upwardboundforjustice

[upwardboundforjustice]

The reason these people do not want to see a fat body in a bikini is because traditionally, that garment is something a woman earns by proving herself attractive enough to exist. If fat women begin wearing them without shame or fear, what's next? Will they have self-esteem? Will they demand respect? Then what will keep them in their proper place? How would conventionally attractive people judge them?

As a society, we need to be more honest in our discussions of other's bodies. If we can't avoid those totally unnecessary conversations, then we should at least admit the truth to ourselves: That this has nothing to do with health, and everything to do with the control we believe is our right to exert over others.

[upwardboundforjustice]

This is an important distinction that I don't think is explicitly made very often. It's a distinction that underlies one of the central disagreements between more radical feminisms and "choice feminism." The view shown in the first image allows room for different folks to navigate the double bind in different ways--it's all about trying to figure out a way to fit within the tiny gap. The view shown in the second image really only leaves one possible solution--the system must be changed to eliminate this impossible contradiction. For me, that's one of the defining ideas in radical strands of feminism (or radical strands of anti-oppression work in general)--we must change the system and address the root causes of oppression in order to make meaningful change. There's still a lot of room for disagreement on precisely which systems need to change and in what ways, but the key idea is that the problem is systemic and no amount of "personal choice" will ever allow most women to "successfully" navigate it.

how double binds actually work (in pictures)

I’ve noticed a lot of confusion around the idea of a “double bind” in feminism. In particular, how some people seem to think it’s a difficult contortion to be negotiated. Sometimes it is. But more often, it’s an impossible contradiction. Here’s the difference - in pictures. Click to embiggen.

[Transcription: Two pictures. In the first, two arrows oppose each other with a tiny gap between. One arrow is labelled “you’ve got to be assertive!” and the other “but not too aggressive!”. A stick figure drawing is trapped between them. In the second, the two arrows run past each other leaving a negative space. One is labelled, “be so assertive you’re screaming!” and the other, “be so gentle you’re silent!”. Below them is the text, “never had a chance”. The stick figure is run through by both arrows and has crosses for eyes, indicating it’s dead.]

[Fixed: thanks was-sie-will-bekommt-sie-auch!]

[upwardboundforjustice]

There are no such things as “opposite” genders, any more than a strawberry is the “opposite” as a plum.

Hanne Blank, Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (via insidethesnowglobe)

[upwardboundforjustice]

I have never and will never have a "strict" bathroom policy in any class I teach. I trust that people (regardless of their age) know their bodies and their needs better than I do. The entire idea that young people need to ask permission to use the bathroom has always seemed ludicrous to me--so much so that I sometimes forget to express my "bathroom policy" at the beginning of class (which basically amounts to, if you need to use the bathroom, go use the bathroom). But that is also a sign of my privilege. It's easy for me to forget that young people are regularly in situations where they are expected to ask permission.

Adult privilege is the fact that I can go to the bathroom whenever I want/need to, and no one will try to stop me.

Think about that. Many young people in school are prevented from taking care of natural human bodily functions when they need to. The fact that some students will use it to get out of class doesn’t justify attempting to prevent someone from using the toilet when they need to. That’s inhumane.

[upwardboundforjustice]

important white liberal feminist questions of the day (with apologies to Dr. S)

I’m gonna be pitching my take on these to some mainstream feminist publications any day now. Keep yer eyes open. The issues at hand:

1. Can I still be a feminist in the rain?

2. Can I still be a feminist on a train?

3. Can I still be a feminist in the dark?

4. Can I still be a feminist in a tree?

5. Can I still be a feminist in a car?

6. Can I still be a feminist in a box?

7. Can I still be a feminist with a fox?

8. Can I still be a feminist in a house?

9. Can I still be a feminist with a mouse?

10. Can I still be a feminist here?

11. Can I still be a feminist there?

12. Can I still be a feminist anywhere?

and the clincher:

13. Do I still want revolution? Do I still want it, Sam-I-am?

In general, I propose that when one of these “can you be a feminist and ___” questions comes up, we call it Seussing. Can I still be a feminist and wear shoes? Classic Seuss. And the posers of the questions are Sam-I-ams.

Seussing is when Sam-I-ams try to reduce “feminism” to a collection of lifestyle choices and provoke conflict between women. Yes, there are more and less feminist ways to act in the world. Some of those are absorbed into the skin such that they are a way of life. But this isn’t all that feminism is.

[upwardboundforjustice]

The Rugrats don’t have time for your gender-essentialist bullshit.

[upwardboundforjustice]

"Adult supremacism is an ideology. It is the set of ideas, the belief system, that rationalizes how adults continue to treat youth. Most people don’t even give it conscious thought. They agree with adult supremacy by default rather than by choice. Adult supremacism has been built into our institutions and handed down as tradition, so it seems like it’s just how the world works, like it’s nature. Other individuals are more outspoken about their dislike of youth or belief that parents should be strict disciplinarians. These people are bigots — but don’t make the mistake of thinking that only aberrant individuals are supremacist. The entire society is saturated in adult supremacism; the bigots are just more vocal about their support of the system."-Sven Bonnichsen, “Adult Supremacism”

Youth liberation can be thought of as the struggle against adult supremacism--against the structures that systematically give adults power and control over the bodies and lives of young people while devaluing the worth and abilities of youths.

