Texas' Secession?

With the passing of Obama's reelection, a petition for Texas' secession has gained some steam. It seems like everyone is talking about it, and not always in productive ways. I'd like to examine a few things and hopefully set the record straight.

First and foremost this petition is being blown way out of proportion. Jessica Luther (@scatx) has been explaining what 80,000 people here in Texas really means. As she has tweeted, it's just equivalent 1/4 of the Houston suburbs. Over 25 million Texans have NOT signed the petition. It's being used as another chance to mock the south and pin all of the ills of society on "those" backward people.

Let me make this abundantly clear: You don't get special liberal brownie points for putting down Texas. Time and time again it feels like urban and northern liberals try to feel better about themselves by disparaging people who live in the south or rural areas. It's annoying and insulting and as pointed out by Monica.Is.Liberal on Twitter, this attitude ignores the enormous work that it takes to be a liberal activist in Texas. In a series of tweets, she said:

Also I am sick & tired of ppl acting like Austin is the only place in TX w/liberals. We fight hard in other counties too. Joke all you want. It is easier to be a liberal in a state like WA than TX. We fight daily for representation. So yeah fall back. I've knocked on doors, made calls, registered voters, donated money, entered data all in Ft Worth TX. So kiss off on the shit talking. We did have Ann Richards as our Governor. Yes the evangelicals have taken over but we are fighting back. I've lost relationships with family members because I push the progressive/liberal/dem agenda in TX. What have you given up? I've worked side by side folks who work full time & donated 20+ hours a week on campaigns. Yeah we have liberals in TX & we kick ass. and you know what? our state is beautiful absolutely beautiful. I am not ashamed of my state just some of the folks that live here. 

Monica is right. When people make all these dismissive jokes about "those fools down in Texas," they're ignoring people like her; people who spend their daily lives speaking out against injustice, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. It's simply true that the real test of progressive politics is known through activism, not sitting back and writing mocking tweets and Facebook posts.

Listen...it is incredibly important to acknowledge the truth behind the petition. There are problems here, which is why work like Monica's is so needed and so important. As the Huffington Post piece states, much of the backlash to a second Obama term is racially motivated.

However, the South in general and Texas in specific are hardly isolated areas of racism and/or ignorance. It doesn't matter how progressive or populated a region is, our country has race problems and other hate issues, across the board. It feels to me that many northern, urban, educated liberals want to ignore that fact and make it a "them" problem. That's the easy way out. It's much harder to actually work to make change in your own back yards.

Quick Note on the Election

I didn't write much about the election. And I haven't even acknowledged it is over...

I feel kind of remiss about that, but I was deep in post-event-recovery-mode at the time. So now I have a minute to actually acknowledge the fact that BARACK OBAMA GOT A SECOND TERM AND I AM SO THANKFUL AND HAPPY ABOUT THAT.

There are few things that are really amazing about this election...like this, for example. (Click for larger image.) It's quite amazing.

Image from Think Progress

When you add in the results of the gay marriage votes in three stages and marijuana legalization initiatives in others, it was an election which shows many victories for progressive politics. Much to be thankful about. 

BUT I am saddened there are still no African American senators. I'm also deeply saddened to see this:

Seriously, white dudes? Get it together. Thank goodness for universal suffrage. Shock surprise that white men keep voting for the party that puts the lives and interests of white men first.

Oh, Male Opinions...

I'm not a man hater. (This is the part where trolls will foam at the mouth because YER A FEMINIST, YES YOU DO HATE MENZ.) But seriously...anyone who actually reads what I write or knows me "IRL" can tell you that I am definitely not a man hater.

That aside, I'm not ashamed to say, I sure am getting tired of hearing white male opinions this week. And by week, I mean IN LIFE, but you know, this week particularly.

Let me just run through a few gems.

"All that Matters is that You Vote."

Today is National Voter Registration Day! If you have not already registered to vote, take action now to ensure that your voice is heard this November.

