Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Being a "Feminist"
Can't copy and paste the text, so just click on the link to one of my friend's blogs (who is showing another blog): http://jayduhhh.tumblr.com/post/2141810745?ref=nf
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Woman Dear to Herself (Azizatu Nafsiha)
Just a poem I thought I'd share with all my beautiful sisters, old and new....welcome Kappas!
The woman dear to herself lives in the heart,
alive to the everywhere presence of divinity
The woman dear to herself does not lose herself
in the presence of man,
woman, or child
The woman dear to herself loves
for another what she loves for herself,
and loves for herself,
neither in conquest nor in surrender
In love she remains whole
She doesn't chop herself like an onion
She doesn't peel herself and sweep away the dry peelings
The woman dear to herself, when she has her period
says "I have my period,"
understanding that her powers are not a curse
She knows the geography of her body
and how to give good directions home
to those whom she selects for company
The woman dear to herself gives herself breast exams and running shoes
and eats well and washes her face in the river
and cherishes the beauty in other women as in her self
She wears dignity like a mantle
It swings lightly from her shoulders when she moves
The woman dear to herself, when come the spring rains
-O meeting with the beloved!-
knows where to find the first stalks of green
So that when the rivulets stream and stream
over brown muds, crocuses will open oval buds and hyacinths
will triumph flush and pink tiny flower after tiny flower and
jonquils
everywhere
delight
the woman dear to herself,
she who lives
in the heart
of every man,
woman, and child
Mohja Kahf
The woman dear to herself lives in the heart,
alive to the everywhere presence of divinity
The woman dear to herself does not lose herself
in the presence of man,
woman, or child
The woman dear to herself loves
for another what she loves for herself,
and loves for herself,
neither in conquest nor in surrender
In love she remains whole
She doesn't chop herself like an onion
She doesn't peel herself and sweep away the dry peelings
The woman dear to herself, when she has her period
says "I have my period,"
understanding that her powers are not a curse
She knows the geography of her body
and how to give good directions home
to those whom she selects for company
The woman dear to herself gives herself breast exams and running shoes
and eats well and washes her face in the river
and cherishes the beauty in other women as in her self
She wears dignity like a mantle
It swings lightly from her shoulders when she moves
The woman dear to herself, when come the spring rains
-O meeting with the beloved!-
knows where to find the first stalks of green
So that when the rivulets stream and stream
over brown muds, crocuses will open oval buds and hyacinths
will triumph flush and pink tiny flower after tiny flower and
jonquils
everywhere
delight
the woman dear to herself,
she who lives
in the heart
of every man,
woman, and child
Mohja Kahf
Monday, November 15, 2010
Home School
My paper is due at 5pm. I have like....1 page written. Oh well. I've already decided for myself that I'll turn it in late tomorrow. I just don't feel like doing it. What is this feeling?! Senioritis, my young friends.
Anyway, I was talking to Erika during breakfast this morning at Denny's:
Me: What iffff a group of community activists got together to home school all their kids?!
They would get the social interaction with the other kids, for one. And two, they wouldn't have to deal with the BULL SHIT that is known as "public education." We'd finally be able to provide our kiddos with a decolonial framework that is absent in classrooms. Imagine that! Am I being ridiculous? I dunno.. I feel like the education system (especially CA) is going down into the shits, not to mention the fucking 28% increase in tuition that is again being proposed for UCs (am I up to date on these numbers? But i mean, whatever it is... people shouldn't have to spend half their lives on an education that they most likely won't even use.) Neither should students have to act like starving artists for four years.
And private school costs way too much as well...
But does this sound a bit like a resistance army? LOL pretty much.. I'd just be happier knowing that i don't have to waste time reeducating my kids with the social consciousness that i've developed far later in my childhood (or end of).
Of course such ideas are hindered by our ability to find ourselves in economically/socially stable situations. Who actuallly has time to educate their kids and make a living at the same time? Perhaps the home school parents can rotate their teaching schedules ;) I can see workshop Mondays and Tuesday biking and womyn wednesdays and thrifty thurdays...
Just a seed I though I'd plant...
(I'm imagining a PNX academy. Instead of pledging allegiance to the flag.. we'll recite the PNX vision. LOL)
Oh yeah. And all of this came into my head because I just hate writing these papers. Sure, learning about the media in today's society is great. I just don't need people to grade my opinions and label my capabilities with a letter. Plus, the language of academic text is over my head. I don't fucking care with digimodernism is. Just call it the evolution of social media, and i'm good.
# sodonewithschool.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
being pretty
You Don’t Have to Be Pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female.”
-fuckyeahfatpositive.tumblr.com
-fuckyeahfatpositive
Saturday, October 9, 2010
wear purple on oct 20th
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_re_us/us_bullying_one_town
In light of recent "bullicides" by teens, it is especially disheartening that the following scene played out while I was SMing...
Resident - I'm gonna sign her in. Actually, she's going to sign herself in. I'm not capable of scribing today.
Friend ("she") - *starts writing on visitor sheet*
Resident - *reading over her shoulder* What did you just write? How rude. What, are you like three years old?
After they walked away from the booth and stood waiting for the elevator, I pulled the sign-in sheet toward me to initial it. It read:
Resident's name: Fag Porter [first name]
Visitor's name: Emily da bomb [last name]
*Full names not provided just in case there's some kind of privacy issue I have to comply with.*
I sat here in my chair, disappointed people could throw around these hurtful labels lightly. The two individuals were still in the lobby, so I leaned over the counter and said, "Can we make an effort to not use these kinds of names, please?"
