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

gazelle-eyed:

maxofs2d:

darksnowfalling:

warpedellipsis:

quasi-normalcy:

meariver:

huntokar:

quasi-normalcy:

No, I’m serious, if women all got together and went into electrical engineering or automotive repair en masse, then ten years later people would be talking about how it was a “soft field” and it would pay proportionately less than other fields.

Likewise, if men moved en masse to bedeck themselves in sparkles and make-up, then suddenly you’d get a bunch of editorials talking about how classy they look.

None of these things are inherently masculine or feminine; none of these things inherently elevate you or drag you down. But whatever women are seen to do is automatically seen as being inherently more frivolous than anything men do. And shaming women for not pigeonholing themselves into a narrow range of acceptable “masculine” behaviours is just going to result in the goalposts getting moved once again.

This is literally what happened to basically every field women have entered. The opposite happens when men enter. Computers used to be a “woman thing” until the guys who did it got really mad about how badly their job was viewed and realized they could fix it by forcing out women.

Also happened/ is happening with the fields of biology and psychology….

I honestly wonder how much of the backlash against public education in the last generation has been due to teaching becoming a woman-dominated profession.

Fashion used to be a men’s thing. Then women got involved in the late 17/1800’s, so men went the other way because it came to be seen as “frivolous” and “anti-intellectual” to care about how you looked. Add in the homophobia that arose around that time, bam, staid bland dress. Ditto leggings/tights, that are now called attention-whoring when on men they were required to show you cared about your figure and had the money to pay for such a fitted item. 

People want to say misogyny doesn’t exist, that male privilege doesn’t exist. Look beyond “living memory” and you’ll find that’s what drives the “inexplicable reversals” society seems to make on many things. Hell, just look beyond your own society, and you’ll find out that what’s considered “for men” elsewhere is held in high esteem while here it’s scoffed at purely because it’s “for women”: 

• Skinny jeans are the height of masculinity in several east Asian societies, rather than being seen as “gay” in the USA because of their association with femininity. 
  
• Medical fields in Russia are valued like kindergarten teachers are here, because it’s women who are the doctors instead of men.
  
• Love and romance are highly valued in eastern countries, because men are interested in it too—of course they would be, surely you want to share your life with someone? Here, it’s strictly a women’s subject.
  

The field of anthropology as a whole illustrates this.

Significantly higher proportions of females compared to males are currently entering the fields of archaeology and biological anthropology, and as this occurs, the prestige, funding, acceptance as valid kinds of science, etc, are fading quickly.

This has already occurred with linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology in particular went VERY quickly from being seen as a manly, scientific discipline (e.g., Franz Boas, Bronisław Malinowski) to being seen as a touchy-feely female thing.

Let’s examine a traditionally male-dominated role that is very well-respected, and well-paid, in many parts of the world — that of a doctor. In the UK, it is listed as one of the top ten lucrative careers, and the average annual income of a family doctor in the US is well into six figures. It also confers on you significant social status, and a common stereotype in Asian communities is of parents encouraging their children to become doctors.

One of my lecturers at university once presented us with this thought exercise: why are doctors so highly paid, and so well-respected? Our answers were predictable. Because they save lives, their skills are extremely important, and it takes years and years of education to become one. All sound, logical reasons. But these traits that doctors possess are universal. So why is it, she asked, that doctors in Russia are so lowly paid? Making less than £7,500 a year, it is one of the lowest paid professions in Russia, and poorly respected at that. Why is this?

The answer is crushingly, breathtakingly simple. In Russia, the majority of doctors are women. Here’s a quote from Carol Schmidt, a geriatric nurse practitioner who toured medical facilities in Moscow: “Their status and pay are more like our blue-collar workers, even though they require about the same amount of training as the American doctor… medical practice is stereotyped as a caring vocation ‘naturally suited‘ to women, [which puts it at] a second-class level in the Soviet psyche.”

