Gina

nemesissy:

sunbearsbask:

shortformblog:

• 80Kmarijuana smokers expected to celebrate 4/20 out in the open in Denver, Colorado today, the first such day in the state’s new era of legalized cannabis use. The consequence? Cops surrounding the event won’t be looking to make arrests or citations — rather, they’ll be focused on security in the aftermath of last week’s Boston marathon bombing. Which feels, frankly, like finally fighting the right enemies. source

“cops”
“security”
“the right enemies”
“legalized cannabis”

4/20, y’all

I’m not anti-drug/edge at all myself, buuuut

if your ‘legalisation’ politics are about ‘yay stoner culture! WOO HOO’

and not, like, dismantling the security apparatus and the prison industrial complex, making it so the State has fewer pretexts for incarcerating and/or deporting youth of color and harassing poor and mentally-ill people, and comprehensive harm-reduction measures for drug users-

no you can’t have any of my cookies, go fall into a ravine

ALL OF THIS. nemesissy, you remain my #1 blog crush.

nemesissy:

also, I have no idea how one can be triumphalist about cannabis legalisation when:

a) it’s happened in two of the whitest states in the country

b) there is no sign of an accompanying push to stop racial profiling/stop-and-frisk, drug testing as part of hiring/HR practises and welfare eligibility, mandatory minimum sentencing for other drugs, or

c) to adopt needle exchange programs, safe injection sites, or any kind of supportive social services for people in recovery.

ON POINT.

A friend of mine with fibromyalgia made a post on facebook today about struggling with believing what her body is experiencing sometimes, and also struggling with believing others before she became chronically ill. I wrote this back in response, and wanted to post it here so I remember it.

I also have fibro, and I’m with you with regards to a lot of this. I honestly didn’t think most [chronically ill] people were over-reacting/sensitive [before my diagnosis], mostly because I already had A LOT of chronically ill & disabled folks in my life. But I did & still do struggle with believing what my body is experiencing. I was taught a lot of lessons about “sucking it up & dealing” growing up — and of course that is all *deeply* influenced by class stuff and gender stuff and abuse history, right?! But one thing I’ve really had to learn as I’ve navigated being chronically ill is that my hard-won, bone-deep, very working-class (and hustler, and hard femme) tendencies to just ride things out and make something out of nothing and POWER THRU!!! are actually really fucking dangerous if I take them to extreme. They are ways to cope and ways to shine that served me well for a very long time, no doubt. And I’m proud that I am a hard fucking worker. That said, my body actually *deserves better* than running running running all the time. My body deserves better than making something outta nothing & just powering thru on sheer will. My body deserves abundance & care.

And okay, I know this comment is all ME ME ME GINA GINA GINA, but clearly/also, YOUR lovely body deserves abundance & care, too. Everyone’s does!

I’m bad at writing about it online, but if you ever wanna talk about higher education, class, race, family, code-switching, what it is to be a scholarship baby… Well, I’m hungry for those conversations right now, esp. with other queer ragamuffin outsider-y folks who did not expect themselves to go to grad school or work in the academy but who have found themselves (t)here.

Grad school has mostly been an awesome ride for me, but man, academia is also a weird world, and it still feels unfamiliar to me in ways, and so often, I feel like I don’t know what the hell I am doing. Even though I am a damn capable person. Maybe this is just old class shame in disguise?

Also, I have a draft of like half my thesis due tomorrow, and editing has been like pulling teeth.

Okay. Breaking for dinner, and then, onward & upward.

Also: How do you unstick yourself when yr stuck?

But mostly this is just really funny.

I have a nice Mac laptop that works great. It was a gift from my Nana when I started grad skool in 2009, so it is “older” now, I guess, but it still feels hella fancy. Previous to this really nice computer, I had an 8 y/o PC w/ no wireless & no battery that was held together by duct tape (yes, really). It freaked out whenever I so much as downloaded a single song b/c songs took up too much memory.

So, even though I have had my nice computer for a few years, I seriously only realized THIS WEEK that I can do things like download entire seasons of tv shows, or albums, or movies, and my computer will NOT die THE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DETH from it, because it is NOT 8 y/o & held together by duct tape.

I am laughing at myself really hard about this. Also, dude, now my laptop is like Xmas & Easter & my birthday all in one!

Apparently I should share my Class Rage more often? ;)

Full disclosure: This stuff ALWAYS feels really complex for me to write about, both personally and politically. I mean, yes, I come from a working-class background and I’ve been a poor person pretty much my whole adult life… But I also get by okay now, and I get TONS of privilege in other ways. Especially as a white person, as someone who is a female-assigned genderqueer and who can pass for a cis lady, and as someone who is disabled but can pass for able-bodied. See also, I was a scholarship kid at both a very fancy private high school and a very fancy private college, and I’m in graduate school now (at a much less fancy state school). Educational privilege/access really fucking matters and plays into this. I’m very privileged in many ways, no question. And esp. because I wanna be mindful of that, my tendency is usually to step back and let other people talk first about this stuff, you know?

See also: I honestly still have a lot of shame about growing up poor! And my growing up poor is also complicated by the fact that my parents did eventually class up around the time I hit high school (although their class status has changed again, now that they are both unemployed and in their 60s). I grew up knowing poverty AND knowing class privilege; I’ve had it easy in many ways and not-very-easy in many other ways.

And, still. MY HEART HURTS when I see Hipster Queer Trust Fund Babies wearing fucking trucker caps & workshirts. Le Sigh.