My moral superiority is class S!


In America, we've perfected the moral superiority contest. We talk about how hard we had it, maybe embellishing a bit- smooth over the help from the rents, the good health you enjoyed, etc- while beating others about the head about how they only worked part time when you worked full time while you were in school.

Instead of us all banding together, saying hey, this system isn't working for anyone, we make it into a contest of who can do the most before they break down and crack. But when we break down, who will catch us? We can't catch others from a place of superiority.

But everyone is losing out. The people who break down and drop out. The people who would have benefited from the creativity and talent of those who aren't strong but have something to say. The children who feel the stress of their caretakers. The employers that get lower quality work.

We're not machines. We're human. When we realize this, we can work for a system that everyone can do their best in.

You know, apparently I have slutty nipples.

Ugly ass pink telescopes cause much consternation at PZ's. The problem is not so much pink as the default toy your brother will be getting from the grandparents is the EXPLOSIVE DEATH STICK 2000 and you'll be getting a disembodied head so you can do its hair. Major bummer, dude.

I am a feminist so every choice I make is feminist

From zombieroadtrip.

I think that this is sort of a hidden backlash. We have to spend all our time declaiming how we feminists are truly feminine, while folks pushing back everyone's rights have open field to mess us up! In 2010, let's kick those folks asses.

Also, I've decided that I'll identify as fucking awesome instead of as a woman. But this has no affect on you, and doesn't really matter.

I just realized why I am messy! My brother was all like clean up the living room, and then complaining about the way I cleaned it. He can have higher standards because he can expect other people to clean shit for him, and then he can complain about how it's not clean enough. I know I'll have to clean shit myself, so I STFU about mess.

Also, I thought they couldn't invent something wackier than pube shaving, but now...we have LABIA COLORANT! I have no idea how folks will defend this. But go wild, folks. I'm hoping you do your best on this! hehehehe.

Oh hahaha, now they are trying to pretend that having pink labia is somehow 'healthier' than browner labia. LOLZ, 'health'

I hear that many trans people want fewer poorly done and embarrassing grad school studies and more actual tangible help.

Here's a long considered post about why Lifestyle Activism is stupid. I'm going to riff off of it, as I usually do. Personally, I think that declaring that the stuff we are already doing is 'activism' or 'feminism'[a HUGE pet peeve of mine, as you can tell.] is just spinning our wheels. We can pretty much retcon any thing we already do into being activism. I like playing video games and reading shoujo manga. I COULD say that me playing Persona 4 is lifestyle activism because there's storylines about gender roles, and anyway, GIRL GAMER!!!!! but come on, I'm not fooling ANYONE.

I think this sort of navel gazing is pretty comfortable for those in power. I mean, me going on about how freecycle is so much fun, brings together the community, and helps clean house is NOT going to break down the capitalist system that has people hoping someone will take pity on them and give them some food.

And yea, western style liberal feminism did start with consciousness raising, but I get the feeling it wasn't about how much they loved mopping the floor, and how great those new dresses at Marshall Fields are. If they were, I'm sure it would have been a whole lot less threatening to the status quo. Sadly, the backlash is so pronounced that feminism nowadays is reduced to the modern day equivalent of saying we love to mop the floor.

Apparently you shouldn't give folks your boxes of kraft mac and cheese from 1996.

Dear the internet, I am not pleased with military women being forced to risk their health because of stupid politics. That reminds me of this Quiverfull book I am reading, in which some poor lady had to write out that her being raped while in the military was not her somehow cheating on her husband, because of some unusual church rules. Personally, I don't agree with the Quiverfull lifestyle. Yes, I disagree with some aspects of other people's lifestyles and behaviors, especially as my temperament says BUT WHAT IF YOUR HUSBAND IS AN ABUSIVE FUCK WHO IS ATTRACTED TO PATRIARCHY BECAUSE HE GETS RESPECT JUST FOR HAVING A PENIS, AND YOU HAVE TO RUN OFF, AND YOU'VE NEVER EVEN BEEN ALLOWED TO GO TO CHRISTIAN COLLEGE?! The worst case scenario, that's me! I'm sure they are all changing their lives to elicit my worldly approval.

In other news, our economic system is really inefficient. I hear 45% of Detriot's workforce is un or underemployed. We talk about how we're such a rich and powerful nation, but I can't believe that we can't get more people into good paying and decent jobs. I think a lot of the un or under employed have valuable skills we could be using, but we're so tied up with a system that throws thousands out of work if the stock price drops one cent, we can't use them.

Sadly, pearl clutching is fun and fast, and actual work is not glamorous and is slow slow. I think this is the root of the 'why don't you protest against thugs' fallacy. Being in a tutoring program, a mentoring program, isn't flashy, and becoming an activist against folks who want there to be no investment in anything that might be productive or useful is derided. Do a jobs not jails action and see what the same folks complaining about thugs say.

Instead we're supposed to hold out for a black male hero to marry us women[because all problems can be solved if those single moms just got married], and not worry our pretty little heads over unequal school funding, lack of infrastructure, and job discrimination.

There's debate about feminine pursuits.

Why are male interests considered fun and female interests considered boring? [note: it's because 'female interests' are usually work in disguise. Work to be hot, work to make people feel good, work to clean stuff, and feed people, work, work, work.]

Hey! I like masculine things, and I'm a good feminist! Hmm...well...I do see a lot of push to be like WE LOVE TRADITIONALLY FEMININE THINGS AND WE'RE FEMINIST!!! which seems to sort of pushing the rest of us who don't like baking and shaving to one side...

HELL YEAH, I LOVE SCIENCE!

Sadly, girl with dog icon, we don't.

Strangely enough, before the 90s, most women were able to survive the SUFFERING of having PUBIC HAIR, and their lives went on. Actually, I think in Europe, many women still SUFFER THE PAIN of having pubes! You know what? We on the net wouldn't have known what you do with your pubes if you hadn't told us. If you love your pubeless vulva, why drag in Andrea Dworkin and the Mean Feminists[tm]?


Also, here's some stupid. about how the ghost of Andrea Dworkin came into people's homes and made them not be ~~PRETTY~~. You know what? The real enemy of feminine women is the patriarchy- lower paying work, the mommy track, sexual violence against women, etc. It's not us *mean feminists* who question why 90% of JUST HATE HAIR people are women, or who wonder about the time and money spent to look 'acceptable' in this society as a woman as compared to the time and money for a man[notice the Nice Guy who thinks he deserves a woman at the top of society's looks tier despite his unremarkable looks and often disgusting personality].


I sometimes wish that women could accept themselves. Love the people who are working hard inside their bodies with their fat, their stretch marks, and heck, even HAIR. See the essential part of themselves not as 'how do I look?' but 'how am I moving through the world?'. I don't want to be 'a man' as much as I want to be 'treated' as a man. Pit hair? Not EW, GROSS, HOW DARE YOU! but oh well..what's next? The face I woke up with, the one I was born with and the ones I love see through thick and thin? Not YOU'D LOOK BETTER IF... but accepted as it is. My stride, not sultry and seductive, but straight ahead? Not I'LL TEACH YOU TO WALK RIGHT! but accepted. My genitalia? Not MAYBE IF IT LOOKS LIKE THIS... but loved despite the fact that I'm an mammal. My style? Not MAN, YOU'D LOOK BETTER IN HEELS, HOOP EARRINGS, A DRESS, BLAH BLAH but just seen as what I wear to keep warm.

Your enemy is not us mean feminists who wonder why, who long to understand why things are the way they are; your enemy is our society, slicing us all to bits. Maybe the gender policing doesn't hurt you- maybe you're struggling for things to be the same. That's nice and well, but realize that things will stay the status quo without I HATE HAIR! crap,ok?

