Notes and Notations

"I exist as I am, that is enough."

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:17:36 -0400

“I exist as I am, that is enough.”

- Walt Whitman (via thatkindofwoman)

mercurialme: I knew y’all would have a gif set of this by...

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:59:30 -0400

mercurialme:

I knew y’all would have a gif set of this by morning.

theamericanprospect: “I really like your idea. If we had guns...

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:50:58 -0400

theamericanprospect:

“I really like your idea. If we had guns that shot chocolate, not only would our country be safer, it would be happier. People love chocolate. You are a good boy.”

Joe Biden wins at constituent services. This letter, to a Wisconsin second-grader, is so sweet and sad and just right.

Photo

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:05:56 -0400

lolsofunny: (lol here!)

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:03:30 -0400

lolsofunny:

(lol here!)

crashinglybeautiful: I think of you often. Especially in the...

Wed, 01 May 2013 06:38:56 -0400

crashinglybeautiful:

I think of you often. Especially in the evenings, when I am on the balcony and it’s too dark to write or to do anything but wait for the stars. A time I love. One feels half disembodied, sitting like a shadow at the door of one’s being while the dark tide rises. Then comes the moon, marvelously serene, and small stars, very merry for some reason of their own. It is so easy to forget, in a worldly life, to attend to these miracles.

—Katherine Mansfield, The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1: 1903-1917

Photograph: Max Dupain, Magnolia at Night, 1983

politi-gal: the punchlines…

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:48:58 -0400

politi-gal:

the punchlines…

infinitenap: friend

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:07:05 -0400

infinitenap:

friend

Photo

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:03:54 -0400

brokenessaside: volcanize: This Explains Everything I’m really...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:08:10 -0400

brokenessaside:

volcanize:

This Explains Everything

I’m really proud of this one guys

This is beautiful

weight-a-second: I aM DEAD

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:36:58 -0400

weight-a-second:

I aM DEAD

the-beauty-of-words-blog: Words #120 … wait I think...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:30:48 -0400

the-beauty-of-words-blog:

Words #120

… wait

I think this is a mistake

abrtn: Still by Daughter

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:08:19 -0400

abrtn:

Still by Daughter

"In the surface of the great pearl he could see dream forms. He picked the pearl from the dying flesh..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:17:15 -0400

“In the surface of the great pearl he could see dream forms. He picked the pearl from the dying flesh and held it in his palm, and he turned it over and saw that its curve was perfect.”

- John Steinbeck, The Pearl (19)

Photo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:54:41 -0400

"I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:42:09 -0400

“I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore.”

- Kurt Vonnegut (via you-would-have-loved-it)

Photo

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:35:20 -0400

Photo

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:09:47 -0400

odditiesoflife: Long Term Exposure of Mating Gold...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:23:50 -0400

odditiesoflife:

Long Term Exposure of Mating Gold Fireflies

Japanese photographer Yuki Karo goes to various places around Maniwa and Okayama Prefectures in Japan and uses long exposure to capture some stunning shots of mating gold fireflies.

"The modern ‘epidemics’ of teen pregnancy and obesity can be understood as a modern manifestation of..."

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:50:13 -0400

“

The modern ‘epidemics’ of teen pregnancy and obesity can be understood as a modern manifestation of these sorts of anxieties about the ‘contagion’ of working class and poor communities, about “unregulated” female sexuality. Many sociologists have used the idea of “moral panic” to describe how society’s wider anxieties (about criminals, communities of color, the poor, immigrants, etc.) are framed as threatening to the social order, and transformed into hostility and volatility.

I don’t mean to imply that teen pregnancy is necessarily good for young women, or that there aren’t health outcomes of obesity (although the data has been surprising – with a recent analysis suggesting that being overweight might be actually associated with a lower risk of death). What I would like to argue is that since these “epidemics” – and these campaigns – disproportionately break down across class and race lines, these ‘shame and blame’ posters in fact serve to throw a cloak of moral legitimacy upon race and class panic.

The panic here is clear: marginalized bodies are out of control, unable to care for themselves or their children. Self-control (regarding sexuality, regarding food), so valued a Puritanical American ideal, is disintegrating, and a disintegration of the social fabric is sure to follow.

Public health campaigns which rely on shame rather than empowerment, which cast individual blame rather than crafting collective solutions, which target marginalized bodies rather than corporate entities like the food production and distribution industry, can be seen as symptoms of wider social ills: racist and classist public control disguised as public health.

”

- This is why Sayantani DasGupta remains one of my favorite thinkers/writers. This post on the New York City’s “shame-and-blame” teen pregnancy and anti-obesity campaigns dig deep into the racism and classism of the city’s efforts. Check out the rest of the post on the R today! (via racialicious)