Inclusivity Thread!!! 💗💗

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!

 

J. Marion Sims, often called the “father of modern gynecology,” built his reputation by performing brutal medical experiments on enslaved on Black women without anesthesia. His advancements in gynecological surgery came at the inhumane cost of Black women’s suffering, as he used their bodies without consent, ignoring their pain and dignity.

 

In the 1840s, Sims conducted repeated surgical procedures on at least 11 enslaved women including Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. Those women were forced to endure agonizing operations as Sims experimented with techniques to repair vesicovaginal fistulas, a painful childbirth injury. Since enslaved Black women had no rights over their own bodies, they could not refuse these experiences. Sims would operate on the same women multiple times, sometimes failing and trying again with no regard for their suffering. He justified not using anesthesia with the racist belief the Black people felt less pain than white people, — a false idea that still influences medical care today. 

 

Sims did not purchase these women himself, but slave owners gave them to him after they were no longer seen as valuable with many having suffering childbirth injuries from forced pregnancies and sexual exploitation. Rather than offering medical care, Sims used them as test subjects, seeing their suffering as scientific opportunity rather than a human tragedy. Sims only preformed these painful experiences on Black women without anesthesia, despite anesthesia being available at the time. However, when he later performed the procedures on white women, he used anesthesia for their comfort.

 

Sims knew the pain was unbearable, but he didn’t care when it came to Black women. His treatment of Black women as disposable test subjects helped shaped modern gynecology, but at the cost of  immune suffering and dehumanization. Sims was never punished or held accountable during his lifetime. Instead, he was praised as a medical pioneer, celebrated for his surgical breakthroughs, and given prestigious honors. He even founded Woman’s Hospital in New York City in 1855, which became the first hospital dedicated to women’s health.

 

 

J. Marion Sims died on November 13, 1883 in New York City at the age of 70. He suffered from pneumonia in his last years  which he passed away from. Despite the controversy surrounding his medical practices, he was widely honored at the time of his death. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. In 1894, a statue of Sims was erected in Central Park, New York City, near the New York Academy of Medicine. For over 100 years, it stood as a tribute to a man who built his career on the exploitation of Black women.

 

However, the awareness of his horrific legacy grew, activists — particularly Black women — began to demand the statue’s removal. In 2017, a powerful protest took place at the statue. Black women dressed in blood-stained hospital gowns, symbolizing the pain endured by Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. They marched and held signs demanding justice and recognition of Sims’ victims. As a result of mounting public pressure, the New York City Public Design Commission voted to remove the statue in April 2018. It was relocated to where he was buried, stripping him of the public honor he once held. 
 

 

For decades, the names of Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy were largely forgotten. But activists and historians have worked to ensure their legacy is remembered. In Montgomery, Alabama, a monument titled “The Mothers of Gynecology” was unveiled in 2021. This powerful statue, created by artist Michelle Browder, honors the enslaved Black women who suffered at the hands of Sims. The monument stands in contrast to the Sims statue that was removed, ensuring that future generations learn who truly sacrificed for the advancement of gynecology. 
 

 

Artist, Michelle Browder, recreated the historical scene of J. Marion Sims’ experiments to honor Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy, centering their resilience and humanity while challenging the traditional narrative that erased their voices.

 

 

Sims’ legacy extends far beyond the past. His racist medical practices still affect Black women’s healthcare today. His experiments on enslaved Black women helped shape modern gynecology, but they also reinforced harmful biases that continue to put Black women at risk of medical settings.

 

On of the most dangerous consequences of Sims’ legacy is the racial bias in pain management. The false belief that Black people feel less pain continues to influence modern medicine. Studies show that Black patients are less likely to receive pain medication than white patients, even when experiencing the same conditions. This misconception can lead to severe consequences as Black people’s pain is often underestimated or ignored by medical professionals. 
 

The Black maternal mortality crisis is another painful reminder of how racism in medicine persists. In the U.S., Black women are three to four times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. Many of these deaths are preventable, but doctors and healthcare providers often ignore Black women’s pain and concerns, just as Sims did to Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. From Serena Williams to countless unnamed women, Black mothers continue to experience medical neglect that can cost them their lives. 
 

Another lasting impact of Sims’ practices is medical dismissal, where Black women often feel unheard and disregarded when seeking healthcare. Whether it’s concerns  about reproductive health, pain management, or general well-being, many Black women report being dismissed by doctors and given inadequate care. This ongoing disregard for Black women’s health is a direct result  of the historical dehumanization of Black bodies in medicine, dating back to Sims and beyond.

 

I know this post is longer than usual, but I thought it was necessary since it is Black history and obviously not all Black history is good. Thank you for reading through all this. I do appreciate it! 🫶🏾🫶🏾

[daveb]

1 hour ago, lovely_xm07 said:

I know this post is longer than usual, but I thought it was necessary since it is Black history and obviously not all Black history is good. Thank you for reading through all this. I do appreciate it!

Thank you for posting it! I learned a lot, with this post and your previous posts here.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY!! 🤠✊🏾
 

Did you know some of the first cowboys were Black? This isn’t taught much because it challenges the whitewashed narrative of the Wild West that has been promoted by books, movies, and mainstream history.

The first cowboys in the Americas were a mix of Indigenous, Mexican vaqueros, and enslaved Africans. The first wave of horse riding cow wranglers in North America were Indigenous Mexican men. Spanish missionaries trained them to herd cattle. After the American Civil War, many formerly enslaved African-Americans moved west and became cowboys. Historians estimate that between 20 to 25% of cowboys in the American West were African American.

