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women's rights, Elizabeth Warren, Mitch McConnell, She persisted, #Shepersisted

Nevertheless She Persisted

by Deborah Cruz 2017/02/08

She persisted. Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, uttered these now famous words in order to silence Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren from speaking, on Tuesday night.

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren was attempting to read a letter that Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., had written 30 years ago opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship. However, Republicans accused Warren of violating Senate rules against impugning another senator and voted down party line to bar her from participating any further. They wanted Warren to be seen and not heard; to be silent. It was mansplaining at its finest.

Throughout history, women have been silenced by men. This is nothing new. We’ve never liked it but it just was the way it was. Just ask your moms and your grandmothers. We’ve had to bite our tongues or risk having our words shoved back down our throats, via a fist. But a man can say the exact same thing and the world applauds.

Rosa Parks. Harriet Tubman. Angela Davis. Malala Yousafzi. Gloria Steinem. Dorothy Height. Joan Baez. Dolores Huerta. Marian Wright Edelman. Lucretia Mott. Kate Sheppard. Carrie Chapman Catt. Nina Simone. Audra Lorde. Ruby Bridges. Myrlie Evers-Williams. Eleanor Roosevelt. Coretta Scott King. Maya Angelou. Sherly Sandberg. Hillary Clinton. Susan B.Anthony. From the suffragettes to all the grabbing back p*ssies of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and so man more.

women's rights, Elizabeth Warren, Mitch McConnell, She persisted, #Shepersisted

She was warned. Nevertheless, she persisted!

What woman among us has not been warned? I’ve been warned my entire life to be quiet; to stop telling my truth because it would only serve to offend others and get me in trouble. The world likes women to be seen and preferably not speak. I don’t agree. I am more of the, I am woman, hear me roar type. What makes what I have to say less important or more volatile than what a man has to say?

I’ve even been warned by other women to censor myself; to watch what I say because a girl who doesn’t play nice all the time, a strong woman with opinions, might not be a woman that people/companies want to work with. My political outspokenness, my opinions and right to voice them, might make me less desirable to work with.

I thought about it for a minute and while I appreciate my friend’s warning because it’s good to know these things, I can’t be that person who says nothing. I have to speak up for those who can’t.

Yes, I work with big brands and I need to continue to work with these brands to pay for my kids’ private school so that they are not left behind in the inexperienced DeVos era public schools but what kind of example would I be for my daughters, if I rolled over and shut up for money? What would I be teaching them?

I can’t do that. As much as I want to keep working, I can’t be silenced. I must persist. My site might not be huge but my voice counts, every voice counts. We cannot be silenced. It’s not like I’m talking negatively about anyone or anything, I’m simply being pro-woman. I am being pro-immigration. I’m being pro-children, pro-education and pro-human. I’m being pro-American.

I understand that some women keep their views to themselves because maybe they don’t want to be targeted for speaking out against the patriarchy, maybe it makes better business sense for them or maybe their political views are just very private to them. I’m just not one of those women. I don’t believe there is a woman alive who is not pro-woman, some of us are just more vocal about it.

women's rights, Elizabeth Warren, Mitch McConnell, She persisted, #Shepersisted

The Future is Female. Without females, there is no future. There is no species. The Big Guy, my husband for those of you who are new here, said back in November, “If women want to send a message loud and clear to the world that they deserve unequivocal equality, you all need to stop being women. Boycott all of your womanly duties and you will make men realize how important, absolutely vital, you are to the world!” He gets me, he really does.

I think he may be on to something. We need to quit. We need to boycott our expectations and rise up. We need to speak our truth and refuse to be silenced. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Will there be ramifications? Yes. But if not now, when? If we don’t do this now, our daughters will be doing it for the rest of their lives. In 100 years, our great, great granddaughters will still be fighting to be seen as equal.

We’ve been warned all throughout history to stay silent or suffer the consequences but if we do not persist now, then when? If history has taught us anything, our silence does not save us it only pacifies the patriarchy. They carry on as usual and so do we; bruised, battered and humiliated under the thumb of a society that values a penis more than a vagina.

We have to stand together now, for our mothers, for our sisters, for ourselves and most importantly, for our daughters. We must show them that…

She was warned, but nevertheless, she persisted.

This is our legacy. This is our battle cry. To hell with warnings. I want to raise my girls to be resilient, strong and tolerant. I want them to know that even when you are warned that what you are doing is hard, you keep going. In the end, I want my girls to know…she persisted.

