Living a life I'm proud of

*I do apologize for not posting as diligently as I had in the past. Things have been stressful and overwhelming. I have had to shuffle my priorities a little. I largely write this blog for myself and for my family, and given what has been happening recently, my attention has been directed more towards face to face relationships than online interactions*



What are you proud of?

I'm proud of looking good if I put a lot of effort into my appearance on a given day. I am proud of my academic grades and honours, even when I am not proud of what I've written. I'm proud of a performance at a job interview for a job that I don't actually want. I'm proud of myself for not crying in public when I see something that breaks my heart... I am proud of the things that I change about myself to make myself more appealing in our culture that tells us to: be strong; be competitive; be unique; be beautiful; be fit.

But up to this point in my life I have never seriously reflected on whether or not I am living a life that I am proud of. This year has been a wake up call for me, though. Two of my close family members have been dealing with cancer, my own health has deteriorated, and the stress of losing my thesis has made me really question my commitment to the academy. My personal relationships have suffered a great deal because of these issues. Like many people who go through stressful time I became overwhelmed a took a step back from much of my life. But now I am trying to get back on track, in terms of my health (as I have mentioned before) and in terms of my actual life.

There are many reasons to do your best to live a good, purposeful, and meaningful life. For example, I just read a little article published last year that tells us that living a life with purpose can extend our lives. Now, of course, if your intention in living a life with purpose is to extend your life...that is pretty damn problematic. But on the other hand, realizing that living a purposeful life is really the best way to live should really make you question how you are living your life now.

http://enjoylifeitisthejustone.blogspot.ca/

There is a little post spreading around the internet by the guy who founded Sevenly. He is on a vacation with his family and he tells us:

"Culture tells us to spend an entire year saving for a week to escape our life. We call it vacation. Even as I'm on this incredible road trip across the Northwest with my family, something doesn't feel right. Vacations are meant to be new, they are meant to be fun, but they are not meant to be better than your normal life. I've been all around the world, and I would never trade travel for what I have at home. Life isn't about the 50 vacations you'll take while you're on this planet. It's about the 25,000 days between them. Stop creating a life that you need a vacation from. Instead, move to where you want to live, do what you want to do, start what you want to start, and create the life you want today." (Dale Partridge)

I am guilty of this. I am guilty of dreaming of traveling far for short periods of time. I am guilty of taking what I have now for granted in my longing for what has been and what is to come. I am guilty of thinking about the future in the abstract rather than taking steps in the present to live the life that I want to live.

I am partial to making lists, as you may have noticed if you read my blog often, so I am going to create yet another. This is a list of how I am going to try to live my life hereafter.

1. I will be happy, not just on Fridays, but every day of the week. Wherever my career path takes me, I will never just slog through and deal with depression because that's "what you've got to do". I will choose joy over job security.
2. I will make being kind my life goal, rather than saving money for a house down-payment or paying down debts.
3. I will remember my reasons for being vegan - to make the world a better place for all who live on this earth human and non-human alike. It is not about being personally pure. It does not make me better than anyone else. 
4. I will put my family, my animal companions, and my friends first in everything, even when people criticize me for being a pushover. I will embrace that side of myself. I will not harden my heart. Being kind does not make me weak. 
5. I will continue to follow my passion in academia - and out of it if that is where my passion leads me. 
6. I will not occupy my mind with too many dreams about the future, nor will I dwell on the past. I will live for now. 
7. I will do my best to be flexible with my goals, my dreams, my career path, my personal deadlines, and in my interactions with others. 
8. I will not expect too much of myself or of others. I will accept myself as I am and I will accept others as they are. This does not mean, though, that I will never change - for better or worse. 
9. I will not complain about my job, my health, or my education unless I am willing to do make a change.
10. I will not search for the light at the end of the tunnel. I will take initiative, turn on a damn flashlight, and make my life good right now. 

Happy Friday! And Happy Halloween! 

-J

Steps towards whole food living and vegan mayo recipe

About a million years ago I posted that I was going to begin a whole food plant based diet to try to deal with my health issues. So far I've been pretty lackadaisical with my commitment to getting healthy. For example, VOMD and I spent $40 on vegan donuts this weekend and ate half of them before Tuesday. But a recent blood test reaffirmed that I need to get my shit together and take my health seriously. 

