Danine N. Spencer

Yes, Facebook Users, Florida’s New Welfare Drug-Testing Law IS Discriminatory

Florida’s draconian new law requiring welfare applicants to undergo drug testing at their own expense went into effect on July 1st. On the surface, this bill sounds good, right? No one wants tax dollars to be spent on drugs. Florida’s welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), is intended to help families pay for food, housing, clothing, medical and other basic living expenses.

It should go without saying that TANF funds should not be used to buy drugs but for whatever reason, Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott felt the need to really drive this home at last month’s bill-signing:

“It’s the right thing for taxpayers,” Scott said after signing the measure. “It’s the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don’t want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs.”

Not to be outdone, Facebook users agree with Scott. This little ditty, which has apparently gone viral, appeared on my FB feed last week:

Florida is the first State that will require drug testing when applying for welfare (effective July 1st)! Some people are crying this is unconstitutional. How is this unconstitutional? It’s OK to drug test the people who work for their money but not those who don’t? Re-post if you want all states to have this rule….. This is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time!!

Le sigh. Where do I start?

First, I’m not a constitutional lawyer so I have no idea as to it’s constitutionality. However, I am extremely curious why this doesn’t violate our constitutional right to privacy? Any barristers out there who can answer that?

But here’s the main point: There is a difference, dear Facebookers, between an employer requiring a drug test as a condition of employment and the state of Florida demanding welfare applicants submit to a drug test prior to TANF enrollment. Employers simply want to ensure they have healthy, reliable workers. The state of Florida is assuming two things:

Anyone who is poor enough to need TANF assistance could possibly have a substance abuse problem.
Anyone who is poor enough to need TANF assistance cannot be trusted to spend their money wisely whether or not substance abuse is an issue. Therefore, drug users must be rooted out.
Just because someone is poor does not mean they will spend their welfare checks on drugs.

This is discrimination against poor people. This is class warfare, pitting the working class, like those who are posting and re-posting this awful Facebook meme, against the poorest of the poor who, for whatever reason, need a helping hand from the government for a while.

I hope this law is challenged and overturned. Soon.

The Art of Just Being

So I’ve been feeling a little down lately. My health has been lousy for what feels like forever and I’ve barely written two words in months. I feel like a terrible activist. What have I contributed to the world? I’m not working a “traditional” job (what is that, anyways?) and I’m not writing.

Ugh. Feeling pretty useless.

I think it’s time to remind myself that sometimes just being has to be enough.

It’s a hard lesson I’ve had to learn over and over during these last six years since my spinal cord injury. Sometimes, when you’re sick, in pain and tired, and especially when these gawdawful periods of misery stick around for a while and won’t go away no matter what you do, it’s enough to just…. be.

Just “being” is a learned skill.

When you’re sick and in pain, it means learning to have patience with your body and not get frustrated. It means being grateful for the things your body can do. It means accepting your body’s limitations, trying to understand where the pain/illness/fatigue is located and doing whatever it takes to give your body what it needs (nourishment, rest, exercise, medicine, etc).

There are many days when just being means taking things one minute, then one hour and then one day at a time. Otherwise, the pain/fatigue/sickness would just be too unbearable.

Just being means there will be days, weeks, months, and yes, occasionally, years where the most you can do is lay on the couch and read a book or watch Law & Order reruns.

That’s okay. Sometimes just being is enough. You know why? Because tomorrow is another day.

On Rolling Stone’s Sexist, Ableist Profile of Michele Bachmann

I dislike Michele Bachman very much. I find her personally annoying and think her political beliefs are despicable. But I am thrilled she is running for president.

Unlike Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann has real political experience, first serving in the Minnesota State Sate and now the U.S. House of Representatives. She is playing presidential politics according to longstanding rules, courting voters in Iowa and New Hampshire and actually showing up to the first major debate for GOP presidential contenders. Thanks to Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Smith Chase, Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Rodham Clinton and yes, Sarah Palin, we have finally arrived to see the day when an ambitious woman is no longer automatically disqualified from running due to her gender.

Or have we? In his blistering, hatchet-job of a profile for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi skewers Congresswoman Bachmann as a Botoxed, lying, homophobic religious zealot. In fact, Taibbi lists Bachmann’s greatest quality as “her gigantic set of burnished titanium Terminator-testicles swinging under her skirt”. And there you have it. She’s just too damn ambitious. So how do you get rid of a little lady who has gotten too big for her bloomers? Call her looney tunes. Or, in this case, “batshit crazy”.

