I'm moving my blogging adventures to Wordpress so I can maintain all of my blogs, including the new W Comm blog, in one place.
Check me out at http://muwgirl07.wordpress.com/ !
Sunday Shout Outs!
1 hour ago
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO want to attend a university named after a slave plantation ...
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Associated Press - March 24, 2009 3:44 PM ET
COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) - A Jackson marketing agency says Waverley University got the best response on its survey of new names for the Mississippi University for Women.
A MUW committee heard Tuesday from the Cirlot Agency.
The agency was hired to survey public response to three proposed new names for the 125-year-old university in Columbus. The other names were Reneau University and Welty-Reneau University.
Last fall, MUW president Claudia Limbert appointed the committee to find a new name for the school.
Associated Press - March 24, 2009 3:44 PM ET
COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) - A Jackson marketing agency says Waverley University got the best response on its survey of new names for the Mississippi University for Women.
A MUW committee heard Tuesday from the Cirlot Agency.
The agency was hired to survey public response to three proposed new names for the 125-year-old university in Columbus. The other names were Reneau University and Welty-Reneau University.
Last fall, MUW president Claudia Limbert appointed the committee to find a new name for the school.
---
Needless to say, I have a problem with this.
It's bad enough that Claudia Limbert has decided that the name should be changed at all. The university may be co-ed (as it has been for almost three decades now), but the name "Mississippi University for Women" speaks to not only the history of the school, but the women's mission that supposedly still drives it. Limbert claims that the women's mission will be upheld, but this woman has claimed many things for the benefit of the university in the past, and look where that has gotten us ...
--a disaffiliated Alumnae Association
--a Foundation mired in controversy and mystery
--reduced giving
--reduced enrollment (you can skew those numbers all you want to, but the fact remains that the university would not be suffering budget crunches if the enrollment had improved as much as Limbert wants the general public to believe it has)
--the elimination of intercollegiate sports programs
--the closing of the invaluable Demonstration School
... you get the idea.
And now, this proposed name change.
The three choices were:
Reneau University. The main argument I've heard from people favoring this name is, "Oh, it sounds so classy!" Well, that and five dollars will buy you a foot-long at Subway. I have no issue honoring Sallie Reneau; after all, it's due in large part to her support that the W was ever founded. However, while Reneau was one of the main promoters of a women's university in the state, her family's background as known slaveholders has apparently raised the ire of some members of the university's Naming Committee.
Welty-Reneau University. Um, no. First of all, while both are great women, the hyphenation is awkward. Secondly, Eudora Welty attended the W for two years and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to finish her degree. Yes, she is an alum. But the university should not be named for her. There's already a building on campus and an annual writer's symposium bearing her moniker. Enough already. Moving along.
Waverley? Waverely? Waverly? University. Yeah, spelling will be a huge issue with this name. Not to mention the fact that the name, though intended to reference Sir Walter Scott's 1814 novel, Waverley, also elicits the antebellum plantation of the same name a few miles from the university. Oh, and this name, too, has raised ire over the implications of slavery. But, barring that ... Scott? Seriously? What is his connection to the university? To women? To women's studies? To universities, even, other than the fact that students are sometimes forced to swallow his indulgent prose? Give me a break.
In the survey conducted by the Cirlot Agency, as you can see above, the name "Waverley" was chosen by those who voted. In large part, I suggest that this may be from those who want the eponymous "W" to remain the symbol of the school (which begs the question: why not just call the university "The W" instead?). But there's now talk that the agency wants the Naming Committee to instead consider sending to the Legislature a name not originally on the survey: Welty University.
Are you fricking kidding me?
This is a farce.
Obviously, the conclusion one reaches from this is that the results of the so-called "survey" do not reflect the general attitude of the alums and the citizens of the state of Mississippi. And, if the survey were, in fact, gauging that attitude, the online voting site would have provided an option for people to select "none of the above." In restricting each voter's selection to one of three choices, the Cirlot Agency did not factor in the fact that some people don't like any of them.
Hell, the Cirlot Agency doesn't even like any of them, if they're promoting a different choice altogether.
I have always believed that the name "Mississippi University for Women" should remain. It doesn't matter if the school is co-ed. Men have been attending for the past 27 years, and will continue to do so if they value the quality of their education over the implied threat to their masculinity. The W provides the best public undergraduate education in the state of Mississippi (I'd argue one of the best in the Southeast). If more is not done to retain the students she has now, and market the school to potential students across the country (not just in the three-state radius in the immediate area), then I fear for the future of my beloved alma mater.
Claudia Limbert, you are a joke. And you've ceased to be funny. You do not respect the traditions and heritage and storied history of this university. You have demonstrated your lack of respect for alums and even for current students, who are nothing more than loan checks and pocket change to you. You have zero capacity to lead, and you have run this university into the ground with every chance you've been given.
For the love of all that is good and holy, go the hell away before you do even more damage.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
I am an inconsistent blogger.
My goal for the year has been to be more consistent in writing this blog. And since I posted that goal right before New Year's, I have written a grand total of ... five posts.
Inconsistency, thy name is ME.
Well, I don't think I can be blamed for my lack of attention to the blog. As you can tell from my last post, in which I bemoaned the inauspicious charms of Helene Cixous, my classes this semester are giving me fits.
And really, it all boils down to the looming t-word: the thesis.
I have an idea (if you're familiar with Renaissance literature, you might recognize my nom de plume as two of the female characters from the first book of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene). I have a prospectus, an abstract, a detailed outline, and a LONG list of sources from which I hope to cull enough information to make my suppositions make some sort of sense.
What I don't have is the impetus to make this happen.
Inconsistency, thy name is ME.
Well, I don't think I can be blamed for my lack of attention to the blog. As you can tell from my last post, in which I bemoaned the inauspicious charms of Helene Cixous, my classes this semester are giving me fits.
And really, it all boils down to the looming t-word: the thesis.
I have an idea (if you're familiar with Renaissance literature, you might recognize my nom de plume as two of the female characters from the first book of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene). I have a prospectus, an abstract, a detailed outline, and a LONG list of sources from which I hope to cull enough information to make my suppositions make some sort of sense.
What I don't have is the impetus to make this happen.
While I'm fully aware that completing the thesis is the final obstacle to my actually obtaining the long-awaited Master's degree, I'm simply petrified to tackle it.
I have chosen a topic which interests me, but it will be very difficult to write about. Taking something like the FQ and distilling it down is a formidable challenge. If I hadn't already put so much work into this topic, I'd back off and do something else. But I'm a stubborn jackass, apparently, and refuse to admit that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
So, I'll suck it up and begin the slow work of compiling this 80-100 page monstrosity. And, in the process, I will whine and moan about it to the point that everyone around me will begin having Scrubs-esque fantasies of strangling me with licorice whips.
And maybe, instead of bitching about it here, I should tackle a chapter this afternoon ...
Then again, maybe not.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I'm not laughing, Helene.
"I admire Germaine Greer enormously. She is bold, independent, learned and devastatingly witty. It was an absolute scandal that for several decades the poststructuralist maunderings of a second-rate crew of French women intellectuals (Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigirary, etc.) were imposed on smart women undergraduates at elite universities, while Greer's work was not assigned. Lo, the professor clones and how they do dither!" --from salon.com, October 8, 2008
Currently, I am wrestling with Cixous's 1975 opus, "The Laugh of the Medusa," and wading through Cixous's circular, sometimes illogical rhetoric makes me want to track her down and drown her in Harold Bloom's metaphorical sea.
That is all.
Monday, January 26, 2009
My spirit is strong, too, and you CANNOT take away my rights.
The following missive was forwarded to an email listserve to which I belong. For reasons that will become obvious, I'm not replying to it on that list. But I do feel the need to reply, even briefly, here.
---
"Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you!
January 25 is the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. The following day, January 26, is the feast of two of his followers, Timothy and Titus. Timothy was a mamzer: his mother was Jewish, and his father pagan. Timothy, together with his mother, Eunice and her mother, Lois, was converted to the Way of Jesus by Saint Paul, and joined him on his second missionary journey. Titus was a Greek from Antioch. He also was a disciple of Paul, as witnessed in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “When I went to Troas … I had no relief in my spirit because my brother Titus was not there.”
Paul’s Letter to Timothy is one choice for the first reading of today’s Mass. In it, Paul expresses affection for his disciple, warmth that rarely appears in his letters to the Churches. He keeps the young bishop constantly in his prayers, and reminisces about the sincere faith he found in the home of Lois and Eunice, which lives on in Timothy, Lois’ grandchild and Eunice’s son, a gift of faith that bore great fruit when Timothy was ordained by the hands of Paul. He encourages Timothy to “stir into flame” the gift of faith he has received.
