bunch o' stuff
May. 25th, 2006 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyGood morning! Let's start off with some good news!
First off, as predicted, the National Post has retracted the story about Iranian Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians having to wear coloured badges. Now Harper is in trouble for believing them. This is great news for everyone: Iranian religious minorities, reality-based Canadians, and anyone who likes to see the Post get pwned.
Speaking of unconfirmed reports, it seems that TTC drivers aren't going to make us pay to ride buses and streetcars. I say unconfirmed because I took two streetcars this morning and no one seemed to be riding for free. It seemed a bit impolite to ask the drivers. Anyway, does anyone know if this is true? Because if so: Best. Job action. Ever.
It seemed like a lot of people liked my post yesterday about my Zionist relatives flying off the handle. (Question: What triggered the avalanche of comments? Usually my political posts don't get that much discussion, so is it the family drama element?) Here's an update.
I e-mailed my aunt back, as promised, with the last two sentences of that post. She wrote me back!
Finally, I stayed up late last night because there was a fascinating discussion on Alas, a blog and Pandagon (and various other places) about using birth control pills to stop your period.
I think the issue for feminists can be very cut-and-dry: We ought to be as informed as possible, and then we should all make our own choices. This seems to be difficult for the woo-woo nature crowd to comprehend, though, and they seem to think that this is yet another attempt by evil drug companies to make women hate our bodies.
Every woman I've ever known who has said anything along the lines of: "I love having my period," "It makes me feel empowered!" "I feel connected with nature," etc., has had light, regular periods, no PMS symptoms, and no painful cramps. I fucking hate people like that. Bully for you. If they made a safe pill that would eliminate periods, I'd take it. Hell, I'd take it even if it rendered me infertile. It'd be a fair trade-off. The only reason why I don't do the birth control pill now is because it tends to make me try to kill myself. (There's a good story about this, but I think it belongs in my upcoming mental illness post, not here.)
Every month, various "feminine hygiene" companies, all of which are as evil as pharmaceutical companies, I'm sure, make a tidy profit off my misery. Advil also makes a nice sum, because in order to function—not just to go to work, but to get out of bed and walk around—I have to take four painkillers several times a day. I typically go through a large bottle a month. I don't feel in touch with my womanhood. I feel homicidal.
The nature-lovers—I don't call them feminists, by the way, as they seem to equate a person's womanhood with her fertilty—have no solutions for this. They recommend changes in diet (although my diet's pretty healthy), exercise (ignoring the fact that I'm in too much pain around then to stand straight, let alone exercise), and, as always, vitamins. Vitamins are the solution for everything. I think woo-woo nature-heads get pay-offs from the vitamin companies or something.
Oh, and cut out caffeine. As if that's a solution for a working woman.
Fuck people like that. They're not feminists. A transgendered woman is still a woman, can still be a feminist, and she'll never get her period. Same with women with hysterectomies and women who've gone through menopause. Same with me, if they ever invent a way to get rid of my period. I don't hate my body or my femininity. I'm not "medicalizing a natural occurrence." I'm making informed decisions, should options be presented to me.
Amanda's dead-on: This argument is not really any different than that of the Christian Right. A woman is only as good as the babies she can theoretically spawn. Shrouding it in some sort of pseudofeminist rhetoric doesn't change anything.
First off, as predicted, the National Post has retracted the story about Iranian Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians having to wear coloured badges. Now Harper is in trouble for believing them. This is great news for everyone: Iranian religious minorities, reality-based Canadians, and anyone who likes to see the Post get pwned.
Speaking of unconfirmed reports, it seems that TTC drivers aren't going to make us pay to ride buses and streetcars. I say unconfirmed because I took two streetcars this morning and no one seemed to be riding for free. It seemed a bit impolite to ask the drivers. Anyway, does anyone know if this is true? Because if so: Best. Job action. Ever.
It seemed like a lot of people liked my post yesterday about my Zionist relatives flying off the handle. (Question: What triggered the avalanche of comments? Usually my political posts don't get that much discussion, so is it the family drama element?) Here's an update.
I e-mailed my aunt back, as promised, with the last two sentences of that post. She wrote me back!
I don't have to examine anything. I know where I stand and what I stand for and it is Israel's survival. The Palestinians were offered everything and they turned it down. The only people who will look after us is US!!!!!!! Wake up and smell the roses before it is too late."I don't have to examine anything." My point is made, yes?