What this illustrates perfectly is this — women are not devalued in the job market because women’s work is seen to have little value. It is the other way round. Women’s work is devalued in the job market because women are seen to have little value. This means that anything a woman does, be it childcare, teaching, or doctoring, or rocket science, will be seen to be of less value simply because it is done mainly by women. It isn’t that women choose jobs that are in lower-paid industries, it is that any industry that women dominate automatically becomes less respected and less well-paid.

http://cratesandribbons.com/2013/12/13/patriarchys-magic-trick-how-anything-perceived-as-womens-work-immediately-sheds-its-value/

even in supposedly women-dominated fields men have the highest paid positions (i.e. fashion, librarians..)

academicfeminist:

imperialbear:

peaceful-moon:

lipstickstainedlove:

twilightmaze:

Don’t keep lilies in your house if you have cats.

They will die.

Even if they just breathe in the pollen. Or get it on their fur. They will fucking die. Do not do it.

SIGNAL BOOST THIS SHIT

I did not know this reblogging

“… the most toxic household plants for cats is the common lily. In fact, eating as little as two or three leaves from the flowers can result in liver failure and, if left untreated, can have a fatal outcome for cats.” (Source: PetMD) 

Please take care of your feline friends!

We’ve had several cases of lily toxicity at my work recently. ALWAYS make sure your indoor plants are pet-friendly!

giwatafiya:

dominawritesthings:

thewellofastarael:

mexica-boricua:

skywritingg:

myvaginaisanuclearreactor:

howmanymoredays:

kropotkitten:

Fun History Fact: The overwhelming majority of cowboys in the U.S. were Indigenous, Black, and/or Mexican persons. The omnipresent white cowboy is a Hollywood studio concoction meant to uphold the mythology of white masculinity.

Thank you.

I will always re-blog this

I think it was high school when i overheard some white girl put on her best semi-disgusted and confused voice and go “why do so many Mexicans dress up like cowboys?” and I had to be the person to tell her.

Why do you think the whites say buckero? Cause they couldn’t say vaquero.

I dunno if I reblogged this before but fuck it, y'all gon learn today.

Teach the children.

friendlytroll:

khaleesi:

In honor of Lord Byron’s birthday I would like to remind you all of the time that Shelley and Keats, having not heard from him for some time, became concerned for his safety and it was determined that Shelley would go looking for him. Keats received a letter some time later that Shelley had found him in Venice, where he’d been having so much sex that he’d nearly died from malnourishment and dehydration. Keats’ entire response amounted to essentially, “You should probably have let him.”

“I found him, he’s in a gutter.” “Well go put him back”

ginavstheworld:

Dear White people,

actually…

Dear non-Mexicans,

Okay so, tomorrow is May 5th or Cinco de Mayo, if you’re that type of person. 

And contrary to popular belief, it is not Mexico’s Independence day. That day is September 16th (celebrated on the 15th). So if you believe you are celebrating Mexico’s independence, then you are wrong.

Also, if you wear a sombrero and dress in “typical’ Mexican fashion, then you are being racist. And if you use this day as an excuse to get wasted on tequila then you’re just gross and have reduced a pretty significant day is Mexican history to a day where you eat taco and get bombed on margaritas.

Also, Cinco de Mayo isn’t really celebrated nationwide in Mexico. It’s mostly celebrated in Puebla. Because Cinco de Mayo is also know as “La Batalla de Puebla” or “The Battle of Puebla” where the Mexican army won, despite the odds, the French army during the French intervention in Mexico.

Now, I need you to remember that because it is important. To me, since Puebla is where my mother was born. To my people. And to my culture. 

Cinco de Mayo is not yours to celebrate. It is not your excuse to get drunk on what will be a Thursday.

Now, despite that being said, I don’t mind if you celebrate Cinco de Mayo so long as you know it’s significance and you don’t reduce the day to gross stereotypes.

Respect the culture and Mexicans will invite you over for a cook out and a good conversation. We are not what you see on tv. We are a diverse people who love our culture and don’t mind sharing as long as there is respect.

