The Mid-Adventures of Ackward Black Girl

Recently I volunteered for the SFSU 1st annual Women's Conference and had the pleasure of stumbling into a room where Issa Rae ( the star and creator of the web-series Misadventures of Ackward Black Girl) was projecting the show for an audience and talking about her experiences with success.

In the 8- 13 minutes episodes, we follow a day in the life of 'J' who is a black female, humorously struggling to get through awkward but realistic situations and circumstances in her every day life. J's character is one who waffles on how to talk to her office crush, writes X-rated raps alone in her bedroom and is stoked to find an "awkward soul mate" at work. Not only are the social interactions in the show thoughtful and hysterical, but many of the situations bring to light the effects of subtle racism in our society in a witty and humorous way. More importantly, J's character is very relate able for individuals of any color or sex, and the scenarios she is put in are familiar to many. We view life through her lens, and through her private moments, we know her, we have seen her, we like her, we ARE her.

There has been an incredible need for diverse representation in popular television shows and in the realm of American popular culture in general. What I love about ABG is it's DIY ethic. Although the show is growing substantially in popularity, Issa Rae prefers to keep the creative power in her hands, keeping the content online and not thinking of Hollywood as the pinnacle of success. The story telling here is so unique and the main character so complex  that I can't help but wonder why big media films require such a big-budget for mediocre predictable story-lines and characters. What do we as humans and audiences to these big-budget films truly value about them? I will support a low-budget, advertisement-less, thought provoking show over any corporate blockbuster any day. Thank you ISSA RAE!

'Bikini Body'

While reading through the New York Times Fashion and Style blog, I came across an article about how our culture enshrines physical perfections and the implications it has on women's identity and self image (especially during the spring and summer). What I am mostly interested in here is how the media (magazines, television, film) and the fashion industry have influenced what an assumed 'bikini body' should look like and why women should to strive for this. Why is the bikini a symbol of victory? I know that I have personally fallen victim to this "bikini body" craze, and I see this all as having an undertone of objectification, that a woman's body should be gazed at, and commented on.

Don't get me wrong, when I go to the beach I definitely enjoy wearing a bikini, but there were times in my life when wearing a bikini in public only led to self-criticism, and I can't help but connect that to the images and advertisements that bombarded me as a young girl. It is perceived as if women who don't have a "bikini body" aren't worthy of being in a suit. Not to mention most magazine covers feature an attractive photo shopped lady next to lines that say "get bikini body ready!" and "Dirty talk that drives him wild!" and "5 signs that he's craving you". Does this not equate being sexy with doing so for the desire of men?

I made it point long ago to throw away my television away and never pick up a woman's fashion magazine ever again. The truth is there is no such thing as a "bikini body," this is a myth, an illusion. One cannot acquire an idealized bikini body last minute, there are only women who choose to wear bikinis, and may do so in confidence, not for anyone else, but for themselves. Being healthy, active and loving yourself unconditionally is the first step in having the "bikini body" you dream of. Developing a positive body image is difficult in a society where we are all surrounded by impossible images of beauty. Female insecurity has become manufactured for profit, so don't buy it, ladies.

Here are some older vintage(and modern) photographs of more voluptuous and realistic looking women that have inspired me on my recent crusade to love my body.

The Women's Building-

Located in the heart of the mission is this long standing gem and the first women owned and operated community space in the country starting in 1979. This building offers many programs to women and girls in the community that include services for economic security and well being ( job search assistance, legal advice, free buffets) as well as building community through arts and culture. In addition this space also provides a safe house for women experiencing domestic violence, sexual assault etc.

the mission of the women's building:::::

"Since 1971, San Francisco Women's Centers has represented, and been guided by, the belief that all women and girls have the right to safe, joyous and creative lives. In 1979, the organization purchased The Women's Building, creating one of the first women-owned community centers.

