You Don't Meet Nice Girls In Coffee Shops

I agree with most of this, but would like to point to the abundance of white or light skinned people in these photos. If tumblr was the cross section of humanity that aliens got to see, they would be overwhelmed with the whimsy, yes, but also think that our population consisted solely of white and sometimes asian skinny skinny women who were often sighted in soft light in little or no clothing. There are two types of body that are seen most often on tumblr, and neither of them is realistic. that and the lack of people of color, (mind you, not just women of color, people of color, besides occasional waifish asian girls) leave some serious holes in here.

Just sayin’.

robot-heart:

jameykay:

I love seeing good photographs, but she’s right. I never had an issue with my body until I started following certain people on tumblr. People who think stick-thin bodies and tousled hair is attractive.

Just to clarify, it’s not that I think thin bodies with tousled hair are unattractive or can’t be attractive. The problem is when there are so many of these pictures, with a dearth of any other kinds of bodies occupying similar spaces. It’s unhealthy to focus that much of your attention on one specific body type or to fetishize it. For the past month or so, I’ve been averaging about 30 pictures like this a day, not including repeat viewings of the same photos due to reblogs on tumblr or being reposted on other blogs that I follow. In that entire time period, I’ve seen maybe 2 or 3 photos of nude women that feature other body types, and only one single photo shoot of nude men of any body type. That’s problematic for me.

And to be honest, I don’t understand the extreme focus on, specifically, bared breasts. I can’t go more than a page these days on tumblr without being confronted by a set of nipples. There are other things to take pictures of, and more often than not, I don’t feel like there’s a purpose to include bared breasts in the photo other than, “Look! Boobies!” The nude photo attempts are for the most part incredibly juvenile. Even where it’s not being done for sheer shock value, a lot of “photographers” are doing it because they think it’s artistic or something, and they don’t really have a reason to do a nude/semi-nude shot other than some truly misguided, pretentious ideas about how they can be seen as “artists” instead of bored kids with nice cameras if they include a little forbidden flesh. It’s not art if you’re just doing it because you think it makes you an artist.

Aaaand I think I’m done.

by Jon Sands

When I said I wasn’t with another girl
the January after we fell in love for the 3rd time,
it’s because it wasn’t actual sex.

In the February that began our radio silence,
it was actual sex. I hate the tight shirts
that go below your waistline.

Not only do they make you look too young,
but then your torso is a giraffe’s neck attached to tiny legs.
I screamed at myself in the subway

for writing poems about you still.
I made a scene. I think about you almost
each morning, and roughly every five days, I still

believe you’re there.
I still masturbate to you.
When we got really bad,

I would put another coat of mop water on the floor of the bar
to make sure you were asleep when I got to my side of the bed.
You are the only person to whom I’ve lied, knowing

I was telling the truth. I miss the way your neck
wraps around my face like a cave we are both lost in.
I remember when you said being with me

is like being alone with company.
My friend Sarah wrote a poem about pink ponies.
I’m scared you’re my pink pony.

Hers is dead. It is really sad. You’re not dead.
You live in Ohio, or Washington, or Wherever.
You are a shadow my body leaves on other girls.

I have a growing queue of things I know
will make you laugh and I don’t know where to put them.
I mourn like you’re dead. If you had asked me to stay,

I would not have said no.
It would never mean yes.

—

Reposted from the poetry blog for me.