floatingbook

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You don’t have to settle for the least horrible of two options. You don’t need to compromise or fold yourself under someone else’s wing. You can stand on your own. You don’t need to ally with people who don’t have your best interests at heart. It’s not one or the other. It can be neither. It should be neither.

#women’s liberation

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by threadhandedjill

#woman artist #embroidery

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Not that no one can help, rather that some shackles can only be broken by the self.

No one can save you but yourself.

#women’s liberation

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No one can save you but yourself.

#women’s liberation

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The Common Women Poems, II. Ella, in a square apron, along Highway 80 by Judy Grahn

She’s a copperheaded waitress, tired and sharp-worded, she hides her bad brown tooth behind a wicked smile, and flicks her ass out of habit, to fend off the pass that passes for affection. She keeps her mind the way men keep a knife—keen to strip the game down to her size. She has a thin spine, swallows her eggs cold, and tells lies. She slaps a wet rag at the truck drivers if they should complain. She understands the necessity for pain, turns away the smaller tips, out of pride, and keeps a flask under the counter. Once, she shot a lover who misused her child. Before she got out of jail, the courts had pounced and given the child away. Like some isolated lake, her flat blue eyes take care of their own stark bottoms. Her hands are nervous, curled, ready to scrape. The common woman is as common as a rattlesnake.

#judy grahn #woman artist

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Are you a doll? Do you put on a mask before you go out? How many masks do you have? Do you carefully tailor your appearance? How many fake smiles do you have? Have you ever stood in front of a mirror and wondered how convincing your smile was? Do your lips ever wobble when you smile? Can you feel the strain? Do you pretend? Is it an elaborate performance? Do you long for the moment the projectors finally turn off? Do you ever feel like the projectors are turned off? Or are you always standing on stage? Is there even a familiar face in the public, or do you feel hounded? Aren’t you tired of dancing to the tune of expectations? Can you pull off the mask? Are you afraid of the face you’re making underneath it?

#questions #women’s liberation

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For the New Year, 1981 - Denise Levertov

#denise levertov #woman artist

[floatingbook]

How do you define misogyny? How do you define misogyny, in your head, in your thoughts? What do you acknowledge as misogyny? What do you recognise as ill treatment by men for the only reason that you are a woman? Where do you draw the line? What do you tolerate, what do you shrug off? Are you afraid to use the word misogyny? Why are you afraid to call it misogyny? How does the word taste in your thoughts, in your mouth? Have you ever heard your own voice say it, have you ever uttered it? Are you hesitant? Do you think you haven’t been hurt enough? Do you think your hurt doesn’t deserve to be acknowledged? Do you think that because some women have it worse, you aren’t allowed to complain and want something better for yourself? How do you define misogyny?

#questions #women’s liberation

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#jo carrillo #woman artist

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What can you tolerate? What can you accept? Are you aware of the difference? What can you bear? What would you bear? What would break you? What don’t you want to endure? What is the line that destroys you? What is the line that you don’t want to see crossed? What are the things that you could live with but don’t want to have to live with? What can you tolerate? What won’t you accept?

#questions #women’s liberation

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Sylwia Górak — The Moon in the Well   (oil on canvas, 2015)

#sylwia górak #woman artist

[floatingbook]

How much do you spend on personal grooming? How much money do you spend on buying make-up? What share of your pay-check goes into shaving supplies? How many times a month do you take out bills or a card to pay for some miracle cream or gel which will save your face from the effects of time? How many times a day do you scrutinise your face in the mirror? When was the last time you just looked, factually, at your face in the mirror, and didn’t scrutinise it, for that matter? Do you carefully consider the shape of your eyebrows? How long do you spend putting make-up on? How many steps does your ‘beauty routine’ have? Do you enjoy the feeling of make-up on your face? Does it feel good to remove your hairs? Does your face twitch when you tweeze your eyebrows, or are you so used to the discomfort that you don’t flinch anymore? If you were the last woman on earth, would you still bother with it? If everyone else on the planet turned blind tomorrow, would you still do it? If no one was ever to see you, to touch you, to perceive you, would you still do it? How often do you ponder being perceived? Do you feel like people stare at you on the street? Do you ever dream to turn invisible? Who are you performing for?

