Today is Love Your Body Day.
I've been thinking the past few days, about bodies. Bodies is a big old topic. When we talk about "loving our bodies", we're usually silently adding "...despite our weight/size". And for good reason - one source indicates that more than 50% of young women would rather be hit by a truck than be fat. It makes me wonder, of course, how many of the women included in this study were fat? How many of those fat young women indicated that they would rather be hit by a truck than be themselves?
The thing about loving our bodies is, we shouldn't be loving our bodies DESPITE of anything. We should be loving our bodies BECAUSE of everything, fat included. Nomy Lamm has written an excellent piece on this topic. Me? I don't identify as fat, because I don't think fat oppression has affected me, at least not any more so than it affects any thin person. I don't want this to seem like I think being fat is a bad thing, something I was to disassociate from, or that I think there is some magical specific weight/shape where fat ends and thin begins. I just don't think it would be right for me to call myself fat when it's not something that actually impacts my life on a day to day basis. That said, I have fat, and I do not see my fat as an inherently negative trait. I'm squishy, and I love that about myself. Kittens sleep comfortably on my belly. People of all kinds find me quite cuddly.
Fat hatred isn't the only thing that keeps us from loving our bodies, though. In my case, I spent a lot of time and energy hating on my hair. My body hair, I mean, and not just on my legs and under my arms - hair springs profusely from my neck, chest and stomach. Growing up, a lot of people told me that hair on women was unattractive. I didn't meet or even see hairy women until I was a legal adult, and by then, it was too late. I was thoroughly dependent on my (fairly ineffective) hair-ridding rituals. Even after I got the message that hairy women were real and could be successful and beautiful and awesome, a lifetime of self-hating left me a lot of insecurities. I'd say it's only in the past six months, as I've increasingly identified as gender variant, have I been able to fully embrace and display my body hair with real love and pride. While the relief and self-love have been super amazing (seriously - you may not understand the impact of this statement unless you've been paralyzed with fear at the mere thought of it, but I actually like to wear shorts in public), it strikes me, of course, that only in recognizing my gender as non-binary could I recognize my body hair as beautiful. To be a truly empowered hairy woman may elude me forever.
In my mind I see this woman, this normal woman. We know she's normal, because we see her everywhere, but she doesn't actually exist.
It's almost easier to describe what this normal woman is not than what she is, because almost everything she is becomes invisible in its ubiquity.
This normal woman is thin. We know fat women are not normal, because we don't see them, and when we do see them, they are a cautionary tale.
This normal woman is able-bodied. We know disabled women are not normal, because we don't see them, and when we do see them, they are to be pitied.
This normal woman is white. We know women of color are not normal, because we don't see them, and when we do see them, they are exotic.
This normal woman is cis and gender-conforming. We know trans and gender non-conforming women are not normal, because we don't see them, and when we do see them, they are the butt of jokes.
I'm simplifying a lot of issues here. The point is, loving your body is discouraged on many different fronts. Loving your body can not be about loving your body despite. Loving your body despite means accepting a non-reality: that this normal woman exists and everyone should/can aspire to be her. There are too many bodies whose realities can never, ever line up with kyriarchal standards of beautiful, or even of normal.
Love Your Body Day may be over by the time you read this, depending on what time zone you're in, but I encourage you to spend a little time anyway thinking about the things you have been taught to love your body despite of - the things about you that you have been told are ugly, abnormal, or just the things you have never been told are beautiful. Loving these things is a radical act.
Love everything about your body - and, I think this is crucial, also love everything about someone else's. The more we realize the vast variety of things we can love in others, the more we feel worthy of love ourselves.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Loving Because, Not Despite
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
My Favorite Thing... Ever?
Maybe that's a tad hyperbolic, as I'm also a fan of food and oxygen and the human capacity to love.
