Book Review: Like One of the Family by Alice Childress

Like One of the Family by Childress

I loved this book because of its breakdown. Mildred and Marge are domestic workers; Mildred creates a counter public in Marge who listens to every story Mildred has to tell. Mildred shares are exploits of sticking it to the man or woman as it is usually. Some of Mildred's stories are embellished, but there is a truth to them. Mildred tells her employers the things all domestic workers want to say, and Marge appreciates that. The end of the novel is interesting because Mildred trades in one employer for another. She decides to marry Eddie so she can leave domestic work, but Eddie will begin telling her what to do, and the dreams she mentions in one of the stories when she is defending domestic worker will go unfulfilled. View all my reviews >>

"We'd Strip You Naked and Make you March Your McCain Loving Ass Back to Connecticut You Fucking Turncoat"

Oh, Joe, I'm at loss for words when dealing with you, but that pretty much sums up my feelings about you.   First you screw around during the presidential election and now with health care.  You're lucky your body wasn't found in Lake Michigan.  We should just let the Republicans have you so you leave us the hell alone.  You're the kid no one likes.

 

The good news, Lieberman recognizes he has colleagues he will have to work with for the next few years, and he is regretful that the health care debates have been difficult.  Naturally, he still doesn't like the health care bill, but is hopeful that balance will help more people.  Here, I thought most people wanted a public option.  Silly me. 

 

Live it up Liberman, if I have to go campaign against you in Connecticut, I will. 

 

The title was taken from this SNL skit, http://www.hulu.com/watch/45817/saturday-night-live-rahm-emanuel.

Everyone Else is Doing It

Yep, it is that special time of year to buy things for loved one, like a teen's virginity. Ok, so the girl pulled the offer before the auction closed so she wasn't legally liable for anything. 

 

This teenage girl in Hong Kong attempted to auction her virginity to the highest bidder, which coincidentally was $7,800.  The girl never disclosed her age on the site, but gave all the other necessary information such as weight and height.  One hundred people responded to the ad.  The police are naturally investigating and replaced the ad with a warning not "to sell your body for money."  The ad went on to say, "One should value morals highly and respect self-esteem."

 

Recently in Hong Kong there is an increase of teenage girls going on "compensated"  dates with old men.  Some of these dates include sex for money.  The article attributes this to the 22 year old US woman who auctioned off her virginity to pay for her college education; her offer received bids up to $3.7 million. 

 

I go back and forth on this; naturally prostitution is not an easy subject.  The auctioning off of the virginity of minor is wrong, note the value judgement.  Because minors lack legal rights and protections.  However, the selling of sex isn't wrong, which is the value judgement placed on it by the police "investigating."  I also, enjoyed the footnote about the US woman; I have my issues with her as well.  This article doesn't note that the woman was studying prostitution, and equated her experience with other prostitutes...because it is exactly the same.  Selling sex for education is the same as selling sex for survival.   Please note sarcasm.  

Save the Children

I think I've mentioned this before, Aston Kutcher wants to get in on the end trafficking movement; I haven't been too critical of him even though he and Demi flaked on the Nomi Network because I like to believe people want the best for others, and I haven't seen a lot of what he has said on the subject. 

However, I try my hardest to stay away from Lindsey Lohan recognizing the amount of baggage this woman has, but then she decides to save children in India from hunger and trafficking.  This could be admirable or this could be an attempt to be Angelina Jolie, but let's look at the text, thank you twitter, "Going to make one of my lifelong dreams on my list of things to do in this lifetime! Wish me luck! Over 40 children saved so far . . . Within one day's work . . . This is what life is about . . . Doing THIS is a life worth living!!! Oh, and I'm talking about being in India." My concern here is the "saving" of children and the ramifications of using that language, which reinforces the ideas about persons in nations outside the U.S. that need saving and that these children have no agency.  I'm anti-trafficking too, but this doesn't seem like she gave sex trafficking or hunger a lot of thought outside of it being trendy.  It is also something to note that an anonymous "friend" claims Lindsey is in danger because of her celebrity.  Think any of these children care much about her celebrity? 

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/lohan_mission_nXbQzLPq5LEokh5vEZBOwJ#ixzz0ZIWDjOMW
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/12/exclusive-lindsay-lohan-freaked-out-india

The D-O-GG strikes again

This is just too funny to pass up. Snoop Dogg has created his own skin for the Tom Tom GPS system where his voice will tell you where and when to turn and so on. I just saw this on Conan a minute ago and it seems pretty great. He adds little catch phrases:

Directions include "Come on man, let's get this thing cranked up" and a suggestion to play Snoop Dogg music while going "round and round" at a roundabout.

Seems worth it to me.

It only takes one person to make a difference...

