storage space

The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

you can also hang up your cotton shirts to dry to prevent them from shrinking in the dryer, and to maximize the lifespan of printed graphics on your shirts or sweatshirts. this saves electricity and keeps your clothes nicer for longer.

fabric softener is a scam, you don't need it because most detergents come with a softening agent already. dryer sheets are handy to minimize static in the dryer, but you can get a reusable wool ball that does the same purpose so they're not necessary either.

use bleach detergents sparingly, only if you notice your whites becoming stained or dingy. using bleach on every load of whites will degrade them.

also most of the time you really only need to wash with cool water. unless something is really soiled, (especially with something greasy, remember heat melts and removes grease,) cold water works just fine for day to day dirty clothes.

As soon as you bring the berry babies home. Put them in a bowl with white vinegar (some) and cold water (more then some).Leave for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Then add baking soda (little shakey shake) and cold water. Leave for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Leave berries out on a towel to air dry (sing them a song if it brings you joy) , shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes. Once dry, store them little berry bitches in an airtight container in the fridge. I use mason jars. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, all the berries last for a week if not more.

whose migrant mother was this? the story of the native american woman who became the face of the 1930s depression (and got almost nothing for it)

bauhaus design is everywhere, but its roots are political how even a simple choice between what font to use can be a political act

edvard munch: what a cigarette means munch + tobacco = art? (yes we’re still on the topic of art as a political weapon)

art that was never finished how great masters sometimes even didn’t finish stuff. also! the history behind the colour aquamarine

fka twigs on mary magdalene (if you like asmr you’re gonna love this)

having a coke with frank ohara (technically not art history but this video is too good for me not to mention)

video postcard: woman at her toilette a quick dive into my favourite painting of woman impressionist berthe morisot

this documentary about georgia o´keeffe (that ive seen about 10 times)

who’s afraid of modern art: vandalism, video games, and fascism about the meaning of modern art and the publics response to it, as well as a political campaign to eradicate it or moreso make an example of the so-called ‘undesirable’ nature of their art

how to make communist art on the future prospects of art for art’s sake and creativity outside of capitalist restraints

Brigsby Bear, nostalgia culture and millennial optimism a little off topic but an essay about a film that questions our need to attach our identities to our past and our childhoods in particular, questionning whether we should put our faith into recreating our old loves or creating new ones - i think its relevant based on the films perspective on art

Hahahahahahhaha.

Yeah, no, you want to go? LET’S GO.

Bourgot Le Noir • Nun Claricia • Diemoth (also called Diemud/Diemudis) • Agnes II Abbess of Quedlinburg • Anastasia • Claricia • Herrad of Landsberg • Ende • Guda • Abbess Hitda of Meschede • Hildegard of Bingen • Helena of Egypt, daughter of Timon of Egypt • Aristarete • Timarete • Alcisthene • Eirene • Anaxandra • Lala de Cizique • Iaia of Cyzicus • Frögärd Ulvsdotter i Ösby • Maria Ormani • Catherine of Bologna • the daughter of Butades (Kora/Callirhoe) • Lala • Sabrina von Steinbach • Kallo • Cirene, daughter of Kratinos • Calypso • Olympias • Amalasuntha • Laodicia • Herlindis of Maaseik • Relindis of Maaseik • Gisela of Kerzenbroeck • Zaynab al-Maqdisiyya • Fatimah Bint al'Aqra’ • unidentified prehistoric female artists, “Spotted Horses” mural • Onorata Rodiani • Mechthild of Hackeborn 

Also consider that there are a huge number of names missing - women did not always sign or receive credit for their work; earlier art may be pre- written language, may have been lost or destroyed, or may no longer be attributed by name.  Drawings of artists in ancient Greece in vase-making workshops, for instance, show both men and women painting designs.

