New Blog

Well, the new blog is up, called “Doing Feminism”.

Thank you all for reading the Nighttime Philosopher, it was a blast! I’m pretty excited about the new blog, so be sure to join me over there if you like.

Quick Announcement

Just in case any of you are still around, I’ve decided to end my run with the Nighttime Philosopher. It was very enjoyable while it lasted, but it’s time to move on with a new blog (and a new name). I’ve been thinking of blog names over the past few days and have thought of a few, but I need it to fit real well! I’m still going to focus on women’s issues and general misogynistic bullshit, just the Nighttime Philosopher wasn’t cutting it any longer. So, stay tuned and i’ll hopefully be announcing a new blog soon!

This is Who Wants to Represent Edmonton??

Bill Whatcott. If that name doesn’t make you shudder yet, I guarantee you that it will. Running for the position of mayor of Edmonton, he’s something… special. I don’t want to ruin anything for you.

Go to a Conservative forum here and click the link at the top to download his pamphlet. I give you my word that it will produce some sort of reaction from you.

Under Construction!

So, I decided to change my domain name. Please be patient while I get everything else back in order such as my links and whatnot. Thanks!

This is… Interesting

My good friend Elena sent me this link and I thought some of you might be interested in reading it. Coincidentally, earlier we were talking about how potentially dangerous we believe studies like this can be. Anyway, enjoy!

Women’s Studies Praxis Project

So it’s been a long time since I last posted. It feels that way, anyway. How I wish I had the time to post daily. I’ve been craving it so much! I certainly hope you (my readers) haven’t abandoned me! The next several weeks will prove to be interesting ones, I’m sure. But, for now, I’m going to leave you with a description of what I’ll be pursuing over the next couple of months. I’ll be sure to post my journal entries—I have to write one every week—and hopefully they’re interesting! I’m already set to teach in my old high school and hopefully some in the Edmonton area will allow me to teach there as well. If you have any suggestions to add to the project, I definitely encourage them! Anyway, here it is:

In undertaking my praxis project, I have decided to take the activism route and raise public awareness about feminism. The project itself will entail me visiting a high school(s) and talking to students about feminism and (possibly) current issues in women’s studies. Should this not be sufficient, however, I may also contact those responsible for the Alberta high school curriculum and inquire about the possibility of including a history of feminism in the curriculum. In undertaking this project, I will develop an outline that I will follow throughout the class. I will also read material that may be useful to those who are new to feminism – I have already begun compiling material from Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism – so that I may capture and maintain the attention of the students as well as engage them on current issues. I hope to teach in a high school as soon as possible and then try to teach at local high schools, perhaps including a reference in an attempt to convince them to allow me in the school. I believe I will have no trouble fulfilling the minimum time commitment, but I am hoping to surpass it, especially if multiple schools allow me to teach.

From my experience I certainly hope to determine if activism is the route I truly wish to take. Either way, I am undoubtedly looking forward to this. From an academic stance, I hope to gain a better understanding of others’ views on feminism, especially those who have very likely had little or no contact with it. I also hope to convince some of the students to enroll in at least one women’s studies class. This is my plan at the conception of the project.

The Other 9/11

I’m sure many of you have heard about what I’m going to link to you in a moment. Today, it’s important to remember those that were lost in the events that unfolded not only in 2001, but also in 1973. Again, I’m sure many of you have heard of this, but as I am certain there are those who have not, I hope they come across this. I wish I could go more in depth into it, but unfortunately I have plenty of reading to do. Wikipedia will have to do for today.

Educate Yourself.

Meme’d for the Very First Time

Okay, so Sara meme’d me. I’ve never done this before, but here I go…

Instructions:Remove the link of the top blog and add your blog at the bottom:

• Kissing The Dogwood
• Sunrays and Saturdays
• VirusHead
• Virtual Bourgeois
• My Beautiful Wickedness
• Feline Formal Shorts
• Sara Speaking
• The Nighttime Philosopher

Replace the last person’s answers to the questions with 5 of your own.
Pass this meme on to five fellow bloggers

What were you doing ten years ago? (Five things)
1. I would have been ten years old. Back in school.
2. I bought ice cream from the local convenience store a lot.
3. Staying with my dad every second weekend.
4. Watching cartoons, probably.
5. Playing video games.

What were you doing one year ago? (Five things)

1. Starting my first year of university. I was studying hard near the beginning!
2. Stressing out because I had to drop Japanese since I was too advanced for the class.
3. Getting used to living on my own.
4. Attending LOTS of meetings and training sessions. A bonus was all the free food, but i did get a bit sick of pizza.
5. Wondering how much longer my dog was going to live for.