Yesterday I have started a new regime that eliminates wheat products (pasta, bread, etc), caffeine, and processed sugar as the first step towards finding what is causing my skin problems. I have suspected for a long time that I might have a mild sugar or gluten allergy, a theory which was reinforced by talking to a friend at the pub who explained that he had similar responses to dairy - that is, the feeling of being hungover without drinking alcohol, puffy sinuses, skin abrasions and itching, and a general feeling of complete crappiness. For breakfast yesterday I ate an insanely large bowl of brown rice noodles with broccoli and mushrooms, and for lunch I had brussels sprouts and green peppers. For my intermittent snacks throughout the day I had amazing organic grapes and for dinner I had a nice stir fry with button mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. Oh! and I made my own mayo for VOMD's lunchtime sandwiches! I followed this recipe...sort of. Here's what I ended up doing:

Vegan Mayo:

1 cup unsweetened organic soy milk 

2 1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp Redpath brown sugar

1.5 tsp ground mustard 

2.5 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Blend all the ingredients except the lemon juice until it is smooth and has reached your desired consistency, then add the lemon juice slowly and keep blending until well combined and your mayo is thick, creamy, and spreadable!

This morning I still felt a little hungover but I think this is a good first step.  

Happy Thursday, folks!

-J

Monday Happies: Halloween Haunt and Voting Day!

Good morning!

Today is kind of a very important day so before I tell you about my awesome weekend I have to urge you to go to the polls (if you're Canadian and haven't done so already).

This election the stakes are very high. We are facing the prospect of four more years of Stephan Harper's Conservatives. Our international reputation is suffering, our economy is in the dumps (don't trust everything you read, my friends) and our environment is at risk because our regulations have been hack-sawed to bits. We have faced great challenges to our basic rights and freedoms, and the calling of this election interrupted an incredibly important queer and trans rights bill that was unfortunately being torn apart by a conservative senate at the behest of a small minority of Conservative petitioners. We cannot have another conservative government and if by tomorrow morning Harper is not ousted, it will be a horrible thing for our country - for our citizens at home and abroad - and, let's be honest, for the planet.

So, please vote. And please consider voting for someone other than your local Conservative Candidate.

On a lighter note, BEST WEEKEND EVER. I was supposed to hang out with a couple girlfriends who were in the same MA program as I on Saturday - they both finished earlier than I because they did comprehensive exams and a major research project instead of a thesis... the lucky ducks. But, unfortunately one of them had to cancel because she was sick, so VOMD and I had to figure out something to do with our day. Our solution was to drive to St. Catharines to buy 18 vegan donuts! We have donuts coming out of our ears.

Then, yesterday VOMD bought us tickets to go to Halloween Haunt! Holy crap it was so much fun. I went on Leviathan for the first time and nearly crapped myself because I am terrified of roller coasters, and then we spent the rest of the night going through mazes, eating French fries, and going on fun, non-terrifying rides (because fearing for my life once in one night is enough for me).

And then we shot some zombies and saved the world. No big deal.

I am so glad I am a bit of a scaredy cat because going through those mazes would have been so boring if I were brave. There was a guy ahead of us in one of the mazes who was about 6'5" and I felt so sad for him because he seemed genuinely bored. I am now incredibly stoked for Halloween and will probably be spending every night for the next two weeks watching horror movies and dreaming up ways to make my house look creepy without spending any more money. I seem to have lost almost all of my Halloween decorations. I wonder if I left them at my ex's in North Bay... but its nothing a few black plastic bags, some twine, and corn syrup with food coloring can't fix.

Happy Monday Everyone!

-J

Stressed Grad School update!

This month is incredibly hectic, but most of it has been good so far, and there is so much more good to come! VOMD and I visited my awesome vegan sister in London on the 3rd and met her awesome vegan roommates. We went home to my parents' for Thanksgiving this past weekend, and we are headed to Halloween Haunt this coming Sunday. The next week we have a vegan potluck with some cool local vegans and then it is back to London for Halloween!

Through all of this, though, there is a specter looming over me and its name is Thesis.

Seriously, though, I am ready to be done my MA. I thought that my impostor syndrome and my fear of failure would dissipate as I got closer to completion, but this has incredibly not been the case. In fact, I am now terrified that it will not be good enough and I will not graduate. The setbacks I have faced have not helped, obviously. Loosing such a huge chunk of my research right before my final semester made things far more difficult than they needed to be. Now I have wasted the last month writing my first three chapters (which is largely theory and lit review stuff) and have only a month left to complete my final two chapters to meet my first draft deadline in November, which will include all of the actual case study stuff - of which I have yet to even locate the majority.

But, by December 14 I will be done...and then defense and revisions of course.

I am feeling a little discouraged.

But this weekend is going to be amazing, so I'm putting on my happy face.

Happy Friday!

