You know. I read all of the books mentioned and more. I am an academic feminist which means that my research was thorough. So when I was ready to have a child I found a midwife and the one hospital in my part of the world that would allow a midwife to deliver and all of my natural childbirth plans....failed...miserably, both times, with two different midwives in two different parts of the country.

The problem with the take no prisoners ideas behind this kind of propaganda is that it is just that, propaganda. After failing to have natural child birth I had 2 c-sections. And what makes me so angry is that I felt like a failure after both of my births, because according to this segment of feminism I had allowed my births to be medicalized. They do not take into consideration that some babies are not coming out any other way and that is why c-sections exist. They may be overused, but how dare anyone make dangerous comments about how damaging it is for the bonding of the mother and infant when a c-section is performed.

I had severe post-partum depression after both of my births and my unrealistic expectations of my body based on some dangerous propaganda about natural birth was at the heart of it. I still think that natural birth is wonderful, but so is a baby and I was grateful that the surgeon was on call when mine would not leave the nest.

Lots of academics in the humanities do research in various fields by participating in that field. Some go to work for toys stores to understand our consumerist culture and the impact on our children. Some work in strip clubs. I don't know what your particular field is, but perhaps you can think of a way to spin some aspect of this work into research. I think this is why it doesn't matter.

Most academics have taken random and sundry jobs to get by. Most grad students in the humanities end up using the knowledge they gained from their employment at some point in their work. There is the socioeconomic aspect, the treatment of women within the field, the right of male bonding. Your work as a stripper can be used to look at lots of things. I think one choice is to think of what you might learn while stripping.

But in the end, your work outside the academy would never show up on a CV and the humanities are broad. Stripping seems like a reasonable choice.

Many, many studies show that the way people feel about their bodies and themselves is directly affected by the images they see in the media. The entire point of this type of legislation is to help rein in the disturbing messages that this information sends to women and men in society. How we view our bodies is a cultural construction and completely arbitrary. Just look back at what was expected of women in the 1920's. And while this image of what is normal or preferred changes it is important that we as a society, who is socially constructing what is viewed as normal, don't do anything that send the message that it is better to die young and be thin than to live and be average sized. I believe that is the point of this type of legislation. And for all the people who believe that one government is better than another, they should try living for a few years in another country to see if they still find that true.

Obama is unknown and untested and he was able to appear however he wanted. It was a complete lack of any critical thinking about Obama that allowed this to happen. This was particularly the case with the many progressive publications love affair with Obama, particularly when he was contrasted with Clinton. The DailyKos was a huge contributor to the love affair over Obama and the lack of any truly critical conversation about his candidacy. I find it fairly disingenuous that the progressive media now look at their work and try to distance themselves or act surprised at the fact that Obama may not be exactly what they were projecting.

I hope this causes all forms of media to be more critical of who they support and the kinds of conversations they begin. I don't think Obama is a bad choice, but I hope that he is, at least in part, who everyone thought he was.