Introducing M{y}na!

Friends, meet M{y}na! As promised, it's my Ireland focused collaborative feminist blog. I'm very excited for this, and can't wait for it to get off the ground. I'm really impressed with the WordPress platform, and I'll probably be using it for any future blogs (sorry blogger!). It's less basic, and is much better suited for collaborative projects. It might be a bit slow at the start, but I'm hoping to get at least two other regular contributors as well as lots of guest bloggers. So what are you waiting for? Get on over there if you're feminist-ly inclined :D

Right So...

Due to lots of different issues I've had to take quite a break from blogging, thus the absense of posting. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about this space; I started to feel like it rambled a bit (Me ramble?? Never!) and lost some of its focus. But I'll probably keep it to talk about travels & reviews about Dublin. In terms of the more personal aspects of my life, well if we don't email or aren't friends on facebook you probably shouldn't know them!

However, I'm going to start up a new much more topical blog about feminist activism & revolution in Ireland, in collaboration with a few of my classmates; I'm really looking forward to it! I will definitely post the address to it here as soon as we've got everything sorted. Thanks for reading :)

The Anti-Bucket List...

...is called a "Fuckit List"! Basically you list the things you feel absolutely ZERO compulsion to do before you die.  Mine includes (in no particular order):

1) Participating in a MotorCross race.  Fast motorcycles flying through the air? No thank you.

2) Owning a car.  If I ever end up living in the country I'll probably have to get one, but I don't feel a need to and I'm not particularly looking forward to it.

3) Doing ridiculously dangerous things with animals, ie diving in a shark cage, snake charming, playing with baby tigers.

4) Go hunting.  Ermm, no.

5) Get elective plastic surgery.  I probably won't enjoy getting wrinkely and saggy but hey, it's still my body and I dig me.

6) Have a big fancy wedding.  In no way, shape or form will I be stressing out about something that is a - just one day, b - mostly a ceremony to change legal/economic statuses, and c - supposed to be a fun party.  "Having a wedding" isn't the culmination of my life and I'm sure not going to treat it that way.

7) Go to Dubai.  Eugh, I am not into that place.

8) This is going to sound sooo crunchy-earth-mama, but I'm really not that fussed about having potential babies in a hospital.  I'm not big on medical interventions anyway, and if I stay healthy, strong and body aware like I am now, there's no need to go to a hospital for my births!

9) Own a weasel/rodent of any sort.  I know ferrets are supposed to be really affectionate and sugar gliders are kinda cute, but I'm just ... not into it. 

and finally

10) Deep fry food items.  Silly I know, but I spent hours standing over a french fry cooker in college and I will NOT repeat that experience.

 

And that's all I got for now, sure there's more out there haha!  I'd love to read y'alls in the comments :D

Outrageous Acts

I've decided to do one outrageous act a day, as this website/project by the Ms. Foundation is calling for people to do.  

This video interview with Gloria Steinem in particular has inspired me.

Discovered the project through Feministing, who had these awesome acts (among others) to add to the ever growing list: 

1. Buzz cut your hair.

2. Give a huge tip to someone that makes you coffee.
3. Join a union.
4. Come out at work.
5. Learn everything you can about a foreign conflict.
6. Tell the person you're making out with exactly how you like it.
7. Tell an old woman how beautiful she is.
8. Stop buying magazines that make you feel like shit about your body. 
9. Write a letter telling that magazine why you're not buying it anymore.
10. Go see an independent film made by a woman.

And so far I've added a few of my own: grow my own herbs and vegetables, tell people why victim blaming Rihanna is horrific (and giving props to people who do the same thing - yeah Oprah and Tyra!), share Outrageous Acts with all of you, have a rogue compost pile and guerilla garden on campus, and see a documentary about Uganda's child soldiers like I did tonight. 

But I'm feeling a little more outraged about this last one than I thought I would.  Not about the subject matter, but about how it was presented.  This is an extraordinarily pressing cause, and we should be taking action on it, but frankly I was offended at how the documentary was made and talked about the presenter.   So in the spirit of outrageous acts I've decided to share my critique.  Three young, trendy and clearly well off white boys go to Uganda to "make a difference".  Throughout the film there is such a pervasive undercurrent of  privilege and basic imperialism that I felt sick.  The rhetoric is all about "what we did," and "how we helped".  Maybe these guys chose this angle to appeal to youthful, privileged and globally Northern audiences that would identify with them, but I'm pretty sure this is going too easy on them.  Clearly these boys haven't unpacked their own knapsack of privilege, because there is such a depressing and ever-present theme of the 'great white savior' going on here.  The Ugandan government and it's citizens are predominantly presented as either beastly monsters or grateful supplicants.   The only person breaking that mould in the film was Betty Bigombe, the chief negotiator between the Ugandan government and the reble forces of the LRA.  So go you, Ms. Bigombe!  And finally towards the end of the film, in the crowd shots of action being taken (which we are to assume is happening in the United States) the kids in the foreground and close-ups are all white and trendy.  (Side-note, speaking of trendy, when I saw that young dude #2 was wearing one of those fake kaffiyehs - his was purple and yellow - I almost left the lecture hall.  Seriously?? You're supposed to be an activist and yet you'll make a mockery of another struggle's symbols? grrr)  