-J

A letter to my vegan sister

Hi vegan friends and friends of vegans! I read this article about how being grateful seems to have a positive impact on your mental and physical well-being. So, I decided to start saying thank you more often to some of the people in my life who make the world a better place, starting with my amazing feminist vegan sister!

Dear [Erin],

Thank you for existing. Sometimes when I am totally overwhelmed and think that I am going insane I remember that you exist and I immediately feel less alone.  I obviously love the whole family like a madman but you and I have this really unique relationship that, while it has seen its ups and downs, is one of the most amazing things in my life. The best thing about having a feminist vegan for a sister is that you challenge me in a way that other vegans and non-vegan friends just don't. When a random vegan friend criticizes me for my views and demands an explanation I feel threatened and intellectually intimidated, especially if that person has been vegan for longer than I have. Often it leads to defensiveness. The same goes for when non-vegan friends ask me about veganism. Often I get frustrated and can't formulate the right sentences to get my point across without sounding like total turd. When you challenge me I sometimes still get defensive, but somehow you see through my defensiveness to the value of what I am saying that lies beneath.

Your passion and hunger for change and social justice is an inspiration to almost everyone you meet - I say almost because some people just don't get you...but screw them. Your strong feminist values challenge me to reflect on the way I see myself and those around me and your ability to use logic and facts to intelligently defend your views is enviable because as you know, I tend more towards the get overwhelmed and leave the conversation approach to confrontation.

Your willingness to grow and change inspires me to be more open to new things and remind me that the path I am on is not only the only one available. And I am so lucky that you are there to remind me that not living up to the expectation I have for myself doesn't make me a shitty person; it just makes me human.

Having you in the family makes it so much easier to remain strong in my convictions. I love and respect the other members of the family, but sometimes it is difficult to relate to people when they are unwilling or unable to see things from your perspective.

I am so grateful for you. I just thought you should probably know.

Happy Thursday!

-J

Why I don't (and won't) hide my Veganism

This weekend I finally met one of VOMD's best friends and his lovely girlfriend in North Bay. We were all visiting some family for Thanksgiving. We went for a nice hike at Duchesnay Falls and accompanied them (and their beautiful vegetarian momma!) to Piebird B&B and Vegan Farmstay for what they were calling ThanksLiving! What a great way to celebrate a day of thanks!

Duchesnay Falls in the Fall!

What struck me was that VOMD's friend has faced, much like VOMD, a great deal of opposition to his lifestyle choice from coworkers and strangers who find out he is vegan. He told us that at one point he was called a "faggot" for not eating animal products. His response to this type of hate is very understandably to keep his veganism to himself as much as possible. I have heard from others who tell me that they are called pussies if they tell people they are vegan. I am so sad and sorry that this is the case for many of those who choose to go vegan and it seems especially the case for vegan men. VOMD faced the same sort of discrimination in the workplace when working for a cement pouring company here in Hamilton. It is one of the reasons he chose to leave that job in search of greener
(and kinder) pastures.

This is why I will never stop talking openly about being vegan - so that some day they can feel safe doing so too (and obviously so that some day the planet and all the animals that live on it will be safe from human violence).

Speaking with Sherry at Piebird we learned her approach to talking about veganism among non-vegans - wait to be asked and then acknowledge that you are happy to answer the question. I think that this is a great approach. Teach by living. But sometimes teaching by ling isn't enough. Vegans get a bad rap for talking about their food and their lifestyle choices a lot. I think that what is actually going on is that non-vegans just notice more when we talk about our food because it sounds different; it stands out. It is like if all the world's gardens had only blue flowers; yellow flowers would certainly stand out, even if there were only a few. When we talk about our lifestyle choices, and about our love for animals, and our decision not to profit from their misfortune, it stands out!

Think back to the last holiday dinner (maybe Thanksgiving dinner!) with a group of vegans and non-vegans. Now, in your head, count how many references were made to turkey, hunting, milk, and other animal products by non-vegans. Now count the number of times a vegan mentioned their diet and lifestyle. Chances are the vegan only talked about their food once or twice - perhaps they declined a slice of turkey or asked if the potatoes had milk in them. Chances are the non-vegans gushed at length about the turkey, about how much they loved butter, and (if you have family members who hunt around this time of year like I do) possibly talked at length about their latest kill (or miss).

We are told that we talk about our veganism too much. But I think we don't talk about it enough. Obviously people who have blogs like this one (and many others which are much better and more informative than this one!) talk about it plenty, but most vegans I know seldom mention it to anyone at all because they are either tired of or scared of being bullied. But instead of hiding it we really need to talk about it more. We need to talk about it so much that it becomes normalized in our culture. We need to make it so that they are at least as many yellow flowers as there are blue ones!

