Back in the day...

Last night I was looking at this Tori Amos bio and remembered what a tremendous effect the singer/pianist had on my teenage years. I wanted to honor some of my teenage idols who not only kept me (kind of) sane during high school, but beckoned me to a clearer feminist consciusness.

Tori Amos

I remember treking to the Avalon Mall in St. John's, Newfoundland to purchase her albums the day they came out. I horded bootleg albums, posters and paraphrenalia featuring the feminist fairy queen.

Not only was (and is) Tori's music beautiful and incredibly complex musically, it really spoke to my personal and political concerns regarding gender and sexuality. Whether Amos sang about rape (Me and a Gun), breakups (Putting the Damage On, among so many others), female circumcision (Cornflake Girl) or sex and religion (Icicle and the infamous God), she was always spot on.

Courtney Love

Yes, I know Love's status as a feminist has been highly debated (and that she has gone a little more than nuts lately), but I have to admit, Courtney Love (and Hole) was probably the single greatest influence on my musical taste and personal style. She just didn't give a FUCK (or at least she pretended not to). Her baby doll, overly girly dresses contrasted so sharply with her growly voice and in your face attitude and I, as an insecure ninth grader, wanted, more than anything, to achieve that level of what I percieved as independance and confidence. So maybe for her it came partially from drugs. Besides all the drugs, fighting, etc. back then she was still an embodiment of my personal goals and helped me to stop caring so much what others thought and believe that women could seriously ROCK!


7 Year Bitch

Super fierce grrrl band from Seattle screaming about everything I was feeling during junior high and high school. Need I say more?

Anna Rexia- because eating disorders are sexy

Ok, I though I had seen some of the most offensive Halloween costumes ever, but this one really takes the cake.

As someone who has dealt on and off for most of her life with various eating disorders (or as someone who has watched others cope) I am completely disgusted and offended by this costume. It would be one thing if someone were to wear a costume commenting on the prevelence of eating disorders or bizarreness of body image issues in society, but to wear or sell one that sexifies a death threatening desease is just plain sickening.

Oh, and just in case you haven't had your fill of costume that make mental illness sexy, check out Ella Mental.

Thank You Courtney!!

Here is a great list of things you can do to love your body from Courtney Martin at Feministing.
I think that my favorite is probably:

1. Make the radical choice to commit to healing your relationship with your body.

Thank you!

Stupid, offensive article alert!!!

So, once again, I have found an infuriating story on yahoo. In the article "Is Your Image Hurting Your Career", Penelope Trusk states the following:
1.) The heavier you are, the less money you make.
2.) The less attractive you are, the les money you make
3.) Your employers may be right and thin people might actually be scientifically smarter

"Before you get up in arms over how unfair it is to discriminate against people who are overweight, consider that there may be some rationale behind it. If you're overweight, you're probably not
exercising every day. But regular exercise increases peoples' ability to cope with difficult situations in the workplace and, according to University of Illinois
kinesiology professor Charles Hillman, might even make people smarter. " (links her her own, pasted from the page)

First off, size does not necessarily have anything to do with exercise. Some people have lower metabolism and, therefore, can exercise a few times a week and still be larger than people who never exercise at all.

Second, not only is this article a waste of space, it is offensive, disgusting and one of the worst displays of fatphobia I have ever witnessed!

Yay Portland, Maine! Boo Bush & Orr!!!

If this hadn't passed, it may have been the final straw for my sanity.



This week has been a little les than cheerful on the reproductive rights front, with Bush appointing Dr. Susan Orr as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services family planning program.

According to Orr, contraception is part of a culture of death.

"It's not about choice. It's not about health care. It's about making everyone
collaborators with the culture of death."

Thank you, George Bush for providing this fucking nutcase with a platform. How the hell are these things ok? The last time I checked, abstinence is not part of my or any of my friend's', or anyone I know's "family planning strategies". To those who choose abstinence, cool. But the key word is CHOOSE. I am just so angry.



But, back to my original point, middle school students in Portland, Maine now have access to contraceptives without parental notification! And STD counselling!! All at a convenient, on-site medical clinic.

And then, there is Kansas.

New Job

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I have (finally) switched jobs. While it is surely too early to judge (still have 58 minutes left of my first day), the new place seems pretty great. People being generally nice and polite in a nice change and, so far, I have heard few, if any, catty remarks.
Thumbs up, new work place!

According to science, feminism does not = man hating!

Ok, another post I found via Feministing. I didn't, however, have much time today since I was training at my new job (yay!).
So, as if we didn't know already, an article in Science Daily has announced:

"feminism and romance are not incompatible and feminism may actually improve
the quality of heterosexual relationships, according to Laurie Rudman and
Julie Phelan, from Rutgers University in the US. Their study* also shows
that unflattering feminist stereotypes, that tend to stigmatize feminists as
unattractive and sexually unappealing, are unsupported."

Rent

I wanted to apologize for having written so little in the past while. I have been pretty sick on and off for the past while and have a hard enough time performing mundane tasks, let alone being creative.
So, due to my feverish condition, I will write about something I love. Rent is an amazing musical. See it. If you can't go see it on stage, watch the film version and memorize all the songs. Then when you see it on stage it will be even more exciting.
Warning: You might cry. I did... a lot. As in I was still in tears half an hour after the performance ended.
Here is the proof:

Rape in the Congo

There isn't too much to say about the content of this New York Times article except that it is terrifying and very upsetting.

No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can explain exactly why this is happening.

“That is the question,” said André Bourque, a Canadian consultant who works with aid groups in eastern Congo. “Sexual violence in Congo reaches a level never reached anywhere else. It is even worse than in Rwanda during the genocide.”

Super Cutie!

Sorry, another baby post.
I think watching this video may have just gotten me pregnant

As if we didn't need ANOTHER reason to hate Wal-Mart...

Funny?

But, in Wal-Mart's opinion, yes. They have recently begun to sell this shirt in their stores. A stalking survivor noticed the shirt and reported it to the NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence who contacted Wal-Mart. No response as of yet.
According to the woman who reported the shirt:

"People don't realize how serious stalking is," she said. "You constantly live in fear, look over your shoulder and suffer from psychological and physical symptoms due to the stress of the stalker."

She wondered aloud: What's next?

"Some say it's rape, I call it hot sex"? Or: "Some call it domestic violence, I say I'm just teaching her a lesson"?

Bizarre. But maybe not so unexpected, considering that Wal-Mart once removed this shirt off it's shelves, deeming it too offensive and incompatible with the company values.

via Feministing

Folsom Street Fair

Some people are just completely nuts.
And no, I am not talking about the Folsom Street Fair participants.
I am talking about the protesters.

When attending the fair last Saturday, I heard some noise about anti-Miller beer (one of the fair sponsers) groups. While I did not actually see any of these groups, I later found one of them online.

Supposedly they are angry about this:

And the, there is another total nut, Frank Pastore, who wants to thank the Fair for reminding us how horrible gays and liberals actually are.

I’d like to thank the organizers of these types of events for reminding Americans what’s at stake in our culture war, why politics is important and what it means to be a San Francisco liberal. Each of us can now more easily think of our town, our school or our local park being the site of one of these obscene events. Of course they have the right to project their deviance—within the parameters of the law—as an expression of their free speech. But, every other American also has the right to protest and say, “Oh no. Not here. Not in our community!”

And thanks again for reminding the whole world, and especially Christians, why the words “homosexual” and “anti-Christian” are—in practical terms—synonyms.

Well thanks all you guys for reminding me why I, myself, enjoyed the fair. It is probably (unless you are raving like a crazy person protesting at the barriers) the last place I would see people like you.