Male Jurors More Likely to Find Over-Weight Women Guilty

Thin privilege is: not being more likely to be found guilty of a crime that you are equally innocent of.

:| :| :|

It’s also upsetting because classism undoubtedly plays into this, or the perception of it. I won’t go into detail because the link between class and weight has been rehashed a million times, but. It’s not just “I find her less attractive” bullshit — this has so many layers of fat = lazy = poor = criminal that upset me SO MUCH.

‎I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.

Sister Joan Chittister, Catholic Nun (via timehasflewn)

holy shit i love this quote (via glitter-femin1sts)

I vote we stop using the term “pro-life” and change to “pro-birth”, and every time someone asks “What does that mean?”, you can explain this and the other racialized, classist, misogynist, body policing, rape culture reinforcing bullshit behind “pro-life” dogma. (via lebanesepoppyseed)

(via themegs)

Source: timehasflewn

debunking the myth of the easy minority ride

ohwhatatragiccost:

doublesevens:

damnlayoffthebleach:

virginclub:

tell me about my white privilege while you get scholarships just for being a minority

SoLDN: “Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students.  ”

[SOURCE] 

“For so long, I’ve heard this complaint about White college students finding it hard to get scholarships and how racial and ethnic minority college students are so lucky because there are “so many” scholarships out their for us. I was always intuitively distrustful of this belief, but I never really had evidence to prove the claim wrong. Until, now! Dr. Mark Kantrowitz, who is President of MK Consulting Inc., a consulting firm focused on computer science, artificial intellignece, and statistical and policy analysis, is also the publisher for Fastweb.com and FinAid.org. Last year, Kantrowitz conducted a comprehensive study of the distribution of scholarship and grant aid across the United States. His study had some findings that would probably shock and dismay non-PoC:

  • While there are very few private scholarships that are explicitly targeted at Caucasian students as a category, Caucasian students receive a disproportionately greater share of private scholarships and merit-based grants.
  • Caucasian students receive more than three-quarters (76%) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62%) of the student population.
  • Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students.  
  • These statistics demonstrate that, as a whole, private sector scholarship programs tend to perpetuate historical inequities in the distribution of scholarships according to race. This does not appear to be due to deliberate discrimination, but rather as a natural result of the personal interests of the scholarship sponsors. [In other words, there is probably an unconscious preference to help their own kind among the predominately White scholarship committees around the U.S.]

So next time, you here someone complain about not getting a scholarship because they were White, let the motherfucker know that it wasn’t because they were White, it’s because they weren’t good enough. Plain and simple.

Check out the full report here:http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/20110902racescholarships.pdf”

You’re wrong. Read a book

Yeah, I never understand people who say shit like this. It’s like being in a submarine and complaining that the diver outside has an oxygen tank.

And that doesn’t even discuss the fact that white families are disproportionately wealthier that PoC families so that, while there are of course some rich PoCs and some poor white people, most of the time white people need the scholarships less. Not because white people worked harder any more than white kids work harder to get good grades, but because the system as a whole disadvantages people who are not white.

White people, historically, make more money, which allows them to better fund their schools and means it’s more common to have at least one stay at home or part time working parent to tutor children, allowing for better educations and grades, which in turn gives those while children a better chance at scholarships for college.

Oh. Wait. And we’re complaining about PoCs here?

Look, shit is cyclical. Even with the advances made by equal hiring laws and affirmative action and other changes to the system, it’ll be generations before real financial and educational equality exists because we still haven’t adjusted for the fact that money creates access and white families have more money. That may, I hope, balance out with time but it’s not going to equalize immediately because rich and middle class parents can afford to send their kids to good schools to get good careers that repeat the pattern while poor families have to hope their kids can get scholarships for a state school to get them a decent enough job that they can do the same for their children.

Plus let’s not even get into the disproportionate defunding and merging of public school districts in inner city or poorer districts, versus charter schools and schools in more well off districts. People don’t EXPECT kids to do well, they tell teachers that it’s literally a hazard to go to that school or a judgement on their experience, they don’t give the kids real supplies or act like they give a shit, and a mile away in a different district it’s an entirely different story.

