Life & Other Pursuits

Shortly after my last post, a number of things happened.

1. I went on a cross-country road-trip with my boyfriend, all through the east coast, through way of the south, and Canada. We listened to all 20 discs of The Three Musketeers, only slept in a hotel once, reconnected and made some wonderful new friends, saw War Horse (aka, My Little War Ponies), and had a pretty epic birthday to say the least. Most of my trips are family or dance related, and this was the first of its kind since Europe. Scary and super refreshing.

2. I joined a dance team. No, not that kind of dance.  Lindy hop and charleston, specifically. 

We do things like this:

Due to the inoperativeness of the camera, I am occasionally cut off on the far right of the screen. Biggest accomplishment? Not clenching my hands into fists at the end of the baby doll. It is a trust fall.

3. I got a new job, which switched industries, professions, corporate culture, etc... and put me among the ranks of the train commuters. So while I now interact with strangers much more, I really look forward to not driving in the snow, even if it means that I'm the occasional Ikea Pack Mule. I can count my commute on Fitocracy, right? *cricket, cricket

It is a steep learning curve, which is good (long-term career development), but also intimidating and a little challenging. There are also random events where things go opposite to my expectations. For example, Le Ikea Pack Mule carried a homemade cake, homemade cookies and a store-bought bundt cake, convinced that the high powered professionals would go for the fancy bundt instead of my humble cake and cookies. Wrong. They saw me coming with the personally-frosted cake and followed me to the party. Only the bundt had a few pieces left, the rest were crumbs.

These next few weeks, with time to rest, recap, and plan will be a much needed break. I didn't take a break between jobs, except for Thanksgiving, and after the last few months' crisis:handled-overdrive mode that I've been in, I'm starting to stress because there isn't anything to stress about. Sigh.

There were many smaller things that happened, but these were the majors. Now, I'm off to dance on a weeknight thanks to tomorrow's holiday, saints be praised!

How I feel about the TSA

[Via The Onion]
Yet one more reason why I think that The Onion's satire is, at times, more poignant than the news.

I've traveled often, and as I've grown up in airports and around planes, I tend to agree with my mother that planes are safer than most other transit. There is a greater opportunity for error in hundreds driving their own vehicles, than hundreds in a plane, driven by one. One driver asleep at the wheel versus one person asleep on a plane, are two vasty different things. I'll stick with the plane.

True Socialism

 Milos Forman pretty accurately sums up my feelings whenever I hear politicians and people call President Obama a socialist or a communist: They have no clue what socialism or communism looks like.

Now, years later, I hear the word “socialist” being tossed around by the likes of Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and others. President Obama, they warn, is a socialist. The critics cry, “Obamacare is socialism!” They falsely equate Western European-style socialism, and its government provision of social insurance and health care, with Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism. It offends me, and cheapens the experience of millions who lived, and continue to live, under brutal forms of socialism.

Marx believed that we could wipe out social inequities and Lenin tested those ideas on the Soviet Union. It was his dream to create a classless society. But reality set in, as it always does. And the results were devastating. Blood flowed through Russia’s streets. The Soviet elite usurped all privileges; sycophants were allowed some and the plebes none. The entire Eastern bloc, including Czechoslovakia, followed miserably.

[Via the New York Times]


As a second-generation immigrant, and one who studied her world history, I'm well-aware that the wealthy kids wearing shirts of Che Guevara's face had little idea of the destruction he later came to be a part of. A friend's mother had to coerce her way out of the Stasi (Romanian underground police) and could only claim asylum once on U.S. soil. The current tax code has nothing on the Stasi or the regime changes of Latin America.

The entire article is available here.

Given Permission

Recently, I came across an article by a vehement conservative pro-life U.S. mother, who related her experience giving birth to two children under Canada's universal health care. She spoke about how she had initially opposed the idea on moral grounds, but when she was able to complete all of the pre-natal care, she found herself changed by the expectations of what a government should be to its people.

I started to feel differently about Universal government mandated and regulated Health care. I realized how many times my family had avoided hospital care because of our lack of coverage. When I mentioned to Canadians that I had been in a car accident as a teen and hadn’t gone into the hospital, they were shocked! Here, you always went to the hospital, just in case. And the back issue I had since the accident would have been helped by prescribed chiropractic care which would have been at no cost to me. When I asked for prayers for my little brother who had been burned in a camping accident, they were all puzzled why the story did not include immediately rushing him to the hospital. When they asked me to clarify and I explained that many people in the States are not insured and they try to put off medical care unless absolutely needed, they literally could not comprehend such a thing.

[Via Permission to Live, by A Young Moms Musings]

This is an important difference. Many GOP members have shaped it as a blight on your freedom to be forced to be healthy. Instead, this mother discovered that it gave her the freedom to have a child and get the necessary treatments without worrying about cost or debt. They're also able to do it much more efficiently. Unless you're part of the one percent, comprehensive health care is most likely out of reach.

Growing up in a family that had good health care provided by a parent's employer, I'm still shocked when people put off going to the dentist or the doctor. Health was important, and if you didn't prevent it now, you'd pay for it later. But, I was surprised to learn that my own policy covered chiropractic care, which would have been easier to obtain if I'd had all of the documents translated from legalese into English.

The scary thing for me was always the threat of losing health care. In the U.S., you might need to declare bankruptcy. In Canada, there's health care for you, regardless if you lose your job, have a baby, or get into an accident.

Making sure that all citizens have the ability to receive quality health care, regardless of their ability to pay, is a way to ensure that you're taking care of your entire population, not just the rich.

A Follow-up to Driving While Hispanic

There's an absolutely fascinating book called, How the Irish Became White. Some people thank the civil rights movement, and the need for white supremacist groups to try and unite anyone who was not African-American. The roots of it go back much further, and contend with how the Irish began to systematically get work within the city structures - unions, police, firemen, etc... Once you can get into the system, you can begin to change it for your benefit.

