This was originally posted on Jan 29, 2022. Today is Wives’ Feast Day, a holiday celebrated in Ireland and northern England on February 2, the same day as Imbolc, Candlemas, and St. Bridget’s Feast Day. On this holiday, women (in… Read More ›
Food
From the Archives: Thanksgiving and Service by Sara Frykenberg
This was originally posted on December 3, 2103 Growing up in an evangelical Christian church, I was taught that human beings should serve one another and put others before themselves. These two different teachings, paired with patriarchal misogyny, have sometimes… Read More ›
Women Who Dig by Trina Moyles – Book Review by Carolyn Lee Boyd
Here in the north, it is harvest time when the deep and ancient relationship between women and farming once again brings forth the food on which life depends. Women have been co-creating with the Earth to feed themselves and their… Read More ›
This I Believe by Yara González-Justiniano
I believe love that enters through the kitchen feeds others with care and compassion. El amor entra por la cocina (love enters through the kitchen) is a popular saying in Spanish. The process of preparing a meal and sharing it, forges… Read More ›
Sacred Food for Body and Soul by Carolyn Lee Boyd
Soon it will be Wives’ Feast Day, a holiday celebrated in Ireland and northern England on February 2, the same day as Imbolc, Candlemas, and St. Bridget’s Feast Day. On this holiday, women (in Old English, “wife” meant simply woman)… Read More ›
Why Life Balance is a Feminist Issue by Mary Sharratt
The move to Portugal all but forced me to heal my relationship with time and productivity, to create a life that was sustainable and nurturing.
Anorexia Nervosa Take 2 by Esther Nelson
This past year (2020) has been a year of tremendous upheaval and unwelcome change for most of us due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the second time in my life (first time I was in my 40s)… Read More ›
The largest protest in the world: India’s Farmers Protest by Anjeanette LeBoeuf
So much has happened since my last post. From the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the GameStop Investment, the military coup of Myanmar, the 2nd Impeachment Trial and Republican Acquittal of Donald Trump, a catastrophic… Read More ›
Happy Thanksgiving by Barbara Ardinger
Will our families gather for Thanksgiving feasts this year? Will aunts and uncles and cousins come from near and far to sit around our dining room tables? Does anyone have a table that’s big enough for social distancing? As I… Read More ›
Moments of Beauty by Sara Frykenberg
Last week a friend of mine started a post asking people to share something that they’ve enjoyed or appreciated since shelter-at-home orders began across the country and globe. This friend was in no way trying to minimize the very difficult… Read More ›
Love Actually Is All Around by Karen Leslie Hernandez
For over a year and a half, I’ve worked at an organization in San Francisco called, St. Anthony’s. At first, I was a full time employee and now, part-time. A well-known entity in the City, St Anthony’s is most recognized… Read More ›
The Cuisine Cards by Laurie Goodhart
With every wonderful, heart-wrenching, deeply researched, and inspiring post I read on F.A.R., I feel less inclined to share my own somewhat out-of-step contributions to this world. Nevertheless, I keep reminding myself that they are the things that I do,… Read More ›
The Pomegranate by Sara Wright
It is mid November and shiny crimson Pomegranates catch the discerning eye in food markets; even Walmart carries them! Why do these beautiful and very ancient fruits appear during this dark time of the year? One answer to this question… Read More ›
Behaalotecha: Lessons and Questions for Feminists by Ivy Helman.
This week’s Torah parshah is Behaalotecha: Numbers 8:1 to 12:16. By now, much of what comes to pass should sound familiar. The parshah starts with another discussion of leadership and the priesthood. It then prescribes a second Pesach for those… Read More ›
Making it Mine: An Un-Orthodox Passover by Joyce Zonana
Passover is a holiday of remembrance, of ritual re-enactment: this, we say, is what our ancestors experienced. This is what they felt and knew, what they tasted in their blood. The movement from slavery to liberation, from the soul’s winter to spring. We must never forget, we say, we must always remember, be thankful for our freedom, never take it for granted. “In each generation,” the Haggadah enjoins, “we should feel as if we personally had come out of Egypt.”