But...while we're on this topic, I'd like to tackle a BIG myth that I hear perpetuated in tandem with this topic. People will say, in an effort to be inclusive and non-partisan, "It doesn't matter how you vote, all that matters is that you vote."

While I appreciate the effort at neutrality here (no one should ever be bullied into a vote!) I've got to say I totally disagree with the sentiment. It's true, voting is a cornerstone of a democratic society. But if it is done without taking steps to inform yourself about who would be the best representative of your views, it's a waste and could work to your own detriment.

So no--voting is not all that matters. Making an informed vote is what counts. But beyond that, voting alone does not a "good citizen" make. We can't forget about all the other ways to be a civically involved person, too. Volunteering at a local nonprofit, peacefully protesting legislation you oppose, singing petitions, organizing a food drive, picking up after your dog, and helping your elderly neighbor mow his lawn...all that stuff counts too!

A Woman Said Something?! Let's All Insult Her Body!

You guys...Nicki Minaj is not a Mitt Romney supporter. I know you were really concerned about this, but rest assured. This "controversy" started when Minaj said this on a Lil Wayne mixtape:

"I'm a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/ You lazy bitches are fucking up the economy"

A ringing endorsement, right? People got kinda riled up about the whole thing totally missing the point that Minaj was being satirical. I mean--my understanding of it is that Minaj was using satire/a character when she referred to "lazy bitches" as the problem with the economy. Often the welfare queen stereotype is utilized by people like Mitt Romney, and I think she's calling that out. Obama even came to her defense about it.

But what really caught my attention on this issue was this image, that I found under the Facebook tag on Tumblr.

[Image text after cut.]

I'm not surprised that when people totally didn't get the joke and thought Minaj was actually endorsing Romney they went ballistic. As a young, black woman Minaj is "supposed to" be an Obama supporter, and I'm sure a majority of her fans are too. So certainly people got mad. Fine. Whatever. You could even make a case that Minaj is not positive for "all females" like this commenter attempted to do. Again, that's just fine, but what I can't get over is how quickly this dissolved into body snark. How can you call someone out for being disrespectful to women and then call her "plastic" and make fun of her "fake ass?"

But people apparently LOVED this opinion. Not only have I seen this screen cap all over Tumblr in the past few days, but at the time that this screen cap was taken, it has almost 400,000 likes. Can you even begin to imagine a male celebrity having their body brought in as an insult just because they shared (what is perceived to be) an unpopular political opinion?

I think Ms. Minaj is doing just fine though.

[Tweets from Minaj: "Awesome! Now I can tell my grandchildren that the 1st black President of the United States took the time to address a Nicki Minaj question" (sic) and "Ha! Thank you for understanding my creative humor & sarcasm Mr. President, the smart ones always do...*sends love & support*"]

Yeah, she seems OK. But it'd sure be nice if we could get to a place where women's bodies are not up for constant public debate, regardless.

The DNC, Gay Rights, and Trailblazer Madeline Davis

I'll be honest...I'm still coming down off of a fan girl high from Bill Clinton's speech at the DNC last night. If you didn't catch it, I'm sure you at least heard about it. (And watch it here. Seriously...do it.) My Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook were all blowing up. Clinton said a lot of really important things--stuff that needed to be said and what Obama can't necessarily say as the actual candidate. (Have I mentioned you should watch it?!)

Overall, I've been fairly pleased with the events I've watched and heard about at the DNC. The party, while never as left leaning as I'd like, is clearly much more representative of my interests than the Republicans. And to be really blunt, I don't feel there's a lack of sincerity on our side. I do agree with many people on my Twitter feed last night who stated that there needs to new faces of reproductive rights. Sandra Fluke was amazing yesterday and had important messages--but why is the person who speaks on this issue always white, cis, able bodied, middle class, etc? It's certainly time that some reproductive justice activists take the stage. I'd like to hear from them.

I am, however, ecstatic that the DNC has added marriage equality to the national platform. When I think about the possibility of that happening even just 4 years ago, I can't imagine it. There is clearly progress in the works.

Support for gay rights and marriage equality (while certainly not totally widespread) do finally seem to be mainstream opinions. It can be very easy to take this current situation for granted so it's important to remember that people have been gay activists for a very long time. In listening to "Tell Me More" on NPR this morning, I heard a segment about Madeline Davis. I wasn't aware of Davis, because the American history I grew up learning was very stale, male, pale, and straight. As according to the program:

At the 1972 Democratic National Convention, Madeline Davis asked for something that had never been proposed at a major party convention. In a floor speech, the New York delegate asked her fellow Democrats to endorse platform language defending the civil rights of gay people. And now, 40 years later, marriage equality has been adopted as a plank in the 2012 Democratic Party platform.

In the segment, Davis talks with Michele Martin in detail about what it was like being the first out gay person to stand before a national party and talk about civil rights for homosexuals and how her party received her. You can read or listen to the segment here. I highly suggest you check it out. It's a great reflection of 1) how far we've come 2) how far we have to go and 3) that social change isn't easy or quick but so long as there's people working on it, progress can and will be made.

Unfortunately, I won't be home tonight to watch Obama accept the nomination for his second term. I will however be sure to catch a replay. I have no doubt that he will deliver.

Disingenuous Ann

I've had a couple of recent exposures to Ann Romney. I watched a profile of her on Rock Center a few weeks ago and last night I watched her speech at the RNC (which you can read here, if you missed it.) On both occasions I have been left with an exhausting feeling that she is so incredibly disingenuous.

Now, before I expand on this I want to clarify one thing. It could be easily said that I'm being sexist because I'm attacking a politician's wife. Mitt is the candidate--not Ann, I get that. And it's true that so often politicians' wives face an unfair amount of sexist pressure and scrutiny. However, last night, when Ann threw her arms up and said, "I love WOMEN!!!!!!!" in possibly the most ridiculously Oprah fashion ever, I decided all bets were off. The Romney campaign is using Ann as a supposed access point to female voters (that's not unusual.) Ann is being spun as "like me" and "for me" and "someone who gets me" and because of that, I am going to respond.

As I said, the word that keeps popping up for me in regards to Ann is disingenuous...in other words, I can't shake the feeling that she's being incredibly fake and insincere. There were so many reasons I felt this from her "I love women" declaration while supporting a party/candidate that works against us, to the opening of her speech in which she said love is the most important thing, but then made a snide comment about her marriage being "real." A few things in particular stuck out to me the most.

Why Narrowly Define Rape? (Hint: Rape Culture and Being Anti-Choice)

TW rape talk.

By now, I'm sure you've heard about how Republican Senate candidate and current Missouri Representative Todd Akin said, "...from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare...If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

For further reading on this situation, I suggest you check out Shakesville's running coverage on the topic. If all of this doesn't make your head explode, I first must ask: WHY?! But I assume you are a decent human being and your head is thoroughly exploded. After you've picked your brains off the floor, I'd like to talk for a minute about why people attempt to narrowly define rape. As Ian Millhiser wrote at Think Progress, Akin (with our current republican VP nominee) has been in the business of trying to dismiss certain types of rape for a while:

Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term “forcible rape.”

HUH? What the hell does that mean anyway? What is forcible and what isn't? And what rape isn't forcible? Furthermore, why in the hell would a representative be in the business of categorizing rape types? Does that create JOBS?

OH WAIT...as Millhiser continues:

Federal law prevents federal Medicaid funds and similar programs from paying for abortions. Yet the law also contains an exception for women who are raped. The bill Akin and Ryan cosponsored would have narrowed this exception, providing that only pregnancies arising from “forcible rape” may be terminated. Because the primary target of Akin and Ryan’s effort are Medicaid recipients — patients who are unlikely to be able to afford an abortion absent Medicaid funding — the likely impact of this bill would have been forcing many rape survivors to carry their rapist’s baby to term.

