grey

It's been a grey day, today. The combination of heavy clouds and warm weather weirds me out. The sky says winter, but the air says spring/summer. Just rain already!

I've been doing a lot of research lately on DIY culture. It makes me want to try out all these new things. Studying and a lack of available funds complicates things.

...But DIY is such a beautiful thing. As a feminist and gender studies student, I can't count how many discussions in which I've participated on power, and the power of knowledge. It matters who possesses knowledge, and who gets to receive it. Maybe this is why I've always loved books so much. DIY seeks to circumvent this whole power dynamic surrounding knowledge. Don't know how to do something or can't pay someone to do it for you? Learn how to do it yourself. Especially in this age of the Internet and blogs, DIY has become that much easier.

My latest foray into DIY? Starting a garden. I've always said "when I move into a house permanently..." Why wait? I'm working on collecting buckets and bowls and tubs. I'm going to grow things anyway - starting with an herb garden. I bought seeds last week, and will start planting them next week.

I've never really gardened before. I have a few potted plants, but they look a little sad. I generally forget them in the summer, so their lives are a continual cycle of near death and recovery. This time I'm serious. I found an unused notebook and have already taken a few pages of notes from varying sources around the web. For some reason I take things more seriously if I'm able to make lists. I'm a chronic list maker.

Wish me luck!

on proposition 8

Seriously, California, WTF. I'm really quite surprised that Prop. 8 even got passed - especially in California. I think a lot of people were surprised.

Seriously, though, I really don't understand why some groups of people really care who else is getting married. A big argument coming from that side is that they are protecting the "sanctity" of marriage. There are so many things wrong with that argument that I don't even know where to begin.

There's the whole thing where, historically (and we're talking from ancient times up through 16th-18th centuries, and to some extent into the 19th), marriages were simply a matter of business. Daughters were married off to create alliances, bring money or prestige into a household, or ease the burden of feeding so many children. The religious community does not own a monopoly on the title of "marriage." In fact, I think I could argue that marriage did not even originate as a religious practice.

Then there's the matter of America's divorce rate. I believe it's still hovering somewhere around 50%. Apparently, the LBGT community will "destroy" marriages. I'm not sure about you, but a 50% divorce rate says to me that there are flaws in the reasons people are getting married and/or the ways people think about marriage.

That whole slippery slope thing? The one where if LBGT start getting married, then people will want to marry pets and children and appliances and whatever else they want to get their hands on? Just wow. How is that even a logical step?




So yeah, we'll see how this whole proposition 8 thing in California pans out. It's been reported that San Francisco's Mayor Newsom has said that he will continue granting licenses until he is sued to stop. That is so freaking awesome.

combining a Star Wars reference with feminism

Do you ever think you REALLY know someone, and then they say something like "McCain 08!" or "Go-Bama!" or "I hate puppies!" and it totally turns your world upside down?

These past few months ago have been SO saturated with election news, that even I'm almost tired of it. Well, really, I'm way tired of silly allegations - like being friends with a well-known Palestinian some how means that you (and you alone!) are going to destroy the state of Israel. I'm also way tired of Joe the Plummer. I'm fairly certain McCain has to be really desperate if he has Joe the Plummer on the campaign trail for him.

Then there is Sarah Palin. Her existence has caused a great disturbance in my feminist force. I think that a lot of what she does only reinforces that glass ceiling that she claimed to bust through (well, and Hillary loosened it for her, right?), but then I can't help but be disgusted when I hear comments about her clothes or her as a mother. I completely disagree on every one of her policies, but I can not escape the fact that Sarah Palin is being subjected to the same sort of sexist nasties that Hillary experienced (and probably was part of Hillary's failure to obtain the Democratic nomination).

Sucks for her, but I'm still voting Obama. There's no way that I'd vote for someone because I feel she's getting the raw end of a sexist argument.

obama chose biden

I'm sure you've heard the news by now.

I have to admit, I'm a little saddened by the news. I will concede that Biden is a wise choice, but here we are again without a woman in the race.

I think I've lost a bit of that hope for change.

a quandary

There comes a time in a feminist's life where they must make a decision...

I ride public transportation. It isn't bad, really. In fact, it's a great place to watch people, or just a place to be anonymous if you feel like it. If you're from a small town, you know the luxury of feeling anonymous.