2017/02/08 4 comments

Barbie movie, female empowerment, Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, How the Barbie movie taught me that I was never going back in the box Barbie

Entertainment

How the Barbie Movie Taught Me that I am “Never Going Back in the Box” Barbie

by Deborah Cruz 2023/07/31

written by Deborah Cruz

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

I’m a Barbie girl in a patriarchal world, life’s not fantastic. It fucking sucks. I’ll be completely honest with you, I wasn’t expecting much from the Barbie movie. I thought it would be kitschy and cute. I had no idea the impact it would have on me. Now, I want to live in a Barbie World, where every night is girl’s night, the President is a woman and there’s a full female SCOTUS!

On Saturday, the girls and I dressed in our most pink outfits and went to see the Barbie movie. I am so blown away that I was completely without words until today. Wow! Just wow! I had a lot of emotions during this film, joy, sadness, anger, nostalgia, camaraderie. It was an emotional journey in the deepest sense. Mostly, I felt seen. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I cried some more and then I fucking sobbed. Female empowerment is all the things.

There’s a lot to unpack. I had to sit with these feelings for a while. I can tell you that Greta Gerwig is forever my new female power hero. She deserves an Oscar for the writing and directing. The topics she tackled blew my feminist, girl mom, Barbie loving woman heart wide open. There are truly no words right now. I’m still trying to push back the tears. It was deep. It was complex. It was beautiful and messy. It tackled so much in so little time.

This movie may be the most powerful movie I’ll ever see in my lifetime.

This is the movie that I would watch over and over with my girls for all eternity. This is the movie I’ll watch with my friends, my sisters, my mom, my nieces and my granddaughters. This movie was brave and unafraid and I want to live in Barbie World because I’m all about the matriarchy.

Don’t get me started on America Ferrera. OMG!!! Representation matters and her speech, her raw realness is all of us. Margot Robbie was perfect casting because she is the most relatable beautiful woman ever and she took that script and delivered the meaning flawlessly. Ryan Gosling brought the perfect Kenergy.

When I watched the Barbie movie, I honestly experienced every emotion and it’s likely this post will do the same, so bear with me. It was everything I could hope for and, nothing I expected. This movie gutted me in the most beautiful way. I think it touched a nerve because it put a spotlight on just how truly hard it is to be a woman in this world. Something we are all painfully aware of but have to push down so that we can survive the experience. It is beautiful and messy, and we’re never given the credit we deserve but still we toil so that our daughters can someday have it better.

Barbie world is bizarro world in an alternative universe in the most beautiful and profound way. Men are marginalized and objectified. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think men or anyone should be marginalized or objectified and have their feelings, thoughts, wants and needs ignored or minimized but it was nice for once in my existence to be part of the majority, because as a Latina woman, I never have been nor will I ever be.

Barbie movie, female empowerment, Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig. America Ferrera

This monologue had me sobbing because it’s so hard and its never enough and no matter what we do, we’re never good enough. Even when we’re good enough. we’re not. Society puts these impossible standards on girls and women, and we internalize them and beat ourselves into submission over them and its never fucking good enough. What if we all just loved ourselves? We’d be unstoppable and I think that’s the point. they keep us in our boxes because they are terrified of what we’ll do if we didn’t have to be shackled to these stupid stereotypes and expectations of others. I want more for our daughters. We ride at dawn, and we wear pink!

Ryan Gosling definitely wins sexiest man alive 2023 in my book for being willing to exemplify and embody the ridiculousness that is misogyny on the big screen and real life. He put aside any societal expectation of masculinity and machismo. He played number two and will forever be number one in our hearts.

The Kendom definitely shone a light on toxic masculinity. Life was good and then it was terrible because suddenly the Kens were introduced to patriarchy and misogyny, and they embraced it with arms wide open because they wanted the power. Being powerless made them feel small and unseen (much like women are in the real world) so they embraced the bruh life. Suddenly, the Kens went from partners and friends to domineering, demanding machismos who only cared about their own feelings, wants, and needs. I found it particularly cringey when all the Kens were singing Matchbox Twenty’s Push. I used to love that song but hearing it sung in unison by all the Kens and really listening to all the lyrics enraged me.

As a mom, for many years, I felt conflicted and torn between my love for Barbie, the doll who made me believe that I could be anything, but looked impossibly perfect and the impossible standards she represented. I wanted to share my love for Barbie and absolute belief that anything is possible for girls with my daughters, but it felt duplicitous. By playing with Barbie, in all her perfection, was I actually part of the problem? Was I subconsciously sending the message that girls are never good enough? Because that wasn’t my intention.

There is a scene right before American Ferrera’s speech in which Barbie is crying and talking about how she is not pretty or good enough for anything and anyone because she is just a “Stereotypical” Barbie, after all. She has no specific profession, and she thinks that she really doesn’t serve a purpose, especially upon finding out that Barbies did not really change the real world.

