The Underground Social Worker

When social justice isn't just a job

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How undocumented youth can apply for work visa

dreamactnow:

Pass it around! I will post more as it becomes available.

↵ Originally from dreamactnow

↵ Reblogged from warcrimenancydrew

You could call this my first job in the sex industry. It could also be seen as not too different from jobs I’ve held in the past. I have waitressed, and been sexually harassed by bosses and customers. I have modeled for art classes, and watched students and teachers fuel their fantasies with my motionless body. I have worked in an office, and been stuck in a cubicle with a coworker who just could not grasp the fact that I preferred my woman lover over him. I have worked in the film industry, and felt myself a cog in a multimillion dollar machine that designs and markets “entertainment” around the sex-value of its stars. These all look like sex industries to me. I wondered: What is the difference between jobs within work systems that hypocritically deny the importance of sex to their smooth operation as opposed to those that exploit it as their very reason for operating? If capitalism was structuring my work experiences, and if sexism was structuring roles within capitalism, what had I to lose by facing overt rather than covert realities? I certainly had a choice of not doing this particular work, but I never had a choice of not dealing with its existence.

Vicky Funari, “Naked, Naughty, Nasty”, in Whores and Other Feminists (via me-decouvrir)

Reminds me of a song by NOFX called “Lori Meyers”…”Who are you to tell me how to live? You think I sell my body…I merely sell my time. I ain’t no Cinderella. I ain’t waiting for no prince to save me in fact until just now, I’ve been doing just fine…and on and on…I know what degregation feels like, I felt it on the floor at the factory where I worked long before. I took control. Now I answer to me…”

↵ Originally from bell--jar-deactivated20130129

↵ Reblogged from getouttaqueer

Having A Purpose In Life Could Protect Brain From Mental Decline, Study Suggests

I read this as not necessarily knowing exactly what you want to do or be but just in general that you want to do or be something. I think of my Grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, and how she quit her job when she got married because that is just what you did at that time. She never gave much thought about it.

My Grandfather was a Pediatrist and gave her comfortable living and she took care of him and raised three wonderful children. Although she did use her piano training to teach to neighborhood children (and her own grandchildren), after she retired from piano lessons, she revealed that she didn’t really enjoy playing piano much. She didn’t like reading either. It seemed that she didn’t think much about pursuing anything outside of family life. Perhaps piano lessons helped to give her a sense of pride and accomplishment.

My mother worries about developing Alzheimer’s because of the studies that link it to heridity. However, my mother went to college and although she took a few years off to raise children, went back to working as an elementary school teacher. This is actually her last year teaching before she begins her retirement, at the young age of 60. She has many hobbies and fulfullment outside of work, though, which I believe will carry her though her many years.

Volunteering, gardening, reading, spirituality and social engagements will no doubt take care of her well. I wish her a happy and purposeful life in this new venture.