versacebrain

animatedamerican:

cosima-hauntedhaus:

u kno how when u were a kid u could ride in the car and be totally unaware of anything goin on around the car and just be chill

but then u took driver’s ed and u started learning all the rules and now even if ur just in the passenger seat u can’t help noticing all the shitty things ppl do on the road?

that’s what social justice is like

… that’s actually a really good analogy

well done

tealish-pink:

From, CNN, “Chinese feminists show off armpit hair in photo contest”. 

I was researching Chinese feminism when I came across articles like this, documenting how some women in China are refusing to shave to bring awareness to the sexist expectation of women to have no armpit hair. 

The thing is, having armpit hair was not a concern in China much, until Western influences crept in. Xiao Meili, the feminist who started the armpit hair photo contest, herself stated so:

“Xiao, who became a feminist in college after reading female authors like Simone de Beauvoir, says the aesthetics of silky smooth armpits didn’t become popular in China until around 20 years ago, as American influences swept into the country. Before that, nobody thought showing armpit hair was an issue.

As a small child, Xiao recalled her mother’s indifference over armpit hair.

“She said, ‘I don’t have much of it. Plus it will eventually shed years later. Why would I bother removing it?’”

These days, shaving has become the norm for China women – but it’s not right, says Xiao.” 

And she’s right. See, what I’m mad is that it wasn’t that American influences that seemingly popped up, as the article implies. It was a calculated campaign by Western shaving companies to change beauty standards in China - and they had succeeded. 

When Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB/:LN) brought its Veet hair-removal cream to China in 2005, sales were sluggish. Its prices were considered too high and its product sizes too large. But the biggest problem: Most Chinese women don’t have much body hair, and those who do didn’t worry about it. So the company embraced a new marketing plan. Reckitt Benckiser rolled out ads equating hair-free skin with health, confidence, and “shining glory.” In the process, the company has helped make many Chinese women more conscious of every stray follicle. “It’s not how much hair you have, it’s how much you think you have,” says Aditya Sehgal, the company’s China chief. “If your concern level is high enough, even one hair is too much.”

So it’s not just “[shunning] a trend some say men have imposed”. “Some say” - no, it has always been imposed by men, by companies seeking to make a profit at the expense of women’s confidence. 

What I hate about the articles is that they often talk of armpit hair as some natural taboo, as if it had been a natural fate for women to eventually shave, and Chinese women had befell to this a few years ago. It removes the responsibility from shaving companies, removes them from the picture, so it seems that we only have ourselves, as women, as a supposedly unpredictable society, to blame. 

No, it was the fucking fault of the (male-dominated) Western companies greedy for money, showing that it has never been about ‘choice’ or deciding what’s beautiful for yourself, but profit and control. And in this case, a form of imperialism and the upholding of Western values as natural/modern/refined. 

Not shaving isn’t ‘re-defining’ beauty standards. It’s retaking control.

thetwoteddybeardoctors:

“You shouldn’t be worried about equality, women can vote!” Ah yes now I can choose which straight white man can oppress me what a time to be alive

fefjade:

• i’ve got humor
• i’m the giggle at a funeral
• i know everybody’s disapproval
• you should have worshipped me sooner