Review of Feminist Disability Studies for Global Comment

Review of Don’t Call Me Inspirational: A Disabled Feminist Talks Back for Global Comment

Lady Products: The Odd World of Cutesy, Pink Self Defense Weapons for Ladyish

9 Stylish Pieces That Will Remind You of Your Childhood for Ladyish

Review of Get Out of My Crotch for the print edition of Bitch Magazine

Don’t Let Unemployment Crush Your Soul for xoJane

I’ve Got Your “Useless” Major Right Here for xoJane

Please read and (I hope) enjoy!

Above: Selections from the following list.

Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman: I read this huge honker in a couple of sittings. Yes, it’s that interesting. Good for anyone who loves non-fiction, is not a Scientologist, and/or is thinking of majoring in Religious Studies.

A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres: More religion! Except this time, the subject is Jonestown. Journalist Julia Scheeres gets past all of the “OMG drinking the Kool-Aid” sensationalism surrounding the group’s mass murder/suicide, and in the process uncovers a fascinating story of people searching for meaning and peace–a search which ultimately led them to extremely dark places.

Sex & Disability, edited by Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow: I reviewed this one for Bitch over the summer, but the quality of this volume is so good that I have no problem recommending at the drop of a hat (or drawers, really). Good for people who are into cultural studies, queer theory and studies, and/or (of course!) disability theory.

In the Peanut Gallery With Mystery Science Theater 3000, edited by Robert G. Weiner and Shelley E. Barba: Yes, it’s an academic anthology on MST3K. No, it’s not boring or tedious at all. This is a good one for media studies junkies, and/or people who have managed to sit through the very early KTMA episodes of the show.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson: This was one of the funniest books that I read in 2012. The weird cover featuring a little taxidermied mouse dressed in a period costume is just the beginning–if you want to read anecdotes featuring a bathtub full of baby racoons, young Jenny accidentally running into a fresh animal carcass, and awkwardness at a weekend bloggers’ meetup, this is the book for you.

Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries by Jon Ronson: Probably my favorite book of 2012, and certainly one of the most impeccably reported. This volume of British journalist Ronson’s collects many of his strangest and most compelling pieces, among them an interview with Insane Clown Posse (which can also be read here–content warning for graphic descriptions of violence), a report from a week-long cruise for fans of infamously brusque psychic Sylvia Browne, and an amazing investigation of predatory credit card companies in the UK. The balance of “serious” journalism here with Ronson’s more humorous pieces is excellent, and I highly recommend Lost at Sea if you are a fan of British humor, investigative reporting, or nonfiction writing.

Non-Stop Inertia by Ivor Southwood: Those of you who are underemployed, or who are currently experiencing the purgatory of a stream of low-paid temp jobs, are sure to find much of what Southwood says about labor, capitalism, and the exploitation of young workers familiar–and, most likely, spot-on. I know I did!

All of Us or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area by Lincoln Cushing: A beautifully designed art(istic) history of the Bay Area’s famous (or infamous) reputation as a hotbed for anti-oppression movements does not disappoint. The posters included here are not just presented coffee table book-style, however–the text that describes each poster and its significance is enlightening, informative, and interesting to read. Anyone who says that history is “boring” should take a look at this book.

SOAP AND BATH STUFF

My latest soap obsession is the limited edition Substratum soap ($9) from Black Phoenix Trading Post, which is the “other merchandise” arm of BPAL). I know, right–NINE DOLLARS for a bar of soap?! But it is a WONDERFUL bar of soap. Notes: Himalayan cedar, patchouli, spikenard, and black fig. I’ve already written about BPAL in other contexts, but I will mention that their current limited edition scents are worth checking out if any of your gift-ees are into that sort of thing.

More wonderful soap comes from Metropolis Bath & Body; soapstress Megan is one of those people who not only makes great (vegan!) body care products that smell incredible, but is an overall fabulous person (and if I may digress for a second, she and I have been internet friends for a long time). My personal favorite Metropolis product is the Ginger and Lime artisan soap ($7.99), but there are many more great products for your perusal–all of which make amazing gifts.

My blog buddy Andrea just started HolyGoats, her Etsy shop full of handmade and delicious-smelling bars of goats’ milk soap ($6) in addition to other bath and body products. Did I mention that Andrea owns the goats that provide the milk? Also, one of her roosters is named after me, but I doubt that we will be seeing ROOSTER ANNAHAM’S CHICKENMILK SOAP any time soon.

Etsy soapmaker Brooke at Firebird Bath & Body specializes in interesting combinations of scents inspired by the natural world, and her soap samplers ($6 for 4 mini soaps) are economical as well as beautiful! I recommend Black Tea & Mint, Blood Cedar, Vanilla Amber, or Tonic, but there are numerous scents to try.

