Viva la Feminista

Now that it's almost the weekend again, I think I can finally write a bit about last weekend. Amy & her daughter came for a visit. This is their 3rd trip out here together. Amy's visited a few times on her own, which is awesome, but always hard to explain to the kid on why HER BFF isn't here, but mine is. First I have to say that Amy & I joke about how the girls are twins. And spending a few days with them, they really are so alike. Amy's daughter is a rougher & tougher version of mine, but essentially they are two peas in a pod. It took a bit of time for the kid to learn that it was ok to push back - not just literally, but verbally too - when Izzy was being a bossy. So yes there were tears on both sides. Both girls have a HUGE sense of fairness. So Izzy complained that the kid had more of this or that. The kid would cry if I scolded her for something that Izzy might have started. Essentially Amy & I were co-mothers of siblings for the weekend. AND THEN...

Yeah, I'm still here. Amy came for her annual visit over the weekend so all blogging & writing was put on hold. She brought her adorable daughter with her, who is my daughter's East Coast BFF and kinda a twin. The girls are only 5 days apart and perhaps something bonded them in the womb as their mamas bonded over pregnancy ups and downs. I'll write more about their visit, but I wanted to share my latest Awearness posts with you, cause there's a plenty! Did a School Nurse Save the Day? It's Fair Pay Day Latina actor hopes to U-Haul it out of the kitchen Is Skype a Non-custodial Parent's Dream or a Custodial Parent's Nightmare? Breast is Still Best Really, It's OK to Let Your Son Wear Nail Polish Where Volunteering Can Take You The Bandana Project What Does the Taxman Do with Your Money? From Chicago to NOLA...Through Our Toliets Why I Was Thinking of Natasha Richardson Last Week

A few weeks ago my daughter had report card pick up day. That means that school is closed for classes and as such, she ended up going to work with me. For lunch we walked over to a local cafe that just happens to have gelato as well. As I was at the register paying for our food when she spotted it. A brochure for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. "Mom, why does that say walk?" I explain to her that this organization asks people to walk for three days to raise money to help people who are sick. The walkers ask friends and family to donate money to help the sick people. "Oh!!!" and her eyes light up. Would you like to do that one day? "Yeah!" with a lot of head shaking. I started to think, well I know I would need to train for a 3 day walk. She's five and a half. Hmm...Oh! What about a small walk to help people? And so this morning I signed my daughter & myself up for the Chicago Foundation for Women's 5K walk, run and roll. Yes, I hemmed and hawed ...

It's common knowledge that I have a thing against the princess-ification of our daughters' childhood. But sometimes you need to use the princess to kill the fairy tale. Case in point the wonderful t-shirt the kid is sporting. The t-shirt reads: "My kind of princess escapes the tower, outsmarts the dragon and finds the treasure." Hell yeah. You can see in a close-up that the shirt also has a comic strip feel to it. Lil Miss Smartypants had me explain to her how a big dragon could be kept in such a small cage. Why didn't he just fly away? *sigh* So much logic in such a small body! She loves the shirt because it's pink and I love the shirt because it has a fabulous message. I do have to say that the kid likes the message too since it reminds her of "The Paper Bag Princess." It's so hard at this age. I'm teaching her to stand on her own two feet, yet stories, media & I dare to think, friends reinforce the prince saves the princess theme. I ca...

Ah, the feminist card. The mythical item whipped out in great debates about feminist litmus tests. Example, "If it's not feminist to wear lipstick, then revoke my card!" What the card really represents is a lack of agreement on a standard set of feminist principles. I began to revisit this idea (principles not the feminist card!) on Easter when the Amazonfail fiasco hit Twitter. My immediate thought? Don't shop there! my second thought? Fuckers! And I mean Amazon.com. Let's start with my second thought first. I would not imagine a valid rational for Amazon to delist books like Yes Means Yes and Brokeback Mountain. But I really focused on my first thought. I've seen many a feminist blog and website that has an Amazon bookstore widget. Huh? Really? Perhaps they missed the story of how the beloved Amazon feminist bookstore tried to sue Amazon.com for stealing their name ? They settled out of court, but obviously the fact that a feminist bookstore had their name ...

