“In interviews, Dr. Angelou used the term “prostitute” to refer to her previous employment without rancor or shame. She spoke candidly to her family about it. She told her mother, brother, and son she would redact the information from the book, but only if they were uncomfortable with it. She had no issue whatsoever with speaking her truth. So why do we not know about it, save for hushed whispers and the occasional salacious reference in reports about and interviews of her? What’s so wrong with our beloved and lovely Maya Angelou having been a sex worker and brothel manager?
Respectability politics no doubt play a role in the erasure of her history as a sex worker. With a wide brush, details on it have been painted over by those who won’t acknowledge such a thing, brushing past it to talk about her awards and accolades. But she had no problem stating plainly: “There are many ways to prostitute one’s self.”
It comes to this: there is no way, in the minds of most people, to have worked as a prostitute and not be ashamed of it. Most people believe there is no way to have held this job (and it is a job), move onto other things, and not consider it a “seamy life” or “shameful secret.” To most people, there is no way a woman of Maya Angelou’s caliber could ever have performed as a sex worker. The idea just won’t gel for them, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. Maya Angelou: Poet Laureate, Pulitzer nominee, Tony Award winner, best selling author, poetess, winner of more than 50 honorary degrees, mother, sister, daughter, wife, National Medal of Arts winner, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, consummate and powerful woman, artist, and former sex worker. Yes, the woman you love, the woman we all love, the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou was a sex worker and she proved, in her life and her stories, that there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Respectability politics no doubt play a role in the erasure of her history as a sex worker. With a wide brush, details on it have been painted over by those who won’t acknowledge such a thing, brushing past it to talk about her awards and accolades. But she had no problem stating plainly: “There are many ways to prostitute one’s self.”
It comes to this: there is no way, in the minds of most people, to have worked as a prostitute and not be ashamed of it. Most people believe there is no way to have held this job (and it is a job), move onto other things, and not consider it a “seamy life” or “shameful secret.” To most people, there is no way a woman of Maya Angelou’s caliber could ever have performed as a sex worker. The idea just won’t gel for them, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. Maya Angelou: Poet Laureate, Pulitzer nominee, Tony Award winner, best selling author, poetess, winner of more than 50 honorary degrees, mother, sister, daughter, wife, National Medal of Arts winner, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, consummate and powerful woman, artist, and former sex worker. Yes, the woman you love, the woman we all love, the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou was a sex worker and she proved, in her life and her stories, that there’s nothing wrong with it.”
— peechingtonmariejust in her excellent Tits and Sass post today, “The Erasure of Maya Angelou’s Sex Work History” (via marginalutilite)
peechingtonmariejust in her excellent Tits and Sass post today, “The Erasure of Maya Angelou’s Sex Work History” (via marginalutilite)
“If you were a computer-loving male child who took a lot of shit from your peers, I suspect you heard something similar from the adults in your life. Maybe it was ‘Sure, things are bad now, but when you’re a little bit older, women will LOVE guys like you!’ Or maybe it was ‘That kid who makes fun of you now will be working at a gas station when you run a big fancy computer company and marry a supermodel!’ If you were once young, nerdy and male, it is not unlikely that your future sense of self-worth was funded with a non-consensual IOU from the world’s women. It’s taken me a long time, but at this point I genuinely believe that much of this ‘GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH’ rhetoric is little more than patriarchy’s bespectacled wingman. It excuses the pain that systems of power exert on children by promising little boys future dominion over little girls. It is deeply and massively fucked.”
—
What (Else) Can Men Do? Grow The Fuck Up. | Medium (via shitrichcollegekidssay)
Is it any wonder that when those young geeks and nerds grow up, they don’t become an empathetic and enlightened new breed of men, but rather, even worse incarnations of those who bullied them?
Just go check out the tech, comic book, and video game industries.
(via dating-as-an-asianguy)
The intention behind those messages—that intelligence and hard work are valued more by your peers as adults than as children, that you can grow out of your awkwardness and into a person people love, that the meanness displayed by bullies gets old and that kindness becomes valued (and if these kids are being told this at the same age I was, it’s before bitterness sets in and the kindness turns sour and fake and becomes a tool, at the time when we should be learning that we aren’t entitled to others’ affection so that our gap in understanding doesn’t turn toxic as it inevitably does if we aren’t set right)—is good, but it needs to be communicated in a way where that comes through instead of the message, “You are better than everyone around you and you will get what you deserve, including being granted a woman who fits into your adolescent power fantasy.”
We should be telling these boys, “If you build on what’s good about you and try not to get bitter, as you get older, you’ll be more likely to find people who appreciate what you have to offer,” not, “You are entitled to money, power, and sex, and you will get those things by virtue of your personal brand of greatness.”
