Cunt (34 page)

The National Mayor’s Convention convened in Madison, Wisconsin, this year to discuss
how corporations and civic localities can better “cooperate.” They’ve even invented
a new word for “cooperation” on this scale: “glocalization.”

It is
fucking imperative
that people figure out ways to shop locally. I’ve heard all the arguments that Target
is cheaper and Wal-Mart has such intensely time-saving one-stop shopping, and all
I can tell you is that we have to learn completely different consumer habits and belief
systems.

My mother recently told me that around four years ago, a lady showed up at her front
door and asked if there were any flowers that she could pick. Her name was Maria and
she made bouquets from people’s yards and sold them. My mother—who thinks people who
hoard their flowers miss
the entire point
of gardening—told her she was welcome to pick whatever. Since then, every June and
December, Maria has harvested some of the flowers in my mom’s garden. A few days later,
a gift of food or candles—or even small flower bouquets—appears on my mom’s front
porch.

By recontextualizing a plentiful resource, Maria is able to create an income. By not
being materialistically attached to the flowers she grows, my mother receives love-filled
gifts from an almost total stranger.

This is an example of thinking differently about economics.

Here is another:

A few months ago, I realized I didn’t know what happened to my coffee table. I had
one once, but I lost it, or gave it away, so I needed another. There are many creative
ways of procuring a coffee table, from running into Starbucks and grabbing one (their
employees are forbidden to give chase), to spending an entire weekend garage sale-ing,
to building one out of found objects. I opted for a tactic I use when holiday shopping:
I pick one store whose owners I like and want to support, and I buy everything there.
A thrift store in my neighborhood that specializes in furniture is owned by a husband,
wife and baby. The wife and baby run the front and the husband refinishes furniture
in the back. I like them. I stalked this thrift store for two months before I found
a coffee table. The one I found was gorgeous and much less expensive than one from
a corporate furniture outlet. Furthermore, 100 percent of the profits went to a struggling
family.

And I can hear many an American shopper say, “You waited
two months
for a coffee table?” To which I would answer: “What kind of delusional force is ruling
your heart that inspires you to think that two months is a long time to wait for some
fucking decorative material good that does not involve life or death?”

When applied to holiday shopping, the “focus on one store” tactic is quite the stress
reducer as well. I have one toy/book store for my nephews, and I pick a new business/product
for adults every year.

There are thousands of consumer beliefs that we uphold which make no sense whatsoever,
and serve no one but huge, uncaring corporations.

Shopping locally does not mean spending more money. Go to breadhours.org to see what
one city is doing to create an alternative economy. Local businesses are much more
inclined to barter time and goods, but this involves communication and dialogue. Being
a responsible consumer is letting go of the idea that money talks.

Money doesn’t talk, people do.

thehumanbean.com

The Human Bean’s motto is “Putting human values before profit values.” They are fine
purveyors of Café Chiapas Zapatista coffee, fairly traded, transitional organic, shade-grown
coffee “for the autonomous indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico.” This also happens
to be the best coffee I have ever had. The coffee is nine dollars a pound, which is
pretty steep. However, if you are holiday shopping, spending nine dollars on each
of your coffee-drinking friends and family is not so much, is it? Also, the coffee
is sold for $6.20 a pound for ten pounds. If you got together with a few of your friends
and bought a bulk quantity of coffee, you’d be paying less than most whole bean coffees
in the grocery store. The site also has a great history of the Zapatista movement
and links to many other organizations.

simpletreats.com

Featuring the best brownies I have ever tasted on Lordisa’s good earth. They also
sell (and ship!) cookies and other treats. All vegan, all the time. Simple Treats
will be publishing a cookbook soon, too. (866) 33-VEGAN.

Autonomedia

This is where to find the Sheroes calendar. It costs an astounding
five dollars
. That means fifty bucks and you got birthday gifts for all your friends for the entire
year. The calendar has a different woman for each day of every month and a short bio
about how she fought for her people—whoever “her people” may be—all over the world
and throughout history. I have learned so much from this calendar. I keep it by the
phone and read it instead of getting annoyed while I am on hold and would otherwise
be subject to a “samba” version of “Born to Be Wild.” Autonomedia also has an impressive
stable of books that they publish and distribute. autonomedia.org.

thelunapress. com

The most wonderful lunar calendar in the English-speaking world.

craftswomen. com

This is the hub for many of the women who sell stuff at the Michigan Womyn’s Music
Festival. Here, you can purchase many handmade or locally created products. Look for
Maat Dompim, Magic Mountain Mama’s Spices, Amoja ThreeRivers’ insightful book
Cultural Etiquette
and Amy Wang’s exceptionally beautiful clocks made from recycled/discarded items.
You can find clothes, quilts, jewelry, candles, pottery, soaps, sandals and all kinds
of other stuff. Many of the women are open to bartering time, goods or services.

buyolympia.com

Multicolored vegan pleather purses, wallets and belts designed by you and made by
Queen Bee. Calendars and art by the amazing Nikki McClure and many other artists,
musicians and activists in Olympia. This site is a template for connecting artists
and responsible consumers in every town.

