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Reposted by Emily Collins

Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 10d

Pu spells out Ru's imperialist motivations for the war. He calls the conquest a long-held dream and historical destiny.

He beclowns those who insist NATO expansion caused the war. Let's see if anyone from the Mearsheimer fan club admits the claim has been falsified.
www.kremlin.ru/events/presi...

Обращение по случаю Дня воссоединения ДНР, ЛНР, Запорожской и Херсонской областей с Россией

www.kremlin.ru

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Reposted by Emily Collins

Liam Wong @liamwong.com · 18h

Tokyo

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Reposted by Emily Collins

Isabelle Marie @isabellemarie.bsky.social · 10h

2,700-year-old temple with 'sacred cave' discovered in Turkey — and it may honor the 'mother goddess'.
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

2,700-year-old temple with 'sacred cave' discovered in Turkey — and it may honor the 'mother goddess'

The temple may have been dedicated to a mother goddess worshipped by many cultures, including the Greeks and the Romans.

www.livescience.com

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Reposted by Emily Collins

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 13h

It is utterly surreal this is not being treated as a bigger story.

Tom Hunter @onelifestand87.bsky.social · 1d

It is embarassing not to see the BBC pulling up Reform leaders claiming that Nathan Gill was just some fan who got photos taken with Farage - he was an MEP for them & their leader in Wales while taking cash from Russia to act against the UK! Literally the very basics of your job to point this out

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Reposted by Emily Collins

Sisters Salon Brighton #CreatingWomensSpaces @sisterssalon.bsky.social · 6h

"Thinking critically about sex and gender is not to everyone’s taste, despite it being a fascinating subject. But this is also because a patriarchal society allows most men to have the luxury of ignoring the subject"
#FiLiA2025

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/gust...

Gustavo Petro’s left government and the importance of women’s rights

IN EARLY August 2025, the Petro government in Colombia, appointed a gay man and ex-porn actor, Juan Carlos Florian, as minister of equality (in the erstwhile Ministry for Women). Not an unusual event ...

morningstaronline.co.uk

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah, it's only when they put in the carnivorous tampons you need to worry

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

The Adrienne Rich essay: posgrado.unam.mx/musica/lectu... #FiLiA2025

posgrado.unam.mx

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

A: It doesn’t benefit men for women to have a choice, so you’ll never see that choice presented in the mainstream.

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Q: I’m lucky in that I’ve never been abused or raped. It was striking to me how many aspects of your descriptions I still recognised, as parts of “normal” relationships. I also reflected that I never felt like I was presented with a choice - heterosexuality was just the expected route

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

your physical sensations, your feelings, the images that pop into your mind. Stay in your body. Reconnect with your senses. And stay away from what hurt you. Aspects of patriarchal culture that might trigger you. It’s not easy, but it’s possible

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Q: How do we reconnect with our own desire after years of abuse? A: Patriarchy trains us by repetition. The answer after trauma is not to go out & find a girlfriend, it’s to find yourself. Who are you in your body, in your feelings? You need solitude but not isolation. Notice…

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Finding ways to live outside the male gaze, refusing the naturalisation of heterosexuality, refusing to perform for men, valuing real intimacy & interconnection, not just pleasure, all ways of relearning relationship and sexuality

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Neuroplasticity means the brain is political territory, shaped daily not only by the culture but by our resistance to it

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Only way to reclaim sense of agency is to decide you chose it; this narrative is encouraged & supported by everyone, including the rapists

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Women also consent to sex to avoid being raped.

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Throughout patriarchal history, women have consented to sex with men because: they’re married; he’s threatening; she needs food; she feels obliged; she thinks it’s her duty; saying no is exhausting etc etc. Recent French survey found 52% of married women consent to sex they don’t desire

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Focusing on consent erases the cultural context that produces the consent

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

If you decide to submit to the cultural dynamic in which violence to you is pleasurable, does that neutralise the harm?

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

But feminists want to analyse everything. What does heterosexuality show us about the power dynamic between men and women?

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

The mainstream narrative says pleasure between consenting adults is beyond critique, beyond analysis

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

The (neo)liberal focus on consent is problematic. What does it mean to freely choose, in such a context? Choosing becomes a way of avoiding recognising oneself as a victim of sexual violence

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Heterosexuality constructs the relationship between men & women as a power dynamic, & is one of the major ways gender is enforced & normalised. Sex and rpe are rendered hard to tell apart - “violated but loving it” is a common trope

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Femininity is given to us to internalise sadistic & violent practices which perpetuate our subjugation. Male domination is seen as pleasurable to women, & justified by women’s consent

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

Central to patriarchy that submission to men is presented as desirable, empowering, natural, pleasurable. The supposed inevitability of heterosexuality is part of all these cultural narratives

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Emily Collins @emily1collins.bsky.social · 1d

But if submissiveness were innate to women it wouldn’t need to be enforced in the ways & to the extent it is

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