"A Woman...Should...Because Your Relationship Is Going To Be..."

Ultimately when a woman meets a man for the first time the first thing that she should make sure of is that he is aware of her physicality, because your relationship is going to be dependent on his sexual desire for you, and not on any kind of common interests or kinship. Whether or not he is attractive is certainly not important, a heartbeat and a functioning dick will do.
-Renee at Womanist Musings, mocking the message behind an advertisement

You know, when I was a teenager, I never wanted a revealing swimsuit. I did end up explaining that to some friends, family, babysitters, etc. My words at the time were, "I want a guy to be attracted to my face, not my body."

At the time, I knew that I wasn't interested in physical intimacy beyond kissing for years to come (perhaps not even until marriage). I knew that big breasts were associated with desireability for physical intimacy beyond kissing. I knew that I had big breasts.

I thought the most efficient path to weeding out people whose desires in a relationship would be incompatible with mine (see first sentence, above paragraph) would be to make sure that my breasts' visibility was always secondary to the visibility of parts of my body that, in my culture, don't scream out "desireable for physical intimacy beyond kissing."



That got me through my teen years pretty well.
(Pretty happily, that is. There were really sad times that more friendships would've staved off, but there's no way more courtship would've done that.)

I'm grown up now and know more deeply that attracting no guys but ones who find your face highly attractive can also lead to a lot of courtship from guys you're incompatible with.

So now I like Renee's comment a bit better.

I'll post it again, because it's just such a great piece of sardonic wit to remember and to share.

Ultimately when a woman meets a man for the first time the first thing that she should make sure of is that he is aware of her physicality, because your relationship is going to be dependent on his sexual desire for you, and not on any kind of common interests or kinship. Whether or not he is attractive is certainly not important, a heartbeat and a functioning dick will do.
-Renee at Womanist Musings, mocking the message behind an advertisement

Next Passports Issue: Denying People in the South The Right To Vote?

Maybe "it's just wrong" or "I'm a feminist" doesn't move you.

But perhaps disenfranchisement of people who, on the whole, tend to vote similarly, does.

In that case, here's another point I had not thought of:

"Denying the validity of midwife-signed birth certificates could be used to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Black people in the South if voter ID laws are enacted."
-Workers World

They've got a point.




(In fact, I'd say it's a much more likely "next up" guess than AngryWhiteFemale's prediction. Not that her guess couldn't happen. But I wager the disenfranchisement of large swaths of people whose parents couldn't get hospital births would come first.)

Why Passports are a Feminist Issue

I knew the State Department's actions over passports were wrong, but I'm aware that not all people consider that type of "wrong" something they want to devote their energy to combating.

I didn't know what to say to encourage them to fight the State Department's actions.

I had not thought of this:

"The decision of the State Department to further devalue midwives credentials - ie their ability to certify births - on the basis of a few individual misdeeds, puts this female dominated profession at risk once again."

-Professor Black Woman

Feminists of the blogosphere, PLEASE!

Take action!


Also, pertaining to taking action:
The name of the lawsuit I linked to in "Passports" is "Castelano, et al. v. Rice, et al."

In "Passports," I asked everyone to "support the issue behind this lawsuit."

Now, if you're interested, you can name the lawsuit itself while writing supporting letters and taking other actions.

Help Requested: McKinney Issue Statements Needed 4 T-Shirt

Geez Louise, it's hard to find publications in an "Issues" format from the McKinney campaign.

I pored over "Barack Obama's stances on _____________" documents I got (mostly off the internet) to make this t-shirt that says, "Barack Obama for President - Turn Me Around For Policies and lists policy statements I thought would be persuasive to the public on the back.

But now that the primaries are way over and I want to start pushing McKinney hard to my hobby communities, rather than just voting for her, I can't find her policy statements!

Just platform drafts.

Which aren't really stated the same way.

Dangit.

Any other McKinney fans able to help me look?

Thanks.



P.S. Help a sister out and get the t-shirt sooner if you're thinking about buying one! I always get compliments on my Obama t-shirt, and that's before people even see the back.

I'll sell the t-shirt at cost...but first it has to get made.

Passports

Did you know that the State Department is currently getting away with requesting a neverending stream of documents from some people requesting U.S. passports?

They are withholding passports from people (don't forget--you can't safely leave the U.S. w/o a passport) by being allowed to say, "Y'know, that document doesn't look verifiable enough. We need more evidence that you were born in the U.S." over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over without stop.

Please act to support the issue behind this lawsuit and encourage others, especially who live in D.C. or the areas in question and can write local letters to the editor or organize marches or have who have ins w/ congresspeople or something, to act, too.

After all, if the State Department continues to get away w/ requesting a neverending stream of documents as a way of denying a passport, the next pool of people at risk could be all of those people who should've taken action while it's "just happening to Hispanics" in the first place.