Occupy Wall Street

The movement has finally been broadcast by mainstream media (but after we all already knew about it, of course). I’ve tweeted, Facebooked, sent in letters to editors, and generally told everyone I could about it. I’m wholeheartedly behind it, especially since NYPD brutality has seemed to become the norm in dealing with these peaceful protesters.

See some of the myriad videos of the brutality here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxZ8_JdKm0Q&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3DNYPD%2Bpunches%2Bout%2Bwoman%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTdbTIE8lrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqLHntKPHY

Mainstream media, of course, doesn’t seem to comprehend what’s happening. Occupy Wall Street has been called everything from a bunch of dirty hippies, to whining entitled children, to a violent bunch of unwashed college kids. So many lies have been spread about the movement that it’s heartening- because when people start lying about something it’s to hide it and cover up its message. Occupy Wall Street is becoming too big to ignore.

The media also seems unable to grasp what the movement’s goals or message is. It’s been called too broad and chaotic, unable to cohesively unite for a single purpose. Those, of course, are lies too. There are college students who make up this movement, angry because they worked hard, earned their degrees, got themselves in thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and can’t find a job. There are war veterans, still marching because their benefits have been cut and their healthcare is in danger.  There are white collar men, and blue collar men, women who can’t afford to feed their children, women with PhD’s that can’t find a job besides a fry cook at McDonald’s. These are people who are angry that their air is so dirty their children can’t breathe right anymore, that their food is poisoned and too expensive, that they can’t find a decent job, that they’ve been disrespected and called lazy, entitled, ignorant because they need help in a country that doesn’t place people above profits anymore. One cohesive, united message? Occupy Wall Street wants corporations and big money out of politics, and their voices back. That is the primary message, and it was all too easy to understand. Every single issue and demand the movement has made traces back to this. There isn’t one single goal touted because there are lots of goals they want met. Unemployment, clean air, nutritious food, safe streets, a voice, these are ALL important, and all should be guaranteed in a country as rich and powerful as ours. There are no whiners in the movement, no entitled brats, no lazy people. Only people who worked hard and did everything they were supposed to in order to be successful, and now have nothing.

Here is the movement's first official release: http://occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wall-street/

Here is the We Are the 99% archive link: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/archive

I am part of Occupy Wall Street. I’ve been to Occupy Cleveland. And from not only personal experience, but those of my friends  and family, I know that this movement is truthful.

I am a twenty-five year old recent graduate. I hold a Bachelor’s degree. I was on the Dean’s List for the last two years of that degree. I started my own non-profit student organization and volunteered with two others. I worked part time almost the whole time I was at college, often while running my organization and maintaining a minimum 3.5 GPA with eighteen credit hours. I volunteered with grassroots campaigns and worked hard at everything I did. I even earned a certificate from the school for my work with my non-profit organization.

I am now living in my mother’s basement because I can’t afford rent or even groceries. I can’t find a job that pays above minimum wage (and minimum wage is NOT a livable wage, not for me as a single person and certainly not for the woman supporting two children). The only work I’ve found is as a pizza delivery driver; it’s only part time and minimum wage.

I’m almost forty thousand dollars in student debt, mostly owed to the Federal Government. I have a loan from one private loan company which has more than doubled in the past four years. They have me on 30% interest.

Even worse, I’ve just received my first notification that my student loan payments are going to begin shortly. I have no way of paying them. My car needs brakes replaced and tires, and has a hole in the exhaust pipe.  I haven’t been to a dentist in five years, or an OB/GYN in six. I have health insurance through my Dad that is going to expire soon, but I can’t even afford to pay copays. I rely on my family for everything from groceries to a roof over my head, and am going to have to ask them for help to fix my car and pay my bills. I have $200 to my name, and at least $100 is going to bills this month. It’s a horrible, nasty feeling.

I did everything I was supposed to, and excelled beyond many of my peers. I did the extracurriculars, I took the hard classes, I did the community work, I worked my ass off. And five years later I’m worse off than when I started. I hate being in this position, and if I had any possible way out of it I would have taken it by now. I am so sick of being helpless and relying on my family’s charity. I’m sick of being unable to support myself or get ahead. I have no savings and no job prospects, and am already in so much debt. I can’t think about retirement because at this rate I will never make enough to save enough to retire, much less buy a home or a new car when mine dies, or take care of myself if my health fails. This is terrifying. It’s bone-deep, soul-shaking terrifying.

