ThePrettiestOne

“When I was a student at Cambridge I remember an anthropology professor holding up a picture of a bone with 28 incisions carved in it. “This is often considered to be man’s first attempt at a calendar,” she explained. She paused as we dutifully wrote this down. “My question to you is this – what man needs to mark 28 days? I would suggest to you that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.”
It was a moment that changed my life. In that second I stopped to question almost everything I had been taught about the past. How often had I overlooked women’s contributions? How often had I sped past them as I learned of male achievement and men’s place in the history books? Then I read Rosalind Miles’s book “The Women’s History of the World” (recently republished as “Who Cooked the Last Supper?”) and I knew I needed to look again. History is full of fabulous females who have been systematically ignored, forgotten or simply written out of the records. They’re not all saints, they’re not all geniuses, but they do deserve remembering.”

- Sandi Toksvig, 'Top 10 unsung heroines' (via ninestories)

kateordie:

comicsalliance:

COMICS ALLIANCE PRESENTS ‘KATE OR DIE’ IN ‘JUSTICE!’

Read more Kate or Die at ComicsAlliance!

New strip, new strip!

plumpfrostingprince:

Muggleborn Headcanon #1737: "A Canadian muggleborn transfer student being all small and shy and cute and everyone expects her patronus to be like a kitten or something but then this MOOSE THE SIZE OF A CAR ERUPTS OUT."

Doin’ it real beauty, eh.

i realize this is a bit of a longer post, but i truly couldn’t find a way to quote it and still do it justice.

h/t to feministlibrarian for the lead on this brilliant analogy by rockstar  dinosaur  pirate princess

Whoever you are initiating sexytimes with, just make sure they are actually genuinely up for it. That’s it. It’s not hard. Really.

If you’re still struggling, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you’re making them a cup of tea.

You say “hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they go “omg fuck yes, I would fucking LOVE a cup of tea! Thank you!*” then you know they want a cup of tea.

If you say “hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they um and ahh and say, “I’m not really sure…” then you can make them a cup of tea or not, but be aware that they might not drink it, and if they don’t drink it then – this is the important bit –  don’t make them drink it. You can’t blame them for you going to the effort of making the tea on the off-chance they wanted it; you just have to deal with them not drinking it. Just because you made it doesn’t mean you are entitled to watch them drink it.

If they say “No thank you” then don’t make them tea. At all. Don’t make them tea, don’t make them drink tea, don’t get annoyed at them for not wanting tea. They just don’t want tea, ok?

They might say “Yes please, that’s kind of you” and then when the tea arrives they actually don’t want the tea at all. Sure, that’s kind of annoying as you’ve gone to the effort of making the tea, but they remain under no obligation to drink the tea. They did want tea, now they don’t. Sometimes people change their mind in the time it takes to boil that kettle, brew the tea and add the milk. And it’s ok for people to change their mind, and you are still not entitled to watch them drink it even though you went to the trouble of making it.

If they are unconscious, don’t make them tea. Unconscious people don’t want tea and can’t answer the question “do you want tea” because they are unconscious.

Ok, maybe they were conscious when you asked them if they wanted tea, and they said yes, but in the time it took you to boil that kettle, brew the tea and add the milk they are now unconscious. You should just put the tea down, make sure the unconscious person is safe, and – this is the important bit – don’t make them drink the tea. They said yes then, sure, but unconscious people don’t want tea.

If someone said yes to tea, started drinking it, and then passed out before they’d finished it, don’t keep on pouring it down their throat. Take the tea away and make sure they are safe.  Because unconscious people don’t want tea. Trust me on this.

If someone said “yes” to tea around your  house last saturday, that doesn’t mean that they want you to make them tea all the time. They don’t want you to come around unexpectedly to their place and make them tea and force them to drink it going “BUT YOU WANTED TEA LAST WEEK”, or to wake up to find you pouring tea down their throat going “BUT YOU WANTED TEA LAST NIGHT”.

Do you think this is a stupid analogy? Yes, you all know this already – of course you wouldn’t force feed someone tea because they said yes to a cup last week. Of COURSE you wouldn’t pour tea down the throat of an unconcious person because they said yes to tea 5 minutes ago when they were conscious. But if you can understand how completely ludicrous it is to force people to have tea when they don’t want tea, and you are able to understand when people don’t want tea, then how is so hard is it to understand when it comes to sex?

Whether it’s tea or sex, Consent Is Everything.

“

19-year-old Kevin Thompson didn’t think that he was going to jail the day he pulled his car out of the garage to go to his job in an auto-repair shop. He was pulled over for a speeding ticket and found out that he had not properly renewed his license. When Thompson appeared in traffic court, he was unable to pay the $810 fine and was put on a 30-day probation period to pay his ticket. The judge handed his case over to Judicial Correction Services, Inc., a for-profit corporation that oversees the collection of fines and the probation of people who have committed minor infractions, such as traffic tickets.

