saltmarshhag:

Sign the petition. Lets get justice for Trayvon Martin.

racismschool:

lessonsinbeingadragon:

racismschool:

karnythia:

smallrevolutionary:

If you care about human beings and their right to walk freely down the street without facing harm… if you care about human beings regardless of color, sex, pgp, or creed and their murderers running free…. if you think its wrong to hold someone else’s life as less than simply because he is black than sign the petition for Trayvon Martin. sign it because you are aware this world isn’t fair. you are aware that being a person of color in this world means that you may be shot and killed and your white murderer runs free. sign this because no parent should have to bury their child especially because of racism. Justice for Trayvon Martin.

Sign the petition, share the petition and call and email these people and tell them to release the 911 tapes and arrest Trayvon’s MURDERER

Bill Lee (Sanford chief of police) 407.688.5070 email: bill.lee@sanfordfl.gov

Jeff Triplett (Mayor of Sanford) 407.688.5001 Email: jeff.triplett@sanfordfl.gov

City Attorney for Sanford FL 407.322.2171 email: lgroot@stenstrom.com

A. Bryant Applegate (County Attorney) 407.665.7257

Email: ssharrer@seminolecountryfl.gov

I’m reblogging this even though I’m sure it will help because it might make some folks feel better to do something.

PLEASE SIGN. This is so important. PLEASE, PLEASE SIGN.

http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-murderer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin

^ this one was already created and already has way more signatures. I signed both, but I think this one is the one the family is supporting.

Guys, I really don’t know which is best but it will literally take you a few seconds to sing them both. PLEASE SIGN THEM BOTH. I am truly begging you. PLEASE SIGN.

(Source: forebodingflamingo, via partysoft)

saltmarshhag:

joetomcollins:

occupythedisco:

I think the reason I find geek culture so obnoxious at times to engage in is because the people are for the most part the same privileged dips that inhabit mainstream culture, but with the added detriment of a victim complex. They’re still largely white and center their race, they’re still largely straight and center their sexuality, they’re still largely cis men who center their gender. They challenge nothing about the status quo and what bodies get to be placed at the center of it, they offer nothing radically different to the typical narratives about which groups of people are and are not important and they can be just as hostile to groups who try to find a place in their space as the mainstream is, in some cases even worse. But for some reason they think the fact that they like Battlestar Galactica instead of Monday night football makes them radical alterna-gods who are too good for this sinful Earth.

Blah Blah Blah… Racism… Blah Blah Blah … gender bullshit.

Geek Culture is “obnoxious” to you because thinking is “work” to you, and FUN for us.

The fact is geeks don’t give a fuck about culture at all. For the most part we were excluded from it by everyone, as your anti-geek bias just goes to show. We’re not even welcome in your little section of hell.

How the fuck can a member of any victimized group dare claim that another group has a “victim complex”? How can you try and throw that proverbial stone and not expect to have your own sins written in the proverbial sands.

The fact is, that Geeks have no race, gender, gender preference, or other social entanglements, and as a result… WE DON’T HESITATE TO CALL YOU ON YOUR BULLSHIT. What’s worse, is that we do it with empirical and undeniable FACTS backed up by logical and reasonable science. That true or false bottom line that doesn’t give a fuck what you “feel” because at the end of the day, our way is the only one that works.

THAT is what has you butt hurt about geek culture. That and the fact that we can do more with our smartphones while we are drunk, than all of you can do together with room full of supercomputers.

You want to be accepted by geek culture? Put in the effort to learn about how things work, or listen to those who do.

As a geek, there is NOTHING cooler than some one who can teach me something I didn’t know, and nothing more obnoxious than some one who criticizes that instinct with absolutely nothing to offer of their own.

The rest of your biases are just that… YOUR BIASES.

Go read a book, bitch.

Oh.

