2009-08-25 09:55 | Linkdump ahoy.
These have been in my Google Reader for approx. forever, so I linkdump them for you.
- Conscience in a bottle:
…Nowhere in Fiji Water's glossy marketing materials will you find reference to the typhoid outbreaks that plague Fijians because of the island's faulty water supplies; the corporate entities that Fiji Water has — despite the owners' talk of financial transparency — set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg; or the fact that its signature bottle is made from Chinese plastic in a diesel-fueled plant and hauled thousands of miles to its ecoconscious consumers. And, of course, you won't find mention of the military junta for which Fiji Water is a major source of global recognition and legitimacy. (Gilmour has described the square bottles as "little ambassadors" for the poverty-stricken nation.)…
[h/t Hoyden About Town]
- Unsolicited career advice:
- At Raising My Boychick, Arwyn compares childbirth to athletics, in a wonderful fashion:
I am not here trying to say that all natural birth advocacy = feminist = good, nor all medicalized birth advocacy = misogynist = bad, which would be as ridiculous as it would be fallacious. Rather, I am saying that kyriarchy's construction of labor and birth as unbearably painful, as unworthy (as opposed to war games or athletics), and women as either too weak or too "advanced" to tolerate it, is inherently misogynistic. Whether an individual woman follows the biological default and has (or pursues) unhindered birth, or elects to make use of the medical interventions available to most of us in developed nations, does not reflect on her moral standing, any more than participating in, or not participating in, athletic events does. But the current cultural construction of birth must change: not by moving backward to a time when women had no options in childbirth, and were expected — even encouraged — to suffer, and in which there were no medical interventions for when they were truly needed; but forward, to a time when our bodies are valued, our spirits are supported, and the work of birth is seen as hard, yes, and even sometimes painful, but within reach of most of us, and oh so worth it: just like athletics.
- M. LeBlanc writes at Bitch Ph.D. on the concept of "the best revenge is living well":
Last night, I was relaying all this to The Bear, and he said something I've heard many times before, that beating them, being better than them, is the best revenge. And I must confess that I've taken great pleasure in winning cases over counsel who have slighted me in the past. But I don't want "revenge." [...] I hate the burden of feeling that any mistake I make, any omission or error, any time when I don't perform not only well, but stunningly, I am confirming their racist, sexist, and ageist opinion of me as incompetent. I do not want to "prove" myself to them, because they will never reconsider their initial opinion of me just because I happen to beat them. My stellar performance will never mean, to them, that they were wrong to disregard me because I'm a young brown-looking woman. It will only mean that I am an exception, that I am an oddity, that I am "special." Or perhaps it will mean that there was some other reason I bested them, that it was that I had a better case, or the jury was biased, or the laws were unfair or the judge was against them. It will never vindicate me.
I don't want revenge. I want respect.
The approach to What To Do After School is based on social expectations and some vague nod to the subjects kids like at school. Oh, and a goodly helping of What The Parents Do, or possibly Not What The Parents Do. None of this is particularly useful – except conceivably Not What The Parents Do.
So this is my advice to teens considering what next.
The very first thing to consider is that what you choose now is highly unlikely to determine the rest of your life, despite what the Powers That Be would have you believe. I know you've been told this before, but seriously, I hardly know anyone who didn't have some change of tack post-school and I know lots who have had several (like me, for instance).
This post is also useful for those who, like me, have never really or seriously considered the questions this blogger puts forth.
[h/t Hoyden About Town]
I do believe that is enough for one post.
Tags: links