Our mission is to provide women and girls with the tools and resources they need to achieve full and equal participation in society."

to tie this into my posts on inspiring street art and art installations this building is also internationally  known for its mural MaestraPeace (1994), which honors women’s contributions around the world. The power of women manifested through public art, an incredible thing.

 If there is a place to critically discuss issues relevant to low-income women, children, people of color, immigrants, gay and lesbians, it will be happening here. With the most recent attacks on women's equality and reproductive rights by the media, the government and those put in office to represent us, it has never been a more crucial time for women to get together and talk about these issues with their communities. It is comforting to know that this is a resource for me whenever I may need it, it is the same way I feel about Planned Parenthood as a reliable place for assistance and information not already freely offered to us by our parents, schools, jobs, etc.

selling eggs for money- eggsploitation?

When I was twenty years old and desperate for traveling money, I saw an advertisement for $8,000-$12,00 compensation for egg donation on the back of a newspaper. I understood that the production of female eggs was much more energetically expensive than sperm and that the process of extraction was a bit more complex (hence why one could receive $8000-$12000) but I did not fully comprehend the implications of going through an egg donation procedure. Two months, and a thirty-page packet later I found myself in an office in Marin for my final interview as a potential egg donor. The clinic emphasized to me the altruistic qualities of being a donor, ya know, helping infertile couples have children and yadda yadda. I genuinely believed I was doing something good for someone else, without actually considering the short-term/long-term physical/mental health effects. I would essentially be taking hormone boosting shots for about a month and then having 10-20 eggs extracted from my ovaries, I would then mark 'yes' or 'no' on a sheet of paper for wanting to stay informed on the status of my eggs or keep in contact with the parents who would have my child. In addition, the medical concerns I did have about the hormone treatment I would be receiving were not properly acknowledged by the clinic and I was reassured that complications were rare. My profile was put up on their website and I was never contacted again. In retrospect, I am incredibly grateful that for whatever reason I was not chosen to go through with the procedure.

In the last three years, I have done extensive research and have spoken with many women about this topic. I have come to many disturbing conclusions and unanswered questions about the industry, the egg donation process and its negligence to women's reproductive health. What I have been noticing recently is that egg donation advertisements are becoming more and more prevalent, especially around school campuses. The industry is targeting college girls, between 18-29, who are healthy, attractive and in need of some cash.

From the USA today article by Jim Hopkins Egg-donor business booms on campus :

"We are selling children," Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar says in a new book, The Baby Business. Spar wants a national debate on bringing order and safety to an industry in which spending on everything from fertility drugs to eggs has mushroomed to an estimated $3 billion a year.

Over the past ten years this market has become incredibly profitable, but are the thousands of women who go through this procedure being properly treated during and after all is said and done? Are they being informed about the risks of taking the hormone Lupron and the actual egg extraction process? Is there research being conducted on the long-term health effects?

physical health effects

  
From a Time Magazine article, As Egg Donations Mount, So Do Health Concerns
"Doctors say there is no biological reason that donating eggs would cause infertility, but they also cannot say for sure that it doesn't. The long-term health effects of egg donation have never actually been studied, in large part because the high cost of studies doesn't "seem justified in terms of what the possible risks [of the procedure] might be," according to Sean Tipton, spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)" 


 In addition to a lack of research for long-term effects of egg extraction, no long-term testing has been done on the effects of injecting Lupron as the hormone treatment for stimulation of the ovaries. Lupron has been FDA approved to treat endometriosis and anemia related problems but not to treat women involved in egg donation. If this is true why is it legal to inject thousands of women with Lupron for assisted reproductive technologies? 
Lupron's negative health effects are across the board very disturbing, they include:::: headache and migraine, dizziness, severe joint pain, difficulty breathing, chest pain, nausea, depression, emotional instability, dimness of vision, fainting, amnesia, hypertension, muscular pain, bone pain, bone loss, nausea/vomiting, asthma, abdominal pain, chronic enlargement of the thyroid, liver function abnormality, and vision abnormality. It has caused many documented cases of hospitalization and even death.


