Friday, October 31, 2008

Day Thirty-One: One Step at a Time

One Step at a Time:  October 31, 2008
I'm feeling productive today. I got some reading and note-taking done this morning and I have ideas about my feminist theory reading list and (maybe?) about my dissertation.

Plus, I'm going to watch movies with friends tonight. So I have an evening off to look forward to.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Day Thirty: I'm the Best Me There Is

I got this bowl at a thrift store a couple of years ago. I like its cheerful self-affirmation. It decorates my office at school. I used to keep candy in it, thinking I'd offer it to my students when they come by to ask questions or turn things in, but 1) students never come by during my office hours and 2) they almost always decline the candy when I do see them, so this plan wound up just being a way for me to eat too much candy.

I don't keep candy in it any more, but it does cheer me up when I'm having a bad day.

I'm the Best Me There Is:  October 30, 2008

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Day Twenty-Nine: Twelve

Twelve:  October 29, 2008
I spent today grading American literature essays. I am exhausted.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Day Twenty-Eight: Trash

Trash:  October 28, 2008
This photo was taken on my walk home from school. I felt weak and sick and didn't have the energy to stop and take real photos anywhere, so I pointed my camera around and shot photos without really looking while I was walking. I quite like the way this one turned out.

Also, I realize I haven't posted much content other than daily photos lately and I plan to remedy that as soon as I can think clearly.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Day Twenty-Seven: A Tale of Two Kitties

I blame the inevitable kitty photo *and* the pun (a literary one, no less) on my feeling sick today.

A Tale of Two Kitties:  October 27, 2008

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Day Twenty-Six: Launchpad

Launchpad:  October 26, 2008
Stephen and I were going to go hiking today, but I did not feel well at all. So instead we ran a few errands and then I played Fable II for three or four hours while he watched. It's an awesome game.

Day Twenty-Five: Vanishing Point

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.
~Henri Cartier-Bresson
Vanishing Point:  October 25, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

Day Twenty-Four: Ant Crossing

It's harder than you might think to take a clear photo of an ant, especially with a point-and-shoot camera when you can't really see the viewfinder screen clearly because of the sun. But I really like the way this one came out. :-)

Ant Crossing:  October 24, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Day Twenty-Three: Television

Television:  October 23, 2008
Art may imitate life, but life imitates TV.
~Ani DiFranco

That being said, I do enjoy my shows. They can be deadening and timewasting; they can also be a form of art or a means of education. Either way, as DiFranco says, "life imitates TV." We (all of us) are susceptible to the messages put forth via the media and it is our duty as thinking members of the mediaverse to pay attention to these messages--to challenge the harmful ones and reinforce the positive ones.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Day Twenty-Two: Caged Sunset

Caged Sunset:  October 22, 2008
My friend Cory and I went to see a staged reading of a play called A Head in the Globe this evening. He got free tickets as part of Free Night of Theater 2008. It's a neat idea. This one night, in cities across the country, theaters offer free tickets in order to bring in a new audience to the theater, maybe an audience who wouldn't normally go to the theater. However, this particular play wasn't very good. We had a good time hanging out, but I wish he'd managed to get tickets to something else free instead (maybe Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza, which I see was also on the list for free theater tickets). Oh well.

This photo was taken during our search for the performance space.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Day Twenty-One: Cracks in the Yellow Brick Road

Cracks in the yellow brick road:  October 21, 2008
I had a full day of grading and prepping for class, followed by teaching and dinner and drinks with a couple of friends. I had yummy Spanish red wine and lemon and spinach pasta. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Day Twenty: Light

This is so not the photo I wanted for today, but it was the only one I could get off my SD card, which seems to have suddenly gone nuts. And of course it would choose now, when I have so little money to spend, to do so. I'll have to go see about replacing it tomorrow, I guess. Hopefully, that will fix the problem and it's not a larger problem with my camera.

Light:  October 20, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Day Nineteen: Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs:  October 19, 2008
This spider sat perfectly still and allowed me to take several pictures of it. I feared it might be dead, but when I touched its leg it ran away.

