Eddie-spielman - Eddie Spielman - Tumblr Blog

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Dame Maggie Smith

1934-2024

“Traditionalists want to make girls wear dresses. Gender identitarians want to make dress wearers become girls. Both are equally regressive.”

— Becca Reilly-Cooper (via lishra)

lesbians with terrible sleep schedules. you agree. reblog.

I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer

If you're new to radical feminism, please don't feel turned away because you feel like you're not a perfect example of the ideology. I don't want any woman to feel turned away from radical feminism simply because she's not "strong enough" to change overnight. Giving up makeup after wearing it every day since highschool is hard. Removing sexist slurs from your vocabulary when you used to say them very casually is hard. Not shaving after doing it since puberty to avoid being bullied is hard. After years and years of performing in these ways and being praised for it, it takes active effort to give it all up for the sake of your new found understanding of feminism. Stripping yourself of all these things the patriarchy deems good brings up so much raw emotion and anxiety. It can be easy to mess up when you've been doing these things for potentially over a decade. If you're trying your absolute best to change, putting in a consistent and conscious effort, then a "relapse" doesn't undo all the work you've done. Keep pushing forward, keep learning, and keep doing better. You deserve to revoke the patriarchy's hold on you.

oh my god

you have to let yourself be a weird woman or you will not survive

I wish women did not feel so strongly about the fact men, on average, are physically stronger than them. I feel like women have such negative feelings about this that it drives them to ridiculousness. Listen, I get it. I get it, I get it, I get it. The fact men are stronger is frightening. It’s scary to know that if a man decided to physically attack you then you are probably fucked. The USWNT, women who have spent years honing their skills on the field, lost to teenage boys who—when compared to the women—were basically just beginning to develop their talents. I understand how demeaning that can feel to every woman who hears this fact. I can imagine how demeaning it was for the USWNT. I’m sure every woman has been in a situation, playful or threatening, where they have tested their strength against a man and lost miserably. I’ve seen videos where women hit and slapped men with genuine rage and fury and the man barely even flinched. I understand how embarrassing and scary it can be to come to terms with the strength disparity between men and women, but you simply must come to terms with it. Far too many women have taken to pretending that it's not there—this is not a good approach.

Women choose to pretend it's not there because acknowledging that it's there makes them feel inferior. I ask women to remember that this world was built with the ideals of men in mind and to cater to their specific strengths. Men value strength and violence so of course the world is going to seem like those two things are all that’s valued in it. It's no coincidence that many male heroes are physically strong/easily able to cause harm—such as Naruto or John Wick or the Avengers. Of course it feels shitty, as a woman who inhabits this world, to have to acknowledge that your biology generally prevents you from being able to have the ‘can beat anyone in a fight’ type of strength that gets constantly praised.

However, I implore women to consider that men being physically stronger than them is no more of a significant fact than women being able to give birth while men cannot. Women also have biological advantages over men but when was the last time you saw a man calling himself inferior because of them? Imagine if the world was built with female advantages in mind. Imagine a world where the ability to give birth was seen as some sort of pinnacle of human worth. I mean, the ability to give birth is crazy. You are literally creating a whole new life. The female body is capable of providing the necessary tools to bring about a whole new person. Every brain that has thought of something life changing and every hand that has built something new was brought into existence by a woman’s reproductive system. Every single person that has ever so much as breathed was brought to life by a woman, but men never think women are superior for this fact.

Oh, but women couldn’t get pregnant without men, right? No. IVF exists. But even without it, the correct thing to say would be that women cannot get pregnant without sperm. A woman can get artificially inseminated. She never has to go out and find a man to have sex with. Is that not an advantage? Because, I mean, what can a man do if he wants to have a child but no woman is willing to give him one? Hire a surrogate? That comes with a list of complications, is far more intimate than artificial insemination, and is incredibly expensive. How is that not a disadvantage of being male? You may be thinking that you, as a woman, never want to become pregnant, but that is not the point!  The point is that it's arbitrary to look at biological advantages as anything other than completely neutral.

Women also survive famine better and live longer than men. Imagine a world where women held this over men’s heads? But we don’t live in that world. In this world, I’m certain a man would say that they die sooner because of being braver, taking more risks, and doing dangerous jobs. However, if it were women putting themselves in danger and dying as a result, men would not be quick to call us brave; they'd call us the opposite. Idiotic. Foolhardy. Too stupid to take the necessary precautions to keep ourselves alive.

It is just so painful to see women lamenting over the physical disparity between men and women. Let it go. Consider being neutral on the subject of biological advantage. Consider that male strength isn't something to pretend doesn't exist and isn’t something that proves women are inferior.

I understand that acknowledging vulnerability is against the survival Instinct—I get it—but come on. How can we let this get to a point where we’re saying it’s okay for males to enter female sports and beat the absolute crap out of/wipe the floor with women? Them being stronger is neutral! It does not mean anything! But it’s fact. Pretending it’s not only serves to put women in a losing position. Pretending it’s not only serves to make women into a laughing stock. Men will gladly collect medals that belong to women—they’ve been doing that forever. If there was no reason for male and female leagues then there wouldn’t be any. You cannot deny your way into something being true. I also wish it were true that the average woman was evenly matched against the average man, but it’s simply not reality. In the same way that it’s not reality that the average woman is taller than the average man.

