Ohai, blog.

Long time no see.

I've been bad about, well, the internet lately.  I just haven't had much of a desire to be online and keep up with things.  But here are some things worth blogging about:

1.  Sandusky was convicted on 46 charges.  Amazing.  For once, the justice system actually took the side of the victims.  I'm truly and honestly pleasantly shocked.  This is, sadly, the minority of cases.  I wish everyone at Penn State could go down for it instead of just him, but this will have to do, I suppose.  I still believe that Sandusky went down for a sex ring that he was just a part of, but no one else seems to hold my view on that, so maybe I'm just getting jaded from working in SA for too long.

2.  SCOTUS didn't rule enough of SB 1070 unconstitutional for my tastes.  Because apparently state mandated racism isn't unconstitutional.  Which I guess shouldn't surprise me, but there you go.  Rachel Maddow did it best, of course.

3.  I started a discussion on facebook about whether or not marriage is inherently patriarchal.  There were differing opinions, but I still think that the privileging of certain relationships is inherently, well, not necessarily sexist, but it certainly creates unnecessary power structures.  So, I guess that's where I stand on that.  Mmhm.  This opinion in response to my mother's wedding last week, haha!

This is just so excellent it had to be shared.

Straight White Male:  the easiest setting.  A great article about explaining how privilege works to those who have it and can't deal with it.  Yes, success.

Oh, and sorry I haven't updated in a while.  I'm a bit busy with the new job, so worry not, I'm still doing feminism, just more in the real world than on the interwebz.

TW: A discussion of being triggered, rape, DV, etc.

As I've made clear here before, I'm a survivor of sexual assault.  Actually, to lay all of my credentials out there, I'm a survivor of sexual assault and abuse, the child of a DV/alcoholic household, and survivor of severe emotional abuse.  I've also experienced sexual harassment a few times.  I have a restraining order.  Basically, if it's a type of violence against women, I've lived through it or watched my mother live through it.  I'm not trying to win the Oppression Olympics here, just giving a little context here.  In fact, compared to some women, I've had it easy (that speaks volumes about how hostile the world can be).

I was first victimized by the boy I dated when I was thirteen and fourteen.  I'm twenty-two now, that was a long time ago.  I've mostly processed it.  I don't think I'll ever be completely "over it" (whatever that means), but as far as recovery goes, I don't think there's much left to do with that one.  Unfortunately, that's not my only experience with sexual violence.  My most recent experience was pretty recent, less than a year ago, although I don't feel comfortable leaving any specifics in such a public forum because that person could very well read this blog for all I know.  I will say that I had a great deal of trouble even processing that experience as sexual assault for a number of reasons, including the nature of our relationship and that natural instinct survivors have to blame ourselves.  Because of that, I'm still processing this experience.  I'm not an emotional mess--not since, say... January or so--but I definitely still have healing left to do.

At first, I was really concerned about how this experience would affect me as a sexual assault advocate.  I thought I might need to take some time off because I was afraid that I would find the work triggering.  As it turned out, not so.  I've never found the sexual assault job to be triggering, perhaps because I was already immersed in it when this happened, or maybe not, who knows?  In fact, I can read horribly graphic descriptions of rape, hear victims' stories just hours after they occur, and even watch horrifying rape scenes in movies without being triggered.  You know what does trigger me?  Trivialization of rape.  That gets me almost every time.

But first, let me explain for those of you lucky enough not to have to deal with and thus understand these things.  "Triggering" is the reaction a survivor has to, well, something that triggers them.  That can be anything--a certain sound, being in a certain place or position, something someone says, etc.  When a person is triggered, the results can vary.  That person could experience flashbacks to the incident, or they could have an intense emotional reaction (which could include anger, sadness, shame, fear, etc), or they could even go almost catatonic.  It's hard to say what being triggered looks like to someone else, but you know it when you experience it.  What triggering is not includes "being too sensitive," getting offended, and telling others what they can or cannot do/say.  Period.

So when I explain that making rape jokes trivializes rape (thus helping to maintain the rape culture) and can trigger survivors, there is only one correct reaction:  "Gee, you're right, I hadn't thought of that.  I'll try my best not to do that."  Wrong reactions include, but are not limited to, "but, but, but FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!1!," "if we run around trying not to offend anyone how can we ever tell jokes?!," "but I'm a rape victim and I think rape jokes are funny!," and etc.

