since pride month is coming up, that also means we’re getting closer to the month when there’ll be 10000 posts reminding us that all the gay pride merch is just a corporate cash-in, that these corporations don’t care about us, that the world isn’t really any better, that none of the pride merch and ads actually mean anything, that it isn’t really progressive, blah blah blah
let me just say
i know. most people on here know. you are not the sole thinking person in a world of sheep. i promise you that the person you’re making all these points to has heard it 100 times 100 ways from 100 other people. we know, tumblr. we know.
but dammit, one month a year i get rainbow everything, and that’s a breath of fresh air after eleven months of straight nonsense. i LOVE seeing pride everywhere, even if it is just a corporate cash-grab. and it’s not like i can just opt out of this capitalist society, so fuck it, imma buy all the rainbow, pride-themed, gay merch i can get my hands on.
the world is a capitalist hellhole and there is no escape, so we may as well have what fun we can with it while we try and make things better.
happy pride, folks.
And hey, you know what you can do if you want merch that doesn’t just feed the corporate wallet? Go on Etsy, Storenvy, Society6, or just about a bazillion other websites where independent artists sell their products,and support your queer/LGBT+ artists! Directly! Hand them cold hard cash, there’s no better direct action than that, my dudes!
Listen. I’m 40. When I was a kid, it would have been unthinkable to sell Pride merchandise in mainstream stores, or possibly AT ALL in the deeply conservative state I live in.
The fact that LGBT rights have advanced enough to be considered mainstream, that we are acknowledged to be a demographic large and powerful enough to be marketed to, is a wonder. It is astonishing. It amazes me.
So yeah, it’s a cash grab, whatever, I get it, and I think companies that want to market to the queer demographic then they should support queer causes because we ARE still very much disadvantaged.
But I can’t forget how it was when I was a kid. When it was much more dangerous to publicly show your colors.
Maybe it’s tasteless, but it speaks volumes about how far we have come.
And yes, there are LOADS of queer indie artists to shop from and I recommend that. But if you want to buy some mass-market sweatshop produced piece of crap and then WEAR IT IN PUBLIC, then DO SO. Because in doing so you are making us more visible. And that’s a good thing. Never forget the value that being visibly queer has for closeted people, especially the young.
I think this is necessary to post. I see a lot of people “saving” bunnies.
“*Bunnies are one of the most frequently “kidnapped” mammal species. *Mothers dig a very shallow nest in the ground that is easily uncovered when mowing or raking the yard. If you find a rabbit nest-leave it alone!! *Mother rabbits only return to the nest two or three times a day, usually before dawn and right after dusk. *To determine if they are orphaned, either place a string across the nest in a tic-tac-toe shape or circle the nest with flour. Check the nest the next day. If the string or flour is disturbed, the mother has returned. If not, take the bunnies to a rehabilitator. * A bunny that is bright eyed and 4-5 inches long is fully independent and does NOT need to be rescued! *If you find a bunny that does need to be rescued, put it in a dark, quiet location. Bunnies are a prey species and while they may look calm, they are actually very, very scared!”
Never knew this, keeping this for reference
As a student of Veterinary Medicine I can completely confirm this! Do NOT take them out of their nest unless you’re 100% sure that the mother did not come back for them after at least one day!
Psychologists often find that parents treat baby girls and boys differently, despite an absence of any discernible differences in the babies’ behavior or abilities. One study, for example, found that mothers conversed and interacted more with girl babies and young toddlers, even when they were as young as six months old. This was despite the fact that boys were no less responsive to their mother’s speech and were no more likely to leave their mother’s side. As the authors suggest, this may help girls learn the higher level of social interaction expected of them, and boys the greater independence. Mothers are also more sensitive to changes in facial expressions of happiness when an unfamiliar six-month-old baby is labeled as a girl rather than a boy, suggesting that their gendered expectations affect their perception of babies’ emotions. Gendered expectations also seem to bias mothers’ perception of their infants’ physical abilities. Mothers were shown an adjustable sloping walkway, and asked to estimate the steepness of slope their crawling eleven-month-old child could manage and would attempt. Girls and boys differed in neither crawling ability nor risk taking when it came to testing them on the walkway. But mothers underestimated girls and overestimated boys–both in crawling ability and crawling attempts–meaning that in the real world they might often wrongly think their daughters incapable of performing or attempting some motor feats, and equally erroneously think their sons capable of others. As infants reach the toddler and preschool years, researchers find that mothers talk more to girls than to boys, and that they talk about emotions differently to the two sexes–and in a way that’s consistent with (and sometimes helps to create the truth of) the stereotyped belief that females are the emotion experts.
Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference (via miggylol)
PSA: stop putting time limits on your goals. It’s not too late. Ur not too old. You didn’t miss your chance. Ur exactly where ur meant to be. You still have time. You still can do it! So go buddy. I’m rooting for yaaa!!!
C.A. Jacobs
C.A. Jacobs 