Before one of us snaps and cuts a motherfucker, STOP letting men get away with saying “men gave women the right to vote.” Men didn’t give women shit. They stopped denying us our right to vote, and that is not the same as “giving us” something. We don’t give out cookies to men when they discontinue one of their many methods of oppressing women.
Don’t praise a man for not beating his slaves. Praise him for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you and fighting for the rights and dignity of every person, for fighting alongside you until every human being has the same rights and opportunities he does. – E. Brooks/Gray Matters
And this talk about “giving” us a right but taking it back if we don’t behave or if we’re not grateful enough? They can shove that sideways. Humans have the right to privacy and to bodily autonomy, to equal pay, equal opportunities. To deny a right is OPPRESSION. These jackasses haven’t been doing us favors “letting” us do things they do all the time, things they take for granted because they’re men or because they’re white. We don’t owe them shit, not gratitude, not good behavior, not compliance. They owe us nothing less than recognition of and respect for our rights as equal human beings.
We’re not insisting on anything unreasonable. We’re not asking for a favor or special treatment. We’re not being “sassy” or “hysterical” or “uppity;” we haven’t “gone mad.” We’re angry. We’re furious. We’re fucking pissed. We’re human beings, deserving of all the same rights and opportunities under the law and in society as the rest of the human beings on the planet. We all – all human beings regardless of skin color or gender or sexuality or even religion (which is a choice unlike the other traits) – deserve the same starting point, the same opportunities, responsibilities, consideration, costs, and pay, as straight, white men. If you expect us to lie down for another hundred years and wait patiently for you to treat us as equal human beings, you’ve got another think coming.
But the older I get, the more I see how women are described as having gone mad, when what they’ve actually become is knowledgeable and powerful and fucking furious. – Sophie Heawood, @heawood
Feel free to remind the rest of them about how rights and equality work the next time they (any of them, misogyny isn’t limited to cis-gender men) imply or flat-out tell you that you owe them gratitude or a smile or whatever else these pigs think you owe them. We don’t thank our oppressors for what they do to us, and we don’t owe them a fucking thing. It’s time they learn how it’s going to be.
Can’t speak for the rest of you, but I’m out of bubble gum; it’s time to kick some ass.
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Link: Hysteria, My Ass – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
Link: Uppity Woman – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
Link: Less Than – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
Link: Through – by E. Brooks of Gray Matters
Link to the original Tweet thread this post came from by Gray Matters.
Link to Sharon Owens, writer of Dangerous Coats (not the original publication as I’ve been unable to find what I believe to be the original under @SharonOwensBook).
Link: Roe v. Wade (1973) – Cornell Law School
Link: Equal Rights Amendment
Link: “A history of pockets” – Victoria and Albert Museum
TL;DR: Rights and equality aren’t to be given or earned, and we don’t have to show men gratitude because they stop one form of oppression; don’t let them convince you otherwise especially as they threaten to “take rights back.” Those rights? They’re ours, too, and it’s time everyone recognized them for all.
#RatifyERA #WomensRightsAreHumanRights #Equality #BodilyAutonomy
#GMOutOfBubbleGum