Blogging: Getting the Hang of it

Tonight we shared food together and talked about the direction of our women's collective. Lots of brainstorms about zines, topics to discuss in more detail, advise on our relationships at work and home and the future of our blog. It had been awhile since we'd met, so it was nice to see everyone. My daughter, Caroline, sat on my lap for most of the meeting and passed to others arms during the night. It feels good to identify as a feminist, but now as a feminist mom. :) I saw that my friend Cate, who is a regular blogger and mother of two, was on a radio show recently called the Feminist Breeder. I am excited about blogging more (sort of why I decided to blog tonight before bed). I read blogs sometimes, but I'd like to read more. I'm trying to wean myself from Facebook, so I can replace it with the blogosphere. I am still uncertain sometimes about how casual or candid to be in my posts. Is it ok if I type in it like a journal? Or should it be more formal with good grammar and no sentence fragments or runons? I've mostly typed in blogs before as a stream of consciousness, just to get thoughts out onto a page. But who wants to read that!? Anyhoo, the baby is stirring. Nothing to groundbreaking in tonights blog. Though I did find an article about a radical sex group's plans to "change the way Americans think about sex". You can find the article here. I found it when I Googled "radical sex toy parties". Haha.

Jessica Valenti and Mentors

This past Wednesday, feminist author and blogger/founder of Feministing, Jessica Valenti, came to JMU and was amazing. I know a few people (in our group) said that it was great, but they didn't feel any more enlightened, but her book, The Purity Myth, goes in more depth and also elucidates some really important points.

It was really inspiring to see a feminist reaching out to a younger generation, informing us while also making us feel like our voices matter. Since I was lucky enough to spend a good portion of the day wit her, I was able to ask her lots of questions to which she gave me satisfying answers. In the midst of this, I realized that there were a lot of questions that she couldn't answer--BIG questions that are part of that on-going feminist struggle. It was kinda cool to realize that we're all in this together--she's fighting the same battles as me and we know the emotional burdens that feminism brings.

Having a very public feminist icon/idol here has made me once again consider the importance of female mentors. Though Jessica has been influential in shaping my feminist paradigm, several of my professors have also done this for me. Julie Caran and Dr. Melissa Aleman were really instrumental in making the whole event happen, encouraging and supporting me in these ventures. Dr. Mary Thompson has also been extremely supportive with Sister Speak. These women have not only helped give me the tools to accomplish these things, but they've supported & encouraged me, while respecting me as an individual. This is something of major importance that is often given lip service, but nothing else. I think we need more older women to start taking some action of their own while also showing younger women that they respect them as individuals, that they respect their ideas, and that they're on the same team in order to bring about some change.

We can do it!

Bob McDonnell = TOTAL DOUCHE

So Bob McDonnell said that disabled children are God's punishment to women. And he represents the state of Virginia. That's great.

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/02/22/virginia-delegate-handicapped-children-are-gods-punishment-women

Ughh.

spousal abuse and asylum

check out this article in the NYT!

"U.S. May Be Open to Asylum for Spouse Abuse"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/us/30asylum.html?_r=1&hp

The State of the American Woman

Time Magazine has all these articles out about the current situation for American women. I've read one so far that was pretty interesting and talked about choice with titles Ms., Miss, and Mrs. Hopefully, we can discuss some of this stuff soon!

I also thought it was pretty funny that the link at one of the essays was something along the lines on "more on women" and "women covers." How ridiculous is it that there need to be "women" covers--implying that everything else is a man's cover. Once again "other-izing" us. hmph.

Feminism article in the Breeze

There was a recent op-ed piece about feminism that is horribly misinformed. I wrote a rebuttal (quite vicious) that is listed under comments. I suggest reading both.

Let's chat!

Can you say misogynist?

CYCLING blog about cycling

so my adviser for sister speak just sent me a link to this new blog just about menstruation. how sweet is that?! the first posts i've seen are about twittering about having a miscarriage at a meeting, periods keeping young African girls out of schools, and a nice animated menstruation video. seems pretty interesting.

here's the site...
http://menstruationresearch.org/blog/

here's a video with singing menstruation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4QOQdnifk&feature=player_embedded#t=14