And yet, throughout my life, I’ve had people tell me they wished they were PoC, or “just Native American enough to legally qualify” or any number of other races or from disadvantaged areas because that would get their shit paid for. (Often, people who were already fairly well off in background if not individually.) Um, no.

A woman’s worst nightmare? That’s pretty easy. Novelist Margaret Atwood writes that when she asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women, he answered, “They are afraid women will laugh at them.” When she asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men, they said, “We’re afraid of being killed.

http://www.pbs.org/kued/nosafeplace/articles/nightmare.html (via alullaby)

That sums it up

(via erikawithac)

This reminds me of a discussion we had in school, and one girl was talking about living in fear of her safety because she is a girl, and this guy chimed in and was all “It’s hard for guys too! I’m so awkward around girls! It’s embarrassing!” Yeah, not the same thing, exactly?

(via tulletulle)

Wow.

(via kittencoaster)

This reminds me of an article about online (heterosexual) dating that I read a while ago. It listed men’s and women’s worst fears about meeting someone from online. The highest ranked fear that men had was that their date would be fat, whereas the highest ranked fear that women had was that their date would turn out to be violent and kill them. 

I think that says a lot. 

(via kaitg)

This is a pretty classic privilege dynamic I think, and one that we as a society tend to downplay in order to give the privileged even more volume.

Men are afraid women will laugh at them or won’t have sex with them, women are afraid men will kill them.

Rich people are upset that everyone else is calling them “greedy” instead of “job creators”, everyone else is upset that they can’t afford health care.

White people are afraid of being called racist by people of color, people of color are afraid of being killed by white people (especially white people in positions of authority, like police).

Straight people are afraid of having their “marriages ruined” by other people getting married, queer people are afraid of being beaten to death.

Cis people are afraid of having to share a bathroom with someone different than they are, trans people are afraid of being murdered.

This is really just a perfect X, Y statement to sum up the most basic tenet of privilege: if you are privileged, the majority of the time you don’t fear for your basic survival.

(via stfusexists)

I also want to add that just because this doesn’t apply to YOU (for example, you may specifically, because of intersectionality, anxiety - or both, since mental health is an aspect of disability - fear for your basic welfare more than most people of your race and class, or you personally may not worry about it as much as most people of your gender and orientation), it’s not NOT a thing.

A lot of people deal with privilege by saying “well *I* don’t do that”, or “no one would ever hurt you, that’s silly”, but it’s social and systemic, not about individual experience - and people’s fears also don’t have to do with themselves as much as society and what society tells them through news and anecdotes and experience and socialization.

The irony of this all is that the few times when white people, men, straight people ARE afraid to walk down the street, it’s because they’ve found themselves in a situation where they no longer hold the majority. People will FREAK OUT about traveling through a neighborhood that is predominantly racially different than their own, generalize about safety, or make broad statements about how neighborhoods are going to hell as demographics change, when in reality most of those things present fairly small risks if any.

(via stfusexists)

Source: alullaby

stfuconservatives:

Tough voter suppression laws could block thousands of 2012 votes - Yahoo! News

justinspoliticalcorner:

When Edward and Mary Weidenbener went to vote in Indiana’s primary in May, they didn’t realize that state law required them to bring government photo IDs such as a driver’s license or passport.

The husband and wife, both approaching 90 years old, had to use a temporary ballot that would be verified later, even though they knew the people working the polling site that day. Unaware that Indiana law obligated them to follow up with the county election board, the Weidenbeners ultimately had their votes rejected — news to them until informed recently by an Associated Press reporter.

Edward Weidenbener, a World War II veteran who had voted for Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest, said he was surprised by the rules and the consequences.

“A lot of people don’t have a photo ID. They’ll be automatically disenfranchised,” he said.

As more states put in place strict voter ID rules, an AP review of temporary ballots from Indiana and Georgia, which first adopted the most stringent standards, found that more than 1,200 such votes were tossed during the 2008 general election.

During sparsely attended primaries this year in Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee, the states implementing the toughest laws, hundreds more ballots were blocked.

Democrats and voting rights groups fear that ID laws could suppress votes among people who may not typically have a driver’s license, and disproportionately affect the elderly, poor and minorities. While the number of votes is a small percentage of the overall total, they have the potential to sway a close election. Remember that the 2000 presidential race was decided by a 537-vote margin in Florida.

