Category Archives: soapbox

Attachment Parenting, soapbox, women's rights

Another soapbox moment…

Leave a comment

It’s time for another foray into the sphere of politics….

BOYCOTT DELTA AND FREEDOM AIRLINES!!

Do not fly Delta Airlines or Freedom Airlines

A woman flying out of Vermont on Freedom Airlines (part of a Delta flight) was kicked off a plane for breastfeeding her 22 month old child, discreetly, in the window seat, with her husband and child in the two seats between her and the aisle. She was not exposing her breast. An airline attendant saw her breastfeeding, offered her a blanket, and when she refused, had a ticket attendant remove her and her family from the flight.
This occurred when Vermont has a law permitting breastfeeding in public. In fact, most, if not all states, have laws permitting women to breastfeed anywhere they have a right to be.

In a culture where we have built an empire around the female breast, why are we afraid of it’s natural functions? We can view naked women with their hands over their breasts, in the grocery stores checkout lines, but we can’t support feeding babies in public? We have female nudity in almost every film above PG-13, we can see it on primetime television, but we freak out if a baby is eating his or her lunch. Come on people!! Grow the hell up! An ungodly number of buildings and statutes are penile in nature, phallic symbols abound in this country. Entire livelihoods are earned by exposing the breast, photographing or filming it. Women are encouraged to wear as little clothing as possible, all the time. Sex is everywhere!! Why in the name of everything innocent and pure is it shocking to feed an infant?

Support breastfeeding. Write letters to Delta, tell them you will not give them your money if they continue to eject breastfeeding moms from their planes. She had a legal right to feed her baby on the plane, she was allowed by law to do so. The federal government supports breastfeeding, they have allocated millions to educate women and men as to the health benefits of doing so. However, in order to achieve these health benefits, women have to be able to feed their children! Babies do not only get hungry in the privacy of their own home.

BOYCOTT PHARMACIES REFUSING TO STOCK PLAN B!!

Next political rant….

Plan B was recently approved by the FDA for over the counter sale to women over the age of 18. It took three years of political battle to get this to happen. Now, of course, many pharmaceutical chains are refusing to stock this contraceptive. Tell them that you will not support them, if they will not support women.

You can send a letter from the NARAL website . I suggest you alter the message to better reflect your beliefs. Here is my letter:

“The FDA has approved the emergency contraceptive Plan B, for over the counter sales to women over the age of 18. I am dismayed to hear there are few pharmacy with plans to stock this medication.

I am a lawyer, a blogger, a member of multiple organizations with thousands of members. These members are bloggers, and members of other organizations. We talk. We tell each other when pharmacies and companies support women, and when they don’t. Most importantly, we shop accordingly. You want our money? You have to consider our interests.

I will not spend a single dime at pharmacies that choose to deny Plan B and Birth Control to women. I will tell others not to spend their money at these pharmacies. We will take our money elsewhere.”

We have to support each other if we are going to affect change. Use your voices, use your computers, use you wallet. Tell people you will only support people who support you.

Oddly, Walmart is the only chain so far who will stock the drug. It is one of the first things they have done that I can support. Tell Wal-Mart you approve of this action, even if they have committed other actions you do not approve of. (I am still not likely to shop there, but they are trying to change, and I would like to see them continue.)

Thank you for allowing some political posturing. Back to babies announcements tonight. We find out what kind of baby we are having this afternoon. Other than a brilliant, healthy, wonderful one of course, we already know that.

soapbox

Theme Halloween??

2 Comments

Rantings of a holiday offended mother….

What the hell is with people and Halloween this year?

Do you remember the days of sitting with 10 dollars, some fabric, thread and a needle, glue, and whatever else you could find and trying to piece together a ghostly ghoul or a moldy corpse, or a elegant vampire?

Do you remember turning puns into costumes? I do!! However, the Red Bank Primary School will not be encouraging such creative shenanigans this year! No!! This year the school theme is “There’s no place like home” and the children riding on and walking next to the FLOAT in the parade have to dress like those darling (read creepy), little (read stereotyped), munchkins from our favorite movie of all time “The Wizard of Oz”. (So not my favorite movie of all time.)

