The Marxist and me go to a fetish store

Alright, so I work in a BDSM dungeon.

I had a certificate to Syren , so I decide it's time to buy my first piece of latex. Although Syren is kinda known as the "K-mart of latex" it was where I had the certificate, so I drag the Marxist with me.

A lot of men have serious latex fetishes and since I didn't have any, I figured it was a good idea to get some. So I try on some skirts and admittedly, it smelled and felt a little like being in a balloon, which is really another fetish . But, it was very slick and promising and like totally transformed my ass. Meanwhile, A. wanders around and is very quiet.

After I place my order for a custom made micro mini with a zipper, I ask him what's wrong and he goes into this huge rant that BDSM is just a hobby for rich people. Dude, so is skiing. I pointed out that no one in my family has ever been skiing, whereas his family has, as well as other close friends of his. (Note: he's been upset lately because he just found out he can't go to Miss Kitty's since he lacks fetish wear. For those of you who do not know, fetish wear is generally expensive, but no more expensive than low end designers.) He tells me that you would have to have a certain amount of money to play and participate in BDSM. I told him that many people do play for free and I certainly don't pay to play. He said, Well, you're a girl.

Oh give me a break Marxo! Women are still getting, what $0.75 to the dollar vs. men's salary. Of course there are certain reasons for this that have little to do with my inferior female parts. I was told in a college philosophy class that there are three jobs that women make more money than men; not a small percentage, but a meaningful sum; they are 1) actress, 2) prostitute and 3) I can't remember the third one; but my point is that as a sex worker, I am always going to make more money busting balls rather than having them. Here are some mainstream jobs where women make more than men. But, in general, I'm not really sure why men earn more.

But then the Marxist would say, well, what is a wage? I think I will talk more about pathetic women low earners later.

My Argument with A.

A. and I have a huge argument when I come home and tell him about my "experiment." He thinks calling it an "experiment" is really stupid and small-minded to think about myself individually, I need to think about all the social problems that cause Americans to be ridden with debt.

He says that Americans are saving -1% every year, which means they are all spending more than they make. Virtually no one is saving money. He says we should look into housing co-ops; however there aren't any in LA, unless you are a student at UCLA. There is a food co-op, but it actually doesn't seem to be worth it.

He says that it's not really your fault that you have all this credit card debt; you
just graduated and spent four months being unemployed with another five being underemployed. Yes, my student loans are high (about $90k)but that wouldn't even be as much as what we spend a day on the war in Iraq. For the approximate $20 billion lost/mismanaged in Iraq, we could have paid off everyone's student loans. But even that is not good enough. He said, Elizabeth, the reason why you have to think about not buying things is because someone down the street has millions of dollars more than you.

I decide he's right. However, I point out this is an involving project and really I'm a poet at heart. Also, part of my reason for doing this is because I am an environmentalist; buying or scavenging used goods is helpful to the environment.

I rethink my project. For some reason he likes the word project better than experiment. I think that is because I have a degree in psychology and he's working on a project.

Part I.
Assessing the things that I buy. What is necessary?
Noting all the really cool shit there is to do in LA, for very little money or nothing.

Part II.
Embarking on freeganism; dumpster diving!

Part III.
Start a revolution, i.e. Why are there so many people living on the
streets in LA when there are so many empty buildings in the downtown?

etc.

Menstruation Activation Across the Nation

A few days later, my period arrives!!! YAY!!! PARTY!!!! I got a red balloon at Trader Joe's for my nonexistent child that I told the manager was too shy to come to the counter. JK. LOL.

Unlike Judith, I did not believe organic tampons were necessary. While I believe if faced with the choice between regular tampons and organic tampons, the latter is necessary. However, I do not believe tampons are necessary. I believe that spending money on a product destined to be used once and then thrown away, should be reexamined for an alternative use--except for toilet paper.

A few years ago, I was hugely disappointed with supermarket tampons and pads. I began to look for alternatives; I began using organic pads and tampons which felt a lot better, but were much more expensive and I was still spending money that I was literally throwing a way every month. This really bothered me. I didn't find tampon very comfortable, effective; they were instead costly and contributed to environmental waste. Here's the trouble with non-organic tampons.

So I found alternative menstrual care products like The Keeper and The Diva Cup as well as cloth pads. Menstrual cups cost about $35 so they pay for themselves in a few months and you can use them for up to 10 years. I used my Keeper for 1.5 years, but decided to switch the the Diva Cup because it is made of medical grade silicon which can be sterilized. The Keeper is made out of latex and it cannot be sterilized. I was having recurrent yeast infections that may have been partially caused by me not properly cleaning the Keeper; I decided to get rid of the x factor by switching. I haven't had any problems since switching, but I am also not as stressed as I was when I was having those problems.

