Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

blake-wyatt:

at this point reading about post-Brexit news is like following the unfolding of a very nasty and painful breakup, where everyone involved is shouting and throwing furniture out of the window. The UK wants to talk about custody and alimony first, but the EU is seething and asking the UK to take all of its stuff and get the fuck out of their house ASAP, Scotland is taking EU’s side and telling England: look, we’ll always be neighbors and friends but you fucked up so we’re moving out, Northern Ireland is thinking to move in with their folks again, the racist aunt who never liked the couple is celebrating by kicking kids out of her yard, the markets are crashing drunk on the sidewalk and losing money like I lose bobby pins, whereas the rest of us, children of divorce from both sides of the Channel, are left weeping, confused, abandoned, wandering toward an uncertain future and thoroughly fucked over by our parents.

This is a disturbingly accurate explanation.

carryonbazpitch:

I want to be one of those girls that other girls hope are gay too

mellarkish:

it baffles me that theres people who can just… just sit down and take out their homework and be like “time to work yes” and actually…get things done???? without a problem??? and move on?????? thats wild

crumplelush:

winemomleia:

“it would be impossible for this disabled character to be played by a disabled actor because of the things this character can do in this movie” well then maybe…… you fucked up in the writing of this disabled character……

also cgi exists. if you need your disabled character to walk for a couple of scenes use a body double and green screen. this can also be used for trans characters prior to transition.

if it’s possible to make chris evans look 5ft nothing and skinnier than a maypole then it’s possible to cast disabled actors for disabled characters

the-apples-were-monitored:

aparticularlygoodfinder:

sometimestheresgodsoquickly:

iwillrestructureyourface:

As the kid of a doctor and a biologist, let me tell you something that just miiight go over some people’s (*cough cough terfs*) heads:

- XX and XY (or any other combinations - there are others) chromosomes are a thing and are medically important

- genitals are a thing and are medically important

- horomones are a thing and are medically important

- the idea of a “biological sex” is still completely unnecessary. If you have XX chromosomes, you can tell your doctor that. If you have a penis, you can tell your doctor that. If you have high levels of both estrogen/testosterone, your doctor should probably know that already but I guess if you go to a new one you can tell them that. There is no situation in which one has to say “I am biologically male/female”

^say it a little louder for the transphobic educators who tried to tell students otherwise

I teach intro biology labs at the college level, and I try really hard to get all of this through my students’ heads at the earliest possible opportunity. The biological definition of a sex is  l i t e r a l l y just:  

Does this organism produce: many tiny energetically cheap gametes, or few large energetically expensive gametes? 

That’s literally it. There’s no other qualifiers, there’s no other anatomical characteristics involved in that definition, and even that scientific distinction exists on a spectrum! No species of animal ever 100% across-the-board conforms to this sexually dimorphic biological system! There will always be individuals of any largely gametically-dimorphic species that exist somewhere in-between, and there are a number species where the sexes all produce gametes of similar sizes!

IN NO WAY EVER does even that gamete size distinction ever confer gender upon anyone. Chromosomes and genitals and hormones ARE medically important, but these characteristics NEVER dictate gender, and they’re NEVER anyone’s business but your own unless you choose to involve another person in discussions of your strictly physical health. 

There is no such thing as being “biologically [gender]”. The idea is a toxic social construct, and don’t let anyone try to shoehorn you into believing otherwise.

and remember kids: chromosomes, genitalia, and hormones don’t always perfectly line up. 

bigfatscience:

entitledrichpeople:

gehayi:

maggiemunkee:

bigfatscience:

lejean13:

spcsnaptags:

fumbledeegrumble:

bigfatscience:

A common fat-phobic belief is that fat people are fat because they overeat. A recent submission to @facebooksexism​ perfectly illustrates this stereotype and the harmful classist attitudes it perpetuates: 

Like most fat-phobic beliefs, this stereotype is completely wrong.

It is well accepted in public health science that food insecurity – which is the lack of consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living – predicts higher body weight. 

