Guerrilla Feminism

those two shows are frequently listed as being the most expensive shows netflix has on their roster. they were going at over a hundred million dollars per season. think about that, and then think about how many times you’ve seen either of those shows advertised. 

and then think about how many times you’ve seen thirteen reasons why or orange is the new black or stranger things advertised in comparison.

netflix, as a company, chose to give these shows with highly diverse casts the biggest budget and the smallest amount of advertisement possible. you know what happens when you don’t advertise tv shows? people don’t watch them.

i’m not talking about tumblr user #5754783 deciding not to watch the get down because they are (rightfully) uncomfortable with its depictions of abuse/assault or twitter user #2423857 deciding not to watch sense8 because they are (rightfully) concerned about its depictions of cultures close to their hearts or their tendency to prioritize white characters narratively.

i’m talking about the masses of casual netflix users who don’t get into fandom culture. the largest block of netflix’s audience. the people who clicked on OITNB because they saw commercials on TV and advertisement on facebook. the people who saw 13 reasons why getting hyped up for months before its release because netflix did the leg work to get news about it out there.

so here’s the shit netflix seems to be pulling right now:

throw a huge budget at highly diverse, imaginative shows and reap the benefits of people applauding them for doing so

pull advertisement so that no one watches them

cancel them and blame lack of viewership

watch tumblr/twitter standom go after random users who didn’t want to watch the show (absolving netflix as a company of blame for it)

renew All Str8 White Show #2456 for a sixth season

Oh look, stuff from the book! The actual canon book. 

I had to give a ten minute presentation on gender and a) how it’s different from sex, and b) whether or not there’s such thing as a “male” and “female” brain.

I found COUNTLESS studies supporting the idea that the brain itself is unisex- there is very little, if any, difference between “male” and “female” brains, with one exception. I’m by no means a neuroscientist but this is what I understood from this particular article: there’s this tiny part of the hypothalamus (a small part of the brain) that has neutrons in it, and the number of neutrons varies. HOWEVER, when the brains of cis men and women and trans men and women (who had not taken hormones for years prior to the time of death) were studied, it was found that the cis men and trans men had almost identical average neutron counts, and the cis women and trans women had almost identical average neutron counts. So if you’re DMAB but realize at some point that you’re a trans woman, as far as your brain is concerned, you ARE a woman! The same goes for DFAB trans men (intersex/nonbinary individuals weren’t studied, unfortunately).

White women, do me a favor and read this.

This line, in particular, gutted me:

We eat eggs and I tell Y about how when I was 8 years old, I taught my white friend, B (actually called Becky), how to count to 10 in Urdu. How at school the next day she looked at her feet as she shuffled past me, and the white teacher pulled me aside and asked me why I was bullying Becky, because Becky’s mum said I was bullying Becky, and that maybe it would be best if I didn’t sit next to her anymore. She suggested this with the kind of half-arsed, sad-eyed, apologetic shrug that white women perform when it is less of a scene to administer psychological warfare against a brown child than it is to challenge your fellow white woman.

Not only because hell yeah fat girl heroes and awesomely executed art and animation

But also because I know there are hundreds of assholes SEETHING over it

Please.

If my doctor actually needs my weight for something specific, I’ve made the baseline assumption that they will let me know that. 

I don’t ask, I make a statement. I think that may be the key.

So when they steer me towards a scale, I say “I don’t want to be weighed.”

If they insist (very rare) I just say “I’d rather not.” And then I don’t get on the scale.

If they insist after this (has only happened once), I say “What do you need it for?”

If they say they want it to file insurance, I give them a number to put in their computer. There are procedures/medicine that they do actually need your weight for. If that’s the case, they would certainly tell you so.

You would be surprised how often the nurse does not care.

I think the main key is to stay calm and phrase it not as a question they have to agree to, but as a statement of what you are willing to do.

Disabled Person: (is well aware that their life would be easier if they could do it)

Disabled Person: (is already trying as hard as they can to figure it out)

Disabled Person: (would jump at the chance to do it once they know how)

Abled Person: “Just do it.”