Day Eighteen: Camel

Camel:  October 18, 2008
A cigarette butt in Stephen's backyard.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Day Seventeen: Chaos

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Chaos:  October 17, 2008
Earlier today I was feeling aimless and a little lost. I have a million things I need to do and I couldn't manage to focus on any of them. I felt like there was no way I was going to accomplish the things I need to accomplish this semester and this year. At some point today, though, I struck upon an idea that energized me. Now I can't wait to get reading and writing and do some serious work.

Plus, Stephen and I went to see The Quebe Sisters Band at a local free concert. They play Western swing, country, and bluegrass styles and are very good. That helped me feel even better.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Couldn't bear to give it up

The other day while I was modelling and photographing items to list on etsy, I tried on this dress and took a bunch of pictures of myself in it. After posing in it and looking at the pictures, I realized that I really didn't want to give it up. At least not yet.

The realization surprised me a little bit. I mean, I knew it was a cool dress, but when I bought it over the summer I didn't think it felt like me. I guess my sense of what kinds of things I'm comfortable in has expanded somewhat.

Vintage goodness
So I wore it to school today for teaching. Nobody commented on it, but I felt all day that a) I looked damn good, and b) I was way overdressed for the environment.

I guess I should be used to the fact that nobody else dresses up in vintage dresses to go to school, but I'm not. It makes me kind of sad, actually, that I seem to be the only one.

Outfit details:
Dress: thrifted in Lawrence, KS, this summer
Shoes: thrifted at my local Goodwill store (I love that place!)

Day Sixteen: Dandelion

Why, she wonders, do people call them weeds? She thought they were pretty. . . Nobody loves the head of a dandelion. Maybe because they are so many, strong, and soon.
--Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Dandelion:  October 16, 2008

New listings on etsy

Last night I listed three new items in my etsy shop: a cute spruce green corduroy dress, a lovely emerald green wool/poly dress, and a fabulous vintage coat with a fur collar.

Vintage spruce green corduroy dress
Vintage emerald dress
Vintage coat
These three items definitely fall into the category of things I wish I could keep, but none of them are quite right for me in the end, so I'm putting them out there for others to enjoy, others for whom they might be just perfect.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Day Fifteen: Poverty / Blog Action Day 2008

Poverty is the worst form of violence. --Mahatma Gandhi

Poverty:  October 15, 2008
According to the U.N., half of the world's population survives on two U.S. dollars per day. Think about how much money those of us in the middle class (or even in the lower middle class and into the lower class) in first world nations spend every day on things like coffee and gasoline. Two dollars may go further in third world countries, but it is still far from a stable, living wage.

Much public discussion of poverty focuses on global poverty. And, of course, poverty in third world nations is a problem that must be addressed. But poverty exists in the United States as well. Too often, what poverty in the United States looks like is this empty refrigerator. It's certainly what poverty has looked like for me in my life.

Empty
There are so many things those of us who are not living in poverty can do to help others get a leg up. Kiva is a wonderful resource that supports microloans around the world to help people develop businesses and improve their lives. And every major city in the U.S. (and many smaller cities as well) has at least one women's or homeless shelter, food bank, or charity organization devoted to helping the poor. Find what exists in your town and donate time, money, or goods.

The Blog Action Day 2008 site also provides a list of 88 ways to help. Check it out and find a way to help that works for you.


Shouldering the Blame

Following my recent post about a comment in my university newspaper and its troubling attitude toward the victims of sexual assault, I submitted a longer version of that blog entry as an opinion column to the university newspaper.

They printed it, but, as I should have predicted, they made several unapproved changes to it in the process. Last time I submitted an opinion column (four years ago) they did the same. Remembering that, I made it really clear this time that if it needed to be cut in any way, I would take care of it, but that's not all that's going on here. It doesn't even seem that all of the changes were related to length; some are just stylistic changes that mangle a couple of my sentences and shift the emphasis of the end of the column.

At any rate, you can read the printed version here or you can read my intended version right here:
In The Shorthorn’s October 2nd article about the increase in crime on campus, Assistant Police Chief Rick Gomez was interviewed about the rise of sexual offenses on campus, and, when addressing the issue of date rape, said, “Women need to be smarter about who they date and be careful about what they drink, so that they'll have their senses about them so things like that won't happen.” He goes on to say, “But as far as women just walking out around campus and being raped by a stranger—that’s not happening.”

