Demonizing the poor part 2: More on Food stamps.

There have been a lot of celebrities and politicians taking Food Stamp challenges. They only spend a certain amount on food and try and make that food last. The problem coming from these is that they often don't follow the rules that food stamps recipients must follow. It's not just spending only $29 on food for one week. That $29 can only be spent on certain items. Gwyneth Paltrow's experiment actually sent a combination of messages.One was that it is almost impossible to eat healthy the way she was used to on so little. The other though is that she is wildly out of touch with how someone must shop when on food stamps.

You can’t even buy ALL food with food stamps. You can’t buy “food that will be eaten in the store/any food sold for on-premises consumption” or any “hot foods” with food stamps. So nothing hot, nothing that gets blended together, nothing “pre-prepared,” and in most cases you can’t use your EBT card at restaurant. And now in certain states, as I mentioned in my previous post on poverty, seafood, steak and other items are also on the list of things you can't do. 

There are a lot of misconceptions about what people do with food stamps that often lead to food stamps being cut in budget bills in Congress and to Fox News hosts opening their mouths and inserting their feet.

First things first: you cannot buy electronics with food stamps. You cannot buy cigarettes with food stamps. You cannot buy pet food with food stamps. You cannot withdraw money with an EBT card (food stamps).

Other things that can't be bought with food stamps: Shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, tinfoil, plastic sandwich bags, toothpaste, cleaning products, tampons, pads, over the counter medications (such as Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc.), and anything else you can think of that you cannot physically ingest for nutritional purposes.

The fact that these necessary items are not covered means that someone living at, near or below poverty must scrounge up money to buy them and use their payment method plus their EBT card in the same transaction.   
People who complain about food stamps are so privileged beyond belief and should hope they never fall on hard times.  

A list of things that can’t be purchased with food stamps is on the Food and Nutrition Services website).

And another thing worth mentioning since a lot of times racist people, such as certain Fox News hosts and their viewers, like to bring race into their conversations on welfare and food stamps,  the majority of people that are on welfare in America are actually white people at 36 percent.

"Ain't I a Woman?" Seeing Laverne Cox gave me life.

Disclaimer: I am way behind on submitting this to my blog and turning it in on BlackBoard, due to the fact that I didn’t realize there was a specific date that it needed to be turned in by.

I saw Laverne Cox April 9, 2015 and I felt invigorated when I left, like a spiritual awakening. I was surrounded by people who wanted to see her just as badly as I did and the feeling of giddiness I got throughout was reminiscent of when I went to the Texas Capitol in June 2013 to be part of the unruly orange mob to watch the House of Representatives debate over the House counterpart to the bill that Wendy Davis would later filibuster. The feeling of knowing you're witnessing something great and making history.

It had been a long day and I had a 3-5 page paper to turn in by 11:59 that night, and I’d been in class pretty much all day. I even left class early to walk over to the Coliseum. All I wanted to do was take a quick nap and gain the energy to finish the paper but I wanted to and had to go see Laverne Cox speak.

I found my seat and ended up sitting next to a fellow classmate of mine from two of my other classes. We sat together and ended up talking for a short bit about how excited we were and, more importantly for me, when we thought it would end. Again, I was tired and needed to finish a paper, so I was hoping that the speech would end by no later than 9 p.m.

Before the speech, Greg Abbott had been announced as the commencement speaker for the UNT graduation, which caused a lot of controversy, especially among the LGBT community and the people who support them. We ended up discussing this and asking why UNT thought it was a good idea to have Greg Abbott speak, especially in light of the fact that UNT claims to be LGBT friendly and going so far as to have Laverne Cox, a known transgender advocate and activist, speak in front of a crowd of hundreds of people.

This was in the back of my mind when Laverne Cox finally took the stage, to the sound of a roaring applause from the audience, who all stood up and cheered.

She looked amazing, by the way.

I am a huge fan of Orange is the New Black, which was part of the reason I really wanted to see her speak. I have binge watched both seasons numerous times. My favorite characters in the show are Poussey, Taystee, Nicky and Sophia for their story lines and their humor in the show.

She spoke about her experiences and her life and spoke so eloquently but what I loved most about her speech was how, in between anecdotes and stories of her childhood and growing up, she added facts, startling facts, about transgender youth- suicide statistics, statistics about homelessness, and other statistics about the horrors that transgender people go through when they first come out and transition. The reason I loved these parts of her speech isn’t because I like the actual statistics- those actually break my heart. I love that she manages to be an advocate and activist for others even when talking of her own experiences and her own childhood.

