doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
rant
beacon of truth
0
Sometimes the lawmakers in my state amuse me. Sometimes they just piss me off. Right now, the members of our state representatives are pissing me off.
On Monday, our misongynistic state legislators decided to make it illegal for a woman to sell her eggs. But there are no similar bills to bar a man from selling his sperm.
Oh, no…a man can make money off of his bodily functions but a woman…oh…a woman…she can do evil things with those eggs – IF SHE SELLS THEM. Not if she donates them. Only if she sells them.
According to the local newspaper, the real credit for this goes to Bob Stump, a very conservative representative from the Phoenix suburb of Peoria.
Rep. Bob Stump, R-Peoria, said the disparate treatment is justified. And, he said, it has “nothing to do with gender politics.”
Uh-huh. Tell us another fable, Bob. Tells us how much you love and respect women. How much you believe that they have the intelligence to know how to take care of their bodies and protect themselves.
Because, frankly, if I don’t have a man telling me what to do with my body, I just might hurt myself. I’m so helpless.
And make money off of my body? Oh…the horror!
Grrrr.
This stuff pisses me off.
One more way that my rights over myself are taken away.
And, it seems, some of the female legislators felt the same way.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said there is no reason to have one set of laws for men and another for women. “You keep your hands off my eggs and I’ll keep my hands off your sperm,” she said.
Amen, sister.
blogging and hierarchies
0
I work for a technology department at a state university and we offer trainings on emerging technologies and existing technologies that could be used in classroom settings. Since I have been blogging for nearly 10 years and I have four (or is it five…hmmm) different blogs going, I am the resident expert on blogs.
My blogs don’t have to be popular, mind you, to give me the status of “expert.” I just have to know how to set them up, what the positive and negatives are for educational purposes, and explain general uses for them.
Because of this status, people send me links all of the time. If it mentions blogging, I get the link. Sometimes they are interesting. Yesterday, one of my co-workers sent me this one. It is very interesting.
However (yeah, there had to be a “however”), all of this talk about “A-list, B-list, and C-list” blogs is starting to irritate me. First off, what arbitrary criteria is used to determine the list that you’re on? Who makes these decisions?
Secondly, a majority of the so-called A-list blogs are written by men about politics. It’s rare to find women on those lists and if there are women, they have to write about politics, as well.
Well, as the old saying goes, everything is political. So why, then, aren’t the private sphere issues (those issues that women tend to write about more – home, education, rape, abortion, prostitution, etc.), just as important as Washington politics?
This reminds me of the 1960s and 70s when women were fighting for equal rights and were asking the same questions. Why are home life or women’s issues not considered as important as those public issues of politics or a man’s job? What is it about women that is so threatening that we can’t talk about them or promote them?
So, interestingly enough (or not, depending on your point of view), my entire thesis project is based on the disparity between the promotion of men’s blogs versus women’s blogs and the necessity of promoting women’s blogs because the issues are important.
If you don’t believe me, check out raven star watcher. This is a blog where three women talk about their different lives involved in child prostitution in North America. Yes, in North America. It is still ongoing. It is something we should be talking about – something we should be hearing.
But, of course, it’s not A-list, so it just can’t be that important.
Can it?
pet peeve
0
I don’t see this much in Flagstaff but when I do, it drives me crazy (much like it did in Los Angeles when I lived there – and where it was MUCH more prevalent).
This is the thing – if you can’t get up early enough to put on your makeup at home, then go without.
I’m driving to work. It’s dark. This woman in a HUGE SUV has her interior light on and is applying a lip liner. She is watching her mirror, not the road.
I know people will say they can multi-task while driving but I think that all of the studies on cell phone usage while driving attest to the fact that this is simply not true.
It’s dangerous enough on the roads. People are typically going 10-20 miles over the speed limit. They tailgate. They cross over lanes without using their indicators. They cut one another off. They drive aggressively.
One stupid woman putting on her unnecessary makeup will only add to the dangers of the road.