But somewhere near the top of that list? Free documentaries on the internet. Here's a few sites dedicated specifically to this:
Snag Films
Hulu Documentaries
Logo Real Momentum GLBTQI Documentaries
But what triggered this post was actually a documentary I watched on youtube yesterday, Boy I Am. It doesn't speak to my exact experience (no single piece of media really speaks to anyone's exact experience, does it?), but a lot of the topics it addresses are topics that have been bubbling in my head as a feminist (and beyond that, a person whose work and studies and support networks all involve feminists and feminism), and as an increasingly gender non-conforming person who has always been invested in transgender inclusion and rights.
Here's part 1:
And part 2:
The rest is on youtube (you can find it, I believe in you), and I recommend viewing the whole thing. If you want to know more about the film or buy it, the film's official site is here, and you can purchase it through Women Makes Movies.
This is also one of the reasons I really truly deeply love the internet: finding people who think like you (especially in the case that "you" are marginalized or non-normative) is easy in ways generations before could not imagine.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Invisible
Q: Where in the news media can you find a discussion of race in which the host addresses the most basic ways white people are privileged, instead of mindless squawking about what is and is not racist, or, more often lately, "reverse-racist"?
A: Come on now.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - Neutral Man's Burden | ||||
| ||||
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A Few Words on Political Correctness
So, today Shakesville pointed me over to the Daily Kos, which I know of but almost never read and, well, I guess this kind of thing is why.
The writer, after really sensibly explaining that dismissing marginalized groups as "oversensitive" and "too PC" is just a convenient way to acknowledge what you're saying is disrespectful, but belittle and emotionally attack your critics, and go on offending people. Good.
Then, of course, he goes right on to belittle and emotionally attack critics and go on offending people. But don't worry! It's ok because the people he's pulling fatphobic, transphobic and misogynist joke about are conservatives! He also throws in some racism and ableism in at the end for good measure.
You REALLY don't get it already.
Ok, first, fuck putting quotes around transphobic. I know you know it's real. The problem with jokes aimed at conservatives, or anyone, that exploit marginalized groups (in this case, people that deviate from normal/ideal gender phenotype and presentation) is NOT that you're directly saying "such and such groups sucks!" It's almost never that clear. But the joke just isn't fucking funny unless it involves the prejudice. If gender was acknowledged to be fluid and gender binary was meaningless? Calling Ann Coulter a man, a drag queen, a tranny, masculine, or saying she dresses too femininely, or isn't feminine enough just wouldn't make any sense, never mind being funny. By making a joke about anyone's gender nonconformity, you are reinforcing the validity of gender conformity. One may say "but I support transgendered people!" I'm sure you have, politically. But you're also happily engaging in the system that dictates their difference; their difference which makes them the butt of jokes, their difference that causes people fear them, their difference which causes their lives to be valued less than NORMAL people, their difference which causes the brutal murders which create the need for a Transgender Day of Remembrance.
You didn't mean to. But you fucking did.
I see similar in arguments against hate crime laws - why is this joke worse because it's aimed at a certain kind of person? Why is this crime worse because it's aimed at a certain kind of person? Neither is because hating super-special marginalized people is the super-awfullest kind of hate and so we have to be super-sensitive to it. It is because when you joke about, or harass, or commit violence against, one marginalized person (or one person who is targeted because of their perceived association with a marginalized group, such as a cisgender person who is perceived as transgender), you are sending a message to ALL people of that marginalized group: it is not ok to be what you are. It is deviant. It is funny. It is bad. It will not be tolerated. It will be punished.
God, I could go on, but that part infuriated me the most for personal reasons, and of course because I've heard too many "progressives" repeating the ever-hilarious "Coulter is a man" sentiment recently.
