if this is to end in fire let's all burn together

“Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman told the crowd at Saturday’s Women’s March in downtown Los Angeles that she experienced what she calls “sexual terrorism” as a 13-year-old after the release of the film The Professional.

Portman described her pride and excitement in releasing the film, only to encounter sexually explicit messages both directed toward her and made about her.

”I excitedly opened my first fan mail to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me,” she recalled. “A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday, euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with. Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews.”

The experience, she said, changed the way she expressed herself publicly, in order to limit the ways she could be objectified by others.

”I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually, I would feel unsafe,” she said. “And that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort. So I quickly adjusted my behavior. I rejected any role that even had a kissing scene and talked about that choice deliberately in interviews. I emphasized how bookish I was and how serious I was. And I cultivated an elegant way of dressing. I built a reputation for basically being prudish, conservative, nerdy, serious, in an attempt to feel that my body was safe and that my voice would be listened to.”

On This Day in Herstory, April 12th 1913, Keiko Fukuda, a Japanese American martial artist, the highest-ranked female judoka in history, the last surviving student of the founder of judo, and a pioneer of women’s judo, was born in Tokyo, Japan.

As a child Keiko Fukuda (福田 敬子 Fukuda Keiko) was trained in the arts of calligraphy, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony, and other pursuits typical for women in Japan at the time. Around this time, while she was quite young, her father died, leaving her mother with two children, Keiko and her brother. Despite her traditional upbringing, she felt drawn to judo, because her grandfather had been a samurai and master of jujutsu, he also taught jujutsu to Kanō Jigorō, founder of judo. One day, Keiko’s mother took her to watch a judo training session, and a few months later she began to train herself in the art. Her mother and brother were very supportive of her decision to train, thinking that she was meet and marry a judo master. In 1935, she was personally invited by the founder of judo to study with him; this was highly unusual for the time, but he did it as a sign of respect for her grandfather. She was one of only 24 women who trained in his studio. Around this time she reportedly refused to enter into an arranged marriage because it would have ended her training.

Keiko was only 4’11”, and weighed less than 100lbs, despite this, she excelled at judo and became an instructor in 1937. She also earned a degree in Japanese literature from Showa Women’s University around this time. In 1953 she was promoted to the rank of 5th dan in judo. Later that year she traveled to the US at the invitation of a judo club in Oakland, California, she stayed for over two years, before returning to Japan. She traveled to the US again in 1966 and gave seminars in California; one of these seminars was at Mills College, who immediately offered her a teaching position, which she accepted, teaching from 1967 to 1978. At that time, she was one of only four women in the world ranked at 5th dan in judo. In November 1972, Keiko became the first woman promoted to 6th dan. The next year she published Born for the Mat: A Kodokan kata textbook for women, an instructional book for women about the kata (patterns) of Kodokan judo. In 1974, she established the annual Joshi Judo Camp to give female judo practitioners the chance to train together.

They are losing their grip, or maybe they need to get a grip.

Just so we all understand…this is not about babies or children or even the fetus. This is purely about the patriarchy controlling women. “The pill” gave women the freedom not to get pregnant. This allowed women to hold a job, go to college, have her own money…that was the start… the patriarchy has been losing ground and control ever since. The Me Too movement has eroded that control even more as women are no longer putting up with sexual harrassment and are starting to not put up with discrimination (it’s been a long road!).

Every misogynistic, cowards ass lawmaker needs to realize

having kids with your abuser makes it harder for you to leave and ties you to your abuser legally at least until all the children are of age, and possibly for the rest of the children’s lives. 

even if you win sole custody (not a guarantee even with abuse), the abuser can still harass you with custody modification actions and bogus CPS calls and, if there’s visitation (there almost certainly will be), using that time to threaten the children or your relationship with them. 

do you use public assistance? you are legally required to sue for child support so that the state doesn’t have to pay you as much money, meaning that your financial existence is tied to your abuser as well!

abusers are 100% aware of this and will gleefully exploit it when they choose to