"Plastic: A Toxic Love Story" Book Review and Reflection

First published January 26, 2012 http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/01/26/plastic-a-toxic-love-story/

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PLASTIC: A TOXIC LOVE STORY by Susan Freinkel (Houghton Mifflin, 2011) is a compelling nonfiction look at our relationship to plastic. Ms. Freinkel takes a look at plastic in our lives through specific items, such as Frisbees®, combs, the ubiquitous plastic bag, lawn furniture and disposable lighters. She uses literary and popular culture references throughout the book to make it easy to relate to and understand the technical information she presents about the various kinds of plastic that exist and our uneasy relationship with them.

We love plastic when it makes blood donation possible, or Kevlar for helmets. We hate it when we see things like “beach whistles” (discarded plastic tampon applicators) next to our blankets when we’re relaxing at the shore. We are happy that plastics make pacemakers possible or countertops that are nearly indestructible. We bemoan their contribution to the death of the albatross or when their chemicals are found in breast milk and baby bottles.

In an effort to avoid plastics, we sometimes use alternatives that are far more environmentally hazardous. While your paper grocery bag can be re-used, eventually it needs to be recycled and/or can breakdown without causing harm to the environment, and it’s production is far more costly in terms of natural resources and environmental impact at its production origin. The energy, trees, chemicals and then fuel it takes to make and transport heavy paper bags causes more environmental harm or that term “carbon footprint” than a plastic grocery bag. Thus, while we lament those plastic bags blowing across highways and have heavy hearts when we see them entrap ocean animals, we need to realize the more “natural” alternative (paper) is really no better.

What Ms. Freinkel’s book did for me is to make me very aware of the types of plastic I use every day and the presence of plastic, for better and worse, in my life. Her approach is also livable. She does not prescribe a particular way of living for us, admonishing us for whatever plastics we use. Rather, she is even-handed and asks us to think for ourselves about what we bring into our homes, what we support in community campaigns for or against plastics and what we dispose of and how we dispose of it. While not preachy in any way, the author brings the issues from the personal to the global as we examine ways in which manufacturers and businesses ship plastic pellets and create resins for the products we use. We see plastic at every level of our society and lives.

Freinkel discusses the number of women involved in the plastics industry—an incredibly interesting issue. In China, mostly women work in the factories where plastic products are made and/or resins are produced. Some are quite young, and others leave their families behind for much of the year to work for a certain number of months making seasonal products like Frisbees® or those plastic chairs found everywhere across the United States. It illustrates that our consumption of plastic products is tied to a lot more than just our own use or to even environmental concerns. If we all stopped purchasing Frisbees® and those green and white lawn chairs, many women would lose the ability to support families that they’ve found in this industry. Whether the conditions in which they work or the wages they’re paid are fair and equitable are another story, yet Freinkel’s book asks us to consider every aspect of our decisions about what to buy or not buy where plastics are concerned. I learned a lot reading her book and I continue to think about all of the issues—the larger picture—of plastics long since closing the last page of the book.

Enchanted by "The Night Circus" - Book Review

First published January 19, 2012 http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/01/19/enchanted-by-the-night-circus/

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 2011) has earned my highest praise for a work of fiction, with the label of “adult fairy tale.” I’m not sure how to define the phrase other than to say I believe it is what Gregory Maguire accomplishes with his re-imaginings of children’s literature such as, THE WIZARD OF OZ,CINDERELLA and SNOW WHITE. Rather than the simplistic bedtime stories we heard as children, Maguire imbibes these cherished tales with the nuances of which we could only imagine or for which we hoped when we examined these books of our childhood once we were adults.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS does not re-tell a well-known tale, but rather creates one on its own. It resembles a story like that told in the Tim Burton film, BIG FISH, or the book I mentioned in my January 5, 2012 booklist, Keith Donohue’s THE STOLEN CHILD (Anchor, 2007). These adult fairy tales, as I call them, are one of my favorite genres of fiction.

