Imagine a world
in which all women around you walk around with hairy legs. in media too, you
see female actresses, their legs naturally hairy. It’s not considered a weird
thing, it’s not considered a gross thing, it’s completely normal. Hair grows and we leave
it there. Nobody even has a thought about it other than “hat is a female
leg. That is how it looks like.”
Now tell me, just
what woman in that kind of society, would decide that she explicitly hates
their leg hair, is grossed out and ashamed and has to shave it? Nobody.
Girls and women shave because it’s
enforced as the norm, and minimal requirement for existing in public. And it
literally doesn’t have to be this way. If we were raised in the world where
female leg hair was unquestioned, untouched, seen on every woman, as normal as
women having hair on their head, nobody could touch us for having leg hair.
Nobody could shame or humiliate us. This entire world of females shaving their
legs as if leg hair is shameful, ugly, unhygienic, and wrong, would be just a
dystopian nightmare.
So this is just a PSA, y'all should never sign a contract until you read it. I’m talking in rl right now. I just got through reading my employee handbook/service contract and my bosses slipped in a lot of bullshit like telling me I can’t complain about my job on social media, demanding I work off the clock in the name of good service, expects me to show up on time during inclimate weather, and considered disability or religious accommodation a direct threat to the company.
These are all things I took issue with and brought to my employer for further discussion before signing the contract. Most of my coworkers signed without reading, treating it like an internet terms of service contract.
Tl;dr real life is serious shit, lawyers write contracts to protect your employer FROM YOU, read contracts before you sign them - fucking ARGUE about contracts before you sign them
i’m bored of mental health discourse that doesn’t consider capitalism’s effect on people. like sure i take antidepressants to deal with mental health problems, and they change the chemicals in my brain, but the root cause isn’t that the chemicals in my brain were wrong, it’s that we live in an alienating hell system that treats people as commodities
not to be mean, but do you srsly think something else like communism would help your mental health?
i think not having to spend a third of my life doing something i hate surrounded by people i hate in order to not starve would improve my mental health
i think having adequate free access to mental health services would help my mental health
i think not being constantly advertised at and told my worth is measured in how much shit i own or how much men want to fuck me would help my mental health
i think not having to worry about choosing between a roof over my head and a meal in my stomach would improve my mental health
my biggest gripe w this whole “symbolism is fake and stupid” shit is that it is so dismissive of the very very very real symbolism that content creators put into their own work intentionally—and sometimes—unintentionally. i sometimes go over my own work and i’m surprised by the themes i put in, the recurring patterns i write without even realizing it, and i’m the one who made that stuff! like sometimes things can MEAN other things so stop making fun of your teachers for teaching basic literary analysis you idiot