Don’t take my life into your hands just because you can’t get up 5 minutes earlier.
Either put it on at home or go without. It won’t kill your skin to give it a breather. It won’t kill you to go au natural. You’re probably much more beautiful that way anyway…and you don’t even know it.
Save a life. Don’t drive and apply makeup.
criminal
0
On Wednesday afternoon, as I drove home from work, I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR. As I sat at a train crossing, waiting for an abnormally long train to pass by, I listened to Howard Dully tell his story of being the “recipient”of an orbital lobotomy when he was twelve years old. (His story can be heard or read at NPR’s site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080.)
Tears streamed down my face as I listened to his words. This man, once a boy, went through such a traumatic experience that changed his life. In this narrative, he spoke with his father and asked him “why”. Why did he allow it to happen? Why didn’t he stick up for his son?
Howard had a stepmother who did not like him. She “documented” all of these crimes that he was committing as a family member: he didn’t want to take a bath, he wouldn’t talk, etc. He sounded like a typical twelve-year-old to me.
What really astounded me is that Lithium had already been developed and was being prescribed to people who needed it. This doctor, however, refused to believe that his operation was not needed anymore and continued to bilk people for money for an archaic prodedure. If Howard had needed any help at all (which I highly doubt), he could have taken Lithium instead of having sterilized ice picks shoved into his brain through his eyes.
This made me start thinking about medical procedures. What kinds of procedures are being performed out there that are no longer needed? What doctors are making a buck off of unknowing patients who could get better treatment through more humane methods? Or, even worse, like this doctor, how many doctors out there are performing treatments that they KNOW are not beneficial to their patients but keep doing it for that almight buck?
Grrrr.
It makes me so angry. Howard was one of the lucky ones. His procedure did not leave him as a walking zombie or as a five-year-old. However, he was changed, irrevocably, for the worst.
How many people out there have had the same thing happen to them?
grrrrrrrrrr……
0I just wrote this to Jonathan and thought it was a good rant for today.
Have you heard about the MinuteMen Project? Do you know about groups patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border? Arizona has become their latest target.
Now, there is a group that will be watching the MinuteMen from a distance (they don’t want to get shot in the process of patrolling the patrollers) and the U.S. Border Patrol and the Mexican equivalent are increasing their numbers in the same area. It’s pretty big news in Arizona right now because they are making a point of this being to keep illegal MEXICANS out of our country. What they seem to be missing is that illegal aliens do the jobs that no one in this country want to do. They fulfill a needed service and should be welcomed into the country.
Grrr.
Okay…and on another note, this morning I’m listening to a report about the Petrified Forest (it’s about 90 miles from Flagstaff). It seems that the Park Service has sold the rights to timber in the Park to a logging company. They are restricted to downed, dead trees. This is the thing…petrified trees ARE dead. That’s the whole thing about them. And it’s NOT a renewable resource. It takes millions of years for a tree to become petrified.
Then, to top it off, one of the timber industry officials for the company says this: “If it comes to jobs for people versus 250 million year old trees, I’m taking flesh and blood. Besides, these trees have been around for so long that it’s about time someone did something with them.” WTF??? Omigod! I cannot believe he actually said that in a public venue.
Friggin’ idiot. That pisses me off. No wonder the earth is in such disrepair. The spokeswoman from the Park Service said this, “The attendance at the Park is down. Since the people aren’t coming to us, we thought we’d go to the people. Wouldn’t you love to have a little piece of the Park in your home in the form of a countertop?” Grrr. Besides the
fact that most petrified wood is chock full of uranium (which causes cancer), I can’t believe they are taking a limited resource that is found in very few places on this earth and turning it into countertops.
uhhhh…
0I’m on Yahoo and some man that I’ve talked to in the past writes to me. We’ve only have very generic, very casual discussions about life (mostly cameras). Today, he writes and says:
you ah the object of my affections
so bend over the table young lady…take a deep breath
Ummmm…do men REALLY think this is how to get a woman prone and excited?