Teen girls think becoming a prostitute is edgy. I think they are wrong. Violence against sex workers is real, and stigma. It's not all happy hookers and ~empowerment~. And not to mention, what if the police extort you for sex? That's sick.

For some reason, I'm not so sure that rounding up homeless folks using the police is the best approach. Many homeless people might be scared of the police. I think it's a shame that there's no free shelter in Memphis. The Peace and Justice Center is being slammed here for thinking long term, but sometimes you need to think long term.

Just having sweeps every time there's a frost doesn't touch the problem at all.

Sex trafficking scandal breaks in Korea- K pop fans more worried about their favorite stars than the girls who were raped in sex slavery ring.

A woman died in the marathon today. I saw the runners coursing down the streets, trying to pace themselves, and trying not to be distracted by onlookers. I felt pretty impressed, as I'm more of the 'lay down and cough' type, although recently, I've been complaining more about how my side feels like someone kicked me in it...

Some stupid article pisses me off again.


Apparently, women who drink, don't drink, have jobs, don't have jobs, who aren't high maintenance, who are high maintenance, etc, shouldn't be dated.

Oh yea, and this is a good one. Hahaha, WOMEN! YOU NEED TO BE FEMININE! SO GET BREAST IMPLANTS!

...is this site a joke? I sure hope it is, but I cant tell...

OH NO! WOMEN OVER THE AGE OF 20 HAVEN'T SETTLED DOWN TO BABIES AND A 'PROPER' FEMININE ROLE! NOW, THEY ARE OUT, HAVING SEX WITH MEN OF THEIR OWN AGE OR YOUNGER! BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!

30% of children are in poverty in Memphis- Memphians' answers? complain about single moms. Hey you! YOU can mentor a child today!

The scoring on state report cards confuses me, personally.

I think people should stop going OMG, THEY ARE DRINKING SODA ON MY TAX DOLLARS! especially since in Memphis, half of our kids are being fed from food stamps. Our system is so inefficent because we're overly worried about 'morality'- measured in how many jobs you can have before you can collapse, in how little pleasure you have in your life, and god forbid you have children! Man, I'm a child freer, but if you like children, you should be allowed to have them!

Let's stop judging folks on things like that for the holidays,ok?

About the craving for a space of purity and protection for young girls I think that we can create spaces that aren't about some man has to save you or YOU GOTTA BE SEXUAL IN THIS WAY, RIGHT NOW! I think that maybe we can write counternarratives or something...

I was expecting something about how race might complicate Tiana and that Naveen's relationship- say, if they declared him 'white', could they get together? But if folks say he's 'black', wouldn't he get sick of the shoddy treatment? What about his home country? What would they think about that?

But NO! We get 'black women are single because they are holding out for a black hero'. Whaaaat? There's no pervasive cultural messages about the desirability of black women?! We don't get any shit like "I can't date a black woman...they don't like opera"[but women of other races don't like opera much either!!!]?! No! It's because when asian, white and latino men are blanketing us with marriage proposals, we're saying no? I'm not seeing it.

And maybe some women don't marry because they don't want unsuitable men*, did you ever think about that?

*I say 'men' because everyone is too picky about marriage laws lately. They barely will let women marry women, even though plenty of people would enjoy marriage that way!

How the Girls of Sudan Became Lost- with a combination of cultural misogynies.

How people living sustainably with the land became victims of large NGOs!

Wow, this 'if white women were black women' post just kicked my ass with awesome!

Personally, no wonder our economy is full of old socks if people can't hire folks because they had a sensible wedding instead of total insanity.

Darn, and just when mamitamala had healed my soul by noting that the idea that everyone has to earn everything is kind of silly. It might be 'unamerican' to say so, but I always feel I never measure up. IT'S A DEEP HOLE IN MY SOUL!

The patriarchy hurts women who have something against Asians too.

I think maybe this neurosis about having hair that's not on your head is sort of a culture bound syndrome, but then again, maybe I don't understand femininity. The idea of being a mammal causing enough angst to self maim your vag confuses me greatly.

Also, stupid free.

Is VaginaPagina a safe space for poor WOC? Some think not.

White feminists fight about knitting!

In the comments of this article about hunger, people deny that it exists in America. These people are idiots.

White feminists are discussing the sex lives of beauty queens. While personally, I don't like the word 'prudery' here- as it's usually used as a slam towards women who have their own sexual boundaries, I do agree with the bit about how female genitalia is considered unclean. A wing wong is considered lovable[unless it's attached to a woman- then it's OMG, A TRAP!!] unconditionally, but a vagina? They gotta be hairless, the labia has to look like this, and of course, there should be no stretch marks on the body around it...HEY, HOW COME I NEVER GET LAID?!

And in this PORN IN PUBLIC article, I get the vibe that we're supposed to be like that lady who is like ha! man! I love being exposed to porn in public! It's a dominance display in my mind. Look! I can expose you to my sexual fetishes and you can't do anything about it! Yea, and I can expose you, and your kids to my erect wing wong! I got a wing wong- gotta love it!

If you watch porn in the library, you need to be smacked, imo.

New study shows that serial rapists, who make up a large portion of rapes, deserve a foot in the face.

Hey, newsweek guy! We haven't given up! But the truth is that we might be working hard, but other folks work against. While it was wrong for dude to punch chica here in the face, the bull people spout pushes us back. The space between us increases every time folks attack us with their hurtful words. Then again, the idea that dads are a magic panacea also increases the space between us and our goals.

Or maybe I should say, the idea that only men, and only biological fathers can be 'dads' widens the space. We can all help protect children from the violence of the world and nurture their growth. We can all be 'dads' for the children- we just need to broaden our perspective.

But looking from another perspective, saying we need dads in the homes means we don't have to do anything. I mean, what can we do? If only she had stayed with that dude! We have no complicity in the conditions- it's all the fault of people who aren't getting married. It's easy for us, isn't it?

People talk about achievement issues, in an unhelpful manner. Less bitching about the morals of other people/other people's children- more connections to mentoring or tutoring. Although with folks' funky ass attitudes, they won't be much help. They'll be the sort of people who think 12 year olds all go to school with shivs or the type of person who gives a little kid who wants some potato chips a lecture about how they should work for their potato chips or something.

So on second thought, bump that.

I don't think doctors should have to write referrals to acupuncture, because some stuff just doesn't count as health care. It's like having to have a doctor write a prescription for taking a warm bath with smelly stuff in it. Probably no effect beyond placebo, but it's unlikely to actually harm anyone either.

Colorlines wonders why film about poor black people by rich black people stays silent on the political realities of 1980s Harlem.

Is it me or is the rate of unemployment for black men without high school double the rate for white men without highschool?

High drop out rate not helped by our THEY JUST LAZY attitude.

Slactivists debate whether we should give a quarter to some drunk guy on the street or not.

Some dumbfuck police officer has sex with prostitutes while on duty. People are concerned that he may be a rapist[have sex with me so I won't arrest you is also rape, dudes]

I get the feeling this article might be classist.

Can flu shots prevent premature babies?

Kai Chang's PC essay has become popular again in recent days.

I find that I am unable to write lately.

Now crazies are spreading insanity by car flyers!

The sex industry is depressing, white feminists learn.

The struggles of a mom struggling with a child with cancer and the silly practices of woo woos.

Not vaxing your kids can cause outbreaks of disease. Guy hated for saying the obvious.