Here are a few calmer words on being "politically correct" (i.e. respectful) from Jay Smooth:
And embedding is disabled, but yeah, I immediately thought of Beau Sia's response to Rosie O'Donnell a few years ago, when the writer at the Daily Kos finished with:
And I thought, real easy to say when you have the privilege of not associating these "jokes" with "real issues" like, say, the violence they justify.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
My Blood and Sweat is in Kaniakapupu
I suppose I've been writing here semi-regularly, so let me share just a little something from what I'm doing. I'm on an anthropology travel course right to Hawaii, learning about the islands' history and culture. There's a million things I could tell you about, but I'm exhausted so for now I'll just point you to a few resources:
Support the Friends of Iolani Palace
Defend Oahu Coalition
(I wish I had more... keep checking back!)
Some books to look for:
Music, Past, and Present at Kamehameha Schools
Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887
Ethnicity and Inequality in Hawaii
From a Native Daughter
Hawaii's Story By Hawaii's Queen
And this video is almost the exact tour I took of the ruins of the summer palace at Kaniakapupu with Dr. Baron Kaho'ola Ching, except, of course, we didn't have the guy with the cheesy-TV-host-sounding voice and after the tour my roommate and I chopped down a tree that was degrading a wall (something tells me cheesy-tv-host-sounding-voice-guy didn't jibe so much with the manual labor). I can't begin to describe the experience and this youtube video, despite its 27 minutes, pales in comparison.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Shocker: Frank Miller Sexist
I admittedly know little about Frank Miller's work. I cracked the graphic novel versions of Sin City and 300 in the bookstore, was not charmed, and moved on. I saw 300, and I saw the sped-up no-special-effects version of Sin City on the DVD (then decided that was all I wanted to see). That's all.
Yet, I'm entirely confident in saying: I don't like Frank Miller. I could tell you my full thoughts about 300, which I was coerced to attend, which I laughed through, which is in fact The Second Least Enjoyable Movie I Have Ever Seen (the first, for the curious, is Urban Legend, either because of or despite the fact that I ate up books about urban legends as a kid), but I'll spare you, because 300 sucking is old news. I don't know much about Alan Moore, either, but I do like him, mostly because he called 300 "racist, homophobic and sublimely stupid", which about sums it up. If you saw 300 and don't see how I could get political shudders out of a harmless action movie, maybe you should watch it again keeping in mind that the creator once said of those we're at war with (linking 9/11 to Iraq, of course, and treating other cultures as monolithic and savage):
"For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people’s heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I’m speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I’m living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built."
So, yes, I saw some symbolism in 300.
Anyway! I've written more than I intended.
I'm posting because, via io9, turns out the women in the new movie based on Miller's The Spirit are stupid stereotypes that completely revolve around the male character.
Not surprised. A woman with whom I work was telling me about how she saw Sin City, and how it's a feminist movie because there's Good Guy Heroes saving poor women for Bad Guy Rapists, and I gently explained that this idea wasn't quite empowering.
I'm thinking this one will fail the Bechdel test.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Clinton
Which person do you think of when you read that name? Hillary, Bill or both? Apparently we can't think about Sen. Clinton without thinking about her husband, too, as evidenced by every political cartoon I've seen since Hillary Clinton was rumored to be the next Secretary of State. If that link stops working, here's just a few examples:
(Ok, I do kind of like that last one, but...)
I seriously sometimes forget that they're married. During the primaries, Sen. Clinton became such a huge public personality in her own right that when people brought up Bill without referencing his wife's campaign specifically, I took pause to remember how he might fit in. Not joking, an anchor would say "Bill Clinton is on the road" and my brain at least once reacted "I wonder why?"
Maybe I'm young or naive, but it can't just be me that is at least a little bothered like this. A very successful and famous woman is married to a very successful and famous man, so he must have some part to play in every professional happening of her life. Excuse the weak metaphor, but it's like... if Angelina was working on a new project, and all anyone could write about was what it's like having Brad on the set. That actually might be more apt than I give it credit for, as part of the problem is that we treat political news like gossip column material - Hillary's Hubby's Hijinks, and of course The Clinton-Obama Faux-Rivalry Drama.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
I Understand Now
Today, I feel constantly on the verge of tears.
