I would hate to be a kid today

Last night, I finally watched the must-see documentary "Jesus Camp". I am sure many of you have seen it and even more of have heard of it. For those of you who do not really know what I am talking about, "Jesus Camp" is an essentially unbiased (yes, I realize that it cannot be completely unbiased) documentary pretty much about kids being raised in the Evangelical faith. It was heart breaking for me to watch this documentary, seeing how brainwashed these young kids are and how guilty they all felt about essentially being a kid because, from what I understand, no child is innocent in the eyes of Evangelicals, rather they must be reborn after being forgiven for their sins and accepting Jesus. While watching this movie, I had to continuously make jokes to try and lighten the anger that was settling on me. These kids not only had no real opinions of their own because their parents were so obsessed with the religion that most of them were home schooled (so that they would never hear any other opinions, 75% of kids who are home-schooled are Evangelical), but they felt the need to then push their beliefs onto other people because we must all be saved.

On top of all the brainwashing that is going on, kids seem to be having their youth stolen from them at younger and younger ages, for reasons not even including the ridiculous average age that people are having sex for the first time now and the horrible incidents that force a child to grow up too fast; abuse, irresponsible parents, etc. Instead I am talking about the what appears to be growing trend for parents to not only force their beliefs about religion onto children but teaching them about things that they just do not need to know about yet and teaching them to hate those people who disagree. I wish that I could say I was shocked watching the adults in this documentary preaching about how evil women who get abortions are and how gays are going to hell, telling this to kids whose average age was probably 11. I feel like the last thing kids need to learn about at that age or any age is to hate people who are going through things that they will hopefully never have to face (that is not me trying to say that being gay is horrible and they should not have to face it, but they shouldn't be taught to hate the unknown and different). Then to top it all off, these parents are dragging their kids out to clinics who perform abortions or to funerals of gay soldiers (most popularly), having them exposed to this grief and then protest and spew hatred at people that are different than them. And it really is that simple in my mind, they are different and that unknown scares the crap out of these parents, leading them to indoctrinate their kids into their twisted beliefs.

As usual, I did not write this in hopes of offending anyone but I would be very interested in hearing people's opinions of the documentary and other things that I talked about..

Thanks!

homosexism, heterosexism, -ism, -ism,- ism

(Sorry it is a little long!)

My original plan for this blog post was to talk about the constant HOMOsexism that I have been facing in my LGBT classes. But I realized that I could not address those feelings without also addressing HETEROsexism/ HOMOphobia becase I do not want to give the idea that I am only opposed to HOMOsexism or let people think that I am okay with them discriminating against the LGBT community. To clear up any confusion, which I even had until just a couple minutes ago, HOMOsexism is the hatred towards straight people and HETEROsexism is a hatred towards the gay community. I know that up until I just looked it up, I was very confused myself. So I want to make it clear to people without anyone feelings ignorant for their confusion. In discussing these topics, I am sure I will inadvertedly reference several other -isms; such as sexism, racism, and maybe even classism.

So let me begin with HOMOsexism, my initial frustration. And let me preface this by saying, that I am in these LGBT classes and wanting to earn a minor in LGBT studies because I view the "queer" community as my equal, I have great respect for people of all orientations, genders, race, and class. I am taking these classes to develop a greater understanding, not so much of their personalities and what makes them that way (because, well, those classes are not offered) but instead classes on their history and writings and a couple others. Along with accumulating a greater knowledge, I want to earn this minor because I feel like it will be beneficial to my future career choices. 

ANYWHO..

Back to my feelings on HOMOsexism, I feel alienated regularly as if I am the "bad guy" because I am hetero; because I am the other, the threat.. I am in more subtler ways discrimated against in my classes. I am often (basically) told that my opinions do not matter because I am attracted to men, because I could not possibly understand what they are going through and the experiences they have. They do not seem to care that I am there because I want to learn and grow, it does not seem to resonate with them. It is hard for me to continue to sympathize and well give a damn when I am constantly told how wrong I am, that I cannot share my experience because it just is not relevent. This is a very hard experience for me, but nothing is going to change if I just give up. And I have found a couple allies, and isn't that all you nedd? Just a few people to make you realize that your opinions are valid and to stand up for you, without that where would any of us be?

