Afternoon slump! I'm totally dying over here. Yes, this is a LJ in blog form, thank you for noticing.

At least someone else didn't like that drapes crack.

Whiter blogging? Blogs help me procrastinate. That's why I blog.

WTF? Rumsfield resigned? Also, the press corps seem to be getting tough on the Prez.

Stupid TN! Well, the Repubs did give us crazed flyers every day in the mail about how the Demos were going to defund our troops while raising our taxes and aborting our white babies and also gay marrying the whole soccer team while giving them abortion pills, while the Demos only gave us mild mannered "Harold Ford- he likes education" or "Harold Ford: Here's a random picture of MLK Jr".

Maybe you should donate to microfinance the developing world. At least you'll feel better.

Politics is bad for my nerves so I am eating salt and pepper shrimp(which is causing my nose to run) and hey, look! it's fat wonder woman! I got a sticker maker- can't wait to use that baby again.

It's time for you all to vote. I heard on the radio that us awesome black people had been really turning out the vote in TN. Continue! Drive all your pals to vote. In TN, you have to show your license, but if you don't have any of that, you can take a photo id, utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, government document with name and address in addition to a document with your name and signature(like your social security card or credit card) or sign an affidavit of identity form. (info from here) This polling place locator will tell you where to vote. It works in all states.

Let's all work hard to win! Personally I think it'd be best if you voted for Harold Ford Jr, and no on amendment one.

Aunt B objects to beauty culture on the pain and suffering level. I've also wondered if shaving is about not liking hair, how come men don't shave their legs or sometimes even their chests, stomachs and backs, since men seem to have tons of hair in my opinion. Also, how come you don't see a lot of Limecrime style makeup? Now that's art!

I also object on the idea that tossing money in the trash is a very bad thing to do. A tip for feminine women- if you want to waste some cash on yourself, do something that is durable and you actually might enjoy for yourself, not just because someone else likes it. I know that's a shockingly radical statement as women are supposed to not have hobbies or lives outside being cute decorations, but come on. Try having a hobby. It improves your life.

The worst haiku in the world:

Huge bags hold the world
Bandaids,diapers,water,notes
women on frontlines

Stupid has eaten the MMF's student's brains.

Androgynous You scored 63 masculinity and 53 femininity!

You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 62% on masculinity You scored higher than 26% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Injured Lebanese journalist gets an award.

I feel better, so I will show you this post by the pleasureseeker. I have about as much college debt as she spent on beauty in 2005.

Also, a conversation.

Mom:I found a place that does massages and pampering reasonable so we can go!
Me: Why do I have to be pampered?
Mom: To remind you you're a girl and should be pampered
Me: I already know I'm a girl! I don't wanna be pampered.

I feel so weak I can hardly budge from the computer. It's like I can feel the energy draining. My head hurts. My mouth is dry. It seems that I'm going to have to retreat. Read Blackamazon's post on privilege.

Here are two LJ postings about girl gamers and the role of beauty: Miss Girl Gamer and What IGM thinks girl gamers are like.

I will use them to explore the gap between effective(i.e. looking for effects) and affective(trying for a certain feeling) feminism. Affective feminist would wonder why we are talking about fake girl gamers as being attention seekers, when we should be supporting women, even if they go around licking PSPs in a blatantly unsanitary manner. Effective feminists would wonder why anyone would think that beauty contests or licking PSPs helps the cause of women in gaming, as we already have plenty of ways that women are celebrated for being 'hot'.

Affective feminists would say that the effective feminists are ruining the movement because they might hurt the feelings of women who lick PSPs and post faux lesbian pictures on their myspaces and of course, they'd never become feminists as the goal of feminism is for women to feel good. But effective feminists would think affective feminists are ruining the movement because feeling good doesn't advance any goals.

Of course I'm an effective feminist. Those women know full well that they'll get rewards like attention for licking PSPs and joining beauty pageants. Heck, the winner of the beauty pageant might even get prizes. If they'd rather get those rewards than be feminists, it's their own choice. We all have our own sense of what is important in life.

We as women aren't responsible for whether other women want to work for their own liberation or not. I think that sometimes I sort of respect non feminists more than affective feminists. Nonfeminists know what they want, and how to get it. You want to be interviewed at IGN and maybe given free games? Lick a PSP, conform to beauty standards, maybe play dumb a bit.

But if you want all people everywhere to always approve of you, and to always feel good about yourself, well, that's a tricky pickle and I'm not sure a political movement could do that for you.

Shannon delights as Twisty aptly mocks an article about how this woman thinks that we fucking care about how she learned to forget feminism and love the weight watchers. I associate this sort of shit with white women because they think we fucking care. Hint: Nobody fucking cares about your dark night of the soul about nail polish or whatever.

