Feminist Fare Friday: The #DUH Edition

If it is not clear as bloody day yet that I AM A FEMINIST, then I am so doing this whole blogging and online activism thing very, very poorly!

Sometimes I am an angry feminist, sometimes a happy, lipstick wearing one, sometimes a barefoot-in-my-kitchen-making-dinner-for-my-family one and sometimes a loud, "what the holy heck is wrong with this world!!", activist-y one! But it is always a part of me, a BIG part....

Natasha - Writer, Feminist, Mother, Partner, Advocate, Activist. These are the words that I use to describe myself.

This week TIME magazine published their list of words that should be "banned" in 2015 and included FEMINIST on that list (Time Editor Nancy Gibb has since written an apology for this). It took all my strength on Wednesday to not curl up in a ball on my couch, repeating to myself, "why do I bother? why do I bother? why do I bother?".

And then I remembered why I bother.

BECAUSE (obviously) THE WORK IS NOT DONE YET!

So for today, all I want you to do is watch this video from my friend Jenni Chiu of Mommy Nani Booboo.

Because she too wants more of us say it loud and proud and truly UNDERSTAND what the word means!

#IAmAFeminist

[youtube]http://youtu.be/rXR9bPwCGKY[/youtube]

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #27.

The world doesn't stop. Even when life hands you a bowl full of mouldy strawberries, it still goes on growing new, fresh things. My world has been flipped upside down these past two months and we are just now getting back our equilibrium. I am reading {and writing} again and have found some very yummy fare for you this week. Enjoy!

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1. Abstinence-only sex education. Yeah right. I was a teenager once and if you told me I couldn't or shouldn't do something, guess what? I liked to prove people wrong. Outside of being a typical jack-ass teenager though, I was an informed one. My mom made sure of that. Which is why I was very impressed to read about the Edmonton mom and daughter who launched a human rights complaint about the outsourcing of sex ed in public schools to the never-advertised-as-such-but-totally-religious-based Pregnancy Care Centre. Jessica Valenti examines why these programs don't work and the dangers of them in this piece from The Guardian.

These false, ideologically-driven programs are turning out sexually illiterate young people whose lives and health are put in literal danger by "educators" handing out false information. All this, just so your teenager might be scared straight enough to forgo sex for a few extra months.

..........

2. I read this next one after a friend had posted it to her Facebook page. Two things - I had no idea who Kathleen Hanna and Melissa Febos are and I don't think it matters. What they had to say about the creative process and about feminism resonated with me. And yes, I did some googling shortly afterwards  and I am not sure how or why, but I seem to have somehow missed the whole Riot Grrrl era.

I think as women who consider ourselves feminists, there’s a legacy of responsibility, of feeling like there’s not enough of us and so we have to do things right. Just being women in male-dominated fields, we feel like ambassadors and we have to do a really good job. We have to not only make this great work, but we also have to instruct and educate.

..........

3. THE BLOGGESS IS WRITING ABOUT FEMINISM! And yes, I meant that to be all shout-y! She also wrote some weird ass shark analogies - as she does. In other words, you should really just read this.

Here’s the thing: Do you think men and women should have equal rights politically, socially and economically? Then you’re probably a feminist. There are a million tiny aspects of this to break off into and I get it. It’s complicated. There’s not just one type of feminist, just as there’s not just one type of Christian or Muslim, or man or woman. Hell, there’s not even just one type of shark. Some are non-threatening and friendly.

..........

4. The story of Debra Harrell, the South Carolina mother who was arrested for letting her nine-year old play at the park while she worked her shift a MacDonald's, is all over the news and the blogosphere. Some are saying that this is a free-range parenting issue and that we have become so much of a helicopter society that we can't see our children (the trees) through the arranged play-dates, supervised camps and scheduled activities (the forest). Others are seeing this situation from a different perspective, one of class and race and privilege. Rebecca Cuneo Keenan at Playground Confidential hits this one square on the head. I just wish the authorities and perhaps those parents at the park who reported Ms. Harrell could have seen it this way too.

...the real shame is that anybody should have to choose between going to work and their child’s well being. It’s shameful that in the richest country in the world, the poorest families are still left to fend for themselves.

..........

5. Young feminists, we need more of them. Funny, young feminists? Yes, please! Meet Marina Watanabe everyone and go subscribe to her Youtube channel.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Obt32tD7nDI[/youtube]

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

n~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #26

Let's just get to it today shall we...

 ..........

1. I have never watched Mad Men. I know, it's a great show, Jon Hamm is a wonderful actor, Christina Hendricks and Elizabeth Moss are brilliant in their roles and blah, blah, blah... I just can't. I am all for historical dramas, but the history of sexism on that show just isn't for me. In the following post, you'll see why. Advertising in the mid-twentieth century was enough to make you want to throw up a bit in your mouth. As my friend Kathleen says,

"But really, feminists just made up that entire misogynistic patriarchal paradigm crap. It's all a figment of our collective feminazi vagiocentric imagination..."

.....

2. By now you know that Disney bought Lucasfilms last year and with it the rights to all things Star Wars. Walk into any Disney Store and you'll find that they are already capitalizing on merchandise sales from the films and the TV series. It seems that in their haste to get products on the shelves, they neglected to include one particular and rather important character in the mix. Princess Leia.

One mother asked about this last week and this was Disney's response:

Film scholar Natalie Wreyford took to Twitter last week to ask Disney why its online store doesn't sell any action figures of Princess Leia, one of the three co-leads in the original trilogy:

This week, Disney backtracked and has officially said that yes, in fact, there are plans for Leia merchandise in the pipeline. And if you have ever wondered about the power of Social Media, this might be one for the books - The #WeWantLeia hashtag started after Natalie's tweet was responded to and within a week, one of the largest companies in the world changed their tune.  I call that a win this week!

.....

3. I like Jimmy Fallon. I really do. He's funny, he's multi-talented, he has epic lip-synch battles with some of my favourite actors. This week though, I am not impressed with him (or possibly the producers of The Tonight Show) for cutting out a part of his interview with Shailene Woodley in which she discussed gender politics.

"During the course of the piece, however, the interviewer — Lynn Hirschberg — attended a taping of The Tonight Show with Shailene Woodley, and noticed that a section in which Woodley had harshed the Fallon mellow had been cut. Fallon had asked Woodley how she felt about being compared to Jennifer Lawrence, and Woodley did not appreciate the question."

Way to just keep perpetuating the status quo Jimmy. I expect better of you next time!

.....

4. And while we are talking about young Hollywood and gender politics, I have to give a shout out to Scout Willis. Her #FreetheNipple protest against Instagram's censorship (and deletion of her account) has garnered much attention this week from both critics and supporters and is further evidence of our younger generation "connecting the dots between nipple policing and larger issues of gender, sexuality, slut-shaming, victim-blaming, and body politics..." 

Willis is very clear that she’s not a persecuted minority or victim: “My situation was in no way unique; women are regularly kicked off Instagram for posting photos with any portion of the areola exposed, while photos sans nipple — degrading as they might be — remain unchallenged.” Nor does Willis portray herself as a revolutionary, trailblazing savior: “I am certainly not doing anything novel. A group here in New York called Topless Pulp gathers in parks to read topless regularly, and the Free The Nipple campaign has been protesting for the same rights for the last four years. If my coming from a high-profile family could help spread their message, so be it.”  

.....

5.  Yesterday, my five year old daughter asked me if I have a job that I go to. It was the first time she has asked me this and it kind of caught me off guard. I am quite sure of my choices in life, but I do worry at times that I am not DOING enough to show my children that there are other equally valid and fulfilling choices in the world. Last week a study was published about gender roles in the home and the subsequent headlines were making the rounds on Facebook claiming that if Dads do more housework, their daughters are more likely to become scientists and doctors and engineers. I am not one to fall for such blatant click-baiting headlines and neither is my good friend Annie at Phd in Parenting.

Headlines are written for clicks, not to educate people. So when I read the news about this study last week, I didn't jump to write about it right away. Instead, I contacted the lead researcher Alyssa Croft and asked her to send me a copy of her paper and then I read it.

I'll admit I had some questions (or possibly assumptions) going into it. The one question in my mind as I read the study was "did it control for the mother's career?". Sure, it is nice to say that girls whose fathers do more housework are more likely to want to be scientists, but is that because their father is doing housework or is that because their mother is a scientist?

..........

Have a great weekend everyone!

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #25

I have that damn Friday song in my head! Which is a good and bad thing. It's good because, YAY! IT'S FRIDAY and bad because, OMG! that song. Either way, here's some of what I read this week that made me think. (Which is not what that damn song does!)

