Play it safe to stay on top.
Shake it, imitate it, but it sill sounds old.
We just can't understand why the man calls it lo-fi.
So get your bags packed now and I'll meet you on the outside.
"X"-out all the self-supervision,
Get your keys out now, start the ignition.
We're on the verge of...
When you're shipwrecked on your mattress
I'll come in and show you how
to hijack the past and wind up in the right now.
Grab some clothes, three chords and a video camera.
Maybe a mic, some handwipes, a typewriter, and a hammer.
Why don't you come over now?
I'll buzz you up.
Cuz you know when you're around I can't get enough.
I'm gonna follow you, wait,
straight into the late night.
Cuz you're so on fire and you already know.
Do it so right
Do it tonight!
We're on the verge of!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
"We the People, Vote" ~Miranda S. Welch
We,
as amerikkkans
of these un-united states,
Vote
for the candidate
who lies
the best.
We,
as amerikkkans
of these un-united states,
Vote
correctly,
generally speaking.
For our un-united leaders
of our un-united states
of our un-united People
Are the very best
Liars.
as amerikkkans
of these un-united states,
Vote
for the candidate
who lies
the best.
We,
as amerikkkans
of these un-united states,
Vote
correctly,
generally speaking.
For our un-united leaders
of our un-united states
of our un-united People
Are the very best
Liars.
International Human Rights - A Comparison of National Progress
Many Western Feminists choose to do international work for women's equality globally. They call it International Feminism or Global Feminism. Great! This is amazing work that needs to be done!
Umm...but what about the work here in the U.S.? Yes, this work needs to be done, but we can't forget that work needs to be done EVERYWHERE, including the U.S. Though it should help nations recovering from trauma such such as Haiti and the Congo and Darfur, the U.S. cannot and should not be the UN standard for Human Rights (especially when we acknowledge that often times, these situations of trauma present opportunities for the U.S. to colonize, to capitalize on resources, and perhaps even start a war).
So we hear stories about human trafficking in Thailand and Turkey and female circumcision in Sudan. Heartbreaking, to say the least! I think there is something about our country that thrives on traumatic and cannibalist tales; we always want the extreme. It's not enough to have someone killed in the movie - it has to be a slasher movie. It's not enough that a woman was raped - she has to be raped with the end of a rifle to the point where her genitalia has to be surgically reconstructed. We need these stories of rape in the Congo and trafficking in Turkey and female circumcision in Sudan and wearing the veil in the Middle East in order to distract from the inequalities and violence in our nation. It's certainly a matter of severity - how can we compare molestation to rape as a weapon of war in the Congo - but further, why would we compare them? sexual violence is sexual violence - and it is obvious that the problems of some countries are greater and more dramatic than they are in our own.
But perhaps we compare these stories to our own stories because the comparison makes it easier to deal with our own baggage. It makes our problems as a nation and as smaller communities and our own individual experiences seem petty. Tom Petty, to be exact. It makes them seem like they are nothing we can't overcome when compared to the devestations faced elsewhere and to other people. It makes them seem like they can go away on their own...or that they are already gone altogether.
But this is problematic for us and our nation and our nation's People. Because it means that we are easy to overlook what is going on in our own backyard. It means that we are easy to dismiss the severity of our own situations. It means that we are easy to focus all of our energies and attentions to the intense situations elsewhere, leaving little effort on the ones that need us here.
Naturally, it is easy for people in the U.S. to think that our own discriminations and violence are nothing in comparison to those faced in other nations. It is also easy for people in the U.S. to feel guilty for feeling that we shouldn't lose sight of the issues we ourselves face in our own nation; we feel guilty because our issues seem Tom Petty when we compare them in severity to the plights of other nations.
So stop comparing! Violence is violence. Discrimination is discrimination. A basic human rights violation is a basic human rights violation.
When we compare our issues as a nation to the issues of other nations, all we do is continue to privilege amerikkka and savage other nations. All we do is perpetuate the belief that a "simple act of rape" is not discrimination, or violence, or a basic human rights violation. All we do is help other nations grow and thrive and change in our image while simultaneously forgetting that what we have constructed as our image is just that, a construction, because we haven't done more than paint it for ourselves.
Change can never happen when we compare. Change can never happen when we divert all attentions to one problem without balancing them with others. Change can never happen when we privilege our own nation's ideologies of others. Change can never happen when we use the traumas of other nations as a benchmark for our own success and progression. Change can never happen when we feel guilty for feeling that we still have work to do in our own backyard. Change can never happen when we fail to recognize that the shit that goes down in our own backyard is, in fact, shit - discrimination, violence, basic human rights violations - and that it needs to be bettered too.