I will never hide my veganism largely because I want my boyfriend and especially his male and male-identifying friends to feel comfortable telling their macho work buddies that they are vegan. I want them to be met with expressions of admiration rather than disgust. Or better yet, I want them to tell their workmates they are vegan, only to realize that their workmates are vegan too!

I will never hide my veganism because if I do it says to those non-vegans who are hateful (and I am certainly not saying that this is the case for all non-vegans) that I am ashamed of my choice. I am not ashamed to be vegan. I will not be scared into submission by your violence and your hateful words. I made a choice based in compassion, love, and respect for all living beings and the planet.

If you have faced this type of sexist, bigoted bullshit discrimination, please keep this in mind: In a world where homosexuals have fought tooth and nail for acceptance and equality "faggot" is not a convincing insult; being a faggot in our culture means that you have the courage and strength to be yourself. Remember also that the "Pussy" is a symbol of feminine strength. Pussies are capable of giving and receiving of pleasure. Pussies literally make the world go round! Pussies give birth to LIFE! If being vegan makes you a "faggot" or a "pussy", then wear those labels with pride my veggie friends.

In solidarity.

Happy Wednesday!

-J

I love you even if we don't agree.

I've been having a lot of little spats with people lately about politics, ethnicity, animals rights and feminism. It comes with the territory of sharing your views online and I totally welcome opposition. I shared a couple posts over the last couple weeks about xenophobia and sexism and advocated for deleting toxic people off your friends list and from your life.

But not everyone deserves to be blotted out. I mean, opposition is healthy and challenges to my way of thinking are what made me a feminist vegan in the first place, so challenge away!

I guess it doesn't always seem like I'm open to challenges, though, and I suppose I need to work on that. I was recently called intolerant and it made me think seriously about whether my fanatical obsession with social and animal justice have turned into a jerk. I read through a few of my blog posts and my journal to see if I could find evidence of this. I found that there is some of evidence that I am intolerant, but mostly my intolerance is of...intolerance. I don't think that that is real intolerance.

I have come to the conclusion that while I am obviously very passionate and can sometimes say things that seem offensive to some, I am not a jerk and I am in fact a very tolerant person. My friends and family love me in spite of my fanaticism and I love them right back. My experiences over the last 4 years of being vegan have taught me that there are actually a ton of things that I will totally tolerate, even though they make my blood boil. For example:

1. If you believe deeply in any God, I might not understand or agree with you, but I love you anyway!
2. If you think that science is stupid and prefer to live life spiritually without concern to deep understanding, that's actually totally okay with me and I love you anyway!
3. If you don't support gay marriage for religious reasons I have to say that this makes literally no sense (unless you're opposed to the concept of marriage altogether), but if you don't shout it from the roof tops like an ass (like...if you tell me in confidence and have a non-yelling conversation with me about it) then believe it or not even though I am totally appalled and confused I love you anyway! 
4. If for some reason you think there are only two genders, I realize you and I are both products of our cultures and I love you anyway!
5. If you hypocritically love animals but eat animal products, it makes me incredibly, insanely, deeply sad (and sometimes very angry), but I love you anyway!
6. If you vote Conservative for whatever reason, I think you are probably not thinking things through and you need to sort out your priorities but I still love you anyway!
7. If you are doing your best for the planet and trying genuinely to be a good person then even if your tactics don't line up with my values I love you anyway!

If you are outwardly homophobic, xenophobic, sexist, hateful, hurtful, or just mean then I don't really love you. If you call me names, tell me I'm ignorant, or threaten my safety or the safety of anyone else on this planet, I really don't love you. but I still think I could if you admitted you were being unjust and unkind, and changed your ways. Why? I think its because loving feels so much better than hating. Love is the reason I do almost everything I do. I love animals, and therefore I am vegan; I love humanity and therefore I respect all peoples; I love women and therefore I think they deserve freedom and equality; I love people of all genders and sexuality and therefore I think intolerance must be challenged; I love the planet and therefore I am an environmentalist. 

Most of all, I love you for reading this blog. You deserve a kiss. Kiss yourself for me, will you? 

Happy Tuesday!

-J

ps. Less than one week until voting day!!!! let's make this one count!

Why being a feminist vegan makes sense...

I have been having an argument with myself about whether or not I should post this. In general I'm fairly strict with myself about not pedantically defining things and forcing others to adhere to my definitions. For example, I would never tell you what it means to be a woman, or a man, or a conservative, or a liberal, or trans, or queer, or even vegan, believe it or not. Yes, I have my views on what all of those things entail, especially veganism, but if you want to call yourself a vegan and still use wool, I'm not going to jump down your throat about it.