By the title alone, we determine THE NIGHT CIRCUS is set mainly in a circus that is open for visitors only after the setting of the sun. This already sets the tone that we’re amongst the things of which dreams are made. We quickly learn that the circus is a venue, a stage or more of a court upon which a game is played wherein competing views of the miraculous and unexplainable aspects of the world attempt to prove their validity or possibly the superiority of one view over another. In the game, each competitor is allowed to influence a single player, and yet rather than being a solo sport, the circus as the field of competition inevitably includes others as pawns.

The short chapters are teasers that lead us through time, and yet ground the story through tangents and flashbacks. Ultimately, the story seems to be about the power of love—in all its forms, not just romantic love—and its ability to fill the gaps in our world so that it is whole as we live our lives. It is a story about story itself. We see a character, who fooled herself with stories, let go of the falsehood even as she knows it will bring less than positive results for the larger group. Then, it seems as if the story will take a tragic end reminiscent of ROMEO AND JULIET. However, rather than mere self-sacrifice, or selfish sacrifice as it might be seen, we see two characters come together to be sure that it all endures not for their own benefit, but rather for the good of all. We see that it is not just their love, but also the love of others that is required to repair the damage the game could cause in the lives of everyone the circus has touched.

I believe we are who we are by the stories we’re told, the stories we believe and those we tell about others and especially ourselves. At the end of the book, one of the characters tells another, “YOU MAY TELL A TALE THAT TAKES UP RESIDENCE IN SOMEONE’S SOUL, BECOMES THEIR BLOOD AND SELF AND PURPOSE. THAT TALE WILL MOVE THEM AND DRIVE THEM AND WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY MIGHT DO BECAUSE OF IT…” Thus, as we go about our days, hearing and telling tales about ourselves as women, we can take the author’s other words to heart:“STORIES HAVE CHANGED…THERE ARE NO MORE BATTLES BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, NO MONSTERS TO SLAY, NO MAIDENS IN NEED OF RESCUE. MOST MAIDENS ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF RESCUING THEMSELVES IN MY EXPERIENCE, AT LEAST THE ONES WORTH SOMETHING, IN ANY CASE.” The work here at Her Circle and inContext helps us see how we have an influence in our own lives and those of others. We tell stories, describe stories and analyze them to make sense of them for ourselves, collectively. The character in the story is right; we are not only capable of rescuing ourselves, but must also realize that we are responsible for this self-rescue. This is how we change ourselves as a way of manifesting change in the greater world, as Gandhi is known for saying.

If you enjoy fairy tales, especially ones that have grown up, ones worthy of adult women and men, you will enjoy THE NIGHT CIRCUS. There are plenty of strong female characters and men worthy of them. We’re also surprised more than once to learn that even those who at first appear timid or weak, harbor their own kind of strength. While the game itself begins as a competition between two men, it is women and men, who, by working together, save the magic for all. As we live our lives, we need to be acutely aware of the stories we allow to become a part of ourselves. We need to be cognizant of the stories we put out into the world, and of those we tell about ourselves. We can see to it that the author’s words continue to manifest so that stories are changed. We must develop a meta-cognitive awareness that makes us responsible for the tales we use to motivate and influence our lives, those of our friends, families, children, community and society.

"Local" Graphic Novel Review and Reflection

GRAPHIC NOVEL: LOCAL

While LOCAL (written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Oni Press, Portland, 2008) is billed as twelve interconnected short graphic stories that cover twelve years in the life of the main character, Megan McKeenan, the theme of the series is a young woman’s search for home. Megan must search for home because her mother, in life, never provided the boundaries and limits that home typically encompasses. Trapped in a bad marriage, Mrs. McKeenan indulges the desire to escape Megan exhibits as a typically developing, rebellious teen. Her forays into running away are never thwarted. While Mrs. McKeenan is always there to pick Megan up or with something to eat whenever she returns home, she never admonishes or punishes Megan for not being responsible.

Due to Mrs. McKeenan’s lack of reaction to Megan’s wandering, Megan’s homecomings make her feel less and less like she is home. Without any restrictions or boundaries, rather than freedom, Megan feels like her mother doesn’t care, and maybe wants her to leave. Thus, Megan travels throughout the United States and Canada for most of her twenties searching for something that is elusive. She seeks a sense of belonging, yet isn’t sure what belonging feels like. Belonging, of course, comes from being part of a community, in relationship with people. This entails a level of responsibility to others in some sense. Since Megan never had to be responsible in her family, she fears it every time it is thrust upon her as she meets people, dates them, works with them or is roommates with them. Then, she runs.

We see Megan return home at the end of the twelve stories. Her mother has died, and she is left with many unanswered questions. She repairs her childhood home as she answers herself in the process. She reflects upon her memories and those of her brother, and their very different reactions to being reared by a woman in a miserable marriage.

In Megan, we see the result of a generation of women who believe they want something different for their daughters, yet who lack road maps they might give to those daughters. “Different” is all a generation of women could ask. They hoped their daughters, armed with directionless support, could forge their own paths. Sure, “all who wonder are not lost,” as J.R.R. Tolkein is famous for writing. However, purposeful wandering is different than wandering while on a quest of some kind. Yes, daughters may forge new paths, yet they need a path from which to diverge. Otherwise, they are without even a compass.

I believe this was the challenge of the generation of mothers of the seventies and into the early eighties. They knew they wanted something different for their daughters, yet they had no idea what that was. We were told there was a wide world out there for our taking. With limitless choices, in many instances, we sat amongst tables of food and starved, not sure what it was for which we hungered.

Megan’s character represents the wanderlust of youth, and the result of a mother who hopes to live a free life, albeit vicariously through her daughter. In the end, we can hope that Megan has come to some kind of answer for her life, some direction. As women, we hope this for current and subsequent generations of daughters. We may even hope this for ourselves.

First published http://www.hercircleezine.com/2012/01/12/local-a-young-womans-search-for-home/

Virtual Bodies: It's Unreal!

The latest controversy over women’s bodies doesn’t involve any actual women’s bodies, but rather virtual women. H&M, a clothing manufacturer, is using computer-generated women (and men) to advertise their clothing line. When the media got wind of this, posts began going up all over about the policy.

To defend their actions, H&M claimed the choice was made so that customers wouldn’t have to concentrate on the bodies in the ads but rather the clothing. I’m not sure about you, however, this is a conundrum I’ve faced, especially shopping online or from a catalog. I can’t say I don’t notice bodies in ads when clothing is advertised. Often, the bodies depicted, both male and female, are such rare specimens, it’s just like clicking over to see the picture attached to the headline about a giant squid species recently discovered. The bodies definitely don’t “sell” me the clothes because they’re so far from my own body in appearance that I can’t tell whether the clothes will look right on me or not until I try them on. Additionally, sizing plays a bigger role in whether I can or want to buy something I see since I own sized medium shirts that are loose and I have some extra-large shirts that are tight. Due to styling, I sometimes try on a shirt and no matter the size it is just not coming home. So, H&M is partly right, we do concentrate on bodies when we see ads online and in print, but also mostly for reasons different from their choice to use computer-generated people. We marvel at the lack of muscle tone in the arms and legs of women in Vogue and we see only men who apparently do nothing except sculpt their abs all day, in their underwear, holding a football and looking into the distance at who knows what.

H&M is right that we’re “distracted” by the bodies presented in clothing ads, but virtual, computer-generated bodies are not the solution. Real bodies, of men and women, are what all of us potential customers would like to see online and in catalogs and print advertising. We’d like the “Women of Dove” to model the clothes in the ads from department stores and in the Victoria’s Secret catalog. Only then will any of us be able to concentrate solely on the clothing and not on the bodies depicting it. When they put the height and weight of the model in small print and say what size she’s wearing and don’t pin the clothing like they do on mannequins in the stores, that’s when I’ll be able to concentrate exclusively on the clothing, as I won’t wonder whether it will fit or how it will look on a my REAL body, I’ll have a decent idea. In fact, I’d be more likely to order things online or from catalogs and I’d be less likely to have to return them, which any retailer should appreciate. While I realize my demographic is not the H&M’s focus, I think showing real teens and young adults of all shapes and sizes is still the best way for any clothing brand to sell its wares.