Umm...but what about the work here in the U.S.? Yes, this work needs to be done, but we can't forget that work needs to be done EVERYWHERE, including the U.S. Though it should help nations recovering from trauma such such as Haiti and the Congo and Darfur, the U.S. cannot and should not be the UN standard for Human Rights (especially when we acknowledge that often times, these situations of trauma present opportunities for the U.S. to colonize, to capitalize on resources, and perhaps even start a war).
So we hear stories about human trafficking in Thailand and Turkey and female circumcision in Sudan. Heartbreaking, to say the least! I think there is something about our country that thrives on traumatic and cannibalist tales; we always want the extreme. It's not enough to have someone killed in the movie - it has to be a slasher movie. It's not enough that a woman was raped - she has to be raped with the end of a rifle to the point where her genitalia has to be surgically reconstructed. We need these stories of rape in the Congo and trafficking in Turkey and female circumcision in Sudan and wearing the veil in the Middle East in order to distract from the inequalities and violence in our nation. It's certainly a matter of severity - how can we compare molestation to rape as a weapon of war in the Congo - but further, why would we compare them? sexual violence is sexual violence - and it is obvious that the problems of some countries are greater and more dramatic than they are in our own.
But perhaps we compare these stories to our own stories because the comparison makes it easier to deal with our own baggage. It makes our problems as a nation and as smaller communities and our own individual experiences seem petty. Tom Petty, to be exact. It makes them seem like they are nothing we can't overcome when compared to the devestations faced elsewhere and to other people. It makes them seem like they can go away on their own...or that they are already gone altogether.
But this is problematic for us and our nation and our nation's People. Because it means that we are easy to overlook what is going on in our own backyard. It means that we are easy to dismiss the severity of our own situations. It means that we are easy to focus all of our energies and attentions to the intense situations elsewhere, leaving little effort on the ones that need us here.
Naturally, it is easy for people in the U.S. to think that our own discriminations and violence are nothing in comparison to those faced in other nations. It is also easy for people in the U.S. to feel guilty for feeling that we shouldn't lose sight of the issues we ourselves face in our own nation; we feel guilty because our issues seem Tom Petty when we compare them in severity to the plights of other nations.
So stop comparing! Violence is violence. Discrimination is discrimination. A basic human rights violation is a basic human rights violation.
When we compare our issues as a nation to the issues of other nations, all we do is continue to privilege amerikkka and savage other nations. All we do is perpetuate the belief that a "simple act of rape" is not discrimination, or violence, or a basic human rights violation. All we do is help other nations grow and thrive and change in our image while simultaneously forgetting that what we have constructed as our image is just that, a construction, because we haven't done more than paint it for ourselves.
Change can never happen when we compare. Change can never happen when we divert all attentions to one problem without balancing them with others. Change can never happen when we privilege our own nation's ideologies of others. Change can never happen when we use the traumas of other nations as a benchmark for our own success and progression. Change can never happen when we feel guilty for feeling that we still have work to do in our own backyard. Change can never happen when we fail to recognize that the shit that goes down in our own backyard is, in fact, shit - discrimination, violence, basic human rights violations - and that it needs to be bettered too.
I feel cheated out of my Women's Studies education...
I do. I really do. I feel cheated out of my Women's Studies education. The Women's Studies program at the University of Iowa began in 1970 as Action Studies, which was formulated in response to the war and the revolutionary culture that surrounded it. It was headed by the current Director of the State of Maine Housing Authority, Dale McCormick. She is considered to be a "founding mother" of the feminist community in Iowa City. Before long, Action Studies became Women's Studies, and it is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the nation. It took a bit too long for the program to offer a major - the mid 90s - and even longer for it to offer graduate studies. Within a couple of years of the graduate program's existance, it face planted. The graduate program is currently not in operation but is being renovated for future establishment. The undergraduate program is also being renovated. This academic year, it merged with the Sexuality Studies Certificate Program, creating Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies (GWS or gee wiz for short, apparently FAGS - Feminist and Gender Studies - was out of the question ;) ). The merger was due, in part, to a severely lacking faculty and course listing in both departments. But of course, we all know budgets were factored into there as well - especially when last year, a visiting Women's Studies Professor with a PhD in Women's Studies (the only of which to hold such a degree at the University of Iowa) was not hired on to the department and forced to retreat to Minnesota State. Never mind the fact that this merger is not appreciated by virtually all of the Sexuality Studies Certificate students (myself included) and is becoming frustrating to many of the Women's Studies students (myself included) - we must recognize that Sexuality Studies and Women's Studies, while similar and connected in nature, do not actually house the same students (I am the ONLY current exception) and most importantly, take different theoretical approaches to their interdisciplinary areas of inquiry. Take for example the study of pornography. As you can imagine, while Sexuality Studies takes an approach designed to normalize pornography and its consumption, defending it and arguing that it is dismissed in large part because of the general stigma surrounding sexuality and sexual expression, Women's Studies takes the approach of oppression and discrimination, examining the power relationships within pornography's production and consumption. So put the two in the same classroom... Never mind that this merger is awful - like combining African American Studies and Native American Studies. Let's focus on the fact that the Women's Studies Department is, shall we say, going under????