Being a woman, especially a middle-aged woman and a mom, is difficult in so many ways. There comes a time where the lines of where you end and the people you love begins blurs. You lose yourself and then you start to feel invisible. Exhaustion sets in and you feel sort of gray. If you know, you know, and I know you know. You are part of those people more than you are yourself. And when they grow up and your looks start to change, you start to age out of the system of life that society has placed you in. You feel absolutely lost and unheard, drowning in the existential crisis that is who you were, who you are and who you will become. Who are you without them? What is your worth? If you disappeared, would anyone even notice?

I love being a woman, despite how hard life can be. No matter how discounted our hard work, intelligence and opinions go, largely ignored and diminished. Being a woman means spending your entire life fighting through our fears and hiding our weaknesses, never able to breakdown. The game is rigged, and we never get to win, no matter how hard we work or how good we are.

Being born a girl means toiling, grinding and, even with an IQ of 147 and 3 master’s degrees, still being treated like you’re less than every man in the room. Our beauty and sexuality are our only currency and its dirty fucking money. We spend our lives reduced to what lies between our legs and we know beauty is power. We are also painfully aware that beauty fades because society constantly reminds us to twist and tie ourselves up into knots to stay beautiful. We are taught to fear aging because our worth is directly tied to our beauty and our sexuality.

From now on, I’m going to greet every woman I meet with a hearty and happy, “Hey, Barbie!” because I think every single woman is perfection. And the fact that you’ve survived this long in this cruel and unfair world makes you not only beautiful but amazing. Men couldn’t do this. Their fragile egos would break. Meanwhile, we’ve spent our entire lives swallowing our pride and ignoring our egos and everything we know to be fair and good in the name of not causing problems.

This, got me in my mom heart. I love women but the most important women to me are the two I gave birth to and I felt this quote in my soul. The mother-daughter relationship is one of the most beautiful and complex that there ever will be. These are the women I will not only die for, I would kill for, and, sometimes they push us away. It really is the deepest cut when the person you love more than everything is just not that into you. But still, we toil and we bend until we nearly break because we want so much better for them. My Barbie dream is that one day the little girls will look back at this movie in the middle of the female power revolution and feel it’s completely unrelatable. I want a Barbie world for them, where equality is the norm and women can be seen as strong, intelligent crusaders for justice without being seen as militant.

Just know, no matter how much she smiles, supports and loves you, nobody wants to be second all the time. No one is satisfied with always being the supporting cast, especially in their own story.

There was a very seemingly innocuous but, all too real, misogynistic scene where the CEO of Mattel and all the Mattel executives (all men) were sitting around a table discussing Barbie with no female representatives present. Barbie enters the room and is in search of help. Their answer is to tell her to, “Get into the box and we’ll got back to Barbie land!” It was a moment of complete condescension. She agrees because she wants to go back to her Utopian female centric world. Who can blame her? Reality for women sucks. As they are shackling her back into the box, she has an epiphany. She can feel that this is not right, and she breaks free. As I watched her being shackled, I was physically nauseated and next, I was completely and unexpectedly enraged. You know, I am usually the wokest bitch in the room and this quiet and powerful moment nearly brought me to the point of wanting to set the theater on fire. The misogyny in which we women endure on a daily basis is so often and frequent that it becomes a part of our daily life, and we continue to let it pass because we are gaslit into thinking we are overreacting. When you feel in your gut that its wrong, its wrong. If you feel threatened, run. Don’t let them push you into that box.

Ladies, may we all aspire to live in a real Barbie world someday where all women are treated like humans and not objects. Where women support women and toxic masculinity is not only frowned upon but not tolerated. Dreaming of a kinder and more equal world. In my humble opinion, if you haven’t seen it… go see it. If you have bigger girls take them to see it. If you’re a feminist, a person who loves a feminist, a woman, a girl mom, or anyone who believes in equality, GO.SEE.THIS.MOVIE!!

https://youtu.be/Kb7jYOYXiVc

I am buying the Barbie movie as soon it’s available. I am seriously so damn in my feelings with this masterpiece of female empowerment and cerebral satire, I just want to let it marinate. I want to show this movie to every single living woman and girl over the age of 12 and say…THIS…YOU.ARE.SEEN. But not just to share the movie and say we are seen but to incite a revolution for change. Who cares if we’re seen if that’s where it stops. Let’s keep the momentum going. We CAN change this narrative. You don’t have to go back into that fucking box manufactured by the patriarchy. I want so much more for all of our little girls. Barbie is the female empowerment movie that I’ve waited for my entire life. This is the movement.

