bitterheart

images & ideas that i want to come back to 

Butch. Woman.

twentythreetimes:

Butch women are put in a box when we are told that we are some deviation of the normal state of being a woman. That is exactly the trap that I have come out of as I detransitioned and stopped believing I was something other than female. I’ve been down the trans road and now I choose to say fuck every thing I have ever been told about who and what I am.

Butch equals woman, no qualifiers.

There is no part of me that is not female. I am butch. Men don’t get to define my femaleness - my femininity - for me. Woman knows no limits. It was men who other-ed us. I know who and what I am now. Butch-ness = feminin-ity. State of being female: We are. We are, no less. We are, no deviation. We are, no detour from womanhood. We are, no deflection from straightforward definition. I am not communicating a word, I am communicating experience. To those hung up on the definition of the word in relation to radical feminist discourse: your “radical feminism” is getting in the way of hearing other women. Butches have nothing to do with men, and everything to do with women. Feminine. 

I use the word “butch” to communicate myself to a society over-saturated in misogyny. But women like me shouldn’t need a word to qualify our position as women. We are normal. We are just as much default. What other word should we need other than “woman”? I know patriarchy, by merit of having a cunt. I know feminism, by merit of waking up and fighting back. I don’t need a degree in women’s studies to legitimize my reality. I don’t need a textbook to tell me who I am, what I am, and what it means. You say we aren’t feminine? Then tell me what part of me is not woman.

I am with Her. I am one with Her. 
I am She,
My hair
My eyes
My ears
My nose
My teeth, fangs
My neck
My hands
My forearms
My backbone
My chest
My stomach and back
My butt, my hips, my legs
My feet
There is no part of me which is not.
I am.

(via redressalert)

npr:

Just outside Pittsburgh is the tiny borough of Braddock, Pa., best known as the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie’s first steel mill. Today, it’s something of a poster child for rust belt revitalization, a place where artists can buy property for pennies and even construct outdoor pizza ovens using the bricks from abandoned or demolished buildings.

LaToya Ruby Fazier grew up in Braddock. She’s a photographer who’s been taking pictures of her hometown for two decades, and she says that neither of those narratives represent the Braddock she knows. Her Braddock is primarily black, primarily female and primarily poor.

“Another way to understand it is to see my grandmother as Braddock’s prosperous days, my mother as the signification of white flight and segregation, and me as the 1980s and ‘90s during the war on drugs and the dismantling of the surrounding steel plants,” says Frazier.

A Rust Belt Story Retold, Through Portraits Of The Women Who Lived It

Photo credit: LaToya Ruby Frazier

amazighprincex:

capitalism, like racism, like sexism, is a system that artificially creates a group of people whose labour is devalued, then extracts labour from that group of people for the benefit of the people in the other group.

devaluation of labour is why women, people of colour, and especially the people at the intersection of these two groups, are paid less than white people / men for similar work. it is the reason that work typically relegated to women and people of colour is valued less and compensated less. it is the reason that people in oppressed groups are expected to provide their emotional labour to people in oppressive groups whenever it is demanded of them. it is the reason that mechanisms are in place to ensure that the poor stay poor so that their labour may continue to be exploited to further the prosperity of the rich.

there is a reason why institutional barriers to getting living wages and accumulating wealth fall largely along lines of race and gender. there is a reason that many of the people who are kept in poverty belong to multiple other oppressed groups.

if your feminism and your anti-racism are not also anti-capitalist, they are incomplete and they are exploitative.

(via vulvapeople)

thenearsightedmonkey:

New category: Giant Comics Everywhere

archiemcphee:

São Paulo-based street artist Tec (previously featured here) continues to liven up the streets of his city with enormous paintings created using little more than a paint roller and a bucketfuls of paint. Massive kites fly along just far enough above the surface of the street to cast shadows. Many of Tec’s pieces are so large, they appear distorted when viewed at street level, making them feel as though they were made specifically to brighten the lives of people living in apartments far above the streets.

When he isn’t painting the streets themselves Tec also creates equally large and vibrant murals as well as private commissions.

To check out more of his artwork visit Tec’s website and Facebook page or follow his Instagram feed.

[via Beautiful/Decay]

(via thenearsightedmonkey)

rudegyalchina: “rudegyalchina: “This picture of his classmate protesting for him got more of a negative backlash … Guess why ? I need this picture to get a good amount of notes because you have to search about 8 times just to find it . I respect her...

rudegyalchina:

rudegyalchina:

This picture of his classmate protesting for him got more of a negative backlash … Guess why ?


I need this picture to get a good amount of notes because you have to search about 8 times just to find it .

I respect her .

I think it got negative attention because she was forcing eyes to open.

Apparently it caused “discomfort ” for some people to see her holding up this sign . For her to be crying … -_-

Not the fact a child her age was murdered . Not the fact that her best friend is gone .

No white Americans claimed a white child with questions was “negative / distasteful / out of character / outrageous ect .”

This needs more notes .

(via appropriately-inappropriate)

stayuglystayangry:

south-adversary:

dottoraqn:

fadical:

people will honestly criticize lesbian weddings no matter what like if they both wear dresses then they’re “enforcing traditional gender roles” but if one of them wears a tux they’re “imitating heterosexuality” but if they both wear tuxes then they’re “proving that they’re basically men” so like what the fuck do you want us to wear lol

Nothing, cause the only way those people will accept lesbians is in a porno.

And there it is folks

this isn’t even specific to weddings, either. Same outlooks on basically all lesbian presentation/expression. There’s always a reason to hate lesbians, people bend over backwards to justify it with “radical” sounding rhetoric

(via cuntaloupes)