Thompson met with his parole officer from JCS weekly and made payments totaling $85, most of which he borrowed because he was unemployed. JCS kept $30 of those payments as a fee, so that amount didn’t count toward the total owed. Eventually, Thompson told his probation officer that he was unable to pay, and she informed him that he would have to appear before a judge to have his parole revoked. He ended up in a jail cell for owing $838 in fines and fees.

What Thompson experienced is called “pay-only” probation. It’s part of the growing private business of what’s euphemistically dubbed “incarceration alternatives,” a lucrative industry that ranges from electronic monitoring to drug treatment and halfway houses…

But for people like Thompson, this industry helps contribute to a cycle of jail, unemployment, and poverty. In late January, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against JCS and DeKalb County, alleging that pay-only probation unfairly targeted people who were too poor to pay at sentencing—and were, therefore, likely to be unable to pay later. “Across the county, the freedom of too many people is resting on their ability to pay,” said Nusrat Choudhury, an ACLU attorney who represents Thompson. “We seek to dismantle that two-tiered system of justice, which disproportionately punishes people of color.”

”

- Locked Up for Being Poor
(via smdxn)

trishathebrown:

vypera:

trishathebrown:

Oh, that beautiful woman there? The one decked out in gorgeous Indian attire? The one coolly ignoring all the racist slurs and utterances of horror crawling along the walls of some godforsaken Waffle House? The one who could not give less of a damn if someone gapes at her audacity to bask in the glory of her culture?

That’s my mother. Hell yes, I’m proud.

I don’t understand how a fucking waffle house is demeaning.
Oh, you mean the white people behind you and your mother? I get it, dude. “Lets scrape together some bullshit story to sell to SJWs for attention”. This shit works almost too well.

You are actually not the first person to voice this sort of sentiment, so I will try to further explain the context of this picture, and you may decide for yourself if you want to believe me. 

 My entire family was traveling that day to a far-off venue for an Indian ceremony, and we stopped at Waffle House for a bite to eat. My mother and I were dressed similarly in ornate Indian outfits called “lehengas,” and my father and brother were dressed in regular Western clothes (nice pants and shirts). My father and brother entered first to get us a table, and it was after my mother and I went in that the atmosphere changed considerably. Normal conversation died down to a quiet buzz, and the other customers viewed us with a medley of expressions ranging from surprise, to confusion, to disgust, to scorn. Only a group of black women openly admired our outfits, and they absolutely gave me a huge boost in much-needed confidence. 

The man whose face you see behind my mother was responsible for making comments regarding “fucking immigrants” and “goddamn terrorists dressed like clowns.” His commentary was met with quiet murmurs of agreement from his table-mates, and he spent the rest of the time balefully looking either at me or the back of my mother’s head. Upon encountering such hostility, I whispered to my mother that maybe we should leave and eat elsewhere. Her response? “You have nothing to be ashamed of. They mock us because they do not understand us.” 

And with that, she sat down with a smile and cheerfully gave the waitress her order. 

 I posted this photo as a testament to my mother’s dignity and unwavering pride. She is a living, breathing inspiration and I cannot explain how much that one day helped build my resolve to remain true to my culture and roots despite possible adversity. I posted this image for neither notes nor followers, but the abundant existence of those aspects proves that many people understand the reality of the situation. Of course, whether you believe this or not is entirely your predilection. All you have to go on is my word, but I have said all that I feel is necessary. 

 Thank you for your time.

“I have gotten one question repeatedly from young men. These are guys who liked the book, but they are honestly confused. They ask me why Melinda was so upset about being raped.
The first dozen times I heard this, I was horrified. But I heard it over and over again. I realized that many young men are not being taught the impact that sexual assault has on a woman. They are inundated by sexual imagery in the media, and often come to the (incorrect) conclusion that having sex is not a big deal. This, no doubt, is why the number of sexual assaults is so high.”

-

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak, on the question “Have any readers ever asked questions that shocked you?”

Read that again. Read it again, and again, and again. Over and over guys have asked her why Melinda was so upset about being raped. This is a girl who went to a party with friends. She was thirteen. She had a drink, because everyone else was. And a senior held her down and raped her while she was too drunk to get away.

And guys don’t understand why she was upset.

Read that again and then come back and tell me again why I should just shut up and take a joke when a comedian blows off rape as a big deal, or women’s bodies are casually treated as commodities in media. Remind me why I shouldn’t care about the very real harm that society’s treatment of women and sexual assault does.

(via nosuchthingasfiction)

THIS. 