The status of the department and its success and budget are unbeknownst to me. Even though I'm graduating, I do care whether or not it continues to thrive and grow. But what it is important to me as I prepare to graduate and enter into the next phase of my education and career is that I have been cheated out of my Women's Studies education.
I'm a feminist scholar. I'm a feminist theorist of literature. I'm a gender and power relation analyst. I even have the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department Scholarship to prove it! But for the last two years of my undergraduate career, every Women's Studies classroom that I have entered has either A) included readings that were already in my repertoire or B) dumbed down the course to satisfy students who have NEVER taken a gender course before. I truly believe that making the conversation accessible to all in the classroom is important, no matter what you are teaching. I also believe that the department should remain open so that all people can venture into the course material and be exposed to the issues and conversation that take place in a Women's Studies classroom; that's part of the department's purpose as an area of study. However, what happened to different levels of courses and making certain levels available to certain people? ie: You can take the three intro courses no matter who you are or what you study, you can take courses between this number and this number if you've taken at least one intro course, you can't take anything about this number if you're not a Women's Studies major.
I believe part of this dilemma goes back to hierarchy. Perhaps Women's Studies, as a department, does not want to create course levels because they believe it is creating a hierarchy in education. This hierarchy would not be a hierarchy within the department because if you are a Women's Studies major, you can take anything you want in the department whenever you want. The hierarchy would only exist outside the department, which would make it seem exclusionary and therefore, cut people off from its exposure. However, Women's Studies is an academic area of study, just like any other area. And what are your major students LEARNING if they continuously have to take intro because there are students in the class who have not???????????
IF WOMEN'S STUDIES IS A SERIOUS FIELD OF STUDY WITH MANY DIMENSIONS OF LEARNING AND THEORY AND AREAS OF INQUIRY, WHY CAN'T IT BE BOTH ACCESSIBLE TO NON-MAJORS AND EDUCATIONAL FOR MAJORS????
I can't increase my abilities as a feminist scholar if the courses offered to me only make efforts to increase the abilities of those who are not feminist scholars. I can't increase my repertoire as a feminist scholar if the materials offered to me are repeated and only new to those who are not feminist scholars. I can't grow and expand and learn in the classroom as a feminist scholar if I'm asked to write the same papers, make the same arguments, have the same conversation over and over and over again.
THE ONLY WAY I CAN GROW AS A FEMINIST SCHOLAR IN THIS DEPARTMENT AT THIS UNIVERSITY IS TO EDUCATE MYSELF.
I feel that one of the amazing attributes of Women's Studies is the way in which it teaches its scholars not only the frameworks for inquiry, but how to apply those frameworks to your areas of interest on your own. That is perhaps the best thing I've learned from my undergraduate education in the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department.
So I suppose I will have to keep free reading, and writing, and blogging, and arguing, and of course being an activist in order to grow and thrive as a feminist scholar. Or I can cross my fingers that I get into a graduate program... ;)
The status of the department and its success and budget are unbeknownst to me. Even though I'm graduating, I do care whether or not it continues to thrive and grow. But what it is important to me as I prepare to graduate and enter into the next phase of my education and career is that I have been cheated out of my Women's Studies education.
I'm a feminist scholar. I'm a feminist theorist of literature. I'm a gender and power relation analyst. I even have the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department Scholarship to prove it! But for the last two years of my undergraduate career, every Women's Studies classroom that I have entered has either A) included readings that were already in my repertoire or B) dumbed down the course to satisfy students who have NEVER taken a gender course before. I truly believe that making the conversation accessible to all in the classroom is important, no matter what you are teaching. I also believe that the department should remain open so that all people can venture into the course material and be exposed to the issues and conversation that take place in a Women's Studies classroom; that's part of the department's purpose as an area of study. However, what happened to different levels of courses and making certain levels available to certain people? ie: You can take the three intro courses no matter who you are or what you study, you can take courses between this number and this number if you've taken at least one intro course, you can't take anything about this number if you're not a Women's Studies major.
