G is for...

Okay, with everything swirling about us these days, G is gonna have to be for GIRLS, because we're under attack.

Yeah, I'm gonna get political all over your asses. Hold on tight.

I'm pissed off and the only thing that makes me feel remotely better is that there are thousands of other girls out there who are pissed off too and we'd better damn well all trot our fannies off to the voting booths this fall and do something about it. (Guys, too. You have mothers, sisters, wives, girlfriends, daughters, friends, nieces, aunts, grandmothers, granddaughters, etc. Step up.)

If you haven't read Eve Ensler's response to Todd Akin, read it NOW.
We'll wait for you.

 Between wanting to stick a wand in our hoo-hahs, comparing us to farm animals, revealing their ignorance (and a piss-poor education) by spouting off absolutely inane and completely ERRONEOUS facts about the female body, denigrating and violating rape victims, censoring female congresspeople for using the word "vagina," and NOT LETTING EVEN ONE OF US IN THE ROOM TO DISCUSS MATTERS OF CONTRACEPTION, we're starting to get tired of being kicked in the taco by a bunch of old white dudes. (And it's a shame that I have to use the word 'starting' there.)

So listen here- the only way to fix any of this is to vote these assholes out of office as soon as we can. Take it upon yourselves to not only vote, but bring friends! Take someone to the polls with you- offer to drive someone who doesn't have another way to get there. (And be damned sure to have all your ducks in a row before you go- bring all the ID you can muster and hell, even call your voting board ahead of time to be sure. They're looking for any way they can shut us down at the polls, legally and illegally. Don't give them a chance. Be a Girl Scout and BE PREPARED!) Convince everyone you know (and everyone you don't) to get out there because our very lives depend on it. Don't think for a minute they don't.

They want us to go back to the days of the desperation of back-room abortions, when women did not have full access to birth control, when domestic violence was commonplace and acceptable, when it was legal to pay a woman less for doing the same job as a man with the same qualifications. (Not that that isn't still happening, but Republicans are bound & determined to knock down the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, so same diff.)

"I fear change!"

Women are surging to power in more ways than ever before. More women are earning college degrees now than men. It's only a matter of a decade or so before women become the primary breadwinners in a majority of households. This scares the living shit out of the guys who have enjoyed bossing us around, putting us down, treating us as property, enforcing the double standard, blaming the victim, doubting our intelligence and ability, and keeping us under their thumbs for centuries. And as any viewer of Wild Kingdom can tell you, fear makes animals and people lash out in desperation. And I truly think that that is what this recent round of misogyny is: desperation. The world is changing and these guys are desperate to stay on top.

(And a quick note- this isn't to accuse ALL men of this behavior. Most of the guys I know are equally furious and dumbstruck by the crap people like Akin, King and the usual band of assclowns are slinging. There are plenty of good men out there on our side. We know that, and thank and appreciate you, even if you don't have your own feminist meme like Ryan Gosling.)

Okay. Enough lecturing. You got it- I trust you to take care of it. Don't let me down.

And G is also for "Girls," the HBO show, one of my new favorites. I have a girl crush on Lena Dunham.

Nora Ephron mentored her AND she dressed as Louis CK for Halloween.
Honestly.