personal goal.
i’m flip flopping on whether or not i should cut all my hair off but this beautiful lady is making me reconsider the chop.
(Source: , via filipinafemme)
(Source: afropeenne, via sylviaandherfigtree)
"
A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL
For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours:
For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.
And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive
- Audre Lorde, The Black Unicorn
"— I’ve been en chinga all day putting together the readings for the third world US feminisms course I’m teaching this semester. This was the last thing I had to upload tonight, and rightly so. Audre Lorde’s words are a good reminder, so it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive. (via elsabordelamorydeldolor)
(via mytongueisforked)
This post appeared on Lecta for Ada Lovelace Day 2011 and is an expanded version of a post at Geek Feminism last year.
“Don’t be intimidated!… I have seen many people get discouraged because they see mathematics as full of deep incomprehensible theories. There is no reason to feel that way. In mathematics whatever you learn is yours and you build it up—one step at a time. It’s not like a real time game of winning and losing. You win if you are benefited from the power, rigor and beauty of mathematics. It is a big win if you discover a new principle or solve a tough problem.
Fan Chung
Fan Chung is a leading mathematician, specialising in combinatorics and later graph theory. She is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at UC San Diego.
I first heard of Chung in Paul Hoffman’s The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth; Chung and her husband Ron Graham were two of Erdős’s closest collaborators. Hoffman tells a great story about how when Chung had finished, and come first in, her PhD qualifying exams at the University of Pennsylvania, her eventual PhD advisor Herbert Wilf gave her a textbook on Ramsey theory to browse and she came back and explained that she’d improved one of the proofs. That was a core part of her PhD dissertation, completed in a week. Those kinds of stories are told about the best mathematicians.
Chung has worked both in academia and in industry, having spent twenty years at Bell Labs and Bellcore in both information technology and mathematics before returning to the University of Pennsylvania, where she did her doctorate. After her time in industry she is deeply concerned with mathematical breadth, and is known for her “nose” for problems that cross several subfields.
Many mathematicians would hate to marry someone in the profession. They fear their relationship would be too competitive. In our case, not only are we both mathematicians, we both do work in the same areas. So we can understand and appreciate what the other is working on, and we can work on things together-and sometimes make good progress.
Fan Chung, describing her relationship with husband Ron Graham
If my count is right, Chung’s publication list shows 79 papers co-authored with Ron Graham. I’ve always admired stories of professionally companionate marrages: even Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne can’t compete on those numbers.
Chung’s website has a copy of a chapter about her in Claudia Henrion’s Women in mathematics: the addition of difference. Among other things it talks about her move to the United States from Taiwan for her graduate work, and her thoughts on having a child while at graduate school.
[Graduate school] is a wonderful time to have a child. You don’t have to attend classes; you only have to write your thesis.
Fan Chung
Hrm, yes, well. Perhaps I will give that advice in 20 years time. Perhaps not…
References
- UC San Diego: Fan Chung’s home page
- Wikipedia: Fan Chung
- Don Albers, Making Connections: A Profile of Fan Chung
- J J O’Connor and E F Robertson, Fan Rong K Chung Graham
This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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I really really really want the person in the center’s outfit and hair.
(Source: sofxckinluxe, via fuckyeahhardfemme)
Hieraconism 3, by Gerwell.
If this looks weird, it’s because it reverses a centuries-old convention of art - the snow-white lady and her dark-skinned ladies-in-waiting. Hell, I’m aware of that racist convention, and this picture looks weird even to me. It’s also strikingly beautiful (I think the artist may have goldfish in mind) and a little frightening. I could never be the imperious figure at the centre, only one of her fleshy pink admirers - and she has more important things to think about; they’re taken for granted. Perhaps this is a small taste of what that perpetual visual exclusion is like.
Now imagine that this is everywhere but when you point it out, you’re seen as jealous and paranoid.
(Source: theonlymagicleftisart, via d2fang)
Seoul, South Korea:
VictimsSURVIVORS of wartime sex slavery during the Japanese colonial era chant slogans demanding a formal apology and compensation from Japan at the 1,000th weekly rally in front of the Japanese Embassy, December 14, 2011.edit mine. not simply victims. survivors and fighters, truth tellers, bold and resilient women refusing erasure.
1000th weekly rally! women be fierce.
(via d2fang)