This Barbie is never ever going back into the box.

2023/07/31 2 comments

tampons, free bleeding, kiran Gandhi, feminism, periods without tampons, patriarchy

I Am Feminist, Watch Me Free Bleeding

by Deborah Cruz 2015/08/13

written by Deborah Cruz

Cause she’s free, free bleeding!

Sorry, I just can’t get that damn Tom Petty song out of my head ever since I read that article about the woman running the London marathon while on her period with absolutely no feminine hygiene help. Tampons…we don’t need no stinking tampons (or maxi pads for that matter). We are woman, watch us bleed.

A few months ago, Kiran Gandhi (a Harvard MBA) chose to run the London marathon, “unencumbered by the ‘absurd’ presence of a chaffing ‘wad of cotton’ wedged between her legs.” And so began the third-wave feminist movement of “free-bleeding.”

First, it was the bush making a comeback, then ladies refusing to shave their legs on principal and now, dying pit hair and free bleeding. Look, I am a woman and I am loud and proud about women’s rights. Hell, I’m even a bit of a fanatic. I like causes and, if we’re being honest, women and minorities are two of my favorites because I am both.

I don’t think women should be banished to red tents and dirty sheds because they are on their periods. But damn, you couldn’t pay me money to run around London bleeding out because that is exactly what I would be doing. It would look like someone tried to kill me by stabbing me to death in my vagina. All of London would look like a traveling crime scene and quite frankly, I don’t want to be known as free bleeding Debi. Plus, it feels a bit unhygienic. I mean, my sheets are white!

I mean, no one’s going to invite me to their house anymore. Party invites and standing up in weddings, all gone forever. No one wants to take the chance I’m going to show up and damage their goods or cause a spectacle. I mean, I’m just finally living down all those sweater ass covered periods of my youth. I wore a sweater one week of every month from the ages of 12-18…just in case of an accident. Then I discovered tampons, left the flying winged diapers behind and moved on with my life.

What’s all this period-shaming shit about? I’m not embarrassed by my period. The patriarchy didn’t curse me with shark week, it’s biology. It’s for the babies! Who doesn’t love babies?

Honestly, tampons are a pain in the vagina. I get it! Have you ever got your lip caught between those two cardboard parts of the applicator? That shit hurts like a mother effer. Or have you ever completely forgotten that you had one in and put another one in and shoved the previous one into your brain? It hurts. Or the worse is when you do it quickly; go on about your business only to realize 15 minutes into a board meeting that you are sitting on the inner cardboard tube of the applicator. It’s like sitting on a broom handle….in your vagina while having a conversation. And please don’t even get me started on the diapers that are an excuse for maxi pads once you give birth. My God, I need a f*cking diaper between the pee and the hemorrhaging. Why didn’t people warn me?

So, free bleeding?

Look, I get it. It is 2015 and we want all the equal rights and I think women should be able to do everything men do, if they want to go topless, serve in the army on the front lines, open all the goddamn doors they want to…GO.FOR.IT! But me, I can do all that but I like it when my husband opens doors for me and pulls out my chair. I like chivalry and manners. I love respect for women. I don’t want to run around free bleeding and covered in body hair like a savage to prove a point. I’ll burn the shit out of my bras though, I hate those things.

As far as I’m concerned, I’ll share. Boys, you want the free bleeding? The monthly hemorrhage accompanied by tender breasts, cramps and PMS? You can have it. I will buy all of your drinks.

I’m all about live and let live but can I please live with my tampons and without the mortification of the entire world knowing when I’m menstruating. Can we just allow me that one private dignity? As for Kiran Gandhi, I say go girl. If this is how you want to celebrate your womanhood, you do it loud and proud.

How do you feel about the free bleeding phenomenon?

2015/08/13 0 comment

school uniforms, little girls, body image, private school, self-esteem,

Girl Mom Women's Issues

School Uniforms Destroy Girls’ Body Image

by Deborah Cruz 2015/08/18

written by Deborah Cruz

Have you ever thought about how our daughters’ self-esteem and body image could be affected by the school uniforms or dress code policy? Sounds crazy, right? I mean isn’t that the entire purpose of school uniforms in the first place, to level the playing field; to equalize all children and neutralize all social hierarchy? Isn’t a dress code to keep kids comfortable and tidy.

