Insolent NDN

I’ve decided I am a firefighter today. I don’t know much about being a firefighter, no firefighters in my family but I heard that my great-great grandfather may have worked as a volunteer firefighter in Jackson County back in the day. But, really, I just like the idea of being a firefighter - it’s exciting, well, it *sounds* exciting, and the red truck gets bonus points.

I am a firefighter. I said so. I even Googled “firefighting” to find out a little bit more about what being a firefighter entails (aside from the snazzy uniform and the aforementioned hella cool red truck!) but there was a LOT of information, some of it seemed too academic or too angry (the NYFD seems to be really upset still) so I clicked out of the sites and went to eBay instead to see if I could get a firefighting uniform on the cheap, maybe get it tailored to be a bit more fitted too…

(more…)

The context of this post is layered in this, this, this, this, and especially this.

I was up all night, or rather dreaming all night about these conversations, because this is exactly the issue and almost an exact replica of what took me off the internet almost five years ago. I wanted to become less fat because after five years of undergrad the extra 30 pounds I put off from my stable, comfortable weight of 230-235 had me pretty damn uncomfortable. How had I gained the weight? Lots of soda and Nerds candy. Literally. All day, every day. How did I get that much weight off before going on my first diet - walking and stopping the soda and the Nerds candy. Was that health at every size or was that dieting? I don’t know - I went in with the notion of just stopping what I knew was causing the problem but also of becoming reduced fat.

The thing with dieting (and I think of lots of things in this arena like elective plastics, etc.) is that it’s a body autonomy issue but also a larger social issue. We can’t solve fat oppression by losing weight because fat oppression is just that - oppression - so me losing 30 pounds doesn’t do much, it definitely does not make me an activist one way or the other because I don’t think you can solve larger social problems by changing your body - but you can make yourself whatever, and I struggle with an adjective because who knows how one will feel. I applaud Kate Harding when she writes here that she is not gonna put up with dieting talk on her blog. Fucking ace, thank god someone is making a decision, as I’ve been too overwhelmed with the wishy-washiness of Fatshionista to even think anyone would dare make such a declaration. Maybe she read Delux Viven’s IBARW post? Spaces with boundaries are hella more productive than some of this “open-minded, winner-take-all” shit.

(more…)

I bought me the new Hip Mama as a cheer-me-up gift; it was a lovely surprise, as I let my subscription lapse and have not been keeping up with the zine. Hell, it was news to me that AG is pregnant again. *lol*

Like all of the other issues I am familiar with, this one has a theme - open adoption. Interesting. I found myself entranced by the stories of birthmama’s who birthed in “mother houses” in the deep South in the early 1970s (”My Secret Son” by Lani Jo Leigh) and then had their babies scurried away to an awesome story (”Wide Open Adoptions” by Zoe Francesca) by a second mama who talked about her deep friendships with both of her kids’ first mamas and how the mamas are in their lives on almost a daily basis*. There were other great stories as well, and then there was the article that pissed me off and I am prolly going to write a letter to the editor, or a letter to Ariel, challenging the stereotypical “oh it’s my experience” subtle but it can’t be racism! all up in it.

(more…)