the ch!cktionary

Feb 12

THE CH!CKTIONARY’S V-DAY GIVEAWAY

“Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one.” —

Georgia Representative Tom Price, when asked how low-income women could access contraception without insurance

I don’t know what country Mr. Price is living in. GOOD Magazine’s Amanda Hess and Nona Willis Aronowitz compiled stories from 25 of their peers (including yours truly) to illustrate the number of people who have been financially constrained in their contraceptive decision-making. And we are the “lucky ones”. Have a story of your own? Share it in the comments or tweet it out under the hashtag #priceiswrong.

Concerned about women’s access to healthcare? Add your name to the list of supporters for the Coalition to Protect Women’s Health Care (whose members include Planned Parenthood, Feminist Majority, and NARAL Pro-Choice America, among others).

Feb 11

The Ch!cktionary’s V-Day Giveaway

Regular readers know that I’m soooort of a Valentine’s grinch, but this year, I’ll be in New York to do the XOXOSMS screening and panel! That’s kind of an acknowledgement of the holiday, no?

I figured that in 2012, I’d properly “celebrate” the holiday rather than issuing my usual complaints about crowds and commercialization. So, my dear readers: if you don’t have a Valentine, I’ll happily be yours - virtually, at least. Here are a week’s worth of gifts, starting off with this weekend’s giveaway from Vibrations Direct and My Love Life!

Vibrations Direct is giving away the White Nights Pleasure Kit by Doc Johnson, containing everything you need to start your own boudoir, covered in soft, velvet-touch rubber and styled beautifully enough to give as a gift to your partner, or a couple just setting up home together, the White Nights Pleasure Kit is fantastic value! The kit contains a classical style velvet-touch seven inch vibe, a pocket-rocket style personal massager, Tuberose massage oil and a multi-speed vibrating bullet.

My Love Life is giving away FOUR copies away of their powerful iPhone and iPod touch application. My Love Life keeps track and logs all aspects of your love life including your dating, flirting and sexual history, and features advanced statistics and graphing to make sense of all the historical data collected.

Stay tuned for the rest of the week’s prizes! I’ll have a new post up everyday with instructions on how to enter via Facebook, Twitter, or this blog :) If you’re viewing this via a reblogged post, please refer to the original giveaway page on TheChicktionary.com to enter using the Rafflecopter widget.

FEB 13
Romantic Rendezvous Love Kit from Booty Parlor

FEB 14
Kiki C-Vibe from PicoBong & Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Best Sex Writing 2012

FEB 15
Erin Nieto’s How Much Do You Weigh?

FEB 16
Club Vibe 2.OH from OhMiBod  

FEB 17
EdenFantasys & Jaclyn Friedman’s What You Really, Really Want

Feb 09

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Feb 08

On Feminist Pride Day 2012

For those who have been asking, here’s some news about the campaign formerly known as Feminist Coming Out Day. The official* word:

Turning Feminist Coming Out Day into a national campaign taught us as much about coalition-building and progressive activism as it did about our own relationships to feminism. Along the way, we met incredibly passionate people, got a crash course in online publicity, and learned how to incorporate feedback and criticism from our constituents (i.e. all of you lovely people). A year later, we’ve both moved on to other projects, so we’re handing over the reins to an organization with the resources necessary to do the campaign justice…

* Well, as official as it gets, ‘cause I wrote it.

It’s been two years since Feminist Coming Out Day/Feminist Portrait Project first got started. In 2010, it was just a single event at Harvard. I came up with the idea as the women’s events chair of the Queer Students & Allies, but I can’t take any credit for the execution. The art exhibition was inconveniently scheduled for the same week as my senior thesis deadline, and at the time, I was not contemplating gallery lighting or installation matters. Luckily, we were collaborating with the feminist club, the Radcliffe Union of Students, and Abby, the then-president, knew her way around art. She and I were clearly meant to work together.

Here’s a photo of us from the opening reception:

I am probably underfed and unshowered in this photo.

A year later, I had graduated. Abby was still a sophomore. There would be no question that Feminist Coming Out Day would be happening again at Harvard, but this time, we were talking about taking it national. So, first came our own domain, then we put up a teaser page, some social media, and finally, a website, a fundraising campaign, and at some point … the wheels started turning on their own and we became inundated with emails. Abby helped student clubs come up with their own spin on the event. I wrote blog posts and handled t-shirt orders. Submissions started pouring in from around the world for inclusion in the digital Feminist Portrait Project. Groups sent in event listings and photos of their on-campus celebrations. It was really incredible to see it all happen.

Here’s a photo of Abby and me after the 2011 event at Harvard:

I remember being sick (and therefore, likely underfed and unshowered) in this photo.

After the campaign, we were really tired. 2011 totally exceeded our expectations, and though we wanted to see a 2012 event happen, the idea of devoting 3-4 months of near full-time hours to the campaign (on top of real life and existing obligations) … well, it seemed overwhelming, and to be honest, doing it justice would require much more support than what we were capable of offering. I also knew that I was ready to move on, from Boston and also from this particular project. While I can’t speak for Abby, my own feelings about feminism have changed a lot over the past two years, and I have a much better sense today for how to best spend my time and how to best engage with the movement. I couldn’t make Feminist Pride Day fit into my life without compromising all my other plans.

