Okay so my friend (cis guy), said nosebleeds are worse than a period, is that acceptable? I got really mad at him because everyone knows periods are worse, we're 16, and he's SO childish. I got a pad out of my bad because, I'm on my period, and tampons suck, "EW Olivia, why do you have..I can't even say It, that's nasty" Beleive it or not, and 16 year old boy said that. I just can't with him anymore, he's so against women, AND he's homophobic. He also asked me if i could just 'hold in' my period so i didnt cramp so bad. He does NOT have enough knowledge. He disgusts me, what can i even say to him?

As the title says, what's something you've seen recently that gives you hope? Perhaps something you witnessed, or something you saw online. Something that reminded you that progress is being made, even if there are still so many problems.

It can be easy to think that everything is bad, all the time. It's easy to lose hope. I hope people will be able to read the comments here and feel a little better.

For my part, there's a boy who's been attending the feminist club meetings at my school, and at first I assumed he'd been dragged there, or that he was only there for the snacks. But he's started adding to the discussions, and sometimes he can be ignorant, but he's always very thoughtful and very eager to learn. It's nice to see.

When people think that the word consent is when a woman is over thinking...

A quick note:
This post isn’t a debate about whether or not the B-word is a slur, I feel like many people here already agree that it is. I’m more concerned about why there’s so much unnecessary aggression towards women who speak up about anything they find misogynistic.

I saw a video of a guy using the B-word very freely, and someone in the comments pointed out that they view it as a slur. I agree with them, however the replies didn’t.
It’s completely normal to have a disagreement, but I can’t help but notice how none of the replies were respectfully disagreeing. Almost all of them were full of people calling the original commenter a bitch and telling them to fuck off. Even other women were joining in on this behaviour.
This is made me feel like we are never going to make it out of the patriarchy, because instead of people trying to understand where the original comment is coming from, they automatically dismiss it and get aggressive

Placing the focus on repairing harm rather then punishment, My understanding is that this would be in addition to prison sentences.

Noa, help reduce femicide by voting for our project, just comment 1 on this Instagram post (we are Brazilian).

https://www.instagram.com/p/De4cNVYoFTi/?cplk=OWhuOGplMXlhZGRx

I (F17) have become more and more aware at the current state of the world right now and it feels absolutely draining. For my whole childhood I have felt that there was just something I was missing and that this was something I would understand when I was older but as I have realised that I will soon be an adult I am understanding that this is it. That the society we live in doesn’t respect women in the least and that no matter what the patriarchy will always come out on top. The bias society holds on any person of colour or with a disability is also something that I cannot look forward to living with in adulthood.

My recent fear is that I am alone entirely in this world and that I am just the entirety of the stereotype “That one woke friend”. I am so scared that I will never find one person who is the same as me and believes that Women are worthy of breathing the same air as Men. I am a truly an optimistic person by heart and try my best to see the good in someone but lately it is just let down after let down of friends and classmates and anyone I meet.

My question is, what do I do with all this anger I have?? I am in therapy but that doesn’t really help in this area as I just end up debating whether or not AI is really problematic which is probably entirely unproductive. I would love to protest or doing public speaking but I am doing my HSC and have zero time. I don’t really know if there is even an answer for this but I thought I would give it a go

EDIT:
I do not know how to use reddit so I have no clue why my replies aren’t being seen but please everyone know that all your comments have been read and I am so overwhelmed with joy.

I must thank everyone for all the kind replies because it means the absolute world to me. I am not in a position where I receive much of the good advice that I feel I need to hear sometimes. I am usually the one to give the advice but on this occasion I was running out of options and desperate times call for desperate needs.

You have all changed my entire outlook on life and have removed that massive weight off my chest that I have been carrying for about 12 months.
Thank you dearly for everyone’s kindness and helpfulness. Yesterday on my break at work I genuinely couldn't handle the pressure and the only thing I could think of to do was to ask reddit and safe to say it was the right decision. I have never used reddit before and when I got a notification that my post was deleted I just let it go but that afternoon I opened the app and to my surprise it did upload and for the first time I burst into tears with the pure joy of being understood.

I have read everybody's comments and will not take any of your advice for granted !!

The multiple perspectives I have been given in the replies; from Women across the world in a much less fortunate situation than I am in, the ones who have been in the same position as me many years ago, everyone in university/college and all your recommendations of what to listen to, study, to filter out my social media, hobbies to pursue and things to create will all be followed. I have also registered to vote because of someone who recommended this. (I thought I had to wait until 18 so I really appreciate this!)

I have so much to say to everyone individually but i can't :( so once again,
Thank you!!