Then he comes back and says to me:
yer not in a room
yikes i’m cyber stalking you?!
Uhhh…nope, I don’t chat in Yahoo rooms usually. I try not to be THAT accessible. Heh. If I want you to find me, you will.
Another man, from bondage.com, writes to me today and says only this:
ticklish, hon?
That’s it. I’ve never spoken to this man in my life. He doesn’t even say hello. Am I ticklish? Why? Are you going to reach across 500 miles and tickle me?
*rolling my eyes*
Right.
weighty issues
0I am not the type of person who watches the scale. I never have been. Some might say it’s obvious, now that I’m overweight, that I may not care enough about myself to watch a scale. I feel, however, that I will not allow my life to be ruled by what society may deem is normal.
Let me tell you a story.
I haven’t always been heavy. In fact, at 5’10″, I have, for the majority of my life, been on the very skinny side. I weighed in at 125 pounds when I was 25. That’s too thin for my build. I looked svelte, sure. I could have modeled with a body like that (if I had the classic beauty that is required for that sort of thing). I was athletic, active, and young.
I was also in pain. I was told, often, that I was fat. I was told that I didn’t wear tight enough clothes. I was told that I needed to lose weight.
Wait a minute. I was 5’10″ and 125 pounds. I was fat??? I am not a petite woman. I never will be. I’m about 8 inches too tall to be considered petite and I will NEVER weight under 140 pounds again. It’s not healthy for me.
I’ve read that ridiculing overweight people (women, mostly) is the last frontier of society-condoned abuse. It’s ok to laugh at that woman who is struggling to get into clothes that are made for women who look like children. It’s ok to say that she needs to eat less because we all know that it’s only food that makes people fat. *snort* It’s ok to say that you would never love, sleep with, have a relationship with a heavy woman…but have you looked at yourself lately??? You ain’t no prize, either, honey.
I probably would have never thought about losing weight if I hadn’t been to my doctor. I was comfortable. I was happy in my own skin. I didn’t think of myself as fat but as a woman who has curves, hips, and breasts. I’m a woman. We have those things, you know. My partner, bless his heart, has told me that I’m beautiful in all of my shapes and forms. He loved me at my largest and he is loving me now, as I shrink in size. When I weigh less than he does, I’m thinking he will still love me.
I am born, however, with several genes that make it horrible for me to be even a little overweight. I have the gene that gives me high cholesterol. If I am slightly overweight, my chances for heart attack or system shutdowns increase. I have asthma that is affected by my weight. The heavier I am, the worse it is. It had gotten to the point of where I was feeling like I was suffocating everytime I laid down to go to bed.
My doctor, thank goodness for her, did not want to put me on medications that I would have to spend a lifetime taking. She wanted to try weight loss first and see if that helped my health problems.
It has worked. It has helped me and it will continue to get better as I lose weight.
I know some of you are thinking that I may talk about my weight more than I need to and that I dwell on it. I’ll tell you, though, that I’m disappointed in how we treat one another…especially if that person is overweight. It seems that society has lost compassion and treats people with obesity as pariahs. You know that chicken sandwich you got at Wendy’s yesterday? You know how much you enjoyed it? I enjoy them, too. It’s just that my body doesn’t break them down as quickly or as efficiently as yours so it’s bad for me to eat it. I can’t eat jumbo sized anything because my body doesn’t know how to deal with it likes yours may. I don’t eat a lot of food. In fact, I may eat less than you do on any given day.
There are many other reasons, than just eating a lot of food, that makes someone overweight.
Have some compassion. Be a bit more understanding. None of is, thankfully, perfect. We are all perfect in our imperfections.
Peace.
wtf?!?
2Well, yesterday got WAY too busy for me to post anything.
What is driving me crazy lately is the fact that people are taking such distinct sides in the Israeli-Palestininan conflict. From where I stand, there is no good guy in this issue. Supporters of the Israelis keep saying that the Palestinians are killing innocents and children. They refuse to recognize that Israelis are, too, killing innocents and children in the Palestinian villages.
