Joe. My. God.: About That Renegade Republican….
La Frontera Times: Another Immigrant Dies In ICE Detention From Poor Medical Care
Flip Flopping Joy: Treating: Communities vs. Individuals
Bitch: Apply for the Bitch Youth Leadership Council (Deadline Dec. 1)
NY Mag: Another kind of AIDS crisis
Jezebel: The Problem with Fashion’s Obsession with Death
Slate: What ever happened to the Amazon rainforest? Did we save it?
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: The Story of the Brown Box
Okay, here’s the list of the 64 people who should never be voted for again. Their hands are all over my uterus. That pisses me off.
Update: The names with an asterisk voted for the Stupak amendment and against the health care bill.
Sigh. Pat Boone. What are we gonna do with you?
All manner of parasites, vermin, roaches, rats, worms and termites find their way into the building. Long before they’re detected, they infiltrate the walls, the floors, the roofs – and then chew their way into the structure, the supporting beams and the very foundation of the house itself. Silently, surreptitiously, whole communities of invaders make places for themselves, hidden but thriving, totally unknown by the homeowner.
Then, in time, tell-tale signs are seen. Little droppings, discolored trails, proliferating piles of residue appear in corners, on tabletops, little hanging sacs from ceilings – alarming evidence that the grand old dwelling has been invaded. Decidedly unwelcome creatures have made this place their home, and by their very existence will eventually destroy the house and bring it to ruin. [...]
Stop Screaming at the Op-Ed Page and Start Writing It.
Submit an entry for the 2010 Love Your Body poster contest (postmark deadline: December 1).
Head over to Her Life with Boobs and fill out their questionnaire.
Ask President Obama to give the turkeys a real pardon this Thanksgiving (pardoned turkeys are usually sent to Disney World or Disneyland).
Full time students: apply for a paid internship to cover the legislative process in Albany.
Participate in NPR Monitor Mix’s Build A Body With Bands illustration contest (deadline November 20).
HollabackUK needs street team volunteers.
High school seniors: apply to be an ACLU Youth Activist Scholar (deadline November 30).
Sign the petition for an international ban of plastic shopping bags.
Help an amazing WOC writer/activist secure funding so she can attend a writer’s retreat.
Anna: The Female Blogger Deficit: Are We Too Nice, Or Not Nice Enough?
Tami: Dispatches from Nappyville: Hair hatred needn’t be a black girl’s right of passage
Telegraph: The secret behind Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile
Mary Ann: Education Week: Immigrant Children Not on Obama Admin Agenda
Vulture: Nona Willis Aronowitz on Writing About Feminism, Her Mother Ellen Willis, and Catcalling
Kate: Will Anti-Fat Hate Crimes Make People Take Sizeism Seriously?
Nezua: THE CRIME: Sleeping While Chinese
Violet: Exciting new growth sector in feminism: bashing women
Joe: Is Insistence on English and Punishing Spanish About Maintaining Racial Power?
Prof Susurro: Black Face is Never OK – Memo to “Miss Tyra”
[Trigger warning]
That’s one of the top search engine phrases that’s been bringing people to this blog. That’s one of the questions I’ve not let pass through comment moderation.
What race was the Richmond rape victim? Really, people. Does it matter?
Do you feel a little more at ease at the thought of a poverty-stricken 15-year-old Latina getting gang raped by a bunch of Latino boys/men? Is that the kind of thing that’s a fact of life for those types of Latina girls?
Is it easier for you to cope with the situation at the thought of a 15-year-old black girl getting gang banged by boys at her school? Is that how all this would make more sense to you, the thought of a sexualized black teenager drinking and hanging out with older boys in the dark?
Do you feel like forking out more cash at the thought of a pretty, 15-year-old white girl getting ravaged by a gang of brown boys, some older than 18? Will donating to her recovery fund be your good deed for the month?
Because seriously, people. What does it matter what race she is?
