personal Category
Support women. In the US and Worldwide
There’s a copy/paste going around Facebook, sharing a woman’s feelings about why she didn’t march in the Women’s Marches yesterday. Essentially it boiled down to “why would I whine about what I have here, when women around the world have so many fewer rights.” Here’s why it bothers me. It’s an all too common reply when people want to make social change, to bring up conditions in the rest of the world. The fact is, that we don’t live elsewhere. We live here. And I do not mean to undermine the conditions that exist in other countries (in fact, I…
REVIEW: Hidden Figures (no spoilers)
Yesterday, I went to see Hidden Figures with one of my best friends. We had lunch, talked about writing (dear God, did I ramble and dominate the conversation – what the hell) and then we saw the movie. This review contains no spoilers beyond what you might have seen in commercials. Hidden Figures is a movie based on the book of the same name about the true story of three African-American women who worked at NASA in the early 60s, at the height of the space race. This was before the advent of computers, so they had teams of women…
The Galaxy is dimmer tonight.
I’d sort of prepared myself for losing Carrie Fisher, after the news broke about her heart attack. But it still didn’t lessen the shock or the sadness when I learned of her death today. It’s easy to say that someone’s just an actor. Just an artist. And I’ve seen plenty of nay-sayers quick to criticize people mourning. The reason that actors/artists/creators reach us is because they made an impression on us. Either as human beings, or because something they created reached us. Carrie Fisher was so much more than Princess Leia, though that will doubtlessly be her best known legacy.…
Review: MOANA
This last weekend, I was fortunate enough to get to see Disney’s latest animated movie Moana – which is out in theaters today! I wish I could have had this review up earlier – but my basic reaction to the movie was !!!!! And I’m not sure that an entire post of !!!! would have been interpreted in the way I wanted it to. Moana is the story of the young woman who is the daughter of the head of the village, who finds herself drawn to the ocean instead of the life that’s been laid out for her. She…
The Trump Administration and criticism.
In case you missed it, VP-elect Mike Pence went to Hamilton in New York on Friday night. And was booed by theater goers, hardly surprising since the show attracts a lot of the LGBT community, POC, and allies who champion them. At the end of the show, the cast gave a statement about tolerance and pointed out that their cast’s diversity represents America – and hoped that this might change his POV. The Trump Administration…. (meaning Donald Trump) tweeted that Pence was lectured and judged and demanded an apology. He later deleted one part of his twitter rant. I have…
What’s with the political posts?
I’ve been writing a lot about politics, which might seem like I’ve come a far way from where I started – blogging about my family. But it’s what’s weighing on my mind, largely in part due to the conversations I’ve had with my children. Do I really want this to be the world my children inherent? Do I want to teach them that bullies can steamroll over them? Continue to insist that their voices, that their fears are not as important as white voices? My children believe in the American Dream. It’s been heartbreaking to watch them realize that our…
Shaking things up.
Anyone who’s known me for any period of time knows that I have a soft spot for the Galactic Empire. Sure they’re the bad guys, sure they lose in the end (as they should) – but I always had fun pretending. Sneering, etc. And the Imperial March is kick-ass. No more. It’s fun to be the bad guy when it’s just fiction – but the truth is, the line between fiction and fact has blurred to a point now where I can’t. It’s harder for me to ignore that the Galactic Empire is based on human supremacy… which would be…
The Day After.
I’m sitting here, angry and frustrated. Heartbroken. I watched so many people on my Facebook feed talk about how they were going to vote for a third party… whether it was out of principle or protest. Because they “just couldn’t vote for either candidate.” You’d have to be delusional not to understand that while we do have third parties – we are not set up for a third party system. What ends up happening is that a third party forms a coalition well after Democrats and Republicans begin campaigning, so all they do is gain a small amount of momentum…
State of the Whitney
I am a busy person. I lost track of this fall and found myself trying to get my Rey costume together last minute…. and no. I’m going to save that costume for Wondercon. She deserves my full effort. The good thing is that I have everything I need to make the costume, but the time. Everything for the wig, everything for the basic costume. I was still waiting for the bandages for her arms – so I don’t have to worry about that now. And I have plenty of things I can put together for a cosplay (and for Halloween).…
Down w/ Locker Room Banter.
This post is shamelessly inspired by TW’s post on FB about something her daughter said, but it’s been on my mind since last week. It’s easy to say that what Donald Trump said in that Access Hollywood tape was vile – especially when he claims it’s locker room banter. But the issue is that the more we talk about how it isn’t locker room banter, we ignore what men do talk about in spaces where they feel like they can say whatever is on their mind. Sure, I’m a woman. But I’ve worked in a lot of male dominant jobs…