Jackie Koerner

Shooting Our Children

Guns are killing people, and most horrifically, children.

I’m not going to blame Columbine. I’m not going to blame the uneducated people in society. I’m not going to blame the people who join gangs. I’m not going to blame the media.

I’m blaming every single gun supporter.

The Constitution was written hundreds of years ago. Society has evolved. We no longer have to bare arms in order to protect our rebel selves from the oppression of a monarchy.

You use penicillin, toilets, and refrigeration. Let’s bring your views on gun control to this century too.

Children have tragically died because guns are in society. Children will continue to die because you encourage people to have guns in society.

No, I don’t want to hear bullshit about how this is such a small percentage of deaths and cancer or car accidents kill more children. Gun deaths are preventable deaths.

Here is a list of the children who have been injured or died this year due to guns being in our society.

If you’re with me, please speak out about guns in our society. The only way we can stop this is to continue to fight for appropriate gun control.

Still on the fence? Read more…

Gun Violence Archive

Boy, 6, fatally shoots toddler brother

Shots fired into home killing 9 year-old girl

Boy, 11, kills 8 year-old girl over puppies

D.C. 3 year-old fatally shot by child playing with gun

Don’t get me wrong, I love a shiny new new Apple product just as much as the next person. I have even been smitten with the Apple Watch since it came out, even though I have absolutely no practical use for such a techy trinket.

My other half asked the other day if they did in fact come out with a Rose Gold version of the Watch just like they did with the iPhone and if it came with a pink band. I knew both the Rose Gold Watch and pink band existed, but I went on the website today to triple check.

For a company that has traditionally celebrated originality, you may only have the Rose Gold face in these 2 band options:

That is unless you wish to fork out additional Benjamins beyond the purchase price for another band. This isn’t exclusive to the Rose Gold face either. It is across the board with each face variation.

I know this slim selection offering is to simplify product processing, but why not then just sell the faces and the bands separately? For a brand that people have come to know for innovation and style, this bums me out. Let the people choose and show how they Think Different!

Girls Against the Grain

Women’s issues are always on my mind, and I am always eager to hear what other feminists (and opposers) have to say. My ears perked up a couple weeks ago when a story came on NPR about Marissa Mayer’s second maternity leave.

On a professional note, she did double the amount of paid maternity leave for Yahoo employees, yet she did away with telecommuting. She also built a nursery next to her office to use with her four month-old son. Yes, she is a CEO of a very large company and arguably works more hours than the traditional full-time employee. But does her clout and wealth allow her certain benefits not afforded to other working moms? Yes. Does taking only a few weeks of maternity leave and working throughout set presidence for other women taking maternity leave? Unfortunately, yes.

While any woman should be able to do what is best for her personal situation, in this country, society groups women together when considering what women should do. It is as if we are incapable of making decisions for ourselves. We are judged for taking time off. We are judged for asking for flexible work schedules. We are judged for bringing our children to conferences or work. We are judged when our children get sick. We are judged constantly, regardless of what the laws state.

Unsurprisingly, men with children are rewarded in the workplace while women are reprimanded.

I loathe the whole lean in crap circulating right now. As if women cannot be multiple identities at once. We can work and be mothers if that is what we want to do. Marissa Mayer, as well as other women, should not be admonished by the public for only taking a few weeks of maternity leave. We, however, should recognize as a society our role in women’s issues, including paid maternity leave and support of working mothers.

Find out more:

Political Science Baby Ban

Managers avoid hiring women to avoid maternity leave

Could ‘Free the Nipple’ be working against equality?

Could inviting women to fight for equality harm equality? I think so. Especially if it suggests women fight for their rights to be able to go topless by going topless.

I know the ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign is about the principle of owning our bodies; I, however, am with Alyssa Milano. There are other women’s issues we need to tackle first: breastfeeding rights, maternity leave, sexual assault, wage equality, and reinforced gender stereotypes to name a few.

From the wikipedia page on the ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign:

Conversely, most states in the US note either explicitly or implicitly that any kind of exposure of the female areola is an act of indecent exposure and therefore a criminal offense. Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington are the only states whose laws expressly differentiate breast-feeding mothers from performances of “public lewdness.”

Only about 1/6 of states in the U.S. even differentiate between breastfeeding and other displays of the breasts. Online services frequently delete pictures and videos of women breastfeeding, yet allow other graphic, arguably inappropriate images and videos.

Honestly, friends, we have some work to do and I’m not sure how running around topless will help.

Let’s Talk about Sexual Assault

Lady Gaga reacts to sexual assault on college campuses. It’s an epidemic that we’re ignoring. It’s savage. Diminishing. Accepted. Haunting. Common. Isolating.

One in 5 female and 1 in sixteen male college students will be sexually assaulted this year. Think about this: smaller colleges have class sizes of about 15 students. So that means in each classroom you walk past on campus, at least 3 students in that room will be sexually assaulted this year.

Eight out of 10 people know their assaulter. I did.

Sexual assault is something that will stay with you always. Over a decade later, I can still close my eyes and remember every detail.

Sixty-three percent of sexual assault crimes are not reported to the police.

No one asks to be sexually assaulted. Ever.

Help someone you know break the silence. Make sure you listen.

