Now Im A Happy Song Placed On The Lips Of A Woman

which yes, does sound a lot like laura mulvey’s feminist theory of the male gaze. that’s because this predated it and coined the term “gaze” for it.

and though i don’t quite get the simone de beauvoir “the second sex” connection (i mean i do thematically, just not a particular passage) it is very reminiscent of margaret atwood’s passage in “the robber bride” that gets posted around here a lot.

which is similar to the concept of constant self-observation and the internalized panopticon. which was expressed by sandra lee bartky in “foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchal power”:

which was a criticism of foucault’s lack of examination of how patriarchal power is enforced via specific types of violence against women under patriarchy:

and which has been incorrectly attributed to foucault himself, as it was on the tumblr quote i got this from, where it had around 25k notes and at the time of the amendment with proper credit, had around half that. it still goes around without the correction all the time.

you can read the entire essay here:

which is also very much in line with andrea dworkin’s observations of the various procedures women are expected to go through to maintain presentability (by which they always mean beauty, because that is a standard expectation of all women) from “woman hating”, here updated to include modern procedures (thank you @being-kindrad. i don’t know if you made this or just posted it but it sources back to you so you get the credit).

and a relevant quote included with it:

remember when tumblr wasn't so reactionary, antifeminist, and so deeply embedded in misogyny that this was common knowledge? (at least for women interested in feminist theory, this is all considered suspicious now). ah, good times. anyway, ending this with a final quote from adrienne rich:

I used to draw Tamino Amir so much it became my hyperfixation circa 2019. You guys should give his music a try!

i love this book more than life ITSELF.