women’s studies

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on January 14, 2010 by nikki

My unpopular opinion of the day: I don’t think colleges should worry about being “inclusive” with the name of their Women’s Studies department. I think Gender Studies encompasses lots of things, but I still see the need for Women’s Studies, even if it’s a separate department. Lately it’s all the rage for universities to change Women’s Studies department names to include people who aren’t women (i.e., men).

Queen’s University changes department name to Gender Studies.
University of Dayton.
Edgewood.
PSU.

I’m all for a Gender Studies department, but I think it’s important for there to be an area specific to Women’s Studies. Can’t we keep something? I feel like the argument is that Women’s Studies isn’t a trans-inclusive name, but it IS an inclusive name to trans women, who ARE women (note: this doesn’t mean the classes/departments are trans-inclusive, in most cases). Trans men are not women, so I am not buying that argument when it comes to removing the word “Women” from the department name and replacing it with “Gender.” I think it would be more inclusive to have Women’s Studies and Gender Studies.

hi, remember me?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on November 20, 2009 by nikki

TOTAL TRASH is a group music blog by musical girls/queers about musical girls/queers! It’s brand new.

TOTAL TRASH – GIRL / QUEER MUSIC BLOG.

impromptu moon jams

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on October 11, 2009 by nikki

In a frenzied effort to make the most of the fading sun, I forgot about the moon. Some people I knew were going to OMSI to watch the moon bombing happen live at 4:30AM, but sleep is too precious during these days of insomnia. I stood on the front stoop with three precious ladies holding candles: three for peace, one for protection, held up to the moon. Cassia and I wrote an impromptu moon jam to the tune of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend by The Ramones. I started bleeding that day.

Sleep came quickly that night, and we arose to a fairly uneventful moon bombing that will most likely deeply affect our lives sooner than later.

san francisco

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on October 7, 2009 by nikki

San Francisco is the city of death and exes. That’s why I left.

But it all follows you everywhere: The city. The death. The exes. These things will hunt you down for the blood and try to consume you, all vulture-like, sucking you dry.

Four years and two cities later and you’re reloading social security death indexes every two seconds to see if ‘exes’ and ‘death’ have finally become synonymous.

the riot grrrl episode of Roseanne

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on July 30, 2009 by nikki

class & relationships

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on July 11, 2009 by nikki

We spent a good buzzed, dashboard-lit hour last night talking about the unnecessary difficulty involved in maintaining relationships (friendship and otherwise) with people who come from a different class background. I say ‘unnecessary’ because such relationship situations generally fail after a while, somewhat nullifying the time spent therein. While varying circumstances contribute to the ends of relationships, a class difference that exists almost always outweighs all other differences and certainly contributes to each person’s style of communication and tolerance for bullshit.

I don’t have a ton of experience with people who come from upper-class backgrounds with the exception of one – he’s still my best friend. The class divide was always really apparent, especially when family was involved. I remember being really embarrassed by my trashy mom who would fall asleep with cigarettes hanging out of her mouth, burning holes in everything and trying to make conversation through her drugged stupor. I loved her, and yeah, it was hardly her real behavior, but still…. bringing my friends over was not always easy unless they had similar upbringings. When I’d go to my rich friends’ houses I’d have to pretend I knew what certain foods and vegetables are, ask for clarification of certain words, and be totally confused about certain upper middle class phenomena like the removal of shoes upon entering the house or calling people Mrs. or Mr. whatever.

Sarah said that part of a successful relationship is the understanding of where the other person is coming from, specifically how they were raised and their style of communication that is influenced by their upbringing. While most people who come from middle/upper class backgrounds like to think they understand the experience of lower/working class childhoods, they don’t. It wasn’t their experience, just like having a safety net wasn’t ours. I agree.

It’s also so interesting to see how punk plays into this, both of us coming from punk backgrounds (and foregrounds, fuckers!) and knowing people who have chosen the punk identity at some point in their lives and since abandoned it. I guess I’m tired of feeling cheesy about talking about punk and classism and the abandonment of punk in favor of consumerism. I’m not sure how one outgrows punk ideals, and I think it’s all rooted in class differences. Most “ex-punks” I know who were entrenched in the lifestyle are those who came from middle to upper-class backgrounds and had access and experience to things we didn’t.

While I wish all people could understand what it’s like to exist in the world coming from a poor background, there are certain things I’ll never feel comfortable with sharing with my more privileged community. I don’t want people to tell me how hard it sounds… because I don’t know any different, and to be perfectly honest I don’t think people from upper class backgrounds could ever understand our thought patterns or reasoning despite their huge vocabularies and numerous sociology degrees.

oh god i fell for you

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on July 8, 2009 by nikki

facebook, myspace and class

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on July 5, 2009 by nikki

Some interesting articles on “white flight” from Myspace to Facebook. For a second I thought everyone’s jump to Facebook was the sheep mentality, but now I think it’s something very different.

The class divide is alive and well on the internet.

Facebook/Myspace class divisions.

Research shows different races are on different social networking websites.

no fat chicks

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on June 10, 2009 by nikki

No white linen capri pants or mauve/olive blend dresses for fatty!

On Threadbared today, more mainstream stores ditch size 16 and up, claiming lack of buyer demand. Is there really a higher demand for a size 0/1 or 2 than a size 16? I mean, really? No. If Banana Republic and Ann Taylor or whatever stopped carrying sizes 0/1 and 2, there would be fear that they’d gain the reputation of being a plus-sized clothing establishment. Fuck diplomacy, I wouldn’t wear your ugly shit anyway.

wanderlust

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on June 8, 2009 by nikki

Every poem for my final poetry class project is about a road, or two roads, or several. Before I crazyglued myself to the wrong part of the map I was on a perpetual journey. I did filthy things for money just so I could feel the power of the desert and dip my feet into every body of water in the country. What was once a way of life is now just ridiculous poetry that lives inside a cheap blue “portfolio” that a strange woman will handwrite letter grades on.