random babble…

Me (to Some Guy):  May I help you?

Some Guy:  Oh I don’t want to buy nothin’, but you need to call Security.

Me: Why?

SG:  There is some woman outside breastfeeding!

Me:  Well, sir, there is no need for Security she is allowed to do that.

SG:  NO!  She’s not!  She can not do that!  It’s indecent!  Where’s your manager.  (at this point he is yelling)

Me:  I am sorry sir, but it is her right to feed her child.  And, I am the manager.

SG:  She can’t do that out there!  I am calling HPD!

Me:  It is your right to do that, but she is still allowed to be there.  She could even come in here and do it if she wanted.  Have a nice day.

Being that HPD never even showed up, I am guessing either he gave up, they told him that they had better things to do, or by the time he went back outside the kid was finished w/ lunch.

The only reason that breast feeding is indecent is b/c douche bags like this guy make it into some kind of sexual thing instead of the perfectly natural and beautiful thing that it is.  It is not his right to make a sex scene out of a child enjoying lunch outside on a beautiful sunny day.  The problem w/ breast feeding is that of society’s and how we view women and all their parts, not the problem of the woman who is taking good care of her child.  Breasts are not just some sex toy or fun bag for amusement behind closed doors and women are not merely for ogling and objectification.  It’s only sexual b/c he made it that way.

Time for another round.  See the first here. Read more »

You know this dance.

I would love to see your links this week, Readerland!

And for you lurkers, checking us out at work, reading the author profiles, you may as well out yourselves…we know who you are.  

Drop your links in comments.  

My suggested reading:

Check out the Red Queen, watching so we don’t have to (a service I much appreciated), and also explaining racist framing, another service for the reading comprehension challenged.  She is that damned nice.  Don’t worry, Red, I won’t tell!

Be sure to check out the new online women’s travel magazine, Galavanting!  Awesome mag, awesome title!

in my head is the concept of what it means to be “sex positive”.

I think a few people reading this blog know where I am coming from here.  I have heard some very harsh and sharp criticisms w/in the feminist community lately WRT sex, hetero sex, being sex positive, being a radical feminist, supporting sex work and sex workers’ rights, and a whole slew of other things that are down right frustrating to read and think about.

Othering women is not conducive to what we as feminists or womanists are trying to accomplish.  I think that the issue of being “sex positive” or not is one of those key discussions that is in fact doing more damage than it is doing good.

If the goal of feminism is to maintain a woman’s right to choose for herself what is right for her life w/ the understanding that she is equal to men who already seem allowed to make those decisions, then this othering of women based on their perceived view of feminism and sexuality is counter productive. Read more »

When I was an E-3 in California I began to experience several strange symptoms that had frustrate entire teams of doctors and my Chain of Command (CoC).  I was living in Military Housing (which was costing all of my Basic Allowance for Housing) w/ my at the time three year old daughter.  Being sick was not easy on us.  Finally my General Practitioner (a full bird) made the recommendation that I discontinue the BC I was currently on and use a non hormonal IUD instead.  Her theory was that the hormones in my current BC were aggravating whatever was ailing me (which still wasn’t diagnosed, and actually still isn’t “officially” in my record)  She made me a recommendation to the on base OB/GYN. Read more »

Special thanks to the technical savvy of The Guy!

Last week I posted the totally blubworthy clip from Buffy where they magically awaken all Potentials.  

One of the things I appreciate about the work that is done in the Whedonverse is that they often focus on the consequences of actions and decisions.  I really think that it is important to understand that sometimes something that seems like the ideal solution can often have consequences that we fail to count on, sort of a ripple effect, if you will (for those of you actually reading these links, I LOVE The 4400 and get really into that ripple effect).

After making the series finale of Buffy, the writers wanted to explore the idea of awakening all Potentials…what that meant.  What would happen if someone who was in line to possibly become a Slayer was never meant to receive that power and suddenly woke up one day w/that power?

And what if she couldn’t handle it?

What if events in her life had destroyed her, or Damaged her?

Here, in this clip from Season Five, Episode 11 (Damage) of Angel, we meet Dana. Dana was never meant to actually receive the powers that she was in line to possibly inherit, but b/c of the decision made by Buffy and Willow (which had very good intentions and also very good outcome for that situation) she did.

While this clip can be triggering and has a gruesome end I want to focus on what is trying to come across here.  We are not talking about a woman not able to handle her power.  We are not glorifying a tragically mentally disturbed young woman.  We are exploring that even though we make decisions that are meant to do good, meant to have a positive outcome (in this case, save the world from being sucked into a hellmouth) our actions can sometimes have dire consequences for people we have never met.  Our actions have impact on people who are not us.  Just like the way that words mean things, actions cause things.

The beauty that I find in the Whedonverse (which admittedly has it’s flaws) is that the story is not just a fluffy story.  The story has a place in an arc of events.  Every action has a ripple.  When Mal decided that the right thing to do is not to turn River and Simon over to the Alliance (a good thing), his good deed eventually caused the deaths of many people.  It didn’t make his deed any less meritorious for that situation but it completely affected the lives of other people in ways that Mal had not anticipated.  Buffy and Willow used magic to awaken every Potential Slayer to protect them all in the final fight and to save the world, but they also awakened Potentials like Dana, whom fate had decided was not to receive the powers.

Everything has to have balance.  Joss Whedon’s shows are full of characters who are faced w/ tough choices, choices that have consequences no matter what they decide.  Every action has a ripple.  And that is what this is all about.

*after watching the movie w/ the Guy I realize that what I was trying to think of was the Chaos Theory.  Both a butterfly effect and chaos theory would work…but I like the ripple.

I would like to take a moment of your time to ask you a huge favor.  If, as I read on sites like Alternet, you really have Senator Obama’s ear, I would like to ask your help in getting him on board w/ all women’s issues.

If Senator Obama is hoping to stand in solidarity and unison w/ you, and if he is looking for your support to help sway your voters to become his voters, then I beg you, help him see what he needs to do to earn their votes. Read more »

Hellboy has a prehensile tail, and my level 2 Tiefling Warlock does not.

Boo.

But my Tiefling Warlock still gets 5 plus my Int modifer temporary hit points for using Vampiric Embrace!

Eat that, Hellboy!

More about my Tiefling Warlock: One, Two.

Randomly (natch) The Guy asked me after dinner if he could do a regular segment here at Random Babble.  I am always looking for new good material and fun co-Babblers, and I think regular segments are a fun thing to have on blogs (b/c I have OCD and like things orderly).  It was so unsolicited and cool sounding, and right up my nerd alley that I couldn’t resist.  The Guy has achieved notoriety here, so I will let him introduce himself to you all as he sees fit.  You should see his first post tomorrow.  Perhaps I can persuade him to do other things occasionally and maybe we can provoke him into conversation sometime.

He is a master of all things gamer-dork related, and he has fully embraced his inner nerd.  I will state for the record, however, that he is SO not the DM of me!

So, w/o further ado…

ahh…John Cleese.  He is so funny when he goes crazy.