What is a Jawsgirly?

Jawsgirly has been my internet nom de plume since 1998, so it only seemed natural to use it for the name of my website. My husband's handle is Jawshoeuh and I'm his girly, so Jawshoeuh + girly = Jawsgirly. I've been his girly for over 18 years now, and I am oh so thankful for him and his love everyday.

This blog is a reinvigoration and reimagining of my earlier blog, On This Harvest Moon. Much has changed for me since I stopped blogging several years ago. I graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelors Degree in History and Radio, Television, Film and a minor in Women's & Gender Studies. I'm getting ready to start the MA program in Critical Cultural Studies in UNT's Department of Media Arts. My education has been key in defining who I am and who I want to be, so that will be a topic I write about a lot. My main focus in media arts is Feminist media analysis, and within my history degree I focused on the experiences of women and minorities in the U.S. My feminist motto is, "Go Intersectional or Go Home." For me to be what I consider a good feminist, I need to be addressing all the various discriminations that women can face- not just sexism. And I also need to be aware of how these discriminations can intertwine with societal concepts of gender to negatively impact men as well. I try to apply that to my study of American history, to my media work, and to my daily life. I hope to write about current events, but I also plan to do some media analysis writing here to talk about how our culture of discrimination shows up in our cultural products. I definitely plan to write about my grad school experiences and the plans I'm making for my future. I want to be a university level professor, which means I've got to go all the way to the big PhD. As a woman in her mid-30s, what is that going to be like? I don't know yet, but when I do I'll tell you.

I suffer from a chronic illness called Fibromyalgia, along with an assortment of non-life-threatening-but-still-pretty-annoying conditions. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't make life a bit difficult sometimes. I'm trying to improve my level of self-care, so I'm sure that I will write about my experiences with my conditions from time to time.

Now that I'm done trying to sound important, I must confess I'm really just a goofball at heart. I'm a fully acknowledged Pinterest addict. I love doing little projects around my house, or others houses for that matter. I love to cook, when I have the energy. I'm trying to get back into running 5ks and enjoy working out socially. When I'm not completely absorbed by school or exhausted, I do some work with a local comedy group. I'm figuring out how to balance our financial needs with the costs of going to grad school. I have to clean house, and do laundry, and feed our cat. We need to replace my husband's car. I'll be writing about all that general daily life stuff some, too.

So, that's what a Jawsgirly is. A girl in love with a jawshoeuh, a feminist, a student, a goofball, and once again, a blogger.