In Other Worlds

I say Ma’am and Sir to my elders. I grew up in a town of less than 10,000 where everyone knows me and who my parents are. I smile at people I don’t know on the streets. I’m pretty sure that most of the people I meet in my current Deep South haunt think I’m respectful, kind, non-threatening. They’re pretty sure I’m “one of us.” But they might be a lot more suspicious if they knew the truth. I’m a progressive, feminist vegan (and possibly other labels people might find even more threatening if I was willing to lay it all out there for you, but I’m not). I’m participating in a blog carnival today drawing attention to young feminists. Apparently, some young(ish?) women like myself are none too willing to tag themselves feminists.

I actually have a lot of experience with the phenomenon of someone deeply devoted to gender equality believing the moniker is just too upsetting to wield. My mom has worked with abuse victims for 13 years helping them find safe places to stay, sitting with them in court, running support groups. She was also a single parent for some of my childhood and ran our home with strength and skill. Because of her, I never thought that girls were less than or that there was any reason I shouldn’t excel at whatever I chose (although the things I chose were rarely the things she would have chosen for me). But my mom is a real Southern lady, and she doesn’t care for conflict. For some reason, it just seems like it might be offensive to others to call herself a Feminist. People might get the wrong idea. (The nerve of some people! Demanding equal rights?! How rude.)

I’ve also read that some young people think the job has been done. We’ve achieved equality, so what is the fuss about? So it must be escaping these folks that in America women still only earn 77 cents to a man’s dollar (this holds even in highly skilled jobs like academic medicine when performance and skill levels are the same). Or maybe they don’t consider that girls all over the world aren’t allowed to receive a basic education or are forced to marry when they are as young as 9 or 10. I’d like to think that in the face of problems like these people everywhere would stop focusing on trying to shirk away from a label that they were taught was unpleasant and throw themselves behind the “Feminist Agenda,” a better world for all of its citizens.

What we call ourselves is important. The choices that we make about how to identify ourselves to others in society affects how we are perceived, how people react to us. But it can work both ways, if more women were willing to wear the label, it would give the world the opportunity to see that making the world safe and equal for women is only threatening if you are someone who is actively working to undermine women. (In which case, watch out, we’re coming for you.)

So if you believe that girls and women everywhere deserve access to the same education, opportunities, and rights as men, and you’re willing to do something about it, welcome to feminism! There are a lot of us! We’re just like you. I mean, some of us have pink hair, and some have kids, and some of us like licorice (which is just frankly, wrong), and some were born with penises, and some are currently able-bodied, and some are not. There are also many, let’s say, mature feminists. But we’re young, too. And we’re here to support you, and other women, and some us of have good recipes, and some of us can fix your computer, and some of us will tell you the truth no matter what. We’ve all got things to offer, so feel free to join us while we make the world a better place.

Be sure to check out the other posts in the awesome This is what a young feminist looks like Blog Carnival.

Evolution of a young feminist:


 
Easy things you can do:

1. Let people know, that you, the sweet girl (or boy) next door, are a feminist
2. Encourage women in their pursuits
3. Join the blog carnival to let everyone know that there are young (or mature) feminists out there
4. Write your congressperson about important legislation for girls or women
5. Donate time or money to organizations that support women or girls’ educations

Have more recommendations or know some great organizations? Share them in comments.

I promised I would write more, but I haven’t had any daring adventures or fascinating discoveries lately, so you all (all 3 of you?) get another list.

1. Psychic Psephalods

Ok, so I don’t believe in psychic phenomena, but I do believe in fiercely intelligent/awesome invertebrates who occasionally eat bivalves out of transparent boxes which happen to have flags on them. The only way Paul the Octopus could be more awesome is if he were a cuttlefish. Sorry, Paul. I know Octopods are full of awesome, too, but come on. Cuttlefish. (I think the cuttlefish’s hypnotizing display may have gotten to me when I watched NOVA, because I realize now that the octopus’s wily tool-using ways outstrip the cuttlefish adorable predator act. Darn you and your amazing display, cuttlefish!)

