Saturday, October 29, 2011

Sexy Halloween

http://takebackhalloween.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1-499x387.gif

Take Back Halloween is "a costume guide for women with imagination."

It has some creative ideas about alternatives to the overused "Sexy _____" theme. 
(Sexy Fire hydrant!  Sexy Lamp!  Sexy Coffee Mug!)
No, seriously, better ideas than even those.
We think there’s a serious lack of opportunities in life to dress up in strange clothes and pretend to be somebody else. Unless you’re in show business, Halloween is pretty much it. Why waste it?
Take Back Halloween is sponsored by the Real History Project, which doesn’t have a snappy motto but is considering “No, Men Did Not Invent Everything.” 


Miss C has donned various costumes through the years:

a skunk that sprayed you if you came too close
a wallaby princess
a burlap ghost (not recommended)

This year she has been alternating between two possibilities:
Dorothy Gale, and Mary Ingalls, post scarlet fever.
(Laura is deemed less interesting because she didn't go blind.)
And now she wants to know if we can get a guide dog and call him Toto.

Perhaps we'll go back to the burlap ghost next year.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

(un)Wanted

Over 200 Indian girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in   life.
Activists say the name "unwanted," which is widely given to girls across India, gives them the feeling they are worthless and a burden. 
"When the child thinks about it, you know, 'My mom, my dad, and all my relatives and society call me unwanted,' she will feel very bad and depressed," said Sudha Kankaria of the organization Save the Girl Child. But giving these girls new names is only the beginning, she said.
This article mentions some of the reasons why the birth of sons is celebrated but the birth of daughters is mourned, and they struck me as cultural, different in only their shades and specifics.

They are not foreign reasons, and have been repeated in every country and culture across time. 

A familiar one here that was in practice not too long ago:
Only men can vote.
Because only men can own land.

Why can only men own land?
Because they are voting citizens!

Because because because because.  Tiring, circular illogic. 

These rules...these rules which are made by mere mortals, and then discard an entire half the world. 
I am tired of them. 

I am also so proud of these girls for claiming a new name.
And so grateful to the expanded hearts who are facilitating the first step for these girls.

Named, Beautiful.
Named, Generous.
Named, Wanted.