Respect Cinco de Mayo and Enjoy Cinco de Mayo.

allgreymatters:

words-writ-in-starlight:

mintgal:

honestly the high fantasy genre is suffering because authors can’t stop ripping off tolkien and basing their worlds off the same few shitty medieval european countries complete with Historically Accurate Misogyny™, HF has so much untapped potential for creating beautiful and diverse and interesting worlds and authors just squander it by rehashing middle earth over and over

And like!  I like Middle Earth!  I love LotR!  I do!  But G U Y S.  Pull yourselves out of your hobbit hole and revel in the potential for new and cool shit in your high fantasy worlds.  I read this book where the main character’s literal job in life was to blow up ghosts with enchanted gauntlets, and her main love interest was a pirate king who spontaneously turned into a giant bloodthirsty monster around ghosts and let me tell you a thing, watching them take down corrupt governments was a goddamn delight.

Um, excuse you?

How dare you describe this book and not tell us what the fuck it’s called and who wrote it so I can find it and go FUCKING READ IT RIGHT NOW???

It’s called Geist by Philippa Ballantine and I am scheming to acquire the second one almost as we speak.  I 100% recommend it.  Cool magic!  Cool ghosts!  Schemes and shenanigans!  Airships!  Ship-ships with pirates!  The main character Sorcha is a complicated, individual woman who is never spat on for being a woman!  (I might be wrong about that, but I can say with absolute confidence that anyone who does learns their lesson really really fast and also is a bad guy, because sexist dicks are bad guys, mmmmkay?)  She is also really, crazy powerful and badass and I am a tiny (very small) bit in love with her.

Her runaway-king-slash-pirate-slash-part-time-monster friend/eventual love interest Raed is cool too, I guess, but SORCHA MOTHERFUCKERS.

mintgal:

honestly the high fantasy genre is suffering because authors can’t stop ripping off tolkien and basing their worlds off the same few shitty medieval european countries complete with Historically Accurate Misogyny™, HF has so much untapped potential for creating beautiful and diverse and interesting worlds and authors just squander it by rehashing middle earth over and over

And like!  I like Middle Earth!  I love LotR!  I do!  But G U Y S.  Pull yourselves out of your hobbit hole and revel in the potential for new and cool shit in your high fantasy worlds.  I read this book where the main character’s literal job in life was to blow up ghosts with enchanted gauntlets, and her main love interest was a pirate king who spontaneously turned into a giant bloodthirsty monster around ghosts and let me tell you a thing, watching them take down corrupt governments was a goddamn delight.

mooglemisbehaving:

swearydroid:

Okay, so we all know that Poe went around the Resistance base telling everyone about the Handsome Stormtrooper that saved his life – but what about BB-8? Imagine BB-8 coming back to base and promptly telling everyone about the good brave human who saved his Poe. This is Finn he is so lovely, he is the best of all humans, look at him, be nice to him – he’s a little bit slow – doesn’t understand droid at all but he’s a quick learner. 

And imagine ALL THE DROIDS falling into line, looking after Finn, and Finn is just so nice to them because he remembers what it’s like to be treated like you’re nothing, like you don’t have a personality. And they just adopt him: Finn the best human, they designate him, and R2-D2 – battle-hardened war vet that he is –  teaches him binary but teaches him the bastardised sweary binary that all the older droids speak and BB-8 is innocent and oblivious and C3-PO is scandalised because Finn is going round saying things like fuck me this is hot in this little whistle-beep. 

And whenever Finn sits down he’s surrounded by happy young droids who absolutely adore him, and he is just so nice and all the droids go out of their way to do things for him. 

And yes. Give me sweet lovely Finn with his droid ducklings. 

