I'm out.

Our entire US team got axed today. After hearing about troyisburning's recent shaft, I'm grateful for the fairly dignified treatment and decent severance I got. Now that it's over, I'm significantly less stressed than I was before. I'm sure I'll be ok, but naturally it's shocking to be without a steady paycheck for the first time in nine years.

It could be worse!

It's important to keep things in perspective. For instance, while I was snoozing away in anticipation of my meeting, this happened in east Austin:

Austin police close 7 campuses, kill man armed with AK-47.

Yet another reason not to "do mornings."

And although, considering its reputation, I'm surprised something this commonplace made the news at all:

Beheaded man hanged from overpass in Juarez, Mexico

I guess I can cross Juarez off my "places to seek employment/keep head" list.

Why still call it Feminism?

It seems like some of my recent comments have been construed as anti-feminist, which isn't really true at all. My points have been that in some cases changes driven by feminism have lead to remedies that have lead to reverse discrimination, and that this is simply reversing the problem rather than solving it. Situations in which male power has been reduced due to feminist influence are definitely *not* all "progress" or positive, and anyone thinking otherwise is refusing to see the whole truth about a complex problem.

In relation to some recent LJ discussions on some of feminism's effects, spottedvasa sent me this interesting link on why the author thinks it's important to keep the term "feminism" when many of the things that have been addressed by feminism go beyond the boundaries of it's traditional "equal rights" definition.

The author makes several good points. I can certainly agree that the term "feminism" is relevant and important, and it makes sense for people to continue to use it. In fact, I agree with the article overall, with a few points of refutation:

2. Feminism is traditionally about women, hence the name. Do you have a problem with that?

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