Nothing Is Black And White - Tumblr Posts

You know, I wouldn't even mind that much that we have been to socialized to shave, because obviously men have been too, and societies will always have different ideas of what is considered 'normal' personal grooming, however there are two major differences between men and women's shaving in modern society:

1. Men are expected to shave their faces and women are expected to literally rid themselves of all body hair, especially their legs, underarms, and bikini area, which is a hell of a lot more work, and

2. While men having beards aren't as common as clean shaven men today, no one freaks out and calls men with beards 'gross' or 'unhygienic' the way they do when women choose not to shave their underarms or legs.

When these two things change, maybe I will actually consider women choosing to shave as a personal choice. For now, though, it remains a practice too greatly influenced by negative societal pressure to be considered something one can independently choose to do. Sticking with the status quo is rarely something we consciously choose to do, especially not without exposure to the fact that there even is another choice.

Also, in the face of several very 'black and white' posts I have seen on radblr, I feel like I need to say this: I would be lying if I said I was not a hypocrite about these socialized standards sometimes, because it can be hard to escape from societal pressure. To the other young radfems out there, especially those of us who left liberal feminism to join the radical side, please know that it's okay if you can't wake up tomorrow and quit shaving, quit wearing makeup, quit caring about everything you have been socialized to care about for years, all at once. It might take a while and you know what? At the end of the day, I would rather young girls went out and saw some women with hairy legs and makeup, and some other women with bare faces and shaved legs, than for them to go out and see only shaved legs and makeup. So if you have given up shaving but you haven't given up eyeliner yet, don't fret about not being a "real radfem". Our job as radical feminists is about promoting liberation from men, and to do that, we have to join together as women to be supportive of one another. And if you show up to protest the Oklahoma abortion ban with lipstick on, or you spread the word that women deserve spots just for biological females and fight for that right with shaved underarms, I'm certainly not going to yell at you that you can't dare call yourself a radical feminist looking like that. There are bigger fish to fry.

Sincerely,

A radfem with hairy legs who isn't quite ready to give up her eyeliner and tinted chapstick just yet.

at the end of the day i think what this post is missing is an understanding that situations are not black or white. just because victor isn't bad doesn't mean he's good.

victor is flawed and he makes bad decisions that ultimately hurt those around him for very real and valid reasons.

OP has made the leap that, because victor isn't inherently bad, he is inherently good/right. then this is taken a step further by saying that because victor is good, adam must be bad. this point is justified through a series of entirely misconstrued and twisted retellings of the events in the book.

adam is flawed and he makes bad decisions that ultimately hurt those around him for very real and valid reasons.

they are both just guys -- humans living their lives and being flawed and hurting people.

I'm so protective of Victor Frankenstein, because everyone is like "the creature is actually completely right and he should have just made a second creature and it would be fine" or "he shouldn't have abandoned his creation" and like, come on.

First of all, he didn't abandoned the creature. He basically spent 9 months obsessing of creating this thing because (a) his mother died and he developed a morbid fascination with death to cope and (b) his father, instead of explaining why alchemy was a bad idea, just dismissed his interest out of hand. But the thing was that it wasn't //actually// supposed to work. And he also isn't eating or sleeping and he is mentally Not Well. But then the creature opens it's eyes and it's terrifying because even though it should be beautiful, being made of beautiful parts, it is still made of fucking corpses.

So, Victor passes the fuck out and wakes up after the creature has escaped. And then he's like, wtf was that?? Am I going insane?? He doesn't go looking for the creature because he thinks he made it up in his head. I think his friend was also like, "hey, dude, I think you just have a fever."

And then he finds out that his 6yo brother has been MURDERED and his childhood friend is accused of having killed the child, so he goes home. He can't even say, "hey, I think I made a monster that did this" because no one will believe him. And this creature shows up and tells him that it killed his brother simply because it hated Victor. It killed a young child because it wanted to hurt Victor. Now it wants Victor to make a second creature like the first.

And, for the record, the creature has been having a hard time because its a giant walking corpse and people aren't giving it a chance to prove that it can read Shakespeare. Here's the thing. The creature is smart. It reads classic literature. It speaks well. It is also cunning. After snapping William's neck, it frames Justine by slipping William's gold locket in her apron pocket.

Victor takes responsibility for this. He is aware at this point that he has fucked around and found out. He feels guilty about his little brother's death, and the execution of his friend. He agrees to create a second creature out of fear, but then decides that he will accept his fate and let the creature kill him because he is afraid that, given how terribly the first creature turned out, he will be endangering more people. What he didn't count on was that the creature would not actually kill him (he is its only shot at getting a companion, after all) and would instead kill his best friend and his wife.

The creature is lonely, but it's first response to rejection was not to seek its creator and ask for a companion. Its response was to murder people weaker than it, then seek out a companion from Victor through threats of violence. Why would he want to help it at that point? Why would he trust it?