Some people are telling me that this doesn't matter. That this won't change anything. That tomorrow we will wake up and the world will be no different. But I am personally in awe of how important this is to me.
My twenty-first birthday is on Saturday. I have never voted in a presidential election before. This is important, but not why I feel so frantic today. I've been following the race closely and have some firm opinions. This is important, but not why I feel so frantic right now.
I'm overcome today because I realize I have no recollection of any president other than George Bush. I was twelve when he was elected, and the idea that politics had something to do with my life had just barely wafted into my consciousness. I'm overcome today because I have no idea what it is like to have faith in my government. I'm overcome today because I think that tomorrow, my world will be different. It certainly won't be perfect. Obama was not my first choice in the primaries, as you know if you've been here before. But I'm overcome because tomorrow, I have hope for the first time that I will not be struggling against the person with power over my country, I will be struggling with him. I'm overcome because I think for the first time a person with respect for my intelligence and my rights will be in charge of many public aspects of my life.
I've been overcome with anger today. Not at those who oppose my candidate, really; but at those who show no preference, who don't want to vote, that they are forced to choose 'the lesser of two evils', who don't claim they can't see the goddamn difference. The difference for me is between continuing the uphill battle which I have been engaged in my entire politically aware life, or having the relief of knowing that at the very least two men who care about human rights are in the white house. Maybe someone else sees the difference differently. But there is a difference, and to claim you don't care or it doesn't matter strikes me as either ignorant or spoiled. I do have to accept that everyone doesn't care about politics as much as I do, but I don't accept that politics don't affect every single life. The personal is political, and all. I don't say "ignorant" as an insult; I sincerely hope these people realize how these issues and how which guy is sitting in the big chair affects them directly. Because it does.
I'm overcome today with gratitude, because nothing is closer to my heart than social justice, and so I'm acutely aware of how I got this right to vote. Who gave their life for me to have it. People complain about the electoral college (though they're entitled to do) without pausing to realize how corrupt this system was before. What this meant to those who had to fight for it. I don't think I understood before today, thinking about what it would be like to watch this process and have no power in it. When you think of that possibility, which was reality less than one hundred years ago, voting is not a pointless endeavor, even if no candidate is your ideal.
I don't use the word "empowered" often.
I usually don't understand it.
I understand now.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Youtube Favorite Friday: Cuteness (and apologies)
Yep, can't get enough of going "aw" at this one:
I love Sesame Street, so much.
So, sorry I've been totally neglecting this thing. Taize was good, but also hard, I still don't know how to convey the spiritual experience in words, but some more concrete highlights:
- Chocolate and butter sandwiches, for breakfast, everyday.
- Being humbled by people who walked there... from Italy.
- Picking up a slew of dirty ASL signs (prooobably just our group).
- The catchy tune stuck in your head is sung by monks (well, and everyone else).
- Sobbing with people you just met, and some of whom do not share a language with you.
So. That's that. I start work at camp tomorrow, so yeah, blogging is not my priority right now. I may stop in occasionally to link somewhere else, but don't expect too much original content until September.
Speaking of linking other places, here's a few of my favorite stories. I'm limiting myself to ones I found this morning, or else I'd just go on and on:
-Feministe: Latina teacher fired for not regurgitating the same old crap. Oh social justice, how you need to be a requirement- for students, and apparently school administrators. It's fucking scary that challenging Eurocentrism is so dangerous.
-Queerty: "Can’t I Just Have Mayonnaise?" Whines O’Reilly Over "Gay" Commercial O'Reilly's homophobia and glaringly obvious straight privilege here is endlessly amusing/distressing to me. He totally can't grasp the concept that the loving housewife being replaced by a New York deli man is "gender play". Because he totally can't see past two guys kissing. Because if it was a man and woman, it would be normal. Because straight people are normal and gay people are a disturbing and political affront to all straight people. I just feel bad for him at this point. Could someone educate him, please?
-Bitch Magazine: Factory Girl: Dora the Explorer and the Dirty Secrets of the Global Industrial Economy I'm kind of envious of how many issues the writer managed to neatly packed in this one article. I tried to sum it up, but please, just go read it.
-Fourfour: She just doesn't get it Oh, how I hoped- or perhaps rationalized- that Tila Tequila was at least slightly positive for bisexual visibility. But, alas- she's gone and spouted another old bisexual stereotype, and to make matters worse, still thinks she's helping.
Ok, I found another video of the kid, so today you're lucky enough to get two youtube favorites:
I wonder where she is now?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Youtube Favorite Friday: Buffy
The Saint-Marie, not the slayer.
This video hasn't been working for me. If it doesn't work for you either, let me know and another song of hers up. If it does work for you, lucky, you get to enjoy the voice of Buffy Saint-Marie.
I first found her when Kimya Dawson posted the same video in her livejournal. She went on to talk about how inspiring and strong Buffy is, how brave, and gives Wal-Mart a great big fuck you. I really enjoyed the latter part at the time, but for whatever reason didn't pay the former so much mind.
Then I started writing an article for the Women's Center newsletter (I'll post it when it goes online) about progressive female artists, and I put Buffy on my list of people to check out, because I certainly trust Kimya's tastes. I ended up listening to Buffy Saint-Marie constantly for a solid week. She's amazing.
At the same time, a lot of things corresponded- my housemate went to a conference about women in politics, and the last speaker talked about how women often don't get politically involved because they don't think they understand every facet of the issue(s), but men don't have that same political inhibition. And in an essay class, we had to write about an experience with an animal, and I wrote about an injured pigeon that some kids were tormenting in kindergarten, and the essay ended up being about how baffling cruelty and a lack of sympathy has always been to me, and how powerless I feel every time I think about the fact that I'm in a country whose government condones torture. Then the Yoo memos were released. And none of my friends knew about it, and the TV didn't talk about it, and at this point everyone is watching Obama and Clinton and thanking their lucky stars that there's less than a year left of Bush, but there's still torture and we should still be talking about it. Fuck, we should be yelling in the streets about it! And I spent my days at work reading and writing about Buffy Saint-Marie and Billie Holiday and Patti Smith and Sweet Honey in the Rock and Ani DiFranco, and I one day I finished the piece on Buffy, and I went home, and I wrote my first protest song.
I ended up going back to that livejournal entry of Kimya's because, of course, I wrote about her, too, and wanted to work in some quotes displaying her feminist and anti-corporate sensibilities. So I read it again, I read this again: "All the strong women, who helped make me who I am, are on my mind. Maybe because of all the messages I have gotten from those of you who have said that I have changed or empowered you. Let's keep it going."
Kimya Dawson is the whole reason I picked up a guitar for the first time in eight years, and why I started teaching myself and writing songs. When I read those words, it just felt like magic, like the universe made sense for just a few minutes. It felt powerful.
Maybe that's all incomprehensible to you. It might be beyond words.
I guess, all I can say is, thank you, brave women. Thank you, Kimya. Thank you, Buffy.
More Buffy
More Kimya
More Me (including the protest song, "Inexcusable", uploaded for the occasion- it has some mistakes because it's new and quite fast, making it hard to play over and over. Be forgiving.)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Youtube Favorite Fridays
This has been making the rounds on some of my favorite blogs. Enjoy, hopefully I'll get to something besides the regular feature this week... or perhaps I should just start making more regular features.
The original of this is down for whatever reason, but some smarty pants put it up on a different name. Check out the man's website, and enjoy!
EDIT: The original is up! Is youtube being weird for anyone else? A lot of videos have been mysteriously "unavailable" to me lately, and this has confirmed my suspicion that it might only be on my end.
