Wouldn't you know it, I'm getting really excited about my conference on Thursday. I've been working my booty off this whole week with that paper (don't try condensing 20 years of history into 5 minutes at home, kids!), planning the last hurrah of my Feminist Majority, reading two novels and studying for an exam on them, and figuring out my postgrad plans.
I am so doing something on Friday or Saturday to let loose and celebrate! Yes, I know I have an exam and some papers due that coming week, but knowing my mad time management skillz, I can get those done. Maybe use up one of those nice gift cards I got at ROAR and then attend Rock for a Refuge? Who's coming with me?
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Women's Media
For all of my lady readers, here's a website you might like. Or for my men who want to know how to make their workplace a little more female-friendly and a little less sexist.
http://www.womensmedia.com
It's a most excellent website for the savvy career or college female, and it has some great advice on entering the work world, asking for a raise, communicating at work, and all manner of sage advice. For all of you who are currently working or entering the work force, it is a great resource. Check it out!
http://www.womensmedia.com
It's a most excellent website for the savvy career or college female, and it has some great advice on entering the work world, asking for a raise, communicating at work, and all manner of sage advice. For all of you who are currently working or entering the work force, it is a great resource. Check it out!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Silent all these years
Well, that previous post is such a downer. I do wonder, though, if Mia had somehow survived the attack, would she have talked about it? Would she have written a song about it, like Tori Amos had done with "Me and a Gun," and put it on the next Gits album? And what of all the Mias I brought up (like the women of Juarez)? Would they have talked? Or would they be silent all these years?
As both a woman and a feminist, things like that just make me so mad. It's like we can't win no matter what we do. It's hard to talk about things that might make the public uneasy, yet without talking about them, nothing gets done to change them. And what are we supposed to do anyway, go along with it? I think not. In Newark, a fifteen-year-old named Sakia Gunn was stabbed in the chest for telling a man to stop harassing her. No one likes being harassed, so what was she supposed to do? Put up with it? Or risk being killed? And why do we have to change our actions for someone else? Shouldn't it be the offender who should be told not to stab one of us or hurt us?
I just wonder about all of these things. I know I can really be the master of the depressing. I was telling my partner about the New Jersey Four earlier today, and I work at a rape crisis center. And I brought up the Sakia story, which is pretty nasty. Guess I'm what my concentration in my major is--muck raking. (My concentration is 20th century American literature, that includes the really politically charged folks like Upton Sinclair and Ida B. Wells.) One of my feminists says I was born to rake the muck. Well, I guess blogging is just a start. Had Ida B. or Upton been around today, I could totally see them blogging. Then they could make the leap to writing books.
As both a woman and a feminist, things like that just make me so mad. It's like we can't win no matter what we do. It's hard to talk about things that might make the public uneasy, yet without talking about them, nothing gets done to change them. And what are we supposed to do anyway, go along with it? I think not. In Newark, a fifteen-year-old named Sakia Gunn was stabbed in the chest for telling a man to stop harassing her. No one likes being harassed, so what was she supposed to do? Put up with it? Or risk being killed? And why do we have to change our actions for someone else? Shouldn't it be the offender who should be told not to stab one of us or hurt us?
I just wonder about all of these things. I know I can really be the master of the depressing. I was telling my partner about the New Jersey Four earlier today, and I work at a rape crisis center. And I brought up the Sakia story, which is pretty nasty. Guess I'm what my concentration in my major is--muck raking. (My concentration is 20th century American literature, that includes the really politically charged folks like Upton Sinclair and Ida B. Wells.) One of my feminists says I was born to rake the muck. Well, I guess blogging is just a start. Had Ida B. or Upton been around today, I could totally see them blogging. Then they could make the leap to writing books.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
viva mia (explicada)
Last week I was hanging out with one of my friends. Since we both have some similar tastes in music, we were dishing about the new CDs we'd gotten and new bands we were listening to. He proceeded to tell me, "Now I know you like Joan Jett, but have you heard this CD called Evil Stig?" That's what got me to write the previous post, but with further meaning behind it.