Though we started talking to the Feminist Majority Foundation about adopting our project for their campus programs way back in August, I haven’t offered many public updates (and for that, I apologize). Partly, I wanted to get things finalized before making any big announcements, but I also thought it’d be wise to wait an appropriate amount of time before reflecting on something that took up so much of my emotional and physical energy. Immediately after the 2011 campaign, it was hard for me to determine whether I was tired from the project or tired of the project. And because it’s the closest thing I’ve had to a start-up baby and I’m kind of a control freak, it wasn’t easy to decide whether to let go. These days, I am 100 percent certain that I made the right decision. We came up with a new name, wrote up a handy toolkit, and passed it on to the Feminist Majority Foundation.

It astounds me that just a year ago, I was living out of “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” t-shirts! I am now richer for the experience and have gained a fantastic friend/partner in Abby, who I’m certain I’ll be collaborating with again in the future. But as far as Feminist Pride Day is concerned? The campaign will be best served by a national organization and I’ll have more to learn from pursuing creative endeavors outside of explicitly feminist spaces.

Feb 07

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Feb 02

Today’s edition of Things I Have Made That I Would Eat Again features architectural fruit structures held together by goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

My boyfriend thinks I need to be forcibly removed from the kitchen.

Jan 31

Sex Week 2012 At Yale -

Whew, it was great to see my mom in LA, but now it’s time to play catch-up with work. I just flew back to Boston yesterday, and I’m only going to be home for a hot second. This Sunday, I’ll be in Connecticut for a talk at Yale. After overcoming some conflicts with the administration last semester, Sex Week is now officially on and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.

Here are the details for my event:

“WRITING SEX”: A PANEL ON SEX-POSITIVE WRITING @ Sex Week 2012
Sunday, February 5, at 6:00 PM

Featuring Riese Bernard of Autostraddle, Lena Chen of The Ch!cktionary, & Miriam Zoila Perez of Radical Doula.

Let’s be honest, talking about sex can be really difficult. Talking about sex in an inclusive, sensitive, and informative way is even more difficult. This panel, made up of prominent feminist and queer writers who tackle the world of sex with their words on a daily basis, will provide a space in which to explore the question of sex-positive advocacy through writing, a highly relevant issue for many students on this campus. Panelists will offer their own experiences of the challenges and successes of writing about sex, and then enter into a discussion of relevant questions: what is sex-positive writing? How can we write in sex-positive ways? And, perhaps most importantly, how can writing about sex be a form of activism in and of itself? This event is co-sponsored by Sappho, MEChA de Yale, CAUSA (Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association), Despierta Boricua, Asian American Cultural Center, the Women’s Center, and Q Magazine, which will be moderating the panel.

[RSVP on Facebook]

I’m very excited to see my awesome co-panelists. Miriam and I have spoken together before, but I’ve never actually met Riese, even though Autostraddle is one of my favorite sites (and one of the few I bother reading regularly). You guys always ask me for sex-positive and feminist blog suggestions. Go check this one out ;)

(For the full Sex Week schedule, go to the official website. Bostonians, mark your calendars: Harvard’s having its inaugural Sex Week this March with many events open to the public. Stay tuned for more details!)

Jan 26

Anonymous asked: did you book your trip through a travel agency that offered some kind of package? i'm looking to vacation in southeast asia but packages seem so expensive!

No, I didn’t book a package. I paid for my transcontinental flights with airline miles and booked a couple hotels at employee rates, thanks to my mom’s discount (she works for a hotel chain). I also stayed with people during a couple points, when I couldn’t find available rooms.

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of vacation packages. My first trip to Southeast Asia (back in 2008) was planned by a travel agency. I was traveling in a group and there was limited time, so a package made sense then, but if I could do that trip all over again (and one day, I totally will), I would have allowed myself the flexibility to make more spontaneous decisions. Relatively speaking, Southeast Asia isn’t very expensive compared to, say, Europe, so it’s perfectly possible to do all your own bookings while not spending a lot of money. A package might be more appropriate if you’re looking for a guided visit, complete with escorts. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s necessary.

Another reason I wouldn’t do a package again is because I’d like to visit friends in Asia, and that would be hard to accommodate if I have a very scheduled trip. If you want to save money and don’t have folks to stay with, there are plenty of alternatives to hotels. For example, I’ve heard great things about CouchSurfing. You might also want to scope out short-term vacation rentals and serviced apartments, which typically serve corporate clients but are frequently available to travelers as well. And of course, there are also hostels, which often come with free wifi, helpful staffers, and tons of fellow travelers for you to meet and hang out with. (Just look up reviews on TripAdvisor first if you’re concerned about location, safety, cleanliness, etc.)

P.S. My friend Lingbo has been backpacking through Southeast Asia for several months, and she has a bunch of fantastic tips on her blog about how to safely travel on a budget as a solo woman. Read it! She’s far better at this than I am :)

More burning questions? Ask Lena.

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