The thing about this is that sculptures like these in art history were for the male gaze. Photoshop a phone to it and suddenly she’s seen as vain and conceited. That’s why I’m 100% for selfie culture because apparently men can gawk at women but when we realize how beautiful we are we’re suddenly full of ourselves…

“You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

I know I’ve reblogged this before but it’s so important.

not completely for selfie culture but still important stuff

These Birds Walk (2013)

Today, July 8, 2016, Abdul Sattar Edhi passed away. The aforementioned documentary on his like (These Birds Walk), does a a serviceable job of teaching you of a great man. A man who some considered the greatest humanitarian alive.

He funded the Edhi Foundation after himself being a beggar, putting together the money he earned & community help to put together a very small house to help house the mentally ill, sick, and homeless. Today the Edhi Foundation is continuously growing, helping house everyone in need including children which is HUGE in Pakistan which suffers greatly with child kidnappings. He was called the greatest humanitarian alive by Huff Post & was given numerous honors including a Nobel Peace Prize nomination from the father of Malala Yousafzai.

He passed away due to kidney failure, before he passing he asked that everything be donated to anyone in need. Please, take a second to read up on a man who exemplified being a human, thoughtful & caring beyond  measure.

Dehumanizing stereotypes have existed in American culture from the very beginning. Centuries later, and racism remains the default justification for discrimination and brutality.

Reblog everytime someone brings up Sally. Let them know he never thought of her or their own as human.

“You may have heard that there’s a movement afoot to kick Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill and replace him with a woman. Finally, we’ve got a current event that’s not depressing.“

”The U.S. Treasury hasn’t changed the faces on the bills since 1929, when Andrew Jackson elbowed out Grover Cleveland on the $20. Why, you may be asking yourself, did they pick Jackson? And why was Grover Cleveland there to begin with? Nobody seems to know.”

“”Women on 20s” picked Jackson to depose mainly because of his horrific history with Native Americans, although there’s also the rather blissful note that Jackson disapproved of paper currency.“

“The Native American issue looms large when it comes to replacing Jackson, who sent the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears. Lately, [Women on 20s] have decided that when they announce their three top vote-getters and ask people to pick a winner, they’re going to add a fourth option: Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. (“People felt it would be poetic justice.”)

If I could add a nominee it might be Angelina Grimke, the great abolitionist orator. Or Sybil Ludington, who rode through New York one night in 1777 warning her countrymen the British were coming. (Just like Paul Revere, except Sybil was 16, and rode twice as far.) Or Margaret Brent, who used her business acumen to save the colony of Maryland from being destroyed by mercenary soldiers in 1647.

Or maybe Elizabeth Jennings, the black New Yorker who sued the trolley company that tossed her off a whites-only car in 1854 — a court action that led to the desegregation of mass transit in the city 100 years before Rosa Parks.

But then, of course, you don’t want to pass up Rosa Parks. There are thousands of possibilities. Nominate among yourselves.“

A Woman’s Place Is on the $20

Finished the book finally.
Would’ve finished it yesterday but was lazy.
The story is essentially of a family and their family affairs, something not unknown to us brown folk, and about the old Delhi.
Though it sounds common, when you think about how much praise and respect this book earned, you realise that the beauty of this book is how it transports you to that old Delhi, and through Mir Nihal’s family, conveys to you the sentiments of the Muslim community at that time (around early 20th century, after the war of independence after 1857). How these two prominent aspects have been weaved together, and the authencity of the experience (the poetry, the atmosphere etc), truly make this book a classic in it’s own respect, for me at least.

Those of you uninterested in history, or without tolerance for classical styles and deeper meanings, may not like this book. :p

#book #bookie #review #photo #finished #twilightindelhi #ahmedali #love #romance #delhi #history #sorrow #drama #instagram

When I went on my big writer’s adventure to LUMS, I remember being frustrated that the others did not know the name of Ahmed Ali when I picked up his book; I was even more frustrated when the idiots were shocked that E. M. Forster had some nice things to say about the book on the back, as if it is impossible for a local writer to earn that praise. And it bothers me that we, the self proclaimed book worms, do not know the names, the stories or anything about our own country’s rich literary history. And I include myself amongst the ignoramuses, because had not Ahmed Ali’s son been such an important figure in my life I would’ve most likely walked past his book too.
#photo #history #instagram #culture #literature #booksandauthors #life #stuff #thought

My favourite comedian, Robin Williams…

Charlie Chaplin & Albert Einstein.

Chaplin was… easy on the eyes ;)

Hachiko during his burial.
Look at the respect with which they treated him

Martin Luther King Jr. & Marlon Brando

The Golden Gate Bridge during Construction

showslow: The eyes of Vincent van Gogh
Self Portraits, 1886 - 1889

R.I.P to the victims who were so cruelly taken from us today in Connecticut. We lost twenty children and seven adults today. Forever remembered.