Also: The Eye of the Storm
For me, the lessons were sometimes pointed. My grandmother was quietly concerned that my siblings and I might not discern how we fit into a world that was so clearly defined by the Negro question. (For my grandmother this was the polite and preferred term.) My test came on one of those steamy summer afternoons as we gathered on our mats in the darkened house. Musie and Nurse Trammell sat side by side on rush-seat dining chairs, shushing us as we settled in. On this day there was no story. Instead, there was a quiz. “Children, we have a question for you,” they began. I perked up, eager to please. “Who here is a Negro?” my grandmother queried. Her tone was warm but her demeanor serious. She and Nurse Trammell leaned back, watching for our responses. “Who here is a Negro? Raise your hand,” Nurse Trammell gently urged.
Even at eight I prided myself on being a good student—quick and nearly always correct. Still, perhaps I hesitated, sneaking a look around the room. Did my hand go up only after the Miller boys, whom I so admired, raised theirs? Or was I confident, thrusting my hand in the air without a thought? Hadn’t I listened during enough adult discussions to know that when the word Negro was used it included my father? It included me. Recounting the story, as she did much later, my grandmother explained that my hand had gone up first, with my younger siblings raising theirs after glimpsing my skinny arm upstretched. I don’t think the women took much note of how the other children responded. It was assumed their hands would go up. The test, you see, was just for us.
RIP Gough Whitlam (a Great Australian):
Senator John Faulkner asked in 2002: “Are you comfortable being an icon and elder statesman?”. Whitlam replied: “Well, I hope this is not just because I was a martyr. The fact is I was an achiever.” He could point to achievements and reforms such as recognising China, abolishing conscription, establishing Medibank, introducing needs-based school funding, extending tertiary education, reforming family law, boosting the arts, indexing pensions, and moving to equal pay for women, voting at 18, one vote-one value and Aboriginal land rights. He removed sales tax on contraceptives. He broke the cultural cringe, introduced an Australian honours system and a new national anthem, made relations with Asia a priority and ended Australia’s involvement with imperialism, later revived in Iraq.
what if we interviewed geddy lee like he was a lady musician?:
I panic, drop the menu on the floor, and when I look up, there he is. His silhouette is framed by the late-afternoon sun streaming through the front windows. His hair streams past his shoulders in luscious, bouncing curls – barely a hint of Dippity-Do graces these locks. In fact, his whole look is a nod toward understated casual. Gone is the stage attire of skinny jeans, converse sneakers, and band tees, replaced by a green flannel shirt, dark blue denims that hug in just the right spots, and a pair of work boots that suggest “I was just digging through my garage for the snow tires before I left to meet you”, even though we all know he has an assistant who does that for him.
there is literally zero chance, zero, that bill clinton is not secretly eating meat and dairy from time to time let’s get real here. also, life is a rich tapestry.
When even the LDS-run-and-owned Deseret News thinks you’re being terrible, it’s time to check yourself:
For whatever reason, the gaming community has attracted an element that threatens to kill feminists. Such threats should not be taken lightly, nor should arguments that a room full of people with concealed weapons is a deterrent to a deranged criminal be given credence.
Utah lawmakers need to change this silly and potentially dangerous law.
Feministing runs a guest post by Emma Caterine on the trans men at women’s colleges conversation:
…let’s be clear: the attendance of trans men at “women’s” colleges is part and parcel with the bigoted decision to reject trans women. The gender binary view required that the scales had to be balanced: two trans enter, one trans leave. If you are scared of trans women’s “male socialization” and thus reject them–which I believe most, if not all, these colleges decided to do before accepting trans men–our male vs. female society requires you to also believe trans men have “female socialization” sufficient to be accepted, or at least not required to transfer.
I can’t help but grin at all these “women’s” colleges wringing their hands about what to do with all these misogynistic trans men at their colleges trying to decenter womanhood. They so fervently bought into the patriarchal lie of gender essentialism, of some sort of residual womanhood in trans men, that by the time these men have started challenging these colleges’ focus on women it is far too late to change their minds. That’s the kind of morbidly funny part.
I have Definitively Decided not to go to my ten-year college reunion in May OR EVER AGAIN, MAYBE? and I feel so good about it! This is me:
