thats-tea:

wodneswynn:

American literature:  Does success have meaning?

French literature:  Does love have meaning?

Russian literature:  Does suffering have meaning?

German literature:  No.

radicallyaligned:

One of the most harmful parts of girlhood is how we learn to use our bodies as currency.

Small smiles, clasped hands, and batted eyes gain us capital. We’re rewarded. We are allowed a snack or extra time outside if we agree to hug our caretakers. Our parents promise us dessert if we allow the great aunt to kiss us on the cheek. We begin to learn. And we grow a little and then it’s touching a male classmate on the elbow to convince him to help you on a question instead of ignore you, or making downcast eyes at a male teacher to ask sweetly for the bathroom pass so you’re more likely to have your bodily functions believed.

Then we age more and it’s low cut shirts so the cashier at the theater doesn’t check to see if you’re 17, and doing sex acts with your first boyfriend before you’re ready because you know if you don’t some other girl will and you know the more you do the longer he’ll stay.

It’s seeing TV shows and movies where the female spy/superhero/Jane Doe has to seduce the villain for information/entry/survival. It’s seeing TV shows and movies where if the man pursues you long enough/the hero saves your life/the outcast proves his worth then he deserves a kiss/taken to the bedroom/your hand in marriage. It’s the good and the bad guys having access to female bodies, your body, for different reasons. Its learning that you can use your female form to reward or deny, like it’s a sweet treat and not the thing you reside in, you yourself.

And this mentality, this commodification of our physical selves, its damaging. It warps how we view ourselves and our interactions with the world. It puts a “for sale” sign on us, and it says we can be bought, and we are left scrambling to set the price.

hating-queerbaiting: