All the Changes









My current thoughts regarding gender are as follows***:

Gender is not Sex.
















***subject to change


Men’s Rights to be the Center of All Attention Always


















“Resting B*tch Face”

There is no such thing.

Women aren’t obligated to smile constantly or always seem to be holding a pleasant happy thought in our heads.

When a man doesn’t smile, or he looks serious, or contemplative, or even mean or angry, we don’t call that anything. It is simply one of many emotions within the wide range of possible human emotions.  Men are not expected to maintain only pleasant thoughts and feelings at every waking moment. But because women are expected to always be warm, welcoming, happy, and accommodating, when a woman doesn’t smile we make up a derogatory term for it.

RBF: Resting B*tch Face

There is no such thing.


Getting More Women in STEM

With the dismal diversity numbers coming out of Google, Facebook, and other technology companies in the news recently, there has been much talk about how to get more women into science, technology and engineering disciplines.

As a woman who is in a male-dominated technical field, I have some thoughts on this.  I was the only female in my graduating class, and the winner of the Best Portfolio award. (own horn, toot toot!)  I work at an engineering firm.  I’m an expert user of a lot of software, I troubleshoot my own computer issues, and I know a few scripting languages and computer programming basics.  I’m not intimidated by math or science or computers.

But before I tell you my ideas, let me tell you what is NOT the way.  PLEASE, for the love of God, do not try to get women into STEM by making it “girly”.  Please, do not make it pink.  Do not put glitter and flowers on it.  Do not make it cute or gossipy.  Please do not make it “sexy” to like math and science.

We need to get girls interested in math and science the exact same way we get boys interested, by making it interesting and giving them inspiring examples of other girls and women who have done it.  Ask a man why he got into an engineering field and his answer will not be “because I am a man and it was a masculine thing to do.”  No, it will likely be “because I was intrigued by _____.” or “My favorite sci fi movie featured a little boy hero and I wanted to be just like him” or “I wanted to build _____ or design better _____”

When I was a kid, I was already into nerdy things.  I loved sci fi, both reading and movies.  I loved fantasy.  I loved video games.  I loved building things with legos.  Looking back though, I notice that all of those movies and books I loved, they ALL had a male protagonist.  In most cases there were no girls or women at all except as the love interest.  The girl character existed only as an object of the boy character’s desire.  She usually had no lines.  Flight of the Navigator, The Never-Ending Story, The Last Starfighter, etc.

My favorite books, The Lord of the Rings series, had a few minor two dimensional female characters.  So many of my favorite books followed that pattern.  It just seemed normal to me that women were rarely featured.  I never questioned it until much later.

Because of my interests I did not fit in.  I would never be popular.  Girls teased me and boys passed me over for girls who were pretty and giggled a lot.  Being nerdy was never cool, but being a nerdy girl made me one of a kind.  I was an oddity.

We need movies and books that make science and technology intriguing to little girls and show little girls as the HEROS not the love interest.  Show me a little girl winning the space battle or saving the world with a magic video game.

We also need video games that allow girls to feel like they are a part of the world of technology.  Not pink flowers and ponies, science fiction type puzzle games with smart female protagonists, and they don’t need to be dressed like they’re going to work at the strip club either.

We need books with female protagonists solving technology and science issues.

We need TV shows that show women being scientists and starfleet captains.  Thank goodness for Captain Janeway.  MORE please.

We need teachers who are trained to encourage boys and girls equally in math.  I experienced sexism in my schooling.  It came in subtle and overt ways.  I can see why other girls were driven away from the path of math and science, but for me it egged me on.  I’m just a defiant type of person, but we can’t expect most people to buck their social role.  Whether it was teachers who acted surprised at how well I performed at math and science or teachers who wouldn’t call on a girl in their classes, it was not encouragement.

Want more women in STEM careers?  Get girls interested in it.  Encourage curiosity.  Let them know they can do it.  Give them examples of other girls doing it.  Don’t act surprised when a girl is good at math.  

We don’t need to put pink stickers on it. 


Not Just Hello

There has been a lot of much needed discussion about street harassment lately.  I have my stories.  Yes, all women have these stories.

The first time I experienced street harassment I was a 13 year old girl.  They may have thought I was older, because I developed faster than all of the other kids, I was chubby, and I was tall.  I was walking down a country road in my home town and they were in a truck.  The truck slowed and they started saying things to me.  There were three or four of them.  I kept walking and they drove slowly beside me yelling sexual, threatening, and insulting things at me until I ran.  I ran off the road and into the woods.  It was incredibly terrifying and put me off walking outside for many years.

Later there was another somewhat similar incident in the same town.  I was older, had graduated from high school, had an apartment in the same small town, and was walking home from work at night.  Again, some men in a vehicle slowed beside me and started yelling things.  I walked, then ran, to get away from them as they followed me in the vehicle.  But I was afraid to go home, lest they know where I live.  So I ran to a friend’s apartment and escaped them.

Soon after that I moved out of that town.  I will never go back there.  Them country boys scare me.  Yes yes I know.  Not all men.  Tell that to thirteen year old me.  Tell that to the woman who is so terrified her heart is going to beat out of her chest.  Explain it away.  Tell me it was meant as a compliment.

I have other stories, of course.  But none scared me the way those two incidents did.  Once I lived in the city, having strange men say things to me became par for the course.  I would sometimes yell back, tell them to go fuck themselves.  I would sometimes ignore them and keep walking.  Occasionally I would come up with a witty response on the fly.  But generally these things now happened in areas with street lights and other people and I felt relatively sure that I wasn’t about to get grabbed and dragged off somewhere for I don’t want to think about what.

I still get harassed today.  I’m almost forty and I’m hoping to soon be old enough that they leave me alone, as some of my older friends say happens to them.  They tell me how relieved they are to be past the age where men find you a good target to yell “Hey baby, I want to fuck that ass baby, why you ignoring me baby, you fucking stuck up bitch!”

I’m still chubby too so that invites another kind of harassment.  One time, as I was walking down a city street, I walked past a man who looked at me like he wanted to murder me and said “If my wife was as fat as you I would divorce her.”

I have never had any man yell something at me that could even vaguely be considered a compliment.  Mostly it was very vulgar sexual talk, or talk about my body- my tits, my ass.  Or it was something insulting about being fat.  Of course, being fat gives me bigger tits and ass, so you see how the two subjects are related.  Often times it starts as a “hey I want to do ___ to your ___” then when I don’t respond, it becomes insults or threats.

Only one time did a man actually grab me, and I shoved that asshole so hard he fell on his back and whacked his head on the sidewalk.  I didn’t stick around to find out if he was alright.

When I see men defending street harassment, they always make it out like it’s just innocuous compliments. “Aw, I’m just trying to tell you you look good, why can’t I tell you that?”  Yeah.  No.  That’s not what it is and we all know that.

That incident that happened when I was 13, I know it could have been a lot worse and for a lot of women it is much, much worse.  After that, I found myself considering what men might say to me or try to do to me if I dared to do something risky like leave my house.  No, it did not keep me from living life, but it was always there in the back of my mind.

How many times have I looked over my shoulder?  How many times have I crossed the street to avoid walking close to a group of men or even one man?  How many times have I felt my heart pound and race in my chest? Too many to count.  Those experiences colored my whole life.

It’s not just hello.  Almost every woman can tell you.


Anti-Feminist Strawmen

I am a feminist.  I’m also in my late thirties so I’m nowhere near as concerned about what anyone thinks of it as I once was when I was a teenager or young twenty something.

It is fine with me if other people don’t want to call themselves feminists.  I will still believe they deserve equality under the law and in society and I will still speak out and fight for them.  What you want to call yourself is up to you.  Some labels have connotations beyond their real meaning and some people just don’t like labels at all.  For example, “Vegan” simply means a person who does not consume or use animal products.  However, there are a lot of people who believe “Vegan” means being a pushy overbearing difficult person to be around, so they believe they hate vegans.  They really hate a few loud obnoxious outliers- there are plenty of soft, kind, quiet vegans too.  It’s not vegans you hate, it’s obnoxious people.  There are obnoxious people in every group.

Additionally some people just don’t like labels because they don’t like being lumped into a category with other people.  Sticking with the vegan example, some people who don’t eat animal products choose a different label like “plant-based” or they just don’t talk about it at all.  These are all valid choices.