First published at http://www.hercircleezine.com/2011/12/15/virtual-bodies-its-unreal/

"Brick by Brick" Book Review and Reflection

BRICK BY BRICK: A WOMAN'S JOURNEY

BRICK BY BRICK: A WOMAN’S JOURNEY (Spinner, 2000) is a book you might have missed when it was published by a small press back in 2000. It is the story of Lynn Donohue, a woman who was not only the first woman bricklayer in the union in Massachusetts, but who also triumphed despite the odds being stacked—like heavy bricks—against her. Like the film, THE FIGHTER, BRICK BY BRICKis about a person from a small New England town and a dysfunctional family. In this memoir, Ms. Donohue tells how she went from being a high school drop out to a successful business owner.

While I think you’d do well to pick up her book if you want an uplifting but also honest memoir, Lynn’s story goes far beyond the memoir itself. After writing the book, and getting it published, Lynn went on to continue and complete her college education. She founded a non-profit organization in her home town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the mission of which is to help kids who, like her, need a little help overcoming the barriers their socioeconomic situation places in their way.

Lynn’s story is not just about her becoming a woman bricklayer, and learning to build walls. Rather, it is about breaking down walls with the same kind of tenacity it takes to build them in the first place. Highlights of this book for me include when Lynn talks about telling guys on her early crews that one day, they’d work for her. Several of them did. This is also not merely a feel-good memoir about a rags-to-riches story. Lynn suffered serious and debilitating setbacks, including an injury at one point due to a serious fall. When Lynn describes going to work the next day, despite her intense pain, it feels like you get to see how Superwoman feels at the end of a day’s work. You get the real story behind what otherwise would be a single scene in a film, wherein our heroine triumphs. Instead, you have mixed emotions about the strength and emotional wherewithal required to move forward like Lynn did. You wonder whether you would have the same ability or drive if faced with the same circumstances. Lynn doesn’t just talk about going back to work; you feel her pain in her description.

LYNN DONOHUE

I attended the same college where Lynn earned her bachelor’s degree, and then went on to earn a Master’s. I was privileged to meet her personally and to witness one of her motivational presentations. She shared the “how” of making your dream job a reality in a lecture by the same title. BRICK BY BRICK gives more background information and lets you get to know a woman who truly did pave her own way, quite literally, to success, as she defines the word with her own personal terms. She exceeds the expectations of others by meeting her own.

Lynn wrote BRICK BY BRICK with the help of her long-time friend, Pamela Hunt. When I met Lynn, she explained how the idea for the book came about. She and Pam were taking a walk. They talked about Lynn’s life and how it would make a great book. Together, they set out to make that happen, too. This was all before Lynn had the self-confidence to pursue higher education.

In light of all the negative themes in the media today, I thought I’d share a gem with inContext readers—a gem of light and possibility. If you need some inspiration, some hope, then BRICK BY BRICK is sure to provide. Most assuredly, the path Lynn took was no yellow brick road. It was muddy, cold and hard. However, in the end, her story is a testament to all that is right with hard work and tenacity in the face of adversity. She is a woman who represents our gender well, and who figuratively paved the way for more women in male-dominated industries connected to construction.

First published: http://www.hercircleezine.com/2011/12/08/brick-by-brick-a-womans-journey/

"When She Woke" Book Review and Reflection

Hillary Jordan’s WHEN SHE WOKE (Algonquin, 2011) is timely in its publication as a reminder of all that is at stake in the continued fight to protect choice in the abortion debate. The book is promoted as a futuristic version of Hawthorne’s THE SCARLET LETTER, and could just as easily be described as another branch on the tree of feminist dystopian literature, a la Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE. WHEN SHE WOKE is a polemic about the dangers of religion mixing with government, and the resultant reversal of ROE V. WADE.

