there are no happy endings because nothing ends

A man’s appetite can be hearty, but a woman with an appetite is always voracious: her hunger always overreaches, because it is not supposed to exist. If she wants food, she is a glutton. If she wants sex, she is a slut. If she wants emotional care-taking, she is a high-maintenance bitch or, worse, an “attention whore”: an amalgam of sex-hunger and care-hunger, greedy not only to be fucked and paid but, most unforgivably of all, to be noticed.”

“Women talk ourselves into needing less, because we’re not supposed to want more—or because we know we won’t get more, and we don’t want to feel unsatisfied. We reduce our needs for food, for space, for respect, for help, for love and affection, for being noticed, according to what we think we’re allowed to have. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we can live without it, even that we don’t want it. But it’s not that we don’t want more. It’s that we don’t want to be seen asking for it. And when it comes to romance, women always, always need to ask.”

by me, a fool who doesnt wanna die anymore 

never make a suicide joke again. yes this includes “i wanna die” as a figure of speech. swear off of it. actually make an effort to change how you think about things.

find something to compliment someone for at least 4 times a day. notice the little things about the world that make you happy, and use that to make other people happy.

talk to people. initiate conversation as often as you possibly can. keep your mind busy and you wont have to worry anymore

picture the bad intrusive thoughts in youe head as an edgy 13 year old and tell them to go be emo somewhere else

Like every time I trip and fall, instead of saying “l’m just a disaster human” I say “I’m the epitome of grace and beauty”

Or like, when I draw a picture I’m not 100% happy with, instead of saying “my art is trash” I say something like “you know I think it’s time we replaced the Mona Lisa”

When you do that you get to make a joke, but you’re ALSO getting practice building yourself up, y’know?

Me, after learning that Athena holds herself to the ‘not like other girls’ standard and usuallys sides with whatever the nearest dick-toting diety says: what the fuck what a fake bitch

Stunning photos from Vogue of traditional Mexican women equestrian riders in the sport of Escaramuza (rodeo sport). Article by Mariel Cruz, Photos by Devin Doyle. 

Last year, photographer Devin Doyle, who’d spent two years photographing high school rodeo culture in the United States, became curious as to what the Mexican equivalent might look like. After all, he says, “It’s the same land, the same ranching culture.” What he found was an exciting competitive equestrian sport performed by women dressed in stunning traditional costumes, a sport directly inspired by the Adelitas—the female soldiers who fought in the Mexican Revolution.

let me just say

i know. most people on here know. you are not the sole thinking person in a world of sheep. i promise you that the person you’re making all these points to has heard it 100 times 100 ways from 100 other people. we know, tumblr. we know. 

but dammit, one month a year i get rainbow everything, and that’s a breath of fresh air after eleven months of straight nonsense. i LOVE seeing pride everywhere, even if it is just a corporate cash-grab. and it’s not like i can just opt out of this capitalist society, so fuck it, imma buy all the rainbow, pride-themed, gay merch i can get my hands on.

the world is a capitalist hellhole and there is no escape, so we may as well have what fun we can with it while we try and make things better.

The fact that LGBT rights have advanced enough to be considered mainstream, that we are acknowledged to be a demographic large and powerful enough to be marketed to, is a wonder. It is astonishing. It amazes me.

So yeah, it’s a cash grab, whatever, I get it, and I think companies that want to market to the queer demographic then they should support queer causes because we ARE still very much disadvantaged.

But I can’t forget how it was when I was a kid. When it was much more dangerous to publicly show your colors.

Maybe it’s tasteless, but it speaks volumes about how far we have come.

And yes, there are LOADS of queer indie artists to shop from and I recommend that. But if you want to buy some mass-market sweatshop produced piece of crap and then WEAR IT IN PUBLIC, then DO SO. Because in doing so you are making us more visible. And that’s a good thing. Never forget the value that being visibly queer has for closeted people, especially the young.

You do you.

Sometimes endurance horses in the Middle East have vividly red lower legs, which I have been baffled by for a while now, but as it turns out, the red is from henna (Lawsonia inermis), which is used to prevent the skin from cracking on the sandy tracks. In fact, henna has been used for a very long time in a protective capacity as well as a decorative one: it protects against mud fever and sunburn, and was also used to harden hooves and accelerate the healing of galls and saddle sores. 

A quick search through Persian and Mughal art will also turn up images of horses with hennaed legs, or even bellies, and sometimes manes and tails, showing that the use of henna is a long-standing one, dating back hundreds of years. 

Photos © Boudheib Initiative Endurance. 

Pictures (clockwise from left): miniature of horse and groom from the Muraqqa’-e Golshan, Persian, sixteenth or seventeenth century; equestrian portrait of a Nawab riding a grey stallion, signed by Muhammad Reza-i Hindi, Mughal, 1763/4; late eighteenth century Mughal album leaf from the British Museum; an equestrian portrait of Emperor Shah Jahan, Mughal, early nineteenth century; a stallion, Marwar, North India, late eighteenth century (note that this horse is probably a double dilute, as his muzzle, hooves and genitalia are peach coloured, as opposed to the grey and blue used for the other horses; as a double dilute he would be prone to sunburn and would need protection this extensive).

Sources

Kip Mistral. ‘Henna For Horses: Ancient Decorative and Medicinal Traditions’.

Sandra L. Olson. ‘Insight on the Ancient Arabian Horse from North Arabian Petroglyphs’.

Encylopaedia Iranica. ‘Henna’.

Encyclopaedia Iranica. ‘Golšan Album’.

Blondie and Paul