This week’s news from America. Where to begin? When will it end? The President of the United States is a racist who incites racist violence. Republicans have been slow to condemn the President and are not likely to pass a… Read More ›
abuse
Gentle Moments in a Violent World by Marcia Mount Shoop
“Be gentle with yourself.” It may be some of the most redemptive guidance I have ever received. And I share that invitation daily with people in painful situations. “Be gentle with yourself.” In a world seemingly hell bent on self-destruction,… Read More ›
What to Do About Bullies by Deanne Quarrie
I could probably go on and on about this topic, so in the interest of education I offer the following information gathered in my own recovery. Why would I write about bullying at all? Are we not Goddess lovers, one… Read More ›
Poem: “How to Survive a Four Letter Word” by Marie Cartier
What is taken from a woman? When someone breaks her open and fills her with nothing of herself, and then leaves? She has to find all the pieces of herself. That’s why they call it—recovery. You have to… Read More ›
“Go Back to your Country!” OK. But … I’m From San Francisco! by Karen Leslie Hernandez
On December 15, 2018, at 10:22PM, I received a call and a voicemail from someone I didn’t know. The charming message left for me? “Hello, Karen. You fat, disgusting slob. Go back to your country. I hope your new year’s… Read More ›
Patriotism Reconsidered by Carol P. Christ
Originally published on July 8, 2013 on FAR under the title “What Is Patriotism?,” this blog asks questions that seem even more important today, when tanks have been paraded in front of the Lincoln Memorial and children are held in… Read More ›
Moments by Katie M. Deaver
The phone rings loud on the bedside table near my head, and I wake with that tiny heart attack that only truly jarring things, like middle of the night phone calls, seem to trigger. It takes me a moment to… Read More ›
Women’s Bodies and the Bible by Janet Rudolph
Trigger Alert: The bible on its face is quite violent to women. Amidst the ugliness that is American politics in general and abortion politics specifically, I began to look for guidance to understand what is happening. I ended up pulling… Read More ›
The Legend of Arawello, the Somali Goddess by MaryAnn Shank
I did not intend to find her. In fact I wasn’t even looking. But there she was, soaring before me, on my last night in Baidoa. This majestic Somali woman reached high into the heavens, engulfed in a glorious wraparound… Read More ›
Vaginas Matter by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I’ll never forget the first time I heard Eve Ensler say those famed opening words, “I’m worried about vaginas.” As she went on to speak about the way our culture talks about and treats vaginas with terrible violence and shame,… Read More ›
Befriending our Dragons by Sara Wright
“We are an overflowing river. We are a hurricane. We are an earthquake. We are a volcano, a tsunami, a forest fire…” These words written by Judith Shaw speak to the underlying merging of woman’s anger with Earth’s natural disasters,… Read More ›
Liam Neeson and White Toxic Masculinity by Janet Rudolph
Several weeks ago, Liam Neeson was doing a press tour for his latest movie. He caused quite a stir by bringing up an event from his life from 40 years ago. Actually, it was an event that happened not to… Read More ›
His Terror by Carol P. Christ
The first two parts of Susan Griffin’s Woman and Nature, “MATTER” and “SEPARATION,” are written in the authoritative voice of western philosophy and science that declares matter to be dead and the body an impediment to thought, and proceeds to… Read More ›
Yoga, Resilience and Learning Self-Care by Marie Cartier
It is spring and it is warm in California. I haven’t been exercising over the winter because it has been extremely cold for California. I had the bug everyone else had. But, now I am back, and we have just… Read More ›
Recognizing Abuse by Karen Tate
I’ve been thinking a lot about abuse. Of course, most of us know about the domination, exploitation and need for control meted out by patriarchy, but I wonder if we have actually normalized many abuses? Abuse in the home, in… Read More ›
Re-reading Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN by Joyce Zonana
And so is born the “monster” most people associate with the name Frankenstein–a lone and lonely terrorist who lashes out against a world that has no place for him. One by one, he strangles all the people his “maker” holds dear: his brother William, his best friend Clerval, and his cousin/bride Elizabeth. Yet the novel invites us to have compassion for the creature, even while it condemns the society that makes him as he is. Victor, raised by a devoted mother and tenderly loved by a doting cousin, should have known better. As should we.
