Who we are… A community of women and trans people in Seattle working to promote a more welcoming environment for cyclists in these underrepresented communities.
Sometimes critical mass (every last friday of the month) can be too many boys. And sometimes that's not empowering. don't get us wrong, we love critical mass. AND we want our own space too. we deserve it, damnit.
So meet us on the second friday of every month for a ride around town to celebrate ourselves and our bad-ass biking selves. We meet around 630 at Westlake Square (between pike and pine on 4th ave downtown seattle.) you can't miss us. we're flexible in our routes and ways of riding.
Come learn about your rights as a biker and ride with a kick ass group of people. See you then!
All ages welcome! All skill level and bike-knowledge levels welcome!
"anarcha-feminism means being against all oppression, domination, and authority, but focussing on gender oppression, not because it is most important, but because it affects so many of us and must be dealt with. i say gender oppression instead of just patriarchy or sexism because i think feminism needs to be broader than just women's issues. gender oppression includes patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, heteronormativity, transphobia, the gender binary, fatphobia + other body image issues, sexual violence, etc"
i admit it. i am a big fat hypocrite. my life is basically full of contradictions. i am dedicated to sustainable communities. but i can't talk to my exgirlfriend. i'm a vegan that eats ice cream, an environmentalist that buys overpackaged shit, an anarchist that is overly invested in money. i like to pretend i know everything, but really i don't. i usually am making it up. maybe it's a white thing, but i have an incredible sense of entitlement. i think people with entitlement are irritating as shit. yeah, i judge others, and usually, it's for things that i do too. i say guilt is a useless emotion, but i spend an inordinate amount of time feeling guilty. i ride my bike every day but can't change a flat tire for the life of me. i will go to great lengths to avoid conflict. i beat around the bush. sometimes i am passive aggressive and vague and indirect. i think elitism is completely useless and i also think i am better than people sometimes. i also think that i am worse sometimes. to be honest, i'd like to shoot water balloons at the construction workers across the street from my apartment. i know it's not their fault and they need jobs, etc etc but they wake me up at 6 am every FUCKING day. i'm afraid of men. there i said it. i don't like men, often. i'm especially afraid of white men, but of course, i'm white and most people in my family are white. i think i am absolutely adorable and i often spend so much time looking in the mirror, i forget what i am supposed to be doing. sometimes i flirt with people, not because i like them, but because i want them to like me, and i will feel better about myself. i am attracted to wounded people that can't communicate so that i can 'heal' them and feel better about my communication abilities. i usually pretend i know exactly what i am doing, even when i trip or hit my head or something. i just pretend i did it on purpose. i pretend not to care about fashion, but i am very invested in how i look. i am also overly invested in what other people think about me, even if i know i will never see them again, EVER. i pedestalize others. i pretend i feel confident, even when i don't. i am working on unlearning the racism i have been taught from a young age, and sometimes, i'm not so good at it. i play the 'i'm a better anti-racist white ally than you' game, simultaneously while judging other people for doing it. i pretend i am really opinionated and am not intimidated by anyone. i spend a lot of time thinking about things to say to people that think sexism or racism are things of the past. but then, when it comes down to it, i mumble something incoherent and kick myself later for letting another opportunity for education go by. like on the bus yesterday when this guy commented on my body and, instead of launching into a feminist diatribe, i said nothing. i pretend to know what words like diatribe and dialectical and pluralism mean, and how to use them in sentences. sometimes i judge myself. then i judge myself for judging myself. i talk a whole lot about eating healthy food. but i eat chocolate at midnight before bed. i have unhealthy addictions to the internet and lying in bed when i'm supposed to be doing my homework. i like to say i can talk to people easily that i disagree with, but that's a lie. if we can't agree on anything, i probably don't like you. i pretend i'm fearless, but don't let me fool you. i pretend i could live in a co-op house and share and stuff, but i probably couldn't. i don't share well. (only child.) i spend too long writing things to post on myspace, friendster, livejournal and facebook. i'm fake sometimes. sometimes i smile at people when i don't mean it. i'm inconsistent, confused and overwhelmed, a lot of the time. and at the same time, i am still completely head-over-heels in love with myself and think that others should be too.
any of you fabulous people want to go with me to this workshop about class? pretty please?