Sublime Stitching

Hand embroidered goods by Jenny Hart in Austin, TX. You can have your portrait stitched!
Sublime Stitching, P.O. Box 8345, Austin, TX 78713, sublimestitch.com.

Sparkle Craft

Hand made home decor, journals, purses, belts, guitar straps, accessories, potty room
stuff and consignment shop. Tina Lockwood, P.O. Box 163961, Austin, TX 78716-3961,
sparklecraft.com.

Naughty Secretary Club

An online zine and jewelry store, also Austin-based. (Sublime Stitching, Sparkle Craft
and Naughty Secretary Club comprise a little craft mafia collective called Hand Made
House—another economic model worth emulating.) naughtysecretaryclub.com.

Double Dare Ya

Working with artists to further their message and work, including literature, music,
crafts—distributing through communities by independent retailers and online. 325 W
45th Street #602, New York, NY 10036, doubledareya.net.

chicanastuff. com

A tiendita and networking resource for Chicanas and women of color, offering zines,
chapbooks, spoken word CDs, artwork and artesanias.

This is the “home of do-it-yourself creativity,” with handmade items made mostly by
teens and young women, but some grandmas, too. The catalog is run by Kerith Henderson,
who is one enterprising and hilarious person. Evidently a Pisces, she sells clothes,
undies, housewares (“Silly Bunny” and “Funky Owl” nightlights for $3.50, and “Witchy
Little Special Jars”) and more. The site has a rad selection of items, and a link
over to pisces-soap.bigstep.com, where you can find dirt-scented garden soap with
real gardens sticking out of them (must see), crispy-dill-pickle-shaped (and -scented)
soap, and beautiful cunt soaps (only she calls them “kitty” soaps).

Media Action Alliance

Stickers to stick on stuff that pisses us off. Call or send for catalog. P.O. Box
391, Circle Pines, MN 55014-0391, (612) 434-4343.

Mamarama

Hello!!!!!! Handmade baby gear and hip gear for mamas-to-be and proud already-mamas.
More than an online store, the site links to other great mama sites and stores. 3528
Emerald Street, Suite 5, Torrance, CA 90503, (310) 793-0696, mamaramastyle.com.

She Shoots, She Scores!

Featuring the “Bud the Silver Naked Trucker” sticker, one woman’s clever response
to the naked girl on the back of semi-truck mud flaps. Rachel Bachman, 2611 NW Upshur
Street #207, Portland, OR 97210, (503) 243-7988.

One Angry Girl Designs

“Taking over the world, one shirt at a time.” One Angry Girl also sells bumper stickers
(“I Blame the Media,” and “Fuck Your Fascist Beauty Standards”) as well as Rachel
Bachman’s “Bud the Silver Naked Trucker” stuff. P.O. Box 745, Old Saybrook, CT 06475,
oneangrygirl.net.

Co-op America

“Practical steps for using your consumer and investor power for social change.” Co-op
America publishes the National Green Pages; their programs include Green Business,
Boycott Action News, Become Woodwise, Invest Responsibly, and End Sweatshops. Buy
stuff at the Green Pages Store. 1612 K Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006,
(800) 58-GREEN, (202) 872-5307, coopamerica.org.

responsibleshopper.org

Learn more about the companies behind the products. Compare companies and investigate
industries. Search by brand, product or company name. You can also contact companies
through this site. Brought to us by Co-op America and Working Assets.

Social Investment Forum

For those of you with money to invest: do it right. Socially responsible investing.
socialinvest.org.

diysearch.com

Do-it-yourself info on everything under the sun. Buy, barter, sell, post your product.

The following listing of resources is a goddamn motley crew, to say the least. I considered
“organizing” it by creating categories, something I know my editor would desire. But
when I thought about it, the website that teaches us with cunts how to pee standing
up is no less revolutionary and kickass than organizing with workers in Mexico and
bringing their product directly to U.S. and Canadian consumers.

Coming up with “categories” is a divisionary act, and I don’t have a lot of interest
in divisions. Part of the problem with our culture is the need to “categorize” everything.
I intend this extensive listing of websites and organizations to be
read
, as a story, as a mural of resistance.