A Republican leader in Pennsylvania said recently that the state’s new ID law would allow Romney to win the state over President Barack Obama.

Supporters of the laws cite anecdotal cases of fraud as a reason that states need to do more to secure elections, but fraud appears to be rare. As part of its effort to build support for voter ID laws, the Republican National Lawyers Association last year published a report that identified some 400 election fraud prosecutions over a decade across the entire country. That’s not even one per state per year.

ID laws would not have prevented many of those cases because they involved vote-buying schemes in local elections or people who falsified voter registrations.

h/t: Yahoo! News

(via stfuconservatives)

Source: justinspoliticalcorner

ohwhatatragiccost: tommilsom: conradtao: speaking right to my heart perf This is bullshit because A) yes, art should reflect life (OR BE A RESPONSE TO IT) and that includes creating art in response to depression, oppression, and other difficult internal and external forces but that isn’t all art is or can be, great art often comes from observation, from questioning, from thought about things that aren’t inherently personal to you, B) this really perpetuates that idea that being suicidally depressed or living such a dangerous life that you face death or joblessness or hunger on a regular basis is crucial to making quality art - it isn’t and this kind of belief keeps artists from being in a state of being CAPABLE of peak creation, C) making art isn’t always but can often be EXPENSIVE and TIME CONSUMING and the people who make art are often the people with the resources and support system to make it. That’s fucked up, but it’s true. Most great artists who are depressed and poor and struggling? You will never fucking see their art, ever, because they’re lucky if they find time between holding down two jobs or being unable to get out of bed and then, once they finally do make something BREATHTAKING, no one will see if because much of the art community is based on who you know and who those people know and most people will never make a living making art. well here we go again, the art of acting weak/fall in love to fail, to boost your CD sales (What? That was legit the first thing I thought of.) I mean. I agree most with point B here - I think this point basically just reinforces “STAY DEPRESSED! DON’T LEAVE A TERRIBLE SITUATION! IT’S INSPIRING!” bullshit in artist’s heads. There are ways around C, of course, and exceptions — lots of them — but I think it’s also true and it’s relevant to RECOGNIZE that the art scene is inherently classist and racist, that certain kinds of oppression are accepted, that certain kinds of ART are okay and others aren’t — that you have to have connections and that if you want to be seen your art is going to turn into a study on what people enjoy and what’s passe and what’s too edgy or not going to sell. Especially more now than when art was assumed to be something you did on commission for patrons (like: people now rarely become beloved gallery artists, posthumous or in their own life time, for their commissioned/gig work, everyone wants to see what comes out of your head.) But yeah, there’s no REASON people can’t be great artists if they’re not oppressed or if they’re in an okay headspace, there’s no reason someone with a hard life can’t make “easy” art, for that matter. There’s no reason your art can’t be about universal concepts or about other people’s reactions to life. Plus all this shit is subjective. I just. It’s bullshit. Telling people they shouldn’t take care of themselves because their art will suck.
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ohwhatatragiccost:

tommilsom:

conradtao:

speaking right to my heart

perf

This is bullshit because A) yes, art should reflect life (OR BE A RESPONSE TO IT) and that includes creating art in response to depression, oppression, and other difficult internal and external forces but that isn’t all art is or can be, great art often comes from observation, from questioning, from thought about things that aren’t inherently personal to you,

B) this really perpetuates that idea that being suicidally depressed or living such a dangerous life that you face death or joblessness or hunger on a regular basis is crucial to making quality art - it isn’t and this kind of belief keeps artists from being in a state of being CAPABLE of peak creation,

C) making art isn’t always but can often be EXPENSIVE and TIME CONSUMING and the people who make art are often the people with the resources and support system to make it. That’s fucked up, but it’s true.

Most great artists who are depressed and poor and struggling? You will never fucking see their art, ever, because they’re lucky if they find time between holding down two jobs or being unable to get out of bed and then, once they finally do make something BREATHTAKING, no one will see if because much of the art community is based on who you know and who those people know and most people will never make a living making art.

well here we go again, the art of acting weak/fall in love to fail, to boost your CD sales

(What? That was legit the first thing I thought of.)