(via jean-luc-gohard)
Damn, Stevie just fuckin nailed it.
(via fire-dad)
What (Else) Can Men Do? Grow The Fuck Up. | Medium (via shitrichcollegekidssay)
Is it any wonder that when those young geeks and nerds grow up, they don’t become an empathetic and enlightened new breed of men, but rather, even worse incarnations of those who bullied them?
Just go check out the tech, comic book, and video game industries.
(via dating-as-an-asianguy)
The intention behind those messages—that intelligence and hard work are valued more by your peers as adults than as children, that you can grow out of your awkwardness and into a person people love, that the meanness displayed by bullies gets old and that kindness becomes valued (and if these kids are being told this at the same age I was, it’s before bitterness sets in and the kindness turns sour and fake and becomes a tool, at the time when we should be learning that we aren’t entitled to others’ affection so that our gap in understanding doesn’t turn toxic as it inevitably does if we aren’t set right)—is good, but it needs to be communicated in a way where that comes through instead of the message, “You are better than everyone around you and you will get what you deserve, including being granted a woman who fits into your adolescent power fantasy.”
We should be telling these boys, “If you build on what’s good about you and try not to get bitter, as you get older, you’ll be more likely to find people who appreciate what you have to offer,” not, “You are entitled to money, power, and sex, and you will get those things by virtue of your personal brand of greatness.”
(via jean-luc-gohard)
Damn, Stevie just fuckin nailed it.
(via fire-dad)
Gay men and their Inner black woman?
As a black woman I am disgusted by this. Why do all gay males, especially the white ones, think that they have this inner black woman who is “fierce” inside of them. I know I saw something where Perez Hilton made a comment about all gay men having an inner black woman and then just now I was watching top model cycle 20 and there is this feminine guy on there named Cory. One of the judges, Johnny Wujek wanted this guy to be more masculine and said he knows it’s hard because “we all have this inner black woman” and the guy Cory agreed. And I’m just like WHAT. What is this inner black woman. And it’s not just gay males who think they have this inner black woman. It’s anyone who’s not black who lets their “attitude” come out. Apparently an inner black woman is when you say stereotypical phases such as “aw hellll nawwww” and you add the neck snap or the finger snap and maybe a shake of your pointer finger from side to side and a lip smack. THIS IS RACIST PLEASE STOP NOW. Why can’t black women just be black women without whatever we do or say turning into some sort of label that defines our entire race and who we are as people. I’m not a “sassy black woman” I’m just a woman who is sassy, it has nothing to do with my race. I’m not an overly aggressive fierce loud diva. A lot of the time I’m moody, it’s not an attitude, it’s that I’m depressed. Sometimes I’m quiet, reserved and shy. Black women are not allowed to have emotions other than “fierce and sassy”. The term inner black woman is disrespectful because it paints black women as only having one stereotypical side. And that side is “OOOH HONEY YOU BETTER WORK” or “OH NO YOU DID-INT” I’ve never even said those things.These stereotypes are not who I am. I am many things, I cannot be defined and put into one category and called into play whenever you feel yourself being “sassy” and “fierce.” No you do not have an inner black woman. You do not own me, I am not a part of you. I am my own self, my own personality and you don’t get to try on parts of my personality and say it’s your inner black woman.
Flip The Script by Christina P. Acker
Distinctive hand style lettering is an essential skill for artists and designers. Deftly executed hand crafted letter forms are a nearly forgotten art in an age of endless free fonts. Graffiti is one of the last reservoirs of highly refined, well practiced penmanship. The most reviled and persecuted form of Graffiti, the Tag, is seldom appreciated for the raw beauty of its skeletal letter forms. Most tags are removed immediately, and thus the casual viewer seldom has a chance to discern the difference between entry level and advanced hand styles. Within the pages of Flip the Script, author Christian Acker has systematically analyzed the best graffiti hand styles, contextualizing the work of graffiti writers from around the United States. Acker presents the various lettering samples in a clean organized format, giving the material a proper, formal treatment evoking classic typography books. Buy it here: http://amzn.to/1bdPmKs
recommended post on my dash telling me how to download the xkit extension to block recommended posts. excellent.
One of my least favourite dialogue tropes is when a man tells a woman “you can’t do that” or “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and she says “why? because I’m a woman and therefore too weak to handle this/can’t take care of myself?” or something to that extent and the guy replies with “no, because everyone who tried that ended up with a bullet in their brain” or something equally reasonable and not gender specific that paints him as the rational not sexist guy and the woman as irrational paranoid feminist who searches for sexism in everything. This whole scenario is built on the idea that sexism is over and women’s fears and suspicions don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s also self-congratulatory pseudofeminism bc it’s supposed to make the viewer/reader/listener feel that in this specific work of fiction women are treated respectfully and as equal with men.