one of my favorite things is how badgers and coyotes will hunt cooperatively. as in not just like happening to go after the same thing at the same time but actually combining efforts to bring down prey; coyotes are faster and can chase down prey species, while badgers are adept at digging them out of their burrows
Early British feminists were quick to import the image of the enslaved Eastern
woman into their writings as a means of expressing their own frustrations with power
inequities, and thus they contributed to colonialism to the extent that they supported the “liberation” and the “civilizing” of the East. For instance, Mary Wollstonecraft
employs the analogy of the .East as a way of discussing the subjugation of British
women. She writes in her introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792) that in the books written by Western men, “in the true style of Mahometanism,
[women] are treated as a kind of subordinate beings, and not as a part of the human
species, when improvable reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction which raises
men above the brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.” Not only
is it “the true style of Mahometanism” to oppress women, in her analysis, but while
reason is claimed as continuous and compatible with Christianity, the teachings of
Islam are understood as “irrational” and brutish.
Many recent works have focused on this complicity between feminism and
colonialism. For instance, Joyce Zonana argues in her essay on Jane Eyre that the
metaphors that are frequently employed to discuss women’s oppression in the writings
of Western feminists, from Wollstonecraft to Florence Nightingale, are those of
the Eastern woman “veiled,” in the harem or in the seraglio. Further, she argues, this
understanding of masculine tyranny as foreign and Eastern merely serves to reinforce
the notion of Western superiority. She writes: “If the lives of women in England or
France or the United States can be compared to the lives of women in ‘Arabia,’ then
the Western feminist’s desire to change the status quo can be represented not as a
radical attempt to restructure the West but as a conservative effort to make the West
more like itself. Orientalism-the belief that the East is inferior to the West, and the
representation of the Orient by means of unexamined, stereotypical images-thus becomes
a major premise in the formulation of numerous Western feminist arguments.“
Western feminists, in using the example of Eastern women as “enslaved” and
oppressed by an irrational East as a means of discussing their own lack of freedom,
encouraged, directly or indirectly, the ideology of colonial domination. The legacy of
orientalist feminism has persisted through much of the modern era, as evidenced in
the birth of modern Turkey. Restaging the earlier narrative of the Enlightenment,
Turkey “progressed” from an Islamic nation to a secular nation at the beginning of
the twentieth century. Again, at the heart of this transformation lies the (un)veiled
woman. In wanting to transform Turkey from a “backward” country into a “modern”
nation, Mustapha Kemal, the leader of the Turkish nationalists, encouraged the
“emancipation of women” and strongly discouraged veiling: “I see women covering
their faces with their head scarves…Do you really think that the mothers and daughters
of a civilised nation would behave so oddly or be so backward?”
Yet while “Western” feminism has aided imperialism and colonialism by accepting
the “barbarism” of Islam, fundamentalists and the right in Islamic countries
have in turn denounced gender struggles as “Western.” Women interested in raising
issues about gender inequity in Muslim countries have been countered by claims that
feminism is inseparable from colonialism and that in order to rid Islam of this legacy
one must equally abandon “feminist” rhetoric. Marie-Aimée Hélie-Lucas, who is a
founding member of the international feminist network Women Living Under Muslim
Law, articulates this dilemma: “we have been accused in our own countries of being
brain-washed by ‘foreign ideologies,’ as if our reality was not enough of a reason to
protest.” Similarly, in her discussion of feminism in Turkey in the 1980s, Ayşe Düzkan
states: “we have such an atmosphere in Turkey that if you defend ideas of freedom, of liberation, it sounds like you are adopting a Western attitude; and to defendthe opposite
of this is considered something Eastern.“
Thus, women, trapped in this East/West divide, are veiled in the name of
religion or unveiled in the name of reason. In order for feminism to be viable in an
international frame, it must be read against this divide that is secured by the figure of
the (un)veiled woman, and it must begin by challenging the story of the West’s shift to
reason against which the East is positioned as irrational. This shift, of course, already
takes place within what Spivak refers to as "the story [in the West] of Christianity to
secularism … the only story around,” which also claims “in praise or dispraise of reason,
that reason is European”. In the next section, I want to suggest
that an analysis of the birth of this East/West divide also works to undo it.
from “FEMINISM AGAINST THE EAST/WEST DIVIDE: LADY MARY’S TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS” by Teresa Heffernan
also part of growing up is realizing that the embarrassing music you liked in your early teen years still goes hard as hell
I’d been meaning to try to crochet some knee warmers, but that hasn’t happened yet. So, I went ahead and ordered some to try. Definitely hoping that will make some difference around the house.
ETA: Some more fingerless gloves too, since I can only find one of the pair I had.
[Image is a poster explaining briefly the origin and meaning of green, yellow, and red interaction signal badges, referred to above as Color Communication Badges.]
if youre not autistic or suffer from an actual disorder, dont use these. its not cute.
er… you know a lot of autistic people go to conventions, right? And people with social anxiety disorders and panic disorders? Shit if I could get away with using this at work I would.
I would like to introduce myself. I refer to myself as Sam Thomas, though my legal name and how a lot of people know me is Matthew. I am officially diagnosed autistic.
If you have any question as to the truth of this, I would like to direct your attention to this YouTube video that ASAN produced promoting the above-mentioned conference. I appear as the first person in the video and you can find more images of my face on my blog.
At this conference, not only did we use these communication badges pictured above, but we actually had the opportunity to meet Jim Sinclair, the inventor of these badges.
During the part of the conference in which Jim Sinclair gave us a history of Autism Network International (ANI)—which they were a co-founder of—they talked to us about the establishment of this particular piece of assistive technology. Basically, it was a simple idea that seemed to fit a need and quickly became very popular among many autistic spaces for it’s practicality and ease of use.
The conference it originated from is called Autreat and is held annually by ANI. This is an autism conference that accepts Autistics and Cousins (ACs)—that is, anyone diagnosed or otherwise self-identifying with any disorder autistic or similar that may share a number of autistic traits.
There was a need. The need was met. This is how we can safely assume most technology either emerges or becomes popular.
We also talked about something called Universal Design and the Curb-Cutter Effect. The Curb-Cutter Effect is when something to fit a specific need is found to create convenience in a broader area than intended. Curb cuts allowing for wheelchair accessibility to sidewalks proved to also be convenient to anyone who may have trouble with steps or even simply a mother with a baby stroller or maybe a child with a wagon. This is a desirable outcome with disability rights advocacy as creating convenience for non-disabled people often makes the assistive technology easier to advocate for.
In this sense, these colored communication badges could serve that Curb-Cutter effect. Not only would this be perfectly acceptable for non-disabled people to use for convenience, but would also help to increase their effectiveness and convenience for those of us who need them. Here are a few examples:
Increased popularity makes the colored communication badges more easily recognizable to the general public, making them as effective outside the above-mentioned autism conferences as inside.
Increase in demand would create increase in supply and availability, likely making these available to pretty much anyone and even being included with, say, the name tags you are required to wear at most cons.
In addition to these helping people recognize the communication state of the wearer, the wearer will be able to recognize whom they can feel more comfortable to approach.
Increased popularity would make these badges more acceptable for public use and less alienating to those who would wear them frequently.
This is not something that we are completely incapable of surviving without; this is something that was convenient and made our lives a lot easier. If that can be easily shared with the general public, then what purpose does it serve not to share it?
poverty and lack of resources in cornwall is really bad and this kind of narrative is not helpful
I’m inclined to agree but it honestly was hard to look at the Leave campaign and say, “These people don’t hate immigrants, it’s the economy they want to improve.”
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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