— Ta-Nehisi Coates (via theatlantic)
I don’t blog here often lately, that is mostly because Tumblr makes it really hard on people with limited bandwidth. But as someone who considers themselves an advocate for women’s rights and a feminist I wanted to post something.
Women play such an important part in everyone’s lives that the idea of a Woman’s day would be absurd if not for it’s necessity. Women today still make less than men, are still (if not directly, then at least implicitly) judged for having careers instead of churning out babies and, although great inroads have been made, still not in control of their reproductive rights.
[EDIT] I was a bit harsh here on mothers, and want to be clear. Mothers are awesome and cool, and there is nothing wrong with having babies and lots of them if women wish to. When I wrote this it was just from personal experience of having people ask “When are you going to have a baby” … “Grandkids”… “etc etc”. Sorry if this was stupid. I wont defend it.
Sexism is still prevalent in the media, and as much as I complain about the “dumb husband who can’t figure out how to clean the dishes” I know it’s ten times worse for women. I just finished the Novel “Gone Girl” at the behest of my wife, and there was a line that struck me from when one of the characters was watching television:
“Tampon commercial, detergent commercial, maxi pad commercial, windex commercial - you’d think all women do is clean and bleed.”
When was the last time a cleaning commercial had nothing but men talking about how fresh their house smelled. I can recall the date: never. Because men don’t clean, they are too busy making the world go round to do something as “demeaning” as cleaning a floor.
I have a problem with advertising in general, but the overt sexism and racism really does bug me. I notice as I get older it bugs me more.
Blargh! This is not the post I wanted it to be. While it’s important to know the problems affecting women it’s also important to point out the women who have done so much.
So first of all, I want to say thank you to my wife. I know that some people are going to see that as lame of course you’d thank her first, and I have one thing to say to you: You have no idea.
My wife dropped her life and moved to a remote village in Alaska to help teach children to read and write and do math. She is freaking amazing. Everyday she gets up early and when her kids do well, she has a true pride in them. I have many heroes, and she at the top.
I want to also thank my women friends: Ladies, there are some women who I haven’t talked to in years, but I’ve seen your good works, either through social media or through tangential conversations with others. I have known people who have gone into the Peace Corps, Started art galleries, and followed their dreams of dancing. These ladies run the world, and they deserve a piece of it.
To my mother and my sister: I am in awe of both of you. You have taken care of children while juggling businesses, finished school, and have proudly helped when asked. Growing up is rough, and afterward, you start to realize who was there for you, and you two were there for me. Thank you.
[EDIT]
To go along with my other edit, I want to thank my friends who have chosen to have children. It is such an important thing that I often forget about because the closest I’ve come to having kids is waking up in the morning to two oversize Alaskan dogs licking me and pouncing at my face. I do not have my own children to appreciate, so I appreciate that my friends are smart and kind enough to raise their own and let me share in that through pictures and videos online. Mothers, you have a tired thankless and often poopy job, thanks for doing it.
I appreciate you all.
I’m paying for 20M down —oh, excuse me “up to” 20M down. It’s a first world problem, but my god is it annoying.
Shut up Wil:
Just a reminder that #SeaPunk is not a thing and excited to announce a new musical movement called “FUTURE SKA” here on Tumblr!!!
FutureSka is the new seapunk which was never a thing.
Jesus, there are starving children in the world quit posting on 4chan
It’s weird when I read these types of things and realize I have these things and still don’t have my shit together. But the hope is still there that I might someday, so that’s worth something.
Don’t sweat, honey, cuz THAT SHIT AIN’T REAL. I mean, it is real, but they left out all the stuff in between the commas about the job you love not paying you for shit & having to get a part time job that’s so exhausting that you don’t really have time to clean your apartment, so it feels less cute & more like a giant laundry hamper. And that beautiful city you live in is full of shitty drivers & there aren’t really any decent men around worth dating & the cost of living is a little expensive so you have to rent in the kinda sketchy part of town where you’re pretty sure someone is going through your mail on the reg & your landlord is hard to get in touch with when things need to be fixed I don’t mean that you should give up, but maybe you already have that life if you just edit out all of the regular stuff that doesn’t sound cute.
From Alan Watts’ “The Book” (which has been more and more relevant lately):
“For unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax. There is no point whatever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy. When your plans mature, you will be living in some other future beyond. You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, “Now, I’ve arrived!” Your entire education has deprived you of this capacity because it was preparing you for the future, instead of showing you how to be alive now”
(Source: creatingsummer)
The grappling mechanism at the tip of Canadarm2. The cables snare a shaft and pull in, the teeth lock it in place.
Canada’s coolest achievement in space
Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study
The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.
Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.
Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.
The current minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour. In 2011, more than 66 percent of Americans surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute supported raising this figure to $10.
The last time the federal minimum wage increased was in 2009. Currently observed in 31 states, the federal minimum wage translates to an annual income of about $15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours per week.
Man fuck minimum wage. Let employers pay the people what their work is worth, simple as that. Nobody is gonna try to pay someone a dollar an hour if their work is worth 10 an hour. It just won’t work. Yet that’s the argument everybody makes in favor of a minimum wage. If a business tried to hire people at $3 an hour, nobody would take that job, they would lose the majority of their motivated work force, and probably go out of business. Even if some people decided to take that job, so what? If someone is willing to work for $3 an hour, who are we to tell them no? If they feel like they deserve more pay, then they can go somewhere else that provides a monetary incentive for hard work. Businesses would have to pay people fairly, else lose their workforce. All the minimum wage does is let business get away with paying people less than what their work is worth, because minimum wage provides some arbitrary basis for what is fair.
Fuck wage slavery and employers (bosses), not minimum wage.
Minimum wage was fought for by unions to increase the standard of living, decrease poverty and reduce exploitation. I think you’re angry at the fact that the minimum wage too low. As long as we’re living a capitalist society, we should be advocating to raise minimum wage, not to abolish it.
I agree that minimum wage is extremely flawed. I believe that workers should control the means of their production. But as long as we have bosses (and a workplace hierarchy) who profit off of our labor, it’s one of the best regulations we have to protect us from exploitation.
In your argument, you assume that employers will have the decency to pay their workers a decent amount and that workers will not work for shitty pay. Sweatshops are the perfect example of how that theory is bullshit. If minimum wage was abolished, you can bet that the average wage will decrease dramatically and so will the standard of living. Capitalists will do anything for more money, regardless of who it fucks over.
“Even if some people decided to take that job, so what? If someone is willing to work for $3 an hour, who are we to tell them no? If they feel like they deserve more pay, then they can go somewhere else that provides a monetary incentive for hard work.”
The underemployed workers you’re referring to are in the same exact position of those who fought for the establishment of minimum wage laws. Sweatshop workers felt like they deserved better pay and thought they should regulate the wage instead of looking for an imaginary job with better pay as you suggested.
If a business tried to hire people at $3 an hour, nobody would take that job, they would lose the majority of their motivated work force, and probably go out of business.
Bolded because of hilarity.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm
(via skeptictank)
Without you my heart is a lonely iceberg.
This single post has made me very very happy.
It was empty. It wasn’t scary. It was sort of like, in many respects, living at Chernobyl in some neighborhoods. … I looked and I thought to myself one day, ‘What happened here? What happened?’ And so this is not a book about ruin porn or empty buildings. This book is dedicated to those of us who live here in the industrial Midwest, specifically Detroit and its inner-ring suburbs. We’re still trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had.
Image of Detroit circa 1917, “Looking Up Woodward Avenue” via Shorpy