For more information and resources:

RAINN Rape, Abuse & Insest National Network

Sept 21 Washington Post article, “What a massive sexual assault survey found at 27 top U.S. universities”

What Senator McCaskill and others are doing with the Campus Accountability and Safety Act

Watch Your Language

Language has a profound impact on how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. I know some deliberately use inappropriate language to hurt others, but others I am sure unknowingly use inappropriate language. Make the choice today to examine your language, change it, and encourage others to do so too!

http://amaditalks.tumblr.com/post/42429337526/reminder

Opinions on Women

On the way to the car I overheard 2 20-something male students and and their father in conversation. One of the 20-something’s said:

I think it would be ok for a 40 year-old woman to…

I promptly turned around and said:

I don’t know what you said after that, but frankly you have the wrong genitalia for that opinion.

The Brains and the Bodies

This morning Chris sent me this article. I don’t know how to feel about this. No, I do. This saddens me.

I am busy. I work part time at Saint Louis University. I run a non-profit. I am working on my dissertation for my Ph.D. I have 2 kids: 1 being very young, and the other being heavily involved in dance and music, so I also play taxi 5 of the 7 days in a week. I do the brunt of the childcare, household management, and housework.

With as busy as I am, I could not imagine hiring someone to help lighten my load.

Some parts of this sharing economy are wonderful. For example, Chris and I enjoyed using AirBnB for our honeymoon and we’d totally use it again. Other services make me wonder if people are getting their fair share. This story from NPR provides a few examples and tidbits about the sharing economy. Most experiences are positive, but is this just from the users side? Again I wonder what the agents are getting.

Even now, when women outnumber men in the formal workplace, they continue to bear the brunt of that invisible domestic work, often for many, many hours a week. So women — those who can afford it, at least — have the most to win from passing that load on to somebody else…

75% of Alfreds are women

What does this say to the rest of society about domestic work? Women still have to get it done. Now we are ordering people through an app to take care of the boring, messy bits of life. Likely, the person fulfilling your needs will be a woman. Does she get paid what she should for such integral work?

How will this erode as time goes on? What sort of implications does the sharing economy mean for the future economy?

I am befuddled by ordering life through an app. While I do not enjoy doing some things in life, it is part of being human.

Another bicycle messenger showed me in his phone’s settings how the app could track him at all hours, which he found Orwellian. He talked for a few minutes about how he’s just doing this part-time between creative gigs, and hoped to get out soon. Before we finished talking, his app flashed a message: “Let’s move!” and he pushed off.

I have no desire to work more than 40 hours a week. I am an extremely productive employee. No one should regularly work more than 40 hours a week. Either the demands are too great, or the productivity too low. I love my career, but it is work to live, not live to work. I hope to never have an app tell me, “Let’s move!” I wish others didn’t as well.

Pocket Equality

Today needs an exorcism. Why? The f!cking pockets on women’s clothes!

Pockets on women’s clothes, for those who know, seriously suck. They are always super tiny, unless on man-shaped clothes. Why can women not have clothes with a great fit and actual pockets?! These particular pockets on my pants today BARELY fit my 4 fingers in them, and I’m rather petite.

This morning I dropped everything at different times of the morning due to said tiny, useless pockets! I dropped my debit card. Then my keys. The best: my iPhone. My phone went under the car so far that I couldn’t even reach it while lying on the ground. I had to back the car up during the morning rush in the parking garage, block traffic, grab my phone and park again.

So…these pants I’m wearing, they’re going in the trash today at 4 pm, simply because they are so frustrating. Women’s pants make us carry everything in our hands, thus not being able to move fluidly, shake hands easily, and have to bumble and fumble if we have to open a door. Carry a purse? I hate that too.

Somebody, somewhere, start a pocket equality movement!

The Cloak of Invisibility Allows Gender-Based Violence

You can be an asshole on the Internet, but why?

On Monday I began listening to Invisibilia’s most recent episode, Our Computers, Ourselves and finished it yesterday afternoon.

The second half of the show strongly resonated in my mind. As the story goes, this commuter train rider was tired of rude commuters so he started a Twitter account where he’d post pictures of the infractions in attempt to shame rude people on the train. His crowd shaming efforts soon turned shameful. Not only did he post pictures of rude behavior, but he began being rude himself – the worst was posting a picture of a woman with terrible acne scarring and making a snide remark. When word about this Twitter account got out, his followers skyrocketed.

I’m sure there are other situations like this. Person is a jerk. People are fascinated by the tragedy. Jerk gets an audience.

Why are we as society so fascinated with the negative?

Why is it ok to say these things on the Internet?

The Internet is full of trolls. (See: This American Life “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS”) I theorize the troll to person ratio is 4:1. They will troll on anyone for any unconceivable reason. Even worse than the trolls are completely heinous dungeon dwellers. These individuals find it completely acceptable to threaten women, often with vicious, violent acts.

Gender-based violence is nothing new. There are still people in society who will say such comments or threats to a woman’s face, but the cloak of invisibility people feel the Internet provides seems to turn down the volume on the super-ego and unleash the unbridled id.

Unfortunately it seems to take a rally cry, hash tagging and a bunch of blogging to hold social media venues accountable for reacting to gender-based violence. For now, most offenses still receive boiler plate responses that include phrases like:

Just like when we are interacting in a public space we may overhear conversations that are offensive…

This same platform chirped further about how users can find such content “frustrating”. Yes, being told to “go get raped” or “get raped with a broken bottle” is totally frustrating, just like this rush hour traffic.

It is never ok to suggest or threaten violence against anyone. This plague of gender-based violence is open for everyone to see and affect. The best cure for a bully is an ally. Stand up and be an ally against gender-based violence. Don’t give the assholes an audience, report their heinous behavior, and their soapbox will cave in.

Author: Jackie Koerner