Category Archives: Politics & Society

Feminisms: Mommy Wars

Speaking of “mommy porn,” I thought I’d vent a bit about the so-called “mommy wars” that the wife of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has become embroiled in. Ann Romney, a “stay-at-home” mother, came under fire for never having “worked a day in her life.” Obviously the political right took this badly worded statement out of context and spun it all the way to the other side of their war on my uterus. Of course what Ms. Rosen meant was that Mrs. Romney has not had to work for money to take care of the children she raised, not that raising children is easy peezy. In fact, she was wealthy enough to pay help to help her raise them. I’m not saying that her efforts as a stay-at-home mom should be derided. All women, of all lives, deserve respect and value. But “mommys” aren’t more important than other women. Their experiences are different but not “harder.” Well, except poor mothers, who Mitt Romney thinks should have to get a job to earn welfare to pay for their kids.

HOW DO THEY NOT SEE THEIR RIDICULOUSNESS?!?!?! Ann Romney can throw a fit for being called out on her privilege and claim that Democrats hate mothers while she and her husband make it harder for poor mothers to raise their kids. Only rich women can be stay-at-home moms, I guess. Even though beloved anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafley is still going on about how women shouldn’t work. People, if you really want this to happen, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT SOMEHOW.

Babies be costing mad money, yo.

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Soapbox: Awareness Raises Nothing or Kony 2012

About a month ago, everyone I know on Facebook was posting this video called Kony 2012. I immediately became suspicious. When everyone is sharing something, so quickly, they often having thought anything about it and are riding on some “awareness raising train.” That really makes me give out side eye, y’all.

I’m not against awareness raising, per se. Hell, it’s what I do here. However, to me there are two kinds of awareness raising. There’s pointing out to someone when they are being insensitive or racist or uncool and why, and then there’s putting up posters about some issue you really have no interest in or plan on doing anything about other than wearing a bracelet. Kony 2012 is the latter. And somehow it managed to combine two groups of simple-minded people into one cause, the ‘Oprah’ watchers (who don’t realize they are being sold stuff wrapped in “philosophy” so that O’s empire can continue to grow) and the alternative college-aged crowd (who put up PETA posters at Thanksgiving but have no problem with the fact that PETA sexually objectifies human women for any and all reasons). I mean, really? Harnessing those two types of people together in an attempt to change the world… by putting posters up and sharing videos on Facebook and buying bracelets? Genius. Continue reading

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WTF?!?: Michelle Duggar is Overpopulating My Brain with Stupid

When Michelle Duggar announced she was pregnant with her 20th kid, I wrote that, though I support all kinds of family and reproductive choice, I feel that it is unethical for her family to continue to take up resources when so many go without. I didn’t follow up when the Duggars miscarried and had a funeral for the fetus because, though I’m pro-choice, some people really grieve when they miscarry. For many it’s as if the imaginary child in their head is what actually died and not a parasite dependent on their womb to live. (Author’s note: A friend pointed out the problematic language in the previous sentence. Read the comments for a clarification/expansion.) It’s weird and it’s couched in their problematic belief system, but I’m just not cruel like that. I don’t want Fred Phelps screaming outside the funeral of gay kids, so I’m not gonna make fun of a grieving woman for wanting a little ceremony to deal with her grief.
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Feminisms: My Uterus, My Vote, Your Loss

I’m sitting here at the Free Library of Philadelphia, thinking about how much better a library it is than my old haunt, DC’s Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Library. Designed by modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, of the famously omnipresent and knocked off Barcelona chairs, MLK is obviously a different sort of beast than the neoclassical 1920s building. But being 50 years younger, you’d think that the bathrooms and elevators would at least work? But I digress…

My real point of writing this essay is not to talk about midcentury design, but to point out that I’m sitting here, 31-years old, spending my time writing a novel (well attempting to), thinking about how bad DC’s library is and how that must surely be related to lack of voting rights, while ignoring my belly as it says “go outside and eat that peanut butter sandwich already lady!” Why can I do all of this? Well, because we sold our house and my husband is earning enough I can write full timeBut also because I didn’t get pregnant when I was 17 years old. Or 20. Or 25. Or 30. I’m able to pursue my innermost dreams and express my silliest opinions because of birth control. More so, because of clinics like Planned Parenthood, who I could 1) go to without involving my parents and 2) afford before I had health insurance, allowing me to have safe sex and not have a tween living in my household as we speak. Can you imagine what my life would be like? Filled with DisneyChannel tv shows, for sure…

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Feminisms: F*ck All Y’all

I was writing a post about the Komen/Planned Parenthood controversy and alternative donation options (see here and here), when I read up on some of the other attacks on reproductive choice that have taken over this country… Like Virginia’s recent bill that would essentially make abortion unaccessible for low income women and requires rapey ultrasounds or Oklahoma’s ‘every sperm is sacred‘ bill or the religious right’s fight against national birth control coverage because it violates Separation of Church and State. ::eye roll:: Continue reading

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