I believe part of this dilemma goes back to hierarchy. Perhaps Women's Studies, as a department, does not want to create course levels because they believe it is creating a hierarchy in education. This hierarchy would not be a hierarchy within the department because if you are a Women's Studies major, you can take anything you want in the department whenever you want. The hierarchy would only exist outside the department, which would make it seem exclusionary and therefore, cut people off from its exposure. However, Women's Studies is an academic area of study, just like any other area. And what are your major students LEARNING if they continuously have to take intro because there are students in the class who have not???????????
IF WOMEN'S STUDIES IS A SERIOUS FIELD OF STUDY WITH MANY DIMENSIONS OF LEARNING AND THEORY AND AREAS OF INQUIRY, WHY CAN'T IT BE BOTH ACCESSIBLE TO NON-MAJORS AND EDUCATIONAL FOR MAJORS????
I can't increase my abilities as a feminist scholar if the courses offered to me only make efforts to increase the abilities of those who are not feminist scholars. I can't increase my repertoire as a feminist scholar if the materials offered to me are repeated and only new to those who are not feminist scholars. I can't grow and expand and learn in the classroom as a feminist scholar if I'm asked to write the same papers, make the same arguments, have the same conversation over and over and over again.
THE ONLY WAY I CAN GROW AS A FEMINIST SCHOLAR IN THIS DEPARTMENT AT THIS UNIVERSITY IS TO EDUCATE MYSELF.
I feel that one of the amazing attributes of Women's Studies is the way in which it teaches its scholars not only the frameworks for inquiry, but how to apply those frameworks to your areas of interest on your own. That is perhaps the best thing I've learned from my undergraduate education in the University of Iowa's Women's Studies Department.
So I suppose I will have to keep free reading, and writing, and blogging, and arguing, and of course being an activist in order to grow and thrive as a feminist scholar. Or I can cross my fingers that I get into a graduate program... ;)
Friday, February 12, 2010
Collage: For 14 Lovers ~Judith Epstein
no one else
keeps lists like this
no mature emotionally stable woman
would comb through her calendars
counting off
28 months now
checking off
the dates
the affairs
the one night stands
14 lovers anyone else
would stop counting at 3
anyone else would lose interest
or at least repress
this satisfaction at seeing the names
scribbled on the back of an old envelope
The Lovers:
1.
your name could have been anguish
or loneliness
confusion
but what did it matter
you have taken my virginity
I was past 21 and god knows
it had been a burden by then
I needed you
a stranger to take it from me
I should have been grateful
my god you were a stranger
and I had waited 21 years
2.
I floundered
in a closet with you like drowning
alone in the middle of some ocean
3.
I was always a slow learner
shy in school
I never asked questions
and with you I finally learned
with surprise and hidden embarrassment
that men have pubic hair
4.
you had refused me even a touch until
one night very drunk you seduced me
in my own livingroom tenderly and
talking through it explaining years
abruptly near dawn you told me to leave
making me a whore for the first time
and in the safety of my own house
5.
and you took me in the water
and on the grass and then
standing me up by a fallen log for support
from behind and back home alone
I felt educated
6.
the same long summer
you were a further education
almost an experiment
7.
I wonder if you could find a touch
I wouldn't love. You appalled me with
morning sex and I resented every lover after
you who couldn't get it up before noon
you kissed me
and rolled me
stuck it in
and I throbbed but
never came loving
every god damned minute of you
loving the being taken
wondering why
lover after
lover later all the clitoral caresses
could not compensate and how I could
come and come and orgasm after
orgasm just through
burst into tears
8.
you looked like 7 I didn't care who you were
But you looked so much like him
how could you be so different?
9.
you took me because I was easy
because I was angry and wanted
a quick little revenge lay.
You were serving coffee in the store
where you sold roach clips and earrings
at exhorbitant prices,
and you took me
10.
I took you because you were easy
11.
you insignificant little bastard
12.
they said you were built
like a greek god
and I
wanted to see
for myself
13.
you walk into my house
as if it was a restaurant
what would you like sir?
one friendship?
a little involvement on the side perhaps?
none today sir?
sure, hold the involvement.
and how would you like that friendship
sir? oh
your way,
I see.
you call me as if
I was a catering service
can we help you to something sir?
one hot cunt, delivered?
how flattering sir what size
would you like the breasts? why
we're almost there already,
we've already called for the taxi
the 50 cents change
is your stud fee.
you seduce us all in the same sturdy
brass bed in the light
of your constant oil lamp,
and with such discretion
we might never know how often
you tell those stories
of great uncles and Jessee James or
how many nights
the oil burns.
14.
all the girls in the workshop lounge
talk about your style and the size of your prick.
me, I got a bladder infection from you -
honeymoon cystitis, the doctor called it - but
I knew it was from that weird position;
my legs on your shoulders and you
raised up on your arms like that
your eyes so far away and constantly
watching, my face and then your prick thrusting,
watching so intently that I had to look too: that
was what did it
ten dollars for vibramycin but I didn't mind.
