feminism

I took my 8 y/o daughter recently to visit the grave of my grandmother and grandfather.  They're buried in a little cemetery in Batavia, IL called Resurrection.  My daughter said it was too bad that we didn't bring flowers and I agreed.  I'm not much of a cemetery visitor myself, but there is something about flowers.

We agreed to bring flowers next time.

It took us about 20 minutes to find the headstones, which was comedic in itself.  I was sort of embarrassed that I didn't know where the markers were.  I mean, I really did spend a lot of time with "Gramma" when she was alive.  I haven't visited her grave since the day she was buried, 9 years ago.

As I lined up an 8 y/0 child with me into a search party for two rocks in the ground with names Donald andJane, I thought that it's probably a lucky break for me that I am an atheist.  I figured that if I believed that I'd be facing the spirits of the dead in an afterlife, they would chew my ass out for never visiting their tombs or at least bringing flowers when I did finally swing by.  Not to mention spending my remaining living years stewing over the guilt for my misdeeds.

As it was, I just passed the time watching my daughter pick up shiny things as an offering for the graves of her ancestors.  I wondered if I was a poor example of how to respect ones ancestors, but that was just my old Catholic guilt training flaring up like some scar from a childhood trauma.  In reality, the way to respect my ancestors is to live a life of dignity and honesty; to live a life worth living.  That's what they did and that's the only thing Gramma would want me to do, if she were here.  It's all she ever wanted for me.

I found this today, in my Internet travels.  It looks good and I will love to read what they assemble. -arvan

“We can learn to mother ourselves.” Audre Lorde, 1983

All mothers have the potential to be revolutionary. Some mothers stand on the shoreline, are born and reborn here, inside the flux of time and space, overcoming the traumatic repetition of oppression. Our very existence is disobedience to the powers that be.
At times, in moments, we as mothers choose to stand in a zone of claimed risk and fierce transformation, the frontline. In infinite ways, both practiced and yet to be imagined,  we put our bodies between the violent repetition of the norm and the future we already deserve, exactly because our children deserve it too.  We make this choice for many reasons and in different contexts, but at the core we have this in common: we refuse to obey. We refuse to give into fear. We insist on joy no matter what and by every means necessary and possible.

In this anthology we are exploring how we are informed by and participating with those mothers, especially radical women of color, who have sought for decades, if not centuries, to create relationships to each other, transformative relationships to feminism and a transnational anti-imperialist literary, cultural and everyday practice.

More unnecessary and annoying outrage from the left  over President Obama's upcoming seat on The View's panel on Thursday.

One leading Democrat Ed Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania had quite a bit to say about Obama going on The View.

On why the President should not go on The View:

 the talk show did not have the required stature to host the president

On why the show isn't worthy of the President's status:

I think the president of the United States has to go on serious shows

For anyone wondering what exactly The View is, I'll run down the basics.  It is a show featuring an all-female panel targeted towards women.  The issues discussed range from politics, to current events, and the economy.  Most importantly however, is the show garners an enormous audience, most of which are women.

What is SALACIOUS?

SALACIOUS is an up and coming magazine of queer feminist sex art and literature. SALACIOUS aims to meld pornography with high art; comics with erotica; titillation with stunning visuals.

SALACIOUS is looking for submissions that highlight queer feminist sex. Comic submissions are strongly encouraged, and are SALACIOUS' main focus—however, SALACIOUS loves the written word and single illustrations, so by all means send those along as well.

Specs for illustrations and comics:

Black and white

8.5×11

No bleeds

300 dpi

JPEG or PDF

Specs for the written word:

Maximum 5,000 words

Short stories, poetry, and more accepted

If you’d like an illustration or two to go with your story, let us know.

Please keep the following in mind should you choose to submit something to SALACIOUS:

SALACIOUS is queer. While we’re not going to tell you what queer should mean to you, please keep this in mind as you compose your work.

SALACIOUS is feminist. We consider reproductions of typically sexist, misogynist, hetero-normative sex and sexuality offensive, unimportant, and not worthy of printing.

SALACIOUS is anti-racist. We reject racist representations, insist on a multi-racial editorial board and contributor base, and seek to understand racism, like sexism, in relation to local and international inequities of power.

SALACIOUS is aimed at titillation, as much as it is aimed at high art. Please therefore submit work you are nothing but deeply proud of. Just because it’s naughty doesn’t mean it has to be poorly done.

