Theta Thursday: Founder's Day 2013

Happy 143rd birthday Theta!

Every year, Theta's across the world come together to celebrate Founder's Day, a day to remember the founding members of our Fraternity: Betty Lock, Alice Allen, Bettie Tipton and Hannah Fitch. It's a time to give thanks for our past, examine our present, and look ahead into our future.

Technically, Founder's Day was January 27, but this past weekend the Des Moines Alumni Chapter hosted a Founders Day Brunch and we celebrated our Fraternity history-with cake, of course. This is after all, a birthday party of sorts.

We also took some pictures-above is my big, Jess (she's Momma Jess to me, as I am Baby Jess), me, my grand-little Hannah, and my grand-big Meredith. Aren't we cute? 4 generations of Bunnies :)

Yes, Theta is a sorority, and yes sororities are a college thing, but they're telling the truth when they say "Theta for a Lifetime." When I graduate, I won't say I was a Theta, I will say I am a Theta. And that lifetime relationship with my sisters means more than 4 years of college fun.

Meow Monday: Cats + Books = Heaven

Superbowl Sunday Bingo

This is a Bingo game created by the Riverview Center, a sexual assault/domestic violence agency in Dubuque, IA. Still not sure if I'm actually going to tune into the game today, as I have no interest in football, and was not even aware the Superbowl was this weekend until about Wednesday. But if I do, I will be playing this game, and crying about the state of our society as portrayed through advertising.
Game on. 

In The News

Survey: Male Marines fear false sexual assault accusations with women in combat

"Male Marines listed being falsely accused of sexual harassment or assault as a top concern in a survey about moving women into combat jobs, and thousands indicated the change could prompt them to leave the service altogether."

News Flash: Female (and male) Marines fear ACTUALLY BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

Let's think here for a minute, which one should be a bigger concern for military officials? Placating  alleged rapists, or protecting their service members from being raped?

Feminist Friday meets Thought Catalog

This is an excerpt from Lucy Tiven's "I Am Digging Up the Desecrated Corpse of Feminism." I started reading the article, and I liked it, and I could really relate to it. But then I got to the end, when Tiven goes on a badass feminist rant and she puts it so eloquently. I'm asked sometimes (thought, usually not outright) why I'm so feminist.  The thing is, I don't see how I could live with myself morally, if I wasn't. My feminist beliefs are my human beliefs, my moral, spiritual beliefs.

I am a human but I am also a feminist. I am a feminist because not being a feminist is not merely a circumstantial choice or preference: it is a moral flaw. I know this now. I don’t listen to riot grrl music or practice particularly esoteric sexual behavior. I wear dresses everyday and am compelled to learn how to dance. I try to feel pretty almost all of the time, and part of me always believes that if I lose fifteen pounds I will be, not only a more beautiful, but also a happier person.

But that isn’t everything. I am damn smart and I am pursuing noble purposes: not merely through my actions, but through the use of language. And I refuse to be relegated to an object, sexual conquest or measured in the terms of a gendered stereotype.

I will humbly accept being told to cross my legs and embarrassingly hide my slip if it is showing, but I will not be told when I can speak for myself or accept being scared off by the implication of a physical threat. If you want to call me a cunt or a slut, a little girl or anything else, go ahead, but don’t tell me when or how I am allowed to respond.

If you want to “put me in my place,” let me save you the trouble. I know I am a young woman. I know exactly whom I have and haven’t slept with. I know how much money my parents make and every house I have lived. I know each of the countless experiences and pains that have shaped me, and I am always moving through and between them. You can clumsily try to pin me down with a word or a cluster concept and watch as I slip through it.

I am not the kind of thing to be placed. I am not a screw or a lost part or a volume to categorize and shelve. I am a feminist, but I am more than that. I am no less or other than a human subject: this mind and the strange vessel of the body that houses it.

Meow Monday: Why Cats Are Awesome

But wait, hugs before you go?

 

(This is the reason I'm always running late. Gots to give Jasmine one last hug!)

Style Sunday: Coral

   

 

Coral by jessstaskal featuring lip makeup