Women Who Kill Goats

I spent this weekend in the woods with about 200 women, and 4 friends: Miz H, A, L, and K.  And now I want to live in the woods permanently.

Friday night, we set up our tents in the face of a freeze warning. Black night with stars clear and perfectly spaced, like tiny polka-dots on fabric. Built a fire, sat in folding chairs, and talked. About jobs, about personal philosophy, about food, eating meat, about parenting, about boys, about girls. We drank Corona and ate sunflower seeds.

Not one of us slept a whole hour that night, mostly because we were so, so cold. I tried curling up in a fetal ball to conserve heat. I wrapped things around my head and ducked into my sleeping bag. Then my toes got cold, so I covered them with my quilt and a small pile of clothes I couldn’t identify in the dark. Then my butt got cold, so I wrapped a scarf around my pelvic area like a bandage. Dozed off. Then wild dogs barking.

And in the morning, I drank shitty coffee and ate a bite and went to a workshop called Field Dressing. I imagined in my head when I signed up for this class 2 months prior that there would be a dead deer hung up in a warehouse of some sort, and the instructor would have a knife that s/he would pass around and give each of us a turn cutting something. But when I got to the designated meeting spot, there was a trailer full of 10 live, quite cute goats.

So we went to kill them. Me and Miz H and A.

We cut 10 jugular veins and 10 carotid arteries. Then we carried them by their feet to a pile of wood so they could bleed all of their blood out. Miz H and I had one goat. A had a goat all to herself. We cut them open delicately so as not to puncture their stomachs, and then we took their bowels out. We set the heart and liver aside. We cut the hyde off, then quartered it. Leg meat, neck, back, ribs. Sawed off feet and heads. Done.

And now I want to live in the woods in a cabin and raise and kill my own meat and cook it in delicious ways for my meat-eating friends. And for those of my friends who don’t eat meat, I will cook well-spiced and generously seasoned sweet potatoes and greens and corn and rice and beans from my garden behind my cabin. And we shall feast on ceramic plates with silver spoons. And I will be tired and happy.

Does that not sound lovely?

Spring

(The event was sponsored by Women in the Outdoors. To find out about WITO events in your area, go here.)

Hey Tulsans: Jennifer Pozner will be at TU Tomorrow!

THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES PROGRAM IS PLEASED TO PRESENT

A LECTURE BY ACCLAIMED MEDIA CRITIC JENNIFER POZNER

Project Brainwash: Why Reality TV Is Bad for Women…
(…and men, people of color, the economy, love, sex and common sense!)

TUESDAY, APRIL 13
LORTON HALL 207
7:OO P.M.

Nearly every night on every major network, “unscripted” (but carefully crafted) reality shows glorify stereotypes most people assume died forty years ago. On “The Bachelor,” twenty-five interchangeable hotties compete for the chance to marry a hunky lunkhead they don’t know from Adam. Weepy waifs line up to be objectified for a living (or simply for a moment) on “America’s Next Top Model.” Branded “ugly ducklings,” unstable women with low self-esteem risk their health to be surgically altered on “Extreme Makeover” and “Dr. 90210.” Starved women get naked for Oreos and men gloat about “dumb girl alliances” on “Survivor.” Women of color are demonized as deceitful divas and “ghetto” train wrecks on “Flavor of Love” and “I Love New York.” Reality TV isn’t simply reflecting anachronistic social biases, it’s resurrecting them. Its producers have done what the most ardent fundamentalists have never been able to achieve: they’ve created a universe in which women not only have no real choices, they don’t even want any.

With humor, razor-sharp analysis and provocative multimedia clips, media critic Jennifer L. Pozner exposes how “reality” TV reinforces regressive ideas about women and men, race and class, and sex, love and marriage in America. She skewers the lack of ethnic and physical diversity in a genre where women are sold right alongside soda and cell phones, and reveals how reality TV glorifies eating disorders, derides female intelligence, demeans people of color, and reduces Prince Charming to any jerk with a firm butt and a firmer financial portfolio. You’ll never see dating, mating and makeover shows the same way again… and you’ll laugh—a lot!

