Style Sunday: Meet me at the farmer's market

So I'm really lucky to have a little farmer's market right down the street from me. It's small, but it's got the most amazing vegetables, and their herbs are to die for. I've been going crazy with parsley lately, trying to find more recipes that use it because the parsley at this place is out of this world.

Usually I go to the market right after my workout on Saturday mornings, so I look a lot like this:

But if I could, I would always go to the farmer's market like this: 

Meet me at the farmer's market by jessstaskal featuring typography wall art

Style Sunday: Summer Office Outfit

Ya'll know it has been HOT AS HELL this summer in DC. Sleeveless shirts are my go-to. Check it out.

Summer Office Outfit by jessstaskal featuring oscar de la renta jewelry

#FeministFriday Weekly Roundup

Ugh, ya'll. Where to begin. I feel like this week was heavy with feminist news, which can be good, and bad. First, there's the GOP Hot Mess Debate, the media's passive and dismissive reporting of domestic violence, women not gettin' paid, you know, the usual. But let's start on a high note, I guess.

So Move to End Violence is a NoVo Foundation-funded movement that focuses on supporting the people who are working to end violence against women and girls. I've heard several of their "Movement Makers" speak at various conferences and events including Nan Stoops from the Washington DV coalition and Kelly Miller from the Idaho coalition, and both of them were exceptionally engaging and thought-provoking. Anyway, I'm on Move's listserv, and yesterday their email blast challenged us all to take their "Self-Care Challenge." Now, self care is a big buzzword right now in the victim services field, and there's so many different ways that individuals take care of themselves. Self care is something that I say I practice, but in reality I'm really quite terrible at it. So yea, I think I'm gonna take this challenge, thankyouverymuch. Check in with me at the end of the challenge and we'll see what kind of a difference it made :)

Next up, I guess I have to address the #GOPDebate this week. Or, as I like to call it #ShitShowOnCNN. Highlights include Trump's racist remarks. And no, I'm not talking about this instance. Or this one. Or, this, though all of those are noteworthy. I'm talking about the new remarks on Wednesday night when he said that he "couldn't be expected to recognize Arab name after Arab name." Sigh. Not only is that just downright racist, it's shit foreign policy. This, on the same day that a young Muslim boy was handcuffed, arrested, and suspended from school for bringing a homemade clock, thought to be a bomb. At least President Obama had something nice to say to the poor kid. Other significant moments of the debate: Carly Fiorina slammed Donald Trump after his comment about her looks, Jeb Bush defends his brother saying that he kept us safe (umm...forgetting 9/11...), and the vast majority of the candidates on stage having no great idea on which woman to put on the $10 bill.

Moving on...a new report came out this week from the Institute for Women's Policy Research that says women will not see equal pay with men until 2059, one year longer than previously projected. I'm not sure what to be most shocked about, that it's going to be 2059, or that it's even longer than everyone expected. It reminds me of that episode of The West Wing when Ainsley and Sam were debating the Equal Rights Amendment:

Also, let's be clear: white women are paid on average 78-80 cents to every dollar a man earns. For women of color, that gap is even wider, all the way down to about 56 cents.

Next up on the list: domestic violence. There have been several articles in the past few weeks calling out the media's portrayal of gender violence. News outlets are calling them mass shootings, shooting sprees, incidents, love triangles gone wrong, and even road rage "accidents." Let's get something straight, ya'll, these are instances of domestic violence. This "love triangle" gone wrong was actually a professor ruthlessly murdering his ex-partner, as well as another professor. That "incident" was actually a man shooting a woman after weeks of stalking her, after she tried twice to get a restraining order, and twice she was denied. And that "road rage accident" was a woman who begged police for help and was denied, only to be brutally murdered by her ex partner. Clementine Ford says it well in her article "The passive language used in reporting to disguise domestic violence"

"Tara Brown was victimised by an abusive ex-partner. She sought help from Gold Coast police less than a week before her murder but was turned away. She was the victim of a system which still too frequently ignores domestic violence and marginalises the people (who are most often women and children) who live with it. Witnesses describe seeing her ex-partner chase her in a vehicle, run her off the road and then proceed to bash her already damaged body with a scrap of metal. This was a moment of extreme brutality and horror. 

