violence

There are two types of cowgirl narratives: Ones with plucky girls whose horses are a symbolic extension of their inner strength (see: Brave, National Velvet) and ones where girls feel unsure in the world and connect with horses who are also healing from some kind of trauma. We talk a lot about how horses help girls with wild hearts, but how is healing a horse like healing a woman? 

Chloë Sevigny of Boys Don't Cry stars in the upcoming miniseries Hit and Miss as a transgender contract assassin.

For years the "transsexual killer" trope has haunted the trans community with a bad reputation. And while transgender people are being portrayed as killers, we're the ones getting killed.

"Sometimes it was very sexy and sometimes I was attracted to the person and sometimes I had great sex. And sometimes I was just going through the motions and it was neither good nor bad. And sometimes it was really unpleasant and I just got through it."

TRIGGER WARNING: The following story includes a description of a sexual assault. 

The decision to continually portray mental illness in pop culture for cheap, scary thrills and to avoid giving motivation for villains beyond "the crazy" has consequences. Those consequences are primarily felt by us, our loved ones, and our communities. When people tell me I'm "reading too much" into the number of times I've seen a mental health condition as the only motive for being a murderer on the latest Crime Drama, I want to ask them if they've ever considered why I don't tell them what my diagnosis is. The only time I see "me" on TV is as a murderer, and that has directly influenced my decisions about disclosing, about seeking mental health services, and about talking to my family and friends about my diagnosis. And in that, I am by no means alone.

Spoiler Alert! Don't say we didn't warn you...


Thanks to Liss for the screengrab!

Representation is not necessarily anti-racism, and Lost’s framing and depiction of nonwhite characters is often violent and damaging. A pertinent example of this in the current, last season came two weeks ago in the episode "The Candidate", in which Sun, Jin, and Sayid–three out of four of the remaining characters of color from the original cast - were killed within the span of a few minutes so white characters could live.

A commentary on the way women and girls experience violence worldwide, Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art is an exhibit of work by thirty contemporary artists currently on display at Art Works for Change in Oslo, Norway.

I was going to post today about how I got the Wii Fitness for Christmas and what my thoughts were.

But today, the only thing I can think about and post about is what is happening in the Gaza strip right now.

Two days after Christmas, the Israeli government began military strikes against Gaza. Children were heading home from school, university students were waiting for the bus to pick them up, fathers were sending their children out on errands.

And then the strikes began and Gaza was blown to shreds.