Lingual Tremors

Review of Carnival of Feminists

A new article on the carnival of feminists up at thirdspace.  It's a nice piece!  Read it!

New COF is up!

Katie did a bang up job on the new COF. Visit and read!

COF!

Yeah. Bad LX. I have been a bad blogger lately. But, as I emerge from my haze: do check out the freakin' AWESOME Carnival of Feminists over at Fetch Me My Axe. Holy cow! It's amazing! And, of course, in addition to the usual topics, there's a good section on the most recent Gilead decision by the Supreme Court. Do check out the good links there.

COF!

Do be kind:  head on over to Bumblebee Sweet Potato for a social call and a visit to the latest Carnival of Feminists.  Yay!

The New Carnival of Feminists!

#31!  Check it out over at Truly Outrageous!

Introducing the 23rd Carnival of Feminists!

(photo thanks to southernfried at morguefile)

Howdy there, carnie-lovers!  It's that time again, so as your trusty carnival barker, I'd like to invite you to step right up to see the most amazing collection of feminist writings across the blogosphere!  Welcome to the 23rd edition of the Carnival of Feminists!  This edition has a special focus on  women and health care because issues of access and treatment--whether we're talking about breast cancer, emergency contraception, rape, or a visit to a specialist for further tests--are ultimately issues of control.

COF Deadline

Please submit your entries for Carnival of Feminists by midnight on Monday, 18 September 2006.
Read the call for submissions here.  You can use the Blog Carnival submission form or email me at:  lingualx AT yahoo DOT com.

Carnival of Feminists is Coming to Lingual Tremors!

Hop on over to Redemption Blues to read the 22nd edition of Carnival of Feminists!  And then, after reading and giving the Chameleon props for another fantastic edition of COF, get ready to get QWERTY and start submitting because...

The 23rd edition of the Carnival of Feminists will be on Lingual Tremors on September 20th. You can use the Blog Carnival submission form or email lingualx AT yahoo DOT com.  Submissions are due by 18 September 2006 at midnight.

Suggested Theme for the 23rd Carnival of Feminists:  women & healthcare.

Women & Poverty

The 20th Carnival of Feminists is up at Super Babymama.  Stop by.  Kactus, as part of the on-going definition of feminism in the blogosphere, put out a special call for first person discussions of poverty and feminism.  This edition of Carnival features a number of really powerful discussions of culture and poverty and politics.  Everything is good, but I especially recommend the "The Poverty Diaries," "Being Poor is Bad for Your Health," "The Embrace of Mumbai," and "Legalized Extortion."  Also, the "On-Going War on Women" details horrific current events in the lives of women.  This edition of the Carnival opens up the feminist dialogue in some pretty significant ways.  Class and poverty are often overlooked in our dialogues about equality.  Go!  Read!  Learn!

Get out your beads. It's carnival time!

Carnival XVII is up at Bitch Lab.  From being loud to sex positive posts to the politics of pedicures to feminist mothering to boobage, it's a great read.  Head on over!

New Carnival of Feminists is Up!

Do check out the COF XVI at Welcome to the Nuthouse.  It's a fantastic issue (as always0 with a special focus on Feminism and Disability. 

Sped Shed Feminism 101

Dramatis Personae:

The Divine Tremor (aka Male Parental Unit, M.Div.) 
The Quixotic Tremor (aka Female Parental Unit, Ph.D.)
The Artistic Tremor, my younger sister
The Purple Tremor, my youngest sister
The Protean Tremor, my baby brother
Lingual Y, my better half, who although he does not appear in this story, is always important to every story!

While I regularly write about feminism and disability studies in my academic work, this is my first foray into biographical writing about my family, feminism and disability studies.   This post is inspired by Welcome to the Nuthouse's call for posts on feminism and disability for the 16th Carnival of Feminists. 

When I was 16, the Tremor parental units adopted two babies with special needs, both with significant cognitive disabilities.  Our familial rhythm necessarily changed as these two new children changed what we meant by the word family. 

One concrete example of this, and the most compelling to my argument today, is the dining room table.  Before the adoption, our family dinners were consumed by politics and debate.  From a very early age, the Artistic Tremor and I cut our teeth on the fine art of creating an argument during dinner.  That precious time, after NPR and before our parents' rounds of evening meetings was devoted to my sister's and my intellectual development.  And to this day, both she and I regard dinnertime as more than a meal. 

When our new brother and sister arrived, this rhythm was interrupted, first by the needs and paraphernalia of babyhood:  from high chairs to baby food, dinnertime was chaotic between feeding the babies and arguing about abortion politics.

But later, as the littlest tremors began to grow, dinnertime changed as we all worked together to find ways to include them in the larger conversation.  Much of our work as a family has been trying to help them understand the larger world in which they live.  while our conversations had a different rhythm, we did not exclude the Purple and Protean Tremors from those conversations. 

Specifically, we have tried to politicize their education and to offer them a larger world than the one the school system imagines for them.  Feminism and progressive politics have no place in the special needs classroom.  But why shouldn't they?

Late night cyberhopping: visit other blogs!

Hop on over to Demiorator for these two great posts:

Rumsfeld-zilla

and

Pronoid

Bitch Ph.D. has a nice post today on feminism, relationships and blogging

Evil Librul Overlord on David Hager and the like

Feminist Carnival 12

Echidne on the horribly creepy father/daughter chastity key!  YUCK!

and Libby's guest post at Mad Melancholic Feminista on Feminism and Confusion

Carnival!!!

