I absolutely love this video. Pure joy from a man comfortable in his zone. Free flowing. Energetic. Powerful. Uplifting. And his kiddo doing art in the background just adds to the organic flow. The caption reads:
To the haters, he only offers kindness. He is THAT comfortable in his skin and masculinity. 🙌
…acceptance and the gentle movement towards change
In the current culture, Friday the 13th is largely considered an unlucky day. Funny thing is: I’ve always noticed I’ve had GREAT days on Friday the 13th. So much so, I look forward to them.
Deep in the recesses of my brain, I had this notion that it’s somehow associated with paganism and the divine feminine. So I decided to look it up today. Sure enough I pulled up an article from CNN:
But, as with most pagan things, it was condemned and deemed “unholy” when Christianity took hold, because it stood at odds with the new patriarchal order. If the rulers now consider god to be a single man, not many gods and goddesses, then the way to control that is to say anything the opposite is bad and wrong. So anything around the number 13 and feminine power was suddenly bad.
I like Friday the 13th. I Embrace its pagan divine feminine origins. I already feel it in my bones. It’s a day to celebrate. Celebrate the yin. Bask in your bleeding womanhood. Extend out loving kindness to your fellow women, men and all people. And hold yourself as holy.
It curves, it supports it blossoms out from the core of the frame. The heart of the center. The butterfly of the body.
The female pelvis serves many purposes. The male, mostly one. The female pelvis undulates and circulates, it dances and runs and pushes life optimally through it.
Not only do these female bones support and propel the body to motion they also support and propel life into being. All beings.
If you were to ask the authors of medicine though, it would say:
These female bones support the human frame for bipedal locomotion just like male bones, AND they succeed in purpose and responsibility to push humans to life. We are not constrained by it. We merely have more ability.
We can do just as much as male bodies, under the pressure of a body built for multiple purposes. It’s like running a race and still winning when you have hurtles to jump while your racing someone with a clear path.
We’re so used to female bodies being presented as less capable when in reality we are more capable ie have multiple capabilities. We’re all different, not better or worse than another. The female pelvis is optimized for bipedal locomotion AND for propelling life to being. Be proud of your pelvis.
I’m often amazed that doctors and chiropractors have images of the human form and skeleton, but rarely, if ever, is it a female body or skeleton on the wall. As if male is the default. Which couldn’t be farther from the truth anyway. (All humans start as female in the womb. Why do you think men have nipples?)
Regardless, it’s important to take into consideration the beautiful and vital differences in anatomy in medicine and everyday life, even, and especially, down to the pelvis.
This is ground breaking! SJ Howell will now represent District 95 and Zooey Zephr will represent District 100 in Montana! I met SJ Howell a handful of times when I lived in Montana. SJ Howell has done amazing work: They’ve worked on a successful campaign expanding Medicaid and worked on increasing civic engagement for low income women. They always were badass and so kind. It means a lot to have someone like that elected to represent the people.
And Zooey Zephr: I can’t wait to see what she does!
Tomorrow is a VERY important midterm. It’s Roevember. And people are on ballots across the country who are election deniers. This midterm is crucial to democracy. Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote
Vote
Vote
Vote
Vote
Vote
We need to win these elections to try to protect abortion access. Speak up! Have your voice heard! Fight to have your state retain the right to an abortion! It’s not just for you or me, but all people across the country.
We are in dangerous territory now
My home state of New Mexico has been on fire. Evacuations took place. Some of the fires are getting contained but this should remind us how hard we need to fight the climate crisis.
Fires of this tremendous magnitude will become more and more common as the climate crisis rages on.
We’ve got to wake up to this reality and start fighting the climate crisis like our lives depend on it. And indeed they do.
One step I am working on to reduce my own carbon footprint is to divest from Wells Fargo bank. I’m planning on taking my money out of Wells Fargo because they continue to fund fossil fuel projects. I plan to instead put my money into a credit union that funds our community. I’ve opened up an account at one, now I just need to move my money into it. It’s a work in progress.