Monday, March 10, 2008
In Which I Realize Deadlines Are The Reason I'm Not A Journalism Major
I know, I know. I set a deadline on the presidential candidates series and didn't meet it. I'm sorry, you five loyal fans, I've been busy. You can check out some of my work over at my school's blog here, the wonderful MCLA webmaster Amy has put up a slide show I made for an event we were both involved in about language and stereotypes. She was also kind enough to let me have a mini-blurb on my feelings about the subject, as well as a plug for the WMST/social justice courses I love oh, so much.
I'm in a course on Stigma and Disability right now (I highly suggest our requied reading, My Body Politic by Simi Linton), and I'm starting to think that social justice courses need to be a requirement instead of elective, or we should at least learn what being transgender is during college orientation. I've heard plenty of people my age that just don't know. Sure, one could argue that an understanding of racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia, transphobia and so on is not essential to creative writing (though I could/would certainly counter-argue that), but it's essential to understanding human experience (a.k.a. essential to existence).
Rep. Sally Kern, of course would disagree with me on that one. Speaking of language mattering:
via Feministing, that lists the Representative's contact information for the convenience of the outraged.
And here's a direct link to the slide show, in which I draw from Ellen, Dennis, and Mikhaela Reid, amongst others.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Presedential Pick-Me-Up: Part 1
Happy Leap Day! Or is it Leap Year Day? Whatever.
In case you live in a cave or forest, and your hobby of choice is poking yourself in the eyes and ears with rocks, you know (as the existence of February 29th indicates) it's an election year. And if you know me, you know I am a Kucinich person, in a big way. Please see my livejournal icon to your right. I'm devoted, y'all.
So, I was understandably disheartened by- well- I was going to say "Dennis dropping out", but also Dennis being excluded before he dropped out, the array of Dennis-bashing before he dropped out, and so on. I am frankly disenchanted with both Hillary and Barack, and while I always considered McCain the least evil of the republicans, I realize more and more how fucking crazy he is and (considering the past few elections) how much more electable that makes him. I've said it during election years before, and I'll said it again: we're doomed!
So it's nice, during these dark times, to remember that while whoever is going to end up in the White House isn't going to be exactly ideal, at least there are some people who are totally never going to end up in the White House. People who, say, want to reinstate stoning for gays and loose women, or think their cosmic destiny as president of the universe is written in the stars- the same stars that they wish to bomb as president. Vote-smart dot org has a list of just such people, and it's called the "Other" party list of presidential candidates. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking all third-party candidates, and I did pull a few bizarre candidates from the Republican and Democrat lists, too, but that Other list lets you get straight to the crazy. That's because on the Other list, people make up their own parties. I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, so I present for you, the first installment of a list of people whose asses Dennis Kucinich could- and, really, has thoroughly kicked in a presidential election:
Da Vid
The Light Party
You are going to notice a theme of the religion category being a source of confusion with these candidates, as apparently strange people running for president are really into strange religions, or using way too many words to explain their religion. Vid- or should I call him Da? I'm really postulating that his name is David and he either thought his last name wasn't interesting enough or he was too paranoid to post it on Vote-Smart. Anyway, Vid lists his religion as Rosicrucian, Hermetic Qabalist. I looked these words up on Wikipedia, and as far as I can tell it's New Age for history majors. They're very into stars and mysticism and really dense concepts that I'm sure all have some ancient basis that I don't understand. Also, this thing:
And here we're think a Mormon would be hard to market.
Anyway, now that I've ripped on the poor guy's religion, let me say honestly, his organizations list is kind of astounding. Vid has been part no less than 36 nice-sounding groups, including Green Peace and Doctors Without Borders. I'm really interested in the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance. What kind of work exactly would that entail? Forgiving people, or pressuring people to forgive other people? Forgiveness conventions?
