in honor of international women's day, I thought I would share this reflection that I wrote last week:
I just watched “Stardust” - a whimsical, funny, sweet, fairy-tale. (Robert deNiro's gay pirate captain was the best character of the movie, but that's not what prompted me to write this...)
The self-proclaimed theme of the movie is that it's the story of how a young man grew up from a boy into a man. That's all fine and good, but later on I got to thinking...
I'm a young woman, and I'm at the stage of my life right now where I'm trying to grow up from a girl into a woman. The movie inspired that line of thought, but that's where it ended – I couldn't follow it any further, because unlike the premise of the movie, I'm not trying to become a man...
So where are the movies about young women growing up, and if they exist, what do they look like? Because they certainly don't look anything like this one or the other hundreds of coming-of-age movies about boys learning how to be men, finding themselves, becoming chivalrous and honorable... And Hollywood can make romantic comedies out of these stories. But how does the story change if the main character is female? It doesn't work to just switch the roles. If anything, the movies that do exist about women facing reality and growing up are generally not presented as comedies or fun, inspiring tales. Usually they're serious, if not depressing.
Any thoughts or movie recommendations?
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Re-visiting Agape
Once again a wonderful but short visit to Agape. I managed to make it to Francis Day from Boston with Kate! Hooray! I was glad to finally experience this event that I’d heard so much about last year. It was a gorgeously sunny and colorful crisp fall day, and there were at least 200 people there. The program’s theme was “Women and War: reclaiming our voices,” and included women speakers from Japan, Burundi, Afghanistan, and Iraq as well as Dorothy Day’s granddaughter and a U.S. veteran in her mid-20s who’d served in Iraq when she was 19. It was a powerful day, and ended with the planting of a tree in honor of the mother of two Iraqi boys who are here with their father getting treatment for injuries sustained in the car explosion (caused by U.S. gunfire) that killed their mother.
One of the highlights was the singing and dancing led by the Burundian community! It was also really nice to see so many familiar faces and catch up with a few of the people that I had gotten to know pretty well during my internship. I was glad not to be an intern though, because it meant I simply got to sit back and enjoy it all without worrying about logistics or running in and out taking care of details or dishes. Can we please stop having wars?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Happy Obama (er, I mean Inauguration) Day!
I used my comp time to take the morning off of work and go to Philly to watch The Inauguration. It was cold, but in solidarity with my housemate and all the other people in DC I decided to stand outside on the Independence Mall to watch it with about 1,000 others rather than find a place indoors.
It was awesome. Everyone was so excited and we all cheered whenever Obama appeared on the big screen. At the exact moment when he emerged from the Capitol and began walking down the steps, a flock of birds lifted off from the ground behind the screen and flew up and past it – quite the symbolism of peace and hope, if you ask me. As he finished the oath of office, my chest was just filled with this rising, bursting exhilarating feeling. Everyone cheered, and we couldn’t help but give each other hugs we were so happy! It was a great day.
Hooray for us! It’s so exciting to finally have a new – and wonderful – president!
It was awesome. Everyone was so excited and we all cheered whenever Obama appeared on the big screen. At the exact moment when he emerged from the Capitol and began walking down the steps, a flock of birds lifted off from the ground behind the screen and flew up and past it – quite the symbolism of peace and hope, if you ask me. As he finished the oath of office, my chest was just filled with this rising, bursting exhilarating feeling. Everyone cheered, and we couldn’t help but give each other hugs we were so happy! It was a great day.
Hooray for us! It’s so exciting to finally have a new – and wonderful – president!
Monday, November 24, 2008
SOA
Dan and I left Thursday night in the middle of a beautiful snowfall, the first of the season, and the first ever for my housemate Megan. We joined the Philly JVs on a bus full of students from St. Joe’s University. It was a 15-hour ride down to Columbus, Georgia: we got there at 1pm. At the Ignatian Family Teach-In that night we heard Father Roy Bourgeois (the founder of SOA Watch) speak and defend his pro-women’s ordination stance which a month earlier had earned him the threat of ex-communication.
On Saturday morning, I made sure to get to the teach-in in time to hear Father Jon Sobrino speak. I met him in El Salvador during my semester abroad when he spoke to our group, and I remember thinking he looked like a small version of Mr. Rogers. But this time he struck me as much taller and broad-shouldered than I recalled, even though I was much farther away from him. As soon as he began to talk, I also remembered that for all his fame for being a radical liberation theologian and the one who survived the massacre of his six colleagues by pure luck, he also is not very gifted in public speaking. I don’t really remember a thing he said.