(via authorsarahdessen)

echoboots:

Please do me a favor and reblog or like this post if you are a cis person who feels 100% okay about sharing restrooms, changing rooms, and other public spaces with folks who are trans.

(Sometimes I don’t know how to help the folks in my life who are trans and have to put up with bigoted shit like this all the time, but I thought seeing lots of notes on this post might help at least a tiny bit.)

charminglyantiquated:

a short comic about witches and wishes and wanting things.

raptorific:

Honestly using Hades as the villain for every greek mythology story because he happens to rule over the afterlife would be like if 3000 years from now they made a bunch of Justice League movies where Batman was the villain because he has the darkest costume

Onboard shuttle Endeavour in 1992


As Lt Palmer in TNG s06e24, "Second Chances"

simpleescapism:

flavorcountry:

Dr. Mae Jemison, MD, the first black woman in space and first actual astronaut to appear on a Star Trek show, one of the very few people on this planet of whom two pictures can be posted depicting them doing their job on a spaceship with entirely different contexts.

Holy shit this is a serious contender for the best post I’ve ever seen on tumblr.

"Working-class people care more about their friends, families and communities – they’re just ­fundamentally nicer… Feminists have long since pointed out that those on the bottom of any unequal social arrangement tend to think about, and therefore care about, those on top more than those on top think about, or care about, them. Women everywhere tend to think and know more about men’s lives than men do about women, just as black people know more about white people’s, employees about employers’, and the poor about the rich.

And humans being the empathetic creatures that they are, knowledge leads to compassion. The rich and powerful, meanwhile, can remain oblivious and uncaring, because they can afford to. Numerous psychological studies have recently confirmed this. Those born to working-class families invariably score far better at tests of gauging others’ feelings than scions of the rich, or professional classes. In a way it’s hardly surprising. After all, this is what being “powerful” is largely about: not having to pay a lot of attention to what those around one are thinking and feeling. The powerful employ others to do that for them.

And who do they employ? Mainly children of the working classes.”

— Caring too much. That’s the curse of the working classes | The Guardian | (Photo Credit: Matt Kenyon)

mattfractionblog:

justbuckybarnesarm:

"Dad, will you take pictures of me on the roof with a bow and a coffee pot?"

Fantastic.

#TeamHawkGuy4LYFE

“"Your generation would probably ‘livetweet’ the apocalypse" you say, and you laugh
You mean it as an insult, and I understand,
Or you don’t
because the word lies awkwardly on you tongue, stumbles as it leaves your lips, air quotes visible
You meant it as an insult, so you don’t understand, when I look into your eyes and say “Yes”
Because we would.
It would be our duty, as citizens on this earth
to document it’s end the best way we know
and if that means a second by second update
of the world going up in flames, or down in rain, or crushed under the feet of invading monsters
so be it.
It would mean a second by second update of
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Are you all right?”
“Stay close”
“Be brave”
It would mean a second by second update of the humanity’s connection with one another,
Proof of empathy, love, and friendship between people who may have never met in the flesh.
So don’t throw the word ‘Livetweet’ at me like a dagger, meant to tear at my ‘teenage superiority’
Because if the citizens of Pompeii, before they were consumed by fire,
had a chance to tell their friends and family throughout Rome
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Don’t forget me”
Don’t you think they’d have taken the chance?”

-

Sometimes it hurts when people scorn internet cultre (via herrsassyfras)

This is amazing

(via desuke-dragonqueen)

"Who has ever needed one of these after a meeting?" - Ross Hammond

sandandglass:

TDS, March 5, 2015

“But remember, there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by idolizing them.”

- David Wong  (via viehkea)

thirdrevelation:

hidden-mistake:

Everyone should be more like Adult Wednesday Addams

Love her

Parker + Text Posts

kellysue:

Instead of
Marry/Fuck/Kill
lets play
Read/Elect/Supply With Weapons And An Army

Support the comic by getting a book! Lunarbaboon:Volume 1 - http://lunarbaboon.bigcartel.com/product/lunarbaboon-volume-1

4gifs:

Clever girl… [video]

chima1675:

AWESOME.

percychekov:

sirdef:

northwangerabbey:

Sulu’s like “whatever, drama queen.”

is sulu texting

he’s livetweeting chekov’s problems

Dog Eat Doug by Brian Anderson for March 05, 2015

sablerabbit:

skarrin:

stfueverything:

ppgfreak85:

One of the BEST ad campaigns about representation I have seen.

Everyone has a backbone. Use yours.

I can’t possibly love this enough

If you call me a faggot, I will agree that I can indeed be set on fire - but so can we all, and I’ll start with you.

