We got your big, wet cat pics right here.
No puns please.
Hilda Won’t Be Rushed Into Anything: A couple have finally tied the knot – after 49 years, nine children, 22 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Every time Ted Towle, 83, proposed to Hilda Clark, 73, she turned him down, reports the Daily Mirror. Then six months ago, he was stunned when she proposed to him. (via)
Attention ad-conscious lady gamers: you might expect this video game to be heavily promoted toward women. I wonder if it will include intricate breasty physics along the lines of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. (also via)
Have you read the first Carnival For Radical Action yet? No? What’s wrong with you?
Pretty Bird Woman House: Saving a Sioux Women’s Shelter: Amnesty International just published a report that became the focus of a series of Daily Kos diaries. The jist of the Amnesty International report is that, one in three Native American women are victims of rape…and most of those rapes are committed by outsiders, not fellow Native Americans… Many laws relating to American/Native relations were written in the 19th century during a period of extreme abuse by the dominant American culture against Native cultures… and many of those laws are still in force.
Mental Health and Asian American Women: A couple days ago, as I was flipping through the internet, this CNN article on suicide in Asian-American women caught my eye. The article does a fantastic job of outlining how the “model minority” expectations really, really screw over Asian American women. I was especially excited to see it given mainstream media coverage. After all, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian-American women 15-24. It should be addressed. What follows is not surprising: young Asian American women have the highest suicide rate among women of any race, ethnicity between 15 and 24. I’m still waiting for the day that the CDC recognizes this.
How to Create a Rape Victim: I was waiting for my sandwich at Subway®, and I heard a woman on the phone with her daughter. I knew it was her daughter because she was on the phone from the time my bread was cut in half to the time it was slid into a wax paper bag. It was all I could do to keep from interrupting her and telling her how to raise her daughter. But I have found in the past that people are not always happy to get this kind of input. And I was unsure as to whether my message would get through to her at all, given our differences in class and race. So I bit my tongue and listened to another child being slowly murdered with the toxic sweetness of a parents’ insecurities.
A Brief History of the “Nappy-Headed Ho”: For feminist thinkers who have revisited the Bible’s historical recounting of the spread of Judeo-Christian monotheism, Jezebel’s story is very different. Although the facts of her life in 800 BC Israel remain the same, revisionists theologians reinterpret Jezebel as a resistance fighter who held tightly to the pagan beliefs in the power of the feminine energy of the goddess. Unwilling to sacrifice the long-held, woman-centered traditions of her religion she resisted the imposition of Yahwehism. As a result, she and many of her countrymen were slaughtered. Her sexuality and femininity are reinterpreted in this narrative a source of power that frightened the monotheistic, male-God worshippers who invaded her country.
Reading Is (Not) Fundamental (?): Insist that children learn to read from science books. Imagine, if you will, coming from a household which places no emphasis whatsoever on reading, either for pleasure or learning, and arriving at school, which insists that you read only science and history textbooks. “Kids should feel pleasure curling up with a novel at home” is a statement of privilege. (see also)
The Problem With Feminism: “Women,” understand, is a problematic concept – as marked by scare quotes. It is a conception of women that does not reflect reality. “Women” is an ellipses, a conception that women are a homogenous group, static and ahistoric, existing in a constant state that does not change over time and place, having similar concerns and interests. Clearly, this conception is problematic.
Kactus, one of my super-favorite babymama blog crushes who needs a wider audience, has chronicled her experiences using food stamps for the last five weeks (although I think I lost week 4): Week One, Week One Part II, Week One Part III, The Meat Deal Is A Big Deal, Week Three: The Month So Far, Week Five.
A Romanian movie on the struggle to receive an illegal abortion just won the Palme d’Or for best movie. See TWTP for more details. Speaking of which, Ema also has information on an upcoming IUD for dudely among us.
Latina, Immigrant, Reproduction, Justice: La Familia is at the center of Chicano organizing. From the sixties, activists pointed out that family was not just “there” as it is in other cultures–but that it was necessary. Often, because of our poverty and our constant migration, the only thing we could count and depend on was our families. There’s a lot to be said about the goodness of la Familia–for example, in school, everybody knew not to fuck with the Mexicans. Everybody knew that a fight with one Mexican really meant at the very least, a fight with that particular Mexicans entire family. There’s a darker side to this, however. Chicana feminists have complicated La Familia and the female role within that construct from the very beginning–early Chicana feminists noted that allegiance to the family was just another way to keep us all barefoot and pregnant–subservient to males. Other Chicana feminists noted that allegiance to family was a way to silence us–feminist concerns like rape, abuse, welfare and sterilization practices consistantly took a backseat to nationalistic rhetoric and promotion of male run power structures.
One highlight of my blog-reading day is the series of Worst American Birthdays by D at Lawyers, Guns, and Money. For a recent example, see D’s profile of today’s Worst American Birthday: Rudy Giuliani.
Extras:
The Anti-Choice Media Blitz
Ramen Stew, $.39 a serving!
Dealer prices gas over $4 in protest
Free Speech, Dialogues, & Performance