And when the base is attacked, it’s the droids who turn the base into a deathtrap for the invaders - doors that trap or crush, sanitation systems that break explosively, power that reroutes itself on the fly to keep one squad in the dark while on the other side of the base another entire squad is electrocuted courtesy of a misfiring sprinkler system - and at the helm coordinating everything is Finn, knee-deep in young droids chanting reports from every part of the base in between best human, best human, BEST HUMAN.

toukos:

u ever have that friend where ur like. yes lets get an apartment together. lets adopt 200 cats. lets DO IT

etruscanaesthete:

• why are literally all short people so angry
  
• how do all the gay kids group together before any of them come out
• is emo hereditary

You’re on your own for two out of three, but let me tell you a thing: short people are angry because our compacted physical forms compress and harden grudges and rages until they surpass the feeble coal-stuff of tall folk and the half-assed graphite of average heighted people, into pure and glistening diamond fury.

agirlnameded:

• grumpy jerk and actual ray of sunshine are BFFs
• mutual unrequited pining
• character A falls fast and hard for character B
• character A slowly falls in love with character B over the course of several years, realization hits them that they’ve been in love with B for a long time hits them like a truck
• cool badass is actually a giant fucking nerd
• The Power of Friendship ™
• flat “what” reactions
  
• sweet adorable characters with horrible tragic pasts
• villains-turned-heroes becoming the Weird Uncle
• characters that aren’t actually related having a parent-child relationship
• characters that aren’t actually siblings having a sibling-like bond
• “I can’t stand this person but I would die for them”
  

princeoftherogues:

dork-bending:

THERE NEEDS TO BE A MOVIE ABOUT THE NIGHT WITCHES DAMNIT.

BADASS LADIES BOMBING THE SHIT OUTA NAZI’S. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE??

OKAY WE”RE GONNA DO HISTORY KIDs, GET READY FOR THE MOST FACE-MELTINGLY AWESOME WAR STORY YOU’VE EVER HEARD about Irina Sebrova and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, or Night Witches as the Nazi’s called them because they hated them so much.  The Night Witches were a group of Russian Aviatrixes during WW2, 

THESE ARE THEM, AND 

THIS IS THEIR BADASS LEADER IRINA SEBROVA.

now Russia had absolute shit equipment during WW2, and since the Night Witches were all women they were given the shittest of the shit equipment, and by shit, I mean World War One era biplanes that would hardly fly. 

Yeah, ^THIS^ is what they had to fly, their job was to fly stealth missions. STEALTH. MISSIONS.  In a super loud bi-plane that was originally meant to be fucking crop-duster.  Now, in this plane, the navigator sat in front and the pilot sat in back (fairly common for bi-planes).  Now, since these planes were so deafeningly loud and they were supposed to be flying stealthy night missions, the Night Witches solved that problem, BY TURNING OFF THE GODDAMN PLANE AND GLIDING ON AIR CURRENTS OVER THEIR BOMBING SITE.  That is hardcore as fuck.  Now, in addition to basically being flying death-traps, these planes had a slight problem, and by slight problem, I mean sometimes the bombs wouldn’t release.  Now how do you solve that problem? How can you complete your mission if the bombs don’t drop?  Well, if you’re a Night Witch you do what the navigators would do, AND CLIMB ONTO THE FUCKING WING AND DETACH THE BOMB BY HAND!  You thought turning off the plane was badass? The plane was off while they were climbing onto the wing of a plane made of cloth and wood! Now to make things more badass, the Night Witches weren’t given supplies that were deemed ‘extraneous’ like, oh, a goddamn PARACHUTE.  Seriously, no parachutes, and Irina Sebrova survived being shot down, TWICE, each time having to dodge German patrols while surviving the Russian winter.  Now, for an American bomber in World War 2, if he survived 25 missions he was given an honorable discharge and it was considered he had done his duty to the Allies.  Want to know how many missions Irina Sebrova flew?  It’s more than 25.   Irina Sebrova, Wing Commander of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew 92, that’s almost four tours of duty for an American, and those were just day missions!! Guess how many night missions Sebrova flew?  ONE THOUSAND EIGHT.  That’s right, she flew 1,008 night missions and 92 day missions, if she was American this would have meant she completed forty-four tours of duty.  The Night Witches weren’t just badasses, they were heroes with such incredible amounts of courage that they carried out the most insane acts of braveryto protect their homeland and their people.