From The National Women's Health Network,
"There have been no prospective or clinical studies on Lupron®’s safety for ART patients and the FDA has not approved Lupron® for use in infertility treatment or assisted reproduction procedures such as IVF."

"Lupron® is an “antineoplastic agent”, meaning that it is a cancer chemotherapy drug. Like all antineoplastics, Lupron® is harmful to both cancerous and non-cancerous cells — particularly to pregnant women and developing fetuses. In addition to the harmful side-effects reported by women using Lupron® for its approved uses, there are concerns about its effects when used as part of assisted reproductive technologies, such as IVF. "


Hyper stimulation of the ovaries is also very common among women who go through the procedure.


 psychological health effects


In addition to the disturbing effects of taking Lupron, there are many other psychological issues that come to surface for many donors in regards to not knowing what family the eggs went to and if some kid would come knocking on their door in the future, in search of their biological mother. When I was sure I wanted to go through with the procedure at twenty years old, I didn't understand this type of emotional predicament or hardship, It is hard to believe that any young college girl really could. There is also the consistent worry that your children later in life will unknowingly fall in love with their sibling, extreme yes, but definitely possible. Is it alright for a nineteen or twenty-year old to merely check a yes or no box which will forever determine their ability to stay in contact with the clinic/new potential parents of their child?


   According to a survey taken by the journal of Fertility and Sterility, they examined 80 women from 20 states who had donated eggs from two to 15 years earlier. Participants, whose average age was 30, completed a detailed questionnaire. The researchers found that 16% of women complained of subsequent physical symptoms and 20% reported lasting psychological effects after donation.


 In addition to this, another problem that has arisen involves clinics not telling women where the unused eggs are going: of the 66 clinics that sent in a consent form and said they used excess embryos for research, just 20 told women about that. And only three of 38 clinics that used some embryos for stem cell research in particular disclosed that to donors. This could also be psychologically damaging to some women who have strong moral beliefs against stem cell research.



From Time:
"Right now egg donors are treated like vendors, not as patients. Patients need to be followed up," says internist Jennifer Schneider, who has been advocating for the government to track egg donors since 2007, a few years after her daughter, a three-time egg donor, died of colon cancer at age 31. "After the first few days of being discharged from the IVF clinic and seeing that there were no immediate consequences, they are never contacted again."

This industry needs to be regulated to expose the emerging problems and long-term health effects for the women who put their bodies through the procedure. It seems pretty absurd that the American government feels a need to regulate the termination of pregnancies and not the production of them.

awesome women and their street art installations part duo

Paige Smith- Geode Street Art Project

Paige is a freelance artist living in Los Angelos. Her current project is creating colorful 3D shapes in the form of geodes, crystals, quartz or mineral formations found in nature.  These solid and subtle beauties are being strategically placed in various parts of the city, a sort of unexpected treasure for communities and passer by's.

The idea is quite stunning. Creating beautiful things that may or may not be seen, and bringing vivid life back into barren and disheveled parts of cities. Here are some pictures for viewing pleasure and her website A Common Name with more of her work and her blog.

Alice Pasuini- Affectionate Street Art

Alice Pasuini is a Rome-based visual artist who works as an illustrator, painter and set designer. Her street art displays brilliant acts of love, affection and hope and range from small phone booth paintings to incredibly large sized images on the sides of buildings. Of her work Alices says that she creates “art about people and their relationships, I’m interested in representing human feelings and exploring different points of view. I especially like to depict strong and independent women.”

To delve a little deeper into the immense amount of art she has displayed all over the world I recommend checking out her website. 

