Ash

This is next in my series based on the words that have been deleted from the Oxford Junior English dictionary.   I’ve done “acorn“, “adder” and now “ash”.

 

Ash by M.K. Hajdin

 

Quote of the Day: Systems of Oppression

The Negro Woman, lithography by Elizabeth Catlett. Source

Systems of oppression are complex, multifaceted structures that exist beyond any one person, and a massive amount of their oppressive power comes from the fact that they can make those they exploit depend on them for survival.

— Jonah Mix

 

Read the entire article here.

10 Reasons To Kill Your Television

Banksy. [Source]

I hate TV, and watch it only rarely, so on a lark I just googled “People Who Watch Too Much TV” and came up with an interesting article over at The Minimalist.

This particular reason for not watching TV resonated with me:

It is taking you away from the real people all around you. The characters on television are not real. They are thought up in an office building and given life on a piece of paper. In contrast, you are surrounded everyday by real people living real lives. These real people are facing real problems. They need you. And you need them.

Have you ever met people who can’t seem to talk about anything other than what they saw on TV?  I meet them all the time.  How much of our lives do we waste watching fake stories about fake people, soaking up advertising slogans and piss-poor values, rather than living our own lives, getting to know real people, and thinking our own thoughts?

Read the whole article here.  (Skip the stupid comments; they seem to be unmoderated.)

Quote of the Day: On Funfeminism

Let us be clear: feminism is out to screw patriarchy. It’s not there to be wheedling and apologetic. It’s not there to teach women to cope with life as subordinates. It’s not there to promote a chirpy, can-do response to a cat-call, a hand on the arse, a tongue down the throat, an unwanted grope or a rape. And if you’re thinking “all this sounds a bit judgmental,” I do understand. I know words like “patriarchy” and “male dominance” make people feel uncomfortable (I’d call it “feminismphobia” if it wasn’t time we stopped pathologising dissent). I know some women have a deep-rooted fear of how feminism could change their sexual landscape. To support something which is ultimately for everyone – but not specifically for you – is difficult, but feminism is not about misusing words (empowerment, choice, freedom) to cover up the things we don’t want to see. We’re here to knock down the entire edifice, not repaint the walls.

— Glosswitch, “Sex-positive feminism is doing the patriarchy’s work for it“

Victims

Those who think feminists are all “victims” who are just victimizing and oppressing themselves should read this now. They won’t, because they’re smug, privileged assholes.

Two new pieces

 

Blue Copper 3 by M.K. Hajdin

Here are two of my new paintings.

Red Red Sun by M.K. Hajdin

Quote of the Day: Worthlessness

Blue, White 2 by M.K. Hajdin

I feel like I’m being more true to myself by being essentially worthless in this society.

—Tyler Funk

Me too, Tyler.

Artists are basically worthless to society; there are too many of us, and we produce luxury items that no one really needs in a world with too much luxury for too few.  Disabled people are considered worthless because they can’t slave away to make our corporate overlords even richer.  So being a disabled artist entails double the worthlessness.

But the society we live in is so sick, and its priorities so twisted, that I would hate myself if it ever embraced me, for then I would know I’d gone wrong.

I’m proud not to fit into this sick, sad world.

Beauty: HuffPo Writer Almost Gets it

Objectification is depressing. Here, have a cat pic.

Huffington Post Writer Almost Gets It, but Then Fails:

In this essay at the Huffington Post, Lori Day takes on the subject of how men don’t have to be beautiful the way women do and she nearly, nearly nails it:

“Women of all ages, races, body types, and occupations can now show society that they are equally deserving of being objectified — not just the young, thin, white hotties who typically get that special honor. Today, if you’re female, you’re never too old, too large, or too anything to be photographed or painted while naked or scantily clad, and duly lauded for your physical attributes. Hooray!”

On fashion

David Bowie can have fun with this shit, because it’s not compulsory for men.  (source)

We’ve got the goon squad, and we’re coming to town….

— David Bowie, “Fashion”

When I was 13, I had only the vaguest stirrings of what would eventually make me into a feminist.   But I was brutally aware, as only a 13-year-old can be,  of the strict social caste system among kids.  I was aware that I was not thin or pretty enough to be one of the cool kids, and I was too poor to afford the clothes that signified status.  I grew up in a ghetto section of a large California city, part of and surrounded by poverty.  If you weren’t from around there, you might think that the poor kids wouldn’t care as much about having the right clothing as the rich kids, but you’d be wrong.  Designer clothing was EVERYTHING.  To the point where many of our parents sought out cheap designer knockoffs for us at the swap meet in the hopes of helping us fit in.  If you showed up at school in a dress from K-Mart, everyone knew it and would mock you mercilessly.    They always knew where the cheap clothes came from.

Quote of the Day: Women and Patriarchy

Iris embroidery by Candace Wheeler   (source)

That women are joining in the disassembling of my appearance is salient.

Patriarchy is not men. It is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it.

— Ashley Judd