sometimes

Things that might seem outdated for popular feminism may actually be points of pride for women who have historically been denied access to a certain mode of femininity. If you are a member of a group of women that has been constantly caricatured as mammies and welfare queens, sexually pathologized, and whose inequity has been attributed to broken, abnormal, and matriarchal family structures, then bearing the title of Mrs. and taking your husband’s last name can actually be displays of resistance. If you have grown up seeing constant media reports on the fatherlessness of Black children and the unmarriageability of Black women, then having your father walk you down the aisle and flashing your ring can both be points of pride.

— Jalondra A. Davis in an absolutely fantastic post on A Practical Wedding (via rachelwilkerson)

(via moniquill)

theslavbarbarian:

fadingroots:

cypresssunn:

time to talk about daenerys and why she’s fucking up again.

the fun part about the etymology of westeros and essos is that no one can deny that they are being likened and structured after the real western and eastern worlds. the essosi societies are representative of eastern socities. and westeros, including daenerys targaryen, are stand ins for the western world. because of this, the two continents are coded for a multitude of western and eastern societies, as well as their independent and intertwined histories.

in the real life western world, eastern people are perceived as stagnant and backward. they are regarded as undeveloped economically, technologically, and most importantly moralistically. and at the same time, the west has always perceived itself has been that of modernized, morally dynamic, evolving. since it hardly ever lends this kind of consideration to the ‘others’ in the east, it positions itself on a pedestal from which it can dictate the goings-on in the world.

and so, white and western societies hold the idea that brown societies are incapable of change without outside, corrective influences. this has been used to excuse and validate colonialism and imperialism for centuries.

these real world crimes are relfected in the game of thrones canon. the essosi societies are coded as being backward. they are being coded as monstrous and without any other characteristic aside from slaveholding. and this is how daenerys excuses her own violent imperialism.

now let’s have a canon history lesson! the continent of westeros used to have slaves. but it was not it a hostile outside force that came in an eradicated the evils of slavery. these societies were not burned to the ground depending on their willingness to bend to an outsiders command. none of these countries were callously set back years and years in development because someone decided they had not advanced enough.

no, what got rid of slavery in westeros was the moral progression of it’s peoples, and the eventual criminalization of the institution. and what will get rid of slavery in the free cities will be similar societal progression. because believe it or not, all societies are capable of progression.

but of course, treating brown people and brown societies like multifaceted and complexly developing isn’t at all interesting. not when we can all cheer and coo over an empowered and entitled white woman exerting her power of all of these brown ‘others’.

all of this is great and fantastic and accurate

but wow am i the only one who always saw Essos as being much more advanced than Westeros? I mean the whole slaves thing isn’t cool, but

All the best trade goods come from Essos, all the finest foods and wines and silks and steel. Essos is dotted with magnificent, wealthy, powerful citystates; Westeros has three or four cities, a few more squalid towns, and a bunch of ancient, largely crumbling, forts. Essos is home of the arts, of culture, of learning; Westeros is too busy killing themselves every few decades, living in squalor, and at the end of the day, the feudal system honestly reduces the peasants/serfs to little more than slaves. Just because they aren’t chattel slaves, aren’t property, doesn’t keep local lords from having almost total control over their lives, and subjecting them to violence when they fail to comply.

I spent a while the other night explaining to a friend how fucked up the orientalism and exotification in ASoIaF and GoT, i’m not trying to deny any of that by any means

i just always read westeros as backwards and poor, and essos as more advanced and more wealthy? is that just me?

same

(via moniquill)

fuckyeahcracker:

Effects Of Thinking White People Are “All Like That”:

• Literally nothing other than white people having their feelings hurt on the internet
• I’m not joking there is no real world consequence of this

Effects Of Thinking People of Color Are “All Like That”:

• Saudi student is literally surrounded by FBI for cooking rice under terrorist suspicions
• White people literally can not associate positive words with Black faces because of racism
• More white people use drugs but Black people are sent to jail for drugs at 10 times the rate that white people are
• Black people who “sound Black” earn less money than those who don’t because of associations with stereotypes. Black people who “sound Black” are less likely to get called back for jobs
• Black children grow up literally associating being Black with being bad and ugly
• White people when tested shot more unarmed Black subjects than armed and unarmed white subjects
• Hate crimes increase after Boston tragedy
• Moroccan High School Student is linked to Boston tragedy for being Brown
• Bangladeshi man is beaten by people out of racism
• NYPD Commissioner wants Black and Latino men to fear him after the police targeted literally 90 percent Black and Latino men in New York and humiliating them by frisking them in public under the assumption that they had weapons. Studies found that white men were the ones who overwhelmingly had weapons while Black and Latino men didn’t
• White people blaming and convicting Black men for crimes they never committed and everyone believing them because of racism
• Stop and Frisk, ruled unconstitutional was practiced by New York police disproportionately and unfairly affecting 90% Black and Latino men because of racism
• Universities throwing racist ‘Fiesta Party’ homogenizing culture with extreme racism
• Here are some of the numbers on hate crimes against People of Color and btw, Neo Naziism is increasing!
• Every 28 Hours an African American is Extrajudicially Murdered in the U.S.
• Black people 3 times more likely to be arrested for Marijuana
• Black people receive much harsher sentencing than white people for the same crimes do I need to go on?

But yeah, white people’s feelings :*(

(via pictures-and-love-lost)