I have daughters, who have to wear school uniforms. There is no option. I thought this was a great idea when we started school but now, I think it’s stifling and worse, I think it’s causing some damage to my tween’s self-esteem and worse, her body image. It’s bad enough that they are not allowed to even look like girls; no ruffles, no frills or even pale pink polish because it might be “distracting” to boys but now we are even making the clothes to fit like a boy. Someone once told me that I should cut my daughters’ hair because they “read somewhere” that long hair is conducive to rape. I said, no why don’t women teach their sons not to be rapists and to respect women and their bodies. Why should my daughter have to look like a boy so your son doesn’t get any ideas? Why do the girls have to be punished?

But how are school uniforms destroying little girls’ body image, you ask?

This year, it has become almost impossible to find anything that fits my child and believe me; I have tried all the stores and all the sizes. I’m frustrated; my poor daughter is beside herself. She had a growth spurt over the summer and suddenly all of her clothes are too short and tight. So, since I don’t want to send my child to school looking all “Hulk Smash” I decided to try to just buy her some bigger clothes. Makes sense, right? WRONG!

You see, I’ve noticed that for the last few years, the girls’ uniform pants that we bought at Children’s Place were made slightly different than boy uniform pants. It was the little details like a little spandex mixed with the cotton so that the pants could bend and mold to a little girl’s body. Also, little girls’ pants were slightly flared for aesthetics and had a cute little ribbon belt. The pants were perfect. My children have been wearing them for years.

But this year, with all the let’s eliminate labels like “boys” and “girls” campaigns being on trend, nothing fits. It’s not my imagination. They have actually stopped making the pants we previously bought and have gone to a more streamlined look, that happen to look exactly like the boys’ pants. Let’s put it this way, my waif like 8 –year-old who almost blows away with a strong gust of wind and typically wears a size 6X/7 had to buy a size 10, in order to fit.

My poor 10-year-old who typically wears a 12 or a 14 depending on the length of the pants, literally, could not find a pair of pants that fit her in the length and waist. Either they swallowed her whole or fit in the waist but were up to her knees or in one particular worst case scenario, we had to try on a size 14 that was tight on her waist and her butt and then we found out it was a mislabeled 10. With tears in her eyes in the dressing room, she looked at me and said, “Mommy, I just want to be normal. I just want pants that fit to wear to school!” I’ve only noticed this in uniforms, but of course, that’s all I’ve shopped for recently.

My heart broke into one million pieces because I saw every single woman that has come before her and every single little girl that will come after her if we don’t do something to change this NOW! There is plenty of time for her to feel like shit about herself because the fashion and style industry do not cater to normal sized women and they surely don’t cater to tall women, who are neither anorexic or plus sized. Our options are crying in the dressing room while trying to either starve ourselves into see thru micro mini everything, wearing muumuus or dressing like a man. Why do we have to dress according to them? And who the f*ck are they anyways?

Isn’t it enough that our daughters are bombarded by images on television and in the media of starving women as our standard of beauty, now my 10-year-old and 8-year-old are being told their bodies are wrong by fucking uniform pants. And by the way, if there was ever proof that the patriarchy is in charge, just look at a school uniform policy. It is made to inflict embarrassment and shatter self-image by making every little girl feel as ugly and plain as possible.

This is my plea, manufacturers and designers of little girls’ school uniforms

Please stop making school uniforms cut to give our elementary school aged girls doubt in themselves and their bodies.

My daughters are perfect and healthy and beautiful and in one shopping trip, fashion has planted a seed of doubt. I saw her face. I know that look…

If only I could lose 5 pounds, I could fit into those pants!

I didn’t ever want to see that look in her eyes; that partial disgust and doubt of her own body.

It had nothing to do with wanting to be fashionable and every thing to do with just wanting to be normal and wear pants that fit. Why are we allowing the fashion industry to destroy the self-esteem and body image that we have worked so hard to instill in our girls? We pay for these clothes, shouldn’t they be made to fit our bodies not the other way around? The fashion industry works for us.

What are your thoughts on vanity sizing and unisex cuts in girls’ school uniforms?

2015/08/18 5 comments

News Politics

United We Resist

by Deborah Cruz 2017/01/30

written by Deborah Cruz

The only option is to resist.

I have, literally, been trying to write this post since the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump but I can’t form my thoughts into coherent words because every day there is some new mind boggling executive order being passed down. What I do know is that we have to resist. We the people have to resist.We cannot go gently into that good night. The man is on the fast track to being a dictator the likes of Hitler, Pinochet, and Castro.

My mind has been having a hard time keeping up with everything going on during this first week of Trump’s presidency.My heart is heavy but my mind says resist. Resist the urge to lay down and curl up into the fetal position. Resist the natural response to drown in my own tears. Resist the wrong that is being inflicted. Stand up. Fight. Now. Use your voice.