Black cowboys were often called “cow boys” as a derogatory term by white ranchers in the American West. The term was used to insult and demean Black men. The term “cow boys” was used as two words to refer to enslaved African American men who worked as cattle herders. The term “cow” referred to what they worked and “boy” was used to demean them. The term originated from the South in the 19th century to differentiate between white cattle-owning  ranchers and Black cattle herders. 
 

Black cowboys pioneered some of the celebrated rodeo feats. They also formed their own rodeos because many were excluded riders of color. Some Black cowboys were very well known such as Nat Love. Bill Pickett, a formerly enslaved man from Texas, invented rodeo steer wrestling. 

 

 

This is Nat Love (1854-1921). He was born into slavery in Tennessee before becoming one of the most famous cowboys of the Wild West. After emancipation, he moved west, where he became a skilled cattle driver and expert marksman. He gained the nickname “Deadwood Dick” after winning a rodeo competition in South Dakota, and his adventurous life was later detailed in his autobiography providing a firsthand account of the Black cowboy experience.

 

 

This is Bill Pickett (1870-1932). He revolutionized rodeo sports by inventing a technique of bulldogging, now known as steer wrestling. Born in 1870 in Texas, he became a legendary cowboy and performer, traveling across the country with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show. His daring skills and showmanship made him famous, yet his contributions to rodeo history were often overlooked. In 1971, decades after his death in 1932, Pickett became the first Black cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy of Fame.

 

 

This is Bose Ikard (1843-1929). He was a skilled cowboy and trail guide who played a crucial role in mapping cattle routes in the American West. Born into slavery in Mississippi in 1843, he later worked alongside the legendary Charles Goodnight, helping establish the legendary Goodnight-Loving Trail. His expertise and contributions were so valuable that Goodnight later had a headstone placed at his grave, calling him the most trusted friend. Ikard’s life even inspired the character Joshua Deets in the novel Lonesome Dove.

[daveb]

Matthew Henson, an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years, and was the first African American to reach the North Pole. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henson

 

Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman was an early American civil aviator. She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, and is the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot's license. She earned her license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 🕺🏾🪩

 

 

Today, we are honoring Willi Ninja (1961-2006)! William Roscoe Leake, better known as Willi Ninja, was an American dancer and choreographer known his appearance in the documentary film Paris Is Burning. He was a member of the LGBTQ community who later died of AIDS-related heart failure in New York City. 
 

He is known as the “Grandfather of Voguing”, the dance style that was propelled to the national stage. Vogueing is characterized by angular body movements and exaggerated runway poses, was introduced to the public in the award-winning 1990 documentary "Paris Is Burning," which Ninja appeared in, and was popularized by Madonna's 1990 hit song "Vogue." Ninja was a self-taught dancer and was perfecting his voguing style by his twenties.  

 

Willi Ninja architected his distinctive style of vogue, using inspirations ranging from hieroglyphics to “catwalk”; he refined his style at the Christopher Street Piers, a staple cultural site of Ballroom history, in New York City. Asian fighting styles influenced Willi's innovation of voguing and its art form. Willi also believed in building a “safe-house” for members of the Black, Brown queer and trans community. In 1982, he established the “House of Ninja”. Willi's House, the House on Ninja--the HoN--innovated the technique of distinct lines created with the body. He rendered  the name “Ninja” royal and central to the 1980s Ball scene.

 

 

RIP Willi Ninja. What a legacy! A legacy that will not be forgotten!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 🎙️🎙️💜💜

 

Today, I really want to honor Joy Reid. Joy-Ann M. Lomena-Reid is an American political commentator and television host. She was a national correspondent for MSNBC and is best known for hosting the political commentary program The ReidOut from 2020 to 2025.

 

The New York Times described Reid as a “heroine” emerging from the political movements and protests against Donald Trump. She has written three books Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, the Racial Divide (2016), The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story (2019), and Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America (2024). She got her education from Harvard University and joined MSNBC in 2014. She was a part of MSNBC for 11 years before she was fired due to major shake-ups at the network. Along with her firing, her show The ReidOut was cancelled as well. On February 23, 2025, MSNBC announced that they had cancelled the show with its last broadcast airing on February 24, 2025.
 

When I heard this news I was confused and in disbelief. The more I read about it, the more angry I got. I viewed this change as unfair. Her show was good. It reported facts. I was new to her show as I started really getting into the news during election season of 2024. I really liked her show (MSNBC as a whole, I also liked the Rachel Maddow show that still airs). Reid was straight forward with no nonsense in her reports. When shit was serious, she got serious. And shit was serious!! 
 

I really admired her and her work. She is a very bright and intelligent woman. I am still very mad and confused at MSNBC for this. With her firing, I thought we could honor her legacy here and appreciate all the news she presented for us. I know for a fact her work meant something because when the news broke out that she was fired, far right conservative podcasters celebrated. Conservative extremists podcasts like Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro calling it “a win”. Obviously, if they are celebrating they knew she was reported the facts about Trump and his administration which of course, not what MAGA wants to hear or see. Her work meant something and it’s only disappointing to see her go when she was helping us in this battle by keeping us informed. 
 

We’ll miss you Reid!! 💜💜💜

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 

 

Black Deaf History matters too!! Today, I’ll highlight Black Deaf people who have made impacts of the Black Deaf community. 
 