In other words, if women were more discriminating and didn't drink so much, "things like that [wouldn't] happen."

Women do need to be prepared to protect themselves if a man tries to rape or assault them (whether they know the man responsible or not), but the logic of Gomez's statement is not the logic of just in case but the logic of causality: if they "have their senses about them," are smarter, and behave themselves, then they won't be assaulted. After all, they're not assaulted when doing something innocent like walking across campus, he notes. It's true that most sexual assault and rape is perpetrated by someone the victim knows, but that doesn't indicate that the victim made a bad decision in getting to know that person (rapists don't wear signs) or that the victim invited the assault. Instead it indicates something about the sexual offender.

This blame-the-victim mentality is not new. It surfaces repeatedly in our culture. It says that child molesters can accuse 5-year-olds of seducing them and be believed; it says that women who wear miniskirts or Victoria’s Secret underwear are “asking for it”; it says that not saying “no” is the same as saying “yes” or, worse, that saying “no” but not forcefully enough, is equivalent to a “yes.” After all, “her lips say ‘no,’ but her eyes say ‘yes.’”

Ultimately, despite many of its proponents’ claims to the contrary, this mentality provides no real help for women. I have little doubt that with his statement to The Shorthorn Assistant Police Chief Gomez was trying to do his job, which consists of protecting UTA students, both male and female. However, telling women that the responsibility for their victimization belongs to them and them alone does no more than exacerbate the guilt and shame women who are victims of sexual assault already feel. It does not prevent men who are willing to sexually assault their acquaintances from doing so.

In place of insisting that women protect themselves by developing the ability to pick out date rapists from a crowd and by being perfectly and constantly vigilant against all men, women would be better served, in the short term, by increased availability of self-defense training so that, instead of a passive defense of avoidance and the mere hope that they are not attacked, they will have at their disposal a method of active defense that will be able to deter an attacker (at least until help arrives) and, in the long term, by a shift in cultural attitudes that eliminates the sense that some women are just asking for it and places the blame where it truly belongs.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Vintage shoes: new etsy listing


I listed these awesome shoes this evening and will list some more new vintage goodness later this week.

Day Fourteen: Grassroots

Grassroots:  October 14, 2008

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

Tomorrow, October 15th, is Blog Action Day 2008, "an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day" aimed at raising awareness of that issue. This year the issue is poverty.

If you have a blog of your own, you should think about taking part. The more people get involved, the more the international online discussion shifts to this issue and the more attention is paid to it.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Fashion & Feminism: Frances Varian

Here are a couple of paragraphs from "Lighten Up, It's Just Fashion: How to Be a Gorgeous Revolutionary," an essay by Frances Varian that I've given my freshman writing class to read for tomorrow's class:
...we do not have to die by our own hands. We do not have to grieve for the death of our dreams. If you cannot walk yourself to the movies at night for fear of what will happen to you, you are not free. If you cannot wear whatever makes you feel alive for fear of repercussion, you are not free. If you cannot allow your spirit to soar because you have never been told it is your inalienable right to be moved by something beautiful, however you define beauty, you are not free. It takes courage to reach for freedom and it requires strength to fight for an authentic life, but both require far less energy than a fear-based existence.
[...]
The intrinsic artistic merit of fashion is not diminished because the world of fashion can be unsafe for women. . . . What is not up for interpretation is the desperate condition that women face globally. If we do not find a way to bridge our differences and reach for each other, we are likely to face even more disastrous realities. The first step to thinking outside of the box is to step outside it, and for most women that means claiming beauty, claiming ownership, and claiming personal freedom. The battle lines were drawn before any of us were born, and up until now we have not been able to sustain any kind of unified resistance. I can't guarantee you a safe and easy outcome if you fight, but I can promise I'll be standing next to you. If we have to go down, we might as well go down together and looking fucking fabulous.
This speaks quite convincingly to the empowering and potential of fashion and to its ability to coexist with feminist ideals. Varian does acknowledge elsewhere in the essay that the relationship between beauty, feminism, and the lives and experiences of individual women can be quite complex, but she refuses to compromise her love for beauty or her passion for a feminist movement that works to uplift all women.