Just When We Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse, It Did by Carol P. Christ
Like many of you I have been following discussions of the revelation that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam dressed in blackface or as a member of the Ku Klux Klan when he was a medical student. It was reported that Northam… Read More ›
Past Transgressions by Esther Nelson
Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat in the state of Virginia, has many people calling for his resignation after a picture from a 1984 medical school yearbook surfaced showing what some people assert to be Northam wearing blackface or a KKK… Read More ›
Find Your Warrior Archetype, Sisters: We are in the Fight of our Lives by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I read a news story this week about dozens of children sex trafficked at an auto show in Detroit. I read about a young man getting no jail time for sexually assaulting a six year old girl… sex traffickers targeting… Read More ›
Compassion to the Why by Karen Leslie Hernandez
This last month, I’ve found myself doing work on what I call, Compassion to the Why. That is understanding why. Asking why. Getting why. Having compassion, for, why. Why is this important, you ask? Because getting to the ‘why,’ is… Read More ›
When Violence is Normal and Normalized by Carol P. Christ
Warning: this blog discusses spanking and bodily violence “No Whips, No Punishments, No Threats: Women’s Control of Social Life” is the title of one of the chapters in Iroquoian Women, Barbara Alice Mann’s stunning reconstruction of female power in a… Read More ›
All Are Welcome – Including Tom by Esther Nelson
It’s between semesters so am back in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but just for two weeks. Due to circumstances out of my control, I’m not able to spend my usual month—mid-December to mid-January—here in the high desert. When I am… Read More ›
Shedding Shame by Joyce Zonana
As I follow my program, I grow clearer and stronger. I know exactly what I want and I take it. When I sit down to eat, I feel my appetite, healthy and strong. I feed that appetite, choosing just what I need and what will truly nurture me. When I get up from the table, I am complete and whole within myself. Whether I reach my “goal weight” or not, I’ve already succeeded. And so, this New Year, I won’t be making any new resolutions. I’m already on my path, shedding shame.
What’s Your Choice? by Karen Leslie Hernandez
Choices. Many times choices are difficult. Some of the time choices are easy. I have had a rough year. Probably one of the most difficult yet in my adult life. I began this year with an offer of a job,… Read More ›
A Moment of Change in Our Church by Janice Poss
On September 12, 2018, Roman Catholic Bishop David O’Connell helped move the Episcopate into a new day. A healing Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Claremont, California was celebrated for the victims of clergy sex abuse. They… Read More ›
This Is What Rape Culture Looks Like in “Great” Art by Carol P. Christ
Warning: contains images of rape portrayed through the lens of the objectifying pornographic male gaze When I reflected on the discovery of a rape fresco from ancient Pompeii that depicted Leda and the swan, I did not mention that the… Read More ›
Part 4: I Was Brainwashed to Believe I Wasn’t Human. Now I’m on a Mission Against that Cult by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Disclaimer/Trigger Warning: This post includes content about rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, graphic sexual. In Part 1 of this story, I introduce a discussion of Johan Galtung’s theory of cultural violence as it relates to my experience as a young… Read More ›
Clerical Male Mess! by Janice L. Poss
“I am sorry!” “I am guilty of sex abuse” “I have hurt many young children!” “I have ruined lives!” “We are sorry for hiding sex abuse in the Church!” “We are criminals!” “We want to make amends!” We, in the… Read More ›
This Is What Rape Culture Looks Like: Then and Now by Carol P. Christ
I was not paying full attention when I heard a news report on CNN saying that archaeologists had uncovered an “ancient erotic fresco” in Pompeii. Hmm, I thought to myself, this story deserves further investigation. I had heard whispers about… Read More ›
I Was Brainwashed to Believe I Wasn’t Human. Now I’m on a Mission Against that Cult-Part 3
Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, graphic sexual content In Part 1 of this story, I introduced a discussion of Johan Galtung’s theory of cultural violence as it relates to my experience as a young woman in an abusive… Read More ›
