Pam’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2016)

Pam’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

In our first OSS Poll to review themes for Member Selected Books, more than 17% of you wanted to read books with domestic violence, sexual assault, or violence against women.

According to the World Health Organization, global estimates indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. source link

This violence isn't limited to race, class, sexuality, or gender. It happens so frequently that one of the first demonstrations from the Feminist Five was against domestic abuse.

"... known as “Blood Brides” on Valentine’s Day in 2012, when Li Maizi, 25, a Beijing-based manager of the LGBT program at the Beijing Yirenping Center; and Wei Tingting, 27, director of Beijing’s Ji’ande LGBT rights organisation, walked along a busy Beijing commercial area in wedding gowns stained with fake blood to attract attention. They chanted slogans like “Hitting is not intimacy; verbal abuse is not love.” They also distributed anti-domestic violence pamphlets and cards to passers­by. Many of the bystanders were sympathetic to their message and complimented them for their bravery." source link

Discussion Starting Points:
- What do you think about Li and Wei's actions?
- How has violence against women impacted your country or community?
- What are some of the nuances of violence against women found within your communities that may differ from others?
- What ways can the feminist community speak out against this type of violence?

Becca wrote: "Please correct punctuation in the second paragraph: persistence of its members.
This is totally not a big deal, but the possessive form of "it" doesn't use an apostrophe.
"it's" means "it is": the..."

Thanks for having my back Becca!

In the wake of international news on police brutality and violent reactions against black men and women, many of you have an expressed a desire to read more anti-racist books. Help us pick the next Member Selected book to read in August and September so that we learn more about the institutions and microaggressions that prop up and perpetuate racist beliefs.

This collection of voices cover abolitionists decades before Rosa Parks, a founder of the Black Lives Matter, children of immigrants, teachers and more: all who are tried and angry and striving for change.

Vote Here

This poll will be open from today through next week.

If this year has taught us anything, it has been to take a good look at things that our eyes have slid past far too often. COVID, for example, is laying bare our more vulnerable populations as we deal with the virus, but also the growing hatred against "The Model Minority" or our Asian community members in Europe and the US.

"On May 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.”

Government leaders and senior officials in some instances have directly or indirectly encouraged hate crimes, racism, or xenophobia by using anti-Chinese rhetoric. Several political parties and groups, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have also latched onto the Covid-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist, ultra-nationalist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic conspiracy theories that demonize refugees, foreigners, prominent individuals, and political leaders.

“Racism and physical attacks on Asians and people of Asian descent have spread with the Covid-19 pandemic, and government leaders need to act decisively to address the trend,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director. “Governments should act to expand public outreach, promote tolerance, and counter hate speech while aggressively investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/c...

What do you know about the phrase "the Model Minority" and have you seen it in practice?
How does the stigma attached to 'The Model Minority" effect your community?

I'm a big fan of Terry Tempest Williams.

Great additions Ashley!

Gaspard wrote: "I had just a question, is there any gathering "our share selfs" where we can talk about literature and other ?"

Hello Gaspard,

OSS is dedicated to reading feminist literature. It is hard to create discussion around a certain book unless the community has also read it. Most community books - the Shared portion of our name - will have their own folders connected with it. Otherwise... you are welcome to create a thread in the miscellaneous folder for general book discussions if there isn't one already.

If you are looking for a discussion on a certain book that was not read by the OSS Community, than Goodreads in general is a better place to start. That said... Goodreads was created first and foremost to be a book cataloging site with most of it's architecture is dedicated to keeping lists or rating/reviewing books more than it was to create dialogue.

Marina wrote: "What is the current book? I actually don’t know..."

Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China

COVID-19 is definitely wrecking havoc on borrowing books from libraries as well as the supply chain connecting book publishers with book sellers. None of these make it easy for community members and our ability to read these books.

There are areas where you can find the current book or past books for free if not for a small fee. (PDF Drive, Libravox, Project Gutenberg, etc.) While we encourage you to read the current book with us, you are more than welcome to read any of the books on our Bookshelf. Let us know what you think.

