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afternoonsnoozebutton:

All the text is from this master post, and I have shamelessly copy/pasted because it is finals week and I am stressed and sleep deprived and I am not wasting time writing shit for to answer this. 

“On Cultural Appropriation
aka I’m just appreciating your culture:

• The Basics x
• Identifying Appropriation x
• But When We Wear It … x
• Why Can’t I Wear It (Hipster Headdresses) x
• Not Yours x
• If You Take The Bindi x
• White People Do It Better x
• Multiculturalism and Appropriation x
• Cultural Appropriation and Portrayals In Print Media x
• Diminishing the Cultural Significance of the Bindi x
• The Cultural Appropriation Bingo x
• Why We’re Fed Up of Your Responses x
• Identities Are Not Costumes x
• Hinduism And Appropriation x
• Religion and Privilege x
• Bindis Are Cool x
• Exotic India x
• What’s Wrong With Cultural Appropriation x
• Racism, Bindis and Ganesh Tattoos x
• BUT YOU’RE SPEAKING ENGLISH! x
• Cultural Appropriation Trolls x
• Guide to Being An Appropriating Douchefuck x
• New Age ~Culture Mixing~ x
• In case you’re tired of the prose, here’s poetry x
• Why You Shouldn’t Wear A Bindi x
• Appropriating and Sharing x
• Our Culture is A Punchline Until It’s a Trend x
• Homage Or Insult x
• Tattoos and Appropriation x
• Bollywood is Not Synonymous With Indian x
• College Party Costumes and Stereotypes x
• Dotheads x
• Bindis and Racist Humour x
• Hindu Iconography x 
• Misuse of Hindu Iconography x
• Your Appreciation Doesn’t Help Us x”

afternoonsnoozebutton:

Tip for all my student readers: if you’re too lazy to use a bibliography creator like NoodleBib or RefWorks, let Google generate your bibliography entries for you. All you have to do is google the article/book title in Google Scholar, click “cite” at the bottom of the search result, and copy either the MLA, APA, or Chicago cite into your word document. 

raideo:

un-gendered:

thewayigroove:

bigfatfeminist:

inevertravelwithoutmydiary:

khaleesi:

jewbilant:

you see this?

it’s called a razor

if you’re a girl, USE IT

your hairy legs and armpits aren’t cute okay

you’re not helping out for woman’s rights or anything

YOU’RE JUST MAKING YOURSELF LOOK NASTY

Or!

Women have been socialized to believe that they must remove hair for a number of reasons, primarily the following:

1. hair is historically and Biblically associated with power; we as a patriarchal culture are obsessed with keeping hair on men (facial hair, Hair Club for Men, hair plugs, whatever) and keeping it off women. You say hair on women is nasty; why is it only hair on women? Women and men have the same pubic hair. We all grow it out of our follicles for the same reason. Why is it only gross on women?
2. women’s bodies have been considered the property of men since the dawn of time, and therefore we have been held to a standard of beauty and attractiveness that is not determined by us but is instead determined by something called the male gaze, which is erases all sexualities and genders other than cisgender heterosexual men and assumes that women are performing for it.
3. childlike women are considered less “threatening” and more “feminine” because they are naive, quiet, and rely on ~*adult men*~ to take care of them.

AND ALSO:

1. there is a fallacy about pubic hair that it is dirty. It is not dirty. In fact, it’s there to keep your genitals cleaner. Pubic hair and armpit hair are also there to spread your pheromones around and make it easier for you to attract a mate. 
2. all mammals have hair. We’re mammals.

AND FINALLY:

1. No one else’s body is your business. Ever. You want to shave? Go ahead! That’s totally your prerogative and if you’re more comfortable shaving, feel free. But given that pubic hair isn’t innately dirty, there’s no reason for anyone to remove it if they don’t want to.

You’re not sending out some edgy, hardcore message here. You’re just reinforcing what our culture wants you to reinforce. Before you pick up that razor again, think about why you want to shave. Is it just because our culture told you to? Why’d they tell you to? What’s the point?

Do what makes you comfortable and what makes you happy, and let others do the same.

Not to mention that at least in the US, shaving legs and underarms has been a thing for less than a century.

And was popularized by razor and depilatory companies. Who, of course, just wanted to double their sales by targeting women as well as men. Their marketing campaigns started in women’s magazines in 1915.

Here’s the first advertisement they ran trying to sell razors by telling women their underarm hair was “objectionable”. And it worked.

Advertising and commercialism once again enforcing arbitrary restrictions on women’s bodies~

Yes I am reblogging this again. Because of what the above person added. It’s so interesting to learn how customs come about in a culture.

I actually JUST got into an argument with my mom about this.

I explained my views on shaving and she was like WELL IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SHAVE I RESPECT THAT BUT YOU CAN’T GET MAD AT PEOPLE FOR MAKING FUN OF YOU OR BEING DISGUSTED.

wow mom I love you but no, no. Just no.

(via motherofpunga)