Shine Through...

a small reminder to questioning people that it’s okay to read opinions you don’t agree with. there’s nothing immoral about reading and considering what other people have to say. taking in information and learning is not in itself a transgression and your beliefs won’t be shaken by reading things unless you do, in fact, think that they are accurate, which is okay and you should be free to explore that further without anyone breathing down your neck. 

anyone who attempts to make you believe that you can’t read things said by certain people is trying to control you, because they know that alternative opinions could cause some people to stray from being under the influence of their own group, and they don’t care about these individuals’ well-being at all, only their own status and how many people will uncritically listen to everything they say. 

it’s always okay to question. there’s nothing you aren’t allowed to think about. 

TRAs when they're pretending to not be insane for the sake of an argument: Sex and gender are different

People: Ok cool so you're a male who is socially identified with a "woman" gender role. Here's your passport that states your sex

TRAs: This is literal murder

It's not enough to make a mockery of women's social identity. Now apparently our sexual identity, like the biological state of being a literal female bodied person is also theirs to play with.

Hunter "I'll never stop being trans" , ok so why do you want to cos play being a "cis" woman with F on your legal documents. You aren't female, that's what makes you trans.

I don't know what makes me sadder; the bimbofication to become famous, or the fact that it worked.

Monstera deliciosa

Totally agree, and I would also argue that connecting with other women is the most important first step. Actually taking time to build up the care and empathy for other women is huge. The patriarchy constantly pits woman against woman to prevent us from working together.

You can give up the makeup, love your body hair, abandon the need for male acceptance or approval - but if you don't teach yourself to care for other women, and give other women grace, and understand female socialisation, then all you're doing is partially freeing your physical self while upholding the patriarchy elsewhere.

Considering that the patriarchy also wants to crush us so that we're always kind to men and hyper critical of other women, centring women and actually saving that kindness for other women trains us to be kinder to ourselves, too, which builds our confidence and empowers us to stand up even taller against men.

It's admirable if one day, you can wake up and completely deprogram yourself from misogyny and the patriarchy in one go but it's also OK if:

You start wearing less makeup or wearing makeup less often rather than completely stopping

You start to let your body hair grow a little longer before shaving instead of never letting it grow more than stubble

You stop making new male friends but keep the ones that you have

You share resources online about community efforts before helping in person

You disengage from conversations where casual misogyny or full blown misogyny is used rather than challenging it

Everyone starts somewhere. We don't all have the ability to change our lives completely overnight.

But you have to put in the work to do more and get out of your comfort zone. Women's liberation doesn't happen if we all just do the minimum.

It's a good place to start but you have to learn how to push yourself to do more.

list of feminist horror books for all my radblr horror fans!!

if you're sick of misogyny/rape scenes/sexualized murder in male written horror, these books are for you! all of these come with varying levels of trigger warnings, so i highly recommend looking them up before you dive in!

-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a classic. most people look over the clearly feminist theme to only remember the Creature, but it's a heart wrenching feminist book about autonomy, misogyny, with pretty significant religious misogyny undertones

-Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado will always and forever be on my all time favorite books list. it's a collection of short stories, but the first one is the absolute best, called The Husband Stitch. she's such a gorgeous writer, The Husband Stitch especially is so haunting and heartbreaking, telling the story of a woman's life marrying and having kids, and what her husband takes from her, and just generally a representation of married women's pain and oppression.

-Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth is addictive. also incorporates marriage themes and complex i cities but deals especially with female "paranoia" and "hysteria" (quotes bc we know those concepts are man made for women and forced onto us). it has this domestic aesthetic that's very creepy and also just very cool

-Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. ohhhhh my. i'm in love with this author, she's so incredible. Cursed Bunny is a short story collection that deals with misogyny, generational trauma, aging as a woman, and even delves into being kink critical if you're keen at interpretation. she's from South Korea, and also deals a lot in Korean culture and Korea-specific misogyny. it is translated to english, so unfortunately i will always mourn the writing style of it in original Korean but it's still written so beautifully!

-Hangsaman and The Haunting of Hill House both by Shirley Jackson. i'm sorry to clump them both together but for the sake of space + time i will. they're both gradual-horror, they definitely build. a lot of female hysteria type stuff, female loneliness, just generally such a good, creepy vibe that culminates in a truly scary ending.

