arsalan.

Sexuality and gender taboos challenged by Haifa project

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:05:00 -0400

Sexuality and gender taboos challenged by Haifa project:

“Singing Sexuality” aims to create safe space to raise tough questions within Palestinian society.

“Part of how I see and understand resistance is that when we decolonize Palestine, I will have a society that I can rely on, a society that is ready to [respond to] different social and political processes, that can respect the Other, [and] have openness about different sexuality and behavior,” she explained.

“Our contribution to building a more open Palestinian society is part of an anti-colonial struggle.”

strangegods: hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:54:44 -0400

strangegods:

hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

christel-thoughts: ghdos: sandandglass: Wayne Allyn Root -...

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:40:00 -0400

christel-thoughts:

ghdos:

sandandglass:

Wayne Allyn Root - seriously, look his face in the last gif.

This smug motherfucker.

I don’t even know whether to classify this as classism, the dehumanizing effect of capitalism, or simply “look at this fucking asshole”. The most appropriate is most likely “I’m a rich white guy; nobody’s suffering matters more than my money” - a brief synopsis of a good 65/70 % of the world’s problems.

This guy sums up so much of what I find reprehensible about libertarians.

CNN Reporter: "You were quite rude to the President"

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:19:30 -0400

CNN Reporter: "You were quite rude to the President"
Medea Benjamin: "I think killing innocent people with drones is rude."

Blah blah choice blah

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:08:00 -0400

peteschult:

lesilencieux:

“Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.”

—

Sara Yasin, Is the Hijab Worth Fighting Over?

Actually, I am sympathetic to the “it’s my choice” point of view, but for the choice to be valid, it really does have to be a choice of that woman, not of some oppressive cultural standard that the woman has internalized and has convinced herself that she has chosen.

You know what, fair enough. But here’s my question: do Muslim women get the benefit of the doubt for having made this decision of their own accord, or is that a privilege reserved for others? Because I seriously doubt you extend the same logic to both sides of the spectrum. I doubt that when a woman walks down the street in booty shorts, you analyze the circumstances of her “choice” because it really does have to be that to be “valid” and not some oppressive cultural standard that she’s internalized, right?

It’s hypocritical, racist, and stupid to imply that Muslim women lack the capacity to make their own conscious decisions about what they wear, as if that ability lies solely in the domain of white Western women who, funnily enough, also make decisions about their appearance within the context of a patriarchal society. But apparently when Western women do that, it’s their own progressive, liberated thinking making the choice.

It’s been said so much but obviously needs repeating — the hypersexualization of women and enforced modesty are the same thing. Both define the value of women in relation to the male gaze. Both present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment.

"Today is a day of mourning for the children of Chicago. Their education has been hijacked by an..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:59:47 -0400

“Today is a day of mourning for the children of Chicago. Their education has been hijacked by an unrepresentative, unelected corporate school board, acting at the behest of a mayor who has no vision for improving the education of our children. Closing schools is not an education plan. It is a scorched earth policy. Evidence shows that the underutilization crisis has been manufactured. Their own evidence also shows the school district will not garner any significant savings from closing these schools.

This is bad governance. CPS has consistently undermined school communities and sabotaged teachers and parents. Their actions have had a horrible domino effect. More than 40,000 students will lose at least three to six months of learning because of the Board’s actions. Because many of them will now have to travel into new neighborhoods to continue their schooling, some will be victims of bullying, physical assault and other forms of violence. Board members are wishing for a world that does not exist and have ignored the reality of the world we live in today. Who on the Board will be held responsible? Who at City Hall will be held responsible?”

- Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis commenting on today’s news that the Board of Education has voted to close 50 Chicago public schools.

While only around 40 percent of children in Chicago are black are Latino, 90 percent of children whose schools will be shuttered are black or Latino.

(via thepeoplesrecord)

fuck this country. fuck this country. FUCK THIS COUNTRY

(via searchingforknowledge)

Rahm Emanuel can go to Hell

(via aloofshahbanou)

mohandasgandhi: Google Search Equates “Gayest” With...

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:09:25 -0400

mohandasgandhi:

Google Search Equates “Gayest” With “Worst”

The use of “gay” as a pejorative is nothing new, but it’s still somewhat surprising when a search for the “gayest trends” on Google yields the “worst trends.” And it’s not simply a matter of websites conflating “gayest” and “worst” on the pages Google brings up: the word “worst” is bolded on Google, highlighting it as a match for the word “gayest.”

This phenomenon has been recognized in the past, but with little response. A current Change.org petition has, at press time, 18 signatures. There have also been a couple complaints made on Google’s product forums, one in 2012 and one in 2011.