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1. Ready for another round of which Hollywood starlet wants you to know that she is definitely NOT a feminist and LOVES all the mens? Yeah, me neither, but you know, stupid sells. With some notable NOT stupid feminist actresses stepping up to the plate.

The actress Amy Poehler, 42, told Elle earlier this year: “Some big actors and musicians feel like they have to speak to their audience and that word is confusing to their audience. But I don’t get it. That’s like someone being like, ‘I don’t really believe in cars, but I drive one every day and I love that it gets me places and makes life so much easier and faster and I don’t know what I would do without it.’ ”

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2. Get into any kind of conversation about rape culture or feminism/anti-feminism or sexism or misogyny and you are going to hear from at least ONE person (usually male) tell you that NOT ALL MEN think/act/believe THAT way. For a brief history of every dudes favourite argument (and perhaps it's signalling of some kind of positive shift for SOME men), please read the following from Jess Zimmerman at TIME.

It’s true that previous derailment favorites like “patriarchy hurts men too” were paraphrases in a way that “not all men” is not. The demand is the same — “please move me to the center of your discussion” — but “not all men” is, in many cases, straight from the horse’s mouth; even an amateur Reddit spelunker can turn up plenty of sulky or defensive uses of the phrase.

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3. When Hip Mama magazine tried to publish it's latest edition with a photo of artist Ana Alvarez-Errecalde's breastfeeding her son on it's cover, the backlash was swift. It showed us just how far we have NOT come in our efforts to normalize images of breasts performing their primary function - breastfeeding. Vendors refused to carry the magazine in their stores and (not surprisingly) Facebook banned the photo multiple times from multiple accounts. Please read the following from Ariel Gore, the editor of Hip Mama, about what happened next.

Violence towards women begins with the repression of sexuality, the appropriation of childbirth, the interference with all vital cycles and the creation of manipulative roles. A negated mother will also negate her body and her presence to her children, so they will all ultimately conform to our unattended, unloved, and unnourished society. 

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4. Last Thursday was the end of this season's Grey Anatomy and the end of the era of Cristina Yang. I have watched this show since its beginning and have always been invested in the lives of these characters and the choices that they make for themselves. And it wasn't until Cristina uttered those final lines to Meredith last week that the full scope of what this show has done for women (and perhaps even for me) really hit me.

"Don't let what he wants eclipse what you need;

He's very dreamy, but he's not the sun.

You are the sun."

I just loved these lines; they perfectly define the secondary roles we adopt because we have been conditioned to think this is normal, natural. Women are malleable, and so, we sacrifice because we think we want to. It's easier, isn't it, to just go along with the unspoken rules?

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4. And finally, the video "Hugs" by JC Little is pretty much the best thing on the internet this week!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/SHFhepoy-Rs[/youtube]

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"HUGS" everyone!

Have a great weekend.

n~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #24

Ah! May long weekend! I don't know about you, but for me, this marks start of me feeling the beginnings of summer (even though I live in Alberta and it did briefly snow for a bit last week). It's a weekend of clearing out the closets, figuring out who needs new shoes and rubber boots and finally packing away all of the winter gear and getting the box of summer and outside play things ready for use! Before you get into spring cleaning/gardening/going camping mode, what better way to start your weekend than with some wonderful feminist food for thought.

Enjoy!

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1. "Why aren't you happier?"  "You should smile more?"  "What have you got to be unhappy about?"

Ugh, so many questions. So many times directed mainly at women. Jessica Valenti breaks it down for us in this Guardian post about why women seem to be so "unhappy".

"Maybe the trade-off for having our eyes opened to inequality is feeling a little miffed about getting the short end of the stick. Dissatisfaction seems a fairly normal reaction to injustice."

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2. It is prom time once again. You know, that time when teenage girls all across North America beg their mothers for a custom made red taffeta strapless dress with layers & layers of tulle under it (or was that just me in the late 80's??). Seriously though, it's a special time of year for these students as they celebrate their scholarly achievements and a rather big transition in their young lives. And they get to dress up all fancy-like for it. For some though, what is supposed to be a wonderful night with friends can turn into a complete sexist shit-show, as it did for Clare last week when she was asked to leave her prom because of her non-dress-code violating sparkly dress and a bunch of ogling 45-year old dads who blamed a teenage girl for their own pervy-ness!

"I’m a tall and fairly curvy girl and you know something? I looked hot. Not trashy, but you definitely would look twice when I walked through a doorway. And you know what happened? I got kicked out of prom because of it."

