My mom asked me to redesign her resume. The more indesign I use, the more I remember how fun it is to design and perfect and work really hard on making something look better. Her resume before was created on a microsoft word template. Newhouse people scoff at the word “template” and “default” but for her purposes, it was really fine. She’s applying to office jobs, working at desks, with insurance and credit. It doesn’t require a baller artistic crazy resume. But yeah, it can’t hurt to stand out a little. It helps! So I whipped this up in about a half hour.

And you know, while I’m posting it, feel free to send it to anyone hiring. etc etc.

Download: Ellen Lifson1.0

Working with the Slutwalk and helping to organize SlutWalkNYC (www.SlutWalkNYC.com !!!) was something I did on a whim. I saw @ShelbyKnox tweet about the upcoming meeting, I live outside the city, I was unemployed and bored, and I found myself talking a lot about the Slutwalk. So I went, all alone. The only faces I recognized were Shelby’s and Lori’s – two faces I knew from the Internet, and neither of whom knew mine. I knew that the Slutwalk idea was something I was completely behind since hearing about it, (and especially since seeing @Jaclynf on YouTube at the Boston Slutwalk), but I don’t think I realized how amazingly mindblowngly excellent this would be.

Working with SASSE and Medusa, and being in Women’s Studies classes at Syracuse had the same effect – It was sort of shocking to be surrounded by people who thought like me. Or more to the point, I was always surprised and delighted when people were thinking more critically than I was; coming to different conclusions and coming from different backgrounds. In WGS 310 (aptly named “Feminist Inquiries”) I reread Female Chauvinist Pigs and read Look Both Ways for the first time, and I thought I “got it,” you know? But in class, my friends opened my mind and showed me what was wrong with the slut-shaming and lack of credible research in the former, and the transphobia, queerphobia, and problematic research in the latter. And like when Savanna helped make sense of the Vagina Monologues last spring with her baller careful criticism in our programazine. And when @SacchiPatel and I talked about the problem of locating sexual violence in male genitalia with our cheeky urinal flyers. Sometimes, I stop at “good intentions” and find it hard to be critical of things that are maybe a little bit good. I love these discussions, I love these ideas, I love hearing other opinions and having people change (or expand!) my mind. And the SlutWalkNYC organizers have taken this to another level.

There’s nothing like being a room with people who lives their lives thinking critically. Constantly. On every level, at every turn. Every topic we have has been stressful and complex and not easy and it’s because we are SO SMART and so thoughtful and so fucking radical. We looked at a map of NY and couldn’t decide a route right away because there were so many things we objected to and wanted to protest on the way. We couldn’t come to a mission statement easily because so many people had additions and ideas, and suggestions about how not to be alienating or transphobic. We are going back and forth on our logo because we are being super cautious – we don’t have all the same views as other slutwalkers. It’s really refreshing and really invigorating and really goddam exciting.

In other SlutWalk news, I designed this flyer and it’s really making the rounds. Share amongst your friends, and I’ll see you all on October 1st.

Download the file package here and distribute widely.