This lady had a point until she got to the prostitution part. THE MALE ORGASM ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT, DUDES. Many women aren't getting laid, but do we see oh, it's necessary to have a class of folks taking care of the need of women to orgasm? NOOO. For some reason, prostitution as a vaguely unpleasant job makes me imagine hundreds of women clenching their teeth and imagining themselves a world away as some dude pumps away, and that image disturbs me. It seems like the image of rape for me, and I can't make the two be different in my head.

Sexist jerks try to use 'prude' to silence, but geek girl sees through that mess. The reason they use 'prude' is that they know it's effective. In this society, women are supposed to be 'fun' and 'sexy' with a 'sense of humor'. Strangely, men aren't expected to have a sense of humor about pictures of extremely hung men in speedos in unrelated presentations. And no, the answer isn't to put more inappropriate pictures of men everywhere- it's to put sex in proper perspective.

There's a time for near nudes and crude jokes and there's a time for getting down to business. A professional conference is the time for getting down to business.

Hey, annoying Memphis flyer guy, get a clue! 1st, what's with this 'trannies' mess? Thanks for the offensive language. And what's with the wah, a rapper mentioned white cops beating down black dudes? Dude dude dude. Mentioning this isn't what is preventing racial reconciliation- it's worrying about some rapper mentioning reality over the problem of the police being poorly trained!

But I guess the gulf between us can't be bridged. Even though I'm middle class, our experiences are too different. It's quite a tragedy.

The fire that killed those children was a tragedy, and you should never leave two year olds alone. But the comments here, I think are wrong. For example, I don't think people are OMG HAVING BABIES FOR THE WELFARE. Note that the MAXIMUM cash benefit for a family of three is $185. Parents, and those who know parents compare that with the expense of raising *one* child for a month. Even using food stamps as a medium of exchange, a family of three would 'earn' $300 from those food stamps. In comparison, if you worked 20 hours a week at MCDonalds for a month, you would earn $580[gross.] and that is less work than having two kids.

Also, I am sort of wonky about the OMG, THEY SHOULD BE STERILIZED posse. That reminds me too much of the involuntary sterilizations of the past. I believe that not having a baby is fine and having babies is good too. A woman can use her fertility if she wants to. I say this because it's so easy to be a 'bad mother' nowadays. If you're single, poor, are black, according to a lot of people, the joy of motherhood should elude you forever. Bumpkis to that.

and on an unrelated note:
I think we get ourselves into the 7 year degree trap with our own work ethic. We should give our students the ability to really focus on school itself, instead of YOU SHOULD BE WORKING 5 JOBS, BEING IN TWO COMMITTEES, AND PARTYING EVERY NIGHT sort of attitude we have.

CA talks about crime. In comments we get a bunch of stereotypes and failed policies.

In other news, it seems that social work programs have been cut.

I learned that Alexis Pauline Gumbs is in Utne's visionaries. I thought that poem she read on the SPEAK! CD should be handed out to every middle schooler on the planet. I'm so envious. She and bint are people who I love, but make me sad because I'm the opposite. Their love is truly radical, and heals others and gives them courage. I used to be the human bomb- tearing into others without remorse, but now I'm just a slacker. They say that to encourage others gives them courage, and that's what they do. People who can connect to others are special.

Unrelated, I'd like to upgrade a comment I made to this blog:

Yea, as an evil rad fem, I'd like to be like consent is important because of bodily integrity, not because it's 'sexy'. Consent isn't a performance of the feminine role as the provider of 'sex', it's an affirmation of our own integrity!

I learn that Rainbow Brite is now 'a slut'. Now, there's a critque to be made about how girl's characters now have to be 'fashionable', but this whole slutty thing is too far.

We probably will never be able to move forward, I think. Note this article. Apparently, the whole problem with Memphis AND Detriot is not anything crazy like economic issues, infrastructure or education. It's black mayors not being nice enough to white folks. I guess that's convenient for all of us. We don't have to do anything if that's the problem. We'll elect a new mayor, and if he's not all we desire, it'll be his problem.

That reminds me- a man from Chicago was talking about reducing violence against children in the school system.

But in many neighborhood high schools, adults add to a culture of aggression. Security guards holler, teachers curse. Kids get physical and adults do to.

A year ago this week I was at Robeson High School reporting another story. Robeson is now one of the 38 schools targeted for a culture makeover.

It was October 16, about 3 PM, sunny…Students were leaving school. I was driving out of the parking lot when I saw one of Robeson’s assigned police officers grab a boy and slam him against a police car.

The officer raised his arm and hammered the side of the boy’s head, smashing it into the car. Another officer held the boy, even though he wasn’t putting up a fight. The first officer punched him in the face again.

I stopped my car and scrambled to turn on my tape recorder…This is all I got—the police sending away the crowd of kids who'd gathered.

POLICE: Get the f*** away now! Get this motherf***** in the back of your car! I headed for a group of kids who saw the beating.
UTTON: Did you see it?

GIRL: Yes I did. OK. The little boy was walking he looked like he was on his way home. The police just ran up on him, grabbed him from behind, boom boom boom—started punching him all in his face

GIRL2: And then the other police officer… In the past four years, CPS says there have been more than 400 cases of district employees physically abusing students. That includes everything from coaches paddling athletes to kids being hit with staplers. Huberman says he wants to re-train security guards as part of his culture of calm—he’s even suggested a security guard academy.


That sort of chaos where the adults are useless or may even be contributing to the violence... I don't think children can learn much in that environment. Instead of us believing our children[the children of the city are the children of all the city, I say] are always chaotic evil maybe a more nuanced understanding of the world would help our cities?

Hey, random, dude, I don't know you, but I'd shut up about what Egyptian women want to wear right about now. I'd like us all to live in an amazing feminist utopia, but if women want to work with their religious beliefs and cultural values, I'm not sure I should just go and say they are all subjugating themselves.

Horoscopes:

Aquarius: You will swim through sea loogies today.
Pisces: Have you ever been a vegan French-African fusion chef? You might want to look into that. Yes, no exceptions.
Aries: You're an asshole.
Taurus: Tea is unlucky.
Gemini: Three words: quarters in socks.
Cancer: You have too many shoes.
Leo: Your room is a mess. Therefore, no booty for you.
Virgo: Fish will feature much in your future.
Libra: You can't fight the power with haricot vert.
Scorpio: You're doomed. Go back to bed.
Sagittarius: Your head will become pointier.
Capricorn: They won't get your Greek soul today.

Today's Horoscopes:

Aries: Your plans will fail.

Taurus: Your plans will succeed.

Gemini: You will do something helpful.

Cancer: You will bake lasagna. Yes, even if you don't know what it is.

Leo: Eat something sweet.

Virgo: Eat something salty. Remember everyone is having a good time, but you.

Libra: Today is a good day for art.

Scorpio: You will contribute greatly to a wiki. Yes, even if you don't know what a wiki is.

Sagittarius: You will have an awesome time in New York. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Capricorn: Your secret swiss bank account is not so secret anymore.

Aquarius: Your secret kink is not so secret anymore.

Pisces: Fanfiction will figure greatly into your day.

Lucky Color: Red

Lucky Food: Sausage

Lucky Item: Bologna.

South Korean mothers fight for their right to raise their own children, wed or unwed. Personally, I think single moms aren't pathological. Doing your best to raise a child is a good thing, and slamming single moms is just cruel.

Oh, this is a good one. First it accuses feminists of being 'crazy', which is all fun what with the sexist bit about women speaking their mind=insanity, and the ableist assumption that the mentally ill don't have valid opinions. We also have the great use of 'retarded', because nobody on the net is disabled, or knows any disabled people,and BUT SOMETHING ELSE IS WORSE, and also, if we don't like porn, we're dumb.

