“The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.”
-Bell Hooks (via cultureofresistance)
“Telling boys and men that they shouldn’t drink regular diet drinks because they’re effeminate, but should instead drink “manly” things like Dr. Pepper Ten and Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, is telling them that there’s a right way to be male and it doesn’t involve anything feminine. That, in turn, tells them that female is less, female is bad, and female is worthy of ridicule. If men and boys are surrounded by ad campaigns that reinforce these ideas, don’t you think they’ll probably think women are less, and bad, and worthy of ridicule?”
but you know what, with all this tearing apart and tearing down,
“There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive… wormhole refractors… You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”
~The Tenth Doctor, Fear Her
“Part of the mechanics of oppressing people is to pervert them to the extent that they become the instruments of their own oppression.”
– Kumasi, “Crips & Bloods: Made in America”
The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. For men and women, boys and girls. Hold hands, beautiful hands.
Female Gazing 