Top ten sentence enders:
- *red dot appears on forehead*
- *closes eyes forever
- What was that noise
- I didn’t say that.
- I love you
- Peace and love on planet earth
where's the four others
Just the other day I was chatting with an older woman about this exact thing. She's retired so she enjoys going on almost-daily walks around her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods. Well she told me that it was really weird that in the newer constructions where the younger families live, EVERYONE has their blinds closed all the time. In fact she can tell a younger family lives in a house based on the simple fact of whether or not their blinds are closed in the middle of a sunny day. It's to the point where she can't even tell if they're even HOME and available for a visit to welcome them to the neighborhood!
When she said that, I realized that I do that too when I live in a more publicly visible apartment. I told her that I think it's because of the internet. Younger people feel like we're constantly being watched, observed, and JUDGED for merely existing. So when we're home, we just want to be alone, unbothered, and unobserved because it's the one place we can control that. She was very surprised to hear that I felt like that and she was VERY concerned for us young folk (and to be honest after talking with her I became pretty concerned too...)
People from her generation will have their blinds open all day, hang out on their front porch, and randomly visit/enjoy random visits from neighbors and strangers. If a stranger knocks on my door it's scary and if they want to stay and chat? It's a huge inconvenience and it feels super awkward and weird and I'm stuck wondering why exactly they're talking to me, when just a few decades ago welcoming someone new to the neighborhood was just what you did! In fact to not do so was rude!
It made me really worried that as the Panopticon sinks its teeth deeper into our psyches, we are losing the very essence of what makes us human and got us this far as a species: community. I find that being on the internet for hours a day tends to almost trick my brain into thinking "I've been social all day, my social need is full" when in reality I've only talked to one, maybe two people I know from my real life all day, and only for short bursts, not REAL conversation.
I find it hard to have the energy to invite friends to hang out, and when I want to I feel like I'm a big inconvenience for asking them to take a break from their busy lives for me (not that they would ever say that's the case, but it's this nagging feeling internally). I feel like while we used to be a series of large islands of local community, our islands splintered apart and started drifting away from each other. Now your island is just you, your immediate family, and maybe a couple close friends. Those living physically closest to you feel like they're miles away and unreachable, to the point where you might as well not even bother.
I guess I just have one question for you: Do you know the names of your next door neighbors?
That makes me think about how the rate of paranoia of being watched must be so much higher now than it used to be and must only be increasing, which is very concerning,,
so amazing that weight loss companies are now picking up on the phrase “girl dinner” to sell their absurd worldview where being skinny and italian is something “aesthetic” we should desire to be 😍
Genuinely and truly ppl who think children can be "innately evil" or "born bad" have no business working in childcare, pediatrics, education, child psych, or child services of any kind. How can anyone hear about a young child demonstrating violence and NOT immediately come to the conclusion that at some point in their short and vulnerable life they have been exposed to unspeakable violence. There's no such thing as a "bad seed" and to claim there is is either eugenics (genetic markers of evil) or using supernatural fantasies (demonic possession etc) to justify doing real tangible harm to a real tangible living child.
no asoiaf posting i do will ever beat lebanese people hanging banners over highways asking god to protect jon snow when s8 premiered
“ the people of beirut support jon snow against his battle with the white walkers” “jon snow….may allah protect you” like this is so funny i love lebanese ppl
WAIT… ANOTHER!
“cersei lannister…open your heart…we are stronger together”
To expand on the crumbling of the patriarchal edifice of the family.
If society agrees that children can know themselves, and have a right to self determination…. Everything else that Conservatives argue they have a right to exert over children crumbles. As just two examples….
ALL corporal punishment rightfully becomes recognised for the assault it is.
Failure to appropriately consider the wishes of children in medical care and provide information in an age appropriate way is recognised as child abuse and malpractice.
Children are entire people, they deserve all of the rights, privileges and protections afforded to adults.
Youth liberation is trans liberation.
why is it always The Machine VERSUS The Flesh. why can't they be yuri. or yaoi. or whatever.
The Machine and The Flesh are kissing sloppily and holding onto eachother tight, tighter, tighter, until they become one and the same
i dont really know how to articulate this but its crazy just how many people dont even realize they dont care about female characters. all their faves are men. they never talk about girls without being led into it. and when you try to point this out to them they try to defend themselves that their faves are just the archetypes they like, despite clearly not caring when that same archetype is a woman. like i feel like at a certain point it is your problem with the common denominator if you cant find a single female character to enjoy
I think we need to get serious about nuclear family abolition instead of the childfree meme culture of "we don't want your snot-nosed gremlins." I love kids. I love their joy, the insight of not yet being acclimated to capitalism and social norms. I had a certain naive wisdom as a kid, making crowns out of dandelions without knowing they were weeds. When my mom tried to explain gender reassignment surgery to me, expecting me to be repulsed, I instead blurted out "cool!".
But despite my love for children and sentimentality for my own childhood, I don't want to "have kids," as it's conventionally understood to mean, nor do most of my age peers. The expectation of children to be the property and sole responsibility of two parents (or as patriarchy would insist, one mother) is a cruel and unrealistic in any historical moment but especially the present. It is cruel, not just to people who don't want to be parents or shoehorned into heterosexual norms, but traumatic to the child. Surely we should know this better than anyone, and come up with a more mature response than just hating kids. There is a stark difference between this response and the queer legacy of mutual aid to support kids neglected by the nuclear family (the House Mothers of the ballroom community come to mind).
My issue with the childfree movement, as it exists online, is that it centers individual choice rather than a structural reevaluation of the family as we know it. We are told that queer life is purposeless and lonely, and that's without a genetic lineage we have no future. These arguments are in fact indictments of a system that has failed to produce collective visions of purpose, social fulfillment and futurity. None of us should be obligated to "have kids," nor tone down our culture or activism in their entirety to be "family friendly." But we should be driven by a desire to support those most disenfranchised by family norms instead of just hating them.
Prev tags: #i also incidentally think that #no criticism of the 'childfree' movement #is complete without acknowledging #the rampant misogyny in those circles
Seconding this because it's so true. I don't know where these people get off telling mothers or pregnant people "I'm not going to give you special treatment just because you let a man [sexual harassment]," or make fun of mothers for how hard it is to raise kids without adequate safety nets, parental leave, community support, or even their own husbands' support. They have a "sucks to suck" attitude towards parents almost similar to how pro forced birthers talk to pregnant people about the "consequences of sex." Legitimate feminist/queer critiques of the nuclear family are sympathetic to these struggles, and that to me is the difference between a political tendency and a meme.
It seems that with any other axis of oppression Tumblr understands that there are groups that benefit at the direct expense of others, but when it comes to sexism it's "wellll it's complicated." What used to be known as "the feminism website" is witnessing the movement's death by a thousand cuts of "nuance." Many on here don't see the gendered division of labor as a labor issue, or conceptualize violence against women the same way they conceptualize any other type of hate crime. I feel like we need to return to the most basic, entry level 2013 "feminism is good, women are oppressed, feminism can and must be compatible with trans issues" messaging because clearly not everyone here is even on that level.
brienne of tarth is such an important character in asoiaf. she carries so much of the thematic weight of the books, especially her affc arc. every time i see someone calling asoiaf ‘grimdark’ and ‘cynical’ i just think they don’t know about brienne of tarth. they don’t know about i am coming for you lady sansa. be not afraid. i shall not rest until i’ve found you. they don’t know about she had no chance against seven, she knew. no chance, and no choice. wow. their lives must be so sad and empty
hockey has the “knights”. basketball has the “wizards”. baseball has the “pirates”. football has the “cowboys”. what could it all mean