But now I am faced with an issue that completely flies in the face of my live and let live logic...mostly because it involves actual lives...the lives of non human animals.

I really think that being a feminist just goes hand in hand with being vegan. Now, don't fly off the handle at me and accuse me of dictating to you what it means to give a shit about femininity. I've heard it all before...in fact I'm pretty sure I've said it all before. I actually recall being about 14 years old and insisting that feminists were stupid. To be fair, I was 14 and had no clue what being a feminist actually meant. I thought it was a dirty word used to describe man haters. Some of you probably still feel this way. I hope you will change your mind.

So, for a moment, please hold in your shouts of righteous indignation while I try to get my point across, and then we can have an actual discussion about it.

Meat, dairy, and eggs are feminist issues. Here are some things that I know to be true about feminism. First, feminism is about subverting and sometimes entirely rejecting patriarchal social norms and constructs that marginalize, objectify, and demean women, and femininity more broadly. Feminism is about understanding that ones actions towards women can easily contradict their stated belief systems about the value of the feminine - for example, when someone says they respect women but regularly make casual sexist jokes. Feminism is also about recognizing that all "women" matter, even if they do not define themselves as women, or even if society tells us that these women are sexually male. It is also about recognizing that all people matter, regardless of their gender orientation. Feminism is about respecting female reproduction and understanding that an individual has the right to choose whether and how they become a mother. Feminism is about, first and foremost, freedom, dignity, and respect for all.

Where do meat, dairy, and eggs come into the picture, though? Well, my friends, where do you think they come from? Here are some facts about meat, dairy and eggs.

1. Meat is the product of animals who are objectified to the point of reducing their value to nutritional content...or worse, taste.
2. Both eggs and milk are products of the female reproductive system.
3. In order to produce 'livestock' for the meat, dairy and egg industry, female animals are routinely raped to produce more offspring, and in the case of nearly all these pregnancies the animal's offspring is taken from it to be used for meat, or to be raised until these  animals too can be raped to produce offspring. 
4. The violence of slaughterhouses spills out into the everyday world. There is a verified link between the existence of a slaughterhouse and violent crime in communities that house them. Read this article for more information. Violent crime in non urban areas unequally impacts women, who are more likely to be victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

More than this, though, it seems nearly impossible to me to disconnect the bodies of animals from the bodies of women. From the time I was very young I have felt objectified and sexualized. I think that many young women have felt this way. We are groped in school hallways or by friends of our parents in quiet smokey corners; we are whistled at by strangers on the street; we are called names like whore or slut if we dress in a way deemed inappropriate, and called worse names is we like sex and experience sex with multiple partners in any period of time. We are made into objects, even by those who claim to only want what's best for us. Our reproductive rights are taken from us and we are scolded for refusing to adhere to a system that demands we alter our bodies chemically or physically in order to enjoy a sexual life (read: we take pills and get inserts to stop something "bad" from happening). We are taught that we must be modest because you never know what a man might do if he sees your thigh or breast. We are confined and yet we are sexualized by the media and used to sell products to other confined and sexualized people. We are made to be pieces of meat.

How can we recognize that all of this is true and subject animals to the same tortures? We take away their freedom, we objectify them, we cut them up and put them on Burger King billboards, bare naked as naked can be - without bodies, bones or skin. We literally confine them behind closed doors and blacked out windows so that the world cannot see what is happening to them - mirroring the hisotircal attitude that what happens to a woman in the home is not politically or socially relevant. We take advantage of their reproductive systems. We rape them. And then we justify that rape as a necessary and natural norm, when it is really a cultural construct. We do to animals what has been done to women for centuries, and then we put them on our plates and we eat them. Women are figuratively meat; animals are literally  meat.

Now, I will get flack for this, perhaps. This overzealous feminist rant about the bodies of women becoming meat. People will say, but men are sexualized too! They will say, men are put upon, men are demeaned, men are seen as culturally inferior. This is a deeply problematic argument. Sure, men are increasingly sexualized in our culture, and increasingly made out by movies and television to be "big dumb oafs" who require a woman's supervision. Yes this is problematic. Shouldn't the goal be to raise women up, not bring men down?  But there is another side-effect our culture's increased painting the man as animalistic oaf: it justifies all those problems that impact women as well. It justifies rape culture. It justifies the whistles and the gropes. It justifies abuse. The men can't help it, our pop culture declares, they are like animals when they see a female piece of flesh. This is why I shouldn't show my breasts or wear short shorts. Because if I do then they can't help it if they assault me. I was asking for it.


