Don’t Talk About THAT! Controversial Topics

            Greetings all! First, an update…as I’ve missed two weeks of posting. I know, I know, I’m terrible, but it’s been an insane month. So here we go.

            Hamlet opens on Thursday, and it’s been…interesting. A ton of fun, but also pretty stressful given the short time we’ve had to pull it all together. I’m off book-ish…and I have three days to get comfortably off book. I’m loving being Laertes in all his cocky, angsty glory. We’re doing makeup tomorrow, and mine includes some sort of mustache and goatee. That’s going to be hilarious and I can’t wait to see what it looks like. I am, however, having my breasts bound with an ace bandage, which in the heat we’ve been having, sucks. The weather for the show is set to be no hotter than 75, though, so it’ll be far less uncomfortable. If you’re in the BG City Park area, the show is free, and goes up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 6pm.

            Classes are okay this summer. Cultural Pluralism is boring and unnecessary, not really teaching me anything I couldn’t look up myself if I were so inclined. The discussion board is full of posts like ‘It’s horrible what we did to the Native Americans/African Americans/Italian and Irish immigrants/Women. White male guilt trip, white male guilt trip, etc, etc.’ I still stand that we can learn about it all we want, but if we don’t put our money where our mouths are, it’s pointless to keep guilt-tripping people. Get your heads out of the past and work on making a better future. Vote, sign petitions, blah, blah, blah, soapbox.

            I also have a lit class starting in late June where I’ll have to read eight novels in six weeks. Not looking forward to that since the class is Cultural Pluralism…yet more white guilt tripping.

            Apparently I need yet another class, a poetry class, in order to graduate, which (surprise!) isn’t available in summer and my advisor won’t accept a substitute. This puts a real cramp in my Chicago plans, which I’m getting to next.

            Chicago/Finances are both things I’m freaking out about. To put it mildly, I hate money. Mostly because I don’t have any of it. At all. I have two jobs now, and after bills this paycheck, I had…$5 for food and gas for the next two weeks. I wish I were exaggerating. Rent isn’t even paid off yet…that’s coming out of my completely depleted Chicago fund. It started as around $5,000 in January, and because of nonexistent paychecks and bills and rent, it’s dwindled down to just under $1,000. So, how am I going to get to Chicago in August (or now later due to that one fucking class)? Um…I have no idea. But I’ll find a way. Somehow. If anyone has any ideas, I’m all ears and a hell of a lot more troubled about it than I’m illustrating here.

Why must you elude me, sweet city?

            The Boyfriend and I are doing very well. Old shit is still creeping up as far as my psychological baggage, which is raising my anxiety completely unnecessarily, but he’s taking it with such stride that I wonder if he is, in fact, immune to my brand of crazy. Roughly translated: I’ve struck a gold mine in the boyfriend department.

            I’ve also started a bit of a New Project. I’ve had some serious creative urges lately. I’ve started drawing a bit, which I’m not terribly good at, but it’s been really nice to create. I also bought a $2 doll from the thrift store and have been painting her for funsies. But the new project—I’d like to repurpose old boxy TVs, hard top suitcases, and even old computer monitors into pet beds. I know it sounds weird, but it’s actually really cool. I researched a bit online and I’m pretty excited about getting started. I already have an old TV, and after researching how to gut it and realizing it’s pretty dangerous, the boyfriend helped me so I wouldn’t accidentally shock myself into oblivion. Now I have a gutted TV to make into a pet bed. Yay! I’ll keep you all posted on whether or not this turns into a full-blown hobby.

            Oh, and this isn’t really an update, just something I wanted to share: Last week, Ination had its annual Geek Pride Night, and it was so much fun! The boyfriend and I went as The Joker and Harley Quinn (I know, surprise, right?) and though I’m having some serious body issues lately and felt like I looked chubby (I’m heavier than I’ve ever been in my life and it’s freaking me out) I still had a ton of fun.

            I’m also immensely proud of myself for making it out the door with my boyfriend dressed as the Joker. He was in real danger of spending the entire week tied to my bed.

            I really need to come up with a Bite Me name for him, I can’t just keep calling him The Boyfriend. Well, I mean, I can, but it’s a little dehumanizing.

            That’s all for updates. Now onto the controversy!

            In our society, we have a lot of taboo topics. In fact, international travel guides warn visitors to the US not to bring up certain issues due to their controversial nature. Oddly enough, though, we ourselves can’t seem to shut up about them, especially on college campuses. I can’t tell you how often I’ve had to walk through groups of people holding signs and yelling about some denied right or murdered baby or religious sanctity of something. We may have a giant stick up our asses about certain topics, but we Americans are also loud-mouthed and overly opinionated, so it is my patriotic duty to broadcast my own opinions online in little bite-sized chunks.

            By the way, Happy Memorial Day.

            Let’s start with the ones I find really easy to form an opinion about.

Stem Cell Research: To quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy, “WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS?!” Though I stipulate that I support it with the condition of using embryos donated for in vitro fertilization that are to be destroyed or kept frozen beyond their viability. That’s roughly 400,000 embryos.

Gay Marriage: This is no even questioning this, just like there is no questioning cross racial, cross religious, cross cultural marriage. America, it’s inevitable, and it’s in the constitution. Just give them the rights they deserve.

Separation of Church and State: Is this even a controversy? Our country was founded on freedom of beliefs, especially religion. Your church isn’t my church. Keep it the fuck out of my government.