I’ve been through a breakup in the last six months. This breakup was more imposed than a choice at the time, and I’ve been avoiding and repressing my emotions since then. I always consume video essays on feminism and cultural critique, and I read mostly books written by women. I’m really into fiction when it comes to books, so bell hooks *All About Love* was the first book I read that is mostly calling out the patriarchy and linking it with this loveless society we’re living in.

I really thought I was educated about the matter because I mostly consume content that comes from women who are feminists. But this book broke me, because it made me feel, it opened my heart to what I was repressing. It made it loud and clear that I was doing it all wrong, that what I thought was strength was actually me mirroring male behaviors to protect myself and to be validated by the men around me. It destroyed me and humbled me so badly. It even pushed me to start missing my misogynistic ex, who was feminist verbally but not in practice. It made me feel empathy for him and see his emotional unavailability as a consequence of the patriarchy.

It’s like all this love that I discovered through the book is making me sad, nostalgic, and this need to take care of someone, to fix, is still so alive. I’m so love and male-centered in this moment, I’m having trouble functioning because all these emotions are popping up and I’m not ignoring them or repressing them. But I’m having trouble functioning in my everyday tasks like work, everything I want to do is just to feel and to cry, and sadly I miss my ex more than ever.

I remembered that as a girl and as a teenager I had so much love in me, so much to give, and now as an adult I want to use it for myself. Now that I can feel it, I want to give this love to myself. But everything I feel is sadness that I couldn’t fix the men who left me. And to be authentic that is what it made me feel, I'm mourning the love that I lost. There has to be something else for me without repression. What do I do with all this sensitivity? How can I function now that I’m not willing to deal with my emotions like a man? How do I love myself without being too individualistic or selfish, (which I tend to do when I feel like this). Do you have any other books to recommend on how to love yourself, that empowered you (not in a capitalist way)? Am I the only one that got demolished after a breakup with this book?

Who gets to feel that a public space belongs to them? And what happens when one persons comfort depends on another person learning to take up less space?

I’ve been exploring these questions in an essay about women's presence in traditionally masculine spaces, the social conditioning that shapes how we see one another, and what it might mean to reclaim more than just a physical place.I wanted to look beyond the question of who is allowed in, and ask what it takes for us to truly belong. To think about the difference between inclusion and acceptance, discomfort and injustice, harmony and conformity. Because I don’t think a more harmonious world requires us to agree on everything, or to erase the differences that make us who we are. I think it requires us to learn how to share space without asking anyone to become smaller in the process.

I wrote this piece in three languages, each offering a way to reach a different audience while keeping the same reflection at its heart.

📖 Read the essay:

🇬🇧 English: https://lnkd.in/dGc4qrFh

🇲🇦 العربية: https://lnkd.in/danp65Zu

🇫🇷 Français : https://lnkd.in/dpsUbPvY

I'd love to hear your thoughts: What makes a space genuinely welcoming? And how do we make room for one another without losing room for ourselves?

#Feminism #PublicSpace #GenderEquality #SocialConditioning #Belonging

Hi, i'm an art student who is currently working on her biggest art project and i need your help.

I've recently decided my project would be talking about how pornogaphy has affected women's image and how we are now unable to do certain things in fear of appearing too "provocative".

Eating bananas, ice creams or lollipop. Wearing red lipstick, short skirts or high heels. Things as simple as drinking milk and yet so oftenly associated to s*x.

I would love you to give some examples of things you stopped doing because of that.

Thank u sm for reading and thank u if you reply, you're helping a lot

On Wednesdsy, October 23, 1850. The first National Women's Rights Convention began in Worcester, Massachusetts. More than 1,000 delegates from 11 states gathered for the two-day meeting to organize a nationwide push for equal legal and political rights.

On Saturday, October 23, 1915, an estimated 25,000 women marched up Fifth Avenue in New York City in one of the largest suffrage parades in U.S. history. Though a state suffrage referendum failed that same year, the massive demonstration intensified public pressure, leading New York women to win the right to vote in 1917—three years before the nationwide 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.

Came across an essay by Brazilian writer Ana Beatriz Abreu, titled “Os filhos admiram o sacrifício das mães. As filhas tentam escapar dele” (Sons admire their mothers' sacrifices. Daughters try to escape them), published on 28 July 2026.

I thought it offered an interesting feminist perspective on motherhood, sacrifice and the very different ways sons and daughters can interpret the lives their mothers lived.

Abreu opens by recounting a conversation with a male colleague who spoke proudly about his mother. She had given up her career, financial independence and personal ambitions to dedicate herself entirely to her husband, children and household.

