I’m on the later side of 20. I’m still young. But I’m starting to realize I won’t be forever. I’m getting grey hairs. Wrinkles. And even though I’ve never considered myself vain, it started to scare me.
Because really any woman can tell you, society is fucking EAGER to tell you what an atrocity an older woman is. And sadly, older women, women who should be role models, tend to further this narrative even more. Asking a woman her age is treated like a sin. We treat getting carded at the liquor store like a tragedy. Any woman on her birthday will joke that she’s “turning 29 again”. After years and years the message gets pretty clear. A woman becoming old is shameful and sad.
So it started to get to me. Before my beau and I went to see Mad Max, I was honestly venting about how disappointed I was in myself for fearing aging, but how I felt like I was becoming more irrelevant by the day. After all, there’s no stories for old women. No role models.
THEN I SAW THESE BAD BITCHES.
GUYS YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE OLD BIRDS MEAN TO ME.
Because HOLY SHIT.
Old Women who look badass.
Old Women who are important.
Old Women who are not a joke.
Old Women who are fighters.
Old Women who are survivors.
Old Women who keep old knowledge alive.
Old Women who protect other women.
Old Women who are respected.
OLD WOMEN
OLD WOMEN
OLD WOMEN
We have so much representation for young, beautiful women kicking ass. Even so much representation of tired old men kicking ass. But to see a grizzled, leathery, tough, wise old woman on screen, as a hero? As a role model?
Mad Max was an absolute masterpiece, but that was the part that made me want to weep with joy the most.
they were very important to me too. VUVALINI ROCK!
So tumblr user mcharrilennostarr asked me to come up with a list of things to help empower women of color. I took a bit of time to think about it and here’s what I came up with.
I will hold my head high when people expect me to be looking down at my shoes
I do not exist within the confines of your stereotypes
I will fight against the status quo when the status quo alienates me
I will not smile when I do not want to smile
My body is mine and only mine If I share it with you that is a privilege and not a right
I do not exist as your sexual fantasy
I will recognize that those in power will never give me the tools I need to overthrow them. I will find those tools myself.
I will not be your caretaker. Your mother, your mammy, your nanny. You will need to learn to take care of yourself.
I will take care of myself first
I will not listen when I’m told white people and men are more intelligent than I am. They aren’t and I’ll prove it.
When I am tired I will say I’m tired. When I am sad I will say I’m sad. When I am weak I will say I’m weak.
I will love who I want to love
I will laugh in the face of my oppressors when they try to tell me it is me who is oppressing them by daring to speak out against them
Sometimes I may be the damsel in distress. That is a right that I am entitled to. Sometimes I will cry for assistance and expect to be helped.
I will abandon eurocentric beauty ideals
I am not your one-night-exotic-stand. You say you’re feeling feverish over me? I hope the illness kills you.
I will not submit to you because you do not own me
I can be feminine if I want to. I can dress how I want to.
I am always on the team that protects and empowers women of color
Decolonization is a daily struggle. When I feel like I am drowning I will reach out for help from my sisters. When I feel as though I can no longer stand I will ask for a shoulder to lean on. I know that I am not alone. There are millions of women who are standing with me.
me on a date: so how do you feel about feminism
them: not happy with it to be honest
me, shoving breadsticks into my purse: sorry i have to –
them: i feel like most feminist spaces still aren’t inclusive enough of women of colour, trans women, lbpq women, women with disabilities,
me, slowly returning breadsticks: go on
If you ever need proof that men hate women, just watch how violently and how angrily and how indignant they act when a woman says “my personal experiences combined with the experiences of my female loved ones have made me afraid of you collectively”.
“Fuck you, that’s stupid, not every man is like that.”
Maybe not, but you clearly are.
When men say this, it has nothing to do with making women feel safer or changing women’s minds about men. It has everything to do with silencing women through insults and fear. It is an entirely self serving act when a man tells a woman not to fear men. They don’t care about women’s safety or peace; they care how women’s suspicion going into any interaction with them is affecting a man’s ability to do what he wants with her later.
I have never seen a man say “not all men” and come from a place of “I want women to feel safe because I want them to be happy”. It always comes from a place of “I want women to feel safe because their fear is inconvenient to me; it prevents them from going on dates with me, it makes them question my intentions when we are alone, it makes them more apt to notice when they are being treated unfairly, it makes them less likely to leave themselves vulnerable to me emotionally and physically, and it makes me uncomfortable that I may have to tell other men to behave, so I’d rather continue to harass the women who are already afraid of me by silencing them.”
…the older I get, the more I see how women are described as having gone mad, when what they’ve actually become is knowledgeable and powerful and fucking furious.
Not all Muslim women cover their bodies. Not all Muslim women who do are forced to do so. Like freelance writer Hanna Yusuf, who chooses to wear a hijab in a daily act of feminism. In a new video for The Guardian, Yusuf challenges stereotypes by setting out to reclaim the choice to wear a hijab as “a feminist statement.”
your feminism should prioritise trans women. queer women. WOC. disabled women. poor women. intersex women. fat women. and all of the different ways those identities intersect. because throughout history they have never been a priority for anyone else
Yes, let’s just ignore that whole part in the middle where she was being hunted by a mummy who tried to use her body as a vessel for his dead lover.
I’ve seen a handful of comments like this and I just wanted to address it because I think it’s worth talking about. I realise my summation of the film is flippant; it was an attempt at irony because obviously the movie is full of gruesome death and dismemberment, and I fully agree that Evie is terrorized. But that’s not what the film is about. It’s not about Evie the human sacrifice – that’s something that happens to her but it isn’t who she is.
The point is, the whole plot of The Mummy literally could not happen without Evie pursuing the thing that she loves.
They go out to Hamunaptra because Evie is passionate about knowledge and discovery, and when they get there she is in her element – she is loving every minute of it and she is proud of herself and she is absolutely going to kiss Mr O’Connell. But once that thirst for knowledge and discovery inadvertantly raises Imhotep, and there is literally fire and brimstone raining from the sky, and everyone else is running and hiding, she never ever once despairs. She accepts responsibility, she owns her mistake and she refuses to believe there is nothing to be done. She follows her passions again and decides that more knowledge and more discovery is what’s required. And she’s right. She finds the answer and she takes triumphant pleasure in proving to herself that she is a greater scholar than the ones at Bembridge, the ones who have repeatedly found her lacking.
Do you realise how rare it is for a female character’s intellectual pursuit to be the thing that kicks off the action and the thing that saves the day, AND a source of ultimate joy in her life?
When Imhotep comes for her she goes without a fight, to save her companions’ lives, because she knows that’s the best chance they have. When Rick and Jonathan and Ardeth come to save her she is pivotal in her own rescue. She is never a Damsel, she is always part of the team.
And then Evie SAVES THE WORLD. She saves the world by doing the thing that she loves and is good at. She saves the world, she gets the guy, and they ride off into the sunset with some treasure. And really, that’s a pretty good end to a day.
Also, she is one of the very, very few cool librarians in fiction. And she is proud of that.