Claudia Gordon, the first Black Deaf woman to become a lawyer in the United States and the first deaf graduate of American University’s Law School. She currently serves as Chair of the National Council on Disability. Prior to this, Gordon held various roles in the public sector — most notably as the associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, where she advised White House officials including former President Barack Obama on disability issues. The political appointment made Gordon the first deaf person to work at the White House detailee capacity.

 

Dr. Glenn B. Anderson, the first Black Deaf person to receive his PhD from New York University. Also, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Black Deaf Advocates. Anderson is an American writer and author of the book titled Still I Rise: The Enduring Legacy of Black Deaf Arkansans Before and After Integration. He is also an editor for the Arkansas Association of the Deaf newsletter.

 

Warren Snipe, a Black Deaf musician and rapper. He helped music become more inclusive for deaf people. On top of being a rapper, he is also a writer, actor, and performer. He was featured in the R&B artist Maxwell’s “Fingers Crossed” lyric video and has completed an album called Deaf: So What.

 

 

C.J. Jones was a motivational speaker and the first Black Deaf actor in an international movie. He is also a comedian and actor. He is one of the subjects of See What I’m Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary (2009). Jones made his feature film debut with Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver (2017), in which he portrays Joseph, the deaf foster father of Ansel Elgort’s protagonist. Jones created the Na’vi sign language for Avatar: Way of Water, in which he plays a Na’vi.

 

Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, a retired professor at Gallaudet University, and also, she coauthored a book by the name of The Hidden Treasures of Black ASL. She is also a counselor and currently holds a position of associate professor in the ASL and Deaf Studies Department. 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!! ✊🏾✊🏾
 

Today, we are honoring Phil Wilson. He was a prominent African American HIV/AIDS activist. Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999 and served as its CEO until 2018. 
 

Wilson’s career in activism started after he and his partner, Chris Brownlie, were both diagnosed with HIV in the early 1980s. This was when the AIDS epidemic was just starting in the United States, and Wilson said he did not feel like anyone was bringing together the Black community to solve the problem. The country believed AIDS was a gay disease and spread in mostly white, gay communities when Wilson believed it affected the Black community much more. When his partner died of an HIV-related illness in 1989, Wilson channeled his grief into activism. 
 

In 2010, Wilson was appointed to President Obama's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Wilson also served as a World AIDS Summit delegate and advocated for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide additional funding to Black groups so they would have the resources to educate and mobilize their community around HIV/AIDS issues. His work resulted in the "Act Against AIDS" campaign, now known as the "Let's Stop HIV Together" campaign, which promotes HIV testing, prevention and treatment.

 

Wilson was given multiple awards and honors throughout his activism career. Some of which included Wilson being inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2004, he was the recipient of the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor. He was also named one of the “2005 Black History Makers in the Making” by Black Entertainment Television. Wilson has said when he dies, he hopes people will remember him for not giving up. His biggest fear is that the Black community will give up fighting against this disease. 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 💄🪩

 

 

This is Bob the Drag Queen. Also known as her other stage name Caldwell Tidicue, she better known as Bob the Drag Queen, an American drag queen, comedian, actor, activist, musician, and reality television personality. She is known for winning the eight season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
 

As of 2020, she has more than one million followers on Instagram, making her the first Black drag queen to reach this milestone. After Drag Race, he pursued acting appearing in television shows such as High Maintenance (2016), Tales of the City (2019), A Black Lady Stretch Show (2019). In 2020, she began co-hosting We’re Here on HBO alongside fellow drag race contestants Eureka O’Hara and Shangela. 
 

Bob identifies as polyamorous, pansexual, and non-binary and goes by either he/him or she/her pronouns. She has won multiple awards and nominations throughout her career. She has appeared on many podcasts, traveled across the nation and world, and is close friends with fellow Drag Race contestant, Monét X Change. She is also known for her tour with Madonna that happened not too long ago. She also just recently released her book Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert: A Novel. 
 

LET’S GOOO!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 🎤🎶🎧🖤

Today, I want to recognize music genres that originated from Black people! 
 

HipHop/Rap - Hip hop music, also known as rap music, is a genre of popular music developed by African Americans in the Bronx in the 1970s. Musical elements used in hip hop music have stemmed from blues, jazz, and R&B recordings from the 1950s and earlier. Hip hop is an entire subculture, and rap music falls under it. Hip hop as music and culture formed from the multicultural exchange between African-American youth from the United States and young immigrants and children of immigrants from countries in the Caribbean.

 

The beginnings of hip hop music were an outlet for the youth of marginalized backgrounds and low-income areas. Hip hop’s early pioneers were influenced by a mix of music from their cultures and the cultures they were exposed to as a result of the diversity of U.S. cities. For example, New York City experienced a heavy Jamaican hip hop influence during the 1990s. This influence was a direct result of the mass immigration of Jamaicans to New York City and the American-born Jamaican youth who were coming of age during the 1990s. In 2017, hip-hop music surpassed rap as the most popular genre in the US.  Songs listed: All Eyez On Me by 2Pac; Hypnotize by The Notorious B.I.G.

 

 

 

R&B or Rhythm & Blues - By the 1940s, rhythm and blues, known as R&B, had come into popularity. A genre originating in African-American communities, the term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly toward urban African Americans. As “urbane, rocking, jazz-based music with a heavy, insistent beat” was becoming more popular, it all fell under the larger R&B umbrella, though the history is richer than the monolith may suggest. R&B lyrical themes often describe experiences of pain, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.

