The Chasm of Sar

I’m just not.

And I’m getting really tired of the flustered reactions to my admission that I am, indeed, in possession of a uterus and yet abstain from identifying as feminist. Ladies, let’s be real here, men are not the only ones who need to improve themselves and women are not the only “victims” of society.

I am all for learning to embrace and struggle through the complexities of modern womanhood. You want to go burn your bra? Sure, I’ll cheer you on. But frankly, I’m not pro-women. I’m pro-people.

Sorry, not sorry.

Hashtags in a Facebook post: #Pointless #that’s not how facebook works #are you new here?

Hashtags in real life: #hellooooo? #this is real life #are you new here?

Hashtags on Tumblr: #why not just use the actual tags?

Exception to the rule = Hashtags on Tumblr: Generally, the hashtags are funny and/or would not fit the length limit of an actual tag.

#The end

I am so tired of the five page long arguments. They are consistently insensitive, foul-mouthed, and (no shocker here) redundant. This lovely aspect with the tickling bonus of young girls practicing their inappropriately mature poses has me just about sick.

Is anyone else about ready to pull the plug on Facebook? 

‘Ello Lovelies!

Pardon me, I’m feeling a wee bit chipper. Must be my current, mildly infatuated reunion with the Doctor. So… here’s my life.

• Found out where I’m going to live next year (actually starting this May). It has a kitten :)
• Lost the front bumper to my car. Insert long story. Probably the long term effect of being backed into by a school bus. Insert longer, funnier story.
• Still loving the boyfriend. He’s just asdfghjkl. Cue movie trailer to highly dysfunctional romantic comedy.
• Might not be having surgery this summer after all. More perhaps on this later, but for now let it suffice that Beth and I may continue to co-habitate my body for another year. If she behaves.
• I’m still with my middle school kids. Moderately frustrated by continuing behavioral issues/ how much Algebra I seem to have forgotten, but I will prevail.
• Fingers crossed and I might have health insurance in a few weeks. Now, to pay off the $40,000+ medical debt…
• I finally finished Breaking Bad and now I’m re-watching all of Doctor Who (well, since the remakes).
• Started a Tumblr for my writing. If ever you’re interested, let me know.

So, yeah… sorry to bore you. I guess in conclusion, I really think this “blog” needs a bit of a clean up. In the meantime, I love you all and remember, I’m always here to chat.

December 14th marked day 31 and the end of my extended challenge to maintain a Naked Face.

Since then, I have applied makeup three times, once each day.

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I am not a feminist. By any means. I will not provide the background on that statement unless directly requested. I only make that fact known in order to clarify that regardless of my (lack of) feminist affiliation, this rant is not at all intended to counteract the efforts of the feminist movement.

Moving on… I just want to briefly bring attention to a few double standards favoring women. Unconventional, yes, but no less true.

1. Take it off! Asking for a male to take his shirt off so that one can better enjoy his physique is just as inappropriate as asking a girl to remove any of her clothing. If a boy is lectured for verbally commenting on a woman’s, ahem, features… then a girl should be reprimanded just the same, not encouraged.
2. “Fangirling” Obsessing over male celebrities who are legally minors is largely accepted. Even when this obsession includes sexual commentary. Yet we would cringe to hear a 20-something man talk about a teenage girl with the same language.
3. Ouch I’m sorry, but male pain is just as relevant regardless of the pains of giving birth, cramps, and feminine hygiene. This goes double if you haven’t ever given birth. Although even then, it’s medically impossible to actually remember the intensity of the pain.

I’m not trying to cause waves and I gladly welcome debate on these examples. I just want to point out that as we teach our daughters to stand up for themselves, we need to teach them to do so without hypocrisy.

Hello teenage Lovelies:

Allow me to lecture you a bit. Because although life is stressful enough as you awkwardly walk the fence between child and adulthood, some of that stress is entirely avoidable.

Prepare to roll your eyes…  Just know I say this with love.

