SALLY KERNS IS AWESOME

IF YOU LOVE BEING ANGRY! (click link to see video and read her "morality proclamation" for the state of Oklahoma). 

ANYWAY, Oklahoma City Gay Pride was a BLAST, with thousands upon thousands of participants and spectators for the parade. It was truly amazing to see the huge crowds cheering as we crested the hill and looked down at the intersection of 39th and Penn in the City. 

BIKE BRIGADE! We are in this shot somewhere.

After the parade, we proceeded to party hearty with every type of person imaginable. We agreed that one thing a person can really take from Pride events is that the diversity of the LGBTQ community is mind-blowing - it really defies all stereotypes. We would love for that to be the descriptor of the word "feminists" - a designation for a group of people who defy all stereotyping. 

In Manifesta, by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, the authors point out that the word "women" includes not just middle-class white females but also rich black lesbians, Jewish mothers on welfare, etc. - the list is infinite. And doesn't everyone want equal rights and equal treatment? Shouldn't we really ALL identify as feminists? Well, would you call Sally Kerns a feminist, or even NOT anti-woman? Probably not. Same goes for Ann Coulter and a hundred thousand other anti-woman women out there. DEPRESSING!

But there's no use in just sitting around and stewing about it, like me. Go do something about it! Call Sally Kerns and tell her what's up! Work on campaigns for pro-choice, pro-women, pro-gay rights candidates! Let's do this, America!

OKC PRIDE 2009!

The anniversary of the Stonewall Riots is on Sunday, and you know what that means! LGBTQs all over the place, taking over the streets of Oklahoma City, being loud and maybe getting black-out drunk on rye and root beer (hi, Pearl of one year ago!). Kylie and Pearl are currently attempting to wrangle the bikes into the Mini-Cooper in order to ride in the parade (BIKE BRIGADE!). Here are some photos of the festivities from last year:

BIKE ON BIKE ACTION

BIKE MOUNTAIN, PEARL+BICYCLE GANG

OPTICAL ILLUSION: HOW MANY LEGS?

THIS IS A DIFF. KIND OF OPTICAL ILLUSION

DON'T YOU WANT TO GO SO MUCH? I DO.

THE INTERNET

Two weeks ago today, our friend Ali Pullen in Tulsa, Oklahoma - she bartends at the Soundpony, does art, rides bikes, and helps out recently-released-from-prison ladies - gave to Pearl for her 21st birthday a book called Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti, feminist author and creator of feministing.com (THE INTERNET!). Feminist sentiment had always been present in Pearl and Kylie, but had been languishing in varying degrees of latency for awhile. This particular book, however, probably due to its totally rad deficiency in impractical theory, revitalized those parts of our brains which are now yammering away about equal participation in society instead of just muttering about petty sexism. 

We found two other girls, through Facebook (INTERNET, WILL U BE OUR BFFL? Y/N). We set up a coffee meeting. We drank coffee and let each other know what we thought women in agri-college town Stillwater, Oklahoma really needed. Here are a few things we came up with:

-Exposure of "crisis pregnancy centers," such as Birth Choice and Stillwater Life Services. 

-Sexual education to remedy the damage done by "abstinence-only" sex ed programs.

-Consciousness-raising about the possibility of self-worth that is based on our accomplishments, instead of on our bodies. 

-Redefining "feminists" not as a dirty word implying an exclusionary hairy-legged man-haters club but as a term describing anyone who believes in the totally rad and fun idea of equality of the sexes in society.

This blog will document our "real" activism on our own and with the NOW chapter on the OSU campus, as well as almost anything else we feel is relevant - news pieces, art shows, some guy telling us we actually look pretty when we smile - whatever we feel might strengthen our resolve to advocate for feminism's worth, even in little old Stillwater.