Some reasons for this association include:

• Limited resources and lack of access to nutritious, affordable foods. Heavily processed, low-nutrition foods are usually cheaper, but are more calorie dense and less satisfying to eat.  
  
• Cycles of food deprivation and overeating. Low income people often run out of money for necessities like food before their next paycheck arrives, resulting in extended periods of hunger and starvation followed by periods of compensatory eating when the paycheck arrives. Such eating patterns cause weight gain over time.
• High levels of stress, anxiety, & depression, all of which cause physiological changes resulting in weight gain over time.
• Limited access to health care. Many chronic health conditions, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, thyroid dysfunction, and type II diabetes, cause weight gain when left untreated. 
  

All of this means that systematic oppression causes people to be fat for reasons that are outside of their personal control, and that poor fat people are not lying when they report that they cannot afford to put food on the table. Stop spreading the harmful, oppressive, and fat-phobic belief that you can judge a person’s nutrition or eating habits by the size of their body.   

- Mod D

READ THIS.

Also, as a reminder, the reason that cycles of deprivation and overeating affect the body so much is because we evolved to survive those cycles. When someone goes through a period of deprivation, we have millions of years of evolution that go “OH SHIT WE COULD STARVE BETTER HANG ONTO THOSE CALORIES.” Hence weight gain.

In “How to SURVIVE the Hunger Games pt. 1,” MatPat points out that one of the best way to survive is to put on as much weight as possible–five pounds of fat is 17,500 calories, or enough calories to survive for 8.5 days with no food whatsoever. That’s the point of fat, after all, to have enough energy to live in periods of low- or no food. 

Having to go through cycles of deprivation sets the body into survival mode. 10,000 years ago, having extra fat meant the literal difference between life and death when there simply was no food available. If I don’t have access to sufficient nutrition, my body automatically hangs on to every calorie available and turns it into fat. because it knows that there will be a time when I need that fat to survive. It doesn’t matter if it makes me look “ugly” or “unappealing” because my survival doesn’t hinge on me being pretty, it hinges on me being able to continue living.

While we don’t live in the exact same conditions–here in America, there is food, even if I can’t access it–we simply haven’t had enough time to evolve to change how the body responds to scarcity. 

So saying that someone who lives in a constant state of food insecurity is lying because they’re fat? It’s a profoundly stupid, uninformed thing to think. If you want to worry about obesity, the best way to do it is guarantee that everyone–and I mean EVERYONE–has access to nutritious food. Not ramen, not cheap, shitty, high-calorie low-nutritious food, but good food.

(I live in the fucking future, in one of the richest countries in the world, and yet there are people who don’t have enough to eat. I cannot begin to tell you how infuriating this is to me.)

Access to healthier foods at a low cost would not solve the problem at hand without proper education, though. And there are plenty of nutritious foods that are at very low cost that most people who are worried about getting food on the table should be buying instead of the cheap, but unhealthy options.

Do you honestly think that if the solution to food insecurity was as simple as just buying rice and beans, that anyone would still be starving in the US or Canada? Do you really believe that poor parents are just choosing to let their children go hungry because they are too ignorant and uneducated to know better? Honestly, a person must hold some pretty prejudiced and condescending beliefs about poor people to justify this type of comment.

For the record: Poor people do not need “education” from wealthy people who have never experienced true food insecurity concerning the best ways to live and eat. Poor people are not poor and lacking food because they are ignorant, or uneducated, or lazy. Yes, even poor fat people! Poor people suffer from food insecurity because they experience legitimate social, economic, and physical barriers to accessing adequate food to survive. Period. 

Poor people need to be able to earn a real living wage (or be provided with more than the most basic bare minimums to support both good physical AND mental health – for their own version of healthy – by social welfare programs such as disability, retirement, and SNAP benefits.

We need to not have to balance two or more jobs and sometimes school just to scrape by and be so exhausted from physical and emotional labor required by their shitty jobs where they are overworked and undervalued that leave them unable to cook the nutritious food they want to eat.