The cloth pads last a few years as well, but I am not sure how long, since I had to recently purchase new ones as the ones I purchased a few years ago went MIA. (I don't blame the Marxist.)

There are also other alternatives such as sea sponges, making your own cloth pads, using nothing or staying on birth control (no placebo). I do not want to get into a rant about menstruation activation, but I want my ladies to do some thinking. How much do you spend on sanitary napkins every month, every year since you began and
when you will stop?

Let's calculate averages:
The average American woman starts her period at 12 and ends at 50; that accounts for 38 years of menstruation or 456 periods; not accounting for irregularities or children.

How much do you spend each month on tampons or pads? Using prices
from drugstore.com, I average the popular brands of tampons and pads to be about $6 and the price is closer to $10 for the organic. Let's say you go through one box a month. That means over the course of a lifetime you will spend $2736 on tampons or pads, not accounting for inflation, or a cessation of your period; for organic it's $4560.

Or, say you use a menstrual cup for the average of lifespan of 10 years;
you buy 3 over your menstruating lifetime=about $100.

These are wildly calculated averages, I really recommend you calculate how much you have spent so far on tampons or pads.

This site is my personal fave: Lunapads

Menstruation Activation sites:
Bloodsisters

SEAC (Student Environmental Action Coalition) used to have a rad Tampaction page, but it's been taken down :(

But you can enjoy this article here.

white collar by day/white collar by night

My day is pretty basic. I work in a small office very close to home. I can dress casual; it costs very little in terms of commuting, etc. I bring this up because of a book I read called Your Money or Your Life. They want you to calculate everything in life hours. For example if you are making $20/hr at your job, but it requires a long commute and fancy clothes, your wages may actually drop to $10. Thus if you make $10, but don't have to put a lot of life energy into your job, than all that money you make reflects your actual wages.

I am still debating whether to go full frontal about my night job. I decided to wait, until I craft something more interesting to put into this space.

Not Buying It--My Criticisms of Judith Levine

I decided to give this whole anti-consumerism thing a roll. My live-in partner who is a Marxist thought it was pretty stupid, but I really thought I could do better than Judith Levine, the author of Not Buying It.

Criticisms for her book were many, but here are mine:
I had been excited about reading this book since Judith Levine was interviewed in Bitch magazine, but like other readers, I was disappointed. While I could not fault her and her partner for each owning a property before they became a couple, I really couldn't understand how two college educated people couldn't figure out how to get rid of a car. While you may need a car with four wheel drive in VT and even a truck, you don't really need a car for NYC. So they were holding on to one vehicle solely for the purpose of commuting from VT to NYC a few times a year? What about a train? To her credit, she does sublet her apartment in NYC when she is not there, but they do not use their property for alternate uses in VT. I similarly found her rants about the cell phone tower and SmartWool socks annoying. And while trying to not buy anything for a year was exemplary, it was pretty clear that she lived beyond her means anyway, but then again most of us do that too. However, purporting to be a vegetarian and then eating meat was obnoxious. So was the fact that she couldn't seem to find anything entertaining to do in NYC for free.

I have lived in NYC, and of course, you can go for broke, it's a great, expensive city, but it also has more free culture than other cites I have lived in. Any number of websites list free things to do in the City as well as Time Out magazine. She scoffed at becoming an usher to see free theater shows and yet she didn't explore the possibility of becoming an usher at a film center, but complained endlessly of all the movies she was missing.

Judith just semi-gave up on her consumerism culture without living like a ascetic, but yet she also didn't find alternatives for her year not buying it. You can get free professional hair cuts by either enlisting a talented friend or being a hair odel for students. You can not pay for organic tampons by using an alternative device such as the Keeper or Diva Cup, which pays for itself in a few months and lasts for years. You can find refurbished/vintage frames for much cheaper than $300. (I have been wearing glasses for over 10 years and never paid that much for any pair, even when they included add-ons like no-glare coating.) She didn't want to join the Park Slope co-op because of what she called it's notoriously complicated and long working hours. I don't know what she's talking about, you work less than 3 hours a month and pay about $125 a year.

I also found it hilarious that she struggled for a gift to buy her niece by giving her a refurbished necklace (props!) but then bought herself clothes on the trip. My advice to readers is to try your own year of not buying it, or if that sounds too crazy, try a month and see if you can do better.