Animal Rights: Call me a hippie or whatever you like, but I see animals as pretty equal to us. My pets are my family. I couldn’t imagine hunting (maybe because I don’t have a tiny dick to compensate for), and I don’t wear fur. However, I also recognize that we humans are omnivorous and couldn’t have evolved without eating flesh. I don’t agree with how animals for food are treated, though. And I also believe you should be screened in order to be able to adopt an animal, kind of like adopting a child. I couldn’t imagine every striking an animal, and I can’t understand how people replace their departed pets so quickly. When Stella dies, I’m going to be in serious mourning. So in short, I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, I don’t belong to Peta, but I believe animals think, feel, and that we are not superior to them in every way like we think we are.

Oh, and by the way, I wear leather because we as a society use every single part of a cow.

Oh, I’m also strongly opposed to medical testing on animals. Obvious.

Sex Out of Wedlock: Come on, what is this, 1700? Premarital sex has happened since the dawn of time, in every age, and will continue to happen. My invisible/imaginary readers are already well aware of my viewpoints on sex. Be safe, harm no one-well, non-consensually harm someone anyway ;)- and I don’t see it as anyone’s business.

Children Out of Wedlock: This is a stickier topic. I’m a firm believer that the benefits of the nuclear family are grotesquely overblown. Being a single parent is extremely difficult, but the kids are just fine and in no way  worse off than children of married biological parents. I also don’t understand how a piece of paper and some tax breaks makes for a better environment for children. Especially since married parents can be just as violently abusive or neglectful as single or unmarried parents. In my opinion, this is just another outdated prejudice.

Okay, really quick stipulation…children of single parents were worse than other children in substance abuse…by 1%. See the link above for more info, but woop-dee-freaking-doo.

Abortion: This one is going to surprise people. Most would believe I’m pro-choice, but honestly…I’m on the fence about abortion. I lean closer to the pro-choice side, as I’m not an advocate of mandatory motherhood or the lawful unwilling destruction of someone’s body, and I think that if abortion were illegal, countless women would die trying to do it anyway. However, I know that if I ever got pregnant, even now, when I can’t afford to live on my own, let alone with a baby…I could never, ever get an abortion. I mean, I might be able to if I’d been raped and became pregnant (btw, fun fact, pregnancy via rape is extremely rare), but if, say, my birth control failed and I got knocked up, I absolutely couldn’t get an abortion. I’ve seen the change in my friends who became mothers. Once that baby is in their arms, it becomes their world, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. And I do believe that if a lot of women stick out the pregnancy instead of getting an abortion, that would happen to them. Not to mention that I do see babies in the womb as a human life, albeit a nonconscious one. However, there are so many complicating factors and circumstances surrounding abortion, that I just can’t pull myself one way or another. I believe in human rights, and no matter what way you go with abortion, someone’s rights are in danger.

Capital Punishment/Death Penalty: I am against it, even after having studied some of the most twisted minds and horrific murderers in history. I’m not saying that murderers like Andre Chikatilo and Ted Bundy should live—trust me, if someone ever murdered someone I loved, I’d be after them with a tire iron and all the force of the mob behind me—I just don’t believe it’s the government’s job to murder someone. Because whether it’s legal or not, justified or not, it is murder, and the government should not play executioner, in my opinion.

Polygamy/Swinging (yes, they’re different things): Another way religious beliefs poke their asses into human rights. I’m a ridiculously monogamous person. The thought of sharing my partner with others casually (swinging) fills me with jealous rage, and the thought of emotionally juggling multiple partners in a committed relationship (polygamy) just sounds exhausting. However, I have friends who, at this point in their lives, are non-monogamous, and most of them probably won’t ever be monogamous. If they find a partner who is willing to swing, or who is okay with polygamy provided the right person is found…who gives a flying fuck? Who is it hurting? Who cares? Not everyone is built for monogamy. Wouldn’t it be better for them to admit that and seek out someone who is also like that and form a happy and functional relationship than to pretend they’re monogamous and inevitably end up cheating on someone? I know a lot of people are morally against this…but it isn’t hurting anybody, and really, it’s only the business of the people involved, so stop judging.

Pot: It totally is a controversial topic. I personally am not a drug user…I even avoid taking Tylenol when I have a headache. I’ve had multiple surgeries in my life and never took the painkillers given to me for the recovery stage. I’ve never understood the draw for marijuana—to me getting sleepy, stupid, and hungry seems an odd reason to break the law—however, I’m an advocate for legalizing pot. There’s no real reason that it’s illegal and alcohol isn’t. We’re wasting money putting pot dealers in prison, creating unnecessary danger and crime by keeping it illegal, and for what? Some 1950s notion of evil reefer? Granted, I don’t look kindly on total pot heads/stoners, but I also don’t look kindly on alcoholics. It has nothing to do with the legality of it. Can we just skip the bullshit and legalize it already?

It's probably idiotic slogans and campaigns like this that stall the legalization, honestly.

Prostitution: I’m going to be crucified for this…but can we please legalize prostitution? Okay, okay, hear me out. In places where prostitution is legal, prostitution isn’t on the streets. It’s regulated by the government, with health and safety regulations like any other business. Minors aren’t hired, sex trafficking is low, the women are given health benefits to keep them and their clients safe. The women even have panic buttons in case something goes wrong. So why is prostitution illegal? Because only heterosexual married couples should be having sex, of course! It’s just another way old religious morals creep into our laws.

            All right, I’m sure there are more taboo topics I haven’t mentioned, but I’m exhausted, my head hurts, and I still feel like I’m still wearing that goddamned ace bandage around my breasts. Any topics I haven’t covered I’m sure I’ll bring up at a later date. Good night, sweet net wanderers.