"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
"You know what I find interesting? If you lose a spouse, you’re called a widow, or a widower. If you’re a child and you lose your parents, then you’re an orphan. But what’s the word to describe a parent who loses a child? I guess that’s just too fucking awful to even have a name."
"Beauty and purity go hand in hand, and are tied up in a false sense of modesty. This type of attractiveness comes from being white, virginal, conventionally attractive and actively or deliberately ignorant of meeting that standard of attractiveness. It comes from needing to be seen as beautiful even “without any makeup on” but in “skin-tight jeans” if you’re Katy Perry, from Bruno Mars ‘knowing’ that “when I compliment her, she won’t believe me,” and in reminding a boy that he should be dating a girl who isn’t a shallow hussy, if you’re Taylor Swift.
All of this encourages girls to constantly strive to meet an arbitrary standard of attractiveness that fuels multiple industries (dieting and cosmetics, primarily) while reminding them that their job is to be appealing to men but never to admit that they’re trying to be good-looking for men, and never admit that they look good – especially if they’re not skinny or white. It creates a maelstrom of unhealthy attitudes about girls’ bodies and sexuality. Girls must be all things: attractive and unknowing, winking about sex and flaunting their sexuality but never expressing desire or – worse – actually having sex, and presenting their bodies as sexually available while deriding those girls whose sex lives are more active than their own. They must do all this while being straight, slender and white and preferably blonde or they’re not really even in the game to begin with."
—
Teen Pop and the Culture of Purity (via sparkamovement)
Oh, and look! My last post can be translated to apply to sex and beauty, too. See: “their job is to be appealing to men but never to admit that they’re trying to be good-looking for men, and never admit that they look good – especially if they’re not skinny or white.”
(via rachelhills)
"Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential."
" Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. And intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way."
"
There is a long list of terms for the female member. Some prefer vagina as the most appropriate word, while others reject it because of its whiff of clinical detachment or their dislike of its Latin meaning (sheath). Some have introduced the Sanskrit word yoni into Engish usage, disliking both vagina and the entire long list of colloquial terms because of the pornographic or derogatory connotations they carry for some.
As a student of words (my university degrees are in English), I tend to resist being told what words to use or not use for my body parts. I don’t want to be restricted to having only a vagina or yoni because all other words are considered too vulgar to be spoken or written. there is nothing vulgar about my body, and if some words suggest the opposite to many people, I think they need to hear these words proudly spoken (and see them written) enough that innocent words no longer possess such a crazy-making power over us.
I might want to have a cunt one day and a twat the next. On the third day, I might decide that pussy is my favourite word. Cunt, by the way, has an interesting meaning: wedge. It’s the triangular shape of the pubes that suggested the word. The same word root is used to describe something a non-sexual as the wedge-shaped writing of the Babylonian clay tablets, which was called cuneiform writing. Should we be excited about that?
If a woman finds that a certain word makes her feel repulsed about her body, the question becomes how to deal with that feeling […] I don’t think men have a long list of words for their private parts that makes them feel embarassed about themselves.
"
"There’s a time and place for everything, and I believe it’s called ‘fan fiction’."
"The meaning of life is that it stops."
"You know, it’s just so sad that you can love somebody so much and have absolutely no idea what’s going on in their head."
— Six Feet Under, Brenda Chenowith (via
aman-duhhh)
"Studies have shown, that, indeed, introverts are more likely than extroverts to express intimate facts about themselves online that their family and friends would be surprised to read, to say that they can express the “real me” online, and to spend more time in certain kinds of online discussions. They welcome the chance to communicate digitally. The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend those relationships into the real world."
"But I guess the thing that I want to say about fandom is that it’s the closest thing to religion there is that isn’t actually religion."
Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, scene i
