Category Archives: a picture is worth a thousand words

This is why

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Yesterday I stepped on the soapbox and pontificated on why we need more feminism, now, even while some famous and influential female celebrities refuse to be identified as a feminist when asked point blank “Are you a feminist?” My cerebral writer and thinker friend Christine left a much more eloquent comment highlighting the significance of the confluence between “feminist” and the word “bitch” in popular imagination.

Being identified as a bitch opens a woman up to disrespect, disdain, renunciation, and violence.

“The bitch deserves it.”

 

Someone on my Twitter stream was exasperated that something called “rapeseed” even exists. I laughed because I’ve always felt the same way about this and would never want to be caught dead with a bottle of “rapeseed oil” in my kitchen. Just because. I decided to find out WHY it has such an unfortunate name. So I searched for “Why is rapeseed named” only that I did not get far before I caught sight of this and had to pause and hyperventilate…

 

This is why we need more feminism and not less

 

Really? Really?!

 

By now you must have come across images from the ad campaign for UN Women (dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women) created by Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai. It’s infuriating, to say the least.

In the face of “prevalent opinions” as revealed by Google searches, we remember what Arundhati Roy said about the Voiceless:

[T]here’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.

— Arundhati Roy (2004)

 

UN-Women-Ad-1_495x700 jpg UN-Women-Ad-2_495x700 jpg UN-Women-Ad-3_495x700 jpg UN-Women-Ad-4_495x700 jpg

Welcome to Chicago!

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My previous post was a fine example for #FirstWorldProblem.

The kids and I survived. Of course. More than survived, we had a grand old time taking it easy playing really layback tourists in Chicago. The kids apparently inherited my love for hotels: we spent one morning inside the hotel watching the History Channel.

http://instagram.com/p/b9zjkBn01m/

http://instagram.com/p/b91H1ZH04X/

http://instagram.com/p/b-MVUpH0_r/

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As I lay on the lounge chair watching the kids frolicking in the pool on the top of the hotel under the moon and surrounded by city lights, I had to admit, with embarrassment, that I could no longer complain.

 

I am going to be staying at yet another hotel tonight. BlogHer 2013 is here in Chicago. I hope to see some of you in 3D. Be warned: I am hashtag awkward.

 

New York. New York.

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The Husband and the boys are on a 4-day hiking trip along the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. I had been thinking about taking advantage of the empty house for a long time but did not make any decision until Bugginword gave me the “open arms all system go” welcome gesture and also I found a roundtrip ticket from Chicago to New York for $220. That’s almost like an obligation when you found a fare like that. The universe was telling me something.

So I leapt into action with only one hour to pack and without a working cell phone.

Oh, I forgot to tell you here though I’ve blabbered about it all over Twitter and FBook. Yup. I have been without a working cellphone since last Tuesday. I dropped my Samsung Galaxy Nexus face down on the ground. Bye bye screen. Bye bye phone. Bye bye the limb that I did not know I had until I lost it.

Fear not for me though as I’ve successfully made one trip to Boston with no phone. Hey, I survived! How about let’s do it again? Why not right? I am all about spontaneous. These past few days anyway.

It was lovely spending time with Elly (of Bugginword fame) and her absolutely charming almost 2-year-old boy and checking out her lovely town in New Jersey. I did not realize that suburbs could be so awesome – progressive, diverse and full of cultural activities. I should not have been surprised though awesome cities attract awesome people, and Elly is simply magical. It was fascinating and comforting at the same time that everywhere I turned in her house I noticed small, creative touches that made me go, “Yup. That is Elly.”

My 2-night stay there felt like a bed-and-breakfast stay complete with popcorn popped with bacon grease.

I actually cried on the train into New York. (Yeah, those popcorns are like crack. I miss them something terrible…)

 

It rained the whole day today. I didn’t mind. I love walking in the rain and have done so many times in my life in pouring rain. Rain puts a natural framing around the world. It gives a different perspective on everything you do. When you are just wandering around the best city in the world with no plans whatsoever. Rain is like Elly, simply magical.

I whiled the afternoon away in MOMA. I don’t think I need to say anything more about my day. Wish you were here.


 

:-)

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My parents taught me well: never gloat. Never rub it in.

So I will simply put these up with no comments added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now… In case you are worried that we are all going to get a big head and become complacent and start subscribing to this false belief of a perfect world and have blind faith in the American people, NO WORRIES! There was (and still is?) a trending hashtag on Twitter “VoteWhite”… Yup. I saw a few of them and it’s just as sickening as you’d imagine. In fact, I could not have imagined some of the things that people actually tweeted to the public. They’re not concerned that everybody could see how much of a backwood racist they are? Including their employers? I assume these people are all gainfully employed since unlike the democrats, they do NOT need government assistance being so self-reliant “We built all this” and all. Anyway, keep this in your back pocket and show it to anyone that says, “There is no more racism.”

Thank you to “crazy things racists say openly in the 21st century” for keeping us on our toes.

Peace out.