We need to be treated like competent human beings because we ARE.

We need rich (or even who are well into “comfortable” range) people to shut the entire hell up about deciding what we need to eat and whether or not poor drug users even qualify as human enough to justify being able to eat.

We need a healthcare system that isn’t dizzying in its ineptitude. After nearly four years of Medicaid not paying for what Medicare didn’t cover I finally got frustrated enough to seek help from a legal aid society. It should not be necessary to HIRE A LAWYER – even one who works pro bono – to get bills paid. I tried four years on my own and I am an intelligent, educated person. I can’t even imagine how people with developmental and learning disabilities and/or the elderly handle this if they do not have a strong support system.

We need to remind you that we ALSO pay taxes that find these programs. We get taxed at a higher percentage, and we earn dramatically less money.

The assumption that there are are plenty of cheap nutritious foods available for everyone omits a serious problem that many American face: food deserts. According to the American Nutrition Association, food deserts are “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers.This has become a big problem because while food deserts are often short on whole food providers, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, instead, they are heavy on local quickie marts that provide a wealth of processed, sugar, and fat laden foods[.]”

How common are food deserts in America? Take a look:

Those are a LOT of places where Americans, especially poor Americans, don’t have access to whole foods, especially fresh fruits and veggies.  You can’t buy what isn’t available in your local grocery.

And you also can’t buy what you can’t afford. Costs are relative. What is cheap to someone who is upper middle class or wealthy may be too costly for someone struggling to make ends meet–and anyone on SNAP has to meet income and resource tests. 

Nor does SNAP automatically pay for everything in the grocery cart. A single person could get, at most, $194 per month. That’s just for food items (hand soap, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, etc., are not covered and must be paid for by the person). Assuming that the SNAP recipient goes shopping once a week, that would permit them to spend $48.50 SNAP credit on food each week in a four-week month. In a long month that contains half a week or so at the end, the food budget might drop to $38.80 SNAP credits per week.

That’s not much money to pay for an entire week’s worth of groceries. And allotments go down as numbers of people per household increase. Two people in a household would get $357 per month ($89.25 per week in a four-week month, or $44.62 for one and $44.63 for the other; $71.40 per week in a five-week month, or  $35.70 for each person). 

And $194 per month for one person (or $357 for two people) is the MAXIMUM. Most recipients won’t get nearly that much. 

So yes. I can well believe that Sharon’s monthly SNAP benefits do not allow her to purchase much food. It’s simple mathematics.

All of this, plus a note that most medical measures of fatness are standardized around abled upperclass cis white men and are far less accurate estimates of body fat, even on broad scale, for women and  people of color.  Physically disabled people and trans people are typically not looked at in general when these measures are constructed, instead they are standardized around abled cis men.  Poor people also tend to be shorter, which measures like BMI penalize.

The demographics of poor people are different than those of wealthy people.

BMI was directly created as a eugenicist ideal and the fact that it stigmatizes women, poor people, and people of color as deviants more is a feature, not a bug.

That combination of stigmatizing fat people and using a measure designed to call poor people, women, and people of color fatter is absolutely also about policing and medicalizing the bodies of the poor, women, trans people, people of color, and disabled people.

^^ This is some spot-on analysis right here. Thank you, I agree with everything you say.

You can read more about the oppressive biases of the BMI here.

novellaqueen:

I WANT GAY ROMANTIC COMEDIES GOD DAMN IT I AM SO TIRED OF THE ONLY GAY MOVIES BEING DRAMATICALLY SAD BECAUSE THEYRE GAY AND SOMEONE HAS AIDS OR SOMEONES A COWBOY OR SOMEONE DIES GIVE ME YOU’VE GOT MAIL WITH TWO WOMEN GIVE ME SIXTEEN CANDLES WITH TWO BOYS GIVE ME SOMETHING

popthirdworld:

President Obama offered to pay for Vice President Biden’s son’s cancer treatment after finding out Biden was considering selling his house to pay for it. That’s really kind but… holy shit. If the *Vice President* has to *sell his house* to pay for healthcare, what chance do regular Americans have? How is anyone still alive in that country?? Australia, do not do anything to creep in the direction of America’s healthcare system. Keep Medicare free. Including frikking pap smears.

enjolrassfrenchrevolution:

If “Do You Hear The People Sing” doesn’t fill you with righteous revolutionary fervor, then I don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

But you’re definitely doing SOMETHING wrong.

roachpatrol:

heroictype:

honestly I love angst but I need it to have a happy ending

there are actually basically two reasons for this:

1. Strictly-fictional catharsis. I like characters in bad situations because I like to see them overcome those situations.

2. There are plenty of situations in reality that can’t or don’t have happy endings, or even endings that could qualify as bittersweet. But in stories? Heck yeah, the characters can find happiness after struggling. So a more real, personal sort of catharsis from that end.

‘well you know in real life the good guys don’t always win’ like bitch please i don’t gotta rely on YOUR depressing ass to learn me this important lesson i fucking KNOW now take those boys and let them kiss 

note-a-bear:

cutiequeercris:

karadin:

A majority of millennial men failed to see women as equals, according to the study, which looked at how college biology students viewed their classmates’ intelligence and achievements, the Harvard Business Review reported.

Among the findings:

• In every biology class surveyed, a man was seen as the most celebrated student, even in instances where women earned significantly better grades.
• Men were also found to overestimate the intelligence of their male classmates over that of female ones.
• Men continued exaggerating their assessments of the male peers, despite unequivocal evidence that their female peers were performing better.
• Women, conversely, weren’t found to display a bias: Their assessments of fellow classmates tended to be spot-on.

The National Institutes of Health researchers pointed out that female STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors drop out at significantly higher rates than their male counterparts.

“The reasons for this difference are complex, and one possible contributing factor is the social environment women experience in the classroom,” they wrote.

Still, scores of men are under the impression that they’ve become the target of reverse sexism. Conservative columnist John Hawkins ranted in Town Hall last year:

“Men have it rougher in America than most people realize. In part, that’s because they’re one of the few groups (along with white people, conservatives, and Christians) it’s cool to crap on at every opportunity. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a nonstop assault on masculinity in America.”

But research has confirmed the reality of gender bias against women. A staggering 90 percent of women reported experiencing gender harassment in the workplace, a 2010 University of Michigan study found. The results suggest that such harassment had the purpose of driving women out of jobs and not the generally assumed motivation of trying to draw women into relationships.

“One could argue that, in these instances, ‘sexual harassment is used both to police and discipline the gender outlaw: the woman who dares to do a man’s job is made to pay,’” the researchers wrote, quoting an article by Katherine M. Franke, an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona College of Law.

As for millennial men specifically, they have been less accepting of female leaders than their older male counterparts, according to a 2014 survey of more than 2,000 adults residing in the United States, the Harvard Business Review reports.

Half of Millenial men said their careers would take priority over their partners’. 

Three-fourths of women, on the other hand, said their careers would be at least as important as their husbands’.

oh look its the shit women have been saying all the damn time and antifeminists stamp their feet and cry about

It’s like they’ve never talked to a dude before…

thefederalistfreestyle:

raindropsonroses123:

So apparently at one point during the American Revolution Alexander Hamilton, Lee and a bunch of troops were all across the Hudson River from the rest of the army, and Hamilton and a few other men were destroying bags of flour so the British wouldn’t get to them (since the British were supposed to arrive soon) and anyway the troops saw the British coming and began to retreat by marching off, but Hamilton and the other few men were left by the shore of the river with a heck of a lot of redcoats approaching. Luckily they had a boat and fled back across the river (under British gunfire), but one man died, another was wounded, and they all bailed and began to swim but made it out ok. However, Lee assumed Hamilton was dead and reported thus to Washington and his aides, and they were apparently all mourning him and drinking to his memory when he appeared in the doorway, dripping wet.