This is a parallel between the painting of man as oaf and the animal as meat. We as a culture cannot help our desire for flesh, and therefore it is justified. But men are not oafs and women are not meat. Likewise humans are not oafs and animals are not meat.

I am tired of being told by men that their dicks will cure me of my veganism, or that their dicks will cure me of my sexual desire for women. I firmly believe that until we stop viewing anything as meat, our culture will not be able to escape viewing women as meat.

For some really great thoughts on this you should read The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams.

I found a great article last year on Everyday Feminism that gets at some of the other issues, including the perpetuation of rape culture, and the naturalization of problematic social norms. Read it here.

This wasn't a very happy post, but I still want you to have a nice day, so Happy Friday, veggie friends and friends of veggies!

-J

7 things that all modern vegans can relate to

As a modern vegan you live in a world of social media and mass media coverage of issues big a small. You live in a  world where nothing is sacred because everything can be shared an exploited on the internet for political purposes or just a quick laugh.

To all my fellow herbivore out there, I just want you to know that we all feel like you do sometimes. You're not crazy and you're not alone. Because lists are this huge thing on the internet now and have basically replaced actual writing, I've produced yet another one for you. Here are 7 things that most modern vegans will totally relate to:

1. Sharing things on Facebook or Twitter about eating vegetables or caring about animals opens you up to annoying comments like "but bacon, tho"... you know, because the rationality of your life choice to not kill and consume non-human animals is going to disintegrate in the face of greasy, chewy, murdered pig belly fat.  
   
2. When you share on Facebook that you are vegetarian or vegan people will inevitably accuse you of pushing your values on them, even though yesterday they posted that they love steak and voting for bigots. You may also notice that you never comment on other people's posts about liking to eat carcasses, and yet YOU are the one pushing your views and values on others. Interesting, no?
3. You will constantly be told to explain your canine teeth, in meme form 
   
4. And also, you'll be forced to educate people on what protein is constantly, because even though the internet is this vast library of near infinite information, people can't be bothered to google amino acids.
   
5. Every day you are confronted with people sharing animal rights campaigns on their social media platforms, usually right after they post a photo of their dinner which consisted of macaroni and cheese and a slab of animal carcass. You will be pleased to see people giving a shit, but the hypocrisy becomes exasperating. 
   
6. You will not go a month without someone posing an absurd hypothetical about whether you'd murder an animal to survive whatever extreme circumstance they propose
   
7. The internet can be a shitty place, so when you go out into the real world and meet another vegan in person its the best thing ever and you spend at least the next 30 minutes excitedly yelling and starting every other sentence with "OMG EXACTLY!" 
   

Happy Thursday!

-J

How to spot a douchenozzle: A practical guide Part 2

So, you may have missed my first post on how to spot the intolerant buttbags on your facebook friends list and in your every day interactions. If you did, and you're interested in learning how to spot a xenophobe, follow this link!

Now, tell me if this sounds familiar: You're scrolling through facebook, again binge watching something on Netflix (in my case, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, baby) when you are bombarded with this image:

You gasp with disgust and promptly block that person from your Facebook feed. Later on, while you're pretending to write your thesis you realize that you haven't checked Facebook in about six minutes. What if you missing something important like Chuck Norris meme or a picture of a cute goat?! You promptly begin scrolling again and land on this image:

And right after that one you see this:

And you start to wonder about all this emphasis on real men and real women, and the complete lack of emphasis on whether it matters at all that one is a man or a woman, or whether man and woman are actual true biological facts, or if in fact they are actually just social constructs that are deeply harmful to the identities of everyone, not just those who do identify as either men or women, but to those who find themselves completely at odds with this bullshit binary sex system we find ourselves in. And then you wonder if people are actually being sexist buttheads, or if they are just uninformed and uncritical types...

Well, here's the truth of the matter. Ignorance of gender issues is no excuse for sexism. So if you're wondering if someone is a sexists or just stupid...remember that they are not mutually exclusive. It is very likely that they are actually both.