Congrats to the angry geek who just proved OP’s point.

colorblinding:

xoericxo:

colorblinding:

ardhra:

jhameia:

colorblinding:

supernaturalbones:

colorblinding:

So I know I said I was going to take a Tumblr break, but I came across this and I just could not resist. 

What

the

fuck.

This is actually a costume that you can buy for Halloween! The grossness of it is unbelievable — and it speaks to the extent that Asian women have been fetishized, exoticized, and commodified. I am tempted to buy this thing just so I can write all over it and call attention to the sexism, racism, fetishism, and general disgusting nature of the costume. 

I could potentially cross out “THANK” and change it to “FUCK” and cross out the “ENJOY” on the breasts, and cross out the “TAKE ME OUT” on the back as well. I could then add a message across the back and ass that says something like, “IF YOU THINK THIS IS HOT, YOU’RE A RACIST, SEXIST DOUCHEBAG” or something along those lines. 

Thoughts? Ideas on how to modify this costume into a critical piece? 

Edit: Or alternatively, I could write on the back, “THIS IS A CULTURALLY APPROPRIATED, FETISHIZED, EXOTICIZED, RACIST, SEXIST, PIECE OF SHIT” 

xoericxo replied to your photo So I know I said I was going to take a Tumblr…

this is also categorized under “geisha costumes” on the website it’s from, btw

Well, that just makes it even better. Because apparently, all Asians are the same. 

Ummm It’s just a costume I don’t see the problem with it :/

I probably would be more harsh with you, if not for the fact that you are all fourteen years of age. And when I was fourteen years old, I probably wouldn’t have thought much of the picture, either. So, instead, I am going to explain to you why it is a problem, instead. If any of this is confusing, feel free to ask and I will try my best to be more clear. I’m used to teaching undergrads, so if this doesn’t make sense to you, it’s my fault, not yours. 

1.) Historically, Asian women have been characterized as hypersexual in America. This means that we are stereotyped in a way that makes us seem like exotic vixens at best, or cheap, foreign prostitutes at worst. Because the costume is a cheongsam/qi pao, and it represents the quintessential Chinese takeout box along with imagery on the takeout box on the front of the cheongsam, it is clearly a costume meant to represent Chinese women. This would be considered “cultural appropriation” whereby American manufacturers steal something that culturally belongs to China and exploits the cultural product. In this case, the cultural product is both the qipao/cheongsam and the Chinese takeout box — the modern symbol of Chinese migration to America.

You can imagine a white girl wearing this with chopsticks in her hair and her eyes taped back into slits to make herself look “Asian.” (In fact, in the above image, that’s a white chick with makeup and a wig that makes her more “Asian” looking.) You can further imagine yellowish powder on her face — this is what we would call “yellowface” and it is terribly derogatory and related to the history of minstrel shows in America and blackface culture. Pretty much, the boiled down idea is that because white people think that they own the world, they can therefore steal and appropriate whatever cultures they feel would serve their interests best and make money off those cultures and people, regardless of what injury it does to those populations. The three biggest examples of this in America are the genocide and colonization of Native American people, the slave trade from 17th-19th century, and the exploitative coolie system of indentured servitude where the Chinese built the transcontinental railroad.  

2.) Cultural appropriation aside, look at what is on the costume. Let’s think about this a little. What do takeout boxes represent? Chinese food, right? But this Chinese food is not authentic Chinese food — it is Chinese food produced specifically for an American market that doesn’t know real Chinese food from this weird hybrid. So the largest consumers of Chinese food tend to be non-Asian folks. Now, Chinese food has a price tag on it — it is something  that you buy. Therefore it is what we call a “commodity.” 

The image of the takeout box is reflected on the costume and the body of the woman — this means that it isn’t just Chinese food that is being commodified, but the body of the woman. Because Asian women have, as I mentioned above, been historically defined and stereotyped as exotic whores (to be blunt about it), can’t you see the relationship between the takeout box as something that is produced for and consumed by (mostly) white people, and Chinese woman’s body as something that is also produced by and consumed by non-Asian men?

