Here is this week’s list of blog posts, poems, artworks, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
Old Farm Equipment and Scrap Metal Turned Into Stunning Sculptures via FairfieldJen. I love the creativity of these sculptures.
My Life Is Perfect Hell via LorcaDamon. Ack! Everything I want to say about this link would give away spoilers for it. Go read it, and if you like it as much as I did we can discuss it in the comment section. 🙂
Valentine for Sally Hemings. This is the kind of poem that burrows into your skin.
But the Daisies via Jessicajots. So is this one (for entirely different reasons).
From Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think:
Your Authentic Voice, somewhere in there, knows all about you. In contrast to the black-and-white simplicity of the Social Survival Mammoth, your Authentic Voice is complex, sometimes hazy, constantly evolving, and unafraid. Your AV has its own, nuanced moral code, formed by experience, reflection, and its own personal take on compassion and integrity. It knows how you feel deep down about things like money and family and marriage, and it knows which kinds of people, topics of interest, and types of activities you truly enjoy, and which you don’t. Your AV knows that it doesn’tknow how your life will or should play out, but it tends to have a strong hunch about the right step to take next.
From Scenes From a Life in Negroland:
Are We Rich?
Mother raises those plucked, deep-toned eyebrows that did such excellent expressive work for women in the 1950s. Lift the penciled arch by three to four millimeters for bemused doubt, blatant disdain, or disapproval just playful enough to lure the speaker into more error. Mother’s lips form a small, cool smile that mirrors her eyebrow arch. She places a small, emphatic space between each word: Are. We. Rich? Then she adds, with a hint of weariness: Why do you ask?
The Purity Myth made me shake my head so vigorously I thought it might fall off. 😛
On a serious note, this is a well-rounded critique of all of the myths about what it means to be a “good” girl. The author discusses virginity, modesty, slut shaming, and what happens when girls and women break the unwritten rules about what we are (and aren’t) supposed to be doing.
I heartily recommend it to anyone in the mood to think critically about the way western society treats women.
What have you been reading?