• Their house, their rules. If you aren’t earning your keep, then you better keep curfew, your room clean, your grades up, etc.
• School is important. You can complain about the flaws of the education system all you want, but you need to get good marks if you want influence over your future.
• You will never outgrow the “oppression” of authority or the inconvenience of responsibilities. Acting like turning 18 means more freedom makes me laugh.
• When you think people don’t understand you, consider educating them. For that matter, realize that you might not understand you all of the time.
• Learn to argue better. You are not going to win when you use whining, rampant emotions, and your assortment of four-letter words.

I’m not really emotionally intelligent enough to properly deal with anything outside of happy and angry.

However…

I keep reading Tumblr advice that is TERRIBLE! So much is based on personal experience without any knowledge medically or psychologically. I’m not saying I know everything. I am saying that I have enough experience to recognize when information given is false.

And it’s making me angry… and other stuff I don’t know how to label.

• Americans who sincerely believe that Chevy and Chevrolet are two separate car makers. Seriously?
• People who rave that they are the BIGGEST Batman fans EVER… but don’t quite like the original Adam West version.
• Vampire fan-girls who have never read Dracula. Vampires don’t sparkle. Thanks.
• “Hipsters”… Not really sure where to begin.
• Individuals who claim their passion is music, then say that genres such as metal or grunge aren’t “real music”, just angst.
• Women who say how fat they are in front of larger women.

More to come my Lovelies. I am certain.

Groups that lack unity, organization, authority, efficacy, leadership, and a coherent, official position:

• Occupy Wall Street
• Feminism
• Anonymous (Granted, on purpose)

Not standing in opposition Lovelies, each have some powerful and much needed voices to be contributed. Still… moving targets are hard to hit, ambiguity undermines potency, and sometimes the system can only be fought with a system.

Hello Lovelies:

Today’s rant is brought to you by Mexico… more or less. living in America, one of the constant political feuds surrounds the issue of illegal immigrants. Now, I’m not taking sides on this one. If you want to know my personal opinion regarding this or any other political matter you are free to ask. However, my point is merely to point out the most prominent contradiction within this debate.

 Argument # 1: illegal immigrants are stealing U.S. jobs! They sneak into this country  and receive wages and other benifits in the place of unemployed citizens.

Argument # 2: illegal immigrants live off of U.S. taxes! They sneak into this country and live off of welfare benefits that they have not rightfully earned.

Wait… They’re living off the government AND stealing our jobs? Honestly, if you’re going to bash people with rampant political and social generalizations you could at least be intelligent about it. Pick one. Because if both are true than the bigger issue is clearly the lack of regulation and oversight in the welfare system.

Teenagers are often categorized as apathetic, enthusiastic, rebellious, and/or cynical. My sister (the one with a knack for photography) often requires the last two labels. When those components meet up with the hyper-active sense of justice left over from childhood, she, like many of her peers, tends to voice certain opinions. Largely these consist of poignant, sharp condemnations of society. Though mildly distorted by the roots in rebellion and cynicism, a certain degree of truth is blatantly present.

Her current frustration: speedy and proportionate response via the local law enforcement officers.

First, a little context.

Recently(ish), two law enforcement officers were shot, making it the first multiple cop shooting in our city in twenty years. The suspect was immediately pursued by more police vehicles than I have ever seen in my life. Every news crew attended the scene, the area was blockaded, armored vehicles arrived… eventually, the man shot himself.

This was a disturbing incident in our community and locals were grateful to know that the men in uniform, even those shot, were returned to their families. It was a reminder that our officers know how to respond efficiently and effectively contain a dangerous situation. On this, my sister agrees. Her anger lies in the lack of similar actions taken against those who have caused damages to local citizens.

Prior to the shootings, women had been harassed along a local trail. Eventually, two victims (on separate occasions) were stabbed. One of these individuals died. In a separate part of our community, within the downtown area, locals have been harassed by large groups of violent adolescents. These minors have attacked people in broad daylight.

The anger of teenagers is often dispelled as ”out of line” and “naive”. Yet, when the teenager I live with points out the lack of arrests, increased surveillance, or man hunts, I can see her point. She’s not ungrateful for the law enforcement, she just knows what it’s capable of and doesn’t understand why attacks on citizens don’t receive an equally speedy and proportional response. As with so many pointed questions and arguments of teens, though we may push them to the side, their commentary remains largely valid… and unanswered.

