They never burned them!

It amazes me how many women to this day unabashedly say, "I'm not a feminist but ..."  Yes, if you give half a shit about a woman's place in the world then you are a feminist.  If you think it's okay to be treated as a slave or a punching bag and that your right to vote needs to be taken away, then may you are not. 

There are at least hundreds of thousands of men who also proudly say they are feminists.  If they love women and don't want to see lots of them die in back-alley abortions, then for f's sake, I hope they claim to be feminists.  However, I still don't get why so many people think feminists are bra-burning ball busters.  All that is a myth.  True, there are fractions of factions of femi-nazis still out there.  I think they're hiding in the basement of the gender studies department at some secret university somewhere, though, because I certainly don't know where that is.  Hell, I had never heard of Andrea Dworkin until last week and only then learned who Ti-Grace Atkinson is (kind of).  Why would anyone want such a radical change in society as to separate women and men? 

I do, however, believe in the Equal Rights Amendment, and Gloria Steinem is one of my personal heroines.  Mine is a kinder, gentler feminist view of seeking the equality of women and men through political and legal reform.    

Anyway, all that to take me to this article:

"Going Bra-less"

And I just wanted to say that even though I am an ancient 43-year old neo-rocker, I did not wear a bra to the Sheryl Crow concert this past weekend.  Granted, I had on a cami under my outer tank top.  Although I can't claim to have been totally unselfconscious, it was quite liberating to do so. 

the wonders of 2011 technology

Back in May, my husband found a sonogram print in our yard.  Initially I found that to be pretty gross but wondered if it could possibly be from the May 22 tornado in Joplin.  Sure enough, they belonged to someone there, and I found her on FB.  Our exchange is listed below, although her name is "xxxx" here:

May 29 "Hi! A friend of mine said you found my ultrasound pictures from January of last year, is there any way you could mail it to me? The address I am at is xxx x xxxx."

July 3 "Hi, xxxx! I'm not sure why I didn't get this message from you. Sorry about that. Your sonogram pics will be in the mail to you on Tuesday.
I hope your family is doing well and that you all didn't lose a lot in the tornado. It is so bizarre that we found your print all the way over here by Fair Grove.  Take care! Me"

July 3  "Hi Katy!! I really appreciate you sending it to me, unfortunately we lost everything in the tornado, we managed to find a few baby pictures and sonograms of my daughter but none of my son and the strange thing is the envelopes of sonograms were sitting right next to each other on my computer desk. My family is doing well, we are getting back on our feet with the support of friends and family. I'm blessed that you found the sonogram since it will be the only baby picture I will have of my son. Its a miracle that we survived the tornado, but I am thankful we did. My son turned 1 year old May 27th and I thank God every day we all lived through it when so many of our neighbors did not. Thank you again and I will let you know when I receive it! XXXX"

July 5 "I am so sorry to know you all lost your home. It's wonderful that you all are safe and healthy. It is simply unbelievable so many families were struck by this catastrophe.
You all made it through that, so you can make it through anything! Your sonogram pictures will get to you very soon. Take care, Me"

July 12 "I received the pictures Saturday! Thank you sooooo much for them and the gift card!!! I can't believe they made it that far and still look as great as they do. My daughter's ultrasound pictures were laying right next to those and were still in the house, I have them but they don't look as good as my son's. Thank you and your husband for finding them and returning them to me. I'm going to frame them and hang them up in our house when we move in and put your letter with them so we will never forget how far they traveled or the kindness of a stranger. It will be a great story for the kids when they get older.
Take care and thanks again!"


How freakin' cool is that?  I don't know how I would have found her way back when.