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3. This week was not a great one for women in positions of power. Which begs the question? Is all this "leaning in" really working out or are we still just telling women to play a {male} role in a world not set up for them? Soraya Chemaly examines this phenomenon in this Ms. Magazine article.

"Reading yesterday about the abrupt firing of Jill Abramson, the first woman at the New York Times, along with theresignation of Le Monde’s Natalie Nougayrède, was like watching a ripple of misogyny move through the air in slow motion. Similar, in fact, to watching the slow, then fast, build to AustralianPrime Minister Julia Gillard’s removal from office. There’s no way to examine these situations and ask, “Do women fear power and success?” Instead, the question is, “Why are powerful and successful women so feared?”"

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4. The kidnapped Nigerian girls are still missing and the world is still talking about it (although the Solange V Jay-Z Elevator thing seemed to take centre stage this week). What the world needs to know is that Nigerian women, these African women are the reason, and will likely be the main reason, that these girls will eventually be found and rescued. Please read this powerful piece from Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gwobee.

"...the bravery of Nigerian women, who took to the streets to demand that the world pay attention. African women tend to be portrayed as victims — the raped, the suffering, the poor mothers of the poor girls. But across Africa, women are ending conflicts, reshaping governments and bringing attention to crucial issues. In this story, as in many others, they are the heroes."

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Have a wonderful and restful long weekend everyone. At least that's my plan.

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #23

Here is the thing. I flew from Edmonton, Alberta to Atlanta, Georgia and back again in the span of 3.5 days. I spent most of those days awake and in the company of so many amazing people that sleep just wasn't big on my priority list. This essentially means that this week, I have been a total mess. Jet-lag, lack of sleep, a brain on overdrive, a soccer season that started on Monday and has us on the field 4 days a week and all the regular daily stuff, has caught up to me and people, it is NOT pretty. My eldest child looked at me yesterday and in a concerned voice said, "Mama, are you tired? You should go lay down." So, I did.

But first, I've been collecting some awesome posts this week! So here you go, some good Mother's Day weekend reading!

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1. Gabourey Sidibe's speech from the Ms. Foundation Gala. Pro-tip: never ask a women how she is so confident. Just admire it and perhaps, let it rub off on you a bit.

 "If I hadn't been told I was garbage, I wouldn't have learned how to show people I'm talented. And if everyone had always laughed at my jokes, I wouldn't have figured out how to be so funny. If they hadn't told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty. And if they hadn't tried to break me down, I wouldn't know that I'm unbreakable."

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2. Remember that time I was on an airplane and the guy behind me protested loudly as I lowered my seat to get more comfortable and then I folded in on myself? Did you know that I constantly apologize for taking up too much space with my "stuff" when I am at the coffee shop? This space issue is a gendered one, a societal one, and it's one we learn early on. And while it may be her school headmistress that Soraya Chemaly hears in her head, it is my grandmother in mine.

To this day, when I sit—in a chair, on a bus, a train, at a desk—I hear my primary school headmistress explain that ladies never cross their legs at the knees. The thought of sitting, arms stretched out on either side on the top lip of the back of, say, a park bench is laughable to me, it’s so physically alien. Usually, in public space, I fold myself up and try, by habit, to make room for others.

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3. Mother's day is on Sunday. Did you know it is the 100th anniversary of Mother's Day? Did you also know about it's radical feminist beginnings too?

The American incarnation of Mother's Day is the result of years of women's activism that coincided with other women's movements -- like women's suffrage and labor movements -- around the turn of the 20th century.

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4. Mothering in the digital age. Google that. You'll find pages and pages for almost any topic/issue/need that you have as a mother, as you prepare for motherhood, as you struggle with motherhood, as you celebrate motherhood. Meagan Francis wrote this incredibly personal and insightful post after the Mom 2.0 Summit this past weekend and well... just read it. You'll understand.

These days, parents take a lot of flak for being online too much. We're called everything from neglectful to egotistical for wanting to share our lives and our opinions and our struggles and our adorable Instagrams with the rest of the world.

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Happiest of Mother's Day to each and every mother out there. I wish you 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, a closed door to pee behind. a book to read that has more than 10 pages in it, a quiet moment and a nice cup/glass of {insert whatever you love to drink here} and love, lots and lots of LOVE!