I'd never had it done like that
to me before and I learned
to watch from you;
your face almost
perfectly controlled just until
you came.
---------------------------------------------------------------
if you keep getting the wrong answers
maybe you're starting at the wrong place
it can be so easy
it could have been as easy as a list
scribbled on the back of an old envelope
oh my lovers
your name could have been
anguish or loneliness
confusion but instead
you had none
1 to 14 you have no name
the muscles all the way around my neck
tighten and I am drawn repeatedly
to the 1 Ching and 3 special pennies
I must know where everyone is
and how things are going for
anyone I still love
I must keep lists
all the time and always
keep adding to them
months and names
and maybe indexes of positions
and moods that I can correlate
to the moon or my own
peculiar cycle
I must have astrological charts
and symbols of my own identity
to remind me to stay alone
a lot
I know how easy it would be
to get lost somewhere
to lose the lists
and the silver ring that I never take off
and stop having these poems
change the numbers back to names
have children maybe and
give them all names
to learn by rote memory
these poems nourish me
and i will wear it
if lists are my sanity
I will keep them
if numbers are my salvation
i will never find the names
(as printed by the Iowa City Women's Press Collective's All Women Are Free to Read Their Poetry, 1972)
keeps lists like this
no mature emotionally stable woman
would comb through her calendars
counting off
28 months now
checking off
the dates
the affairs
the one night stands
14 lovers anyone else
would stop counting at 3
anyone else would lose interest
or at least repress
this satisfaction at seeing the names
scribbled on the back of an old envelope
The Lovers:
1.
your name could have been anguish
or loneliness
confusion
but what did it matter
you have taken my virginity
I was past 21 and god knows
it had been a burden by then
I needed you
a stranger to take it from me
I should have been grateful
my god you were a stranger
and I had waited 21 years
2.
I floundered
in a closet with you like drowning
alone in the middle of some ocean
3.
I was always a slow learner
shy in school
I never asked questions
and with you I finally learned
with surprise and hidden embarrassment
that men have pubic hair
4.
you had refused me even a touch until
one night very drunk you seduced me
in my own livingroom tenderly and
talking through it explaining years
abruptly near dawn you told me to leave
making me a whore for the first time
and in the safety of my own house
5.
and you took me in the water
and on the grass and then
standing me up by a fallen log for support
from behind and back home alone
I felt educated
6.
the same long summer
you were a further education
almost an experiment
7.
I wonder if you could find a touch
I wouldn't love. You appalled me with
morning sex and I resented every lover after
you who couldn't get it up before noon
you kissed me
and rolled me
stuck it in
and I throbbed but
never came loving
every god damned minute of you
loving the being taken
wondering why
lover after
lover later all the clitoral caresses
could not compensate and how I could
come and come and orgasm after
orgasm just through
burst into tears
8.
you looked like 7 I didn't care who you were
But you looked so much like him
how could you be so different?
9.
you took me because I was easy
because I was angry and wanted
a quick little revenge lay.
You were serving coffee in the store
where you sold roach clips and earrings
at exhorbitant prices,
and you took me
10.
I took you because you were easy
11.
you insignificant little bastard
12.
they said you were built
like a greek god
and I
wanted to see
for myself
13.
you walk into my house
as if it was a restaurant
what would you like sir?
one friendship?
a little involvement on the side perhaps?
none today sir?
sure, hold the involvement.
and how would you like that friendship
sir? oh
your way,
I see.
you call me as if
I was a catering service
can we help you to something sir?
one hot cunt, delivered?
how flattering sir what size
would you like the breasts? why
we're almost there already,
we've already called for the taxi
the 50 cents change
is your stud fee.
you seduce us all in the same sturdy
brass bed in the light
of your constant oil lamp,
and with such discretion
we might never know how often
you tell those stories
of great uncles and Jessee James or
how many nights
the oil burns.
14.
all the girls in the workshop lounge
talk about your style and the size of your prick.
me, I got a bladder infection from you -
honeymoon cystitis, the doctor called it - but
I knew it was from that weird position;
my legs on your shoulders and you
raised up on your arms like that
your eyes so far away and constantly
watching, my face and then your prick thrusting,
watching so intently that I had to look too: that
was what did it
ten dollars for vibramycin but I didn't mind.
I'd never had it done like that
to me before and I learned
to watch from you;
your face almost
perfectly controlled just until
you came.