Aaaaaand there is it. This is ultimately about controlling people's bodies and forced pregnancy. Really think about that. Akin's policies and statements are made from such a disturbingly anti-choice place that they are aimed at forcing someone to carry their rapist's baby. But most people don't really like that idea, so of course he is trying to say "If you got pregnant you weren't really raped!" I mean, we all know that rape victims are really just lying hussies who wanted it. Duh.

Sarcasm aside, I've said this before and I will say it again: narrowly defining rape helps no one but rapists. It perpetuates rape culture. If we doubt and deny that women are raped unless some arbitrary standard is met (a stranger attacks a modestly dressed virgin in an alley way and she fights like hell the whole time and doesn't get pregnant) we allow for the continuation of rapes which don't fit this standard. And a majority of rapes don't meet that standard. So rape continues.

And who ultimately benefits when rape is normalized? Is it women?

A Spectacle: Chick-fil-A Day

As I'm sure almost anyone in this country is well aware, Chick-fil-A is embroiled in a controversy for their anti-gay practices and policies.

In a show of support for the chicken chain, anti-gay advocates declared yesterday "Chick-fil-A" day. If you are anything like me at all, your various social media outlets were probably blowing up with commentary on the issue. (Luckily for me, I think I've FINALLY cleared up my list to the extent that the most virulent anti-gay comments were filtered out.)

One thing I have seen is that the issue is being distorted by the right into being about the first amendment, the idea being that people are just supporting Chick-fil-A's constitutional right to hold anti-gay views. 

Did you catch that? In typical fashion, conservatives are using the Constitution (again) to distract from their bigotry. I saw a picture yesterday which really nicely summarizes this:

[Text reads: So when anti-gay rights organizations boycott and protest JC Penny's (sic), Ellen Degeneress (sic), DC Comics, Electronic Arts, Marvel Comics, The Lifetime Network, Toys R Us, etc they are exercising their freedom of speech. But when gay rights activists boycott Chick-Fil-A they are infringing on the company's freedom of speech?]

Seriously, what the Chick-fil-A supporters seem to be ignoring here is:

1) It is a legitimate right for those of us who support gay marriage and general equality to boycott companies that do not align with our values. And really, it's about time that one such company received this much attention and negative press. 

2) It is also within our constitutional rights to speak out against the anti-gay bigotry at play here and to verbally disagree with people who continue to support Chick-fil-A, either as a strategically anti-gay statement or through passive ignorance.*  

Sadly, too many people are still in favor of hateful practices which discriminate against various individuals who are different from them. For example, yesterday, Chick-fil-A recorded record profits. Such awesome people as the Palins showed up to their neighborhood Chick-fil-A to show solidarity with the chain. 

As I said about the issue on my Facebook: If you're on the same side of an issue as Sarah Palin, rethink your views, bro.

Lastly, I want to end with a call to my fellow progressives on this issue for two points:

A) Not all support of Chick-fil-A is equal. This is something which I think deserves more attention. While I think that it is wrong to continue to mindlessly patronage Chick-fil-A if you support gay rights, there are some people on the left who don't truly have a choice in this matter and it is not productive to demonize them. For example, many people who support gay rights and might be gay themselves, work at Chick-fil-A and maintain that job out of necessity. As I recently saw on my Tumblr newsfeed from Brian Stuart: "This is something some progressives get horribly wrong on the regular. It’s fine to boycott a company. It’s fine to advocate for a boycott. It’s not fine to feel entitled to anyone’s participation."

B) Chick-fil-A is not unique. There are other companies who actively work to support conservative agendas. Sometimes it can feel really overwhelming to try to only support businesses which are aligned with your views.  And it certainly takes at least some level of privilege to do so. (I mean, think for example if you live in an area where your only access to produce is at Wal*Mart and it takes a car and a lot more money to shop at the local farmer's market.) But if you do have the means and ability to "vote with your money" then doing so by only boycotting Chick-fil-A is lazy activism. It's like jumping on the KONY bandwagon--it's a start to greater change, but it's not that meaningful if you don't let the awareness take you to the next level.

