If you must embroider, do it angrily.
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One woman’s inspiring struggle to reuse her penis cake mould for other purposes.
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This is the first thing I’ve ever read that begins: “As a Barbie loving feminist…”
(I was never allowed to have a Barbie because of feminism, and now instead of having a normal job I run a misandrist website with a queer lady, so, you know, parents, make good choices.)
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Millions of people reading alone, together: the rise of Goodreads.
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If you want to talk about the hip-hop remake of “Achy Breaky Heart,” you can do it here. I havan’t been able to watch it except while peeking out between my fingers yet.
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Canadians! Don Cherry is 80, and in Sochi, and slamming Buds. He is also from my hometown, like other great Canadians Gord Downie and Bryan Adams.
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Ask a Manager is on fire right now. There’s a great question from a (justifiably) cranky librarian. Check it out.
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Valentines inspired by dysfunctional literary couples. I will only read slideshows if they are about dysfunctional literary couples.
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Thank God, Avery Edison is now in a women’s facility. I’m also impressed that the National Post‘s story manages to avoid misgendering her or engaging in kneejerk transphobia, and I’m hugely disappointed with the Canadian border officials who got hung up on her previous status.
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Above image courtesy of the Norfolk Museum Service.
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
I work in the staffing and recruitment field. We love Ask a Manager. I’ve given out a link to her site more than once.
Those penis-but-not-penis cakes are a thing of beauty.
Frankly, the palm tree is more obscene than any penis cake I’ve ever seen…
The testicles are horrifying.
I love the alligator one!
I suddenly want a penis cake mold just for all the exciting possibilities!
I am SO JEALOUS of Buddy Cole at the Olympics that I feel like it must be payback for all the times I bragged about being able to watch BBC coverage on my TV.
YES LET’S ALL DISCUSS ASK A MANAGER AND ITS AWESOMENESS and she answered a couple of my questions and I was all INTERNET FAME!
And also, Don Cherry’s family history hits so many interesting points of Canadian history it’s not even funny. (RCMP! CEF! Home children! Hockey!) He is kind of insane and eighty years old, but also iconic and CONFLICTED FEELINGS.
I love Ask A Manager, and she answers a lot of interesting questions. And then I read the comments. They might be the actual worst because they have such a consistent mix of excellent and terrible, and I don’t want to read about how sexism is imaginary, but other people say such helpful things!
I don’t know why people ask her questions about teaching or academia, though, because those people must know that those fields have weird and specialized rules, and she’s clearly not an expert in them. (And that’s okay!) She is not Ask A Principal or Ask A Tenure Committee.
The comments can be EXCELLENT because there can be someone who pops up right in your field, or they can be TERRIBLE because sometimes people suck. Overall the comments are mostly rational and calm, and useful, so I do read them, but….not everyone is awesome.
I do like how she answers questions when they relate to more general office experiences or tosses them out to the commenters (like there are a weirdly large number of librarians there!), but I don’t understand why people write in with those questions, or about retail questions, or what have you.
Ask a Manager and The Toast are the only sites I let myself read at work. She’s so great, but the comments, while generally okay, have their fair share of “oh god, not him again.” (Or her, but LBR, mostly him.)
I am like 99% positive I know who you mean.
There’s a couple, but … probably so.
yes, but I so wish there was an Ask A Principal or something similar for teachers (and other niche professions, which I would likely browse out of curiosity)! I enjoy mining Ask A Manager for the info that is relevant, though.
Sometimes, though the comments really call her out (deservedly, IMHO) on her constant assumption that the Company/Company Officials Are Always Good, True, and Right. I know she’s writing from the perspective of a manager/HR Rep, but jeez, sometimes it gets a little tiresome. Sure, occasionally she’ll acknowledge that company policies and managers can be d-bags, but – it feels like it a such stretch for her to do so. I get an authoritarian vibe from her, which is a bummer, because I’m generally kind of “What do we want? Worker revolt! When do we want it? NOW!”
Anyhow, I’d love to see a guide for workers that isn’t so in the back pocket of The Company. That said, I acknowledge reading her column has given me some great tips and I love getting inside the heads of people who do have this type of authority.
Angry embroidery is the best (disclaimer: my MFA thesis was about how women used fiber art to express their emotions and how fiber art symbols are used the same way in 20th century poetry written by women).
I am currently embroidering a “Bitches get stuff done piece” (my last piece was a throw pillow featuring dragons and the phrase “Read a fucking book”)
I love it. I just started embroidering and I like the projects I’ve done so far, but they’re totally cute and fluffy. I need to get creative as to how I can make them more expressive and edgier. You and Lorina can be my muses (although maybe Lorina a bit less so, since I don’t want to be completely unhinged).
…..I would also totally read that.
Jumping on the would-love-to-read-that-thesis train!
I usually embroider drunkenly more than angrily, but maybe I have to switch over to drunken rage? I can embroider in a drunken rage. My current project is embroidering neolithic cave paintings onto napkins, which doesn’t lend itself to rage, and my last one was witchy protection and cleaning symbols on a camera cleaning kit. I think I am overdue for angry dragons and swears.
That is so wonderful! I embroidered an old biological anthropology class drawing of a skull the other day.
