To My Sisters Everywhere, Part 2

You came from all over, from large towns and small, from coastal cities and the Heartland. You paid your way, organized buses, made signs. You were black, white, latinx, gay, straight, cis, trans, immigrant, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, old, young, rich, poor, and everything in between. You swarmed our nation's capital and were the heart of the largest protest in United States history.

And if you couldn't make it? You created your own marches: New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boise, Anchorage, Omaha, St. Louis, Little Rock, Sioux Falls, London, Paris, and so, so many more cities around the world, large and small, made their voices heard. The latest numbers have put the worldwide totals at around 4 million participants.

In the words of Janelle Monae, we won't be hidden anymore. Those in power MUST be held accountable; they cannot be allowed to destroy decades of hard-earned progress. There's too much at stake: health care, education, climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech, our national parks. The list goes on and on.

So thank you to everyone who spoke out, whether you could attend a march in person or if you had to participate vicariously. Thank you to the allies who came out to lend their support to our struggle.

But especially, thank you to my sisters of color: you have been the unacknowledged backbone of resistance movements from the beginning. You have literally put your hearts, minds, and bodies at risk so many times for all of us; yet as a whole, we white women have let you down time and time again. We have not stood by you as we should, and the debt of gratitude we owe you is immense. I only hope that what started yesterday is a seed change toward intersectionality in all of the issues that affect us.

Don't let this be the end. As I said a few days after the election: Read. Learn. Listen. Make art. Consume art. Organize. Protest. Volunteer. Donate. Refuse to back down. Keep fighting.

Things Worth Fighting For

Just a reminder to myself, when the world looks dark.

This is just some of what we're fighting for:

Equality
Compassion
Family
Friends
The environment
Basic necessities for all
A living wage
Equal pay
Black Lives Matter
Reproductive justice
The end of the death penalty
LGBTQIA+ rights
Quality education for all
Prison and criminal justice reform
Religious freedom--for all religions
Our veterans
Common sense gun control
Art--both visual and performance
Music
Literature
Free speech
Voting rights
And, as Lin-Manuel Miranda put it:
Love is love is love is love.

I refuse to stop believing that we are better than this moment in time. 

To My Sisters Everywhere

To all my sisters,

You are Amazing.
Courageous.
Brave.
Strong.
Determined.
Important.
Inspiring.

For those of you who have shared your stories, thank you. You've showed others they're not alone and forced this country to sit up and confront the truth.

For those of you who are still hesitant to come forward, you are loved. You have a support system millions of women strong. When or if you are ready to share, you will have a wall of others standing beside you.

The country needs to hear our voices. We won't be ignored or belittled anymore.

Rabbit Hole #41: May Reading Update

As of today, I'm at 42/85 books for the three reading challenges I'm doing. Considering the reading slump I was in the past couple of months, I'm really happy with that. I'm also pretty sure I'm not going to finish anything else in the next two days, so here's what I read in May:


Pop Sugar Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 23/41)

A murder mystery: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (3 stars)

A satirical book: The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore (4 stars)

A book and its prequel: Yellow Brick War (4 stars) and Dorothy Must Die Stories, Vol. 1 by Danielle Paige (3 stars)

A classic from the 20th century: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (3 stars)


Bustle Women/POC Reading Challenge (Current Completion: 7/20)

First book in a new series: Alice by Christina Henry (4 stars)


Read Harder Challenge 2016 (Current Completion: 12/24)

A nonfiction book about science: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (4 stars)

A collection of essays: Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (4 stars)

A nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes: The Secret Life of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore (3 stars)

A book under 100 pages: for colored girls who've considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf  by Ntozake Shange (5 stars)

A play: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (4 stars)

A book over 500 pages: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (4 stars)



Non-challenge books finished: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (4 stars), The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (3 stars), and Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza (3 stars)



And because it's the end of May...

Rabbit Hole #39: The Classics Book Tag

THE CLASSICS BOOK TAG: (I couldn't find the originator of this tag; if you know, please tell me!)

1. An over-hyped classic you really didn't like: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
I went in to this thinking it was going to be solely about Anna and Vronsky and the love triangle; I should have known that being a Russian novel, it was going to have a much wider scope than that. I felt bogged down in the agricultural discussions and found myself not really caring about any of the characters. 