Sigh. Well having just read Wicked, I will skip the diatribe about how misunderstood the Wicked Witch of the West really was (though I encourage all of you to read Wicked, it was a fantastic novel) and will instead move on with lambasting the Red Bank PTO.

How stupid is this. First of all, why are we having a float? Come on!! Its a halloween parade not the Mayberry fall festival. It’s supposed to be full of creative creepy undead things and the inevitable Star Wars characters. It is not supposed to be an event designed to satisfy the narcissistic needs of the children’s parents, it is supposed to be a chance to let your children come up with a truly dreadful costume, be it dreadful in a good way, or a bad one, and show it off to all their friends and neighbors. But no, this year all the darling little children will be dressed to look like members of the Lollipop Guild, which, while admittedly creepy, is going to result in the homogenization of the entire primary school.

So much for encouraging creative impulses.

So this year, when viewing the parade at Red Bank Primary, seek not the children dressed in costumes requiring you to guess again and again as to what they are, instead get ready to view a troop of munchkins. Whatever you do, don’t pay any attention to the parents behind the curtain.

baby updates, soapbox, women's rights

A response from Forbes… Snakes on a plane… and life in general.

8 Comments

Well, after posting the rant about that unpalatable “Don’t marry career women” article here I sent a letter to the editor. I got a response from Forbes today:

“I want to acknowledge your communication with us on the article “Don’t Marry Career Women.” Sensitive issues demand sensitive treatment. The piece that appeared on Forbes.com this past week was intended to be part academic and part humorous. Instead, it profoundly offended hard-working career women everywhere. We deeply regret having done so.
Steve Forbes
President and Editor-in-Chief”

While I am pleased with an apology instead of some sermon on the importance of presenting all sides in a debate, I was left with only one thing to say… well DUH!! Did any of the Forbes editors READ the article before it was published to determine if it was sensitively handling a sensitive issue? If they did read it, how on earth did they figure it wouldn’t profoundly offend hard-working career women everywhere? Where did they see value in the article at all? It was hardly a humorous and academic posting, it was a rant blaming a rise in divorce on working women. It is hard to accept an apology from these people when a simple read of the article would indicate it’s risk of offending hard-working career women everywhere. I am unwilling to adopt a cavalier boys will be boys attitude here. Any magazine which thinks this article is a humorous and academic look at the workplace and relationships in 2006 is a magazine that profoundly deserves a boycott by hard-working women everywhere, regardless of their career status. This article would have fit well into the culture of the 1950’s, which simply illustrates how behind the times Forbes really is.

Okay, rant over. Last night we went on saw Snakes on a Plane. While taking the bar, we had intended to go see it as a mid exam stress releiver but were prevented from doing so when we learned it wasn’t out yet. So Lee and I saw it last night. It was pretty funny, although there were many gratuitous and unnecessary scenes in it. I determined after leaving that movies such as Snakes on a Plane are created for the simple purpose of allowing new actors interesting roles to place on their resumes. For example: Man whose penis was bit by snake, Woman whose tongue was bit by snake, Man whose head was swallowed by snake, Woman whose breast was bit by snake. Interestingly, Snakes did provide a new and varied manner of filming I like to call Snake-O-Vision, a rather distorted green lit view of the soon to be bitten passengers that provided many giggles for Lee and I. All in all, it was a pretty fun movie, not very scary, but then I like snakes.

We are getting ready for Monkey’s school, which starts the 6th of September, we got her a laptop lunch box and a new backpack that we are decorating so it will be “the fanciest backpack anyone ever saw.” (Her requirement for a backpack). We found hers at Macy’s on sale, which was unexpected to say the least. Monkey is signed up to take the bus to school, but right now wants me to drive her. She is a little scared of busing to school. So we will see if and when she wants to take the bus.
We had our first well baby visit yesterday. Monkey, Lee and I all went. We are about 8 weeks along, and doing just fine. We got a lovely sonogram photo of the baby, which rather resembles a blob in a dark cave. However, we all decided it was a cute blob. We actually saw a better image on the sonogram than what got printed. We also saw the baby’s heartbeat, which was pretty cool. Monkey was very excited to see the baby, and I loved holding hands with my first baby while peeking at my second. It was a fairly magical moment.

Well, I am getting a message from said second baby, informing me to type less and eat more. We miss you all!