The migration of African Americans to industrial urban cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz, blues, and related genres of music. These genres of music were often performed by full-time musicians. The precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues, which overlapped by the late 1920s and 1930s. The use of the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone, became increasingly popular. Songs listed: Why I Love You So Much by Monica; West Coast Love by Emotional Oranges. 

 

 

 

Jazz - Jazz was all the rage by the 1920s. Jazz originated in the late-19th to early-20th century as variations of classical music combined with African and slave folk songs, and influences of West African culture. Jazz originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, directly evolving from blues and ragtime music. As jazz spread around the world, different styles arose from different regional and local cultures. From traditional jazz to swing to bebop and beyond, jazz is one of the US’s greatest exports. Since the Jazz Age, it’s been recognized as a keystone of musical expression in traditional and popular music. If you peel back enough layers, most genres of popular music are evolutions of basic jazz and blues elements. Songs listed: L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole; I’ve Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good by Dianne Reeves.

 

 

Blues - Blues originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s by African-Americans, taking influence from African-American work songs and spirituals. The first blues recordings were made in the 1920s by Black women such as Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith. These singers were backed by jazz bands, and this style is known as classic blues. Later during the Great Depression, many Black people moved to northern states and carried blues traditions with them. Songs listed: Crazy Blues by Mamie Smith; Money Is The Name of The Game by Buster Benton.

 

 

 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 🎤🎶🎧🖤

 

Let’s celebrate some more genres created by Black people!

 

Rock and Roll - Rock and roll music emerged from the wide variety of musical genres that existed in the United States in the first half of the 20th century among different ethnic and social groups. Some of the hallmark elements of the genre—strong rhythmic elements, blues notes, and call and response patterns—came from contributions from America’s Black population. According to the writer Robert Palmer: “Rock ‘n’ roll was an inevitable outgrowth of the social and musical interactions between blacks and whites in the South and Southwest. Its roots are a complex tangle. Bedrock black church music influenced blues, rural blues-influenced white folk songs, and the black popular music of the Northern ghettos, blues, black pop-influenced jazz, and so on. But the single most important process was the influence of black music on white.” Whatever Elvis did with rock and roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe did it first. Songs listed: Up Above My Head by Sister Rosetta; I Against I by Bad Brains.

 

 

Funk - a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ("The One"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all bass lines , drum patterns, and guitar riffs. Songs listed: Superstition by Stevie Wonder; Super Freak by Rick James.

 

 

 

Country - Country music has always been ours. It began with the banjo, a prominent aspect of country music, that was invented by the enslaved as early as the 1960s. Enslaved people created their own hymns, spirituals and songs with the banjo, which was seen as an exclusively Black instrument. We also popularized the fiddle, which can be heard throughout early forms of blues, R&B, and country. Despite the roots of country music, white supremacy has worked to erase this history and barred many other Black artists from achieving mainstream success. Two exceptions are Charley Pride and DeFord Bailey, the only Black artists to have ever been inducted into the Country Hall of Fame. Songs listed: Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’  by Charley Pride; Old Town Road by Lil Nas X. 
 

 

 

Disco - A genre of dance music that emerged in the 1970s from the urban nightlife scene. Its sound brought forward a new mix of instruments and sounds like syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. Disco started as a mix of music from venues popular with African Americans, Latino Americans, Italian Americans, and gay men in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It declined in popularity by the late 1970s and early 1980s but remained a key influence in the development of electronic dance music. The style has had several revivals since the 1990s, and the influence of disco remains strong across American and European pop music. Songs listed: Best of My Love by The Emotions; Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches & Herb. 

 

 

 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! 

 

Black Boy Affirmations:

 

 

Put down the burdens you were never yours to carry!
You are more than the expectations placed on you.

You are more than a statistic.

 

Your hoodie is not a threat, your POWER is. ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

It’s okay to cry! And it’s okay to ask for help to heal!
Your existence, your brilliance, and your dreams shatter every box they try to put you in.

 

Your dreams aren’t too big, they were placed inside of you because you are capable of making them real! 🌠 

KNOW YOUR WORTH and guard it fiercely!! ✨

You are here for a reason and yes, the world needs you, but it doesn’t want you drained and defeated. 

YOUR CREATIVITY WILL SET YOU FREE!! 🎨

There will ALWAYS be people who don’t see your worth, DON’T be one of them. 
You carry the dreams of generations, but you are free to dream on your own!!! 💗

Every time you choose to believe in yourself, you defy a system that wasn’t built for your success. 
Your brother is not your competition. 🤝🏾

The stereotypes meant to hold you down are no match for the man you will become.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!

 

Black Girl Affirmations:

 

 

You don't have to set yourself on fire to keep others warm! 🔥 Resting is how you preserve your power to create real change. 😴 You are not the answer to every cry for help, and that's okay.

Every act of kindness does not have to come from a place of sacrifice. Your love can flow freely without draining your spirit. 💗 The fate of the world was never meant to rest entirely in your hands. You are free to share it or set it down. 🌍 

 

Your boundaries are an act of love for yourself and others. Saving the world doesn't mean losing yourself in the process. You don't have to fix everything to matter.

Black girlhood does not look any one way. You don't owe anyone a version of you that makes the comfortable. TAKE UP SPACE!! You carry the BRILLIANCE and AUDACITY of your ancestors. Don’t give yourself up to a space that would rather see you in pieces. Every day, CHOOSE YOU!!