God speaks these words to you and me in today’s epistle. God did not give us a cowardly spirit, but a powerful spirit of love and self-control. Each of us, in baptism, received the gift of faith at the hands of the priest, but it is our families that we received the example of who to live with faith. It is in the sacrament, in the community, and in particular in the family that we become whole and holy.
In his letter to Titus, Paul asks his young friend, the Bishop of Crete, that God's people must be subject to their rulers and obedient to the law of the land. They must be ready to do good, to be peaceful and considerate, to slander no one, and to show true humility to others.
Some time in December, after the elections but before the new year began, I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read "Impeach Obama!" As I read the Letter of Paul to Titus this evening, I was reminded of Paul's admonition to him that "God's people must be subject to their rulers." I was also reminded of yesterday's reading, how Saul of Tarsus was "knocked off his high horse" while on his way to Damascus where he going to arrest disciples of the Way of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem to be executed. Instead, his eyes were opened to the truth and he became a stalwart defender of and apologist for the Christian faith.
Earlier today, I was one of the recipients of a message from my brother-in-law, Dr. Richard A. Watson, a member of the Executive Board20of the Catholic Medical Association. I would like to share it with you, gentle readers, because it echoes the message of Paul to his young friends Timothy and Titus.
--------------------------------------------------
It looks like the years ahead are going to be rough – very rough – for advocates of the unborn. The forces of abortion are powerfully aligned against us. In the darkest moments, it may prove helpful to recall and share these words of inspiration and to remember who first said them.
“For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
President Barack Obama - Inaugural Address, 20 January 2009.
Let’s pray for a conversion of the sincere, but profoundly misguided hearts and minds of those who now so aggressively oppose us.
-----------------------------
I am not a prophet, nor is my brother-in-law. It would be wonderful if the simple and straightforward eloquence of the President of the United States could someday be directed toward the defense of the most vulnerable members of human society -- those who are not yet born. But, even if, in God's permissive will, that does not happen, it is already a blessing that the message he spoke, in a different context, in opposition to a different agent of slaughter and terror, can be used word-for-word as a rallying cry in the defense of all human life, from the first moment to the last."
---
Is this to be the new weapon of the pro-life movement -- equating abortion, whether intentionally or not, with terrorism?
"It looks like the years ahead are going to be rough – very rough – for advocates of the unborn. The forces of abortion are powerfully aligned against us."
I'm sorry, but I can't take this statement seriously. First of all (and I do realize that I'm being quite facetious in saying this), but all I can see in my mind's eye after reading this is an image of Darth Vader wielding his light saber in an anonymous uterus.
And secondly, the "forces of abortion" are not lined AGAINST anyone. The forces of the WOMEN'S CHOICE MOVEMENT stand ready to DEFEND against the onslaught of those who immediately equate "abortion" with "willful intent to harm."
This is not what abortion is. I do not speak from experience, but I speak from the perspective of someone who has known several women who have made the decision to terminate a pregnancy. And I can tell you that it is not a decision that was made lightly.
Yes, I know that there are women out there who use abortion as a means of birth control. But should we vilify all women for the relatively nonchalant attitudes of some?
Have I ever had an abortion? No. Would I ever have an abortion? It depends on the situation. If I got pregnant tomorrow, the likelihood of me stepping into a clinic would be very high. At this point in my life, I am in no position to take care of a child, and having the child with the intent to give him/her up for adoption is no guarantee that the child would actually BE adopted. But this would not be a snap decision on my part, and it is something that I know I would struggle with. It's why I pray (yes, Annelle, I pray) that I'm never faced with this issue. But it is comforting for me to know that I have a choice in the matter, that, should I feel unable to continue a pregnancy, I will not be forced to do so.
Let me conclude by saying this (and I might just get myself in trouble here, but I've already bitten the bullet): the above-excerpted piece was written by a man, and in my mind, men can comment on this subject when they actually start carrying children in their nonexistent uteri. Until then, no man has the right to criticize, judge, or condemn a woman for making this decision when there is NO POSSIBLE WAY for him to put himself in the same situation and fully understand everything that goes into it. He can sympathize, but that and a dollar will buy you as much understanding as you can find in the bottom of a bag of potato chips.
