Tay-Tay

hope chests were something young women would do in their teens in the 19th/early 20th century. basically they would collect, make, and be gifted homemaking supplies throughout their teens; things like cutlery, china, quilts, jam jars, pillowcases, sheets, pots and pans, etc. They would keep all these in a big ol’ chest so that when they married and moved to live with their husbands and start a family, they already had a bunch of homemaking equipment. 

You can't expect it to be built for you already. Community organizing has fallen apart in a lot of places. That means you may need to be the one to start it. Someone has to.

Your presence will matter. Local community networks are SMALL. That means that every single person has an outsized presence and an outsized absence. One person dropping off the map can feel catastrophic, but that also means that one person stepping up can make all the difference.

Find a center. Any community group needs a steady base. That can be a physical location - that's why coffeehouses were historically such effective grounds for building political and creative movements. It can also be a person or people who are consistent and reliable. If one person shows up to make space for work on a regular basis, they'll be there when the second person shows up. They'll be there for the third. That's how it starts.

Play secretary. A lot of activist groups are starving for some basic admin support. Maybe you're not up for being the leader, but maybe you can organize the Google drive. Maybe you can be the one that keeps phone numbers. There's a lot of unsexy shit work out there that needs to be done.

Count your eggs before you start baking. There is an economics of labor to why activism circles have shrunk. Be mindful of the time and hands you have available when deciding what work you're able to take on.

Build tolerance, build coalitions. Small organizing means you can't afford to fracture over every little disagreement. Decide your mission and your values from the start, the things that are non-negotiable, and don't get hung up on the rest. Be prepared to work with people you don't like. Focus on the task at hand.

Network! Know what other related or like-minded projects are out there, whether they are groups like yours in other areas or groups in your community who are doing work that intersects with yours.

"danny's ghost side struggles to leave amity park (his haunt) behind when the class goes on a field trip "

“Why would i want to do what a man can do (work) when i could bake bread for my husband at home all day?” can very vividly be interpreted as “why would i want to become a useless cog in a machine where my labor isnt my own, when i can at least own my own labor at home and watch its inherent use to the world happen right in-front of me” if you have that anti-capitalist lense.

Its just that most of these girls were raised to believe capitalism is inherently good, so their frustrations with their exploitation as a worker have to stem from something else they were taught because they have no anti-capitalist lens to do real analysis work.

Like Y’all remember in 2020 when everyone was baking bread and making crafts and going “why didn’t we get to do this before?” and then suddenly theres a new rise to anti-feminism-allowing-women-to-have-a-job we haven’t seen since like the 50’s.