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someone motivate me to work on my info because I can't do it myself

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a phrase that kinda bothers me when talking about women's historical roles in europe is "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear it so often, those exact words in the same order even. and once you learn a little more you realize that the massive gaping hole in that list is fiberwork. im not an expert and have no hard numbers, but i wouldnt be surprised if fiberwork took up nearly as much time as the other three tasks combined, so it's not a trivial omission.

it's not a hot take to say that the mass amnesia about fiberwork is linked to the belittlement of women's work in geneal, but i do think there's a special kind of illusion that is cast by "cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children." you hear that and think "well i cook and clean and take care of children (or i know someone who does) and i have a sense of how much work that is" and you know of course that cooking and cleaning were more laborious before modern technology, but still, you have a ballpark estimate you think, when in fact you are drastically underestimating the work load.

i also think that this just micharacterizes the role of women's work in livelihoods? cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children are all sisyphean tasks that have to be repeated the next day. these are important, but not the whole picture. when we include all kinds of fiberwork—and other things, such as making candles or soap—women's work looks much more like manufacturing, a sphere we now associate more with men's work. i feel like women's connection to making and craftsmanship is often elided.

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There will be a lot of posts soon from people sharing how much they achieved in 2024. But in case someone needs to hear this, it's okay if the only thing you did this year was just get through it.... It's ok.

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i wonder if actors ever get their scripts and are like

well this is fucking stupid

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seeing a lot of what’s in my bag posts and I wanted to hop on the trend

Yes I carry a poetry book along with me, no I’m not a pretentious poetry person

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heyyyy guys. does anyone on here do info bc it is an emergency and i need to write one like. yesterday. please help

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I keep seeing bots advertising AI generated speeches aimed at the speech and debate community, and would like to offer my two cents. First of all, AI has a place, even potentially in our communities. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with using AI to double check grammar when writing your speeches, or to find a better phrasing for your tag. But if your speech or argument is AI generated, what’s the point of even competing? Why show up if you won’t put the work in. I’ll step off my soapbox now

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Hi!! Just wanted to start off with the fact that I love ur blog!! Even as a pf kid us s&d kids gotta sick together :). Advice for how to deal with a loss? I'm a novice and it was my first time competing in an invitational (for the whole state). I usually only compete in local league tournaments with 3 rounds, but this had 5. Me and my partner got 3 losses 2 wins and didn't break. I feel really bad because the rest of the novice pf team DID break. It's not even like me and my partner are bad debaters. We were just super unlucky (especially after talking with the other teams after and them getting easier teams)??? Feel free to ignore this, it helps to just vent too. Again, I love your page and thank you for reading this far <33

Thank you so much, and no worries! That honestly means so much to me and I understand this completely- I never broke once in my novice year. At all. Ever. So, my advice when you don’t break:

Know you’ll do better eventually. The way you phrased it made me think you’ve broken before, in which case- you will break again! Competing on a larger scale than you’re used to is terrifying, and it’s a lot harder than competing on your local level, and the extra rounds are exhausting- you probably weren’t competing at the same level as you normally would, and that’s understandable! You shouldn’t expect it to be like any tournament you’ve been to, because it’s not. And that’s not your fault.

Don’t take it personally. No matter how personal it feels- and it usually does- it’s not personal. Nobody made a conscious choice to put you against harder teams than the rest of your pf team. Nobody made a conscious choice to give you a lay judge vs. a tech judge or vice versa. Not a single bit of that was your choice, and if you were debating at the best level you could, then that’s the best you could’ve placed.

Don’t let it get to you. Not breaking at a tournament feels terrible, but don’t let it impact your performance. Your goal should always to do better than you did at the least tournament, so don’t beat yourself up for being paired against teams you couldn’t win against. Use whatever anger or regret you have over the tournament and put that into your practice. It’s okay to be upset- I’ll admit to crying after a tournament, there’s no shame in it- but you can’t let it hold you back.

Learn from it. This might sound cliche (and it kind of is), but tournaments are a learning experience. The biggest thing I learned as a novice was to leave every tournament with at least one thing I knew I needed to get better at. So, look at what your judges said, talk to your partner, and try to adapt to that feedback. Even if your ballots aren’t good, you should always be able to know one thing you could’ve improved on. Even though the loss wasn’t your fault, it still means you have an opportunity to get better from it. That’s what got me through being a novice- especially in Congress, where there’s no novice/varsity division- every round you lose means you had something to learn from the people who beat you.

T.L,D.R.: The best way to deal with a loss is using it to get better. It wasn’t your fault, but it also wasn’t anyone else’s fault- so the only thing you can do is learn from it and make sure you do better at your next tournament.

And be happy for your teammates! This part is really hard, but don’t be a sore loser. The teams they went against weren’t as difficult as the teams you went against- you’re not worse than them. You have that experience against harder teams that they don’t, and you can use that to improve a lot.

(also tysm for sending in an ask!! you absolutely have no idea how much you made my day, y’all should send more asks or just chat bc you guys are great)

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saw someone calling people who thank the judges after rounds suck ups??? Like buddy??? Do you not thank them for willingly spending their Fridays/Saturdays listening to you argue/info dump/preform??? Has you coach never taught you basic etiquette???

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the romantic tension between me and my multiple tabroom/nsda tabs open goes crazy

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you know you’re lonely when the thing you’re looking forward most to over fall break is having the docket for your next tournament come out

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oh boy. writing bills with other people is… a nightmare

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Season’s starting back up! Can’t wait :D

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Doing speech and debate in high school was crazy, because nearly everyone I talked to was a leftist. It's almost as if when you teach people basic media literacy, they stop falling for right wing propaganda.

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Good luck at everyone going to Nationals!!! except if you go up against my teammates >:D

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hey debaters!!! i didn’t know this, you guys might not have, so make sure to remember this next time you’re researching cases/bills!

actually not emotional over graduating university, just over losing my jstor access

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OMG fellow congress kid!!!!! I thought I was the only one!!

there’s a couple of us here lol, so welcome to the club! so great to finally see more people here lol :D