In an unfortunate set of circumstances, I find people being rape apologists and/or trivializing rape (and especially justifying trivializing rape--as in all of the "wrong reactions" in the paragraph above) super triggering.  It upsets me because it reminds me not only that the culture doesn't give a shit about what happened to me, but that so many of the people I've trusted with this knowledge also don't give a shit about what happened to me.  When I see my friends interacting with my rapists, they trivialize what happened to me, and as a sort of rape apologist bonus prize, they also trigger me.  It's fantastic.  Really.  (By "fantastic" I mean "awful.")

So when I explain that rape jokes are bad and you shouldn't make them, don't try to have some grand philosophical discussion with me about censorship.  I'm not interested.  It derails the conversation, trivializes my feelings about the subject, (often) compares rape to things that are not rape, and reminds me that you don't have to care about these things because they're not real to you.  In so doing, you remind me just how real these things are to me.  I am not allowed to have the apathy that you can have, if you so choose.  That is a luxury that was taken from me a long time ago.

And boom goes the dynamite.

So the Guttmacher Institute has proven the existence of the war on women.  As in, the GOP has introduced 916 anti-woman bills since seizing control of basically everything in 2010.  Oh shit, I just got truth all down my shirt.

Two things, totally unrelated to one another.

First, go read this piece about female strength, The Hunger Games, and traumatic adolescent experiences.  Trigger warning!  Oh, and maybe a spoiler alert too, I guess?  Go read the series first.  =P

Also, I got the job at the abortion clinic.  The official title is Phone Counselor/Educator/Receptionist.  Basically, taking phone calls which can range from counseling to standard appointment making, counseling patients before their procedures, and, well, receptionist-ing.  It's an amazing opportunity, and I start on Wednesday.  Yay!!

Okay, that's all for now.  I'll try to get better about updating regularly, but I'm in paper season at school, so it may take a few weeks.

I see what you're trying to do there, but no.

Okay.  I don't exactly make it a secret that I think Republicans are, well, for lack of a better word, inhumane.  I'll admit my very strong party bias against them (not that I'm exactly thrilled with the Democratic party--mostly because I just can't get down with capitalism--but, well, that's neither here nor there).  They're perpetrating the war on women.  I can't abide that.

So when I wrote on facebook about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker repealing the Equal Pay Enforcement Act, and a Republican friend of mine (I know, it sounds like an oxymoron) replied that the point of repealing this act was to prevent "unnecessary judicial costs," I chose to just not respond, because in all other things, I respect this person.  I understand that, as a Republican, you have to make everything about money.  I get it.

But that's not what's going on here.  This is about making sure that women are discriminated against.  Making it more possible, legally.  Don't just take it on my word, let Senator Grothman tell you himself.  He says that money is less important to women.  He also doesn't believe in the gender wage gap.  He also is a poor excuse for a human being.

So to all of those Republicans who are war on women-apologists:  just stop it.  We're not stupid.  We can see for ourselves what's happening here.  Hint:  it's not about money.  It's about misogyny.  And we're not going to take it lying down.

Fuck you very much, Scott Walker.

Apparently, he doesn't think equal pay for equal work is, ya know, good.  But, hey, at least no one's trying to fool anyone anymore:  this is war.

A day in the life of THIS feminist.

And it's a great one!

First, here it is, at last, my guest post on feministing.com!  Eeeee!

Also, I just scored an interview at a local women's center/abortion clinic to become a phone counselor.  Yes!!

I'm also going to be meeting with one of my VDay actors today to rehearse her piece.

I wish more days could be like this.

There is not a single state in this country in which one can afford a two bedroom apartment working the minimum wage for 40 hours per week.

In this state, one would have to work more than 88 hours per week to afford such an apartment.

Well.  That's really encouraging, seeing as how I'm about to start paying my rent.  *Blink*

A quote on radicalism.

“[T]he more radical the person is, the more fully she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but she does commit herself, within history, to fight at their side.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Yes.

Rick Santorum: The best mind of the 13th century.

A shit show of homophobia.

So much racism, so little time.

No, but by all means, go ahead and vote for him.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be packing up my worldly possessions and real estate shopping in Canada.

Just in case you thought only one legislative branch was declaring war on women,

you were wrong.  The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision decided to kill a part of the Family Leave Act.  Because everyone knows women should be making their babies and staying at home, god damnit.

But good for Ruth Bader Ginsburg for being a BAMF and reading her dissent in court.  Like a bawss.