Day Thirteen: Nailed it

Nailed it:  October 13, 2008
Today's photo features a bent nail I discovered on the wall outside my apartment door. I didn't venture far for photo-taking today, because I spent most of the day at home reading or grading.

Grading: American literature responses and Freshman Writing homework
Reading: Lynda Birke's Feminism and the Biological Body

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Day Twelve: Signs of autumn

Signs of autumn:  October 12, 2008
It doesn't feel like summer any more, but it doesn't truly feel like fall, either. There are signs of approaching fall weather, though. Here's one.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Day Eleven: Midnight Blue

Midnight blue:  October 11, 2008
Okay, so it wasn't midnight when I took this, but it was nighttime and it was dark out. I wanted to shoot some more, but the mosquitoes found me and starting attacking.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Day Ten: Crevasse

Crevasse:  October 10, 2008
This was taken in the parking lot at River Legacy Park after today's bike ride. I didn't see any animals at all today (squirrels and grackles don't count). Bummer.

I did, however, pass one of the professors from my university walking his dog.  I don't think he recognized me.  

Thursday, October 9, 2008

All Mixed Up

Black and navy!  Dots and stripes!  This outfit is fun for me because it combines pattern-mixing and basic-color-mixing. But because the colors themselves are subtle, it does all of this mixing without being too challenging to the eye and is deceptively simple.    

The dress is navy and white, the cardigan and shirt are black and white. I wasn't sure how I felt about navy and black together, but, as it turns out, I like it. Plus, this is just one of my absolute favorite dresses. It's so comfortable and versatile.

Black & Blue
Outfit details:
Dress and cardigan:  thrifted
Black and white striped shirt:  Target (years and years ago)
Shoes:  Naturalizer

Day Nine: Faded Light

Faded light:  October 9, 2008
I have nothing to say about this one. No clever quotes. Nothin'.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Day Eight: Thorny

"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning." ~James Russell Lowell

Thorn:  October 8, 2008

Etsy exploration: collage shoes

Browsing etsy today, I came across these shoes from Peace of Pi Studio:


They are upcycled and collaged with environmental messages.  They are awesome!  I love the way they look and what they have to say.  If I had the money to spend, these shoes would be mine.  As it is, I won't be able to afford them any time soon, so I'll post them here for others' and my own enjoyment. 


Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Viva La Stewart!

I'm becoming more and more engrossed in the debates and news surrounding the upcoming election, and it is beginning to show in my clothing. I can't wear my Obama shirt to teach in, so I did the next best thing today: I wore my Jon Stewart shirt.

I love Jon Stewart.
I actually wore the sweater partially buttoned while I was teaching to keep Jon Stewart's face from being too obvious and too distracting in class as I taught, but just having him there made me feel a little better.

I enjoyed this outfit not just because of Jon Stewart, though. The bright colors and contrast between the red shirt and electric blue/purple skirt made me happy, plus it turned out to be really quite comfortable, suitable not only for walking back and forth from school (comfy shoes--yay!) but also for moving around the classroom and for sitting. Not all of the outfits I enjoy aesthetically allow for ease in all of those activities.

Outfit details:
Jon Stewart tee shirt: I'm not sure anymore
Skirt: thrifted
Belt and sweater: Target
Tights: we love colors
Shoes: Naturalizer

Day Seven: Frank

Frank:  October 7, 2008
During today's bike ride, I saw an armadillo! I was in a good groove, though, so I didn't stop and try to take a picture. It was a hard choice. They're funny when they're startled. They jump straight up in the air.

Instead of startling the armadillo, though, I startled a walker. I passed a girl and her boyfriend on the left and apparently she didn't hear me coming until I was right next to them. She screamed. It was almost as funny as startling the armadillo would've been.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Stylemob: yea or nay?

I've been using stylemob since its inception, but I'm seriously contemplating deleting my account and abandoning the site. I rarely visit it (I get a lot more out of wardrobe_remix on flickr anyway) and when I do visit it I tend to be put off by it.