Ya’ll are sweet. But it’s kind of terrible and I haven’t looked at it in a few years. Maybe I should revise it…. hmmm…
Really into fiber work in general as an outlet for non-socially acceptable stories and anger which I didn’t get to in the thesis as much as I would have liked. It was mainly inspired by the myth of Philomela and the embroidery component of Judy Chicago’s Dinner party installation. String is good times in mythology: Fates! Valkyries! Ariadne! Arachnae!
This is awesome. I love it; I love fiber art and the history of fiber art as an ‘acceptable’ art form for women and the ways it was subverted into expression rather than mere functionality.
(I may or may not have written a novel with a quilt artist making several speeches along this theme.)
I would cheerfully knock all the rest of these people* over to read it first.
*sorrrrrrrrry
The angry embroidery is making my morning. Something about holding on to the rage as you slowly, painstakingly make all those tiny stitches … yessss. Identifiable.
I couldn’t be more delighted by those works. I mean, except for the encapsulated rage and frustration and tedium and grimness that they invoke, just imaging her making them.
But delighted, anyway.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be feminists.
Just let ’em play Barbies and drive cute pink cars.
Let ’em earn less than those men (all from Mars).
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be feminists.
‘Cos they’ll never work day jobs and they’ll befriend funny queers.
And share in their misandrist love.
Thumbs up x 100!
I thought the valentine’s cards were going to be inspired by dysfunctional author/author, author/poet couples (Dylan Thomas/Caitlin McNamara: I love you so much I think we should both get falling down drunk and beat the hell out of each other) and I am super disappointed.
I’ve been reading Ask A Manager for years, have written Allison a few times, and it is the most helpful employment advice I have ever gotten. That said, I am the exact age that a lot of my peer group got suckered into that MLIS trap and maaaaaaaaan.
(I was never allowed to have a Barbie because of feminism, and now instead of having a normal job I run a misandrist website with a queer lady, so, you know, parents, make good choices.)
Girl, you’re living the dream.
No kidding. I was never allowed to have a Barbie either (because of feminism), and I have a good job and a family and a mortgage…and I’m still somewhat jealous of Nicole.
I am actually really surprised that the National Post managed to write a not-terrible article about a trans* issue. Huh.
Seriously.
Oh yeah, well great Canadians Gordon Lightfoot (who got kicked out of town, apparently) and Stephen Leacock are from MY hometown.
I’ve been job searching for a few months and Ask a Manager sounds like it would be super helpful to read. But I’m also worried because I’m already trying to face down daily anxiety about how I am Doing Everything Wrong, and that site would probably add to that feeling quite a bit, I imagine?
Oh no! Don’t feel that way. She’s super helpful and pragmatic.
Also, her post on “the magic interview question” has helped me and two friends get jobs: http://www.askamanager.org/2009/12/great-question…
Not particularly. She’s very straightforward, and practical, and it’s actual concrete advice.
I’ve been making fake candy hearts to amuse myself. Yesterday’s batch included BUSH DID 9-11, BENGHAZI, CHEM TRAILS, OBAMA IS KENYAN, FLOURIDE = POISON, NEW WORLD ORDER, FEMA COFFINS…. etc.
I think today will be misandrist candy hearts. KILL ALL MEN
KILL ALL MEN
NO TESTES
PISS OFF XY’S
BREASTS!
I could probably get INFERIOR to fit in the middle…
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah this is the best!
I always feel conflicted when cases like Avery Edison’s get resolved. Like, it’s great that she’s in the “right” prison but I am anti-prison so really no prison is the right prison and I don’t want to be happy about someone being in any prison!
Blarg.
Yessssss! I was also not allowed Barbies (or dresses, or pink things, or girly haircuts, or very many clothes than were not plaid) because feminism, and now I’m a super high-femme queer sex worker, so basically thanks Mom.
Also, fuck yeah AAM, I love the commentariat there almost as much as here.
WHOA wait a minute. I've never considered an MLIS because I wasn't interested in being a librarian, but my job is in content management and editing, and I love that. In fact, my skill set aligns perfectly with that list in that post. Could it be something for me to look into after all?
I wouldn't. You've already got the skills, and library school wouldn't really give you any more of them. It's more like an MLIS gives you a very good foundation for building specialized skills that it sounds like you already have.
Thanks, that makes sense. I sort of have this idea that the only way to prove to a potential employer that I have skills is to get an education in a related discipline, but of course that's not true.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! I just moved from Norfolk to New Zealand a month and a half ago. Those embroideries sound amazing and I wish I were still a half hour’s train ride away, instead of 40 hours of mixed transit.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! I just moved from Norfolk to New Zealand a month and a half ago. Those embroideries sound amazing and I wish I were still a half hour's train ride away, instead of 40 hours of mixed transit.
I would totally read that pillow!
I would also totally read a pillow that read: "Wabble on."
“There are no rules to follow with Barbie, and so she can do whatever and be whatever you want. My childhood Barbie was a single lawyer sleeping in a serving dish and living in an elaborately engineered mansion I made from double album covers.”
My childhood Barbie was a genetically-engineered super-soldier on a mission to destroy the Federation. The real hero was Skipper, captain of starship Enterprise, who fought Barbie with the help of her mild-mannered doctor/boyfriend.
What has happened to Feel the Burn? It seems like we have not had a recent installment in a long time. Have I just missed something?