moving

My most recent Etsy purchase is evidence of me attempting to take the fast-approaching New Stage Of My Life head-on. I'll soon(er than I'd like) be moving away from my house, my school, my friends... most likely very, very far away from all of them. I'm contemplating new cultures and communities, and trying to decide how much I really need to care about changes in climate, cost of living, and (stereotypical) general disposition of the people I'll be interacting with on a daily basis.

I think because I'm not going to this new place with a particular purpose already laid out for me--no job, spot in a grad school, geographical calling--I'm thinking about the nuts and bolts stuff a lot more. What's will transportation be like? Is there an activist community? How will we arrange our furniture in our new place? Will we even be able to find a new place we like? Where do the gay people hang out? Is there an Ikea nearby? Will I be able to ride my bike? Do yoga (affordably) anywhere? Will the move make Starlee go crazy? Am I still capable of "making friends"? Theses are things I think about, often with about a million others, in rapid succession, while I attempt to fall asleep at night.

To give an idea of just how little I can actually compare the places I could possibly be living next year, here are the places that have offered Kaylee admission and $$:

University of Arizona (Tucson)
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
UNC Chapel Hill
Syracuse University (NY)
University of Washington (Seattle)
UCLA

University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT)

But wherever I end up, I know that there will be at least one person who loves me there, and I'll have a book full of the rest of them only a letter, phone call, or email away. That's a nice feeling.

i heart activism

Welcome to another edition of: I thought of blogging about this week(s) ago when it was actually relevant, but just now getting around to doing it and so it's a little outdated but maybe I can still make it worth something. How long ago? Think Superbowl. Maaaybe there are a few of you out there who still haven't seen these...

First, watch this:

Gross, vom, ack.

Then, watch this:

Yay! Take that.

I like this combo because a) it shows the relentless exploitation of gender stereotypes for capitalist gain, and b) how even that can be co-opted by activists. To make a pretty awesome statement, I might add. The turnaround on this was practically immediate--I think the response was posted the day after the ad aired (during the Superbowl) and the message is pretty obvious. I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes good activism, since I find myself surrounded by it--tons of different kinds of it--and those are two things that I think are totally necessary: timeliness and accessibility. So, mackenziefegan, you hit the nail right on the head as far as I'm concerned.

wtf, whole foods

So I'm a few days behind on this, but I just found out that Whole Foods is starting this awesome new incentive program for their employees where lower BMI = bigger discount. You can read about it here. What. The. Fuck. I am beyond grossed out, and and angry, for the thousandth time, at Whole Foods and everywhere else that encourages "healthiness" being judged by weight.

However this one awful thing does remind me of one awesome thing that CofC NOW is doing this year. We are venturing in to body image issue land and creating the Look Book, a book of stories and artwork from CofC and Charleston community members dealing with their bodies--in whatever way speaks to them. We're basing the idea on another school, which printed a book featuring people's stories of their triumphs and struggles with their bodies next to photographs of them, many nude, being totally comfortable in their own skin.

We figured this would be an awesome way to give an aesthetically pleasing fuck you to all the people/institutions who constantly tell us we need to look a certain way to be beautiful. Not to mention some reassurance for everyone out there who told us, as we tried to get them to just say one thing that they loved about their body for NOW's celebration of Love Your Body Day, that they hated their bodies. And for all those people who never say anything at all.

Art, activism...and of course there's gonna be a party. We're going to start looking for submissions soon after the Vagina Monologues are over, so keep your eyes peeled!