poor man was 20 years past his retirement and still worked in his 80s).

my mom said that yeah, having a baby is a consequence, thats its the womens fault for having sex, all the typical pro-life talk. what she also said? that abortions should be legal, that we need doctors who perfom it, not just in private clinics but in the hospital too. she remembers from the war, the amount of women and girls (little children, up to under 10 years old) who were raped and died while pregnant or during birth, who had abortions bc they didnt want a child of a man that raped her, maybe even killed her family. she remembers all the mothers that hate their children bc they were born out of hate and violence. she remembers her own two abortions, that happened bc of the miscarriages, 2 children she lost and wished she had (and still wishes she has)

she knows that not every women had consensual sex, that not everyone has money for a child, that not every fetus develops in a healthy baby, that not everyone lives in a save environment to have a child. she still says abortion is murder, at the same time she supports the act of having a safe abortion, because she understands that the world isnt black and white, not safe for women and children and def not the business of a goverment or doctors. if a woman wants or needs to have an abortion, that she can have one. its not smth she has to fight and defend for.

my mother is pro-life and yet she supports abortion and understands it better then half of the people that are debating this topic on radblr

[radkindoffeminist]

Since this random, unhinged anon took so much time to write paragraph after paragraph telling me why I’m wrong and evil and I’ve got some time and energy to spare today, I’m going to be responding to unhinged anon or at least the parts where some arguments were actually made. Baseless accusations and trying to link things by just saying that they are linked will be ignored.

Message 1:

Where have I ever been evil or cruel to others? Where have I been repulsive and disgusting towards real life people? Where have I hurt others? Send me the receipts (off anon because I’ve blocked your IP address).

The rest of this is baseless accusations based on your own opinions, especially the one about fascist propaganda and conservative bullshit because I would really love to see where I have said anything which comes under either of those things. I’m happy to wait for receipts from you. Again, you’ll have to message them to me directly because I’ve blocked your IP address.

Message 2:

1) More baseless accusations. Happy to wait on whatever receipts that you want to provide for your accusations.

2) Never told anyone that they should die, except for rapists. 

3) Why would I rather uphold oppressive systems set in place? What systems? What have I said to make you believe this?

4) Trans women are men. Women are adult human females. Trans women are adult human MALES which makes them men. I’m sorry that you can’t understand simple biology.

5) I don’t think being a woman is about misery and sadness. I think being a woman is about existing as an adult human female. That also happens to be tied to a lot of misery and sadness because we live in a misogynistic, patriarchal culture but that’s not inherent to womanhood.

6) Yes, I know a lot about trans people, in part from having lived with trans people for multiple years and many of the people I know through them. Plus my years on radblr and listening to what trans people have said about their gender and dysphoria. I am not ignorant; I am educated and disagree with you. You just refuse to understand the difference because you assume that everyone who disagrees with you does so because they’re ignorant. 

7) ‘Trans women’ deserve to exist as gender non-conforming men. Trans women deserve a place in this world, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve a place in female-exclusive spaces.

[tirfpikachu]

hiiii ^w^" things got so hectic omfg. i've been struggling to glowup as an adult phew!!! trying to have more server streams of me Getting Shit Done and film them for later youtube vlogs. i got so caught up in fumbling with so many household things and trying to juggle all the awesome projects i've been working on with server fwiends. i feel like there's so much i can accomplish but it's all one big puzzle and i'm trying not to slip and fall flat on my face again. it's a constant battle with me and my dumb genius brain.

rambling some more ic <3

i'm also still getting the hang of managing a server that keeps growing bigger! i want to do things so good, i care about my server gyns so much. but i don't want to be flaky in here either, bc the folks in here mean the world to me too. y'all give me hope. i got a bit exhausted from the doom and gloom of my radblr dash, but i don't want to give up. i can't. i've been trying to take lil breaks on my alternate account @animefem where my dash isn't so politically intense and angsty. i need to hold onto hope too! i need a space where i follow conflicting voices to draw my own conclusions and research for my writing, but i also need to have a less stressful space to see positive things too. maybe i should just follow more fandom & positive blogs...? i'm open to recs that are tirf-friendly! i'm trying super duper hard not to burnout as an activist but it gets rly tough. i started feeling overwhelmed and like anytime i logged on it was gonna be a battle everytime. but i don't want that!

i think i should start posting more about my OCs and my sapphic fiction and poetry etc, because i've been doing so much conflict based activism and i need a softer outlet creatively. i'm a bit worried about disappointing people who are coming here for my deep political analysis stuff... i'll make sure to use a tag that y'all can block. i need to get over my fear of annoying others, that's counterproductive and i legit do not need to do it. this is MY blog and my lil corner of the web, i can do whatever the heck i want. pls remember you can block my tags if it gets too much, but i'll try to loosen up a bit and be less strict about what i post. i also want to add positivity to the world!! there are so many forms of activism i wanna explore, and meaningful fiction as well. i'm going to be more active on my ao3 as well.

btw here's my ao3 >w>

There's only a few abandoned fics right now, but I set up something where I can put one-shots of my OCs and rambles about my story!

[redditreceipts]

hi there! No need to answer this publicly if you don’t want to- but last anon here and to clarify some things (sorry if I came off ruder than intended I was having a bad day lol) I think it’s in fact always a good thing for women to mad or mean to their oppressors. However before looking into radblr my main experience with people calling themselves “gender critical” was honestly a lot of straight women who don’t really care about feminism beyond hating trans people, and a lot of those peoples focuses on appearances really bothered me. Namely a lot of the transvestigators types because they would pretty comfortably throw the baby out with the bathwater and accuse gnc women of being men just for not being super feminine, especially having facial hair or a lot of body hair which pissed me off. And the attitude of calling trans men/especially detrans people mutilated always upset me deeply because while if a detrans person wants to talk about their own experiences and trauma from what happened to them that way, it feels deeply cruel to tell women who have already been through a lot and still have to live their lives that their bodies are mutilated and they’ll never be accepted as women again. But you are very right, and though it is scary I do think it’s important to start standing up to the blatant misogyny within the trans community if I’m going to continue being a part of it. Have a nice day :)

Oh yeah, the Posie Parker types 🙃 There are a lot of them on twitter. (and no, you did not come off as rude at all :))

And these people are not gender critical, because they don't criticise the social construct of gender. Like saying that hairy women are not biologically female - THATS THE VERY THING FEMINISM HAS FOUGHT AGAINST!!! Women are hairy mammals and that's cool. They can be as wooly as a wooly mammoth and still be women. Women can look literally any way they want to. Some have certain body parts, some don't. The only thing that unites them is that they are biologically female.

(also, they are locking trans people in their positions - imagine you are a person who decides to transition because of your dysphoria, you want to educate yourself on feminist and gender critical ideas, and then people come at you and tell you that you're mutilated and a freak??? you are going to turn back to trans misogynists like Jessie Gender or Philosophy Tube, because they at least dont tell you that you are an abhorration)

And I think that you can stand up against the misogyny. I am trying to do it, and I'm really getting better. Telling men when they are interrupting me, telling men who called me on the street to "shut up" (it was a safe area), telling men to not say "bitch", etc. It's always such a great feeling 😊 you should be looking out for your safety though <3

[girlboss-enthusiast]

Hiiiii I saw you answer a couple of asks from who are worried because they're starting to agree with radfems, and well, it's my case too (long ask ahead).

I have a lot of trans friends, and my partner is trans (nb), but trans women specifically are starting to really rub me the wrong way. I want to preface all this by saying that I believe in bodily autonomy for transness too (I think trans people should be able to get hrt and all the care they need, people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies), and using someone's preferred pronouns isn't a big deal and makes them more comfortable. Like it's not in my interest to dismiss that or their struggles because they do face barriers rooted in misogyny or transphobia.

However. Holy shit trans women act like men about feminism and everything related to women's rights. I genuinely hate the current trend of prioritizing their opinion over cis women's in every conversation when, in my opinion, they do not have the experience to even speak from a woman's perspective. Most trans women I see have been out online and sometimes irl for like 3 years tops, do not pass, and have the gull to talk about how bad feminism is and how it excludes them and it genuinely blows my mind. We're worlds apart but I cannot comment on it without being called transphobic.

By the way being called transphobic as a woman is genuinely horrifying today. Like, trans women online have this hatred towards TERFs which is quite frankly just awful misogyny. If I'm seen as one they'll want to kill me. I hate to say this because I get it sounds like white people complaining about "everything being racist today" but genuinely everybody is so happy to call others TERFs now.

And somehow, despite men controlling the laws that oppress them, despite men killing them the most, despite queer women being most likely to accepting them across demographics, they hate women more than anything and with such intense vitriol it's nauseating. Rape threats and misogynistic insults are normalized and saying basic feminist takes is vilified.

I want so so so bad to not think all of this but it's been a trend in all my friend groups. Trans women applauding vaush's misogynistic jokes, taking the side of men and in general being so far removed from the female experience they can't possible empathize with the vast vast majority of women. I think they don't question themselves because people are bulk rejecting the concepts of sex based oppression and gendered socialization and of course they do. Of course it's very easy to reject it when you've always been treated as the default. Of course you wouldn't see it when it hasn't harmed you systemically. Jesus christ.

And I can't tell them any of this. I can't argue that their perspective on life is male, and it's because of that that some misogynistic oppression doesn't apply to them, not because it's fake. I just have to accept whatever they think and whatever they want to define me as. I have to shut up in my own groups and let them do the talking because I'm just a stupid cis woman. They think they're the most oppressed group on earth when most of them did not even experience this most of their lives and it's so frustrating to deal with. They kept the confidence and mansplaining but now they're a protected identity so nobody can call this shit out. This is always used as like a way to make fun of radfems but yeah, fields like medicine not saying women anymore is a massive step back, women's health is already so fragile and understudied and now people have even more of a reason to not give a fuck because it doesn't include trans women.

I think this has been building up inside of me for a while now. It is starting to come out because I keep seeing this pattern and I got called transphobic despite my best effort of either concealing all of this or being nice to them. I'm extremely scared of getting radicalized but I genuinely don't know what to do, and radblr has been the only space I can agree with recently. Queer communities online and irl are so full of misogyny I don't want to really be involved in them even as a queer woman. I genuinely do know nice individual trans women and all but it's always those who actually pass or have been identifying as trans for a long time which is not the majority of them online at all. Sorry for being super long and kinda venty but yeah have a nice day!!

ANON I'M SORRY FOR NOT ANSWERING SOONER!! This has been in my ask box for ages but I forgot about it until now.

Your exact situation seems to be a major reason why many women (esp lesbians) find radical feminism in the first place—probably half the radfems I know ended up on radblr bc of this. It requires a lot of cognitive dissonance to have experiences like this with trans women but still believe TWAW.

As for your fear of getting radicalized—I know exactly where you're coming from. I worried about the same thing. But you don't automatically get radicalized because you agree with some posts, you know? Read/watch widely. Consider your feelings/opinions about various radfems stances and how they contrast with what you've believed in the past (or how they are similar!). Be thoughtful and trust your judgement.

Regardless of your eventual conclusions, you'll be more knowledgeable on feminist topics and better able to articulate your points, which is always a plus.

Good luck, anon! I hope you find some comfort and/or answers soon. Feel free to send another ask, I'll do my best to answer it on time :)

[frigid666]

yes ty @masqueofthefemdeath for this addition <3

for anyone who hasn't read this essay, u can find a copy here. will not be arguing w anyone who has not read and comprehended this work.

hanisch provided some crucial background context and clarifications for her essay in her retrospect. the essay was a response, originally titled “some thoughts in response to dottie’s thoughts on a women’s liberation movement,” to early movement critic dottie zellner, who – like most other radicals – believed the activities of a women’s liberation movement (wlm) would amount to ‘group therapy,’ not political action. hanisch and other 2nd wave feminists disagreed, arguing that “consciousness raising,” in the form of radical women discussing the substance of their lives (i.e. experiences with work, motherhood, marriage, dating, on college campuses, etc) was important step in women’s formation of a class consciousness and therefore political (“having to do with power relationships”) in nature, not irrelevant women's gossip. hanisch argued that what at the time were considered to be ‘personal’ problems in women’s lives (i.e. unhappiness as stay-at-home mothers, lack of opportunities in the workforce, chronic body image issues) needn’t be relegated strictly to the private sphere and should instead be understood as shared experiences under a power system, i.e. patriarchy.