Note: when I blame the patriarchy I'm blaming the 'really annoying system of sexism that oppresses women, although women can uphold it and be complicit with it".

Brownfemi is working hard to make us aware of the system of nation/state violence. I like this sort of stuff, because it's not a bunch of women whining about how the mean mean feminists didn't give them feminist cookies for doing the same thing they'd do anyway, but are shouting on behalf of their sisters and brothers in other countries or in their community.

That's outrage I can understand. I can get why brownfemi is upset that people are being raped and killed in Mexico. That's power I get. I don't get why I'm supposed to be mad that a feminist writer said that some other lady put parka filling in her face(which goretex is), but I can understand why you wouldn't want people to get shot.

20/20 - The Color of Privlege
Is John Stossil on 20/20 saying, seriously, that there is no such thing as white privlege? Or is he playing devil's advocate? Please, someone, help me sleep tonight...

ETA: OHMIGOD!!! Shelby STeele, author of White Guilt, says there is MINORITY PRIVLEGE!!!! White privlege is a myth apparently. Why didn't some of y'all kneegrows tell me?!

*snork* Stupidity, it's what is for dinner.

Lolita Wear.

Laredo Wear.

I was reading Brownfemi as I usally do, and a person named Labyrus(sp?) said something about Food Not Bombs, and so here's a little message from the site:

Oaxaca Rebellion
Food Not Bombs has been invited to start kitchens in Oaxaca, Mexico to support the rebellion. We need as many volunteers willing to travel to Oaxaca as soon as possible.
Conditions continue to deteriorate here as the state resorts to terrorist tactics in an effort to crush the now quite broad movement to remove the governor, Ulises Ruêz Ortêz, from office. There is far more than I can report in this note. George Salzman thinks the number of certified deaths was up to 5 by yesterday, and many have been injured, kidnapped and imprisioned. One of the people seized by the state and now incarcerated is the biologist Ramêro Aragon PZ¯rez. His illegal arrest and jailing is not more deserving of denunciation than those of any of the other political prisoners seized by the state in an effort to destroy the movement, but there's a strong effort being made to force his release by bringing international pressure to bear, and of course to publicize nationally and internationally the traagic events happening here.

One of the Oaxaca Study-Action Group members, Lois M. Meyer of the University of New Mexico , wrote on 22 Aug, "I emailed Ramiro Aragãn's wife the denunciation translated into English. She responded with the following brief and sobering message. Last Friday Ramiro was sentenced to 45 to 90 days in prison. She is hoping the letters of support will cause/force the judge to free him. "

Maybe you'd like to go down or perhaps give a donation?

It seems that children of illegal immigrants may not get the care they need. Stupid Laws: Because Feeling Good is More Important than the Health of Babies.

A good post about how hard it is to lose weight, and some discuss the suckiness of beauty standards.

Ok, I was reading along and saw this:

With a metabolism fucked up from being put on diets as a young child, there's no telling how my body will respond to anything! Which means endless rounds with a doctor, first telling you that you just need to eat less (never mind that not eating is what landed me in this place in the first place) and then telling you that nothing is wrong except your will power (because you can lose weight through will alone, did you know?) and then finally ordering tests that are inconclusive.


A-frickin-men. My Mom put me on my first diet when I was SEVEN. I just want to grab doctors by the shirt and drag them over to within hissing range and tell them through clenched teeth "Do you know what happens to a person's metabolism when they've been on a diet for thirty years?"
Not to mention that when I was first put on a diet...nobody knew jack shit about what makes a person fat. I remember when I was on the "all white is all right" diet that a DOCTOR put me on. White bread, white potatoes, white rice...gosh, why don't you just hook me up to a Crisco machine and inject me outright? Oh and then there was the cabbage soup diet which made my potassium drop so low that I had to go to the ER. And then Susan Powter's "fat's make you fat, eat lots of carbohydrates!" Richard Simmons "Deal a Meal" bullshit and the original run of Weight Watchers all things boiled and nasty tasting program.
Oy. It's enough to make a person stabby.

I feel stabby thinking about a young child being put on a diet. It was bad enough hearing the 12 year olds talk about how fat they were when I was 12, but for fuck's sake, please don't put your child on a fad diet!

Today I had the worst day ever. I had to wait an hour and a half to vote because there were not enough poll workers for the last day of early voting. I voted for Harold Ford Jr and No on 1(I also voted yes on 2, because old people getting tax breaks sounded good at the time). Then I rushed to class but the prof canceled without telling us. I had left my wallet at home so I didn't go to the Brooks Muesuem with other people.