Ways to Clean Your Shit without a Chemical Cocktail.

As part of my pledge to reduce the plastic I buy, I have made a cost-effective, healthy switch in what I use to clean my apartment. In place of my 409, Windex, Drano, etc., I am now using only baking soda, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide. I have gone from 7 plastic bottles to 1. From 26 listed chemicals to 3. From $20.64 to $5.97.

First, why the hell am I doing this and why should you care? I am on a mission to reduce my environmental impact and lead a healthier life. Getting rid of cleaning products that contain harmful chemicals and pollute the air inside my apartment are benefits in reducing my need to buy something that comes in a plastic bottle. Read more about the dangers of household cleaning products here and here.

This is what used to happen when I cleaned my sink. I'd spray 409, which I'd immediately inhale and absorb through my skin. It'd react with the Windex hanging in the air that I'd just sprayed on my mirror. I'd inhale that. These chemicals would get sucked up by my air-conditioner and circulate throughout my apartment. As The Story of Stuff points out, only a handful of commercial chemicals have ever been tested for adverse effects, and nearly none of them have been tested to see what happens when they're mixed with other chemicals. So, why wouldn't I want to reduce the number of chemicals in my home?

I would also really like to emphasize the cost-effectiveness of making the change. One criticism of the environmentalist movement is that it is something in which only the privileged can participate. To some extent, I agree, sadly--weaning yourself off of plastic water bottles or Ziploc bags requires that you spend money for alternatives. Not everyone can afford a stainless steel bottle or spend time baking their own bread. But, changing your cleaning products is something that is easy and will only save you money. The only extra prep time is washing out old cleaning bottles and filling them with vinegar or hydrogen peroxide.

Below are the details of my old & new cleaning routines:
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Here is what I used to use:
1. 409 Antibacterial All-Purpose Cleaner for sinks/surfaces. $3.29. Ingredients listed: 3
2. Windex for mirrors/windows. $2.99. Ingredients listed: 3
3. Greenworks Toilet Bowl Cleaner. $2.99. Ingredients listed: 2
4. Comet Disinfectant Powder for the shower. $1.79. Ingredients listed: 8
5. Greenworks Dilutable Cleaner for kitchen/bathroom floor. $2.99. Ingredients listed: 3
6. Drano Max Gel to unplug the shower drain. $7.69. Ingredients listed: 4
7. Clorox Bleach occasionally when the toilet overflows, etc. $2.19. Ingredients listed: 3
*water is excluded from ingredient count

Those are a lot of freaking products. Cost? $20.64. Plastic bottles? 7. Chemicals? Who knows, as I am skeptical that they listed all ingredients (ingredient info came from here.), but there 26 from my count, each of them with their own WARNING labels. Lovely.

After some research, I decided to replace those cleaners with the following:
1. Baking Soda. $2.69/4 lbs. Ingredients listed: 1
2. Vinegar $1.39/1 quart. Ingredients listed: 1
3. Hydrogen Peroxide. $1.89/1 quart. Ingredients listed: 1
*water is excluded from ingredient count

Total cost: $5.97 (and these are the bulk prices!) Plastic bottles: 1. Chemicals: 3. Two of which you can eat, and the other you put on your cuts. (Other people add more products, like washing soda or borax or tea tree oil, but I'm lazy.)

My new cleaning routine is as follows:
-To clean sinks/surfaces/mirrors/windows, rinse out Windex bottle and fill it with half water & half vinegar. Use as normal. If you are getting streaks on your mirrors, use newspaper or an old shirt instead of paper towels.

-To clean the toilet, put full-strength vinegar in it and let it sit for a little. Sprinkle baking soda and then scrub. Put full-strength vinegar in old 409 bottle and spray the outside of toilet.

-To clean the shower, wet the surfaces with water or diluted vinegar and sprinkle with baking soda. Scrub. Wash off.

-To clean the floors, use a 1:1 ratio of vinegar and water. Use as normal.

-To unplug the drain, come to terms with your own humanity and pull out the glob of hair. Ew. Now pour in some baking soda, followed by full-strength vinegar. Close the drain so the bubbling action actually stays in the drain. Let it sit for 10/15/20 minutes, depending on how bad it is. Rinse with really hot water (boiling water works best). Viola.

-To *really* disinfect or clean up grossness, do not use bleach. Instead, spray gross area with full-strength vinegar. Then, spray it with hydrogen peroxide. This combination kills e-coli, salmonella, and lots of other bacteria (but, DO NOT mix them together in one spray bottle, as this gives you peracetic acid, which can be harmful. It is also not as effective).
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So, tell me why I should buy commercial cleaners instead of making my own with these cheap, effective, safe, and widely available products?