In Slate's The Myth of Majority-Minority America, the author points out that many racial census categories have changed drastically since the inception of the census. His own grandfather is a pioneer of Hispanic Literature, but outside of census categories, he's essentially white.

If the government insists on rigidly applying the current scheme, complete with its odd one-drop-of-blood conception of Latino identity, then America will, indeed, become majority minority. But long-term stability has never been a hallmark of official government thinking on this subject. Everyone knows that a large share of the black population is in fact partially white, while a smaller—but not entirely trivial—share of the white population is partially black. The future of American whiteness will likely evolve to include a larger share of ancestry from Asia and Latin America, just as in the past it’s expanded to include people from eastern and southern Europe. The idea that every single person with a single non-white ancestor counts as non-white will look as ridiculous as Elizabeth Warren’s past claim of Cherokee identity.

 [Via Slate]

This reminds me of an episode of PBS' Finding Your Roots, where Branford Marsalis confessed that as a teenager, he and his brothers used to track down white Marsalis families, claim to be distantly related, and watch them freak out. My only sadness is that they never captured this on film.

As someone who was white until she got to college, and with a full sister who considers herself white, its understandable that while Dad grew up on another hemisphere, its all a social construct. Heritage is important to me, as is knowing when my ancestors left Spain and Switzerland and what that means to my story. But what it taught me, to grow up in between categories, was to be cautious of how much I bought into the societal norms of happiness, success, beauty, etc... After that, you write your own story.

Who to trust?

It does seem that Slate is right in positing that the GOP believes that "America's Women Can't be Trusted."

I am always, deeply worried about the attempt to pit women against women for political gain. But I think we at least need to be honest about the fact that so many of the current GOP initiatives that seek to free women from the clutches of big government are rooted in the idea that women are systematically trying to cheat the system to get free stuff. You can argue all you want about whether it’s better for women to have access to health care, child care, maternity leave, equal pay, and preventive medicine. But when you base those arguments on rickety old Elizabethan stereotypes about deceitful women and their lying ways, it becomes harder to call yourself the party of women.

[Via Slate]

I always think its an interesting divide. Women have achieved equality in many areas, yet are still framed as 'Daughters of Eve' who seek to game the system.

Preventative medicine is an investment in the future, as it always has been. With the recent passing of Affordable Care Act, I think the conversation will shift to an emphasis on becoming healthier now, so that you save money later. And, that includes women's health care.

In other news, part 2

Dear Arrested Downton,
Please keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Me.

Also, I wrote this for The Interactive:
Sate Your Anglophilia: 5 Great British TV Shows Streaming on Netflix
That's right, you too can enjoy the wonders of eerily intelligent sheep, Irish misanthropes and "highly functioning sociopaths" who solve crimes.

[Via Arrested Sherlock]

Dancing: Games and the Appearance of Effortlessness

I think one of the interesting principles of dance is that: You don't have it down until it looks effortless.

Kyra Gaunt talks about this a bit in her introduction to The Games Black Girls Play, which is an interesting look at the history of African-American women's contributions to music and dance. So, the poly-rhythms that we start learning as children in game settings - how fast can you rhythmically hand clap? - become useful later on in relating music history and social interaction.

Until doing the sequences of double dutch (a particular skill I never mastered) or drumming and dancing simultaneously, appear as though it were effortless, you can't consider the skill mastered. Because studying these rhythms were part of 'play,' outside people consider them to be innate. I spent hours on the playground with Miss Mary Mack, and Down Down Baby, and can play them still with women in previous generations. It belies all of the time and energy I expended into learning and practicing these rhythmic configurations during recess.


In an effort to separate themselves from other dances that have strict competitions and standings, I think that the Lindy Hop community has over-emphasized the idea that anyone can just 'pick this up'. It's not true, for one, and the skills that we use as adults were practiced as children. I can learn how to dance salsa or tango much easier because of my childhood training in ballet and lyrical. And while dance is inherently social, whether you dance solo, in a group or with a partner, it is also one of the earliest forms of storytelling and communication.When I dance, I tell a story with my movements and my body.

The appearance of effortlessness is deceiving, because it does not account for all of the study, training and practice. I have a friend who won the novice ballroom championship this year. People attribute his win to innate talent, which does not account for the weeks that he spent more time analyzing, practicing and training in dance than at his full time job. I can appreciate that. I think it is a false narrative that artistic talent is innate only. It's both innate and the result of skills honed.

When I perform or hit the social floor, you only see the result of study and training, not the time and energy I invested into it. Which is as it should be. I don't want others to watch me learn, I want to work out what I learned. But the learning takes time. I took a private lesson from Dexter back in March, and took notes on the different things that we worked on and ways to improve. Only now in June am I starting to really hone into what he was telling me. It's not that he didn't tell me these things or that I'm an especially slow student; it just took time to translate what he was telling me to how I was moving, and then practice the skill in the correct way.

So, this weekend, I'm excited to test out all these skills on dancers from all over the world. Huzzah!

In other news

[Via Apartment Therapy]


I wrote this for The Interactive:
Digital history: How to find free classic books and music online


I'm still someone who frequents the local library, who finds the rare jazz and blues albums, and enjoys the physical feel of a beloved book. My transient housing situation has made me select books based on their friendship, and glean the unnecessary. When I buy a place, every room will have bookshelves, and some bookshelves will lead to other rooms.

When the zombies attacked Cuba

After the advent of Shaun of the Dead, with all of its zombies and laughter, I really doubted that another film could come along that would make me rethink that the whole zombie-film-vehicle was overdone:

Juan of the Dead generally follows the plot-points of 2004's Shaun of the Dead, but plot itself seems beside the point. The story's just the vehicle for the acid-like burn of dark Cuban humor, which lifts the movie above the fold of genre films. The action is quick, the actors have chemistry, and the jokes about Cuba's atheism, machismo, government, tight-knit communities, and nonchalant city operators are frequent and oh-so-un-PC. The sun-washed feeling of downtown Havana jumps off the screen, and the gore is campy enough not to make stomachs turn. Suddenly, it feels like every other zombie film should have been set in Cuba—that Cuba is the only place where anyone could be counted on to survive a supernatural phenomenon and even laugh.

