consumerism

a thumbnail graphic: text reads BLAST FROM THE PAST

BFTP: Who moved that apostrophe?

By on • ( 2 )

How did a day that grew from West Virginian Mothers’ Work Days from 1858 onwards (where mothers worked together to improve their community), and Mothers’ Friendship Days from 1865 (to promote harmony between former opponents in the Civil War), become what we celebrate now as Mother’s Day?

See the difference that apostrophe position makes?

HAPPY UNIMAGINATIVE, CONSUMER-ORIENTED AND ENTIRELY ABITRARY, MANIPULATIVE AND SHALLOW INTERPRETATION OF ROMANCE DAY!

Occupy Valentine’s Day: down with couple-talism!

By on • ( 6 )

I’m rather liking the rethink-V-day activism around this year, which has ended up being a bit more substantive than some of the Anti-Valentine hating that I’ve seen around in other years. How about doing something positive/useful/affirming instead? Create rather than consume, or raise awareness about the limited ways we think about romance.

The Barbie Distortion

By on • ( 9 )

[t]he media images and fashion icons that we aspire to emulate are constructions. Like billboard signs and magazine editorials, the pictures are manipulations that distort our sense of normal bodies.

Small (Environmental) Economies

By on • ( 13 )

I think that most of us here probably waste far more than we need to (I certainly do), but at the same time, most of us probably have our own little small personal economies to reduce waste, and it strikes me that sharing these with each other could be useful.