As for HETEROsexism...

After my initial outburst on Facebook about about all of the HOMOsexism I was facing, I was very offended to see someone take advantage of my frustration and compare homosexuality to beastiality and pedophilia. I the realized that I could not just address one of these issues, I would have to address at least both of these issues if not more. As stated in the previous paragraph I fully believe that "queer" people are equal to me in everyway and am therefore OUTRAGED that there is such inequality about something that only affects people of this persuasion. I cannot fathom how someone being attracted to someone of their own sex, or someone who does not feel a part of their biological sex (transgendered) really affects anyone else, especially in a negative way. It may affect their parents because it might "ruin" their dreams of becoming grandparents (at least in a traditional sense) but no one else is affected, why should they be so discrimiated against? There is NO reason! I believe in full equal rights for anyone as long as the people that are involved with are consenting adults. I do not care if your orientation means that you cannot bear children (in a traditional sense), or if it goes againts someone's version of god because not everyone believes in a god and not everyone believes in the same god. So stop forcing your ideas and views onto other people, the only people being hurt are the people being discriminated against. Equal rights to marriage is not going to end the world or send everyone to hell, no one should be denied the right to proclaim their love to another consenting adult in whatever way they want, if that involves marriage than so be it. If they are granted equal marriage rights, its not as if a religious leader would then be forced to marry them, so it really has no affect on them, although they should not be denied the right to be married by anyone but that is another form of discrimination and prejudice that is never going to end and I'm not going to waste my breathe talking about it because I do not even completely believe that they should have to... It is a hard topic for me... But the point is, same-sex couples should not be discriminated against for any reason, and it needs to stop.

As always, thanks for reading : )

education, elections, and entertainment, oh my!

not the greatest title, but hey that's my life lately..

school has been SUPER busy.. way too much reading

but that's not what this blog is for..

so for about a month i have been OBSESSED with the election,

yeah you know,the one that was suppose to end yesterday

and yet keeps looming unknown and just out of reach : /

while IF i had more time, as in less school, i could of dedicated more time to getting Murray re-elected and other democratic candidates elected i would of but i think i put quite a bit into this election..

more than most people i know..

i phone-banked a couple times, had to console a woman who had just lost her husband, and was called a baby killer for the first time.. yikes!!!

as for entertainment...

Alexi (my BFF) and Kel came up for Halloween weekend : )

Thursday was a VOX pub crawl, while in my Condom Fairy costume (without wings)

i was labeled a "Condom Fairy", "Condom Queen/ Princess", and "Safety First" : )

Friday was shopping with Alexi (always a good time), dinner and hookah

Saturday i worked, and went to three different places to party : D

as for today, the day after the elusive election I decided to take a break and went to see...

EASY A, the movie I have been waiting to see for like TWO months!!

so thanks Ashley for coming with me...

for those of you that know me, know that apply a lot of things to my third-wave feminist nature

so here is why I enjoyed the movie, besides the smart humor and super cute leading man...

the lead character, played by Emma Stone, did not let give a shit about what the "religious crazies" thought about her, she lived herself for her.. and only decided to stop letting people think what they wanted of her was basically after she almost attacked by a complete asshole and of course after the leading man shows interest in her and she does not want him to think she is a "whore" that everyone else thinks she is

people should get to be who ever they want to be!

and should not be judged for their actions, real or imagined

plus, her parents were TOTALLY awesome! although a little over-the-top

well I sure hope my next post is a bit more exciting!

Mommy loves me, this I know because my cell phone tells me so..

