humanity

A Response to ‘Women Against Feminism’

Blogging, in its highest form, is a conversation. Last week, I wrote a post expressing my own sadness and anger that I live in country which talks about freedom and equality… but too often does not walk that walk. A woman named Lisa clicked the ‘like’ button on my post. That led me to her blog, where I discovered this post that she had chosen to reblog.

We do not have to be white to understand the injustices suffered by people of color. We do not have to be female to understand the injustices suffered by women and girls. We do not have to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to understand the injustices suffered by members of the queer community. We already possess the only attribute needed to understand each other’s challenges: we are all human. Once you and I understand the injustices we all face, the only thing left for us to do is to act humanely toward each other. It is no coincidence that all of the world’s faith traditions and moral codes share one most basic tenet: Treat others as you want to be treated. What could be simpler? Easier? Less controversial?

I share this post with you because it speaks to the importance of looking beyond ourselves. I am not a woman, but I am a feminist. What about you?

iwantedwings

Imagine this:

The year is 2014. You are a white Western woman. You wake up in the morning in a comfortably sized house or flat. You have a full or part-time job that enables you to pay your rent or mortgage. You have been to school and maybe even college or university as well. You can read and write and count. You own a car or have a driver’s licence. You have enough money in your own bank account to feed and clothe yourself. You have access to the Internet. You can vote. You have a boyfriend or girlfriend of your choosing, who you can also marry if you want to, and raise a family with. You walk down the street wearing whatever you feel like wearing. You can go to bars and clubs and sleep with whomever you want.

Your world is full of freedom and possibility.

Then you…

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#TWEETOFTHEDAY

In the three months since my self-imposed exile from Facebook, the geography of my social media world features two major countries: WordPress and Twitter. I do visit the beautiful island of Instagram and the buttoned-up principality of LinkedIn – but only when they wave their arms and yell, Hey! Steve! C’mere – you gotta see this! So, my new social media equation looks like this:

new equation2

As for G+… I’m certainly an enthusiastic fan of the Google – from my phone (Android – the OS that kicks your iPhone’s ass), to my email/calendar/contacts (Gmail) to my browser (Chrome) to YouTube, Google Photos, Maps, search, etc – but G+? Not so much. Why? What’s wrong with Google’s alternative to FB? Maybe nothing. But having demonstrated I can survive (possibly thrive) without Facebook, I really don’t have any use for a FB alternative. In fact, it’s the last thing I need. Plus, all those circles make me dizzy. My family, friends and acquaintances may, in fact, inhabit a massive Venn diagram… but trying to put them all in the correct, overlapping buckets just gives me a headache. Alas, I do “have” a G+ account because (unlike every other component of the Googleverse that I have opted into) Larry & Sergey force us into G+ by making it the default setting, the hub, the keystone, the master account. Whatevs.

All the various social media platforms are beginning to forge alliances with each other, allowing us to integrate our scattered online personas. For instance, my WordPress is set up so that when I hit the “publish” button on a post, it automatically shares that post on my Twitter, LinkedIn and G+. Gives The End a little more play, you know? I could also be sharing these posts automatically on FB… but since I’m no longer playing in that sandbox, seems rude to lob my notes-tied-to-rocks at ’em. (If you’re on FB, feel free to use the share button, below!)

Twitter, though, doesn’t travel as well as WordPress. There’s a widget over in the right column that shows my twitter feed and provides a handy “follow me” button. But I see lots of great tweets from others, and I want a way to share and highlight them here. Et voilà! A new category is born:

#TWEETOFTHEDAY. The hashtag is not functional, but a decorative way to accentuate the, well, tweetness of the category. I don’t promise a #TWEETOFTHEDAY (#TOTD?) every day, and I won’t limit myself to one-a-day, either. Just an as the spirit moves me kind of thing. I might choose a tweet that strikes me as sad or funny, political or puerile (or both), snarky or snarky. Oh look – here’s one now.

(Meanwhile… Paul Ryan was at CPAC talking about how kids who receive food assistance have parents who don’t love them. When is the rest of America going to wake up and smell the toxic spill of raw sewage that is the Republican Party? It had better begin on 11/4/2014.)