I feel like we are all patiently awaiting the purge. Those who are complacent are part of the problem. Quietly disagreeing is no longer an option. We’ve gone way beyond that point. You must be prepared to stand up and speak out. You must be prepared to fight because your life is at stake. Your basic human rights are in jeopardy. This man is turning the United States into a sinking ship and we are all being held hostage aboard the S.S. Hate.

I am a woman. I am a Latina. I am the daughter of an immigrant. I am the mother of a new generation of Latinas. I do not have the option of being quiet and not fighting. I choose action, for my father, for my children, for myself and for you!

Women, United we Stand and Divided we Fall.

Ladies, what are you doing? We’re fighting with each other over who should march and who shouldn’t. And while we’re not paying attention, the government is slowly putting its hands on our uterus while Trump is single-handedly stripping us of our basic human rights. If you are a woman and this doesn’t scare you, you might want to get a dictionary and Google Women’s rights.

NoBanNoWall, resist, Trump, women's rights, censorship, muslim ban, deportation

Resist the urge to turn on one another. This is the time for unification, not separation.

Marching was not just about the right to choose. It’s about the government telling women what to do with their bodies. How we reproduce. When we reproduce. How we feed our babies. How we deal with the loss of our babies. The punishment for not carrying a pregnancy to term for several reasons, including rape, incest, medical reasons and yes, even choice. It’s about men having domain over our bodies when we don’t give consent and even when we say no. It’s about women being treated like livestock and not humans. It’s about every single human being born with a vagina and a uterus.

Ladies, our daughters are watching.

NoBanNoWall, resist, Trump, women's rights, censorship, muslim ban, deportation

Photo via Instagram @LatinasUnited

Last week’s March was an amazing show of solidarity in a time of turmoil. The American women came out in powerhouse droves to stand up for their rights as human beings and their reproductive rights. Women across the world put everyone on notice that we are no longer going to stand silently by as the patriarchy treats us like second class citizens.

I’m still having a hard time understanding why our reproductive rights are a point of discussion at all. Why is it anyone’s business what we do with our bodies? How does my choice to do what I want with my body fall under government jurisdiction?

If men can justify this behavior and the right to have dominion over women’s bodies, why can’t we women make federal law on how men use their reproductive systems? What if we banned all the Viagra, imposed vasectomies on any man we saw unfit to reproduce and, just for shits and giggles, give every man a good lecturing about how he should not be masturbating because it is fornicating and that is a sin under God’s law? What if we made touching your balls without permission a sin punishable by jail time, just because?

You know what’s even more disgusting than men having their hands metaphorically in our uteruses, controlling how we use our own bodies? Women who mock the feminists, the marchers and the women fighting for equal rights for women. The ladies who stand on the sidelines and support a man who categorically believes you are a second class citizen.

You ladies are self-loathing pieces of shit and I wish there was a way that you could sign a petition to show your lack of support for women’s rights so that when we do get our rights fully and unequivocally, you can have yours taken away. Your body, your choice. You don’t want them. Hand them over. But, I’m not going to fight against you, my sisters, because I will fight for you and whether you know it or not, you deserve to be treated and paid and recognized as a full human.

I will resist my urge to abandon and mock you.

We have to stop fighting each other because our daughters are not equal to our sons, not in the eyes of the law. Not in pay. We are not the same as men. We are not equal. Sit with that for a moment, we.are.not.equal. Not under our government. We are second class, at best. Is that what you want for your daughters?

Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you, It’s not pie.

Censorship of the United States

We are being censored to our death. Since before the election, people who have defended their choice to vote for Trump have always prefaced it with,

“I don’t think he is actually as racist/anti-woman/homophobic/xenophobic/anti-disabled/anti-poor as he pretends to be.”

Apparently, none of these people have ever heard of the saying, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Actions speak louder than words and your vote said everything.

Now, we live in a world of censorship where randomly shutting down U.S. government social media accounts that tell a truth that contradict the alternative facts, ignoring the press when they ask hard questions, shutting the press out and eliminating the transparency of the presidency, “alternative facts” and straight up lies are all acceptable behavior by our leader.

We are beginning to get only the news Trump wants us to have. Where was the coverage of the protests the night before the inauguration? The coverage of the women marchers and the #NoBanNoWall protestors? Trump even brings along his own people to applaud when he gives these unbelievable speeches to fool us into thinking anything he says is worthy of applause. It’s a tactic used to deceive us into believing we are misunderstanding because surely there would not be applauding for something so outlandish as the complete deconstruction of our government.

The man is playing the shell game with the American people, in one hand he is signing outlandish orders and while we are protesting he is quietly slipping Bannon, a known white supremacist, into his cabinet. The man is filling his cabinet, one-by-one, with less and less qualified people.

