Thursday, May 10, 2007
I am so sad, y'all.
I lost my job.
I've looked under the sofa and behind the fridge and I can't find it ANYWHERE.
seriously - I been be-fired.
if anyone knows of some golden opportunity in the Hartford, CT area (or, fuckit, anywhere else), lemme know.
in the meantime, I think I'll have another beer. or something.
my husband is being a prince and a saint and my friends are all being so gentle and kind and loving. I am truly blessed. I am so lucky to have people in my corner.
thanks. just wanted to say that.
I lost my job.
I've looked under the sofa and behind the fridge and I can't find it ANYWHERE.
seriously - I been be-fired.
if anyone knows of some golden opportunity in the Hartford, CT area (or, fuckit, anywhere else), lemme know.
in the meantime, I think I'll have another beer. or something.
my husband is being a prince and a saint and my friends are all being so gentle and kind and loving. I am truly blessed. I am so lucky to have people in my corner.
thanks. just wanted to say that.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Oh, for the love of little green apples:
Somali forces ban, burn Muslim women's veils By Guled Mohamed
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses said on Wednesday.
The Western-backed government's crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for the Somali capital. When it was under Islamist control in the second half of 2006, women were instructed to cover their heads.
"Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," senior police officer Ali Nur told Reuters in Mogadishu, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise.
"Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops."
Somalis are generally moderate Muslims and most women traditionally cover their heads but not faces. Officials say some suicide attacks have been carried out by men disguised under full face-veils.
Mogadishu residents said government troops and police had been forcibly removing veils and publicly destroying them.
"Yesterday, so many veils were burnt by the police," said taxi driver Abdullahi Mohamed.
A Reuters witness saw some veiled women running away from police on Wednesday.
One girl, 17-year-old Iftin Hussein, said she had left her veil at home to avoid encounters with the police. "Yesterday, I was forced to run away to escape from being unveiled. This is wrong, but we cannot do anything, we are powerless," she said.
SECURITY DRIVE
A senior cleric, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, urged the government to be sensitive.
"If the government is unveiling women out of security concerns, then I think it is acceptable. However, this can raise public anger," he told Reuters.
"The government has to undertake it very carefully. They should use women to frisk and unveil women, not men."
Backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes, Somali forces ousted the rival Islamist leaders in January.
Although the Islamists received some support for bringing relative security to Mogadishu, the welcome cooled when they banned Bollywood films and qat, a popular mild stimulant leaf.
The government has been fighting an insurgency that has killed at least 1,300 people since February. Just days ago, it declared victory, but is still wary of guerrilla-style attacks.
As part of a security drive in the gun-infested city, government and Ethiopian troops handed African peacekeepers weapons, including anti-tank mines and rocket-propelled grenades, they say were seized from an insurgent stronghold.
National police boss Abdi Hassan Awale said the weapons were unearthed at a Koranic school in northern Mogadishu.
"For children to be taught in a house with all these weapons buried underneath it, is against our religion," he said.
Somali forces ban, burn Muslim women's veils By Guled Mohamed
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses said on Wednesday.
The Western-backed government's crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for the Somali capital. When it was under Islamist control in the second half of 2006, women were instructed to cover their heads.
"Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," senior police officer Ali Nur told Reuters in Mogadishu, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise.
"Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops."
Somalis are generally moderate Muslims and most women traditionally cover their heads but not faces. Officials say some suicide attacks have been carried out by men disguised under full face-veils.
Mogadishu residents said government troops and police had been forcibly removing veils and publicly destroying them.
"Yesterday, so many veils were burnt by the police," said taxi driver Abdullahi Mohamed.
A Reuters witness saw some veiled women running away from police on Wednesday.
One girl, 17-year-old Iftin Hussein, said she had left her veil at home to avoid encounters with the police. "Yesterday, I was forced to run away to escape from being unveiled. This is wrong, but we cannot do anything, we are powerless," she said.
SECURITY DRIVE
A senior cleric, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, urged the government to be sensitive.
"If the government is unveiling women out of security concerns, then I think it is acceptable. However, this can raise public anger," he told Reuters.
