Girl Disappearing

This is one of the best descriptions I've ever heard of what it's like to fall into anxiety and/or depression: "Girl disappearing to some secret prison behind her eyes..." --Tori Amos, "Girl Disappearing," on American Doll Posse

Me and Kali

Kali is the Hindu Goddess of Death and Rebirth. Sometimes I, perhaps rather flippantly (although I don't mean for it to be flippant) like to think of Her as the Goddess of spring cleaning-- out with the old, in with the new. It is clear to me that Kali has been guiding me from the time I quit smoking around the Awakening of the Goddess (when Venus crossed the sun) and continues to lead me through catharses and breakthroughs in terms of self-love, self expression, art, and breaking out of my shell to explore. 

 

Book Review On "Full Frontal Feminism" by Jessica Valenti

I would recommend it as a great feminist primer for young girls/women, except for her chapter on the anti-choice movement. Some of my "fellow" feminists may gasp to see me say this, but not all anti-choicers are a) men, or b) anti-birth control. While it may be that the anti-choicers IN POWER are anti-birth control men, most of the anti-choice people I know are women who at some point in their lives have used some form of birth control. Even if they are not the anti-choicers in power, they should NOT be made invisible. Maybe they can organize to start an anti-choice movement that does not include discourse about "legitimate rape" (WTF?) and does not condone pharmacists choosing not to dispense birth control pills based on their religion (which, scarily, some pharmacists are doing). Even though I am passionately pro-choice, I think a movement like that, even if it is anti-choice in terms of abortion, would be a step in the right direction; if feminists like Valenti keep stereotyping anti-choicers in the way described above, I fear it is less likely that such a movement will emerge. Lastly, although it was refreshing to read encouraging words about a woman's choice to keep her last name when she marries, as I have done, why is it so terrible for a woman to choose to take her husband's last name and to wear an engagement ring but it's perfectly OK for Valenti to wear high heels and make-up even as she is conscious that throwing out all her makeup would be "revolutionary?"? Which begs another question, what's the difference between the patriarchy telling women what to do and feminists (aka "bossy" feminists like Valenti) telling women what to do? In "The Purity Myth," Valenti stereotypes what she calls "the purity movement" in a similar manner to the way she stereotypes anti-choice people in this book. I don't think I care for Jessica Valenti. Give me Naomi Wolf or Angela Y. Davis any day.

The Winter Sun is Her Halo: A Would-Be Tumblr Blog

description:

Only in the winter is it anywhere nearly safe to gaze upon the Snow Angel's pale yellow watery halo. Only in the winter is the sun gentle. Especially when seen through a tangle of bare black twisted tree branches or through the dirty window of the passenger's seat in a car. It is like a cry from the sea that things are still alive. You just have to look for them, before night falls, and night falls fast.

And now I will delete it

Man in Diner

caution tape

on losing one's mind

I was recently thinking that most people's top worst fears include losing their minds. Well, I HAVE literally lost my mind, but I've always found it again. And while it's not a pleasant experience, since it's not unknown territory for me, and I have go-to coping/ getting back on track strategies for when it happens, the prospect of losing my mind (again) doesn't scare me quite as much as losing their minds scares most people.