Trump is turning the United States into a sinking ship that he nor none of his cabinet know how to drive and all the American people are stuck along for the ride. His entire cabinet is made up of billionaires who are not qualified for their positions and who are so out of touch with the average American that it is ridiculous to expect them to be able to relate. Pay attention people, this is your life we are talking about here.

Resist like your life depends on it because it probably does.

We’re not paying for the fucking wall.

A few years ago, when I had my miscarriage, I got a bill for a few thousand dollars to pay for what the hospital referred to as a “Missed abortion.” To say I was insulted and hurt would be the understatement of the year. It’s like someone murdering you and you going to jail. The miscarriage happened to me. It was bad enough that I had to pay for it like it was a new bag or I got new a new nose or something but then to call it a “missed abortion” that cut like a knife. That’s about how the Mexicans feel about paying for a wall to keep them out. Are you kidding me? No, they’re not paying for a wall that so clearly puts them on the receiving end of the biggest insult the U.S. government could issue against an ally.

My dad is an immigrant who has papers to legally be here. He’s lived here for almost 50 years. That’s longer than he lived in his native Mexico. He is now retired and currently in Mexico, as he goes there for the winter months. I don’t even know if he will be able to come back, at the rate Trump is throwing people out. What if his papers get revoked? This is a very real and legitimate concern of mine.

Trump enacted the Muslim ban. If you don’t see the problem with this, then there is something wrong with you. Our government is actively detaining people at the airports and sending people back. People who have lives, families, and jobs here simply because their skin is brown and maybe, they don’t worship like we do. Saying all Muslims are terrorists is the same as saying all Christians are members of the Westboro Baptist.

I’m a Christian. I am Catholic under a pope who does not condone this Muslim ban. You cannot call yourself a Christian and disobey the fundamental teaching of the church to love your brothers and sisters as you love yourself. So to ban Muslims under the guise of Christianity is simply dressing your hate up as religion and it is not possible. The two do not line up.

America is a country born on the back of immigrants. The whole premise of our country is that it is a place where people could come when fleeing religious persecution and unjust, tyrannical governments to pursue a better quality of life. This is why we are known as a melting pot. This is what makes America great but Trump doesn’t agree.

photo via Instagram @nicoalexa

Keeping people out of our country, turning children in need away, sending people seeking political amnesty from a tyrannical dictatorship goes against everything this country stands for. It is issuing a death sentence. It’s like locking people in a burning house. We are killing them.

Calling people rapists, drug lords and terrorists are doing nothing but villainizing the victims. Have we all forgotten what happened to the Jews during the Nazi reign? And it wasn’t just the Jews that Hitler destroyed.

Hitler put 6 million Polish people (Jewish and Christian) into his concentration camps, as well as people from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Holland, France and even Germany. There were 11 million victims of the Holocaust. He targeted Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma Gypsies, Courageous Resisters, Priests and Pastors, Homosexuals, people who were disabled, Black children and anyone in an interracial marriage. Does any of this sound familiar to what we are looking down the barrel at right now?

“First we need to examine Hitler’s egocentric and maniac ideology. Hitler, who was Chancellor of Germany during the Holocaust, came to power in 1933 when Germany was experiencing severe economic hardship. Hitler promised the Germans that he would bring them prosperity and that his military actions would restore Germany to a position of power in Europe.
Hitler had a vision of a Master Race of Aryans that would control Europe. He used very powerful propaganda techniques to convince not only the German people, but countless others, that if they eliminated the people who stood in their way and the degenerates and racially inferior, they – the great Germans would prosper.
Neighboring Poland – The First Target: “All Poles will disappear from the world…. It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles.” Heinrich Himmler
Hitler’s first target was Germany’s closest neighbor to the east, Poland. An agricultural country with little military power. Hitler attacked Poland from three directions on September 1, 1939 and in just over one month, Poland surrendered — unable to defend itself against the powerful German prowess.
In Poland, Hitler saw an agricultural land in close proximity to Germany, populated by modest but strong and healthy farmers. Hitler quickly took control of Poland by specifically wiping out the Polish leading class — the Intelligentsia. During the next few years, millions of other Polish citizens were rounded up and either placed in slave labor for German farmers and factories or taken to concentration camps where many were either starved and worked to death or used for scientific experiments.”

Do you see the similarities? To read more similarities, read more from this article about the Non-Jewish victims of the holocaust. Just in case you think you are safe from the New Nationalists because you are white?

Edmund Burke once said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Please know your history or you will fall victim to it. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a part of a history that destroys our country under a government that cares nothing for us but for what we can do for it.

