Tag Archive for "Deep Thoughts"

Posts Tagged Deep Thoughts

Attitudes are the hardest thing to tailor

I used to love shopping. It was a big pastime for my family, and many of my best memories as a kid are centered on the shopping mall.

But even when I loved shopping for clothes, there was always that really terrible moment in the dressing room that would stick with me for months after the incident. That moment when, after trying on many cute-looking things on the rack, none of them looked good on my body. None.

If I couldn’t find clothes that looked good, that fit my body appropriately, I knew what the problem was immediately. It was me.

If only I lost a little weight, if only my belly shrunk some, THEN I would be a perfect size whatever and ...

I used to love shopping. It was a big pastime for my family, and many of my best memories as a kid are centered on the shopping mall.

But even when I loved shopping for clothes, there was ...

By Miriam • 12 years ago

Is criminalization a good prevention tactic?

For many things that people may think are wrong, or should be eliminated or prevented, the first (or often main) tactic for dealing with them is criminalization. This applies to things like sex work, abortion, drugs, immigration, domestic violence (and many more). Criminalization means that you make the said thing illegal, criminalize the behavior and attach penalties to engaging in it, often which can include time in prison.

A few of these issues, in particular sex work and abortion, are often hotly debated in feminist circles. There are people within our movement in various positions on the issue, but I’ve realized that often a more important question than our opinion about the actual act is the tactics proposed to deal with ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Rape Cops, DSK, Casey Anthony, And Accepting Justice As Imperfect

Jos wrote a brilliant post back in May about what she means when she talks about justice.

Lately, on the heels of her thoughts and several high-profile acquittals, including a rape case against a high-profile French politician being dropped because the victim’s “lack of credibility,” and the acquittal last month of two NYPD officers who were recorded entering their accuser’s home on four different occasions in the same night while lying about it, and who had previously harassed an intoxicated young woman while on duty, I’ve become interested in talking about justice as imperfect.

Justice is a lot of things, but it’s first and foremost a concept. Sure, it has real-life, tangible implications: a parking ticket, ...

Jos wrote a brilliant post back in May about what she means when she talks about justice.

Lately, on the heels of her thoughts and several high-profile acquittals, including a rape case ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

A letter to your sixteen-year-old self

Letters of Note, one of my favourite blogs, recently posted a few pages from the book Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self. The book was compiled a couple of years ago as a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS prevention, and it consists of letters, written by a range of famous people – Yoko Ono, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson – to their teenaged selves.

TV presenter and comedian Jonathan Ross told his young self to “stop worrying about the opinion of others and be yourself,” and offered this reassurance: “You will eventually lose your virginity and go to Disneyworld (though not on the same day).” Debbie Harry said, “go for it girl… Dreams Do Come True. Keep Dreaming.” I ...

Letters of Note, one of my favourite blogs, recently posted a few pages from the book Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self. The book was compiled a couple of years ago as a ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Tina Fey, Scream 4, and the pros and cons of “undercover feminism”

In this insightful article on the F-word blog, Lara Williams asks a truly provocative question: “can non-overt feminism be the most radical of all?”

She notes that “having watched both Scream 4 and the concluding episodes of French crime-drama Spiral this week, I was struck by how feminist both were. And yet, on closer inspection, I was pushed to find distinctly feminist tropes in either.”

And she goes on to conclude:

“Though casually progressive, both Scream 4 and Spiral are not overtly feminist. Yet in an entirely uncongratulatory and unpoliticised way, they represent true gender equality – the good and the bad in men and women. And isn’t that (or to me at least) what feminism ...

In this insightful article on the F-word blog, Lara Williams asks a truly provocative question: “can non-overt feminism be the most radical of all?”

She notes that “having watched both Scream ...

By Jos Truitt • 12 years ago

What do you mean when you say justice?

I do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.

I’ve never been so hungry that i willed hunger,

Never so angry as to want a gun over a pen.

-Suheir Hammad, First Writing Since

I realized something Sunday night when the news of Osama bin Laden’s assassination broke and as I watched the reaction unfold: when I say “justice” I mean something very different than when many other people say the word. I heard about “justice” in President Obama’s speech, on Facebook and Twitter, in the news, in the partying crowd outside the White House.

That’s not what I call justice. I don’t see justice in violence responding to violence. I see vengeance. I don’t see justice in ...

I do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.

I’ve never been so hungry that i willed hunger,

Never so angry as to want a gun over a pen.

-Suheir Hammad, First Writing ...

By Jos Truitt • 13 years ago

Are there alternatives to the failing national reproductive rights organizing model?

My post last week about how national organizations let abortion rights be used as a pawn in the budget fight has generated some interesting questions. Most important and challenging, I think: so what do we do? What’s the answer? If our current organizing model is failing us, what should we be doing instead?

I wish I knew. It’s clear to me the way national pro-choice organizations currently function – existing to exist, not to actually win on our issues – isn’t working. Critique is often easier than visioning something different, and I think it’s going to take a movement’s worth of visionaries to find better ways forward. I don’t know exactly what will work, but I do want to share ...

By Jos Truitt • 13 years ago

In budget fight, pro-choice organizations get played again

The role of the pro-choice community in the last minute budget deal is a sad one: we were totally used.

We have not had a major victory for abortion rights at the federal level since Roe v. Wade. Instead, we’ve been losing since the passage of the Hyde Amendment. Almost 40 years of losing strategy that hasn’t changed much. And our opponents have gotten pretty good at taking advantage of this fact. Much of the debate about the budget has hinged on the issue of abortion, despite the fact the US government continues to bar federal funding for the procedure. But a lot of the public conversation was about funding for Planned Parenthood, and this is where the energy of DC-based ...

The role of the pro-choice community in the last minute budget deal is a sad one: we were totally used.

We have not had a major victory for abortion rights at the federal level since Roe v. Wade. ...