It's wild how white supremacy has convinced men that sexual access to hegemonic white femininity is a measure of worth.

The way white women are used as a conduit...for self-esteem, revenge, a signifier of success...is interesting.

And when men of color see it as "getting back" at white supremacy, they're just reinforcing it???

Been thinking about desirability and its connection to who we see in worthy of time and effort. It's absolutely connected to the kind of intimate violence victims we see and how they're treated, especially when rape and sex are often conflated.

When people view rape as merely sex without consent (as opposed to a form of violence--yes, i believe there's a difference), it influences their attitude towards desirable vs undesirable victims.

Some lament the "sullied" desirable victim. To them, rape is bad because the social order of which women are protected was violated by the wrong person--not because a human being was harmed.

Contrast that to the way "undesirable" victims are told no one would ever touch them--consensually or not--and even if it happened, they should be grateful. It's just "not that bad."

Bystanders aren't offended because those violations reinforce the social order.

When (certain) white women are treated as the gate to success, people will automatically be more invested in their well-being. At the expense of the women who are harmed more often and rarely seen.

And i think this works when we look at other IDs, too. When sex and rape are conflated...trans, disabled, fat, ugly people are treated differently as victims.

This is why the hollywood #metoo media model is unsustainable. We dont have the bandwidth to be outraged about every victim.

if we leave the media to lead the charge, no real change will happen, we'll continue to only cis white women as victims.

This unpacks on the overlap between valuing hegemonic (white) femininity and the devaluing of survivors of color well. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/%22I'm-Not-That-Kind-of-Girl%22%3A-White-Femininity%2C-the-Pietsch/537617d5834771a0b905a8a76f1365d901e81080

When sexual inaccessibility is part of hegemonic femininity, men of color who feel less masculine because of their race, sex with white women provides validation under hegemonic masculinity standards WOC cannot.

Because who wants a "prepackaged bad woman?"

If "true womanhood" is based on a white patriarchal sexual script that sees WW as sexually unavailable, the racist myth of WOC's constant sexual availability impacts perceptions of desirability and *how (in)valuable our sexual consent is*

If our perception of rape depends on who we value sexually, women of color are considered inherently just a liiiiitle bit unrapeable.

& that 'unrapeable' percentage increases depending on other IDs like class, nationality, disability, size, sexual orientation, etc.