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{ In regards to BDSM }

lucypaw:

taniada:

et-tu-dionysus:

girl-non-grata:

It burns me up when some people imply kink is purely exploitative of women. With a sane partner, a submissive is asked what are her “limits” and those boundaries are always respected; she chooses a word she can say at any time and no matter what play stops. How many vanilla women have to put their foot down for that kind of respect? When you’re submissive, it’s automatic and unwavering. Everything you experience is by your own choice.

A hallmark of BDSM is that things be “safe, sane, and consensual.” How many sexual situations do you walk into where that’s an unspoken rule?

This is spot on. I don’t even bother talking about BDSM anymore because no one seems to understand the fact that no one’s forcing anyone to be submissive - it’s a choice. If it’s not something you’d choose to do then simply don’t do it. It’s that simple.

Agreed.

Tangent, but I don’t know if I like the “safe, sane, and consensual” thing that I always hear. Some kink practices are inherently unsafe to a degree (e.g. breath play) but as long as it’s all consensual and all parties involved know what they’re getting into and are ideally being as safe as they possibly can be, okay. And as for “sane”, well… I feel like it’s stigmatizing and marginalizes people with mental illnesses.

But anyway totally agree other than that. I hate when people view kink and BDSM as anti-feminist and as inherently disrespectful to submissives. Consent, respect, and trust are key. 

The problems you point out with “safe, sane, and consensual” has resulted in some adopting RACK: Risk-Aware Consensual Kink.  Because the point is that life is risky and the point is to be aware of the risks and consent is the other important factor.  There are criticisms of RACK as well, but it does seem to be an improvement, speaking as someone who has mental illnesses.

ardhra:

quixotess:

ardhra asked:

 I find it interesting that a lot of people commented to you while your internet access was down expressing concern about you & family, and dismay that you’re in the situation, when you’ve expressed joy, excitement, hope at the revolution. Certainly some private homes have been looted, it seems, but for the most part the targets seem to be official buildings & vehicles. But the overwhelming western reporting seems to be about “chaos” as if there’s no political direction to the events (and reporting death tolls with no context) & maybe readers just accept that political upheaval in a “Middle Eastern” country means danger to westerners & has no deeper political current to it?

guerillamamamedicine:

luckily, i have not been following a lot of us/european media.  our tv stays tuned to al jazeera. 

there has been some danger to foreigners.  i heard that a bunch of foreigners were rounded up by the police and arrested and then let go a couple of nights ago.  and of course the attacks on foreign journalists. 

but, most of the violence has been instigated, as far as i can tell, by the police and their paid thugs.  and so the vigilantes/community members have organized themselves as a counter-force to the police. 

also, we dont live in a classic expat neighborhood.  we live in a middle class egyptian neighborhood.  and thus are much less of a target. the folks in our neighborhood know us, know our kid, and are protective of us. also we live relatively close to tahrir sq, which means that we dont deal with the police forces in our neighborhood, since they arent allowed near tahrir. 

and how could i not be excited?  the whole city is excited.  how can you not love an anarchist revolution that is not about political parties, or leaders, but for the people, by the people?  how can you not be excited to watch a multi generation movement emerge and insist on taking the future into its own hands? 

i mean, it was more dangerous to live under a police dictatorship.  more dangerous when bloggers were routinely arrested for critiquing the egyptian govt and i had to weigh if i could afford as a mama to write the truth.  more dangerous when nearly everyone was afraid of the police and just hid in the ‘dark of their windows’ when the police were abusive, just glad they werent the target. this time. 

and yes there have been over 300 martyrs in this fight.  and there will probably be more.  but i dont even have the numbers for the amount of people who died from the dictatorship.  human rights watch probably has it, ill do some research. 

one of the things i have been thinking a lot about in the past couple of days is that there is freedom and security.  most of us get it wrong.  we think first you get security and then you can work for freedom.  but no, that never really works out.  first you get free.  second, you get free.  third, you get free. 

security is an illusion. 

there was no real security under the mubarak regime.  it was just an ugly form of chaos.  it didnt make pretty patterns.  it made fear.

(wow it was difficult to reblog an ask post this was the best I could do.)

Thank you for your response! And thanks quixotess for reblogging both my question & Mai’a’s response so I can respond with context.

I think I’ve seen 18,000 as a number quoted for people detained, tortured & killed by the Mubarak dictatorship, but I can’t cite the source…

I appreciate the focus on loved ones in times of political upheaval & that sometimes that’s an antidote to an overly romantic view of protest and violence. But still, the reactions struck me as seeming a bit orientalist, characterising the protests as uncontrolled and immediately a threat to life & property.

