Interests Meme

[moominmuppet]

LJ Interests meme results

1. big burlesque:
   Makes me happy. Curvy women dancing rock my world. Programs that help fight fat-phobia and negative body image rock my world.
2. carol queen:
   Had a dramatic effect on the development of my worldview around sexuality, especially "Real Live Nude Girl".
3. dexter's laboratory:
   Makes me giggle.
4. freedom of speech:
   Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I feel very, very strongly about this, in the broadest possible ways. I think the obscenity exclusion on free speech in the US is bullshit. I am not generally in favor of laws against hate speech (frankly, I'd rather know what people are saying than drive them underground and give 'em a persecution complex to play with). I think freedom of communication is absolutely central to every other freedom.
   
   I also consider libraries more sacred than churches.
5. intersexuality:
   Plays merry hell with simplistic essentialist dualist notions of sex and gender. This makes me happy. Living in a society that doesn't recognize and accept intersexed people, and instead often performs unnecessary surgeries on infants to "correct" them does not make me happy. I feel very strongly about this (it's closely tied to my distaste for circumcision on infants -- I believe body-altering surgeries on a human being who is incapable of consent should be a medical last resort in extreme cases, not a standard practice).
6. liberal:
   I am. Or, at least, that's where my various beliefs seem to average out. I'm a progressive democratic socialist with libertarian leanings concerning personal freedoms.
7. ohio:
   I live here. I grew up in Michigan, and moved to Ohio for college , at Kenyon, when I was 16, and I've been in the state since. I do love the climate and the Great Lakes in this region of the country. For 10 years I lived in a little liberal academic pocket within conservative central Ohio. It was gorgeous, geographically, and I love living in the middle of nowhere. The political situation had plusses and minuses. Plus: there was a lot of work to be done, so I felt useful and necessary. Minus: there was a lot of work to be done, so I felt overwhelmed and alone. About six years ago, I moved to Cleveland, and now live in one of the most liberal areas of my state, right in the middle of the city, in a neighborhood called Tremont. I also love living in cities, so this has worked out just dandy (I really only loathe the 'burbs -- can't cope). There's still a lot of work to be done, with the same plusses and minuses.
8. reproductive rights:
   If you've even looked at my journal, you've got to know this is one of the most central issues in my life. I feel absolutely passionately about this. About full, comprehensive sex education for everyone. About contraceptive access for anyone who needs it. About prenatal and post-natal care and support. About an end to paternalistic refusals to perform sterilizations for some adults. About appropriate and respectful gynecological and urological care for men and women. And about abortion access. This is where my energy goes, because there are more people who will publicly fight for the other issues, so I feel most needed in the abortion debate, where there are fewer people who will stand up and be counted. I'm working toward starting nursing school, with the goal of becoming a Nurse Practitioner focusing in Women's Health. I plan to work in women's health and abortion clinics, if we still have them by then. If not, we'll sure as hell need people dealing with the aftermath of not having them.
9. spider robinson:
   Brings joy to my heart. I first found his work when I was a young teen, and it's had a profound effect on me. His particular idealism envisions a world very close to what I would hope for, and escaping into his books is restorative for me. And although I don't actively participate in any of the callahans communities, knowing they exist makes me happy, too, and I feel a level of connection with other people who've been affected by his ideas like I have.
10. volunteerism:
    Is a good thing, and makes the world a better place. Volunteerism and Activism are all tangled up for me -- not all my activism is volunteer-based, but much is, and it's part of how I try to change the world around me into something closer to my ideal. It's also part of how I express my views on how I want the world to work -- the act of volunteering is a message itself, I think, about how I feel about community, and making the world suck less for all of us.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

In you're curious about any of my listed interests that the meme didn't select, feel free to ask, and I'll write something similar for them.

Comments

[recoiling.livejournal.com]

-big burlesque
-intersexuality
-carol queen
yay!yay!yay!