---------------------------------------------------------------
if you keep getting the wrong answers
maybe you're starting at the wrong place
it can be so easy
it could have been as easy as a list
scribbled on the back of an old envelope
oh my lovers
your name could have been
anguish or loneliness
confusion but instead
you had none
1 to 14 you have no name
the muscles all the way around my neck
tighten and I am drawn repeatedly
to the 1 Ching and 3 special pennies
I must know where everyone is
and how things are going for
anyone I still love
I must keep lists
all the time and always
keep adding to them
months and names
and maybe indexes of positions
and moods that I can correlate
to the moon or my own
peculiar cycle
I must have astrological charts
and symbols of my own identity
to remind me to stay alone
a lot
I know how easy it would be
to get lost somewhere
to lose the lists
and the silver ring that I never take off
and stop having these poems
change the numbers back to names
have children maybe and
give them all names
to learn by rote memory
these poems nourish me
and i will wear it
if lists are my sanity
I will keep them
if numbers are my salvation
i will never find the names
(as printed by the Iowa City Women's Press Collective's All Women Are Free to Read Their Poetry, 1972)
Women's Bathroom Wall Grafitti Conversation - 1971, Iowa City, IA
- Try a bisexual, I've been happy with one for years.
- I'm sorry you have such a problem.
- Have any of you out there in academia loved a fag? Christ, what a plight. Is there a resolution?
- A physical one is OK. I can understand. But not a mental fag.
- It's an empty relationship. Believe me, I know.
- Maybe if you stop thinking of him as a fag you could start relating to him as a human being. There ARE relationships to be had other than sexual ones.
- That's true, but a Platonic relationship can be frustrating if you're horney.
- Sodomy is a sin!
- Do people still believe in sin?
- Jesus is the real thing. Don't know it til you've tried it.
(as printed in Iowa City Women's Press Collective's All Women Are Free to Read Their Poetry anthology, 1972)
- I'm sorry you have such a problem.
- Have any of you out there in academia loved a fag? Christ, what a plight. Is there a resolution?
- A physical one is OK. I can understand. But not a mental fag.
- It's an empty relationship. Believe me, I know.
- Maybe if you stop thinking of him as a fag you could start relating to him as a human being. There ARE relationships to be had other than sexual ones.
- That's true, but a Platonic relationship can be frustrating if you're horney.
- Sodomy is a sin!
- Do people still believe in sin?
- Jesus is the real thing. Don't know it til you've tried it.
(as printed in Iowa City Women's Press Collective's All Women Are Free to Read Their Poetry anthology, 1972)
what if women "acted like men"????
Check out this stellar video that plays with reversing gender roles and what society would look like if women had more power and used it in a destructive manner.
Gender Roles Reversal by Gender Studies
Gender Roles Reversal by Gender Studies
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Graduate Degrees in Gender and Women's Studies??? The fact that you have to ask proves they are relevant!
also posted on Feministing: http://community.feministing.com/2010/02/graduate-degrees-in-gender-and.html
My mother never questioned my undergraduate major in Women’s Studies or my certificate in Sexuality Studies, perhaps because they were supplemented with a major in English. She did, however, question my decision to work for a single Master’s in Gender and Women’s Studies, claiming it was a field that would only hurt me in the long run as I applied for jobs. Her concern was that my graduate degree’s presence on a job application would label me a “bra-burning feminist”, as well as render me unqualified for any position outside of feminist non-profits.
My mother’s concern that having on a resume a graduate degree in Gender and Women’s Studies would label me a “bra-burning feminist” has a rich, anti-feminist history of the Rush Limbaugh brand. Stigma surrounding the F word is so prevalent that it could cost me a job lest I stir up the system. I felt this fear of speaking truth to power last summer when I claimed sexual harassment at work and was told by an ombudsperson it would never hold up because I am legally considered an unreasonable woman...due to my area of study and involvement with feminist and women’s organizations. While much of society, and particularly young women, have bought into Limbaugh’s feminazi theory as well as the liberty of “Girls Gone Wild” and other side-effects of post-feminism, Gender and Women’s Studies acknowledges the political ploy at play. Gender and Women’s Studies states that what has changed has changed to fit a new generational context but that the status of women is not necessarily better. Further, the field actively works to dispel this myth so that “bra-burning feminists” such as myself are legally able to challenge the system while employed.
The wide-spread belief that a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies is not applicable to any “respectable” career stems from, among other things, a misunderstanding of the field. Like any other area of humanities, Gender and Women’s Studies does not lead directly into a specific career like with business and medical majors. Not only do I get asked what I plan to do with this degree, I am also asked what I am going to do with an English degree. Gender and Women’s Studies trains students in critical reading and writing, argument formation, theory, research, personal and political exploration, diversity and cultural competency, interdisciplinary knowledge, and professionalism, many of which are components of other humanities. But unlike English, Gender and Women’s Studies is seen as irrelevant. With these skills, however, many careers engaging with social and victim services, politics, education, and other sectors are possible.