That bold outfit and creative hairstyle look amazing on you. Your body, hair, and name are sacred and divine. 💅🏾 Your wholeness matters more than your academic achievement. Black wholeness and Black peace matter more than Black excellence. No matter what happened before today, you are still 👏🏾 THAT 👏🏾 girl!!

[lovely_xm07]

Welp folks, today marks the end of Black History Month!! 😢 It was fun sharing the some of aspects of our culture and history with you all. Of course, Black history doesn’t just stop here. Anyone who is a part of the Black community knows that we don’t need an official month to celebrate our history, heritage, and culture. We do that all the time, every day! No matter what doofus in the office tries to say about us, remembering what we’ve gone through keeps us strong and woke. Some of us may have forgotten that. Or some may have chosen to completely disgrace and hurt their own people in order to side with the rebel because they think they will be spared. But at the end of the day, you can’t change your skin. You can’t change who you are or where your ancestors came from and what they fought for!!! The majority of us know that and will continue to fight for freedom, recognition, and equality!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
 

This isn’t the end of celebrating Black history of course. I’ll be leaving snippets here and there. Today marks Women’s History Month!! 🥳 So I’ll be posting women, their stories, and their contributions to America all throughout this month!! 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

This is the amazing Drew Tyson Afualo!! She is an American influencer, podcaster, and author. She started her work on the social media app, TikTok, where she is known for roasting misogynistic and fatphobic men on that app. She is also known for her distinctive high pitched laugh that is punctuated in each of her videos. She has accumulated over 9 million followers on her socials. Afualo also hosts her own podcast called The Comment Section and shares a podcast with her sister, Deison Afualo, called Two Idiot Girls. As an influencer, she has also provided red carpet coverage for multiple premieres such as Black Adam and the 95th Academy Awards. 
 

Afualo joined TikTok in March 2020 at the encouragement of her boyfriend, now fiancé. She initially ran an account casually posting a handful of personal dating stories for a smaller audience before going viral in 2021 after posting a video where she lists “specific red flags” in men. The video attracted and large amount of hate comments from men to which began her roasting legacy. Afualo humorously insults in response to the hate gained her a newfound audience. Afualo’s TikTok videos typically consists of  her responding to, mocking, and roasting men who express misogynist, racist, fatphobic, homophobic, and transphobic views. She is know as the “Crusader for Women”, “Defender of Women”, and “Queen of Roasts”. 
 

Afualo hosts the podcast The Comment Section with Drew Afualo, created in 2021. The podcast consists of Afualo interviewing fellow online creators and media figures about feminist issues, misogyny, relationships, and empowerment. Notable guests have included Brittany Broski, Kamie Crawford, Jackie Aina, Chappell Roan, Melissa Ong, Manny MUA, Pokimane, Trixie Mattel, Johnny Sibilly, and Tefi Pessoa. Additionally, Afualo and her sister Deison co-host the podcast Two Idiot Girls, where they discuss topics such as media representation of minorities, racism, internalized misogyny, and mental health in both serious and light-hearted ways. 
 

Afualo is outspoken about her Samoan heritage, crediting it for her headstrong nature and desire to uplift women. While covering the Black Adam premiere, she wore a custom dress by Samoan designer Nancy Elizabeth that incorporated a tapa cloth corset and spoke Samoan to actor Dwayne Johnson. She has a malu, a tattoo traditionally reserved for Samoan women of royal blood, on the back of her left hand. In addition to Johnson, she has cited Parris Goebel as an important Samoan inspiration, having seen the choreographer wear a puletasi to the MTV Video Music Awards growing up. Afualo is a supporter of intersectional feminism. She has said that, while she supports body positivity, she leans "more towards body neutrality, which in essence just means your body just is what it is. It just exists. It has no bearing or reflection on you as a person, your character, your worth nothing. It's just keeping you alive".

 

Last year she released her book Loud: Accept Nothing Less than the Life You Deserve. It became a New York Times Bestseller within months!! 🙌🏾🙌🏾 The book is part memoir part self help. I bought the book myself because I, personally, am a HUGE fan of this woman! I think what she does is great. Her book is so intellectual and you really learn a lot about her, life, the patriarchy, and its effects. 
 

Her socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewafualo/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drewafualo?lang=en

 

You can find her podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or even YouTube. There are also some compilations of her roasting awful men on YouTube as well! 😝👍🏾

[lovely_xm07]

Hey y’all!!! So I didn’t get to post anything aromantic related on the last day of Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, so I wanted to make up for it now. This is a video I found on YouTube of aromantic spec TikToks made by people who identify as aromantic or on the spectrum! HAPPY LATE ASAW!! 💚🤍🩶🖤
 

 

[Gentle Giant]

@lovely_xm07 I enjoy your posts, you are a good writer. I’ve learned a lot from this thread.

[daveb]

4 hours ago, Gentle Giant said:

@lovely_xm07 I enjoy your posts, you are a good writer. I’ve learned a lot from this thread.

2nded  

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

This is Fannie Lou Hammer (1917-1977). She was an American voter and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and leader of the civil rights movement. She was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer organized Mississippi’s Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She was also the co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who sought election to government officials. 
 