Besides being healthier, using less plastic bottles and saving money, I'm saving other things, too. Think of how many less chemicals I'll be pouring down the drain and into the water supply, which takes time and money (and more chemicals) to clean. I'll be saving gas used to ship these products across the country. I'll be saving energy used to create the cleaners in the first place. And finally, I will be taking a stand against needless waste.

We have let advertising and our consumer culture convince us that we "need" certain products in order to live. This is simply not true. It is time to unplug ourselves from the Lots Of Stuff=Happiness mentality and think critically about what we buy and use. Please join me. 

"Well, is she qualified...?"

Photo via flikr.

By now, you've all heard that Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, was nominated as Supreme Court Justice.

You've read the criticism all over the internet: she's been labeled as a racist against white men, that Obama is a racist for picking her, that she's an angry woman, that she's too fat, that her love of Puerto Rican food may bias her at the bench, that she was picked purely on the fact that she is  a woman of color, that she doesn't deserve to have her name pronounced correctly, that she's too feminine, that she's too sharp-tongued.

I think the sexism and racism and absolute ridiculousness found in these criticisms are obvious. Writers from all over the internet have applauded and vehemently defended Sotomayor, responding in WTF-style to some of these accusations.

I give kudos to those who've called out the bullshit and have a personal anecdote to add: I went out with a group of friends the day her nomination was publicized. My friends aren't exactly always up-to-date on current news, so over dinner I announced that Obama had nominated Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx for SCJ. I expected my friends to be elated at the fact that our president had chosen someone other than a white man. Instead, the knee-jerk reaction I received was this: a condescending "well, is she qualified...?"

Incredible that my friend's initial reaction wasn't, "wow, what a nice change!" but to immediately doubt as to whether or not she should've been nominated.

Obviously, questioning someone's qualifications by itself isn't a negative thing, especially when it applies to someone in power. But in my heart I know this wouldn't have been the initial reaction from Friend X if Sotomayor had been a white man. 

It is disheartening when a friend who is usually insightful utters something that stinks of racism/sexism. That when a person who represents a marginalized group succeeds, a "liberal" white man immediately searches for her flaws instead of celebrating something that is sadly an exception in our politics instead of the norm. Will there ever be a day in which sexism and racism does not dictate our emotional reaction to a WOC rising in power?

Boyfriends and Porn...

Last night, my partner and I were talking with a friend. We somehow got on the subject of porn and Friend X said, "well, I keep porn on my computer." And then my boyfriend said, "me too."

Wait, what?

Now before you assume that I'm freaking out about just the porn itself, consider this: when we first started dating, we had a conversation about porn and masturbating. He said he'd looked at porn when he was younger but never really had an obsessive interest in it like some of his friends did. He also said he didn't masturbate to it anymore because, well, the thought of me was enough to, you know, up the circulation down there. His explanation was a sweet one that I didn't ask for but appreciated: why look at a exaggerated internet video when he could think of our own personal sexy time instead?

We have now been dating for a year and a half, and I've never assumed anything different. I also assumed he didn't keep porn on his computer because, well, the only reason why you keep porn is to help you jerk off.

So, part of my discomfort was the fact that I was only hearing about this change as a no-big-deal story in front of a friend. It made me feel like I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. After all, this isn't just a random story from his childhood that I've never heard of--this is a sexual aspect of him that I've been left in the dark about.

And why the change? Was I suddenly not enough to get him off anymore? Later when we talked about it, he said that wasn't true--it was more about his own laziness than a reflection of how he still felt about me.

We've always been open about masturbating, and we both do it when one of us is out of town. Sometimes he also does it late at night after I've politely declined his advances and he's just too freaking horny to fall asleep. In short, masturbating=fine, as long as it doesn't substitute us actually having sex.

But masturbating to porn?

I'm not gonna lie...the other part of my discomfort is the porn itself. To me, it seems like something you utilize when you're 15 and curious, or at whatever age and single. But when in a relationship? Why would you need to look at anonymous sex when you have a partner?

Then again, I'm also not that familiar with porn. As a product of our patriarchy, I've never sought it out and thus haven't needed it to get myself off, probably for the following reasons: 1) porn was taboo to me. It was probably taboo to all adolescents as well, but somehow I get the feeling that boys are more encouraged to seek it out than girls are. This is due to reason 2), in which porn is mainly marketed at and produced for straight (and probably white) men. While I'm sure there are women out there who also enjoy watching it, I get the feeling most of it (at least the hetero porn) is made from the point of view of a straight male. I'm specifically thinking of Playboy, Esquire, etc. Are there female equivalents? I can't think of any, but feel free to add or correct my assessment if you'd like.