I mean. I agree most with point B here - I think this point basically just reinforces “STAY DEPRESSED! DON’T LEAVE A TERRIBLE SITUATION! IT’S INSPIRING!” bullshit in artist’s heads. There are ways around C, of course, and exceptions — lots of them — but I think it’s also true and it’s relevant to RECOGNIZE that the art scene is inherently classist and racist, that certain kinds of oppression are accepted, that certain kinds of ART are okay and others aren’t — that you have to have connections and that if you want to be seen your art is going to turn into a study on what people enjoy and what’s passe and what’s too edgy or not going to sell.

Especially more now than when art was assumed to be something you did on commission for patrons (like: people now rarely become beloved gallery artists, posthumous or in their own life time, for their commissioned/gig work, everyone wants to see what comes out of your head.)

But yeah, there’s no REASON people can’t be great artists if they’re not oppressed or if they’re in an okay headspace, there’s no reason someone with a hard life can’t make “easy” art, for that matter. There’s no reason your art can’t be about universal concepts or about other people’s reactions to life. Plus all this shit is subjective.

I just. It’s bullshit. Telling people they shouldn’t take care of themselves because their art will suck.

Source: croondata

thedailywhat: Controversial Weekend Read: The gap between the rich and the poor is wider than it has been since the Great Depression, so GQ sent Jon Ronson to profile the secret financial lives of six Americans,from a guy washing dishes for $200 a week to a self-storage gazillionaire, all to answer a single loaded question: When it comes to money, what does it really mean to live in America? [gq] Definitely read the article, it’s incredibly illuminating and interesting.
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thedailywhat:

Controversial Weekend Read: The gap between the rich and the poor is wider than it has been since the Great Depression, so GQ sent Jon Ronson to profile the secret financial lives of six Americans,from a guy washing dishes for $200 a week to a self-storage gazillionaire, all to answer a single loaded question: When it comes to money, what does it really mean to live in America?

[gq]

Definitely read the article, it’s incredibly illuminating and interesting.

amprog: So much for equality of opportunity…  Students from low and middle-income families are less likely to complete college than their more wealthy counterparts — regardless of test scores.  (source: Center for American Progress)
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amprog:

So much for equality of opportunity…  Students from low and middle-income families are less likely to complete college than their more wealthy counterparts — regardless of test scores. 

(source: Center for American Progress)

(via handprintedheart)

Source: amprog

there's our catastrophe: more needs to be said on yarn-bombing, apparently

ourcatastrophe:

winged:

just because people don’t like a form of art you perceive as worthy doesn’t mean that you should degrade another form of art. That doesn’t make other people see the value in traditional tagging/graffiti, it doesn’t draw attention to art as a creative force, all it does is handwave people’s efforts.

(snip)

ohwhatatragiccost:

I have such a super major problem with this. Because, I fully agree, there’s a HUGE and EXTREMELY PROBLEMATIC difference between how things like graffiti are treated by lawmakers and police and how yarn graffiti and seed bombing are. But I think being like, “Oh, white hipster middle class people blah blah blah,” misses the point entirely and means you don’t have enough familiarity with the subject to actually be ranting about it. (snip)

okay, I’ve addressed this before in more conciliatory terms, but it appears I’m gonna have to say it again because a whole string of you are making various defensive YES THANK YOU responses to these two posts (which I’ve edited for space).  this will probably be the last thing I have to say on the topic.  please read my earlier response before you respond to this. 

(snip)

I’m snipping these down because they’re extremely long and I’m going to quote the parts I’m addressing anyway - but I encourage people to click all relevant links, obviously.

If you’re going to quote me, PLEASE DO NOT remove all the points not relevant to you and delete the paragraph spacing as if they were never there. There are ways to indicate that something was abridged (eg: linebreak, (…) linebreak) without changing the meaning of what I said. Or just end it there!

1.   it is flat-out untrue that everyone is at equal risk of arrest and incarceration for doing illegal things, and if you think it’s even relevant to bring up that white middle-class-and-up people are theoretically subject to the same laws as everyone else you are so far out of touch that I don’t know what to say. 