As mentioned in an article titled “The long-shot campaign to get big banks out of fossil fuels” by Vox written in April of 2022, “Big banks are indeed continuing to fund fossil fuel expansion: Last year alone, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America spent a combined $137 billion on fossil fuel projects, according to a report from a coalition of environmental advocacy groups..”
We need to put pressure on companies such as big banks to stop investing in fossil fuels and instead invest in wind and solar energy.
I’m also looking into how to make my energy come strictly from solar and wind resources. I’m a renter, so I can’t put solar panels on my roof. But I get energy from Xcel, and they appear to have an opt-in program where you can request energy from just solar and wind. I’m looking into this, as this is also a work in progress…
These, of course are small steps. What we truly need is a Green New Deal, to immediately get off fossil fuels and demand corporations pay for the damage they’ve done and change their ways.
Another important aspect of reducing the climate crisis, and one that is not talked about a lot, but which is one of the most important aspects, is allowing people to control their own bodies. Comprehensive sex education and access to contraception is vital to a healthy planet. And when accidents happen and pregnancy somehow happens, it is important to allow people the right to choose whether or not to carry that pregnancy to term. Overpopulation is arguably the largest component fueling the climate crisis. If forced birthers get their way, abortion will become illegal in many states. Forcing people to carry pregnancies to term and to procreate, when they don’t want to, fuels overpopulation. If people want to bring life into the world, that is beautiful and that is their human right. But if they choose not to do so, that is also valid and also their human right. It is important to allow people to make the choice to avoid creating life if they want to, which in turn helps reduce the amount of people on the planet consuming fossil fuels and environmental resources. Forcing more people onto the planet through women and men who don’t want to be parents is morally wrong.
All in all, I do believe we have the power to sustain a healthy planet and to curb the crisis. But time is running out. We have to fight and push corporations and politicians to do the right thing. Or else fires, hurricanes, and other man-made natural disasters will continue to decimate our people, our wildlife and our planet. We are already on track to making the planet uninhabitable: We must fight hard to make sure we do what we can.
When I was a teacher in a new classroom, I remember one day I was moving things out of the cupboards in my room. I came across a bucket and some cat litter and thought that was strange until a coworker of mine asked if I’d found the cat litter yet, to which I replied, “Yes, what’s it doing there?” She said, “It’s in case there’s a mass shooter and kids are locked in your classroom so long they need to use the bathroom in the corner.”
I remember the feeling that day and the understanding that I as a teacher had an enormous responsibility, much more than teachers in other countries do, because they don’t have mass shootings like we do. I understood from day 1 that I would potentially have to risk my life for my students. And that was just a given. Reports say that police officers didn’t enter the school for a full hour after a shooter entered the school in Uvalde, supposedly because “they could get shot.” But teachers risked their lives to save the students
Mass shootings at schools are now so common, this is what it’s come to: We’ve taken the steps enough to supply classrooms with cat litter, but we haven’t been able to enact adequate gun laws to prevent these things from happening in the first place. And it’s thanks to the NRA and Republican law makers. It makes me sick.
Dr. Jackson Katz, anti-sexist educator and author, has been speaking on the issue of gun violence for years and points out an important piece about mass shooters. “How are we defining manhood in such a way, that so many boys and men feel like they need to use violence to either gain power and control, to establish themselves in a status hierarchy, [or] to redeem their manhood, something that has been taken from them…”
In this video clip, he discusses how gender plays a role in young men acting out by committing mass shootings
Our men deserve better and our society deserves better.
Dr. Caroline Heldman poses the question: How do we prevent mass shootings from happening?
Katz’s response is two fold: Number 1: We create gender equity. Number 2: We enact important gun control legislation. To see the full interview go to YouTube and search Jackson Katz Caroline Heldman or go to Missrepresentation’s Instagram page.
Here is a list of legislators who are accepting money from the National Rifle Association. They are the ones we need to vote out of office.
Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Roy Blunt, Todd C Young, Thom Tillis, Jon Ernst, Tom Cotton, Bill Cassidy, Rob Portman and Richard Burr. (Source: The Brady Campaign.)
Julia View 