video game challenge:
—- [ 2/7 ] video games → portal 2.“you know, deleting caroline just now taught me a valuable lesson. the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one. and i’ll be honest. killing you? is hard. you know what my days used to be like? i just tested. nobody murdered me. or put me in a potato. or fed me to birds. i had a pretty good life. and then you showed up. you dangerous, mute lunatic. so you know what? you win. just go.”
I’m getting fed up with this whole “feminism as an identity” thing. Time for “feminism as an action.”
So instead of asking “can a feminist do x?” ask “is doing x a feminist action!”
Can a feminist take her husband’s last name? Mu. Null. Question un-valid, please un-ask question.
Is taking your husband’s last name a feminist action? No it isn’t. It doesn’t challenge the patriarchy in anyway, it is the status quo thing to do, it is what is expected of women, and it carries a lot of historical baggage about ownership and shit like that.
But that’s okay, your life choices don’t have to be 100% dictated by your politics unless you want them to. And it’s okay to really want to take his name while recognizing that you also want to do the feminist thing and keep your own, and it’s okay to feel conflicted and have a hard time making the choice. But no more of this enabling “as long as I made the choice myself it is a feminist choice” -bullshit. Own your choices, even the ones that aren’t informed by your feminist politics. You are still a human being and people do shit that contradicts their politics and even interests all the time. Just stop pretending that everything you do is feminist because you are a feminist, that’s not how it works.
^^this is why bell hooks challenges us to say “i support feminist movement” or “i support feminist action” rather than “i am a feminist.” she says that once we say “i am a feminist” and make “feminist” an identity rather than a political movement or a set of beliefs and the actions resulting from those beliefs, we can become complacent and think the battle is over.
Giving homeless people MONEY instead of FOOD can save their lives this winter, shelters cost money, being able to sit in McDonald’s and nurse a coke for a couple hours to warm up costs money, often accessing public toilets (whether it’s to use them, wash up or just to be out of the wind) costs money.
Just give homeless people cash, just do it, no excuses, no whining about “enabling their drug habits”, if you have money to spare, give it and possibly save someone from literally freezing to death.
