“Identity is not inherent. It is shaped by circumstance and sensitivity and resistance to self-pity.” — Dorothy West, The Wedding
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
(via intracoastal-wanderings)
Typewriter Series, #54 by Tyler Knott Gregson
(via sydbeckner)
(Source: i-am-the-oracular-spectacular, via thatsmrsthankyou)
“I will not be told my natural body and it’s capabilities is a hindrance to my functioning in society. I will not entertain the lie that I have to alter myself if I want to get anywhere. A woman scorned because of her pregnancy is an outrage, but it’s the scorning, and not the pregnancy, that is the problem.” — angelasoup
“[Journalist and feminist Gloria] Steinem wants women to be able to choose if and when to get pregnant, and so do I. But to say that we need contraception to do that is to say that there is something wrong with our female natures. It says that women cannot be healthy, cannot be educated, cannot be active in society the way we are naturally. In order to do those things, we must take pills. We must be injected with hormones. We must have plastic and metal devices surgically implanted in us, in order to be ‘free’ and ‘functioning’ women. And on this, I call bullshit.” — angelasoup
“Losing a language is, I think, not unlike losing a limb, and the phantom pain is passed down from generation to generation. It can be as mild as nostalgia or as excruciating as shame. None of us has truly chosen this of our own accord, but deliberate and targeted cultural coercion of any form is nevertheless a most vile betrayal of what we were led to believe by those we chose to lead us.” — Elizabeth Little, Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America’s Languages, p. 250
“Scoff all you want at the pearl-clutching that characterizes political correctness, but words matter. Public discourse is like a giant game of telephone, and a few seemingly harmless words on one end can become malignant supposition on the other. No one today — particularly in public office — can in good conscience pretend to be ignorant of this.” — Elizabeth Little, Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America’s Languages, p. 250
“The geographical isolation of the Sea Islands’ Gullah populations is also undoubtedly a powerful ally of those in favor of language retention. The island was for many years an overwhelmingly African American population that until relatively recently did not have a great deal of interaction with the mainland. It wasn’t until 1927 that the first bridge between St. Helena and Beaufort was built, and there are reports from as late as 1949 that some residents of St. Helena had never even been to the mainland. This isolation strengthens the Gullah language in two ways: first, by insulating the island from the influence of English, and second, by protecting its residents from white-majority prejudice. As Patricia Jones-Jackson writes, ‘Growing up as a black majority almost free from outside social influences, such as racial prejudice characteristic of the white-dominated society in the inland parts of the United States, undoubtedly affected the attitudes and perceptions of the islanders, to the extent that few of them wish to leave the islands today.’” — Elizabeth Little, Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of American’s Languages, p. 153
(Source: intracoastal-wanderings)