XO,

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #22

Happy Easter/Passover/Zombie Jesus/Egg laying Bunny weekend to everyone. Ok, no really, if this weekend is a serious one for you, I mean it, I wish you peace and blessings all around. And if for some of you it is just a good excuse to crack open those Cadbury eggs and slowly lick out the centres until you pass out from all the sugar, well, have at 'er folks! Just make sure you read some yummy feminist fare below before you get too full on all that creamy, sugary, chocolate-y goodness.

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1. No one has ever said that being a parent is easy. It's hard knowing that pieces of your heart are walking around outside of your body. This week was the release of yet another (timely) "motherhood is the toughest job on earth" videos. It's been shared and viewed close to a bajillion times already (my fact-checker is on vacation, but I am pretty sure that is accurate) and it's one of those 'love it or hate it' kind of videos. I kinda don't love it at all that much and not surprisingly, I am not the only one.

"The main reason I'm over this "Ooh, moms, you are so amazing to do something so hard and thankless" idea is that it feels false. It feels like you're patting me on the head and saying I'm cute. Why is it a man delivering the message in this video? Because then people will take it seriously, of course."

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2. Tuesday and Wednesday nights on Twitter it is usually PAR-TAY central. And by par-tay, I mean the corporately sponsored, hashtaged kind where you get to win prizes and answer all kinds of really important questions like, which bread you use, when was the last time you cleaned your bum with a wet wipe or what spunky outfit your kid is wearing this season. I do not usually participate in these twitter parties, for a variety of reasons; I don't use the product, I don't feel comfortable disclosing my personal toilet hygiene routines online or more often than not, I do not support the company sponsoring the party.

This last point has become increasingly important in my consumerism since the tragedy that happened at the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh last year. Annie at Phd in Parenting has been staying on top of what has been happening since the factory collapse and has put together a rather comprehensive post outlining some of the brands and companies that have, and those that have not, stepped up to the plate to compensate the victims and change the way that they do business in Bangladesh. There is no need to boycott all goods made in Bangladesh, but there is a need to hold accountable the companies that are NOT doing the right thing for and by the people they use to make their goods.

"As Western consumers of many of the goods that are produced in that factory, the deaths, the injuries, the inhumane working conditions make us feel guilty, devastated and confused. Where can we buy clothing for our families without hurting people? How do we know that the companies that we are buying from are treating workers fairly and ensuring they have safe working conditions?"

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3. I am not a fan of banning words. I like words. I write a lot of them here and I aim to write a whole lot more of them. One day I hope that my words will end up in a book that people will want to read and buy and keep in their libraries. And maybe, just maybe, it will be one that gets me on the list of most-banned books in America, along with the likes of Captain Underpants, The Hunger Games and Perks of Being a Wallflower - all three of which made the 2013 list of the top ten most challenged books. 

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4. And a bit of good news from our local provincial government today.

"Progressive Conservative MLAs voted in favour Thursday of proposed amendments to several provincial laws that would remove the definition of marriage as an institution between a man and woman, replacing it with gender-neutral language, and allow transgender people to change their birth certificates without first having gender reassignment surgery."

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Have a wonderful long weekend everyone.

natasha~

Feminist Fare Friday: Edition #21

Sometimes I wish for nothing to write here. Why? Because 8/10 things that I post in these feminist round-ups are not positive. They are perpetuations of the kind of culture we live in where women are still "other", still marginalized, still working for less, still trying to DO it all so they can have it all and never actually getting "it". Here we are in 2014, still talking about/legislating bodily rights, the "controversy" over the colour pink and why, who and how we are all somehow doing feminism wrong (or right). My friend @DanaDitomaso posted a hashtag Thursday morning that sums up the week very well: #FeministRageWeek.

And I warn you, you will totally understand why after you finish reading...

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On Monday...

I am not a tech gal. I can write one, maybe two lines of code in an emergency and with a Youtube tutorial playing on the iPad beside me, but I have A LOT of friends who are very tech-y, who can write the shit out of code, who do this for a living AND... are women. Unfortunately the creators of the new HBO series, Silicon Valley, don't seem to run in the same kinds of circles that I do and apparently haven't met any women in the tech world. I have not yet seen the show, but according to Madrev at Medium.com there are only two female characters in the show and...