This is why I'll be at either the Harrisburg (goes to Jill McDevitt's blog, a constantly valuable resource!) or Washington, D.C. rally on April 28th against the War on Women.  I will rage and roar.

Alrighty, Idaho is also on the shit list.

Chuck Winder: your facebook is next.

Well, the wage gap is going strong.

An infographic.  Enjoy.

Okay, okay, maybe I'm being unfair to Arizona.

After all, there are plenty of other women-hostile states in this country.  Feministe rounds them up for us here.

Places where I will never live.  Good thing Emory University rejected me, dodged the Georgia bullet.

I had some dreams of fair access to birth control and reproductive health;

they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee.

You're so vain, you probably think this blog post is about you (Arizona, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas...)

Okay, hear me out on this one.

So... one of my old friends, with whom I'm facebook friends but don't otherwise really interact, is pregnant after having some difficulty getting pregnant.  I'm happy for her, she wanted this really badly.

Today, she posted a status about having one of those fancy 3D and 4D (what does 4D even mean?) ultrasounds that all the kids are talking about.  It was a cute status about being able to see her little girl's face and all that.  D'aww.  That's nice.

And then she said "I thank my husband for giving us this gift."  ...Uh.  Actually.  You see, it takes two to make a baby, ya know?  And actually, your body is doing and has done most of the work.  True, you wouldn't have spontaneously created a baby without his sperm getting involved, I'll give you that; however, give yourself a little credit!  Jeez, you're the one carrying it, nourishing it, gestating it.  Your vagina fed enzymes to his sperm that allowed those sperm to make it to your uterus so that your egg could get fertilized.

Why on earth do we talk about fertility in this way?  Why is this baby a gift from her husband?  He should be thanking her, if anything.

Sorry, I just don't think we're going to get anywhere if we insist on devaluing women's bodies and women's work.

Post-racial America looks like this, apparently:

A white man gets to start an altercation with a seventeen year old black boy because he was walking home and shoot him dead.  This is self-defense, obviously, because one always needs to leave one's home in order to pursue a black person who is minding their own business and go kill that person.  The white man in question
has not been arrested.

Good thing there's no more racism, or something really bad could happen.  Like justice.

Whoever has been besmirching David Albo's Wikipedia should be stopped.

Troll face.

He deserves it.  I've spent the afternoon activism-trolling anti-choicers.  Governor Sam Brownback is my favorite.

Edit:  Wikipedia removed my edit, so here's a screen cap of what I wrote:

And somehow we always come back to Santorum.

Apparently, in 1994 he stated that single mothers are to blame for a bad economy and crime.  Damn, ladies, what have you been doing?!  The link discusses his shitty track record, but it also points out his racially coded language at the end.  Well done.  It's important to remember that most of the time when a conservative says "poor," he means "of color."

I guess I'm just glad this doesn't involve Arizona?  I don't know, I'm grasping at optimistic straws...

I think I'm going to kick Arizona out of the country.

I don't think they're on the same page as the rest of us anymore.

Okay, so they've been fucking up for quite a while.  I'm sure it's tons of fun being Hispanic in Arizona...  And NARAL gives Arizona a D grade on choice-related laws.  But, ya know, I've been willing to accept them as a state, even if I accept them as one of the worst states.  Surely they'll realize how badly they've been acting and turn themselves around, right?

Nope.  Next, they pass a bill stating that doctors are allowed to withhold medical information from pregnant women if they think that information might lead to the woman deciding to have an abortion.  Okay, that's one of the most horrifying things I've ever heard of.  But, ya know, maybe they'll realize that allowing doctors to break the Hippocratic Oath isn't okay.  You guys are demoted to a territory, but you're still in the country.  For now.

And now, they're trying to pass a bill that would allow employers to fire women for using birth control.  NO.  NO.  NO.  NO.  NO.  All of the violations of liberty.  Oh no, get the fuck out of my country, and don't look back.

But wait, there's more!  Now they're trying to pass a bill that would allow employers to cover birth control only for those "good" women who use it for not contraceptive purposes.  Even more violations of liberty!  Seriously, Arizona, we've had some good times, but it is just not working out.  Maybe try some backasswards country?  Maybe they'll take you?

Okay, so I don't actually have the authority or power to kick out Arizona, but I do think I get to look upon them with all of the disdain I can muster, because they'd be hurling it right back at me since I'm a slutty slut slut ladypants and all.