[Via The Atlantic]

I am curious as to why nobody saw the potential for this before. Zombies? Cuba? Of course it makes sense! What's an apocalypse, if you've already survived several?

The theme of escape from Cuba seems to be a continuous one across many films. Una Noche, Juan of the Dead and others all deal with the escape of Cuba, to the point where several actors from Una Noche claimed asylum while promoting their film in the U.S. Yet, defecting is only seen as the option for the young. Juan, from Juan of the Dead decides otherwise.

As the film progresses, though, there are just too many zombies to kill, and that's when Juan, Lázaro, Vladi, and Camila decide to take to the seas. Made from one of the old jalopies for which Cuba is known, their "boat" is cherry-red and confidence-inspiring. But when it's time for Juan to jump in, he demurs, staying waist-deep in the blue water. Camila and Vladi are young and should start new lives in Miami, but he'll stay. It's not so bad in Havana. He'll sort it out.

[Via The Atlantic]


In film class, we watched a rare Cuban film called La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) (1976), that dealt with slavery in the sugar mills and one landowner's decision to invite 12 slaves to dinner, to teach them Christian virtues. The film ended with hope, that one could escape from the slavery and terrible conditions. The defection was seen as a choice of life and death, but the only option was to keep running for freedom.

One of the things I've learned through my immersion in Latin American culture, is that underneath the upheaval and bloodshed, there is an underlying passion and resilience. Yes, you laugh at the terrible things. Because if you stop laughing, you start crying. I've been told I have a dark sense of humor, but it seems that I've got nothing on the makers of Juan of the Dead.

This is Why We Fight

Now, in the land of frightening news:

While the Florida legislature had allocated $1.5 million to 30 rape crisis centers in the state, Gov. Rick Scott used his line-item veto power to cut the funding. The Governor claimed the funding was “duplicative, since, as a state, we already fund sexual violence programs.” But Jennifer Dritt, the executive director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, said individual centers could lose between $30,000 and $100,000 each and don’t have enough funds to serve the 1.2 million women in Florida who “already have been victimized.” 

[Via Feministing.com]

I feel like a lot of people don't realize the magnitude of the problem of sexual assault. Statistically, 1 in 5 women will experience sexual assault at some point in their lives. At least, that's the reported amount. It's within your rights to choose not to report a crime, especially when the justice system is formulated to place the blame on the victim. Yet, these facilities should be available for people to get tested, etc...

I mean we can all agree that violence against women is bad right?  And we can all agree that survivors of domestic abuse need assistance, right?  So why are Republicans opposed to funding that assistance?   Hang ups in this current version of the bill is additional provisions supporting undocumented and LGBT survivors.

[ Via Feministing.com]

 Do we really want perpetrators to believe that it is okay to victimize, as long as the person is undocumented or LGBT? I find this sort of double standard to be very troubling. Undocumented workers in this country already struggle with little protection from the law. Is this the sort of provision that we want to enshrine, a permanent underclass? I should hope not.

Edit: Sadly, related:

 Scholars believe that abuse rates in the ultra-Orthodox world are roughly the same as those in the general population, but for generations, most ultra-Orthodox abuse victims kept silent, fearful of being stigmatized in a culture where the genders are strictly separated and discussion of sex is taboo. When a victim did come forward, it was generally to rabbis and rabbinical courts, which would sometimes investigate the allegations, pledge to monitor the accused, or order payment to a victim, but not refer the matter to the police.

[Via New York Times]

The article continues about the degrees of intimidation experienced by families who speak up about abuse, within the Orthodox Jewish culture. And while I know that the Orthodox Jewish experience is very different from the total Jewish experience, it's still troubling that abuse is not only swept under the rug, the social controls punish the victim.

Driving while hispanic:or how I found out I was a minority

When visiting Los Angeles en route to Mexico, my friend Manuel joked that I was another "undercover Mexican."
Which is true - I've never been extra-specially screened at airport security or stopped on the highway for being Latina. My fair skin and Midwestern accent often belie my surname, to the confusion of cashiers and DMV's alike. I only truly experienced being a minority, when I arrived at college, and was expected at meetings of minorities, on a Dutch-American campus.

But many of the recent GOP candidates seem to believe that to be a party member, requires you to be Caucasian, male, and nothing else. This limited perception of who is accepted into what is supposed to make up one half of the political system in the U.S. seems to be acting like a fringe group.

The media's reaction is always that Latinos' number one issue is immigration. And it's not immigration. It's the tone in which people talk about immigration. All of the sudden, you can be a third or fourth-generation Mexican American from Colorado and not really realize you're Mexican until someone pulls you over and asks you for your papers. That's a catalyst for political awakening. I use that as an example because in the 2010 election [in Nevada], Sharron Angle, who was running against Senator Reid, basically said that her path to victory was to vilify Latinos. A hundred percent of the media she posted was racially tinged. And that mobilized nine out of ten Latinos to vote against her. But they still voted for a Republican candidate for governor. Yes, they paid attention because of [Angle's] tone, but when it came to other candidates they voted on the issues.  

[Via The Atlantic]

Due to the oppressive nature and political turmoil of many Central and South American countries, Latinos do seem primed to agree with more Conservative political leanings. My own father grew up in a tumultuous time in Chile, witnessing book burnings of 'dangerous texts' that were found in people's personal libraries. So, it's understandable that protection of civil liberties, and less influence by a corruptible government would be higher priorities on his political wishlist.