Evil Stig is an album put out by a band called The Gits, and it was recorded with Joan Jett on lead vocals. The Gits were a punk band from Seattle with a very feministic message and a uniquely bluesy sound to them. "Evil Stig" is "Gits Live" backwards. To many, The Gits are a forgotten band in music history. They only had 3 albums and didn't last particularly long. However, if you bring up the name of their singer, Mia Zapata, you might get people who are very familiar with her...or should I say familiar with what happened to her? Mia had a really distinctive voice and some strong lyrics, but she never made it to the age of thirty (she was 27). When walking home from a club one night, she was intercepted by a much older and stronger man and brutally beat and raped before he stabbed and mutilated her numerous times to kill her. If you think that's gross, you haven't heard the half of it. The woman who found her body was so shaken up to see this that she required assistance in walking to a phone and calling the police. It took over ten years to find Mia's assassin.
That's a terrible story, and one that is horrifyingly gruesome. I know that it grossed me out to hear it, even though she died before I discovered her band. What just really bothered me is that whenever you hear about that band, the only thing that comes to mind is the murder of the singer. As if her death is the most important thing about her. There's no mention of the feministic activism she partcipated in, or the anti-violence (ick, ironic, isn't it?) work she did. Not to mention the fact that the Gits were unique in introducing the blues to punk.
But then I got to thinking...how many other Mias are there? No, I don't mean other women with her name, but rather other women whose victimization was the only thing people remember about them. How many times do we hear about yet another crime victim whose story is told in TV-titillating detail and splayed out all over the national news and papers? We don't hear much about the person behind the statistic or the back story of the woman in the crime victim's body. Consider the femicides of Juarez, Mexico. Do we hear any of the names of the murdered women? Do we know what they did for a living, or what their lives were like? Most likely not. Think on the thousands of women who are attacked in times of war (and DON'T tell me that that's "normal" in war!) as a ways of destroying an enemy's "morale." Do we hear anything about them? No, unless you count the dehumanizing term "collateral damage."
"viva mia" is inspired by Mia Zapata, but it is actually about the thousands of "Mias" out there. It isn't my best poem but one that needed to be written. I write it for her and the thousands of the other women who never made it home alive. Something needs to be done so all of us can come home alive and home safe. To quote the late great Andrea Dworkin, "Not one of us is free unless all of us are free."
Evil Stig is an album put out by a band called The Gits, and it was recorded with Joan Jett on lead vocals. The Gits were a punk band from Seattle with a very feministic message and a uniquely bluesy sound to them. "Evil Stig" is "Gits Live" backwards. To many, The Gits are a forgotten band in music history. They only had 3 albums and didn't last particularly long. However, if you bring up the name of their singer, Mia Zapata, you might get people who are very familiar with her...or should I say familiar with what happened to her? Mia had a really distinctive voice and some strong lyrics, but she never made it to the age of thirty (she was 27). When walking home from a club one night, she was intercepted by a much older and stronger man and brutally beat and raped before he stabbed and mutilated her numerous times to kill her. If you think that's gross, you haven't heard the half of it. The woman who found her body was so shaken up to see this that she required assistance in walking to a phone and calling the police. It took over ten years to find Mia's assassin.
That's a terrible story, and one that is horrifyingly gruesome. I know that it grossed me out to hear it, even though she died before I discovered her band. What just really bothered me is that whenever you hear about that band, the only thing that comes to mind is the murder of the singer. As if her death is the most important thing about her. There's no mention of the feministic activism she partcipated in, or the anti-violence (ick, ironic, isn't it?) work she did. Not to mention the fact that the Gits were unique in introducing the blues to punk.
But then I got to thinking...how many other Mias are there? No, I don't mean other women with her name, but rather other women whose victimization was the only thing people remember about them. How many times do we hear about yet another crime victim whose story is told in TV-titillating detail and splayed out all over the national news and papers? We don't hear much about the person behind the statistic or the back story of the woman in the crime victim's body. Consider the femicides of Juarez, Mexico. Do we hear any of the names of the murdered women? Do we know what they did for a living, or what their lives were like? Most likely not. Think on the thousands of women who are attacked in times of war (and DON'T tell me that that's "normal" in war!) as a ways of destroying an enemy's "morale." Do we hear anything about them? No, unless you count the dehumanizing term "collateral damage."