Calling a woman hysterical, looney tunes or “batshit crazy” has long been a fool-proof method for keeping women submissive to men. After all, it’s very hard to challenge a man’s authority when you’re drugged and locked up in a mental institution.

Too many women have been dismissed as “batshit crazy”. Michele Bachmann has a legitimate right to run for the Republican nomination for president. The press has a responsibility to ask serious questions about her political record, inconsistencies in her public statements, religious beliefs and so much more. But Matt Taibbi did not ask those questions. He did not let the facts, which were pretty startling, speak for themselves. Instead, he did a hell of a lot of sexist, ableist mudslinging.

The Incomplete List of Feminist Memoirs

So I’m prepping to get started on my memoir in January and reading as many memoirs as possible to get a feel for different styles and such. The weird thing is, there doesn’t seem to be a list of “feminist” memoirs anywhere. Sure, there’s great reading lists like the Feminist Summer Reading List and the Best Feminist Young Adult Books, but there’s nada, zippo, zilch for feminist memoirs.

I want to change that. Let’s get a list started, shall we? Here are a few titles I’ve come up with. Please feel free to add your own in the comments!

Marjane Satrapi – The Complete Persepolis
Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Allison Bechdel – Fun Home
Maxine Hong Kingston – The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Barbara Ehrenreich – Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Susan Brownmiller: In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution and Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (via @gabrielleld on Twitter)
Wilma Mankiller – Mankiller: A Chief and Her People
Erica Jong – Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life
bell hooks – Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
Zora Neale Hurston – Dust Tracks on a Road
Audre Lorde – Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Azar Nafisi – Reading Lolita in Tehran
Temple Grandin – Thinking in Pictures**
Helen Keller – The Story of My Life**
Terry Galloway – Mean Little deaf Queer**
Harriet McBryde Johnson – Too Late to Die Young**

**feminists with disabilities

What do you think of this list? What books should be added? Leave a note in the comments!

Book Review: “No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power” by Gloria Feldt

Win a free copy of No Excuses – see details below!!

Reading Gloria Feldt’s fab new book No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power is like sinking into a book-length letter of inspiration from a much-needed mentor. Feldt, a veteran of the second-wave fight for reproductive justice, reminds us of how many battles the women’s rights movement has already won and implores us to forge ahead with feminism’s “half-finished revolution”.

But Feldt isn’t saying that the second wave has worked their butts off and now it’s time for the younger generations to pick up the slack alone. No. Instead, “No Excuses” is a book of mentorship. Feldt shares the lessons she’s learned throughout her career as well as concrete steps each of us can take to create an even stronger feminist movement. I was particularly struck by her belief that we are each capable of changing the world – and not just in little ways, like voting for progressive candidates, either. (Although that’s very important, too!) Feldt profiles women like Michelle Robson, who founded the women’s health information portal, EmpowHER, and Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish, who started a successful campaign to get Brita to recycle their water filters.

Reading this book encourages you to think big. What are you passionate about? What are you ticked off about? What can be done about it? What can you do? Feldt makes the case that if we band together with other women (and males allies), anything is possible. We just need a lot of hard work and even more persistence.

This is a must-read for feminists, male allies and other progressives (who should call themselves feminists – ahem!). Get your copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or IndieBound.

Win a copy of No Excuses!
I have one copy of the book to give away – yay! To enter, ust drop me an email (danine@danine.net) or leave a note in the comments, and tell me how you are changing the world right now. Hurry, don’t delay! Contest ends this Friday, Nov. 19, at 5 PM CST.

Talking About Chronic Pain Is a Feminist Act? You Betcha

What do you write about when your neck hurts so bad that all you want to do is lay your head down on a pillow and make love to a bottle of Darvocet?

What do you write about when you’re so tired after a weekend trip away for your cousin’s wedding, you don’t even have energy to read a book or watch TV?

What do you write about when you get a flu-like virus with the sore throat and cough thing and you’re scared to death you’ll get bronchitis, which’ll go into pneumonia and almost kill you like it has twice before?

What do you write about when the aforementioned flu turns into a stomach bug and you can’t get rid of it because your spinal cord injury has trashed your GI tract?

