Whenever I'm having a rough day

I watch this video. And I get chills every time.

New Developments

Alright, so I know that I haven't posted more about my time in Boston. If you are antsy for more deets/pics, I shall pass you on to Risa's blog post about it until I make it back there. For now, I want to talk about the workshops I attended at Ladyfest Easthampton.


Though I didn't get the chance to stay for the music, I was there for the workshops on getting published, making zines, and screen printing. (Check out my sweet new hand screened shirt!)
It was really cool, and reminded me how much I enjoy pretending to be five for arts and crafts time.

In one of my classes (Sustainable Thinking- UMass students, check it out through the STPEC department) we have been considering making a zine to promote the class and promote sustainability on campus. This was my initial interest in the zine workshop- gaining something that I can take back to that project. Howeverrrr, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and decided that I will try to bring it to the blog. Or rather, bring the blog to zine?

So here's what I'm going to do, I think. I am not going to post the zine to the blog, but if you want a copy of them as they are created, email me your address and I will send a copy to you in the MAIL! They might just be silly little things about nothing important, but it is always always always fun to get stuff in the mail.

I have created a new email just for the occasion:
fishandbikesblog@gmail.com

Want some mail? Get at it!

Much love, R.

Today was great.

More to come on that later. I have to do some personal journaling to sort out my thoughts in order to prevent myself from rambling. However, here are some highlights:

• Had to be sneaky sneaky about getting in. AKA, become Risa and lose my badge.
• Met Jean Kilbourne. Dorked Out. Picture to follow.
• Overall better attitude about the possibility of social change.
• I'll have a bunch of links later, but for now I'm checking out freespeech.org. Loads of FREE and INDEPENDENT documentaries, series programs, etc. I think this will keep me occupied for a while.
• Risa brought me back delicious tea from The Tea Farm on South King Street in Honolulu, and I based on the cup that I'm drinking right now, I am strongly recommending it to all of my Oahu friends.

Bought a few postcards for decorative purposes, here is one of my favorites (sorry for the quality):

 

So quit being afraid of it, and call yourself a stinkin' feminist!

Conference Crashing

So, I am in Boston right now at the Seaport Hotel, where the National Conference for Media Reform is being held. My primary reason for being here is that my lovely friend Risa has been shipped here by the University of Hawaii to attend the conference, which I was very excited to hear when I learned of it a few weeks ago. It's very strange to think that almost a year has passed since we saw each other, and it's a funny thing to see someone out of the context from which you know them. It's been really nice to see each other and catch up. We treated ourselves to a fancy dinner last night (mostly because we didn't want to venture out of the hotel) and popped into the dance party that a lot of people from the conference were attending.

I was planning on bumming around Boston during the day while Risa goes to sessions, but she mentioned to me yesterday that I can probably just go with her. I may be a super-dork, but this makes me super excited- there are some panels that sound really interesting about women in media that she had scoped out to attend: Media Policy is a Women's Issue, Keeping it Unreal: Decoding Gender, Race and Reality TV- A Media Literacy Workshop, and Taking Sexy Back: Why and How to End the Media's Sexualization of Girls. Jean Kilbourne is at this conference, and is screening Killing Us Softly 4 and taking part in the last panel that we will go to today. That also makes me dork out a little after watching those films for the past four years. Mmmmmm, Women's Studies.

More to come later on adventures with Risa! I just have to buy some stupid batteries for my stupid camera that keeps eating the stupid batteries every two days.

"If my wife incorporated her uterus, you'd say 'hands off.'"

Okay. What the fuck.

This story is aggravating on a few different levels.

In order to not botch it with my own rambling interpretation, here is the article published by the St. Petersburg Times:

During last week's discussion about a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting union dues from a worker's paycheck, state Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, used his time during floor debate to argue that Republicans are against regulations -- except when it comes to the little guys, or serves their specific interests.

At one point Randolph suggested that his wife "incorporate her uterus" to stop Republicans from pushing measures that would restrict abortions. Republicans, after all, wouldn't want to further regulate a Florida business.
 
Apparently the GOP leadership of the House didn't like the one-liner.

They told Democrats that Randolph is not to discuss body parts on the House floor.

"The point was that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government," Randolph said Thursday. "And I always say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife's uterus was incorporated or my friend's bedroom was incorporated, maybe they (Republicans) would be talking about deregulating.

"It's not like I used slang," said Randolph, who actually got the line from his wife. He said Republicans voiced concern about young pages hearing the word uterus.

"I think it's a sad commentary about what we think about sex education in the state," he said.
House GOP spokeswoman Katie Betta: "The Speaker has been clear about his expectations for conduct on the House for during debate. At one point during the debate, he mentioned to the entire House that members of both parties needed to be mindful of decorum during debate.

"Additionally, the Speaker believes it is important for all Members to be mindful of and respectful to visitors and guests, particularly the young pages and messengers who are seated in the chamber during debates. In the past, if the debate is going to contain language that would be considered inappropriate for children and other guests, the Speaker will make an announcement in advance, asking children and others who may be uncomfortable with the subject matter to leave the floor and gallery."

Now, aside from the fact that the point of discussion was originally about unions, there are just so many more things at play. The article pretty much sums it up: the taboo around the use of the word uterus, issues of regulation when it comes to things such as abortion, and the state of sex ed. (And really, I thought we were reclaiming words like "cunt"- but are we really digressing to "uterus"?) Yikes.

Now, on a happier note, the ACLU is adopting this story along with the domain name incorporatemyuterus.com. What would happen if our bodies were as regulation-free as big business? Craziness. Hop onto the site and sign up for updates. (I'm also really hopin' for bumper stickers.)