The story opens as Hannah Payne awakens in a holding cell, where she finds herself a bright red color. Hannah has been “chromed.” Chroming is the religious state’s answer to the problem of prisons. It is the process by which the convicted (yellow for misdemeanors, red for murder and blue for child molestation) are pigmented so that they may be released to society after a short confinement period. This confinement is televised, like a reality program. After the confinement, the “chromes” as they are referred to in the society, are released and must find some way to support their lives. Of course, many families shun their newly hued relatives so as to avoid further harassment by and embarrassment within the community.

Hannah has been chromed because she was caught after she procured an abortion. She sought an abortion in an effort to protect the identity of the baby’s father, the rock star minister, Aiden Dale, who is married. Abortion has become a crime because a venereal disease that caused infertility in women swept through the world. To assure survival of the human race, abortion is outlawed. It is in this way that the book is likeTHE HANDMAID’S TALE versus THE SCARLET LETTER.

We follow Hannah as she finds who remains supportive and who does not, once she is released from her prison stay. She befriends a fellow “red” and they attempt to escape the fate of their skin color. The world is a dangerous place for female reds, as they are all pigmented for seeking abortions. We glimpse at what life might be like if abortion were criminalized through WHEN SHE WOKE. It is a scary world, indeed.

There are halfway houses touted as religious safe-havens. The one in which Hannah finds herself is run by a sadistic couple who merely use religious terminology to mete out bizarre punishment. Women begin the program by stripping naked. They are then brought before a crowd of the other program residents. They are forced to describe their stories to the mistress of the house in a manner that is mentally torturous. More anguish is inflicted as the women are forced to create dolls and name them in an effort to supposedly eradicate the evil of their murderous selves.

Hannah escapes the program with a fellow “red,” Kayla. Their freedom is short-lived as the society in which they live includes a vigilante group bent on killing criminals. Their doomed fate is interrupted by a protective group, one in which female reds are transported north to Canada on a re-imagined underground railroad. There are instances of deception along the way. The wayward son of a prominent feminist sells red women for prostitution, as revenge for the abandonment he felt as a child. Hannah and Kayla face many challenges along the path to freedom, and encounter or seek side trips to resolve other issues.

As a warning for a future in which women lose the right to control their bodies, WHEN SHE WOKE is a solid contribution to the cannon of literature that cautions us against allowing religion to become government, for government to be able and actively monitoring all citizens, and for a future in which our reactions to plagues or violence lead us to lose our rational minds and submit to irrational tactics to seemingly solve our inability to comprehend or live with ambiguity. There are some areas in which the novel might have contributed more solidly to general dystopian literature, rather than concentrating on the feminist branch of the genre. For example, learning more about a future society in which citizens are pigmented to signify their crimes so that prisons can be eliminated is a topic that deserves more than mere mention. One cannot help but wonder about a society that claims godliness as its basis yet the murder of “blue” child molesters is never investigated as a crime. One cannot help but also wonder about other reds, male murderers or female murderers, not just those who seek abortion or provide it. We never encounter a red female who has not had an abortion.

We can essentially “close” the abortion and religion as government issues the book raises. Yes, we get the author’s point that religion as government is frightening to those of us who put personal liberty and secular rule above any religious beliefs we might hold. We clearly understand the author’s position on abortion and choice. I don’t want these comments to make the book seem formulaic. The story itself is compelling, and even with the tiny annoyances, such as the literary convention in so many fiction books wherein a person easily finds clothes that fit when they must change what they’re wearing, mostly because the harrowing situation in which the protagonist finds him or herself causes weight loss, and allows for even large clothes to of course easily be adjusted to their thin body.