They still have that immigrant experience where they came from countries or their parents came from countries that were so horrible that they still see the vast amount of opportunity and America's potential here. If I'm a candidate, how did I package that message of, 'These are my policies on education so that your child can achieve and overcome the hardships you're facing today'?

[Via The Atlantic]

If the GOP could get past their fear of the 'other', remember that their ancestors were once immigrants themselves (Irish and Italians took a long time to be considered 'white'), and actually address the issues at hand (education, unemployment, poverty, etc...), they might stand a decent chance in the upcoming elections. As it is, all of the barely concealed racial and sexist overtones to their policies serve to ostracize the people who would otherwise support them, and polarize the party.

Dance: To Travel or Not to Travel

Kelly Porter - Words to Lindy Hoppers
My html skills are lacking when it comes to embedding non-Youtube Videos, but the above video made the circuits this past week, and was posted, re-posted and discussed.

I have to say, she really hits home on this issue.

I moved to this city nearly 2 years ago, because I was visiting on a regular basis for any amount of dancing to be had. I felt that it was time to strike out for new professional and personal opportunities, and the dance community was a large part of that. But I was tired. I was tired of always racking up miles on my car, eating bad fast food en route to dances, sleeping in sleeping bags on floors, and having to choose between dance (in another city) and life. It's fun to be the unknown element for a little while, but nice to recognize familiar faces.


I love travel, I love meeting new people, but when it comes down to it, what I really want in a scene is to be able to call up a few dancers, and hit the local blues bar. We're inundated with good music, every single night of the week, so why should I need to travel to have a decent dance?

Yet, travel is seen as a sign of wanting to improve, of being 'serious' about your dance, which strikes me as true to a point. Dancing with better or different dancers will improve your overall social dancing, by allowing you to experience different styles of dance. However, lessons, practicing solo movement (hips challenge, solo jazz, etc...) or sitting down with a partner to analyze your swingouts will also improve your dancing.

Coming from a scene that lacked the infrastructure, I know that I'm fortunate to be in a location that affords me good, experienced teachers with a variety of perspectives.

And while I commiserate with a follow who wished for a practice partner to whip her into shape, instead of the other way around, I still think that investing in your own scene yields the best returns. I like practicing with the people around me, to get our scene to be the destination others want to visit, rather than perpetually fleeing for other scenes.

The Cost and Care of Essential Femininity

This week, in response to a lot of commotion about women's rights over their reproduction, Jezebel posted an interesting run-down of costs of womanhood. As a counterpart to the men who complain about discounts for female drivers and ladies' nights affording women discounted drinks and club entry, the article noted exactly how much an average woman spends on her fertility.

 Given the national debate regarding birth control coverage, it's increasingly clear that many people have no idea how much it costs it to own a vagina — folks are getting up in arms about the idea that the pill could set uninsured women back about $1000 a year, but in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. Do you even know just how much you're shelling out for your clam? Were you aware of the fact that in your 20s alone, you will spend over $26,000 on vaginal maintenance? Herewith, we do the math on just how much that cooter is costing you.

[Via Jezebel.com]
It all puts me in mind of the soul song, "A Woman's Worth." I remember getting the talk from mom, and wondering exactly what kind of a raw deal I was signed up for. Headaches and bleeding every month? Crazy hormones? Not even counting all the problems with pregnancy! No wonder it was described as a curse.

While I'm grateful to developments in the paper products industry for freeing us from The Red Tent and using washcloths to stem the tide, we haven't progressed much further from that. Women still have a lot of money to spend on their basic maintenance, excluding the fashion trends that make our clothes go out of style sooner, and the push for a 'serious business woman' to look like a fashion model. One friend was hired for her first real job, and told in the interview, that she needed to spend her first few paychecks on clothes. Not transportation, food, or rent. CLOTHES. 

The Atlantic also notes that women have additional costs, and Jezebel's list is by no means exhaustive:

While Morrissey doesn't note this specifically, such health visits could also include procedures like colposcopies and LEEPs, biopsies of various female parts, and so on—all of which, even if a woman is insured, add up with co-pays and costs beyond what insurance covers.

[Via The Atlantic Wire]

As a recipient of those extra procedures and tests, can I just point out how not having insurance is one of my biggest fears? In fact, after a visit to the doctor lead my common cold to cost as much with insurance as without it (thank you co-pays), the insurance debacle, err... debate is really the one that shapes my generation.

Find a lump, get hit by a bus, sneeze a little too hard, but without insurance you're essentially in a Third World Country. At least there, you'd have chickens to barter with. Maybe a goat if you needed surgery.

Europe is scratching its head over the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down President Obama's signature legislative achievement. As the judiciary and the Obama administration trade legal barbs over the high court's authority, the idea that health care coverage, largely considered a universal right in Europe, could be deemed an affront to liberty is baffling.

 [Via The Atlantic Wire]

In a place where I didn't have to worry about filing bankruptcy for health care costs, I'd be more okay with spending a few extra dimes on work clothes. All of this makes me think that a nice Nordic country would be a wonderful place to bear and raise children. Health care, good education and decent holidays? Sign me up!

Porch Society vs. Backyard Society

As a typical Midwesterner, I'm a firm believer that if we have not had a long enough or hard enough winter, we will pay for it. But there is something about 80 degree weather in March that just brightens everything and makes me want to be outdoors as much as possible for as long as possible.

It also makes me miss having a porch. Sitting on the porch, watching the people amble by, dogs and babies in tow, in inextricably linked to my idea of a relaxing summer evening. One of the best things about living in an old brownstone is having a porch, and trading that for the modern backyard seems a poor bargain, especially in urban areas where green spaces are already limited.