So I support Occupy Wall Street. I support them with everything I have. I support them because my younger friends are already reaching the end of their unemployment benefits, before the age of twenty-five. I support them because corporations HAVE taken over, and have been granted civilian rights when they don’t have the responsibilities or accountability actual people have. I support them because I worked hard, I did everything I had to, and I’m done with being helpless. I support them because I don't get a bail-out. I will be arrested if necessary, I will take a policeman’s fist to my face because I dare speak up and say that THIS IS NOT RIGHT. I will wade through the lies and stay strong, because we’ve had enough.

We are the 99% and we are awake now.

Sexual Harassment Before the Job Even Starts

I went to an interview at a Subway in Ohio. I wanted a part time job to save up for tuition and books for community college, something fairly routine and not too demanding. What with Pell grants about to be gutted, I can no longer afford to pay for the Vet Tech program with savings and assistance alone. So, Subway seemed a logical choice and just happened to be hiring around my home town. I called and the guy seemed really out of it, not too organized or particularly interested. I took it in stride, who can really know someone just from a short phone call?

I got to Subway five minutes early and ended up waiting nearly half an hour for the owner to come out and interview me. My first impression was that he’s a bit creepy; he stared and his shirt was open enough to expose a bunch of chest hair, a nipple if a strong breeze were to blow. Not what I wanted to see from a prospective employer. We got straight to business and he seemed extremely domineering, a very military-type “say exactly what I want to hear” person. I was not liking him, and it got worse when he asked me if I had kids. This was problematic because I doubt he would be asking a man this question. Not only is there the assumption that a woman should be primary caregiver, but that she is a bad/negligent mother by searching for a job, or that she isn’t able to handle a job and children. If his franchise is an Equal Opportunity Employer, his questions are illegal.

I answered, dumbfounded. He kept the ball rolling with a question about my shirt size. I told him small and he decided I was going to get a medium shirt (so why did he ask?). Directly after telling me this he tells me to stand up so he “can get a look at me”. I still didn’t confront him, both needing a job and shocked at his behavior. Not too many questions later he made a comment about shorts having to be at the knee or longer, which sounded normal to me. Instead of leaving it at that, this “businessman” laughed and told me that if he had his way all his girls would be wearing short shorts to help bring in business. I didn’t smile at his oblivious and disgusting joke. It was at this point I realized I’d only seen the one male employee, but three younger female employees. As I shook his hand I was shaking and I got out of there as quickly as possible. I called my Dad and told him about the interview, and he just congratulated me. This is not to say he’s sexist or bigoted, at least not consciously; he’s one of the more feminist men I’ve ever known. He either didn’t fully realize the situation or I wasn’t clear that I was upset. It wasn’t until I got home and thought about it that I realized how horrible the interview was. In ten minutes I had experienced sexist policy, sexual harassment and objectification.

Needless to say, I did not take the job. I needed one, but I was not going to subject myself to that man again, much less in a subordinate position. I was lucky enough to land several more interviews and ended up being employed as a driver at a great little pizzeria, making more in wages and supplementing that with tips than I would have working for the Subway.

I have since reported the franchise to the Better Business Bureau(BBB)(https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint/), and to the Subway Corporation, and I’m waiting to hear back. It may not go anywhere, but the owner will know that I didn’t appreciate his unprofessionalism during the interview. I still wish I’d said something right away, but truthfully I was intimidated and didn’t want to hurt my chances at getting a job. I hope I’ve learned from this, and I want others to learn from it too. This type of behavior and discrimination needs to be recognized and brought to awareness, especially during this time of economic instability when women are taking the most damage.  

Here is a copy of the transcript sent to the BBB and Subway:

“I went for a job interview at this Subway. During the interview I was asked to "Stand up so I can look at you" by the owner, who was interviewing me, after already agreeing on a suitable shirt size if I were to be employed. The owner also stated during the interview that if he had his way, all his girls would be wearing short shorts to work to bring in more business. This was in regards to his stipulations that shorts must be at the knee or below in the workplace, and this comment was not in response to one of my own. The owner of this franchise was both discriminatory towards me (he asked if I had children) and verbally sexually harassed me, which is why I'm reporting this Subway store. I had no issues with anyone or anything else at the location.”

Here is a copy of the action I’d like taken via the BBB:

“I would only like the owner of the Subway to know his unprofessionalism was not unnoticed, and to have any action appropriate be taken against him by the Better Business Bureau.”