I ride public transportation every morning. As a woman, there have been a couple of times where individuals of the male persuasion have offered me their seats. My initial response is 'no, thank you. I am fine.' After all, I'm in my twenties and I sit in class all day. Standing is a welcome respite. Usually, their response is a shrug of the shoulders and they return to their seat.

It's when those individuals insist when things get ugly.

One time a man got down on his knees in the middle of the moving bus, pleading for me to take his seat. At that point, I refused out of spite. Today, the poor guy was so polite and really just wanted to be nice. You could tell his mother instilled him with manners. I took the seat, but as I sat there, my blood started to boil.

While this guy just wanted to be nice, the whole idea of offering a seat to a woman is due to the belief of the weaker female sex. Should I just play into the subtle (albeit unintentional) sexism? Or do I make a scene on the bus?

I'll have to think on this one for next time. You may read about me in the papers...

disgusting.

The following is a video compiled by The Women's Media Center. The WMC is an organization that "strives to make women visible and powerful in the media." The video's intent is to showcase "the pervasive nature of sexism in the media's coverage." See the WMC homepage here and more about the video, 'Sexism Sells, But I'm Not Buying it' here.




Favorite parts = Gloria Steinem's quote at 2:15, men 'allowing' women to 'take over the world' at 3:40, and the official petition by the WMC which reads as follows:

"Media companies may think that sexism sells, but I'm not buying it! Together with the Women's Media Center, I call on the national broadcast news outlets (CNN, FNC, MSNBC and NBC) to stop treating women as a joke; to stop using inherently gendered language as an insult or criticism; and to ensure that women's voices are present and accounted for in the national political dialogue. Sexism isn't a partisan issue. We're not going to let anyone hit the snooze button on this important issue!"

poetry for the not so poetry inclined.

I admit it, I used to REALLY. HATE. poetry. If someone wanted me to know something, why didn't they just write it in a normal f-ing sentence, rather than breaking the words up across an entire page and using metaphors that were way too complex.

And then I realized I was just reading the wrong kind of poetry.

Turns out Romantic era poetry is not my cup of tea.

Without further ado, I present to you a poem by Sandra Cisneros. Her book, My Wicked Wicked Ways (not to be confused with Errol Flynn's autobiography of the same name) is her first collection of short-ish poems published in '87. I love all of them (the poems) in their own way, but this one, my friends, is one of my favorites.


***Unfortunately Mariela was removed. See this post.***

gays everywhere!

I've only been a gender studies major for a short while, but I don't think I've taken a gender studies class without a section on homophobia or gay rights.

Honestly, I really do try to listen to others' arguments and try to understand why they think a certain way. Unfortunately, I simply can not wrap my brain around the arguments against gay marriage...


Next thing you know, people are going to want to marry their dogs.

Then people are going to want to marry children.

The government should not deny a child a mother and a father.


These 'arguments' are so inane, I don't even know where to start. It's really a little infuriating.


Even though Jon Stewart hosts a 'comedy show,' he really is rather intelligent. He sums up a lot of my feelings in the following interview with Bill Bennett from two years ago.

Please, PLEASE, watch this.

Part one


Part Two

this warms my heart...

California State Supreme Court Overturns Marriage Ban

part of a future project

She has been a maid, an inventor's daughter, a mermaid, Japanese, generic Middle Eastern, but really she is just the same Girl, in various candy shells.

I can not count how many times I have seen Her, all cute hips and perky tits. I let Her into my life. I thought she knew me.

That's just what he wanted me to think.

to my unborn male child

I know am damning you to an adolescence filled with ridicule from your male contemporaries - that is unless gender relations change drastically within the next ten years (I am not exactly hopeful in that regard).

I am apologizing to you now, little egg.

I know your childhood will be difficult because your mother instructed you ow to be sensitive and thoughtful of emotions - whether they be anger, aggression, sadness or helplessness; aware of your actions on others; aware of others actions upon you.

It will be difficult because your mother will teach to value every human life, be it male or female, gay or straight or something in between, white, yellow, red, black, or brown.

I write this now, knowing my thoughts might not be as lucid twenty years from now.

I will keep it close to my heart when I reassure my son that the other little boys are simply afraid of their own inadequacies - even if they pushed YOU to your knees and called you a fag.

I will offer you my journal when you call me from college, accusing me of raising you too nice - she left you for the boy who bashes peoples' heads on scholarship.

Just remember, after the boys who pushed you have long grown bald and resigned to selling used cars in their hometowns, you will be teaching your own daughters how to be strong, irrepressible women.