your heart is an empty room

Men grow up in a world where men are always more important than everyone else. Refusing to go along with this and actively prioritising women feels like hatred to men who conflate their unearned position of power with their identity.

i think having adequate free access to mental health services would help my mental health

i think not being constantly advertised at and told my worth is measured in how much shit i own or how much men want to fuck me would help my mental health

Who wants to break it to dads that their teenage daughters are not their property? Who wants to tell them that joking about them like they are is just weird? But more than that, who wants to tell the members of the media who perpetuate that old joke just how tired it really is?

Once you get past a million shares on something like this, I’m going to step in to play Humorless Feminist Mom to the Hands Off My Daughter Industrial Complex. Because I have a 15 year-old daughter, too. And when BuzzFeed runs a story like this above the invitation, “Want great parenting tips in your inbox twice a week?” I question whether this constitutes “great parenting tips.” When Fox LA reports, “Dads will be dads! A hilarious photo shows a dad posing with his daughter’s homecoming date before the teens went to a homecoming dance in Wisconsin,” I think that merits some skepticism over whether that’s just “Dads being dads.” And when Seventeen approvingly reports on this as a tale of “Dad for the win,” I’m sorry but now I’m going to have to blow a gasket.

Watch: This is why you should never go as another culture for Halloween.

Ok, so you may or may not have heard about what’s going on with this photo. Lush Cosmetics has posted this photo in a few malls and has been asked to take it down.

Why. Please explain to me how this is any different then a Victoria’s Secret advertisement. Please explain to me what’s wrong this photo. Is it going to “scar” children? Absolutely not. Children are going to say “That photo looks like a normal person and I know that it’s ok to look like that”. Teenagers will walk past this poster and realize that this is what beauty is. Those with eating disorders might not skip dinner. As someone who struggles every single day with body image, this is refreshing. This photo isn’t photo shopped. This photo hasn’t been altered. These are real women with real lives that have real emotions like I do. And it is really amazing to know that my body is beautiful. To have a gentle reminder that I’m a normal person and that nothing is wrong with me, is spectacular. My boobs aren’t big, and my stomach isn’t flat, and I have more stretch marks than I know what to do with. But I am beautiful. Thank you Lush. Thank you for inspiring me to know that I am worth it. We need to spread this photo like wildfire. This photo needs to be seen. Our voices must be heard. If it can affect me this much, then imagine what I can do to millions of others.