Viva la Feminista

Dear Goddess has life been a whirlwind lately! I need a better strategy on posting my Awearness posts over here. I think I'm going to try...try to post them on the same day over here instead of a list of posts. But until then, here's a list of posts! Men of Quality Respect Women's Equality: Ted Kennedy & Harry T. Burn What Does "American" Mean? Forget the Treadmill, STS-128 is Carrying the Hopes of Latinos Being a Wise Latina Can Make You a Rich One Too! That Whole Foods Op-ed Was Obama's Idea Saturday I went to a community blogging meeting and it was, well, interesting. I say that not to say I didn't like it. I did. It made me think..a lot. For one a lot of the conversation was about how to make money off our blogs. Which was a great thread for people who run more news-worthy blogs not personal blogs like mine. But at the Association for Women Journalist panel I spoke on last month, many in the crowd thought this blog was news worthy for my opinion ...

I do admit that it's hard to take allegations of racism seriously when they are brought up by a player whom I think isn't playing his best and compares a blow-out to one of the most well-known incidents of police brutality . I take my baseball seriously and any lolly-gagging on the field puts you on my shit list. But when Milton Bradley let loose last week , I needed little time to come to the conclusion that I believe him. As a die-hard Cubs fan, I don't think we're all racists - check that, I do think all people are racist to some degree. Think back to the last time you double checked that your car doors were locked or double clutched your purse. Yeah, I'm guilty too. But are we Cub Nation a bunch of hate-filled racists? No. Do we take our baseball seriously and act without thinking? Yes. We say things at the ball park we might not say in our living rooms, we throw cups of beer on the field and sometimes at players, and we boo as if Charlie Brown is playing all 9 ...

While my husband is quite the feminist, he's not an academic one or one who seeks out a lot of feminist theory. Who can blame him? He's got me! But seriously, watching his growth as a feminist is one of the most touching things in my life. Adding our daughter to the equation has heightened his feminist spidey sense. Our daughter had long hair until Saturday. I took her in to get a back to school cut, which should had been a bob up to her chin. It looks more like a long pixie cut. OMG, it is super cute! But to her it's a tragedy. We've done all we can do to help her feel better about her hair, but I'm sure you know what it feels like to have a bad cut or bad hair on picture day. She hasn't told us so, but her camp counselor told my husband that the boys are teasing her about her hair. "You look like a boy!" is their main chant. This led to a discussion about teasing, boys and gender. Sadly I have to admit that we immediately think "What are those b...

First the two panels I'm on: Mom Blogging - Beyond Swag and Diaper Bags : This one is with PunditMom Beyond Tokenism: How Social Media Can Fix S*** : This one is with Deanna Zandt , Rob Biko Baker and Cheryl Contee . Now some awesome proposals from my friends: Not the Silent Majority: Women in Politics Online: Proposed by Sarah Granger with Shireen Mitchell of the National Council of Women's Organizations, Fem 2.0 & the Media & Tech Taskforce, Erin Kotecki-Vest of BlogHer, and Cheryl Contee of Fission Strategies and Jack & Jill Politics. Social Media, Social Capital: Boot Camp: Another panel featuring Deanna Zandt with Susan Mernit Social Justice and Video Games : Proposed by the fabulous Latoya Peterson with N'Gai Croal and Naomi Clark; invited Professor Andre Brock The Online News of Tomorrow : Proposed by BFF Andrew Huff . No other panelists listed yet, but he knows I'm watching!! *cough*womenpoc*cough* edited to add: From El Blog: Below...

Did you know that: Nearly three of 10 Latinos, including recent immigrants, were dropouts (27.5 percent) [ cite ]; Forty-one percent of Latinas do not graduate from high school on time with a standard diploma [ cite ] 53 percent become pregnant before age 20. [ cite ] So if a Latina can work her way thru high school and get into college, she should be able to go. But often we can't afford to go. That is why Rosie Molinary has set up Circle de Luz: This fall, Circle de Luz will select the second Circle de Luz class from the seventh grade class at Ranson Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina. From September 2009 until the girls reach high school graduation, Circle de Luz supports them with mentoring and comprehensive programming to help them achieve their goal of graduating from high school and pursuing further education. When they graduate from high school and enroll in the educational opportunity of their choice, Circle de Luz awards them with a minimum of a $5,000 ...

Last Friday I attended the National Hispana Leadership Institute's Empowerment Conference . Teresa Puente did a great job summarizing the day's events. The turnout was far smaller than I would have expected, but in the end, it was perfect. We went thru 2 workshops that couldn't have occured with a full ballroom of Latinas. I have to admit that it was a bit odd to walk into a room and have about four people tell me congrats for being in Crains the week before. The day was great and I got to meet and reconnect with Latinas in Chicago. We really do need more chances to gather like that. I even picked up my first " wise latina " shirt from the Wise Latina Project. I say first because I still need to grab one that says " I trust wise latinas " and maybe one of a few others I've run across. Here are a few of the things I learned on Friday: Latinas make LESS today than the average woman made in 1960 compared to the average man. And we have only gained 5 c...

