Femme Flâneur.

Text Hemmingway Saturdays, Part One

Tonight I’ve found myself in a strangely pleasant situation; I kind of want to do work, and I have the resources to do so. These include a little bit of creative energy, a half-empty bottle of wine (it was already half-empty when I found it, I swear), and some time stolen from a good night’s sleep (It’s unlikely that I will be able to fall asleep easily tonight, since I decided to get a coffee on my way home from school hoping to fuel late-night adventures of a then-undetermined nature). I’ve also been posessed by “night energy,” which tends to motivate endeavors that are somewhat more whimsical and extra-ordinary than my academic work; hence, I refer to this situation as a “strangely” pleasant one.

I am planning to apply these resources to the further construction of my thesis. I suppose there is a bit of an air of the extra-ordinary about this pursuit, since I usually don’t have time to work on this project anymore. For reasons that I won’t get into at the moment, this project has dragged on for quite some time, and more current academic projects tend to move to the top of my priority list for necessity’s sake. However, I just read a draft of a chapter that I haven’t touched since last November; I thought I had accomplished some pretty great work at the time, and I feel the same way now that I’ve gained some distance from the writing process. I tend to be overly-critical of my own work, so this positive evaluation is pretty significant.

I’m actually kind of excited to start this again, although obviously it will take more than one “Hemmingway Saturday” to make this happen. It should go without saying that I’m going to eliminate the “Hemmingway” part (ie, the vices) when I start to do this on a more regular basis. In the meantime though, here’s to a more Romantic take on the life of an academic (now I just need to start my own Bloomsbury group. Any takers?).

Link 2705
Notes megan rosalarian gedris: Dressed to Kill

rosalarian:

Whenever I complain about how females are portrayed in mainstream superhero comics, inevitably half a dozen people pop up to tell me this:

“Men are idealized in comics, too.”

Yes. Yes they are. I am aware of this. While I think the idealism is harmful, that isn’t actually what I have a problem…

Photo 65041
Notes

It’s a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings – one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one. Today, for the first time, the happily reunited couple was gay.
The dock landing ship Oak Hill has been gone for nearly three months, training with military allies in Central America.
As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship’s family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 - which is actually fewer than many people buy, she said, so she was surprised Monday to find out she’d won.
Her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting when she crossed the brow.
They kissed. The crowd cheered. And with that, another vestige of the policy that forced gays to serve in secrecy vanished.
By Corinne Reilly The Virginian-Pilot© December 21, 2011

It’s a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings – one lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss with a loved one.
Today, for the first time, the happily reunited couple was gay.

The dock landing ship Oak Hill has been gone for nearly three months, training with military allies in Central America.

As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship’s family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 - which is actually fewer than many people buy, she said, so she was surprised Monday to find out she’d won.

Her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting when she crossed the brow.

They kissed. The crowd cheered. And with that, another vestige of the policy that forced gays to serve in secrecy vanished.

By Corinne Reilly
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 21, 2011

(via theswaggeringcripple)

Photos 2704
Notes

ouyangdan:

certifieddimepiece:

Salute!
peaceshannon:

The 1,000th Wednesday Protest.

I just want to write about how inspiring, passionate, and courageous these women are (my favorite Halmoni, Pak Ok-seon Halmoni can be seen in the top photo wearing a blue scarf).

They are in their 80’s and 90’s and they have been demonstrating in front of the Japanese Embassy every fucking week for 20 years. In the rain, in the snow, in the heat, in the wind, without fail. They’ve faced social stigma, being called whores and prostitutes, they’ve been asked by their families to not go public but they go out there EVERY FUCKING WEEK.

And they do it because they want the world to know what happened to them, what’s still happening in wars all across the globe, what’s happening across national borders, what’s happening in school campuses, churches, and pretty much every corner of this goddamn planet.

And that is sexual violence against women.

And when you ask them why they’re out there every week, they’ll tell you that yes, they want their apology from the Japanese government - they want someone to look them in the face and say yes, it happened and I. am. sorry. But they’ll also tell you that they’re out there because they don’t want what happened to them to happen to a single other woman, ever again.

These women are RAD! I have so much respect for them.

(via infectioushumanwaste)

Text 37100
Notes One teachers approach to preventing gender bullying in a classroom

togetherforjacksoncountykids:

“It’s Okay to be Neither,” By Melissa Bollow Tempel

Alie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed her hood. When we arrived at the art room, I said: “Allie, I’m not playing. It’s time for art. The rule is no hoods or hats in school.”

She looked up with tears in her eyes and I realized there was something wrong. Her classmates went into the art room and we moved to the art storage area so her classmates wouldn’t hear our conversation. I softened my tone and asked her if she’d like to tell me what was wrong.

“My ponytail,” she cried.

“Can I see?” I asked.

She nodded and pulled down her hood. Allie’s braids had come undone overnight and there hadn’t been time to redo them in the morning, so they had to be put back in a ponytail. It was high up on the back of her head like those of many girls in our class, but I could see that to Allie it just felt wrong. With Allie’s permission, I took the elastic out and re-braided her hair so it could hang down.

“How’s that?” I asked.

She smiled. “Good,” she said and skipped off to join her friends in art.

‘Why Do You Look Like a Boy?’

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Link What is Rophie Doing Now?

Apparently, she’s pointing out the hypocrisies of liberals these days. There isn’t an analysis of gender here; I only posted this because I recognized her name in my Slate e-mails and checked out this article out of curiosity.

Link Oh good, more wives for me.

If you can’t argue the “facts” of gendered social arrangements from biology, you can always turn to numbers. Numbers are scary; they tell the truth. I’ll argue with them anyway (or at least the claims made on the basis of such “facts”). Why ought a lack of opportunities to associate with men leave women with less “bargaining power?” Is that situation inevitable, and is polygamy really going to promote equality? I seem to recall that many polygamous societies actually tend to be fairly unequal; giving the bride’s family vast sums of money isn’t the same as giving the bride herself vast sums of money (I will undermine my own authority, if I have any at all, by noting that I don’t actually remember where I heard that polygamous societies tend to be unequal). It makes sense to say that greater numbers of potential marital partners allows women to be more choosy, but it doesn’t seem to follow that women would necessarily be more “equal” or autonomous in such societies.

To be appropriately kind and fair, I can see why Mr. Harford wouldn’t want to be burdened by all of the demands of additional wives, were polygamy to become socially acceptable in the United States; I wouldn’t want all those women around to do my menial tasks, satisfy my sexual demands, and take care of my emotional needs either.

Link While we're on the topic of the sex and power...

I thought it might be bit of a stretch to add a piece on Marx, but then he was mentioned in class today and the connection between this piece and the class discussion was made!

Link We could re-deploy gender performances in more rigid or conservative ways...

… but every once in a while, a deployment of power that feminists can support seems gets through (although I’m taking the author’s word for it, because I haven’t seen the movie she reviews).

Link US Bishops' Plan to Recruit the Disadvantaged Fails When Government Agency Realizes that Faith is an Ineffective Prophylactic

“A contentious battle between Catholic groups and the Obama administration has flared in recent days, fueled by the new health-care law and ongoing divisions over access to abortion and birth control.

The latest dispute centers on a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services in late September to end funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help victims of human trafficking, or modern-day slavery. The church group had overseen nationwide services to victims since 2006 but was denied a new grant in favor of three other groups.”