SOURCE

Some more pics of these amazing women.

diskothi-queer:

now that donald trump is the actual GOP nominee this is your reminder that voting for a Democrat You Hate is still a useful harm reduction procedure that will cancel out a vote for Trump. please practice harm reduction. please, even more importantly in small/red states, vote all the way down in your local races where the margins of victory can be 100 votes or 10 votes, so your state legislature/governor/etc will be strong, if/when everything on the national level goes to hell

believe what you want about your vote not having the intended or ideal level of power, believe what you want about the electoral college or the modern role of voting in a democratic society, believe what you want about american centrism or flawed systems, but don’t let anyone tell you there’s “no difference” in the general election, please don’t let anyone tell you voting does nothing. your vote CAN and WILL protect vulnerable people and help you stand in for people whose votes are being taken away by a gutted VRA and gerrymandering 

please. please vote tuesday november 8th. please.

wendycorduroy:

just wanna let u guys kno that like if u ever dont understand a joke or meme or something ill explain it to u in an instant.  if u ever want clarification on something ive said or aren’t capable of detecting sarcasm or whatever i will tell you if u ask.  like no exceptions u can come to me for help.

brolinapproved:

rawdibunu:

phantasmsystem:

armadillo:

its kinda scary how your whole life depends on how well you do as a teenager 

oh my god No it doesn’t don’t put this kind of pressure on people?? you can absolutely fuck up in your teen years and continue on to a good life just fine. you can drop out of school, get a GED, still go to college and finish your degree as late as you want. i know people in my school who still haven’t graduated and they’re 26. some older. you can always transfer someplace else, always build yourself up from the ground. after a certain amount of college credits, a lot of schools really don’t care about your high school GED or your SAT scores anymore. if you fuck up in your teenage years you are not a failure!! you can ALWAYS re-invent yourself, always start over. there is always a second chance.

Reblogging this for my followers freaking out over art school/college. I dropped out of high school and never thought I’d get into college as easily as I did. You will be fine!

Fun story my biology professor just told us:  When he was 23 he was married to his wife and worked two jobs to support them since she was in college: gas station attendant and construction worker.  He worked these two jobs because that was the only work he could get since he was at the reading level of a third grader.  

One night he was writing something and his wife noticed he was writing from right to left.  Since she was studying occupational therapy she realized he had a learning disability and started working with him.  He slowly began to learn to read, and at 26 got his GED and went to college.

His first year of college he took the lowest level math course he could take, 001.  Over the years he worked on learning what he needed to, ended up graduating with a biology degree.  He then went on to get his masters and PhD, graduating at the top of his class.  He is now an extremely accomplished biologist and professor.

So don’t let anyone tell you that you’re future is based on your choices as a teenager.

gansiiy:

okay but one of those “whatever tag shows up for this word” memes for:
-son
-trash
-dead
-child
-smol
-hate

the-wonderful-jinx:

barefootwithneonhands:

remembertowrite:

romancingthebookworm:

mariesbookblog:

notatroll7:

irethinglorion93:

thedemonica:

i love when people want to play “never have i ever” because i destroy at that game. i’ve never had sex, i’ve never kissed anyone, i’ve never had a boyfriend, i’ve never been on a date. i just sit back and laugh my ass off as people lose so quickly. it’s the best perk to being the virginiest virgin to ever virgin.

ok but never have I ever

with things you’ve read in fanfiction 

Aw shit.

Oh fuck

Drunk. I’d be so drunk so damn fast.

Never have I ever NOTHING. I have read everything. 

I have read things I wish I could UNREAD.

Hahaha I would love to play the fanfic version of this

Plot twist on the plot twist: Never have I ever fanfic WRITER edition.