-Maeve Fly by CJ Leede. a lot of people here on radblr call for truly insane female leads. this is that book! the main character is truly just a bad person, a psychopath, and she isn't moralized or justified in any way. she is allowed to just be crazy and evil without being diluted because she's a woman. women don't tend to get to be evil--truly evil--in media like men do, so it's cool to see a true madwoman. it's very witty, very clever. it's also a love letter to LA in a way, which hit home for me lmao. it's really just a peek into the mind of a psychopathic woman and the crazy stuff she does. very entertaining. not for the faint of heart.

-Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester is sooo good. i don't normally get too jumpy about my horror, but this one had me looking up every two seconds to make sure i was safe. genuinely very scary. it's got heavy mother daughter themes, it's primarily about the demureness and politeness expected of women and girls. the "pretty smile" thing is obviously a reference to catcalling, but also to the expectation that we should always be pretty and polite and content and demure. it's a lot of women just breaking free and going mad.

-A Guest in the House by EM Carol. i read this one online and then NEEDED to own it so bad i bought it immediately. it is a graphic novel so a slightly different medium, but the art is so stunning and moving. it's also got marriage themes, about repressed lesbianism, women's desires etc etc. it's so good and beautiful and moving

-Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird by Agustina Bazterrica is another short story collection. not necessarily all horror, but most. i had to read this one twice it was so good. it's harder to talk about short story collections because there's so many different plots and themes, but trust me, it's fantastic

-The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert. it's a bit more rudimentary writing, but it's so so so good. it captures girlhood so wonderfully, especially the whimsical, daydream part and equally the dark, insane, human-sacrifices-with-barbie-dolls parts of that makes any sense. it's about goddesses and monsters and dreams and girlhood and the trauma of growing up a girl and it's marvelous

-A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers. not exactlyyyy a horror but kinda?? it's about a female cannibal who kills and eats her lovers. it's hilarious, like laugh out loud until the people around you stare hilarious. the main character is so witty and man hating and cool. she's a misandrist icon, just so suave and clever and ruthless.

i'll reblog with more books as i find and read them! :)

Summer skies

I’m ready for the night drives

we need more mean bisexual radfems.

The Issue With "True Trans" ♀️♂️

For anyone who doesn't know, "true trans" are conservative-leaning trans-identified folks. They typically claim to know they are not "really" the opposite sex. They are more likely to say they have a mental disorder. They are more likely to call themselves transsexuals. They are more likely to say it's okay they take hormones and got surgery but criticize other trans-identified people for doing so. They do not endorse males in women's spaces. And conservatives typically lap it up. There are many issues with these people, and they are no friend to women and girls.

First, they still uphold misogynistic gender norms. A great example of this is Blaire White, conservatives' favorite trans-identified male. One look at him tells you everything you need to know. The balloon lips, the big fake boobs shown off in every outfit, the valley girl speak, the super long hair that he can't stop flipping while he talks. How is this different from Dylan Mulvaney cosplaying every straight male fantasy of what a woman should look and be like?

Second, similar to conservatives, they do nothing to help women when it comes to other topics that tend to affect women even more than trans activism. In fact, many of them identify as conservative. These include people like Marcus Dib, Blaire White, Caitlyn Jenner, and Jessica Gill. Others, such as Buck Angel, who calls herself "Daddy" and "Tranpa", btw (sorry if you're eating while reading this), claims to be a liberal and simply doesn't advocate for women when it comes to anything else other than being against the more extreme trans ideologists. Rarely if never will you hear these people speak out for reproductive rights or against female poverty, for example. Horrifyingly, Buck Angel worked in porn, on Pornhub, no less, for several years, making herself a fortune, and even when pushed, doubles down and refuses to call out the evils of the sex industry or to admit that porn is misogynistic. In fact, several years ago it came out that a 14-year-old girl named Rose Kalemba had been raped and the video put on YouTube. It took months of her begging Pornhub and then pretending to be an attorney for them to take it down, and in a now-deleted tweet (which survives online), Buck calls her a coward.

Third, they are ingratiating. They want only to be accepted into the conservative fold. They love their place in the limelight as conservative darlings. Again, these are typically conservatives' pet trans-identified folks. Often, conservatives are willing to call them by their preferred pronouns, a consideration not offered to other more liberal/Left-Wing trans-identified people. They uphold misogyny when it's the kind conservatives like. They uphold capitalism. They tend to love Donald Trump.

Please don't let these sheep in wolf's clothing fool you.