Viva la Feminista

I seriously wanted to ignore the Miley Cyrus VMA thing. But no, my good friend, Joanne Bamberger had to go and write a piece connecting the sexualization of girls to rape culture and then to the horrifying 30-day sentence for that rapist teacher in Montana. That's what friends do, read their friends' writing. I then shared it on Facebook (more what friends do) and one friend made an excellent point. Joanne had stretched just a bit too far (my FB friend thought, really far) by using Miley as an example of the sexualization of girls. See, I totally followed Joanne's logic as stated here: Even though she is 20, many of us still see her as the tween/teen star of Disney's Hannah Montana , and maintain a mental image of her as that more wholesome child, even as she struts on stage today, inviting sexual attention. Yes, Miley is 20, but the collective we still do see her as a child. That could be one reason why she's trying too damn hard to be "sexy" and ...

Francesca Escoto , Founder & CEO of the Innovators Institute and author of “Divorce Your Drama: Courage To Make The Tough Choices That Are Worth Every Tear”, is a startup coach, helping people turn their ideas into money. I don’t want to lean in, lean forward, stand up, stand out, be assertive. I don’t want to show up, show off, toot my horn or speak up. I also don’t want to stay quiet, nor play the game, pay my dues, climb the ladder, or get off the ladder. I want to be me. Is that too much to ask? I am just sick and tired of people – both men and women – treating women as if there is something wrong with us and we need to get fixed. When you add to the mix that I am Latina, well, I might as well get paid for breathing: I am a walking human experiment. The problem with Latin women are endless – health, education, social justice, economic access, biculturalism, ambiculturalism (WTF?), not enough Spanish, not enough English, asthma, diabetes, and apparently, a h...

Today is the first day of classes for Chicago Public Schools! The joy of this day is a shared joy. Ella could not wait to get back to her friends. Reminder, here in Chicago, we've practically abandoned neighborhood schools, so her BFFs are scattered across the city and not around the corner like when I was a kid. Anywho... I went to an event for Staples the day before Blogher and learned about their new reward program for teachers & classrooms. I shop at Staples a lot, so promoting this reward program wasn't a big deal for me. As I said, Staples is my choice for my office supply habit. Because of that, I have a Staples Rewards card. It's free to get. Now all I need is for Ella's teacher to have her own Rewards Card and after I link mine to hers , she gets rewards from what I buy! Here’s what teachers get when parents shop: 2% back in rewards on everything, excluding postage, phone/gift cards and savings passes 5% back in rewards on every Copy &...

Linda Garcia Merchant founded Voces Primeras, LLC, a production company dedicated to creating and distributing documentary-style features of pioneering Latinas to the educational, political and retail markets in 2006. It began with a Facebook post asking the two of us to work on putting together some presentations for her in Chicago. It began with her excitement at connecting with a generation of young people at SUNY Binghampton and their enthusiasm toward what she had known all along—that to fight injustice one needs the passionate songs of the poets. Words sung as wisdom, as fuel, as beacon and lightpost both illuminating the way towards change and as sentry against resistance. It began with a question. ‘I don’t know if you know each other, but I would like to present at a few venues, sell some books, spend some time in Chicago—it’s been too long’. “She” is Dr. Luzma Umpierre Herrera, iconic second wave profa from Bryn Mawr—veterana of too many battles, too much challenge...

The familia & I took a short vacation last week (let's use that as the reason why this blog was so quiet, ok?) to the LA-Anaheim area. So it was sometime late in the day on Friday that I found out that my favorite baseball player, Ryne Sandberg, was named interim manager of the Phillies. It took until Sunday for him to notch his first win as a manager and Monday was win number 2! As a Cubs fan, my heart broke when the Cubs didn't give Ryno a chance to manage. Heck, even seriously consider him as the manager! It broke even more when he was welcomed in Philadelphia and just knew that he would be manager one day. Am I a Phillies fan now? Nope. But I will be rooting for Ryno to turn the team around and a world of success. Now to get me some tickets for the homestand at Wrigley.

My summer reading has been lower than usual (thanks so much, PhD program!), so I can't review every book that's been sent to me lately. Instead of a review, I am bringing you an excerpt of Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution. I did read the introduction and have high hopes for the book. It's a discussion that is long overdue. I hope you enjoy! About Bi: Depicted as duplicitous, traitorous, and promiscuous, bisexuality has long been suspected, marginalized, and rejected by both straight and gay communities alike. Bi takes a long overdue, comprehensive look at bisexual politics—from the issues surrounding biphobia/monosexism, feminism, and transgenderism to the practice of labeling those who identify as bi as either “too bisexual” (promiscuous and incapable of fidelity) or “not bisexual enough” (not actively engaging romantically or sexually with people of at least two different genders). In this forward-thinking and eye-opening book, feminist bisexual and genderqueer ...

Brenda Hernandez is a law school diversity professional. She is also a feminist activist and blogger at boricuafeminist.com . I am Latina. I am a feminist. I am a first generation college graduate. I am a first generation law graduate. I am a young professional. It is because of these identities that I feel a responsibility to my community, to all the communities in which I can be a mentor. I have always sought out opportunities whether formally or informally to be a mentor. Mentoring isn’t just helping people achieve their school or work goals, but also helping them discover who they want to be. Mentorship is important because it gives people the opportunity to hope, to see themselves or who they want to be, as possible. When I lived in NY, I became a mentor to a Latina senior in high school through a mentorship program. Did we have everything in common? No. But for her to see a person who grew up with a similar socio-economic background, be able to successfully complete college...

It's already August! If you're like me, that means you're wondering where the heck summer went. If you're in Chicago, you know that not did summer fly by, but also failed to show up half of July. But you're also thinking, "What am I going to do with the rest this fleeting summer?" One recommendation is to hop on an elliptical bike. The family & I were given the opportunity to test drive one earlier this summer. And it was...different. We all had fun, but this machine gets some getting use to. We also only spent 30 minutes on them, so a longer test drive is still in order. It's quite the experience! The weirdest thing is that there is no seat. See the picture to your right...Yup, so seat. So you need to stand up tall at all times. I tended to lean into the handlebars. And yes, it is an elliptical machine built into the bicycle, so your thighs are going to get a work out. Because you are standing, you are way higher off the ground than on a reg...