I was watching the local news earlier today and there was a really great story. I wish I could find the story online, but it was about a 2 minute feature segment so I doubt I will. Anyway, about 6 months to a year ago, a man went into a convenient store and attempted to rob it, but in the middle of the robbery he started sobbing about how he couldn't afford to feed his family and the shop owner took pity on him. The shop owner gave the man $40 and a loaf of bread and wished him luck.

Earlier this week, the shop owner received $50 in cash and a letter from the man thanking him for helping when he needed it most. The guy now has a good job and can feed his family and they're not losing their house, etc.

This is the first thing that's actually put me into the Christmas spirit this year. :)

Neil Patrick Harris is my god

An Emasculating Truth

I'm excited about this film!  I've been pretty interested in male development, from Guyland to God Save the Males.  This appears to be an honest look at what is like for a male to come to terms with what it means to be a man in U.S. society.  Interestingly a friend and I were talking about this last week.  

No, it is not ironic.

I'm working on a presentation on the elements of a poem for a class and I was looking through Google image search to find an example of irony, and guess what? No one knows what irony is.


No, it is not ironic that you happen to be standing on train tracks as a train comes by. That's called stupidity.



No, you can't has irony because there is nothing ironic happening in the personification of pickles and hot dogs.

No, you do not detect a hint of irony, you detect a hint of of sarcasm. These are different.

Damn you, internet.

Comso, Feminist Zine?

This was pointed out on the Feministing Community page, and I couldn't help but get all excited about it.  Comso Magazine's website has a brief article, more a call to arms, about health care reform siting that women's rights are in jeopardy!  They want their readers to fight down the Stupak-Pitts amendment!  Loving it! 

I'm usually pretty hard on Cosmo, and found the article kind of funny to because it assumes their readers have no idea what is going on with health care reform.  But regardless, damn right!  They call for their readers to sign a petition and contact their representatives to let them know women's rights shouldn't be up for debate, left out of health care reform, or hindered.  Hot damn ladies! 

I love men support groups...

Really, I mean clearly men need support groups specifically for being men, because men are oppressed by the social constructions of society.  I'm actually being serious, but something tells me these groups aren't discussing the negative effects of patriarchy.  My guess is they are discussing the negative effects of feminism, liberalism, and equality movements.  

An article in the Guardian this morning pointed out the rise of men's support groups on British universities' campuses.  I'm all for examining gender roles and stereotyping, but I'm afraid these groups aren't about that.  My educated guess based on those in the U.S. are these groups are trying to alienate women and minority groups, because they feel these groups somehow threaten their rights...through equality.  

Kat Wall, the Oxford University's student union vice president for women, welcomed Alex Linsley, the founder of the Man Collective--Oxford, to participate in the discussion of masculinity with the women's group.  The article doesn't say if Linsley will come to the metaphorical table be claims men are being left out of.  

This whole thing bothers me because I welcome men in my feminism, as long as they are looking for equality and betterment of peoples everywhere.  This sounds like a bunch of privileged white men who feel like their power is being usurped.  Ridiculous...

Some news on men's rights groups in the U.S.:

Jezebel featured their misguided message on the subject of domestic violence here or Salon's take here.  They focus entirely on their rights and what they want regardless of what is best for the children in divorce cases.  

Fuckin patriarchy

Ok, so my employer is actually offering health insurance to part-time employees in 2010 (this is the good part) and I took the time to get my husband and I all signed up. Today in the mail comes a letter addressed to my husband about the insurance... even though it's coming out of MY pay from MY employer. How does this make any sense!? Also, over the summer when I realized I would be losing my insurance by moving to a part-time position, I tried setting us up for Kaiser and spent about 30 minutes going through their arduous online application, adding myself as the main contact and when I needed to cancel the application, they would not even return my calls. Finally, they call MY cell phone and ask for my husband, so I hand him the phone and ask him to cancel it, he says the word and immediately it's done.

So frustrating.

What the hell...Health Care Reform

According to the Huffington Post the House passed the Health Care bill at the expense of abortion rights.  I never said federally funded abortions, and I love the idea of a public option.  However, it is my understanding that this anti-abortion amendment added to the bill does not only limit funding for abortions from a public option, but also from all private companies operating in the exchange.  

And just to be sure the we won't be doing this again for another 40 years or so.  Not good enough!

Way to Go Cleveland!

So, after the 10th body was taken from Anthony Sowell's home I thought it was time to call my mom.   I noticed a girl I grew up with claimed this serial killer lived in our neighborhood, but I couldn't corroborate this because no one is saying what neighborhood in Cleveland.  According to my mother Anthony Sowell is about twenty minutes from her on East 123th and Imperial Ave.

