Honk If You Love Abortion!

Seen, while walking down a busy, pedestrian-heavy city street: A shoddy red pick up truck with the sidewalls of the truck bed replaced by cheap wood panels which read "Had an Abortion? Jesus will forgive you!"

Great! Abortions for everyone! Get in line, ladies! As we all know, feminists have an abortion quota which must be reached before the onset of menopause, otherwise you get kicked outta da club.

Oh, hold up--does this mean Jesus will only forgive abortions done in the back of that truck? Will the (male) driver cover the cost since many insurance companies won't? Will he get a life and stop wasting his time harassing people who'd like to have a say over what happens to their body?

My kingdom for a world free from invasive religious propaganda with designs on controlling the female body...

I Now Pronounce you Wife and Babies

I'm not Catholic, but many of my family members and friends are, so I've been to quite a few Catholic ceremonies. Most recently, I attended the wedding of a friend, an amazing, generous woman who is kind, but with just a dab of wickedness to make her real, and really hilarious. If you had attended her wedding, however, you would've discovered nothing about her (or her partner), because the Priest was far too obsessed with pushing the baby agenda to acknowledge her beyond her ability to be a vessel for Jesus, much like the much beloved 'Virgin' Mary. Another of my friends who was married in the Catholic church informed me that there isn't a set of vows you can choose from which omit the necessity of producing children to raise in the Catholic faith. As I listened to the Priest inform my friend that the next time she'd be in the church, it'd be to baptize her children, all 12 of them (problem: my friend is 31, and unless there is some IVF intervention, which the church condemns, she's probably not going to make it up to 12 babies) I just felt that continuing disappointment in the Catholic Church's willful disregard for the rights, health and sovereignty of women, and really humans in general.

I am not someone who is interested in being part of organized religion, but why is it that couples who choose to remain childless can't be considered "good" Catholics? Having children is something to be taken very seriously, and why bring babies into this world if you know you won't have the emotional, physical or monetary capabilities to provide for them? It should be as okay to not want kids as it is to want kids. Related, if a couple is unable to have children, how hypocritical is it of the church to condemn people who would go to scientific means to procure this 'blessing'? It's interesting (and shitty) how the church picks and chooses which medical interventions are acceptable (blood transfusions, yes, birth control, no. Gametes are super sacred cells, Erythrocytes, not so sacred).

At the wedding reception, the people at my table joked about how the Priest was seriously pushing the 'have kids' agenda, and probably one of the highlights was when my sister yelled 'MAKE BABIES FOR JESUS' to another couple friend of ours as we departed. However, despite the inherent joy at mocking ridiculously antiquated notions, it is disheartening that such notions are still being touted as the only way to 'salvation', whatever that means. If the only way a church can gain membership is through an forced breeding program, then perhaps it's time for said church to reevaluate its tenants and goals.

Womance All-Call!! Step right up for a bit of UltraViolence

So, while I sit here and slowly write my response to Lady Pistil's most excellent questions about my last post and try and sort through my emotional response to visiting LA this past weekend, I thought that I would ask a question that has been bugging me for quite a while.


Specifically, when is violence the answer?


I mean, we've all been told a thousand times to turn the other cheek, take a deep breath and be the bigger person, but I want to know about the moment that all that falls away and all that is left is the requirement for action... messy, violent, icky action... with chainsaws...*

So yeah, where do you draw the line? And I'm not just talking the big stuff here, I want to know it all. We all have those moments, those little spaces in time, in which the world whites out and we come-to with bruises on our knuckles... Whether it's in front of your computer incandescent with fury as a pre-teen shouts "TITS or GTFO!" or trying to get the goddamned coffee pot to work in the morning, I want to know what it takes to get you take that final step...

To start things off, I've put a random list of five (Lord knows there are more, and their importance tends to vary according to their proximity) for your edification. Please feel free to respond at will, as I'm looking forward to what you have to add.


DrV

THE LIST (for now):

1. Spiders. (no explanation necessary).

2. I have a problem with people who hit their girlfriends... and people who don't take 'no' for an answer... like, a serious problem... like... chainsaws... yeah... with fire.

3. Malfunctioning electronics. Like the DVD player, my alarm clock... or the heater in my classroom.

4. You know that guy? The one at the club? You know, the one whose "cell phone" has been digging in your back for the past half hour? The one who won't leave you alone, or take no for an answer? Yeah. Him.

5. Otters. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know... "But Doctor, otters are so cuuuuttte!!" Yeah, well, so were those little lizards in Jurassic Park, and we all know how that ended, now don't we??


*WARNIG: RANT-Y FOOTNOTE AHOY!! Now, to be sure, this probably has more than a little to do with the fact that I'm currently riding the downdraft of a truly righteous rage spiral, but it also has to do with my general impatience with the way that women and queers are told to wait patiently, kill 'em with kindness, and work through the rage until you find your way to a higher state of being. The way that violence is imbricated within modern masculinity, in a way that is traumatic for boys and men as well as the people around them, and the way that passivity and patience are said to be benchmarks of femininity. I just get so frustrated waiting for a future in which everything will be better... must we always be martyrs to a time that may not contain us? Why must we always sacrifice for children who we do not know and will not love? I know that violence isn't the answer, but I'm not sure that it isn't the answer...

Look at all the literary ladies!

The National Book Foundation has named their "5 Under 35" fiction writers for this year. And guess what? 4 of them are ladies!

Savor the lady pride.

Because when they make another literary list, it will be 1,000 white dudes and that perennial two-fer token, Toni Morrison.