Feminism In Action

Went to a feminist meet-up tonight at the Trumbullplex. It is always comforting and motivating to just be in a room with a group of intelligent, activist women. Women with something to say and a purpose for saying it. I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, doing the bare minimum on the TG site, letting my inbox overflow and only answering those with a deadline. When I’m excited and motivated I can find an enormous amount of work to do, but I think taking an almost break right now is a good idea. Everyone talks about finding a balance and I never really wanted to because I was kind of high on feminism. I don’t think any of this is good or bad necessarily, it just is. I want to meet people running other orgs and see what we can do at a very grassroots level to help people in the community. I want to hold meetings and learn from the experiences of other women. It’s much more inspiring to hear stories in person than to read them in a book. I feel so lucky to have attended the meet-up and have met these women and I think Adele is truly amazing for the way she brings people together.

3rd Monday

Yesterday I scooted out of work early to meet up with the TG’s for a meeting. Everyone was into my speakers bureau idea. I want to form a collection of successful women available to talk to students about how they got from high school to their chosen career. Something like 60 percent (don’t quote me on that) of parents in Detroit don’t think their kids need more than a high school education to get a good job and support a family. While that may have been true when they graduated, with the state of the auto industry, it’s no where near enough to survive on now.

We also talked about holding a feminist mixer (part of my 101 things to do in 1001 days!) to bring together all the activist groups working on women’s issues in metro-Detroit. We had a woman that’s working with Detroit NOW and Planned Parenthood join us and she seemed really receptive to the idea. She also brought up doing some sort of Take Back The Night parade with V-Day, which we would love to do.

There’s something about being surrounded by intelligent, creative women that really gets my brain buzzing and puts a fire under my ass to get stuff organized.

After the meeting Jenn and I went to the WAB for dinner. Dunner was just getting off work so he sat with us while we scarfed down a giant salad. The size of the bowls they serve it in is just ridiculous…I should have taken a picture. Then we walked down the street to The Post and it was teaming with white hats because of the Wings game. Mondays and Thursdays are usually safe nights to go because it’s taken over by punk rock/indie/metal kids, but not last night.

We didn’t stay for long, the vibe in that place was too weird and the Wings went into overtime. Took the chance to drive home and watched the rest of the game from bed.