The Healing Feminine Energy of Food by Elisabeth S.
In our society, relationships with food are complicated. Sometimes we might be anxious that our food is not safe, that we are not told the whole story, that we have to educate ourselves on what we can and guess the… 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.
In These Dark Times, a Bit of Goodness in the World by Karen Leslie Hernandez
In my almost 52 years, I feel as if this is the darkest time we have ever witnessed. I don’t need to name it all here, because we know. I, like many of us, am struggling. Struggling to make sense… Read More ›
A Grounded Spirituality, in Community by Xochitl Alvizo
It was Sunday, April 1, with grilled corn and veggie-dogs and a day gardening with friends and neighbors. Each household with their own raised bed. We started seeds and planted starter plants. We spent all day outside, various friends and… Read More ›
The Least of These, Are the Most of Us by Karen Leslie Hernandez
I’ve recently found myself in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in San Francisco, helping provide over 2000 meals a day to those in need. Let me reiterate that number… 2000+ meals. A day. Not only does this number illustrate… Read More ›
Small Business Saturday: Feminist Gift Guide for the Holidays by Angela Yarber
Wondering what to give the revolutionaries in your life for the holidays? Want to support feminist small businesses as you shop? Need some creative ideas with powerful feminist history and theory embedded in each purchase? Would it help if the… Read More ›
Musings On My Recent Road Trip by Esther Nelson
I love a road trip. It’s exciting to get behind the wheel of a car, get out on the highway (or bi-way), and just go. The road seems to stretch out forever in front of me, full of possibilities, adventure,… Read More ›
Writing Through the Body: Betty Smith’s A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Joyce Zonana
In her 1975 manifesto, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” French feminist Hélène Cixous urges women to write: “Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it. . . . Women must write through their bodies,… Read More ›
What is the Most Dangerous Breed? by Karen Leslie Hernandez
As I wrote in November, I am currently working at the San Francisco SPCA. I took the job to bring something different in to my life as I do the heavy work involved with my Doctor of Ministry. I LOVE… Read More ›
A Maternal Perspective Towards the Body by Lache S.
Separatism and dualism do not usually serve me. I understand that denying unity and reducing the multi-prismatic complexity of existence muddies up our vision of reality and can sometimes clog up the channels to compassion. So knowing that this perspective… Read More ›
After the Body, the Land by Kate Brunner
After we learn to let our bodies tell our stories, after we embrace somatic spirituality, after we become one with these bodies that move us to action, that power the physical acts that manifest our spiritual work as feminists, what… Read More ›
Rosh Hashanah and the Goddess by Joyce Zonana
When I was growing up in the 1950s in my Egyptian Jewish immigrant home, each of the High Holidays was imbued with sacredness, thanks largely to my mother’s commitment to a creating a harmonious and memorable gathering of family and… Read More ›
Slouching Towards Justice by Esther Nelson
Kecia Ali, one of the contributors to this Feminism and Religion blog, recently wrote an excellent article titled, “Muslims and Meat-Eating Vegetarianism, Gender, and Identity,” (Journal of Religious Ethics, Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2015). In her article, Kecia Ali… Read More ›
Do You Eat Animals? Ecofeminism and Our Food System by Ivy Helman
Carol Adams in her article “Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals,” argues that ecofeminists should be vegetarians, since ecofeminism is, among other things, action-based and “one’s actions reveal one’s beliefs,” (129). According to ecofeminism, the patriarchal domination of animals and… Read More ›
Feeling it in Bones & Water: Practicing Somatic Spirituality
There is a phrase I’ve heard here and there while living in Australia that I love for the sense that it evokes– “I can feel it in my water.” The usage is similar to the American phrase to “feel it… Read More ›