amazon_syren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amazon_syren) wrote2008-04-27 06:37 pm
amazon_syren) wrote2008-04-27 06:37 pm
Feminist Books and Vocabulary. :-D
So, I missed the poetry thing at Chapters.
I went to the C.U. library (which took a little longer than expected, due to the train running every half hour on Sundays - which I didn't realize was the case), and hunted up Volume 31.2 of Atlantis (a women's studies journal) - which was called "Sexy Feminisms?" and was all about the intersection of feminism and sexuality (personal and professional).
I will have to go back and read another article or two, I think.
The one I read was "From Abject to Subject" about sex workers, sex workers rights, victim feminism, and how the Whore and the Liberated Woman[1] have been set up as opposites in historical and contemporary feminism[2].
Kat Payne makes my little, feminist heart sing. :-D For many reasons, granted, but one of them is the simple fact that she uses both "quotidian" (which I totally had to look up[3]) and "tough-assed" (which, not surprisingly, I totally didn't) in the first paragraph of that essay.
Gods, she makes me happy. :-D
Picked out six books.
A Canadian feminism 101 reader (which includes an awesome article about Aboriginal women and the government/dominant-paradigmatic definition of a "good mother"[4] as being firmly rooted in racial and class-based, as well as heterosexist, assumptions), two books on young (third or fourth wave, I'm not sure yet) feminists/feminism, a source book for women in Ontario about funding cuts and where they're hitting (it's about ten years old, but then my understanding of this stuff would only be ten years out of date, as opposed to completely non-existent, which is at least a start), a book about Canadian women living in poverty, and a book about feminism in pop culture. :-D
It's going to be a fun (and probably enraging) two weeks. (Whee!! :-D)
All that being said: Just before I signed all these lovely things out (at 2pm, so just as The Poetry Thing was starting), the fire alarm went off. So rather than say "screw it" and hit up the poetry thing, and come back, I waited around outside (in the beautiful weather) for us to be able to go back in.
Then I signed out my books, ran for the train (which I missed), decided to forget about the poetry thing, and went home.
But I stopped at the second cup and got coffee and cake (and sat in the sun and read), and then hit up the grocery store and got dinner fixings, first. :-)
I walked home from south keys. :-) It was lovely, but I was ready to sit down when I got back (my right hip and knee were acting up again. :-P)
That said: Regarding Teh Exercise: I was able to do *two* (<*sigh*> no, this really is progress for me, folks) sets of The Plank (20 seconds long, each). Which means I'm getting a little bit stronger. Hurrah! :-)\
Also: Have found that I can lift a small chair over my head (and move it up and down without locking my arms) in lieu of using some sort of free weights. Go me! :-D
I figure if I do this often enough, I might actually develop both arm strength and (in my dreams) buffness[5]. Woohoo! :-D
In other news: Amazon.ca has shipped my order! :-D It might be here by tomorrow! :-D (I can hope, anyway. ;-) And my other book should be here by the end of the week! :-D I'm all excited again! :-D
Something that needs to be said (and might, eventually, merit its own post): I love feminist books. I love them. Even when they're making me really, really angry (for one reason or another, and sometimes because of that). It doesn't matter if they're Goddess books or class/economics books, or sexuality books, or writing books, or gender books, or whatever.
No matter what they're about, they give me the vocabulary to articulate my own mind.
They give me words that, once, I didn't have and, thus, they give me a way to explain my own thoughts and feelings.
This gift of words is a gift of speech and, as such, a gift of power.
When I can't speak - when I can't articulate why a given state of affairs makes me so angry - my anger squirrels around my head, an impotent, self-destructive, storm.
Frustration.
I feel like a toddler who wants to Do It Myself, and can't. Who wants to say something, but doesn't have the vocabulary to say it. (And, unlike an actual toddler, if I point to injustice, sexism, classism, or whatever, and go "What dat?" my question will not really be answered).
To take a recent example (and to reference Kathryn Payne again since, clearly, she's wallpapering my brain at present): Before I read her work, I'd never heard the term "sexual agency", let alone "women's active sexual agency".
If I hadn't read her work, I would not have had that concept in my head as a defined, speakable concept, and so wouldn't not have been able to articulate what bothers me so much about that red/green/no buttons Boob Thing this morning.
I am so grateful to these women, these writers (all of them, even the ones who piss me off) for giving me the gift of their words, from which I can build my own truth. :-)
Right. Having got that off my chest: Time to fill out that registration form for Gaia Gathering. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
[1] Read: "Virtuous", and therefore deserving of her liberation.
[2] Oh, look: The mutually miserable sexual dichotomy that exists inside my head. :-P Well, now I know how it got so damn firmly rooted in there. :-P
[3] "Ordinary", "everyday", or "commonplace". Which I probably should have known, but didn't. (Oh, well, new word for me. I'll have to see if I can use it in a sentence or something. ;-) /geeks.
