ya being kafkaesque isn’t about turning into a bug it’s about how if you turned into a bug your boss would still be like “ok but we’re short staffed can u still come in”
Mainly because makeup itself, the generic concept, is an integral part of human identity. People have always done it (even Neanderthals used makeup) and we’re always going to keep doing it. The concept of decorating our faces/bodies with colored pigments is practically hardwired and on a deep level just plain FUN (look at how much kids love to get their faces painted at fairs and carnivals and so on). The concept is also totally gender neutral. In some societies, men traditionally do it more than women, for example. Using your own body as a canvas for art taps into a mystical, childlike sense of wonder. First you look one way, then… another! Like magic.
But mainstream commercial makeup culture as it exists today is incredibly exploitative, misogynist, colonialist, colorist, and hurts women, especially poorer women and women who don’t fit the racial ideal as expressed by the mainstream corporate beauty industry. And a big part of that is pushing “natural” looks. All women are supposed to look “naturally” poreless, for example (which isn’t realistic or healthy) and are punished socially and often financially if we aren’t. Another example: contouring is supposed to accentuate the “natural” lines of your face but for me and a lot of other Asian women with moonfaces, it’s the furthest thing from natural! The further you are from the rich thin young lightskinned bigeyed straightsmallnosed highcheekboned look, the more weirdly artificial the word “natural” becomes. We’re supposed to sink all this time and money and resources into achieving this bullshit “natural” look until it all feels a bit like Sisyphus rolling the stone up the hill.
Putting a bright blue streak on your eyelids and walking out the door might take five seconds and probably makes you feel expressive and happy and good about yourself, even if it seems “tacky” through the lens of mainstream makeup culture. But taking an hour and trying soooo hard, using all the latest expensive products to make it seem like you’re not really trying at all, makes a lot of women feel worse about themselves, not better. In fact it leads to a lot of women feeling insecure about their real face and their real skin. There are many ways to look garish, but only ONE way to look “natural”. Instead of turning your own face into a canvas where you’re the creative artist, you’re following a ruthless set of instructions and doing a sort of strict paint-by-numbers that you’re never going to do right anyway. So it represents giving up more power over your own face/body than you’re actually getting back. Subjugation to the social norm, not creativity.
here’s a hot take: the fact that whether trans men are as oppressed as trans women is even a talking point at all is a sign that something is Wrong.
people have argued for years that asexuals don’t belong in the lgbt+ community because they’re less oppressed, and push back against that idea is framed as aggression or outright homophobia.
people who other m-specs from the community or even are just openly bigoted towards them cite things like “passing privilege” to prove that they have it better, that they’re lesser within the community
panphobes paint pan people as biphobes and biphobes paint bi people as transphobes while m-spec people are pitted against each other by people who hate them as a whole
transmeds and truscum argue that people who don’t transition aren’t Really trans, they create images of hypersexualized stereotypically feminine people and argue that all tucutes are read as (and really Are) cis women and don’t have to face real discrimination because of it
and they all take notes from terfs who’ve perfected the art of painting marginalized groups as privileged invaders and aggressors
over and over and over again intracommunity violence is bred, spread, and justified with the insistence that the group being spoken of is actually privileged and therefore Deserves it. silencing, othering, exclusion, and sometimes outright violence and harassment are justified on the basis of those people being painted as privileged invaders who either don’t belong at all or who exist as lessers who should sit down, shut up, and take what people give them.
and the fact that the insistence that trans men be treated as Equals within their Own Communities is presented as Violence on their part is as absurd as it always is frankly. the fact that trans men have to Openly Testify themselves as lesser in order to be taken in good faith At All is fucked up.
and it’s two parts really. the first is that as a community we don’t treat all members this way. if you believe that gay men are a valuable part of the community then you don’t argue that they’re lesser than lesbians because they don’t face the same kind of misogyny. you accept them as Different but Valuable parts of the community. you listen to them when they talk about their experiences. you don’t even Consider if they’re lesser, it doesn’t cross your mind. just like people who aren’t aphobic don’t wonder if aspec on the whole are less oppressed before they boost the voices of aro/aces.
the second is that for Years I’ve seen and been actively Pressed to “admit” that trans men Baseline face less violence than trans women, when statistically that just isn’t true. trans men often aren’t reported on to the same extent that trans women are because of a lack of visibility and misreporting as cis women, but when they are the statistics are Comparable. and it just makes me wonder Why.
why I see the same things coming from exclusionists in every stripe and yet again and again and again people fall for it and normalize it until we’re forced to take half measures in denying our own oppression and lived experiences just to be heard at all.