Also, the main thing that I've noticed about porches instead of backyards, is that porches and people using the porches tend to promote a safer walking space for pedestrians. Research seems to back that up, but in a different way

"Five years after the program started, the Police Foundation, in Washington, D.C., published an evaluation of the foot-patrol project. Based on its analysis of a carefully controlled experiment carried out chiefly in Newark, the foundation concluded, to the surprise of hardly anyone, that foot patrol had not reduced crime rates. But residents of the foot patrolled neighborhoods seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas, tended to believe that crime had been reduced, and seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime (staying at home with the doors locked, for example). Moreover, citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a more favorable opinion of the police than did those living elsewhere. And officers walking beats had higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars."

Via The Atlantic, Broken Windows]

Urban areas are always faced with the challenges of maintaining a sense of security in a dense, populated region. One of the worst side effects of the warm weather, is that for the first few days, crime skyrockets. Yet, this article makes a lot of sense. When you see other people on the street, you are more likely to be out on the street yourself, and knowing that a policeman regularly walks the beat and knows the neighborhood, makes the neighborhood feel safer. If you called for help, someone would see and respond. This is something that I appreciate as a pedestrian - walking in an area where I am not the only person on the street.


Others claim that removing lead from the gasoline and housing is what caused the safety of urban neighborhoods:

Nevin acknowledges that crime rates are rising in some parts of the United States after years of decline, but he points out that crime is falling in other places and is still low overall by historical measures. Also, the biggest reductions in lead poisoning took place by the mid-1980s, which may explain why reductions in crime might have tapered off by 2005. Lastly, he argues that older, recidivist offenders -- who were exposed to lead as toddlers three or four decades ago -- are increasingly accounting for much of the violent crime.

Nevin's finding may even account for phenomena he did not set out to address. His theory addresses why rates of violent crime among black adolescents from inner-city neighborhoods have declined faster than the overall crime rate -- lead amelioration programs had the biggest impact on the urban poor. Children in inner-city neighborhoods were the ones most likely to be poisoned by lead, because they were more likely to live in substandard housing that had lead paint and because public housing projects were often situated near highways.

Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes, for example, were built over the Dan Ryan Expressway, with 150,000 cars going by each day. Eighteen years after the project opened in 1962, one study found that its residents were 22 times more likely to be murderers than people living elsewhere in Chicago.

Nevin's finding implies a double tragedy for America's inner cities: Thousands of children in these neighborhoods were poisoned by lead in the first three quarters of the last century. Large numbers of them then became the targets, in the last quarter, of Giuliani-style law enforcement policies.

[Via The Washington Post]

Whether its less lead or more cops walking the beat, I can support a safer urban environment.

The Neg: Models are People too

[Via xkcd.com]

Ever since The Game sent a press-release copy of their book to my alma mater's gender studies department, I've been intrigued by the whole idea that there are specific tips to be seen as an alpha male to Marialpha females. Moreover, the idea that women who are tired of compliments will respond positively to negs aka, back-handed compliments.

Personally, I don't find myself to be very fond of the idea of being preyed upon by men who have nothing interesting to talk about other than insulting me, but that might just be me.

I had a conversation over the weekend about the whole idea of negging a woman to get her attention. The couple was relaying how they originally met, and how the female was immune to being hit on, so once the guy played it cool and got to know her on a deeper level, she was captivated. One of the listeners took offense to this story, and responded that she and her friends (who were all 10s, according to her) were constantly barraged by men's advances and so she only paid attention to very assertive men. The male of the couple tried to explain that he hadn't done quite the same thing, but she responded to his assertions, calling them negs, when they appeared to be closer to a better grounding for her ego.


The whole incident brings me back to the idea that: Models are people too. In fact, one dear and beautiful friend was verbally assaulted on a movie set, when the director commanded her to take off her clothes, right there in front of everyone. She was an extra, quite literally the low-woman on the totem pole, but she refused. He told her that she wasn't professional and she left the set. As anyone who has worked in the industry knows, any sort of clothing removal would be explicitly negotiated in the contract prior to signing, and future contracts are always negotiated by the agency. What happened in this event was that a director got a big head and decided to verbally abuse an extra. I fully support the film industry, but I do not support this flagrant misuse of an actress.

She's an absolutely beautiful person inside and out, but would never desire to be seen as an object or less of a person. Which is the main point-  that regardless of your exterior beauty, your interior character is the means for which you will be judged.

So many men and women seem to hold models onto a pedestal, as if they can do no evil nor wrong. I find this to be very flawed logic.Perhaps I'm simply too much of a Midwesterner for this, but I was raised that one should be modest about your talents and abilities. If you truly have talent, then people will acknowledge this without your effort. Telling others that you are the simply the best will only lead to resentment. And hubris will only lead to disaster.

Which brings me back to the whole idea of the neg - men seeking to break through a woman's barrier by insulting them. It is so foreign to me.Why would you want a partner that is merely your prey? Why would you pay attention to a man who merely seeks to have you as his trophy for an evening? How is any of this the basis for any sort of a healthy relationship, much less a lasting relationship?

Marilyn Monroe seems to be the current diva-role model, but when I look at how troubled and sad she truly was, I have to wonder if all of the attention only served to dim her light before its time. People have criteria for who they would like to date, but the neg is not the best mating strategy to pursue a partner that you would like to be with for more than one night. It will tarnish your trophy, until the morning light seems to bring everything into a focus too clear for your eyes to stand.

The Followers Manifesto

 [Photo from goslinglindyhops.tumblr.com]

 I started swing dancing in the summer of 2007. It was a goal that I had set for the summer, along with an expansive book list, mastery of several languages, and solving world hunger. All totally attainable things, right? Of course, right!

I was on a temporary dance hiatus at the time. I grew up dancing solo and in teams, but outside of random musicals, had never experimented in partner dancing. But many of my feminist friends have trouble inhabiting a dance that came from a time when women had only just gotten the right to vote. They see taking on the followers role as being passive and not contributing to the dance itself.

As a dancer who gave up her ballerina dreams due to beginning at the ripe old age of 8, dancing had always been something that I did for myself, alone or with a team who danced the exact same moves to the music. It was cooperative, in a way that made you a team member not a spontaneous contributor. It was only much later that I began to learn dance as a conversation, instead of dance as a teammate.