SURPRISE, BITCH

grizzlyinthefandom:

gillianandersunshine:

quartztiger:

gillianandersunshine:

kitterly:

gillianandersunshine:

hazelbeewitched:

vaspider:

lesbiansandthelivingdead:

decalexas:

titaniavs:

gillianandersunshine:

zahraaxix:

gillianandersunshine:

omg when ladies talk about their wives and just say “my wife” I just get so excited and happy because it is all possible and real. it’s so amazing and beautiful

DUDE my teacher canceled class the other day and so the next day we were all like oh no is everything ok?? and shes like “oh yeah its fine its just my wife wasn’t feeling good so i took her home, made her some soup, yknow fun stuff” and i swear everyone in class froze for a sec cuz we never knew she was a lesbian but then we spent a good 30 min of class time discussing whether her wife actually ate the soup cuz we all know she sucks at cooking

that is the best thing I’ve heard all day omg

this is beautiful

I had a professor who would talk in class about her wife and their four daughters and it always made me go !!! inside. like, wooooow, family goals.

In my undergrad, I took a module that had two lecturers teaching it. The first was very butch and would occasionally talk about how brilliant her wife was in the field and would talk about her kids and general family life. Then the other lecturer took over classes, and she would talk about her wife too, and how brilliant her wife was academically. Then they taught a class together and the penny dropped. They were talking about each other and both thought the other was the literal shit in their area of media. 

It’s been delightful for me to watch my friends finally able to get legally married. Every time @crofethr says “my wife” it’s like a chorus of bluejays dance around behind her.

I was at work at a deli a few weeks ago and this group of three women came in pretty late at night. One was the mother of one of them, and the other two were just being really cute and holding hands and cuddling and whatnot. One was leaning on the other and she seemed really tired, so her wife ordered for her and the mom was like, “Married for seven years, they know each others’ orders by heart” and I honestly felt like I’d been blessed

oh my god that’s beautiful

one time a lecturer was discussing all the stupid reasons she’s been called up in front of the board (which include an actual formal accusation of witchcraft) and once a student accused her of homophobia and homophobic statements and she walked into the formal board hearing with her only prepared defense being “remember how I’m married to another woman ok thanks let’s go get lunch” 

dchxhgsfahKasggzjz oh my god

I’m an optician and one day I had 2 women, one blonde and one brunette, come in to pick up glasses. I had the blonde try on hers while the brunette was talking to one of my coworkers. When she put them on I said, “Oh looks like they’re not sitting straight.” Without missing a beat she said “Oh honey, nothing about me is straight,” and proceeded to pat her wife on the butt and say “Honey, did you hear what I said? It was really funny. Honey? Honey, I said nothing about me is straight.”

me too tbh

@solar-powered-socialist

theragnarokd:

trailofdesire:

wishful-thinkment:

justforthearticles:

lunalovegouda:

Those people who constantly reblog your stuff but you never really talk:

I do notice my regulars. You guys are the best.

“Regulars” makes me feel like a bar-tender…

Wiping down my dash at the end of an evening, I see your read-more, over-hear your rant in the tags, so I pour you a drink.

“…what’s troubling you, kid?”

It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday
As the regular crowd tumbls by
There’s an old fandom queen blogging next to me
And her little gray tags catch my eye

She says tumblr I’m feeling like shit today
can you send me some posts for a smile
can we talk about slash, can you fill up my dash
so I won’t have to think for a while

Laa dahdah didee dah
La dahdah didee dah dadum

Fill up my dash, you’re my followers
Fill it with pictures and fic
Yeah we’re all in the mood for some memery
And occasional pictures of dick

Now Jill is a centaur novelist
And she writes of her girlfriend and wife
She reblogs from Toni, who’s in My Little Pony,
And probably will be for life.

As the staff implements wretched changes
And we think of how aliens bone
We are writing a lot about loneliess:
It’s much better than writing alone.

poliitedancesong:

reblog this with what comes up in your tags when you type gay

writing-prompt-s:

As you walk along the Thames pondering what Brexit will mean for you and your family, a soaking wet woman walks up a set of stairs from the river, hands you a package and tells you “Sort it out, please!” before vanishing around a corner. You open the package to find Excalibur.

