“my dear girlfriends, in a cafe after the spa. they all, for the record, have brilliant minds.”

I’ve always been a woman’s woman, and I’ve always read women’s blogs way more often than those written by men. The lives of other women interest me, and when I realized that there was an entire network of women bloggers I was stoked, and I booked a trip to BlogHer this July.

Since I decided to go I started reading a lot more BlogHer bound ladies, and in a lot of them there is a hugely disappointing theme of self deprecation in blog after blog after blog that really took me by surprise.

I’m all for poking good-natured fun at myself… I do weird shit sometimes, like blending pieces of paper with a hand mixer, but I’m very careful never to say anything about myself that I wouldn’t say to my best friend, or my sisters, or any other woman. Think about it: if you’re a chick, picture your reaction if you were at a coffee shop with two other women you’re friends with. Friend A says to Friend B, “Ugh! Your hair looks so retarded today!”

The horror. The nerve! But so many of us say stuff like that about ourselves all the time, and it’s just not cool. And I know, women are harsh on their appearances because of the media purporting a standard of beauty that is unattainable to 99% of us. To that I’ll just say, “Baby, put on some lipstick if you’re feeling down, and hold your head high. You belong here.” And that’s all I’ll say about it because what I saw went so much deeper.

I noticed a lot of, “I’m not as smart as so-and-so” or “I know that I’m silly for saying this, but…” in opening paragraphs, and I was all “Say WHAT?!” Now, in addition to feeling bad about our hair-skin-thighs-fingernails we have moved on to our minds. OUR MINDS! There is a collective undercurrent of “feeling bad”, about our creativity and intelligence, and THIS IS NOT FUCKING OK. I’m bummed. These are the women I had hoped to look up to.

I’m not sure what to think about this, and I’m hoping that further reading will enlighten me. Why is this happening? What can we do about it? And where the hell are the feisty, speak-her-mind ladies? I want to hang with them.

And now for something completely different.  Politics.

On November 5, Carissa and I tried to get people’s opinions on what had happened the night before; we were hoping to generate an Obama-lovefest on video. The problem was that no one wanted to talk about it. We got a lot of “yeah, I’m way too tired, I need a break from thinking about it.” Even people who confessed they were “really excited” about him winning were just too weary, and I feel like that is the general feeling of a lot of people, even now.

However, folks, it’s time to pay attention. Four years from now the Republicans are going to come up and go “tappity-tappity-tappity-tappity-TAP! CHALLENGE!”* and it’s important that Obama supporters (regardless of what side of the aisle they sit on) are preparecd to say, “Give this guy four more years.” Or not. He might be a huge fuck up, and not deserve it. My point is that if you don’t follow along with what’s going on, you’ll never know for sure.

I’ve found this website called What is Obama Doing? So far been the easiest way to keep up with this presidency for me. Full disclosure, they seem to be biased towards a pro-Obama stance, which I don’t appreciate from a news source, but it’s really only a blog that posts other news sources, so I deal. Just a heads up. If you come across anything similar, especially one with a more critical view of the current administration, I’d appreciate knowing about it.

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* I am referring to one of the greatest scenes in the history of the Cosby’s on television. It features the late great Howard “Sandman” Sims tapping his heart out. He used to challenge tap dancers all over the US to dance offs, even in his 70′s and 80′s, and the legend goes that he never lost. I’m pretty sure you can blame my father for my love of this clip (the black one, that is. I have two. I have to clarify.)

I’ve been reading Holly’s blog forever, and this is one of the best posts she’s done.

I actually sat here reading and crying. Enjoy.