LUSH Dream Cream ($26.95 for 8.4 oz) is my HOLY GRAIL of hand and body lotions, particularly in winter when dry skin is as commonplace as fog and dying/dead leaves. It is the greatest. The lavender/tea tree scent is not super heavy, but if the person you’re buying for is sensitive to fragrance, or if cost is a consideration, you may want to go with a lotion like the Sea Aloe Moisturizer ($8 for 4 oz) from Body Time.

MAKEUP: EYES

I recently purchased the limited edition Urban Decay 24/7 Smoked Glide-On Eye Pencil set ($38) and was not disappointed. The colors are all gorgeous and long-wearing, and since it’s an Urban Decay product, there are a couple of surprising colors in here as well (matte navy blue?!) as some “safe” eyeliner options.

Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Waterproof Cream Eyeshadows ($19) are long-wearing, come in beautifully subtle colors, and stay put throughout the day. While I’m not super impressed with the pseudoscience-sounding buzzwords (SKINTUITIVE!) in the product description, these are fantastic shadows for makeup lovers who have been looking for a long-wearing cream shadow. There’s also a limited edition gift set of all of the shadows from Sephora ($29), which is not a bad deal (it even comes with a brush).

MAKEUP: LIPS

TokyoMilk Dark’s No. 84 Lip Elixir in Absinthe ($7) smells almost exactly how you’d expect. You get a lot of it for the price, and the hydrating, fairly thick formula is perfect for combating dry lips in the cold.

Jack Black Lip Balm ($7.50) is also thick and scented, but comes in a much more portable squeeze tube. There is also a limited edition gift set of four ($25)–a good bargain even if the name is completely ridiculous and makes me want to punch something.

Besame Cosmetics Classic Color Lipstick ($22) was my runner-up for favorite lipstick of 2012 (although Besame has been around for a while!). I really wish I had tried their reds earlier, but I am glad that I picked up their lipstick sample set before it sold out. I’m hoping it comes back someday, but if not, rest assured that the company’s lipsticks are fantastic, both in terms of color and wear time, and they are unscented. Besame does offer gift certificates for $50 or $100, so one of those might make a good present for someone who has NO IDEA what sort of red lipstick would suit, or a person who is already seasoned in the ways of red lip color.

Hourglass Femme Rouge Lipstick ($30) is a tad pricey, but it was my favorite lipstick of 2012 next to Besame’s red lipsticks. I’m completely ass over heels for plummy, matte/glossy hybrid Nocturnal, but your mileage may vary, as they say. Quality lipstick–or a gift certificate with which to buy some–is always an awesome gift for makeup fiends!

Bobbi Brown High Shimmer Lipgloss ($23) is a shimmery lip gloss that won’t make you look like a glitter-laden craft project gone horribly awry! These glosses, which are mint-scented, come in a variety of colors, and the glitter/shimmer also manages to stay put on your lips without going all over your damn face within ten minutes of application (this is a problem I’ve had with glittery and shimmery glosses in the past).

Previously: part 1.

This year, I have decided to do a gift guide mostly designed for those who are on a limited budget. Of course, if you do not have a budget, you can still give gifts (Design Sponge has some great ideas in this post); for those of us who aren’t crafty, or whose crafting skills are limited, smaller gifts may be a good compromise.

People who hate shopping–or who say things like “The person for whom I am shopping [HAS EVERYTHING/is hard to shop for!]“–might find that this helps. I have YEARS of experience with hating shopping, and for finding gifts for people with discerning and/or bizarre tastes.

I’m dividing these up into categories; today’s installment focuses on accessories under $20 (not including shipping), and future installments will focus on music, books and DVDs, things you can wear, beauty/personal care items, things you can eat or drink, and (possibly) big-ticket items from all of these categories that are over $50 (in case your budget is less limited). I hope that you’ll be able to find something for a person on your gift list–or something for yourself. In any case: LET ME HELP YOU. First up: accessories!

Do you know someone who takes pills? If so, this pill box featuring two dapper cats ($8) from Etsy seller che655 will make a great gift. I recently purchased this very Dickensian Yorkie pill case and love it.

For something that holds all of your crap in style, check out Baggu’s nylon bags ($9), in prints (seahorses! llamas!) or solid colors.

Three words: Steampunk pendant necklace. Now that I have your attention, check out this stunning copper and resin necklace ($15) by designer Jama Watts.

Artist JM Tolman’s hand-painted pendants ($7-10)–many featuring cartoon ladies and multi-colored tentacles–are so wild that I want several of them as soon as possible.

These Filigree Bird Head Rings ($16) from Sea of Bees are a favorite of mine, and I don’t usually wear rings. If putting a bird on it isn’t your style, the fox hair pins ($9.75) may hold some appeal.