Hamer began her civil rights activism in 1962, continuing it until her health declined nine years later. She was known for her use of spiritual hymns and quotes and her resilience in leading the civil rights movement for Black women in Mississippi. She was extorted, threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by racists, including members of the police all while she was trying to register to vote. She later helped thousands of African Americans in Mississippi to become registered voters and helped hundreds of disenfranchised people in her area through her work in programs such as the Freedom Farm Cooperative. She ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964, losing to John C. Stennis, and the Mississippi State Senate in 1971. In 1970, she led legal action against the government of Sunflower County, Mississippi, for continued illegal segregation.

 

Hamer died on March 14, 1977, aged 59, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Her memorial service was widely attended and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young delivered the eulogy. She was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. On January 4, 2025, President Joe Biden awarded Hamer the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

 

 

Hamer became interested in the civil rights movement in the 1950s. She heard leaders of the local movement speak at annual Regional Council of Negro Leadership conferences, held in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. The attendees of the yearly conferences discussed black voting rights and other civil rights issues Black communities in the area faced. On August 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others attempted to vote but failed a literacy test, which meant that they could not vote. On December 4, just after she returned to her hometown, Hamer went to the courthouse in Indianola, where she took the test again, but she failed it again and she was turned away as a result. She told the registrar, "You'll see me every 30 days till I pass".
 

On January 10, 1963, she took the test a third time. She was successful and was informed that she was now a registered voter in Mississippi. But when she attempted to vote that fall, she discovered her registration did not allow her to vote, as her county also required voters to have two poll tax receipts. This requirement had emerged in some (mostly former Confederate) states after the right to vote was first given to all races by the 1870 ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. These laws, along with the literacy tests and local government acts of coercion, were used against black people and Native Americans. Hamer later paid for and acquired the requisite poll tax receipts.

 

After she attempted to vote, Hamer was fired by her boss, but her husband was required to stay on the land until the end of the harvest. Hamer moved between homes over the next several days for protection. On September 10, 1962, while staying with friend Mary Tucker, Hamer was shot at 15 times in a drive-by shooting by racists. No one was injured in the event. The next day, Hamer and her family evacuated to nearby Tallahatchie County for three months, fearing retaliation by the Ku Klux Klan because she had attempted to vote.

 

“I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been a little scared—but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.” —  Fannie Lou Hamer

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Fannie Lou Hamer (part 2)!

 

On June 9, 1963, Hamer was returning from a voter registration workshop by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Charleston, South Carolina. Shortly after, a Mississippi State highway patrolman took out his billy club and intimidated the activists into leaving. One of the group decided to take down the officer's license plate number; while doing so the patrolman and a police chief entered the cafe and arrested the party. At that point the officers arrested her as well. Once in county jail, Hamer's colleagues were beaten by the police in the booking room including 15-year-old June Johnson, for not addressing officers as "sir". Hamer was then taken to a cell where two inmates were ordered, by the state trooper, to beat her using a baton. The police ensured she was held down during the almost fatal beating, and when she started to scream, beat her further. Hamer was also groped repeatedly by Another in her group was beaten until she was unable to talk; a third, a teenager, was beaten, stomped on, and stripped. 

Hamer was released on June 12, 1963. She needed more than a month to recuperate from the beatings and never fully recovered. Though the incident left profound physical and psychological effects, including a blood clot over her left eye and permanent damage on one of her kidneys, Hamer returned to Mississippi to organize voter registration drives, including the 1963 Freedom Ballot, a mock election, and the Freedom Summer initiative the following year. She was known to the volunteers of Freedom Summer as a motherly figure who believed that the civil rights effort should be multi-racial in nature. 

In 1964, Hamer helped co-found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), in an effort to prevent the regional all-white Democratic party's attempts to stifle African-American voices, and to ensure there was a party for all people that did not stand for any form of exploitation and discrimination especially towards minorities. Following the founding of the MFDP, Hamer and other activists traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention to stand as the official delegation from the state of Mississippi. Hamer's televised testimony was interrupted because of a scheduled speech that President Lyndon B. Johnson made in the presence of 30 governors in the White House's East Room, but most major news networks broadcast her testimony to the nation later that evening, giving Hamer and the MFDP much exposure.

 

Hamer traveled around the country, speaking at colleges, universities, and institutions. She was not rich, as confirmed by her clothing and vernacular. Hamer was a short and stocky poor black woman with a deep southern accent, which gave rise to ridicule in the minds of many in her audiences. Although she often gave speeches, she was often patronized by both Black and white people because she was not formally educated. When Hamer was being considered to speak as a delegate at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Hubert Humphrey said, "The President will not allow that illiterate woman to speak from the floor of the convention."

 

In 1961, while undergoing surgery to remove a tumor, Hamer was also forced to undergo a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent; this medical procedure was frequently performed in accordance with Mississippi's compulsory sterilization plan to reduce the number of poor Blacks in the state. Hamer is credited with coining the phrase "Mississippi appendectomy", a euphemism for involuntary or uninformed sterilization of Black women, a common practice in the South during the 1960s. In January 1972, she was hospitalized for an extended period because she was suffering from nervous exhaustion, and after she suffered a nervous breakdown in January 1974, she was hospitalized again. By June 1974, Hamer was said to be in extremely poor health. Two years later, she was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for breast cancer. 
 

