These bronze otters were snapped by Jason Pratt on flickr, at the Pittsburgh Zoo.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a great book? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: arts & entertainment, environment, fun & hobbies
Otterday! And Open Thread 
Hoyden About Town 
Morning, all! I was really chuffed to read about Connecticut’s Supreme Court tossing out their law against same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, due to the proposed civil unions law not giving same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Yay for marriage equity!
My daughter is Teh Awesome: mr tog and the tiglings were playing around with the phrase “when life hands you lemons…” (mr tog sez “…it’s time for gin and tonic”) and this was her contribution:
Tomorrow I will be going to the Renaissance Fair. I haven’t been in at least a decade.
A friend works at a clothing shop there and he’s really looking forward to dressing me up. He’ll also dress my husband (in a poofy shirt).
The weather is supposed to be great. I love October weather with the blue skies and leaves just turning yellow.
So, in short, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
I’d like to point out the 47th Disability Blog Carnival, over at Day in Washington.
Oooh Joanne, how lovely! Walking around a pretty place on a beautiful day, mmm. I’ve got my friends coming over tomorrow and will get to show them round campus, which means my tomorrow will be a lot like your tomorrow. 🙂
Had an encounter with the writings of a radical/separatist feminist today. It was somewhat jarring–I always wonder if the blogs I hang out on are too mainstream, if I’m compromising my principles with the way I live my feminism.
Not only that, but the writings were linked at a place full of nonfeminists, where what *I* write is considered polarizing. (That would be the xkcd fora.) None of them have responded yet, but I worry that I’ll see her aggressive and strident tone used as an excuse to dismiss her. I noticed myself being turned off by her statements that seemed like generalizations until you looked closer. (Similar to how so many men think the statement “you have privilege” is personal.)
And then I saw on this feminist’s website a (defunct) link to Questioning Transgender, and a post in which she categorically stated that men should never be left alone with children. I had very negative reactions to both of those things.
So, bah. I am conflicted.
Quixotess: it’s worth remembering that not only does she not speak for all feminists, but she doesn’t speak for all radical separatist feminists either.
Absolutely, and I’m sorry to have implied that. It’s just that *this* feminist said some things that I had initial bad reactions to before looking more closely at them, and then said some things that I had bad reactions to, which haven’t yet yielded themselves to more charitable interpretations. This makes me nervous and unsure of my footing.
Got any recommendations on books / writings / online works by radical / separatist feminists?
Quixotess, I’d say the major issue is that there are several schools of radical feminism today; some seem to require one to marginalize others (trans* people, male allies, etc.) in response to women’s marginalization, as you’ve found.
Which I personally think is crap.
But not all radical feminism does that, as Lauredhel notes. So I suppose the question is whether you’re looking for the marginalizing kind or other kinds of radical feminist work.
I take my feminism non-marginalizing, if you please. *tries and fails to come up with some sort of margarine pun*
Here in Wisconsin there used to be a ban on selling margarine, in the interest of the state economy or something. My mom told me that my grands would drive down to Illinois and buy it in bulk. Why I do not know.
Annnnyway, uh, I don’t have any good links atm because it is late. Halp!
Today is my daughter’s 10th birthday, for her party she asked to go to Luna Park so we’ve spent the day there with 3 of her friends. The girls were all perfectly behaved but my almost 7 year old son kept vanishing. It was somewhat stressful. Other than that it was a lovely day, perfect weather and not too crowded (we got there early).
I am now sitting on the lounge with the dog asleep across my lap. Life is good.
JoAnne, have fun at the Ren Fair! We spent last weekend at a medieval reenactor’s convention – playing dress-up is fun 🙂
mimbless last blog post..Caitlin
Oh, RenFaire. I have never been, so I’m very jealous.
Damn it, I wish I had been paying more attention to the Carnival Blogging – I have two good open letters on disability right now, since my husband was told he had to either stand up and cheer for Jack Layton or make it really clear why he wasn’t. Cuz, as we know, PWD need to look proper in order to be acceptable to the able-bodied. Urgle.
Needless to say, I have had no response to that email, but I managed to conduct myself in such a way as to be kicked out of that rally. “Make Poverty History” isn’t “on message”, apparently.
I’m really bitter.
But in good awesome news for me! My thesis is going well and my thesis advisor keeps talking about the great contribution I’m making to the field and OMG! YAYES!!! (It’s on the history of disability as treated medically and socially in Canada in the late 1800s, and how it changed post WWI.)
…
I like ponies.
Hello! I added Hoyden About Town to my Google Reader today.
Gwytherinns last blog post..Malalai Kakar
Hi Gwytherin, welcome to the Hoydenspace.
A quick note to readers: I’m in the process of upgrading the blog to a new template which will offer some added features, and upgrading to the latest version of WordPress at the same time. This won’t be finalised for a week or two, but don’t be surprised if you come here one day and things look a bit different.
One of the new features is going to be a rotating tagline, for which we need mottoes – so polish up your epigrams and leave us some suggestions for the tagline file!
Quixotess, I’ve always appreciated your comments on xkcd. For such a progressive cartoonist and blogger, he certainly can attract the ignorant and closed-minded.
It’s rat-bum timing that the exchange rates gain a few hundred metres of altitude the same time land myself a full time job and discover Etsy. (Above the poverty line at last! My sainted aunt!)
Conflict: as my boss was telling me war stories about past interviewees, it was clear that one lady, (infinitely more qualified than me,) was not hired due to her obesity. It was patronising that a major factor in my employability was stick-thinness, and disturbing because I have a dicky heart anyway (thanks to stick-thinness), and so not the paragon of health anyway.
This is the same boss that says that spicy foods boost your metabolism, that the government is run by minorities, that climate change is a fiction, and the recession is a media beat-up because “we can always print more money”. And if I never hear diet talk again I will the happiest Kim in the room.
Also, my indoor housecats have fleas. That time of year, I guess. Any tips?
Well to those to whom it applies I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving and may we all take the time to discuss its relevance to Canadian history.
Leaving Floriade on the weekend, I saw the guy in front of me hand back his Falun Gong pamphlet to the lady handing them out. I looked incredulously at my husband to see if he had seen it too (he had). I had to stop myself cheering when Rude Man’s teenage daughter turned around and asked him (in a joking tone but still) where he was when manners were handed out. Hoyden in the making. Well done that young femininist!
@The Amazing Kim:
Well, thanks! Are you a forumite then?
…And yes, he can. Lands, but I always feel wrong-footed when people say things on that forum that here or at other feminist blogs, they would get either banned for or laughed out of the thread–and I have to take them seriously and argue clearly through my anger. Harrumph.
I would just like everyone to know that I am very angry right now. I hope it’s not irrationally so, but I am.
Today I tried and failed to look up information on racism in Australia. I was looking specifically for the history of and current situation of black Australians, but this is difficult because apparently y’all down under use that term to refer to Aboriginal Australians. Can anyone point me to info on racism against “black” Australians as we use the term in the US?
Do you mean as in of African descent? I’m not sure that the population is big enough to warrant actual studies yet. You might get something googling Somali refugees in Australia. Googling refugees or asylum seekers in general in Australia will get you lots of stuff on racism, unfortunately.
Connecticut is the first jurisdiction in which I have a homosexual acquaintance to marry same-sex couples.
Though I haven’t heard from Danie in a while, so I don’t know if she and her girlfriend from 2 years ago are still together or if they’re planning on marrying.
@Mindy: Yes, of African descent, however distant. Thanks–I’ll have a researching look at the Somalis.