The Real Losers in the Mommy Wars: Everyone Else | Jezebel
“By framing the conversation about motherhood in “choice,” we aren’t talking about any of the very real problems faced by parents and children across this country. We aren’t talking about the number of children in foster care (nearly 400,000) or growing up in poverty (22% of American children). We aren’t talking about lack of education and employment opportunities for women in general and women of color in particular. We aren’t talking about the fact that the United States has the worst parental leave policies in the industrialized world; wouldn’t it be nice if women could chose to go back to work after several months (or years, what’s up Estonia!), instead of just a few scant weeks if they’re lucky enough to get even that? We aren’t talking about the wage gap and how it impacts the choices that couples have to make about who stays home (if anyone). There is no way to quantify the work that mothers do, stay at home or working. They are not CEOs. They are not employees. They are so much more than that, and they deserve a real conversation about how to make motherhood a choice, stay at home motherhood a choice, and working motherhood a choice, instead of what it too often is: a necessity born of a number of variables, and not real choice at all.”
Inhabiting the Desert: Unearthing Racism in the Formation of State of Israel | Krista N. Dalton
“And this is where it becomes uncomfortable. The Zionist settlers attributed the desert-like qualities of the land to the apparent neglect of the Arab dwellers. This neglect of the land, because of the absence of true Israelis to care for it, validated the Zionist position of resettlement. Zerubavel reminds us of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 2nd Israeli President, and his opinion that “the cultivated land became a desert as a result of the Jews’ forced exile and the subsequent inhabitants’ limited means and negligence” (205). Suddenly, the formation of Israel is more than just the reestablishment of an ancient homeland; it is the reinstitution of the “real” inhabitants because those who have resided in the land are “inadequate.” These spatial qualities of desert and settlement became endued with a militaristic and national aura, heightening the sense of survival amidst the threatening presence of the “desert” Arabs.”
BELLE Trailer (by FoxSearchlight)
We Are Abandoning Thousands of Foster Care Children a Year | CNN.com
“His roommate got to go home on school breaks and had a mother who called to check in on him. Adrian had no one to call when he struggled at school — nowhere to call home, no one to send a gift, no one to see how he was doing. He worked nearly 60 hours a week just to pay for college, and when eventually his grades slipped, he was kicked out. He struggled with the ups and downs of depression. As Adrian said of children in foster care: “We are not equipped to go through this world alone.”
Jill and Kate’s awesome acoustic cover of Baby One More Time
Rethinking Tone Policing | via Persephone Magazine
“See what I mean? Without appropriate limits, these kinds of concepts are meaningless. They are useful up until a point, past which a conversation devolves into insanity. People are encouraged, in an environment where tone policing is deemed unacceptable, to run rampant. Cruelty abounds in these kinds of communities, as people feel suddenly free to say whatever they want, to whomever they want. Is the freedom from tone policing really worth genuinely hurting another human being with your words? Isn’t it time to admit that not every expression of your anger is acceptable?”
Model Minority Suicide: Five Reasons, Five Ways | RaceFiles.com
“For Asian Americans, killing the myth requires destroying the veil of elevated expectations and assumptions that surround us to reveal the real face of our richly diverse communities and experiences. I call it model minority suicide. Need convincing? Here are five reasons:”
Are you at a Hipster wedding? [infographic]
An Interview With My Son: 30 Years from Now | How To Be A Dad
“I think I just needed to tell you boys that I loved you and wanted that documented somewhere permanent. For as lasting as love feels, when people are gone… that love feels thinner. My dad was gone before you were born and that was hard. I wanted to state for the record that my love was even deeper because of how hard it was being a parent. That my love will always outweigh that hardship. That you are my greatest achievement.”
The Food Room (Amy Schumer parodies Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsrom)