Mary Dickson

[CW: discussion of rape culture and violence]

This reminds me of an article about online (heterosexual) dating that I read a while ago. It listed men’s and women’s worst fears about meeting someone from online. The highest ranked fear that men had was that their date would be fat, whereas the highest ranked fear that women had was that their date would turn out to be violent and kill them. 

I think that says a lot. 

(via kaitg)

Its interesting also that these fears sit subconsciously until woman are asked to exams their responses to men. We women will operate with this fear in mind, the way we protect ourselves, make sure our friends know where we are when we go on a date, words that we use while interacting with men, all in hopes they will not kill us, but simultaneously love us. 

I think bell hooks made a point about this in her series on love. Something along the lines of how can women hope to love and receive love from men when at the foundation of our relationships there is this strong fear of men. You can’t build true trust when your foundation is crumbling under you. 

The scariest part is, once you recognize this fear, and face it, how do you address it when there is evidence of “good” men abusing, hurting, and killing women everyday?

(via becomingchichi)

I was in my early 20’s when one of my homegirls broke this down for me.  

I was in a broken relationship, and one of the things was that bugged me at the time was that the girlfriend at the time would freak out whenever I got angry - I never yelled, never throw or hit things, mostly, I just needed some time to cool out.

“Why does she get scared when I’m angry? I’d never hit her!”

“But she doesn’t KNOW that.  She can’t assume that.  Look at how many dudes are out there pulling shit.”

And that stuck with me for a hot minute.  The relationship was broken on so many levels anyway, but that fact still remains, as a man, I can’t fault women for assuming the worst in order to protect themselves, especially how the world’s patriarchy and misogyny rolls.

(via bankuei)

I’ve had continual discussions with Tchy about this, and I don’t expect to stop. It’s fair to say that there’s no one in the world that I trust more, and he has been extremely careful with me, but… the fact remains that he leans quite a bit towards the masculine, and this means that that fear is always there. The news of transmasculine folks abusing/raping people doesn’t help that fear any. :(

I’m learning not to apologize for it. It’s not my fault (nor, really, is it his) that I’m scared of dude-type people. But it’s always there. Which is another reason why I get so pissed off when trans men try to make transmisogyny about them.

(via kiriamaya)

This is an incredible thread of responses. I’ve seen this quote before, but not the dialogue that built up around it. The part about loud=violent hits home particularly hard for me. I am terrified of getting into irl arguments with men, especially when they get loud. It’s always going to sit in the pit of my stomach.

(via mizbingley)

That part resonates for me too, although from a completely different angle. Despite being more terrified of sexual violence than I am of anything other than my own brain, I do not hesitate to yell, confront, get up in the face of, threaten, even hit men twice my size and many times my strength. Faced with a threat of violence from men, I will either imply or state “I dare you to.”

I also, as previously established on this blog, have a death wish.

To me, that encapsulates everything about the violence, especially sexual violence, coded into relationships between men and women in our society: for a woman to assert herself in the face of maleness may require the woman in question (such as me) to be perpetually suicidal.

(via 14kgoldnyc)

Reblogging for commentary. I have been frightened and scared by men being loud with me, even if I don’t think they’ll be violent. Like people have said above, it’s just a latent response in your brain to fear violence from men.

I went out to dinner with someone a couple of weeks ago (LONG story, was supposed to be a group dinner but it ended up just being me & a strange man) and I told him I blogged about feminism and politics, and he went off on me. He told me feelings were bullshit and women just wanted special privileges, and then he said, “Women don’t give men enough credit for not being violent psychopaths. That’s what we are, deep down. We want to rape and pillage, and we don’t, and women don’t give us enough credit for that.” I burst into tears. That shit was terrifying.

(via stfuconservatives)

I too am reblogging this for the amazing commentary. 

When supposed feminist ally men deny this very basic, simple truth - that’s how you know they are an ally to no one.

This all gets taught to women at a very young age, how dangerous the world is when you’re in it being a woman. I’ve been struggling to write about something that happened with my daughter a few weeks ago, how to form the words, but this is possibly the best context.