So anyway, the other part of my discomfort is my actual discomfort with porn in the first place. From a feminist perspective, I guess I was proud of the fact that my boyfriend wasn't tuning into an industry that's been known to exploit women and children. But, I am also not ready to completely write off porn and deem it an evil of society just yet, as it is a form of sexual expression that can probably be done "right."

As far as my general attitude goes, I've generally reacted to porn as I have to video games--if people want to spend their time and money playing with them, by all means go for it. I particularly don't care for them but am also not interested in policing what other people do with their spare time (excluding child porn, video games with rape scenes, etc.).

However. It is different when your partner uses porn/video games than when your neighbor does. Especially the porn. Especially after he voluntarily gave it up and then changed his stance on it without telling me. Especially when it was presented in a casual conversation with a friend, instead of in an intimate conversation between the two of us. But, as usual, I am second-guessing myself. I fear that I am overreacting because I don't "understand" porn. I'm left with mulling over the perceived evils of it, and what it means in terms of sexuality, especially in the context of a relationship.

So, what do you think? Do you think it's weird for a boyfriend to look at porn when jerking off, even if it's only every once in a while? Is there some point about porn that I'm not "getting"? Am I overreacting?

Giving up the disposable plastic bag.

[Image via Treehugger.com.]
Bring your reusable bags. It's usually one of the first things said by someone who plans on being "green."

These days, it's not hard to convince people that this ubiquitous item, once portrayed as an ethereal spirit in American Beauty, is something we should learn to live without. 

I bought my first reusable bag about a year ago. It was one of those 50-cent flimsy ones from the grocery store, and I was proud to carry my milk and bread in something I didn't plan on throwing away.

But for a while, it was also the last time I declined plastic. It's not that I didn't understand the environmental consequences of plastic--I did! Did I want the US to stop using 12 million barrels of oil annually to make plastic bags? For bags to stop getting tangled in trees, clogged in storm drains, and blown into the ocean? For this material, which takes 1,000 years to biodegrade, to stop being ingested by animals? For it to stop releasing toxic chemicals once it does break down? Yes, yes, yes, YES! 

But I just couldn't remember to bring my damn bags with me. My heart was in the right place, but my habits weren't. I'd acquired six reusable bags by the time I'd read, "Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic...Are We?" But that article struck a deep chord, and shortly afterwards I pledged to reduce my own plastic consumption.

One day, as I peered at the heap of plastic bags I'd been hoarding under my kitchen sink, I started thinking about those reusable bags shoved in various corners of my apartment. 

It's not that taking a few reusable bags with me is a burden, per se--they're not heavy, they don't have to be bulky, or flimsy, or expensive, or ugly, even. You can buy compact ones to stick in your purse or durable hemp ones that last a long time. Or, if you need instant gratification and don't want to wait for it to come in the mail, you can get one cheaply at your local grocery store, Target, CVS, wherever. And it's not like we're incapable of remembering to bring things with us when we go places--how many times have you forgotten your purse or wallet or keys in the past month? I've never forgotten to bring my bookbag to class, or my running bag to the gym. It's merely a habit you have to acquire. 

Sure, some people argue you can use your reuse your plastic bag for other things--and believe me, I used to be the queen of finding random uses for them:  They carried my groceries, clothes and chinese take-out home. Then, they lined my bathroom trash can and held my dirty clothes when I went on trips. My boyfriend used them to carry his lunch, my neighbor for picking up dog poop. They kept clothes I planned on donating and old owner's manuals for random appliances, including some I didn't even own anymore. This ubiquitous thing that came "free" with my groceries was repurposed as The Ultimate Holder for all my stuff.

To reiterate a similar question asked in Plastic Oceans: is the destruction of our environment worth a plastic bag that you may or may not use again? Is using a canvas bag in place of a plastic one really so inconvenient?

I've started trying really hard to make my reusable bags a habit. They now sit neatly folded atop my fridge, which is conveniently located next to the door. (Before I cleared off my fridge, I'd thought about hammering a nail into the wall and hanging them.) I also have a nicer-looking one from Trader Joe's that I take when going to the mall. 