After all, everyone’s essentially saying the same thing.

“All we are saying is . . . ‘fuck you, life is precious and this is our home, you
mindlessly greedy piece of shit.’”

(My apologies to John Lennon. Maybe back then peace was enough. Presently, I want
a world dominated by the wisdom of grandmothers.)

Not In Our Name

Join fellow Americans like Alice Walker, Yuri Kochiyama, Mos Def, Laurie Anderson
and Edward Said in endorsing the Call. Have your whole family take the Pledge of Resistance,
in English and Español. Not In Our Name organizes actions all over the country, and
is working to get the mainstream media to recognize the will of the American people.
notinourname.net.

International ANSWER

This organization has everything you need to understand what is going on with this
so-called war and what you can do about it. Their extensive news reports are just
one small part of this site. International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)
organizes the biggest anti-war and anti-racism actions in the United States. Support
this vital organization. internationalanswer.org.

Maquila Solidarity Network

MSN works to promote solidarity with activists, workers and other groups in North
America and Asia. Get news reports and updates from their site on sweatshops, actions,
protests and union organizing. Search links from around the world. Hold excellent
events like the “Sweatshop Fashion Show.” This is yet another reason to appreciate
Canadians. 606 Shaw Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6G 3L6, Canada, (416) 532-8584, maquilasolidarity.org.

Home Alive

Home Alive’s site has so many links! This wonderful group is inclusive of all ages,
races, religions and genders. Invite them to your town to teach folks how to protect
themselves. 1122 E Pike Street #1127, Seattle, WA 98122, (206) 720-0606, homealive.org.

urbanthinktank.org

“For the body of thinkers in the hip-hop community.” They pick up the slack-jawedness
the Heritage Foundation inspires in the living majority. We need more think tanks!!!
They also publish
Doula
magazine, the journal of rap music and hip-hop culture. Women are totally represented
in this mag.

aimovement. org

The American Indian Movement’s official site, which features a live webcast, news,
actions and resources such as declassified FBI/CIA documents. The AIM store has a
lot of political resistance posters, T-shirts and more. Lots of links and a special
area dedicated to the freedom of Leonard Peltier. The U.S. says we have “no political
prisoners.” My ass.

chicanas.com

A Chicana feminist site with a great listing of magazines, events and resources. Articles
and profiles on Chicana sheroes, past and present.

transgender.org

Links to groups all over the country.

feministcampus.org

The site of Choices Campus Community, a project of the Feminist Majority Leadership
Alliances, helps women start a pro-choice feminist group on campus. It also lists
information on affiliated programs, such as Pro-choice Public Education Project and
Rock for Choice. Find a feminist career, learn about the well-organized, well-funded
right wing opposition to women’s rights, start a mentoring program and more.

Madre

An international human rights organization supporting women and their families in
combat zones around the world with medicine, counseling and justice programs. Find
out what our country has been doing all over the world, and get involved with this
very important organization. madre.org.

illegalvoices.org

A hub of anarchist sites, including Justice for Katie Sierra (Sierra is the fifteen-year-old
girl who, sometime in October 2001, showed up for class at Sissonville High School
in Charleston, West Virginia wearing a T-shirt with the hand-lettered message, “When
I saw the dead and dying Afghani [sic] children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense
of national security”). Her entire community—including that bastion of free speech,
the media— excoriated her. Can we please stick up for our children?

gender. org

Promotes gender education and advocacy, and educates about issues facing gender-variant
people and society as a whole.

indiegURL, com

Serves as a hub for a number of indie gurl sites (technodyke.com rules) and lots of
links for webmaster resources, technical website help, free fonts and much more. Figure
out how to seize the Internet here.

Dads and Daughters

DADs provides tools to strengthen dads’ relationships with daughters, with information
on fathering, parenting, body image, media, sports, economic literacy and sexuality.
P.O. Box 3458, Duluth, MN 55803, (888) 824-DADS, dadsanddaughters.org.

Sakhi

A community-based organization in the New York metro area committed to ending exploitation
and violence against South Asian women. P.O. Box 20208, Greeley Square Station, New
York, NY 10001, (212) 714-9153, sakhi.com. Hotline: (212) 868-6741.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Without them, the world would be a lot more homophobic and clueless than it is, and
in 1997, they formally included trans-folks into their mission statement—but sooner
or later, they’re gonna hafta make their name trans-inclusive as well. ngltf.org.

GenderPAC

A national conference on gender. These folks have their shit together. Their Gender
Tour travels all around the United States; they lobby, publish an annual report, and
educate, charm and disarm for congressional advocacy. 1743 Connecticut Avenue NW,
Fourth floor, Washington, DC 20009-1108, (202) 462-6610, gpac.org.

bilderberg.org

Find out how one of the most powerful organizations of freaky little white men works.
Up-to-the-minute history on this incredibly influential, clandestine group of wealthy
people.

Kearny Street Workshop

The workshop archives and showcases art that enriches and empowers Asian-American
communities. kearnystreet.org.

Black Mesa Indigenous Support

Black Mesa is located in Arizona, and the government wants the resources that are
located on sacred Indian land. The Peabody Western Coal Company, in particular, wants
the uranium inside of Big Mountain, which many (including me) believe to be one of
the earth’s heart chakras. Find out how to help in this struggle for the earth. The
site fills you in on this history and offers many ways to get involved in this imperative
resistance. blackmesais.org.

Transgender Law and Policy Institute

These folks mean business: lobbying, litigation watch, hate crime law information
and news. Paisley Currah runs their site, and she means even more business. Just ask
Mayor Bloomberg. transgenderlaw.org.

transgenderlegal. com

Legal resources for gender-variant folks, on a site run by Phyllis Randolph Frye.
In 1980, Ms. Frye singlehandedly changed the anti-cross-dressing law in
Houston.

youthresource. com

For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer youth all over the country. A veritable
mall
of resources and opportunities to create community.

ambientejoven. org

Youth Resource’s site in glorious Español.

Third Wave Foundation

Young women activists and their organizations can apply here for funding, or pool
resources and energy in support of other people’s projects. Cool public education
campaigns like “I Spy Sexism,” news, resources, the works. 511 West 25th Street, Suite
301, New York, NY 10001, thirdwavefoundation.org.

Not Bored!

A witty-assed “anarchist, situationist-inspired, low-budget, irregularly published,
photocopied journal.” It’s not in the magazine section because there are all kinds
of fascinating activist activities going on here. This is where to find The Surveillance
Camera Players—guerrilla programmers of video surveillance equipment. SCP C/O
Not Bored!,
P.O. Box 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009, notbored.org.

girlstart.org

A nonprofit based in Austin, TX, encouraging and empowering girls in math, science,
technology and engineering. They have a summer camp, with no price listed. I am assuming
it is free.

tgender.net

The transgender network. Many sites are hosted by this organization, including It’s
Time, America, and all of their chapters. Rad.

corpwatch.org

Offers citizen policing of corporations and info on how to get involved in their downfall,
which you should probably do if you want anything resembling a future to look forward
to.

flag. blackened. net/revolt/zapatista. html

An index to a huge variety of resources and information on the EZLN, the Zapatistas
and the struggle for indigenous rights in Chiapas.

tgfmall.com

Contains resources for finding local trans support groups.

sistahspace.com

A resource site with links to movies, travel companies, online communities, classified
ads, bulletin boards and much more. A beautiful, simply designed site for young black
women.

queerbychoice. com/masculinewomen. html

An extensive list of gender-variant vocabulary from all over the planet, including
word origins, which are always an excitement.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity helps community organizations learn how to work together, repair entrenched
problems (such as racism and homophobia), and heal frustration and burnout. A very
cool organization primarily focused on, but not limited to, the southeastern states.
P.O. Box 25244, Raleigh, NC 27611, (919) 832-7406, creatingreciprocity.org.

glamdykerescueunit. org

The fabulous misses genderfuckers and their winsome manifesto. They offer an entire
philosophy and activities for all things glamorous.

Zuna Institute

The Zuna Institute is a national advocacy organization of black lesbians, with a site
that links to all the biggest queer conferences in the United States. 6114 LaSalle
Avenue #527, Oakland, CA 94611, (510) 482-1671, zunainstitute.org.

National Black Herstory Task Force

They publish a quarterly newsletter, the
Herstorian
, and organize the annual Black Herstory Conference. Take the Herstory Quiz! I got
six out often (B-). P.O. Box 55021, Atlanta, GA 30308, (404) 508-8040, blackherstory.org.

Mothers from Hell 2

A huge network of women who fight for the rights of their disabled children. “Our
name was something that was bestowed upon us for daring to stand up for our kids.”

mothersfromhell2.org.

transfeminism.org

Home of The Transfeminist Anthology Project, intended to facilitate communication
between intersex people, transfeminists and their allies. With news, links and feature
articles. This site is brought to you by Emi Koyama and Diana Courvant, who are involved
with the Survivor Project.