And before this comes up (because it will), I am not a misandrist. I do not hate men. I simply resent their ability, past and present, to dictate and fashion the law according to what they feel are the best interests of women, while having no knowledge or innate ability to do so properly.
I'm fully aware that this is a sticky issue, and that many will disagree with my stance on this issue, but I think it is absolutely vital that rhetoric not blind us to the heart of this issue. It is not a question of protecting a woman's right to abort, but of protecting a woman's right to make medical decisions about her own body.
---
"Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you!
January 25 is the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. The following day, January 26, is the feast of two of his followers, Timothy and Titus. Timothy was a mamzer: his mother was Jewish, and his father pagan. Timothy, together with his mother, Eunice and her mother, Lois, was converted to the Way of Jesus by Saint Paul, and joined him on his second missionary journey. Titus was a Greek from Antioch. He also was a disciple of Paul, as witnessed in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “When I went to Troas … I had no relief in my spirit because my brother Titus was not there.”
Paul’s Letter to Timothy is one choice for the first reading of today’s Mass. In it, Paul expresses affection for his disciple, warmth that rarely appears in his letters to the Churches. He keeps the young bishop constantly in his prayers, and reminisces about the sincere faith he found in the home of Lois and Eunice, which lives on in Timothy, Lois’ grandchild and Eunice’s son, a gift of faith that bore great fruit when Timothy was ordained by the hands of Paul. He encourages Timothy to “stir into flame” the gift of faith he has received.
God speaks these words to you and me in today’s epistle. God did not give us a cowardly spirit, but a powerful spirit of love and self-control. Each of us, in baptism, received the gift of faith at the hands of the priest, but it is our families that we received the example of who to live with faith. It is in the sacrament, in the community, and in particular in the family that we become whole and holy.
In his letter to Titus, Paul asks his young friend, the Bishop of Crete, that God's people must be subject to their rulers and obedient to the law of the land. They must be ready to do good, to be peaceful and considerate, to slander no one, and to show true humility to others.
Some time in December, after the elections but before the new year began, I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read "Impeach Obama!" As I read the Letter of Paul to Titus this evening, I was reminded of Paul's admonition to him that "God's people must be subject to their rulers." I was also reminded of yesterday's reading, how Saul of Tarsus was "knocked off his high horse" while on his way to Damascus where he going to arrest disciples of the Way of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem to be executed. Instead, his eyes were opened to the truth and he became a stalwart defender of and apologist for the Christian faith.
Earlier today, I was one of the recipients of a message from my brother-in-law, Dr. Richard A. Watson, a member of the Executive Board20of the Catholic Medical Association. I would like to share it with you, gentle readers, because it echoes the message of Paul to his young friends Timothy and Titus.
--------------------------------------------------
It looks like the years ahead are going to be rough – very rough – for advocates of the unborn. The forces of abortion are powerfully aligned against us. In the darkest moments, it may prove helpful to recall and share these words of inspiration and to remember who first said them.
“For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
President Barack Obama - Inaugural Address, 20 January 2009.
Let’s pray for a conversion of the sincere, but profoundly misguided hearts and minds of those who now so aggressively oppose us.
-----------------------------
I am not a prophet, nor is my brother-in-law. It would be wonderful if the simple and straightforward eloquence of the President of the United States could someday be directed toward the defense of the most vulnerable members of human society -- those who are not yet born. But, even if, in God's permissive will, that does not happen, it is already a blessing that the message he spoke, in a different context, in opposition to a different agent of slaughter and terror, can be used word-for-word as a rallying cry in the defense of all human life, from the first moment to the last."
---
Is this to be the new weapon of the pro-life movement -- equating abortion, whether intentionally or not, with terrorism?
"It looks like the years ahead are going to be rough – very rough – for advocates of the unborn. The forces of abortion are powerfully aligned against us."
I'm sorry, but I can't take this statement seriously. First of all (and I do realize that I'm being quite facetious in saying this), but all I can see in my mind's eye after reading this is an image of Darth Vader wielding his light saber in an anonymous uterus.
And secondly, the "forces of abortion" are not lined AGAINST anyone. The forces of the WOMEN'S CHOICE MOVEMENT stand ready to DEFEND against the onslaught of those who immediately equate "abortion" with "willful intent to harm."
This is not what abortion is. I do not speak from experience, but I speak from the perspective of someone who has known several women who have made the decision to terminate a pregnancy. And I can tell you that it is not a decision that was made lightly.
