34 Comments

Mary Edwards Walker said the exact same thing. “You men are not our protectors… If you were, who would there be to protect us from?”🔥

If infinite power and protection can only come WITH others and finite, illusory power, over others—it makes sense that our culture’s ubiquitous domination brainwashing has kept men feeling threatened by women’s and marginalized people’s power for thousands of years.

Seems pretty simple, actually. Historically, female bodies have had the power to grow, protect, and feed THE most vulnerable other bodies (babies). Whether we actually birth children or not, our evolutionary adaptions to prioritize the needs of the collective and to be resilient to pain and abuse in order to effectively protect both ourselves and others more effectively in the future is so fucking upsetting to people under domination brainwashing’s lies that they often have no conscious idea why they hate us so much for our true power WITH.

Thank you using your true power for the good of all women and marginalized people, Celeste.

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Indeed, patriarchy is a protection racket.

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Studying history is a political act. Writing history is revolutionary

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This was an incredible write up, Celeste. Thank you for being part of the solution.

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Yes she is! I'm so grateful

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Indeed, patriarchy is literally the oldest protection racket, pyramid scheme, and Ponzi scheme. As is the rest of the greater kyriarchy as well.

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Wow. Blown away like usual Celeste. You and Amie are doing the lord’s work ☺️ can’t wait to watch and see more. I feel so ignorant about these issues and this was enlightening and so poignant. I just want to shout it from the rooftops for women to claim their power. But instead, I heal inwardly first and then I trust myself more. I speak up more. I own my dignity and join you in realizing maybe I’m not crazy either. It IS the system. And I love the light you shine on its underbelly! Bravo!!

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I desperately want to make sure my young daughters know their history. Currently that looks like browsing the children's non fiction section of the library and picking up literally any book about women. Also we have several Bravery magazines, I was so sad that the publication didn't last long!

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I think you would really enjoy a book called Shakespeare’s Sisters by Ramie Targoff, which is about four English (in one case Anglo-Venetian) women-Aemilia Lanyer, Mary Sidney, Elizabeth Cary and Anne Clifford-who were writing significant and serious works of poetry, history, drama and religious writings at roughly the same time as Shakespeare but whose works were largely forgotten over the centuries that followed.

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“I have never seen a park or an elementary school named for a feminist from that time”

I just wanted to add that we have an elementary school on the central coast named for Dolores Huerta.

Great column I really enjoyed part 1. Thanks for the great work.

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I keep saying that women are the creators of civilization, while men seem to just want to tear it down. We need better PR!

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I’ve been waiting all week for this 2nd part. Thank you. So educational and lit a fire for me to study more. Thank you for your work! 🔥

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Thank you for this Celeste! Awesome!

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And..... this is where homophobia works against us. The accusations that women fighting for equality are lesbians (and they often are) are enough to make straight women go silent.

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Yes, I have felt this over and over again. One of my main reading goals is to read women (and BIOPIC) and it ends up being this maze of amazing women, one women writer leading to another and I’m always stunned at what has already been said and done and I had no clue. How To Suppress Women’s Writing by Joanna Russ is an interesting read about all the ways society can erase women. Thanks for the great read!

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This is amazing! The best thing I have read this month. Thank you so much for putting this down in just the way you did.

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“when there have been inventions and contributions by women, those have been erased and contributed to a man instead.”

Rosalind Franklin immediately comes to mind

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I’m new to your work, saw someone post your story about male flight from college. I will be reading everything you’ve written here. Thank you so much for your work on this. It’s so so important to record women’s efforts.

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