Something I think we can all agree on--except Arizona and nine other states:

Withholding medical information from pregnant women is wrong.  Period.  It violates the Hippocratic oath.

But apparently Arizona disagrees.

Okay, so this admittedly is a little complicated.  I definitely think it's a little scary that many families/women choose to abort fetuses that would be disabled.  That's definitely a little eerie; however, I still think it's the family's/woman's choice to do so if they want to--for whatever reason:  can't afford the medical costs, they feel unprepared to raise such a child, there could be enormous complications in the birth/remainder of the pregnancy, etc.

Nevertheless, passing a law that says it's okay for doctors to not tell a mother that her fetus would have important medical issues (I love the example in the article of the child born with one leg and no arms) is unacceptable.  How about we try trusting women to make their own medical decisions, hm?

Other things to read today:

This is about this Kony 2012 debate that is sweeping the interwebz.  The short version:  white imperialism is not the best way to end injustice.

This is about the history of Rick Santorum.  You have to be armed for battle.  This is a history of his quotes on women his blatant misogyny.

And this is just a classic.  Rape Culture 101.  Always important.  I haven't posted it here yet, so why not now?

Happy International Women's Day!

I'm not doing anything to celebrate today, per se, but this week has been a very Women-y one.  On Monday, I gave a lecture on my research about the lesbian separatist movement, and on Tuesday I took part in a discussion panel with the editors of Feministing.com.  I'll be writing a guest blog for Feministing some time soon, so I'll be sure to post the link here when it's up.

For now, check this out and gather strength.  The battle isn't over.

I hereby induct my boyfriend into Feminism.

I'm making it official.  Today, my boyfriend told me he's been reading Feministe.  I think he's finally earned the official jacket and pin.  I'll sign his card tonight, which I'm sure he'll keep in his wallet.  It'll be great having him in the club because he's a very useful mole.  See, he also gets to go to the Privileged White Male meetings, so he can tell us their secrets.

Obviously, I'm being very facetious here, but I'm actually really excited that he's independently interested in these things now (meaning I don't have to bombard him with links to great posts--he's finding them on his own).  The boy is a catch.  I'm keeping him.

Funny or Die offering the best political analysis ftw!

Hilarious, yet poignant.  I like the calculator spelling boobs, personally.

Seriously, why doesn't everyone realize how ridiculous this political climate is?

Rick Santorum: Actually anti-life.

Dear Rick Santorum,

If you are pro-life, why do you want to sabotage the lives of countless unborn children?  That seems a little ass-backwards, as it were.

Sincerely,
Because there's this thing called science.

Hey, if he wants to play the "pro-life" game, I'll just show that pro-choicers are better at it than anti-choicers.

Pro-life.  Your doin' it wrong.

That awkward moment when you are sexually harassed by one of your neighbors.

I'm becoming disgusted with the world.  Last night, one of my neighbors left a truly creepy, sexually explicit note in my mailbox with a phone number, asking me to call or text him.  It was really frightening to me because in the note, the man (yes, he made his sex quite clear to me, thank you very much) talked about listening to me having sex.  He left this note somewhere between 9 PM and 3 AM, and my lights were on that whole time.  He didn't wait until it looked like no one was home to do this.  He left a phone number.  This man is not afraid of potential consequences for his actions.

I'm still not sure whether or not I want to file a complaint for harassment.  Yes, he deserves it, but it was mortifying enough having my landlord and the police read this note.  I don't particularly want any more people to read it.  The salt in the wound of sexual crimes:  the victim gets to experience shame and humiliation for things they didn't do.

This event just makes me realize to how great an extent women's lives are often littered with sexual violence.  No, this act wasn't violent--but it was intimidating, and it certainly lands on the spectrum of sexual violence.  Things like this aren't even that uncommon.  I mean, this was essentially the note equivalent of street harassment.  You know cat calling a woman in the street isn't actually going to win her over, but a part of you just wants to make sure she knows she's public property.  This was a lot like that--with the added component of destroying my sense of safety in my own home.  I'm 21 and this is the third person who has committed some form of sexual violence against me.  I'm a person who is informed about sexual violence, works with survivors, and tries my best to keep myself safe--and I've experienced this much violence.  What I'm realizing today is that experiencing sexual violence is not necessarily a one time occurrence, or even something that happens at clearly defined "moments" by obvious acts.  Our culture, our rape culture, makes sexual violence a part of life.  My life has been plagued by sexual violence, and, shit, I haven't even had it that bad.  Some people, mostly women, go through much worse.  What does that say about our culture?  Terrible, terrible things.  It says that women's bodies are property.  It says that sex is a weapon.  It says that women should expect violence to be committed against them, over and over again.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Officially less personal.

