I keep thinking about a Twitter thread a long time ago that asked, “what would you do if all the men in the world disappeared”. I remember how most of the answers were essentially variations of being able to go for a walk or a run at night without feeling scared.
Why has something as simple as being outside without fearing for your life become so revolutionary?
People often have a hard time comprehending racist white women as dangerous, and that lack of understanding is harming people of color, especially black people, who have to deal with their racism.
Read MoreIt feels like a betrayal – even self-sabotage – to admit that all I want is to be happy. Happiness can’t be quantified like a salary. Its value stretches across a broad spectrum because it’s subjective and different for everyone. It would make for a poor school reunion to declare, in the presence of my peers who have undoubtedly carved out careers as doctors, solicitors, marketing executives and engineers, that I was simply happy.
Read MoreIntersectional feminism aims to include women of all backgrounds and recognises that race, gender identity, sexuality, physical and mental ability, and class all influence a woman’s individual experience. As an intersectional feminist myself, I demand that Missguided recognises its flaws as a so-called “female empowerment” brand, which in fact excludes the rights of many women across the world.
Read MoreThis isn’t an attack on zine creators if this were to be an attack the zines would’ve been named and called out. If zine creators consider this article to be an attack, step back and reevaluate why you’re actually angry. The point of this article wasn’t to bring down the zine community because there have been many other zines that have given black creators a voice in their product, not only in the present but also in the past. What zine creators should realize from this article is how they’ve contributed to the problem in the past and provide actual change.
Read MoreAnd perhaps activism has to be palatable to a certain extent. Or at least not cause more harm than good. Videos of police brutality are not uncommon on my feed. Seldom shared by people of colour, these videos are, for many, triggering. Palatability isn’t the answer, but neither is seeing black death on repeat. And so, we’ve moved on: from videos which kept us up at night to activist Instagram posts looking like a Too Faced eyeshadow palette.
Read MoreThese authority figures know how to wield their influence to gain more of it by victimizing impressionable teenage girls who carry that trauma for the rest of their lives. The worst part of all is that schools act as enablers by keeping these predators in positions of power and providing them with a quick and quiet transfer to a different institution when faced with controversy, thus allowing them to wreak even more havoc.
Read MoreThe erasure of bisexuality and biphobia also leads to the erasure of its history. It has an ancient history that has been wiped out, especially as the binary gender systems were enforced with colonialism. Bisexual people have always existed, have contributed to the community, and deserve to be included in it.
Read MoreI can’t – and never could – produce anything singular. Nothing is one thing. And that includes me – mixed, coloured, fragmented.
Read MoreThe feminist movement is flawed and has routinely excluded the experiences of the most marginalized. The womanist movement doesn’t force black women to decide to be black or woman first, nor erases them from parts of history. This movement is not anti-feminist nor anti-men, it is pro-women, pro-black women, pro brown women, pro-queer women, pro-trans people. Thus, why it is a movement I can get behind.
Read MoreBut feminism, just like any other social movement, is not supposed to be fun. It’s not the theme of a gala or part of a quirky one-liner in a film. Social movements are about life or death for many people, and to dilute the word, and with that, the movement is extremely harmful.
Read MoreI only loved you for your hair. Seeing Frida got me thinking about what my religion actually means to me, and to what extent I want to follow beliefs that have been propagated over generations. The lyrics of the Spanish song reflect a seemingly simple dilemma, but it’s what I had been afraid all these years that God would do to me. I’d spent my whole life thinking God would love me less, would think of me as unfaithful if I cut my hair. But would He really, actually do that, as long as I still devoted myself to him, still prayed to Him, still visited the Gurudwara on a weekly basis? Does simply cutting my hair mean I am less faithful to Him?
Read MoreThis is the second virus pandemic I have gone through in my life and it wasn’t this bad the first time. People who don’t have anxiety disorders who are in a current panic and are experiencing paranoia should know that that is what people with anxiety disorders always feel, even when there isn’t anything bad happening at all.
Read MoreThese fans do not view Charlie as an independent person who, just like them, has feelings. She instead becomes a prop for them to use for clout, which they’ve succeeded with, as the meet and greet-tweets gathered 2-3 thousand retweets and 10-20 thousand likes. As I mentioned, Charli addressed these events and protected her fans. While these problems did not start with her fans and definitely won’t end with hers- looking at unhealthy ways fans interact with artists is important to create a safe and comfortable space where both can connect.
Read MoreDutch people need to confront their colonial past and understand why Zwarte Piet is problematic instead of getting defensive. This is the only way the country can finally start healing from its imperial legacy and move forward to a better, preferably much less racist age.
Read MoreWe walk around our whole lives loving others: family members, friends, partners, celebrities, pets. You walk around being filled with so much love for other people, who says you can’t use some of that love for yourself?
Read MoreTo not see the fires in the Amazon as a threat to indigenous communities, and instead make it an issue of meat consumption is not only harmful to the indigenous people first and foremost, but to the earth as a whole in the long run.
Read MoreMy friends and I were inspired to create our own safe space for people of colour at school, but the issue with white spaces is that they are the norm, and calling out the norms leads to anger from the majority group. It didn’t take more than a few hours before the school board reacted. I put my posters up on a Tuesday afternoon, and noticed their absence when I walked in on Wednesday morning.
Read MoreI was raised with the idea that being an individual, having character, having a personality— all these things would be enough to carry me into the real world. I just had to worry about my own personal development in order to just be a functional human in the world. As someone who never really saw themselves as a minority, the hard slap of reality really hit me when I got to college and realised how thoroughly minoritized I was.
Read MoreWe must start with having meaningful conversations about feminism without men trying to derail or silence us. So, I urge men to confront patriarchy instead of shifting away from it, to join discussions, and most importantly, to listen. Instead of the devil, advocate for equal rights.
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