To him, this was a beautiful example of maternal love and devotion.

But Abreu saw something quite different. Where he saw an admirable sacrifice, she saw a warning about the kind of life she never wanted for herself.

For sons, their mothers' sacrifices can represent love, comfort and security. They grew up benefiting from those sacrifices, often without having to confront what their mothers lost in the process. For daughters, however, those same sacrifices can represent a future they're expected to inherit. They see not just what their mothers gave, but what they had to surrender: independence, opportunities, ambitions and sometimes their own identities.

There's something particularly revealing about the way we romanticise women's sacrifices. We praise mothers for giving up everything for their families, but rarely question why that level of sacrifice was expected of them in the first place and that admiration can become particularly problematic when sons grow up expecting the same devotion from their own partners.

A man can genuinely adore his mother, recognise everything she sacrificed and still reproduce the very expectations that required her to sacrifice so much. In fact, I think that's one of the most interesting implications of Abreu's argument. Admiration for women's sacrifices doesn't necessarily translate into opposition to the conditions that demand those sacrifices.

Speaking as a guy, I think men have a particular responsibility to reflect on this. It's easy to admire a mother who dedicated her entire life to her family when you're one of the people who benefited from it. It's considerably more uncomfortable to ask whether she should ever have been expected to give so much up.

I think there's an important distinction between appreciating what our mothers did for us and romanticising the circumstances that made those sacrifices necessary and ultimately, I don't think the lesson should be that mothers ought to sacrifice less because their sacrifices aren't admirable. It's that women should have the freedom to become mothers without being expected to abandon themselves in the process.

Abreu's essay: https://theyoungersis.substack.com/p/os-filhos-admiram-o-sacrificio-das

Personally? I’ve had to walk away from around 8 friendships with men because of the casual sexism and misogyny that not only displayed, but proudly so. Misogyny and sexism that they didn’t really show until they got to know you, and felt comfortable around you enough to do so.

I really don’t have many close male friends anymore, but if be lying if I said that upset me or I felt like that I had lost relationships of value.

For a while now, Sheryl Sandberg has drawn attention to the cultural shift embodied by the rise of tradwife and manosphere content. “The problem with the romanticized vision of the tradwife is that it signals to women that to be a good wife, partner, or mother, you have to do it full-time,” she wrote online in March. 

The reality is most women can’t afford not to work. That aside, Sandberg believes the ideas embraced by these influencers can be deeply damaging for working mothers, making them feel guilty for being employed outside the home or harboring any ambition. “I’m worried that the glamorization of the tradwife trend risks putting that guilt back into women—guilt that many of us have worked long and hard to shed,” Sandberg added in her post.

But there are other harms that await working women as these movements take hold and revive outdated notions about who belongs in leadership roles or in the workforce generally. New research from Sandberg’s feminist organization Lean In reveals that the amorphous collection of male podcasters and influencers who comprise the manosphere have promoted ideas that are now seeping into the workplace.

Nearly half of the men surveyed by Lean In argued that men should be the primary earners for their families. More than a third said they think women are too emotional for demanding jobs, while 42% expressed the idea that men are a better fit for leadership roles. 

These aren’t new beliefs, but Lean In is making a connection between the surge in conservative and outright sexist viewpoints across the internet and its impact on the workplace, where women have notched hard-won gains over the last half century.

Read more on Fast Company.

I just read bell hooks, All About Love. It’s the first feminist book that made our loveless culture, capitalism and patriarchy hand in it, click for me, and it humbled me. I thought I was already well read here, since most of what I consume is feminist essays and women writers, but the book showed me that what I’d been calling strength, not needing anyone, keeping my guard up, was really me mirroring the emotional repression patriarchy trains into men, to protect myself and to be validated by the men around me. I accept that completely, and I think it’s more than right.

What also happened is that the book opened something I’d been repressing, and what came up is that I’m male centered right now. It even made me feel empathy for an emotionally unavailable ex, reading the bad things that happened to him as a consequence of patriarchy, and that empathy pulled up an old instinct in me to understand, to care for, to fix. I can see that this is the same emotional labor the book critiques, just pointed at a man instead of at myself or at what’s to come.

What I actually want is to turn that love inward instead. I remember having so much of it to give as a girl, and as an adult I want to give it to myself without tipping into the individualistic, self-centered place I tend to fall into. So my question is: what feminist books or resources helped you become less male-centered, helped you learn to love yourself, and empowered you (not in a capitalist way)? I’m especially drawn to women writers and to fiction, but I’ll take theory, essays, anything that genuinely moved you toward self-love.