This world is absolutely insane. Things are not so black and white as people would wish. I know that my own country has behaved atrociously on so many counts. We have not treated others as we would wish to be treated.
It’s frustrating to see people attacking one another just because their beliefs do not coincide…and they aren’t even in the conflicting regions…they are right here, in our backyards.
It reminds me of bullies in the schoolyard. Whomever can be the meanest wins.
monday morning ramblings
3I’ve worked a great deal on improving myself in the past year. I’ve been seeing a therapist to deal with all of the *crap* that has gone on in the previous years. I’ve worked on reducing my reactions to stress, to not giving in to my redheaded-Sagittarian impulses and flying off the handle on a whim, to finding a more calm way to dealing with life. It works for the most part. However, sometimes I think I’ve gone too far with this *mellow* thing. There are moments I want to RANT, SCREAM, and YELL.
Now is *definitely* one of those times. Well, not at this exact moment…but there is a situation going on in my life where I want to scream. I don’t have any control in the situation and it’s ENRAGING me. I can only do so much and then my hands are tied. But it affects MY life, too, dammit.
So, this is my rant…it’s somewhat distant (as I am, these days) – self-imposed Xanax training without the actual drug – I feel like I’m a zombie without actually feeling the relaxing effects of taking drugs…it’s obviously not too intense because I’m being vague…I’m too worried about hurting someone’s feelings, about damaging something beyond repair, about losing…about failing.
And it sucks.
quote of the day
011 years ago
I’m way too irritated to be at work today. I know I shouldn’t read my work e-mail from home but there is this stupid thing called RESPONSIBILITY that nags me if I don’t. What if I could have helped avoid a situation? What if I could have helped out just a little more?
I really hate opening e-mail from this one person who always has negative things to say. She is never nice in her e-mails. She’s always accusatory. I’m drawn to them, though. I can’t help but open them (even with dread) the moment I see them.
I opened one on Friday. Ok, I opened 4 of them. *sigh* I shouldn’t have. I was in tears that night. I’ve been full of angst most of the weekend, not wanting to come back to work because I’d have to deal with her crap.
What’s even worse is that I get into work an average of 2-3 hours before the rest of the employees. I get a lot more done at 6 a.m. than I do when people are actually here. So, now I’ve been sitting here for over an hour fretting until my boss gets in and I can talk to him about this situation.
I hate this.
***
An addendum:
My boss was totally cool about the issue. He said that it may need to go to the next higher level because this woman has systematically berated, over 2 years, the people in my department. My boss is worried about losing us because of her (he wouldn’t because we all love what we do but she does make it difficult).
I’m relieved. Whew!
–
Now that I’m done ranting… I thought I’d share something that I love.
There were always in me, two women at least, one woman desperate and bewildered, who felt she was drowning and another who would leap into a scene, as upon a stage, conceal her true emotions because they were weaknesses, helplessness, despair, and present to the world only a smile, an eagerness, curiosity, enthusiasm, interest. ~ Anais Nin – Introduction to The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934
***
To those of you who commented on being “damaged goods,” I appreciate your words. I think I feel less and less damaged as time goes by. I feel more wholey human precisely *because* I have experiences that have changed me and because I have grown due to those experiences. I look at myself as being more two-dimensional before. Now, I’m becoming more well-rounded, tolerant, and accepting of myself and others. It has allowed me tremendous growth. I feel like one of those fast-growing trees that sprouts several feet in one year. Spirtitually and emotionally, I have grown a lot in one year. I hope to do more in the year to come.
As for my co-worker, I don’t think she realized what she was doing or what she was saying. She’s a little old lady who is, usually, very kind and docile. Or, then again, maybe I’m making excuses. I think part of the problem is that I haven’t set boundaries before. I’m doing that now and it throws people off.
Thank you so much. Your words have meant a great deal to me. *hugs*