The audience was made up of people of all ages and all backgrounds. I saw several drag queens in just a 50-foot radius around me as well as LGBT activists and other college students. I can’t say that I people watched much once Laverne took the stage, because she had my undivided attention until the moment she left the stage.

I left the coliseum feeling invigorated and feeling more aware, even just a little bit, of the issues that transgender men and women face. And I am extremely grateful for the opportunity given to me by my university to see an amazing human being speak.

Looking down on younger generations, but especially the girls.

I'm a Millennial. I can't even begin to count how many articles or Facebook posts or memes I've read and seen that degrade my generation and essentially me.
We're the "entitlement" generation. We have everything handed to us. We're narcissistic. We take too many selfies, etc.

One thing I've noticed though is that these criticisms tend to be aimed towards the activities of teenaged girls more so than boys.

All the time, I see posts criticizing girls on their clothing, on the way they speak, the way they dress and what they like to do in their free time or even which restaurant they like to go to.

As someone who was a teenage girl not that long ago, it really irritates me and not just because I think those criticisms actually apply to a section of all girls and can't be applied to every single one (which is true) but because there's nothing wrong with girls taking 1,000 selfies. That means they feel good about themselves, in that moment. Considering the body image epidemic in the U.S., I am not okay with ruining even more how someone feels about themselves. There's nothing wrong with drinking Starbucks Frappuccinos. They are delicious. If someone wants to enjoy them, they should be able to, without criticism.
There's nothing wrong with girls wearing yoga pants or leggings with Uggs...that outfit is frickin' comfortable.

I came across a post on tumblr confronting the very issue I'm blogging about right here. It included a list of links of things that teenaged girls have done and I thought I'd share them below:

• Volunteered for the first line of defense at the Battle of Stalingrad to fight against Nazis.
• Invented science fiction.
• Rode twice as far as Paul Revere, in the pouring rain and alone, to alert Americans to the approaching British during the Revolutionary War.
• Pioneered the art of investigative journalism, and its use as a tool of social justice.
• Turned the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
• Put themselves in the line of fire, often literally, in order to help end injustice.
• Organized a student strike that helped spark Brown v. Board.
• Hid from the Nazis in an annex for two years and found such great poignancy in their experience that their ordinary day-to-day-thoughts have become world famous.
• Led Lewis and Clark across the North American continent— while pregnant/raising a child.
• Worked to desegregate schools in 1835, as well as to end slavery
• Helped found the ACLU and fought for women’s suffrage; also, got arrested for being radical socialists.
• Wrote the first known work of literature by an American black person.

I thought it was especially important to mention again Mary Shelley, who is the inventor of Science Fiction, especially given the crap that girls are given by boys and men in the genre such as calling them fake geek girls, etc.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818. Isaac Asimov, creator of Galactic Empire and I, Robot and often brought up as the creator of sci-fi wasn't even born until 1920.
And before Shelley was Margaret Cavendish, the duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) who wrote The Blazing World in 1666, about a young woman who discovers a Utopian world that can only be accessed via the North Pole. The Blazing World is often credited as one of the first sci-fi novels.


Teenaged girls can and do do great things. And I think they deserve more recognition- not just when they beat boys at something but period. 

It's just a word. A word with a terrible history behind it, so stop using it!

In one of our classes, there was a student who said that the N-word is just a word and alluded to the fact that words only have power when you let them.

I'm a white, middle class woman. The only words that actually could even have the power to offend me are those aimed at my gender, such as Bitch and C---t (I refuse to say this word or even type it out because I disagree strongly with it.)
As a white person, there is no equivalent to the N-word or to any racial slur. Cracker is the only thing I can think of and I find it funny more than anything.

The reason for this is because white people have benefited from a system of oppression that puts us at the top.

I don't use the N-word in front of black people or by myself or amongst friends. I don't use any slur of any kind in front of the people it's aimed towards or by myself or amongst friends.

I think words do have power regardless of whether you let them or not.

The video above is a clip from Louis CK's show Louie and starting at 5:05, it starts talking about when straight people use the word Fa--ot when referring to LGBT.

"You might want to know that every gay man has probably had that word shouted at them when they're being beaten up, sometimes many times, sometimes by a lot of people all at once. So when you say it, it kind of brings all that up..."

Words like the F word and the N word have a negative history behind them. People who are similar to the oppressor, such as straight, white people, have no right to use those words at all.

In regards to who can use those words- I have no say on that. I personally think a)  that is something that the LGBT and Black communities can discuss themselves but they don't need or want my input and b) that these communities should be able to reclaim those words for themselves or remake them.