I've also taken steps to lessen my "need" for this product that everyone seemed to get along fine without before the late 70s. I bought mesh bags to put my produce in at the grocery store (because what good is putting more needless plastic inside your cloth bag?). For his birthday, my boyfriend received a cloth lunch bag made from recycled cotton so that he'd stop using vegetable bags. I empty out my bathroom plastic trash bag into the big one in the hall instead of throwing it away. I have another canvas bag for dirty clothes on trips, which I wash with my clothes and hang to dry when I get home. The donation pile now goes in a box, and when I do get around to sorting my owner's manuals, they'll probably go in my file cabinet. 

I'm not plastic bag-free yet, as I still use and buy large garbage bags. I would empty and reuse them as I do with the small bag in the bathroom, but my apartment dumpster is one of those huge receptacles that sit open at the top. Even if I could manage to find a way to empty my trash without bringing a ladder (I currently stand back and swing my bag over right now), I wouldn't feel right about the possibility of my trash blowing into the street. (And for those of you with a dog, I don't know what to tell you.)

But, I don't pretend to be perfect or expect to find an ideal non-plastic bag solution for everything. The key here is to reduce my needless plastic consumption and to think critically about what I *do* use.

Also, one more thing. An article titled Reusable Grocery Bags May Cause Food Poisoning appeared yesterday in a Canadian publication. They reported on a study funded by the Environment and Plastics Industry Council that found higher levels of bacteria in cloth bags. 

So, it is probably a good idea to occasionally wash your reusable bags (and hang-dry them if they're flimsy like mine), and to not put unwrapped meat/gym clothes/poopy diapers in the ones you bring to the grocery store. Also, refrain from vomiting in them. After you've finished laughing about this desperate attempt to scare the public away from reusable bags, make common sense sanitary measures seem like a big deal, and paint environmentalists as evil beings intent on making the public sick (at least in the article's comments), carry on. I'd bet you're more likely to die of food poisoning from prepackaged food than from your cloth bag.

Need more inspiration for eliminating needless plastic from your life? Look at these blogs:
Fake Plastic Fish
Life Less Plastic
No Impact Man
Tiny Choices
Crunchy Chicken

Here are a few sites that sell reusable bags and other plastic-free (or at least safe plastic) containers:
Reusable Bags
Life Without Plastic
Ecobags
DepotEco

And, if you have your own tips or tricks on plastic reduction, send them my way!

Why you should care about plastic.

"It began with a line of plastic bags ghosting the surface, followed by an ugly tangle of junk: nets and ropes and bottles, motor-oil jugs and cracked bath toys, a mangled tarp. Tires. A traffic cone. Moore could not believe his eyes. Out here in this desolate place, the water was a stew of plastic crap..." [Description of the North Pacific Gyre. Photo via Oprah.com]

Ever since reading "Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic...Are We?," a sense of urgency has invaded my consciousness. Replacing my lukewarm environmentalism is a new conviction that I am now ready to share with you.

As a member of the first world, as someone who lives in a country that makes up 5% of the world's population yet produces 30% of its waste, where the average person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago, where 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed within 6 months, where the average household produces 4.5 lbs of garbage a day, it is time to say ENOUGH. This shit has got to stop. [Statistics from The Story of Stuff.]

"At the same time, all over the globe, there are signs that plastic pollution is doing more than blighting the scenery; it is also making its way into the food chain. Some of the most obvious victims are the dead seabirds that have been washing ashore in startling numbers, their bodies packed with plastic: things like bottle caps, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, and colored scraps that, to a foraging bird, resemble baitfish."
[Photo via article.]

This isn't just about saving the sea turtles or making our beaches look pretty. We are slowly poisoning our water and the animals we eat with plastic. We owe it to our health and to future generations to stop this madness.

But what about recycling? This was the first thing I thought of, too. After all, I dutifully wash out my milk cartons and shampoo bottles every week. But according to the article, only 3 to 5% of plastic is even recycled. It's due to the fact that it isn't like glass, which can be melted down and reformed easily. Plastic is downcycled, meaning it loses its quality when being melted.

"Except for the small amount that’s been incinerated—and it’s a very small amount—every bit of plastic ever made still exists." [Quote from Moore in the article.]

Every straw I've ever drank out of, Windex bottle I've ever used, toothpaste cap I've ever thrown away--all of it is still out there, probably leeching its chemicals in a landfill, in China, or maybe in the North Pacific Gyre.

The article asks a telling question: "Aren’t disposable razors and foam packing peanuts a poor consolation prize for the destruction of the world’s oceans, not to mention our own bodies and the health of future generations?"

