cat bath by Girla Obscura @ Flickr.com

Because when you can combine nakedness with cats, why not go for it?

This week in tumblr posts.

Hands-down Most Perfect Post of the Week Award:

Thetroubleis @ FWD/Forward | We also have the right to be in public.

Ever since childhood, I’ve been judged for not preforming humanity correctly, as anyone who wants the basic decency afforded a real person should. Reading at the dinning table to avoid a freakout is disrespectful. Refusing to look people in the eye must mean I’m hiding something. Making my mom order for me because I couldn’t stand to talk to strangers was freaky and just not right. It cannot be allowed stand and thus, I had to be molded, to become more normal. The discomfort of others with my natural state was always more important than anything I could need.

…One would think feminists, who I hear aren’t too keen on the policing of womens’ behavior, would see the parallels in policing the behavior of other marginalized people. Really, truth be told, the feminist movement has never been very good at being inclusive, at understanding intersecting oppressions. Therefore, I’m not very surprised, just further disappointed. This happens time and time again in various movements sold as progressive.”

Most Interesting Research from Across the Pond Written by Male Feminist Award:

Catherine Redfern @ The F-Word | Johnathan Dean: Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics [interview].

I found that a lot of academic work tended to assume that the most radical kinds of feminism are those that are most purist and separatist. There are good reasons for the popularity of that assumption, but my book tries to argue that there might be other ways in which feminist practices might be described as ‘radical’. This sets the scene for the book’s main argument, which is that all the groups I studied were in many ways becoming increasingly vibrant and radical during my research period. The F-Word, for instance, has been astonishingly successful in bringing together a plurality of different – and sometimes competing – voices from across the spectrum of UK feminism. I think there is something quite radical and challenging about that plurality of voices (rather than, as some might argue, it being a mixture of radical and ‘non-radical’ voices). Also, the Fawcett Society – which could be seen as quite a mainstream, liberal group – used to project quite a safe and unthreatening image, but since around 2005 its feminism has been much more assertive, and it has collaborated in interesting ways with several smaller organisations.

 Can We Not Have This Generational Feminisms Argument Yet Again? Award:


Courtney Martin @ Feministing | Electras talk back: responses to Susan Faludi’s Harper’s piece.

I talked to my own mom as I was deciding how to respond to this article and she said this: ‘The way I see it, you have to stop listening to my voice at times, so you can learn to listen to your own.’ I depend on both my own mother, and the larger feminist legacy, for wisdom, but I expect to be seen and heard accurately and compassionately in return. It’s time that we took this dialogue to a new level; instead we’re wallowing in finger-pointing and holier-than-thou judgment. There are real enemies out there, waiting for our good energy and savvy methodologies. Let’s not waste all of our time parodying one another.

To read the rest of this week’s links, wander on over to the feminist librarian reads.