However, there seems to be a special confusion surrounding Feminism and make no mistake about it, it is manufactured.  I have heard about the mythical “Feminazi” many times, yet I have never met one.  Did you know that the term “feminazi” was actually coined by Rush Limbaugh, who is hellbent on keeping women “in our place.”  I don’t know about you, but feminist or not I am guessing that most rational people do not want to be associated with Rush Limbaugh.  The women and men I have met who are feminists are kind people who care about the equality and rights of everyone.  For certain, online, I have encountered a few extreme commentators, but isn’t that the case with everything online?  Hell, there are extreme commentators in the cat group I belong to on Facebook.  This is the internet.  If you’re judging an entire movement by the comments of a few people, you might be missing the overall point.  However, again, it’s okay.

The highest tenant of my feminist belief is that you alone should be able to choose how to live your life and you should be given the same treatment under the law as everyone else.  The fact of your sex or gender should not be a deciding factor in what you are allowed to do.  Women who want to be stay at home moms or fashion models are just as welcome and valid as women who want to be corporate CEOs or President of the United States.

Most anti-feminist arguments I encounter are nothing more than Straw Man arguments.  A Straw Man is a type of logical fallacy, which is, in-essence, a misrepresentation of the other side to make it easier to attack.  Here is a list of the most common straw man arguments against feminism I see repeated again and again:

1. “I am not a feminist because I love men.”

Straw man: Feminists hate men

Reality: Feminists do not hate men.  Feminists want equal treatment for both sexes and all genders and believe this will benefit men as well as women.  Many feminists are women who are married to men or in long term relationships with men.  Many of us have fathers and brothers and sons and we love them dearly.

2. “I am not a feminist because I want to marry and have children.”

Straw man: Feminists believe women should all have a career and not prioritize family.

Reality: Feminism is about allowing women to make our own choices.  Marriage and children are great choices for some women, and not others.  Some women want to be at home with kids, some don’t.  Some men want to be at home with kids too.  These are all valid choices.  Feminists can be stay at home moms.

3. “I am not a feminist because I like to wear makeup and high heels.”

Straw man: Feminists are masculine and don’t believe in presenting yourself in a feminine way.

Reality: Feminism is about choices.  If you want to wear high heels and makeup and you enjoy those things, that’s wonderful.  Go for it!  You can dress sexy and be a feminist.  However if you don’t want to, that is also a valid choice.  You don’t have to wear makeup or high heels.  If you feel forced into those things and you do not enjoy it, that is something feminists want to change.  We want you to be able to be you, whatever that means to you, without being forced into a tiny little box marked “woman” by society.

4. “I am not a feminist because men and women are different.”

Straw man: Feminists think men and women are the same.

Reality, Feminists know that men and women can be different in a variety of ways, we just think we should all have equal rights and equal choices.  Sure men and women are different.  And women and women are different.  And men and men are different.  Certainly, in general, men are bigger and stronger than most women.  However, some men are 5’3″ 120 lb and some women are 6′ and 200 lb.  Some men like to be quiet and peaceful.  Some women are loud and competitive.  These are all valid choices under feminism.  It’s about breaking out of the narrowly defined gender roles IF you want to.  We are all different.

5. “I am not a feminist because I think men deserve rights too.”

Straw man: Feminists want to take away men’s rights.

Reality: Feminists simply want women to have all the same rights men have always had.  And we also want men to be free to make choices that are right for them as individuals. Men and women should have equal treatment under the law.  Just as women should not be discriminated against, neither should men.  Men should not be disadvantaged in custody court.  This is a feminist position.  The law should treat us as equal individuals, not judge simply on our sex or gender.


In conclusion, I completely understand why some people who believe in equality cannot be persuaded to use the term feminist.  And some people do not believe in equality.  Just remember, without feminists, women would not be allowed to vote or own property or basically do anything without the blessing of her husband.  If that’s the world you want, you are definitely not a feminist.  But if you’re making the above arguments, it would be worthwhile to read some history and find out if what you think about feminism is really true or if you’ve fallen victim to Rush Limbaugh’s anti-feminist smear campaign.  A lot of people have, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.  You can always change your mind, and you will always be welcome to call yourself a feminist if you realize the label truly does suit your beliefs.  Even if you do not, we will continue to fight for your rights regardless.