Power

Clancy Brown is my villain crush.  Ever since I saw his head attached to his body with safety pins in 1991.  I never had a villain crush before but that?  resonated.  And even after.  Shawshank Redemption?  Carnivale?  He's my favorite villain.  raw, composed, deadly all at once.  whew.  This has nothing to do with anything.

In other news, it IS possible for one to get caught up on 4 or 5 episodes of Cougar Town in one evening and not feel like you've lost two whole hours of your life.  [skyward whistle]  I'm guessing.

Also, when your kid walks into a new doctor's office and declares to the nurse with an inflated sense of bravado, "I'm not getting any shots." and the nurse responds with, "What?  No shots?  We wouldn't shoot you." or "We don't have guns here." or whatever the fuck it was she said exactly, then I'm hoping the appropriate response was to NOT kill her.  Because I didn't.  kill her I mean.  Even though I reeeeealllly wanted to.  way to code down the terror alert you idiot.  I'll be prepared for your particular brand of stupidity next time.  put your Mom on speed dial; I'll bring the Kleenex.

Aaaand to continue a smidge from the end of yesterday even though this debate might be over (although I doubt it's ever going to be for real over) about whether or not men should be attending women's blogging conferences?  or "female focused" or "mom titled" events.  Or in general whether some other person who identifies with a certain label maybe happens to want to branch out and attend an event with a whole different label and whether or not that's okay with everybody?


What sort of fear mongerer are you?

Ohno!  A man!  He must want to oppress us!  He's brought friends!  Don't look directly at him!

Shutthefuckup.

I fawned over people at BlogHer '10.  You know who I fawned over?  Who I could've passed out about meeting?  Undomestic Diva.  Who is not in the least bit a man.  I basically tackled her introduced myself to her on the dance floor at Sparklecorn.  Like a completely normal person who didn't need coaching.

And I got nervous at meeting Miss Banshee everytime I saw her (even though I'd just interviewed her for Studio 30 Plus the week before?!), and that could maybe be fawning.

And several other women from MamaPop (including Sweetney herself for godsakes) can confirm (probably with giggling) that I got knocked in the head by the elevator doors as I tried to exit our serendipitously shared elevator and breathe air at the same time.  possibly fawning.

And I didn't want to freak out The Bloggess with fawning because I hear she tends toward skittish, so I just smiled and meekly said I really liked her panel as she left the hotel from the weekend.

If that's fawning then I'm guilty.

Did I meet some of the men who attended Blogher '10?  Of course I did.  Because we'd become email or comment friends beforehand.  And I made new guy blogger friends at the conference even.  Because the guys all hung out in a pack basically and they were hard to miss.

So if you consider making new friends fawning then I guess I fawned the hell all over everybody I met.  Because I didn't know anybody before I went to this thing.  Women or Men.  I flew pretty much blind.  I mostly walked into a dark room hoping people would be there when I flipped on the light.  Didn't realize I was meant to be more specific than looking for blogger or writer when I opened my eyes

whoops?

All I wanted to do was join the blogosphere.  the group.  the conversation.  If I'd known the conference was supposed to be exclusive then I would not have looked so forward to it or made the sacrifices I did to be there.  and I know I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much.

I understand the depth of feminism involved in making a conference, or even an organization, like BlogHer possible.  Please allow me to explain that I attended every Take Back the Candlelight Awareness Ribbon Quilt Vigil I could think of as Political Correctness dawned over DC in the early '90s.  The thought of Suffragettes alone makes me want to put my hand over my heart in thanks.  I wouldn't want to live in any other time in history.

I just think people only have as much power as you give them.
Can we not so much worry about who's trying to take our power away and give ourselves more power instead?  It starts with a mindset is all.  Hope for gain rather than fear of loss.