My Address to LGBTQ Youth

  I'm not old yet, so I remember high school and what it was like going through it as an out bisexual girl. I remember being called a slut, a dyke, greedy, desperate, liar, bitch.... all sorts of things. I was told the standard lies about going to hell, being unnatural, only doing it for male attention (because girls only kiss girls for guys' benefit), and being too young to have a sexuality, much less one outside the hetero-norm. It was hard and at times I did think about killing myself. I cut myself, demeaned myself, and gave those idiots exactly what they wanted. It was difficult to keep my head above water at the best of times. But to go with that awesome campaign making a presence, it got better (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/). I found friends who fought for me as fiercely as I should have fought for myself. I educated myself about what it meant to be queer, and about the struggles of other people.

  The best thing I ever did was get the hell out of there and go to college. I found people as passionate as I am, who gave a damn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-E7fykpeGc) and let everyone know it. I learned about the Stonewall riots, about transpeople and hate crimes, and joined LGBTQ clubs and attended seminars. I armed myself with knowledge, and it empowered me. I majored in Creative Writing because it showed me how to broadcast my voice, and I minored in Women's Studies because it gave me real herstory and told me the truth about racial issues, human sexuality in all its flavors, and humankind in every gender, color, and category.

  You will find opposition as often as you will find support. There are stupid people everywhere, and scared ones who have a hard time respecting and recognizing anything different. You will encounter corrupt social infrastructures that hold you back and deny you your basic human rights and the respect you deserve. But keep this in mind- you do deserve respect. As a feminist and a queer, I have learned to carve out my space where none exists for me. Don't be afraid to be loud and get creative. You will be called names, you will experience violence, and you have the strength to rise above all of it.

  Most of all, know you are NOT alone. I'm here, and I care. I care about YOU, and I care about my neighbors all over this country and this world. I will be your shoulder and your rock, I will beat ass for you and shout to the highest levels of government. My love is big enough for anyone and everyone. I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for you, and so are millions of people around the world. Remember this: you matter and you can make your place in this world. You have the power to stand up for yourself and for others. Use it. 

Street (or parking spot) harassment

Yesterday I was loading my car up with boxes (I'm in the process of moving from my apartment to my mom's basment- more on that later), sweating my ass off in the heat.  I have a Honda Element, which allows you to fold the seats up to the sides so that there's a lot of stowing space.  I had to climb in to stack some boxes near the front, since I was loading from the back hatch.  And of course, some idiot drives by in a little red wannabe sports car (I know who you are, jackass) and catcalls me as I'm bent over boxes, struggling to stack some more.  I ignored him with much restraint on my part, since I'm not used to keeping quiet about harassment.  A few trips up and down the stairs (I lived on the second floor) later, and there's a man in his mid-forties walking by my car.  He looks like a crack addict.  He decides it's ok to comment on my ass while I'm putting another box in.  This time I get out, look him straight in the eyes and say "Your comments aren't helpful, and you're sexually harassing me.  Leave me alone."  He takes this opportunity to flip me off and call me a bitch, strutting his skinny flat ass away like he's won something besides his ignorance.  I'm twenty five years old and I look like I'm seventeen (seriously, I get carded for rated R movies).  This man was old enough to be my dad.

I don't know what it is about some men that makes them think they can sexually harass women who are minding their own business- and yes, catcalling and talking about a stranger's ass is sexual harassment (check out this awesome blog and project about fighting street harassment called 'Hollaback':http://www.ihollaback.org/).  It's all about objectification of women, and that false sense of male entitlement to women's bodies.  Women are sexualized to the point where we've become nothing but sexual property in many regards, a means to status and a symbol of a man's power.  Think of trophy wives and how many powerful men both date supermodels and cheat on their wives.  Men are also taught that they have a right to sex and a woman's body, though not every man gives in to that lie.  Look at rape statistics, and all the bullshit rape-apologists and 'excuses' about why he did it.  Rape is never about sex but power- and look at the overwhelming statistics of male rapists and female survivors.

So, the twenty-something neighbor of mine that will go to his car one morning to find an angry note on it was asserting his entitlement to my body with his catcalls.  The guy old enough to be my dad was doing the same thing, and arguably more shamefully.  Both should have known better, but the old guy might have a daughter.  I wonder how he'd feel if the same happened to her?  Actually, I wonder how either would feel if some jackass like them did the same to their sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends.

