Thinkin Bout You
Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean || Thinkin Bout You
August 2012
if you don’t believe fetishizing homosexuality is a problem, take a look at what mass media has done to lesbianism through out the eighties until now: propagated the idea that it’s a “kinky” side adventure for men to enjoy in a heterosexual relationship but not a real lifestyle, how many times you’ve heard someone ask you or your female partner or you’ve heard or seen someone ask a lesbian and her partner “can i watch?” and then ask you/them invasive personal questions as though a lesbian relationship is public domain. it’s been taught en masse that these relationships are public domain and only exist specifically as temporary, exotic bedroom activities.
think about that; how many instances in pop culture there are of undermining the reality of these relationships by demeaning them as less than real. there are examples of married men in any number of films, specials,and television programs flippantly ask their wives to invite another woman into the bedroom to “spice things up” or fulfill their fantasy with no more reaction to the request than a joking, snide comment, treating the relationships as comedy, female pop stars making out with other female pop stars for shock value and ratings, participating in these things flippantly, and acting as though they’re less deserving of the respect that their heterosexual counterparts earn because they’re not serious, just theatrics.
then look at male homosexuality, how the media today is beginning to do the EXACT same thing to those relationships, promoting queerbaiting and playing up subtext to make commercial profit, and tell me just how you believe it’s not a problem when it’s this kind of debasement and dismissal of these relationships as serious and real that is contributing to everyone in a committed homosexual relationship having their sincerity called into question and their rights debated over while they have to fight tooth and nail to prove that they’re not acting or lying because the idea that homosexuality is an actual sexuality and not a heterosexual’s invented bedroom fantasy flies in the face of nearly everything you hear, watch, or read.
#if you deny the existence of queer fetishization you are probably guilty of queer fetishization
y’know what i hate
when girls are afraid of lesbians and guys are afraid of gay men just because they’re afraid of them “hitting on them” or s/t
like wow don’t flatter yourself no sensible queer person is going to be attracted to you when you’re such an asshole
“it sometimes seems that the distribution of wages is, to a first approximation, the exact inverse of the social utility of work. Thus the workers closest to our most fundamental needs—food and shelter—are non-unionized residential construction workers and migrant fruit pickers, lucky to even earn the minimum wage. At the same time, bankers are given millions for the invention and trade of sophisticated credit derivatives, even though most of their work is equivalent to—and as we’ve now discovered, quite a bit more destructive than—betting on the outcome of the Super Bowl.”
—Hipsters, Food Stamps, and the Politics of Resentment (via denyinghipster)
“In far too many states, those who have been forced into commercial sex are the ones who are prosecuted when they get caught. And those who exploit these people, either by buying or selling them, are rarely prosecuted. This creates a situation where those who are coerced can barely tell the difference between their abuser and the state. From their perspective, at least their abuser offers love and support alongside the abuse. If we want to make a difference in the lives of those who are coerced into commercial sex, we need to make certain that they are supported, not punished. And we need to make sure that exploitation is one of the riskiest things that people can do.”
—
- What Anti-Trafficking Can Learn From Sex Workers: The Dynamics of Choice, Circumstance and Coercion (via dontsellbodies)
Everyone please research the organization GEMS: Girls Education & Mentoring Services. From their website:
“Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS was founded in 1998 by Rachel Lloyd, a young woman who had been commercially sexually exploited as a teenager. GEMS has helped hundreds of young women and girls, ages 12–24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS provides young women with empathetic, consistent support and viable opportunities for positive change.”
(via ashesforjustice)You can learn a lot from someone based on how they react to a POC telling them they're doing something unintentionally racist.
How someone interested in fighting racism responds:
- “I didn’t know that! I’ll avoid doing/saying that from now on.”
How someone who doesn’t care about racism responds:
- “Who are you, the PC police?”
- “Calm down.”
- “It’s really not a big deal.”
- “You’re just racist against white people!”
- “There are bigger battles to fight.”
- “I don’t complain when someone does (rude but not racist thing against white people)!”
- “My (POC) friend says/does that all the time!”
- “I was trying to APPRECIATE you!”
Fact: If your argument involves any of the following, it’s not an effective argument.
“You’re as bad as the people you’re trying to fight!”/”You’re promoting racism with your response!”
Baseball and Racism
I don’t see how whenever a POC makes a post about their experiences, someone feels the need to derail it and make it about themselves or some other issue (gay rights, feminism, etc). It’s simple logic, really. Let’s compare racism to sports.
I don’t play baseball. I’ve seen a few games, bought a few trading cards, and I know a few people that are super into it. But I would never hop on a post about baseball and say *“well, I play tennis so I know how annoying it is when the other tribute gets a touch down and has to shoot from the tardis using the baseball Dumbledore gave me from Camp half-blood.” I know better. Because I don’t play baseball. I don’t understand what it’s like to play baseball, I don’t identify as a baseball player, or even really understand all of the rules. So why would I feel the need to say anything at all?
*this is how most white people sound to POC when they derail a post
“The thing about cultural appropriation is that it takes away a person’s cultural identifiers and gives them to everyone.”