So, to start off, let's consider a chart, that I believe to be remarkably accurate:

[Via Addicted2Salsa]

Leading is hard. Following is hard. But they are harder at different points due to the nature of the role. It just makes for a different learning curve, rather than assuming that one is inherently more difficult. Followers learn how to move themselves and listen. Leads learn to move themselves, and communicate their movements to their partners. But learning the opposite role has the potential to break through the plateau, which is especially valuable.

Which brings us to:

Le Manifesto

1. When not injured nor exhausted, I will do my best to say yes to every lead, regardless of skill level. When the lead vs. follower ratio is off-balance, I will seek out likely leads and ask for dances. Likely-looking leads are often easy to spot: shoes on, glancing around the dance floor, open posture. Inviting is part of the reciprocal nature of the dance, by making it more social. This exempts dancers who have previously caused injury. If you have hurt me physically or emotionally in the past, I have the right to refuse any dance.

This one is especially important when you're the newcomer to the scene. When I visited Dallas, it was interesting to watch the social dynamics, as the 'unknown quantity.' Having not set foot in the city's dance scene before, nobody who asked me to dance knew what to expect until they either danced with me or saw me dance with someone else. But being the unknown also gave me the ability to ask anyone. Being the unknown element gave me a chance to truly follow, instead of relying on a shared bit of choreography that we learned at a class together. It helped me learn different cues, and what they could mean in this shared time and space.

Yet, even though we encourage people to dance with all levels of dancers, injury lasts a long time. One of the hardest personal times came when during a theater warm-up game, a boy knocked into me, stepped on my foot and broke it, taking me out of the performance that night. And onto crutches for the next 2 months. Since most of my social life revolved around dancing and friends at dances (social and other), it was a very difficult time to simply get around. It is never worth it to dance with someone who hurts you.

2. During the dance, I will listen to the lead, and respond to their suggestions. I will take each suggestion and follow it to the best of my capability. If left room for improv and my own remarks, I will put them to good use, but the integrity of the following won't be changed. I may add movements inside the rhythm, but I will not attempt to establish my own rhythm, and will maintain the rhythm set by the lead.

3. After the dance is completed, I will always smile and say thank you. It's common courtesy, people. Yes, some people are intimidating, or you intimidate them. It happens. But being courteous and polite will go far.


This manifesto is open to change, depending on the circumstances and growth of said dancers. But it's a place to start.

"You can't tell people what they want to hear if you also want to tell the truth"

-Hold Steady, Soft in the Center

James Fallows recently did an excellent piece on President Obama, that explored a lot of the mindset behind much of his decision-making, one of the things that struck me is how miffed people appear to be because he is more reserved.

    It turns out that Obama is sufficiently aware of and sensitive about his Mr. Spock–like image to have called it the “biggest misconception” about him in a year-end interview with Barbara Walters on ABC in December. It was entirely wrong, he said, for the public to think of him as “being detached, or Spock-like, or very analytical. People who know me know that I am a softie. I mean, stuff can choke me up very easily. The challenge for me is that in this job … people want you to be very demonstrative in your emotions. And if you’re not sort of showing it in a very theatrical way, then somehow it doesn’t translate over the screen.”
        Whatever he thinks his real emotional makeup might be, the challenge of “showing it,” and translating it over the screen, affects his ability to lead. As an explainer of ideas through rhetoric, Obama has few recent peers. And at least twice in the past four years, he has changed national opinion, and politically saved himself, through the emotional content of his words and presence. Once was in March 2008, when the media storm about his radical-sounding pastor, Jeremiah “God Damn America!” Wright, threatened to end his candidacy. Then Obama responded with his speech in Philadelphia about the meaning of race in America—which at least for a while, and for at least enough of the electorate to let him survive, made his mixed-race heritage a symbol not of threatening otherness but of the country’s true nature. Then, in January of last year, his party’s historic rout during the midterm elections had made Obama seem as shrunken and defeated a figure as Bill Clinton had seemed after his midterm losses 16 years before. But even his usual opponents hailed Obama’s speech in Tucson after the horrific shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords and others, for its sober but healing emotional power. One conservative blog, Power Line, said it was a “brilliant, spellbinding, and fitting speech”; John Podhoretz, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, wrote in the New York Post that it was “beautiful and moving and powerful.” Politically, this is when Obama seemed to return to life after the midterm disaster.

[Via  The Atlantic, Obama, Explained]

I'm not sure that I entirely buy the idea of Obama as so cold. He has two healthy, loving daughters, and wonderful strong wife, and is the poster-family for the typical American family. No one who is that good with children is a cold person or could be emotionally dead inside. At that point, you'd have marital scandals and rebellious children. Thankfully, this administration has been free of such personal scandals, which is a bit of a relief. It's nice to have a president who is focusing on leading the country in an eloquent and intelligent way, instead of fraught with personal drama.

I also think that this is a catch-22 for the President, similar to the Queen Mother's response to Diana's funeral. Many argued that if she didn't cry, she would be seen as heartless and cold. If she did cry, she would be seen as too weak to be capable of running the country. In the end, her reserved dabbing of tears was seen as the only possible compromise.