Getting a bit off topic, I also wonder if either of these men thought about what I might be feeling (obviously not).  How was I to know they weren't going to attack me, or try to rape me?  Will they ever know how it feels to be broken down to a set of tits, an ass and a vagina (never a vulva)?  How would they feel knowing they're being paralleled to rapists in my mind, perpetuating a culture of sexual violence for women?  I'm thinking neither of them would really give a shit.

On Dr. Tiller and Abortion

I watched an MSNBC movie about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller today.  I’m familiar with the story, I wore the pin and spread the news about Tiller’s amazing work with women’s reproductive health and his outspoken support of women’s decisions.  Watching this film only reminded me of my passion for women to have a choice, and of the insanity a handful of people can create when they rely on religion to think for them. 

I understand the stance of abortion as murder.  I understand why people are against abortion, and I can relate to an uneasiness around the issue.  I cannot tolerate hate or murder for the sake of fanaticism, and I certainly will not tolerate domestic terrorism against women.

I never see pro-choice rallies and gatherings bombing churches and health clinics, I never see pro-choice people going so far as to assassinate the leaders of anti-abortion groups.  That brand of evil is firmly in the hands of anti-abortion crazies.

I want to be clear.  Abortion is a controversial issue, and I am all for lower abortion rates.  But there is no way in hell that making abortion illegal is going to do that.  Instead of a dead fetus, there will also be a dead woman.  And I value myself and women everywhere way too much to think that’s ok.  Let me repeat that- illegalizing abortion and using blatant lies and scare tactics, harassment and threats is not going to get rid of abortion.  I’ve seen the pictures of dead women with their vaginas torn up, insides spilled out on the ground, curled over puddles of blood.  I’ve heard the stories of women being rendered infertile or crippled because the person claiming to be a doctor in their back alley abortion had never touched a medical manual in their lives.  I remember the stories of wire coat hangers.  And that is an unacceptable era of history to return to.

Ask anyone standing outside a women’s health clinic with a picture of a dead fetus way older than they tell you, and that nut will insist that abortion is bad.  They will also insist that birth control is abortion, and poor women are sluts who keep pumping out kids to get welfare money.  They’ll tell you that welfare is bad, too, and that giving low income families free childcare will reduce us to a nanny-state.

The only way abortion is going to decrease is through comprehensive sex education including teaching about abstinence (and not from a religious point of view), free birth control for women, welfare to help low income women and men get on their feet and keep their children from starving, and free childcare for low income families so they can get jobs and make desperately-needed money.  There is no getting around this.  Look at the statistics, look at the studies.

The women who are being hurt the worst by our current, shameful Republican-led War on Women are poor minority women.  These are the same women branded as welfare sluts.  These are the women who rely on Planned Parenthood as their only form of healthcare.  These are the women who are affected most by abortion legislation, which is quickly turning abortion into a wealthy white woman’s privilege instead of a poor black woman’s right.  These women are the ones who can’t march in the streets because they can’t afford to miss a day of work.  They are the same ones who labor sixty hour weeks at fast food restaurants to support the children they were forced to have because they didn’t have access to or education about birth control and abortion.  These are the women who can barely afford to pay the weekly grocery bill, much less spend hundreds every week on childcare.  These are America’s forgotten women, who are no longer afforded a voice due to their audacity to want a life beyond hand to mouth survival.  These are women who have been pounded into the ground not just by sexism, but racism too.  

Dr. Tiller’s death was one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism I’ve ever lived through, and I saw the second tower fall during 9/11.  Dr. Tiller was a voice for women everywhere, the poor Latinas and whites, and even the wealthy anti-abortion corporate queens who took quiet vacations to take care of the problem growing in their wombs. 

Abortion is and must always be a fundamental right.  No one has the right to tell a woman what she can or can’t do with her body, rich, colored, poor, or white.  Dr. Tiller knew this, and he was willing to stand up to the danger that should not be inherent with it.  I know it, and I have been spit on and had rocks thrown at me for it.  And I will take that nasty, hate-mongering behavior any day if it means one more woman can make her own reproductive choices.

