Saturday, November 24, 2012

Tarotize: The Menopausal Witch Spread

I've been following Lisa Floyd for awhile now. I think she has solid, insightful advice on oracles and the Tarot, all very healing as well as direct. Not surprisingly, I've been experiencing synchronicities while reading her blog, including this link I found this morning when I went to check:Tarotize: The Menopausal Witch Spread. I haven't tried it yet but am looking forward to what this spread reveals. From her blog:

You call me a witch as if it's a bad thing..."

Writing about my own perimenopausal angst over on the Seer Pathways blog yesterday, I realised that someone needed to make a Tarot Spread about a woman's four ages. Because as my friend, Pip Miller, over at As You Wish, pointed out - the Moon has four phases, not three, and the stage that we enter during perimenopause is neither Mother nor Crone... It's Queen!

There is a Swedish word commonly used about menopausal women: klimakteriehäxa

It literally means menopausal witch and it's used as a put-down (no extra points for guessing that!), adding to the pain of women going through the change. I mean - could we be any more unsupported by society!? We're "past our prime" and have little value now that we can no longer bear children and patriarchy does not mince words on that one!

Beauty is the face of a younger woman. Every magazine cover tells us that much.

Yes, I do believe that menopause is a wake-up call to women who don't believe or are not aware that we still live in patriarchy and that very ancient power structures still determine our value as women. Hence it becomes our task to empower ourselves.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Daughter Fails 'Gender Bias' Worksheet, Makes Dad Proud [PHOTO]

Updated:

At first I was with the father here. But after reading the comments left on the Huffington Post article, the issue doesn't seem to be gender bias on the part of the teacher. As someone who works in education, I can understand the other side here. The assignment was requiring the students to demonstrate their comprehension of text: what was the author's point concerning gender bias? In that regard, this student "failed" -- so while, yes, gender specific designations applied to toys is ridiculous and outdated, that wasn't the question being asked. Plus, I thought that, ironically, the father's comment about a female teacher being "old" was a sexist comment. Still, if the student does feel this way concerning toys and gender, even though she didn't get the point of the assignment, she's right on about the other. I like this kid!Daughter Fails 'Gender Bias' Worksheet, Makes Dad Proud [PHOTO]