I can't help but gravitate towards the unique look and feel of her art, the images bring a colorful, peaceful and endearing undertone to city backdrops. The graffiti art I have seen here in California is not nearly as comparable to the aesthetic and feel of Alice's work. Let's get back to the simplicity and beauty of being a human in a community; love, compassion, family, friends, animals, making connections with the life that surrounds us.This is what it should be about.When I look at her art I am deeply inspired to bake my neighbors cookies and hug and kiss the person closest to me.

Antique Vibrator Museum

Good Vibrations is one of the first female-centered sex toys shops in the country with its main location in San Fransisco and a few others in the bay area. In 1977 Joani Blank opened the first Good Vibrations in the Mission District feeling disappointed in the lack of resources to accurate sex information and quality sex toys. The store has thrived in the bay area for many years providing clean, comfortable shopping environments and promoting sex-positivity.

I was recently talking to a girlfriend of mine about how I would soon need to go on that much anticipated trip to Good Vibrations when she informed me that they are opening an antique vibrator museum in a couple of weeks.

could this really be? YES!

The Antique Vibrator Museum will showcase a collection of vintage vibrator models that date back to the 1880s. Curator and Sexologist Dr. Carol Queen wil also host a tour of the museum and discuss the origins of vibrators (originally marketed for physicians as a way help them treat women's hysteria) and their evolution.!

Above is a very informative sneak peak of Carol Queen explaining the history of vibrators as well as the "hysteria" phenomenon associated with female orgasms.

It is interesting to see how female sexual behavior used to be considered a type of required treatment, orgasms being the only "relief" from female medical issues and ailments defined by doctors and physicians. A medical production of orgasm for payment using massage therapy? Sounds somewhat absurd, but it was very common and even REQUIRED for many women.

here is an excellent article from the New York Times called The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel P. Maines from 1999 that delves into the history of "hysteria" and the invention of vibrators. A solid and very informative read! Below is the "Type A" vibrator from 1902, looks more like a torture device?

Coco Rosie:::::

c

the power of the matriarch

 Matriarchy, as defined in more depth here is a social system or society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. The male equivalent to this is a patriarchy. As a young female living in the 21st century who often feels trapped in the succulent interior of a patriarchal world, I question everything. Why is it okay to believe a female president would be incompetent compared to a male president? Why don't more women hold political positions and why do they continue to get paid less? Why are men deciding what females can and can't do with their bodies in regards to reproductive health? Why was I taught to buy and wear make up and live up to unrealistic beauty standards? Is this all a product of patriarchy? I believe that patriarchy created a world of competition, power, and wealth, and that this (especially in the U.S) is concentrated in the hands of a small minority, the alpha male. Because of all these aforementioned things, matriarchy is unfortunately not a term we hear much in the context of current or pre-existing human societies. Only recently I discovered that this dialogue has already been created for the animal kingdom and I felt inspired to learn more.

Hyenas, elephants, lions, lemurs, bonobos, honeybees, oh my! yes. All beautiful and successful creatures living and working together in a female dominated social structure. I will now go on to explain a few to help get a better idea of what life is like for these animals through the lens of a matriarchy.

Spotted Hyenas are some of Africa's most efficient and vicious predators and scavengers. They are intelligent and complex creatures, moreover they are gender benders and thrive in a matriarchy.

Every clan is ruled by an alpha female, and the males are pretty much at the bottom of the social totem pole and do not have a say in any decision making. Males feed last and must endure abuse or are subject to violent punishments by the females. Additionally, females are bigger and more aggressive and have a very large clitoris that is almost indistinguishable from a penis making their sexual organs (and identity) very ambiguous. What is certain is that these females are strong, protective and courageous, and have successfully helped their species thrive in extreme  and very unforgiving environments. Impressive? very.

Elephants are also structured by a matriarchy, and produce one of the most complex social organizations found among animals. The herds are composed of related females, led by the oldest and wisest female. She is most likely selected through a process of establishing dominance, confidence and connection to the other elephants. The herd relies on her to make decisions and direct them to safe places to forage, feed and bathe. Female mothers are attentive and very compassionate creatures, some African matriarchal herds are even adopting surrogate relatives to replace those killed by poachers, showing their adaptability and complexity in the face of human pressure threatening their existence.