Not more cheerful, sorry. 

On the social implications of being a survivor, or: I thought I was beyond these things?

Trigger warning:  I'm going to talk about sexual assault, emotional abuse, and stalking in this post.  It won't be graphic, but feel free to spare yourself.

A friend of mine, a good friend who is in my circle of friends at school, was sexually harassed by another student in... 2010, if memory serves.  She told the circle of friends at a later time, and the boy who committed the act was socially ostracized (he was also a part of this social circle).  He deserved it, he's a creep.  This is a good example of a circle of friends coming together to support a friend who was sexually victimized.  This is a good moment in feminism, in my book.  The perpetrator was blamed, not the victim.  The perpetrator experienced some form of justice (the victim was not going to press charges, and so this is the closest thing to "justice" we could achieve).  We've also warned the freshman girls about this guy when he has tried to swoop in on them.  Things that are good.

I have been victimized by two people in my life.  I'm not going to get too specific, as I'm trying to avoid stirring up drama.  In each case, my attacker was either my boyfriend or ex-boyfriend, and he was a part of whatever social circle is involved.  Mutual friends and such, although in each case, the friends started off as my own friends and accepted him into the fold either as we were getting together or just after.  It feels so silly and trivial to establish this context, but I think it matters.

In each case, when I told my circle of close friends what happened--about my attacks and chronic abuse and, in the most recent instance, stalking--their first reaction was disgust at his behavior and sympathy for my situation.  Things that are good.  However, in each case, they also didn't actually reject him from the social circle.  In each case, he was still deemed "friend material."  Eventually, they stopped even pretending to know what had happened between us... even though they did.  In the most recent instance, the circle of friends in question is the circle of friends I mentioned in my first paragraph.  The same people decided that my attacker was worth keeping in the fold, so to speak.  And so while I have blocked all forms of contact between us (out of necessity, again, stalking), they still chat with him casually, bring him up in conversation with me as if it doesn't matter.  This group of friends includes feminist allies.

I know, I know.  I should never ask my friends to take sides after a break up, and when we first broke up (before things got really ugly), I was very clear about there being no sides to take.  But is it so much to ask for my feminist ally friends to at the very least not chat about my attacker with me as if we're still friends, now that they know the things they know?  I can't ask my friends to vilify him the way I have, I know.  I just... didn't think I'd have to, I guess.  I remember feeling so proud of my friends when they held the sexual harasser accountable for his actions--it's so rare, especially in a college context.  I suppose that's what makes this extra disappointing.  They already know what sexual assault is (and so they know that just because I didn't have a gun held to my head doesn't mean it wasn't assault), they have been supportive of victims in the past...  So what happened?

Of course, I've been drifting apart from my friends as of late anyway (although, that started at about the time I told them what happened and they continued to socialize with him, so I suppose these things are related), but this certainly contributes to the feeling of disconnection I have with them now.  It certainly makes me feel as if they don't care what happened to me, or that they don't take me seriously, or that they just value the other victimized friend more, or that they just value the friendship of my attacker more than my friendship.

I don't know.  Perhaps this isn't really relevant to feminism.  Maybe I'm just a survivor who's disappointed by the response of her friends.  Then again, that's pretty relevant to feminism.  Perhaps this is just passive aggressive, knowing that my friends could very well read this.  Perhaps this is me hoping that they'll read it and at least be more tactful about it if they're going to be friends with him.

Sorry, this was long.  I'll do something less personal next time, I promise.

I just had a "Fur is Back" moment.

This is what I'm going to start calling those "Oh, god, did you have to go and feminism?!" moments.  You know the kind I mean.  Those moments where everyone's having a good time, joking around, laughing, and then someone says/does something incredibly sexist/racist/ableist/classist/cissexist/heterosexist/all of the above.  If you're anything like me, what comes after that bad thing that was said or done is, "Um, no."  A moment of quiet.  And then the rant comes where you have to show them exactly why what they said or did was wrong.

I just had one of those on facebook, of all silly places.  A friend--actually, a friend of a friend--said that they like to use offensive language because it's an "extremely effective and under appreciated method of undermining the ignorant, racist use of those same terms."