Finally, I stayed up late last night because there was a fascinating discussion on Alas, a blog and Pandagon (and various other places) about using birth control pills to stop your period.
I think the issue for feminists can be very cut-and-dry: We ought to be as informed as possible, and then we should all make our own choices. This seems to be difficult for the woo-woo nature crowd to comprehend, though, and they seem to think that this is yet another attempt by evil drug companies to make women hate our bodies.
Every woman I've ever known who has said anything along the lines of: "I love having my period," "It makes me feel empowered!" "I feel connected with nature," etc., has had light, regular periods, no PMS symptoms, and no painful cramps. I fucking hate people like that. Bully for you. If they made a safe pill that would eliminate periods, I'd take it. Hell, I'd take it even if it rendered me infertile. It'd be a fair trade-off. The only reason why I don't do the birth control pill now is because it tends to make me try to kill myself. (There's a good story about this, but I think it belongs in my upcoming mental illness post, not here.)
Every month, various "feminine hygiene" companies, all of which are as evil as pharmaceutical companies, I'm sure, make a tidy profit off my misery. Advil also makes a nice sum, because in order to function—not just to go to work, but to get out of bed and walk around—I have to take four painkillers several times a day. I typically go through a large bottle a month. I don't feel in touch with my womanhood. I feel homicidal.
The nature-lovers—I don't call them feminists, by the way, as they seem to equate a person's womanhood with her fertilty—have no solutions for this. They recommend changes in diet (although my diet's pretty healthy), exercise (ignoring the fact that I'm in too much pain around then to stand straight, let alone exercise), and, as always, vitamins. Vitamins are the solution for everything. I think woo-woo nature-heads get pay-offs from the vitamin companies or something.
Oh, and cut out caffeine. As if that's a solution for a working woman.
Fuck people like that. They're not feminists. A transgendered woman is still a woman, can still be a feminist, and she'll never get her period. Same with women with hysterectomies and women who've gone through menopause. Same with me, if they ever invent a way to get rid of my period. I don't hate my body or my femininity. I'm not "medicalizing a natural occurrence." I'm making informed decisions, should options be presented to me.
Amanda's dead-on: This argument is not really any different than that of the Christian Right. A woman is only as good as the babies she can theoretically spawn. Shrouding it in some sort of pseudofeminist rhetoric doesn't change anything.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 03:54 pm (UTC)lifestyle isn't entirely unrelated to our periods; amenorrhea is a common result of anorexia, for example. but a lot of these new age types want us to believe that if our periods are terrible, it's our own fault, which is really just insulting. it reminds me a bit of people who claim that depression and other mental illnesses can be controlled by a better diet. obviously lifestyle improvements can have a great impact on general well-being, but that certainly isn't always the case. illness is illness, after all, not just a symptom of a shitty diet.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 04:48 pm (UTC)I think you have a point here.
I posted a while back about my belief that not being able to talk about our periods as just something that happens, and whose effects are real and not shameful or dirty is way harmful to feminist causes. If we mystify and render something taboo, then we remove it from discourse as something that can be both discussed and dealt with.
My period causes me pain and makes me tired. PMS also makes me grouchy and weepy. Anyone who hopes to work with me should probably be aware of these health and behaviour factors. I should be able to talk about them as frankly as I talk about the odd migraine that flattens me. Nobody expects me to keep editing and staring at a computer screen when I'm getting squirmy light-things at the corners of my vision and light hurts my eyes. I make up the work after the migraine goes away.
Why then should I be expected to deal well with a lengthy author meeting when I'm pre-menstrual without at least being able to say to my colleagues "Sorry, guys, I'm PMSing today—can someone else handle the hostile author?"
Being able to talk frankly about something is not the same as being proud of it, or saying that it connects one to one's feminity. Intelligent discussion can't happen when the subject of discussion is shrouded in mysticism and taboo.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 11:53 pm (UTC)And the fact that
It's a bodily function. Period.
(har, har)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 09:16 pm (UTC)We've come completely the other extreme from "I'll go segregate myself to the period room for a couple days, for I am currently impure and dirty!"
I think mistaking equality for equity has some responsibility in this state of affairs.