So, the NBA season is in jeopardy, blah blah blah, money money money, etc. I don't much care about the NBA, but I DO very much care about the WNBA.
The NBA has basically been subsidizing the WNBA for the last decade or so. I fear that if the NBA loses enough money over this, they'll look to the laydeez to save them money, putting the whole league and every player in it in jeopardy. Of course, an alternative is that the 2011-2012 NBA season is not played, people want to watch basketball, and end up supporting the WNBA, making it unwise for the NBA to do anything rash.
I don't hold out much hope for the latter, though.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Oh hai.
I've been trying out tumblr lately, but I'm thinking about coming back here. Tumblr has a lot of interesting features, but I think I'm getting tired of reblog chains full of flashing .gifs. Also, endless one-on-one argument reblog chains, endless reblog chains wherein one person says something idiotic and the whole feminist tumblr community feels called to explain exactly why they suck...maybe reblog chains in general.
I do very much like that I'm reading a wider variety of thoughts on things I really know nothing about, i.e. racism, immigration, Islam, trans* issues, etc.
But.
It's a microblogging service, for Christ's sake. My dashboard is weary of trying to contain posts that could fill the front page of a newspaper. And I think I will write here, and microblog there. I'm writing less since I got on tumblr, probably because the general attitude is not one of focused writing, but more along the lines of reactions and thoughts.
I have no readers either here or there, so it probably won't even matter either way :D
I do very much like that I'm reading a wider variety of thoughts on things I really know nothing about, i.e. racism, immigration, Islam, trans* issues, etc.
But.
It's a microblogging service, for Christ's sake. My dashboard is weary of trying to contain posts that could fill the front page of a newspaper. And I think I will write here, and microblog there. I'm writing less since I got on tumblr, probably because the general attitude is not one of focused writing, but more along the lines of reactions and thoughts.
I have no readers either here or there, so it probably won't even matter either way :D
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
NO.
We can say no. When someone instructs us to lose weight, to shave, to straighten our hair, to get “in shape”, to wear makeup, to wear less makeup, to dress appropriately, to dress more stylishly, no not that stylishly, to stop standing out, to stop making noise, to stop being so damn large, to stop making excuses, to stop fighting, to just get along, to just do what we tell you, to just buy into this commercial weight-loss plan, to just take these pills, to just have this cosmetic surgery, to just follow instructions, to just know that we’re doing this for your own good, to never walk alone, to never walk alone in that outfit, to never draw attention, because no one wants to see that, because no one wants to see your body, because no one wants to see you.
You can tell them no, and refuse to say more on the subject. No is always an option. It’s a small word, a difficult word, a word that speaks volumes in a single syllable, and one that gets easier to say the more you do it. It’s part of your arsenal, whether you realize it or not, and it’s a powerful weapon.
You can say no.
You don’t have to explain it.
You don’t have to apologize for it.
You can just
say
no.~ Lesley Kinzel, The Awesome Power of No
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
It doesn't get much better than this
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell--blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here
Saturday, April 2, 2011
I Trust Women
I believe in a culture that supports the autonomy of women; specifically, I am now speaking of reproductive autonomy. This means giving women the ability to make their own choices in this area.
This means women should have access to affordable
The point is, my sister is a little uncomfortable, I think, with the fact that I support Planned Parenthood and access to abortion. She is not at all uncomfortable with the fact that I support her decision to carry her current pregnancy to term under the care of a midwife, and that I am appalled by how much difficulty she's having in getting her health insurance to cover everything--despite the fact that her birthing center is in her network and there shouldn't be any problems.
What she doesn't get is that those two situations are inextricably linked, and you can't support one without supporting the other. Take a look at this for a shining illustration of how women are treated in a culture that supposedly loves and supports childbirth and childrearing.
It's what happens in an anti-choice culture. As long as women are considered to be heinous, selfish, ignorant fools who don't know the first thing about their own bodies and the needs of their children, as long as women are considered incapable by society of making choices for their own welfare and for the welfare of their children, as long as women are inherently mistrusted, we will continue to deny them the means to live healthfully and happily in the context of their own family--whatever form that family may take, whatever avenue of birth that may mean, whatever infant feeding strategy that may take.
As long as we fail to trust women, we will continue to frighten and shame them into certain medical procedures, under the guise of doing what's best for their baby, and frighten and shame them out of other medical procedures, under the guise of righteous indignation. No woman should have to start, continue, or end a family based on anything resembling fear or shame. And if you disagree with me on that one, shame on you.
