Photographer : Keegan Crasto
Model : Archana Akhil Kumar
“It was not the first time I had been assaulted. The first time it happened, I was sexually inexperienced, at that juncture between girl and woman, where I was beginning to understand power through sex and craved the approval from cisgender straight men I was being taught to seek. It was so swift and forceful that by the time I recognized what was happening, I felt I only had two options: I could A) voice my discomfort and protest, probably to be met with further force and/or male disapproval or B) convince myself that this was something I wanted. I chose the latter, out of self-preservation and to placate male desire. I had not consented, but I had not said no. So I did not consider what I had experienced an assault. I figured it was just an inherent part of sexual exploration as a teenage girl; the conundrum of compliance. And even in the throes of my discomfort, I prioritized the male ego. In both instances, I excused the behavior because I had been taught to, and it was easier than facing the full weight of my pain. Afterward, I clung to the tool of my breath that had been given to me by my mama, but I didn’t call her to tell her what had happened.“
Logical part of my brain: It is impossible for everyone everywhere to like me all of the time.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria part of my brain: Okay, but what if I tried really, really hard?
The struggle,
Public Service Announcement from Megan Fox (2009)
This is the kind of wholesome content I come to Tumblr for.
Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories.
This is what it is to grow up as a person of color in a white-dominated world. This is what it is to be a woman in a society that has taught its daughters that we are worthy of love only if we are deemed attractive by its sons. This is the world I grew up in, but not the world I want to leave behind.
- 𝓛𝓸𝓪𝓷 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓷 🦁
Vera Shimunia, an artist from Saint-Petersburg, Russia has truly mastered the art of embroidery painting. Take a look for more to her Etsy store.
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posted by tu recepcja
Source: crossconnectmag.com
I still think Moana deserved an Oscar for this part
To me, the moral of Moana is that only women can help other women heal from male violence.
The movie starts with the idea that the male god who wronged Te Fiti must be the one to heal her. This seems to make a certain sort of intuitive sense in that I think we all believe that if you do something wrong you should try to make it right. But how does he try to right it? Through more violence. Of course that failed.
It was only when another woman, Moana, saw past the “demon of earth and fire” that the traumatized Te Fiti had become (what a good metaphor for trauma, right?) and met her with love instead of violence that she was able to heal. Note that they do the forehead press before Moana restores the heart, while Te Fiti is still Te Kā. Moana doesn’t wait for her beautiful island goddess to appear in all her green splendor before greeting and treating her as someone deserving of love.
Moana is only able to restore the heart because Te Kā reveals her vulnerability and allows Moana to touch her there. Maui and his male violence could only ever have resulted in more ruin.
blad-the-inhaler
…this is exactly what I was trying to say and you put it beautifully. @i-want-cheese This is why the scene makes me tear up every damn time. Women’s honest, ugly reaction to trauma is almost never even depicted in films, let alone honored the way it is in Moana. Te Fiti doesn’t have to “rise above” being violated before she’s allowed to heal. Moana sees her and says
I know your name They have stolen the heart from inside you But this does not define you
She utterly accepts Te Fiti’s rage, her fear, her lashing out at anyone who comes near the remains of her ravaged body island. Female ugliness isn’t punished, it’s mourned and loved. What an indescribably comforting moment.
snickersthickums
My favorite part of this movie
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
Hundreds of Koreans divided by the Korean War are participating in a week of temporary, but emotional reunions, as the Koreas boost reconciliation efforts. (Aug. 20)
eff crazy rich asians, to all the boys i’ve ever seen was the movie your homegirl needed to see growing up as a korean middle child with two sisters