According to UN Women, 22.9% of cabinet minister positions are held by women worldwide, and twenty-seven countries (out of 195) have a woman serving as head of state. The top twenty corporations in the world are all run by men, and of the twenty countries with the highest GDPs in the world, three are run by women. And that’s not a compliment to men, seeing as corporations and thriving GDPs are…
In high school, one of my classmates used to come to school on any given day, proudly sporting a Batman cape. He sang in the school choir with an unabashedly passionate operatic voice. He was smart, witty, and a great conversationalist. He was self-actualized, so he didn’t care about being cool, which therefore made him cool. Even though he didn’t click with any of the typical high school cliques,…
And yet we keep voting for them! Families and friendships are torn apart over them! For people who won’t shed a tear for you when you’re gone, who won’t care for you when you’re sick, and who spend your money on war and personal perks, leaving a few scraps for you under the guise of “social programs.” In his book “The Story of B,” Daniel Quinn says, “If the world is saved, it will be saved by…
Source: @buddyhead_ I’m not saying we should all go out and buy army jackets and 3D printers and start hunting down CEOs, although that does seem to be the most unifying idea at the moment and I’m not mad about it. But we all have the power to do what Luigi did without being violent. He drew attention to a class cause by making it impossible to ignore, uniting us in a profound way when we’re…
When I was twenty-three I started dating my boss, who was twenty-seven years older than me. I didn’t know he was fifty-one when I developed feelings for him. When you’re so young, it’s hard to tell. But one day, we were looking at photos from his childhood and I noticed a shocking number of classic cars in the background…except in the photos, they were brand new. By that point, it was too late.…
My friend, who’s also a musician in her forties, recently told me that at one point she’d wanted to try out for American Idol , but that now she’s “too old.” I thought that statement spoke volumes about ageism, not just on American Idol , but in the music industry. That an experienced and capable singer and songwriter would feel she’s ineligible to share her art, simply by virtue of her age, goes…
How did we get conned into giving 30% of our incomes to criminals and psychopaths? Who will inefficiently spend it on themselves and their dysfunctional cronies. Acting like the prison-like schools, the insulting social services, and the tyrannical military they fund with what’s leftover should be enough to keep us quiet about continuing this charade. Read like your life depends on…
The only election I ever voted in before the last one, was the 2000 election. And I voted for Bush. In Florida. Proof that people really can change. During the twenty-two years following that election, I’ve read loads of literature on U.S. history and policy to educate myself, because it became more and more clear to me that my backwards Florida education didn’t do that. I also moved to New York…
Make them pay taxes.
It’s sad but true, that all you have to do in this country to have a good day sometimes, is just not get shot.
I was already starting to get fed up with our mayor. I started teaching last November at a public high school in Brooklyn after a twelve year break, and it was pretty shocking to see how little things have changed since 2008. I left teaching with the intention of becoming a rock star, but ended up being a starving artist instead. After over a decade of living in the real world waiting tables,…
Adele was given hell a few months ago, for saying she loves being a Woman at a gender-neutral awards show. Source: rte.ie I never wanted to have children. Not only did I not want to have children, I was disgusted by, and maybe even morally opposed to, the idea of squeezing a person out of my vagina. I only recently realized it’s because of this Bible verse I’d heard since I was a kid: To the woman…
Maybe if we make abortion about men, they’ll let women have them. Because from my understanding (which I’m sure is very limited, since I’m just a woman), most often when a woman gets an abortion, there’s a source of “irresponsible ejaculation” who also doesn’t want to, can’t afford to, isn’t ready to have that child, too. Think of how many men will suffer if women can’t get abortions!!! They might…
Nuclear Family Fantasy - “The Things We Pursue” Download on Bandcamp at https://nuclearfamilyfantasy.bandcamp.com/track/the-things-we-pursue Fifteen percent of proceeds will be donated to WE ACT ( www.weact ,org).
“One who is too intelligent and informed to believe any of the political ideologies being pushed today. Their knowledge of government has evolved to the point that they cannot trust in any way, shape, or form; the fairy tales and coincidences peddled by people in power, regardless of the party a politician proclaims him/herself to be in. A political atheist understands that these people tend to be…
I recently saw this video on my all-time favorite IG page, Buddyhead (IG: @buddyhead _). It’s of California Congresswoman, Maxine Waters, telling homeless people to go home. I replied that this video is the reason why we should start electing activists, and not politicians. Someone responded, “Stupid take. Activists don’t get elected and besides, the system is the system no matter who is in…
I say this with love in my heart, and more with concern than judgment, but I’m starting to believe that celebrities are psychos. Gore Vidal said, “Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.” Not only do I believe this to be true about politicians, I believe it to be true about celebrities. Having the need, willingness,…
I started working at a high school in Brooklyn last November, with a large B*POC and LGBTQIA population. A few weeks into starting the job, the teachers were asked to fill out an anonymous survey, to make sure the staff properly reflects the student population. The survey questions were entirely about our race and sexuality. For me, the race part was pretty easy. Even though I don’t typically feel…
This is a PSA against fast fashion. You remember all those mass-produced clothes, shoes, and accessories you bought on a whim? Or that you snatched up along with everybody else to keep up with a trend, only to toss them aside at the end of a season? Well, they have feelings, too, you know. And these are their stories: Cindy* I was all the rage for a season. Everyone wanted to be seen in me.…
A few months after the pandemic forced me to “retire” from bartending, I was hired by a tutoring agency, where I work with children ages 4 to 8. For some students, I sit in on their remote learning calls with their classmates and teachers, before working with them one on one. One of the subjects I sometimes help my third grade student with is social studies. I’m disturbed and discouraged to see…