Why don't you just stick to 'you hate sex, and are ugly?' pro porners. [edit: they took this down, after much twitter complaint.]

A JAM? I laugh and WTF. I hear that transfolks are full of rage over folks going around saying 'hey, let's name people's genitalia!'

Conspiracy theory monday! I think a lack of health care aggravates underlying conditions, leading to flu deaths.

Do you live in Hernando? They are looking for two stupid white males who didn't have the sense not to shoot at people on the road.

The reason people react so negatively to scorn on single parents, etc, is that it's not very useful. If scorning women for having kids worked, then we wouldn't be talking about this. It's all talking about the morals of other people's children- unless you're down in the trenches working to make things better, you just seem like some random classist.

In other news, doing girly stuff continues to baffle me.

People in other countries don't understand how an ER visit can put you in debt. They think you only wait 2 hours and spend $200 dollars. LOLOLOL!

Assholes with strange fixations on barely teen girls and who are rapists apparently get less time than folks who are drug addicts

It seems that whiny and homophobic emails get you fired from black colleges. A lot better than republican parties in which they can put racist emails everywhere and get away with a fake apology.

Well...old maid for lyfe!

Well...here's some waste, fraud and abuse we can cut out of our healthcare system.

Overall good article, but what's with the 'bad sex' thing?

I bet the 'I was helping the poor' excuse wouldn't fly if a woman was buying shoes online during work.

BfP makes arching connections in the case of Roman Polanski. I think it is psychological, but I think everything is. If we like Polanski, we try to make up reasons why he is justified, even in monstrosity. Then the comments get into self hating folks. Well, I think most of us have a need to be one up. This is why 'solutions' in the complaining about the morals of other people's children genre are so popular. "Man', we say, 'if only those other people taught their children to not have sex/study/to get JAYSUS, we'd all be fine'. We don't have to do anything, since it's all the fault of those other people, with their terrible ways, and we get to feel great about ourselves! Anyway, I think that even though sometimes folks do say fuck you, I choose my choice! the critique that people internalize negative standards is still valid.

This is getting rambly, so hey, let's go and slap the author of a triggery fanfic in the face.

I agree with this lady. I think that raping a 13 year old is just asking for trouble, and I don't have any sympathy for this dude. Women get 'well, you're just asking for trouble' for drinking a beer, wearing clothing, or just existing, but guys can get away with giving drugs to 13 year olds[wrong], having sex with them[wrong] against their will[triple wrong score], and get people acting like we're somehow big meanies.

Really, guys, certain things are near guaranteed to be trouble. Teen girls? Don't do them. Really, and remember- you don't have to screw someone the minute you meet them. Get to know them. Because sleeping with a 12 year old? is wrong. Gang bangs on the floor of restrooms are also just asking for trouble as well. You can cry about the big misunderstanding and how she 'cried rape', but common sense says 'hey, don't do it. It's better to err on the side of not being a rapist, I say.

BTW: you think prostitution is cute and fun? Apparently it's not so for women in the Eastern Bloc.

Jobs will never come back to some areas. Will we change our ideas or keep going on with the same moral model that has failed us for my entire lifetime? Will we keep blaming single moms for our problems?

My favorite part of this show was the part about how native people who were living sustainably were pushed out of national parks for conservation's sake.

People daydream about worklife balance. I wonder who the system works for. I envy those folks.

...I'm somehow unsettled by the idea that recanting makes it not rape...

Thanks for being an asshole, dude [triggers] Hey, lady who wrote this: YOU'RE NOT TO BLAME. Your boyfriend is. And don't bitch this lady out for sharing her sexual fantasies. She doesn't have magical fucking powers. She didn't know that her boyfriend was a totally moralless asshole. And all who blame this woman for her rape, YOU'RE ASSHOLES AND I HATE YOU. SHAME ON YOU. SHAME.

Young people are cheerful about being asexual.

People talk about the extremely obvious fact that young folks are learning about sexual practices from internet porn.

Marcotte sparks a flamewar on pretty pink princesses by talking about anal sex in porn.

In other news, apparently teen horror flicks need to be feminist nowadays. Just because a director is a woman doesn't mean she won't put out crappy horror flicks.

Young workers live with parents, due to the fact that practicality trumps bragging rights.

I don't think I have the ability to make it on my own. But for the rest of you who are working hard, I'll have a flower and a cup of water for you.

Do new fads for childcare cause women an undue burden? School bus routes are being cut all across the country. Some charge it isn't safe, due to traffic patterns. I especially enjoy the random racist guy in these comments who comes in to complain about integration. Buses to school are important so that the kid can get to school if mom's car breaks down or mom doesn't have a car, or the city bus is extremely unreliable...

Let's have a fourth wave! Or not.

While I don't think doctors don't care about patients, I am laughing at the idea of brazilians before birth.

I'll tell you funny anecdotes about medical care now. Through medical care, I learned that one of my ears hears worse than the other, that 'no, that's not a normal color for pee', ultrasound paddles are really phallic, I'm really very allergic to grass, trees, and weeds, and that warm prune juice will really cure constipation.

In other news, any beauty thing that requires a mild anesthetic to be done will not be done. Why are girly things so painful? Waxing, high heeled shoes[especially those that don't respect the toe box], relaxing your hair, putting Nair on your armpits... Also, it's fun that women don't face greater dilemmas, such as give up your child to be a servant in the city so they can eat, or keep them with you, but risk they go hungry, or anything! Ha ha! We're so carefree!

I hear Hugo needs to STFU.

Flu woo debunked.

The wacky world of banking.

Hey, dudes, rape, beating women, and economic abuse is 'fashionable'! All on the prostitution train!

Our way of work is making us sick. And job hunting is ridiculous.

The idea that only parents can transmit values to children is part of our claustrophobic culture which makes parenting a lonely enterprise. Adults, such as teachers, coaches, neighbors, church members, have an important role in transmitting values. Yes, sometimes, even the President can transmit values! It's all good.

That reminds me of the fact that even if the poor didn't buy suspicious Nikes for $40 off the street, they'd still be poor. And no, not paying a dollar for hot chips will not pull the poor out of poverty. Really. I can make a graph about it!

I'm reading No Impact Man, and I am still not convinced that we work so hard just to buy stuff like Bermuda vacations and prada sneakers. Now to me, there's a lot of social pressure not to be a slacker. Long hours are a badge of pride. Tons on your plate just means you're a more valuable person. Bint says to think that my work has the same value, but truly, I do do a lot less of it. I'm not saying we all need a new $300 purse every season[I don't get it truly], but I don't think that our workoholic ways are all keeping up with the Joneses.

Also, fake academics get ripped apart by Ben Goldacre, and also, fanfic writers are called pleasant and literate.

Science debate in unfunnybusiness.

President says STAY IN SCHOOL. This is SOCIALISM, and will lead to the children being the protagonists of urban fiction novels. So let your children skip school, because they shouldn't learn anything for a whole day because of the creeping socialism.

Urban fiction mad lib here:

On the [insert negative adjective here] streets of [insert city here], [insert 'street job'] [insert name] tries to get out of the [negative adjective] life. But he/she keeps being pulled by in by [insert humorous ghetto name]. Will they be able to resist the lure of the street?

Thanks to the internet, I learn that 'sex' is defined as 'pornified commodified sexuality'. And the Song of Solomon is just like Bang Bus or All Ghetto Whores Apply Here for Creampies! Man! All I need to do to avoid having terrible images of sexuality considered the norm by the next generation is to dump assholes! Wow! What a simple solution!