I was more polite than the situation called for, but perhaps the girl had enough of a heart to feel embarrassed by her actions because she just said, "Ok" while the resident smirked at her.
--
Community organizing has taught me to "meet people where they are," but sometimes I do not have enough time or patience to wait for them to catch up.
In light of recent "bullicides" by teens, it is especially disheartening that the following scene played out while I was SMing...
Resident - I'm gonna sign her in. Actually, she's going to sign herself in. I'm not capable of scribing today.
Friend ("she") - *starts writing on visitor sheet*
Resident - *reading over her shoulder* What did you just write? How rude. What, are you like three years old?
After they walked away from the booth and stood waiting for the elevator, I pulled the sign-in sheet toward me to initial it. It read:
Resident's name: Fag Porter [first name]
Visitor's name: Emily da bomb [last name]
*Full names not provided just in case there's some kind of privacy issue I have to comply with.*
I sat here in my chair, disappointed people could throw around these hurtful labels lightly. The two individuals were still in the lobby, so I leaned over the counter and said, "Can we make an effort to not use these kinds of names, please?"
I was more polite than the situation called for, but perhaps the girl had enough of a heart to feel embarrassed by her actions because she just said, "Ok" while the resident smirked at her.
--
Community organizing has taught me to "meet people where they are," but sometimes I do not have enough time or patience to wait for them to catch up.
Friday, September 24, 2010
I don't ever want a job
Wading through the sand,
each grain, I sift by hand,
while burning sun
and frigid wind
bear down upon
the battered soul within.
For lengthened hours,
and tortured, fruitless nights,
too I have wondered,
the difference
between wrongs and rights.
To want it
is to gorge myself.
To deny it
is to cry for help.
And yet I lie
in thickening abyss
a month gone by
what life is this?
each grain, I sift by hand,
while burning sun
and frigid wind
bear down upon
the battered soul within.
For lengthened hours,
and tortured, fruitless nights,
too I have wondered,
the difference
between wrongs and rights.
To want it
is to gorge myself.
To deny it
is to cry for help.
And yet I lie
in thickening abyss
a month gone by
what life is this?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
where does it stop?
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc&sc2=news&sc3&id=108755
On a day that civil rights and equality earned a victory as Prop 8 was overturned in California, it is sickening that such an act of intolerance could take place in the United States.
The victim was just a baby. He was only 17 months old, for crying out loud. Nothing could have justified physically hurting someone that young, much less violence that took his life. Pedro Jones, who was entrusted with care of the baby, said he beat the child to "make him act like a boy instead of a little girl." Although Jones did not specify what exactly that behavior entailed, it is heartbreaking that "effeminate" traits are considered so inferior that a baby had to die for America's protection of hypermasculinity.
Someone's comment on Facebook:
"fuck this foo
and the kids stupid momma, she should know not to trust your kids to someone that is not their daddy, DUMB BITCH"
This statement does not help anyone. Blaming the mother will not bring her child back, nor does it shift blame from Jones. You do not need to be someone's biological father to be capable of love. In part, isn't that what the fight against Prop 8 is about? Marriage rights, adoption rights, the right to love freely, justice and equality and all that rainbow sunshiney goodness. It's not wrong or stupid to trust your kids with a partner who is not their biological parent.
It is wrong to take advantage of that trust. Trust is humanizing and beautiful. It's believing in someone, a two-way street where trust has to be reciprocated with a commitment to follow through. Jones didn't do that. He murdered a child for.. what? To assert his own masculinity? To save society from the social ills of an individual who didn't follow traditional gender roles? The mother is no less of a mother for thinking she could trust him. It pains me deeply that some people would call her a bitch when she had no idea something like this could or would happen.
The irony of it all? "I’m sorry," Jones said. "That’s my baby. I loved him to death."
Evidently, he meant it.
On a day that civil rights and equality earned a victory as Prop 8 was overturned in California, it is sickening that such an act of intolerance could take place in the United States.
The victim was just a baby. He was only 17 months old, for crying out loud. Nothing could have justified physically hurting someone that young, much less violence that took his life. Pedro Jones, who was entrusted with care of the baby, said he beat the child to "make him act like a boy instead of a little girl." Although Jones did not specify what exactly that behavior entailed, it is heartbreaking that "effeminate" traits are considered so inferior that a baby had to die for America's protection of hypermasculinity.
Someone's comment on Facebook:
"fuck this foo
and the kids stupid momma, she should know not to trust your kids to someone that is not their daddy, DUMB BITCH"
This statement does not help anyone. Blaming the mother will not bring her child back, nor does it shift blame from Jones. You do not need to be someone's biological father to be capable of love. In part, isn't that what the fight against Prop 8 is about? Marriage rights, adoption rights, the right to love freely, justice and equality and all that rainbow sunshiney goodness. It's not wrong or stupid to trust your kids with a partner who is not their biological parent.
It is wrong to take advantage of that trust. Trust is humanizing and beautiful. It's believing in someone, a two-way street where trust has to be reciprocated with a commitment to follow through. Jones didn't do that. He murdered a child for.. what? To assert his own masculinity? To save society from the social ills of an individual who didn't follow traditional gender roles? The mother is no less of a mother for thinking she could trust him. It pains me deeply that some people would call her a bitch when she had no idea something like this could or would happen.
The irony of it all? "I’m sorry," Jones said. "That’s my baby. I loved him to death."
Evidently, he meant it.
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