Here are some Sure-fire ways to spot a sexist:

1. If someone makes a comment to you, even in jest, about women belonging in the kitchen...then they are being sexist.
2. If someone ever tries to tell you that real men have beards, love women the right way, know how to dance, don't cook, make good money, know how to play guitar, have tattoos, look good in a  suit, etc. etc. etc. they are probably sexist. We have to realize that even when we post things like the above meme about men being good to women, we are saying, perhaps not on purpose or directly, that a man is someone who loves women. It says that gay men are not real men. It says that those who identify as men and don't love men are not men. And problematic still, it says that men who do not treat women properly are not men. This is not true. "Manliness" is not a moral standard against which we measure the quality of an individual. It is an objective descriptor which is either socially or self-prescribed and has very little to do with being a good person and treating people the right way. A more accurate meme would say "Really good people treat other people nicely"...but that's not clever enough for Facebook, I suppose. 
3. If anyone ever says to you that feminism isn't necessary anymore for any reason including but not limited to women and men already being equal, the wage gap not existing, men just being better at business, women spending more time worrying about family than their career, or any combination of those or any other explanation, they are at least a little bit sexist.
4. If someone tries to convince you that women should have to dress modestly in order to not attract unwanted attention from men... you know, the whole "if you don't want to be raped, don't dress like a slut" argument.. then they are both stupid and sexist.
5. If someone ever tries to tell you that the way that you dress, act, work, play, throw, run or live your life is "unladylike or unmanly" then they are sexist. 
6. If you identify as a woman and a man tells you that you would be prettier if you smiled more, he is a sexist... I say "he" here because it is a cultural fact. Please don't go all crazy on me and argue that this isn't sexist. Do you see many men telling other men that they would be prettier if they smiled? No?  
7. If someone tries to tell you that real women have curves, regardless of the gender of the speaker, they are a sexist. 

Here's the thing. VOMD has a glorious beard. Do I want him to keep it? Absolutely. Do I think it makes him look sexy as all hell? Definitely. Does it make him more of a man? Hell to the freaking no. 

I have a sizable arse. Do I love my curves? Yes. Do I struggle with my weight just like any other person in our culture? Also yes. Do I define myself and my adherence to my gender and my sex by the size of my arse or the ratio of my waist to hip girth? Hell freaking no. 

If you are guilty of any of the above, then maybe you don't think you are being a sexist butt head, but maybe you have some thinking to do on the subject. You might think you're just having a laugh and that saying "real men have beards" is really of no social and/or cultural consequence. But it does matter. I think it is high time we start realizing that an individual's or a groups dignity is more important than a cheap laugh.

And if its worse and you genuinely think that you get to define what it means to be a man or a woman, and you think that it is okay to spread messages of hate across the internet...you just suck. Please go tell your mom you love her right now. 

Get your act together internet. 

Happy Wednesday!

-J

The Conservative party thinks you're an idiot (are you going to let them talk to you like that?)

I think so far in my so-called election coverage I have been fairly good at keeping a level hand when it comes to the other three parties...that is, not the conservatives, obviously. This is largely because I support the whole "anyone but Harper" thing that is spreading across Southern Ontario like wildfire.

But I am not unbiased, at all, and I don't think that anybody should try to be when it comes to the fate of our country and the people living within (or trying to gain access to a life within) our borders.

So here is the fact: the conservative party thinks that you are an idiot and if you buy into their racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist nonsense, then you are not proving them wrong. And, if you are one of those people who call themselves "fiscal conservatives" can you please just admit that money means more to you than people, because you're not fooling anyone. If you vote conservative you are not just voting for a fiscal policy, you are voting for a government that thinks race-baiting is an ethical way to win an election. If you vote conservative you are saying that missing and murdered indigenous women don't matter. If you vote conservative you are saying that you would gladly give up your basic rights and freedoms to CSIS in order to stop a somewhat exaggerated ISIS threat. If you vote for the conservatives you are saying that citizenship should be conditional. If you vote for the conservatives you are saying that the environment must suffer in order to ineffectively boost the economy. You are not just supporting TPP (which has its own set of ethical implications, even is Canada appears at first to be a clear winner), you are supporting the destruction of the environment, the dismissal of our multicultural values, and the equality and dignity of women.

Elections are often won on single issues, but in voting on a single issue we quite stupidly forget that the government is not actually run on that single issue.

So, in conclusion, follow your heart, but don't let your heart make a moron out of you.


Happy Tuesday!

-J

The first leaders debate: A (biased) recap

I've just come to realize that I did not post anything after the first leaders debate, which took place in August. I mean, nobody was really thinking about the election that early, myself included. But now that the election is fast approaching, I thought I should post a little recap just in the very likely case that you missed it.

