Wednesday Link Love
LA Times: The dark side of white
“Are Lebanese white people?” we asked the 71-year-old gentleman who considered himself white. “Yes,” he said, “although they’re real dark.” How about Italian Catholics; are they white? Sure. And Jews? Yes. What about the Chinese? “Yes,” he said, “they go to the white schools.” And Mexicans? “They’re becoming more white,” he said. “More of them are getting an education.”
The Thang Blog: Pregnancy and PMS
I’ve joked before that one gauge of how my girl friends perceive my gender is how often/extensively they volunteer information about their period with me. That is, over the past year, I’ve gone from only very close friends rarely or occasionally mentioning their period, to all of my close girl friends (and a few of my female coworkers) mentioning their period or PMS at some point in the past few months.
This Recording: In Which Sleep Is As Simple As Closing Your Eyes: The Waiting
If I wasn’t your girlfriend during any of these years, if I was just passing through, if you were gracious enough to let me in for a few days, weeks, you got the better deal. Because this meant that I was truly on vacation…If I wasn’t your girlfriend during any of these years, you got the honeymoon, and I hope you remember it well.
Three Rivers Fog: Why am I so damn mean?
Or maybe, it is an injustice that this issue ends up ignored by abled-feminist leaders, and it is legitimate to be angry about that, and it is legitimate to call them out on it. Maybe, they didn’t know about it. That’s just how life goes. But maybe, the reason they don’t know about it is because of the systemic devaluation of non-dominant priorities.
Times Online: Martha Wainwright: Thank God I had my baby in Britain
I had planned to try for a natural childbirth in Canada. Perhaps I was morbidly curious about my pain threshold, but I also believe that pregnancy should be viewed as positively as possible…This was a totally different ballgame. This baby had to come out, there was something wrong and he was going to be premature, but if they had to cut my head off to get him out I would have agreed.
More links after the jump
My fave music videos of the decade: Part 3
The White Stripes – Fell in Love with a Girl
More videos after the jump
Happy Holidays from Roman Polanski
In his first communication to the outside world since his incarceration, Roman Polanski—via a letter to Bernard-Henri Lévy—sends out his holiday greetings and thanks his supporters for their solidarity:
My dear Bernard-Henri Lévy, what you have said in the Swiss press is true — I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children.
These messages have come from my neighbours, from people all over Switzerland, and from beyond Switzerland – from across the world. I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning mail. In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation.
My fave music videos of the decade: Part 1
With 5 days left until 2010, I’m going to be posting lots of music vids from this decade over the next few days. This list is in no way comprehensive; I’m sure I’m forgetting tons. Nor are these music videos probably even the “best,” whatever that means. They’re just some of my faves. (I’ve posted a couple of these before, but the vast majority are making their Feminist Texican debut this week.)
Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice
R.I.P. Esther Chavez
“The voice of the woman is a reflection of her condition on Earth…Air echoes in a chest that is smaller, vibrates vocal cords that are smaller and that produce a higher, thinner sound. It requires twice the energy, twice the intensity of a man’s voice” to be heard.
“This is why I learned to shout for those who couldn’t . . . and to cry so many times for and with so many women, girls and boys whose voices and whose lives have been crushed by the impunity of our state and our nation.”
Esther Chavez, human rights activist and trailblazer in the fight against the femicide in Juarez, Mexico, passed away on Christmas morning. In 1993, Chavez began carefully documenting the notorious murders and uncovering the trend in which women’s mutilated bodies were found dumped in the desert surrounding Juarez. She began putting pressure on authorities and advocating for the victims’ families, since most of the victims were from distant, rural parts of Mexico and had no one to fight on their behalf. In 1999, Chavez founded the first rape crisis center in the area, Casa Amiga, which later evolved into a domestic violence shelter for women.