{ LINK: Sedentary Meanderings: radicallyhottoff: quixotess: radicallyhottoff: ardhra: quixotess:... }

radicallyhottoff:

quixotess:

radicallyhottoff:

ardhra:

quixotess:

ardhra asked:

I find it interesting that a lot of people commented to you while your internet access was down expressing concern about you & family, and dismay that you’re in the situation, when you’ve…

(Source: guerrillamamamedicine)

eateroftrees:

sharpclause:

I wish I didn’t have to see animated gifs on my dashboard, they cause problems for me when I’m trying to deal with a migraine, and they can set one off if I didn’t already have one. A think a lot of them are so rapidly moving that they’re probably a seizure risk for some people. The kind that zoom back and forth set off violent nausea for me. I’d hate to have to dig into my settings and disable image loading, because white listing images on a one by one basis is a real pain, and even then, I’m not sure when I do choose to see an image it isn’t going to be a moving image.

I know most people couldn’t give a shit if they hurt a disabled person with their meme spreading, but I don’t get why my progressive friends have to be told that this is an issue. Do you not know anyone who has seizures, migraines, or visual processing problems? I don’t think of this as a web accessibility issue like image descriptions, I think of this as a web safety issue.

Please put your moving images behind a cut and warn for them. Please don’t use animated avatars. Please don’t use animated signature files. Don’t do it out of politeness, do it because you don’t want anyone to get hurt!

I wonder if there are browser extensions that specifically block animated gifs.  It seems like something that there would be a demand for.

Also reblogging so people see this.

(via thenameoftheworms)

{ I’m posting this again on its own }

eateroftrees:

PEOPLE PEOPLE: USE THIS TAG MORE.

Really, if something has content that needs a trigger warning, you should be sticking a cut in and putting a warning before the cut so people can avoid it; it’s pretty easy to accidentally read something bad even when there is a warning on it, just because, say, you’re scrolling up instead of down, or you glance away from your computer and when you look back your eyes go to the wrong spot.

[image above: section of a screenshot of the “Text Post” box on tumblr.  highlighted is the “Insert ‘read more’ break” button, in between the “Spell Checker” button and the “HTML Source” button.]

signal boost.  and i apologize for all the times i’ve failed about this.

(Source: thenameoftheworms)

{ Can I repeat the request to avoid animated gifs? }

technicolortimecoat:

eateroftrees:

Because honestly when I have a bad headache I start having trouble tracking things on the screen and they make it a lot harder, and can make my headaches worse.

(And, of course, there’s the whole epilepsy thing, but that doesn’t effect me)

Stick a cut and warning in, please.

Yeah, I’ve started doing this recently.

They can make things distracting for me (ADD or autism, dunno which - they both affect attention after all).

signal boost

also i think this is the post that is being referenced (EDIT: yes it is)

(Source: thenameoftheworms, via technicolortimecoat-deactivated)

{ LINK: horrendous cuts in House version of HR 1 are still a potential reality -- contact your Senators if you live in the US and can do so }

reblogging myself again.

AFAIK, all these cuts are all still threatening to become a reality.

NOTE: “HR 1” here means the version of HR 1 that passed the House.

if you cannot do this, passing this info around is still really helpful.

NOTE: you can send up to 2 faxes a day for free at http://www.gotfreefax.com

ALSO: here are some text-things of various types that i have found that mention just a few of the things wrong with HR 1.  any additions to this list would be awesome — this is very not-definitive because i am not a very reliable person.  some of the articles have some problematic language (for example, a whole lotta cissexism/binarism relating to “women’s health”, as usual), but the info is there:

there’s one other thing i found that lists some shit but it’s on Facebook so i’ll quote the relevant parts here:

While H.R. 1 contains many dangerous provisions, I am going to focus on three that cut programs that promote health and wellness.

1)  The Pence Amendment, sponsored by Indiana’s own Republican Mike Pence, will cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Republicans argue that Planned Parenthood is making profits from abortions and the government should not fund abortion, but there are already laws preventing such funding. One in five women in the U.S. have received health care from Planned Parenthood and for many men, women, teens and children, this is the only source for care, from cancer screenings to HIV testing to birth control to PAP smears. Jon Stewart explains what H.R. 1 would do, saying, “You can’t prevent an unwanted child, you can’t get care if you do get pregnant and we won’t give you any help feeding the kid once it’s born.”

2)  H.R. 1 cuts the budget for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The cuts in funding for the EPA would mean decreased clean up and enforcement of public health standards for toxic mercury, carbon dioxide and other dangerous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. For one in six women in the U.S., the levels of mercury in their blood are high enough to threaten the lives of any child they carry. H.R. 1 would also cut clean energy projects dependent on Department of Energy loans, not only negatively impacting our future with clean energy, but cutting tens of thousands of jobs.

3)  H.R. 1 blocks funding for the Affordable Care Act, representing an un-doing of the health-care reforms of the past year, shifting the focus away, once again, from keeping us healthy and well. It would signal a return to unfair, discriminatory health insurance practices and cut the efforts to rein in skyrocketing health care costs.

* i don’t know anything about FRAC or Just Harvest.

