thelostsunprincess:

What I do want to tell you is that you need to stop using the “wives, sisters, daughters” argument when you are talking to people defending the Steubenville rapists. Or any rapists. Or anyone who commits any kind of crime, violent or otherwise, against a woman.

In case you’re unfamiliar with this line of rhetoric, it’s the one that goes like this:

You should stop defending the rapists and start caring about the victim. Imagine if she was your sister, or your daughter, or your wife. Imagine how badly you would feel if this happened to a woman that you cared about.

Framing the issue this way for rape apologists can seem useful. I totally get that. It feels like you’re humanizing the victim and making the event more relatable, more sympathetic to the person you’re arguing with.

You know what, though? Saying these things is not helpful; in fact, it’s not even helping to humanize the victim. What you are actually doing is perpetuating rape culture by advancing the idea that a woman is only valuable in so much as she is loved or valued by a man.

The Steubenville rape victim was certainly someone’s daughter. She may have been someone’s sister. Someday she might even be someone’s wife. But these are not the reasons why raping her was wrong. This rape, and any rape, was wrong because women are people. Women are people, rape is wrong, and no one should ever be raped. End of story.

The “wives, sisters, daughters” line of argument comes up all the fucking time. President Obama even used it in his State of the Union address this year, saying,

“We know our economy is stronger when our wives, mothers, and daughters can live their lives free from discrimination in the workplace, and free from the fear of domestic violence.”

This device, which Obama has used on more than one occasion, is reductive as hell. It defines women by their relationships to other people, rather than as people themselves. It says that women are only important when they are married to, have given birth to, or have been fathered by other people. It says that women are only important because of who they belong to.

Women are not possessions.

Women are people.

I seriously cannot believe that I have to say this in 2013.

I only posted a small piece of the article but its brilliant. Please go read the rest of it. The “lets protect women because they are our mothers, sisters, and wives” crap needs to go.

(Source: lipsredasroses)

keepfeminismindisney:

This is such an amazing project about bringing awareness to unimaginably high maternal mortality rates in the US.

(Source: lipsredasroses)

historicalslut:

I could go on a long rant about how in 2012 we shouldn’t be seeing shit like this but I cannot since I am not surprised. I wish I could be surprised but every freaking company does it. I’m not surprised Scholastics does it. We can just add them to the list that uses gender stereotypes to sell their products.

(Source: lipsredasroses)

bobies:

mswyrr:

…is that he’s a domestic violence committing, female co-star intimidating asshole. You can read the details of what he did to his female partner at the link. Regarding his treatment of female costars: Kiera Knightly didn’t want him spanking her during one of their…

Can I just say that I don’t want to grow into this world. I want to curl up and die now, while I’m still sort of protected by ~law~ on some level. I don’t want to grow up into this foolishness. I would write a long, insightful paragraph or whatever, but honestly this is way too prevalent and way too close for me to feel anything other than sadness right now.

(via stfuconfederates-deactivated201)