This has been my life for the past several months. Well, to be more accurate, it’s been my life for the past five and a half years but the last few months have been especially hard. My pain level has been really, really high whether it’s been migraines or neck pain. I have yet to figure out alternative methods for dealing with this chronic pain so I’m stuck with pain pills and muscle relaxants. My fatigue level is about the same as it always is – moderately high, and even though my immune system is pretty healthy, it took me about ten days to fight off that stupid virus.

But here’s the thing: when I’m in a lot of pain or really tired or really sick, I don’t know what to write about. Does the world want to hear about how miserable I am? Is there value in that? On the one hand, no, the world doesn’t need to hear me complain.

On the other hand, I believe it is an act of feminism for women who live with chronic illness and pain to share our stories. The world wants us to suffer in silence. It wants us to believe our pain and illness are our fault. It wants us to think that pain and illness are shameful and that we, in turn, should feel ashamed for having these conditions. Illness and weakness is associated with being feminine. Men in patriarchal societies have used our pain and illness against us for centuries. If women talk about living with chronic conditions, if we bring the “shameful”, nasty details of our daily lives with sickness and pain out of the shadows and into the light, we can help each other. We become stronger with each story. We become less alone as we recognize ourselves in each other. We can tell each other, “Yes, I’ve experienced that” and “I know what that feels like” and help ourselves and others feel just a little bit less alone.

There is value in my story. I have to remember that. I have to stop doubting myself and just keep writing. Writing about living with chronic pain and illness is a feminist act. I can do it.

Book Review: The Chloe Pink™ Doodle & Dream Coloring Book

The Chloe Pink™ Doodle & Dream Coloring Book is a fantastic coloring and activity book that doubles as a journal and sketchbook for girls of all ages. From the very first page, Chloe Pink™, the cartoon character created by Sharna Fulton, inspires you to pick up a pencil, crayon or marker and make the book your own. You can color the pages, draw and sketch on the many “Dream… and Doodle” pages, and journal. On other pages, Chloe Pink™ asks girls to tell her about friends, school, hobbies and of course, dreams, with words, pictures and mini-games.

The entire book is designed to encourage self-esteem and creativity and to help girls realize they are special. Just flipping through the book makes me feel happy and I can’t wait to fill it out. I let my mom, who is 64 years old, look it over and she said the same thing, so Chloe Pink™ truly is the spokesperson for girls 3-103.

One last thing: The Chloe Pink™ Doodle & Dream Coloring Book is a must-buy for all the girls and women on your Christmas list but I would be just as likely to give it to my three-year-old and five-year-old nephews as I would my nine-year-old niece. Older boys who have “outgrown” coloring might turn their nose at Chloe Pink’s masterpiece. Still, Chloe Pink’s message of building self-esteem and encouraging creativity will be a great gift for all the girls and boys in your life.

The Chloe Pink™ Doodle & Dream Coloring Book is a must-buy. Head over to Amazon.com and pick up a copy for everyone on your Christmas list!

**Disclaimer: Review copy provided by the author. No other compensation received.

Sick and Happy About It! (The Pain Chronicles)

I’m sick today, like sore-throat-and-coughing sick, and I have to admit, I’m really happy about it. No, I’m not thrilled that my throat is scratchy, I can’t stop coughing and I have no voice. No, those things aren’t any fun at all. I’m not delirious with fever, either. I promise. (I just checked my temp. It’s A-OK.)

Despite being miserable, I’m thrilled that I’m sick with something normal for a change. Usually, when I don’t feel well, it is because of pain and fatigue from my spinal cord injury, hydrocephalus and Dandy-Walker syndrome. My experience and the resulting symptoms are so rare that it feels like no one else will ever understand what I go through on a daily basis.

I had a C4 spinal cord injury and although I have regained most of my mobility, I still have a lot of pain in my neck. It hurts if I sleep funny or sit in an uncomfortable position for long periods of time, such as looking up or to the left or right. My neck hurts after being jostled around like a bobble head during car rides. It helps if I cushion it with a pillow but it doesn’t take the pain away completely.

I get a lot of headaches, which vary from tension headaches to migraines. I can deal with the tension headaches, as long as they don’t last too long and make me think the dull, aching rings of pain aren’t actually ventricles in my brain engorging with cerebral spinal fluid. When the ventricles get bigger, that’s when I have to worry about excess pressure on my brain. I have to wonder if my shunt is working. I have to constantly monitor my “tension” headaches to make sure i am not showing signs of shunt failure, like nausea or vomiting. I am constantly wondering, “Is this ‘just’ a headache or do I need to call a doctor to rule out shunt failure?”