At no point did I ever say this. In fact, numerous times during both my and ohwhatatragiccost’s posts, we mentioned that the treatment of graffiti artists, though improving, is generally super racist and unfair. Obviously in general the treatment of POCs is completely different. If a POC yarnbomber and a white yarnbomber (or a POC graf artist and a white graf artist) were both caught trespassing, they’d be treated differently from eachother: it’s NOT THE ART. It’s SOCIETY BEING FUCKHEADS. Please don’t assume I’m stupid. The only thing I addressed on this point was that both of these things are at times illegal and at times not illegal. The point was not that they are treated equally under the law. The point was that most kinds of street art has been given legal space at times, not that people are rounding up and fining yarnbombers.

I mean, I doubt most yarnbombers are in fact “middle class and up”, but.

Note: You say you’re interested in Australian politics, so I assume you’re Australian, which until investigating your profile out of pure confusion over some of these statements I had no idea. A few of these things are just going to be different for you than for us. For example, I have no idea what the city statutes on street art there are, or if gentrification might be more forced there. But, you’re addressing all of these things like they’re universal, which is a problem to me, and I’m going to address that.

2. if you think that “there is no formal barrier to PoC and working-class people picking up yarn” means that there is no association of a particular aesthetic with particular groups of people then again, I don’t even know what to say to you.  

Again you’re quoting things that were not said, but in this case I’ll let it slide because I DID make that implication and I STILL agree with that implication. I also agree with YOUR implication. Certain groups of people TOTALLY have an aesthetic associated with them. Socially, people assume certain groups of people are the ones producing art. Societally, it is “cool” for certain people to behave certain ways. Of course yarnbombing and seedbombing are more often done by white hipsters! I wouldn’t say spraypainted graf is more often done by black kids - at least not in my city - but I would agree with you that it is more commonly ASSOCIATED with them.

But, you are perpetuating this stereotype via your ENTIRE ARGUMENT. You have just denounced yarn as the oppressive tool of the white middle class, basically, as some signifier of gentrification. By assuming in your argument that the yarn you just walked past had to have been made by some entitled white kid attempting to claim space, and that that spraypainted graf is the ignored output of a POC, you’re also implying what behaviors elicit what reactions.

I’m goddamn sick of it, and that’s why I brought it up, because it’s racist bullshit for my friends to get told they’re “too white” or “not really black” because of the way they dress/speak/act/music they listen to/hobbies they have/career aspirations/fucking neighborhood and then also have to deal with the added bonus of getting treated like shit for their skin color. When you associate an entire issue with whiteness, you are telling everyone around you that people who do that aren’t POC.

NONE OF YOU have addressed the issue of the potential negative effect this kind of public art has on the communities it is found in.  It is aggressively gentrifying. (…) and yeah, “just making the neighbourhood nicer for the residents” can be/precipitate gentrification — who decides what “nicer” is? 

Yeah, you’re absolutely right, only rich white people like flowers or brightly colored decorations. That’s why poor neighborhoods are universally grey concrete spaces. Poor people actually don’t like color, it’s genetic.

 ….all sarcasm aside, I feel like there’s a legitimate misunderstanding of both the way seedbombing usually happens and also the usual process of gentrification. No one walks into a workingclass neighborhood and goes, “Well, golly, I bet I could move in here and make this whiter! Put up the yarn flag!”

What usually happens is, poor artists move to an already poor neighborhood and create art, middle class people want to hang out with the artists to look cool, society (because it’s fucked) then views the neighborhood as less dangerous because it’s got more white people on the street, and slowly business moves in and the land value increases. Land value can also increase because of people in a poor neighborhood making change THEY WANT, such as making the streets safer, better paved, fixing roofs, getting loans to start a business, etc. Unfortunately, this also typically brings in gentrification because the value is now higher.

