twilight-blossom:

cool-yubari:

transluminescence:

bossymarmalade:

deemmyspiritfled:

transluminescence:

emiello:

transluminescence:

madkao:

PUNJAMMIES™ are made by women in India rescued from forced prostitution seeking to rebuild their lives. Proceeds from the sales of PUNJAMMIES™ provide fair-trade wages, savings accounts, and holistic recovery care.

[Slew of cheerleading posts redacted.]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT BUY THESE FUCKING THINGS

These are made by women who are FORCED OUT OF THEIR CHOSEN JOBS AND FORCED INTO GARMENT MAKING which is an incredibly common problem with “rescue programs” in exploited nations. This company is founded by a white woman who wanted to ‘save’ poor oppressed brown women from the sex industry and so what happened? Now these women are working shit jobs with shit wages after being forced into the justice system and been given the option of prison time or this. 

That is NOT choice, that is NOT helping, this is a SCAM and a FARCE and yet another example of WOMEN’S LABOR BEING EXPLOITED. The rescue industry is a major provider of labor to garment manufacturing, it’s not CHOICE, its FORCE and EXPLOITATIVE.

bolding for emphasis because wow.

someone asked me for a source and this is yet another moment where I wish Andrew were still alive ugh but APNSW The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, have written about this extensively some of which is on their wordpress

Seriously people, always be critical of ANYTHING that claims to be ‘rescuing sex workers/trafficking survivors’ because its almost NEVER what it appears.

https://www.facebook.com/leelaneena, https://www.facebook.com/APNSW, http://www.nswp.org/, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27903426, http://www.lauraagustin.com/tag/rescue-industry, http://apnsw.wordpress.com/page/8/ this shit is crazy

Honestly I would be surprised if any desi person didn’t look at this cokie-eyed from the get go, because once you’ve been called a “stupid Pun” by some cracker you don’t hear that shorthand slur of “Punjabi” without an instinctive twitch. Basically they might as well be called “Cooliepants” or “Curryknickers” or someshit like that.

Sorting out the links in the previous reply

https://www.facebook.com/leelaneena (amazing activist’s Facebook, connected with APSNW, publicly available through their website)

https://www.facebook.com/APNSW Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers Facebook

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27903426 article about sex work in Indonesia, specifically the closing of the Dolly Red Light District

http://www.lauraagustin.com/tag/rescue-industry Laura Augstine’s tag about the rescue industry

http://apnsw.wordpress.com/page/8/ Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers discussing anti-trafficking in Cambodia, HIV and several other articles.

All of these are great sources for learning about the rescue industry in Asia, and the phenomena of forcing sex workers out of their jobs into garment manufacturing which is a huge problem for sex workers there. What people like @entitledlesbian I think was their URL fail to realize is that this is an industry that profits from the moral panic of sex trafficking, pushes for criminalization which directly includes the State criminalizing condom usage and performing brothel raids (as does The International Princess Project, who makes these pants). This is how they get their labor; through criminalizing sex work. It is an intersection of misogyny, racism, whorephobia and capitalism.

More about trafficking here 

Signal boost.

Don’t support sex worker “rescue” programs. Just. Don’t.

I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that those scary-sounding statistics on human trafficking you hear on the news are greatly exaggerated due to the erroneous belief that all sex workers are victims of trafficking and vice versa. These statistics then fuel sensationalist reporting and op-ed pieces, which convince the majority of people that sex work is eeevil~, which in turn create an environment that allows these seemingly benevolent “rescue” organizations to thrive. After all, most people who consider themselves liberal know that sex under any sort of coercive circumstances is rape, and we want to help rape victims, right? But the truth is that the vast majority of sex workers choose their work of their own free will, and most victims of human trafficking are not forced into sex work, but into manual labor like the textile industry. Y’know, the very industry that “rescued” sex workers are forced into by these exploitative organizations.

So if you really want to help sex workers, listen to them. Read their blogs, watch documentaries produced by them, attend protests of police treatment of sex workers, and do what you can to spread their perspective on their own work. And if you want to actually reduce the amount of harm that sex workers are statistically much more likely to experience due to their jobs (because many do experience rape and other forms of violence on the job but cannot report them without risking arrest), please consider joining the fight for decriminalization.