"...When am I finally going to get something that I want? When is it going to be my turn? How long can I be so giving and unselfish and feel like I get nothing in return. Saying this makes me sound more selfish, but I am not, and you know that. But just how long can this go on? I mean I love giving and I wouldn't change anything about my unselfishness and niceness to other people and even strangers, but shouldn't I be able to get every once and a while? It's like when I give, I give a part of myself, therefore I lose a part of myself. So, I keep getting smaller and smaller and nothing is there to replace it. I am just wondering how small can I get before I just disappear? I sometimes wonder if I disappear would anyone ever notice? Would anyone ever miss me? I wish you would answer my questions because without these answers life is getting to be too much and too hard. It's starting to seem almost pointless to go on. Please tell me these answers so I can get on with my life and not feel abandoned and helpless. Can you tell me if there is something that I am living for?"- http://www.sothere.com/

While this qoute from someone else's blog that I "stumbled upon" maybe a week ago is a little extreme, when I read it I felt like this person had a pretty good idea how I was feeling and I didn't think I would be able to say it much better..

So here is what has been happening in my life this past week in relation to the other blogger's words.. I decided to do a little sociall experiment. Now let me preface this by saying that I am NOT trying to invoke sympathy or make any one feel guilty but in hopes that maybe some people's eyes will be openned and they can maybe bring a smile to someone else's face...

Now that all that is out of the way, I hope people are still reading this! Basically for one week, I did not initiate contact with anyone via phone or computer unless I found the situation to be important enough to violate my rules. I then recorded every converstation that someone else initiated with me (I know that sounds a little creepy, what I mean is that I made a log showing when they and how they contacted me, and why and for how long we conversed). After a week a self-imposed semi-isolation I realized that the most communication I had was with.. of course, my mother.. who initiated some sort of contact with me everyday at least once (some people may find it overbearing but I love my mom and that day if she hadn't contacted me by some point I was really bummed cause I wasn't letting myself contact her first). From there I had a couple friends initaite conversations with me a couple times during the week but for the most part there were just a couple random things that needed to be said but were not really inviting converstation.

Now let me tell you, this was very hard to do! There were a couple situations were there were some specific people I wanted to call/txt when something happened; like when I saw the guy walking two baby goats on leashes in front of my apartment or last Friday during Discovery Days I walked into Fairhaven and was assualted by the smell of marijuana all through out Fairhaven while there were groups touring the school, haha.

In the end I realized as I had assumed, I do start conversations with most of my friends and it seems like if I don't do it then we won't talk which is really hard sometimes because it is nice to feel like someone wants to talk to you specifically which I am sure most of you realize. But I also realized that I have some friends that almost always start our conversations (Alexi, you are just wonderful) I guess it is becaue I feel like if I don't have something specific to talk about I feel like it would be stupid to start a conversation.. But I am realizing that I need to reach out to new people so that they realize I care about them too.. and for the friends that I always have to contact.. I don't know what I am going to do about that, it is tough, as I am sure some of you know (mom).

Well I hope that I have given you all something to think about and that you actually read all the way through it, haha. Let me know what you think, please! I would love to hear some people's opinions on this topic : )

Tootles : D

first time blogger

hi there.

so to start with i thought some of you might be interested in why i chose my name, but on the other hand some of you might already know : )

1) i love boy meets world, as cheesy as it sounds the lessons i learned from that show have actually impacted my life in many ways

2) i am a sophmore at WWU and for at least the last 2.5 years i have spent much of my time working to make an impact of the world i live in; whether that be through my individuals interactions with others, or the programs i participate in and/or support, and through my politcal choices and actions (basically as i was once labeled "loud and proud", i do not keep my opinions to myself) because i know that if i want to maintain the status quo on certain subjects i must have my voice heard because believe me the people that do not want the status quo maintained are being REAL loud.

i felt the need to explain my name because for the last week i have been wanting to start a blog but did  not because i could not think of a name, as i shared with my friend laura i think that the name i choose is just as important as what i write about.

i hope to gain a couple followers, now i know that some people have already told me that they would read it, if i wrote one we all know that sometimes we dont follow up on the things we say.. so i hope to maintain the interst of my friends who choose to read this blog but it would also be cool to have some random people find what i have to say interesting.. but id prefer it if they didnt become my stalker, online or in real life haha

well thats it for my first post.. i dont know when i will be writing again because i am a crazy busy college student and becaue some days i just dont have much to say.. but on some days you might have a whole lot to read, these days are likely to be Tuesdays.. i will tell those of you who dont know why another time ; )

thanks guys!