I'm sure there is much more to be said about this issue. But honestly, I think we're all already a bit tired of it, aren't we?

*See point A above.

The Wrong Side of History: Choosing Anti-Gay Policies

Question 1: Why does a chicken sandwich have a political opinion?

Have you been keeping an eye on what's going on with Chick-fil-A? It's common knowledge that the fast food chain is Christian affiliated but they've decided to take this beyond being closed on Sundays. They're now openly anti-gay.

I'm Sick of Guns

I don't write about guns often, if ever. Honestly, it's not something that I think about very much. But with the recent events in Colorado, I can't get it off my mind. I'm just so upset and I'm pretty sure I can no longer ignore what's going on.

Gun control used to be one of the liberal issues I focused on the least. My dad was a hunter and responsible gun owner when I was growing up. I heard phrases like "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" and I thought they made sense. But my opinions on gun control have evolved over time, and I think I'm more certain now than ever that we have a serious problem in this nation. I'm not alone in being concerned about this. More and more evidence is supporting my fears.

Scissor Sheldon!

I used to really dislike Sarah Silverman. She can be raunchy as hell and sometimes she takes stuff too far. But after getting into her show and later reading her book, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, I decided she ain't so bad. And I started to find her pretty hilarious.

So you'll have to forgive me for loving her latest campaign: Scissor Sheldon.



I don't have a transcript, but in the video, Silverman shares that she has an indecent proposal for billionaire Sheldon Adelson who has pledged $100 million to Romney. She suggests that if he gives that $100 million to Obama instead, she'll--well she won't have sex with him (because they're not married, obvi!) but she will scissor him while wearing a bikini bottom.

It's absurd, but so are the facts behind the Romney campaign, and his biggest supporters, which Silverman hopes to highlight. As she shares about Adelson at ScissorSheldon.com:

He’s totally open about buying elections. He said he’s “against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it.”

He’s willing to do “whatever it takes” to defeat Obama including “limitless” donations to Romney’s campaign.

He likes his casinos to be loan-shark and gangster-friendly.

He is under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission and the target of a civil lawsuit.

 I guess if you're going to be a really absurd comedian and make people cringe, it might as well have a larger, greater purpose. Good on ya, Silverman.

It's a Big Day in Mississippi

Edited to add: the decision has come down and the law continues to be blocked! YAAAAAY! Keep reading to see why I think that the judge has made the right decision.

An anti-abortion law is going before judges in Mississippi today. I'm really crossing my fingers on this one and hoping that anti-choice extremists are again put at bay by the more reasonable individuals in MS.

The law in question would require all abortion providers to be board certified OB-GYNs who have admitting privileges to a local hospital. If you don't know much about medical systems, this sounds pretty reasonable. If you dig a bit deeper you learn that this act would strategically result in the closure of MS's only abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Representative Joe Walsh is, Perhaps, a Moron

Maybe I should start a feature called "my weekly blood boil" because without fail, something comes along to enrage me. As reported on Think Progress, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) recently declared that his opponent is Tammy Duckworth is not a true hero...

If you know nothing about Duckworth, which I didn't up until 10 minutes ago, that doesn't seem to be the worst statement of all time. But if you do know anything about her, then you know that she is a double amputee, due to injuries sustained when she was piloting a helicopter in 2004 in Iraq. She received a Purple Heart, an Air Medal and an Army Commendation Medal during her 20 years of service. 

But all of this means nothing to Walsh. Apparently Duckworth is a little too aware of her situation to be a hero. As Walsh said,

Understand something about John McCain. His political advisers, day after day, had to take him and almost throw him against a wall and hit him against the head and say, “Senator, you have to let people know you served! You have to talk about what you did!” He didn’t want to do it, wouldn’t do it. Day after day they had to convince him. Finally, he talked a little bit about it, but it was very uncomfortable for him. That’s what’s so noble about our heroes. Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. That’s why we’re so indebted and in awe of what they’ve done.

Ah boy.

