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~Stuff I pinned at my TIAW, and Wisdom.
~The Naked Face Project – a project in part by my former co-blogger Caitlin of Operation Beautiful. Fantastic idea! I was never comfortable in makeup (sensory issues) so I never wore much of it regularly. I’m usually naked-faced. How about you?
~The Scary, Weird World of Pinterest Thinspo Boards
~”Flawed” – an animated short in PBS’s online film festival.
~How to talk to little girls. Yes. Just. YES.
~On loving your body no matter what size it is.
~The Fit Fatties Forum. Started in part by Ragen of Dances with Fat, this is a place to focus on HAES (Health at Every Size). Sounds awesome.
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This week’s Awesome is extra slutty because, apparently, women are sluts now. Women who need birth control for any of a hundred reasons that don’t even have to do with the number of sexual partners they might have. And you know what? Even if they have sex with lots and lots and lots of guys (or girls, but that wouldn’t really necessitate birth control) it’s none of anyone’s damn business.
I had written a bit here about redefining the word “slut” and taking it back for ourselves and, while I still love the idea, this post needs to focus on other things at the moment than redefining a word. This country is dead set on taking women’s rights away. It goes way, way beyond the simple pro-life/pro-choice issue – if you read down to the second update (that’s the third set of links) there’s an article about how low-income women in Texas now lack access to basic health care like cancer screenings. This shit is fucked up, ladies. We need to be afraid. We need to get pissed off. We need to knit uteruses. Or write letters. Or both. Point being – let’s not debate the word “slut” right now and whether or not we can successfully take it back, but let’s band together to demand our very equality back.
~Stuff I pinned on my TIAW and Wisdom boards.
~Good article from NPR highlighting lots of stuff from the origin of the word to the problems people have with it.
~As mentioned in the above article, Slut Walks are awesome. A movement of feminine power arising from ignorance, sexism, and victim-blaming. “We’re here. We’re sluts. Get used to it!”
~Back to Rush Limbaugh. My friend Rainbow wrote this excellent article about why we clearly need to talk about our lady parts more often. Which is really essentially the same reason I started SOAM to begin with. Because some things are NOT better left unsaid/un-pictured.
~And this video? This one is maybe my favorite link this week. Not only does it sum up the problem nicely, but it is also quite catchy.
UPDATES!!
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~”…where herds of sluts run wild like feral ponies, humping everything in sight.” <--From a post about a proposed law in Arizona that would force female employees to prove they aren’t using birth control pills for sexual reasons – something that makes me sick to my stomach, but at the very least it gives us this line which is possibly my favorite thing this week.
~A very good summary of all the shit that’s been proposed against women in the last six months. Wait. The last SIX MONTHS? What century are we living in again? UGH.
MOAR UPDATES!!
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~The Viagra Bill, one among many bills being introduced by female lawmakers to counter the proposed bills restricting women’s choices and healthcare.
~Honestly, sometimes I think this a war on the lower classes as much as it is a war on women. Texas just lost all family planning Medicaid services. So poor women don’t get access to “cancer screenings, contraceptives, and basic health care.” Meh. Who wants poor people to be healthy, anyway? Oh right. Me. And you, I hope.
~This legislator thinks women might not really understand what rape is. Holy mother of god, I cannot even wrap my brain around this. People like this exist. And they are, like, voted in to office. Hopefully not repeatedly.
~See that knitted uterus up there? Women are getting together to knit or crochet uteruses to send to congressmen so they can have a uterus all their own and leave ours alone already. I AM SO DOING THIS.
UPDATE: One extra link this week.
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~This poem is amazing.
UPDATE:
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~Another bullshit anti-abortion bill stomping on the rights of women. This time in Georgia.
~This ain’t your gramma’s feminism.
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~Republicans, get in my vagina!
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~“What she said was offensive,’ Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville explained. ‘It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.’ <--What did she say? "Vagina." She named the definitive female body part. It breaks my heart to hear someone say that vaginas are that offensive.
~Have you ever read Margaret & Helen? A blog by two senior citizens with liberal ideas and lots of cuss words. They wrote a great piece here about the Michigan Vaginal Snafu.
Tubby. Fatty. Butterball. Elephant. Fatass. Jelly rolls. These are the names I’ve been taunted with. These are the titles I associated myself with rather than smart, funny, good friend, good listener, kind, and supportive. I was miserable. I felt undesirable as a friend, a girlfriend, and a future wife. Why would anyone want a fat girl? How could anyone love someone so ugly? 5 years ago, when I was 15, I reached my highest weight at 190lbs. At 5’7″, this was simply my breaking point. I decided to make a change. I was sick and tired of being tormented by my classmates. I wanted to be happy, to be healthy. I became a vegetarian on August 12th, 2007. I also watched my portions and counted calories. In 6 months, I went from 190lbs to 130lbs. In that time frame, I had my first real boyfriend, was noticed and complimented by my peers, and suddenly wasn’t being attacked anymore. It lead me to believe that, in order to have friends or a boyfriend, I had to be thin.
This realization sent me into a whirlwind of food deprivation, self-hate, and mood swings. I began to notice every stretch mark, any bit of skin that wasn’t as tight as it could me. I weighed myself 10 times a day to see if I had managed to lose a pound or 2 more. I wanted so badly to be like a model in a magazine. It killed me to know that I didn’t look like them and probably never would. After I graduated high school and broke up with the guy I had been with for 2 years, I found myself lost and unsure of myself. I relied on attention from guys to make myself feel better, even if that meant I was with someone who didn’t treat me how I deserved. After many failed relationships with guys who didn’t appreciate me, cheated on me, or put me down, I finally found a man who supports me and loves me for who I am. He knows I still struggle on a daily basis about food and body image, but he is there for me and will not give up on me.
Everyday is different for me. Sometimes, I wake up and see a beautiful woman in the mirror. Others, I only see skin that has not caught up from my weight loss, cellulite, and a small chest. I want so desperately to feel beautiful everyday, but sometimes, it feels hopeless. I feel that only time can heal the wounds of my past, along with support from my friends and loved ones.
