Category Archives: Rock on-Peace Out

A Mini-Skirt Might Also be a Brainwashed Choice, and Other Points From a Transfeminist Conversation – The Ladies Finger

On Women’s Day

– “When they wish us ‘Happy Women’s Day,’ they also take the liberty to define womanhood in the process. The radical nature of the movement – protests and struggles being led by dalit-bahujan women and working class women – is ignored. This reinforces caste and class divisions in society, rather than breaking them.”

– “Speaking of Working Women’s Day – what do we understand by the word ‘working’? There are women who don’t get a salary. But we can’t say, under any circumstances, that they’re not ‘working.’ Their workplace may not be a factory or an office, but it is certainly the 24×7 grind of home. Are we excluding them from our conversations?”

– “I came to know about Women’s Day when I was a teenager, around twelve or thirteen years old. I saw something about it on the glossy paper of the Lifestyle section: there it was, written in pink, ‘Happy Women’s Day.’ Next to this there was a picture of a smiling, thin, light-skinned girl dressed in a red saree. This narrow way in which society wants to see womanhood is constantly asserted so that this day can be corporatised.”

– “A few years ago, some boys wished me ‘Happy Women’s Day’ and this made me feel good, because I felt that I was being accepted as a woman. My mother too is a woman, but this day means nothing to her. We can’t truly celebrate this day if we don’t feel free as women. I don’t.”

[…]

Source: A Mini-Skirt Might Also be a Brainwashed Choice, and Other Points From a Transfeminist Conversation – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

» Live Today

What if I die tomorrow?
Nothing is so easy.
I don’t live in yesterday
because it is gone.
I don’t live in the future
because it is not here yet.
It will come, whether I am alive or not
I live today. It is the moment!
Live today,
Not the regrets of yesterday,
Not the worries of tomorrow…
Enjoy the moment,
The smile, the tea, the food,
The dance, the song, the walk
Enjoy the love and existence.
Live in today
Forget yesterday and tomorrow.
They are gone or not here yet.

By Raha

Source: » Live Today

Humans of New York

Source: Humans of New York

“I’m graduating from Columbia with a Masters’ in Public Health. I want to stay in New York for another few years, but then I want to go back to Texas. My family is from a ‘drive-through’ town off Route 66. It’s tempting to stay here in New York because there are better opportunities. The Department of Health is very developed, and there’s so much funding from the government, and the services are so extensive. I feel like there’s so much I can learn here. But then I feel like I need to bring it back home. Texas is a big ole place. People are spread out. And so many of them don’t have access to the services they need.”

Don’t tell me to smile – LEO Weekly

Telling women to smile is a societal issue that goes far beyond the service industry, and women all over the world are taking a stand. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh of Brooklyn, New York, began a traveling street-art project in 2012, “Stop Telling Women to Smile.” It addresses gender-based street harassment in mural form — in public, where women are often the most vulnerable to physical and emotional harassment. I asked some of my male friends if they’d been told to smile at bus stops, walking down the street or while lifting weights at the gym? Few answered yes, while my lady friends are victim to such behavior daily — even multiple times per day. A girlfriend picking out tomatoes at Kroger was told, “Smile, it can’t be that bad!” Should she have taken this as a compliment, or a public accosting with a smile?  I hope I can speak for my lady bartender brethren when I say: I am not complaining about my job. I adore my job and the relationships I’m able to cultivate daily. Believe it or not, this bitchy bartender actually strikes up great conversations with her guests! I’m simply speaking out for progress in hopes that most men (and women) who tell us to smile will reconsider their desire to emotionally project. The evolution and growth needed for a more progressive society takes place in all workplaces, even bars, and you can be an ally by understanding that women are humans and are allowed to experience the spectrum of natural human emotions, even behind the bar. And, at the end of the day, we’re the ones who decide when and if you get another drink. Don’t worry, you can order it with whatever facial expression you please. Cheers!