"viva mia" is inspired by Mia Zapata, but it is actually about the thousands of "Mias" out there. It isn't my best poem but one that needed to be written. I write it for her and the thousands of the other women who never made it home alive. Something needs to be done so all of us can come home alive and home safe. To quote the late great Andrea Dworkin, "Not one of us is free unless all of us are free."
Thursday, April 16, 2009
viva mia
Amidst all the rushing
It'd be time well spent.
Oh, I would give anything
To get you home alive again.
We're both young women
And we both know what it's like
To be taught to be brave
And yet fear the night.
We're loud and we're proud
And we make a stand.
Then why must we live
In fear of a man?
They might take it all,
But they can't take your words.
It might've made you human,
But your message is still heard.
Amidst all the rushing
It'd be time well spent.
Oh, I would give anything
To get you home alive again.
Home alive again
Home alive again
It'd be time well spent.
Oh, I would give anything
To get you home alive again.
We're both young women
And we both know what it's like
To be taught to be brave
And yet fear the night.
We're loud and we're proud
And we make a stand.
Then why must we live
In fear of a man?
They might take it all,
But they can't take your words.
It might've made you human,
But your message is still heard.
Amidst all the rushing
It'd be time well spent.
Oh, I would give anything
To get you home alive again.
Home alive again
Home alive again
Monday, April 13, 2009
Revelling is good for you
Well well well...
Who would have thought I could use most of what I wrote in my post "Searching for Sisterhood" in one of my classes? I totally got down to the heart of both writers' arguments, and even my professor referred to something as a "classic Morgan-versus-Moraga debate." (Although I'm not sure if Cherrie and Robin ever actually debated anything verbally.) He was talking about Sisterhood is Powerful, and about how it was a perfect example of a patriarchy-conscious second wave text, and I raised my hand to stack it up against This Bridge Called My Back.
So there. She's A Revel is a perfect conversation-and discussion-stimulant.
And come to think of it, I actually prefer This Bridge to Sisterhood. It took me a while to figure out which one I liked better, but I like learning about how to fight both racism and sexism from a lady who's "been there, done that." And I am totally all about forming alliances.
Who would have thought I could use most of what I wrote in my post "Searching for Sisterhood" in one of my classes? I totally got down to the heart of both writers' arguments, and even my professor referred to something as a "classic Morgan-versus-Moraga debate." (Although I'm not sure if Cherrie and Robin ever actually debated anything verbally.) He was talking about Sisterhood is Powerful, and about how it was a perfect example of a patriarchy-conscious second wave text, and I raised my hand to stack it up against This Bridge Called My Back.
So there. She's A Revel is a perfect conversation-and discussion-stimulant.
And come to think of it, I actually prefer This Bridge to Sisterhood. It took me a while to figure out which one I liked better, but I like learning about how to fight both racism and sexism from a lady who's "been there, done that." And I am totally all about forming alliances.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Number Four! Yes!
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and now....Vermont!
Let's hear it for marriage equality! Four down, forty-six to go--which state is next? Hopefully ALL of them! This is going pretty quickly. I remember how on National Coming Out Day last year (October of 2008), they announced that Connecticut recognized same-sex marriages. Then within this month, two more states joined on. Let's keep this progress going!
And 2009 is the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, like I said before. Isn't it fitting to see quite a bit of progress since that time?
Let's hear it for marriage equality! Four down, forty-six to go--which state is next? Hopefully ALL of them! This is going pretty quickly. I remember how on National Coming Out Day last year (October of 2008), they announced that Connecticut recognized same-sex marriages. Then within this month, two more states joined on. Let's keep this progress going!
And 2009 is the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, like I said before. Isn't it fitting to see quite a bit of progress since that time?
Monday, April 6, 2009
I am the history geek!
Okay, this is probably the first time you've heard me call myself a geek, but I just received dramatic proof that I am indeed one! No, I can totally dress fine and I do have some social skills.