-Pam

The Feminist Five were arrested and detained following a demonstration against domestic abuse and sexual assault. However, after 37 days, the Five were released due to combined pressure from national and international individuals and agencies.

Across the world we are seeing more and more demonstrations occurring such as taking the knee for Black Lives Matters, Handmaids silently watching in red at abortion trials, or Fridays for Future walk outs for climate activism.

What are your thoughts on demonstrations? What works and doesn't work?
What demonstrations have you taken part in?
If you haven't been part of a demonstration, why have you abstained?
What do you think about the escalation of demonstrations to protests to riots?

On March 6, 2015, the Chinese government arrested Wei Tingting, Zheng Churan, Wu Rongrong, Li Maizi and Wang Man, five women accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” by passing out stickers against sexual harassment in a subway station. The arrests of these women, dubbed the Feminist Five, galvanized viewers into paying attention to one of the most censored and restrictive nations in the world.

Leta Hong Fincher's Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China is a crucial reminder for the need of the feminist movement and the enduring persistence of its members. This look at contemporary feminism broadens the discussion from a non-Eurocentric, Chinese perspective on #MeToo; focusing on what such a movement might mean to Chinese women (who make up one-fifth of the world’s female population) and for all others straining against gendered restrictions and abuses.

It is through groups like OSS that are cross-class and transnational that women are increasingly able to stand in solidarity against patriarchal regimes. And for me, it reawakened my drive to work harder, speak louder, and move faster against the issues that are still present in my free nation.

I'm so thrilled that we will be reading it together as I cannot wait to hear your thoughts and ideas.

In solidarity,

The OSS Mod team

Let's use this thread to coordinate book borrowing between members! Hopefully everyone who wants to is able to read Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.

Please use this thread ONLY for offers of and requests for Paying It Forward. All other comments about the book and where you got it from can be posted in other relevant topics, such as the book announcement at the top of the discussion board.

Our Pay It Forward initiative is strictly with regards to LEGAL methods of book sharing (for example, sharing hard copies or Kindle sharing). Any posts regarding illegal scans/PDFs/file sharing will be deleted without warning.

Verso author Leta Hong Fincher presents five essential texts on gender and feminism in China. Her new book, Betraying Big Brother, examines the struggles of feminists in China against the patriarchal authoritarianism of the Xi Jinping administration.

One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment

The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Women and China's Revolutions

Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China

Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4095...

After you read Betraying Big Brother and want to learn more about the topics involved, read below for more books to explore.

Feel free to add more!

What were you thoughts about Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China?

What inspired you?
What shocked you?

Hello all!

I don't know about you, but after these last few non-fiction reads I think we all need a moment to enjoy sharp prose and the character development from a fiction book. For our November/December book let's revisit feminist literature written prior to 1990.

The Mod team has removed US authors from this poll as many of our books this year have come from this country. Time to look into other female perspectives. This poll has South American, Caribbean, UK. Algerian, South and East Asian authors to choose from instead.

Our Poll is live now! We'll leave it open until Monday 10/26 PST, .

Member Chosen, Member Approved. This is Our Shared Shelf.

-OSS Mod Team

Those are worthy goals Latricia. I'm glad you are going after what you need with therapy and also staying firm to what we all need to keep this close to our hearts. Stay safe in ATL.

xoxoxo right back.

-P

Manicures and the cost to the Manicurist

A growing body of medical research shows a link between the chemicals that make nail and beauty products useful — the ingredients that make them chip-resistant and pliable, quick to dry and brightly colored, for example — and serious health problems.

Whatever the threat the typical customer enjoying her weekly French tips might face, it is a different order of magnitude, advocates say, for manicurists who handle the chemicals and breathe their fumes for hours on end, day after day.

The prevalence of respiratory and skin ailments among nail salon workers is widely acknowledged. More uncertain, however, is their risk for direr medical issues. Some of the chemicals in nail products are known to cause cancer; others have been linked to abnormal fetal development, miscarriages and other harm to reproductive health.