By the way, I was waiting to be interviewed, and there was this stupid cartoon movie on. First, why are there male cows? He has udders, but is called Otis and stuff. For some reason, I am not thinking this is some sort of comment on the importance of the transgendered experience. Also, why are there female gendered cows[denoted by giant pink bow on head] that have to do all the caring work?

I was going to have some comments on this nsfw, triggers for rape and drug abuse post, but then I felt a bit overwhelmed. All I could think is 'don't allow advice giving in therapy groups', which was not a very interesting or deep thought.

After reading some stupid crap about how us people struggling with chronic depression and anxiety just need to do some exercise and live the virtuous middle class life of buying vitamins and herbs from large companies, who...hey...advertise their wares on tv.

Not to mention, the demands of American life are quite extreme, leaving less time for therapy sessions, rest, and rejuvenation. I personally am anxious by temperament, but the no safety net american lifestyle sure isn't helping. I avoid caffiene, but it's still hard for me to sleep.

Also, I saw this article on how asian american women are suffering from depression.

In the letter down the page the nitty gritty of health care, I learn that all of our chronic illnesses would be solved if people didn't smoke. wow dude! I didn't know that smoking was bad for you!

What is this fuckery? No means no, you know.

In a random note, many of us black women have different textures on the same head. I have wooly and kinky in back and sides, but on the top and front are straighter, with no curls at all.

I CHOOSE MY CHOICE!

Also I have graduated but still get emails saying WE HAVE THE SWINE FLU UNDER CONTROL! WASH YOUR HANDS.

Hey! I have thoughts! Back in the bad old days, we didn't talk about sex because it was dirty or sinful. Now we draw a curtain across the bedroom. It's all between consenting adults. Don't dig! Not our business! There's a weird tension here between the whole Girls Next Door thing where porn style sexuality is alluded to often,even if not discussed explicitly or the idea that all men love porn or porn style sexuality, and the idea that once you close your door, society is locked out of your secret parlor of delight.

But I'm a nosy nosy bastard. What does it mean 'to be good in bed'? How is that shaped by the barrage of images we see of what sexuality is and the discourse we have around it with others? When people equate porn with sex education, what's up with that? Are submissive women considered the gold standard? What about the role of annoying Viagra commercials and your stupid friends in the school yard? Are fetishes innate? Do you get hot over girls in kimonos?

Adminstrator working with those darn kids works too hard; passes out.

If you want to bail out a translady accused of window breaking, you can.

I hear that on ABC 'mad pride' activists will discuss their experience of mental illness. Support systems, self help groups and coping skills, such as the use of art, can be very helpful for those with mental illness, but medication can also be an important adjunct. I am an anxious motherfucker, so I use some medication to have some base calmness, then add other interventions on top.

On Pandagon, folks are debating about whether facials are degrading. Personally, I'm categorically not a 'cool girlfriend'. Whether I'm supposed to enjoy semen in the face, messing up my hair do, or whether the next trend is to masturbate in front of my boyfriend using only my feet[as my hands are tied] whilst he holds up score cards, I can say, fuck no. If you're scared of being a prude, you can end up not having fun during sex, which is bad bad ju ju in my opinion.

Personally, I think that's where the commidification of sex goes wrong. Instead of a fun thing to do to pass the time, it has to be a four ring circus, with demands for more and more extreme acts to 'spice things up'.

Hey, sex workers are being entrapped,named and shamed[but at least not pictured in this crime report, although they usually do, and the crime report fan club makes rude comments]. Note that in this crime report comments, one guy suggests the prostitutes are of a 'certain' race.

In other news, pimps are preying on vulnerable children in group homes and having them prostitute themselves.[note that they are worried about social networking, not the environment in her group home] The people who need to be shamed are those who'd pay for sex acts with a 14 year old girl.

On facebook, people are against glorifying the lives of pimps.

In Memphis, you can no longer flunk kindergarten.

I was thinking that when people make a big stink about OMG FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS, usually there's a understory that makes this make sense. Like the college suing story, apparently this girl got had. I thought, there should be a law! The McDonald's story is like that as well. The lady got 3rd degree burns. No coffee should be that hot! When talking about this in college, the guy who I was debating with was pretty much "I don't care about the facts of the case". And I guess that's the way it is with a lot of these stories about how everyone is trying to defraud everyone else. We crave the narrative that greedy selfish people are stealing everyone blind, and we can't trust anyone. I don't get why we love it so much. I think it's breaking down our society. The reason our government 'doesn't work' because we're always making up a million rules so that one girl can't sell plates of food while she's on welfare or something.


OMG, where did this lady bury this guy's body? major triggers.

BTW: I'm glad I'm not a cool girlfriend either. If I had just had a baby, yea, dude can use his hands for a while.

Ok, so instead of dusting, I'm on twitter a lot. I bother nezua and mamitamala by writing replies like "Yay, baybies!" and "Man! I am against punching immigrants in the face!" So when I heard that they were involved in dramas, I was all nosy. Apparently some guy is being a dick, and mala gets mad. Thanks to the net, we get to see that mala is really hot. In that situation, irl, I would have probably started apologizing for everything ever.

Also, we learn about the horrid 'voodoo' afoot as the white house.

Some guy probably needs to learn of the many different ways to give and receive sexual pleasure. Folks, it's important to notice that acting like a dick about sex might temporarily get you laid, but on the other hand, it can destroy your relationship, leading to divorce.

I also think people overempathize sex. Sex isn't the basis of a healthy relationship- trust, maturity, and equal distribution of work is the basis.

Some guy says medicare for all! tiny american flags for some!

Yea, I'm in the same place, problem. I feel like job hunting and after grad stuff is a ton of work though.

bfp talks about how add jokes aren't funny, and people talk about fitting work around people, around families, around life instead of the opposite.

In the comments here, Mnem gets all pissed because we don't pay enough attention to the fact that you can drop weight if you make it your prime life goal.

People are thinking deeply about language and sighted privilege, as I am failing the whole cleaning deal.

Time magazine tells us common knowledge- you can spend an hour exercising and then drink a Gatorade and calorically it's a wash. Not to mention the idea that you have to spend a hour vigorously exercising every day is pretty discouraging to folks like me who are dragging their tired bones every where.

As usual, I have no idea what's going on, but mamitamala is writing from the heart about space, the commercialization of the blogosphere, and people trying to protect her without her best interest at heart.

My aunt once asked why I was not higher maintenance. My body is already a strict machine, requiring abundant sleep, rest and food. The higher maintenance you are- the more hair style, makeup, brand name clothing and bags you require- the longer your work day becomes. I'll pass on the $300 bags, and take some sleeep instead.

I don't get these crazy authoritarian types saying that because dude was drunk, it was OK for him to die in jail. Driving drunk is a very bad idea. But it's not death penalty worthy. It's take a class worthy. Maybe even take your license worthy. But there's no need to kill somebody over it.

I have no idea what's going on, but this comment about nursing homes and bedsores seems like serious business. I want to be somehow supportive, but I'm not any help.

Maan, I don't want to go to graduation.I wonder if being a slacker is just my natural bent..

Maan, that's messed up dude. The whole killing folks in jail thing is messed up.

Worrying about the appearance of your vulva squicks me. Of course, the idea of throwing thousands of dollars down the drain shocks me too. It's just another area where we're supposed to compete now. Man, I hate american society.

Work life balance is addressed. I don't have any kids, and I have to admit that I do better when I have a lot of breaks to do other things, to sleep a lot, etc.


My mom says she is bad at math, but when she was pregnant with me, she did the books for a radio station.

I have to admit, the reason why I am making fun of that wife[I didn't comment, but somewhere in my heart, I LOL'd] is because that's just my personality.

