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you know what kind of language DOESN’T include me? “people who menstruate” or “people with a uterus.”

y'all claim that “terfs” are the ones who don’t account for infertile women, for women who’ve had hysterectomies, for premenstrual girls, for menopausal women, for intersex women. y'all say “terfs” reduce people to their genitals. but the reality is that isolating bodily functions and organs as defining characteristics of a cohesive group of people: 1) actually results in exclusion, 2) actually reduces people to their genitals, and 3) obscures misogyny by pretending issues affecting the female body “affect people of all genders.”

let’s go through some examples of females who may not menstruate/have a uterus/have ovaries/etc:

- a premenstrual girl. not included in “people with periods.” may not currently need, say, access to bathrooms that have sanitary pads. most absolutely needs comprehensive education on her body and how menstruation works for when the time comes.

- a woman with PCOS who’s stopped menstruating. not included in “people with periods.” still in absolute need of research on her female-specific condition because doctors still don’t know what exactly causes it or how to effectively treat it.

- a woman who had an oophorectomy because she had ovarian cancer. not included in “people with ovaries” or “people who produce more estrogen than testosterone.” would maybe still have her ovaries if her male doctor had believed her when she first started to feel pain and her cancer had been treated early on. still has the same hormonal needs as other females and needs to be on HRT.

- a woman who became infertile after having a clandestine abortion. not included in “people who can get pregnant.” would have possibly not become pregnant if she’d had access to education and contraceptives and if we didn’t live in a world where men raping women was commonplace. could have had a safe abortion if women were granted full autonomy over their bodies.

- a girl who was the victim of fgm. not included in “people with a clitoris.” would not have been the victim of fgm if men did not specifically seek to control and punish female bodies.

The other day I had a man openly admit to me that when I said I would not like a dick pic, it made him want to do it more. When I asked why, he responded "idk, just made me want to pick on you".

Research has shown that men are far more likely to develop PTSD due to a standalone traumatic event compared to women who — as stated — are more likely to develop CPTSD due to prolonged traumatic events.

While different studies or papers will report slightly different numbers, all agree that women are more “tormented” by daily life than men and thus develop worse mental illness due to it. This study in particular even states that “cisgender women are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop PTSD and CPTSD than men, even when exposed to similar trauma types.”

TLDR; being a cis woman in the world is so traumatic we are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop PTSD than a man by simply living in the world with them.

male gaze under patriarchy changes the brain

objectification diminishes brain capacity

EDIT: THIS IS A CARRD NOW! it's updated and organized!!

EDIT EDIT: this is on my website now! this is the version that will be somewhat regularly updated. the carrd will remain, but will no longer be updated.

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox or librewolf (open-source fork of firefox) instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega instead of google drive

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

get free stuff with the help of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH, r/piracy and r/roms

use trakt (for shows and movies), letterboxd (just movies), or TMB instead of IMDB (owned by amazon).

use storygraph instead of goodreads (owned by amazon).

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause, ecosia, or ocean hero to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, or tuta instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use project gutenberg for free public domain books, and librivox for public domain books and audiobooks

use the seal app (android only) to download video and audio

use ellipsus instead of microsoft word or google docs

use mastodon instead of twitter

use peertube to create a network of small video hosting providers (disclaimer: not a 1:1 alternative to youtube)

use threema and signal for encrypted communication, on mobile and desktop

use qwant and startpage for secure internet browsers

use syncthing to securely transfer files between devices

learn how to jailbreak your kindle/ereader if you have one (wiki and video walkthrough)

use riseup’s email and VPN for secure communication (aimed towards activists)

use cryptpad and collabora instead of the microsoft office suite

use google takeout to export the data on your google account

use library extension to look for books on online stores and find them at your library

remove paywalls with removepaywalls

install the open-source adblocker ublock origin

install sponsorblock to skip sponsored segments on youtube videos

use bookfinder to look for the cheapest available listings of books, including textbooks

learn a language through mango (duolingo laid off some of its employees and now relies on AI translations) for free with a library card or through your school

edit photos with photopea

edit pdfs with foxit and sumatrapdf

download music with doubledouble

take notes offline and collaborate securely with obsidian

for android tv, use smarttube and cloudstream (ad-free, open-source)

change your OS to linux