100 happy days :: day 2

hyperlinks are happy-making for me. i realize that sounds a little strange, but you can often be led on a fascinating journey and learn something new clicking on a hyperlink (if you choose the initial link wisely, that is). clicking on one thing that looks interesting often leads to another. and another. i really love that. here are a few examples from this morning when i was awakened a little to five by rambunctious cats...

after reading this and especially this, i went to my bibliotek.dk app and ordered the first two volumes of norwegian writer kurt ove knausgård's epic 6 volume autobiographical novel from the library (in english translation, i'm not a masochist). what a voice the man has!

in reading about knausgård's time in newfoundland, i came across this piece from last summer - two danish tourists write an open letter to canada, pleading for them to do something about their car culture. yikes, i wonder what they'd have thought if they visited the united states!

and while not a link i found via the links above, a friend posted about this photo project - carol highsmith's decades-long efforts to document life in the united states. now, that is a serious photo project. but is her attempt to preserve something so fleeting as life even possible?

woman, know your strength

there's a lot of talk in denmark recently on the subject of feminism. it's been in connection with the anniversary of a danish feminist landmark book - woman, know your body. much of the talk has centered on whether or not there is still a need for feminism and young women's reluctance to identify themselves as feminist. i've blogged before about whether i identify as feminist or not.

the sunday evening talk show actually featured an interview of three stark naked ordinary (as in not famous) women, talking about their very real bodies. i thought it was a little weird that all three had completely shaved (or waxed) their pubic hair and were bald down there. but perhaps i'm a little behind on pube fashion. i admired them for being relaxed and seemingly comfortable carrying on a normal interview on national television. it was pretty brave in this age where we're surrounded by photoshopped perfection at every turn.

i am grateful for the strides made on my behalf by the feminists who came before me. i haven't had to struggle to be a woman in a workplace and haven't felt held back by my gender in terms of career. i've had my moments of encounters with misogynist dinosaurs, but they were slightly different than actually being kept from getting a job or a promotion.

the danish book is centered on the woman's body, so i guess that's where the focus on naked women comes from in all of the recent discussions of feminism. but should feminism be so fixated on the body? what about the things that women can do as people? things disconnected from the gender of their bodies - things like using their hands or their muscles or their brains? my cooking and sewing and making and creating and thinking and talking and philosophizing all have very little to do with my naked body.

i find deliberate attempts to connect making and the body (like that woman who knits with yarn she's stuffed up her vagina (sorry, having trouble getting past that one)) to be somehow grasping at something artificial and constructed. is that really necessary? do we have to be so extreme to be one with our womanliness? can't we just be women, without doing something extra (or grotesque) to embrace it? is that what it takes to be a feminist now?

i hope not. i hope feminism is just under our skins. that it's there in our ability to raise strong, smart, capable, innovative girls into strong, smart, capable, innovative women. that it's there in our feeling that being a woman is a power in its own right and it entitles us to take our place in the world - the place best suited to our abilities and ambitions and strengths. to know that our brains are where it's at, not our bodies, even as we love and accept and embrace our special, unique bodies (without needing to resort to running the yarn we knit through them). to be happy and comfortable in being humans who also happen to be women.

some days are like that

it's been a weird monday. i was writing a whole other blog post and then a bunch of stuff wanted to come out and it kept clouding up what i wanted to write, so i just have to write this and get it out of the way. some days are like that.

~ moving horses will always take longer than you think.

~ australia is the worst movie i've ever seen. period. everyone involved in it should be taken out back and shot. especially nicole kidman. and whoever put together those backgrounds against the stuff shot in the studio, they should be tied up and made to watch the film repeatedly for the rest of their lives. even if their eyes have to be propped open with those metal thingies from a clockwork orange.

~ if you're a nurse and you have to take a swab halfway down someone's throat, perhaps just a teency weency little explanation or maybe even a "hello" before you come at them with the extra long q-tip would be in order. just sayin'.

~ if you need to get an x-ray of your lungs because you've been coughing for three weeks straight, go at lunchtime. there's no waiting.

~ people who write knitting books leave out a lot of stuff that beginners will have questions about. like how to remember whether that last row you did was knit or purl, or how to tell if you forget.

~ it seems that divorces come in bunches...another of sabin's classmates' parents are splitting up. she says it's the 6th in her class. apparently marriages fall like dominoes. i'm pleased to not know any of the whys and wherefores of any of them, but feel sad for the kids.

~ i have to make 600 (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) cupcakes tomorrow. i'm thinking rainbows.

ok, i think that about does it. now i'll get back to the post i was really writing. some days are like that.