I admit I did go wtf at her husband not letting her watch Friends. and laughed that she sneaks around to wear purple tights. Why do I laugh? Ok, I have to admit I'm uncomfortable and on edge these days. After hearing all day about people with husbands that say 'You're trash! No one will want you because you have kids!", this woman seems like she thinks stuff that's not quite abuse but might turn into it, is somehow this romantic ideal. It's funny because it is like a train wreck. Something tragic is happening, but you can't look away. You must laugh because you feel you may be hit by a train one day.

I'm an old maid, but what if someday I become a bride and end up having the love I thought I had dissolve into 'No sailor moon DVDS and perm that hair, you look a mess'. So I laugh. And I feel better.

OK, and I think he is being a dick about her weight. What if she has a baby? she's going to get fat then.

Thanks to the Commercial Appeal, I learn of the great evil of not chopping cotton in 90 degree weather for $7.50 an hour. Maybe people's great disgust with OMG, WELFARE! is that it disrupts the whole ideal of a serf class[ideally darker skinned], who can be counted on to chop cotton for $3 a day. Although why they don't like illegal immigrants is a mystery to me. And yea, I'm not going to be doing backbreaking labor for $7.50 an hour. My back hurts as it is.

Here I see another one of our woman obligations- be in a double bind. Deceptive Tranny/OHNOESTRANNY!!! Prude/Slut Overly involved mother/lazy 'mammy' Working mom who neglects the kids/lazy 'welfare mom'. Note that some of these are racialized and some of these are...I don't know the word for 'particular to the transgendered experience'.

In other news, NPR tries to debunk Canadian healthcare myths.

Crazy anti health care nuts try to disrupt local congress man's town hall.

Are these crazies organized?

Your baby will not explode if you formula feed.

Those darn kids don't get their paychecks again.

My hair was first "relaxed" at 4, and stayed that way until I shaved my head at 17. I still remember the huge scabs relaxer gave my scalp.

said by spike on twitter.

I'm glad someone else got huge scabs on their scalp from relaxer. I always feel awkward when people say you should get a relaxer; be professional! And I'm thinking 'why would I waste hours and tons of money on that?" My hair hates the idea of straightness. It grows quickly, and when I relax it, it's a small layer of straightness over tons of new growth.

Ok, I was reading Pandagon[ok, I know, I know] and some asshole was all like I MUST MURDER WOMEN BECAUSE THEY WON'T GIVE ME ANY SEX. Personally, I think this is also a result of our idea that sex is super important and central to life. No one would accept the excuse that going 20 years without pizza makes murder OK, and pizza is more fulfilling than sex with creepy assholes who don't know where the clit is or about getting a woman hot before putting it in.

There's way more in life than getting laid. I assure you. Maybe we should value building a life and building a community over a single sexual relationship. If this guy and the pick up artist guys spent as much time developing themselves and connecting to others as they spend complaining about us bitches, this would be a better world.

Needles in your ear?

If dudes had dick pain whenever they had sex, we'd be all racing for the cure to that.

People consider the race and class issues inherent in Food, Not Bombs. I wasn't doing any of this, I was spaced out and hermanaresist, I think?, anyway, she was posting this on twitter, and I think my imaginary audience likes these articles.

While I'm waiting for the world to change, I'd like to bitch about those damn kids. Those damn kids may or may not congregate around the building where my class is held. They perpetrate crimes against fashion, Memphis style. I can't remember exactly what they are, but they are there. They use bad language. I dropped a water bottle near them and one swore, saying bitch please! Due to the stimulus money, there's a lot more of them than usual, swelling the coveted ranks of the jobs program. They talk to women who are much older than them, even calling my prof a drink of water, she reports. Some boys in semi preppy vests tried to talk to me. I think they used ma'am. When their paychecks are late, they are antsy. Some may be trying to pay rent or funnel money to little brothers or sisters, and some may want the latest shirt to deal with the all consuming rites of adolescence.

I can't help but thinking there would be a big difference in reaction if the crimes against fashion committed were hunting camo, confederate flags or redneck tattoos. I say this, but the sea of class is between us. Something else divides us, but I can't name it. A former honor student; all my effort has gone to dust. I half want the kids to blaze their own paths, but the other half of me says THOSE DAMN KIDS!

I was reading Pandagon[yes, I know!] and I thought that the fact that I am a slacker is greatly determined by my gender. I work 30 hours a week in my nonpaid job. Now, for a dude, that would be great! But as a woman, I'm expected to do girly crap[with what money? and you can spend all day in the beauty shop, just sitting there], clean stuff, etc. I'm an old maid at 25, so I don't have to do a bunch of wedding planning or fool with kids[today I had a hard time thinking of a solution for a woman who wanted a changing table our bathroom didn't have]

Possibly related, is bfp's story about health. The health care debate pains me because we talk about cost,cost, cost, and nothing about the cost of keeping everyone sick! Or the cost of being a woman doing a complicated calculus about how many cups of rice are in your pepper and how many points that is. Or the cost of being a little kid asking for an adult's chips and getting a lecture about working for what you want.

I think about this guy at work. He's biked from 18 miles to get his classes and drug tests so he doesn't have to spend a weekend, a week in jail. So he doesn't have to miss work and lose money for his wife, his nine grandkids. There's so much going on, that even I, a middle classer apparently closer to the ground than those on their lofty perches talking about how if health care was free, we'd use more of it.

What about the cost of our babies born too little, too soon, too sick? What about that?

Apparently Harlan Ellison, a sci fi writer, is a racist. Kay Tempest Bradford? Vaguely I feel she's a good writer, maybe. I should probably write. Sometimes I can use grammatically correct sentences.

I learn that if only we ate organic and ran 500 miles a day, we'd all be healthy and wouldn't need that pesky 'health care' Wow! I bet we never thought of that before! Hold the phones, smart folk! Don't spend years and years thinking about class, social structure, and even...ACTUAL BIOLOGY?! Heh, the germ theory of disease, the fact that cancer is a multifaceted illness that can't always be warded off by eating organic tomatoes, and the simple fact that shit happens and you might want to use medical science to take care of that fucking sucking chest wound you have there doesn't matter. Man, folks who don't know shit are the experts of our time.

Voz comes back.

BFP had an important and lifechanging experience at the AMC.

I'm going to lay down and write a blog post.

I discovered that yesterday a blogger nicknamed shemale[megan julca, I believe. She used to hang around stupidfree a lot and people would make possibly transexist jokes about how they'd hit it] blogged about the whole piny voz thing. I have no important insight about this matter. I was just about to go to bed, and then I noticed that I had opened that post 11 hours or so ago. Well, enjoy!

I promised to bitch about my pain, and it's 5:30 in the morning and my shoulder is all sore and my head hurts, so I will write about it. I don't hurt a lot , but I hurt often. I swear, at least 5 or 6 days a week, *SOMETHING* hurts. Most often it is my shoulders, upper back or head, but sometimes I'll randomly get pain in my wrists, fingers, ankles, and knees too. Sometimes my arms hurt now that I think of it. You know, in typing all this, I forgot where I was going with this. Maybe I was going to talk about chronic pain that isn't bad enough to use narcotics on? Or was I just bitching? Also, why am I still awake? and why aren't I sleepy? Well...I'll figure it out later.

Neuroatypicals write funny bingo cards. card 1 card 2. There are many things I may not be able to do normally, but my different abilities have become part of me. I understand that many want to be cured, but I don't know. They say that cure is not healing or recovery, or was it that healing or recovery is not cure?

These guys deserve a good punch in the face.

Hey voz has deleted her lj.

