The Great Move-en-ing, and Jared visit!

Several things to report on, but most importantly, Jared is going to be in town! He is coming to visit from Thursday to Monday, and I'm hoping people will be around so that he can see them at some point during that time. Plans are not totally settled yet, but after I pick him up from the airport on Thursday we will be grabbing dinner in Boston downtown, and then heading to BSCF where I'm hoping for a lovely evening of gaming with friends. Yay! So excited.

The Great Move-en-ing has commence, though less smoothly than I would have liked. Our landlord said we were going to have a cleaning person come in yesterday to do the place from top to bottom (for which a substantial chunk was taken out of our security deposits, grumble grumble) but then the person never showed up. I am incredibly irritated, as we all went out of our way to get the house straightened up for it, and because blendedchaitea was out of town when it was supposed to happen, I even packed up her stuff for her so it would be cleared away in time. I was happy to help out, but I felt awkward just going through her things, and was really nervous that I would be inconveniencing her because she wouldn't know where I put everything. I called the landlord yesterday to ask what was up but didn't get a hold of him. Sigh. I'll have to try again today, as I was really hoping this would be done before aurora_knight and nennivian got here.

Yesterday I also went over to grad to help Plesser and Marissa move in. I finally got to see what the newly remodeled inside of grad looks like. It's actually quite nice, with all the walls and ceilings redone, and all new fixtures and appliances in the kitchen and bathroom. Grad is actually a decent place to live now, but of course, only now that Jared's moved out and I no longer spend half of my nights there. :-P There wasn't actually a ton of work to be done-- there were so many of us that the actual moving of stuff took like two trips --but I'm glad I made the effort. Plesser was in a rather nasty car accident lately, and though he's mostly all right, thank God, he still has blood in his eyes that make him look rather demonic, and isn't supposed to exert himself for the time being. He and Marissa have a two-person grad with a common room, which is quite nice, except that the common-room furniture that Brandeis had hitherto provided was not present. Since they moved in early, it may be that the school just won't deliver it until the last moment, but there is a possibility that they just don't provide it anymore. Which is pretty silly, in my opinion-- why wouldn't they just keep offering the stuff they've been offering in previous years? Oh, Brandeis, what a pain you can be, but I hope Jonathan and Marissa are comfortable there.

So I am preparing myself to make plans with Jared, and help Charlotte and Jane move in on Tuesday. And, if all goes according to plan, I will be seeing katiescarlett29 tonight! I have missed her so, and she's finally back in town. So I am certainly set for occupation and social interaction this week, not least of all with Jared!

Feminism PSA

Just a little heads up to everyone that might be wondering, sparked in part by a recent experience of blendedchaitea.

You may be, at some point in your life, placed in a position where you are forced to ask yourself if you really are doing feminism right. To this I say, simply ask yourself-- do you believe in the inherent value equality of men and women?

Yes? Then you're not a bad feminist.

Insofar as "good" and "bad" even enter into it, I feel like if you do the things that feminists do, then you're doing it "right."

What do feminists do? They believe in the inherent value equality of men and women. Therefore, things that enter into the definition of "good feminist": believing, supporting, agreeing with, et cetera, the concept of the inherent value equality of men and women.

Things that do not enter into the definition of "good feminist": your gender, your sexual orientation, your religion, your nationality, your economic status, your ethnic background, your education, what you do for a living, your aesthetic preferences, your political views, the jokes you laugh at, your diet, what you do for fun, how much sex you have, the media you consume, and a whole host of other things.

"Good feminists" don't need degrees in gender studies. They don't need to have read Stein or Faludi or Dworkin or anyone else. You don't need to stage protests, write letters, go to rallies. You don't have to hate men, be attracted to girls, shave your head, or stop shaving your legs. You don't need to apply the goddamn Bechdel Test before you see a movie or watch a TV show. You don't need to view every single social injustice, perpretrated against women or otherwise, as a personal assault, and if you do, you don't need to hate anyone else who doesn't.

Until and unless one of those things necessarily makes you cease to believe in the inherent value equality of men and women, none of those things are any indication of whether or not you are a bad feminist.

Until and unless you stop believing this, nobody in the world gets to tell you "FEMINISM: UR DOIN IT RONG."