Really? I'm trying to formulate some words that explain why this is BS, but you know what? There aren't any--it's just so plainly evident that it would be a waste of my breath to even dwell on this guy for any longer. I hope that the people of Illinois' 8th district take notice that what Walsh has going on ain't right.

S.E. Cupp Uses a Horrible Situation to Hate on Other Women

12 hours ago I didn't know who S.E. Cupp was. But apparently she's a conservative political commentator. Or so that's what I've gathered from the last 12 hours. Apparently, the ever woman-hating jackasses over at Hustler photoshopped a penis into S.E. Cupp's mouth. So of course, the tweets that I follow blew up over this in defense of the fact that it doesn't matter if a woman is affiliated with the right: when this type of shit happens to her, it's bad for all of us. Misogyny is misogyny no matter who it happens to and it is wrong and disgusting. 

Larry Flynt--shudder--responded with this pearl of wisdom: "That's satire." LOLZ, what? Last time I checked, satire meant when "vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon."

So I ask you in all seriousness, how the HELL is putting a penis in a woman's mouth intended for the improvement of society? What is the greater purpose here? Without that over riding message, as mastered by individuals like Stephen Colbert, all you have is the ridicule--and in this case, extremely misogynistic ridicule.

Sadly, Cupp isn't doing herself, or any other women, a favor when she says stuff like this:

Cupp balked at the chance that any feminist organizations will come to her defense. "The National Organization for Women, NOW, will not come out and say liberal women deserve more respect than conservative women and we are not going to defend conservative women. They're not going to admit to that but let me tell you that is exactly how they feel."

She believes that "clearly by anyone's standards this is worse" than Rush Limbaugh's having called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a "slut," which resulted in national outrage. "The outrage of Sandra Fluke will not be matched on my side," Cupp told The Blaze.

"It seems that feminism has devolved into an institution that has picked losers and winners and has decided that some women qualify for respect and other women do not."

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I follow a majority of the most high profile feminist bloggers, commentators, and organizations on Twitter and, as mentioned, my feed was blowing up with indignation on Cupp's behalf. Not only has she ignored a chance for ALL women to serve as allies to one another against misogyny, but she's also tried to create some false hierarchy/competition of "fucked up shit men do to women."

Listen to me Cupp and all of your friends on the right: we will never end these types of attacks on women if we use them as an opportunity to tear each other down. There is no solidarity in ignoring the women who are rallying behind you simply because you don't like their liberal politics. There is no sense in dragging other women down when you've experienced something heinous. Once again, I stand behind S.E. Cupp and what has happened to her is truly disgusting. But I, and the other feminists who have come to her defense, don't appreciate being ignored and insulted in the process.

A Friendly Reminder...

In a recent conversation with a friend, we connected over how small things about our personal choices have led some liberal acquaintances to lump us in with conservatives/fundamentalist Christians--despite these identities being extremely different from who we really are. (Sorry that's ambiguous, trying to respect privacy.)

It got me thinking. And so, I'd like to throw out a friendly reminder to my fellow progressives: just because you're liberal, doesn't mean you're automatically open minded. To be an accepting, non judgmental person it requires that you actually take the steps to accept people as they are and get comfortable with difference. I see a lot of people who are pretty damn oppressive about their left wingness and quite literally scoff and sneer at people who don't think the way they think or live the way they live.

Now, of course, as feminists (progressives, liberals, what have you) we do not have to accept all opinions equally. As I've written before, I very much agree with the Tumblr STFU Hypocrites when they said "I'm not going to respect your 'opinion' if all it does is oppress people." 


But what about the personal choices which some of us make that have literally no bearing on other people? Here are a few examples, to really illustrate what I mean: I've seen women judged as "not feminist" because they embrace attachment parenting for their families. I've seen people labeled "sex negative" simply because they don't personally have multiple sex partners. I've seen gay people called self-loathing just because they prefer not to actively engage in Pride Week activities. I've seen women presumed to be anti-choice because they were teen moms. In each of these cases, the person's individual choice is judged and falsely taken to represent their wider socio-political views. But there's a big difference between saying "all women must stay home with their kids!" and "I chose to stay home with my kids." isn't there? 

