The year is not yet over, and while I don’t want to give the impression of Christmas music in October, I thought a best of 2009 Rabbit Write list was ripely due. I’ve been putting consistent work into Rabbit Write since April of 2009 and the site has garnered over 126 posts. Collected in this round-up are the expected, unexpected, unappreciated and perhaps the over-rated. Most Popular and Readers Choice were chosen by things like hits and comments, so when it came to choosing my favorites I was a bit surprised at what made the cut. Of course some of articles in the first two categories were near and dear…but I found quite a few dusty gems in the rough. Here is a review of some of the highlights:
Most Popular
- Like a Virgin “I lost it on a snowy school night in December. Sneaking out of the house around midnight, I held my shoes in my hand as I nervously ran to his car.”
- Oprah’s segment on buying your daughters vibrators “But it is not as easy as a few forced conversations and tossing a vibrator in your teenage daughter’s lap. This approach assumes children are things to be managed rather than emotional and sensitive humans, which is infuriating and not true.”
- Being in a Relationship…With Yourself “It is one thing to feel good about yourself in moments, but it is quite another to take that fleeting crush and make it in to a long-term relationship.”
- Stupid Girl “Yet Paris’ oversexed baby-talk thing is nothing new. Consider, our culture’s ultimate sexual icon of all time: Marilyn Monroe, the real life Barbie who often played child-like (and oversexualized) characters. She was the epitome of sexualization and stupefaction…and why do the two always seem to go together?”
- In Praise of Bisexual Men “It takes a lot of self-awareness and courage to probe the fact that you might be bisexual and much more to come out.”
- Are you positive you’re Sex Positive? “I think that sex positivity is actually something very hard to reach, something that should be striven for but is in no way easy.”
- The Problem with Forgiveness “This was a life-lesson that was often told to me, and upon first glance I always accepted it. It was about love which is good, right? But upon exploring the “virtue” of forgiveness, I think this phrase is meaningless…harmful even.”
Reader’s Choice
- YOUR PERIOD. “At this age the last thing I wanted was to feel close to my cycle, close to my body. As I waddled through the musty scented middle school halls, wearing pads that felt like a bed-mattress between my legs, I just felt worried and ashamed.”
- What happens when you leave your “hometown” “In the town where I’m from there is an adage about young people who make it out: “They’ll be back. True to the saying, each semester kids who had made it out began appearing in my classes one by one. But why?””
- Feminism and Circumcision “Is this really what the feminism movement of the last 50 years + has come to? A girls club, too ready to blame men? Men are not naturally sexist and violent, Women are not born submissive and passive aggressive.”
- How Naked Jen got me Naked, an Interview with a Guerilla Nudist “”It was then that I decided to take Jen’s advice and celebrate my own nakedness. I’m not a total prude to nudity, I often find myself mindlessly naked at home as I go about tasks. Yet when it comes to focusing on my naked body and it’s appearance, I often go into self-attack mode
- Red Lips/Leather and How did you Meet? “When you ask someone how they met their partner you get to see them re-create a little bit of that instant thin slicing, that first impression that told them “this is the mate I want.” It’s sort of like using science and psychology to explain that lofty love at first sight cliche.”
- Psychological reasons behind pet ownership “In order to give our pets the best lives they can have, I think we must understand our own hang ups or projections with pets. With pets just as in all relationships it is key to understand what early experiences or patterns you might be stuck re-playing.”
- Do you have an online persona? “To some this may seem like a bad thing, like you are being yourself without your “flaws.” You have control over how you want to be seen and I think it is efficient and interesting.”
Rabbit’s Choice
- Oh Make Me Under “That night we went out for night on the town. I got ready, soaking in the bathtub for an hour, moisturizing, choosing my outfit and creating an up-do. Not a dot of concealer was put on my face.”
- Listening to Your Inner Child “I suggested we go to the store and let Little Ned and Little Rabbit pick out whatever toy they wanted.”
- Wardrobe Stripped & Swapped “With the help of a few glasses of wine it becomes incredibly easy and empowering to throw away in gobs the pieces of who you’ve been. As i dug through and tossed more and more into the bulging bags, I refused to give into ambivalence. I began to feel fashion baptized.”
- Finding Spirituality in Atheism “But I do know the feelings that people are trying to describe when they talk about their soul. It’s the very thing that makes you feel alive, that feels wondrous, full of light and energy. In religion and spirituality I think people are all trying to get at the same thing, they are trying to achieve and understand the same feeling.”
- The Torrid Affair of the BFF “Perhaps I read too much Joyce Carol Oates and Francesca Lia Block waxing poetic about girl-on-girl friendships, but I took my quest for a BFF seriously. Once I’d caught a desirable girl in my comfy web of friendship, I wanted to hold on for life.”
- The Meaning Behind What you Wanted to be When you Grew Up “This explanation fit for me, my answer to “what do you want to be when you grow up” usually was artist. Her words describing the need to be seen, understood and taken seriously rang clearly into the heart of my inner 7-year-old.”
- Dear Diary “To me the beauty of journaling is that it’s rough and entirely personal; it is a tool for self discovery and self expression that probably will be mortifying at times. I have stacks of beloved journals from the past few years and with them, I think I’ve finally unlocked the mysterious padlock on why journaling is essential.”
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3 Comments
I love your work so much! Everything you write speaks volumes to me. Although, I have to say that my favorite part has to be you! XO -Pretty Robotic
Aw Thank you Robot! It is a bit daunting seeing so many of my articles at once, I’ve been a busy bunny! <3 <3
What a great list! I really enjoyed reading some of your posts that I missed at the time – particularly “Finding Spirituality in Atheism”. Thank you for being unafraid to broach the difficult topics! I know you make me think about things in new ways, so I’m guessing you have the same effect on other people too (and that can only be a good thing).
Miss Peregrin´s last blog ..Thought For The Day…