Considering the fact that the back of the costume says “TAKE ME OUT” suggests a few things: 1.) Chinese women are a commodity to be consumed; 2.) Chinese women can be bought; 3.) Chinese women are whores whose only value is their sexuality. 

Which takes me to my third point:

3.) The most egregious part of the costume is the fact that it says “ENJOY” on her breasts. If we consider that Chinese food is usually considered the food of choice for people who want CHEAP food, in this sense, not only does the Chinese woman whose exoticized and fetishized identity is being appropriated have to THANK the consumer for purchasing her, but she is a CHEAP commodity whose value requires thanking the non-Asian savior for inserting himself between her legs. 

So, what this costume is saying is:

- Chinese women are something to be consumed
- Chinese women are cheap whores
- Not only are they cheap whores, they are Chinese cheap whores
- This means that they are exotic cheap Chinese whores
- They should be grateful that we (non-Asian men who fetishize Asianness) are providing her with salvation 
- But, she can’t really be saved because no one really wants her, they just want to consume her and fetishize her. This is why she is a takeout box: cheap, easily produced, easily found anywhere in just about any city or town in America. 

Now do you see the problem with it?

In case you want to tell me I read too much into it, my job is to teach undergrads this type of stuff. So no, I did not read too much into it. I didn’t have to read at all. It screamed out at me in all of its disgusting Orientalism. 

And it’s on a white model. FFS.

This explanation is really whorephobic.

By which I mean, it relies on, reifies, and normalises, the notion of sex work being an ignoble, worthless, and inherently demeaning occupation. It conflates sex work with “purchasing a person” and doesn’t interrogate why it’s considered contemptible. I mean, it’s really, really telling that colorblinding read sex work into the costume at all - while it’s ‘sexy’ and it basically says feminine Chinese people are a food item to be consumed, I don’t see how that implies sex work (unless you think of all instances of feminine sexuality being commodified, even indirectly, as sex work, which is absurd).

The whorephobic myths colorblinding is repeating are that sex work obviates sexual agency, that being a sex worker involves giving away part of your humanity to anyone who pays you.

There are lots of Asian people who do sex work for a living. I doubt most would see themselves as being “bought” or that their “only value is their sexuality”.

I’m actually really troubled by the relatively privileged diasporic Asian critique of “exotification” that continually repeats this notion that if Asian femininity is exotified, then it means Asian women will be be thought of as a sex workers, and being considered a sex worker is the worst thing ever. It kind of resembles (but not quite) a middle-class concern with feminine reputation and virginity-worship.

Non-sex workers’ problems with the stigma attached to sex work doesn’t even compare to the problems that actual sex workers have with that stigma. And Asian sex workers in particular have specific problems relating to police violence and the anti-migration activities of the anti-trafficking industry.

Now, I’ve dealt with being exotified in my own personal life. And it was part of an abusive and bullying situation I was in - the inherent racism of exotification was part of the abuse. It was a way of taking away my agency, my sexual agency, but agency in other parts of my life as well. So I don’t mean at all to say that sexualised exotification is a non-issue for diasporic Asians.

I just wish there was a way to validate the concerns about sexualisation and exotification that doesn’t rely on projecting all of those concerns onto sex workers and replaying whore stigma in the process. I think that’s really, really unfair to migrant sex workers.

TW: SEX SLAVERY, SEX TRAFFICKING, RAPE

Good god, are you kidding me? Do you not realize that in America and around the world, Asians — specifically Southeast Asian — are the number one most trafficked human beings? That most Asian women who do sex work in America do not do it of their own volition but because they were brought here and forced into sexual slavery? To say my reading is “whorephobic” is to completely ignore the reality of sex trafficking and sexual slavery that so many women and girls under the age of 16 are subject to in America and around the world. And to say that it is whorephobic reeks of undeniable class and social privilege. 

