Corset Blues

obsessionreflection: mehreenkasana: lazybeautiful: kateoplis...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:05:56 -0700

mehreenkasana:

lazybeautiful:

kateoplis:

timelightbox:

Beautiful cover photograph by Asim Hafeez of Malala Yousafzai, who topped the short list for TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year.

Perfect.

can we all just acknowledge that she’s the real person of the year?

Stop. Please.

I have to disagree with you all not because Malala isn’t an inspiration for many but because your consistent spotlight on this child is proving to be extremely dangerous for her and those who were injured along with her (but conveniently forgotten). Schoolgirls injured with Malala Yousafzai fear becoming symbol for women.

I’m Pakistani. Hear me out.

There must be a course on ethics when it comes to reporting on children in war zones. This obsession with this young girl and her rightfully strong views is proving to become detrimental for those in Swat, Pakistan. This symbolizing renders these young girls into targets.

Furthermore, you have Laura Bush - of all the people - cheering for this child. Laura Bush is the same woman who used women’s rights and feminism as an excuse to talk over Afghan and Iraqi women and to gain more (liberal) support for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. I am thoroughly disappointed to see otherwise well-to-do individuals using this cover and issue so irresponsibly. If you want to support educational programs in South Asia and the Middle East, you must stop using images and voices of children to further this cause. They become targets. More girls will be seen as “evil” because of this.

It is also extremely important to see how Malala’s case is being used to justify other forms of violence to “correct” the patriarchy in Swat. This kind of support is co-opted by imperialist forces. Jadaliyya notes: “The hawks of war have seized on Malala not only as the symbol of a cause to be championed, but also as a means of legitimizing their own policies and tactics.”

If you genuinely want Malala to be the Person of the Year, stop using her as a symbol. Work on her cause. Stop using her as a symbol of resistance; It turns her and her kind into targets for more violence.

Because the comments need to be reblogged.

Photo

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:05:40 -0700

tastysynapse: Philosophy of Miyazaki by sapphiresky1410

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:03:55 -0700

tastysynapse:

Philosophy of Miyazaki by sapphiresky1410

How I feel right now.

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:01:04 -0700

How I feel right now.

"I was once asked on a radio program by a religious caller: “How far do you want Saudi women to..."

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:59:30 -0700

“I was once asked on a radio program by a religious caller: “How far do you want Saudi women to progress?” I explained that I actually wanted them to regress — 1430 years.

At that time, Muslim women had more rights than they do today. They owned and managed businesses. Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) as a young man worked for his future wife, the mega businesswoman Al-Saydah Khadija. Women joined the army as soldiers and nurses.

The Prophet (pbuh) consulted his wives on social, state and religious affairs. So did Caliph Omar, who changed his position on marriage dowry and admitted his mistake after a woman challenged him in public. As for driving, women rode their camels and horses, even in war.

The caller explained that it was a different era then. Our women need more time to reach that level, he argued.

I answered him by asking: “Do you mean after 14 centuries and 50 years of modern education, our women are less educated, trained and responsible? And if so, who is to blame? Our education system? Our upbringing? Our Islamic teaching?””

- Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi, “Power to Saudi Women: An Islamic Duty” (via muslimwomeninhistory)

Photo

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:57:59 -0700

One Shade of Grey & Feminist Utopia Fantasy Story

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:57:19 -0700

One Shade of Grey & Feminist Utopia Fantasy Story

katastrophicallynerdy: I made a thing…

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:57:07 -0700

katastrophicallynerdy:

I made a thing…

The Unnaturalists (The Unnaturalists #1) by Tiffany Trent...

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:04:53 -0700

The Unnaturalists (The Unnaturalists #1) by Tiffany Trent (review)

Hardcover, 305 pages
Published August 14th 2012 by Simon & Schuster BFYR
Source: Library

Synopsis:
I…

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Flora’s Fury (Flora Trilogy #3) by Ysabeau S. Wilce...

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:03:00 -0700

Flora’s Fury (Flora Trilogy #3) by Ysabeau S. Wilce (review)

517 pages
Published May 8th 2012
Source: Library

Synopsis:
Despite her troublesome attraction to…

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Mini Reviews: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by...

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:34:13 -0700

Mini Reviews: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy, Randall Wright, Barry Moser (Illustrator) and Mirror by Suzy Lee

Hardcover, 228 pages
Published October 2011 by Peachtree Publishers
Source: Library

Synopsis:
Skilley…

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Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox (review)Hardcover, 448...

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:51:29 -0700

Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox (review)

Hardcover, 448 pages
Expected publication: June 11th 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source:…

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Enchanted (Woodcutter Sisters #1) by Alethea Kontis...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:03:58 -0700

Enchanted (Woodcutter Sisters #1) by Alethea Kontis (review)

Hardcover, 305 pages
Published May 8th 2012 by Harcourt Children’s Books
Source: Library

Synopsis:
I…

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Flowers! http://wp.me/sZVoZ-flowersView Post

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:13:22 -0700

Flowers! http://wp.me/sZVoZ-flowers

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Graduate School Glimpses

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:06:36 -0700

So far, I’ve been having a wonderful time in grad school. I’d heard that it was going to be terrible so I was initially prepared to weather the worse but I was pleasantly surprised to find that rather than the hectic classes everyone said to be ready for,…

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friendlytroll: This is beautiful.

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:56:14 -0700

friendlytroll:

This is beautiful.

thepeoplesrecord: The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious”...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:55:06 -0700

thepeoplesrecord:

The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013

Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.

Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”

Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.

It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.

Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”

The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.

Source

Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.

obsessionreflection: honeymanifesto: siddharthasmama: bommiesb...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:54:13 -0700

obsessionreflection:

honeymanifesto:

siddharthasmama:

bommiesbread:

sentimentalsaturdays:

Okay. Let me clear the fuck out of this shit, because it is REALLY pissing me off.

Psy was an extremely well-known, well-respected musician WELL before Gangnam Style was even fucking thought of. He’s one of the senior musicians of Korea and he gets a lot of respect for his fearless stages and the way he writes songs to say whatever the hell he wants and believes, regardless of the Korean public’s extremely judgmental eye. I’m so sick of the way he’s being treated all around the world ever since Gangnam Style went viral, he’s just being called here and there to do the dance and whatever and then being sent off like he’s just a comedy dud. When he came on Ellen, she didn’t even bother fucking introducing him, he had to interrupt and ask to introduce himself. He came out on stage and she literally just asked him to teach the dance before he even said anything. Like that is so flat out disrespectful are you kidding me.

Point being, before you ignorant ass little fucks decided he was the new laughingstock of the world and decided all on your own that he was just some annoying, talentless little comedy figure, get your fucking facts straight. Learn some respect, especially to the people that deserve/have already earned it.

SOMEONE FINALLY UNDERSTANDS PREACH IT

ugh, that bold though… white folks stay using POC as puppets to entertain them, then when they’re “annoyed” or bored with you, try to disregard you and throw you out like trash. Also, Billy Joel has a lot of nerve calling someone the ‘herpes’ of anything.

The bolded. It really, really, bothered me that Ellen did that. Like it was so wrong. She’s like, “dance for me funny foreign man”- quintessential whiteness. Nothing other than that.

YES! When Tiger JK lost his shit about it I totally understood where he was coming from. Gangnam Style at its inception was a biting social commentary on the shallowness of the rich living in Seoul. Then the west turned it into the parody it is today. Psy has already made his name and doesn’t need the white world to validate him.

muslimwomeninhistory: The folks at Islawmix did the required...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:53:38 -0700

muslimwomeninhistory:

The folks at Islawmix did the required digging and found that the entire story of the Emirati men being deported from Saudi Arabia was entirely false. Not even close to true.

Oh, I’m set, I had a disclaimer. Regardless, I hope to be more careful in what I post, before coming to conclusions that fulfill certain stereotypes we hold against the Arab world.

Read the story here.

Transparent by Natalie Whipple (review) Paperback, 368...

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:13:09 -0700

Transparent by Natalie Whipple (review)

Paperback, 368 pages
Expected publication: May 21st 2013 by HarperTeen
Source: Edelweiss

Synopsis:
P…

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