when women say “i hate men” they mean it in the “stop hurting me and my sisters” kind of way, not the “i want to rape, murder and oppress you” way. you know, the way men hate women.
The deeply worrying thing about catcalling is that the catcaller must know that their target isn’t going to turn around and fall in to their arms pleading ‘oh dear my please have sex with me here and now’. A lot of the time they know that. Often they don’t do it for that, someone who shouts ‘nice tits’ from a van isn’t trying to date you. They’re trying to humiliate you, reinforce their dominance over you; it’s an exercise of male power. It’s a way of communicating ‘I can say and do whatever I want to you, no matter how inappropriate or how uncomfortable it makes you feel, and you can’t do anything about it.’ Catcalling is not a compliment, it’s a threat.
the “woman is telling male romantic interest that she is upset about something and said male romantic interest shuts her up by kissing her without her permission and she struggles briefly but then melts into the kiss and she’s done being angry now because all she really needed was, not to have her concerns listened to, but instead to be sexually assaulted into silence, because men get to decide how valid women’s feelings are and how those feelings should be dealt with, I guess, and then they make out” is one of the most disgusting tropes I have ever laid my eyes on and it needs to die right now immediately
also the shitty sibling of this trope, aka “woman is upset/grieving and man (who may or may not be her romantic interest) hugs her ~to comfort her~ despite the fact that she tries to get away/says ‘no’ and/or struggles, sometimes violently, against said hug. until, of course, she collapses and starts sobbing, maybe hugs him back, thus proving he was totally right to completely ignore her refusals bc women of course don’t really know what they need, men do.“
burn these tropes. burn them, bury them, and salt the fucking earth so nothing may ever grow there.
They say everyone’s born a hero. But if you let it, life will push you over the line until you’re the villain. Problem is, you don’t always know if you’ve crossed that line. Maybe it’s enough that the world thinks I’m a hero. Maybe if I work long and hard, I can fool myself.

Match #308
Details at Elie Saab Spring 2015 | Intersections 02 by Alessandro Puccinelli
Originally from my collaboration with Marie Claire, more matches here
Congratulations to Mad Max Fury Road for being named Best Film of 2015 by Empire Magazine and the National Board of Review!