El Dia De Los Muertos

MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.  MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.  MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.  MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.  MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.  MY CULTURE IS NOT A FUCKING TREND.
It's not "cool" or "edgy" and, no, it doesn't fucking matter if the "culture resonates with your spirit" or whatever.  Look up cultural appropriation.  Day of the Dead is an important tradition in many Latino cultures.  It is used to pray for and remember the dead and white folks - because it's almost always non-Latino white folks who do this - who treat it as a "Mexican Halloween" are desecrating this sacred holiday.
(And do I even need to go into colonization and how it relates to cultural appropriation?)

Border Bandits

Full Border Bandits documentary by Kirby Warnock.

Queen of the Ring

I'm a bit late on reviewing this book as I was having personal problems so here goes!  I think this is one of those books where you gotta be a wrestling fan in order to fully appreciate it.  The book is about not only the story of Mildred Burke but about the history of women's wrestling in the United States.  Author Jeff Leen has done his research on the sport of professional wrestling.  I seriously admire his research skills as he has gone out of his way to verify facts by checking IRS records for wrestler's earnings during the 20th century, verifying marriage licenses, birth records, addresses and so on.  He talks about the importance of showmanship in professional wrestling, especially in women's wrestling. Mildred Burke wanted to convey the idea that she was a woman first and wrestler second.  She dressed glamorously, coming to the ring decked out in diamonds, a fur coat, a manicure, make up and coiffed hair.  Leen didn't just write about Burke's wrestling career but about her personal life, as well.  These two are intertwined as Burke married her first wrestling manager, Billie Wolfe.  These two together were responsible for the creation of women's wrestling as a respectable sport.  Billie Wolfe was a savvy businessman who, with Burke, created a thriving business.  Their marriage, however, was purely business as Burke had no love or attraction to Wolfe due to his abusive and womanizing ways.  Leen then points out how American women's wrestling was the reason why joshi puroresu (Japanese women's pro wrestling) became such a huge thing in Japan following the American tour of women wrestlers that included Burke and Johnnie Mae Young (who studied at Wolfe's wrestling school).  Leen also included the FBI investigation of the National Wrestling Alliance and Burke's involvement in that and the seeming decline of not just women's wrestling but pro wrestling as a whole (women's wrestling soared during the Golden Age of Wrestling).  This is a book that I would highly recommend to any wrestling fan.

Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide

I quite literally just finished reading this book.  I obviously know quite a bit about feminism (slut shaming, rape culture, wage gap, gender equality) but I wanted to learn more about it.  Specifically, I wanted to learn about the history of feminism, who were/are key players in the movement and important milestones.  I admit that when I started reading this book, I thought it was going to focus on mainstream feminism and completely ignore the contributions made by women of color.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they included the likes of Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker and bell hooks (among others).  Heck, it mentions the origin of the term "womanist".  The book also mentions feminism in developing countries and how it clashes with western feminism (reading this, I thought of the debate surrounding the hijab.  Muslim women fighting with Western feminists - specifically, white Western feminists - over the right to cover themselves up).  It's a pretty good introduction to feminism.  The thing that bugged me, though, is the exclusion of latin@s.  Latin@s did play a huge role in feminism.  I feel that the book should have at least mentioned Gloria Anzalduas. :/

The Baby Boon

I just recently finished reading "The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless" by Elinor Burkett.  How can I describe this book aside from "I really, really liked it"?  This book perfectly describes the discrimination faced by the childless and childfree and how the U.S.  Burkett goes into how society slowly changed to accomodate the "needs" - and I do use that term loosely - of upper middle class parents and how companies sought to become more "family-friendly" by accomodating working parents - nay, working mothers - so they can juggle both work and family.  She points out how mainstream feminism neglected those who have chosen to not have children by focusing primarily on working mothers and using the terms "women" and "mothers" interchangeably.  They are NOT the same thing!  Not all women are mothers or want to be mothers.  One thing that I loved about this book is that Burkett pointed out that these tax credits and tax cuts only aid upper middle class families and not families that truly need it: the poor.  As someone who lives in the third poorest region in the United States, tax cuts for the poor is a major issue for me and my loved ones and it pisses me off that the government is giving all these tax breaks to people who don't really need it (no, yuppie parents, you DON'T need that 4,000 sq. ft. house or that brand new lexus.  You'll do just fine in a smaller home and driving a used vehicle).  There was something in this book that really stood out to me and that was what Pat Schroeder had said about pregnancy being a voluntary disability that I found ridiculous.  She said that pregnancy is like a sports injury or a venereal disease - it's voluntary.  I found the comparison completely ridiculous.  Nobody chooses to get a venereal disease and athletes don't choose to get a sports injury.  Incidentally, not everybody chooses to get pregnant.  Pregnancy is only a voluntary disability if the person actually wants to be pregnant.  It is in no way comparable to VD or an injury.  Those are things NOBODY wants.  Burkett closes the book detailing all the things that every CFer is already familiar with: bingoes, preferential treatment shown to parents, and the reactions the CF receive when they make their frustrations known.

"Whip My Hair" by Willow Smith

I'm starting to listen to more Willow Smith.  I really like this song - it's so fun! - and that other song that she received criticism for, "I Am Me".  Also, it's unreal how much she looks like her dad.

Nicki Minaj on Sexism in the Music Industry

Say what you will about her music but this is pretty spot on!