Long thread on false equivalence aka THIRST PROUDLY. Whenever there’s a post about Sam and we thirst tweet, there’s always someone who clutches their pearls and says “omg if anyone said that about Cait we’d never put up with it.” That’s true and I agree but let’s dig a little.

Let’s look at thirst historically.Patriarchal cultures have dominated the planet for thousands of years.We still live in one now. Under patriarchy,men’s thirst is backed up by power-economic and physical. Men have historically exercised that power to control women-everything from

job discrimination and defined gender roles to sexual abuse and rape. In the past, women could play two roles-good girl or bad girl. The good girl was daddy’s girl who grew up to be the good mom.

Virgin or married her thirst was contained and controlled and she was not permitted to express it openly. The bad girl includes anyone who rejected the socially accepted good girl role. She is always at greater risk and more vulnerable under patriarchy.

Men’s thirst has always been socially acceptable and backed up by the structures of patriarchy (laws, norms, religion, etc.). Women’s thirst has historically been suppressed. The good girl cannot express any thirst in patriarchal cultures.

She is controlled and dominated by the men in her life (father or husband). If any woman objected to these limits, she was now a bad girl, and subject to being humiliated in a thousand ways. It is only in the past century that women have begun to step away from this dichotomy...

and reclaim their sexuality as healthy and normal (largely as a result of now widely available contraception). When men speak their thirst out loud (make comments about Cait for example), it carries the weight of all this history and speaks of the exploitation of male power.

By contrast, when women speak their thirst out loud, it is a declaration of rebellion against exploitative patriarchal systems. It is NOT the same thing as when men speak. None of us would ever assault Sam, or fire him if he didn’t sleep with us if we were his boss.

We share thirst tweets with each other here among friends, and every time we do, we declare that female sexuality is normal and natural and healthy. We speak against centuries of suppression and cultural control of women’s sexual desire.

We reclaim our own bodies and stand against patriarchal limits. Reject the false equivalence and thirst proudly, fandom. Thirst proudly.

P.S. Everything I’ve said here also applies to lgbtq+ thirst tweets about Cait. Same patriarchy. Same liberation.