I am not a pretty girl/that is not what I do*

I'm off to the big feminist shindig in D.C. this weekend. So if you see a short chick with spiky brown hair and a t-shirt that says "If I had a hammer I'd SMASH patriarchy!", that's me! In the mean time, go find out why libraries are terribly sexy, and what some San Francisco librarians did when a vandal destroyed 600 books on GLBT themes.

And I'll leave you with some of my favorite feminism quotes, since I've got my own little soapbox here:

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.--Susan B. Anthony

Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions.. for safety on the streets... for child care, for social welfare...for rape crisis centers, women's refuges, reforms in the law." (If someone says) 'Oh, I'm not a feminist,' (I ask) 'Why? What's your problem?'"
- Dale Spender, author of "For the Record: The Making & Meaning of Feminist Knowledge", 1985

I'm not a feminist, but...
I appreciate the right to help choose my government representatives. I enjoy the option of wearing pants or shorts if I want. I'm pleased that I was allowed to learn to read and write. It can be very convenient to control how many babies I want to have. It's awfully useful to be able to open a bank account and own property in my name. I like knowing that my husband or boyfriend cannot legally beat me. It's really swell to keep the money that I earn.
--poster from One Angry Girl

Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement. ~Author unknown, quoted in The Torch, 14 September 1987

I will choose what enters me, what becomes flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, no ethics lives. I am not your cornfield, not your uranium mine, not your calf for fattening, not your cow for milking. You may not use me as your factory. Priests and legislators do not hold shares in my womb or my mind. If I give it to you, I want it back. My life is a non-negotiable demand. -- Marge Piercy

Maybe I'll grow up and be a hairy-legged pinko cyberpunk queer librarian. Grr!

*I'm not actually a big Ani Difranco fan--I know, I'm such a pitiful dyke--but I love her lyrics, this one in particular.