It’s easier if we stay silent and pretend it’s not happening. Because if we speak out about violence against sex workers, we will be blamed for living a “risky” lifestyle. We will be fingered the Whore. Read more
Is allyship privileged? Read more
Men are literally killing women for rejecting them. Until men learn it’s okay to be rejected, no one will be safe. And that’s going to take a cultural shift to turn ‘no’ from an attack to just another word. Read more
Do you watch porn? Do you like to discuss sex on the internet? Do you use the internet to get laid? Those days are short-lived unless we fight to repeal this. Read more
My desire to share my skills does not come from a victim-blaming narrative that would fault someone for not successfully fighting back. Nor am I arguing that learning and practicing self-defense is some kind of imperative. If someone can run or otherwise leave a situation without having to fight, that’s great, and men still need to take responsibility for their actions. But I am interested in the radical liberation that comes from protecting ourselves, and from protecting each other. Read more
The vast majority of my canvassers were queer people or people of color, working hard to change their hometowns by being an active presence in them. And they recognized, cogently, that their own liberation was bound up in the issues of their neighbors, which led to them to reach out their hand and knock on those doors. Read more
Targeting the ‘symptoms’ of autism sounds a lot like ‘curing autism’—but autism is not a disease, it does not need curing. Read more
To be clumsy is not to be fragile: it is to know that one is breakable, and to live (speak, interact) knowing this. Read more
When you wear bell bottoms you can’t help but take up space, and people can’t help but notice you. Fashion has always been used to send messages, or to exhibit social status or wealth. In many cultures, black at a funeral shows you’re mourning, just as a bride in white at her wedding represents purity. Victorian women wore Read more
The irony is that these attempts at narrowing the conversation always end up doing the opposite: If the situation is to blame, why are there so many different situations producing similar results? Why is it a given that men will attack women when in isolation? Why do we simply accept the terror of masculinity as a fact of life? Read more
