washwords

Can’t we all just get along?
After spending the morning on blogher, reading about the NYT relegation of the blogher confererence to the style section and whether “mommy-blogging” is a term of empowerment or a mechanism for belittling, I came to Joy Nash’s “A Fat Rant” on Gena’s On the Stoop (and from there to LaurieStar’s response, “A thin rant.”) This fem-centered morning has me thinking a lot about the way we treat each other, the way we think of “women’s issues” and “women’s places,” be it in the media, the blogosphere or the mall.

YouTube – A Fat Rant

YouTube – A Thin Rant

I’m neither Joy’s size nor Laurie’s (though closer to Joy’s by far!) and I admit being one of the eyerollers at the tiny ones. More because “it’s not fair” – a big thing with me, I realize. It’s not fair that skinny girls are (See more after the jump.)

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The Mommy-track post, or as Maggie Dammit would say, the post in which I lose several readers (in a fiery rage? she didn’t say that part). Anywho, back to my point, which was… am I evil for resenting a “New Parent Community of Practice” recently (heh) spawned at work? Don’t answer yet. Let me explain.

I. Let’s say one works at a federal government agency. Let’s say said anonymous Place of Employment offers flextime, telecommuting, maternity leave, paternity leave, on-site (good) day care, part-time schedules, family-friendly sick leave, use of sick leave and annual leave towards extended maternity/paternity leave, etc.

Photo by N. Farnsworth as printed on Flickr.

II. Let’s further say Place of Employment is a place where work is analytical and done in teams in a Read more »

or are we going on about the wrong things?

For example:

1) Miley Cyrus in the (red satin) sheet(s.) Okay, maybe it’s because I’m not a mom (of a teenage girl), but I don’t get it. Miley poses for an artistic lovely shot by one of the world’s best photographers and it’s a National Crisis. Meanwhile, Jamie Lyn Spears (same approximate age) gets pregnant and gets a RAISE, not to Read more »