BlueQ’s zip cases ($5) are great for makeup, pencils, or odds and ends.

If you know a person with pierced ears who doesn’t want diamond earrings that cost a week’s salary, get ‘em these sweet Raven Cameo Earrings ($19) from Vintage Goods.

Do you know anyone who wouldn’t want tentacle fingers ($14.75)? Yeah, neither do I.

It’s possible that I’m spotlighting these because I need a new set of coasters, but a set of Cat Meme Coasters ($19) will appeal to anyone on your list who spends too much time on Tumblr.

And finally, a weird one for the “accessories” category that I’d be remiss if I didn’t include: the Boo plush dog ($12.49). Boo is the World’s Cutest Dog, and the stuffed toy version will surely appeal to anyone on your list who loves small dogs or cute things. There are also miniature versions, all curiously devoid of a mouth.

EDIT: Since I was unable to get the plugin to do very much, we’re liveblogging at this ain’t livin’.

In case you find yourself in need of some reading material before then, I have recently contributed pieces to both xoJane and Biopolitical Times, and neither piece has a thing to do with the election.

I know putting this on a public blog is risky, more so because there are employers out there who do things like specify that the unemployed need not apply to their open positions (WTF?). I am also, however inadvertently, inviting internet tough folks to clog up my comments section with “well-meaning” crap nuggets of advice about how I am Doing It Wrong with regards to looking for employment. I probably won’t publish those comments, though–not because I am “against free speech,” but because I have had EVERY THOUGHT you could possibly throw at me about those exact topics. Really.

So, in no particular order, here are five things that people need to stop saying about unemployment and/or to unemployed and underemployed people. Because seriously, it is getting old.

“Well, I was unemployed once, and I got through it.” [May come with a barrage of unsolicited advice on How to Find a Job that would have worked 15-20 years ago.]  I notice that this one is commonly used by Baby Boomers who may or may not just want people who can’t find jobs–particularly young people–to shut up. The youth unemployment rate in this country is incredibly high, and although I don’t want to be all MY GENERATION HAS IT THE WORST–because goodness knows that older people have to deal with ageism on the job market in a particularly insidious way, regardless of how much career experience they have–this piece of advice rings quite hollow after a while. We know you’re only trying to help us during a difficult time, but here’s how you could actually help us Gen-Xers and Millennials out: Know when to stop talking, or stop typing if you just need to comment on an article online.

And if we resist your “advice,” it’s not because we’re being rude or obstinate for no reason, or because we hate you. It’s because many of us have more than enough to deal with right now. Maybe we don’t want to think about how much it sucks to be un(der)employed right now, because we think about that all the time. Maybe we already spend untold hours on cover letters, targeted resumes, networking, and all of the things that we’re supposed to do in order to get a job. Many of us are doing all of these things (and more!) as it is. Empathy: Try it sometime!

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten a degree in Women’s Studies/English/Art History, then!” Sure, let me queue up my time machine, go back eight years to my first term of undergrad, and pick a STEM major! Never mind that I would be terrible at one of those. I had the audacity–as do many people–to pick a field that I was, and am, actually pretty good at, and that I enjoyed. I EVEN GOT A MASTER’S DEGREE IN IT, so clearly I am just a waste of space because of my stupid, useless degree.

Had I been a STEM major in college, I probably would have caused something like this to happen–which would have given me an entirely different set of problems.

I know people love to rain down the hate on Humanities majors for their lack of “practicality” for what the market demands, and my guess is that people in the so-called “soft sciences” such as Psychology and Sociology get a lot of this as well. And sometimes there are other obstacles to going into STEM fields, as this wonderful comment at Ask a Manager details. I would add that while you’re busy prattling away in comments fields about your amazing Electrical Engineering degree, we’re the ones who are doing some pretty important things that you don’t see. Who do you think writes that snappy content for your company’s website? Who do you think edits your memos, corrects the grammar and spelling of your scientific papers, or turns your vague and already-kinda-been-there ideas about web 2.0 into viable social media plans? If it weren’t for “creative” types in the arts and humanities (from a variety of majors), where the hell do you think all of your entertainment would come from?

The guy who wrote and directed this total flop got a “useless” degree in Film.

Where do you think media criticism comes from? Journalism, opinion pieces, magazines on a huge variety of topics (including tech, business and science)? Blog posts that you pretend not to read at work? Books? And yes, weird academic papers that almost no one reads, like my B.A. thesis on the Heaven’s Gate cult? (That last one may weaken my argument a bit, but still.) I can hear the cries of indignation now: ZOMG HOW COULD YOU HAVE WRITTEN SOMETHING SO USELESS? Here’s how: I know how to put sentences together and shape a bunch of those sentences into paragraphs that expand upon a substantial and cohesive argument, keep momentum going throughout long-term projects (even when the end seems as faraway as a spaceship containing friendly aliens that will welcome your earthly soul to their peaceful home planet after a short ride through the galaxy), and read, summarize and analyze a variety of materials from different forms of media critically. Useless.

