uh millie anne.

I don’t care how much sex anyone has, how often they do it, or who they do it with. I’m much more interested in the consent, pleasure, and well-being of the participants and the people affected by it. I respect women who are asexual, celibate, monogamous, multi-partnered, or have had more partners than they can recall. I respect women who only have sex after a commitment to monogamy and those who have sex with someone within minutes of meeting them. I respect women who have transactional sex, women who have sex for love, or for any other reason. I know that all of these categories are permeable and that many women move from one to another. And I know that any of these decisions can be made from a place of personal power, choice, and authenticity, as well as from a place of coercion, shame, and disempowerment.

—Charlie Glickman (If You Don’t Respect Sluts, You Don’t Respect Women)

(via loveyourchaos)

I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. I believe in the magic of the hands. And in the wisdom of the eyes. I believe in rain and tears. And in the blood of infinity. I believe in life. And I have seen the death parade march through the torso of the earth, sculpting mud bodies in its path. I have seen the destruction of the daylight, and seen bloodthirsty maggots prayed to and saluted. I have seen the kind become the blind and the blind become the bind in one easy lesson. I have walked on cut glass. I have eaten crow and blunder bread and breathed the stench of indifference. I have been locked by the lawless. Handcuffed by the haters. Gagged by the greedy. And, if I know any thing at all, it’s that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down. I believe in living. I believe in birth. I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And I believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided home to port.

—excerpt from Assata: An Autobiography  (via desirouslengths)

(Source: forrestgumper, via noldarling)

People sterilized against their will under a discredited North Carolina state program should each be paid $50,000, a task force voted Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. This is the first time a state has moved to compensate victims of eugenics. The governor appointed panel recommended that the money go to verified, living victims and the legislature still has to approve the payments. Between 1929 and 1974, North Carolina sterilized more than 7,600 individuals in the name of “improving” the state’s “human stock.” By the time the program ended, the majority of those who were sterilized fit a similar profile: they were young, black, poor women. “I just want it to be over,” 57-year-old Elaine Riddick, told the AP. She was sterilized when she was 14 after she gave birth to a son who was the product of rape. “You can’t change anything. You just let go and let God.” Riddick, who’s seen in the video above, said she was surprised that the task force recommended $50,000 instead of $20,000. (Earlier reports announced the victims would get anywhere between $20,000 and $50,000.) Some say the big victory here is that the state acknowledge they were wrong. “It’s not really about the money,” said Melissa Hyatt, whose stepfather was sterilized. “It’s about the suffering and the pain.

—NC Panel: Sterilization Victims Should Get $50K (via cocothinkshefancy)

(via loveyourchaos)

If you are a woman, if you’re a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you are a person of size, if you are a person of intelligence, if you are a person of integrity, then you are considered a minority in this world.

…And it’s going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere. Especially women’s and gay men’s culture. It’s all about how you have to look a certain way or else you’re worthless. You know when you look in the mirror and you think ‘oh, I’m so fat, I’m so old, I’m so ugly’, don’t you know, that’s not your authentic self? But that is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising, magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself so that you will take your hard earned money and spend it at the mall on some turn-around creme that doesn’t turn around shit.

When you don’t have self-esteem you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you really wanna go for, you will hesitate to ask for a raise, you will hesitate to call yourself an American, you will hesitate to report a rape, you will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender. You will hesitate to vote, you will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue.

—Margaret Cho (via jadedfucker)

(Source: thechocolatebrigade, via jadedfucker-deactivated20120302)

She does not know
Her beauty
She thinks her brown body
Has no glory.
.
If she could dance
Naked
Under palm trees
And see her image in the river
She would know.
.
But there are no palm trees
On the street,
And dishwater gives back no
images.

—Waring Cuney, No Images (via faithloveelaine)

(via yourveryfleshshallbeagreatpoem)

Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

—

Veronica A. Shoffstall, “After a While,” 1971 (via whimsicalele)

I’m working on it…

(via yourveryfleshshallbeagreatpoem)

(Source: lucifelle, via yourveryfleshshallbeagreatpoem)

fuckyeahsexeducation:

grrrlvirus:

Rihanna - You Da One (by RihannaVEVO)

she won’t stop grabbing her crotch.  ‘you da one’ is the second single off rihanna’s new album ‘talk that talk’. at first glance, it is a love song. it was an immediate hit and i, like many, fell in love with it right away. the video just aired and it surprised (and outraged) a lot of people. there is no love interest depicted in the video. just rihanna by herself, repeatedly referencing her vulva. (the fact that men regularly reference their genitalia in many genres of music is so obvious that it shouldn’t even need mentioning. there is a clear double standard operating when thousands of youtubers are freaking out that rihanna is referencing her vulva.) the sexuality of this video adds a new dimension to the song. this song is not only a love song. it is also a song about the sexual desire and pleasure of a woman. in this sexist, objectifying world the message that a woman’s own desire is important is radical. and that is why she is getting so much hate for it. i am addicted to both the song and video. i love seeing her confidently enjoying and expressing her sexuality. it’s inspiring.

another thing worth mentioning about this video is that she is dressed up like the guy from ‘a clockwork orange’ at parts of it. i don’t think a lot of the youtubers caught that reference and if they did, it did not concern them as much as her referencing her vulva. i think it’s interesting. i personally hate the movie ‘a clockwork orange’ for it’s depictions of sexual violence. i have always felt that the movie positions sexual violence as a result of men’s ‘inherent uncontrollable sexuality’, rather than as a result of misogyny and rape culture. the fact that she is dressed up as a symbol of men’s ‘uncontrollable sexuality’ in a video where she is being criticized for her own ‘uncontrollable sexuality’ is definitely interesting. i don’t think her sexuality is out of control at all, but i definitely think that women expressing an active and confident sexuality are often portrayed as dangerously out of control, especially women of colour.

i think the extreme misogyny and slut shaming in the youtube comments speak to how radical this music video is. there is no point in reposting them here but they are really disturbing. it upsets me that people are freaking out at rihanna for simply expressing her sexuality but i am again impressed with rihanna. when you piss people off that much you are probably threatening some basic way of thinking. rihanna is threatening the possibility of restricting women to a purely passive sexuality. and i thank her for that.

for the rest of the article: http://clementinecannibal.com/2012/01/01/so-hard-reasons-i-love-rihanna/

Have I posted about how much I love rhianna’s music videos lately?

(via genderfuckandsecrets)

she’s alone, and surrounds herself with loners
her life is a loan, lent out to anyone who will own her

—Listener, in Seatbelt Hands (via yourveryfleshshallbeagreatpoem)

Buy a blank notebook. Draw a huge heart on the cover. Don’t write anything negative in here. If you need another outlet, make a separate notebook. This one is all about love, personal growth, and getting back up. Fill it with beautiful images, reaffirming thoughts, and quotes. Write in it every day, and each day write one thing you’re grateful for in your life.

—

Kim: Advice from a Mermaid in a Manhole (via redlipstick-lover)

This is a fabulous idea.

(via pompadoursandpincurls)

When I was young, my mom had me do something like this, starting with writing down everything I loved about myself. And I love her for having me do that.

(Source: julie911, via genderfuckandsecrets)

Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.

—Zora Neale Hurston  (via subconciousevolution)

(Source: seppukuu, via noldarling)