Lion prides are similar in that the pride consists of females that are all related to one another and are the primary hunters. They have communal litters where all cubs end up having more than one "mother", and the lioness and her cubs are the focus of the society.  


Bonobo's are the closest relatives to humans and chimpanzees, but they are an egalitarian, non-violent, sexually charged matriarchy. They are one of the very few species who have recreational sex, both homosexual and heterosexual and the females usually always initiate the sexual activities and use sex to resolve conflicts. They are highly intelligent animals and aggressive behavior is not common among them, sexual bonding defuses natural aggression and tension in the group. Chimpanzees on the other hand, are to me a symbol of the traditional patriarchal society; War over territory, sex to fertilize females, strength, competition and aggression between males, etc..  What is striking here is that early humans could have easily behaved more like bonobos than chimpanzees, and in regards to having sex for pleasure, we do.

                                          two females engaging in sexual behavior

why is it important to study these matriarchies and what can be learned from them?

First of all it shouldn't be natural for us to regard patriarchy as the norm and biology should not be a determining factor for holding either males or females superior over the other. Matriarchy to me is the power from within and not the power to rule over others, it is not possessive or controlling but has to do with being harmonious in nature, creating tight bonds and maintaining connection and community. Sustainable female led societies ARE possible and DO exist.

In Lust with Georgia O'Keefe

As a child growing up in New Mexico, my grandfather would tell me about a marvelous female painter who settled in the Santa Fe desert and painted only large vivid flowers and animal bones. I again learned of her work in high school, where it was condensed to a small paragraph in a art history book. Georgia O' Keefe planted her roots in the vast and ghostly desert of New Mexico for the last many years of her life but was infamous world-wide for her feminist abstract art. Her paintings were erotic by nature, and throughout her life she was criticized for her controversial floral images, often depicting enchanting vulva forms. People are often pulled away from her paintings because of the "debate" about their meanings or what they suggest. Were the flowers a symbol of her sexuality? the cycles of birth, death and decay? or just a depiction of nature as she saw it up close and personal?


here is a great article from New York Magazine about the "controversy" of her erotic imagery(or perceived to be erotic imagery). When I look at her work, I see prismatic sensuality, and beauty for what it really is up close and personal. O'Keefe herself seemed to be upset with the stigma given to her art by the art community as well as her fans. Her art was not taken seriously when it was labeled as "pretty" or "girly" rather than imaginative and revolutionary. “When people read erotic symbols into my paintings they’re really talking about their own affairs,” O’Keeffe said. Still, the sexualized misconceptions of her work devastated her. “I almost wept,” she wrote of one review in 1921.


What I love about her work is her incredible ability to capture the essence of stunning vistas and landscapes, excluding human forms and painting only flora and fauna with sun-baked browns and reds, gradation of pastels and depth-less desert forms. What she painted is beauty or, as she called it, "the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it." Despite the sexual girly stigma given to her work she never stopped painting. She was also the first female artist to have her art up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1946. She was a woman ahead of her time.

She was the wife, cuckold and camera-object for America's great modernist Alfred Stieglitz. She moved into the New Mexico desert and lived a long full life there until 1988, she died at 88.

Recently while visiting family in New Mexico, I went to the museum dedicated to her life and work- The Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, which is what inspired me to write about her.

 

making books cool again

this is awesome and hilarious- a Watch the Throne parody video about books by La Shea Delaney & Annabelle Quezada. Read so hard!

I chose to post this video because it was made by a woman it is performed by women and it's about being a nerdy book lover.  What could be more beautiful or impressive than women who appreciate reading and are incredibly literate and humorous? On another level, these ladies are making books cool again, giving off the attitude that stimulation of the mind is far more important than boys or dating.