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For further information, please contact Jan Doolittle Wilson, director of TU Women’s and Gender Studies, at jan-wilson@utulsa.edu.

Oklahoma Students Protest Invasive Anti-Choice Law (HB 1595)

Women have been giving themselves abortions since the beginning of time. We have used everything from herbal remedies to coat hangers in our struggle for self-preservation. Women MUST have access to medically safe and private abortions. Period. Any other way does NOT demonstrate a concern for life; it is simply naive, stubborn, intrusive, controlling, and authoritarian.

But some of Oklahoma’s old-school lawmakers don’t see things this way. They passed some terrible legislation this past year, as some of you know. The legislation, H.B 1595, is a new provision on Oklahoma abortion laws that now requires an official record and reporting system of all abortions occurring within the state. This information would be made public and includes specific demographical information on the women. The bill also restricts the types of abortions or reasons for women having abortions. In addition, this website will cost upwards of $281,285 the first year and $256,285 each subsequent year.

Luckily, college students from across the state of Oklahoma are taking a stand on Oklahoma’s newest abortion legislation! Today! At the State Capitol! Yeehaw! In a response to this legislation, the students have planned and are participating in a statewide protest at the Oklahoma State Capitol TODAY Friday, November 6, at 9am. Like many of us, these students were surprised that this outrageous legislation received such little media coverage and public attention: “Everybody kept waiting for a response from the community,” Sandra Criswell, English and Women’s and Gender Studies senior at the University of Oklahoma said. “We were hearing plenty of outrage but there seemed to be no place to focus all of this energy. Hopefully, this protest will do that.”

“This is not about being pro-choice or pro-life, Republican or Democrat,” Criswell said. “This is about demanding non-discriminatory health care and holding our government accountable for their actions. These types of laws set a precedent for future legislation that can control the most personal aspects of our lives.”

Although the Women’s and Gender Studies Student Association at OU initially led this initiative, students from across the state are joining forces to unite against this new legislation. “There IS power in numbers, so it is pertinent to come together, especially in a state that has continually ignored a serious call for change amongst its younger citizens. We will no longer be silent or inactive,” Cait Thompson, recent graduate of Oklahoma State University and founding member of Oklahomans for Reproductive Justice, remarked.

“We want our legislators to know that their personal political agendas or petty government partisanship will not stand in the way of our rights,” Caitlyn Wright, OU WGS senior said.

That’s the word!

Spring

Nov. 16th: Feminist activist and lawyer Sybille Fritzsche talks at TU

Dear Friends of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Tulsa,

TU Women’s and Gender Studies is co-sponsoring with the Department of History a talk by feminist activist and lawyer Sybille Fritzsche on November 16 at 8:00 p.m. in Helmerich Hall (the Business Administration Hall).

Titled “Forward into the Past: The History of Reproductive Freedom,” the talk will focus on Ms. Fritzsche’s battle to overturn criminal abortion laws in the state of Illinois. Please join us on November 16.

(Distributed by Jan Doolittle Wilson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Tulsa.)

I’d love to meet Fritzsche and hear what she’s got to share.

Peace,
Beamish

Indie Emporium this Weekend in Tulsa

The independent and local art/ fashion/craft show INDIE EMPORIUM is this weekend, Friday and Saturday. It is at the VFW post on 6th Street. The doors open at 7:00 pm on Friday, and they will be giving away free goodie bags to the first 50 people through the door. That’s why I’m gonna be there at 6:45.

Last year, I bought a super-cute, one-of a kind, up-cycled dress with hand-sewn birdies by a lady named Christine. (However, her Etsy shop is currently down while all her stuff is at the IE show.)