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What’s Class Got To Do With It?
What: An experiential workshop Date: Sunday, March 5, 2006 Time: 10:00 am-1:30 pm (coffee and bagels at 9:30) Place: Washington Association of Churches, 419 Occidental Ave South, Seattle (1 block north of Seahawk stadium in Pioneer Square) Contact: Lois Canright, 206/910-8296, UFENW@aol.com Cost: Sliding Scale: $10 - $75 (don't let money stop you from coming)
“People in the United States don’t like to talk about class. Or so it would seem. We don’t speak about class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society. These terms are not part of our everyday vocabulary, and in most circles they are associated with the language of the rhetorical fringe.” –Gregory Mantsios
In America, class remains a taboo subject, rarely discussed or considered. Class differences are blurred under the pretense that “we’re all middle class”. Many of us haven’t explored or understood the impact our class background has on our identities and perception, and on our values, relationships, and group dynamics. Growing economic inequality is exacerbating the tensions between us, and makes it critical to understand the issues of class and classism.
Come join Felice Yeskel for an experiential workshop on class. We will clarify our class backgrounds, compare and contrast our experiences with others, and look at how class impacts our choices and our organizations. We’ ll also look at the intersections of class and racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, and anti-Semitism.
Felice will be presenting from her book “Economic Apartheid in America” at Elliott Bay bookstore on Sunday at 2:00 pm, please join us after the workshop for this talk.
Felice Yeskel, Ed.D, is the Co-Director of Class Action (www.classism.org), a national non-profit focusing on issues of social class and money. She was a founder and Co-Director of United for a Fair Economy, and is on faculty of the Social Justice Education Program, at UMass, Amherst where she founded and directed The Stonewall Center: A LBGT Resource Center. She has a doctorate in Organizational Development and has written and trained on issues of social change, class, and diversity for over three decades. She co-authored Economic Apartheid in America, (NYC: The New Press, 2nd edition, 2005), and has chapters in the following books: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, The Narrow Bridge: Jewish Perspectives on Multiculturalism, Money Talks. So Can We, and Coming Out of the Class Closet. Felice grew up Jewish and working-class in New York City. She has a partner and a 7 year-old daughter who’s in first grade.
CLITORAL MASS! a bike ride for WOMEN AND TRANS FOLKS of all ages, stages and identifications.
This Friday, January 13th, and EVERY SECOND FRIDAY 5:30 PM Red Square, University of Washington
We're back for another round! Last month was a total success and this month's ride will be bigger and better. Please invite your friends to join us in celebrating our second ride.
Who we are... a community of women and trans people in Seattle working to cultivate a more welcoming environment for cyclistst in these underrepresented communities.
Any Questions? Email Seattleclitoralmass@gmail.com See you there, rain, (snow,) or shine!
ha! today my teller at the bank asked if i'm a lesbian. !!
i mean, we're sort of becoming friends because we always talk when i'm there, but still, i thougth it was humorous. (she pieced it together apparently since i don't shave my armpits and i know the only other dyke who works at the bank.)
in other news, the class i've been co-developing for a few months, Radical Education and Social Change, is totally underway and i'm happy.
if you're in seattle and you're not a biological male, come to clitoral mass this friday! i'll post something soon.
okay. so i'm feeling a bit emotional today. but IF SOMEONE CRAMMED A GIANT SPECULUM IN YOUR PUSSY AND SCRAPED OFF BITS OF YOUR CERVIX, you'd be having a rough day too.
'nough said.
in other news, i went to my cousin's holiday performance yesterday and i wanted to rip my toenails off and dip my toes in alcohol because it was a humongous petri dish for white supremacist, nationalist heteronormativity. puke puke puke. they had about five songs just devoted to the (glorification of) the US military. (the cute little video slide show was all about the big brave humanitarian white military men saving all the poor helpless childlike people of color. and a clip of our compassionate president bush hugging young black children and feeling their pain was placed nicely in the middle.) *cough* PROPAGANDA. *cough* talk about buying into dominant hegemonic thought. and don't EVEN get me started on the oversexualization of twelve year old girls and how they buy into the backlash against feminism and and and.
how do you support people you love, but not sell your soul to the devil to do it? my family kept saying it was 'the best show to date'.
at least i get to spend an hour and a half in therapy today.
