About

I’m a teacher, artist, musician, writer, feminist, and grad student, inching my way towards a Phd in sociology with a concentration in both women’s studies and media. This is my fourth attempt since 2000 at blogging seriously (tried every blogging interface, ever). This blog, however, is an experiment in serious discussions of gender and race in the media. I choose to use my “feminist laser eyes” (the 2nd choice for the blog’s title) to show others how women and people of color are portrayed as less than human in TV, film, novels, advertising, magazines, and generally every other medium of entertainment. I hope this blog makes us think about the media’s effect on how we perceive ourselves–as women, as queer people, as ethnic minorities, as poor people, as a disabled community, as people with integrity…the list goes on. Margaret Cho hits this point home, when she says that in this world where you have to look a certain way or else you’re worthless, “For us to have self esteem is truly an act of revolution. And our revolution is long overdue.”

But I’m not always serious. I also talk about science fiction and fantasy a lot, because I’m a geek like that. Though sometimes I talk about it with my nose in a library book, its mostly escape away from the crushing embrace of academia. Currently I’m working on: securing my first academic publication, writing short stories about growing up in the Mississippi Delta, and adjusting to life in a college town. A handful of random obsessions include: collecting vinyl, making collage art, going to garage sales/flea markets/and used book stores, cooking vegetarian meals, comic books, gardening, feminist blogs, Slate magazine podcasts, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica, and Stephen Colbert.