Holy shit please do not do this. This is the most disorganised disaster I’ve ever seen and all they’re going to do is get vulnerable people fired. Do not go on strike as an individual. Do not do not do not. The point of a strike is collective action to show the collective power of workers.
It is not enough to say that the NLRB has made vague gestures at showing that a non-union strike is theoretically possible. If you get fired illegally and you’re not part of a union, who’s going to pay for your employment tribunal? You? Unless you’re aware of how expensive tribunals can be and have that money set to the side, you’re opening yourself up to a world of hurt.
This is genuinely the most dangerous, nonsensical thing I’ve seen on this website in a long, long time. Do not do this. Do not mistake masturbatory individualistic action for a collective movement.
If you would like to find a way to seriously stick it to your bosses, speak to your coworkers, organise an actual union in your workplace (if you need pointers on this, don’t be afraid to reach out — I’ve done it before and would be happy to share pointers!). If you want public healthcare, get involved in any of the myriad campaigns for single payer going on. But do not, do not welcome unnecessary risk into your life like this.
Seriously, this is so incredibly sus. You do not just organize a general strike on a national scale by sending out a tweet and slapping together a website with no relevant information. At best, this is a well-intentioned but dangerously misguided social media activism move. At worst, this is an intentional disinformation campaign to undermine the labor movement. Do your research and learn your history before getting involved in stuff like this- the consequences are very real
I’m not passing around blame but this feels like a consequence of social media activism misunderstood as organizing. It rarely if ever is. Social media can be introductory, informative, and discursive, but you can’t organize workers by announcing what they should be doing
adulthood is just a constant struggle of, “man, i want cookies for breakfast, but I also recognize this is a bad nutritional decision. On the other hand, the only one who can stop me is me. i know that fucker’s weaknesses. i could totally take me in a fight.”
frog and toad are my two remaining brain cells struggling to keep my horrible body alive
Sometimes asexual or aromantic is a temporary label. Sometimes you realise it wasn’t the right label for you after all. Sometimes orientations change or are fluid. Sometimes asexuality and aromanticism have a cause and something around that changes.
It’s OK to only identify as asexual or aromantic for a little while.
do you guys wanna hear the latest drama among librarians across the country
Ask and I shall deliver
Okay so the latest drama is apparently there is a man calling across random libraries across the country and he’s asking for information on a court case specifically Brady v Maryland and when he calls he claims he doesn’t have a computer so he asks for the case to be read aloud to him
Here’s the thing. He is asking for uh not legal reasons but umm because he well….he well…he’s yknow 😳 And he’s called multiple libraries and done this and the FBI is supposedly involved and can’t catch this pervert that’s just calling libraries and getting off on librarians reading about some random court case
And apparently the dude called my work! And I wasn’t there for it but they put him on hold cause they were like “is it him…” so they got a male coworker to answer the phone and he immediately hung up and like hdjdhsjshhs?!? What is happening!!
I TALKED TO HIM. He is absolutely masturbating while you read the court case. He has hit MULTIPLE libraries ACROSS the country. He’s called my library twice and another local library last week.
So if you get a blocked number asking you to read Brady v Maryland wiki article while he “writes it out by hand,” hang up. Log it, tell your managers.
Links to just one of the ALA facebook posts about it, for evidence if you need to email your bosses:
she/her currently redoing my theme pardon the ugly layout for the time being. I have an sca sideblog I should probably just merge with this and might do soon