“Sheila, why, did you take a shot for THAT? I’ve read your entire archive on Ao3. I know you’ve never–”

“No, YOU’VE never *hic* never… never… god Sam, the early 2000s were a bad time. I’ve been down in the fanfic mines for just so. Damn. Long. *steals the bottle*”

Well fuck…

brinconvenient:

unpretty:

white-throated-packrat:

nonasuch:

unpretty:

mellydraws:

unpretty:

reallyohcrap:

unpretty:

unpretty:

i like to imagine that clark kent’s search history is mostly normal but then there’s stuff like “improved superman costume concept art” because he wanted ideas

#what would you even do as an artist #if one day superman is just wearing a costume that is clearly your design #like superman was clearly looking at your deviantart #there is a chance that superman saw that art you drew of him kissing batman #why is he wearing the costume you designed #is he trying to send a message #is he saying that he really does smooch batman #did superman see your kryptosona #how much does he know 

someone said they wanted to be able to reblog this with my horrible tags

no but like… do you sue him for using your designs? Do you politely ask him to stop using your designs? Do you ask him for license fees when the Superman merchandise adopts your design as well? 

i am absolutely sure that he would find one with an artist’s comment/description that included “hey superman if you’re reading this feel free to use this anytime ok ;3″ and he would say “oh man that’s so thoughtful, thank you weedhorse69, I think I will” and like how do you explain in court that you, weedhorse69, did not intend for your statement to be any kind of contractual offer because you did not think he would ever find your public internet post with his name all over it

#people are reblogging the version of this without my final addition#offended that i would suggest clark kent wouldn’t credit the artist#missing what i consider to be the obvious facts of the matter#it’s probably a costume designed out of pure thirst too like#weedhorse69 is gonna keep his mouth shut because this way he gets to watch superman#running around town in a costume that really shows off his biceps and abs#he thought it looked summery#the league holds an intervention asking him to please stop wearing it#he does not stop no one can stop him#batman v superman II: clark please put on a real shirt

tumblr is garbage and likes to resize everything and readmores don’t work on mobile anyway so you all will just have to click through if you want to read weedhorse69′s chatlog screenshots

you should DEFINITELY read weedhorse69’s chatlog screenshots, oh my god

And now I’m imaging that weedhorse69 is Kyle Rayner before he got the ring.

Later, after he gets the ring … awkward. So awkward.

“Obviously you aren’t obligated to join the League, but we’d be happy to have you.”

Kyle was going to die. He did not, despite the obvious facts, consider himself to be possessed of great will. It did not occur to him that the fact that he could make himself stand there and pretend to be casual spoke volumes.

“I’ll have to think about it,” he said, hoping that his voice didn’t shake, turning down the thing he would have liked most in the world. “I’m a pretty private person.”

Superman considered this. “That’s fair,” he said, “but maybe I should mention that the League doesn’t require you to disclose your civilian identity.”

“It doesn’t?” Shit. He shouldn’t have sounded so excited.

“No. Some people choose to disclose to close friends, but it isn’t on file and no one has to share anything they’re not comfortable with.”

“Oh.” Maybe… maybe no one would have to know. Maybe he could do this. “I’ll still have to think about it,” he said, even as he made up his mind, “but I am very interested.” Superman smiled, suddenly, and even though he had been nothing but kind Kyle was terrified. “What? Did I say something funny?”

“No, no, you’re fine,” Superman assured him. “Usually Green Lanterns are a little more candid, is all. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“I, uh.” Kyle faltered. “It’s not that I have anything to hide. It’s just… before I got the ring, I… did some things I’m not proud of.” Superman nodded in a manner warily sympathetic. “Things are different now, though. Very different.”

“I believe you,” Superman said, and it was absolutely killing him how nice he was. He was so nice. Kyle’s only saving grace was that he was wearing the classic costume. “The ring chose you, that’s all I need to know.”

Oh, god. Superman thought he had reformed from a life of crime.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. Right? Right. This was fine. Everything was fine. Kyle would join the League and never tell anyone his name and no one would ever know the depth of his sins and he would meet Batman and that would end well.

… he needed to go find Jimmy immediately.

1) I don’t know how I had failed to follow @unpretty after I read Empty Graves.

2) Clearly this is a woman with a firm grasp of the best version of the DC Universe.