[upwardboundforjustice]

Sesame Street got it right. Cookie monster is a character who unabashedly loves food, and more specifically loves cookies. He never has to apologize for or justify his love of food and cookies. And even when he's depicted as fat (which isn't always the case), there's no implied judgment. We need more media representations of fatness like this.

some chill positivity from a 1998 Sesame Street book about the letter F

[upwardboundforjustice]

“Teens are living lives where they have almost no control over even the most basic aspects of it. Teens have little or no right to vote, drink, be outside at certain hours, make decisions about their own bodies, choose their own religion, speak their minds, earn their own money, associate with people of their choosing, enjoy certain kinds of entertainment, decide their own schooling, shop in certain stores unaccompanied because clerks think they’ll shoplift, recourse if they are physically abused, or a myriad of other things adults take for granted. So, you adults who wish to still be teens because you’re so sure it’s such a stress-free, blissful time period that current teens are too spoiled to appreciate, why don’t you try it sometime? I dare you.” Excerpt from The Rush to Adulthood (National Youth Rights Association)

[upwardboundforjustice]

I love everything about this quote (and Laverne Cox for that matter), but I particularly love that she subtlely pushes back against the notion of "biological sex" here too. She talks about the "gender" we are assigned at birth. That's important. And interesting. Also the important point that gender self-determination is important for us all.

Laverne Cox talks about the trans community with Katie Couric

[upwardboundforjustice]

"A person of good intelligence and sensitivity cannot exist in this society very long without having some anger about the inequality - and it’s not just a bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, liberal kind of a thing - it is just a normal human reaction to a nonsensical set of values where we have cinnamon flavored dental floss and there are people sleeping in the street."

George Carlin (via rabbits—-foot)

[upwardboundforjustice]

I love this! I had never seen it put so directly and concisely before this post. The same goes for "cis-passing," people only "pass" because we all assume that someone is straight and cisgender until and unless that person is specifically marked as something else (by being explicitly labeled as trans or queer or somesuch, by visibly disrupting gender norms, etc.).

tbh the only reason anybody is “straight-passing” is because of the common and harmful conception that heterosexuality is the default and that queerness must have extreme and visible markers to be valid

[upwardboundforjustice]

"The problems with our K-12 school system are not so much an outgrowth of problems some see as inherent in formal education as they are an outgrowth of problems inherent in how our society views and treats young people." -The Youth Rights Blog

[upwardboundforjustice]

Clothes don’t have a gender.

[upwardboundforjustice]

What we call ‘community accountability’ (some call it transformative justice, others call it as many names as there are people) has existed for as long as we hold collective memory. A simple definition of community accountability: any strategy to address violence, abuse or harm that creates safety, justice, reparations, and healing, without relying on police, prisons, childhood protective services, or any other state systems. Instead of police and prisons, community accountability strategies depend on something both potentially more accessible and more complicated: the communities surrounding the person who was harmed and the person who caused harm. Many people are also working with the term ‘transformative justice.’ The organization generationFIVE defines transformative justice as ‘an approach to respond to and prevent child sexual abuse and other forms of violence that puts transformation and liberation at the heart of the change. It is an approach that looks at the experiences of both the individuals and communities involved, and the larger social conditions at work; an approach that seeks to integrate both personal and social transformation.

Excerpt from The Revolution Starts at Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Here is the full PDF 

(via labrujamorgan) The Revolution Starts at Home is a ridiculously good zine about how best to address interpersonal violence that happens within activist communities. One of the major questions it explores is, "How can we create systems of community accountability that don't rely on police and prisons to keep us safe?"

[upwardboundforjustice]

I have never heard anyone say that people who aren’t medical professionals shouldn’t concern themselves with medical ethics. I have never heard anyone suggest that those of us who aren’t attorneys should refrain from concerning ourselves with the ethics of the legal profession. Almost no one believes that people who aren’t businessmen and businesswomen should refuse to take a side on questions of business ethics. And yet many people sadly believe that those of us who are not parents cannot pass ethical judgement on the ways in which parents treat their children. There is no reason to privilege parenting in this way over other socially consequential roles that individuals take on. Anyone that says otherwise is either not thinking about the issue very rationally or they are attempting to protect a deeply problematic form of social privilege that insulates oppressive and abusive parents from the consequences of their actions.

The Youth Rights Blog on Facebook (via privileged-person)

[upwardboundforjustice]

Fat people have the right to exist in fat bodies regardless of how we got fat, what being fat means, or if we could be thin through some means – however easy or difficult. There are no other valid opinions on this – we have the right to exist without shaming, bullying or stigmatization, period.

Ragen Chastain - 

Study Shows You Can’t Hate Fatties for Our Own Good

(via fatoutloud) Ragen Chastain  runs a really important and fierce website called Dances With Fat that is totally worth checking out. (Her name is linked to the site.)