Brilliant responses.  All of them

atopfourthwall:

philsandifer:

abdullahqutbedden:

This is Andy Khouri he’s the former editor of Comics Alliance (the Kotaku of comics sites) and he’s now working as an editor at DC Comics because again the comics industry is in the shitter right now and they are trying to pander to SJW’s and feminists not realizing that SJW’s and feminists don’t really give two shits about comics and just want to complain about stuff because that’s all they know how to do.

You know what’s funny about this whole thing? Comics Alliance used to be very anti DC back in 2011 when the first issue of Red Hood and the Outlaws came out they trashed that first issue and it’s writer Scott Lobdell (even going so far as to publish a hit piece on him calling him a misogynist and sexist because of the way he depicted Starfire) so I don’t understand why anyone from DC would look at this fucking site and decide to hire someone from there to work as an editor. 

Call me crazy but if I was someone who worked at DC and I saw someone trashing the stuff we were publishing I would ignore those people and try to not make contact with them because they’re a massive liability to the business. I wouldn’t bend over and hire someone who worked there to please the “progressives” because those people aren’t the main target demographic. 

This is why I want to make it into the comic business to give people like myself who actually care about good writing and storytelling an alternative to this bullshit. We as comic fans deserve better than having our hobby be run by idiots who constantly defend con artists like Anita Sarkeesian and her ilk. 

I kinda wish ComicGate was a thing because shit like this needs to fucking stop. But that’s the problem with the world that we live in companies are too scared of being called sexist, racist and homophobic that they have bow down and kiss “progressive” ass just to stay relevant in the media. 

Well, you know, first of all, excellent job succinctly illustrating why you’re never going to work at DC.

Let’s look a bit further at Red Hood and the Outlaws #1. Not the issue itself - good lord, why would we subject anyone to rereading that piece of turgid shit. But rather, at the New 52 branding that DC is winding down this month. You know - the whole “let’s blow up the entire line and start from scratch with loads of advertising to see if we can revive our slowly dying sales numbers” initiative that DC undertook.

Because here’s the thing about the comic business you’re so eager to join in: it’s dying. Its sales are an insignificant fraction of what they were when comics were a major cultural force, and its audience is a slowly aging pool of white men. It’s a losing proposition. Kids don’t buy comics. Teenagers don’t buy comics. Virtually nobody buys comics but people who have been buying comics for decades.

And that’s what the New 52 was an attempt to correct. It was an attempt to shed most of the theorized reasons why comics weren’t drawing new readers and create something that would bring in new readers who loved superhero movies and would try superhero comics.

It didn’t. It momentarily re-energized the slowly dying base, then quickly declined to the same set of sad sack long-time readers. DC ran loads of marketing surveys around the New 52, and this was the overwhelming response.

Mind you, that didn’t stop them. For four years they nobly tried to make it work. And they didn’t care that they were accused of being sexist, racist, and homophobic. No, no - they mocked the fans who complained about it. Literally. They went to cons and made fun of the fans who asked about female representation. They doubled down on their idea of bringing in a new audience of twenty-something men with comics like Red Hood and the Outlaws, and then they tripled down on it. They tried and tried again.

And for their trouble? In July of 2011, before any of the New 52 material launched, DC pulled $6.74 million for their line. In January of 2015, they pulled $6.6 million. Oh, but get this - the comics industry as a whole grew in that time. July 2011 had $20.29 million for the top 300 comics. January 2015 had $26.87 million. DC has managed to shrink their share of a growing pie. 

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, where a non-white editor in chief who came up via the Vertigo line back in the days when it was pulling in scads of new readers has been overseeing a publishing slate with a focus on diversity?

In July of 2011, $10.05 million. In December 2014? $10.65 million. (I went back a month for Marvel because their January 2015 numbers were ridiculously good due to Star Wars #1 - like, $15 million good.) And those numbers are ignoring digital, where it’s an established fact that books like Ms. Marvel do insanely good business. (Did you know, btw, that when you factor in digital Ms. Marvel outsells Uncanny X-Men? It’s true!)

So, shocker of shockers, after three and a half years of their Big Relaunch continuing the slow bleeding it was designed to avoid while Marvel scoops up a bigger piece of a growing pie and companies like Image ($0.77 million to $1.92 million over the same period) are similarly gobbling up market share by actually growing the dying industry, DC has changed direction. And made the smart move of hiring people who correctly identified what they were doing wrong three-and-a-half years ago instead of taking a self-defeating stance of blacklisting any critic who does their job and calls out what they see as lousy work.

So, you know. Good luck getting into an industry where what you want and what you value has proven itself repeatedly to be the path to the industry’s collapse, and what you hate is the only thing that’s looked like a future for the industry in over a decade. I’m sure you’re gonna do great. Especially now that you’ve written an angry screed about one of the editors at DC. Hope they’re nicer about that than you want them to be!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Beautifully done, philsandifer. Beautifully done. ^_^

And all my best to Andy Khouri!