Testing..... wow! Blogger now let's me text posts. This could be bad.

Last night my husband & I went to see Gabriel Iglesias aka Fluffy at the Improv out in the burbs. He won me over with his impression of Bill Clinton. With all comics they dabble in stereotypes. There were three warm-up comics and the second one thought that stalking was just toooooo funny. Bleh. But Fluffy? I think that because he really just tells stories from his life and laughing at his weight, he seems to stay pretty far from the sexist and homophobic jokes that comics usually swim in. the first video I link below does have a stripper joke, so he's not 100% clearn. Also because he does voices one could say that he does dabble in racist jokes. But he does reveal moments of racism that happen in his life. One of the stories he told was being out in the burbs a few years ago and being asked for ID by the local police. He just pointed to his poster. Seriously, the way he tells it AND if you are from the Schaumburg area, you totally got the joke. One of the highlights of last ni...

I was planning on live-blogging Saturday's panels for the Council on Contemporary Families conference, but my daughter has hurt herself somehow. The nurse at the doctor's office thinks it's just a strained muscle, but we're still bringing her in this morning. She seems ok as long as she isn't moving too much. Which is hard to see when she's so active. I'm sure she'll be ok.

I am live-blogging from the Council On Contemporary Families Annual Conference. CCF: Work-Family Balance for Women & Men

It was just a matter of time. It's just been a few days since the news of a woman being arrested and charged with the murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu and we already have a flurry of stories about " Why do women kill? " According to the Justice Department, roughly one in 10 homicides are committed by women. And when women kill, their victims are more likely to be someone close to them, like their children, boyfriends or spouses. Friend of Viva la Feminista, Jennifer Pozner has been writing about the gender imbalance in school, now mass, shootings since Jonesboro in 1996. Heck, one of my first pseudo-blogs back then was the keep a running photo memorial to the women killed in the shootings from Jonesboro to Columbine. Yet time again, shooting after shooting, the media scoffs aside the fact that MEN do most of the killing. Yet when a woman does kill, every media outlet pulls out a few psychologists to discuss WHY. Why not focus on the 90% of killing done by men? Why focus...

I get a lot of books for review, including a few that I don't ask for. And while I try my best, I can't get to them all. So my dear readers, I'm giving you a chance at free books! Just comment & leave me your email address so I can get your snail mail address. First come, first serve...unless there's a great bribe. The first three books in the Green Stone of Healing series (The Vision, The Scorpions Strike & Fallout) I can has cheezburger? Alex & Me Latino Wisdom I was a really good mom before I had kids Joy's Life Diet

It's the end of the semester for me! Last night was my last big event so I'm pooped. But as long time readers know I write for many a blog and I've been a total slacker posting here when those go up. So here ya go: At the AWEARNESS blog: The Violence Against Women Act at 15 Only One Man Could Unite La Raza and MomsRising The R-word I have a new post at WIMNs Voices about the Oprah show with mommy bloggers . I’ve been blogging since before I became a mom. While so many mommy bloggers started blogging to find community or reassurance of their lives and decisions as moms, I sought out a venue to rant and rave about politics and baseball. So when I got pregnant, the natural instinct was to keep on writing. And I did. I wrote about my midwives and why I stayed with them despite an hour drive into the suburbs to see them. I wrote about being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I wrote about how I couldn’t save my mom from her own diabetes and she died at the beginning of my thir...

WOW That pretty much sums up the weekend. It was a whirlwind of everything. Yes, it's Thursday and I'm still reeling from the weekend. Friday I got to have lunch with PunditMom . Then Jenn Pozner & I greeted each other like we always do - a huge hug. We realized later on that we've now been friends for about 12 years. YOWZAS! After dinner with Jenn, Lisa Jervis, Latoya Peterson and Jennifer Mattson we headed back to the conference building for the opening reception. The opening plenary was made of three women journalists from Iraq, Columbia and Zimbabwe. Jenn live-blogged it , so I won't try to summarize it. What I will say is that I was floored at the bravery of the women. What I will always remember is that Huda, from Iraq, was a translator for English-speaking journalists. During one assignment the first question a journalist asked was if a man was Sunni or Shia. He responded to her with "That's the first question?" She spent a lot of time talking...