I tweeted that question yesterday because I seriously wanted a good discussion about it. Teresa Puente had posted at Chicago Now about being tired of hearing about Rick Bayless being this expert on Mexican food. The comments immediately went into calling her a racist. I wanted a higher level of discussion. Thankfully Amy gave me one . I wasn't calling Teresa a racist and I apologize if my tweet came off as that. Teresa asked: Something just bugged me that a white guy was gaining so much fame for his Mexican cuisine. I'm sure his love of Mexico is genuine and he does good charity work. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, and he is a great chef. But why does the media make him the spokesman for Mexican food in the United States? And hear are my thoughts. I haven't watched many of Rick's shows and I've caught a few of Anthony Bourdain's show (especially the Chicago episode where you can catch Cinnamon in one scene). *deep breath* I can't shake the feel...

It was a pleasure to be on Diego Mulligan's show, The Journey Home , this evening. Diego & I spent a lot of time chatting about health care reform and mom blogs, so I thought that I'd pull up a few recent posts on health care on a few of my favorite mom blogs: PunditMom points us to some great places for information on health care reform ; CultureKitchen (a blog that happens to be run by a mom) demands that Bean & Foster give us health care reform ; MOMocrats discusses what is actually in the health care bills about abortion ; MOMocrats take on Sarah Palin and her death panel comment ; One MOMocrat tells her story of losing her health insurance ; VivirLatino (run by a mami blogger) discusses health care in immigration detention centers, or the lack there of health care in immigration detention centers ; Feminist Breeder tells us why we don't need that c-section ; MomsRising is also a great source for mama's discussing health care . Thanks for visiting!

In this weekend's Parade magazine, Bill O'Reilly writes a piece entitled, " What President Obama Can Teach America's Kids. " When I saw that, I thought, "Huh?" But then I read it and wow...Can the man write a nice backhanded compliment! The disruption of the traditional American family is also adversely affecting millions of children. Right now, almost 22 million American kids are living with one parent; more than 80% of those are being raised primarily by Mom. Just 50 years ago, a child living without a father was somewhat of a rarity. Now it’s an epidemic. Ah...the set up. He's not talking to all American kids, but only those who are being raised by mom alone! Lesson One: Forgiveness President Obama was just 2 when his father abandoned him and his mother in Hawaii. Four years later, his mother took her little son to Indonesia after she remarried... So when Barry, as he was called, turned 10, he was sent back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents...

Seriously, why do magazines think that we won't notice? Or are they truly going with the "a photo is just the beginning of our art project" theory? Because if photos are just an art project for them, then just fucking say it. This time around Kelly Clarkson is the winner of the photoshop diet. We've seen this done to plenty of other women in Hollywood, including my favorite America Ferrera . Kelly Clarkson's weight has been an issue since her "American Idol" days and she seems to have weathered all the talk very well and with all the confidence most of us wish we had when it came to our bodies. That must be why "Self" wanted to feature her in their magazine. But why then would they photoshop her multiple sizes down? Even looking at the ' behind-the-scenes' video you can see that Kelly's arms are larger in real life. " Self" comments that, "Our picture shows her confidence and beauty," which reveals to me tha...

In the last six months or so, Chicago has had its fair share of townhalls and gatherings trying to figure out what the heck is happening with corporate media. What will happen when the newspapers finally fail? Will they? Where did the journalists go? After the first townhall, that I had to miss, another conference was called. In the lead up to both events, I tweeted my desire to see gender parity on the panels . My tweets were replied to with “we’re trying!” Apparently most of the kick ass women (and people of color) in Chicago media were busy both days. I know some people just don’t get it. I know people close to me don’t get it. They don’t understand why women need to be at the freaking table, in the newsroom and holding the editor’s red pen – it’s just as simple as women see things differently. Not better, not worse, just differently. The latest example is the WaPo “Mouthpiece Theater” fiasco that ended with WaPo pulling the plug . Two men thought that calling the Secretary o...

Feministe! And here is my post that isn't the intro part: *********** You might have read or heard stories coming out of Blogher 2009 about the amount of free shit that was given out. Companies have set their targets on mom bloggers (ok, certain demographically appropriate ones) for this free stuff in the hopes that we are so grateful we’ll write about it and you all will run out and buy it. One of my dear friends, Self-Made Mom , came home and decided to auction her swag pile on eBay: so in a moment of materialistic Zen, I decided to do something a little rash (for me at least.) I’m auctioning it all off on eBay for charity ( The Chicago Abortion Fund .) If you’re pissed you didn’t get Crocs (which aren’t in the bag, btw because I knew I wouldn’t wear them although they looked comfy), or you really want that Little Giraffe neck pillow, or you’re yearning for some more zip drives, PLEASE BID. The auction is over and the winning bid was $182.50. Isn’t that awesome? A small bag...

This weekend was my daughter's sixth birthday ! I can't believe she's six already. Where did the time go? Seriously?! Saturday we had some of her friends & family over for a party. The weather was touch & go, but we were able to get outside for the breaking of the unicorn pinata. Of course, not everyone got a chance to whack the paper fantasy creature as the 3rd kid to really take a turn, the kid's boy BFF, beheaded the unicorn. The funniest part is that the kids didn't know what to do! The candy didn't scatter as the body was still intact. So I ripped it open and the kids went scrambling for the goodies. Saturday night we want to a Chicago Sky game with family. It was a great game except that the kid is still scared of Sky Guy , so when he brought her cupcakes she didn't take it well. But overall the weekend was great. And now I'm the mom of a six-year-old with the attitude of a 16-year-old. Wish us luck!