Blogger’s Block!

I think I'm having bloggers block, guys.

I miss all of the posts that I did back in Blogrurary, but now it's like I can't even come up with anything to post! I'm not really having vlogger block, or really crafter's block, but I'm just having a hard time coming up with blog ideas.

I've been toying with the idea of maybe coming up with more weekly or bi-weekly ideas, similar to the Monday Questions I've been doing- potentially maybe Treasury Thursdays, where I put together an Etsy treasury? Not sure.

I mean, originally, this was a place of ranting. I could always go back to that! Okay, you know what. In no particular order, here are the top five things that I want to rant about today.

On Valentine’s Day:

According to history.com, the essential final word on everything history, Valentine’s day is in remembrance of St. Valentine (obviously). The reason, though, is that the Emperor Claudius II decided single men make better soldiers and banned marriage for young men, and then Valentine, the priest, thought this was stupid and was like, “uh no, I’m still going to perform marriages!” and then Claudius II had him killed. The day we celebrate is, supposedly, the anniversary of his death. Other theories involve the Catholic church putting the date in February to “"Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia” which is a fertility festival.

Okay.

I'm Freaking Scared: Some More Politics

Guys, I gotta take a minute and be real with you. I'm scared. Like, seriously and legitimately scared. I'm really terrified that we may actually end up in a country with Romney and Ryan in charge.

I'm a woman. I am a married woman, in a very healthy, stable relationship- and we are not prepared for children yet. Therefore, it is important to me that my birth control continue to be available. Not because I'm a "slut," or because I'm sleeping around, but because my husband and I would like to be able to do married-people things, and not have a child that we can not yet afford or properly care for. My husband is currently serving in the military, supporting this country, and we do not want children until he will be home to see them grow. Romney and Ryan both support health care plans that do not cover birth control, instead wanting to teach abstinence only education. Obama wants to lower the cost of contraceptives at college clinics and for low income women, increase education to reduce unwanted pregnancies, and overall supports women making independent decisions. 

Similarly, I do not intend to have an abortion in my future- unless of course I were raped. Because as it turns out, my body is not able to distinguish "legitimate rape." According to an interview on NPR with Nick Baumann, "tens of thousands" of women who are raped become pregnant each year- and that's only about 5% of rapes resulting in pregnancies, according to statistics from Planned Parenthood and other medical sources. About half of those end in abortion. And let's not even get me started on the term "forcible rape" because... isn't that a little redundant? Romney and Ryan both, overall, voted against abortion ever chance they've gotten in recent years. Although it is interesting to note that as recently as 2011, Romney has said that while he is personally against abortion, it should be a woman's right- despite the fact that he has been voting against it since 2005.

The fact of the matter is, women get pregnant. Whether it's an uninformed child who didn't get a good health education, a woman who can't afford birth control, or a broken condom- things happen. We need to stop being "pro-birth" and start being "pro-child." An unwanted child, one that the parent(s) can't afford and aren't prepared for will not be a healthy, happy, and well-raised child, and that isn't having the best interest of the child at heart. 

I am a teacher. I am an unemployed teacher, currently, but a teacher none-the-less. Mitt Romney doesn't want to help me. He doesn't think class size matters. He supports English immersion, and not helping immigrant students learn the language. He supports NCLB, but not public education. Obama has voted to support public schools and charter schools, and has invested in all levels of schooling, from preschool through high school. He wants to reward schools that retain students, and does not support NCLB. I am public school educated, from kindergarten all the way through college, and I feel that I received a great education, and I believe that public schools need to be supported and improved. and yet...

I have $18,000 in student loan debt. $18,000 from a public school. Putting that into perspective: I come from a single-parent, low income family. I did receive a bit of state assistance, and yet I still owe $18,000 in loans. Neither Romney or Ryan mention anything about student loans on their websites, although Romney did oppose Obama's loan forgiveness plan. That plan? Tax credits for students, loan forgiveness for public service, and the ability to do public service to pay off loans. 

I am a member of the LGBTQQA community. Obama wants to allow gay marriage, there should be no federal law stopping it. He opposed Prop 8, and also wants to crack down on hate-based crimes. He believes being gay is not a choice. Romney is a supporter of the "one-man-one-woman" definition of marriage, and does not support gay marriage in any way.

Now, here's my biggest issue with all of this: remember when a president had bigger issues than civil rights? Remember when there was actually fiscal reasons to vote for someone? I'm only 23, but I remember at some point like, taxes? and things like that? They were important parts of an election. This year though, it's all about women's rights, education, gay rights... Beyond that, it's all about Obamacare versus Romneycare (which... not that different?) I wasn't afraid of a candidate when my civil rights weren't the biggest selling point, but now I am. 

I'm scared that in the next three months, I will be forced to sit back and watch all of the rights be stripped away from myself, and most of the people I care about most. And really, there's nothing I can do about it.

Oh, and one last thing. For those of you who still think that Obama hasn't actually done anything in his four years, please allow me to direct you here: What The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far

Also, let me just direct you all to this awesome post by my friend at thealmosttime: what disney taught me about politics, which you should also check out :)

Bein' a Lady

I'm having a weird couple days where I hate being a woman. No, not that. The world is sort of a weird place right now. 

Laci Green, a prominent sex positive vlogger on youtube, has been scared off of the internet because of stalkers on tumblr. Because of a comment that she made in 2009, in which she casually used a specific slur, she has had multiple death threats and pictures of her apartment sent to her. Did I mention she APOLOGIZED for the slur and also acknowledged how wrong it was, and that she's learned over the last three years that the word is inappropriate? 

Oh, also, I should mention, I don't particularly like Laci Green. I've subscribed to her channel for a while, and I find her sort of.. offputting? She's very dedicated to providing a safe space for sexuality, but she hasn't quite figured out gender, and she has a habit of being insensitive to people who don't share her exact views. She has good videos and not so good videos, and I definitely feel like she misses the point a lot. But she doesn't deserve death threats! Like, how is that even a logical move? How do you go from "I don't like that word you used, can we have a discussion about how we use words" to "I found your apartment and I'm going to kill you." 

?!

Some of the arguments from people who are supporting her stalkers are also so baffling to me. It's a lot of "she's a white cis girl who needs to check her privilege," which, okay. But again, how do we go from "check your privilege" to "I'm going to fucking kill you." Please, someone help me here?

The other thing, is this Daniel Tosh thing. I know that's from some girl's tumblr and it's a sketchy source and stuff, but he tweeted that there is truth to it, so, yeah, Daniel Tosh basically told an audience that a girl should be raped for standing up and saying rape jokes aren't funny.

I don't have as much to say about this, because it's pretty apparent to anyone who isn't also a Big Bang Theory fan that Daniel Tosh is so unfunny it's sick, but I just. Fuck man, being a woman lately is not a good deal.

I couldn't convince Chris to not watch Tosh.0 tonight, so I decided to count misogynistic comments. After 5 minutes of disgust, I put headphones in, so I don't have a count for you. There was a count at 5 minutes. So, there's that. 

Ranting: A First Post

A local hospital near home, the one my younger sister was born at, is working to merge with another local hospital which happens to be religious based. "Out of respect" for the religious based hospital, the secular hospital, assuming the merger goes through, will be discontinuing the abortion service that they currently offer. The CEO of the (formerly) secular hospital has this to say: 

We wanted assure that we would be able to  provide assurances that [religious hospital] would continue to fully comply with ethical and religious directives -- and all the Catholic entities of our new organization would. But at [secular hospital] we would want to assure that we were also providing that full range of services -- we have tremendous women’s health services between both organizations and reproductive health services. But we, moving forward, would no longer do abortions at [secular hospital]. 

Um, what? 


Here's what I'm tired of: Religion. Well, not religion, but religion being pushed at me. I don't shove my beliefs at anyone- in fact, my religion and spiritual beliefs are so irrelevant to anything I have to say, I don't even feel the need to talk about what it is here. I'm just so tired of everyone else having more control over my body and my rights than I do. It's my body. If I wanted someone else in my body,there's more than one orifice they could enter- with permission, of course- but as it turns out, I have husband who doesn't have control over my body and my rights, so I'm not okay with anyone else doing it either. 


Politics and religion aren't supposed to be interchangeable. Remember, we have that whole "separation of Church and State" thing? I want that back. Let's get that back.


At what point is it too far? At what point can I get to say that my body is no longer willing to be a political statement or a religious bargaining chip? Is it Arizona declaring that pregnancy happens up to TWO WEEKS before conception?? Is it the house GOP blocking abortion for raped soldiers? How about a Kentucky senator who is trying to add conception amendment to a flood insurance bill? Seriously, let me know, because I'm currently pratiquer mon français to get the fuck out of here before it's too late to be considered a legal human being with the ability to procure a passport.