3) This thing of beauty is the thingest of beauties that ever did exist

4) I didn’t know I shipped Jimmy Olsen (jimjams) with Kyle Rayner until I did

5) If you don’t click on the chatlog screenshots and laugh your entire ass completely off, I don’t know why you follow my trash heap tumblr because we have nothing in common.

andasr:

powai:

spin the bottle except instead of kissing each other you fight

For anyone interested, consider the game Slap or Kiss. We played this game so many times senior year of college, I don’t know why our drunk selves were so obsessed with slapping and kissing each other. It’s exactly what it sounds like:

1. You spin the bottle. Whoever it lands on will either have to slap or kiss you.

2. You, the spinner, leave the room. Everyone else gets to vote on whether you will get slapped or kiss. Majority wins, the person who the bottle landed on doesn’t get a vote.

3. When it’s decided, you’re called back in for the surprise Slap or Kiss, and everyone watches with anticipation because they all know and you have no idea and i love it

Bonus: Combine it with Truth or Dare. If you don’t like the Truth or Dare you got, you can choose to do Slap or Kiss instead.

fozmeadows:

deergravity:

seriesofnonsequiturs:

poedameron-tony:

multiphandom:

iamgwenslongroadhome:

falloutbats:

sigilsjunk:

threepointonefourmakesxai:

soggywarmpockets:

yeinesomemdarre:

thestarfly:

perfectionistdia:

rebelliousllama:

robot-tiddies:

maliwanhellfires:

brotoro:

the military begins recruiting ‘soldiers’ before they grow out of their booster seat

four year olds have toy guns and green army men

by grade school you’ve memorized the star spangled banner and the pledge of allegiance

in middle school you’re old enough to play first person shooters set in war times. you and your friends brag about how many kills you have, what guns are your favorite

in high school, rotc comes to visit. you get letters in the mail detailing scholarship and housing opportunities you could have

and if you’re poor or unsure of your future or in love with the idea of ‘protecting your country’ like the men in call of duty

every branch of the military has a sponsored blog on here because they want everyone 13 and up to know that soldiers are heroes and they should join them

To those of you who were wondering, this is a very US-specific post. What gets done to you guys is terrifying, and it’s really unfair.

Ah yes I remember how the different military branches visited my high school at multiple times throughout the year and set up their little pull up bars and had little competitions and the strong little ones got lanyards so the recruiters could pick them out

I dont even know if you’re joking or not

We’re not

We’re really not. What’s super terrifying, that I learned in my kinetic imaging major, is that our military actually hires game designers to design video games promoting our military, and markets them to kids as young as ten or twelve. Our government made friggin reality TV shows out of taking high schoolers and teaching them about the “awesome shit” that they could do for the military.
We watched one of the episodes in my Critical Media class, and it made me so physically ill that I actually had to leave the classroom and heave over the toilet while sobbing my eyes out.

This level of propaganda can and does lead to violence even amongst said children. Ask any Puerto Rican child that’s ever refused to say the “pledge of allegiance” (that’s the real name for what most kids are asked to recite every day before school starts) what happens to them exclusively via the other children who consider this blasphemy.

I took the ASVAB (an intelligence test that the military uses to see which branch you would do best in) as a joke in 10th grade to see who would score higher, myself or my boyfriend. He scored a 91, I scored a 93. The next thing I knew, I had recruiters calling my house and visiting my school. I was pulled out of class to talk to recruiters who came to my school specifically to see me. One recruiter from the Marines showed up at my house after school. When I told him that my mother wasn’t home and I wouldn’t allow him inside he tried to push open the door and said “That’s okay, she doesn’t have to be here for us to talk.” I had to tell him numerous times that I would not talk to anyone without my mother present. Then he sat in his car and waited for her to come home. Keep in mind that I am an overweight female and these recruiters were still trying to get me to sign. They were talking about special diets and training programs that would get me in shape in time for my 18th birthday so I could join. It was ridiculous. My mom said that she had never seen anything like it, and she had scored a 92 during college when she had taken it. (Then again, she had joined the Air Force almost immediately after taking the test, because that was her dream.) Shit is scary.

Oh god yes this brings back memories. I took the ASVAB on a lark to skip classes. I scored a 92 and my GOD the effort they put in to try and recruit me… This was pre 9/11 when I did it, but afterwards (post 9/11) they got WORSE. They told me whatever I wanted to do for a career they could help me but they were so PUSHY they freaked me out. I hid whenever I saw the recruiting staff on campus

I started getting a recruiter contacting me when I was 26 goddamn years old, while married to a PTSD’d out twice deployed vet. 

