Hi all! This is my first blog/blog post so please bare with me. My name is Elizabeth, I am 20 years old and I am majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies. I was raised in Locust Grove, Virginia but I am currently residing in Los Angeles, California. Last year, I attended American Jewish University but I decided to take a semester off and get my degree at Umass instead!
The blog, “Feministing,” http://feministing.com immediately caught my attention for many reasons. I love that they talk about a wide variety of topics that include intersectionality, race, reproductive rights, sexuality, and more. This blog does very well at educating people on topics that many are uncomfortable discussing.
For my blog, I definitely want to dive into topics of intersectionality, racism, nature, LGBTQIAA, etc. I hope to bring light to certain topics that some shy away from and just to educate others. One way that my blog won’t be the same is that I won’t have editors, columnists, interns, etc. to help me create posts.
Los Angeles has many, many environmental issues but the issue I am talking about right now is litter. Litter can be found everywhere in the country but it’s extremely prevalent in the busier thoroughfares of Los Angeles. There is so much litter that it’s polluting stormwater which in turn, is polluting our rivers and oceans. This weekend, I stepped outside to get a better perspective of just how much this is affecting my neighborhood and it definitely opened my eyes to just how dirty LA is. Below are photos of trash in my neighborhood. This doesn’t look like a lot but think about the fact that these were all taken within about 5 steps of my apartment building.
Hi Elizabeth! Very cool that you live in LA. I look forward to reading how that informs your posts throughout the course since you experience some different environmental issues there than I do here in my far smaller city in Massachusetts.
Hello,
Thank you! I will admit, I hate LA with a fiery passion but it’s very cool at first. It will be very interesting to see all of our environmental differences.
Hello,
I liked feministing tooo!
So about the trash situation what are you going to do about it? Do you have any ideas on how you want to change this direction of LA. I have friends there and it seems like an after thought. A place of innovation and inventions yet lots of pollution. I can’t wait to hear more.
Hello,
I do plan to go out and pick up the litter that I see but I know that won’t play a big part but anything helps. Thankfully, right by my apartment is a recycling center. I actually don’t bring my recyclables there because there’s a large population of homeless people that live near me and I prefer to give one of them my recyclables so they can get money instead.
Hi Elizabeth,
How cool that you’re living out on the West coast. I am also an online Women’s and Gender Studies major. How are you liking UMass online so far? Honestly, taking online classes at my own pace has been the best I have ever done in school! I find the format and the ability to work on your own time to be much easier. I just started last January of 2018.
I have searched through the blog Feministing for past courses, and I have liked it. They discuss contemporary issues while also not being afraid to explore radical ideas, which I appreciate it because it makes me think a littler deeper. You say that you want to speak about bold topics that others may shy away from and I think you could benefit from exploring different feminist blogs on Tumblr. There are lots of LGBTQ pages and other intersectional posts, most without a filter, which I love and it sounds like you could too! I look forward to hearing more from you.
Hello,
So far I’m loving Umass online, it’s a lot better than the last college I attended.I agree completely, I feel way more organized with my time and work since it’s all online. I will definitely have to do that, I follow a few awesome blogs on Tumblr but I’m always looking for more!
I hope you have a good weekend!