I'm an outlier as well. I always have to say, 'shut up, mcjudgeypants'. It takes me forever to drag my body with its aching, hollow feeling bones around the block. You, with your ability to run ten miles on one leg, are also an outlier, but I'm always being beaten with your example. I can always recite your accomplishments. You work 70 hours a week, and then come home to your perfectly organized house. It only took you an hour to organize it, and it takes you ten minutes a day to clean it. Every day you wake up at 5, run 10 miles, etc. I can't remember all of them, but I'm sure someone will fill me in on them whenever I discuss my real life.

I like to think that you're some sort of Mary Sue that people create for themselves. Your home might be organized, but it really took you twenty hours to get it that way. Maybe you do really run at 5 am, but only 2 miles. Of course, I sometimes see your actual embodiment, running faster than I can ever imagine. I'm in your wake, in your shadow. The words of my track coach from middle school come back to me 'she can't compete.'

Woah, even I'll work an 8 hour shift, dudes. Although, doing one standing up might be a problem for me, as standing makes my legs hurt. Although sitting makes my arms hurt. OK, everything makes my arms hurt. One day I'll write a nice long blog post complaining about my pain, and it'll hurt you.

Man, we have good ol' single mom wank here. Some women just like having large numbers of children, and sometimes it's better to walk away from a relationship than stay.

Apparently voz said she wanted to discuss this stuff on her blog.

As you all know, I'm an asshole. Piny talks about another one. I am not an expert on trans issues, but I think it's cool if piny wants to change her gender back to female from male. Her body, her business. Anyway, I'm cool with people working this out where others can see. I'm an asshole, but with the power of assholery, comes the ability of others to tell you to STFU.

When I was an evil greater asshole than I am now, I used to throw my pain at others without caring about the effects. But sadly, I'm still an asshole.

Jess walks, learns important things about life and activism. When I walk, I just get hot and sweaty. ;_;

Woosters lie with statistics, say that we should just ignore cancer and it'll go away.

After askmen tells us that we don't like strip clubs because we're insecure[as if there's no reason for me not to want my boyfriend in a place with drug deals and possibly underage girls except for being 'needy'], a lady mocks the OMG, I LUUURVE STRIP CLUBS people in an amusing way.

This thread is awesome because of the picture at the end.

I LUUURVE BLOWJOBS!![I also hate RECEIVING oral! that's so nasty!]

TQC'ers! Shinga makes fun of a libertarian!

OH my god. If these BLANKITY BLANKS don't shut up about why don't you protest against the thugs, I'm going to go out and manage my anger in an inappropriate manner! If those types had their fucking brains on, which they don't, they'd use logic. I'm against shooting people myself, but the truth is that me marching in the street would be pretty ineffective, and that's why we don't march against the thugs.

Antiviolence programs are often done in churches, in schools, and inside homes. People doing anger management groups are often helping curb the violence more than carping about those blacks and their terrible community,etc. They act as if we aren't the same. As if they need to just hole up someplace and tell us all how to live and then everything will be perfect.

NO DUDES! GET OUT AND PUSH OR ADMIT YOU DON'T REALLY CARE! Stop bagging on us! It's like you're using this as a stick to beat us with in annalouise's words.[although I'm a cheap bastard and say I can realize my capacity to heal myself for free]

I had a strange dream last night. I dreamed that I was rolling around the pond near my home in a wheelchair. I was in it because my legs hurt when I walked and I wanted some exercise. I fell off of it, was bitten by a snake, and ended up having to stay home from work.

The pain of the average child. Personally, I think that most children aren't getting teachers and tutors to deal with their averageness, but I may be off. It sucks being an average adult too. I'm certainly below average in energy for example, so I always feel guilty for my lack of doing stuff.

I don't like hippies so I laughed at this comment. Also, a child with rare childhood onset schizophrenia is misunderstood in this stupid.

I should look into the prevalence of childhood onset bipolar. I hear it is rare but being diagnosed more often.

I didn't see any of the ads due to ad block, but good on Isis. These ads reinforce the idea that science is for lonely dudes in the basement who can't get a woman except for extreme economic inequality.

Some other guy says it really doesn't matter.

Thanks to the net, I learned that homebirth will be BANNED!!!!!1111 because Australia doesn't want to spend money on homebirthing. I'm not saying that Australia shouldn't spend money on homebirthing, but that's different from banning it. Saying it will become too expensive to become a midwife would be more accurate and would annoy me less. If they made it so that only people with 20 years of experience could be counselors, that would be a big problem for many people, but going THEY ARE BANNING THERAPY!!!111! is inaccurate and obscures issues.

Actually in the US, counselors carry insurance. Also some discussion on the issue in the comments.

One of the most important woman obligations is to feel bad about your motherly performance. To help you with this, I release ten reasons why YOU,yes,YOU are a bad mom.

1)You're too fat. ONE SLICE OF CHEESE A DAY IS TEN POUNDS! YOU'RE GIVING YOUR KIDS OBESITY WITH YOUR EATING HABITS! Because as we know, even if your children are all sick, you work full time, and your husband is off playing Fallout 3 23 hours a day while ignoring the screams of the children, you must worry about the calorie content of cheese.

2)You're single. How dare you dump some guy who treats you like crap or that you're just not happy with? Don't you know that you must hold on to a sperm donor no matter how much he degrades your quality of life?

3)You have too much sex. The horror! I must go to my fainting couch and get my clutching pearls right now.

4)You feed your kindergartner nuts. Don't give nuts to children under 6, you idiot.

5)You watch R rated movies. Corrupting your children with your very thoughts!

6)You breastfeed. OMG! OH NOOO! WHAT IF SOMEONE SEES PART OF A BOOB THAT'S NOT BEING SEXY?!

7)You formula feed. YOU'RE KILLING YOUR BABY!

8)You're poor. You shouldn't be off providing crazy things like food and shelter for your child, or worse, using taxpayer money to provide luxuries such as that. You should be stuck at home reading wholesome books and blending organic apples into baby food, which is the only thing children under the age of ten should eat. EVER.

9)You let your mom watch your child. Your mom thinks cookies and milk are an appropriate snack instead of a 4 oz cup of soy yogurt.

10)You allowed your child to watch tv. Might as well toss them in the river if you're going to let them do that.

It seems now that a woman of color health clinic is now not serving anyone. Many women fear that there will be no help after the latest controversy.

Queen Emily posts the whole email exchange that started it all.

There's a rumor on the internet that some humanitarian workers, including a former congresswoman have been kidnapped on the way to Israel.

Porn affected by downturn.

People are stupid about the swine flu.

Is Memphis truly crime ridden? People debate it a lot.

Apparently there's something important about community health clinics and transwomen going on. There's apparently dialogue and disagreement, connection and confusion. I guess they are all marching towards a greater understanding. I have no idea.

Community organizers decide to live in the neighborhoods they have decided to help. Trust is gained, children are hugged, and there are color pictures in the newspaper. I think there's a limit to how far you can move- you bring your problems with you. And the people you have left behind, they make up society too. You can't ignore them.

In other news, a dyke pride parade post with pictures.

A bunch of important stuff is apparently happening, but since I spend all my time being a nerd, I have no idea what is going on.

But I do understand that I like the book Health Food Junkies. My favorite bits are the parts where he breaks through his woo googles and starts looking at evidence. He realizes that if people's colons were REALLY caked with goo, that would show up on colonoscopies, and that if a treatment only works for three percent of people, but you get a thousands of people to try it, you'll end up with many testimonials, even though the treatment might not be very effective. He also describes his wacky diet days ruining dinner parties with his obsession with avocados, etc, and stories of people who have gone overboard on their quest for a healthy diet.

