Weekend Link Love

Stacia L. Brown: Love is a Battlefield.

Sometimes, you forget she’s there. When she’s completely still and you are half-asleep, when you’re drifting into a tunnel filled with words, when you are dreaming of a future where she’s grown, you forget that your life has upended. You forget that you no longer live alone. You forget that there is a girlchild yet to mother, that she first must be delivered, then raised, before she’ll be a woman, well-adjusted and, hopefully, far more accomplished than you.

Leaving Evidence: Reflecting on Frida Kahlo’s Birthday and The Importance of Recognizing Ourselves for (in) Each Other

I often think about Frida and what it means to recognize each other, as disabled queer women of color.  I don’t know if Frida would have described herself as “disabled;” if she would have even used that language, that thinking.  Would she have thought of herself as what we understand as “queer,” using whatever language and words she chose around her open bisexuality?  I don’t know.

Tanglad: POCs on bikes

A friend described cycling as a whitestream activity. I mentioned that I saw a lot of poc commuters in the early morning, and expect more as Los Angeles Metro fares go up once again (boo!). But that’s commuting, she said. Of course there would be a lot of poc. Riding a bike becomes “cycling,” a sport or a recreational activity, when you don’t depend on it to get around. Much the same way that walking becomes “hiking.”

Feministe: Storytelling as a Radical Act

Tell their stories; tell your stories. Be ready if they say, “Where were you when you heard about Mehserle?” “Where were you when the world let down another one of our dead?” When confronting miscarriages of justice, errors in history, and blank pages in books, arm yourself with names and dates. Amadou Diallo. Kathryn Johnston. Sean Bell. Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Hold their truths to be self-evident until all are created equal, until every person’s life carries the same weight as Yeardley Love or Natalee Holloway or even Michael Jackson.

Deeply Problematic: I’m a feminist because.

Feminism is wonderful. Feminism is destructive. These things both exist. The brave battle does not erase the lazy privilege, and the hatred in its name does not change the beauty in its past. I haven’t quit feminism despite how hypocritical and oppressive it can be. Because it’s me and women like me who’ve made it a toxic, kyriarichal environment. Because it’s my mess, too, and I’ve got to grab a scoop and pitch in.

More links after the jump.

Viva La Feminista @ Ms.: What Do Latinas Really Think About Feminism?

Muslimah Media Watch: An Open Letter to Maureen Dowd

Feminist Law Professors: Prison Parenting in Texas

The Sexist: How D.C. Hospitals Fail Trans Patients

Fugitivis: Great, Now I Hate Everybody

Color Lines: Haitian Moms Still Need Health Care

Immigration Impact: Immigrant Women: The Silent Victims of a Broken Immigration System

The Crunk Feminist Collective: Thriving in Hostile Territory: Black Feminism in the College Classroom

Feminists for Choice: BDSM Can Be What A Feminist Looks Like!

Jayn: Immigration is a privilege

The Feminist Breeder: This is What a Doula Looks Like