“Just think POSITIVE!” Okay, Captain the-Sun-Shines-Out-of-Our-Behinds. Perennial awesome person/journalist Barbara Ehrenreich wrote an entire book about this trend, and as I covered in my review of Bright Sided, she is much better at building an argument against “positive thinking” than I am, because I tend to get super wordy when this topic comes up. Because it is that goddamned infuriating, particularly when applied to a HUGE PROBLEM like mass unemployment that is closely intertwined with structural failures. With the positive thinking crowd, we see the mistake of depicting individual actions as the determining factor of whether someone will succeed or fail, even though that is not really how it works. If “just trying” positive thinking and affirmations alone could get me a job, I would have SO MANY JOBS, because I have tried it and the job of my dreams did not exactly appear from the heavens fully-formed.

“You can’t go get a job at McDonald’s/in retail? You must think you’re too good for those kinds of jobs.” Not exactly; there are so many people who need work right now that even temping, retail and yes, McDonald’s are not magical employment panaceas–there was, for example, that widely-reported story about old Mickey D’s receiving one million job applications for 62,000 job openings. Take a moment and think about those odds for a bit.

As for being “too good” for certain jobs: If, say, Sephora offered me a job tomorrow, I would probably take it because I need a job and am interested in makeup (and yes, I have applied to work there). It’s not that I think I’m too good for those kinds of gigs; it’s basic math, because a whole heck of a lot of people need work right now. Also, there is a little thing called being “overqualified,” which pretty much means that Sephora might not want a sales associate with a Master’s degree, much less a Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies. Admittedly, the notion of a Women’s Studies nerd selling cosmetics and beauty products is pretty hilarious, but that seems a bit more suited for Alan Ball’s next black comedy series than for real life.

“You need to try harder to find any job that will take you.” Certainly, there are some good tips out there that job-seekers can follow to improve their candidacy for some positions (I quite like Ask a Manager’s many posts on searching for jobs). However, the continued emphasis on individual actions in the face of some pretty intense structural odds is extremely troubling, particularly because capitalism is a system that is designed to give a lot of privileges, legs-up and such to a relative few, while the rest of us are stuck being told that we need to think positive, try harder, and generally keep running on the rat wheel until our hard work rewards us, too–often while facing stagnant wages, non-existent health benefits, and/or unpaid internships cleverly marketed as “work experience” that will supposedly look great on your resume.

Those of us who can’t find work, or enough work, are always to blame somehow: too little education, too much education in a “useless” field, too little time devoted to networking and volunteering, too little pressure on ourselves to look positive, confident and not bitter to employers even in the face of seemingly endless rejection; we have the wrong outfit, wrong resume, wrong cover letter, wrong work experience, wrong attitude.

And once you get a paying job, there is zero guarantee that it will pay a living wage; recent statistics, furthermore, point to the chilling fact that less than half of all jobs in the U.S. currently pay over $35,000 per year. How ’bout that “invisible hand of the market” holding people down instead of taking care of everything, like some said it would? Whee, capitalism! Unfortunately, the response in comments sections all around the internet is usually something to the effect of “Who gives a shit about poor people, right…they should take responsibility and get off welfare! The wealth of the top 10% will trickle down, because Reganomics works! I’m not [middle/lower/working] class, so I don’t need to care about them.” often with a piping-hot side of “OMG ILLEGALS ARE TAKING OUR JOBBBBBBBS.”

In the time it took me to write the above paragraph, Mitt Romney most likely made more money than I will ever see in my lifetime. GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Being unemployed/underemployed sucks, and you most likely know someone who is in that situation. For the love of Cthulhu, please re-think what you say to your friends, relatives, and fellow internet denizens who are going through this. If it happens to you—and I hope it does not—you will be glad that you stopped saying jerky things and generally acting like an ass to people who really don’t deserve it.

From the biographical material I have read about Bacon, I know that he probably did not have chronic pain issues, but looking at some of these paintings as a person with a body in pain (thanks, Elaine Scarry) remains a powerful experience.

Figure With Meat, 1954 (depicts a person sitting in a chair in front of a split beef carcass, screaming)

Head ii, 1947 (depicts a seated figure with a globular head and mouth with fangs)

Detail from second painting of Crucifixion triptych, 1965 (depicts a hanging carcass in side-view against an orange wall)

Two Figures, 1953 (depicts two figures doing something on a bed)