Quote of the Day: Men’s Rights Activists

Men’s rights activists are hot garbage and I think it’s great that men in solidarity with feminists critique and condemn them, but I also can’t help but feel like we’re in danger of falling into the same trap anti-racist white folks have with neo-Nazis and klansmen. MRAs are in the same group of cartoonishly evil reactionaries that can be easily dismissed or mocked without upsetting most of those who share their privilege – while pornographers, sex buyers, anarchists, kinksters, leftist dudes, and other male supremacists are actually significantly more likely to enact widespread oppression and receive, in proportion, significantly less attention. So yeah like fuck MRAs, make fun of them and expose their nonsense, but also remember that confronting real, entrenched, socially acceptable, politically powerful woman-hating is way more important and usually not as much fun.

— Jonah Mix

Women as a class

Woodland Study 2 by Verina Warren. (site)

 

Women have a problem with seeing ourselves as a coherent group of people, seeing ourselves as a class. It is too easy to “other” the women who are killed and we are encouraged to divide ourselves rather than stand together. We see this every day, even in feminist groups. We need to come together and truly believe that Every Woman is one of us, even if we disagree on things.

— Kate Leigh

Red red sun

Red red sun by M.K. Hajdin

New painting finished.  It’s 18×24 in, acrylic, for sale at $300.

 

Ash

This is next in my series based on the words that have been deleted from the Oxford Junior English dictionary.   I’ve done “acorn“, “adder” and now “ash”.

 

Ash by M.K. Hajdin

 

Quote of the Day: Systems of Oppression

The Negro Woman, lithography by Elizabeth Catlett. Source

Systems of oppression are complex, multifaceted structures that exist beyond any one person, and a massive amount of their oppressive power comes from the fact that they can make those they exploit depend on them for survival.

— Jonah Mix

 

Read the entire article here.

10 Reasons To Kill Your Television

Banksy. [Source]

I hate TV, and watch it only rarely, so on a lark I just googled “People Who Watch Too Much TV” and came up with an interesting article over at The Minimalist.

This particular reason for not watching TV resonated with me:

It is taking you away from the real people all around you. The characters on television are not real. They are thought up in an office building and given life on a piece of paper. In contrast, you are surrounded everyday by real people living real lives. These real people are facing real problems. They need you. And you need them.

Have you ever met people who can’t seem to talk about anything other than what they saw on TV?  I meet them all the time.  How much of our lives do we waste watching fake stories about fake people, soaking up advertising slogans and piss-poor values, rather than living our own lives, getting to know real people, and thinking our own thoughts?

Read the whole article here.  (Skip the stupid comments; they seem to be unmoderated.)

Quote of the Day: On Funfeminism

Let us be clear: feminism is out to screw patriarchy. It’s not there to be wheedling and apologetic. It’s not there to teach women to cope with life as subordinates. It’s not there to promote a chirpy, can-do response to a cat-call, a hand on the arse, a tongue down the throat, an unwanted grope or a rape. And if you’re thinking “all this sounds a bit judgmental,” I do understand. I know words like “patriarchy” and “male dominance” make people feel uncomfortable (I’d call it “feminismphobia” if it wasn’t time we stopped pathologising dissent). I know some women have a deep-rooted fear of how feminism could change their sexual landscape. To support something which is ultimately for everyone – but not specifically for you – is difficult, but feminism is not about misusing words (empowerment, choice, freedom) to cover up the things we don’t want to see. We’re here to knock down the entire edifice, not repaint the walls.

— Glosswitch, “Sex-positive feminism is doing the patriarchy’s work for it“

Victims

Those who think feminists are all “victims” who are just victimizing and oppressing themselves should read this now. They won’t, because they’re smug, privileged assholes.

Two new pieces

 

Blue Copper 3 by M.K. Hajdin

Here are two of my new paintings.

Red Red Sun by M.K. Hajdin

Quote of the Day: Worthlessness

Blue, White 2 by M.K. Hajdin

I feel like I’m being more true to myself by being essentially worthless in this society.

—Tyler Funk

Me too, Tyler.

Artists are basically worthless to society; there are too many of us, and we produce luxury items that no one really needs in a world with too much luxury for too few.  Disabled people are considered worthless because they can’t slave away to make our corporate overlords even richer.  So being a disabled artist entails double the worthlessness.

But the society we live in is so sick, and its priorities so twisted, that I would hate myself if it ever embraced me, for then I would know I’d gone wrong.

I’m proud not to fit into this sick, sad world.