Roe v. Wade Must Expand to Include Women In Prison

rapeculturerealities:

For many, accessing an abortion is difficult, but it’s an uphill and often impossible battle for people who are incarcerated. Trust me, I know. When I was incarcerated, I was denied an abortion when I asked for one, even though it’s nearly impossible for those who are in prison to access basic prenatal care. Preventative healthcare access is rapidly becoming a myth, especially for women living inside the prison walls.

Currently, there are just under 50,000 prisoners in Ohio, more than 4,000 of whom are female. Most people are aware that health conditions for people in jail are horrendous, but many are surprised to learn that the system’s shortcomings are even more significant and devastating for people who are pregnant. One in 25 female inmatesin state prisons are pregnant when they arrive. While many people boast that our country offers the best healthcare available, that claim couldn’t be further from the truth for people experiencing pregnancy while incarcerated.

I found out I was pregnant during the intake process. A nurse yelled, “Tell her it’s positive,” from another room. That was it. I had no choice but to keep moving through the intake process while my head was spinning. I was already having trouble processing the fact that I was jail—I’d been convicted of a minor, nonviolent crime and even my lawyer was shocked that my sentence included any jail time—and now they were telling me I was pregnant? I desperately needed to talk to my boyfriend, my family, a friend, anyone, but I couldn’t. I was totally on my own.

Later that night, when I finally had some time and space to think about the news, I came to the conclusion that while I loved my boyfriend and thought that we would be good parents, this wasn’t the right time for us to raise a child. I wanted to finish college. I wanted to become a parent eventually, but on my terms, under happy circumstances. Being pregnant in jail felt cold, terrifying, and wrong. Like my first abortion, I knew what I wanted. I wanted to have an abortion.

The jail kept all of the pregnant prisoners confined to one area called the Pregnancy Pod. When I got there it was completely overflowing with pregnant women who outnumbered the available beds—50 women in a pod that holds 30. The lucky ones got to climb cement blocks to sleep on a paper thin mattress with coils sticking through. The unlucky ones just slept on the floor. Even though the jail was legally required to provide us with food that met our nutritional needs, our meals often consisted of a shared banana and a single carton of milk. The cells in the pregnancy pod didn’t have toilets. If we needed to use the bathroom, we had to wait until we were allowed to leave our cells. Guards forced us to wait for hours if we needed to go. When you have a growing uterus pushing on your full bladder, being forced to wait for hours is pure torture.

I was locked in the pregnancy pod for about two weeks before I was able to visit a healthcare provider. During those two weeks, I had no idea how far along I was, and I didn’t have access to prenatal vitamins or any sort of medical care. As soon as I arrived for my appointment, I made it very clear that I wanted to have an abortion. The jail staff told me it wasn’t possible, “you’re only here 60 days,” they said, and if I wanted to have an abortion, I’d have to wait until I got out. I am not the only one.

While several courts have held that incarcerated women have the right to an abortion, many women aren’t able to get them because sheriffs refuse to pay for the transportation costs or monitoring, which is added to the cost of the abortion and totals tens of thousands of dollars. When I was released, I was around 20 weeks, so I was around 12 weeks when I went in. If that had happened now, I wouldn’t have been able to get an abortion because Ohio now bans abortion at 20 weeks, with no exceptions, a clear violation of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion until viability (between 24 and 28 weeks). What happens to the women who are asking for abortions, think they might be able to get one when they get out, and find that their constitutional right has been stolen from them?

Roe v. Wade Must Expand to Include Women In Prison

aprillikesthings:

tomthefanboy:

darkxchina:

rubyvroom:

The thing is nobody teaches girls how to pick up girls. It seems like just about the entirety of culture is dedicated to helping men strategize how to get women. From an early age boys are learning how to get a girl’s number and how to ask her out and etc etc etc but who teaches girls this? Where do we learn? Girls learn how to be asked out, how to entice, how to invite attention, but not how to instigate. We aren’t taught and we don’t teach each other. If a girl likes girls she’s gotta figure it out for herself, if she’s not lucky enough to be in a community where there are clear signifiers of interest and older wlw who will show them the ropes. How often do you suppose there are gay girls who are sitting there aching to hook up with each other but neither of them is making the first move? They don’t know the moves? They can’t tell if their interest is welcome and how to find out? Maybe they go to lgbt spaces and hope like hell for someone to approach them because how the hell do you hit on a girl? People just do that?? HOW?? And they go home alone again and again. Meanwhile men will do all the approaching and introducing and making things happen and it’s just EASIER. It just is. And anyway this is why I feel like a lot of bisexual women end up with men long-term.  