But this story from Obama's childhood is very illuminating:

     Over lunch, Barry, who was 9 at the time, sat at the dining table and listened intently but did not speak. When he asked to be excused, Ann directed him to ask the hostess for permission. Permission granted, he got down on the floor and played with Bryant’s son, who was 13 months old. After lunch, the group took a walk, with Barry running ahead. A flock of Indonesian children began lobbing rocks in his direction. They ducked behind a wall and shouted racial epithets. He seemed unfazed, dancing around as though playing dodge ball “with unseen players,” Bryant said. Ann did not react. Assuming she must not have understood the words, Bryant offered to intervene. “No, he’s O.K.,” Ann said. “He’s used to it.”
     “We were floored that she’d bring a half-black child to Indonesia, knowing the disrespect they have for blacks,” Bryant said. At the same time, she admired Ann for teaching her boy to be fearless. A child in Indonesia needed to be raised that way — for self-preservation, Bryant decided. Ann also seemed to be teaching Barry respect. He had all the politeness that Indonesian children displayed toward their parents. He seemed to be learning Indonesian ways.
     “I think this is one reason he’s so halus,” Bryant said of the pres­ident, using the Indonesian adjective that means “polite, refined, or courteous,” referring to qualities some see as distinctively Javanese. “He has the manners of Asians and the ways of Americans — being halus, being patient, calm, a good listener. If you’re not a good listener in Indonesia, you’d better leave.”

 [Via the New York Times, Obama's Young Mother Abroad]

I think it's an important insight of how the qualities generally associated with masculinity (emotionless, strong sturdy oak) are much more constricting than the skills it takes to be a good father and husband, or even the skills that it takes to be a good President. When I envision an ideal President, skills such as intelligence, listening, eloquence and inner strength of character rank higher than those of being buddy-buddy with everyone.

Growing up in a cross-cultural home makes you question if any one system is the correct way of being, especially when it comes to gender roles. Obama's experience in Indonesia undoubtedly shaped his cool, calm and collected personality, but isn't that the sort of person you'd want running the country?

Bechdel and women's stories

The above video explains a lot of the still-present under-representation of women in the media, yet one of the questions that has troubled people for a long time is: How do we fix it?

We've known for a long time that film is not the only way women are under-represented, yet it isn't the only media form in which women are seen to be in the minority.

The Atlantic is one of my favorite online news sources, yet, while they have 7 female editors and 9 male editors, even they are not exempt from study.

[via The 2011 Count]

Germany seems to be answering the lack of female representation in their own way: with a truly German quota system. (I do love my German friends, but it is amusing how often we react in very specific cultural ways. You'd never catch a Chilean with a quota system!)

 "Sandberg's key points are that there really is a problem, that it's not because of lack of female potential, and that women need to stop shooting themselves in the foot -- no more drawing back ten years early in anticipation of childbearing, for instance. Equally, though, she lists areas where we, as a society, need to improve. We need more equitable division of labor in the home, for example, if we want to see more equitable division of honors in the boardroom.

Most of Sandberg's musings, however, are cultural, and her calls to action are on an individual level. "I don't have the right answer. I don't even have it for myself," says Sandberg early on, noting that a mother's choices are personal and tricky. "My talk today is about what the messages are if you do want to stay in the workforce."

Right now in Germany, the talk has pole-vaulted over the personal and the cultural to the legal. What Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen wants, and what she frankly seems pretty frustrated not yet to have gotten, going by her remarks to German television, are legally binding quotas."

 [Via The Atlantic, A German Idea to Break the Corporate Glass Ceiling: Gender Quotas]

The quota system is the response to the low rate of females in the upper levels of finance and media. 

The Atlantic's Heather Horn isn't quite so keen on a similar idea happening in the U.S.

I'm pretty wary of gender quotas for a number of reasons. The principle of equal protection under the law, enshrined in the U.S. in the Fourteenth Amendment, has a lot going for it, and quotas, even when set internally, are one hell of a mess where equal protection is concerned. Though the aim is to correct an injustice, and the assumption is that the highly qualified women who have previously been passed over will now get the jobs they, by merit, deserve, that's not necessarily the way it plays out.

Quotas demand that companies hire female workers whether they're the best hires or not; and, in cases where they're not the best hires, absolutely no one wins. Spare me the argument that it at least accustoms people to having women in charge: a woman in a position she didn't earn builds resentment and only reinforces the nasty assumptions that the hire was supposed to correct in the first place. The answer to unmerited male hires isn't to encourage unmerited female hires.

And let's consider the message that long-term quotas would send. Do we really want a younger generation to get the impression that women need protection from the free market? And even if you buy the current argument for quotas, what does it say that they're being set at 30 percent, rather than 50?

 [Via The Atlantic, What the World Can Learn From Germany's Debate Over Gender Quotas]

 I'm prone to agree with her. I don't want people to assume that the only reason I have my position is because I am the 'diversity hire' instead of the best candidate for the position. I do believe that we should definitely pursue diversity in hiring, especially in the areas of media and professorship.


I think there are many more factors that go into these decisions. Finance is a profession that is often seen as a 70-hour work week, which would prove prohibitive to anyone who might desire a reasonable balance of work-life. From my conversations with female professors, many cited that because they are female, they get swamped with obligations to be the female representative on many boards and associations, and required to do so. Their male colleagues, even those with similar qualifications in the realm of gender studies, are not required to do so. 


I'm also not inclined to believe that simply because a person is of a certain race, sexual orientation or gender, it lessens their voice. I took a sociology course in Diversity and Inequality from a white, heterosexual male professor, but his research and insight into the field of African American Studies and Gender Studies had made him wonderfully insightful.


Rather than quotas, I think that we should focus more on mentoring women in finance, the media, and universities. Have a way for them to see what needs to be done to scale the ladder and networks available for them to do so. We have already made many strides in education, but still have a ways to go. It might not be the sole solution, but its definitely a good way to begin.

More on Women's Agency and Human Rights

In the last post, I spoke a bit about women's rights to control their own contraception, which is currently under debate.