[4] Which totally backs up what I was going on about in terms of my fears about not being a Good Mother. According to that definition, I'm Not. Call me a book-addict (you'd be right), but it's nice to have a published document that not only backs up what I said, but also takes that stupid definition to task for being rooted in hetero/sexism, racism and classism. :-D I feel slightly better, now. ;-)
[5] This is what happens when I watch "Million Dollar Baby". I start wanting muscle definitionand the ability to knock people out really quickly. ;-)
I went to the C.U. library (which took a little longer than expected, due to the train running every half hour on Sundays - which I didn't realize was the case), and hunted up Volume 31.2 of Atlantis (a women's studies journal) - which was called "Sexy Feminisms?" and was all about the intersection of feminism and sexuality (personal and professional).
I will have to go back and read another article or two, I think.
The one I read was "From Abject to Subject" about sex workers, sex workers rights, victim feminism, and how the Whore and the Liberated Woman[1] have been set up as opposites in historical and contemporary feminism[2].
Kat Payne makes my little, feminist heart sing. :-D For many reasons, granted, but one of them is the simple fact that she uses both "quotidian" (which I totally had to look up[3]) and "tough-assed" (which, not surprisingly, I totally didn't) in the first paragraph of that essay.
Gods, she makes me happy. :-D
Picked out six books.
A Canadian feminism 101 reader (which includes an awesome article about Aboriginal women and the government/dominant-paradigmatic definition of a "good mother"[4] as being firmly rooted in racial and class-based, as well as heterosexist, assumptions), two books on young (third or fourth wave, I'm not sure yet) feminists/feminism, a source book for women in Ontario about funding cuts and where they're hitting (it's about ten years old, but then my understanding of this stuff would only be ten years out of date, as opposed to completely non-existent, which is at least a start), a book about Canadian women living in poverty, and a book about feminism in pop culture. :-D
It's going to be a fun (and probably enraging) two weeks. (Whee!! :-D)
All that being said: Just before I signed all these lovely things out (at 2pm, so just as The Poetry Thing was starting), the fire alarm went off. So rather than say "screw it" and hit up the poetry thing, and come back, I waited around outside (in the beautiful weather) for us to be able to go back in.
Then I signed out my books, ran for the train (which I missed), decided to forget about the poetry thing, and went home.
But I stopped at the second cup and got coffee and cake (and sat in the sun and read), and then hit up the grocery store and got dinner fixings, first. :-)
I walked home from south keys. :-) It was lovely, but I was ready to sit down when I got back (my right hip and knee were acting up again. :-P)
That said: Regarding Teh Exercise: I was able to do *two* (<*sigh*> no, this really is progress for me, folks) sets of The Plank (20 seconds long, each). Which means I'm getting a little bit stronger. Hurrah! :-)\
Also: Have found that I can lift a small chair over my head (and move it up and down without locking my arms) in lieu of using some sort of free weights. Go me! :-D
I figure if I do this often enough, I might actually develop both arm strength and (in my dreams) buffness[5]. Woohoo! :-D
In other news: Amazon.ca has shipped my order! :-D It might be here by tomorrow! :-D (I can hope, anyway. ;-) And my other book should be here by the end of the week! :-D I'm all excited again! :-D
Something that needs to be said (and might, eventually, merit its own post): I love feminist books. I love them. Even when they're making me really, really angry (for one reason or another, and sometimes because of that). It doesn't matter if they're Goddess books or class/economics books, or sexuality books, or writing books, or gender books, or whatever.
No matter what they're about, they give me the vocabulary to articulate my own mind.
They give me words that, once, I didn't have and, thus, they give me a way to explain my own thoughts and feelings.
This gift of words is a gift of speech and, as such, a gift of power.
When I can't speak - when I can't articulate why a given state of affairs makes me so angry - my anger squirrels around my head, an impotent, self-destructive, storm.
Frustration.
I feel like a toddler who wants to Do It Myself, and can't. Who wants to say something, but doesn't have the vocabulary to say it. (And, unlike an actual toddler, if I point to injustice, sexism, classism, or whatever, and go "What dat?" my question will not really be answered).
To take a recent example (and to reference Kathryn Payne again since, clearly, she's wallpapering my brain at present): Before I read her work, I'd never heard the term "sexual agency", let alone "women's active sexual agency".
If I hadn't read her work, I would not have had that concept in my head as a defined, speakable concept, and so wouldn't not have been able to articulate what bothers me so much about that red/green/no buttons Boob Thing this morning.
I am so grateful to these women, these writers (all of them, even the ones who piss me off) for giving me the gift of their words, from which I can build my own truth. :-)
Right. Having got that off my chest: Time to fill out that registration form for Gaia Gathering. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
[1] Read: "Virtuous", and therefore deserving of her liberation.
[2] Oh, look: The mutually miserable sexual dichotomy that exists inside my head. :-P Well, now I know how it got so damn firmly rooted in there. :-P
[3] "Ordinary", "everyday", or "commonplace". Which I probably should have known, but didn't. (Oh, well, new word for me. I'll have to see if I can use it in a sentence or something. ;-) /geeks.
[4] Which totally backs up what I was going on about in terms of my fears about not being a Good Mother. According to that definition, I'm Not. Call me a book-addict (you'd be right), but it's nice to have a published document that not only backs up what I said, but also takes that stupid definition to task for being rooted in hetero/sexism, racism and classism. :-D I feel slightly better, now. ;-)
[5] This is what happens when I watch "Million Dollar Baby". I start wanting muscle definition