I look at the legislation being introduced today and it’s so crazy L. Ron Hubbard is wishing he thought of it.  My constitutional right as a woman is being slowly eroded by the Heartbeat Bill, 24-hr waiting periods, 72-hour waiting periods, mandatory counseling sessions, crisis pregnancy center lies and scare tactics, mandatory ultrasounds, misinformation and miseducation.  They are telling lies about us and about our bodies, and they are telling them straight to our faces.  If we don’t stand up for ourselves there is no one else to do it for us, and we’ve seen what lack of representation of women in our governments and our politics leads to.  Women are being stuffed back into the patriarchal pigeonhole of house servants and sex slaves, and I am not going to take it lying down.  Dr. Tiller didn’t, black women didn’t, our grandmothers and mothers didn’t.  It’s the same fight, but this time it’s our turn to dig in our heels, break out our signs and say “Enough”.   

              

An Introductory Rant

I’m pissed off.  Maybe it’s the freezer-burned dinner I have to eat because I can’t afford groceries this week-again.  Maybe it’s the insane amount of work my online instructor thinks I can churn out in two days, or maybe it’s neither of those and the simple fact is I’m pissed off because I’m a woman living in the U.S.. 

I’m sick of living in a country where men don’t think women deserve to be treated with respect and dignity like they do.  I’m so shit-pissed enraged that this country’s (almost totally white-male-heterosexual-Christian) government thinks it’s ok to give women second-class status and laugh down any logical angry responses to this and replace it with their irrational misogynistic bullshit.  I’m pissed that the Supreme Court refused to give the millions of women suing Wal-Mart a class action lawsuit because they were too many of them.  I hate that the Supreme Court gave up the opportunity to give a desperately needed statement about women’s worth, and set us back a century or so.

I’m so exhausted with men’s attitudes towards women I want to vomit.  I’m done with entitled men acting like something their mothers shit out their assholes instead of split their vaginas wide open and labored to gift with life.  I’m spitting fire at those jerk-offs who think it’s ok to tell me what I can do with my body, what decisions I’m allowed to make, where I can work, who I can fuck, what I can say and still be a ‘good woman’.  I’m sick of seeing my friends being denied recognition of their marriages and who they want to fuck.

I hate that it’s a fact that I won’t make as much as a man and it’s not because of my work ethic or his.  I hate that I can’t be taken seriously because I have a hole instead of a pole, that I have to work twice as hard to get the same spoils.  I hate that I have to prove myself because I own- yes, I OWN- a vulva and that great stuff attached.

I hate that I dislike most men I meet, and that I’m quickly losing faith that men can be trusted companions and that this makes me a sexist but I can’t change that simple fact- most men I meet don’t give me respect but expectations. And I’m mostly sick at those expectations which say I have to look pretty and act sexy but be careful not to be a slut, that I have to take care of my man and don’t nag him when he makes me his housemaid, that I have to both want and love kids and that I have to make less than my husband, that I must marry or be seen as a lonely, bitchy spinster the rest of my life, that I can’t fight for equal rights for women and homos and be seen as anything but a radical, a naïve bleeding-heart liberal who wants to castrate men and kill God and make it mandatory that sanitary napkins rest beside toilet paper in public bathrooms (wouldn’t that be nice?).

I can’t stand that a woman can’t walk down the street or go out at night or open the door without being sexually harassed.  It makes me numb that when a woman is raped she’s too ashamed to report it, and that the U.S. does this on purpose.  It makes me scream that when a woman is raped and she asks for justice, she gets everything but- blame, shame, criticism, threats, insults, invasion, speculation- and that this great country victim-blames her out of the courtrooms.

It’s disgusting that there’s even a need for the term ‘rape-apologist’.

I hate that I can’t talk about my vagina or my clit or my menstruation without it being ‘gross’ and inappropriate, that Georgia O’Keefe is considered lewd but the Washington Monument is an important piece of historical and patriotic heritage. 

It pisses me off that FOX is still considered a source for reliable news.

But what really gets to me is that it’s still women shouldering the most burden for our rights, that it’s us who march in the streets and make political art and sign petitions and gather organizations together to stand up for us.  It’s sickening the amount of politicians who don’t represent the women of their constituencies, the people in the government who don’t represent anyone at all but their bigoted, sexist, elitist Catholic agendas.  It’s disgusting that when Clinton and Obama were running for presidential candidacy, there were anti-woman jokes in the mainstream media but not anti-black (that would be crossing the line).

I’m pissed that I got this pissed at all, but it’s a great reminder that my anger is my strength.  Because when all this stops making me angry is when I should be worried.