We were in the wine shop, in line to pay, and she was so excited to get her lollipop (in the time honored tradition of wine stores everywhere). A man two people ahead of us started fighting with the woman behind the counter about how much money he’d given her. As I was moving her behind my body, my daughter froze, and when I say froze, I mean wasn’t moving a muscle except to shake.

It sorted itself out pretty quickly. We paid and left.

Once we got back into the car, she started crying. I asked her what was the matter, and she said, “Mama, I was so scared. When men get angry they shoot people.”

That’s a direct quote. When men get angry, they shoot people.

I asked her, “Baby, why do you think that?” She replied, “on NPR, that’s what happens. When men get really mad they kill people. That guy was really mad, what if he had a gun? What would you do?”

The talk we had afterwards was difficult; no one said parenting was easy. But this is the life we live as women. If my 9 year old understands it, then men of the world, alleged feminist allies, Nice Guys, random douches on the street, and even actual non-dangerous men: so can you.

(via someauthorgirl)

I’ve reblogged this quote before, I think. But reblogging now for the amazing commentary.

I was having a discussion with my father and brother the other day. We were talking about receiving threats of rape or violence via the internet. Their whole argument was “just ignore it and walk away from your computer”. Amazing solution. Can’t believe I never thought of that. It’s so clever because we all know that when you leave your keyboard the threat of violence disappears. 

Urgh. 

(via lavenderlabia)

I too have reblogged this before and have probably added my own lil commentary, but I will again.  I do not respond well to yelling.  I am pretty non-confrontational, but have found myself in too many real heated arguments (within and outside of my romantic relationships) than I care to admit.  I know that often times, the people I am in these situations with care for and love me (mainly in regards to romantic relationships), but that in no way erases any fears.  I have never really been in a physically abusive relationship per se, but the fear of violence towards me is deeper than personal experience-based.  I have been in positions where I flinch during an argument and the guy I’m fighting with has repeated over and over that they would never hit me, but it is impossible to be reassured by that.  There is no real guarantee of safety.  ”Good” and “kind” men have been known to snap and turn violent.  This innate fear has been drilled into my psyche and hard-wired into my brain, and has only been reaffirmed again and again throughout my 23 years of life.  Now this is a fear that women deal with every day in relationships with familiar men.  This ever-present fear is amplified when encountering a less familiar, strange man.  Be it a seemingly nice guy you might meet out at a bar, or a guy on the street catcalling and hitting on you.  We all know that there are men who do not hesitate to say horrible, angry, demeaning, and even threatening things when their advances are rejected or they are confronted about their inappropriate and unnecessary words towards a woman.  How is a woman supposed to react or feel knowing nothing of the man in front of them only that men are historically aggressive and violent towards women?  How are women supposed to feel safe in any aspect of their lives? Better yet, how do men not understand how or why such a fear would be hard-wired into the brains of women?  I know this is quite a lengthy little manifesto, but I’ll end it by mentioning a bit by Louis CK.  He discusses how women even still go on dates with men and how it takes much bravery and courage on the woman’s part.  “How do women still go out with guys, when you consider that there is no greater threat to women than men?  We’re the number one threat to women!  Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women”.  He also goes on to say to men “try to imagine that you could only date a half-bear, half-lion.  ‘Oh, I hope this one’s nice’ “.  He is kinda speaking on behalf of hetero-cis relationships, but men and the masculine are still a major threat to women*.

(Source: alullaby, via lavenderlabia)

Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (gag—so vanilla), talking about why he “hates fat chicks”

Ok but like, this is Mike Jeffries, you guys: 

Yup. Totally cool kid. 

(I’m not saying that ‘good-looking’ people should be allowed this kind of rhetoric. Nobody should be allowed this, but…just…are you excluding yourself? Because you should. You should be excluded. Not because of how you look, but because of the filthy way you view the world.)

(via si-dramatic)

You know, there are so many important, serious issues I could highlight and discuss on this blog but this is the very attitude I find so unbelievably loathsome, ugly, and disgusting, that the very fact that it’s handsomely rewarded and encouraged makes me physically ill. This man must be feeling an incredible amount of pain inside. I genuinely pity him and hope he manages to get past it before his time is through. What a horribly miserable lens to view the world through.

(via mohandasgandhi)

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)