Migraines are their own special kind of Satan’s Playground. The pain settles into my right eye, feeling like I got punched, and radiates down my neck to my right arm and fingers. If the migraine is bad enough, eventually I might even get some numbness in the right hand and fingers. How fun. (It’s not a stroke. I promise.)

My head and neck are my two main sources of pain but I also have to deal with soreness and aching in my shoulders, arms, hands, back, legs and feet at times.

Living like this is so incredibly isolating. Someone my age should not have to deal with all of the physical BS I do. I feel like such a freak. That’s why when I get something “normal” like a sore throat, I’m happy. I feel more like the average Jane who is basically healthy than my regular self. Part of me wants to scrum from the rooftops, “Hey world, I’m still a little bit normal!”

I don’t remember what normal is anymore, though.

Chronic Pain Is Worse Than Writer’s Block

I don’t blog or write as much as I’d like to. There are a lot of reasons for this but the biggest one is that i live with chronic pain on a daily basis. Since I was injured in March 2005, I have not had a single day where I have not experienced some kind of pain.

My head and neck are my two main sources of pain but I also have to deal with soreness and aching in my shoulders, arms, hands, back, legs and feet at times.

The long and short of it is that pain makes it really hard to write. I don’t want to write when I’m in pain. There are a lot of days when I simply don’t care about stringing two words together. If I could’ve gotten away without writing today, I would have. My neck hurts like heck and I would love to just rest it on a pillow and read a book. But I know that if I want to be a better writer and activist, I need to write/blog more. So I’m forcing myself to type this. The pain makes it hard to concentrate, though. When I’m writing, I often stop several times to play a quick computer game or check Twitter.

The pain makes me doubt myself. It makes me think I have nothing to write about, nothing to blog about. All I can think to write about is my pain and who really wants to read about me whining about that? Yet chronic pain is a problem for me and so many other women, so it should be talked about, right? I feel torn up and confused inside because I don’t know how to make my personal experience with pain political. If this blog is about disability and feminism, I don’t want to just write about my own personal struggles. However, at the moment, my struggle with pain is very personal. It is disabling. It is what I am thinking about nearly every moment of every day.

Where does that leave this blog? I’m not sure. Rather than not post anything at all, I think I am going to start writing more about how pain and disability have affected me. I have no idea this will shake out but I hope you’ll keep reading.

xoxo,
Danine

Book Review: Peel My Love Like An Onion

This summer been wacky. I haven’t been writing a lot lately as I’ve been traveling pretty much nonstop since the end of July. When I haven’t been on the road or spending time with family and friends, I’ve been recovering from having all that fun.

I haven’t even been reading much, unlike the beginning of the summer, when I read fourteen books in June and July. Still, I did just finish “Peel My Love Like an Onion” by Ana Castillo, and since this is a blog about feminism and disability (well most of the time), I thought I’d tell y’all about it

“Peel My Love Like An Onion” is the story of Carmen, a Mexican-American flamenco dancer from Chicago, and her long-running love affairs with two men, Augustín and Manolo. Carmen’s stage name is Carmen la Coja, which is Spanish for Carmen the Cripple, as she had polio as a child. Carmen wears a brace on her leg, walks (and dances) with a limp and, as the story progresses, begins to experience the effects of post-polio syndrome.

And yet, Carmen’s disability is not the focus of this novel. It is not about how she “overcomes” her disability to have a dancing career. Instead, “Peel My Love Like An Onion” is about the never-ending saga of the torrid love triangle between Carmen, Augustín and Manolo. It is about Carmen’s relationships with her parents and her brothers. It is about her identity and heritage as a Chicagoan, Chicana (Is tht the right word?) and American.

I’m not saying that disability, pain and illness are not crucial to this novel. They are, as they form the core of who Carmen is. But this is not just a disability novel. It is the story of Carmen’s dancing career, love affairs and family life. It is also the story of a woman who happens to have a disability.

If you need something good to read, “Peel My Love Like An Onion” by Ana Castillo is worth a look.

P.S. I have received absolutely no compensation for this review. I actually got the book out of the library.