Yes, I know that there are women out there who use abortion as a means of birth control. But should we vilify all women for the relatively nonchalant attitudes of some?
Have I ever had an abortion? No. Would I ever have an abortion? It depends on the situation. If I got pregnant tomorrow, the likelihood of me stepping into a clinic would be very high. At this point in my life, I am in no position to take care of a child, and having the child with the intent to give him/her up for adoption is no guarantee that the child would actually BE adopted. But this would not be a snap decision on my part, and it is something that I know I would struggle with. It's why I pray (yes, Annelle, I pray) that I'm never faced with this issue. But it is comforting for me to know that I have a choice in the matter, that, should I feel unable to continue a pregnancy, I will not be forced to do so.
Let me conclude by saying this (and I might just get myself in trouble here, but I've already bitten the bullet): the above-excerpted piece was written by a man, and in my mind, men can comment on this subject when they actually start carrying children in their nonexistent uteri. Until then, no man has the right to criticize, judge, or condemn a woman for making this decision when there is NO POSSIBLE WAY for him to put himself in the same situation and fully understand everything that goes into it. He can sympathize, but that and a dollar will buy you as much understanding as you can find in the bottom of a bag of potato chips.
And before this comes up (because it will), I am not a misandrist. I do not hate men. I simply resent their ability, past and present, to dictate and fashion the law according to what they feel are the best interests of women, while having no knowledge or innate ability to do so properly.
I'm fully aware that this is a sticky issue, and that many will disagree with my stance on this issue, but I think it is absolutely vital that rhetoric not blind us to the heart of this issue. It is not a question of protecting a woman's right to abort, but of protecting a woman's right to make medical decisions about her own body.
Friday, January 23, 2009
W girls can't be beat.
Check out the winter newsletter for the historic, 119-year-old Alumnae Association of my alma mater, Mississippi University for Women, featuring yours truly along with some dear young alum friends.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life.
Congratulations, President Obama.
I took this picture on New Year's Eve 2007 at an Obama rally in Ames, IA, on the Iowa State University campus. I was there with several friends, celebrating our candidate and looking forward to the upcoming Iowa caucus. This was the third time I was able to hear Barack Obama speak, and shaking his hand was a milestone moment. As cheesy as it sounds, it gave me a thrill to be so close to him. I believed then -- as I still believe now -- that we could not put our country in better hands than his.
It's been a long time since then ... well, not so long, all things considered -- it's only been a little over one year, after all. But it may as well have been a lifetime.
I never imagined we would get to this point: to be able to look at the man in the picture above and call him "President." I hoped; I dreamed; I wished with all my might that this country would do the right thing and elect this man to lead us. This man, who so loves this country and believes that things can change for the better, who believes that we can move forward and regain the things that have been lost over the past eight years.
And now it's here, and we have a new President, and life seems so damn good. I feel optimistic for the first time in years. I feel hopeful. I feel proud.
I am an American, a fiercely proud American who is so grateful to have a man like this leading our country into the next decade. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to write these words for the first time in eight years.
Best of luck, Mr. President. It won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but this country is very fortunate to have you in the White House.
I took this picture on New Year's Eve 2007 at an Obama rally in Ames, IA, on the Iowa State University campus. I was there with several friends, celebrating our candidate and looking forward to the upcoming Iowa caucus. This was the third time I was able to hear Barack Obama speak, and shaking his hand was a milestone moment. As cheesy as it sounds, it gave me a thrill to be so close to him. I believed then -- as I still believe now -- that we could not put our country in better hands than his.
It's been a long time since then ... well, not so long, all things considered -- it's only been a little over one year, after all. But it may as well have been a lifetime.
I never imagined we would get to this point: to be able to look at the man in the picture above and call him "President." I hoped; I dreamed; I wished with all my might that this country would do the right thing and elect this man to lead us. This man, who so loves this country and believes that things can change for the better, who believes that we can move forward and regain the things that have been lost over the past eight years.
And now it's here, and we have a new President, and life seems so damn good. I feel optimistic for the first time in years. I feel hopeful. I feel proud.
I am an American, a fiercely proud American who is so grateful to have a man like this leading our country into the next decade. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to write these words for the first time in eight years.
Best of luck, Mr. President. It won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but this country is very fortunate to have you in the White House.
In his own words today:
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
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