SERIOUSLY

This reminds me of two people who knew aikido
were asked to a demonstration without knowing the other one knew aikido. Just circling each other and waiting for the other one to make a move.

For real, this was a huge part of it for me. 

Men: everywhere, likely to approach you first, easy

Women: you gotta go special places or use apps to find other women who are into women, and then you don’t know what to do when you get there

jewish-privilege:

jewish-privilege:

Today, January 27, 2017, marks 72 years since the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi occupied Poland. Today we remember the worst of humanity: genocide. Today we remember all the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. We remember the roughly 11 million people (1.1 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp) who were slaughtered simply for who they were and those who were imprisoned, and sometimes killed, for what they believed.

The Nazi regime murdered an estimated 6 million Jewish people, 2 million Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled non-Jewish/non-Romani people, and 9,000 non-Jewish/non-Romani gay men all in the furtherance of white supremacy and “racial purity.”

Today we remember them all and continue to fight against fascism, totalitarianism, and white supremacy so that this never again happens.

Today, January 27, 2018, marks 73 years. Never again.

jeremyholmes:

a-candle-for-sherlock:

papallion:

savory-breakfasts:

iwantthatbelstaffanditsoccupant:

thursdayj:

savory-breakfasts:

I want to jump into the Sherlock Holmes playground, but good lord it’s intimidating. A fandom that’s spanned over a century and has writers like Neil Gaiman and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Chabon. I just want to write some bee-keeping in Sussex retirement fluff, but even in that there are so many pitfalls. The language! I’m not in the worst position—I’ve been soaking in Victoriana since I was an annoying bookish child and early moderns since not long after. I have a live in Brit-picker, but that doesn’t help for 100 years ago. Then you get into their age, class, education—every word choice they’d have made was influenced by so many factors I know nothing about. The setting? I’ve never been to Sussex! I can’t grow roses to save my life! Bees scare me!

But, there’s something comforting at jumping into something so many people have done and continue to do.

And there’s always Garashir to come home to.

Hey, i hope you write your ACD Sussex fluff! I don’t think every detail had to be “right” for it to be enjoyable. Also, you can look for a research beta to help you with geography/bees/whatever.

I haven’t read any Victorian fic except for Sherlock
Holmes, Pride and Prejudice in 9th grade, a Christmas Carol, and Treasure Island to see if it was too graphic for my son ( it wasn’t).

I do not have a Brit picker. I take out all my ‘z’s add ou a lot, and rely on others to tell me about things like candy floss.

Ok. I’ve been to Sussex. But I wrote first. Before I went to Sussex.

Every plant I have dies. And I hate roses due to a very complicated story involving the death of a family member that is rather unpleasant.

I am allergic to bees and they terrify me.

Write the thing!

❤

But we’ve read their stories.  We haven’t read yours!

@papallion that’s the single most helpful comment I’ve ever read.

Oh please give it a go! I can only repeat what everyone’s already said, but this is a great, welcoming community and I’m sure people would help you out if you needed it. Plus, I’m a sucker for retirement fluff. 🙂 

No one else can write your story! It doesn’t matter if it is perfect. We all get better as we go. In any genre there are amazing writers already and fanfic is no different, but don’t let it intimidate you. WE want to read your stories too. Please give us more retirement fluff!

drabbles: send me characters and a prompt

homosociallyyours:

homosociallyyours:

homosociallyyours:

lockedin221b:

bardaholic:

thymoss:

askboxmemes:

Leave an “Amuse Me” in my ask, and I will write a funny drabble about one character trying to cheer another up.

Leave a “Break Me” in my ask, and I will write an angsty drabble.

Leave a “Call Me” in my ask, and I will write a drabble about one character asking for another [be it at the brink of death/in a battlefield/knocking on the front door wounded, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Drink Me” in my ask, and I will write a drabble about characters drinking, alone or with each other.

Leave an “Enamor Me” in my ask, and I will write a fluffy drabble characters trying to woo one another [be it out of the blue/Valentines Day, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Fight Me” in my ask, and I will write a drabble out one character fighting with/or against another.

Leave a “Get Me” in my ask, and I will write a drabble about one character saving another.

Leave a “Haunt Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character watching over another [as a ghost, watching from a distance, or otherwise, feel free to specify.]