according to hanisch, radical women benefitted from these wlm analytical sessions in the following ways:

reject the societal expectation of women to suffer under her conditions silently, and instead “tell it like it is, say what [she] really believe[s] about [her] life instead of what [she’d] always been told to say." it was radical action to divulge details of one's domestic and professional lives to other women.

get rid of self-blame; realize that because the source of many of their ‘personal’ problems is a collective feature of the system, they are not at fault these problems. they require a collective/systemic solution. the hardships in women's lives were not personal failures, they were political failures of a larger system.

receive a reality check and digest the truth about their lives by recounting it in a group setting. often times, it is easier for women to confront uncomfortable truths when speaking it aloud.

deconstruct various myths society tells women about women, and how those myths pit them against one another (‘women are stupid,’ ‘women are bitches,’ ‘women are sensitive, emotional”). the fastest way to see humanity in one another is to learn about the circumstances of one others’ life in an in-person setting. hanisch herself notes that she learned more about other women's conditions in these sessions than she did by reading theory. and this makes sense; most people respond more viscerally to hearing personal anecdotes compared to hard statistics, and the former helps solidify and bridge gaps in the latter.

truly, there's more i can say about this topic, but i really want to focus my attention on my novel and not on radblr infighting, so i will keep this short. 'the personal is political' has been thoroughly bastardized by tumblr users and is being used to pointlessly draw lines in the sand and make judgments about others' lifestyle choices. the saying was originally meant to signify that the conditions of women's lives were worthy of being discussed in serious political settings, and that women's politics should be guided by their material (i.e. personal) needs - not that women should choose a feminist ideology and mold her life in accordance to that ideology even when it's not what she desires for her own life.

her essay remains revelant today. feminists are frequently attacked by conservative (and sometimes leftist and liberal) critics as embittered women who are just projecting their personal problems onto women as a collective. feminists are just women with daddy issues, women who were sexually assaulted and just couldn't get over it, women who couldn't get a man and now blame men for their own failure to get a partner, etc etc. the topics feminists try to discuss continue to be dismissed as non-political, personal issues in order to delegitimize the movement.

I feel a lot more sane on here because of you, it's great to not be the only person on here who (as a bi woman) doesn't see the appeal of the "febfem" label. I have no interest in appearing as "one of the good ones" to others.

reallll af. honestly bi women go through so much, we have so many ops all across the political spectrum. everyone wants us to conform to what their ideal is. and its like we are set up to fail bc at the end of the day, we're human with a wide variety of life experiences, priorities, and desires. we will never collectively be whatever these varying groups want us to be.

radblr can die mad but i will never politicize romance and friendships (saw a poll recently that i deeply disagree w about how many users wouldn't even consider being friends with trans ppl ??), and i will never recommend to other bi women to do that. preferences are very real and valid and i will always defend w my life bi women who only want to be with other women bc that's what they desire, but it's silly to prescribe that as a moral and feminist obligation to ALL of us. personally ive always been a 50/50 bisexual woman, so I can't relate to that experience.. but ppl need to really get it in their thick skulls to see us as a diverse set of REAL people, not political or fetishized pawns. and i will always be sympathetic to bisexual men, and ik that doesn't make me popular in this crowd but whatever i honestly gdaf anymore.

anyway thank u for this ask !! i was very naive when i first became immersed in this space, and ive said some pathetic stuff i regret in the past, so i am always gracious to other bisexual women who are the same path bc there's definitely a learning curve to having some self respect as a bi woman. it's really hard to feel any kind of pride when ur entire life has been spent being denigrated by various groups of people.

[nobleelfwarrior]

I just spent an hour untangling some Radblr drama, so we're talking about anger again.

My credentials: I have no male friends because all of theme got into arguments with me where they thought I was over reacting, hysterical, or mean. Every time I spent about a week or more wracking my brain to find something I did wrong and found nothing.

So, you're feeling heated about something someone said on Tumblr. You feel like you've been wronged or that the person was stupid or cruel. What do you do?

Step 1: Take a deep breath. Nothing productive happens when you are reactionary. You want to act, not react.