Send Submissions to: kd@katiediamond.com by AUGUST 1,  2010

Yeah sure.

In this new piece featured on CNN's home page, the author goes on and on about what beauty ideals are, how they have been historically defined in Western culture, and how none other than Kim and Khloe Kardashian are part of( or cause..?) a shift of common beauty ideals.  

So I'm left to ask, is it such a good thing that ideals are no longer one thing and now another? Are "ideals" not by definition unattainable and therefor damaging regardless of what exactly they are comprised of?   This may be too difficult for the author to comprehend but I am just appalled at the absurdity of CNN's claims, that somehow beauty is no longer "skinny, blond and blue eyes" because the Kardashians ( who have admitted to undergoing extensive plastic surgery, sell diet pills, and are a size 2)  are now on weekly tabloid covers. 

Warning: Triggering Youtube Clip Included in this Post

"The Situation" otherwise known as Mike Sorrentino, has recorded and released a rap song. You can listen at your own peril here. Warning: the entire rap is done with auto tune and features the hook "Gucci, Prada, Christian Dior! LAX to Jersey Shore". Um, cool Mike.

The absurd reality of this situation (no pun intended , I promise) is people will actually consume this shit, they will listen and think "what a great beat to fist pump to" and then immediatly download it from I-tunes.  Everyone knows there is a lot of bad, pop/rap, music that is available to download these days, but this is beside the point.  Mike Sorrentino should not have a rap song out, he should not be on television supporting the typification of an entire culture and he shouldn't be singing in auto tune about it all.

Wed, 7/14

PARADIGM SHIFT: NYC’S FEMINIST COMMUNITY Proudly Presents

“GUYLAND: THE PERILOUS WORLD WHERE BOYS BECOME MEN”

Lecture and Discussion featuring
DR. MICHAEL KIMMEL, PhD, Author & Sociologist, is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today

Moderated by SHELBY KNOX, nationally known feminist organizer & subject of the Sundance award-winning film, The Education of Shelby Knox

“Michael Kimmel’s Guyland could save the humanity of many young men-and the sanity of their friends and parents- by explaining the forces behind a newly extended adolescence. With accuracy and empathy, he
names the problem and offers compassionate bridges to adulthood.”
— Gloria Steinem

“If you’ve ever had a conversation with a teenage boy and wondered what on earth was going on behind the blank stare and slightly open mouth, this book will serve you well.”
- Chicago Tribune

Obsessed with never wanting to grow up, this demographic, which is 22 million strong, craves video games, sports and depersonalized sexual relationships.  Kimmel offers a highly practical guide to male youth.

GUYLAND is the best-selling investigation of young people’s lives today.

Women face obstacles in the work place that prevent them from climbing the corporate ladder. Women make less than men for equal work, women of color make less than white women, dark haired women are shown to make less than those with a more fair complexion and blond hair, women who are thin will advance more frequently than those who are "overweight", and women that are considered to be closer to society's version of beautiful will be paid higher than those who are not.

All of this most already know, yet there is one more we can add to the grim list: women can be reprimanded or even fired for appearing to be "too provocative". You see, if she is too beautiful and too well-endowed, she could be seen as a distraction for male coworkers in (unintentionally) arousing their uncontrollable libido. Other women who wear the same clothing but aren't as "pretty", do not have the same affect upon men, the plaintiff in the case argue.  Of course, it makes no sense to blame women for the unprofessional considerations of her male co workers, but that is fruitless to point out.

This news is more proof that fighting for wage equality and gender non bias in the workplace are not enough. Beauty norms exist, duh, seeing them work against women in this way is a huge problem and frankly, its getting much worse.

If you haven’t heard of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by now you have probably been living beneath a rock or ignoring pop culture all together ( I can’t really blame you for that). The best selling, Swedish crime novel has sold millions of copies world wide and will be a major motion picture in the next couple of years (no doubt Hollywood will fuck it up). The story has been translated in several different languages and is followed by two more to complete the Millennium Trilogy. I have been consumed with the series for the past three weeks and embarrassing as it may be, have not quite understood what makes these books so critically important until now.

The author, Stieg Larsson throws down amongst crime-novel heavy weights and holds his own , creating suspense and depth, stringing the reader from page to page, leaving you hanging by a thread. In combining a run-of-the-mill murder/suspense plot with the fascinating and complex investigation into a billionaire Swedish business criminal, drug ring, and a secret service-like scandal, Larsson solidifies these stories into pop-culture lore.