Lady Of Feminism

Moving...

2010-02-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to say that I am moving this blog to wordpress.com. I have been unblocked from this website but after I started up again on word press I realized the it had more features so I am moving over there. Here is the link to my new blog:
http://ladyoffeminism.wordpress.com/

I hope you all keep on reading my new blog!

UPDATE: IEP meeting...

2010-02-10T16:08:00.001-08:00

UPDATE: My IEP meeting went fine! No talk of the teacher whatsoever from my Mom. Things have been going fine with her so far this week!

- Lady Sydney

Talked to my Mom today...

2010-02-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I talked to my Mom today about me being bisexual. I didn't go to well to tell you the truth. She doesn't really think I'm bi, she thinks the people who are gay, bisexual, or lesbians confuse friendship with sexual attraction, she thinks I'm confused. She said that if I "turned gay" then she would give me her blessing and then would be done with it. She then talked about how not too long ago I was "bugging" her about this boy on the bus and now I think I'm gay (I said bisexual but...). I asked her if she even wanted to hear about girls and she said no, because I was "just obsessed with the girls". Like that was so horrible. I know that she is from Paraguay (My Dad was from Argentina but he died when I was 10 so...) and that they have a more conservative culture there but... She thinks that I will grow up and get married to a man and I know that that could never happen for me, the thought of me married to a man makes me tear up with sadness. I can't pretend to be straight anymore, I just can't. It's too hard, it's not worth the mental anguish. Another thing that worries me is that tomorrow I have my IEP meeting. One of my teachers is the co-adviser of the gay-straight alliance (GSA) at my school. I hate to say this but she "looks" like a lesbian (I feel really bad about this) and I'm scared the my Mom will think that she is influencing me. She is an an amazing teacher, let me just say that. She isn't "influencing" me in that way but my Mom might think that. After I had this discussion with my Mom I thought, 'what was I thinking, I should have waited until after the meeting'. I'll just have to shut up about my queerness for a while and hope she forgets about it by tomorrow!

YouTube...

2010-01-31T12:10:00.000-08:00

I got an account on YouTube yesterday because I felt that I had to respond to a sexist bastard who wrote a sexist comment about Sarah Palin and Yulia Tymoshenko (what does one have to do with the other anyways, uggh). Why did I respond? Why would I defend Palin or Tymoshenko? Because I was sick of reading comments about how "hot" or "ugly" a female politician or female singer is (and the politician at which the comments are directed at is most often female) for the 1,800th time. It's sexist, disgusting, and tiring (obviously). Now, I don't like Palin or Tymoshenko, it wasn't about defending there politics, it wasn't even about politics to the person making the sexist comments because he (I refuse to believe this could be a woman) also said that Hillary Clinton was, "...disgusting physically and politically." (it could have been "...disgusting politically and physically." I don't remember and it doesn't matter, there is no non-sexist reason to mention a female, or male, politicians looks in a political thread). The reason I am posting this is that I took action against this guy by reporting him after he called me a, "...fat cow woman" who can't, "...read or lose weight". Anytime someone makes sexist/hate comments on YouTube (esp. if it's directed at you), report it, here is the link to do so. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to respond to him, but I don't regret it. When someone makes misogynistic about a woman and tries to cover it up by saying "she's hot and has brains" it angers me. It dresses up sexism. It says that a woman with brains is worthless unless she has looks and holds women to a impossible standard. You wanna criticize Palin's politics (or Tymoshenko's), fine, good actually, I have. But there is NO excuse for misogynistic comments in my book, no matter what the person's politics. The other reason I am posting this is because in order to make places like YouTube safe for women, we cannot let comments like," I would fuck [insert name here]" or "[insert name here] is a fat woman cow bitch" slide. You can search almost any video that has a female in it (i.e. look up a YouTube video of Evanescence, or any female singer, and look at some of the comments, you might have to dig a little but, but they are there). Why do I mention Evanescence? Because I am a fan of the band of course. And while watching videos of Amy Lee (the leader of the band) singing I came across some very hateful and misogynistic comments that no one should have had to see. This may seem like old news but here's the thing, it's not. It still happens and if you see it, report it if you can, don't let people get away with it. And if you post video's on YouTube, moderate the comments and block people who do try and put misogynistic shit on your video's. This blog's comments are moderated for that very reason, I'm not naive enough to think that I will never get a hate comment with what I have posted here. It's sad, but true. I would love to have it completely open, trust me, but I don't want someone to come onto this blog (no matter how many people read it) and have to see some hate comment. In the end, it was not about politics with this guy who thought that Tymoshenko was "hotter" then Palin and that Hilary Clinton was ugly (she's not for the record), misogynist's will find a sexist comment to make regardless, it was about sexism, and nothing else.

- Lady Sydney

PS: For the record I do not agree with Palin's politics and think that it is unfortunate that feminists have to defend her from sexism. I wish we lived in a world where gender and sexual orientation did not matter, but we do not live in that world. Maybe we will some day. The reason that I do defend Palin from sexist/misogynistic comments is that if I just let is slide I couldn't consider myself a true feminist. There are many valid criticisms that can be made of her, I have even made some, and I will take the high road and stick to the valid ones.

Christine de Pisan, The First Lady Of Feminism...

2010-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

Christine de Pisan was one of the first feminists (or protofeminist) writers in medieval Europe. Born in 1365 in Venice. Her father, Thomas de Pizan, accepted an appointment to Charles V of France's court shortly after she was born. When she got older she started to write to support herself and the rest of her family. She married in 1380 when she was fifteenth years old. In a period of 19 years, she composed more then three hundred love ballads and many poems. In 1401 de Pisan started to partake in a literary quarrel. This allowed her to move out of the courtly literary circles which portrayed women as not much more than seducers. In particular she criticized Jean de Meun's book, The Romance of the Rose. In fact, she had written a book to respond to The Romance of the Rose called, The Book of the City of Ladies. Her final work was written in 1429, at the age of sixty-five, The Tale of Joan of Arc. She died in c. 1434 at age 68 (or 69).

New flags...

2010-01-24T12:16:00.001-08:00

Well, as you can see I have added flags to the posts to show what topic they cover in a more visual way. Hope you like the changes!

~ Lady Sydney

Homophobia and the Ukraine...

2010-01-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

Twenty years ago in the Ukraine (back when it was Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) you could expect to be sent to a psychiatric hospital or a labour camp if you were found out to be a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered person. So, now that the Ukrainian SSR is no longer, have things changed. In some ways, yes. Same-sex sexual activity was made legal in 1991 and Ukraine is under the Gender Recognition Act 2004. In many ways however, no. There are no anti-discrimination laws in the Ukraine and homophobia (along with antisemitism) is widely accepted and even popular among stars in the country. 81.3% of people view being in a LGBT relationship as "always unacceptable". Apparently the only two things that are worse then being gay in the Ukraine are shoplifting and drunk driving. Oh, and if you think that gay marriage is anywhere close to being legalized in the Ukraine then think again, the politicians there pay no attention to LGBT people, so they are largely ignored by the government. And only 4.7% of people there think gay marriage should be legalized. The Ukraine may have made some inprovements since 1991 but the country still has a very long way to go if it wants to live up to it's motto "Ukraine's glory has not perished, nor her freedom."

Qusetion: What does 'Trust Women' mean to you?

2010-01-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

I know I am a day late on "Blog for Choice day" but I didn't have acsses to a computer yesterday (I have to go to the public library to use a computer as my family does not have enough money to purchase one at the moment). But I hope this still counts!

Qusetion: What does 'Trust Women' mean to you?