As of this evening we have a total of 1o bodies and pleas to the community to come forward with information about missing girls from the neighborhood.  The charges Sowell is facing are kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder.  

The bodies were discovered when officers served warrants for another attempted rape and sexual assault.  Sowell is described as a professional scrapper, which for those who don't know is someone who makes a living by selling scrap metal to scrap yards.  

There is a Day to Celebrate Awkward Moments! We Need to Get on This.

At work today, I was putting together a calendar for our magazine and website.  Sometimes I try to slip something to see if anyone reads anything we put in print.  I found the most wonderful holiday ever: March 18, Awkward Moments Day.

Jim get ready.  Really, these shouldn't be planned, but I can't help but get excited about this.  Also, it is the day after St. Patrick's Day.  Because whoever created this day knew the walk of shame well.  

Obviously More Women Should be Prostitutes...

Authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics, are putting out a new book entitled Superfreakonomics.  This new book takes an look at prostitution but in the excerpt available thus far profiles two women.  The first works the street in Chicago's South Side making $350 per week.  The second works 15 hours a week in a pretty bedroom for $500 an hour.  This second woman is credited with developing entrepreneurial skills.  These gentlemen never mention race, but this could be interpreted as a story of race and class.  They provide physical descriptions of both women:  "straightened hair" vs. blonde.  The first woman doesn't get much of a background, but the second grew up in a middle class dysfunction family.  

The authors ignore the differences in the backgrounds of the women.  They claim that there is nothing to be concerned about in the "kind" of prostitution practiced by the second woman, but they have cited her dysfunctional family without further discussion, but using the information we know about sex workers most have severely troublesome upbringings.  I am pretty concerned about this book.

Jezebel and The Times Online both looked at this book.

Pre-Existing Condition: Woman?

Broadsheet had this lovely video, and I couldn't help but post it. In light of domestic violence being named a pre-existing condition, and the neglect of women's health concerns in the health care reform bill I thought it was necessary.

Abortion Anyone?

The Broadsheet over at Salon made a nice list of why abortion should be included by health insurance. The argument is that abortion is a medical procedure and should be covered by insurance, but some, and I won't point fingers, would have abortion not covered. Many people agree that abortion should be covered by health insurance because health care should dictate coverage not politics. Anyway this is the list from Salon:

1. Abortion is legal medical care.

2. Abortion is common, mainstream medical care. It is one of the most common surgical procedures in America.

3. Abortion is already broadly covered. Between 50 and 85 percent of women who have private insurance, including employer-sponsored plans, have coverage for abortion care.

4. Covering abortion does not raise the abortion rate.

5. Covering abortion makes abortion safer.

6. Covering abortion is what the people want. [More people agree that abortion should remain legal now than when Roe v. Wade was passed by the Supreme Court.]

7. Excluding abortion from coverage sends us down a slippery "moral" slope.

8. And about that "elective" business. Kissling: "Let's have insurance companies hold an annual poll of subscribers and decide on a majority basis what gets covered. Let's especially ask if they want their premiums to pay for obesity-related diseases, smoking-related diseases, STDs, neonatal intensive care where the life expectancy is less than 5 percent and put a cap on care for people over 80."

9. Without coverage, there is no "choice." Sex -- a natural human drive for most -- entails risks. Even with the best prevention measures, there will be unintended pregnancies. Jacobson: "Women must be able to make the choice of whether or not to bear children because unintended pregnancy entails emotional, financial and psychic costs that will be borne only or largely by the woman."

10. Megan Carpentier, former Jezebel writer and current editor of News and Politics of Air America Radio, sums it up thusly: "Why should abortion be covered? Because sometimes abortion is medically necessary, and the government shouldn't be writing regulations from Washington that tell a woman in Kansas when that is. Because exempting cases of rape and incest, as the Hyde Amendment does, means that women who are victims of rape and incest don't get the coverage they're supposed to have anyway, because there's no way to police whether their pregnancies are the result of government-approved circumstances. Because there's no actual government money that's going to get spent on the so-called public option, so it's a question of whether you, with your own money, can get insurance that covers what you choose to have it cover. And because eliminating coverage that currently exists through federal law is just another back-door way for the antiabortion movement to make it more difficult and expensive for women to get a legal medical procedure, since they can't convince women not to have abortions on the 'merits' of their arguments."

I slimmed down the earlier portion of the list because it was massive, but the later ones need a little more explanation.

I Heart Joss Whedon!

I love Joss Whedon. I love his characters; I love the comics he wrote. This is from his speech at Equality Now.

Obvious Child, a pregger movie long over due

Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre on Vimeo.

I loved this when I saw it a last week, but unfortunately between papers and presentations I've been having trouble updating with regular frequency.  Well, all enjoy the film...