Stuff that was neat.
Polemic: I do not care that you think you can’t hit women by Miranda Freawine at The True and Entirely Disrespectful Confessions of a Former Teenage Blackbelt:
I, personally, do not give a shit that you were raised not to hit women, and I am tired of hearing you whine about it. Personally, I would like to see the subject banned from martial arts threads, for ever.
Let me explain to you why.
Women aren’t just conditioned not to hit men. Women are raised not to hit anybody, ever, for any reason; doing so makes you unpretty, unattractive, unfeminine, or, even worse, catty sexpots to be oogled by men.
Let’s Be Real: Balancing Life’s Roles by Michelle at Balancing Jane:
It seems to me, actually, that there is not one thing that I do in my entire life that is “real” enough for the outside world. I’m not a “real” mom because I use daycare and–according to some people–depend on my husband too much in the day-to-day work of housekeeping and child-rearing. I’m not a real teacher because I teach developmental coursework. I’m not a real runner because I’m overweight. I’m not a real writer because I’m just blogging.
Intersectional Fat Acceptance, Building Community, And Not Being Part Of The Mainstream by Marianne Kirby at The Rotund:
My goal here was originally to create a resource for fat people who were engaged with the really hard work of accepting their fat bodies, who were searching for an alternative to self-hate and the cultural imperative of the compulsory diet mandate. Over the years, I’ve gotten involved in the fight to convince other people that fatties are worthy of basic human dignity — but these days I am more and more convinced that if we are not making a deliberate effort to build and support our diverse community of fat people then fat acceptance is failing the very people it is meant to help.
Please Don’t Denigrate Gentle Yoga by Charlotte Bell at Journey Pages:
Throughout the past few years of the yoga boom, as I’ve become more familiar with the yoga blogosphere, I’ve been dismayed by some of the common, recurring themes. These include “yoga for weight loss” claims, the almost poetic praise of expensive yoga pants, the popularity contests among yoga stars, and especially, the pervasive belief that sweaty, fast-paced routines are for “serious” yogis, while the aged and infirm must resort to the much lesser “gentle yoga.”
What have you been reading lately — or not-so-lately?
Why You Need To Quit Calling Homophobes Closet Cases. by Aoife at Consider the Tea Cosy:
We hear this all the time. Someone expresses wildly homophobic views, and the response is that they must be closeted themselves. They’ve got some issues to deal with, amirite? Some personal stuff they need to work out. Wink. Nudge. Know what I mean?