2. Favorite time period to read about: 1920s

American and British Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance are my favorite areas to read and study (my master's thesis was on Virginia Woolf). Even though the 1920s had a lot of faults, there is something about that era of change and decadence that appeals to me. 

3. Favorite fairy-tale: Little Red Riding Hood
There is so much more to this tale than simply warning children to not talk to "wolves." It has layers of rape culture, feminism, sexual politics and much more. It also proves that fairy tales are often not for children.

4. What is the classic you're most embarrassed about having not read
I'm not really embarrassed about books I haven't read yet. I've read a lot of classics, and it's impossible to read them all (unless that's all you're reading, and there's just too much good stuff out there!)

5. Top 5 classics you would like to read (soon): Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Passing by Nella Larsen, Lady Susan by Jane Austen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Middlemarch by George Eliot

6. Favorite modern book/series based on a classic: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I love backstories to well-known characters, especially villains. No one is ever completely good or evil, and our circumstances can put us into situations that require drastic measures. And sometimes the villain is actually less evil than the hero. 

7. Favorite movie version/tv-series based on a classic: Sleepy Hollow is my current favorite. 
I love the mix of the original tale with amped up paranormal events, connections to history, and a diverse cast. I also love Once Upon a Time for its twists and connections of all types of classic stories. 

8. Worst classic to movie adaptation: Beowulf (with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie)
This strayed so far from the original, creating a romance between Hrothgar and Grendel's mother and then between Beowulf and Grendel's mother. I'm all for leaving details out, but when you create scenes and conflicts that weren't in the original, that bothers me. (Especially since Neil Gaiman, whom I love, wrote the screenplay.)

9. Favorite edition(s) you'd like to collect more classics from:I don't really collect editions, although I'm seeing some really beautiful ones that might tempt me to change my mind!

10. An underhyped classic you'd recommend to everyone: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Anne is by far the most underrated of the Bronte sisters--some people don't even know she exists--and probably the most radical. Tenant is a decidedly feminist book, and it was so far ahead of its time that even Charlotte didn't approve of its themes and "coarseness."

The Personal IS Political

Note: A friend of mine posted on Facebook recently that he is going to start deleting friends who post political things on the site. While his decision was based on the hatred that is obviously spilled on social media, and often surrounds posts of a political nature, I feel as if he is a bit misguided in his belief that such sites should only contain personal information, and not one's political views. While I'm not sure I haven't been deleted yet (I do post a lot of political things on my Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as on here), I offer this to him, and to anyone else who thinks that pictures of children and cat videos are the only thing that have a place on social media: 



The personal IS political. Everything that we discuss politically happens because it affects a human being. Even if it's not personal to you, even if you wish people would just shut up about a topic, doesn't mean it isn't a very real, very important topic to someone else. 

Welfare

Reproductive Justice

Veterans' Benefits

Education

War

Black Lives Matter 

Health Care

Behind each of these issues, and hundreds more, there are living, breathing human beings involved. Personally involved. They aren't abstract ideas or issues. The issues ARE the people: their lives, their families, even their deaths. 

So before simply saying "I don't care about politics." Or, "I'm so tired of hearing about this issue," put yourself in someone else's shoes, someone who is directly affected by the issue you're bored of or that you think doesn't matter, and consider how they feel when you dismiss their circumstances.  

 And yes, keep the hate out of it. We all have to share this planet, as imperfect as we've made Her. Compassion and empathy are essential, and will go much farther than vile words and hatred.  

Rabbit Hole #24: The Be a Good Human Tag

Several months ago, the amazing Jen Campbell, author of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops (or Bookstores, if you have the American version, because apparently we wouldn't know what a bookshop was? Silly publishers) posted a BookTube video called the Be a Good Human Tag. In it, she showcased several books she felt make people open their eyes to the world around them and understand the humanity around us.

Books have the ability to change the way we look at people. They allow us to empathize with those who are different from us, learn about other cultures, understand history, and so much more. No other medium quite has the same effect.

So in the wake of everything that has been happening in the United States and around the world this past year (and of course, much longer), I thought I would create my own list. In no particular order, I present a snapshot of the following:

Nine Lives by David Baum: This is a nonfiction book chronicling the lives of nine New Orleanians from Hurricane Betsy through Hurricane Katrina. The individuals come from all walks of life: rich, poor, black, white, gay, and straight. They all cope with the tragedies in different ways, but they are all transformed by what happens. For those who don't truly know what happened here during the storm, this will open your eyes.