—
- Ceci
—-
I dig this quote so much because it sums up exactly why cultural appropriation is so problematic. People within a culture learn cues that tell us how to find others like us. When you (from outside) take those things and misuse them, it is confusing at best and disrespectful at worst. The power that social cue once held is now fashionable option for anyone who has that fancy. Once again, when am I allowed to have ownership of my own communities without people coming in like, “Oooh, that’s cool! I’ll take two please!”
It’s just… NO.
You can’t.
Stop taking other people’s shit.
Get/Make/Create/Appreciate your own.
(via jakigriot)
but why not borrow things from other cultures, particularly food? Plus I wouldnt be Orthodox if I DIDNT learn to deny my own culture a bit and Im more than thankful for that. I appreciate other cultures I dont see why people are adamant about cultural appropriation I think we should all imbibe a world appreciation.
(via lessonsaboutbeingpatrick)
Ummmm…
How the hell do you borrow something without asking??? That’s called stealing last time I checked. And if you ask and motherfuckers say no, that’s called manifest destiny. AKA THEFT. AKA APPROPRIATON.
Nobody needs you to appreciate they shit. Your outside approval was not needed. They were already appreciating it before you showed up, booboo. Then you got greedy hands and wrote your name on it and try to tell someone it’s because it was SO AWESOME that you had to touch all over it?
NO.
NEXT.
BYE.
You know its people like you that make me hate this website
Stop being so childish
Kthanxbai
(via lessonsaboutbeingpatrick)
The thing about cultural appropriation is that a lot of people think it’s a purely negative thing and act like the world is an entirely static place. Things that could potentially be considered “culturally appropriated” include most technologies (what if North America put up a stink every time somebody outside of our culture used electricity or cars?), art forms, religions (many modern religions are based on older variants from outside cultures), ideas (like algebra), and medications. It’s all sort of a part of living in a globalized world. Sometimes that’s a negative thing, but isn’t there always a trade off to stuff like this?
(via erikaeriksone)
There is a difference between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation. I’m not feeling generous tonight so Google it.
—
You know its people like you that make me hate this website
Stop being so childish
Kthanxbai
(via lessonsaboutbeingpatrick)
I keep forgetting there are people of color who think that white people face racism. Who think that white privilege isn’t a thing. Who are buying all the lies of white supremacy and don’t even realize it. Who are so stuck in philosophical possibilities and dictionary definitions, that they aren’t aware of how the real world works. Sure hypothetically speaking, in an alternate universe that has a different history than the world we live in, white people could face racism. Or in the future, where people of color gain control of the world and set up our own rules white people could face racism. But the fact is that in this world, in this time, white people don’t face racism.
Sigh. I don’t even know what to do with you folks. I really don’t.
—nappyedges
The Big Bang Theory is racist.
I’m writing this post in response to a question someone posed me (see below), but also because it’s something that I’ve believed and wanted to talk about for a pretty long time now. Before you tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about - I’ve seen every single episode of the show ever aired.
I realize that a bunch of you may like and enjoy the show - please don’t take this as a personal condemnation that you’re a racist for watching, just please read what I have to say carefully and examine the harmful stereotypes that are so prevalent in one of the most popular shows on TV today.
I’m going to start out with one very specific example which is incredibly typical of the show, and then I’m going to go into character profiles of Raj (the Indian character) and Howard (the Jewish character) and what exactly is racist about the way they’re written.
Here’s a piece of dialogue from the Season 5 opener. Penny (White woman) got drunk with Raj (Indian man), and they passed out and woke up in his bed. It should be noted that they’ve been friends for the last four years. She thinks they may have slept together, and confides in her friend Bernadette (White woman)
Amy: Do you know the story of Catherine the Great?
Penny: No
Amy: She ruled Russia in the 1700’s and one night when she was feeling particularly randy she used an intricate system of pulleys to have intimate relations with a horse.
Penny: I’m sorry, what does this have to do with me?
Amy: She engaged in inter-species hanky panky and people still call her great. I’m sure your reputation can survive you shagging a little Indian boy.
Do you see what’s wrong there (aside from the historical inaccuracy, Queen Catherine didn’t actually fuck horses)? Hint: they compared bestiality to “shagging a little Indian boy.”
That’s right, children, interracial fucking is the same as bestiality.
Oh and the fun doesn’t stop there - later in the episode, Penny runs into Raj, and this dialogue happens:
Raj: As your friend, you might want to know that we didn’t have sex in the conventional sense.
Penny: Oh God, did you pull some weird Indian crap on me?
Yes, Penny, that’s right. All Indian people must be perverts because of the Kama Sutra. Good thing you didn’t let him defile your pure White woman body.
(Below, I shift from the very specific to the incredibly broad - if you want more specific examples, they’re only a Google search away.)
ATTENTION EVERYONE
ALL PRONOUNS ARE MADE UP.
BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT LANGUAGE IS.
MADE UP WORDS.
If you have no problems using the words iPod, google, eftpos, or any of the thousands of others created in the last decade, don’t bitch about ze/hir pronouns.
