My boyfriend is *literally* covered in kittens.
3 days ago - 
4
4
Yee!
Check out this wonderful blog for queer people, In Our Words. Wonderful because they posted one of my pieces, of course…
http://inourwordsblog.com/2012/05/18/i-go-to-the-gym-or-mechanics-of-invisibility-wt/
1 week ago - 1
1 Hmm.
Interesting article on Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5911165/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is
I found the article interesting, yes, but my goodness, the comments section made me so sad for the world.
I Just Asked My Students to Write a Teacher Evaluation
Part of me thinks I should not have entrusted fourteen-year-olds with this task.
I have an inkling my feelings might get hurt.
My new home for the next year.
Studying for the GRE
Reminds me about the fact that, as a humanities major, I haven’t taken a test in four years.
Anybody feel like being study buddies, quizzing one another on the definition of “pettish” and “tyro” and “munificent”?
Someone Hired Me
To work here. At HIPS. Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive.
I’m a bit shocked, truth be told. And fucking excited at the chance to do coalition building between and amongst various sex-work/prostitute communities in the DC area. The words “accountability” and “intersectionality” and “coalition building” and “privilege” and “academese” and “self-care” were used numerous times in my finalist interview. I may be in love.
No word yet on whether or not I can afford to take this job (the pay is, well, shit). But wouldn’t it be nice?
1 month ago - 4
4 Classroom Mediations; or, I don’t Give a Fuck
Forgive my students, for they know not what they do.
In class today, I had students write down various opinions about immigration. One of my brightest—albeit most difficult and abrasive—students simply wrote “I don’t care” on the board. I told her it was an inappropriate answer, and to write something else. She clarified by saying, “I don’t care about them.”
When did students get so ballsy?
Does It Ever End?
More Rush dramz. Click the link for your daily dose of outrage.
Also…
Being abroad makes me nostalgic for so many things American: large iced coffees, driving an automatic car, queer people, using 32 degrees F to describe “freezing” (well, ok, maybe that I have learned to find strange). But holy shit-balls, America. What is going on right now?
Someone once asked me what would have to happen for me to consider either: A. Becoming an ex-pat or B. Leading a revolution toppling the American government. I would jokingly respond (in my 2009-blissful-ignorance) that if Sarah Palin were ever president, I’d hit the road.
Somehow, that option now seems quaint, as though Palin’s characature—however unappealing—would be a relief from the candidates currently in the race. I don’t mean to suggest Palin’s reign would not cause mass damage to the American landscape—I only mean to suggest how much *worse* the current candidates now seem.
How are these debates still happening? How are such slut-shaming assholes even considered viable candidates for the presidency? No, wait, strike that: woman-shaming. This goes so much deeper than governing the sexual deviancy of “sluts”: uteruses (uteri?) are now (or perhaps more accurately, always-already) deviant. Slutty. Prostitute-y.
I’m not sure I can write about my response to the above clip just yet. It’s too much, both comically ridiculous and heart-wrenchingly terrifying. How—HOW—can we have a president that demands women in search of birth control “videotape” the sex they have while on birth control in order to make the tax payers’ dollars worth the investment? The logic of the argument is not worth addressing: it’s circuitous and fucking ridiculous.
I am incredibly embarrassed of my government right now. And fucking outraged.
So Depressed about the World
In a recent MSNBC article, “Male Birth Control Pills Soon Become a Reality,” this was a quote from one of the patients currently taking the hormone for the past year:
“It is time for men to have some control. I think it would empower men and deter some women out there from their nefarious plans,” says Brown. “Some women are out there to use men to get pregnant. This could deter women from doing this. An athlete or a singer is someone who could be a target and they could put a stop to that” (emphasis mine). Damn you, nefarious woman, always trying to disempower men, taking away our control! Oh, wait. Barf that.
danceswithfaeriesunderthemoon:
Roma in Europe: Persecuted and misunderstood
In Kosice, Slovakia, the Roma population took to the streets in massive demonstrations in 2004. The demonstrations took place after the government cut the social services considerably. In the eastern part of Slovakia -where the major part of the Roma population lives, this cut made every-day life extremely difficult. Many Roma families lost much of their means of survival.
Who are the Roma?
Roma, also called Gypsies or Romany, are a group of people marked by poverty who live mainly in southern and eastern Europe, though they live throughout the continent. They tend to live in camps, caravans, or informal settlements and have been persecuted throughout history.
Some are Christian and some are Muslim, having converted while migrating through Persia and the Balkans, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Most Roma speak dialects of a language called Romani, which is based on Sanskrit, the classical language of India, the museum says. The language is largely unwritten, however, because of the high rates of illiteracy in most Roma communities, according to information from Minnesota State University.
Where did the Roma come from?
Roma originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries, according to the Holocaust museum. They were called Gypsies because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt.
Many Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers, according to the museum. Others were performers like musicians, circus animal trainers, and dancers. By the 1920s, some were also working as shopkeepers or civil servants.
The number of nomadic Roma was on the decline in many places by the early 1900s, though many “sedentary” Roma often moved seasonally, depending on their occupations, the museum says.
Where did the Roma go in Europe?
Roma were living in Spain, France, England, and large parts of what is today Russia and Eastern Europe by the late 1400s. They suffered persecution in those countries ranging from laws against their language and dress to expulsion, according to Minnesota State. In the beginning of the 15th century, many Roma were forced into slavery by Hungarian and Romanian nobles who needed laborers for their large estates, according to the university.
Roma suffered persecution during World War II. The Nazis judged Roma to be “racially inferior,” according to the Holocaust museum. “Their fate in some ways paralleled that of the Jews,” the museum said. The Nazis subjected Roma to internment, forced labor, and murder. (Read more)
Credit: Carsten Snejbjerg
Wow.. most notes i’ve seen on a post about Rroma on tumblr so far.
Glad to see more people being aware.
So surprised to find this on my newsfeed. Awareness!
(via mia-the-wonder-slut)