"The government has to undertake it very carefully. They should use women to frisk and unveil women, not men."
Backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes, Somali forces ousted the rival Islamist leaders in January.
Although the Islamists received some support for bringing relative security to Mogadishu, the welcome cooled when they banned Bollywood films and qat, a popular mild stimulant leaf.
The government has been fighting an insurgency that has killed at least 1,300 people since February. Just days ago, it declared victory, but is still wary of guerrilla-style attacks.
As part of a security drive in the gun-infested city, government and Ethiopian troops handed African peacekeepers weapons, including anti-tank mines and rocket-propelled grenades, they say were seized from an insurgent stronghold.
National police boss Abdi Hassan Awale said the weapons were unearthed at a Koranic school in northern Mogadishu.
"For children to be taught in a house with all these weapons buried underneath it, is against our religion," he said.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
check out this comment onthis thread 'round by Sage's place:
Oh yes sir! Master please tell us all again how we're allowed to feel about it. Because, clearly if we don't worship porn and your opinions then we're just fundamentalist nazis - or something. Please, tell us what we're allowed to feel, and think. I wanna be a good, fun, cool feminist! Just like these good little obedient girls trained so well to do and say exactly as their told. It's so empowering to watch women celebrate being obedient! Yay obedience!!
Here's a clue skippy - most sex workers are not happy in the work because most sex workers aren't there voluntarily. Check out any study done on the topic in the last 50 years. Therefore focusing on the few obedient girls who've spent a great deal of time convincing themselves they like being treated like human toilet paper is ignoring reality. Which is par for the course for pornstick dudes.
(emphasis mine, follow link for context)
I'm trying not to derail the thread or cause trouble, so I brought this all back to my own living room to piss on.
is having sex considered "obedience"? is not having sex considered "obedience"?
What kind of sex? sex with whom? obedience to whom?
When I was a young teenager in the early 80s, it was clear to me that the worst worst WORST thing any girl could do was fuck. Fucking was more unforgiveable than drinking, more unforgiveable than smoking, more unforgiveable even than failing geometry (and believe me, that was pretty unforgiveable). Fucking would RUIN YOUR LIFE. Instantly. Completely. I got the impression that once that cherry was popped, a girl's life would be nothing but poverty, misery, and broken dreams. Intercourse was a one-way ticket on the bullet train to hell on earth.
Maybe other people had sane parents, but this was my experience. Girls and sex did not mix. No no no no no no no. and get your hand out of there. and wipe that crap off your face. and button your blouse. and stop reading that trash! and don't you have homework? why are you so boy-crazy?
(it should probably be pointed out here that I was both boy- and girl-crazy in equal measure. which caused problems of its own.)
So - it should come as no great shock that all I wanted to do was the horizontal pogo. Once I was in college, I made up for lost time, you bet.
I remember shedding my virginity like a snakeskin. I remember being surprised that I didn't break out in green and purple spots, or manifest a sudden bright neon "A" on my forehead. I remember that my first forays into the world of sexual activity felt not only physically pleasurable but also personally unshackling, and politically relevant. Fucking felt like the ultimate autonomy to me.
"fuck me, Johnny!" was really "fuck you, parents. fuck you, school. fuck you, heels and pearls and folded hands and empty minds. fuck you, meat loaf night. fuck you, preconceived notions of what is success and what is failure." while this young man (whoever he was) was sticking it to me, I was sticking it to The Man.
I'm not ashamed. or even sorry. to me, in 1989, a woman owning her sexual pleasure was a radical thing. brave. rebellious. hardly obedient.
Almost twenty years on, even after all I've experienced, I still think that a woman owning her sexual pleasure is a radical thing. I don't think it sells out the sisterhood to admit that I think sexual pleasure is worth prioritizing, at least a little bit.
but maybe things have changed for younger women. maybe there are social pressures I don't see, possibly due to the fact that I'm approaching the Age of Invisibility anyway. maybe there is some increased pressure to be all sorts of fuckable all the damn time. I can see where that would get tedious, to say the least. Maybe the rebellious, disobedient thing is to not fuck these days, no matter how much a woman really really wants to. and if you want to be rebellious and disobedient, that's what you do.
sex NEVER felt obedient to the patriarchy for me. (it still doesn't, husband notwithstanding.) and I speak up and say this not because I want to make it ALL ABOUT SELFISH SELFISH ME, but because I know I'm not a unique snowflake and I have a hunch that I am not the only individual out there who has had a similar experience.
any thoughts?