Dear Lovelies:

In light of a couple questions posted on my debate blog, let me spell something out for you. I am a C. I am a C-H. I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.

Alright, now that I’ve opened the doors for you to identify with/judge me using the assistance of a Sunday school song… please know that I have good intentions. Being a woman of faith does not make me a saint any more than it makes me a close minded-intolerant-uneducated-indoctrinated-robot.In all reality, my dearest friends in life have been either agnostic or atheistic.

I know that there are unanswerable arguments to be made for and against religion.

If I say I’ll pray for you, it’s because I will. If I try to “witness” to you, it’s because I honestly believe will all my being that it will benefit you. If you’re religious and I offend you, don’t worry, I offend non-religious people too. Vice Versa. If you want to talk with/yell at me or ask me questions, go for it. Seriously, I’m studying to be an educator.

Side note: the advice I gave in regards to the use of biblical arguments in competitive forensics includes the opinions of some of my most deeply atheistic colleagues.

For a very brief sum of time, I had the privilege of working with a fellow university student and recent graduate. Certainly, more ought to be said about this particular young man at a later date. However, I bring up this individual because of a specific gift which was given to me before his departure: the book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. This novel (apart from it’s overwhelmingly addictive blend of memoir, social/political commentary, and literary criticism), provided such shocking moments of personal insight. Now,  I could ramble about my own awkward habit of discussing personal issues through the jarring methods of forced detachment, ironic humor, and introverted boldness. Suffice it to say this is but one small passage that has lingered with me and now, perhaps you as well…

“…this was the two of us together: sharing the most intimate moments with a shrug, pretending they were not intimate. It wasn’t courage that motivated this casual, impersonal manner of treating so much pain; it was a special brand of cowardice, a destructive defense mechanism, forcing others to listen to the most horrendous experiences and yet denying them the moment of empathy: don’t feel sorry for me; nothing is too big for me to handle. This is nothing, nothing really” (Nafisi 321).

In the United States, students consistently fall behind their peers on a global level. This fact remains true regardless of the subject or age. In response, allow me to give a short English lesson. 

Today class, we will learn about the term irony. Literary Irony: The use of words to give full expression of contradicting attitudes and perspectives. Dramatic Irony: Contradictions or elements of confusion within a situation which are known to the audience but unknown to the characters. Now let’s look at a few current examples…

1. Affirmative Action often referred to the metaphor of “evening the playing field” to allow for a “fair race”. Excluding judgement on the irony of the phrase “fair race”, take a moment to consider the ironic nature of Obama’s title for his education reform agenda: Race to the Top. Additionally, this has to be the most ironically capitalistic, Republican title for a program belonging to a Liberal President.
2. U.S. politicians are constantly promising a greater focus, monetarily, on education. Ironically, the U.S. is already one of the highest paying nations per student in regards to education and yet, one of the lowest placing on educational performance. Finland, meanwhile, typically ranks highest and yet has one of the smallest education budgets.
3. American teachers have long since been regarded as common, unionized public workers. On average, they are lucky to receive more than $40,000 annually for educating the future generation of American adults. When they receive more than this, it is considered an outrageous expenditure. Ironically, this is because unlike those paid for being born with high cheekbones or a knack for salesmanship, teachers are not regarded as professionals deserving of a competitive job market.
4. Obama’s Race to the Top program was meant to serve as a remedy for the severe issue’s of Bush’s No Child Left Behind. Ironically, average test scores have not shown any marginal improvement, while evidence of cheating on standardized tests has increased. Meanwhile, as with the initial program, Race to the Top pushes low-scoring schools further into the ground without making connections to chronically low-score and equally low socio-economic regions.
5. Tenure, which was originally designed to protect University Professors, actually has no place in a public school setting in which teachers would have no fear of curriculum discrepencies. It further harms the integrity of the education system and costs thousands of dollars in legal fees alone each year. Ironically, some reformers advocate a merit-based tenure system. Hint: Merit pay is no different than the Race to the Top program, only more direct.