Leave an “Invite Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character asking another character to join them.

Leave a “Join Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character giving another character an offer [be it a proposal for an alliance, asking them to join them in an activity (you can get dirty if you want), feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Kill Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character killing another.

Leave a “Love Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a fluffy drabble about two (or more) characters.

Leave a “Mourn Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character mourning another character’s death.

Leave a “Nurse Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character healing another.

Leave an “Offer Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character giving another a gift.

Leave a “Paint Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character drawing a picture of another [like one of your french girls~ be it painting them or drawing them, maybe offering a picture of them as a gift, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Quiet Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character trying to calm another down [be it from crying, from lashing out, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Remember Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character trying to get another to remember them [be it from an accident, meeting them after years apart, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Shag Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a dirty drabble about the specified characters.

Leave a “Tell Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character confessing something to another [be it a love confession, a secret, feel free to specify.]

Leave an “Unbind Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character freeing another, or the other way around, or something among the lines [be it freeing them from jail, from handcuffs, from a trap, from a curse, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Value Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character telling another how they feel about them.

Leave a “Wed Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about a character under the subject of wedlock [be it characters proposing to or marrying another, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “X Me” in my ask, and I will write whatever it is that you wish, [specify.]

Leave an “Yahoo Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about the specified characters celebrating something [feel free to specify.]

Leave an “Zip Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character dressing another, or the other way around [this can also be used for shutting them up as well, but feel free to specify.]

ALSO PREFERABLY SPECIFY A FANDOM BECAUSE I AM INDECISIVE AS HELL TY

And characters. Specify characters.

FINALLY ONE OF THESE THINGS FOR WRITERLY FOLK

i haven’t written anything in ages. but ray reblogged this set of prompts and it reminded me that i like it a lot. i am probably staying home sick tomorrow…so. 

maybe i can get back on the writing bus. 

definitely specify characters and fandom (i might consider a crossover if i don’t get many prompts)

and in case you need a fandoms reminder: 

sherlock, doctor who, oitnb, orphan black, skyfall bond…and i can probably do a couple others if pressed. 

prompt me, pals 🙂

still one of my favorites! i have time for doing a prompt tonight…probably just one, though. all the above fandoms are up for grabs. do it? 

Oh look, i’m reblogging my fave prompt post! Send me one? 

I’ll take the practice for any fandom/ships I’ve been in. See above and include 1d/larry in the list if you feel like it. 

Please/Thanks/XOXO

Italy gives world-famous opera Carmen a defiant new ending in stand against violence to women

scientia-rex:

sespursongles:

One of the world’s best-loved operas has been given a radically different ending in Italy, with the heroine killing her tormentor rather than being killed herself, in a stand against violence to women.

In Bizet’s original story, Don José is a naïve soldier who is lured away from his military duties and his childhood sweetheart by Carmen. But she then falls for the handsome bull-fighter Escamillo, driving Don Jose wild with jealousy. The last act of the opera is set outside the bullring in Seville, where Carmen is stabbed to death by Don José.

In what is believed to be a world first, a production of Bizet’s Carmen will see Carmen shoot her thwarted admirer Don José with a pistol that she grabs off him, rather than being stabbed to death by him.

The dramatic departure from operatic orthodoxy is an attempt to shine the spotlight on the modern-day abuse and mistreatment of women, an issue given added resonance by the outrage over the behaviour of Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump.

The new version of Carmen will open at Florence’s opera house this weekend, with the first few nights already sold out.

“As far as we know it is the first time that the ending to Carmen has been changed,” the opera house’s Paolo Klun told The Telegraph.

The producers said they had changed the denouement of the story in part to protest at the large number of Italian women who are killed each year by jealous husbands, boyfriends and lovers.

Sociologists and campaigners say it is driven by men feeling threatened by the greater freedoms and enhanced economic independence that many Italian women now enjoy after decades of being seen as pliable possessions.

With horrific cases of domestic violence coming to light almost every month, the directors of the work said they were uncomfortable with the idea of audiences applauding the final scene, in which Carmen is stabbed to death and lies motionless on the stage.

“At a time when our society is having to confront the murder of women, how can we dare to applaud the killing of a woman?” said Cristiano Chiarot, the head of the opera house, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. […]

HELL YEAH. ART IS MUTABLE. THE AUTHOR IS DEAD, LET’S GET MOVING.

Italy gives world-famous opera Carmen a defiant new ending in stand against violence to women