February 2012
14 posts
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“If I was smart, I would use this odd little platform and try and convert you...”
– DLM on McSweeney’s
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: The Discourse...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Ex/ “Women in [music and porn] videos could just say no; they’re getting paid and choose to enact those scenes.”
“The discourse of “choice” is pervasive in dominant society. Much like individualism, “choice” claims that we are each free to participate in any opportunities made available to us. In the example of music videos, this...
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“They were always there. Whenever you wanted to do something simple, natural and...”
– Toni Morrison, What the Black Woman Thinks About Women’s Lib. New York Times Magazine (23 August 1971): 4+ Reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc. Copyright 1971 by Toni Morrison. from the book What Moves at the Margin.
(via howtobenoladarling)
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WatchThomas Jay Oord on why there is great evil and a loving God that does not always stop it.
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“The first time you’re born, you identify the people in the room as your...”
– - Glennon Melton
The thing about being a person who studies the Bible is that there are some parts of it that are so contradictory and there are some parts that are consistent throughout. And some Christians have different ideas about which parts go in which catagory.
Even though I spend a lot of...
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: Gender...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
“First, there’s a bit of uncritical gender essentialism at play here. Somehow, investing in women is investing in us all because women are inherently more caring and nurturing. Instead of reinforcing the notions of women’s work and men’s work, we might want to invest in dismantling gender essentialism. Second, global poverty is deeply...
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“Much has been made of the fact that so many sixties radicals went on to become...”
– bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions, pg. 121
January 2012
11 posts
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: Dolores...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Dolores Mission, a Jesuit Catholic Parish in East LA was established in 1980 to serve a neighborhood hindered by poverty and the effects of active gangs within the two-square-mile parish. In the early 1990s, a group of women in the parish met in search of a solution to the issue of gang violence in the neighborhood citing that...
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Top Three Things I Like This Week
1. Freaks and Geeks. The 1999-2000 too-short series about high schoolers because, I just finished it and realized it’s so much deeper and more hilarious that I realized when I first watched it, in high school. Also, the opening credits are the greatest.
2. The Iraqi Student Project. This peacekeeping organization helps war-displaced students obtain undergraduate degrees. I went to one of their...
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WatchPhileena Heuertz on the importance of equally recognizing and learning from the femininity in God and in ourselves.
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Worldwide, Unsafe abortion rates are on the rise. →
Things to Think About
Is being Pro-life, Anti-choice, Pro-choice, or Anti-life (or whatever you want to call that duo) really working for women?
Is this mode of discussion best suited for first-world concerns?
Are new or current, alternative ways to move beyond condemning or accepting abortion?
If we are Pro-life, how do we respond that while abortion is relatively safe in North America, it is...
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree:...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Transnationalism is an ongoing, but uneven series of cross-border movements (of people, ideas, culture, political, capital, etc), porous when considering national boundaries. Transnationalism challenges the purity and rigidity of the nation-state and heavily considers cultures of belonging or not belonging and diasporas. It considers...
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“We suffer increasingly from a process of historical amnesia in which we think...”
– Stuart Hall
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Logan Square Community Response to Rape →
When: Monday, January 9 @ 5:30 pm Where: 2135 N Milwaukee Ave
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My Collected Friends: Further Thoughts on...
One night last month I sat, listened, and discussed Christianity and community with some friends and new acquaintances. The topic was furthering our definition of the word “community”. I guess it can slip into one of those buzzwords I’ve blogged about. Sometimes in upholding “beloved community” we teeter into an over-emphasis on diversity and collecting people so that we are forcibly inclusive...
December 2011
11 posts
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A (Tumblr) Year in Review
In 2011 this blog had almost 800 unique visitors, which is totally awesome, as far as I’m concerned. It’s really encouraging to just be typing away and have people pay attention. I am thrilled (and I am also newly obsessed with Google Analytics). So thanks for taking interest in the things that I think are important. If you’re a new reader and are perhaps interested in reading the highest...
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Things I Like This Week: Favorite Blogs of 2011
Because blogs are easily on my Life Top Ten List I wanted to share my top ten (in no particular order) favorite blogs I regularly kept up with in 2011. Check them out!
1. Introverted Church – A blog for introverts in the church (in case you missed that) I especially loved this post on not being able to express the most important things and why that’s ok.
2. The Bloggess – Easily the most hilarious...
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WatchAn excellent reminder. Merry Christmas.
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“On the subject of religion, ministers, rabbis and other clergy are rich in cultural competency. Unfortunately, it turns out most lack sexuality training.