TL;DR I'm just saying, maybe this meme:

...exists for a reason, ya know? And let's not let it dominate the perception of those of us on the far left.

Mommy Wars: Divided We Fall

Sheesh. I feel like I was living under a rock the past day. While everyone is blowing up at Hilary's Rosen's comments about Ann Romney, I was under deadline for a big grant at work so I didn't have time to learn what was said, let alone get outraged. Anyhoo, the internet has caught me up, and thusly, here I am.

In case you're like me, the quick and dirty summary is this: Democratic strategist, Hilary Rosen, said that Ann Romney has "never worked a day in her life" and Ann Romney lashed back on twitter. People got outraged and defended Ann Romney (including the president). Talk turned to the topic of "mommy wars." Rosen apologized.

My reactions to this topic are so mixed, but what I keep coming back to is that it's simply not helpful for women to tear each other down.

Good Job, Mrs. Obama--Let's Keep it Going

Last night I caught Michelle Obama's interview on Letterman. As always, she was charming and wonderful. She talked about a lot of things and Letterman even almost made her cry.

But the best part was when she talked about her "Let's Move!" program for kids. I've been very concerned about it in the past because it was pretty fat shaming and overtly about ending childhood obesity instead of being for healthy kids. However, last night I could tell she had changed this mentality. When Letterman made a stupid, throw away fat joke, Mrs. Obama said multiple times that it is about health and building healthy lifestyles. What a refreshing thing to hear!

This is subtle--but it's a small change that can make a huge impact. When fat kids are continuously shamed simply for existing, it's refreshing to hear things spun in a way which is not stigmatizing or perpetuates the myth that all fat people are unhealthy and only fat people are unhealthy. Programs that are against childhood obesity are thereby against obese kids. A much better program is one which simply promotes healthy choices and makes a healthy lifestyle accessible and appealing to all kids.

So good job, FLOTUS. I suspect this came from quite a bit of pressure, but regardless I'm thankful and I really, really hope that this trend can continue; not only in the Let's Move! program, but also through how we talk about childhood health in all contexts.

If you'd like to see more about my thoughts on health, weight, food, and fatness, check out any of the numerous times I've discussed it:

• The mixed messages we receive and Health At Every Size
• On New Year's resolutions
• The "good fatty" problem
• The tired ways we talk about weight
• Why saying "skinny bitch" isn't productive
• The intersection of weight and gender
• Sizesploitation

Don't Mess With Texas Women!

Tonight, a few friends and I went to Planned Parenthood's Don't Mess With Texas Women event at the state capital building. God, was it ever powerful to stand there with so many other people who are sick as hell of women's health paying the price for anti-choice extremeist views.

The Joke of "Small Government" Republicans

Keep Your Bohner Out of My Uterus shared this image today and it got me thinking again about the utter lie we are told that the republican party is the party of small government.

I know the point of this image is that they always talk about jobs creation and don't make it happen in favor of other stuff, but frankly I was distracted. I couldn't help but notice the sheer number of "big government" stuff the right is dealing with. Look through that list. What could be more emblematic of a big government than one which is in your uterus, your personal relationships, and tries to regulate religion or family?

COME ON.

I very much feel like I am beating a dead horse with how much I talk about this extremely obvious concept, but here's the thing: I keep interacting with people who say, "I don't like much of what the Republican party does, but I am in favor of a small government." So I just keep coming back to the fact that even the one thing that Republicans are supposed to have right, they are wrong.

How is anyone even taking them seriously as a national party anymore? It's mind boggling to me. And while we're talking about super big, overreaching, in your uterus government I'd like to take another page from KYBOOMU's book and remind y'all of two things:

1. In nine days, Texas has plans to take action which will cut off 130,000 poor Texas women from access to cancer screenings, exams, and contraception. Unconscionable.

2. It is day 28 that Texas has had mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds in order to obtain an abortion. Horrific.