marjaerwin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marjaerwin) wrote2011-11-08 12:58 pm
marjaerwin) wrote2011-11-08 12:58 pm
Our bodies, our autonomy
First: A recent article via Boing Boing, on how the dance industry standardized dancers' bodies, and wrecked dancers' feet, with the introduction of pointe shoes.
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/08/ballet-shoes-as-technology.html
Second: A recent post on a certain transphobic blog, on how "women's sports" enforce femininity, and in some cases require breast implants.
I haven't read the original article which Boing Boing links. I'm too angry and triggery right now, and nauseous, just from reading this.
I want a world where people can alter their bodies. I hate a world where people have to alter their bodies, and often wreck their health, at the discretion of employers, states, etc. And half-measures, which preserve hierarchy/subordination while trying to limit or regulate the abuses, are not enough. As long as hierarchy/subordination exists, it is abuse, and it will lead to future abuses. As long as the class system and the job system exist, they are abuse, and they will enable abuses from those higher-up and work to silence complaints from those below.
We see this with rape. Womyn who do not report sexual assault to the state, but speak out to other people, are silenced, as though only liars would have ethical, personal, or other reasons not to report to the state. And womyn who do report sexual assault to the state, depending on poverty, occupation, minority status, and which rulers' turf they were born on, may face harassment, jail, beatings, deportation, etc. Men, and womyn mistaken for men, face their own barriers.
If you want freedom and justice, then work towards equality and solidarity.
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/08/ballet-shoes-as-technology.html
Second: A recent post on a certain transphobic blog, on how "women's sports" enforce femininity, and in some cases require breast implants.
I haven't read the original article which Boing Boing links. I'm too angry and triggery right now, and nauseous, just from reading this.
I want a world where people can alter their bodies. I hate a world where people have to alter their bodies, and often wreck their health, at the discretion of employers, states, etc. And half-measures, which preserve hierarchy/subordination while trying to limit or regulate the abuses, are not enough. As long as hierarchy/subordination exists, it is abuse, and it will lead to future abuses. As long as the class system and the job system exist, they are abuse, and they will enable abuses from those higher-up and work to silence complaints from those below.
We see this with rape. Womyn who do not report sexual assault to the state, but speak out to other people, are silenced, as though only liars would have ethical, personal, or other reasons not to report to the state. And womyn who do report sexual assault to the state, depending on poverty, occupation, minority status, and which rulers' turf they were born on, may face harassment, jail, beatings, deportation, etc. Men, and womyn mistaken for men, face their own barriers.
If you want freedom and justice, then work towards equality and solidarity.