Now, for a place where women have no control over their lives or their bodies:

"Shakila, 8 at the time, was drifting off to sleep when a group of men carrying AK-47s barged in through the door. She recalls that they complained, as they dragged her off into the darkness, about how their family had been dishonored and about how they had not been paid....Shakila’s case is unusual both because she managed to escape and because she and her family agreed to share their plight with an outsider. The reaction of the girl’s father to the abduction also illustrates the difficulty in trying to change such a deeply rooted cultural practice: he expressed fury that she was abducted because, he said, he had already promised her in marriage to someone else."
-NYTimes, "Afghan Girls are Penalized for Elders' Misdeeds" 

The local society justifies the trading because its seen as a way to stabilize family feuds, ya know, barring the whole kidnapping and forced marriage part.They argue that the girl, who was considered a burden on her parents will suddenly transform to a valuable asset, now that she has married a man much her senior, but reports differ, and the women are commonly beaten into submission and treated lower than servants. Her parents cannot take her back, now that she is 'damaged goods' and would violate the terms of using her as their debt payment. The local government outlaws the practice, but has little power to enforce, and ramifications are serious if you contact outsiders to plead your case.

This story is not the worst of its kind, but it reminds us that in many places, being female means lacking the agency for your own life decisions and being someone's property.

 It would be easy to dismiss the current debate over contraception as isolated incidents, but they are part of a larger, more pandemic problem where women are considered unworthy of equal treatment.

"Don't be defeatist, dear, it's very middle class."

via the Dowager Countess, Downton Abbey

While I might resemble my mother in my love for the BBC series, Downton Abbey is a unique period piece on an era no-longer accessible to us. The last WWI veterans have only recently passed, being barely legal to serve at the end of the war.

[images originally posted on Arrested Downton]


It would be easy to just make it a nostalgic tribute, but the BBC goes much further, into investigating some of the changes this war brought about.

[Spoiler alert for those who haven't reached the end of Season 2 yet]

 An interesting character case is the now-fallen from grace Ethel, who was caught in an affair with an army officer, dismissed, pregnant, and currently struggling to make her child's grandparents recognize their now-deceased son's child. Before the days of paternity testing, before the days of birth control, pregnancy and no husband (dead or alive) means that Ethel is unable to work, living on handouts, and very frightened of the future.

While we're not sure where season 3 will take Ethel, now that she has refused her baby daddy's parents' offer to take the child off her hands, the situation does shed curious light on the forgetful nature of the contraception debate now taking place, which has dominated the American news cycle.

Birth control has been equated to abortion, called a religious freedom issue that does not concern women, and considered just cause to sue the government.

Ok, first things first.

1. Women have babies, not men. In societies where women have their children later, and have a say in their reproductive health, they live longer, and healthier, and produce healthier children. It's a sign of the well-being of an entire country.

2. Prior to the birth control we have today, most women were seen as having to suffer for having sex whatsoever, i.e. Ethel. It was common for women to be cast out of society, impoverished and marginalized for getting pregnant out of wedlock. Darling founding father Jefferson had several illegitimate children with his slaves, for example. Motherhood was not as saintly until women had the options to delay or prevent motherhood. That Ethel is blamed for her sins, while the officer is not forced to lift a finger to acknowledge his child, was a very real reality for many poorer women.

3. The legislation is for employers, and employers are held to certain standards. That this is a 'war on religious freedom' is a false claim. This is merely closing the gap on a few regulations that had already existed for decades. Choosing what religion to follow is not tantamount to having an employer decide what benefits you are eligible for. In an era of great religious diversity, its important that we have a common denominator for a standard of health. Currently, employers are the main way for Americans to receive health care. But, if a Christian Scientist employer decided to not offer health care to their employees, because of their religious beliefs, we wouldn't bat an eye at requiring them to comply. Because this issue has to deal with what happens in people's bedrooms and during an election year, it's become a hot-button issue.

4. Most Catholics don't see birth control as affecting their religious beliefs. The Bishops haven't changed their position, yet, the size of families has shrunk in the past few generations.
"Most Catholics — meaning, to be more precise, people who were raised Catholic or converted as adults and continue to take church teachings and practices seriously — now reserve the right to reject doctrines insisted on by their bishops and to interpret in their own way the doctrines that they do accept.  This is above all true in matters of sexual morality, especially birth control, where the majority of Catholics have concluded that the teachings of the bishops do not apply to them.  Such “reservations” are an essential constraint on the authority of the bishops."
-Source: NYT, "Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority"

This issue is primarily a women's health issue, that directly affects women's quality of life. One has only to look at the Duggar family (19 children! OMG!) and remember that it wasn't so long ago that women had ridiculous amounts of children, most of whom didn't survive, some of whom cost the mother her life. Those who survived, and couldn't be afforded were sent to orphanages, with horrible conditions. Illegitimate children were more likely to be sent to baby farms, the infanticide of said children was a hanging offense. Though dark, it was part of a long history of drastic and grisly measures (like ancient Roman mothers, when children were selected by gender) that people have taken when having no other options.

But that all changed when women are allowed to limit their fertility.  It is very old history, even if parts were forgotten, but still makes the news. In an era where we're facing shortages of natural resources, it makes sense to not follow the command to Noah: "Be fruitful and multiply." 7 billion people on the planet. Check, and check. Now, about that whole taking care of creation bit...

I've very little tolerance for pro-life advocates who act as though life begins at conception and ends at birth. There are much bigger issues at stake. Yet, poverty, starvation and the death penalty do not receive the same kind of press as a minor requirement to provide contraception to employees.

It's a very central tenet of the Jude-Christian faiths that you will be judged for your actions, but the pundits (primarily male) want to decide how women should manage their health and reproduction. Motherhood is a wonderful thing, when the mother is able to care for her child. A woman knows when she is not ready for children or marriage. This is her human right, not a culture war.

Religion is a personal decision. Reproduction should be a personal decision.

Like a zombie, this blog is back from the dead

Luckily, it won't come after your braaaaaaaiiiinnnsss. Stay tuned for future topics including, but not limited to:

• What we can learn about contraception history from Downton Abbey
• Katniss vs. Bella, the ultimate face-off
• Chasing ears and ghosts: A Wild Sheep Chase Book Review
• The Followers Manifesto: Dance as a team sport