ANY DAY NOW, FOLKS.

the-bananaman:

clairenovac:

undercoverangryangel:

brainstatic:

Look at me. Look me in the eye. On November the 8th, 2016, one of two things will happen: Hillary Clinton will become president, or Donald Trump will become president. These are the only two possibilities. The superdelegates aren’t going to switch. An indictment isn’t coming. There is no third possibility. There is no space between the spaces where you can hide. Every vote for Donald Trump requires two Hilary Clinton votes to overcome. A Hillary Clinton vote can only be overcome by two Donald Trump votes. If you stay home, a Donald Trump vote doubles its power. This is the real, actual reality of the situation. There is not one other option.

And there’s no ctrl-alt-del for the election. Read up on 2000 if you doubt this.

And to those of us who supported Bernie, he WANTS you to vote for Hillary. If you believe in him and his mission you will follow his advice. He knows that writing his name in, or voting for anyone else besides Clinton, is effectively voting for Trump.

Clinton will be an effective leader. She had experience and will be able to pass at least slightly liberal legislation with pragmatism. Is she the ideal? No, I am still convinced she has no truly held beliefs. But she is sure better than the alternative.

eveningflares:

evangelala:

internet friends are kinda like illegally downloaded friends. you don’t get the physical copy but you still get all the great content

#i’d illegally download you all

icarusacending:

polytropic-liar:

spacepunkstevie:

The only way I’ll accept the hydracap story line to play out is:

• Steve’s busy being a nazi when Bucky goes to check on him and bucky’s like “wtf the fuck”
  
• So he’s like “steve no” and steve’s like “steve yes” and Bucky’s like “that’s only funny when you’re a good guy doing reckless things and not a NAZI doing NAZI THINGS” and steve’s like “(ง'̀-‘́)ง” because he’s a dick now
• but Bucky can win this
• because Bucky’s got a secret weapon
• an assassin you know and love who’s unafraid to step in
• he’s constantly confusing, confounding the marvel henchmen
• EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR AMERICA’S FAVOURITE FIGHTING TRASH CAN
• Deadpool
• so he goes to deadpool like “you know that thing you do where you break the fourth wall or w/e” and deadpool’s like “yeah?”
• “can i use it for a bit?”
  
• so they go off and fight the marvel writers (with swords) and then destroy the new issues (with fire) and then they go to see steve and steve hugs them all and he’s crying and thanking them for saving his characterisation
• and then they go out for ice cream or something

Okay this is all A+ but I’m reblogging for AMERICAS FAVORITE FIGHTING TRASH CAN

This is it. This is literally the ONLY way I would ever accept this.

katfiction2001:

“writers always know exactly where they are going with their work!”

r u sure

“no writer does anything by mistake, it’s all very strategic”

r u sure

“they use symbolism in everything. for example, a simple sentence symbolises directness and-”

R U SURE

Okay listen, just LISTEN, there are totally times when everything has Meaning, like Methods of Inheritance, which is rattling around my Tumblr somewhere.  Literally everything has Meaning and Symbolism because one does not simply write faeries without that.

But like 99.997% of the time I am making everything up every step of the way.

stormthegalaxies:

So Donald Trump is staying down the street from where I live. And today was an unusually warm day and some lady, lord help me, some lady in the store I work at told me it was unusually warm today because the devil was here.

droil:

like honestly with this pacific rim 2 news all i can think about is who fucked stacker pentecost. who climbed mount everest. who dreamed the impossible dream

cuttlefishgarden:

thecube42:

YOU WOULDNT DOWNLOAD A DRAGON

If I could download a dragon all the cops in the world couldn’t stop me

bb-ace:

teawithaview:

Considering the chaos Britain is in right now I’m expecting King Arthur to pop out of his lake any time now

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords sounds like a great idea right now though