** and i’m not sure how much i trust Save Darfur because they sometimes seem kinda “Western Savior”-ish.

*** also not familiar with Environment America (but i do trust Presente.org).

{ LINK: from Food & Water Watch: "Don't Let Congress Threaten Your Health and Safety" }

The federal budget currently proposed by Congress slashes critical funding for food safety and water programs, threatening the health and safety of all Americans. This includes deep cuts in meat inspection, despite the massive recalls of the past few years, and dramatically underfunding necessary water system improvements. President Obama’s proposed budget is not much better. Both budgets fail to provide basic services that most of us expect, while keeping spending that directly benefits and subsidizes large corporations.

{ more about anti-choice legislation in New Hampshire USA }

if you cannot do the things listed below, passing this info around is still very helpful.  thank you.

i got an email today from NARAL — they’ve launched a new campaign and website, specifically i think in response to the New Hampshire bill HB 329 (available to read here), the bill that would require parental notification before an unemancipated minor could get an abortion.

NOTE: as usual, they’re all “women’s health” this and “women’s safety” that, without acknowledging that abortion rights are not a women-only thing.

if you don’t wanna participate in this particular campaign, but can and do want to contact NH Governor John Lynch about this bill, his phone number is (603) 271-2121, his fax number is (603) 271-7640 (and here’s that online free faxing place), and his email form is here.

anyway here’s the email:

When it comes to young women, safety is our priority. It’s so important, in fact, that we’ve developed a new campaign—Teen Safety First.

Right now, the anti-choice leadership in New Hampshire is pursuing a parental notification mandate with fervor, under the premise that it is a parents’ rights issue. Teen Safety First combats this dangerous movement because we know notification laws don’t improve family communication, they put teens at risk.

Mandatory notification laws make scared, pregnant young women who cannot reveal their pregnancy to their parents take dangerous action instead of going to the doctor to get the safe medical help they need.

I know this. You know this.

That’s why I want you to be a part of our new campaign.

Use our website to:

  • Sign our petition calling on Governor John Lynch and the NH State Senate to reject HB 329
  • Share a photo of your commitment to young women’s health and safety
  • Keep up-to-date with the latest news on the fight against the notification mandate
  • Find family communication resources that work
  • Learn more about the fight against notification mandates in the Granite State
  • Find more ways to get involved

{ Animated gifs }

abigq:

sharpclause:

abigq:

kiriamaya:

eateroftrees:

sharpclause:

I wish I didn’t have to see animated gifs on my dashboard, they cause problems for me when I’m trying to deal with a migraine, and they can set one off if I didn’t already have one. A think a lot of them are so rapidly moving that they’re probably a seizure risk for some people. The kind that zoom back and forth set off violent nausea for me. I’d hate to have to dig into my settings and disable image loading, because white listing images on a one by one basis is a real pain, and even then, I’m not sure when I do choose to see an image it isn’t going to be a moving image.

I know most people couldn’t give a shit if they hurt a disabled person with their meme spreading, but I don’t get why my progressive friends have to be told that this is an issue. Do you not know anyone who has seizures, migraines, or visual processing problems? I don’t think of this as a web accessibility issue like image descriptions, I think of this as a web safety issue.

Please put your moving images behind a cut and warn for them. Please don’t use animated avatars. Please don’t use animated signature files. Don’t do it out of politeness, do it because you don’t want anyone to get hurt!

I wonder if there are browser extensions that specifically block animated gifs.  It seems like something that there would be a demand for.

Also reblogging so people see this.

Signal boost.

I’ve been doing my best to avoid anigifs ever since mel pointed out the problem a few months ago. I’ve passed up on reblogging really great posts just because, at some point, somebody saw fit to drop in an anigif for no good reason. I think that, from now on, I will just redact anigifs in my reblogs of those posts.

If you use firefox you can disable animation completely: Open about:config in Firefox and set image.animation_mode to none (or to “once” if you just want to stop them from looping).

OMG, why did I not know this about Firefox? There’s the fix that will work for me and I love you forever for this! I edited the original post to say this but still, people are so supportive right now and I’m appreciate it so much, you have no idea. I’m sorry again that I started out really grouchy about this because you’re all being so awesome and understanding!

Step by step instructions for firefox, for IE and for Opera (Safari doesn’t permit disabling animations; Chrome doesn’t seem to permit it natively, but see below):

http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Animated-Images-in-a-Browser

(For people who also want to block Flash:

  • Firefox has a couple plugins that permit this (AdBlock, FlashBlock, NoScript);
  • Safari also has such plugins; 
  • Chrome has (in some builds) the ability to disable Flash natively. Chrome also has a plugin that disables animations and permits one to start them by clicking on the image (I’ve not tested it; doesn’t seem to work for everyone).

)

re-reblogging for more commentary.  and to help keep sharpclause’s OP circulating because it’s important.

(via abigq-deactivated20110918)