To add to this: the majority of nail salon workers — 79 percent, according to the report — are immigrants, and many are undocumented. That means they often don’t get health insurance, paid sick days, or other labor protections. And in most cases, undocumented workers can’t get unemployment or access the other benefits in the federal stimulus package.

Nail salon workers typically make a very low wage. Between 2012 and 2016, the median wage for a full-time nail salon worker was just $9.06 an hour, far below the nationwide median of $20.18 an hour, according to the UCLA/California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative report.

And, workers and their advocates say, customers need to understand the risks people face in doing their nails. That includes wearing a mask themselves. Ivy Nguyen has seen news coverage of people refusing to wear masks, and she’s concerned about what would happen if she or one of her coworkers had to ask someone to put on a mask, especially with the prevalence of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic.

Seventy-six percent of nail salon workers are of Asian descent, according to a 2018 report by the UCLA Labor Center and the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. And Asian-Americans have faced a wave of xenophobia and bigotry since the pandemic began, with more than 1,100 physical and verbal attacks documented between late March and mid-April alone, as Vox’s Li Zhou reports.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/ny...
https://www.sciencealert.com/chemical...
https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/5...

I dropped the ball on this one, my apologies everyone.

Here are the topics that I wanted to touch upon:

Pets in the time of COVID:
With Cornovirus we're seeing the influx of pets being sent off to animal shelters as families are economically unable to care for their pets. All in a time when shelters that normally have very tight budgets are suffering as donations are dwindling and the price of care is rising.

https://www.latimes.com/california/st...

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/05/27/...

Many shelters, however, actually ran out of animals to adopt. Given that people were home for much longer, the thought of having a cat or a dog around to pass the time with made for a good fit.

"Up north at the Wisconsin Humane Society, they had so many new foster parents sign up – 400 – in just a few days that it briefly crashed the website, says Angela Speed, vice president for communications. Within five days, she says, their shelters were cleared out, with 159 animals adopted and 160 in foster care.

"People stepped up in a huge way," says Speed. "We all recognize that animals are a source of comfort, love and stress reduction in a chaotic, unprecedented time."

https://www.wtrf.com/news/local-news/...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Many people are watching to make sure the adoptions hold. Shelter in Place is ending for many places, but the economy hasn't quite bounced back.

While reading Overdressed my mind kept going back to the movie "the Devil Wears Prada" where fashion executive Miranda chides her young assistant Andy that just because a person shops at bargain store does not mean that they're exempt from the billion dollar fashion industry.

I'm not creative with clothing. I'm definitely a utilitarian dresser that stems from an athletic build that never seems to quite fit the current look and a childhood with multiple older siblings meant that I'm really comfortable with second hand stuff. Any new purchases I make are ones I dread and agonize over. I'm also someone who, while I have a Kohl's card, I find that the quality is lackluster leading me to use the card more for house stuff and gift giving than on clothing.

So it was really refreshing to take a deeper dive into something I tolerated more than appreciated. It was quite surprising how much my desire for inexpensive clothing drove the industry to lackluster quality and moving overseas. I never thought I had a part of the industry as I didn't give in to it. The good news is that as I am a driving force behind Fast Fashion, so to can I be part of the Slow Fashion movement: shopping less, buying better quality but more expensive clothes, or opt to making them myself.

And with COVID, I have become very familiar with my sewing machine while making masks that I think I might actually tackle a project or two. I'll have to put down a book to do so... but I suppose that is why audio books are a thing. :)


Now... how does this fit with my brand of eco-feminism... I'm paying attention a lot more to the clothing I have and the waste I'm producing. Not just with cloth but plastics in general. I am looking more into the zero waste movement than ever before.

What about you?

What did you think?
How does this book feed into your brand of eco-feminism

I'm playing catch up on this book.

But even though Sex & World Peace is coming to an end as a monthly read, you are still welcome to post your thoughts and questions about the book here.

I know I will!