Of course, I couldn't control myself.  I was good, though!  I didn't TYPE IN ALL CAPS, or call them a privileged sack of crap, or even act meanly.  I just replied "False," and left the link to this article on hipster racism.  You should go read it, but it basically explains that "hipster racism," or the jocular use of racist language, is bad because it perpetuates racism--duh.


Okay, so maybe it was a passive aggressive move, but whatever--it's my bookface.

Colbert's take on this contraception circus.

Hilarious.

Also, Rick Santorum, you are the most ridiculous human being in the public eye--and that's saying something.  Kudos, sir.  You just compared making churches actually obey the law to the reign of terror.  Good fucking job.

Not to be missed.

What Jon Stewart has to say about the "war on religion" as it concerns this birth control insurance reform.

Brilliant.  I love this man.  "Even they know I'm not the Hitler of ice cream."

Pretty much

Just saying, I definitely pull the Xena thing pretty often.

"Oh, no, I'm not a feminist. I mean, I believe in gender equality, but not gender superiority..."

This is the event that convinced me I should finally stop taking up blog space on what is supposed to just be my angsty blog with the Feminismz.  (Not that writing about feminism is less worthwhile than writing whine-y posts about my angst--to the contrary--but I just feel like I should keep my blogs organized, and so here we are!)

I was in one of my Lit courses that's cross-listed as WGS today.  We had a guest speaker, Richard, a fellow undergrad who is about to publish a paper on Onanism in The Awakening (fascinating stuff, seriously).  In this paper, Richard takes a good look at the Victorian crusade against "the solitary vice," "sexual inversion," and individualist feminism while making his case.  He argues that Edna's husband is so oppressive that he "turns her to masturbation" (obviously, this is from the Victorian point of view), and thus ruins her.  It's a solid argument, and I was really impressed with his work.

But first I had to overcome a big, bad, awful, terrible first impression failure.  The professor made some comment calling Richard a feminist (which is totally valid!), and his response was, "Oh, no, I'm not a feminist.  I mean, I believe in gender equality, but not gender superiority, which the majority of feminists do.  Those are who I like to call 'feminazis.'"

RAGE!  SO MUCH RAGE!

I couldn't keep quiet, of course.  "Actually, you're wrong.  Feminism is all about gender equality, not superiority.  Only radical sects on the fringe of feminism, who you couldn't really call feminists, believe in gender superiority.  Also, it's never okay to compare anyone to a Nazi, unless they are committing genocide or actively perpetuating racism/anti-Semitism/etc."  In his defense, Richard corrected himself and admitted that it was a small minority who believed in "gender superiority," but I still felt it was necessary to remind him that you don't identify large groups by their most extreme members.

This is my biggest pet peeve, this vast cultural misunderstanding of feminism.  I would love to say that people are simply uninformed about feminism, and that's why they don't understand, but that would be naive.  People are misinformed about feminism, and I genuinely believe this is a lie perpetuated by the mainstream to maintain the status quo--to keep power in the hands of those who already have it.

Don't believe their lies.  Don't accept the status quo.  If you believe in gender equality, you can call yourself a feminist.  I understand that there are other reasons not to identify as such (e.g. many WOC reject the label because the feminist movement has historically shut them out), and that's more than fair.  But if you're resisting an identification with feminism because "Ewwww, feminazis!  Bunch of castrating bitches!  I hear they don't even shave!" then you're continuing the problem.  Don't be that person.

The beginning is a very good place to start.

Welcome, welcome.  I expect roughly 100% of people who ever read this will know me personally, but in case a stranger should actually stop by, my name is Kelly.  I'm a 21 year-old queer grrl, finishing up my undergraduate career as a Gender Studies major.  Hopefully next year I'll move on to grad school.  I'm a sexual assault advocate as well as a survivor.

So why am I here?  Well, feminism is pretty much my whole life.  I like to think of feminism as more of a verb than a noun, and I try to live my life as a series of "feministings" (to borrow a very useful title of a blog I love and respect).  I'm planning to this blog to process and record my adventures in feminism, rant a little (okay, maybe a lot), share things I find interesting or important (and probably things I find awful, too), and maaaaybe even teach someone something.  This will probably come off as more personal than a lot of feminist blogs, and that's very much intentional.  I want to share my experiences fighting the good fight, so to speak, and hopefully someone will be able to identify with some of them.

Oh, by the way, sorry if you're not a fan of swear words.  I'll try to use them more as a verbal garnish than as a staple, but, well, I'm not making any promises.