- Being an atheist does not erase privilege.
- This includes white privilege.
- This also includes cis privilege, CNDP privilege, and het privilege.
- Seriously, being an atheist does not erase your white privilege.
- Criticizing…
(Source: lovelifelivedie.wordpress.com)
I know that it’s ridiculous to get mad when the trashy tv I watch is horribly racist/sexist/ableist/heterosexist etc but I can’t help it!
I’ve finished two chapters of the first book of the series. I had no trouble understanding either of them, perhaps because I’ve read this book at least twice before (though the first time I was 7). I have been highlighting all the words that I’m unsure of as I read. I went through and looked up their meanings and made a vocabulary list for the first chapter. I was quite shocked at the number of words I didn’t know, considering reading it was fairly painless. But hey! New vocabulary is awesome.
my favourite new words
rollizo - chubby
estremecer - shudder
canturrear - hum
parlotear - prattle, chatter
lechuza - owl
berrinche - tantrum
tunante - rascal
parpadear - to blink
menear - to wag, to shake
susurrar - whisper
gruñir - to grunt
pulcro - tidy
estrepito - crash, racket, din
umbral - threshold
subitamente - suddenly
aullido - howl
desgreño - shaggy
reganadientes - reluctantly
desaliñado - scruffy
chaparron - downpour
embotellamiento - traffic jam
tamborilear - drum, tap
trastornarse - go out of one’s mind
atusarse - to preen
tambalear - to wobble, stagger
chillon - shrill
atreverse - to dare
fruncir - to purse one’s lips, to knit one’s brow
espantosa - horrific, appalling, terrible, awful
abatimiento - depression, dejection
escudriñar - to scan, to examine
bostezar - to yawn
centellear - to twinkle
estallido - shattering, explosion, pop
alfiler - pin
tieso - stiff
mirar a alguien de soslayo - sidelong glance
orejeras - earmuffs (Menos mal que está oscuro. No me he ruborizado tanto desde que la señora Pomfrey me dijo que le gustaban mis nuevas orejeras.)
halagar - to flatter
apesadumbrado - saddened
I know this is probably not interesting to anyone else, but I’ve decided to read the Harry Potter series in Spanish. When I was 16, and my Spanish was at a much better level, I read the third book in Spanish without too much difficulty. I remember that at first I would stop to look up every word I didn’t know but I realized that made reading unbearable so I gave that up, and I still had a good level of comprehension. The writing style and vocabulary in Harry Potter is perfect for where I am now, I think. Actual Spanish-language literature is a little above me.
So, recently I’ve had an urge to reread Harry Potter, and I’ve been trying to find ways to practice my Spanish. Tada! What an efficient use of my time.
I’m going to keep track of my progress on this Tumblr account.
I kinda hate New Year’s resolutions, but I just thought of something that makes an excellent New Year’s resolution for me.
I ended a long-term relationship maybe three months ago now. I’d more or less been having straight sex with the same person for three years.
Now I’m happily single. I have always been queer, but I think nearly three years spending every fucking weekend with a totally straight dude made me feel a little bit isolated from all the shit that’s important to me. I’m not saying you can’t be a proud queer in a heterosexual relationship. You can! I’m just saying that in my personal situation, I ended up losing some of my identity - and a lot of my happiness.
The reason that this is a “New Year’s resolution” is just a coincidence of timing, really. Right now, I am three months out of this relationship, just survived a semester of school, avoided a major depressive episode, and am starting to date people, preparing to move to a new place and ready to begin a fantastic field placement. It actually feels like something new is beginning right at this time.
Anyway, broadly, my resolution is to be me as much as I can. The queer me, the radical lefty me, the sex-positive feminist confident sexy fatty me.
More specifically, my resolution is to make this my best sex year so far. I would like to have lots and lots of great queer sex, but I will take a little great queer sex over a lot of ordinary straight sex. I just wish I could afford a nice strap-on.
I guess another resolution is to make friends with someone who would buy me a strap-on for my birthday.
“The body is not a math test. The body is not a wrong answer. The body is not a failed class. You are not failing. The body is not an apology.”
US forces have killed a pregnant Afghan woman and injured four other women in a house raid in Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktia Province, Press TV reports.