According to a 2008 Religious Institute survey of 438 progressive U.S. clergy, only 38 percent believed that their seminary education “adequately prepared me for dealing with sexuality issues in my congregation.” An even lower percentage of...
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An Open Letter to My People: The Pro-Lifers
To everyone who reads this blog - I am super grateful for you and thanks for reading. However, this blog post is for pro-lifers. So, if that’s not you, maybe sit this one out, or realize it’s not directed at you. Thanks for sticking with me anyway. Maybe it’s weird that I’m a Christian, a pacifist, a feminist, pro-LGBTQ, “liberal”, and also pro-life. We can talk...
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“These powerful findings hint at a deeper phenomenon. Being able to express...”
– Check out this article from The New York Times on the importance of communication and the prevention of violence in family planning. Amazingly enough, African evangelical churches are empowering women and families through contraception options, which is definitely not something I’ve heard...
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“It’s a whole lot easier to emotionally manipulate someone who has been...”
– - Yashar Ali
I’ve been trying to consciously mention men who are just awesome, on my blog because I don’t think it’s done enough in Feminist circles. I made the decision a few months back to stop referring to any female politicians or leaders as “crazy” (even if I...
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Hillary Rodham Clinton’s address before the United... →
Please take a few minutes to read Hillary R. Clinton’s speech on the importance of fighting violence toward the worldwide LGBTQ community.
Putting off the larger conversation about the LGBTQ community, and ignoring that it is much, much bigger than the definition of marriage and an opinion on sin, is a violation of human rights and of our own, personal intelligence. It also continues hurtful...
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Love and the Consequence of Buzzwords
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22: 37-39 (NIV)
I try (and often fail) to base my life around loving God and loving others. But what does that even mean? I can spout that idea off pretty easily and get away with...
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Top Three Things I Like This Week
1. Feedly. Ever since Google Reader hurt my feelings by changing formats and insisted I join Google+ in order to continue using the blog reader service, I’ve been seeing other services. Feedly is the best and the iPhone app is really easy to use. If you’re an avid blog reader and sharer like me, I highly recommend it.
2. Downton Abbey. The excellent PBS Masterpiece mini-series, which...
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Today is World AIDS Day. Take a minute to educate yourself. The amount of misinformation surrounding AIDS and HIV is astounding and hurtful. Stigmas are a disease too.
November 2011
10 posts
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All things go, all things go (Sufjan Stevens) →
Sometimes I make art and poetry and other people’s blogs.
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: Queer Theory,...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Read Queer Theory, pt 1.
“But like any language, gender’s primary effect is not repressive but productive: It produces meanings. These are created through a vast and visible top-down structure: binary birth certificates, restrooms, adoption policies, immigration laws, passports, and marriage laws. But they are also produced and...
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The Problem of Commonality
* The below is part of a longer piece of writing critiquing white antiracist feminism, and the importance of a multi-cultural solidarity and understanding power dynamics. Please send me an e-mail if you’re interested in reading more!
What I have understood and termed as “a lifestyle of solidarity” in my own life, other writers have called “coalitional consciousness-building” (Keating, 1). In...
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Your Very Own Gender Studies Degree: Sex, Gender,...
But first, how can I get my Very Own Gender Studies Degree?
Sex. “It is difficult to talk about people who are transsexual or transgender without first defining the words “sex” and “gender.” “Sex” commonly refers to whether or person is physically male and/or female. Because the physical traits that we most often take into account when describing “sex” are biological in origin there is a tendency...
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October 2011
13 posts
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It happened. I joined Twitter. I realize I’ve been mocking and mercilessly avoiding it for years. Feel free to make fun of me and/or follow me @AshleighFHill. I can take it.
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The Occupy Movement, Queer Theory, and People Who...
I’ve been thinking a lot about passion lately – about the center of things, about heart. I’ve been thinking about how long things connected to the heart might last; how something imagined suddenly becomes real. I’ve been thinking about how it would be if I woke up one morning and my passion, or something/someone I was connected to, was gone. This week, a friend of mine told me she found out an...
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“To understand gender, then, we must constantly go beyond gender. The same...”
– R.W. Connell, in The Social Organization of Masculinity
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“That people seem to think that taking my wife’s last name should be in some way...”
– - Josh Wise
I am trying to promote people who are doing small, thought-provoking, counter-culture things in the name of love and respect. This guy is one of them. I don’t really have an opinion on name changes with marriage because I’m not married. I think that should be considered by...