Five snacks you enjoy.

1. Soy-based ice cream
2. Cookies
3. Cereal bars
4. Rye crackers
5. Tortilla chips and salsa

Five Songs you know the lyrics to…

1. “This Modern Love” by Bloc Party, since I can (sort of) cover it on violin.
2. “Purple Bottle” by Animal Collective. Learned it because it makes me think of Michelle.
3. “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang
4. “Hounds of Love” by the Futureheads (Actually, almost ANY Futureheads song)
5. “Rebellion (Lies)” by the Arcade Fire

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire.

1. Pay off my student loans and save some for my tuition for the rest of my degree.
2. Organize a huge event educating people on the hardships women face today. HUGE.
3. Get my own house, preferably close to campus.
4. Give some to my closest friends, or possibly just pay off their tuition for the year and any debts.
5. Do something else nice for my close friends.

Five Bad Habits.

1. Procrastination. It’s terrible. I think I’m getting better, though.
2. Buying a book almost every time I walk into a bookstore.
3. I daydream way too much. Often I’ll be sitting in a lecture and all of a sudden I’ll have no idea what we’re discussing.
4. I seek for recognition. I see this as a very selfish habit.
5. Volunteering until the point that I can’t take everything on any longer.

Five things you like to do.

1. Educating myself. Reading books, articles, debating, anything.
2. Cook. I LOVE to cook.
3. Wake up early. I really need to work on doing that more often.
4. Help people. I love working at my new job at the Student financial Aid Information Centre, for example.
5. Chess. I am a chess geek. If you were here right now, I’d ask if you wanted to play.

Five things you will never wear again.

1. Hats.
2. Leather.
3. Coveralls (hopefully).
4. Tie-dye. (Yes, Sara!)
5. Briefs.

Five favorite toys.

1. My laptop.
2. My digital camera.
3. My imagination.
4. My chessboard.
5. My cookware.

Five things you hate to do.

1. Mow the lawn. The absolutely worst thing (unless it’s a small lawn). I’m used to huge lawns, however, which take a few hours to mow.
2. Volunteer to appease someone.
3. Waste my time debating with someone who refuses to see their prejudice.
4. Put up with people due to the circumstances that I cannot stand.
5. Forget my privilege and say something stupid as a result of it.

Okay, my blog is still relatively new, but I’ll tag… Christian Feminist, Rainbow Girl, tanglethis, Elaine, and Simonne.

Working for the Cause

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of ways that we can improve the way our society views and treats women. First of all, am I really making an impact blogging about these issues? I think I am, but perhaps not as much as I could be. After all, I know I have friends who read my blog, as well as passersby, and then my regular readers on top of that. The first two groups are probably the most important visitors, who might come across new ideas here. As for the regular readers, though, am I not simply preaching to the choir?

I’ve been thinking about why I write on these issues lately. I think I write about these issues that affect women because I want people to think about them. Me writing an article isn’t going to cause some great change directly, but if I can get one person to think about an issue I’ve brought up, then it’s worth it.

Now, beyond getting people to think, what else is there that we can do? Or, what can we do to get people to think on a larger scale? First, the feminist bloggers need to take these issues beyond writing (not that they aren’t already). We need to talk to people about feminism and why we think it’s a worthwhile cause. It’s the people that don’t understand feminism that likely will not support it. We need to bring up issues that affect women and discuss them in public settings. Hell, screw it. Here’s a list of things we can do to help women and to spread feminism:

1 – Talk to family, friends, acquaintances, anyone about feminism and why it’s important.

2 – We must educate ourselves on major issues that affect women such as genital mutilation, objectification, assault, etc. No issue isn’t worth pursuing and having knowledge about the issues will further the amount of information we can pass on to others.

3 – When we talk to others, we need to make sure they understand what feminism is. There are far too many misconceptions about it and many won’t even consider associating themselves with feminism until these misconceptions are cleared up.

4 – We must familiarize ourselves with important events that pertain to feminism and make them known to others.

5 – When we encounter sexism, be it in the workplace, in public, at home, etc., we must act against it. Silence and indifference will allow the behaviour to continue.

6 – We must draw attention to ourselves. Any attention drawn towards us and our cause will cause people to think.

This is just a start. There are so many things out there, but these were what I got off the top of my head. Please feel free to add your own and I will put them on the list along with your name. This post has been pretty disorganized, but I think I let out some thoughts that I really needed to let out.

Apologies!

I really should have stated this earlier, but I’m currently in the process of moving, getting ready for school, and such. Please be patient and new posts will come! Thank you all for staying with me thus far; it’s been a blast and I’m sure there will be many more exciting matters to discuss in the future.