#questions #women’s liberation

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Anastasia Trusova

#anastasia trusova #woman artist

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Reasons not to have children

- each good enough on their own, if you ever feel like articulating why you’re child-free (non-exhaustive list).

Because you don’t want children;

Because you don’t like children;

Because they are not suited to your temperament;

Because you don’t want to be benevolent, patient, kind and didactic;

Because they are too time-consuming;

Because they are too expensive;

Because you don’t think you have the right kind of voice for bed-time stories; or the will to tell them;

Because they are too noisy;

Because you love quiet and peace over everything else;

Because you want to be able to wake up when you want and not when they wake you up; because it would be detrimental to your sleeping-in;

Because it would be detrimental to your hobbies;

Because your living space is too small and you don’t want to change it;

Because cats are enough;

Because it would be a threat to your health;

Because you don’t want to pass down your genes;

Because you don’t want that kind of ‘immortality’;

Because you don’t want to go through nine months of pregnancy;

Because the thought of having a child grow inside you gives you the creeps;

Because you don’t want to go through the pains of childbirth;

Because you don’t trust the medical system to have your best interests at heart;

Because it would be detrimental to your career;

Because you don’t want to slave away at a job you hate to earn enough money to raise them;

Because you don’t want to have to worry about having enough money to raise them;

Because you don’t want the hassle of trying to ‘have-it-all’;

Because it’s a huge responsibility;

Because children deserve more than what you’re willing to give;

Because the world is a misogynistic place; because the world is a homophobic place; because the world is a racist place;

Because you would never have a good night of sleep ever again;

Because you would worry all your life about them and their well-being;

Because the world (and men) hates everything that is different;

Because you can’t guarantee they’ll be in good health;

Because you cannot protect your children from everything;

Because at some point they’ll be hurt and there’s nothing you can do about it;

Because you don’t know what today will be made of; because the world might be a bleak place in twenty, in thirty years; and what life a child would have then?

Because who are you to inflict life on a child?

Because you think less people on the planet can’t hurt the climate;

Because you don’t have the community to support you through it;

Because your mother’s wishes are not your own;

Because no-one is entitled to children or grandchildren;

Because your being fine acting as a doting aunt doesn’t bind you to anything more;

Because it’s hard to do alone and the last thing you want is to rely on a man;

Because children are often used by men against their mothers to trap them into abuse;

Because you don’t want to do what is expected of you—be a silent and meek housewife;

Because you hate the stereotypes attached to motherhood; because you don’t want them to be attached to you; because you know you don’t need to have children to change people’s opinions on motherhood;

Because you don’t want to be forever tied to a man;

Because you don’t fancy yourself into a supportive role for the rest of your life;

Because you can’t guarantee you’ll love them;

Because you can’t guarantee you won’t hate them;

Because you don’t know how to raise them; because you don’t think you can find a way to raise them and have them turn out right;

Because you don’t want to birth more misogynists—the world already has enough;

Because being a mother is not inevitable;

Because you’re not suited to motherhood;

Because being a woman doesn’t mean that you’ll be a mother one day;

Because you’re a lesbian; because this obsession with children is very heterosexual-centred and couldn’t be further from your priorities;

Because you want to be independent;

Because you want to live alone;

Because you want to achieve your dreams;

Because you’re busy with you own life;

Because you don’t want to make that kind of commitment—now, or ever;

Because you’re selfish*;

Because your life is valuable on its own; because you don’t need to have children for your life to hold worth;

And finally, because no man is entitled to your body, because you don’t have to justify to them your own decisions, feel free to use this one liberally:

It’s none of your business.

*That’s not a bad thing. You’re entitled to a life of your own, you’re not here to serve everyone else.

#women’s liberation #childfree

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Vanessa Stockard (Australian, b. 1975)

Keg, 2022

#vanessa stockard #woman artist

[floatingbook]

So little faith in my strength of will. Well, we shall see.

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Oystercatchers, Gulls & Waves by Sheena Norquay

quilting

#sheena norquay #woman artist