So that's my true outrageous act for today.  Not being afraid to critique something even if it is a good cause.  I've done some quick research and here's a local, emancipatory organization that supports the people of Northern Uganda and former child soldiers if you're interested:   http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/700/proj699a.html 

but please feel free to find your own cause to support.  Let us never be silent in the name of the greater good!!

A Wee Revelation

So on getting off the bus back to Dublin this Sunday night (went to Coleraine/P'Stewart with the beau, which was wonderful) I had a bit of a revelation. I'm going to be here for at least a full more 11 months. Strange that that hadn't sunk in yet, but apparently it hadn't. I realized that this room at UCD, in Belfield, a Dublin village, in the Republic of Ireland is actually going to be my home for the next year. Whoa. How awesome is that? It's not like before when I was abroad in Belfast, because I always had the knowledge that I'd be going to back to Austin and Bryn Mawr in a matter of a few months. It's a whole different ball game now. So I decided, right there on the street in front of the Busaras, that I'm going to get to know this place. I'm going to try to make this city mine and get out there and see what I can see. Slightly weird I hadn't made that decision before, but now I've made it conscious.

So I went into town today. Visited the George's St Arcade, the Cultivate shop, an Oxfam Ireland shop, and Hackett's Garden Centre. Verdicts? I loved George's St. Arcade, it had a fabulous mix of high/low fashion, little veggie organic cafes, bizarre knick-knack shops and a secondhand book stall! Cultivate was cool, I bought some organic pasta, tahini and a little bottle of Dr. Bronner's tea tree soap (I've wanted to try that stuff for ages). I'll certainly be going back there. This Oxfam shop wasn't as great as the one in the Student's Union at Queen's in Belfast, because the clothes were kinda lame; but I was able to find a pretty scarf for only €4. And Hackett's is a lovely teeny tiny garden centre with walls of seeds and bulbs. That earthy growing smell was too much to resist, so I got a smallish lavender for my room and a rosemary plant for cooking!

Moral of my story? I'm feeling adventurous, promising and determined ... woot :D

True Facts

Hi all! I'm up away to Belfast this weekend, but here are some facts I've realized about Ireland:

1) It will rain at least a little bit every day. If they have a full day of sunshine, it is regarded as wonderfully freakish and all of a sudden you see way more pale Irish skin than you're used to.

2) Because of the previous there really are rainbows all over the place. In the past week I've probably seen a rainbow every other day, including one gorgeous full-on child's drawing arc. (No luck on finding any leprechauns yet, still don't know where this country is keeping them....)

3) When I tell people I'm from Texas they never bring up George Bush, like most Americans would do, but they always ask me if I ride a horse everywhere and do men really wear those spiky things off the back of their boots and really tight jeans? (My answers being no, not really, and actually yes!)

4) Not surprisingly, I've learned that the majority of the Irish slang I'm familiar with is staunchly Northern Irish (Norn Iron!). There have been plenty of times where I've thrown out a slang term that I thought would pass right on and I'd fit in nicely just to have my housemates ask me What the heck I was saying? and Is that an American phrase? Thanks a lot Belfast ;)

5) People are friendlier to strangers. Not in a Texas "How you doin' honey have a nice day now!" sort of way, but in a "Well we're standing next to each other and we've exchanged a question so we might as well get to know each other!" way. Case in point: I'm in the line for the women's bathroom last night in the Student Bar, girl asks me if it was the line and I say yes, we exchange the stock conversation of "Why is the queue for the women's always so long!??!" As an American this conversation is done for me. Not so to freshman girl studying social science from Dublin "oh just right up the road in the top of Stillorgan". This happens all over the place: on the bus, buying shoes at the shopping center, etc etc.

6) I still get asked for directions. And I totally love that. Thanks for teaching me (giving me the genes for??) how to walk assertively Mom.