I don't like the voting element of stylemob and I don't like the tone of too many of the comments I receive. There are a lot of really nice people who use stylemob, but I also get comments like this one: "okay.... no comment but you need a stylist hunni." That comment was left on this outfit:

Spring has sprung!
I can respect that not everyone shares my taste (and sometimes even I don't like all of my outfits so much in retrospect), but I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. Especially not from someone who hasn't uploaded any photos herself and who has commented on one of my other photos, saying: "kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkh."

What do others think of stylemob? Have you had good experiences? Bad experiences?

Day Six: Mr. Balloon Man

Walking home from school today, I spotted this work of graffiti on the wall by the bridge that crosses Cooper Street (the main street in Arlington that goes through the center of the university campus). It reminds me of the Mr. Men and Little Miss children's book series by Roger Hargreaves. I loved those books as a child.

Mr. Balloon Man:  October 6, 2008
This character seems depressed, though, unlike most of the Mr. Men/Little Miss characters. I don't know why he should be unhappy, though; he has a bright blue balloon, after all.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Day Five: Reading Rainbow

Remember that show? With Levar Burton? Anyway. This is a partial shot of one of my bookshelves. The closest book is one of my Jasper Fforde novels.

Books and pretty colors = happy Christy. :-)

Reading Rainbow: October 5, 2008

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Day Four: Unbalanced

Unbalanced:  October 4, 2008
I've been feeling a little off the last couple of days. Hopefully, I'll be back to my usual self soon.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Day Three: Turtle

At the park today, I saw this turtle walking along the middle of the road, so I stopped and picked him up and carried him to the grass by the trees. He was about a foot long. He sat still and let me get up in his face and take photos for a few minutes before he poked his head and legs out and turtled away into the trees.

Turtle:  October 3, 2008

The Blame Game

From yesterday's university newspaper, in an article about the increase in crime on campus:
Forcible sex offenses increased from one in 2006 to five in 2007, and burglaries more than doubled from 31 in 2006 to 72 in 2007, according to the [university's annual crime] report.

Assistant Police Chief Rick Gomez said most of the sexual offenses were "date rapes," crimes where the victim knew the offender. They often happened in residences and involved alcohol, he said.

"Women need to be smarter about who they date and be careful about what they drink, so that they'll have their senses about them so things like that won't happen," he said. "But as far as women just walking out around campus and being raped by a stranger--that's not happening."
In other words, if women were more discriminating and didn't drink so much, "things like that [wouldn't] happen."

I do believe that women need to be prepared to protect themselves if a man tries to rape or assault them (whether they know the man responsible or not), but the logic of Gomez's statement is not the logic of "just in case" but the logic of causality: if they "have their senses about them," are smarter, and behave themselves, then they won't be assaulted. After all, they're not assaulted when doing something innocent like walking across campus, he notes. It's true that most sexual assault and rape is perpetrated by someone the victim knows, but that doesn't indicate that the victim made a bad decision in getting to know that person (rapists don't wear signs) or that the victim invited the assault. Instead it indicates something about the sexual offender.

I am appalled at this statement. I am appalled that this logic is still so prevalent, that it comes from a source of supposed authority, and that it was published on the front page of a university newspaper.

I do believe I'll submit a version of this post to the school paper as an opinion piece in response to the article.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Day Two: Feminism

Feminism:  October 2, 2008

I am a feminist. I am studying feminist theory, following politics with an eye on feminist issues, teaching students to see the world in terms of feminism (among other things), and living a life predicated upon the advances made by feminism and hoping toward a future of even more feminist advances.

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." ~Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

"Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement." ~Author unknown, quoted in The Torch, 14 September 1987

"You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law." ~Lyn Beth Neylon

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Project 365: Day One

I finished the 365 Days self-portrait project a few weeks ago and since then I've rather missed my daily photography routine. It was certainly nice to take a break from it and I was damn tired of taking pictures of myself every day, but I'm ready to get back in the game.

But I'm getting into a different game this time. No more self-portraits. As of today, I am beginning a different daily photography project: Project 365. This project is, quite simply, about taking one photograph a day for a year. Some can be self-portraits, but that's not the focus of the group.

I'll be posting my photography here as well as on flickr. Here's my opening shot:

Anemone Flower:  October 1, 2008