I will not stand idly by as my rights are stripped away one by one. I am a human being and so are you and we have to stick together to fight against what is sure to be history repeating itself. It’s already begun. It’s been a week. What do you think this will all look like in the history books in after 4 years? Viva La Resistance!

It’s time to mobilize. Get into formation ladies, gentleman, children, homosexuals, Muslims, Latinos, Disabled people and the poor and disenfranchised. Time to protect our freedoms and our human rights and dignity.

Give us your tired, your poor and your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

What are you doing to resist?

2017/01/30 8 comments

International Women's Day, healthy, how to keep your kids healthy, happy children, healthy habits, Anthem, ballet, ballerinas

Girl Mom Women's Issues

Let’s Build Something Beautiful Together for Our Daughters

by Deborah Cruz 2019/03/08

written by Deborah Cruz

Let’s build something beautiful together. Let’s change the world and fill it full of good humans. Let’s raise young girls to become strong women who demand respect and equality. I want International Women’s Day to be every day from now until infinity.

I am the mother of girls. All day long, for the past 14 years, I #Girlmom. When I found out that I was having daughters, I was thrilled immediately tinged by sadness for the struggles they would face as females. The truth is that being born a woman is both a privilege and a curse. More privilege than curse but still it has its downsides like inequal work pay, permanent second class citizen status, being seen as the “weaker sex”, rape culture, the government has one hand in your uterus at all times, being ignored and invisible, or catcalled and objectified and so much more.

Personally, I think there is nothing so magical and fierce as a strong woman. From the moment I knew I would be raising daughters, I had every intention of raising strong girls who would grow up to be unstoppable women. I felt like this was my time to make my grand contribution to the world, beyond my words, thoughts, deeds and actions, I wanted to leave a legacy of raising good, kind, strong females who are tolerant advocates for themselves and others who need their voice to raise up and call for justice.

Today is International Woman’s Day and I feel like I would be remiss to not to celebrate it, especially as the mother of girls.

Society tends to make women feel like second class citizens in so many ways, I want my girls to know they are first class in every sense of the word. How do we do this in a time when we are telling our girls they are equal but they are seeing that the world does not see them that way? We work twice as hard to build them up. We arm them with educations, strong female role models and the fundamental belief that they are better than good enough and equal to any man. We do this by showing them, not just telling them. We start by loving and believing in ourselves.

It is our jobs as mothers to show our little girls that maybe it’s hard to be a woman in our society but it is also the most beautiful thing in this whole world. We can do everything men can do plus we can bring life into the world. We create miracles. Our bodies are magic and that’s the way we need to appreciate them. We do not need to chastise ourselves because our bodies don’t fit some Barbie doll mold created by the expectations of men. We need to embrace it for all of its curves and beauty.

We need to show our little girls how important it is to have good relationships with other women. Life should not be about competing with other women. We need to teach our girls to lift one another up; to support and celebrate one another. We do not need to divide ourselves. We need to unify and stand strong arm in arm.

Our girls need to know that they don’t ever need to shut up. They are not too brazen for speaking up for what they believe in. They are not asking too much to be treated with the same respect and dignity that any man would demand. You are not less of a woman because you want more out of life than society dictates that you should have.

We need to encourage our girls to travel more. See the world. Teach them that nothing is impossible and everything is possible with hard work. Our girls can do and be anything. Let them know that we’ve got their backs as their mothers and as their sisters in womanhood.

Stop teaching our little girls to be princesses who need to be rescued by a prince. Teach them to rescue themselves. A prince is not your savior; he is your partner. He is the man you will share your life, love and friendship with. Teach our girls that a partner is nice but not necessary to live in this world and to never sacrifice herself to fit anyone else’s expectations.

I’m raising caring, kind, open-minded fighters. I’m teaching them to never back down or step aside. I want them to hold their heads up high and to be proud of who they are and how they live in the world. I don’t want them to lower their standards or settle in life. I want them to know that contrary to what society would have them believe being born with a vagina is not a handicap, it’s a superpower.

I’m drilling it into their brains that no one has power or domain over their bodies, their minds or their souls. It’s ok to say no loudly and bravely. Speak their truth and the world will listen. Feminism is not a bad word and it’s okay to tell the patriarchy to go f*ck themselves. They are not the boss of you.

This is how we celebrate International Women’s Day by fighting for equality every day and showing our girls that they are strong enough to weather the condescension of misogynist. We show them that being considered the weaker sex doesn’t make you less than, it makes you underestimated. Be strong ladies. They have no idea how powerful we are.

How are you celebrating International Women’s Day with your daughters?

2019/03/08 1 comment