I am begging women to think neutrally about this topic instead of being in such deep turmoil over it that they open the door for men to walk all over us.

oh wow

“how did you get into writing” girl nobody gets into writing. writing shows up one day at your door and gets into you

If I actually started an online radio broadcast, how many of you would be interested?

I was thinking of starting one, playing a variety of music, and having periodic talks about current women's issues and activism. It wouldn't be hard to start up one online.

Trying to gauge interest, because I don't want to put money and effort into it - if no one is going to tune into it.

If you vote yes, please reblog for reach - so other radfems might see this. Thank you.

No nuance, I need concrete responses. I want to do this, but I don't want to waste money if people don't actually care about it. Please do not answer "yes," if you do not actually intend to tune in, if this is actually made and shared.

My idea is to play music, ad-free, and spend a certain amount of time daily discussing current events for women, feminism, and so on. I might also host discussions with other radical feminists, if there's enough interest.

There's a service that would let me create a website/page for it, and an application for Android and iOS.

It would, of course, be ad-free and non-profit/donation only. If I wanted to run it full-time, I would need to encourage regular donations to manage that obviously, but I will never allow ads or do any kind of "sponsored content."

It would be music, feminism/feminist news, and discussions with other radical feminists, and only that. And I hope it would also help raise awareness. But I figured since I have the username, maybe it would be cool to make it a reality.

And maybe, one day, if I have the funding - create a real, legitimate, physical radio broadcast station, and start broadcasting stuff that way too.

If any of you ladies have any thoughts about that, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. I think a broadcast just for us women, without ads or any sexist bullshit, would be fantastic.

Any music played will be screened first to ensure they do not contain sexist lyrics or messages of any kind, and woman-made music will be strongly prioritized over anything else.

there are, and I say this with 100% confidence, no flaws on any woman's body

twitter account link

Introducing the Radical Feminist Library!

Hi Radblr, I'd appreciate if you shared this link! I've accumulated hundreds of books from the second and third waves to create the Radical Feminist Library ! ++(Library on another site) The link is available to everyone, and feel free to share it with others.

If you have any book requests, or EPUB requests, send me a message! I'll see what I can do.

If you'd like to follow me on twitter, my handle is the same as on here.

My pages are meant to talk about radical feminist theory & feminist + lesbian history. Thanks for sharing!

this is incredibly important. when my dad had a heart attack (he's fine now) he said he felt a numbness in his arm and then in his chest. female heart attacks are so different!

A nurse has heart attack and describes what she felt like when having one

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard. 

 FEMALE HEART ATTACKS 

 I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is description is so incredibly visceral that I feel like I have an entire new understanding of what it feels like to be living the symptoms on the inside. Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have… you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor the we see in movies. Here is the story of one woman’s experience with a heart attack: 

 "I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, ‘A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up. A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you’ve been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you’ve swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn’t have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation–the only trouble was that I hadn’t taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m. 

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. ‘AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening – we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven’t we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I’m having a heart attack! I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn’t be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else… but, on the other hand, if I don’t, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment. 

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics… I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn’t feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in. I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don’t remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like ‘Have you taken any medications?’) but I couldn’t make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery. 

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents. Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand. 

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men’s symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn’t know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they wake up… which doesn’t happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you’ve not felt before. It is better to have a ‘false alarm’ visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be! 2. Note that I said ‘Call the Paramedics.’ And if you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what’s happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor – he doesn’t know where you live and if it’s at night you won’t reach him anyway, and if it’s daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn’t carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later. 3. Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it’s unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive to tell the tale.“

Reblog, repost, Facebook, tweet, pin, email, morse code, fucking carrier pigeon this to save a life! I wish I knew who the author was. I’m definitely not the OP, actually think it might be an old chain email or even letter from back in the day. The version I saw floating around Facebook ended with “my cardiologist says mail this to 10 friends, maybe you’ll save one!” And knew this was way too interesting not to pass on.

OPEN LETTER TO UN WOMEN

UN Women has abandoned their mission to advocate for girls’ and women’s rights and equality. Join our United Women for Women’s Rights campaign: sign on to our open letter and let UN Women know that vilifying women who know that men are not women is incompatible with protecting girls’ and women’s rights.

In a classic DARVO move (“deny, attack and reverse victim and offender”), the recently published statement by UN Women, “LGBTIQ+ Communities and the Anti-Rights Resistance”, accuses those who do not believe in gender identity ideology of hate speech. But the accusations made by UN Women throughout the text are false and detrimental to children and teenagers, women, lesbians and gays, by labeling as hateful the healthy and entirely reasonable questioning of a new ideology that subverts women’s rights

Women! We must sign this letter to UN Women and let them know unequivocally that women will not stand for UN Women advocating for trans-identified males over WOMEN and GIRLS' sex-based rights will not be tolerated!

Sign the open letter HERE

BRITISH COMMUNIST PARTY SAYS SEX WORK ISN'T WORK

Communist Party of Britain

Communist Party statement on prostitution - Communist Party of Britain

The May Executive Committee of the Party considered a draft document on Prostitution from our Women's Commission. This has now been released

To be more specific, they say the mantra "sex work is work" should be retracted by trade unionists and society at large.

Some highlights:

Women and girls should be able to secure well-paid jobs, good housing and education without the need to prostitute themselves. Prostitution is not a genuine and free choice; it is a survival behaviour, mostly engaged in by working class women and girls who suffer economic disadvantage.

Prostitution is inherently violent and requires in and of itself the subjugation of women and girls – there is no form of work where this could ever be acceptable.

Health and safety regulation is impossible in the sex trade: in any occupation that involves exposure to bodily fluids workers wear masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles to protect themselves. Prostitutes can never benefit from these levels of protection because of the nature of prostitution.

Extreme levels of violence, rape, degradation, and humiliation cannot be regulated against as they are part and parcel of prostitution. Such levels of harm against workers in work would never be tolerated. Women in prostitution experience more physical and sexual violence that women on average. A study by Germany’s federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth reports that 41% of women in prostitution experience physical or sexual violence, or both, in the context of prostitution.

The sexual sadism that prostitutes are exposed to causes the type of physical internal injuries and psychological trauma that should never be accepted in the world of work.

The murder rate is particularly high in the sex trade. Prostitutes are almost nine times more likely to be killed than soldiers in combat. Legalisation of the sex trade does not protect the lives of prostitutes. Since Germany’s legalisation of the sex trade in 2022, there have been 85 homicides of prostituted persons committed by clients. In addition, there have been at least 49 attempted homicides.

Pregnancy and even multiple pregnancies are risks arising out of prostitution which have adverse implications for the woman herself, for children born out of prostitution, and for society itself. This should never be accepted as an overhead of “employment”.

The high levels of substance use necessary to enable prostitutes to cope with the abusive practices of the men who buy sex should never be tolerated in the world of work.

Alternating bolding for readability.

Highly suggest reading the whole thing!

sha sha higby in the costume-maker's art: cloaks of fantasy, masks of revelation - thom boswell (1992)

Can we stop with the type of feminism that tells women aspects of their bodies are “beautiful flaws” and start teaching them that it’s their natural female body?

Calling it a “beautiful flaw” “gorgeous imperfection” sounds nice until you realize it’s still something viewed as “wrong” with your body. A flaw is a mistake, something not intended. That bit of fat on your lower lower belly isn’t an “imperfection,” it’s protection for your uterus. Your cellulite isn’t a “flaw” it’s a secondary sex characteristic. Your body hair isn’t unhygienic or gross it’s natural, and your pubic hair not only helps prevent STIs better, but also yeast infections.

Stop calling a natural female body flawed. It’s not fucking flawed.

dear fellow radfems,

i cannot tell you what to do with your life but i need to warn you that you’re poisoning your psyche by spending every waking moment reading about horrible things that happen to women. it’s not good for your mental health to know about every femicide and rape case, i know you reblog this stuff to spread awareness but ultimately what you’re actually achieving is terrorizing yourself

"If you are female, expressing hatred for your own body is not just acceptable, it’s practically de rigeur. Failure to indulge in the requisite amount of self-flagellation – my thighs! my skin! my face! – isn’t just negligent, it’s unfeminine. Self-hatred is fundamental to how femininity is constructed, more fundamental than any of the more obvious external symbols (dress, make-up, shoes). What matters is not that you are beautiful, but you know your place in the beauty hierarchy (and since every woman ages, every woman’s place will eventually be somewhere at the bottom).

Young women are encouraged to bond over their dislike of excess body hair, surplus flesh and “uneven” skin. They are meant to do so in a jovial way, egged on by perky adverts informing them what “real women” do: worry about having underarms beautiful enough for a sleeveless top, celebrate curves with apologetic booty shakes and cackle ruefully over miserable Sex-and-the-City-style lunches of Ryvita and Dulcolax. It’s a gendered ritual; men get football and booze, women get control pants and detoxes. We are supposed, of course, to be grateful. Hey, you don’t have to be perfect! Just know you’re not perfect and act accordingly, with the appropriate levels of guilt and shame!

Fairy tale after fairy tale tells us that what matters is being beautiful “on the inside” but what does that really mean? It means submission, obedience and the suppression of one’s own desires. Don’t be haughty and proud. Clean the hearth. Kiss the frog. Love the beast. Suck it up when you’re replaced by a younger model. Sure, you may look fine, but you mustn’t feel fine. You mustn’t be vain. You mustn’t be angry. All fury and pain must be turned back on itself. That way you’ll be a real princess: silent, fragile and never threatening to challenge the status quo."

– Victoria Smith, Almost Famous, real women and the normalisation of self-hate