Some Thoughts

 was admitted to Julliard at 8.  

was performing in top venues by 16.  

pioneered “swinging the classics” and made the equivalent of a million dollars a year doing it.  

was the first person of color to have their own national TV show.  

went to Hollywood but refused to be cast as a “singing maid.”  Demanded and got control over her casting, her wardrobe, and how footage featuring her was cut.  

refused to perform in segregated venues and led charges for integration in several northern cities, notably Spokane.  

I find the idea that women’s choices should be exempt from criticism to be patronising. Nobody would suggest that men’s choices should be honoured in that way so why women’s?

“Choice feminism” is a fairly new idea. It’s taken an old concept - that women should have the right to choose whether they work or stay at home - and applied it broadly and uncritically to everything. There’s a lot that any human being should be allowed to do without criticism from others but certainly not everything.  

Women don’t yet have the freedom to make true choices in the same way as men - the “choices” this branch of feminism usually talks about are very much guided by the way society sees and treats us. No woman would “choose” to have her face sliced into unless society told her she was worth less if she allowed herself to age naturally. No woman would “choose” to have breast implants unless the idea had been put in her head that larger and/or more perfect breasts were a valuable commodity. Despite what some might say, few women would “choose” to take part in hardcore porn if they had actual choices - and if it were possible to get out of the situation once they were in.

The loudest voices in favour of “choice feminism” are almost always men - read the comments underneath articles critical of pornography or prostitution. They will be littered with men decrying anyone who dares to question the reality of a woman’s “choice” to sell her body. It’s never a true choice - women end up in the sex industries in a variety of ways but the “choice” (if a choice is ever made, and often it isn’t) almost always comes at the end of a long line of events that have nothing at all to do with choice. 

Abusive men and anti-feminists have gained a lot through choice feminism, including the ability to blame individual women for “choosing” to get themselves into unfortunate situations.

Choice feminism puts the concerns of the individual above the concerns of women as a group and until very recently, that isn’t what feminism has been about.

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As artists are inclined to do he decided to push some limits and over the course of a few years he grafted over 40 different fruit onto the host “ including almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum varieties.”

It has a fruiting period lasting from July to October and this is what it looks like when blossoming.

Shit’s tight yo.

Also we have a group called the Guerrilla Grafters. A group who started in San Fransisco with the goal of grafting fruiting branches onto non-fruiting trees of the same type.