There is no problem with doing sex work. There is a problem with sex trafficking and sex slavery, and it is that particular model of sex work that the vast majority of Asian women are aligned with. To say otherwise is to paint a completely unrealistic picture of what is actually happening today in America and around the world. What you are reifying and normalizing is a conception that sex work is always positive and that the majority of Asian women who “work in sex” (they do not fucking work in sex, they are slaves to it!) in America are actually doing it because they want to.

The fact of the matter is: the vast majority of Asian diasporic women who are sex slaves in America is due to the fact that they are undocumented women who arrived here through snakeheads. A huge amount of those women are from Fujian, China; Cambodia; Vietnam; and Thailand. 

In respects to the costume itself: That you would think it is okay for all Asian American women to be, without their consent, subject to having their bodies appropriated as sexual objects for sale and consumption is, quite frankly, appalling. And I might add it can also be triggering.

Let me tell you a story. When I was 14 years old, a photographer contacted me because he told me I was a beautiful Asian girl who should be a model. That same photographer ended up raping me, taking photos of me during that process, and spreading them all over the internet on websites that specifically targeted Asian girls. The entire time he was raping me, he told me what a beautiful China Doll I was. I later found out that he only targeted Asian girls; that there were many others just like me — girls between the ages of 12 and 15 who were targeted specifically because we were young and Asian. And the reason why he did so was because he fucking exoticized our Asianness a specific way and was also too broke to go to Thailand, Cambodia, and all those other regions of Southeast Asia where hundreds of thousands of women and girls under the age of 16 are forced into sex slavery. 

If you want to be academic about it and have me divorce my personal experiences and outrage over your completely thoughtless and highly privileged response: I was not deploying the language of sex work; I was deploying the rhetoric of “whore” in particular to represent the kind of discourse that is at work within the minds of men who are reading Asian bodies in this way. And when the discourse of whores (not sex work, which is different from whores — I will explain below) is inscribed onto our bodies without consent, those acts are not only discursively but also epistemically violent. As Monique Wittig says, “Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body; stamping it and violently shaping it.” And if we consider Foucault’s and Butler’s examples as ones that demonstrate the insidious ways in which language might work, we can understand how dangerous the rhetoric of “whore” can be for many Asian women and for the limits of our bodies — especially as the body inscribed as an Asian whore does not refer so much to the Asian American sex worker as it does to the Asian sex slave. 

That being said, there is a difference between the rhetoric of whore and the reality of sex workers: and what it comes down to is consent. When one is consenting to sex work as opposed to forced into sex work, it could be a potentially positive experience. But to take consent out of the equation shapes that individual’s experience in a very different manner — in precisely the definition you described: ignoble, worthless, and inherently demeaning. Because what it comes down to is that it isn’t a fucking occupation. It isn’t work. It’s slavery. And if you even think it is possible to reframe the language of slavery with the language of work; if you think that it is not true that human bodies and sexualities are being bought, then you are too blind to see past your own privilege. 

To put it another way: when that photographer was raping me and taking pornographic photographs of me without my consent, positioning my body into different ways to get a better shot of young Asian pussy, I certainly wasn’t thinking that what I was doing was work. 

I might add that I also attempted to kill myself repeatedly after this occurred, because I did think that such an experience made me worthless. Not only because I was raped, but also because my naked body was all over the internet. To this day, my body is being sold without my consent, and some men sit from the comfort of their own homes, masturbating to images of my 14 year old self. 

Let’s also not forget that Chinese women have historically been barred from immigration into the United States because it was assumed that all Chinese women were prostitutes.

^ THIS.

(via desliz)

Also, dear anyone saying how they are ~*conflicted*~ about Korra because Zutara didn’t happen: 

wundygore:

How about we are getting a fucking show with a WOMAN OF COLOR IN THE STARRING, TITULAR ROLE and that is a rare and amazing thing and is a lot more important than your ship.

(via herosexual-deactivated20111107)

I like many things, including Madoka Magica, cupcakes, and cute shit.