The nature of white male academia and museum culture has also affected what we preserve and label, and even what we consider ‘valuable’ art, prioritizing the public (large murals and paintings) that Western women were socially not accepted to create over the private such as embroideries that were devalued and demoted to being ‘craft’ because of their associations with women.  Apologies for the primarily white and Western focus in this list, as biases in art historical documentation make it very difficult to properly identify by name pre-1500s female artists of color.

Here, have some essays:

Where Are Women in the History of Art?

Where Are All the Famous Women Artists?

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

The Feminist Critique of Art History

Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence

Examining the Exclusion of Women From Art Historical Documentation

Brushed Off: Women Artists and Their Fight for Recognition

Old Masters: Overlooked Woman Artists

Old Boys Club: What’s a Female Artist to Do?

The Medieval Feminist Art History Project

The Lack of Progress For Women in the Art World

I’ve been following the latest re: Junot Diaz, and before that, I was having my heart broken by Sherman Alexie, and I just read @plaidadder ‘s brilliant post about misogyny in literature, and I just kinda want to spit. But, instead, let me recommend some favorite FEMALE authors. Not that they’re perfect, of course, but I’m a whole lot more comfortable making this list than I would be any other right now.

1. Louise Erdrich: My hands-down favorite author, Erdrich mostly writes Native-influenced or Native-adjacent stories with elements of mysticism or fantasy in them. Many of her books have overlapping characters. You can’t go wrong, but if you haven’t ever read her work, I recommend starting with either Love Medicine (older) or The Round House (more recent). 

2. Mary Shelley: Mary Shelley invented sci-fi, y’all. She wrote Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus at twenty and changed how we all think about literature. If you’ve never read it, do yourself a favor.

3. Zora Neale Hurston: I’ve read a lot of books. I’m always concentrated on dialogue. And for my money, nobody does it as well as Zora Neale Hurston did. Obviously, if you haven’t, you should read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but please also read her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road.

4. Dorothy Allison: Dorothy Allison holds a place in my heart I can’t quite describe. Her Bastard Out of Carolina is still one of the most emotionally difficult novels I’ve ever read. What really makes me soar, though, is her short story book, Trash. 

5. Mary Karr: Mary Karr writes memoirs. The best memoirs I’ve ever read. The Liar’s Club, about her childhood in Texas, is probably my favorite, but her most recent book, the non-fiction how-to book The Art of Memoir, is nearly as good.

6. Angela Carter: Bury yourself in the feminist magical realism novels and short stories Angela Carter gifted us. You won’t be sorry. They’re fairy tales of the very best kind.

7. Sarah Waters: Sarah Waters has released six British historical novels, spinning around lesbian romances, deviant behaviors, and various intrigues. Every single one of them is fantastic. Her third book, Fingersmith, is my personal favorite. 

8. Pam Houston: As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, I am a girl who loves a Western. Unfortunately, Westerns written by women are rare on the ground. Pam Houston’s short story book, Cowboys Are My Weakness, is the contemporary feminist western collection I didn’t know existed. I adore it. Her other books are also good, particularly her essay collection, A Little More About Me. 

9.  Sandra Cisneros: I have a distinct memory of the first time I read The House on Mango Street, and it’s come to me like a smell each of the many times I’ve opened the book since then. Cisneros makes you FEEL what she’s writing. The rest of her books are nearly as good, and definitely don’t skip the sometimes-erotic poetry in Loose Women. I haven’t read her latest, which is non-fiction stories and essays, but I really ought to get on that.

10. Jesmyn Ward: Jesmyn Ward is an absolutely incredible talent. She takes my breath away. I am not quite sure what to recommend first, but I started with Men We Reaped and I was never sorry to have done so. 

To wrap things up, let me suggest that you not give short shrift to the “genre” writers who get less space in the front of the bookstore or in the reviews, but give us so much joy. In those books, too, it’s easy enough to support women. A couple of new and old favorites:

1. KJ Charles: historical British gay romance. So easy to read, so well-written, so well-plotted. Binge reading at its best.