(if this was done by Taliban or someone else it would have been the headlines for weeks like the rape victim, but no. Since the US had done it, no one even cares! )
[Starting on November 28, 2011 Marie Annelle began blogging about her experience deciding to have a medical abortion, as well as the process of the procedure itself. She has multiple posts so far because this is a multi-day process, but I’m going to put them all in one post. If there are more after this, I’ll edit this post. Only one of her posts so far has a TW and that’s because of pictures of actual abortions/miscarriages as well as an image of Gerri Santoro who died from an illegal abortion. All of that will be under the cut, and I’ll put an additional TW right before that post (#5). This is a frank discussion of abortion by a woman who has no qualms or regrets regarding her decision. I think what she is doing is incredibly important because even many prochoice people have misconceptions about what actually occurs during an early abortion. Just a couple of notes: abortion affects people who are not women but can still get pregnant. I don’t want to censor Marie’s personal experience, but keep in mind when she makes general statements about women/abortion instead of her own experience, those statements should include all pregnant people. Also, her doctor says she’s at 6 weeks gestation. I’m not sure why Marie is calling this a fetus, but it’s actually an embryo.]
***
#1 The Land of “Oh Fucking Shit”: When the Choice is Yours
I know we talk a lot about reproductive rights in the feminist movement. I know that it’s one of the cornerstones of freedom for women. We all know the stats and we arm ourselves with as much information as we can about abortion because we know what anti-choicers are liars. We feel confident in this regard. We are confident that someday there will be no stigma with choice and we are confident that we will be able to talk openly without shame.
In fact, I am so confident that I am willing to put it out there. I am 5 and a half weeks pregnant and on Thursday, I find out if I am a candidate for a medical abortion.
There’s a few things you might not know about Canada. One of them being that RU-486 is not available. Medical abortions, as opposed to surgical, are done with a combination of methotrexate to stop fetal growth and misoprostol to dilate the cervix and contract the uterus. These are only available on a limited basis depending on doctor availability and to be done before 7 weeks. The other option I am facing is a manual vacuum aspiration, since I do not want a D&C. Lucky for me, these options are covered and I will suffer no out of pocket cost.
Why am I sharing? Well, simple really. I am hoping to demystify the process and clear up a few myths. In fact, here are some that I wish to clear up right now!
1. Women who have abortions are irresponsible sluts who just want to keep partying/living carefree lives.
Well, most women who have abortions already have 1 or more children and were on some type of birth control. I myself have 2 children and was being ridiculously careful. As most people who have read my shit know, I do not live a carefree life.
2. Abortion is avoiding responsibility.
*Snort* This one makes me laugh the most. If you know for a fact that bringing something into this world is the worst possible thing than can happen to a lot of people, it’s a responsible choice. Like I said in #1, most women already have children to think about. Thinking about your bottom line and not putting yourself in crazy debt so that people with an opinion on what you should do can sleep better at night is responsible. Hell, appealing to the greed here….I’ll be less of a burden on tax payers. Y’know, your precious tax dollars and how you hate it when poor people get a hand up from them? Yeah, you’re welcome.3. Abortion is this devastating, hard thing that will ruin your life
This is also a gross myth. Most women report a sense of relief, and sites like I’m Not Sorry and 45 Million Voices do a good job of illustrating that women don’t need to be protected in such a patronizing manner. Ditto on it being such a hard decision. For me it’s a no brainer. In one corner we have a fetus, in the other we have my job, my husband, my kids, the roof over our heads, the bills, food, etc. Yeah, no brainer there. Besides, a simple google search will tell you that there are many forums and places where women discuss how much they hate being mothers and regret ever giving birth. Should we ban childbirth because women regret it? Of course not, but since it’s not actually about life and precious babies people would rather women be punished with kids they don’t want or can’t afford.
4. It can feel it, y’know.
Not according to the latest studies. By the time it can feel pain, you’re getting into the late term abortion debate, and that’s a whole other animal. This one is the new “it has fingernails”.
5. Look at these pics of what your abortion looks like, you can see all the parts and stuff!
This one is the one I am most looking forward to busting. If I am successful at getting a medical abortion, I will have all the fetal tissue pass at home, where I can look at it. Believe me, I already know those pics are full of shit based on size alone, but when this happens, I will be the first to tell you exactly what an early term abortion looks like. I’m tempted to take a picture too, but that might be just a little too much info.
I am at total peace with my decision, and will be blogging the experience. I used to think it was a gross TMI to be doing such a thing, but the tables have turned quite a bit. If I am going to talk the talk about the need to remove abortion stigma, I’m going to need to walk the walk. It was an easy enough decision and I might as well make it somewhat educational. That’s not to say that I’m not shit scared of certain aspects of making this public. Not so much the trolls, because they can go fuck themselves and have all the babies they want, but it will be interesting to see how it affects my personal life.
So…..here goes….and I hope you’ll join me for the ride. In the meantime, please enjoy some light reading.
(Source: atheistme, via political-cartoons)