Step 2: Did you read this in the kindest possible way? Was it still mean? If yes, then yes, you are right to be upset. If no, perhaps approaching this post/poster in a more generous light will lead to more understanding. Assume they had good intentions and ask questions to clarify what they meant.

Step 3: So they were being mean and you didn't find common ground. You can either choose to engage or disengage with the conversation. If you think you are going to loose your cool and do something you regret, disengage. You don't have to engage with online discourse that makes you uncomfortable. Just log off.

You chose to engage. Let's cover a few things NOT to do.

no slurs. None. Not even if you think they're justified. Slurs are never ever ever ok.

avoid sarcasm. we're online and it can be hard to pick up and it isn't productive.

act like something should be obvious. We're all at different levels here. Some of us don't speak English as a first language. Some of us are new to our sexualities or feminism. It might be obvious to you, but it isn't obvious to others.

You should explain clearly and calmly what you mean. That isn't to say you should never get heated or passionate, but if that passion overwhelms your ability to communicate your point, you need to take a step back. Spite is fun in memes and harmful in discussion.

You should treat questions as attempts to engage, not bad faith. There are obvious exceptions, but, again, being online, it is hard to show genuine confusion/curiosity, especially in heated situations where you might assume hostility.

You should know your audience. There comes a point where you know whether the person you're talking to is the person you are communicating with or if the standers-by are the people you are communicating with. Knowing the person you are debating with is not the person who needs to hear it can help you make better choices.

When to bow out: If at any time you want to let your anger take over, it's time to step out. You've made your points and going further with this person is only going to hurt you more. For me, going in circles with the conversation is what makes me livid, so I know that's where to call it. When you leave, it can be helpful to give a call to action like "do the research for yourself and see what I said is true" or "check out what x person had to say about it if you don't trust me".

Why is this important

There's been a lot of talk about infighting recently. Bad faith readings of what others had to say contributed to a lot of that. When someone says "I meant x", they probably did. Not everyone here is a perfect writer. We don't have editors or beta readers or anyone to tell us that something was unclear or misleading until we post the thing.

Radical Feminism is about women's liberation. Each of us likely have multiple axis of oppression, but we share female. Racism, ablism, and homophobia cannot be tolerated and need to be called out. Men will band together despite their prejudices to demean women and we need to make sure we don't alienate our sisters with slurs so that we can fight back. It doesn't sound fair, but life isn't fair and that's why we need radical feminism, female communities, and to work together.

If someone calls out your bad behavior, carefully consider the criticism. Don't react. Act. I've had to adjust my behavior several times because women I respect and follow made posts, not about me personally, but that did apply to me and I thought carefully and adjusted my behavior.

And you do have a right to prioritize different women in your life, but the moment you exclude any group of women from your liberation efforts, you aren't feminist. Again, prioritize is ok, exclusion is bad. I'm personally prioritizing women in my community because that's all I can handle with my mental health. Even though my efforts aren't focused on women in other countries, I'm not going to make them feel like I don't care about them. Does that make sense? I'm not going to post about how they're dumb for this or that. I'm not going to say they can fend for themselves or that I don't share sisterhood with them. My efforts can only reach so far, by they are my allies. I hope that makes sense.

I get why you're mad.

I really do. Lesbians have faced homophobia from OSA women in Radblr and that is hurtful and frustrating. SSA women are sometimes insensitive or even cruel to straight women (not the same as systematic oppression, but still unproductive and hurtful). The black, indigenous, and brown women on Radblr have faced racism. Women will use ableist slurs and not see that it is completely unacceptable, even if the woman you are arguing with seems bigoted to you. We see a lot of people who claim to be radfem but seem more just gender critical, which muddies things. We see women on here who insist that their man is different. It is all very frustrating.

But it comes back to the post I made about venting. If your discussion with self ided radfems becomes a back and forth vent, that's not productive. Taking actual action is productive. Calling out ableism, homophobia, and racism is productive. Asking for clarification on what seem like incendiary posts is productive. Discussing difference of opinion in respectful ways is productive.

The whole point of radblr is to have a community so we can be productive. We need to put more effort into getting along. It seems unfair, but that's what we have to do in order to make progress.

Quick obligatory disclaimer that there are limits to trying to get along. There is a point where just blocking and moving on is fine. I think we all know this.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.