2. Margaret Atwood: Give her a Pulitzer Prize–I think we should–but Margaret Atwood IS genre fiction. She’s also bloody brilliant. If you haven’t read the Oryx & Crake trilogy, you’re doing yourself a major disservice. 

3. Marge Piercy: Remember up there where I said Mary Shelley invited sci-fi? Well, Marge Piercy invented cyberpunk with Woman on the Edge of Time, which you should read. Both her dystopian sci-fi writing and her historical fiction is brilliant, woman-focused stuff.

4. J.K. Rowling: For God’s sake. Really. Do I need to even say why?

5. Suzanne Collins: So, I know everybody loves Harry Potter, and I understand why. But, for me? The Hunger Games trilogy was some pretty amazing dystopian writing, and actually holds up to scrutiny better than HP. I don’t read a lot of YA fiction, but I’m still thinking about those books years later.

Also - Sandra Newman (wrote an entire heroine quest dystopia novel in pidgin English), Anna north (don’t really know how to categorize her but I really like the life and death of Sophie stark as a fiction novel), Roxane Gay (feminist fiction and nonfiction but not theory), Kathryn Miller Haynes (cheesy mystery) and Jessica knoll (fiction)

Remember the HALT system - next time you feel the urge to use, ask yourself: are you hungry, angry, lonely or tired? If you are, go fix that first! If you’re hungry, eat; if you’re angry or lonely call a friend to chat; and if you’re tired go to sleep or have a nap. Then if you’re still feeling the urge, take five minutes and do some deep breathing, put on your favourite music or re-read your favourite book. Use healthy distractions. I highly recommend creating a Pinterest account if you’re comfortable using a computer during times when you want to use. They have all kinds of interesting stuff on there and so little of it is sexual. :) 

The Velvet Chronicle - 

A news source whose first article was about a detransitioned woman, run by lesbian women of color.

4W - 

“4W is now the leading website in the United States for woman-centered content on gender identity, sexuality, and culture. We are the only explicitly feminist website that gives a platform to gender critical women and pays writers. 4W is providing free content to bring radical feminist ideals to the masses.” (You might have already read “Non-Binary Is the New “Not Like Other Girls,” and it’s Deeply Rooted in Misogyny”).

XX Amazons - 

“You will find writing, photos, art-work, theories, analysis, excellent articles and thoughtful blogs. We offer links to other gender critical websites and resources. We provide support for the radical Feminist Lesbian, Feminist, Radical Feminist and Lesbian Feminist position about gender (abolish) and its creation and perpetration today, including how it harms us. We want you to see XX Amazons as a rich part of the movement protecting women and women’s spaces and as a valuable resource.”   (This source also links to a lot more radical feminist/gender critical sources). 

Feminists in Struggle - 

“Feminists in Struggle (“FIST”) is a national female-only radical feminist network, democratically run, and composed of individuals born female and affiliated female-only feminist organizations. We aim to bring together women from diverse radical and revolutionary feminist traditions. FIST welcomes women of every racial, ethnic, and class background, all ages and abilities/disabilities, whether lesbian, heterosexual or bisexual, who share a common set of feminist principles. We are committed to organizing a serious fight-back against the attacks on our rights from multiple quarters.” (They are having an event this week with Vancouver Rape Relief). 

Women are Human -

An independent news source for stories in gender identity news, not politically affiliated.

There are certainly not enough female-centered spaces in the world right now- but conservative spaces are NOT pro-women. We should be focusing on supporting the existing spaces and creating more spaces.  As always, if our movement is not centering and uplifting the most marginalized women- disabled, lesbian, women of color, etc.- then we cannot claim to fight for all women.  Aligning with the right will harm the movement and harm all women more than it will ever help some women to accomplish short term goals. 

Fist ‘allows’ dual memberships with WoLF because WoLF does legal work for women and works on a non-partisan basis to make legal challenges. We have different reasons that right-wingers to oppose gender laws, but it’s not ‘supporting the right wing’ that we both dislike a bad law. 