Answer: To me 'Trust Women' means that you should trust a Woman to make both simple and complex decisions for how she wants to live her life. You should trust women to make the decision on whether or not to have a child. You should trust women to make the decision on when they want to have children. You should trust women with the decision on when and if they want to have sex. Most of this stuff just seems like common scene right? Well, some people do not think that women are capable of making these decisions. Some people who call themselves feminists still think that abortion hurts women when most have a positive abortion experience. Not everyone can afford to have a child every time they get pregnant and if a women who does not make much money gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion then why should she have to be ashamed? She shouldn't be ashamed. And the government has no right to tell her, or any women, what to do with her body. If a women decides to have a baby then she should not be shamed because of it. But that's what most anti-choicer's do. They say they don't want women to have abortions but then go on to say that they don't support birth control or real sex education ether. The real message they send is that women are not to be trusted with decisions about there body or life.

PS: Here is a link to a website about positive abortion story's. The reason I am including this link is because I don't think that we here enough of the positive abortion story's. I'm Not Sorry

Sarah Palin, feminist?

2010-01-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

No. Palin is not a feminist. And god help us if she does become president (I really don't think she will even try to run and I hope she doesn't, if she did run then there would be a chance of her being in charge, scary). Palin has shown time and time and time again that she can stand up for woman's rights and civil rights, but won't. You know, I think fox news will be good for her, that way she does not have any actual political power. Even is she was pro-choice and good on same sex marriage I still would not support her as president. Why? Because she can't lead. She does not have the life experience to lead, and I don't just mean age. She does not know what it is like to have a childhood where you grow up working class (or poor) and not get whatever you want (or be not be able to see Russia from her house). She does not know what it is to be poor and have a baby with down sydrome. She does not know what it is to have to hear the word "gay" used as a synonyme for "stupid" daily and be gay your self ("...a bunch of gay friends", my ass). And the worst part is that she does not try to understand. Obama does. She does not know enough about the world in general to lead. She may clame to be a feminist, but when it really comes down to it, is she? No.

New advitar, old symbol...

2010-01-18T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well as you can see I got a new advitar!!! I made it myself, it's the black triangle badge that was used in the holocaust to identify lesbians and other "anti-social" People. I use this symbol because I'm bisexual but I go more towards the "6" on the kinsey scale (I'm between the four and the five) and I also don't really want to use the two overlapping triangles some bisexuals use (for more info on bi pride symbols click here). The reason is that the black and pink triangles were actually used during the holocaust and the two overlapping triangles were not. And the triangle in the photo is a pendent that I made myself (see above, first picture). I have also used the double moon symbol in my jewelery making (see above, second picture). Another reason I like the double moon symbol is that I think it's a lot cooler then the over lapping triangles. I have also made a ring that has the black triangle but I don't have a picture of it at the moment, I'll post it as soon as I do have a picture of it though! The reason I make jewelry to express my bisexuality is that I'm not really "out" and when I did come out to my Mom she wasn't that accepting and said that it would pass. It's not going to "pass". My Mom is a good Mom, don't get me wrong. I'm very lucky in that she would never disown me of kick me out of the house (I'm 16). I'm also not very out at school. One of my friends knows (she's also bi) and my jewelry teacher knows. My case manigar also knows and she has been very open-minded about it. So I am lucker then some LGBT teens are. Anyways, that's it for now! I'll try and post more tommorow!

~ LadySydney4

First of many...

2010-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

I suck at first posts so I'm just going to tell you what this blog will be about. It's about feminism and my life. Sometimes I will blog about a specific topic and sometimes it will relate to my life, sometimes not, depends. I'll try to blog at least a few times a week if not more. Some fun facts about me are that I live in Minnesota, I like to create my own jewelery, I also like reading a lot (look @ my book list on my profile) and I also love to draw. I edit Wikipedia (My Userpage) some. My screen name (as you probably can tell) is LadySydney4. Sydney Miller (that's where the Sydney in "LadySydney4" comes from) is my favorite character from Gossip Girl: The Carlyes (actually she the only one I give a shit about, well, I like Baby too but back on track). I know Gossip Girl is not the most feminist thing to read (and in all honesty the book series is not that great) but it's one of my guilty pleasures. I don't watch much TV at all. My favorite news source is the BBC. Well, that's it for now.

~ LadySydney4