His three presidential priorities are what really seals the deal on never becoming president for him. The first is disarming all nukes, which is admirable enough. The second is "Project Health", which appears to be universal health care with some "eco-agriculture" thrown in, nothing really extreme there. His third priority, however, is "Project Light, the catchy tag line being "All The Power That Ever Was Or Will Be Is Here Now." Got a ring to it, eh? Project Light basically aims for "a sustainable global solar hydrogen/hemp based economy". How will we acheive this? Why, "The Gaia/Solaris Consortium", of course. If this vote-smart survey was graded, the professor would write a big red please explain your answer next to this one.
Gene Amondson
Prohibition Party
Seriously, guy? You're running on prohibition? You do know how that went over the last time, right? He's not totally out of touch with the youth, though: he has a myspace. And two whole friends. Maybe he'd attract more if he had any information on the page besides his name, age, marital status and astrological sign. Why those last two specifically? Possibly... for the ladies?
Terry Lee "Tee" Barkdull
The America Party
As a blogger, I have to say about this guy: JACKPOT. The first two were easy to find, but I took a chance on this guy, as he was only listed as "Unknown". However, if you follow the trail to his website, you will see quite clearly that Tee here belongs to THE AMERICA PARTY. You will also see clearly that he loves FREEDOM, CAPSLOCK, FORMATTING and "PICTURES OF EAGLES". Can you guess what the mascot of the America Party is? Hint: It's a motherfucking eagle!
I seriously don't know where to begin with this guy- I suppose the easiest jab is at the layout- eagles, soldiers and America flags fuckin' abound. He's also a big fan of weird, unnecessary formating choices and "QUOTATIONS", even in places where they make his "argument" seem "meaningless". For example, instead of promising what he'd do as your President, he tells you what he'll do AS YOUR "PRESIDENT". Don't be fooled by the seeming lack of intelligence he displays with constant misused commas ("We, can win together!"), his complete misunderstanding of how things like disability benefits, immigration and racism (holy shit is this guy swamped in privilege- did you know the very existence of BET is racist?) work, and his typos ("I am sick of Politically Correction") that result in saying something completely different ("No free bees for immigrants!"- I'm with him on this, I mean, we are short on bees). He considers himself to be a very "INTELLIGENT" individual.
Tee is very big on speaking English. Did you know over 2/3 of the world's native language is English? Tee does. He also thinks being given the option of pressing 1 for English or 2 for Spanish is discrimination. That's right- the fact that you are even offering a language besides English is impeding Tee's rights.
He wants sex, along with race, age, and eye color to be eliminated from job applications (goodness knows how sick I am of writing out my eye color every time I apply for a job). However, the Boy Scouts are for boys, the Girl Scouts are for girls- "The way it should be!". Also, he apparently feels that "homosexuality is WRONG! It's not a phobia, it's my OPINION!!! I have the right to 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, wired or they just PISS ME OFF!!" Sure, you have the right to be intolerant- unless, whoops, you're the fucking president. I'm pretty sure he meant weird instead of wired, but it wouldn't be a big stretch to see this guy going on a tirade against cyborgs.
Man, I could go on for days about this guy. He surely spent at least a few days on his website- besides the insane amount of formatting variations, he has at least a dozen rants that just go on and fucking on. The sheer volume of his angry babblings would be commendable, if only they weren't so ignorant, repetitious and completely lacking in self-awareness. The motto that sits atop his front page, "WE THE PEOPLE. THAT MEANS ALL AMERICANS", seems to be looking down at the rest of his ranting in scorn.
Let me just end with one more quote:
"TO MANY PEOPLE DIE ON OUR NATIONS HIGHWAYS AND FREEWAYS BECAUSE OF THE AGGRESSIVE DRIVER THAT THINK THEY OWN THE ROADS, AND THE LAW DOESN'T APPLY TO THEM.
AS A NATION, THIS MUST STOP NOW. I WANT THIS CHANGE ALSO, IT'S TOO BAD, CONGRESS IS TOO PRE-OCCUPIED WITH THESE 'DEADLY SAMURAI SWORDS'"
He makes no other reference to samurai swords anywhere on the page. Tee: What "THE FUCK" are you talking about?