Seed bombs, otoh are practically the ANTITHESIS of gentrification. If they’re made right, they should be able to be tossed into a vacant lot and left alone. They’re wild native flowers, usually weeds, because those grow quickly and take hold between cracks without any gardening necessary. You shouldn’t have to tend them. As a result, they don’t look like anything planned, any of the fragile imported flowers that usually accompany development. White upper-middle-class yards would never tolerate  dandelions and queen anne’s lace stalking up through the dirt: it would be plowed over and replaced with unnatturally green grass or perfect pavement. I have never yet heard of a person intentionally going into a mostly POC neighborhood to somehow…make it safer through flowers?!? or even like, covering a plot with seedbombs. 

Of course you have the right to critique art. But this isn’t tying a dog to a stick and letting it starve to death. You’re not critiquing ONE INCIDENCE that can be analyzed. Not all tagging or seedbombing is meant to affect the world. Sometimes it is a deep political statement and sometimes it only accidentally means anything to anyone but the artist. But deciding as a whole that because sometimes yarnbombers are white, the entire craft is worthless, doesn’t speak to me of a deep respect for public art.

Anyway, that’s my last word on the subject because this whole thing is way too long.

A People's Movement for Housing Justice Builds In Chicago

More than 174,000 homes throughout the city currently sit vacant. While these properties remain unoccupied, creating safety hazards for communities and bringing down the market values of neighboring homes, over 93,000 Chicagoans live homeless. This bitter reality, that there are nearly two empty homes for every homeless Chicagoan, illustrates the deep injustice of a housing system rooted in profit drive and built on a house of cards.

This article is really moving, and important, and it’s good to read about some activism around these issues.

nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
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nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info
nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info
nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info
nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info
nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info
nova-bright: fitbxtch: No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers. None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50. These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity. Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have. Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do. Here is my patience for food shame: none at all. This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home. Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already. And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay. Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does. But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.
Zoom Info

nova-bright:

fitbxtch:

No excuses, just do it! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that dried cranberries > Twizzlers.

None of these are true, in any economy, especially Australia. For fucks sake dried cranberries cost up to $4.50.

These have all been debunked, multiple times. Pretending that fresh produce is available safely, at cost, in range of tour house, is worth it v storage to the poor is the height of classist stupidity.

Fresh produce is fucking expensive. The energy needed to get it, transport it back, store it effectively and without waste, and to create meals from it is something a lot of poor people do not have.

Do you know what it feels like to know you have $5 to last you four days, no food at home, and there is a box of no name chicken nuggets, and you can save enough change from it so that you can afford the bus to school one of those days? I do.

Here is my patience for food shame: none at all.

This rant isn’t aimed at the person I am reblogging this from, it’s aimed at the cruel ignorant privileged idiots who crated these images. I challenge everyone across the world to try to match the prices given here for fresh produce. In Australia, we can be looking at anything from three to five times more expensive than these images suggest

Yeah, well and the thing is as Erinna brings up, to FIND such prices (and I mean, in Chicago you CAN find fresh produce or healthy food that is comparable in price to a whole KFC meal or whatever, if you look for it), you might be driving all over town (so add gas or transport fees + time), and then you have to cook it (more time) and also, fresh produce goes bad so you better buy enough to cart home.

Some days you get home from one, two jobs at odd hours and you just don’t want to cook, much less drive all over the place AND cook. Some of these things require cooking for an hour including prep time - after getting them home. You could do it, but that definitely makes the value go down while the price may be higher. Sometimes you have kids to pick up from school and/or consider the eating habits of (for better or worse). Sometimes you have errands you need to finish already.

And you know, sometimes it TASTES BETTER and that’s okay.

Also a lot of these pictures aren’t whole meals. Who planned what was bought here?! You’d need…bread. Condiments. Spices. Butter. Milk. I know that sounds stupid but it’s completely ruined a whole shopping trip that I’ve made before. “Well, shit, I have no bread or milk.” At the same price point you could get a WHOLE MEAL. This also assumes you have a lot of cooking supplies, appliances, and a working stove, oven, microwave, refigerator/freezer and/or sink. Not everyone does.

But the idea that these things are equally accessible - which they’re not - much less equally priced - which they rarely are - is just wrong.

(via mercy-misrule)

Source: fitbxtch

the problems with lines

Drawing doesn’t stop me from thinking, and so here I am blogging.

I was thinking about appropriation, and disability, and I think the real problem with declaring that someone else’s experiences are not only not the same as yours but appropriative of yours is that many times we forget that diagnosis is a privileged state.

