Games and Trips: Why Women Need Iron -
Women need iron. Not the vitamin. The barbell.
We are trained by the world around us to have fucked up ideas about our bodies; iron unfucks them.
We are supposed to be as thin as possible, as small as possible, perhaps until we disappear; iron teaches us to take up space.
We are taught that the only good direction for the scale to go is down, and to agonize ritualistically when it goes up. Iron teaches us the power of gaining weight for strength and gives us another weight to care about – the weight we are lifting.
We are taught to eat small amounts daintily and treat food as sin and pleasure. Iron teaches us to eat heartily, to see food as fuel for life, and to seek out nutritious food rather than avoiding sinful food.
We are taught to think of our bodies as decorative, an object to be looked at; iron teaches us to think of our bodies as functional, our own active selves, not passive objects for another’s regard.
Whole industries exist to profit by removing from us our confidence and selling it back as external objects. Iron gives us confidence from within through progressive training and measurable achievements.
We are taught to be gentle and hide our strength or even to cultivate charming physical weakness until we start to believe our bodies are weak. Iron teaches us how strong we can be.
I’m not, in general, a fan of reblogging. Tumblr as a social network doesn’t interest me. I use tumblr to write down what I’m thinking when I want to communicate, but none of my other platforms are appropriate.
Occasionally I’ve made exceptions, and I think this may be the most important one I’ve ever made.
I first read this piece maybe six months or a year ago. It stuck with me. It marinated in my brain, and I kept returning to it and recognizing just how true and awesome and powerful this statement is.
Today I finally decided to track it down again, and I’m reblogging it because I never want to forget it or lose it. And I want everyone I know to read it.
I try not to define myself by the commonly used political terminology. Or by any terminology, really. Once you accept a label onto yourself, you acknowledge a bias and you legitimize your bias by turning it into a cause. You’re no longer ‘biased towards the ideas and actions of democratic politicians,” you’re “a democrat.” Sounds much more palatable.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that I have a strong bias towards a liberal viewpoint on most issues. I try not to foster that bias, but it’s not always easy to avoid. All news sources have a bias of one sort or another, and the ones I often look to are biased more towards liberal ideas than conservative ones. But when I see a link to a news story criticizing the president I voted for, I make a point of reading it regardless of where its from. Obama has some profound and terrifying flaws as a leader, and it’s important to learn about them.
Specifically, today I read this: http://www.libertynews.com/2013/05/white-house-press-secretary-says-the-presidents-wants-are-more-important-than-the-peoples-needs/
Why must conservative news sources so often make it difficult for me to avoid my liberal bias? Lets take a look at just some of the things which are missing from this article.
I’m sure this news source doesn’t represent everyone with a generally conservative viewpoint, but neither is this the first time I’ve experienced this issue. Lack of proper sourcing and evidence seems to come up every time I decide to see what the news sources on the other side of the fence have to say.
Are there any decent conservative news sources that I’m missing, here?
Today I saw the Nestle CEO’s outrageous statement regarding water. (If you haven’t seen it, he essentially thinks water distribution should be privatized). Annoyed with the statement, I took a moment to inform my coworker who sits near me about Nestle’s deplorable record as a company. He got upset as well, and decided to look up what products Nestle owned so he could avoid them.
As he was going through the list, he mentioned out loud a few of the larger brands. Fortunately he doesn’t like sweets all that much, so the loss of Dreyers ice cream, kit kats, and butterfingers was no great loss for him. Then he read these four: “DiGorno, Stouffers, Lean Cuisine, and Hot Pockets.” Below is his reaction to this as closely as I can replicate.
“FUCK! What? NO! FUCK!
Those are literally my four food groups! FUCK!
I can’t do it Nick!
I gotta pretend today never happened.
That is literally all I eat.”
I don’t blame him. You’ve gotta pick your battles, and sometimes when you’re highly invested in a product the importance of something they did wrong seems to shrink quite a bit. (After all, it was just a comment from their dickish CEO).
I really just found his reaction fuckin’ hilarious. Laughed for a good 10 minutes.
I am a black woman. I am also a writer. Because I don’t see enough of myself in the stuff I read, I’ve been trying to come up with ways to describe black people that don’t refer to food, and that encompass the variety of our skin tones and hair textures.
I had an epiphany today. What words would I use to describe us if I weren’t comparing us to white people? What words would I use to compare us to each other?
Breaking my reblog rule for important and useful writing advice.
I may need to stop calling it a rule, since I keep breaking it lately.
VA==65731089732bGl2ZXMh: Apathy and refunds are more dangerous than Piracy. -
I think I can safely say that Super Meat Boy has been pirated at least 200,000 times. We are closing in on 2 million sales and assuming a 10% piracy to sales ratio does not seem unreasonable. As a forward thinking developer who exists in the present, I realize and accept that a pirated copy of…
Once again breaking my reblogging rule because this is one of the best things I’ve seen on this whole fiasco.
Today I tweeted “If your writing space is never kinda gross, you’re probably not much of a writer.”
To which I then added “(I kid, of course. My unpublished ass isn’t one to judge!)”
To which Vitae responded, “Maybe the problem is you’re trying to get your butt published.”
To which Noelle responded, “Someone, somewhere, has published a coffee-table book of photocopied butts. And if not, get on that.”
So, I have a new mission in life.
[video]
Senator Paul,
After seeing you in the news today, and reading about your filibuster, I felt compelled to contact you personally.
I voted for president Obama because I believe his views align with my own more frequently than the other potential candidates. In reading over your record, I do not find many issues on which we would agree. To be frank, many of your views are repugnant. I say this not to give offense, but to demonstrate the profundity of our differences.
I want to thank you for the stance you took today in opposing the appointment of John Brennan to the head of the CIA, and forcing the president to address his use of drones on U.S. citizens. Whether or not you are successful now, you have elevated the conversation. In this matter, you’ve served the American people well, and I thank you.
Regards,
Nick Whelan (WA-I)
“You understand therefore considerably in terms of this subject, produced me personally imagine it from a lot of numerous angles. Its like men and women aren’t fascinated until it is something to accomplish with Girl gaga! Your own stuffs outstanding. At all times care for it up!”
Yahoo! autocomplete… interesting.
I don’t normally reblog, but I feel I must point out what the result for my state (WA) is quite obviously about Washington D.C. the city, not Washington the state.
Not that my state doesn’t have it’s problems, but the common phrase “Washington is broken” refers to the nation’s capitol.
(Source: paxamericana)