And this year, I’m bound and determined to buy a piece of art from Tulsa’s talented folk artist Heather Sleightholm:

I’m VERY excited about this weekend for many reasons:

• Indie Emporium was started in 2007 by a group of women who are smart and crafty, and I love going every year because it reminds me that there are optimistic, nice, young, feminist, environmentally-friendly happenings happening here in Oklahoma.
• I get to look at handmade, pretty- sometimes even beautiful!- local art.
• I get to support an independent, local, female artist.  Because I have a few dozen extra dollars, which is saying something lately.
• I get to hang out with tough, pretty ladies.
• And leave my kid at home!
• And drink a beer at the VFW!

It really doesn’t get any better that this. Wouldn’t you agree?

Glad Tulsa’s my home,

Spring

Okie Siren Samantha Crain Comes to Tulsa

Samantha Crain, the front of the band Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers, is from Shawnee, OK. She writes and sings really good songs. And her band is playing September 26th at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa.

And did I mention that the HOT HOT HOT Avett Brothers are gonna play after her?

photo by Maria Egan

If you haven’t seen these bands live, you should! They are fun and inspiring and hopeful and thoughtful and rebellious and wholesome and cuuuuuuuute…

Get your tickets here.

It’s worth it,

Spring

Gender Outreach Presents: Julia Serano

Oklahomans for Equality
Date: Friday, July 24, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Dennis R. Neill Equality Center
Street: 621 E. 4th Street
City/Town: Tulsa, OK

Join Oklahomans for Equality this Friday at 7:00pm for an evening with writer, musician, and trans-activist Julia Serano. Dr. Serano is a self-proclaimed “Renaissance Woman” who has balanced a career as an evolutionary biologist with her accomplishments as a nationally known public speaker, lead singer of the indie-rock band Bitesize, and author of the trans-activist manifesto “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity”. This will undoubtedly be an enlightening, educational, and highly entertaining event!

From her website:
Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, spoken word performer, trans activist, and biologist. Julia is the author of “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transsexual women. Her other writings have appeared in anthologies (including BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine and Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women’s Spoken Word Movement) and in feminist, queer, pop culture and literary magazines and websites such as Bitch, AlterNet.org, Out, Feministing.com, Clamor, Kitchen Sink, make/shift, other, LiP and Transgender Tapestry. In recent years, Julia has gained noteriety in transgender, queer, and feminist circles for her unique insights into gender. She has been invited to speak about transgender and trans women’s issues at numerous univerisites, at queer, women’s studies, psychology and philosophy-themed conferences, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in college-level gender studies courses across the United States.

Julia the spoken word artist:
Julia is a poetry slam champion; during the years of 2003 and 2004 she qualified for the finals and/or semi-finals in Berkeley, San Francisco and San Jose. She has since gone on to perform spoken word features at universities and high profile events such as the National Queer Arts Festival (in 2004, 2005 and 2007), The San Francisco Pride Main Stage, Dyke March and Trans March stages, Ladyfest, outCRY!, Femme 2006 and in the 2004 UC Berkeley production of The Vagina Monologues.

Julia the event curator:
In 2003, Julia began to organize and host GenderEnders, a performance series that featured the work of transgender, intersex and genderqueer artists and allies. Over a three-year period, GenderEnders presented twenty shows, including themed events (such as the first ever Tranny Lovers Show, featuring the writings of trans people’s partners) and five different benefits (together raising several thousand dollars) for Camp Trans, a non-profit organization that works for the inclusion of trans women in lesbian and women-only spaces. Julia also received a Creating Queer Community grant from the Queer Cultural Center to curate “The Penis Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds”, a ground-breaking spoken word event that took place as part of the 2007 National Queer Arts Festival.

Julia the musician:
As a musician, Julia is the lyricist-guitarist-vocalist for the noisy pop trio Bitesize, who have released two critically acclaimed CDs, toured up and down the West Coast and received college radio airplay nationwide. More about the band can be found at Bitesize website

Julia the scientist:
By day, Julia is a biologist. She has a Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University and is currently a researcher at UC Berkeley in the field of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology.

(http://www.juliaserano.com/about.html)
(http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=584569785#/event.php?eid=112497396850)

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i’m thinking of going to this, and i know a few others who are, too. i know it’s late notice, but stop by if you like!

–beamish