Can fashion fix fashion?
I worked briefly in fashion — briefly, for a couple of years, because in general it’s not a healthy industry to work in. But the fact is, I still enjoy it. Clothes are so pretty, y’all. And Jill is absolutely right that there is no shame in thinking that clothes are pretty, and that fashion is seen as frivolous more because it’s a “woman thing” than for any other reason. But what about all the truly problematic aspects of industry fashion?
Eh…
...read moreThe attachment to “Capitalism”
For other posts in the series: A short history (1) A short history (2) The Ruin Porn Post The Consequences of Ruin Porn On the other side: Hope Porn reImagining Work Dealing with Poverty while being a Michigander I often have a really hard time trying to understand the attachment to “Capitalism” that people on [...]
...read moreMoney for Murderers
Anti-choicers are using eBay to raise money for doctor-killer Scott Roeder, who shot George Tiller while Dr. Tiller attended church. While I don’t object to that in priciple — after all, everyone is entitled to defend themselves in court, and private attorneys are expensive — we aren’t talking about auctioning off that bag of clothes [...]
...read moreI do yoga, am I a racist?
Dear people on the internet, Go read Samhita’s post. Try to think about it beyond “I’m white and I really like Indian food. Am I culturally appropriating? Please, wise Indian lady, answer me!”
...read moreFacebook for the Rich; MySpace for the Poor?
Earlier research showed that the social networking choice between Facebook, MySpace and Xanga was based on the users’ race, ethnicity, and education, with Latino students trending toward MySpace, white students trending toward Facebook, and Asian and Asian-American students trending towards Xanga. Interestingly, there were no discernable social networking trends for black students. In the meantime, [...]
...read moreOppression, Identity, and Liberation
Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation by Sherry Wolf (Haymarket Books) Sherry Wolf’s Sexuality and Socialism is a collection of essays, arranged in the order of the historical eras they examine, that look at the interplay between sexuality and economics, theory, and activism through a Marxist lens. Although the essays wander [...]
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From the files of Captain Obvious…
Comes a study summarized by the New York Times thusly: Study Finds Women Wear Shoes That Cause Pain. Their grand conclusion: “More than 60 percent of women said that in the past they generally wore high heels, pumps, sandals and slippers, all of which researchers rated as higher risk.” Shocking. And then: “When it comes [...]
...read morePhoto Essay: Factory Like A City
Run, don’t walk, to David Bacon’s photo essay, “Factory Like A City”, posted at Z magazine. It’s about Toyota’s announcement of the closing of the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California after General Motors announced it was withdrawing from the partnership. It’s a good illustration of the exponential effects of the demise of manufacturing in the [...]
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American icon “Norma Rae” dies after struggling with her insurance company to cover her chemo
La Lubu already wrote about this (do check out her post), but I want to re-emphasize it: Crystal Lee Sutton, the woman who fought to unionize her workplace and inspired the film Norma Rae, passed away at 68. She died of brain cancer, after battling for her insurance company to cover her chemotherapy. She could [...]
...read moredangerous thinking
Okay, so I already got cracking with the sermonizing. I had a lot of criticism in that post, and expressed a lot of doubt about our movements as they currently stand. So what do I expect? What am I asking for, other than hey, y’all, let’s all have feelings together, won’t that be swell, what [...]
...read moreThe White Liberal “Feminism” of Tina Fey and Baby Mama
Last night I decided to watch Baby Mama while doing some not very mentally taxing work online. Oh, my. Was that movie worse than I expected or what? It was so bad, in such an interesting, ugly bouquet of ways, that I feel the need to share my thoughts with you, both about this movie [...]
...read moreThe East, the West and Sex: Author Richard Bernstein responds
Apparently Richard Bernstein read my non-review of his book and didn’t find it particularly flattering. You can read his comment here. He’s right that I haven’t read the book, and did draw most of my conclusions from various reviews (the Slate review specifically), and from my own experiences with men who have made similar arguments. [...]
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