Obamarama has responded to Latina Lista’s invitation to guest blog. He took her up on her offer.

Rebecca Walker is commenting on BFP’s space as well.

So….when will Helen Zia come forth and admit she’s a Sudy fan?

I am working on a piece that is taking me much longer than I anticipated, but it will be well worth it because it is a topic I feel is so large and a part of my identity that rushing feels wrong.  I am responding to external and personal requests to address how I identify as both feminist and Catholic.

I’ve been tagged by Sylvia. Here’s to sharing a bit more about me in 08.

So, 7 facts about me….

1. I would KILL to learn how to use a sewing machine.

2. I used to be a competitive cheerleader. Yes, that included tumbling and dance lessons.

3. 8 years ago I had surgery to remove ovarian tumors. After the biopsy, I found out the tumors were benign, but half of my right ovary and a quarter of my left were removed.

4. I just got my nose pierced.

5. I’ve moved 10 times in the past 10 years. 10 different mailing addresses and I spend countless hours wondering why I feel so displaced in the world, then I remember that fact about myself.

6. Just the sight of a hot air balloon makes me believe the world is capable of peace.

7. EVERY time I walk into a book store or library, I get so excited I have to take a massive dump. I asked my doctor if it was a problem and she said that the adrenaline released from my excitement quickens the peristalic effect in my intestines. Basically, my intestines push everything out and this speed up the digestive process because I’m so excited. The mere thought of new ideas, justice, and creativity sends me straight to the toilet. Then I’m ready to change the world.

I can’t BELIEVE I just shared that on my own blog.

Compared to others, I’m a new blogger. I began in July 2006 and in that time have learned much about the online world and it’s manifestations of the offline world. My blog began as a tool to sharpen my writer’s voice. A year and a half later, it still serves that purpose and I am blessed to have met and befriended some of the most brilliant, passionate, and sacrificing writers and artists and media makers out there.

I want to say this now because I’m ready to begin 2008 with a new agenda, an agenda that has permanently deleted blogs, authors, and sites that do not contribute to anti-racist feminism and spend more time in reverse than a Kentucky pick-up truck. In short, I’m through with engaging – however slight – with blogs, writers, and commenters that:

• Group womyn of color together under one person’s blog or opinion. Hi, we have names.
• Comment on blog wars, throw labels around like footballs, and refuse to provide info/links.
• Pretend that ignoring and allowing racism, sexism, ableism, homo/transphobia to fester like ant holes on their space is not a problem.
• Primarily centralize US feminism through the lens of pop culture.

Advocating for gender equality has been a thrilling and enraging journey. Over the past year and half, the feminist blogosphere has offered so many things to my identity but none more than division. Sadly, I feel less inclined to hope that mainstream White US feminists will find a bridge with radical womyn of color feminists. However, that has never been my focal point or any other RWOC blogger that I read.

In the thousands of posts of the Radical Women of Color Blogger Ring, that have been around for a while, that cover a billion feminist issues like sexual assault, international violence, political observations, Megan Williams, Katrina, Jena 6, Duke and Durham, the Carnival of Radical Action, Tabasco, or organizing for conference attendance, the ones that cause jittery activity are the posts that take conflict MWUSF (mainstream, White, US feminism). In mathematical reality, these particular posts occupy probably 1/2983656 of RWOC’s focus. SO what gets me is how RWOC are labeled jealous, race watch dogs, and as waiting around for a chance to scream bloody blogwar.

Sigh.

I’ve had enough.

So, to all the rwoc bloggers who I love, you know who you are, stay strong, keep writing, dance and wiggle all around like you do.

And to my supporters and readers – thank you for your time, trust, and energy.

08 will bring it.

Out.

For those like me celebrating the last day of 2007, it’s a day of many things, often anti-climactic, but still an important day.

Each 31st of December, I kick back, run my hand over my round belly and speak gratitude, prophesy, and hope. Deep reflection, I believe, is necessary to meaningful existence. Without processing, minimal learning occurs.

The lessons of 2007…

• Raspberries possess amazing healing power.
• Big media is beyond unreliable.
• The sporting world reflects much of the privilege, dichotomous racism, and sexism I loathe. That being said, I am learning – through the sporting world – how to be a feminist and co-exist and even enjoy elements of what I fight against (e.g. College football)
• Critical questions can be misread as jealousy.
• It’s more about the mind’s will to make it happen than anything else.
• All of us are always looking for genuine inspiration and hope.
• Cooking is expensive.
• Disregarding perfectly functioning televisions irks me more than I thought.
• Action should follow reaction.
• The revolution will not be funded and it will not begin in the coastal cities.
• I am not ashamed of my Midwest roots.
• Polylingual tongues have it made.
• Moderation is harder to practice as one ages.
• Wine is a fine art.
• Feminisms require radical leadership.
• Blogging has grown to be a significant function of my activism.
• Privilege blinds the mind and softens the skin.
• Allies save.
• Tabasco.
• Fingerpointing accomplishes nothing unless you have an idea of your own.
• Building community takes time, consistency, and work.
• I still need a mentor.
• Online feminism is about picking your battles and gearing up with allies.
• Body piercings can be liberating.

08 is going to be oh-great.

Consider the call for absurd comments in the feminist blogosphere turned ON for, you know, ever.

Click here for the original call for threads, comments, and links.

There’s too much out there not to take a good hearty laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

People have been asking what the point of this project is and I keep dancing to my own beat, wiggling my rear end and saying, “You know what? You’re right – what is the point of being creative for the sake of just having a good laugh while potentially looking deeper at something that rarely gets talked about. Yeah…what’s the point?”

It’s probably better to just sit on my futon and stare out the winter window with poptart crumbs on my chest.

From the call for absurd comments came some brainstorming.

That brainstorming led me to my newest film montage: Say It Ain’t So Feminism which you can see here on YouTube.

That montage led me to realize that I wanted an additional medium to talk to the world about feminism, my feminism in a way that writing cannot.

So, here comes my new blog: Fem Watch, which will be the home for all my digital projects – photography, films, and anything else that comes to mind. While A Womyn’s Ecdysis will remain my home for feminist writings, I will be placing any of my other projects there.

Consider this my coming out to the world.

Every once in a while, say every 3 months or so, a post comes along that I think warrants a label that reads: MANDATORY READING for every internet reader.

Well, that post has arrived for the holidays and, not surprisingly, it comes from BFP land.

Read on here about the best damn post about porn, feminism, and women that I have read in MONTHS.

If you don’t, you are truly doing yourself a disservice.

I’ve been following this heartwrenching story closely. The Servanos have been granted a 60 day extension while they continue to fight to keep their family together. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the hope continues to flow in and eventually turns into citizenship for the Servanos. Read more here.

There’s some statistic how 33% or something Americans can’t find the US on the map.

It’s another known fact that American children are also among the most poorly educated IN THE WORLD when it comes to world geography.

I’m not saying I’m that much better. Here’s a fun quiz for the weekend to test your world geography and I cannot get to level six. I know I’m not a moron, but I feel like a moron.
I will now never forget where New Zealand’s most famous cities are located.

Consider this my lame contribution to heighten “traveler’s IQ.”
Fun for the weekend: Try it!