(Source: extrapink)

tranqualizer:

Lauryn Hill Ordered by the Court to Undergo “Counseling” Due to her “Conspiracy Theories”

The name of Lauryn Hill’s breakout album was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill but it now appears that the powers that be would like her to record a new album called The Re-Education of Lauryn Hill. After appearing in court for tax evasion, Hill was sentenced to three months in jail PLUS she must attend “counseling” due to her “conspiracy theories”.

According to the IBTimes, Hill told the court: “I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me.” Furthermore, Hill also believes that artists are being oppressed by (what the article calls) “a plot involving the military and media”. Because of these statements, Hill was ordered to undergo “counseling”, which is a way of saying that she is mentally ill and that she needs some sort of re-programming session regain “sanity”.

In 2012, Hill published a thoughtful letter describing the corruption, the oppression and the control of the music industry and her desire to escape it.  In one part of the letter, Lauryn states

“It was this schism and the hypocrisy, violence and social cannibalism it enabled, that I wanted and needed to be freed from, not from art or music, but the suppression/repression and reduction of that art and music to a bottom line alone, without regard for anything else.  Over-commercialization and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual.  I Love making art, I Love making music, these are as natural and necessary for me almost as breathing or talking.  To be denied the right to pursue it according to my ability, as well as be properly acknowledged and compensated for it, in an attempt to control, is manipulation directed at my most basic rights!  These forms of expression, along with others, effectively comprise my free speech!  Defending, preserving, and protecting these rights are critically important, especially in a paradigm where veiled racism, sexism, ageism, nepotism, and deliberate economic control are still blatant realities!!!”

(See my article entitled Lauryn Hill’s Tumblr Letter on the Music Business for the full letter).

wow, way to fucking delegitimize and pathologize the experiences of a Black woman by abusing mental health resources and language to avoid the real shit she brings up. 

"If you are queer, or trans, or have mental illness, or all of the above, you probably know something about the perils of presenting yourself as you really are. Dan-Savage-style coming-out narratives notwithstanding, many of us who are placed socially in these ways find that we cannot be completely authentic in all aspects of our lives. I definitely want to express myself, but I have to balance that against other needs, like being able to make a living in a capitalist society. If I dressed the way I’d prefer to, if I talked more openly about the times when my depression and anxiety prevent me from getting work done, I might find it harder to fit in, to stay attached to a professional group, to stay employed, than I already do. So instead, I wear T-shirts and cargo pants, and I let people think (at times) that I’m merely disorganized or not that committed to what I do.
In my opinion, it takes a lot of privilege to assume either that greater authenticity leads to greater happiness, or that the only reason you would leave who you are at the door when you step or roll into work is the formal, organizational structure of the place where you work."

-Structure and Justice | Geek Feminism Blog (via brute-reason)

marathemara:

alexisturtle:

10000bc:

since abercrombie an fitch destroys its unsold clothes and wont donate bc poor people wearing their clothes gives them a bad image i say everyone should donate as much abercrombie and fitch brand clothing that you have to homeless shelters so you can simultaneously piss off a shitty company and help those in need

why doesn’t this have more notes?

signal boost

Not just the streets; reclaim homes, and workspaces, family structures, and cultural norms.

(Source: fckthestate)

what you said was: "i don't respect women who don't respect themselves"
what you meant was: "i and society as a whole hold women up to ridiculous respectability standards directly relating to the "purity" of said women while hypersexualizing them at the same time and if you are a woman and don't fit my awkward monolith of criteria then i refuse to acknowledge your humanity"
what i heard was: "hi i'm a misogynist piece of shit, please punch me in my face"

"A ban on niqabs in France or mini-skirts in Uganda, or warped legislation on reproductive rights in the U.S. — all these efforts tell women that our bodies are not our own."

-Sara Yasin, Palestinian-American blogger, on the distracting clash that is the hijab debate in the NYTimes
(via alymeetsturkey)

fatbodypolitics:

[Text: The fact that rape threats are a thing says a lot about how rape isn’t a lapse in self-control but often a tool to punish & control others. via @amirightfolks]

Fucking this.

sustainableprosperity:

Cleveland Kidnappings and Military Rapes: When Will We Take on the Pandemic of Sexual Violence? (by democracynow)

Published on May 9, 2013

Watch the full discussion with Jaclyn Friedman on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/kRV9o. Horrific details of the Cleveland kidnapping victims’ brutal physical and sexual abuse are emerging just as the military has acknowledged rampant sexual abuse within its ranks, with some 26,000 assaults occurring in 2012. Jaclyn Friedman, executive director of Women, Action and the Media and editor of the anthology, “Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape,” comments: “If we prioritized women’s safety as a culture, if we prioritized ending sexual violence, we would be pouring massive resources into this. We do into the drone program. Where are the resources being poured into solving this problem?”

Watch our coverage of the Pentagon report on military sexual assaults at http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/8/….

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,100+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Check out our vast news archive and stream live 8-9am ET athttp://www.democracynow.org.

FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:

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Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe

"Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older- know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish."

-Audre Lorde (via littleblackbelle)

"

[TW: Rape]

Rape is not simply acting upon sexual urges. Rape is about dominance and power and violence and control. The intent of sex is mutual pleasure, and that’s never the intent of rape. Let’s be totally clear. Those young men chose, instead of having sex with a willing girl, to rape an unconscious girl. Who could not participate, could not experience pleasure, could not say yes or admire them or share an intimate moment. Those boys didn’t choose sex. They chose rape. And the experience of rape, for both the girl and the boy, is entirely different than the experience of sex. THEY ARE NOTHING ALIKE. RAPE AND SEX ARE NOT RELATED.

How can there be so much confusion about two entirely different things? Perhaps because they are both physical acts that involve the same body parts. Though that doesn’t explain it entirely.

For instance, hands and torsos are involved in both hugs and gut punches, but we know they’re not the same.

Heads are used both for kisses that cause blushes as well as for head butts that cause broken noses, yet we know that they’re not the same thing.

Spoken words involve the mouth, tongue, and larynx, yet we know the difference between friendly conversation and a tirade of insults.

Even if they involve the same body parts, how can there be any confusion between rape and sex?

"

-

The greatest contributor to rape culture (via a-muppet-of-a-melody)

sassycybermen:

“I’m a woman and I’m not offended by this, clearly it isn’t sexist!”

wow I didn’t realise you were the singular spokesperson for 3.5 billion people of different ages, races, religions, backgrounds, sexual orientations, social classes, and cultures, I’m so sorry

"More girls have been killed in the last FIFTY years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in ALL the battles of the 20th century.

More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any ONE decade, than people were slaughtered in ALL the genocides of the 20th century."

-

Nicholas Kristof, Half the Sky

Read that AGAIN.

(via kateoplis)

A Writer's Inklings: [TW: Rape] I am a victim of sexual assault, but I am NOT:

callingoutbigotry:

• A Rolex watch or a fancy car in a bad neighborhood. I am not the basis for a ridiculous victim-blaming metaphor based on theft. I am a person, not an object.
• Your sister or daughter or wife. I exist independently of my relationships with and importance to men. It is…

(Source: cannibalcoalition)