Citizen by Claudia Rankine: Part poetry, part essay, part photographic essay, this is a fierce look at race relations in America today. Rankine pulls no punches with this one, but this is not a topic we should shy away from. A must read for anyone who cares about our country today.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: A beautifully written book about the negative impact of colonialism, this also tackles the dangers of trying to impose one's beliefs on others. Told through the perspectives of four young women and their mother as they are carted off to the Congo in the 1950s by their zealot missionary father, Kingsolver tackles American foreign policy, gender issues, religion, and a host of other topics.

Native Son by Richard Wright: The oldest book on this list, but still a necessary one, Wright's dark tale of Bigger Thomas, a young black man trapped by economic circumstances, resonates even today. Some people like to believe that all one has to do is work hard, and he'll get ahead; Wright shows that there are larger forces working against people in America, and against minorities in particular.

March Vols. 1-2 by Rep. John Lewis: One of the best graphic novel series I've read, this is Rep. Lewis' autobiography of his time in the Civil Rights Movement. While it's useful as a history, it's also insightful into what is going on today as we continue to tackle racial discrimination in this country. The more things change...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saénz: The story of two young Hispanic boys growing up and discovering their sexuality, this YA novel is heartbreaking as well as beautiful. I think my favorite part of this novel is the way the parents are portrayed; they are fierce and loving, regardless of who their boys are.

Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele: This book is an in-depth look at stereotypes and how they affect each and every one of us on a daily basis. It's a thorough analysis of microaggressions, and how/why they are so hard to overcome.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra: This is a gut-wrenching book about the horrors of war, both for the people directly involved and those on the fringes. It takes place in Chechnya in 2004, where war is still tearing people's lives apart. Americans as a whole have very little knowledge of what it is like to live in a war-torn country and have no idea what they would have to do to survive.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde: This is Lorde's autobiography of growing up poor, black and gay, and an ode to all of the women who shaped her into the person she became. This is one of the most powerful autobiographies I've read.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi: Nafisi created a book club for women in Tehran, Iran, to expose them to Western classics. While that may not seem like much, one has to realize that Western books had been banned, and the women were literally taking their lives in their hands to read and attend these sessions. Part book discussion, part memoir, the books and these women's lives intertwine and show just how powerful literature is.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez: I want to give this book to every person I hear disparaging immigrants--they seem to forget that these are human beings, with families and circumstances not that different from our own. The novel follows several families from Mexico and Latin America as they try to find a life in America. Some are undocumented, some have work visas, some are citizens, but all have very particular reasons for their journeys.


I could continue on and on with this list, and I know I didn't do these books justice. Please, just take some time to read. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone and learn about other peoples, places, religions, cultures, etc. The worst thing that will happen is that you'll expand your mind and learn that all humans are struggling, and we are better together.

It's a bird...It's a plane...

Xena the Warrior Princess: 1995-2001

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 1997-2003

The Halliwell Sisters (Charmed): 1998-2006

When I was in college and my early twenties, kickass women were the norm on television. While they all had their faults, and yes, sometimes had cheesy romances, they fought for the greater good and weren't afraid to get their hands dirty or have a few punches thrown their way. They were smart, strong, vibrant women who were role models for an entire generation.

And then, they disappeared.

For the past decade, there has a been a void in the realm of female "superheroes" for all people to look up to. Fans have been clamoring for a Wonder Woman movie, or a Black Widow movie, only to be told, essentially, that female action heroes don't sell tickets. But a third reboot of Spiderman, or a second reboot of The Hulk or Superman, or another Avengers movie? No problem.

I'm not saying anything against those movies; I know they have a very avid fan base, but representation is important.

All women have a right to see themselves on the small and large screen. In all aspects, including superheroes. To say that those stories aren't important or worthwhile is to say women aren't important.

Which is why I'm glad, on the small screen at least, we're starting to see those stories again. Sleepy Hollow, Agent Carter, Once Upon a Time, and the new Supergirl series are intelligent, fun, popular shows with strong female leads. I would love to see those shows, or new shows, branch out to include more women of color (Sleepy Hollow is leading the way on this!) or LGBTQIA characters, to break the white privilege that is evident. But it's a start.

Women are superheroes every day. It's time to end here the all-boys superhero club.


**Note: Obviously, I'm talking strictly about shows with an action hero/superhero basis to them. There are a lot of other shows out there with tough, smart, and fabulous women leads!

Rabbit Hole #11: Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy by Karen Abbott

I finished this book last week for one of my book clubs. It was a fascinating read, chronicling the lives of four women, two Union supporters and two Confederate, who risked everything to help their side during the Civil War. The title is a little misleading, as it makes it sound as if one title would fit a single woman, but all four women worked as spies at different times during the war, all were liars after a fashion, and two definitely were temptresses (although they used their feminine "charm" to seduce men to uncover important secrets). 

I realized that my own upbringing and prejudices about the Civil War influenced which women I was rooting for. The Confederate women grated on my nerves: their thoughts about Lincoln, the emancipation of slaves, their thoughts on black people in general just made me not like them and actually hope that they would fail. That being said, I couldn't help but admire their ingenuity and desire to do whatever it took to help the South win the war, even at great personal risk. 

My favorite was Emma Edmonds (aka Frank Thompson), who lived her life as a man to escape a horrific home life, and then used that persona to join the Union Army. She was a medic, a nurse, a spy, and much more during her tenure. Her struggle to keep her identity secret, and her decision to reveal it to two different men during the war, was both heartbreaking and inspiring. 

My biggest regret with this book, however, is that it focused solely on white women's contributions to the war. Even though Abbott mentions Elizabeth Van Lew's servant, Mary Ann, who became a spy in the Confederate White House, she's only a mention, when, in fact, if it hadn't been for her, most of the Union's intelligence wouldn't have been gathered. I would have liked to have seen at least one of the sections focus on a woman of color. There were many risking their lives on a daily basis to help insure the success of the Union; it's a shame they weren't given more consideration. 

That being said, I highly recommend this book to any history buff, anyone interested in women's history or women's rights, or anyone who just likes a good spy story--there's plenty for everyone!

My Difficult Relationship with Virginia Woolf

I love Virginia Woolf. I've spent a lot of time with her: I've read almost everything she's written, and she was the topic of my master's thesis. I admire her style, her honesty, her rejection of tradition--both in writing and her personal life.

But should she be held up as the epitome of feminism? Of feminist authors? The Huffington Post's Maddie Crum recently wrote an article titled Why Virginia Woolf Should Be Your Feminist Role Model", giving several reasons why Woolf should hold that title. And while I do agree with a lot of what she says (although mentioning fluid gender roles without mentioning Orlando seems rather short-sighted), I also have some serious reservations.

For all of her wonderful, progressive points, Woolf was very much a product of her time. As adamant as she was that women needed space and money to pursue their creative lives, she really was only speaking of a certain economic class of women. White women. And Christian. Woolf, unfortunately, expressed very classist, racist, and anti-Semitic views while also advocating for women's autonomy and creative freedom.

These are difficult contradictions to reconcile, especially when women of color and women in lower economic situations have felt ostracized by mainstream feminism. It hasn't always been inclusive; it isn't always inclusive today. If we truly believe that feminism is equality, it has to mean equality in all realms. It has to also include income equality, education, reproductive justice, racial and LGBTQ rights. Feminism can, and should, be something everyone is proud of and works toward, not something that continues to make certain segments of society feel ostracized.

If we just look at Virginia Woolf as an advocate for advancing women's positions in life and giving them opportunities to express themselves creatively, then I think, yes, she is a good role model. Alice Walker (who is one of my favorite authors) references Woolf in her essay, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. In that essay, Walker mentions that for far too long women, especially women of color, had to find subversive ways to express themselves--in quilts, flower gardens and the walls of their homes. They were as anonymous as Woolf's Shakespearean sister, doomed to a life of obscurity because of their gender and race. It is our duty to resurrect those lives as best we can, as Woolf did for the fictional sister of Shakespeare and Walker did for Zora Neale Hurston, to more fully embrace our heritage.

Perhaps we don't have to expect everything from our role models. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes, try to learn from them, and move on. Roxane Gay would call that being a "bad feminist." No one is a perfect feminist--most days we can't even completely agree on what that means. We attempt to live our lives as best we can, but we're going to fail. Because at the end of the day, we're all human.

I'd like to think that if Woolf lived today, she would be more open to helping her sisters of all stripes. Even so, for all of her faults, she does have important words for us all as we strive toward a more equal world for all women.