The livestream for this cut out yesterday, and I’m a ball of emotions finally watching it. My mom was close to Carrie’s age and also died really suddenly and way too young. Star Wars was such a bonding experience for us, so this memorial business gets to me!

I dont know if Ill ever get to a point where hearing somebody talk about Carrie Fisher doesn’t choke me up.

Annnnd I’m crying again.

I’m still so cross that she’s gone. There was so much still left in her. The tribute is beautiful and I’m glad it wasn’t a whole somber, earnest, affair. There was sex jokes and her sticking her tongue down a fan’s throats and it was perfect. For me, I just burst when they showed the little girls dressed up as Leia.…

I’m still struck by just how goddamn sharp Fisher was. I basically knew her as Leia and some guest spots on TV here and there, but seeing a bunch of her old interviews, she had that “I’m a weirdo because I’m just operating on a different plane than most of you” vibe.

I’m already crying and I haven’t even started the video.

I was reading a book today, “what works for women at work” that described the problem as what helps you thrive in an unjust system is often in direct opposition to what you need to do to change the system. I had never heard of the force feeding in Mauritania, which I just looked up. It is so terrible and unhealthy for…

Mothers in the US do this in a lesser extent too. Keeping their daughters home and not their sons. My own mother just told me today that it would be better sometimes if I kept my mouth shut. She does this because she wants me to be successful in the world and her mother abused her for “speaking up” but my “speaking…

Yeah, I think it’s pretty widely understood that FGM is a cultural practice, not a religious one. But since there’s some overlap there, I think that religious communities—as arbiters of morality within their larger communities—might be well-positioned to help reduce FGM in some cases.

In this vein, many Muslim clergy are speaking out against FGM, saying that it is not a practise that has anything to do with Islam. Unfortunately, tradition can be stronger than religion, and many are hesitant to credit them.....

There’s something of an allegory in this—women really do police and compete with one another and engage in our own oppression. There’s a quote by Aaminah Khan that (whom) I love:

Fun Story about American Sex and Science Education:

I remember hearing this interview and crying my eyes out. http://www.theheartradio.org/solos/mariya

Yes. This woman didn’t go around kidnapping girls. They were brought to her door by the parents who were supposed to protect them.

There is a very well-done, very upsetting episode of Call the Midwife that deals with just this thing. A Somali woman at the practice has a very difficult delivery because she experienced FGM, and ends up sending her little sister back to Somalia to undergo the same thing so she can “be clean” and “find a good…

I agree with you that effective change can’t be forced from the outside, but what about the agency of the girls who have not been cut yet? How can the rights of both sets of women be protected?

YES. It’s crazy to me that there’s no mention of charges against the parents who made this happen.

“We cannot dismiss the agency of these women in their compliance with their cultural practices.”

I teach girls who’ve had the procedure done on them. Some of them plan to have it done on their daughters, even if they have to leave the country briefly to do it. When I first saw this headline, my honest reaction was, “at least a REAL doctor was doing it.” An alternative (some old lady in a hut with a boning knife)…