2. Writing

Growing some of my own food has helped me feel a little closer to the billions of humans that have inhabited this world before me. Another tie with past humans and cultures in which I’ve always taken an interest is story telling. I love to read stories, and I would love to be able to share my own with others, but I’ve always been pretty shy about letting anyone else read anything I’ve written (with the exception of canonical newspaper articles from the Harry Potter universe…yep). I want to get started but it’s hard to know where to start even though I read a pretty good book about it last year called Writing Down the Bones. I was hoping to take a Creative Writing class in my area this fall, but I can’t seem to find one offered by any of the local colleges. Any ideas?

3. Soccer

The World Cup was addictive. I want to start following fútbol more closely, but I’m not really sure where to start with that either. I think John and I are going to root for Everton in the Premier League since Tim Howard plays for them and they borrow some other US National Team players, as well. But who do I support in the states? When do they play? I need to do more research.

4. Robotics

This one is stretching it a bit as I have no training in engineering or mechanics at all. But there are so many awesome robots out there lately! There are soccer-playing robots, teaching robots, oil spill fighting robots, robot vehicles, and space robots, but the new robot butlers are just terribly unimaginative. If anyone can help me make my AI butler happen, you just let me know.

5. Awesome Things

I looked through my email to see what else I had been trying to learn about lately. I email myself lots of notes about music, books, websites, apps, and recipes. So if you know of anything awesome for me to email myself about looking into later, feel free to leave it in comments

When one fails to post on a modest little blog like mine, the need to make the next post that one would post be a uber-fantastical post blossoms and grows and consumes until it is nigh impossible to post any post at all. After considering for weeks now what knowledge I could possibly share that would be of interest to anyone other than myself (and perhaps my grandmother who would celebrate any small accomplishment of mine, but hates pretty much every topic in which I am personally interested), I have decided to disappoint anyone who comes here to read this at this moment rather than allowing my own (or any one else’s) expectations to unnaturally balloon any further. I turn 27 next week, and I haven’t the energy to think that I might have something amazing to say that no one else has said on the internet ever before any more. Perhaps, in my soon-to-be advanced age, I will have the proper life experience to know that if one fails to write on a blog for such an infernally long time, the necessity to do so transforms into a giant, yellow-eyed, furry, 14-headed manticore of suckage. So let me delay no further with my pitiful effort,

List of things to which I am currently looking forward:

1. Dr. Who

I look forward to this every week now. Before the current series (11th Doctor), I had never seen more than a partial episode, and John had not watched the show since he was a kid. We decided that a new Doctor was a perfect time to hop in guilt-free without having to do the life-consuming Netflix catch-up. Of course we fell in love with the Doctor and Amelia, so now we are watching all of the series prior to this one since the show returned in a slightly-less-than-life-consuming Netflix catch up. So far, we have been sampling the series in a rather Time Lordly manner, watching the current episodes as they air, watching recommended episodes from earlier seasons, watching episodes with awesome sounding premises (Victoria and werewolves, etc.), finally settling into a semi-chronological manner. We just lost Rose. *sniffs*

2. The World Cup

Nothing makes me feel more like a citizen of the world than getting excited about the World Cup. Now I just have to decide which team to cheer for when we fall out.

3. iPhone 4

I have been so restrained. A whole year with a new iPhone out, and I haven’t budged. I’ve waited, and Steve has rewarded me. I can’t wait for this beauty. If I weren’t a woman of science, I would be sure that the fact that pre-orders start on my birthday was preordained. (I don’t want to hear about how awesome Android is, btw. As a librarian and a geek, I have a lot of closed-network guilt about my iPhone lust, but I’ve used Androids and the experience is not even close.)