I spent Saturday afternoon at the gates of Fort Benning. It was a great day to be outdoors: warm and sunny! Along one side of the road, there were lots of organizations with tables and booths set up handing out information and selling things. Musicians were performing on the main stage, interspersed with speakers. Some people were laying on the ground doing a demonstration of the massacre at El Mozote in El Salvador. The other side of the road was lined with little booths at the end of people’s driveways selling food. People sure know how to make the most of a money-making opportunity when they see one! I was glad to support the local economy… I wandered around and ran into people, including: my liberation theology professor/academic advisor from college, Leah the campus minister from Corvallis, other JVC East-ers, one of our Camden support persons and his staff, students from St. Olaf…
That evening was the Ignatian Family Mass, which was really cool. There had to have been more than a thousand (?) people there. The music was good and I really liked the homily, and I even took communion. The room was just very lively and vibrant. Afterwards, I avoided the commotion of the crowded JVC gathering and instead had an hour-long conversation with Leah.
Sunday morning was the vigil and procession at the gates. It was a pretty powerful experience. After the names of people who had been massacred/assassinated by graduates of the SOA were chanted, everyone lifted the cross they were holding and responded with “Presente.” This went on for two full hours, until the whole procession of over 20,000 people had walked to the gate and placed their cross in the fence. I made a cross with Rutilio Grande’s name on it, and squeezed it extra firmly when his name was read. My voice was tired at the end! And you couldn’t see through the fence any more because it was filled not only with white crosses, but also flowers, slips of paper, photographs, etc.
I am so glad I finally got to participate in this. I’ve known about it ever since the first liberation theology class I took my sophomore year of college, and really really wanted to go after spending a semester in Central America, meeting Jon Sobrino and seeing the site where the six priests were killed in 1989, which is why the whole SOA vigil got started…but I was never able to go until this year.
On Saturday morning, I made sure to get to the teach-in in time to hear Father Jon Sobrino speak. I met him in El Salvador during my semester abroad when he spoke to our group, and I remember thinking he looked like a small version of Mr. Rogers. But this time he struck me as much taller and broad-shouldered than I recalled, even though I was much farther away from him. As soon as he began to talk, I also remembered that for all his fame for being a radical liberation theologian and the one who survived the massacre of his six colleagues by pure luck, he also is not very gifted in public speaking. I don’t really remember a thing he said.
I spent Saturday afternoon at the gates of Fort Benning. It was a great day to be outdoors: warm and sunny! Along one side of the road, there were lots of organizations with tables and booths set up handing out information and selling things. Musicians were performing on the main stage, interspersed with speakers. Some people were laying on the ground doing a demonstration of the massacre at El Mozote in El Salvador. The other side of the road was lined with little booths at the end of people’s driveways selling food. People sure know how to make the most of a money-making opportunity when they see one! I was glad to support the local economy… I wandered around and ran into people, including: my liberation theology professor/academic advisor from college, Leah the campus minister from Corvallis, other JVC East-ers, one of our Camden support persons and his staff, students from St. Olaf…
That evening was the Ignatian Family Mass, which was really cool. There had to have been more than a thousand (?) people there. The music was good and I really liked the homily, and I even took communion. The room was just very lively and vibrant. Afterwards, I avoided the commotion of the crowded JVC gathering and instead had an hour-long conversation with Leah.
Sunday morning was the vigil and procession at the gates. It was a pretty powerful experience. After the names of people who had been massacred/assassinated by graduates of the SOA were chanted, everyone lifted the cross they were holding and responded with “Presente.” This went on for two full hours, until the whole procession of over 20,000 people had walked to the gate and placed their cross in the fence. I made a cross with Rutilio Grande’s name on it, and squeezed it extra firmly when his name was read. My voice was tired at the end! And you couldn’t see through the fence any more because it was filled not only with white crosses, but also flowers, slips of paper, photographs, etc.
I am so glad I finally got to participate in this. I’ve known about it ever since the first liberation theology class I took my sophomore year of college, and really really wanted to go after spending a semester in Central America, meeting Jon Sobrino and seeing the site where the six priests were killed in 1989, which is why the whole SOA vigil got started…but I was never able to go until this year.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Change We Need
I could not just sit by and watch this election happen and hate myself if it turned out differently because I hadn’t done anything. So I took half the day off work and drove to Philadelphia to help get out the vote.