And yet, after Tara Brown died in hospital, how did news outlets and police choose to report her passing? By variously describing it as the result of a "road rage incident" or a "traffic accident" - as if she had taken the wrong turn one morning, cut the wrong person off and thus stumbled into a completely random situation of unexplainable, unpredictable violence."

Jessica Valenti also wrote a really great piece on this issue this week, saying:

But when the media reports on these killings as standard shootings, or - as they do frequently - say that a killer “snapped”, they are sending the message that there is nothing that could have been done to stop these tragedies. It’s lazy thinking that allows us throw our hands up and do nothing, even when there is so much still to do.

Also in #FeministFriday news, a great Everyday Feminism comic on racist football mascots, money for testing rape kits, Matt Damon mansplaining diversity to a woman of color (so white it hurts) and Shelby Mueller making me ashamed to be from Iowa.

That's all for now folks. I'm sure they'll be lots more news next week!

Theta Thursday: Alum Involvement

So I liked being involved in the Theta alum chapter in Des Moines. I loved monthly Kite Nights, and going to the yearly holiday party. So when I moved to DC, I decided to get involved in the local alum chapter. And what do ya know, they needed a new Service Chair. So I was like yea, ok, cool, I guess I could do that. Actually, I was more like this.

And my first act as Service Chair - organizing an event for Theta's National Day of Service. We're partnering with Rural Dog Rescue to help them with a dog adoption event. It's gonna be pretty amazing. Theta for a lifetime? Yea, it's a real thing ;)

Tumblr Tuesday is back, my friends

Err-day I'm tumblin;

  

Style Sunday

Untitled 31 by jessstaskal featuring a flower headband

#FeministFriday Podcast you need in your life

I was never really into podcasts before moving to DC. I had tried to download some, but it never really stuck with me. Then I discovered these pesky little things called "public transportation" and "commutes" and I realized that my life would suck without podcasts. With a 40-minute bus ride in the morning and a 20-minute bike ride in the evening, these podcasts keep me sane.

Buzzfeed's Another Round 
I get SO EXCITED when I realize Tuesday morning as I'm leaving my apartment that there's going to be another episode from Heben and Tracy waiting for me. Another Round is like happy hour with friends cooler than your current friends. In just a few short months of existing, their podcast has covered race, gender, politics, mental health, hip hop, and squirrels.

The New Yorker's Political Scene

This podcast has been around for a few years, but I've only recently started listening to it. As a political nerd, I find this podcast fascinating. I really like how they go in-depth into one topic per week, and bring in great writers and editors to discuss the issues, most recently the GOP debate, Trump, immigration, abortion (although shame on them for having all-male contributors to this episode, come on!) the Iran Deal, and race relations in America.


Bitch Media's Popaganda & Backtalk 

So ya'll are getting a two-for-one deal here. Bitch Media has two podcasts per week, and both are killer. The first is Popaganda, a feminist response to pop culture. This hour-long podcast goes in-depth into topics or themes, like their Transformations episode where they had a story about an artist who's music slowly altered from "human to electronica," gender dynamics in the comic industry, and an interview with two transgender individuals growing up with very different experiences being trans. Backtalk is a podcast with Amy Lam and Sarah Mirk where they discuss big pop culture news of the week through a feminist lens, and then talk about something new they're reading, watching, and listening to, which is honestly where I get like 50% of my new recommendations.

PreventConnect

So this is kinda nerdy, but I'm a huge fan of CalCASA's PreventConnect podcasts. By CalCASA, I mean the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and by PreventConnect, I mean the project that does primary prevention of sexual and domestic violence. Again, nerdy, I know. But listening to activists and advocates in my field talk about issues that I work with everyday is refreshing and almost invigorating. There's so many awesome folks out there doing this work, and I want to hear from them all!


Obviously, there are so many more podcasts I'm loving right now, including Internet Explorer, The Read, This American Life, Freakonomics, and Stuff Mom Never Told You. I encourage you to check them all out!

IS IT FALL YET?

I know I say this every year, but I'm sick of summer. It's hot. It's humid. Public transportation is the worst in the summer. The summer Hill interns are everywhere. I'm just done. I'm ready for fall. I'm ready for sweaters, and tights and mittens and pumpkins and tea and curling up with a blanket and a book. I'm ready.

Sweater Weather by jessstaskal featuring an off shoulder top