Josephine Baker

This is Josephine Baker, who was later known as ‘Bronze Venus’, ‘Black Pearl’ and ‘Créole Goddess’ was born in America in 1906 and later moved to France to become a singer, dancer, and actress. She was the first African-American woman to star in a major motion picture, and became famous worldwide.

Though she grew up as a maid in wealthy white households she eventually became an exotic dancer in France, famously appearing in next to no clothing, and became a French citizen in 1937. 

Baker was even well known by Ernest Hemingway who described her as ‘the most sensational woman anyone ever saw’. She was a big hit and even received approximately 1500 marriage proposals in her life time. She became a muse for Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior. She had a variety of exotic pets including a cheetah named Chiquita, a chimpanzee named Ethel, a pig named Albert, a snake named Kiki, a goat, a parrot, parakeets, fish, three cats, and seven dogs. 

She even contributed to her respected homeland when WWII broke out. She became a volunteer spy for France, and assisted the French Resistance by smuggling messages written in invisible ink on sheet music. She made great efforts to aid those in danger of enemy attack, sent Christmas presents to French soldiers, and smuggled information she gathered in Spain back to France by pinning notes containing the information on the inside of her underwear. She was awarded the Medal of Resistance with Rosette and later named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 

Baker also aided many civil rights movements by refusing to perform to segregated audiences and storming out of a club in Manhattan with actress Grace Kelly after she was refused service. She worked with the NAACP and spoke at a Washington march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the only official female speaker. Baker was actually asked by Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow to take his place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, but Baker declined on the grounds her twelve adopted children ‘were too young to lose their mother’. 

Baker died in 1975, four days after her final show, attended by such names as Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, and Liza Minnelli. 

Oh and she was queer and had a relationship with Frida Kahlo. All around badass.

Activism!!!!

Rape is not a joke.

Nothing pisses me off more then when the word rape is used the wrong way, like then someone says "oh yeah that team raped them" meaning that they are trying to see that they beat them. I feel like this is something that greatly needs to change and people need to stop making a joke about it because it is something that is very real and happening every day in this world. Rape culture is not taken seriously and like the picture says seen as the norm. Women should now have to be afraid of walking alone at night, this should not be a fear that has been instilled in us.

quote

“Although my understanding of exactly how much trouble I was in grew more specific over time, as a child I surely understood enough about my condition to know it was something I’d better keep private. By intuition I was certain that the thing I knew to be true was something others would find both impossible and hilarious. My conviction, by the way, had nothing to do with a desire to be feminine, but it had everything to do with being female. Which is an odd believe for a person born male. It certainly had nothing to do with whether I was attracted to girls or boys. This last point was the one that, years later, would most frequently elude people, including the overeducated smarty-pants who constituted much of my inner circle. But being gay or lesbian is about sexual orientation. Being transgedered is about identity.”

—	Jennifer Finney Boylan, She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders

is caused by..

Rapist doesn't know he's a Rapist

This is extremely relevant to the readings of which I read at which men do not know they are even actively acting out violence against women because society has made it seem like it is something that is acceptable and expected. I myself have been coerced into certain situations that I did not want to be in simply because I was the girl friend and I should be fulfilling my role. Men seem to have this mentality that "NO" means try harder, or that it means convince me. They also seem to think that simply because you had already have sex with them before that there is no possible way that they could ever rape you. And as this poster says it's hard to even blame them at times because the problem goes beyond just them. The problem is systemic which is due to the patriarchal society that we live in. It is sad but true.

Sexual Objectification

The Sexual Objectification Checklist 

transformfeminism:

stfufauxminists:

isaywesay:

1. Does the image show only part(s) of a sexualized person’s body?

BMW

2. Does the image present a sexualized person as a stand-in for an object?

Four Loko

3. Does the image show sexualized persons as interchangeable? 

Mercedes Benz

4. Does the image affirm the idea of violating the bodily integrity of a sexualized person who can’t consent?

Duncan Quinn

5. Does the image suggest that sexual availability is the defining characteristic of the person? 

American Apparel

6. Does the image show a sexualized person as a commodity that can be bought and sold?

Red Tape Shoes