Source: Don’t tell me to smile – LEO Weekly

Jane Goodall – Page – Interview Magazine

I remember I told the story about the chimp named Old Man who was rescued from medical research and lived with three females on an island with Marc [Cusano], who was looking after them. Marc gradually got to be friends with Old Man, although he had been told he’d kill him, that he hated people. Then, one day, Marc frightened the baby accidentally—he slipped and fell, and the baby screamed, and the mother raced over and bit deeply into his neck. The other two females rushed to help their friend. So here is Marc, thinking, “I’m going to die.” But actually, Old Man, who was so protective of the baby, pulled those three females off and kept them away while Marc dragged himself to safety. You know, if a chimp who has been abused horribly by humans can help a human friend in a time of need, how much more should we help the animals—and other people for that matter—in their time of need?

Source: Jane Goodall – Page – Interview Magazine

Friday Open Thread |Our Gems Week: Nina Simone | 3CHICSPOLITICO If you love Nina – you have to bookmark this – thanks 3CHICKS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BTNjeKqpEk

She was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone.

Source: Friday Open Thread |Our Gems Week: Nina Simone | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Raul Castro: Blockade Most Serious Barrier to Economic Progress | News | teleSUR English

Destroying a bridge is easy and requires little time. To solidly rebuild one is a much longer and difficult task.After four failed attempts, as a symbol of willpower and perseverance, on September 2, 2013, U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad managed to swim across the Florida Straits, without a shark cage.For this feat, overcoming the distance that geographically separates our countries, on August 30, 2014, to the tune of the national anthems of Cuba and the United States, she was presented with the Order of Sporting Merit, awarded by the Cuban Council of State.This accomplishment contains a strong message, it should serve us as an example for bilateral relations, as it confirms that if she could, then we too can.I reiterate our thanks to President Obama for his visit and the willingness of the government of Cuba to continue moving forward in the coming months for the benefit of our peoples and countries.

Source: Raul Castro: Blockade Most Serious Barrier to Economic Progress | News | teleSUR English

Femen earn victory in right to protest topless – The Local

Three Femen activists were acquitted of exhibitionism on Wednesday for a topless protest staged as former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived at his trial for “aggravated pimping” in February 2015. “It’s the first acquittal in a trial against Femen on the charge of sexual exhibition,” their lawyer Valentine Reberioux told AFP. “A political demonstration should not be confused with sexual aggression,” she said. “These are political acts using the nude torso as a mode of expression and it ends there.”

Source: Femen earn victory in right to protest topless – The Local

By Jane Fonda Written for Lenny: My Convoluted Journey to Feminism | Jane Fonda

this is not about replacing one “-archy” with another, it’s about transforming social and cultural norms and institutions so that power, violence, and greed are not the primary operating principles. It’s not about moving from patriarchy to matriarchy, but from patriarchy to democracy. Feminism means real democracy. There’s no road map to get there. It hasn’t happened yet. Women and men of conscience have never had a chance thus far to make our revolution. The journey is both external and internal, political and personal. For me, the personal meant becoming a single woman, no longer silencing my voice, slowly becoming the subject of my own life. My friendships with women grew deeper and more fulfilling. I read books I’d read before, by Carol Gilligan, Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, Gerda Lerner, bell hooks, and Jean Baker Miller, among others, but I understood them in a new way. In the process, I discovered that what I’d thought were just my issues were, in fact, shared by other women. I was not alone. The personal became political, and I became an embodied feminist. I had gone from believing that women’s issues were a distraction, mere ancillary problems to be addressed after everything else had been taken care of, to the realization that women are the issue, the core issue. We will fail to solve any problem — poverty, peace, sustainable development, environment, health — unless we look at it through a gender lens and make sure the solution will be good for women. It took me 30 years to get it, but it’s OK to be a late bloomer as long as you don’t miss the flower show.

Source: By Jane Fonda Written for Lenny: My Convoluted Journey to Feminism | Jane Fonda