power structures and dynamics
Martin Luther King Jr. // "Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
Natalie Audelo added 1y ago
- I have also come to understand that trying to fit into society’s understanding of a “good girl” is a trap, the same way that the “model minority” and the “good gay” and the “good fatty” are all traps. Even when you succeed at it you lose, because these roles are all ultimately means of containment: of circumscribing power by putting exacting, contr... See more
from Taylor Swift and the Good Girl Trap
Natalie Audelo added 8mo ago
- It’s easy, I think, to understand how patriarchy feeds on apathy, and jealousy, and white women protecting their small spheres of power. It’s harder, or at the very least sadder, to think about just how much of it runs on women’s deep, abiding sorrow.
from Culture Study Meets 'America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders'
Natalie Audelo added 2mo ago
- The world can feel very out of control, especially for younger people. And controlling your own body is a coping mechanism. Part of the solution, if there is one, is to educate about this. There's so much out there right now about diet culture, and no one is really talking about beauty culture in the same way.
At the same time, a lot of this would b... See morefrom Is it Possible to Resist the Pressures of the Beauty Industry? — Gloria by Leslie Price
Natalie Audelo added 7mo ago
- Now, the GoFundMe and DonorsChoose thing is closely related, but it gets its own throughline. These platforms emerge to seemingly supplement gaps in the public safety net for things like education and health care. But instead, they’re in a kind of enabling feedback loop: instead of your taxes ensuring that kids have desks and cancer patients can ge... See more
from The Problems of Modern Philanthropy
Natalie Audelo added 9mo ago
- My claim is that luxury goods are gradually becoming a noisier signal of one's position in society. This isn't to say that they don't still confer status — they clearly do. People still buy material items to signal their status. But because they've become a noisier signal over time, people are starting to signal their status with their beliefs and ... See more
from The Profile Interview: Author Rob Henderson on Why We Hold ‘Luxury Beliefs’ and Develop ‘Status Anxiety’
Natalie Audelo added 7mo ago
- The problem, in other words, isn't intermediation – it's power . The thing that distinguishes a useful intermediary from an enshittified bully is power . Intermediaries gain power when our governments stop enforcing competition law. This lets intermediaries buy each other up and corner markets. Once they've formed cozy cartels, they can capture the... See more
from Pluralistic: Middlemen Without Enshittification; The Bezzle Excerpt by Cory Doctorow
Tara McMullin added 7mo ago
- So philanthropy under this rubric is not about creating sanctuaries from or alternatives to the demands of capitalism. The benevolence, if you can call it that, is in giving people from the underclass a chance to succeed by its rules. With, of course, very patronizing and constraining surveillance from the funder. It’s neoliberal brainworms all the... See more
from The Problems of Modern Philanthropy
Natalie Audelo added 9mo ago
- “beauty is supposed to serve power’s interests.”
from Dating After Divorce Wasn't What They Said It'd Be — Gloria
Natalie Audelo added 7mo ago