A Google spokesperson issue[d] the following response—

Google’s results, including when a search term is synonymized with another, are a reflection of content on the web and how people search. These results are determined by algorithms and we don’t manually correct this process, but we are always looking at how we can improve our algorithms.

Not cool.

Study: Genetic damage and health in Fallujah Iraq worse than Hiroshima

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:17:44 -0400

Study: Genetic damage and health in Fallujah Iraq worse than Hiroshima

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:20:00 -0400

ok I think something’s wrong with me because I usually roll my eyes at all the Muslim and/or brown...

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:19:00 -0400

ok I think something’s wrong with me because I usually roll my eyes at all the Muslim and/or brown people barely out of their teens who want to get married because ~~sex and~~ cuddles ~~and sex~~ and stuff (but who are obviously not prepared for the responsibilities and maturity involved with being in a serious committed relationship) but these past two days I’ve kinda really wanted to find a girl and that makes me feel dumb and fifteen

really missing california right now.this is my parents being all...

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:54:00 -0400

really missing california right now.
this is my parents being all cute after closing on their first house in america (and also the one I had my first three birthdays in)

aljazeera: Senior Guantanamo physician dismisses ethical...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:19:29 -0400

aljazeera:

Senior Guantanamo physician dismisses ethical concerns about force-feeding prisoners, and defends the ongoing practice.

architizer: Cloned Robot Army Storms Istanbul with...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:04:07 -0400

architizer:

Cloned Robot Army Storms Istanbul with Flashlights

Istanbul-based artist Erdal Inci clones sections of video creating an endless array of cloned avatars that appear to flood through the city streets.

"I think marriage in general is not a healthy institution in our society. If people want civil..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:57:07 -0400

“I think marriage in general is not a healthy institution in our society. If people want civil rights, then that’s what I feel we should be fighting for. Couples, people who are each other’s kin or primary intimacies, a friend who takes care of a friend for 30 years in the same household—all should have basic civil rights. To bring that whole movement for social justice under the rubric of ‘gay marriage’ seems to me just to reinforce patriarchal notions of who is worthy of care and support. It also lets down the gay people who don’t want to be married.
The movement for gay marriage has had a strong push among very class-privileged people, because they are the people with trusts and with property and with health care. If you’re gay, black, poor and you don’t have any access to insurance, the question of whether your partner can be included on your insurance is not just relevant to the health needs of your life. What would be more relevant is national health care!”

- bell hooks (via tabularasae)

hackscribbler: My 3D facade model from my final semester of...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:15:07 -0400

hackscribbler:

My 3D facade model from my final semester of undergrad.

gorgeous.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:37:00 -0400

"Maps turn each of us into what Michel de Certeau calls a ‘voyeur-god’ … The map is a mechanism that..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:22:23 -0400

“Maps turn each of us into what Michel de Certeau calls a ‘voyeur-god’ … The map is a mechanism that shows what no eye could ever see, even when the maps represents the most familiar territory— the space marked out by daily experience … Maps suggest ways of thinking as well as seeing. They materialize a view of the mind more than of external reality. They project an order of reason onto the world and force it to conform to a graphic rationale, a cultural grid, a conceptual geometry.”

- Christian Jacob, The Sovereign Map

(the piece where got the de Certeau bit from was his 1984 book, The Practice of Everyday Life)

quoms: the only people who have occasion to complain about affirmative action are people who are so...

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:24:00 -0400

quoms:

the only people who have occasion to complain about affirmative action are people who are so blindingly incompetent that even their privilege can’t get them anywhere

I got a haircut today and it’s the first time in like 12 years that clippers have been...

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:53:00 -0400

I got a haircut today and it’s the first time in like 12 years that clippers have been anywhere near my head tbh

short sides and back but not like a complete undercut to the point where i look like a douchey hipster (jk I already look like a douchey hipster)

Anyway, the point of this post (jk there is no point to this post): I’ve already had two people tell me I look like Zayn Malik and… what the fuck. I’ve come to the conclusion that all you need to “resemble” a celebrity if you’re a poc is a vaguely similar haircut and then OMG YOU’RE LIKE TWINS. When I had longer hair I literally had people come up to me in restaurants and show me off to their family like I was an animal in a zoo because WOAH ARE YOU THAT SANJAYA GUY FROM AMERICAN IDOL CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH

Dark days.

cherrypiesandkinkyscenes: Brother Sport :: Animal...

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:27:00 -0400

cherrypiesandkinkyscenes:

Brother Sport :: Animal Collective

goddddd this brings me back. Almost forgot how damn good this album was