The terms “male gaze” and “female” gaze have always irked me. First of all, why are we gendering the sexualization of women? Are we saying that women can’t sexualize women and that all men do? What message are we trying to send to the queer community? Because I feel like we’re invalidating thirsty sapphics, myself included (yes, I know I’m also a man. Doesn’t make me any less a woman).

And why does the “female gaze” require women to cover up? Are we saying that covering up is the only way women will be taken seriously? Are we saying that a female character has to not look sexy in order to be seen as strong? As someone who likes writing and drawing female characters who are both powerful and conventionally attractive, it pisses me off that a sexualized character design is frowned upon and as women, we are expected to draw characters “for the female gaze because otherwise it’s goonslop”. That is so two-dimensional, black-and-white, pick one, sexy or strong. NO. And this also teaches young women that showing skin is bad, or that their clothes invite sexual violence. NO! Why are we telling people the way they should draw characters and that their design is bad because it’s “drawn for the male gaze”? Go back to 4chan. And then, of course, real life. Why are we telling women how to dress? Unless she’s in a professional work environment, she can wear what she wants and it makes literally no difference.

AND ANOTHER THING! “Oh my gosh, draw him with a shirt on so it’ll be for the male gaze!” said no one ever.

Sorry if this feels disorganized, I’m just tired and angry.

Reminder, I AM BIGENDER so do not be a jerk to me

I've been on reddit since I was like 17. I'm 30 now. I swear that for awhile there, the general misogyny on reddit was improving. It felt for awhile like things were beginning to steady out and that people were starting to be less constantly aggressive and talk like people to each other more.

The last 3 years I wasn't online much, and the 2 before that I was mostly elsewhere on the internet. So in coming back on Reddit for things like mom subreddits and whatnot now that I'm pregnant and starting a family. Google provides terrible search results nowadays due to AI, and I thought real people would be easier to talk to.

Oh. Oh no. Huge mistake. Not only that, but even in predominantly female [assumedly] spaces now - it feels like things like victim blame/shame, "do it my way or you're wrong"isms, nuance generally has vanished. But it's only ever men towards women OR women towards women, and rarely do I see men towards other men or women towards men act like this. I feel like I'm going insane, but I swear at this point I can basically script what responses I will get ahead of time if it's a predominantly male or gender mixed sub versus a predominantly woman sub, and...both are bad? The reason I bring it up here, in ironically the most female possible sub, is I thought maybe it has something to do with recent politics and some sort of internalized shame in being a woman from those exterior forces, then sort of aggressively vented out at other women.

But idk. Thoughts? Maybe I am insane. Maybe the internet is all bots. Truly I'm not sure anymore.

Edit: for an addon, I swear the most comment male led responses I get are "what does this even add" whereas the most female led ones are "Get help/You need therapy" towards anything they don't like/get weirdly left field vitriolic towards. Sometimes out of what seems like truly no where.

Both my dad and brother are feminist, and many of the men in my life are too, online also seeing a lot of the same case. I know some people will say it's the bare minimum but seeing how men are now, I'm happy. I hope you guys can find men like this in your life as well

Philosopher John Gray argues that moral progress is easy to lose and that history reveals a cyclical pattern of ups and downs rather than the linear improvement we so much want to see.

No matter which shape of history you prefer, progress can indeed be lost. Feminism and gender equality are no exception, with countries like Afghanistan and Russia showing in real time how 100 years of moral and political improvements can be destroyed right before our eyes.

I most certainly have no easy solution for geopolitical dilemmas, so my goals with this article are much more humble. First, I want to discuss what kind of feminist messaging on social media can better reach men and remind them of the benefits of gender equality. Second, this aims to encourage men to learn from the successes of feminism.

Now fangirling has its own fair share of criticism. Im not gonna deny that. But this is too far.

Just found this post somewhere and it broke my heart 💔

Watching The Mummy tonight, the best one with Branden Frasier and Rachel Weis, and the part right at the start where Anuk Sun Amun says 'My body is no longer his temple'.

I was young when I first saw it, but understood the context. Years (decades) later and I still find that statement powerful.

i have a patient perspective, who has been brushed off by multiple doctors and who was told “chronic pain is normal for women in their private areas”.

what can i genuinely do? not necessarily for my own health struggles lol but for the systematical problem?

write articles, give feedback to hospitals, are there any big organizations in europe?

——

as a very young woman this has been a total shock to experience such treatment in medical world. i know only so much can be done, the research is slow and hard in all diseases and the situation is: doctors genuinely do not know what to do with most of women chronic pain. but it’s because it’s not viewed as important and studied. and being in a position as a patient and be told to “wait” “calm down” “try herbs” “there is nothing wrong” “drink a lot” is crazy to me.

Hello everyone! I recently uploaded an episode on my podcast about Women in STEM and if you are interested, please do check it out and support it.