This is my dog

This is my dog, Madison. In all honesty, she means more to me than most people do. I don’t say that to be mean, just to be honest. I wake up to her, she hangs out with me, we exercise together, and she sleeps in my room every night. So, when I read about all the tainted pet food, I was quick to look up my brand and pleased to discover that she was not at risk.

Since then, I’ve been tracking this story, as it really does matter to me what is happening to other people’s pets. I have to say that outraged just doesn’t really describe how I feel. This was irresponsible at best. I thought about it a lot over the last couple of days as I’ve been seeing the number of pets killed by the food swell to nearly 8000. There was just no real response out of the company. If there was a food product on the market that killed 35-45% of humans, it would have NEVER gotten so little attention from the company and media. Maybe I am alone in this feeling, but my dog is a part of my family. I have no children; I have her. It upsets me so much to know that so many families lost someone because of a lack of response.

I remember reading Childhood’s End and reading the part when the aliens make their only real demand of humanity; they must stop needlessly harming animals. Seems so simple, doesn’t it.

In a rare non-writing post …

I am a feminist. I am not ashamed or it, nor do I try to placate my male friends by telling them that I am the friendly sort of feminist. I stand up for my sisters here, in the US, and around the world. I believe that we, as women, must stand together to improve the living conditions of all women. I also believe that we need to work towards changing the stereotypes assigned to women. I am sure to tell people that my husband is the cook in the family, and I take care of paying the bills. I tell them that I have my second Dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and that I continue to study martial arts, and no it wasn’t my husband’s idea, it was mine. I am proud to tell people that I don’t want children, and no I don’t feel like less of a woman for it. I feel like more of a woman for knowing what I want and not just having children because that was what I was told to do.*

I am a writer. As a writer, I promote my beliefs. My main characters are often women, and they are never weak. I sent them into the heart of danger, into emotionally challenging circumstances, and into positions of authority. I want young women to read my work and know that there is a place for them at the top.

I’m sure you are wondering what set this off, well, it’s been a bunch of current events that really culminated in a really silly event. I saw pictures from last night’s America’s Next Top Model. Yes, I know that it is already a show that most feminists are shaking theirs heads at, but last night they posed the girls as sexy dead women. I personally am not comfortable with this. What does this say to women? To young girls who are watching this? Is it telling them that we don’t even care if they are alive, we still think they are hot. I am totally not against nude photos, or risqué photos, but this just reduces women to … well corpses.

* As a quick note, I am not against other people having children at all, but I do believe that you should want them more than anything else if you are going to bring them into this world.