Perhaps most importantly, Gender and Women’s Studies has the power to influence and change lives in a way that most other disciplines do not. It fosters an honesty I have yet to find in other disciplines, and it is easy to place myself in the material and its objectives as both academic and activist in nature. Gender and Women’s Studies is one of the few academic fields that attempts to engage social, cultural, and political realities while working to eradicate oppression and provide new world-views. Its scholarship encourages free-thinking and the challenging of tradition. In its intertwining of the personal, political, and interdisciplinary, the field serves as an educational tool, a tool for personal development, and a tool for social activism.
If more people understood the current state of feminism to be in jeopardy, Gender and Women’s Studies perhaps would not need to be defended. It is not an outdated 1970s discipline because equality has not been reached. And contrary to popular opinion, sexism (as well as other isms for that matter) does still exist; it exists so deeply that most young women are blind – complacent – to its power. Gender and Women’s Studies functions to eradicate sexism and systemic oppression. Even after (if ever) it is eradicated, the field will still have a place in education, ensuring that all remember the past as it was. Further, feminist scholarship influences the way people think about themselves and the world, providing a place for self and social exploration, and perpetuates feminism’s livelihood.
Gender and Women’s Studies is necessary to our world. We feminist scholars directly and actively link the personal with the political in a way that encourages action; we provide the slate – the way of thinking about society – for activist methodology. We enter into various careers that engage this way of thinking either through publishing or utilizing it in an environment that needs it. If society were to view Gender and Women’s Studies for what it truly is – if more people knew its purpose and merit as a field examining gendered power relations and systemic oppression – it would be accepted as a “respectable” field of inquiry with “respectable” careers. If more people were to accept that feminism is not dead because sexism is alive and kicking and that this is problematic because of how it distributes power, my mother wouldn’t be so quick to suggest a different educational path. She would see my decision to continue my education in Gender and Women’s Studies as another way in which I work to make the world a better place for her, for all women, for all people. And my mother would praise me for this, no matter what I do with my degree.
My mother never questioned my undergraduate major in Women’s Studies or my certificate in Sexuality Studies, perhaps because they were supplemented with a major in English. She did, however, question my decision to work for a single Master’s in Gender and Women’s Studies, claiming it was a field that would only hurt me in the long run as I applied for jobs. Her concern was that my graduate degree’s presence on a job application would label me a “bra-burning feminist”, as well as render me unqualified for any position outside of feminist non-profits.
My mother’s concern that having on a resume a graduate degree in Gender and Women’s Studies would label me a “bra-burning feminist” has a rich, anti-feminist history of the Rush Limbaugh brand. Stigma surrounding the F word is so prevalent that it could cost me a job lest I stir up the system. I felt this fear of speaking truth to power last summer when I claimed sexual harassment at work and was told by an ombudsperson it would never hold up because I am legally considered an unreasonable woman...due to my area of study and involvement with feminist and women’s organizations. While much of society, and particularly young women, have bought into Limbaugh’s feminazi theory as well as the liberty of “Girls Gone Wild” and other side-effects of post-feminism, Gender and Women’s Studies acknowledges the political ploy at play. Gender and Women’s Studies states that what has changed has changed to fit a new generational context but that the status of women is not necessarily better. Further, the field actively works to dispel this myth so that “bra-burning feminists” such as myself are legally able to challenge the system while employed.
The wide-spread belief that a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies is not applicable to any “respectable” career stems from, among other things, a misunderstanding of the field. Like any other area of humanities, Gender and Women’s Studies does not lead directly into a specific career like with business and medical majors. Not only do I get asked what I plan to do with this degree, I am also asked what I am going to do with an English degree. Gender and Women’s Studies trains students in critical reading and writing, argument formation, theory, research, personal and political exploration, diversity and cultural competency, interdisciplinary knowledge, and professionalism, many of which are components of other humanities. But unlike English, Gender and Women’s Studies is seen as irrelevant. With these skills, however, many careers engaging with social and victim services, politics, education, and other sectors are possible.
Perhaps most importantly, Gender and Women’s Studies has the power to influence and change lives in a way that most other disciplines do not. It fosters an honesty I have yet to find in other disciplines, and it is easy to place myself in the material and its objectives as both academic and activist in nature. Gender and Women’s Studies is one of the few academic fields that attempts to engage social, cultural, and political realities while working to eradicate oppression and provide new world-views. Its scholarship encourages free-thinking and the challenging of tradition. In its intertwining of the personal, political, and interdisciplinary, the field serves as an educational tool, a tool for personal development, and a tool for social activism.