Oh yes sir! Master please tell us all again how we're allowed to feel about it. Because, clearly if we don't worship porn and your opinions then we're just fundamentalist nazis - or something. Please, tell us what we're allowed to feel, and think. I wanna be a good, fun, cool feminist! Just like these good little obedient girls trained so well to do and say exactly as their told. It's so empowering to watch women celebrate being obedient! Yay obedience!!
Here's a clue skippy - most sex workers are not happy in the work because most sex workers aren't there voluntarily. Check out any study done on the topic in the last 50 years. Therefore focusing on the few obedient girls who've spent a great deal of time convincing themselves they like being treated like human toilet paper is ignoring reality. Which is par for the course for pornstick dudes.
(emphasis mine, follow link for context)
I'm trying not to derail the thread or cause trouble, so I brought this all back to my own living room to piss on.
is having sex considered "obedience"? is not having sex considered "obedience"?
What kind of sex? sex with whom? obedience to whom?
When I was a young teenager in the early 80s, it was clear to me that the worst worst WORST thing any girl could do was fuck. Fucking was more unforgiveable than drinking, more unforgiveable than smoking, more unforgiveable even than failing geometry (and believe me, that was pretty unforgiveable). Fucking would RUIN YOUR LIFE. Instantly. Completely. I got the impression that once that cherry was popped, a girl's life would be nothing but poverty, misery, and broken dreams. Intercourse was a one-way ticket on the bullet train to hell on earth.
Maybe other people had sane parents, but this was my experience. Girls and sex did not mix. No no no no no no no. and get your hand out of there. and wipe that crap off your face. and button your blouse. and stop reading that trash! and don't you have homework? why are you so boy-crazy?
(it should probably be pointed out here that I was both boy- and girl-crazy in equal measure. which caused problems of its own.)
So - it should come as no great shock that all I wanted to do was the horizontal pogo. Once I was in college, I made up for lost time, you bet.
I remember shedding my virginity like a snakeskin. I remember being surprised that I didn't break out in green and purple spots, or manifest a sudden bright neon "A" on my forehead. I remember that my first forays into the world of sexual activity felt not only physically pleasurable but also personally unshackling, and politically relevant. Fucking felt like the ultimate autonomy to me.
"fuck me, Johnny!" was really "fuck you, parents. fuck you, school. fuck you, heels and pearls and folded hands and empty minds. fuck you, meat loaf night. fuck you, preconceived notions of what is success and what is failure." while this young man (whoever he was) was sticking it to me, I was sticking it to The Man.
I'm not ashamed. or even sorry. to me, in 1989, a woman owning her sexual pleasure was a radical thing. brave. rebellious. hardly obedient.
Almost twenty years on, even after all I've experienced, I still think that a woman owning her sexual pleasure is a radical thing. I don't think it sells out the sisterhood to admit that I think sexual pleasure is worth prioritizing, at least a little bit.
but maybe things have changed for younger women. maybe there are social pressures I don't see, possibly due to the fact that I'm approaching the Age of Invisibility anyway. maybe there is some increased pressure to be all sorts of fuckable all the damn time. I can see where that would get tedious, to say the least. Maybe the rebellious, disobedient thing is to not fuck these days, no matter how much a woman really really wants to. and if you want to be rebellious and disobedient, that's what you do.
sex NEVER felt obedient to the patriarchy for me. (it still doesn't, husband notwithstanding.) and I speak up and say this not because I want to make it ALL ABOUT SELFISH SELFISH ME, but because I know I'm not a unique snowflake and I have a hunch that I am not the only individual out there who has had a similar experience.
any thoughts?
