librarygrrrl.net

Over at blackfeminism.org, tiffany points to a story on Yahoo! News about fairy tales and domestic violence.

She goes on to ask:

…it does raise an interesting question about the role of stories and storytelling in shaping the roles of women (and men). After all, storytelling — whether in print, television, movies or theater form — is the primary way we learn cultural values and expectations.

That makes me wonder, what fairy tales are out there that go against prevailing notions of femininity and masculinity? I’ve found a couple of kids’ books that might fit the bill - The Paper Bag Princess comes to mind immediately.

But what about stories that get passed on orally? Or stories that end up as Disney movies? What ones of those resist traditional gender stereotypes? How might we begin to change the stories we tell children so that the kind of conclusions found in the study are transformed? How can we help girls grow up to be strong women, who don’t try to “live happily ever after” if there is something wrong in a relationship?

Maggie played outside all day yesterday. She crashed last night on my delightful new duvet cover from IKEA. When I took this picture, I got nary an eyelid-twitch from her.

I’m telling you, it’s hard to be a dog, what with all the smelling things and listening to things and chasing squirrels and keeping the mailman out of the house. Tough life, indeed!

You know how sometimes getting a haircut can be so peripheral to life’s big details? And so because it is peripheral, and dealing with the eroded backyard or the dog who smells like a pina colada or the mounds of work takes all your time, you don’t get it cut?

And then one day you wake up and realize that you can wear pigtails*, only you haven’t done that since you were two years old?

Those are the days when the haircut suddenly seems not so peripheral. Amy and I both look a lot better now. See?

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past two days saying things like, “You’re so cute!”, “No, you’re so cute!” and “I just love your/my/our new haircut(s)!” And yes, we are that disgustingly cute with each other.

* She went out in public like that. I said to her, “You’re not wearing that out of the house, are you?” which is automatic relationship-speak for “Don’t wear those out of the house” and which automatically invokes a response of “So what if I do?” Fortunately, people in my neighborhood dress in a wide variety of ways, and have an even wider variety of interesting hairdos, so no one stared.

There is a difference between coconut milk and cream of coconut. You might not think that dogs would care about these differences, but Maggie sure does.

See this beast?

Sad-looking beast. That is the picture of a sad-looking beast after she’s had to have a bath because she was in Amy’s way while Amy was cooking last night. And Amy was cooking with what she thought was coconut milk, but was actually (and this realization happened right at the moment that the bath became necessary) cream of coconut!

See, cream of coconut is much creamier than coconut milk, and when you open the can (and if you are Amy, slice your thumb with the lid) you can really tell that there is a difference. Then you push down on the lid while the dog dances below you.

And then the dog needs a bath, because cream of coconut plus dog fur equals stickiness and matted hair and a generally sweetish (but not sweet) smelling dogginess. Fortunately, she and I both survived the bath, and we all learned lessons here. Coconut milk and cream of coconut - not the same thing. Dancing underfoot while people are cooking - a good way to need a bath. Washing the dog at 10 at night - only fun if you take sad puppydog photos after the bath.

A list of lovies today:

Paula has a nice list of ways to be lovey to your spouse/partner.

Speaking of loving your partner, Anna knows what battles to pick, and I know which one she’s going to win.

Stephanie loves her new house, with good reason! That balcony off the main bedroom - I’m drooling!

Lovies to Jon for the amazing baby blanket he’s knitting.

LML and Alex are growing so big, and I’m proud that my friends are such great parents to such little lovies.

The final lovey of the day? This beauty, which is currently blooming in my (exceedingly shady) backyard.