Lots of folks on my livejournal friends list pointed out that those women were damned attractive (yes, I thought they looked good too), and lots of the early commenters on the Shakesville entry were as appreciative. Unfortunately, as comment threads often do, you get some later folks that had to chime in with their chorus of fatphobic things to say (like concern trollish cries of “unhealthy!”).

I give Shakesville some mad props for adding Kate Harding of Shapely Prose to their cadre of bloggers, and I’ve also started following Junkfood Science. Body Impolitic is another must-read.

I am not a fiction writer, so all the useful and necessary programming focused on writing is not useful for me.

I just had a flash earlier this evening (possibly warmer than ambient perimenopausal flash?) that right now my mental energies aren’t focused on other worlds/cultures/fantasies, it’s how I need to find a way to live on this particular planet in this particular time. I’m rapidly approaching nominal Croning age, and even if I’m fortunate enough to live another forty-six years in good mental and physical health, I’ve got this background noise telling me I don’t have unlimited resources available to me and I need to be judicious in where I direct the resources I have at hand.

There’s several things festering in my mind that I’ve read (or re-read) lately that I can see all interconnecting.

1) Suzette Haden Elgin has had a very interesting discussion of “scutwork” going on in her LiveJournal. (who does the cooking/cleaning/caregiving?) The first entry in the discussion is here.

2) Badgerbag’s discussion of “integry” (emotional work)

3) The recent Columbia Journalism Review article about the fictitious opt out dilemma, and all the classist/racist assumptions underlying it.

So here’s a heads up, I’m going to be trying to churn all of this together and welcome comments as I do so.

And, this has resonance for integrating any sort of creative work, not just writing, into our lives. In my case, it would be beading or knitting.

Here’s the description of the Sock Club from the Blue Moon website. You get patterns and other goodies as part of the club, and this also covers shipping for six shipments.

Heck, perhaps some of those banking idiots up in Oregon ought to come down to my LYS, Purlescence Yarns, on the day when my favorite fiber pushers get their Blue Moon shipment to witness the feeding frenzy that ensues. Come to think of it, they could do some minimal googling to learn more without even leaving their desks, and this is actually the second full year for the club.

And yes, here’s some full disclosure about how I am a BMFA fangrrl. I’m currently working on a pair of Socks that Rock in the Carbon Dating colorway. Once you get a pair of socks done in this yarn, you understand why there’s such enthusiasm for it. My feet love my first pair (done in the Highway 30 colorway).

This is a small women’s owned business who is doing a good job of delighting its customer base as well as growing sensibly (they’re being careful in choosing retailers and not growing faster than they can support). Here’s hoping they find a new commercial banker who does the needed research and can be supportive. The knitblogging community is rallying around Blue Moon; the company is letting all their customers know as much as they can (I’m sure there are legal actions pending).

May these women never be forgotten while the struggle to combat violence against women continues.

The title of this post comes from one of the sanest additions to the recent feminism/fashionista debate. If I could pound one life lesson into my dear nieces’ heads, this would certainly be one of the top candidates.

I like fashion, makeup, and perfume, but if it doesn’t make me happy, I’m going to do without it and not beat myself up about it. I stopped reading a lot of fashion magazines a while ago because there was nothing there for me, and the few magazines that tried to reach out to larger sized women (Mode, Grace) died out. Right now, BPAL perfume oils bring me a lot of fun. And the knitting bug lets me play with color and texture and different fibers. I may very well decide like Grace to let my gray hairs show after hiding them for almost two decades as part of the Croning process if it stops being fun.

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