These attempts to discredit feminist work should take the source into consideration. What feminist groups are left after you’ve left out all the ‘right-wing feminists?’ None? Oh, for shame, I guess stay home and be quiet then. Be a good little girl, you don’t want to be called a feminazi do you?

People will try to discredit you if they can’t win an argument against you. Smear campaigns exist because they’re effective, but they are meaningless.

Accepting funding from the far right and organizing with them on multiple occasions is not simply working on a ‘non-partisan’ basis. Feminists and the religious right do not actually both ‘dislike a bad law.’ Instead, WoLF completely adopts the same framework for opposing legal protections for women and trans people that most feminists (including those of us critical of overly broad ‘gender identity’ protections) support. WoLF opposes basic rights for trans people flat out instead of only opposing them when they come into conflict with women’s rights, just like ADF. ADF can use them to take down both trans rights and women’s rights based on ‘religious freedom’ and WoLF supports them in it. The more the religious freedom excemption for discrimination is strengthened, the less access women will have to abortion and other reproductive rights services, the more public funding can go to religious schools who hate or reject gay and disabled students, and the closer to theocracy the U.S. becomes. Also no feminist I know wants to keep intersex women and girls out of women’s sports. Who wants that? WoLF and the ADF.

ok this is my drive of essential readings (I have both PDF and epubs where possible). I’ve made a suggested reading order. Change the viewing to ‘list view’ so that you can see the order easily.

For Marxism start with: 1) What is Marxism All About, this Dialectical Materialism Intro and this anticonquista article on Dialectical Materialism 2) Then read through this Marx & Engels folder in roughly the order as numbered 3) Some ways down the road, you can read through this folder for Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Luxemburg 4) You can also listen to RevLeftRadio and Red Menace podcast to supplement as you read. E.g., you can search Red Menace podcast’s on Socialism: Utopian and Scientific after you read it

For Anarchism start with: - this folder, it is already ordered by books that are introductory to anarchism. The only fiction book I have in the drive is here, The Dispossessed by Guin.

For Feminism: 1) Read this book on Philosophical Trends by Ghandy first 2) Then read through the marxist feminism folder or radical feminism folder

Passion and desire and shame and sadness don’t signal that you have to change everything immediately, though. These are sensations that don’t require solutions. Your primary job, in the face of renewed lust for life, is to tolerate the shame of joy.

Because embarrassment is sometimes just a sign that you’ve never lived out in the open before, you’ve never cared more about a feeling than you care about how you’re coming across, you’ve never prioritized happiness over control.

This is why it’s good to take risks that might embarrass you regularly. Because every time you dare to embarrass yourself for the sake of who you are, you’re teaching your body to prioritize joy. You’re teaching yourself to let go of seeming better than the things you love. You’re showing yourself how to feel where you are — to soak in the cool fall air, to breathe in the moon, to love every lopsided moment of your glorious, flawed life.

No. Apparently it's a 15-volume masterwork made by what I think are a hundred experts covering everything from Muslim Sufism to the Hindu Vedas to Slavic gods to the beliefs of the peoples of the Chaco to recent Afro-American religious movments to the structure of the papacy to Selkam religion and back. There are even individual articles on animals like bears and cats. It's honestly scary.

There's a Japanese dude who wrote articles about foxes, toads and frogs, hedgehogs, cocks (direct quote..). There's also articles about.., just reading titles: scholasticism, a lot of Muslim terms I'm not familiar with, theriantropism, that weird Japanese cult who did those sarin attacks, ancient canaaite religion, humor and islam, Jenovah's Witnesses, Gender in Celtic religions, an overview of prehistoric religion, and a lot of things I have never heard about. This is all from different collaborators listed on the same page.

This is just the table of contents. The encyclopedia starts in page 152.

because oxygen. whoops.

if you turn off the oven and leave everything closed while you get your extinguisher and call the fire department or whatever, there is a reasonable chance it will use up the oxygen and put *itself* out.