 "...between her perfectly styled hair and makeup, the semi-flirtatious doe eyes and the click of her heels as she walks Richard to her car, it’s pretty clear what Monica’s purpose is in the Silicon Valley story. She’s eye candy, or perhaps an eventual love interest — either way, she probably doesn’t write code. It seems that as far as Judge and HBO are concerned, all the real contributors of the tech world are (mostly white, all straight) men."

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On Tuesday...

Ad companies are really sticking their feet in it these days. If you thought the days of Mad Men sexism were gone, well, you'd be wrong. A few weeks ago an Autralian ad for Snickers thought they were being funny about guys not being "themselves" when they are hungry and it backfired quite spectacularly. 

This week's "BADvertising" winner is Veet. You know, the chemically-laden crap that melts hair off of your body so you can be porn-star smooth? Yeah, that VEET. Apparently, and according to the three person female marketing team for Veet, having a bit of body hair or stubble the day after shaving will LITERALLY turn you into a dude! True Story! Veet has since pulled the US ads from Youtube and issued a "Sorry you're all such party poopers and didn't like our very funny joke" apology, but you can still find them here... You know, to fuel your rage a bit more.

Tuesday also brought us the release of the "much anticipated, first EVER, feature film from documentary filmmaker Chris Wiegand".

Umm, WHO??

Well, you see Chris is this guy who is married to Casey. Casey has a blog. It's one of those really pretty blogs with lots of pics of her three cute kids, their perfectly imperfect shabby chic decor and wardrobes and every picture is totally Pinterest-worthy. It's the kind of blog that you look at dreamily and then look at your pile of clean-but-not-folded-for-a-week laundry, mismatched bed sheets (NOT done on purpose) and kid with two different socks on (also not on purpose) and think, my God, how does she do it! And why doesn't someone make a movie about her and all her friends?

Chris did just that. He bought himself the ultimate hipster camper (an Airstream), travelled across the United States, made a movie about Casey and 51 of her closest blogging friends and called it American Blogger. If you haven't already seen the trailer, here you go.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/89759305[/vimeo]

Yes, this is a real trailer for a real movie. NO, it is not an SNL skit or something off of Funny or Die (like my husband thought). And yes, roughly 90% of bloggers (my non-scientific guess-timate) from America (and Canada and I'm going to assume everywhere else) are kind of upset about it. A quick Google search will find you plenty of posts examining why this is NOT a documentary about America or even about blogging, let alone American bloggers. I particularly liked Kelly's post at Debie Hive, and I think she hits the nail squarely on the head...

"One of the things that bothered me the very most about the trailer is the part where one of the women interviewed says something to the effect that if we don't put our writing out there, what are we doing it for? As if to say that the only value inherent in writing is that someone else reads it. I challenge this statement on its face, and I question if she's actually figured out what it means to be a writer yet. I don't think she has, and it makes me sad for her a little. A person who is just a blogger writes for an audience, particularly if they are doing it in some attempt to make a living which necessitates a loyal audience."

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On Wednesday...

Not only do we now have pens for the ladies (Thank Bic, those man-pens were just getting too.... manly for me), now boys, you have no need to worry anymore about your yogurt! Don't eat that belly-dancing stuff. You need to get yourself some POWERFUL Yogurt or "Brogurt" as those in the media are calling it.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/zZMsI45mHVo[/youtube]

I am not kidding people, THIS TOO IS A REAL THING! And guys, I hope I don't need to tell you this, but just in case, you can not get washboard abs from a tub of greek yogurt! (I've tried.)

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On Thursday....

IN MY OWN CITY!!!

Ugh. This is a tough one.

I am not sure if this was a Social Media intern gone awry or an intentional click-baiting tweet or just plain ass stupidity, but Thursday morning a local and (up until today) much loved talk radio station posted the following tweet and link to an online poll.

You can't get much more victim blaming about sexual assault than actual putting the words VICTIM and BLAME in the same damn sentence. The outrage over this tweet (and identical post on the stations Facebook page) was swift and merciless. AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN! The worst part? Before the station took down the tweet and "apologized" by re-wording the question with more context, 35% of the respondents (I don't have actual numbers) said YES.

So, just in case ANYONE needs a reminder...

AND "Dear CHED. The answer is NO." 

~~~~~

And now it's Friday...

I thought I'd leave you with something not so rage-inducing. How about a totally awesome gender swapping art series?

Have a great weekend everyone.

Maybe meditate a bit, calm the rage and get ready to keep on keeping on next week!

Luv ya,

natasha~