not feelin’ it

alright folks, I’ve got an announcement.

I’m not feelin’ it anymore. you know, it’s been a great two years (and a bit), being here with you all, discoursin’ and whatnot. It’s been a pleasure, really. I’ve learned so much – SO MUCH. Maybe even more than what I learned during my whole undergrad degree. Certainly what I have learned through engaging with you all has been personally extremely useful and satisfying.

But, I am not feelin’ it right now. I’m super-busy, and there’s the ramifications of moving and starting a new degree, leaving all my real life friends and family behind, while having to extend myself past my little world in my head in order to meet new people and build a new community here. I want to be successful at what I’m doing here, and I also need to take care of myself. And, unfortunately, I feel that right now, part of taking care of myself is not doing this anymore.

Maybe for now, maybe for a while, maybe forever. I may not be able to resist poking my head in and letting a post loose every now and then, but that will all take place on the schedule of TCB -Taking Care of Baby (which of course, is me). If it feels right and helpful for me to do so, instead of a chore, then I’ll do it. so keep your feed readers active.

So for now, imagine me doing yoga, sitting and drinking tea with a friend, swimming, cooking wonderful things to eat for myself and my peeps, reading non-school related books, and getting lots of rest and/or work done, INSTEAD of being here. I’ll continue to deal with comment moderation, but I may not respond in the same manner as I used to do, as per the new TCB schedule. So that being said, I’m going to leave it up to you, faithful readers, to help me out in answering comments that may arise. And of course, please, all of you fellow bloggers, continue to lambaste, rankle, subvert, protest, rise up against, resist, and whatever other adjectives come to mind,  the hegemonic forces going on all around us. Don’t worry, I’ll still be doing all that too. You just might hear about it in different ways.

Regulars, friends, please do email me. I’d love to hear from you on a personal basis. You’re no less dear to me because I’m backing out of blogging.

Peace, my sisters and my brothers. TG out.

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well, I’m feeling city-ish

and so I changed the blog’s theme again. I know – a year of stability, and then two changes in a month! how unpredictable! quelle surprise! what’s going to happen next?

stay tuned…

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moving day

alright people: tomorrow is moving day. I will be driving halfway across the country and lugging boxes of my belongings over the next several days, and my access to internet will be limited and questionable for a while. So, in the meantime, please try to play nice. and try not to freak out if you make a comment that gets moderated, or send me an email that doesn’t get answered. I won’t be able to respond as quickly as I have been. Just be patient.

And, wish me luck! I’m starting school on Tuesday!

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something new… and blue

yep, thought I’d try a new theme on the ol’ blog. I get tired of looking at the same old thing all the time. I just wish I had the skillz to create my own template. that’d be nice. but I don’t, so I’m going with this one for a while. I like the picture, it calms me.

like it?

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away

I’m going on a little expedition this weekend to try to find a place to live in my new city, as well as hang out with some good friends! I leave tomorrow evening, and I can’t promise any internetting or moderating of comments will be taking place on this trip. SO, bearing that in mind, talk amongst yourselves, try not to have unmoderated blogwars, and I will look forward to reading your comments when I return.

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brief hiatus

I’m in the midst of much academic work, which is my primary priority, as well as working at my job full time, which is draining my energy and preventing me from completing my primary priority. Basically, all I want to do when I get home from work is watch Canadian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Therefore, for a brief period, I must withdraw myself from any distractions that threaten my goal of completing my academic work.

In my absence, please talk amongst yourselves. I will be around to moderate comments and respond briefly to asshattery, and I’m working on a couple of things for Slant Truth, but that’s all. If anyone wants to help me out while I’m gone by supplying a guest post, email me.

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TG, now appearing at Slant Truth

So, I got an email a little while ago from Kevin at Slant Truth, asking if I’d like to do some guest blogging at his place. I happily agreed. Here is my first post there, in response to the blogular disaster the past couple weeks about Jessica Valenti‘s book, Full Frontal Feminism.

For the sake of my own sanity and time constraints, I will only post a link on this blog to posts I’ve written for ST. Any and all discussion should take place there, not here.

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new sidebar link category

I noticed in my dashboard today that another blogger has joined in the Feminism Friday fun – Tracey over at Unapologetically Female, with this post, which was a great read. Also, Tigtog of Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog has joined in on her other blog, Hoyden About Town, with this post. I thought what I would do is create a sidebar link category for Feminism Friday Participants, instead of posting all the links I came across to the various FF posts.

So, each Friday, check out the blogs listed under this link heading. And if you or someone else you know of are participating in FF, please let me know and I’ll add them to the link list.

Thanks!

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a note on comments, particularly those of a hateful flavour

As y’all know, this is a feminist space. Over the past several months, readership of this blog has increased significantly, for which I am humbled and grateful. I’ve met so many great people who have contributed to the discourse here, who have asked interesting and challenging questions, and who have opposed and argued with me about stuff. All of which is great; as I have said in my About page, this blog exists to promote dialogue and discussion.

I want to promote dialogue among all kinds of people, but I also want to ensure that this is a space that gives voice to those whose viewpoint is not enshrined in dominant cultural discourses of hegemonic white hetero male supremacy. I want this space to be a place where we can talk about stuff with friends and allies that will feel like a safe space for those who are marginalized. And so I have said I won’t tolerate racist, misogynist, heterosexist/homophobic, classist, ableist slurs.

I realize this limits freedom of speech.  But I don’t believe free speech is the most important value to uphold. I believe that people’s lives, experiences, and feelings should come before some asshat’s self-aggrandizing oppressive bullshit. I also realize that sometimes it is helpful to shine a light on just how far we have to go in fighting these oppressive attitudes. But, again, I don’t want anyone’s experience here to be one of hate. There is plenty of that out there in the world, and if you are a hater of the above-mentioned variety, there are plenty of places to spew your bilous vitriole among like-minded asshats, so go there and knock yourselves out.

This comes up because tonight, I chose not to approve a comment that was clearly misogynist. I do not want someone like that being permitted access to this space, and I would be terribly upset if someone were to stumble upon a comment like that and feel paralyzed by it. Just today I experienced something like that in one of the classes that I have paid almost $700 to attend and gain insight and instruction, and I no longer felt comfortable or safe in my learning environment. Words have the ability to cut deeply into someone’s soul, and I don’t want any part of that kind of hatred here.

So, in the interests of full disclosure, I thought I should let you all know. Hopefully this won’t happen too often. But, I guess I could look at it that something about this blog has been threatening to someone whose power matrix may be shifting. A sign that maybe feminism is getting its message across?

I encourage everyone to please read the Discussion page, if you haven’t already, even if you’ve been commenting here for a while.  And bear it in mind before you hit that submit button.

thank you for your attention, back to our regularly scheduled patriarchy-busting program.

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email address change

Hi all,

I’ve been having problems with my email address I have been using for this site lately; it seems unable to send emails very quickly, and although I am also not the keenest at checking it regularly (sorry to Jeff and Miss Ginger and Geo), it seems a bit fishy. So, I’ve switched. My new email address for this site is:

askthinkinggirl(at)[google’s email service](dot)com

Thank you! (back to our regularly scheduled sessions)

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