The Obama office was loud, hot, and bursting with people. Rather than making phone calls or knocking on doors, I found myself a position standing on a street corner in bustling center city holding a sign at a table filled with quickly-disappearing Obama paraphernalia and voting information. It was pretty amazing how people just kept coming to the table to pick up stuff: buttons, bumper stickers, posters.
It wasn’t the most significant role I could have played, but it was something, and that was enough. I stayed up until 12:30am to watch Obama’s victory speech, even though I had to get up at 7:15am in the morning…
Hooray!!!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Day 1
Holy cow, I survived the first day of children…it was NUTS! The kids were crazy, and mostly I felt like I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. Plus, we had them for 3 ½ hours instead of 1 ½ since the first day of school was a half day. Way to jump in with two feet! The hardest thing was trying to keep them from fighting with each other…
But as I told my parents, dealing with the kids was easier for me than sitting through an hour of listening to Giuliani and Palin speak at the Republican convention…
But as I told my parents, dealing with the kids was easier for me than sitting through an hour of listening to Giuliani and Palin speak at the Republican convention…
Thursday, August 21, 2008
ERLH Ed Ctr
We visited my job placement today!--the Education Center at Ethel R. Lawrence Homes, an affordable housing development in Mount Laurel, NJ. The homes are very nice. The Ed Center is in a double-wide trailer.
I’m still not sure what I think of the concept though, even after hearing the spiel for a third time... Luckily, I don’t have any qualms about what I’m doing, which is helping the kids with their schoolwork. It’s the larger mission of the housing development that I’m not sure I buy into. In a way, it does just seem like a band-aid and not a real solution to the root of the problem: endemic urban poverty. It doesn’t improve the cities by taking the well-behaved poor families away and putting them in a suburb…
On the other hand, one article I read talked about it in terms of providing housing for the people who are already working in these wealthy communities but can’t afford to live there. That makes sense to me. It's a very different principle than the first one, but I guess they kind of go hand in hand, in a way...
I’m still not sure what I think of the concept though, even after hearing the spiel for a third time... Luckily, I don’t have any qualms about what I’m doing, which is helping the kids with their schoolwork. It’s the larger mission of the housing development that I’m not sure I buy into. In a way, it does just seem like a band-aid and not a real solution to the root of the problem: endemic urban poverty. It doesn’t improve the cities by taking the well-behaved poor families away and putting them in a suburb…
On the other hand, one article I read talked about it in terms of providing housing for the people who are already working in these wealthy communities but can’t afford to live there. That makes sense to me. It's a very different principle than the first one, but I guess they kind of go hand in hand, in a way...
Monday, May 12, 2008
presidents presence precedence
On Friday, I got to drive 20 minutes and sit 8 rows away from the next president of the United States. (http://democratheraldnew.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=&image=18810085 I'm in the black shirt in the background)
And tonight, the previous president of the United States gave a speech 5 blocks from my house.
It's cool to have Oregon's primary actually matter this year, and on such an important election year, too! This should definitely happen more often.
I'm sorry that this race turned out to be between Obama and Clinton, because I would have loved for us to have a woman president!, but I like his attitude and a few of his positions better, and I think she, sadly, has too many enemies. It's his message of hope and unity and working together; of soft lines, not hard ones -- diplomacy, not retaliation; a different way of thinking and of approaching problems. You should watch the ads at obamain30seconds.org -- they are pretty amazing!
And even though I'm not voting for Clinton, I don't want her to drop out of the race until after all the primaries are over, because I know how important it is for people to feel like they have a choice and that their voice matters. We totally need some major election reform. Soon.
And tonight, the previous president of the United States gave a speech 5 blocks from my house.
It's cool to have Oregon's primary actually matter this year, and on such an important election year, too! This should definitely happen more often.
I'm sorry that this race turned out to be between Obama and Clinton, because I would have loved for us to have a woman president!, but I like his attitude and a few of his positions better, and I think she, sadly, has too many enemies. It's his message of hope and unity and working together; of soft lines, not hard ones -- diplomacy, not retaliation; a different way of thinking and of approaching problems. You should watch the ads at obamain30seconds.org -- they are pretty amazing!
And even though I'm not voting for Clinton, I don't want her to drop out of the race until after all the primaries are over, because I know how important it is for people to feel like they have a choice and that their voice matters. We totally need some major election reform. Soon.
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