Cultures that endorse modesty and cultures that endorse hypersexualization are the *same* thing. Both define female sexuality by how it relates to the male gaze. In both cases the female body exists as an ornament either to be kept carefully hidden or put on display. Neither is an empowering feminist achievement.
Thank you.
I’m just a dumb bitch… standing in front of a romcom… asking it to fill the void in my life with somewhat unattainable representations of romantic love
man: has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful?
me: oh no sir, today is my first day out of doors and papà forbade mirrors in the house lest we fall victim to vanityI’ve been laughing at this on and off for two straight days
“As a child, aged twelve perhaps, I began to regard Jane Austen as my mother and Charles Dickens as my father. These were the only two constants in my life, the only two people to whom I gave my unconditional love. Austen and Dickens whispered bedtime stories to me, made me laugh, taught me all about life. And soon came three sisters: Anne, Charlotte, and Emily. This was my family and between them they couldn’t do anything wrong. I loved them for their words as others love, without question, for blood or lust or family ties. As I got older I unearthed thrilling aunts and uncles. Greene, Nabokov, Woolf, Updike. Each would come to visit with fascinating tales from worlds a million miles away. And they too earned my love, my adoration. Here was a family I could choose, not the other way round. I read and I read and I loved.”— Christopher J. Yates, Black Chalk
“Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else”— Lemony Snicket
“Punctuation for an invisible sentence.”
- John Updike, describing birds on a wire