4. My Future Artificially Intelligent Butler/Familiar/Companion

I’m one step closer to my synthetically sentient straight-man since scientists have devised an algorithm to detect sarcasm.

5. Maturation of Climate Modification Science

Have you visited Alabama lately? It’s freakin hot.

6. Communing with Veggies

I have a plot in our community garden and some container pots on the back porch. Some of them have made delicious food for me. Some have thrown themselves onto their own swords rather than suffer my poor gardening skills. I’m hoping the new iPhone will allow me to commune with my plants Pandora-style.

7. Mamaw’s Chocolate Cake

Have I mentioned it’s my birthday next week?

When I wrote my first post of the year, I felt the need for some change in my life, and so I’ve chased it down. I’ve moved…this blog. My hosting with GoDaddy was expiring, and I was seriously sick of their gross, sexist commercials, so I moved all my junk on the net over to GreenGeeks. They buy wind energy credits for 3 times the amount of energy they use, and they don’t have sickening commercials. Also, they’ve been super helpful by moving everything for me and being very responsive. So far, I’m thrilled.

I’m also moving my real-life stuff downtown. I’ll be in a historic neighborhood with a community organic garden within walking distance of all of the shops and restaurants of LoDa (the Lower Dauphin Street area of downtown). I’m renting a floor in one of the awesome old houses. I can’t wait (except I could totally wait on all the painting we have to do tomorrow)!

One to my favorite things to do there has just been to walk around the neighborhood and look at all the neat homes. (There’s a wikipedia article about the area where you can see some. They definitely didn’t pick my favorites in that article, but I haven’t taken my own pictures of them yet.) But there’s one house in my area that is my favorite to contemplate, the one that is missing.

There are a few empty lots in the neighborhood of historic homes that didn’t make it, but for the most part, those lots are open and have had shared space items, like swings or fountains. This lot is mostly hidden behind a wall in which there are two openings. One opening is guarded by the curious pair fools or scholars (it’s hard to tell which) pictured above. The other features a small curved staircase that leads nowhere. The lot contains one magnolia with a “Beware of Dog” sign, but the dog appears to have vanished with the rest of the property. I’ve searched the address in Google looking for a tragic accident and found none. After the move settles, I’ll probably visit the local history library to look for information about both the house I am in and the one that has been abducted.

 
If you are my friend on Flickr, you can see a few pictures of the outside of the house in this pool. (If you aren’t on Flickr, but I know you, I can give you a password to view. Just ask.) I’ll post inside pictures after my things (and my cats) are there. It won’t be the same without them. Until then, Au’revoir!

Now I’ll have to make a new playlist in iTunes.

I’ve not been a huge fan of my life in the past year, so I’m trying to do more things about which to be excited or proud. Mobile is a challenge because there aren’t many ways to meet people and there aren’t many things to do. To help hold me accountable, I’m keeping a daily photo journal, so if all I do is come home from work and eat cereal while watching TV in my pjs, I’ll have to post a picture of it.

Things about which I was proud/excited this year:

1. Organizing a local community center library for MLK day
2. Judging an Egg-O-Naut competition at the Science Olympiad
3. Organizing a book drive for our Children’s & Women’s Hospital
4. Kayaking with alligators
5. Taking a karate course at the university
6. Atlanta trip for football victory, book festival, and Ethiopian food
7. Hanging out in New Orleans on Halloween
8. Eating much less meat
9. Reading 83 books this year

Failures include: not traveling more (We traveled a lot in day trip range. This is mostly a being poor fail.), not keeping up with German study, not creating anything, not accomplishing any big things at work, not cooking more, and not making any friends in Mobile.

But I’d rather talk about books. My big favorites since my last post in August have been The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix (Sabriel, Lirael (a librarian!), and Abhorsen) and Fire by Kristin Cashore. I’m also looking forward to reading more of the Mistborn trilogy after reading The Final Empire.

Wishing you amazing things in 2010!