femminista: thoughts of a feminist rhetorician

The internet is an amazing rabbit hole. You follow a path of links and they lead you to a place that you didn't know existed (yet are unsurprised to find). As it turns out, the rape culture reality that exists in the F2F fleshy world is thriving and prospering in its cyber-counterpart. In researching the attacks of Anonyomous, whose aim is not explicitly anti-feminist and anti-woman (although it clearly is if you look at actions and statements; in other words, Anonymous doesn't have a centralized mission statement that is hostile towards women), I found a plethora of blogs who are outwardly hateful in ways that make me incredibly sad. I'm alternately stunned and disappointed, shocked and resigned, angered and saddened by these blogs and websites.

For the past couple of weeks I've walked through the Stewart Center while on my way from teaching to my next caffeine dose.  (Today I took that route to avoid the cold for a few minutes)  And each time I walk through, I note the weary looking protesters and wonder a few things:  Have they been there for the entire time, without break, and if so, do they have the support of their professors?  What about the bathing issue?  How long can someone maintain a hunger strike without causing physiological damage?  And, perhaps most importantly, why does the administration refuse to discuss change?  Is this a we don't negotiate with terrorists thing?  Refusing to deal with sweatshops constitutes sound and ethical business practice.  Doesn't th

I'm taking a moment this morning to point out an interesting website sponsored by Seventh Generation, a manufacturer of ecologically sound household products. This website is called Tampontification. I stumbled upon it last night in my search for full-spectrum light bulbs. Of the two brands that I've tried, Seventh Generation is the one that, to me, provides the nicest light, so much so that I am actively seeking it out. I'm in Ann Arbor right now and I found one lone bulb at the Whole Foods here, but back in Lafayette, the local health food stores don't carry them. So, last night I did what everyone who can't find what they want or need does--I went online and googled it. Actually, I just went straight to the Seventh Generation site, but I would have googled it if the url wasn't so easy to remember;) While my search yielded little in the way of satisfying results (I'm afraid that they may be discontinuing their light bulb production), I did stumble across an interesting site, the aforementioned Tampontification, sponsored by the company.

I refuse to be silent. To worry and avoid and fear speaking truth. I am not a shy person, certainly not a person who has trouble speaking her mind. But there are things that I keep hidden from the world. I'm a terrible liar, but a convincing actress. The name of my famous curtain calls--healthy cat. It's true; every day I perform the role of "normal." Not in the plain vanilla way. No one would ever accuse me of being boring or, to be honest, even normal in most of its senses. No, my performance of normal is much more specific, more "rocky road" than vanilla. I play the role of the fully able-bodied, healthy young woman. I have done so for almost twenty eight years. But now, as I prepare to enter the twenty-ninth year, I note that my costume is ragged at the edges; there are tears in the bodice and on the sleeves; my makeup is wearing thin; my hair falling out. This show cannot go on.

Women's ENews reports :

* A recent Harvard University study has confirmed what many sexual health educators, including those who spoke at the Center for Disease Control's annual conference on sexually transmitted diseases last week, have suspected: that programs where teens sign virginity or abstinence pledges may be unreliable in preventing them from engaging in sexual intercourse and their effectiveness is hard to determine because of teens' suspect self-reporting. The study found that 53 percent of 13,000 adolescents between grades 7 and 12 who said they made a virginity pledge denied doing so a year later, often after they had become sexually active. Another 10 percent who had engaged in sexual intercourse before they signed pledges or became born-again Christians reported themselves as virgins.

So, can Dubya get his head out of his ass and fund real sexual education. You know, the kind with condoms and birth control.

The first installment of "femminista Goddess of the month":

Check out my BFF's website Consent is Sexy
to see one of the many reasons why my Mel is a femminista goddess!

While perusing some feminist blogs, I ran across Sour Duck. The post that I found particularly interesting:

How long does it take your race switch to click back to "White"? is a close interrogation of the "white until proven otherwise" assumption.

Well, I must say that I am saddened by all of the things that take me away from blogging. It is now 12 days since my last entries and I have had so much to say in these past days but no time to say it.

My heart failure subsided as I finished my paper in time for the conference but was reignited when, because of illness, I was unable to attend and present it. I've had a sinus infection that won't go away and the flu, making the nine hour drive to Michigan and the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference a non-option. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who missed the conference as many Fems/Rhet presenters and attendees were stuck in various airports because of a snow storm in Minneapolis. However, fortunately for all of us, our tireless conference organizers are giving us the opportunity to post our papers on the web, giving us the next best thing to being there. Even though I am sad to have missed the conference, I know that my decision not to go was best. I became more ill during the week and would have been (even more) completely miserable had I gone. On the bright side, I've been able to get some work done in spite of my illness(es). I have sent Chapter One and the preface of my thesis to my director, finally. Even better, I'm almost done with Chapter Two and Chapter Three is well on its way!

Lately, I've been proud of my success in remembering appointments and arriving on time, much of which is due to the fact that I can actually think clearly again and don't have to spend most of my time sick in bed. Last night I had a reminder of the old days. It seems that the conference that I am going to during October is this week!. Everything that I have done has been on the assumption that the conference was next week. I have it in my calendar as starting on the 12th when in fact it is starting on the 5th. Yes, that's right, four days from now. I don't know how I made this mistake unless I confused it with the date of the conference that I'm presenting at next month (which I will be verifying right now). To avoid my impending heart attack, I will be finishing this post and moving on to working on my conference paper.

I discovered this link to NARAL on feministing. It's a press relaease regarding a brief that John Roberts' wrote supporting Operation Rescue and other groups responsible for extreme acts against abortion clinics, including bombings. NARAL has produced a television ad trying to raise awareness of this aspect of Roberts' career. You can see the ad by clicking on the link to the press release.