the 'f' word

the radical notion that women are human beings

Niran & Niti

Feb 20, 2021

We’ve been super excited about this issue, we hope you love it!

Things we loved this month

Clementine Ford (such a queen), she shares incredible thoughts, especially this quote she shared which blew our minds,

clementine_ford

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“I’ve been thinking a lot about this Marilyn Frye quote lately, particularly in regards to the way a lot of men bond over the degradation of women. The fear that they have of other men. The desperate need to be accepted by them. The reverence they hold for men who sit at the top of the hierarchy.”

Advice from her on what to look out for on dating apps

These thoughts about fictional female characters,

lit.memery

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Rega Jha, because she has articulate pieces of writing about almost everything,

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The full essay is here.

Also, this article from her Times of India blog, Uncle, aunty your son has a dirty secret.

“Or maybe when your colleagues came over when the women were in the kitchen preparing dinner, your son overheard you and your friends laughing about how much your wives talk and how you wish you could slap them around a little bit? Maybe he saw you slap your wife around a little bit? There’s someone who taught your son that when he disagrees with a woman, he should threaten her with violence. Who was it, uncle?
Look, I don’t hate your son. I know your son has the capacity for goodness. I know he has small, gentle habits and sweet, important aspirations and I know he wants to be a hero to this difficult world. In fact, he and I have that in common.”

Untamed by Glennon Doyle, where in a chapter titled ‘comfort zones’ she writes of a girl she didn’t know whom she felt annoyance towards simply because she was confident and content and seemed to be having the time of her life. The girl was twelve years old. She writes,

“I sat with my feelings and I realised: The knee-jerk reaction I’m having to this girl is a direct result of my training.I have been conditioned to mistrust and dislike strong, confident, happy girls and women. We all have.”

“Girls and women sense this. We want to be liked. We want to be trusted. We step out of the way. We say, “I feel like” instead of “I know”. We ask if our ideas make sense instead of assuming they do. We apologise for … everything.”