I have never wondered what it would have been like to have children. I say that because we often hear “you’ll regret it when it’s too late.” Well, here I am on the other side -- it is “too late” -- and I am here to say: I do not regret it. On being childfree by choice 👇🏽
So threatening is the rejection of heterosexual sex, marriage, and child-rearing--an idea known as 6B4T-- that Chinese feminist groups who have espoused those things were abruptly kicked offline. See this by @LetaHong
politico.com/newsletters/po…
6B4T originated with South Korea’s radical feminist movement tribuneindia.com/news/archive/w…
That drive to draft wombs into the service of producing workers is especially sharp in the USA and China, each vying for global leadership and each reeling from population decline and plummeting birth rates. feministgiant.com/p/unmothering #Childfree
It is taboo to say I own my body and that you will not enlist my womb for capitalism. You will be called “deficient” and “incomplete.” theguardian.com/world/2016/jun… #childfree
We are more than walking wombs for capitalist patriarchy.
And sometimes the patriarchy will say the quiet part out loud--HAVE BABIES FOR THE ECONOMY... washingtonpost.com/opinions/paul-…
...while ignoring what many who do indeed want to have babies have long been saying out loud—YOUR ECONOMIC POLICIES HAVE MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO TO HAVE BABIES TO BOOST AN ECONOMY THAT BENEFITS VERY FEW OF US. apnews.com/article/birth-… #childfree
“6B4T is a passive way of resistance and self-protection under the current gender equality situation in East Asia."

These Chinese Women Vow Never to Marry or Have Sex With Men. Then Censors Stepped In.
vice.com/en/article/epn… #childfree
Notably, it is the decline in white babies in the United States and Han Chinese babies in China especially that worry the powers that be.

We are more than walking incubators for ethno-supremacist patriarchy. feministgiant.com/p/unmothering #childfree
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More from @monaeltahawy

11 May
In New York City in 2012, a judge invoking the first amendment, gave the greenlight to racist and Islamophobic pro-Israel ads in the subway by Pamela Geller. I was arrested for spray painting over one of the ads in Times Square-42nd St station. Andrew Yang is like those ads 1/ Tweet from Andrew Yang: I'm...
The ads said: In any way between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." I spray painted over the ad because if Israel is "civilized" then I'm a proud savage. The woman trying to block me was w/ Pamela Geller 📷 Kristy Leibowitz Mona wearing a pink coat an...
If those ads were protected by the first amendment, then so is my right to protest them. I was arrested, charged with criminal mischief and possession of a "graffiti instrument" (because of NYC's "war on graffiti"). Fuck fascism everywhere. 📷 Kristy Leibowitz A woman in a black jacket a...Handcuffed Mona is led away...
Read 9 tweets
11 May
The millionaire CEOs of some of the American companies with the lowest-paid workers saw an average pay raise of 29% last year while their workers saw a 2% decrease, according to a report released Tuesday. theguardian.com/business/2021/… h/t @SChenHayes
Fuck going back to “normal” that benefited only wealthy, white, cis, able-bodied men, and that continues to enrich America’s 614 billionaires who since the start of the pandemic grew their net worth by a collective $931 billion. I wrote this in December feministgiant.com/p/essay-a-time…
FEMINIST GIANT Dispatches From the Pandemic: refuse to “go back to normal.”

Fuck Normal!

From May 2020
🎥 @rerutled

Read 4 tweets
11 May
The death toll from the Israeli attacks on #Gaza has risen to 24 people, including nine children.  At least 106 others were wounded. Most of the children belonged to the same extended family. google.com/amp/s/www.alja… #GazaUnderAttack
Two siblings, 11yo Ibrahim and 7yo Marwan, were the only children of Yousef al-Masri.

The children were playing outside their homes before the Ramadan iftar meal in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, before two explosions rocked the street. #GazaUnderAttack
Schoolteacher Eman Basher paid tribute to a 10yo girl killed in the attacks. “Rahaf Mohammed Attallah al-Masri, a Year 4 student in my school. She sat on the first desk next to the classroom door. Her face is sweet, and she’s a hardworking and polite student.” #GazaUnderAttack
Read 4 tweets
10 May
My family name--Eltahawy--can be traced back 12 generations. It is somewhat of a family badge of honour to recite the names all the way 12 generations back to that patriarch Eltahawy. The names are all men’s.

I want to know the 12 generations of women’s names that connect us
I want to know who that matriarch was 12 generations ago. Who was my ancestor who first bore this family line? Who are my foremothers? I want to know and honour those women.
I can start with these women who were alive when I was born:

- Nazira, my paternal grandmother

- Na’ima, my maternal grandmother

- Amina, my maternal great-grandmother
Read 7 tweets
10 May
Sometimes patriarchy will say the quiet part out loud--HAVE BABIES FOR THE ECONOMY--while ignoring what many who do indeed want to have babies have long been saying out loud--YOUR ECONOMIC POLICIES HAVE MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO TO HAVE BABIES #MothersDay
That drive to draft wombs into the service of producing workers is especially sharp in the United States of America and China, each vying for global leadership and each reeling from population decline and plummeting birth rates. feministgiant.com/p/unmothering #MothersDay
It is no exaggeration to say that the pandemic and the economic crisis it has triggered are a fucking disaster for women.
- About 22% (over 1 in 5) women in the U.S. have been pushed out of the labour force since the start of the pandemic.
Read 5 tweets
7 May
To coincide with the release of my book The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls in Ireland and the UK via @TrampPress, @five_books asked me to recommend five books on Patriarchy. fivebooks.com/best-books/pat…
Look for The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls in your local bookshops. You can order online here feministgiant.com/p/the-seven-ne…
As I wrote in an essay eulogizing her, Nawal El Saadawi is not an Egyptian version of a white feminist. She is the Nawal El Saadawi of the world, not the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab world. Nawal El Saadawi was one of the foremost feminists in the world feministgiant.com/p/essay-nawal-…
Read 5 tweets

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