Why do you want to know so badly? How will this piece of information influence your thoughts on the matter? What stereotypes are you bringing to the table when you ask this question?
A little girl was brutally assaulted. A little girl had her world turned upside down. A little girl has a long road to recovery ahead of her. It could have been your sister, your mother, your favorite cousin, your best friend. It could’ve been you.
The media has published reports about what kind of girl she is, what her interests are, what she’s like at school. I’m sure everyone at her school knows who she is. People in her community know who she is. Eventually, she’ll have to face these people who know all about The Bad Thing that happened to her.
Jesus Christ, what race is she? I hope I never find out.
A rape survivor holds Senator David Vitter’s feet to the fire for voting against the Franken Amendment:
WOMAN: It meant everything to me that I was able to put the person who attacked me [behind bars]. And what allowed me to do that was our judicial process. I showed up in court every day to make sure that happen
VITTER: And I’m absolutely supportive of any case like that being prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law.
WOMAN: But there are rape victims who are being kept silent.
WOMAN: But how can you support [a law] that tells a rape victim that she does not have the right to defend herself?
VITTER: Ma’am The language in question did not say that in any way shape or form.
WOMAN: But it is unconstitutional to have a law that says a woman does not have a right to defend herself.
VITTER: You realize Mr. Obama was against that amendment that his administration was against that amendment
WOMAN: But I’m not asking Obama. I’m asking you.
VITTER: Do you think he’s in favor in rape?
WOMAN: I’m asking you Senator. What if it was your daughter who was raped? Would you tell her to be quiet and take it? Would you tell your daughter to be silent?
Paste Magazine released it’s list of the Top 50 albums of the decade. Unsurprisingly, the list is a total sausage fest, with the exceptions of the obligatory M.I.A., Björk, and Amy Winehouse (plus a couple of other women). Yup. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack beat out PJ Harvey.
But here’s a startling revelation: women could’ve made up more than 10% of that list. Shocking, I know. My album recommendations:
PJ Harvey (Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea)
Happy Dia de los Muertos, to those who celebrate it.
I never felt compelled to celebrate it until today, but no, I don’t have a shrine or anything. That’s mostly because I didn’t even know it was today until this morning (I know, yet another thing to put in my “I’m a bad Mexican” files). My immediate family has never celebrated it, and I’m an atheist (though my family is Catholic), so it’s never been a tradition for me.
But it is something I’d like to start doing in the future as I renegotiate my Latina identity. Perhaps it’s because, as of this year, all of my grandparents are now dead. I liked hearing my paternal grandparents tell me stories about their lives growing up, and I do have 20+ pages of my grandmother’s oral history recorded. I never knew my maternal grandfather because he died before my first birthday. I could never truly communicate with my maternal grandmother because she only spoke Spanish, and my Spanish is fragmented. I could understand a lot of what she was saying, but I couldn’t speak back to her. When she descended into dementia as she got older, a lot of her history was lost.
Only now am I truly starting to regret not having learned all I could learn about them and their experiences.
(Photographer unknown (Felipe Tofani, maybe?). You can see more of these gorgeous photos at Pristina.org.)
Yeahhhhh…I seem to add a new blog to my reader every other day, so my Weekend Link Loves are getting hella long. I’m gonna start doing this twice a week, m’kay? So tune in Wednesday for the second half.
herlifewithboobs: Thinking about “toplessness”
qmccall3: Is there a “feminist responsibility” to support women’s sports?
Lisa: Disney Princesses, Deconstructed
Kjerstin: Adventures in Feministory: Lois Jenson and sexual harassment
Lissa: An Eating Disorder—10 Years Later
Shamus: Obama’s Dirty War on Immigrants
Becky: Who You Calling A Slut?
Feminist Peace Network: Susan G. S. McGee: Why Does She Stay Is The Wrong Question
Briar: Grandmothers of electronic music, Part 1: Delia Derbyshire
stuff white people do: point out they’ve never owned slaves
