THE OPINIONARY
I don’t think it’s terribly controversial to note that women, from a young age, are required to consider the reality of the opposite gender’s consciousness in a way that men aren’t. This isn’t to say that women don’t often misunderstand, mistreat, and stereotype men, both in literature and in life. But on a basic level, functioning in society requires that women register that men are fully conscious; it is not really possible for a woman to throw up her hands and write men off as eternally unknowable space aliens — and even if she says she has, she cannot really behave as though she has. Every element of her life — from reading books about boys and men to writing papers about the motivations of male characters to being attentive to her own safety to navigating most any institutional or professional or economic sphere — demands an ironclad familiarity with, and belief in, the idea that men really are fully human entities. And no matter how many men come to the same conclusions about women, the structure of society simply does not demand so strenuously that they do so. If you didn’t really deep down believe that women were, in general, exactly as conscious as you, you could probably still get by in life. You could probably still get a book deal. You could probably still get elected to office.
[…] And female writers will often also voluntarily write books populated by both men and women. (If they don’t, they will have to be ever-mindful of the possibility of being understood as writers of “women’s fiction” — meaning fiction for women only.) Male writers will have the latitude to do whatever they want: many will write books about both men and women, but they can excise women entirely from their fictional universes, if they want to, without ever marginalizing their books. And all of this results, of course, in a re-enforcement of the initial problem: the production of another realm where taking women seriously — as consciousnesses, narrators, characters — is optional.
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Growing up I never would have guessed I’d one day get to see Frida’s face almost daily on the internet - and words cannot express how glad I am to see her.
However, lets not forget other rad female artists - maybe they didn’t all flaunt a unibrow, but damn they made impressive artistic contributions. Maybe their work isn’t as accessible, but if you don’t dearly love say, Louise Bourgeois who is pictured above cheekily grinning in a fabulous coat and holding a huge cast cock ( “Fillette” ,1968) you are an idiot.
She was born in 1911, and died in 2010 (my mum called me crying when she heard). She was an incredibly influential sculptor - working her entire life with a vast number of mediums such as wood, steel, stone and cast rubber, often organic in form and sexually explicit, emotionally aggressive yet witty, and absolutely fantastic. Her work is terrifying and reassuring, calling up the horrors of the world and their relations to the human body and its need for protection. Here follow some of her works
Maman (1999)
Janus Fleuri (1968)
Blind Man’s Bluff (1984)
This barely even covers all she made… She produced thousands of drawings, paintings, and sculptures over the years - my mother loved to tell me how as an older woman Bourgeois had a huge studio staffed with fit young men who would follow her instructions as she was not strong enough to create huge works on her own.
what a fucking queen
So fortunate to see ‘Maman’ five minutes from my home.
(via iknowiexist)
As the Mama of a very young female, I just realized this blog is turning into a curated to-do list of reminders; how to raise a rational, compassionate person who is aware of her privilege and doesn’t squander it on humorlessness and ignorance.
(twenty trans women who were killed by hate crimes.)
All are women of color, I believe.
Great graphic. I wish there were names attached so I could learn more about the women it features.
yr wish is my command, friend!
the women pictured here are, row by row:
bella evangelista, agnes torres sulca, amanda gonzalez andujar, chanelle pickett, angie zapata
emonie spaulding, deoni jones, duanna johnson, myra chanel ical, gwen araujo
rita hester, sanesha stewart, paige clay, ruby ordeñana, robyn browne
stacey blahnik lee, taysia elzy, victoria carmen white, venus xtravaganza, and tyli mack.
Reblobbing again for the list of names
(via deuxencore)
