Things I've Been Reading About

This week a woman live-tweeted her medication abortion in an effect to normalize discussion of the procedure and share first hand information about the process. Needless to say the crazies had a field day with it. Amanda Marcotte tried fact-bombing to bring the discussion back on point - it might have worked.

Susan Douglas argues that these are not "post-feminist" times, but instead "enlightened sexism." It is an appropriate contradiction in terms.

Pandagon on the backlash against the US women's hockey team. I think they are just jealous.

The Pentagon released 800 pages of information gained through spying. It included information on white supremacist groups and Planned Parenthood...one of these things is not like the other...

Abercrombie has managed to step in it again (the Hollister division to be exact - they know its named after a tiny town whose high school mascot is the Haybailer, right?). Here's a brief history of the douchiness.

I love Johnny Weir

This. This whole damn thing:



"I think masculinity and femininity is old fashioned."

Your Friday Awesome: Also? THIS

Because that girl is awesomesauce.

Your Friday Awesome: Drunk History = Grad School

Okay, evidently I'm late to the party on this one, but I don't have HBO so I don't get to be in on Hollywood's inside jokes. But, this? This is effing hilarious.



My friend Aaron* said this video reminds him of me. And you know what? Change the subject to Judith Butler or the history of the anti-war veterans' movement...and it is me in someone's living room in Austin for pretty much all of 2005-2007.

*Don't worry I give him crap about his subject matter, but you can't argue that the dude is talented.

The 90s Are Back

Just in case you haven't been into H&M lately, you may not know that the era of floral prints, awkward-no-quite-mini hemlines, army jackets and (of course) plaid is back. To prove the point, this is what the mother-daughter Moore team wore yesterday:


I sent that image to 90's Woman - the totally awesome blog that, for me, chronicles the terribly formative years of ten to twenty - noting that it made up pretty much my entire wardrobe in 8th through 10th grade, and lo and behold, it got me included in their "90s testimonials." (woo!)

But seriously, the back to school issues of Seventeen and (borrowed copies) of Sassy were my fashion bibles. I think I had this one memorized:


Evidently Rumor found a copy somewhere, don'tcha think?

Only, um, wtf? A young Katherine Heigel shaped my fashion? Sadly, I must admit it was not yet Kathleen Hanna. There goes my cred...

Images via Jezebel and this place.

Fun with Keywords: Testicles, Jesus and Lesbian Tinkerbell

I admit, I've been slacking on blogging. Work has been crazy busy so the last thing I want to do when I get home or on my lunch break is be on the computer more. Instead I've actually been doing crafting, like making bacon scarves - yes, bacon scarves. Well, scarf. A bacon scarf.

So, since we are on the random topic of accessories shaped like breakfast meats, I think that means its fun with keywords time again, especially since the same strange (and awesome) things keep popping up, like:

the daily girdle

the awesome breast

cleavage in cartoons

lesbian tinkerbell
...or the variant that leads to a completely different post: tinkerbell gang stalkers (yeah...)

exploding testicles
...are the more precise: giant robot wrecking ball testicles

why doesn't jesus like hypocrites?

filthy dangerous things you should let your children do

and of course the universal web favorite: meth face

If you found this blog through one of these and actually found what you were looking for or decided to stay, I'd love to hear about it!

Things I've Been Reading About

90s Woman makes me happy that I just made Gen X (remember when everyone was all upset about kids being all angsty?). They now have a quiz to determine your 90s cred. I think the only thing I didn't say yes to was dying my hair with Manic Panic, though I helped a bunch of friends do it. That counts right?

Anna N. asks why it requires a doctor's appointment and prescription to really treat a yeast infection or get birth control.

Anna N. also looks at a study that says girls' sports lead to success later in life, but asks "What about the klutzes?" Yeah, what about us?

What if there was just an Oscar for "best acting"?

And from the 1984 files: a school in Pennsylvania used school issued laptops to not only monitor students' web activities, but to spy on them at home through the built in webcam.

Your Friday Awesome: Be Awesome

That beautiful and awesome woman on the right, Kara, is a dear friend who is among the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to return to Rwanda after the genocide. She is a braver woman than I will ever be.

2010 has already seen enormous devastation and the resulting amazing philanthropic response to the earthquake in Haiti. Unfortunately, the needs of Haitians (before and after the earthquake) are similar to the needs of people all over the world year in and year out.

It wasn't until Kara had been in Rwanda for six months that she mentioned off-handly on IM that she didn't have plumbing. It took a minute for that fact to register. She had been in country for six months, but there was so much to do and learn that not having an indoor toilet or shower didn't seem worth mentioning.

But, private residences aren't the only places without indoor plumbing. Heath centers do not have it either.

The Musha Health Center Water Project is working to bring reliable indoor plumbing to a health center that serves over 15,000 people outside of Rwamagana:

Musha Health Center is a small health center that provides many services to the people of Musha and surrounding areas. These include maternity and delivery services, surgical and wound care, consultations, hygiene practices, and laboratory capabilities.

There is no running water in the consultation, pharmacy, surgery and pediatrics rooms. The lack of water is a hindrance to the quality of services that the health center can provide to its patients. Currently water must be brought in buckets by health care staff from the water pump in town for use in the clinic.

Take a moment to think about that. Surgeries in rooms without a reliable water source. The only thing standing between the faucets and running water? $500.

Another Friday Awesome: Ac**kalypse Now

While we are on the subject of anxious masculinity...



Sadly, Sarah Haskins will no longer give us Target Women, but that's okay - Bryan Safi is here!

Your Friday Awesome: Woman's Last Stand

Could it be that the Super Bowl was such a pinnacle of anxious masculinity that we might as a society begin to dream about a world that does not celebrate a triumph in capitalism and misogyny?

...a girl can dream.

Blackwater Ordered Out of Iraq

Well then...

Iraq has ordered former employees of the private military contractor once known as Blackwater to leave the country, its interior minister announced Wednesday.

Contractors who once worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe, have seven days to leave Iraq, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the state television network al-Iraqiya. The move follows a January declaration by Iraq's government that former Blackwater employees were no longer welcome in the country.

Not only do they want them out of the country they don't want former employees working for another company within the borders.

Things I Read About This Week

The Second Sex at the Super Bowl - you know that big thing I'm not watching right now.

Starr C. discusses the women-only relief lines in Haiti and how she and her husband saw the need for this kind of response during their tours in Iraq.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on why Obama should not have attended the National Prayer Breakfast. Unfortunately, he did.

Big surprise. American Apparel has done something dumb. Again.

Raging Grannies Take on CBS

Eff it, lets just call this video day. This little diddy is awesome:



(Announcer voice) You're on CBS.

CBS, CBS,
Corporate bull shit, corporate bull shit!
They won't take ads from MoveOn or the like
but take 3 million from right-to-life.
They're hypocrites and they won't give a voice
to women's choice. (Repeats)

via Feministing.

A World Where Everyone's Decisions are Respected

Planned Parenthood has created a response to the Tim Tebow/Focus on the Family Superbowl Ad:



I think this is really beautiful and powerful. While the idea of men speaking on behalf of women (their mothers and daughters in this case) is always a little off-putting. I think the voices of these male athletes (and allies) are a smart and strategic response to an ad that will play smack dab in the middle of our country's salute to testosterone and performed masculinity.