BUT...for one of my classes, I have to go into the archives (same place I found that amusing article about The Lavender Menace, see my post about the unaccompanied women). I wish they were a little closer to campus, but once I'm in there, you cannot stop me! The archivist lady brought out the boxes of material, and I was voraciously digging into into them! I'm serious! She dumped this giant box of articles about student protests (did you know there was an archive for protests alone?? How cool is that?), and I'm all like, "WOOHOO! LET'S GET THIS PARTAY STARTED!" And I just couldn't extricate myself from them!! Guaranteed, not all of the articles were all that positive (history is not always happy), but I was sooooo into reading about the student groups and coffee houses and protests of yore. Not to mention thinking about modern groups that probably grew out of them! AAAAAHHH....I so want to go back tomorrow and Wednesday! I've got an appointment to look through the archives of the YWCA tomorrow, and I'm more than stoked about it. This is way more addicting than the time I went into the microfilm room back during soph year. With microfilms, you see the image on the screen. In the archives, you get to TOUCH the materials. You get to feel what old feels like! You get to have your hands on something that has seen activists before you and see how they did it (yes, I am more tactile of a learner).
WHO would have thought it? I am the history geek! Hear me roar!
BUT...for one of my classes, I have to go into the archives (same place I found that amusing article about The Lavender Menace, see my post about the unaccompanied women). I wish they were a little closer to campus, but once I'm in there, you cannot stop me! The archivist lady brought out the boxes of material, and I was voraciously digging into into them! I'm serious! She dumped this giant box of articles about student protests (did you know there was an archive for protests alone?? How cool is that?), and I'm all like, "WOOHOO! LET'S GET THIS PARTAY STARTED!" And I just couldn't extricate myself from them!! Guaranteed, not all of the articles were all that positive (history is not always happy), but I was sooooo into reading about the student groups and coffee houses and protests of yore. Not to mention thinking about modern groups that probably grew out of them! AAAAAHHH....I so want to go back tomorrow and Wednesday! I've got an appointment to look through the archives of the YWCA tomorrow, and I'm more than stoked about it. This is way more addicting than the time I went into the microfilm room back during soph year. With microfilms, you see the image on the screen. In the archives, you get to TOUCH the materials. You get to feel what old feels like! You get to have your hands on something that has seen activists before you and see how they did it (yes, I am more tactile of a learner).
WHO would have thought it? I am the history geek! Hear me roar!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Let's hear it for Iowa!
Well, this is certainly exciting! Same-sex marriage is legal in Iowa now, and that makes it the third state now to allow it (technically, it's the fourth one, but CA passed that dumb Proposition 8 in November, so I am not including CA).
I know that there are now three states down, forty-seven more to go, but if you think about it, there might be many more that might follow the example of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa. Massachusetts legalized it in 2004, Connecticut in 2008, and Iowa in 2009. So that just might mean that we can expect to see more people talking about it and more states legalizing it. And how fitting, too, that it's in 2009, since 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Let's hear it for marriage equality! Which state will be next?
I know that there are now three states down, forty-seven more to go, but if you think about it, there might be many more that might follow the example of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa. Massachusetts legalized it in 2004, Connecticut in 2008, and Iowa in 2009. So that just might mean that we can expect to see more people talking about it and more states legalizing it. And how fitting, too, that it's in 2009, since 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Let's hear it for marriage equality! Which state will be next?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
For married folks only!
Truth is not only stronger and stranger than fiction, it's grosser than fiction.
Go here for something truly disgusting in the realm of women's health: http://www.mum.org/Lysol48.htm.
Who would use Lysol (that stuff you use to clean the bathroom and kitchen with the really malodorous smell) as a feminine hygiene product?? And how in the world could anyone say it's "safe" or think it's at all okay to put...well, down there?? Ick. Glad I don't live in that time. I'd rather "lose my romantic air" than put Lysol in me.
And check out that advertisement "for married folks only." Yeah...your husband will be real happy to have you do something that could possibly harm your health to maintain your, um, freshness.
Go here for something truly disgusting in the realm of women's health: http://www.mum.org/Lysol48.htm.
Who would use Lysol (that stuff you use to clean the bathroom and kitchen with the really malodorous smell) as a feminine hygiene product?? And how in the world could anyone say it's "safe" or think it's at all okay to put...well, down there?? Ick. Glad I don't live in that time. I'd rather "lose my romantic air" than put Lysol in me.
And check out that advertisement "for married folks only." Yeah...your husband will be real happy to have you do something that could possibly harm your health to maintain your, um, freshness.
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