Here are some key points you should know about the first debate according to this very biased commentator:

1. Elizabeth May effing nailed that shit. It is such a shame that she wsa not included in either of the subsequent debates, because she is such a powerful speaker and an excellent, well-reader critic of the current administration. Her rebuttals to Harper were by far the most on point of all the leaders. 
2. Mulcair was a bit off in his description of the practicability of his plans (a problem that has since been mitigated in part by his party’s costing report). But he and May were in agreement about the absolute absurdity of lowering taxes for the biggest corporations. They also agreed that raising taxes for every day Canadians is not the solution to our immediate problems.  
3. May was all "we're in a recession baby!" okay...maybe that didn't deserve quotes. But yes, she came right out of the gate declaring that yes, we are in a recession. We need to make sure our economy doesn’t come to a halt. 
4. Budget balancing, May rightly pointed out, is not that important in the grand scheme of things. This year it is not pertinent to balance the budget. She was also right on top of criticizing the false budget balance of the current administration. 
5. All party leaders were really good at focusing on Harper’s shitty record, unlike in the later debates, where Trudeau and Mulcair began scrapping with one another.
6. May and Trudeau teamed up against Harper about his failure to address the economy, trade barriers, and the environment by partnering with the province.
7. Harper was incredibly optimistic, in the weirdest and most groundless way possible, about the Keystone pipeline project. Silly Harper. 
8. Not surprisingly, on the environmental issue, May was the most competent in her criticism of the Conservatives.  
9. Harper blatantly lied about reducing greenhouse emissions during his administration. The best quote in response to this came from Trudeau who said "nobody believes you!" I sincerely hope this is true, because it is so obviously ridiculously. 
10. Mulcair made the great point that Harper is hurting our international reputation. Its an obvious point, but he was one of the first to make it. Hurray! Also, his top quote of the night was "I believe that a clean environment and a strong economy do go hand in hand". This is something that he and May obviously agree on, and is something that the other leaders are not so ready to get behind. He also rightly pointed out the problematics of Harper's approach to indigenous peoples, and his scrapping of the environmental regulations including Navigable Waters, and Species at Risk regulations. But, he's been a little flip-floppy on his support and distrust for pipelines. So is Trudeau. May is the only consistent one on this issue. I think of the three leading party members Mulcair presented an excellent argument for objective study and transparency when it comes to developing our natural resources, even if I don't totally agree with his stance.
11. May made a great point about why a vote for Green is not a wasted vote. She says "instead of fixation in this splitting the vote non-problem...we need to focus on the real problem which is that 40% of Canadians in the last number of elections haven't voted. Vote abandoning in my view is a much bigger problem than vote splitting". I freaking love this lady. 
12. May also schooled Harper on ISIS. 

That's all I think you need to know. But don't take my word for it. Follow this link to watch it on youtube. 

Happy Tuesday, voting friends!

-J

Joy! My first Vegan Urthbox!

Today is a freaking awesome day! First, its Thursday which means that I get to go to work with VOMD and weed some gardens. I love getting my hands dirty. Read this awesome article about how bacteria in dirt makes you happy!

Sometimes when you are feeling a bit down (in my case...the down was caused by people be racist all over my Facebook feed...damn Facebook) the universe sends you exactly what you need to pick up up again. In my case, the universe sent me snacks...so many snacks. Thank you universe (...or credit card).

VOMD loves snacks, and unfortunately, his love for snacks is rubbing off on me a little. We recently subscribed to Urthbox to indulge our addiction and is it ever awesome!

Here is our first Urthbox:

They fit a surprising amount into this tiny box. I was prepared to be disappointed when I saw how small it was when I picked it up from the post office yesterday, but disappointed I was not!My conclusion is that Mary Poppins works in the Urth Box packing room.

Here's what was in it (because the above photo was taken with my phone and doesn't really do it all justice):

1. i heart keenwah Quinoa Puffs, Herbes de Provence flavoured 
2. Jackson's Honest Potato Chips, Purple Heirloom Kettle Chips cooked in coconut oil
3. Inca Corn toasted giant corn in "Chile Picante" flavour
4. Blue Monkey Coconut Chips
5. 2 packets of Kickers powdered fruit blends (for topping oatmeal etc) in Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana
6. Smart Candy (vitamin gummy snacks)
7. You Love Fruit Mango Coconut Fruit leather
8. Veggie-Go's TropiKale mango Kiwi and Kale chewy fruit and veggie snacks (like fruit leather)
9. Tutti Gourmet BanaKrisp fruit snacks in Pistachio Anise flavour
10. Gorilly Goods "Raw fruit & nut things"
11. FlyJoy snack bar in Cranberry Almond
12. MamaChia Chia Squeeze "Vitality Snack" in Blackberry Bliss flavour
13. Icebox Canadian Spring water (water in a carton! weird!)

So, yeah, not only do I get to go get dirty today...but also, SNACKS!

Happy Thursday!

-J