This means women should have access to affordable
- birth control
- reproductive healthcare
- abortion
- prenatal care
- breastfeeding support
- infant formula
- vaginal birth support
- cesareans
- hospital deliveries
- birthing center deliveries
- home deliveries
- OB/GYNs
- midwives
- doulas
The point is, my sister is a little uncomfortable, I think, with the fact that I support Planned Parenthood and access to abortion. She is not at all uncomfortable with the fact that I support her decision to carry her current pregnancy to term under the care of a midwife, and that I am appalled by how much difficulty she's having in getting her health insurance to cover everything--despite the fact that her birthing center is in her network and there shouldn't be any problems.
What she doesn't get is that those two situations are inextricably linked, and you can't support one without supporting the other. Take a look at this for a shining illustration of how women are treated in a culture that supposedly loves and supports childbirth and childrearing.
It's what happens in an anti-choice culture. As long as women are considered to be heinous, selfish, ignorant fools who don't know the first thing about their own bodies and the needs of their children, as long as women are considered incapable by society of making choices for their own welfare and for the welfare of their children, as long as women are inherently mistrusted, we will continue to deny them the means to live healthfully and happily in the context of their own family--whatever form that family may take, whatever avenue of birth that may mean, whatever infant feeding strategy that may take.
As long as we fail to trust women, we will continue to frighten and shame them into certain medical procedures, under the guise of doing what's best for their baby, and frighten and shame them out of other medical procedures, under the guise of righteous indignation. No woman should have to start, continue, or end a family based on anything resembling fear or shame. And if you disagree with me on that one, shame on you.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
On Bisexuality and how it's A Real Thing
I identify as bisexual.
(I've encountered disagreement, usually on the part of heterosexual people, on whether you should base your sexual identity on desire or activity--as in, if you've only ever dated/slept with dudes, can you really be a lesbian? This is, naturally, rank horseshit, so consider it dismissed.)
I feel like there's a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about bisexuality; consider that one episode of Sex & the City where Carrie dates a bisexual man. She freaks out and says all kinds of bisexual-phobic things, including "I feel like bisexuality is just a layover on the way to Gaytown," then wraps up the episode justifying her complete lack of any attempt to understand bisexuality by chalking it up to "I'M OLD AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO CONSIDER NEW THINGS."
Of course, this is a viewpoint unique to neither Carrie Bradshaw nor heterosexual people. But it does burn me up that S&TC, a show regarded as progressive and ground-breaking in its open dealings with female sexuality, a show that treats male homosexuality like most people treat the preference between Coke or Pepsi (as in, something totally normal or whatever, but you're not, like, a freak if you like Coke and I like Pepsi), yet can't be arsed to give bisexuality any real treatment beyond "These people are weird, and deviant, and hard to understand, but it's more normal if you don't get it, because most people have and are entitled to their 'traditional' opinions", which is kind of the same response some shows have had to homosexuality. Note that the only major character who doesn't seem swayed by the idea of bisexuality is Samantha--of course, because Samantha is the Deviant One who doesn't want to get married and shocked everyone by dating a woman later on.
Come to think of it, that whole "Samantha is dating a woman" arc is along the same lines as the bisexuality one, and both are indicative of how the show dealt with girl-on-girl sexuality, which essentially was: it mostly doesn't exist, but when we're forced to confront it, we all agree that it's weird and unintelligible.
I'm sure all of these things I am talking about are nothing new to the girl-on-girl community; I'm just talking about them as background, I guess.
I identify as bisexual because if, in a strange hypothetical scenario, you randomly picked one person, lady or dude, from the population, the chance that I will be sexually attracted to that person is about the same, regardless of whether it is actually a lady or a dude. If you randomly picked one person, lady or dude, from the population, the chance that I will be romantically attracted to that person is significantly higher if it is a dude. I say this from past experience, however; the fact that I am more likely to form romantic attachments to dudes doesn't mean I'm any less bisexual; it could just mean that I have higher standards for ladies, or that I haven't been around enough ladies that fit those standards. I mean, if a straight dude had a hard time finding a straight lady he wanted to date, would he be any less straight?
So there's that. But think back to all that shit I talked about Carrie Bradshaw and her inability to come to terms with the bisexuality of others as a real thing. There's also the fact that many bisexual people feel marginalized by the gay community, like the B is just kind of thrown into LGBTQ as an afterthought, and everyone's just waiting around for them to go all the way to gay.
Maybe the whole "bicurious" lady thing has hurt the perception of bisexuality; I think a lot of the time this term is seen as used by younger women to mean they're curious about ladysexytimes, but they're not ready or willing to think about being gay yet. Or, they like the idea of straight men getting turned on by ladysexytimes. And maybe this happens sometimes, but isn't it possible that sometimes, some of the women who use this term are actually curious about being bi? And where are they supposed to go to deal with that?