If more people understood the current state of feminism to be in jeopardy, Gender and Women’s Studies perhaps would not need to be defended. It is not an outdated 1970s discipline because equality has not been reached. And contrary to popular opinion, sexism (as well as other isms for that matter) does still exist; it exists so deeply that most young women are blind – complacent – to its power. Gender and Women’s Studies functions to eradicate sexism and systemic oppression. Even after (if ever) it is eradicated, the field will still have a place in education, ensuring that all remember the past as it was. Further, feminist scholarship influences the way people think about themselves and the world, providing a place for self and social exploration, and perpetuates feminism’s livelihood.
Gender and Women’s Studies is necessary to our world. We feminist scholars directly and actively link the personal with the political in a way that encourages action; we provide the slate – the way of thinking about society – for activist methodology. We enter into various careers that engage this way of thinking either through publishing or utilizing it in an environment that needs it. If society were to view Gender and Women’s Studies for what it truly is – if more people knew its purpose and merit as a field examining gendered power relations and systemic oppression – it would be accepted as a “respectable” field of inquiry with “respectable” careers. If more people were to accept that feminism is not dead because sexism is alive and kicking and that this is problematic because of how it distributes power, my mother wouldn’t be so quick to suggest a different educational path. She would see my decision to continue my education in Gender and Women’s Studies as another way in which I work to make the world a better place for her, for all women, for all people. And my mother would praise me for this, no matter what I do with my degree.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
"Elephant Poem" ~Judy Grahn
Suppose you have an elephant
with a 56 millimeter trunk
and say he's
tearing up the jungle
(say you think he's drunk
or crazy)
How're you going to bring that elephant down?
lion can't
bear could but don't want to
and the panther's too small for that job.
Then suppose you have an elephant
with a million millimeter trunk
and his jungle is the whole green world?
(and drunk
and crazy)
you see the problem.
one more word
about elephants
No matter how hard they try
elephants cannot pick their noses
any more than bankers can hand out money
or police put away their pistols
or politicians get right with God.
a sty
in the elephant's eye
ain't nothing
but a fly in his nose
is a serious if not fatal condition
when the fly
gets into that nostril
it begins to swell
and stay closed
he can't smell can't drink can't think
can't get one up
on anybody
he begins to regret
all that flabby ammunition
hanging on him
he begins to wish
he'd been a little more bare-faced
like an ape or a fish
all those passageways
he needs to feed himself
tied up
ELEPHANT TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
by a fly
a million flies
outweigh a trunk
a tank
a bank
a million flies
outthink a pile of IBM
junk
we must be wise
to the elephant's lies
you may think we should try
to sober him up
but the trouble isn't that he's drunk
the trouble is
that he's an elephant
with a multi-millimeter trunk
who believes the world is his jungle
and until he dies
he grows and grows
we must be flies
in the elephant's nose
ready to carry on
in every town
you know there are butterflies
there are horse flies and house flies
blue flies, shoo flies and it's-not-
true flies
then there are may flies and wood flies
but I'm talking about
can flies and do flies
bottle flies, rock flies and sock flies
dragonflies and fireflies
in the elephant's nose
ready to carry on
til he goes down
with a 56 millimeter trunk
and say he's
tearing up the jungle
(say you think he's drunk
or crazy)
How're you going to bring that elephant down?
lion can't
bear could but don't want to
and the panther's too small for that job.
Then suppose you have an elephant
with a million millimeter trunk
and his jungle is the whole green world?
(and drunk
and crazy)
you see the problem.
one more word
about elephants
No matter how hard they try
elephants cannot pick their noses
any more than bankers can hand out money
or police put away their pistols
or politicians get right with God.
a sty
in the elephant's eye
ain't nothing
but a fly in his nose
is a serious if not fatal condition
when the fly
gets into that nostril
it begins to swell
and stay closed
he can't smell can't drink can't think
can't get one up
on anybody
he begins to regret
all that flabby ammunition
hanging on him
he begins to wish
he'd been a little more bare-faced
like an ape or a fish
all those passageways
he needs to feed himself
tied up
ELEPHANT TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
by a fly
a million flies
outweigh a trunk
a tank
a bank
a million flies
outthink a pile of IBM
junk
we must be wise
to the elephant's lies
you may think we should try
to sober him up
but the trouble isn't that he's drunk
the trouble is
that he's an elephant
with a multi-millimeter trunk
who believes the world is his jungle
and until he dies
he grows and grows
we must be flies
in the elephant's nose
ready to carry on
in every town
you know there are butterflies
there are horse flies and house flies
blue flies, shoo flies and it's-not-
true flies
then there are may flies and wood flies
but I'm talking about
can flies and do flies
bottle flies, rock flies and sock flies
dragonflies and fireflies
in the elephant's nose
ready to carry on
til he goes down
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