Eventually I responded to an email with “I’m fat, asthmatic and married to a human y’all ruined so leave me the fuck alone” and he did. 

At the same time he started sending my then husband letters about how they were going to call him back to service if he didn’t re-up in the National Guard (who also get deployed to the Middle East), which is actually a lie. nevertheless, my ex was terrified he’d get brought back in and burned all the letters so there’d be no record of him receiving them. 

Turns out that recruiter won a bunch of awards in the state for his recruitment statistics. Interesting ways he went about it, huh?

the marines kept calling my house and mailing things to me and my little sister (who is 12) trying to get us to sign up and my mom finally had to talk on the phone to the dude and tell him that i was a chronically ill trans kid and i would not nor would i ever be joining the us military and they finally quit calling

ive also been singled out and yelled at by multiple teachers in school for refusing to stand and say the pledge of allegiance over the years, told things like i was disrespectful and was a traitor to my country and whatnot. its especially bad and military-centric in the south (i currently live in NC). If you dont live in the us, look up the words to the pledge of allegiance. its vaguely reminiscent of Nazi propaganda, and they start children saying it every day from age 5. how many 5 year olds know what they are saying and agreeing to? none of them, thats how many.  

My high school required us to take the asvab. For two years afterwards I received near daily calls from the air force.

jeez. i went to school in ny and had a really liberal teacher in 5th grade who would drop little comments about discrimination against illegal immigrants, maybe we shouldn’t say “God” in the pledge, etc. and if he hadn’t made those comments i wouldn’t have thought twice about these things even though i wasn’t religious and was reciting a pledge involving “God” every day. by hs, everyone just stood and listened to the pledge without reciting it, and we never had crazy military recruitment. did get the west point letters in the mail though

I went to school in NY too and that’s where I took the ASVAB my senior year of high school and got letters from all the branches because I did so well. Specifically, the Air Force Academy wanted me real bad lol. You get the stuff about the military all the time in school. But I was an Army brat so I got it double you know? 

At both New York Comic Cons I’ve been to, the Armed Forces have a big booth set up with a bunch of video games that Con-goers can try out - and a recruiter conveniently sitting right there in case anyone wants to sign up.

In my after-school class, one of my students is now an official recruit and has already missed class twice to attend his army events. 

I got several calls from the Marines when I was in High School. It was like they were boys trying to ask me put on a date, just chatting with me about myself and what I was interested in. Thankfully I still had my deathly fear of intimacy with men so I eventually emphasized my asthma to get them to leave me alone.
But now in the cold light of 10 years later, that was some grooming shit. Making me feel like a special kid. Preying on a 16 year old girl. Fuck that.

This is fucking terrifying. No wonder conservative American governments are so furiously opposed to free/affordable college, housing and healthcare - if poor kids had access to all that stuff as a matter of routine, then what the fuck would the army have left to bribe them with?

Yeah, actually, I remember an Army recruiter at my high school saw me get into an argument protecting someone, and since he’d seen my grades/PSAT scores he was kind of all over trying to pitch the military to me.  It was pretty alarming, and that’s coming from someone who’s been aggressively wooed by colleges.  I’m pretty sure the only way I really got out of being actively hassled was because I left high school early, before I could take any of the other exams they look at.

oodlyenough:

fauxkaren:

Ted Cruz suspended his campaign.

Oh my god. Donald fucking Trump is gonna be the Republican presidential nominee.

I have to go back in time and warn August 2015 me to not laugh at the idea because apparently IT IS NOT SO LAUGHABLE AFTER ALL.

Save me from this country pls.

i never thought i’d say this but i overestimated america

trevenant:

I saw a guy with a “Smart Phones Make Dumb People” bumper sticker talking on a Samsung Galaxy as he drove down the highway, and honestly I haven’t seen modern art in motion like that in my entire millennial life