Recent Stories
[Braden] Do You Care?
Young people in Jackson are grieving this week- but you didn't see the reason for their grief on the breaking news when we lost another student to violence. In fact, all news sources in Jackson reported different information, and they asked questions that they probably won't bother to follow up on for the answers. Young people know their day-to-day world doesn't make breaking news.
[Braden] Conversations With (28-plus) Women
Conversations with my two best girlfriends occur while we wait in the drive-thru line for a Diet Coke, during our new baby girl's nap time (we have an 8-month-old in our mix now) or when we are rushing through our grocery shopping. We have accepted this reality, as we are now all older than 28, and have also submitted to the sad fact that our once-profound wisdom has been simplified into Forrest Gump-isms: Life is like a box of chocolates, and sometimes there is sh*t in them.
So Are We Talking About Banner and Congressional Hearings?
http://www.inform.com/related_content/41825157,0
David, we love you, but you are wrong about this one. Even if you're music is a representation of society, it sure would be nice for a strong man from around these parts to say that how we treat our women is NOT cool.
The $176 Million Dollar Hymen
"WASHINGTON - Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.
Dignity-Rutgers Team on Oprah Today
Of course I have more to say, but in my busy chick world, for now I only have to say it's time. It's time to use that repressed energy to let folks know it's enough. We don't have to live in a world where pop culture defines them with degrading language. We don't have to live in a world where our sons learn to tear women down to build themselves up. We don't have to be quiet and just accept that our society is what it is, because it's not.
[Chickdom] Exactly Where We Ought to Be
Life had become overwhelming. I truly believed the children had fed my cleverness to the cat, which explained why the cat puked on my Swiffer every day for a solid week. I mean, a cat has to have boundaries, and Jack could only take so much of my singing and talking to him as if he was human before he dropped his cookies on the only clean surface in the kitchen. The solitude of motherhood had gotten to me.
Polishing Southern Tarnish
Well, I declare. Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays must have my double-first-name aunts on speed dial for their second offering...
Dads and Purity Balls-Respect My Authortay!
I've sat on this one too long. Feministing has blogged about the ickiness of the Purity Ball for a while now, and this one is quite the ickiest.
Singing Without Shame
Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen, and I are pulling thick wires out of glittered sweet potatoes on a farm in Clinton. Inside a barn, two Sweet Potato Queens, two Spud Studs and the Head SPQ Wannabe are diligently painting, glittering and prettying up the Official Parade Float for the 25th Annual Mal's St. Patrick's Day Parade. A hospital in Arkansas has given Jill a throne, which sparkles with obvious adoration and appreciation, to place on this year's float. If you've heard Jill Conner Browne speak, or know her at all, you can appreciate this token of affection. Jill says she "brings Jesus to folks who cuss like sailors," and she ceaselessly travels to tell others to "Do what makes your heart sing." She is the thinking and laughing woman's Beth Moore or Joyce Meyer.
[Chick] Hands Off My ‘You Know'
As Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," would say, I come from "down there" people. Actually, I come from "you know" people. That was our whispered code for vagina, penis, uterus, buttocks and even pregnancy. When I was young, I did not know, but who was I to ask my mother? I'm still not sure she knows.