If people like Tee- or heck, if people like Da Vid- get you riled up, just take a deep breath now, and remember that the chance of them fulfilling their dream of becoming President is about the same as the chance of Tee knowing what "sesquipedalian" means.
Hopefully this has restored your faith in our mainstream presidential candidates as much as it did mine. I'll have two more installments, on Sunday and Tuesday- and who knows, if more people announce their candidacy, this could go on until November.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Surprisingly didn't think to post this for Valentine's
I joined a writer's group on my campus, and our very first prompt (oh, how I do prefer writing groups that give prompts instead of writing groups where I sit there reading something I wrote six months ago and listen to people tell me they liked it) was to write a love letter to make the recipient swoon. You may remember that I've been swooning (for over three years now) over a wonderful boy, but I thought it would be awfully cheesey to write to him, and I didn't want to be too personal for the first prompt of our first meeting. He's off to Argentina until July very soon, and I might tear up if I tried to put words to how that feels. So I wrote it to my other main man, and thought you would enjoy the results.
My beautiful and dear Dennis Kucinich,
You have never met me, and I have never met you, yet I feel our connection. It is as if you are the wind, all around me, gently pushing my turbine to create a raw, hot, renewable energy source. I know you are a married man, but I can’t help myself. You get my blood pumping, like a life-saving transfusion made available to me by universal health care. Forget your wife- but value her equality and preserve her reproduction rights- spend just one night with me, let me take you to places you’ve never been- like vegan restaurants. You know as well as I that they’re hard to come by, but oh, so enticing- and so worth the danger.
You broke my heart when you dropped out of the race, Dennis, but I forgive you. Come away with me, let us escape this humdrum two-party system and do something really radical. We could protest for troop withdrawal... or if you’re feeling really naughty, impeachment. After we get a Department of Peace established, you and I can work on a special project- the Department of Love. Let me be your vegetable-eating vixen, your granola-crunching girl, your sexy leftist. Is that a copy of The Constitution in your pocket, or is this love?
My heart (and vote) will always be yours,
Raechel
Also in Dennis-related news: I had the brilliant thought today to seek out Dennis 08' merchandise, because, duh, the prices must be cute way back! Sure enough, everything at his official store is 50% off! As much as I hate to encourage unchecked consumerism, I'll say again what I said on V-Day- GET SHOPPING!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Day Before Discount Candy Day!
Otherwise known as V-Day, of course.
I have one story of love and passion for you, and one story of loss and heartache.
Love and passion:
Sex toys are legal in Texas! If you didn't know that selling sex toys was a felony in Texas, here's a hilarious run-down for you on the former law:
So a VERY happy V-Day to all of you Texans. Get shopping!
Loss and heartache:
A young transwoman of color from the Bronx is brutally murdered by a friend, and the media coverage is devastatingly ignorant. They claim she is a prostitute without any proof, call her a "man dressed as a woman", quote a seventeen-year-old neighbor describing her masculine attributes, and refer to her legal name as a "feminine nickname"- and all of this is AFTER glaad got them to re-write it. This sort of thing really blows my mind. Please go read the coverage at Feministe, all of it.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Tofurkey Day, Vegetarians!
Happy Turkey Day, all, if you're celebrating. The update on PR is going to be late, but to keep you entertained through Buy Nothing Day, I wanted to share a few things.
This video via brownfemipower:
It's a die-in in front of Citibank in DC, and several of my friends were there as part of Powershift. They were protesting Citibank's investment in coal, and ended up shutting the place down for the day. Power to the people! I'll also share with you the chant my friend made up, but did not exactly catch on: "I don't want to wait, for our lives to be over! I want global warming to end right now- hey hey, ho ho!"
I am pretty much in love with this comic from Overcompensating:
Seriously, if you care about peace, or just want to vote for someone NOT evil instead of LESS evil, vote for Dennis Kucinich. Think he can't win? Uh, he kind of already is. Just in secret.