Regardless of these details, wherein I wanted further exploration of this frightening view of a possible future lacking a right to an abortion or more information about a society that sought alternative means to prisons, even a prospect as gruesome as “chroming,” these desires merely indicate my appreciation of the book itself. While some critics have written the book off as one that book groups or feminist classes might read and argue about where abortion rights are concerned, I think there is a lot more for conversation and consideration within the book. Possibly, it is better that Jordan does not give us more details about the chroming of criminals, for we can take just this premise and think about it long after the book is closed. In fact, I plan to suggest WHEN SHE WOKE to my own book group not so much as to discuss the abortion issue as to seek other opinions and thoughts about the principles behind chroming, and whether that might ever be considered constitutional, or how it could come to be legal.

I continue to think about Hannah’s view of feminism as something vile, as discussed on pages 206-207 of the book. It seems in this dystopian future, the religious government manages to continue to defame feminism and feminists. I want to explore more of that. I also want to consider the character who becomes a part of the underground railroad meant to save women who’ve sought abortions, and who betrays the group as revenge for his feminist mother’s actions. It seems, too, that in this future, mothers are reviled for not focusing enough on their children. These are small details in WHEN SHE WOKE, yet they are the thoughts that remain with me and upon which I continue to reflect.

First published http://www.hercircleezine.com/2011/12/01/when-she-woke/

Tweets Lassoed by Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Organization

During one of the Thanksgiving football games, a Dallas Cowboys player (Jason Witten) accidentally tackled Melissa Kellerman, a cheerleader for the team. It seemed at the time that she was not injured. Over the weekend, Ms. Kellerman made a couple of humorous tweets about the incident, and assured everyone following her Twitter feed that she was doing just fine. When the cheerleader organization got wind of her tweets, they forced her to close down her Twitter account.

Several media outlets, including sports journalists, have been outraged that the Cowboys cheerleading organization would force Kellerman to delete her Twitter account when her comments were not negative or accusatory or did not otherwise defame the player, the team or the cheerleading organization itself. In fact, her comments confirmed that regardless of whether she did actually sustain any bruises or soreness after the incident, her sense of humor was intact. A few reporters wrote about the need for self “branding” by cheerleaders, who typically view the position as a gateway to other pursuits, since they’re clearly not doing the work for the money.

The Dallas Cowboys pay one hundred and fifty dollars per game, require cheerleaders to arrive more than two hours prior to a game, and to attend evening rehearsals, which are mandatory and unpaid. They are also required to attend charity events without pay. They receive some compensation for appearances, yet that information is vague on the website.

Kellerman is an education major, so I am not sure whether she plans to coach cheering as part of her teaching career, or what motivated her to join the Cowboys cheerleaders. Maybe teaching is just a fallback career in the event her acting career doesn’t take off. I’m speculating here about Kellerman’s motives in an attempt to understand why she would allow the organization to require her to close her personal Twitter account, on which she said nothing negative or damaging about anything or anyone connected to the Dallas Cowboys or their cheerleading organization.

Regardless of her or the motives of others for cheering, it seems absurd that the organization would have a problem with what she said or how she said it via her Twitter account. Additionally, since cheerleaders are known to use cheering as a stepping-stone to other entertainment careers, the self-branding a Twitter account provides is considered de rigueur for the industry. Since the cheerleading organization is not speaking with press, we can only imagine their motives. It is possible that they want the women on the squad to be seen and not heard, unless they’re cheering on the field for the team.

While news outlets reported that Kellerman was forced to close her account on Twitter, I wonder about that. Why not walk away from cheering if it pays so little, is so demanding of your time, and on top of that, seeks to limit what you can say and how you can say it in your own private life managing your own career? Sure, Kellerman has many online and print news outlets vying for her, as it is apparent that she cannot speak up for herself. Has Kellerman been not only tackled by Witten, but also sidelined by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading organization? I suppose we may never know, since if she’s been banned from Twitter, I assume she’s been told not to speak with reporters about this latest incident, as well.

First published at: http://www.hercircleezine.com/2011/12/01/tweets-lassoed-by-dallas-cowboys-cheerleader-organization/