Terrorist group murders family to finance operations.

Here's another sex post. On thequestionclub, a lady learns about the importance of boundaries. Personally, I say, don't strain to be 'liberal' or 'cool with strippers'[unless you mean as people, not sex objects]. Ladies, your feelings are valid. If you're not comfortable with something, it's OK. Your partner should be able to discuss this with you, about why exactly you don't want certain things going on in front of your family.

Mamita Mala wants to make sure no one is left behind.

Club owner sues teen that was kidnapped and forced to work at strip club. I have no hard evidence, but in Atlanta and Memphis, I think there may be a problem with underage girls working at strip clubs, and I also believe that folks need to stop with the whole 'well, she LOOKED older' thing. What a dumb excuse. You can't just allow anyone to work there.

Found on raven's eye. I'm shocked at the idea that paid rape is considered 'sexual liberation' by some.

BfP deals with the worst acupuncturist ever. Personally, I think it's the resting that does more than the needles. I wish they had 'community massages'. I so want one.

From stupidfree, some guy doesn't have the sense to say 'Oh! I guess ms slave lady can take her collar off for the metal detector.

A long time ago, kactus posted that she had a lump in her breast.

I was reading For Her Own Good, which annoys me sometimes with overromanticizing women's healing, etc. I was interested in the bit on neurasthenia, because I wondered if that connected with the common problem of chronic fatigue in modern America. The thesis of that section seems to be that women adopted illness roles as a reaction to domestic expectations, and only upper class women became ill in such a way. I felt a tug at my memory- something about neurasthenia and China. I couldn't find the book that I was looking for, so you'll have to do with this interesting, but poorly formatted article on how neurasthenia is distinct from depression as a diagnostic category.

Checking around, it seems that ethnic minorities seem to have equal prevalence of chronic fatigue syndromes[warning, pdf link, and one study[although you can't depend on just one study for the whole picture of a disease] notes that among different races and socioeconomic classes they do not find any significant differences in prevalence.

What an interesting puzzle! But I probably should go and lay down now.

Related: heh, special healing hat.

Due to loophole that allows homeopathic remedies to slip into the marketplace with no oversight, dangerous remedy Zicam causes people to lose their sense of smell. People complain about big pharma, but what about big alta? They've made billions on a nonworking, dangerous remedy.

Muslim woman: let us speak out!


I have no idea why there is so much safe space wank at Pandagon. Personally, I avoid using 'lame'. I use 'so not rad' instead.

I personally don't think it's the blacks here who are against consolidation. But this stuff is really irrational. I could wander a few blocks around and end up in the county. So people who think consolidating the governments will somehow cause criminals to magically appear in the county are crazy. Criminals can use cars, you know.

Also, county schools have desegregation order lifted. I certainly don't feel positively about that.

Homeopaths try to be western imperialist. Shame on them. I think that if people in Africa want to use non science based medicine, they have their own indigenous systems embedded in their various cultures. Importing western forms of woo isn't going to do anyone any good.

Some say that there should be more coverage of this stuff going on in Peru and less coverage about whatever David Letterman said.

Critisms of the adoption system are made through sarcasm. Also, a post about patterns of exploitation in the adoption system is made straight.

Creating a glossary of terms on race.

'Islam is a Feminist religion.'

I don't like this headline on this digg article 'she's dirty'. AIDs doesn't make you dirty, folks. Let's stop the stigma and start with common sense efforts. For example, having people do porn shoots without condoms is just asking for trouble.

Woomeisters rip off the government.

The Prime Minister of Italy apparently has hot European women lounging around his villa.

Also, there will be massive wank in this thread. Pleasureseeker, I'm totally disappointed in you. Even if you take vitamins and herbs, you can still be a carrier of the flu virus. The problem nowadays is that people don't know what is a reliable source of knowledge. Internet forwards, people who have gotten famous by having nice boobs, and livejournal posts are almost always not as valuable as knowledge gained by years of study and practice.

I understand the temptation. I certainly wish that one could become a competent therapist by reading manga and stupidfree, but life is harsh.

In the comments of this rage inducing news story, my pet peeve has appeared. Actually, I don't think someone would have 8 kids thinking "Oh man! I can get $900!" You know why? The cost of an infant is more than $900 a year. Not to mention lost sleep.

In lighter news, chocolate covered bacon exists.

Man uses the power of cell phones to help Africans verify drugs. In Virus Hunters of the CDC, one major theme was that one can not just port the Western medical system over without the underlying technology and stability needed.

*Shakes head* I've got nothing. If only we could have a cockpunching line. An important reminder for everyone.

Mainstream press attacks cancer scams.

Man, I'm soo bummed. For example, I can't give an objective review of the Speak! CD. I mostly thought things like 'this is awesome' 'this should be given out to college students everywhere!' and 'I'm really sorry for being a dick to that one chick'. Which isn't very useful to you, is it? but my commute certainly was improved.

PhD in Parenting showed this on twitter. It's about how treatment for families can ward off anxiety disorders.

In this Knoxville case, I'd like to reiterate that I don't care if some woman is a stripper, has weird fetishes or mental illness, you can't just do what you like. If she's calling 911, there's certainly something wrong there. Once someone withdraws consent, which they can do at any time, it is not consenting adults anymore.

Heroic transwoman profiled in Commercial Appeal.

Alternative medicine is unregulated, and can be risky if underlying causes aren't treated.

I also prefer gun free dining.

I found this comment interesting. I do agree that people do overextend the idea of 'alternative medicine'. I'm all for eating healthy and getting some sunshine eventually, but my biggest pet peeve is the idea that doctors are out to kill you. I think sure, there are terrible doctors out there, but can't people just be bad at their jobs without all doctors trying to kill you? I mean, some post office workers are terrible, but I don't posit they go to the postal academy of death where their only goal is to misdirect my mail by not understanding online postage.

Not to mention, alternative healers annoy me on a very basic level. Why would you pay to get the same sort of dubious medical 'advice' that you can get from your mom? I'm confused that years of medical school can be replaced by the internet, but some guy who took an hour course in 'Make money by peddling woo' can't be replaced by the net? Wut?

I have the same problem. I understand the basics of social interaction, but it's the advanced bits that get me. My IQ is also average, despite appearances. Really!

Now I want to go to the beach. Now only to conquer my fear of driving and my crippling social anxiety!

You know what? How come there aren't more calls for pussy eating? it's steak and blowjob day, it's let's give our dudes a blowjob randomly day. Way to exclude lesbians or us weirdos who can't get off by giving blowjobs.

BTW white folks: You buy you a pronto pup, you put your kid on the whirly whirl. You're at an 'urban fair!' Really!

Maybe I'm just a terrible person, but I can see the usefulness of the good enough parenting model. I'm the sort of person who gets all worried when I see say, the neighbor's child climbing on the back of their truck. Now, I'm sure their toddler has done this hundreds of times without me looking, but it makes me so anxious! Combine that sort of thing with my general perfectionism, and I can see the mental breakdown coming from here.

I can see why parents with my personality style- type A, perfectionist- need to be told 'Ok, just because you didn't do it perfectly this time, doesn't mean your kid is going to be ruined for life. Children are resilient.' I mean...making parenting into some sort of evaluative thing sounds pretty stressful, but I'm just a big meanie. I even think it's OK to formula feed.

Hello My name is

...

My gender is

andro, androgyne, androgynous, bisexual, bitch, celibate, cisgender, female guy, female-bodied, female-born, female-identified, gender neutral, hairy, heteroflexible, hypo-sexual, monogamist, no thank you, queer, woman-loving, XX ma'am

What's yours?

This is my gender today.