bekah-michelle:

I love Jane Lynch

And this is my dilemma right here.

nudiemuse:

cultureisnotacostume:

thenewwomensmovement:

sydneyflapper:

nudiemuse:

ersassmus:

African American flappers and Jazz Age women

HOLY SHIT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BLACK FLAPPERS BEFORE!

There were many fabulous African American flappers. No wonder – it was African American musicians who put the Jazz in “The Jazz Age”! The Charleston dance iteself, which so epitomizes the era, made its debut in the all-Black musical “Runnin’ Wild”, and no one danced that flapper number better than Josephine Baker…save possibly for fellow Black artist Florence Mills, who claimed credit for inventing it (she said she debuted it in her “Plantation Revue” in the early 20s, developing it from a dance popular among slaves). The Charleston song was written by Black composer James P Johnson. Without women and girls like those above, the 1920s would never have roared.

I think it’s so easy to forget that we, WOC, were there in history too.

The flapper movement was originally started by WOC, and that was part of the reason why it was so scandalous for white women to be flappers at first—because they were dressing and acting line WOC. But of course you’ll never see that in a high school textbook.

-Allyssa

I will reblog again for commentary.

Also think about it like this. I am 36 years old. THIRTY SIX and beyond Josephine Baker prior to these images I had never seen Jazz Age WOC.

Let that sink in.

36 years old and it wasn’t necessarily for lack of effort. 

Ugh, the lack of knowledge of and representation of PoC and LGBTIA from the Jazz Age is sad. I was fortunate, my mum’s always worked in the geriatric field, from being a nurse’s aid to a kinesiologist, and since she’d regularly not be able to afford a sitter, I’d get to go with her to work and interact with the elderly.

Getting to meet these women who were flappers in their prime, it was wonderful. I got to hear wonderful stories and see all these old photographs, listening to old jazz records while these women reminisced about what they did in the early days of women being allowed to vote, and the parties they threw and went to. There was such diversity among these women; black, white, hispanic, there was a woman who’d immigrated from China in 1919, and she was right there with the rest of them in her sassy flapper dress.

What struck me the most as a little girl was, how unapologetic they were about how they pissed off the establishment. It reminded me of my mom, who had no problems with telling people to fuck themselves when they told her how she was a “slut” and how she should raise a “damaged child” like me.

So thanks to them, to the “bra-burners”, to every woman out there who, like the wonderful flappers who says “I’m going to live my life how I want”. Thank you.

siryouarebeingmocked:

illsevenyournine:

piefacemcgee:

ihaveabsolutelynoidea:

cynically-colorblind:

It’s one of the most misogynist things out there.

dictating how a woman chooses to express herself sexually is misogynistic

it’s also misogynistic to assume that…

And there in lies the rub. Some modern feminists have forgotten that sexual rights and sexuality are a firm foundation of feminism.

For the longest time, if you like sex, as a woman, you’re branded; a slut, wanton, a hussy, etc. words created to punish women. When a woman is proud of her body, and wears clothing to accent it, again, she is branded; slutty, dressed like a whore, skanky, more words to punish a woman.

Then there’s BDSM. The biggest misconception about it is, that it’s only about sex. While yes, it can be sexual, at its core, it’s about trust, and boundaries. This is the kind of trust that should be natural between two people, a trust that you won’t be hurt, dropped, ignored. Yet, it’s deemed “perverted”.

At the core of feminism, is giving women the ability to choose how we live their lives, without having to apologize, without having to let other people live out lives, to set our boundaries.

If a woman chooses to be a submissive with her partner(s), that is her right as a human, as a woman, as a lover. In no way does that make her any less “feminist” than the woman who steps on a guy’s nuts to get him off.

Please don’t call yourself a feminist if you approve of BDSM.

Lexi working on something for me.

PS: Not posted by Lexi.
PPS: Photo not by Lexi either, obviously, since both her hands are in it…