I mean, if young lesbians have had it rough in the past, there are now plenty of places on the internets they can go for help. Where are the young bisexuals to go? I'm starting to feel like lesbian is a hard thing to be in this world, but bisexual might be harder these days, because not only can straight people not understand it, sometimes gay people can't.
So. I identify as bisexual because
And I don't feel the need to invent my own identity, because Jesus Christ, I know who I am, and I don't give two shits if you understand that I am a unique snowflake or not, because I already know I am, and your opinion on that matter means precisely nothing to me.
Also, yes, I am currently dating a cisman. I've actually gotten, recently, a few comments along the lines of, "How can you like girls, because you totally just said you had a boyfriend," but if this post doesn't clear that up, I'm not sure it's possible.
(I've encountered disagreement, usually on the part of heterosexual people, on whether you should base your sexual identity on desire or activity--as in, if you've only ever dated/slept with dudes, can you really be a lesbian? This is, naturally, rank horseshit, so consider it dismissed.)
I feel like there's a lot of confusion and misinformation out there about bisexuality; consider that one episode of Sex & the City where Carrie dates a bisexual man. She freaks out and says all kinds of bisexual-phobic things, including "I feel like bisexuality is just a layover on the way to Gaytown," then wraps up the episode justifying her complete lack of any attempt to understand bisexuality by chalking it up to "I'M OLD AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO CONSIDER NEW THINGS."
Of course, this is a viewpoint unique to neither Carrie Bradshaw nor heterosexual people. But it does burn me up that S&TC, a show regarded as progressive and ground-breaking in its open dealings with female sexuality, a show that treats male homosexuality like most people treat the preference between Coke or Pepsi (as in, something totally normal or whatever, but you're not, like, a freak if you like Coke and I like Pepsi), yet can't be arsed to give bisexuality any real treatment beyond "These people are weird, and deviant, and hard to understand, but it's more normal if you don't get it, because most people have and are entitled to their 'traditional' opinions", which is kind of the same response some shows have had to homosexuality. Note that the only major character who doesn't seem swayed by the idea of bisexuality is Samantha--of course, because Samantha is the Deviant One who doesn't want to get married and shocked everyone by dating a woman later on.
Come to think of it, that whole "Samantha is dating a woman" arc is along the same lines as the bisexuality one, and both are indicative of how the show dealt with girl-on-girl sexuality, which essentially was: it mostly doesn't exist, but when we're forced to confront it, we all agree that it's weird and unintelligible.
I'm sure all of these things I am talking about are nothing new to the girl-on-girl community; I'm just talking about them as background, I guess.
I identify as bisexual because if, in a strange hypothetical scenario, you randomly picked one person, lady or dude, from the population, the chance that I will be sexually attracted to that person is about the same, regardless of whether it is actually a lady or a dude. If you randomly picked one person, lady or dude, from the population, the chance that I will be romantically attracted to that person is significantly higher if it is a dude. I say this from past experience, however; the fact that I am more likely to form romantic attachments to dudes doesn't mean I'm any less bisexual; it could just mean that I have higher standards for ladies, or that I haven't been around enough ladies that fit those standards. I mean, if a straight dude had a hard time finding a straight lady he wanted to date, would he be any less straight?
So there's that. But think back to all that shit I talked about Carrie Bradshaw and her inability to come to terms with the bisexuality of others as a real thing. There's also the fact that many bisexual people feel marginalized by the gay community, like the B is just kind of thrown into LGBTQ as an afterthought, and everyone's just waiting around for them to go all the way to gay.
Maybe the whole "bicurious" lady thing has hurt the perception of bisexuality; I think a lot of the time this term is seen as used by younger women to mean they're curious about ladysexytimes, but they're not ready or willing to think about being gay yet. Or, they like the idea of straight men getting turned on by ladysexytimes. And maybe this happens sometimes, but isn't it possible that sometimes, some of the women who use this term are actually curious about being bi? And where are they supposed to go to deal with that?
I mean, if young lesbians have had it rough in the past, there are now plenty of places on the internets they can go for help. Where are the young bisexuals to go? I'm starting to feel like lesbian is a hard thing to be in this world, but bisexual might be harder these days, because not only can straight people not understand it, sometimes gay people can't.
So. I identify as bisexual because
- it describes me, and
- more people who are bisexual should say they are.
And I don't feel the need to invent my own identity, because Jesus Christ, I know who I am, and I don't give two shits if you understand that I am a unique snowflake or not, because I already know I am, and your opinion on that matter means precisely nothing to me.
Also, yes, I am currently dating a cisman. I've actually gotten, recently, a few comments along the lines of, "How can you like girls, because you totally just said you had a boyfriend," but if this post doesn't clear that up, I'm not sure it's possible.
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