When I first read orientalism several years ago, I thought it was kind of dry. Rereading it now I realize that Edward Said had a unique wit and was very good at eloquent snark

while we're on it

an example of internalized misogyny: a woman calling other girls dumb sluts and claiming she's not like most girls according to misogynistic stereotypes

not an example of internalized misogyny: a woman not liking a fucking war criminal that happens to also be a woman

About Xie Lian’s kneeling statue

The kneeling statues people built to vent their anger towards Xie Lian wasn’t a complete fabrication by the author, but had historical precedents. Some real historical figures in ancient China also had the “honour” to have kneeling statues built for them, and perhaps the most famous ones are the kneeling statues of Qin Hui and his cronies in front of the Temple of Yue Fei:

(on the right are the kneeling statues of Qin Hui and his wife)

Qin Hui was a politician in the 12^th century, and was remembered in history books as the villain who was responsible for the persecution and execution of Yue Fei, one of the most admired and venerated military generals in Chinese history. Yue Fei and his army gained many victories in repelling enemy forces from the North and successfully defended the nation, but all his victories eventually came to nothing because of his death at Qin Hui’s hands and Qin Hui’s betrayal. For this, Qin Hui is regarded by later generations as corrupt and treacherous, and a traitor to the nation.

I visited the kneeling statue of Qin Hui in Hang Zhou when I was a kid, and it left a pretty big impression on me. Everyone knew better than to ever touch the statue because people would spit on it as a gesture of contempt, despite signs put above the statue forbidding visitors to do so.

A statue in a kneeling position is especially humiliating because kneeling could be seen as a form of punishment for sinners with no dignity. And that’s why kneeling statues are made for traitors to the nation, the worst kind of villain there could be in ancient China. Loyalty and devotion to the nation was regarded as one of the highest virtues in ancient China, and betrayal to the nation is correspondingly seen as the worst possible crime.

So basically Xie Lian received the worst kind of humiliation that is reserved for traitors to the nation. I guess Xie Lian was also seen as a kind of traitor because he betrayed the undoubting trust that the people of Xianle put in him. So yeah, poor, poor Xie Lian.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE

flexing muscles sit-ups abs lifting weights push-ups physical activity running football biceps

"remember! the citizens arent at fault its the israeli government!" nah fuck them hos too if they were real ones theyd leave lmao like nobody is forcing ppl to colonize palestine and its not like its a settler colony thats 500 years old where none of the original colonizers great great grandmas are even alive. but like the 72 year old grandma living there chose to be there. just please use your brains and think about why palestinians are being displaced and who is replacing them. like u forreal got people from new jersey living in other peoples homes in israel.

stop portraying this as some like hapless accident where the adult colonizers stumbled onto the land as an oopsies. israeli citizens are responsible for palestinian oppression. american and british citizens are also responsible, for the record. our tax dollars fund palestinian oppression and thats a big reason why we must support their liberation. our culpability within this oppression demands action. not stupid ass feel good posts making sure people dont feel guilty for actively contributing to genocide. there are bigger things to worry about lol

the cognitive dissonance displayed in some posts about palestine by white americans etc is absolutely fucking astounding. i really really need you to understand that the horrific genocidal process of land expropriation we are witnessing in sheikh jarrah is how all of israel was settled, how every settler colony was established, and that that violence and theft are ongoing not just in occupied palestine but where you live. in the united states and canada and australia and new zealand and new caledonia and french polynesia and the french antilles and and and. and that if you don’t understand settlerism, the ideology behind it and the mechanisms through which it is enacted; if you do not see the material connection between standing rock and gaza, you cannot be effective allies to palestinians because you do not actually understand what is happening in palestine. that the dispossession and murders have an end goal, and it is the establishment of a colonial state that looks like yours. of a country where natives don’t exist, or exist in such minuscule numbers that large scale resistance becomes impossible. the end goal is annihilation. what appears like “senseless” brutality does have a purpose, and it is a purpose that is fundamentally incompatible with the existence of palestinians. and when you see pictures and videos from jerusalem, you need to remember that the land you are standing on was and continues to be settled through the same processes. not so that you can feel useless guilt, not to derail from the urgency of the situation in palestine; but specifically so that you can contextualize the genocide of palestinians and where it fits in the colonial timeline. so that you can understand talks of two state solutions and nuance and “both sides” the same way you understand manifest destiny and unceded land and one-sided treaties. and so that you can finally develop an internationalist political approach to indigenous struggle and liberation and imperialism, and start fighting the correct enemies where you live in the belly of the beast, because that is what you have to offer and what will help colonized people everywhere.

medusa, trying to turn you to stone, but you accidentally called her “melissa” when you first walked in and now you’re too embarrassed to look at her. “it’s alright” she keeps saying “i get it all the time” but you still won’t look. u don’t even remember the stone thing until later

“In 1984, when Ruth Coker Burks was 25 and a young mother living in Arkansas, she would often visit a hospital to care for a friend with cancer.

During one visit, Ruth noticed the nurses would draw straws, afraid to go into one room, its door sealed by a big red bag. She asked why and the nurses told her the patient had AIDS.

On a repeat visit, and seeing the big red bag on the door, Ruth decided to disregard the warnings and sneaked into the room.

In the bed was a skeletal young man, who told Ruth he wanted to see his mother before he died. She left the room and told the nurses, who said, “Honey, his mother’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming!”

Ruth called his mother anyway, who refused to come visit her son, who she described as a “sinner” and already dead to her, and that she wouldn’t even claim his body when he died.

“I went back in his room and when I walked in, he said, “Oh, momma. I knew you’d come”, and then he lifted his hand. And what was I going to do? So I took his hand. I said, “I’m here, honey. I’m here”, Ruth later recounted.

Ruth pulled a chair to his bedside, talked to him

and held his hand until he died 13 hours later.

After finally finding a funeral home that would his body, and paying for the cremation out of her own savings, Ruth buried his ashes on her family’s large plot.

After this first encounter, Ruth cared for other patients. She would take them to appointments, obtain medications, apply for assistance, and even kept supplies of AIDS medications on hand, as some pharmacies would not carry them.

Ruth’s work soon became well known in the city and she received financial assistance from gay bars, “They would twirl up a drag show on Saturday night and here’d come the money. That’s how we’d buy medicine, that’s how we’d pay rent. If it hadn’t been for the drag queens, I don’t know what we would have done”, Ruth said.

Over the next 30 years, Ruth cared for over 1,000 people and buried more than 40 on her family’s plot most of whom were gay men whose families would not claim their ashes.

For this, Ruth has been nicknamed the ‘Cemetery Angel’.”— by Ra-Ey Saley