Confessions of a Latte Liberal is going into hibernation for a while.
At the present time, I simply don’t have the time to be blogging. There are problems in my personal life that I have to deal with and they will require all of my time and attention. I will miss you all terribly, and thank you support. I hope to resume blogging one day, but for now my personal life takes precedence.
Thank you for understanding,
Cafeaulait
As a millennial, I get a lot of assumptions that annoy me. But I do fall into a lot of generalizations about my generation. So I understand the value of group judgments, but I find it really annoying that people assume things about me based solely on my age.
A recent post at Manage by Walking Around wrote about myths and realities about the millennial generation.
As a millennial, thanks for the positve belief in my generation. But what is a millennial anyway? Who makes up these generational groupings?
If you have a good definition of the word “millennial” or any stereotypes you’d like to share, let us know in the comments.
Blogging actually matters. It was blogger Melissa McEwan of Shakesville who got me into blogging, got me thinking about the issues of feminsim, sizeism, fat acceptance, got me to stop using ablist language, and taught me about the concept of privilege.
Rosie says it best, though.
Related articles
Our generation, our era is known for it’s internet activism or “slactivism.” We prefer to call it easy activism. We sign Change.org petitions, arrange groups on Facebook, and write emails to editors and politicians. For those of you who are interested, I have Change.org petitions linked at the bottom of my Make a Change page.
One popular way to show a complaint with a company is boycotting their products. Hit the companies in their profits, not the blogosphere. It’s easy for us to write, but companies respond more to sales than to reviews. Remember the fiasco with Bic For Her pens? Despite the creative reviews by anonymous bloggers and Ellen Degeneris, Bic actually turned a profit, and they didn’t change their marketing strategy.
It wasn’t enough for us to write sarcastic reviews about how this plastic ink thing didn’t work as a tampon. We need not to buy the products in the first place. So here are other products to avoid.
Anything else to avoid? Let us know in the comments!
Talk with the old
Talk with the young.
Whoever you talk with you’ll learn something fun.
Just a reminder for those of you preparing for the holiday season, and talking with family.
In the spirit of the holiday season, talk to the people closest to you. You’d be surprised what you’ll learn.
Readers, what’s the craziest thing that you’ve learned from an unexpected source? Let us know in the comments.
Did I mention that there are awful stereotypes about feminists? Just in case you forgot, Maxim published this gem in 2003, and it has spread all over the internet.
Apparently, a feminist equals an “unshaven, militant protesting vegan” who needs to be turned into an actual girl.
I’m not sure how they define girl, or why a Maxim reader would want to have sex with a girl rather than a woman. Isn’t it illegal to have sex with a girl? Isn’t that statutory rape? And why does the third girl from the left look like a child? Semantics aside, there are other highly offensive feminist stereotypes portrayed here.
Feminism is a broad label applied to anyone who believes that men and women are equal as human beings and supports the movement toward equality. Within that movement, there are a wide variety of individuals. Some shave, some don’t, some are vegetarian, some are vegan, some eat bacon, some are angry, some hate men. But most feminists love men, as lovers, as friends, as allies. Most feminists are angry about injustice, rightfully so.
I’m absolutely horrified that I’m supposed to be turned into the girl on the right hand panel. I want to wear clothes, have opinions, and actually make a difference, not “speak into your microphone.” Classy, Maxim. Classy.
You would think that Maxim would like Feminism. After all, who said that women should pay for more of their own dates? Feminists. Who said that women should feel free to have sex without commitment? Feminists. Who invented birth control? Feminists. Who says that women should be confident and self-reliant? Feminists.
Feminism taught women that it’s okay to be sex positive, to love life, to pay for your own dates, to use birth control, and to not rely on a man. Isn’t that what Maxim wants for its readers? Why on earth would they want to cure that?
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve been aware that there has been controversy over rape jokes. Which ones are funny, which ones aren’t. The question of what makes a good rape joke has been debated ad naseum this summer, in light of the Daniel Tosh routine. The feminist conclusion seems to be that jokes that use rape as a punchline aren’t funny, while jokes that make fun of rapists or rape culture are.
Unfortunately, given the number of staunch defenders of rape jokes, we can still expect to hear jokes that use rape as a punchline. So here is some advice from Divorce Divorce on handling rape jokes. I was especially surprised to hear that Divorce Divorce’s author is a 33 year old man. He is Daniel Tosh’s target demographic, but he is writing with advice on how to handle a rape joke. Allies come in all shapes and forms.
I think the best response to a rape joke is this:
I don’t get it.
Persist until they explain, explanations always being the death of any joke, funny or otherwise. Persist until they reach the point where they have to say “she got/gets raped”.
And nod, slowly, looking a little confused.
This method works for all methods of offensive jokes. Avoiding confrontation may change minds in a way that direct activism might not.
Any other advice on how to handle offensive jokes? Leave suggestions in the comments.
“When Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York in 1993, his belief in the ‘Broken Windows’ theory led him to implement the ‘Zero Tolerance’ crime policy. Crime dropped dramatically, significantly, and continued to for the next ten years.
Personally, I feel the time has come for women to introduce their own Zero Tolerance policy on the Broken Windows issues in our lives – I want a Zero Tolerance policy on ‘All The Patriarchal Bull@#$%’.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a WomanIn an environment where every micro-aggression makes the larger aggressions seem less important, we have an obligation to keep fighting even the smallest issues. On one hand, we cannot change every opinion, vanquish every troll, or banish all sexism. What we can do is create expectations for dialogue and try to convince others to do the same. While fighting the small incidents, we have to keep focusing on larger issues, policies that will make lasting changes.
Let’s face it. This is a generation of multi-taskers. We can establish boundaries and work to change national policies simultaneously. Let’s do it.
Leave your advice for eliminating micro-aggressions without detracting from larger causes in the comments.
Related articles
- Internet Wars Over Women’s Bodies (forbes.com)
- Change starts at home… (bizgovsoc4.wordpress.com)
- THE BROKEN WINDOW THEORY…A Call To Action For The Real Estate Community… (pithypostings.com)
I’m amazed by this. As someone who loves libraries and public literacy, this project is awesome.
