Apart from such a lovely idea (borne of such a difficult reality,) I am transfixed by all the colors of what they wear. They’re just so beautiful. 

Of course, I can’t help feeling that this doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. But it does provide women better chances of living (as in surviving) and perhaps even then doing something about the circumstances behind the need for such places. 

Why have these women and girls shared these experiences with me, a man? I feel it is because, through the years, I have been brutally honest, in my writings and speeches and workshops, in admitting that the sort of abusive male they are describing, the type of man they are fleeing, the kind of man they’ve been getting those restraining orders against—was once me. Between the years 1987 and 1991 I was a very different kind of person, a very different kind of male. During that time frame I assaulted and or threatened four different young women. I was one of those typical American males: hyper-masculine, overly competitive, and drenched in the belief system that I could talk to women any way I felt, treat women any way I felt, with no repercussions whatsoever. As I sought therapy during and especially after that period, I came to realize that I and other males in this country treated women and girls in this dehumanizing way because somewhere along our journey we were told we could. It may have been in our households; it may have been on our block or in our neighborhoods; it may have been the numerous times these actions were reinforced for us in our favorite music, our favorite television programs, or our favorite films.
Please click through to read the rest of the article. 

I know that there is a painful history behind abusive behavior, it is not a justification for it but it helps ease the overwhelming urge to blame myself. It really wasn’t my fault, no matter how many times he said so. 

Source: The Huffington Post

now that’s what it feels like to be a girl. let’s see who’s going to do the whole machine that simulates the whole making luwal a gigantic baby next. 

thedailywhat:

Lights Out: Artist Hiromi Ozaki demonstrates her Menstruation Machine — a fully-functional menstruation simulation device “[f]itted with a blood dispensing mechanism and lower-abdomen-stimulating electrodes” — through the misadventures of a boy named Takashi, “who builds the machine in an attempt to dress up as a female, biologically as well as aesthetically, to fulfill his desire to understand what it might feel like to be a truely kawaii (cute) girl.”

[thanks jochen!]