And while we do need legislation to regulate plastics, corporations to re-think how they package their goods, and a better way to dispose of our trash without it getting blown into the ocean, I am not letting this issue fade into the sunset.

In addition to blogging about feminism, etc., I'm going to start writing about the ways that I am reducing my plastic consumption. It will serve as a self-motivator, but I also hope it will challenge you to look at your own trash.

After all, what better way to ensure that your water bottle doesn't end up in the ocean than by not buying one at all? What if we all stopped buying water bottles?

Let me be clear in that I'm not advocating the end of all plastic from our lives. Plastic has worked wonders in medicine and technology. But, let's take a stance against needless plastic by thinking critically about what we buy. Believe me, our consumer-driven culture will notice.

UPDATES ON PLASTIC REDUCTION
Giving up the disposable plastic bag.
Ways to clean your shit without a chemical cocktail.
Finding an alternative (plastic-free) deodorant that WORKS.
Hair-washing, with 2 edible ingredients.

Boobs, Fashion and the Cult of Femininity.

For the past 4ish months, I've been doing something you may not agree with: wearing sports bras pretty much all the time. I recently put all my "real" bra's (with the exception of my strapless one) in the pile to donate/get rid of. And no, I don't have those itty bitty I-probably-don't-need-to-wear-anything boobs. But I've also not had kids, so take of this what you will.

Why am I doing something that would make the fashion police (and my former self, to be quite honest) scream? My bra's were falling apart. The straps were so stretched out they fell off even on the tightest setting. The clasp was almost broken on one, the band on another was starting to fray.  

At Christmas, I'd received two sports bras from Target. As my other ones disintegrated, their purpose slowly expanded: one became my workout bra, and the other for everything else. When the clasp on one of my sad bras finally broke, I went to Target and bought three more. 

These bras are heaven. Soft. Light. No underwire. No falling straps. No itchy lines when they come off. Think Crocs for your boobs, except, you know, not.

If you're a feminist, you've heard the arguments against bras: they were created by the patriarchy to make our lady-parts nicer to look at (which reminds me of this 1981 commercial, even though it isn't about boobies). Like high-heels and spanks, bra's were yet another unnecessary and somewhat sadistic product marketed to control women by making them feel "beautiful" with them and "ugly" without. Thus, the molded look becomes fashionable, and the freer, saggier version is something you sport when confined to your home, only in presence of those who know what your morning breath smells like.

Though, I know a lot of women (esp. those post-childbirth) wear structured bras for the actual support it provides, not fashion. I understand and can't really argue with someone endorsing "real" bras for that purpose, but what about those who don't really need the support (I'm looking at you, 15-year-old Maggie)? Or those who may be on the fence (I'm looking at you, present-day-Maggie)?

What is "fashion" anyway? I love clothes and not feeling like I just stumbled out of a bad 90s movie just as much as the next 20-something, but seriously, don't you get the feeling that "fashion" is sometimes merely code for the Cult of Femininity?

I'm not here to talk you out of never buying cute clothes ever again. Though I am trying to be more environmentally-friendly, cost-effective and responsible with my purchases, I will admit the only time I ever visit thrift stores is to find furniture or halloween costumes. For a cute top to wear out? Forget it, I'm going to mall with the rest of America. I'm still working on letting go of my teenage-girl vanity, but it is a slow, slow process. Even though I think advertising and beauty expectations and being "sexy" is all bullshit, damned if I internalize all of it, too.

But yesterday, I made a choice. I could've easily bought a new, "real" bra (and by easily, I mean spent an hour trying on 15 bras), but I said fuck it. Instead, I bought 3 shirts: one with a built-in bra, and two that easily disguise my non-bra.

Obviously, buying shirts I plan to wear with sports bras limits my selections: no shirts that are low-cut. No sheer. No strapless. No tank tops (though, one was a racerback, which I actually prefer to tanks because I hate those damn straps). But really, who do I need to be showing my boobs off to anyway, especially with shirts I plan to wear to class? (Also, I *can* still be normal and wear a regular bra with these things anyway.) 

This all may not seem like a big deal to you, but for me, it's a victory. I want to move away from sacrificing my body in the name of fashion. I want to wear things that are comfortable, that don't cut into my skin or make me want to scratch till I bleed.

Till I am convinced otherwise, I'm sticking to my non-bras and keeping my strapless nude one for special occasions. The shirts I buy from now on will either look good with sports bras, with no bra, or, if it's really that damn cute, a strapless one. Adios to the rest.