Hamer died of complications from hypertension and breast cancer on March 14, 1977, aged 59, at Taborian Hospital, Mound Bayou, Mississippi. She was buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi. Her tombstone is engraved with one of her famous quotes, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." Her primary memorial service, held at a church, was completely full. An overflow service was held at Ruleville Central High School with over 1,500 people in attendance. Andrew Young, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at the RCHS service, saying "None of us would be where we are now had she not been there then". ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

Today, we are honoring Rachel Anne Maddow. She is an American television news program and liberal political commentator. She hosts The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC which you can watch on weeknights at 9pm. Her podcast of the same name and her podcast, Ultra, a series chronicling U.S. right-wing extremism during the 1940s and World War II, is also available to listen to on Apple Podcasts. 
 

Maddow has received multiple Emmy Awards for her broadcasting work; in 2021, she also received a Grammy Award for the audiobook version of Blowout (2019). Maddow holds a bachelor degree in public policy from Stanford University and a doctorate in political science from the University of Oxford and is the first openly lesbian anchor to host a major prime-time news anchor in United States. 
 

In mid-May 2017, amid multiple controversies surrounding the Trump administration, for the week of May 15, The Rachel Maddow Show was the No. 1 non-sports program on cable for the first time. She has been called by Rolling Stone as "America's wonkiest anchor" who "cut through the chaos of the Trump administration – and became the most trusted name in the news." Maddow has argued that these issues "are the most serious scandals that any president has ever faced."

 

Maddow has stated that her show's mission is to "increase the amount of useful information in the world.” She said her rule for covering the Trump administration is: "Don't pay attention to what they say, focus on what they do ... because it's easier to cover a fast-moving story when you're not distracted by whatever the White House denials are."

 

I found Rachel Maddow’s show through my dad. He recommended her show and podcast to me as he watched it himself. He described her as very intelligent and gives very insightful messages. I couldn’t agree more! I listen to her podcast and show on MSNBC and find her conversations very informative. She includes history into her news which I find couldn’t be more needed now. I hope she keeps up the good work. Despite all the horrors going on now, I do find her comforting to listen to. She’s very intelligent and wise with her words. ❤️🤍💙🎙️

[daveb]

Yes, I like her and her show. One of the few things on any news channel I turn to when I want some information and her take on things, because I find her comforting somehow.

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

Today, we are honoring the brave and courageous Malala Yousafzai! She is a Pakistani female education activist, film and television producer, author, and 2014 Noble Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."

 

The daughter of education activist Ziauddin Yousafzai, she was born to a Yusufzai Pashtun family in Swat and was named after the Afghan folk heroine Malalai of Maiwand. Although it was not always easy to raise a girl child in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai’s father insisted that she received all of the same opportunities afforded to boy children. Her father was a teacher and education advocate that ran a girls’ school in their village. Due to his influence, Yousafzai was passionate about knowledge from a very young age, and she would often waddle into her father’s classes before she could even talk.
 

However, by the time she was ten years old, Taliban extremists began to take control of the Swat Valley and many of her favorite things were banned. Girls were no longer able to attend school, and owning a television, playing music and dancing were all prohibited. Girl’s education was specifically targeted by the Taliban and by the end of 2008 they had destroyed over 400 schools. At eleven years old, Yousafzai decided to stand up to the Taliban.

Considering Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Barack Obama, and Benazir Bhutto as her role models, she was also inspired by her father's thoughts and humanitarian work. In early 2009, when she was 11, she wrote a blog under her pseudonym Gul Makaifor the BBC Urdu to detail her life during the Taliban's occupation of Swat.

 

On October 9, 2012, while on a bus in Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt targeting her for her activism; the gunman fled the scene. She was struck in the head by a bullet and remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support. Deutsche Welle reported in January 2013 that she may have become "the most famous teenager in the world".

 

After her recovery, Yousafzai became a more prominent activist for the right to education. Based in Birmingham, she co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organisation, with Shiza Shahid. In 2013, she co-authored I Am Malala, an international best seller.

 

“Traditions are not sent from heaven, they are not sent from God. It is we who make cultures and we have the right to change it and we should change it.” — Yousafzai

 

“I am convinced Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and exploitation.” — Yousafzai 

 

AND PERIOD!!! 💅🏾💅🏾💅🏾💅🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!! 💐💐💐💞💞💞🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

Let’s celebrate by honoring some songs made BY women everywhere worldwide! Sorry that this is late, I’ve been feeling sick all day. AND ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY TOO!! 😤😤😤 

 

1) I’m Every Woman by Whitney Houston

2) Roar by Katy Perry

3) Bidi Bidi Bom Bom - Selena 

4) Dernière Danse - Indila

 

5) Soulmate - Lizzo

6) Heart To Break - Kim Petras

7) After Hours - Kehlani 

 

8. Fly Girls - Satomaa

 

 

9) It’s All Coming Back To Me - Céline Dion

10) Peek-A-Boo by Red Velvet 

 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!! 💐💐💐💞💞💞🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

PART 2 of celebrating female artists!

 

1) What Was I Made For? - Billie Eilish 

2) Run the World (Girls) - Beyoncé 

 

3) I Like That - Janelle Monáe 

4) Soltera - Shakira

5) Só Depois do Carnaval - Lexa

 

6) Love Me JeJe - Tems

7) Paro - Nej

 

8. Come and See My Moda - MzVee

 

9) Kalama’ula - Raiatea Helm

10) Rolling in the Deep - Adele

 

[daveb]

If I may add a few from my day...  

Roberta Flack

Aretha Franklin

Linda Ronstadt

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

Today we are honoring Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906). She was an American activist who pioneered the woman's suffrage movement in the United States and was president of the National Women's Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to be put in the Constitution giving women the right to vote. Born into a Quaker family, she was a very precocious child who learned to read and write and the age of three. 
 