Just a few days before Mardi Gras, the new Carnival of Feminists is up at Mind the Gap!  Hooray!  It's a chunky edition with lots of new and returning bloggers.  It's all good!  However, as always, here are just a few of my favorites:  The Patriarchy Phrasebook, "Sorry I Date Raped You Card," Welfare Mothers & Stereotypes, Quasi-Feminism, Theorizing Breasts.  Thanks to Mind the Gap for such a great read!

Got the Bushalito Blues? It's Carnival Time!

Don't sit home despairing the state the of the world.  Go to the Carnival of Feminists up at Gendergeek.  Yay Emmy and Emma!  Yay Carnival!  Go now!

Carnival!

Yes folks, Carnival of the Feminists #7 is now up on Feministe.  And holy cow!  Hope you have the whole week for a feminist mardi gras, because it's a big one!  I am so excited that Aspazia's “The Legacy of Secrecy and Shame,” about her visit to an abortion doctor's family, is featured.  I think this is important historical work right now.  It's all good, so what I really recommend is a weekend of jammies and your favorite sushi take out place on hold, because you're going to want to read it all in depth!  However, make sure you take special note of women and blogging, spanglemonkey on reading & sex, Tr1c14's discussion of material consumption and gender, and the whole section on rape.  This is a good read!  Yeah for Lauren!  Congrats!

Carnival of Feminists!

Carnival of Feminists 6 is out at Reappropriate and it's a fabulous issue!  The main focus for this carnival was the intersection of race and gender; given yesterday's headlines about Hwang Woo-Suk's use of his female research assistants to generate eggs for his cloning research.  Woo-Suk's employees report feeling coerced to participate in his study.  No time like the present to debate, discuss and consider the role of transnational feminism!

They are all great posts, but here are a few of my favorites:

Mad Melancholic Feminista on the mommy wars and shoddy science
Redemption Blues interview with Serap Cileli
Black Academic on how pornography harms women of color
Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty has a fabulous analysis of Serenity, which I think has been a little overlooked in the bloggosphere
A little poetry in Composite's discussion of Olga Acevedo

Happy Reading!

Carnival of Feminists!

Carnival of Feminists V is up at Scribblingwoman...I missed the submission deadline (see the Academic Lady of Shalott for my last few weeks of blog-silence...).  However, it's a fantastic read.  I particulary like the "Organizing" and "In Our Bodies" sections. 

On my "Don't Miss" List:

Fluffy Dollars

The Walking Wombed

On Helping Women

and

Nupi Lal

Carnival of Feminists!

Yay for a little geek love yet again!  My slightly nostalgic piece, "Warrior Wombs and Radical Training Wheels" was included in this issue of the Carnival of Feminists!  Many thanks to The Happy Feminist for the amazing work that went into reading and organizing the COF.  Head on over to The Happy Feminist to read this issue's entries.  There are entries on How We Became Feminists, Sex, The Arts, Women's History, Women's Biography, Women's Political Representation, Domestic Violence and Rape, Religion, and Women's Work, Visit to find your own favorites!  I particularly liked The Woman in Comfy Shoes' hilarious meditation on Birkenstocks,  Majikthise's disturbing, but important, piece on rape, The Sugared Harpy's post on pregnancy, Bitch Ph.D.'s Radical Married Feminist Manifesto, Pandagon's Avoid the Bling and Lose the Vacuum Cleaner (and this had particular irony for me since I just broke my vacuum cleaner in the post-Christmas decorating trauma of disposing of needles...). This is just a really great collection of feminist pieces on the web.  Talk about feminist community!  Read and enjoy!

More on the Carnival of Feminists

Warrior Wombs and Radical Training Wheels

I'm sure I didn't pop out of my mother's uterus with a fist raised in solidarity, but I did get my radical training wheels very early on.  To understand the Sunshine Family is to understand my parents' theory of raising a young feminist.

While other young girls my age had Barbie dolls, I had Steve, Stephie, Sweets and their politically correct greenhouse (in which, I have suppositioned for years, my parents grew pot).

Carnival of Feminists!

Yay for a little geek love!  My piece, "Wear Your Red Pumps, but Don't Use Them" was included in this issue of the Carnival of Feminists!  Many thanks to Sour Duck for the amazing work that went into reading and organizing the COF.  Head on over to Sour Duck to read this issue's entries.  There's a great section on feminism in the 1970s and today, as well as other entries on all aspects of feminism today (it's all good, but I especially liked  Culture Cat's side-by-side study of magazine ads for deoderant, Echidne of the Snakes' commentary on Maureen Dowd, and Reappropriate's discussion of Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Girls. But, you should visit and find your own favorites!  This is just a really great collection of feminist pieces on the web.  Talk about feminist community!  Read and enjoy!

More on the Carnival of Feminists

Feminist Carnival: Wear Your Red Pumps, but Don't Use Them!

The 1970s, to which I owe my existence, saw the rise of hot female fashion like jeans (especially bell bottoms and flared jeans), micro minis, tank tops, and platform shoes.  The women's movement, and advances like the wide availability of the birth control pill made women, for the first time, feel really in control of their sexuality  (and don't forget the re-emergence of the vibrator in 1965, something that had been previously popular as early as the 1920s, advertised in 1921 in Heart's magazine).  The advent of Roe vs. Wade really completed that control as women--for the first time--had the ability to define, determine, and execute their own sexuality.  As women became more and more comfortable with their sexuality, so too did fashion become more and more comfortable showing off that sexuality.  While nothing less than the history of art shows how women have always been sexual objects, (remember the odalisque?) the women's movement, and the ensuing sexual revolution, brought fashion and sexual freedom into a happy conjunction.  Fast forward to 2005 and you have some of the debilitating consequences of that formerly happy union.