I say this not in defense of myself, or to justify real hurts that have been and will be done on a regular basis, or missteps, or mistakes. It is never okay to tell someone that their real life experiences aren’t real, that they’re not important, that you all experience things for the same reason, that they can get through it: it is never okay to make ANY assumption about another person.

But that’s my point, a little bit.

The ability to put a name to something is more powerful than we can possibly describe. I can’t count how many people I’ve known with - anything - going on with them who have sighed, “I thought it was all in my head” or “it’s so good to finally know what to do.”

And there are many, many people out there who simply do not have access to that experience. Diagnosis assumes you have a doctor. It assumes you can get to that doctor. It assumes that you have health insurance or otherwise financial ability to get to that doctor. It assumes that your loved ones think it’s appropriate and plausible that you need to see a doctor. It assumes that the doctor that you see is correctly diagnosing you or even gives a damn. It assumes you know what to ask that doctor and that you are educated enough to know there is anything to ask.

That’s a lot of assumption you’re making about someone when you decide whether or not someone correlating their experience with your own has the right to be doing that.

Disabilities, particularly neurophysiological or mental disabilities, are not handed out on a card at birth, nor are a host of other things it would be nice to know. You don’t get to be told (or tell your parents): Epilepsy. Fibromyalgia. ADHD.* Even if you do have access to medical treatment, most people take a long time figuring out what they need to know about themselves and their coping mechanisms - and that assumes their parents or loved ones allow them to deal with it.

For instance, I have epilepsy. The kind of epilepsy I have is one that in many kids, goes undiagnosed for a very very long time; the only reason I know is that I have a bunch of different kind of seizures and my mother happens to both have epilepsy and be a doctor, so my reports to her didn’t get brushed off. Many kids with juvenile absence epilepsy get diagnosed with ADHD or depression, brushed off as slackers, or even in rare cases extreme things like oppositional defiant disorder because of the “zoning out” and mood swings absence and focal seizures can cause. Similarly, something like TLE (temporal lobe epilepsy) with simple partial seizures could be COMPLETELY ignored or misdiagnosed since it could manifest for many years as emotional fluctuations or persistent weird tastes or even aural hallucinations. 

Having someone describe that they experience certain symptoms is for many people the ONLY way to know they should dig deeper and perhaps check themselves out. This may take someone a long time and the first step is often “hey me too!” (And I don’t just mean disorders; someone might not realize that they too experience body dysphoria. Someone might not realize that they’re queer without experience around a community where that’s acceptable.)  Other people - and this describes me around a lot of things, autism spectrum disorders being just one of them - choose not to pursue any kind of distinct diagnosis or treatment for things they show signs of, therefore not identifying that way, but may have neurological or physiological traits quite similar to someone who falls into that category.

So no, it is never okay to presume that you know what’s best for another person, or that your experience means you know what their experience is. But it’s also presumptuous to assume that someone is not like you because they don’t know that they are.


*I’m just listing things as an example; only one applies to me. It felt weird both to list things that only applied to me and things that didn’t at all. Meh.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

(via izxcp)

I think it’s also a poignant remark on perceived class and how we reinforce that class. We pay for Joshua Bell partly for his talent, but partly because we know we should. We ignore the perceived homeless busker because we know we should. And that’s wrong.

J.R.R. Tolkien & George Orwell Removed From Public Domain

slowglow:

thelibrarianontherun:

“On Wednesday, The Supreme Court upheld a 1994 law which gives copyright protection to body of foreign works that had previously been available for free in the public domain.

The search company (Google, Inc.), which didn’t respond to a request for comment, said in court papers that the restored copyrights could affect more than a million books it has scanned through its Google Books Library Project.”

Whyyyyyy? I was planning on reading the Hobbit online :(

Probably because whoever’s publishing those books would like to make money, just like every other media distributer, rather than have people actually, idk, read.

We don’t have to burn books. We can just make them unavailable to people who don’t have disposable incomes. (And I think I’m realizing more and more that that’s what this is: an issue of wealth and class.)

(via full-of-video-tape)

Source: mediabistro.com