In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities, primarily in the field of women's rights. Together they founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was a woman. During the Civil War, they founded the Women's Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery.

 

In a short time, she became known as one of the cause’s most zealous, serious, and resilient advocates. She was also a prime target of public and newspaper abuse. While campaigning for a liberalization of New York’s laws regarding married women’s property rights, an end attained in 1860. Anthony served from 1856 as chief New York agent of Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society. During the early phase of the Civil War, she helped organize the Women’s National Loyal League, which urged the case for emancipation. After the war, she campaigned unsuccessfully to have the language of the Fourteenth Amendment altered to allow for woman as well as African American suffrage, and in 1866 she became corresponding secretary of the newly formed American Equal Rights Association. Her exhausting speaking and organizing tour of Kansas in 1867 failed to win passage of a state enfranchisement law.

 

In 1872, Anthony was arrested in her hometown of Rochester, New York, for voting in violation of laws that allowed only men to vote. She was convicted in a widely publicized trial. Although she refused to pay the fine, the authorities declined to take further action. In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Anthony traveled extensively in support of women's suffrage, giving as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and working on many state campaigns. She worked internationally for women's rights, playing a key role in creating the International Council of Women, which is still active. She also helped to bring about the World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was harshly ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. Public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime, however. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.

 

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.” — Susan B. Anthony, 1860

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Today is Harriet Tubman Day!! So guess who we are representing today? YEAH, that’s fucking right! HARRIET TUBMAN!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

 

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), born Araminta “Minty” Ross to enslaved parents, was an African American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made 13 missions rescuing 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using a network of anti slavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the women’s suffrage movement.

 

Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by enslavers as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight, intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. 
 

In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Tubman or "Moses" — a name she was given because she led her people to freedom much like the biblical figure, Moses — travelled by night and in extreme secrecy, and later said she "never lost a passenger". After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide escapees farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed people find work.

Tubman had to travel by night, guided by the North Star and trying to avoid slave catchers eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves. The "conductors" in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. At an early stop, the lady of the house instructed Tubman to sweep the yard so as to seem to be working for the family. When night fell, the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house. Given her familiarity with the woods and marshes of the region, Tubman likely hid in these locales during the day. She crossed into Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe, and recalled the experience years later: “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.“

When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. For her guidance of the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people, she is widely credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents.

In her later years, Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. A white woman once asked Tubman whether she believed women ought to have the vote, and received the reply: "I suffered enough to believe it." Tubman began attending meetings of suffragist organizations, and was soon working alongside women such as Susan B. Anthony and Emily Howland. She was active in the women's suffrage movement until illness overtook her and was admitted to a home for elderly African Americans, which she had helped establish years earlier. Tubman is commonly viewed as an icon of courage and freedom.

 

This woman is a GOD DAMN HERO!!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

Let’s honor today by leaving quotes by women from this thread and throughout history:

 

“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction… and we will applaud you every step of the way.” — Kamala Harris, first female Vice President of the United States of America

 

”I am an example of what is possible when girls from the beginning of their lives are loved, and nurtured by people around them.” — Michelle Obama, the first Black First Lady of the United States of America

 

“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women out there do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, second woman is serve in the U.S. Supreme Court 

 

“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” — Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist 

 

“It is time that we see all gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.” — Emma Watson, English actress and activist 

 

“As long as gay people don’t have their rights all across America, there’s no reason for celebration.” — Marsha P. Johnson, American drag queen and gay liberation activist 

 

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” – Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist 
 

“My love for and solidarity with other women and femmes can never be taken away from me. They constantly give me the courage to brave this terrifying, daunting, beautiful, amazing world. When you let go of male validation, you not only take away all of their power, but also have the opportunity to redirect that power to yourself and others. Give yourself the permission to love yourself unconditionally, because there’s nothing more radical in the eyes of the patriarchy than that … and we all know how much I love pissing off terrible men.” — Drew Afualo, Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve, the first Samoan woman to receive a New York Times Bestseller award for a book 

[lovely_xm07]

HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

 

 

This is Frida Kahlo or Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (1907-1954). She was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country’s popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in the Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, a movement that aims to revive the Indigenous religion, philosophy, and traditions of ancient Mexico, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain.

 

Kahlo spent most of her childhood and adult life at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacán – now publicly accessible as the Frida Kahlo Museum. Although she was disabled by polio as a child, Kahlo had been a promising student headed for medical school until being injured in a bus accident at the age of 18, which caused her lifelong pain and medical problems. During her recovery, she returned to her childhood interest in art with the idea of becoming an artist.
 

Kahlo's interests in politics and art led her to join the Mexican Communist Partyin 1927, through which she met fellow Mexican artist Diego Rivera. The couple married in 1929 and spent the late 1920s and early 1930s traveling in Mexico and the United States together. During this time, she developed her artistic style, drawing her main inspiration from Mexican folk culture, and painted mostly small self-portraits that mixed elements from pre-Columbian and Catholic beliefs. 
 

Kahlo's work as an artist remained relatively unknown until the late 1970s, when her work was rediscovered by art historians and political activists. By the early 1990s, not only had she become a recognized figure in art history, but she was also regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the feminism movement, and the LGBTQ+ community. Kahlo's work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and Indigenous traditions and by feminists for what is seen as its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.