CasualTea

Spread the word

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 10:17:45 -0400

mangkunegaran: One of several takes of “Groung” (“Crane”)...

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:07:39 -0500

One of several takes of “Groung” (“Crane”) released as Col E3503 and recorded by Zabella Panosian ca. April 1917. (Other takes are slightly lower in key and do not have the bird sounds.) Panosian was about 22 years old at the time and was the mother of a 6-year-old. She had lived in Boston for a period and later lived on 183rd St. in New York. Her total discography was ten songs recorded in a period of about 10 months.

"Like" The Female Biography Project on Facebook!

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:28:00 -0400

"Like" The Female Biography Project on Facebook!:

In 1803 Mary Hays reinvented ‘female biography’, including in her groundbreaking work actors, courtesans, warriors, and various scandalous women alongside the queens, martyrs, and virtuous women who had conventionally been included in women’s biographies. Hays brought together and to life three hundred bustling, rebellious women in six volumes, making the best use of the print technology available to her to reach a female audience eager to be inspired and informed through the new genre of biography/autobiography. Pickering & Chatto will publish the Chawton House Library Edition of Female Biography as part of their “Memoirs of Women Writers Series”, Volumes 1-3 in 2013 and Volumes 4-6 in 2014.

Professor Gina Luria Walker, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at New School University, has undertaken to give Hays and her “female biographies” the attention and recognition they merit. Rather than simply annotating the text from a single scholar’s viewpoint, she has created a collaborative feminist effort in which scholars expert in the individual figures included in Female Biography will enrich Mary Hays’s pioneering six volumes. The project currently includes 125 scholars and 30 researchers representing 93 institutions in 14 countries and four continents.

If you would like information about how to join us in producing the Chawton House Library Edition of Female Biography, please contact: Margaret Staruszkiewicz, Academic Administrator, femalebiographyrproject2@gmail.com

How Many Women Find Street Harassment Flattering?: While working at my job where I dress very professionally a man came...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:43:00 -0400

How Many Women Find Street Harassment Flattering?: While working at my job where I dress very professionally a man came...:

Every day some men degrade themselves by degrading the women they come into contact with. Is it social pressure? A result of bullying, perhaps? Regardless of the reasons behind the “casual” abuse (if you will- consider that term), the consequences are dire: we live in a society where beauty is lusted after rather than loved. Disrespect for the feminine runs rampant. Here is one example of a story in which the key figures are blinded by a nasty thing called victim blaming.

howmanywomen:

While working at my job where I dress very professionally a man came up to my desk to process a transaction. While speaking with him I noticed he would not look me in the eye. Finally, after mumbling “I’m sorry but I have to” several times he worked up the “courage” to tell me my breasts looked…

A taste of each tea-meal shared with various lovely people...

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:14:21 -0400

Nom nom nom.

Through the looking glass at Peacefood

Food at a Historical research meeting

Genius! Pour your own chocolate? LePQ.

Wings, to fly with.

A taste of each tea-meal shared with various lovely people throughout this chilly, cozy month of September. A history-based feminist initiative, an interview, pour-your-own-chocolate, a girl’s day out (included fairy wings). It’s been sweeter than honey.

Consider this Fantastic Analogy

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:54:50 -0400

Consider this Fantastic Analogy:

downlo:

A useful rape analogy

“Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now...

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:31:30 -0400

“Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things.” ~Saki

One Perspective on Street Harassment

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:33:10 -0400

One Perspective on Street Harassment:

howmanywomen:

I don’t honestly have a story to tell, really. I’ve read this blog several times, and I’m disgusted at the things women have to face. I’ve never been a victim of harassment myself (thankfully), and I’m just horrified that it happens.

I just wanted to say that I brought up the subject of street…

fotodiaria: Teatime sipplicity (June 2011)

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:23:28 -0400

fotodiaria:

Teatime sipplicity (June 2011)

On Alpha Females

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:55:00 -0400

I am considering the concept of the alpha female. The alpha female seems to assume her role with the pretext that she is worthy of acceptance as one of the boys, by the “boys.” In a co-ed situation, she plays the role of the confident, edgy, and dark alpha: she is still a sex symbol, but with a tinge of dominant, somewhat dangerous energy. Simply put, she can transform, with tacit male approval, the form of a testosterone-pumped queen of the night, even in broad daylight. And, might I just add here… there is no wrong in that, per se.

Still, the circumstances morph into the following structure: the women around the alpha who remain as they began (moderately to “quite” or “very” femme) must assume their role beneath both this Alpha Her and the males in the group: they are frequently knocked to the sidelines, subject to the ever-escalating raunch of boy-humor and judgment. They must keep up, while pushing no buttons. They must be likable, but not as likable as the Alpha.

Imagine it, and from any angle, you can understand what discomfort may arise from the other women in the group. The women who remain unresponsive to the dominant behavior, coming from another woman (one who crossed the gender line and became all-the-sexier for it - and by what right?) develop a rigidity towards the alpha, her “kind” or “type.” It may sound dramatic, but the shoe fits - this is a “thinking-feeling” article, after all. I think the concept of the “woman wanting to be a man” works against feminism on various levels and makes community-building between women on an everyday level, in casual situations, almost impossible.

The “us” and “them” draw a line between women who assert themselves and those who do not feel it necessary to fight for a seat at the table, yet the concepts of the masculine versus feminine remain the main reason for this tension. In order to have community, we need a certain amount of sensitivity: why is masculine energy always considered premium over the feminine? Tonight I am faced with the idea that women can be misogynists, too. This behavior is ultimately self-destructive.

Photo

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 02:55:00 -0400

Outside

Neon

Tarts...

Hey ladies.

Almightiest of machines & their keepers

Notebook

Ah, tea.

Thinking

A mini chocolate - yes please.

"They call it a chocolate trip"

New York, I love you. Stepping it up.

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:15:00 -0400

New York, I love you. Stepping it up.

CasualTea is born

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:43:00 -0400

Tonight we met for CasualTea and decided that calling ourselves and these events “casualteas” was fitting: products of society, we are. This was our first unisex tea and the first genitalia-related joke was made. I wonder if there was a connection between the two, but did not have time in the moment to thoroughly think it out let alone ask anyone what they thought. Thinking too much is a bit of a curse.

The non-political, very everyday/after work nature of this weekday (Thursday) meet up was satisfying. We often catch ourselves (and by “we”, I mean those of us who have no outlets for debate post-graduation) delving into overtly political discussions about women’s rights, scandals, and military struggles without considering the dailyness of our interactions as women, men, and those who question the meanings of those terms from the bottom up.

Having a conversation full of laughter - simply partaking in a casual get together -may be more enlightening than having a heated debate. Though, from my hot-head to yours, one is no substitution for the other. I’m sure we’ll talk about all this at some point. This is just a note.

2011 Tea times to date

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:01:00 -0400

3/11 Cafe Lalo, beautiful colors

2/11 An odd tea place

1/11 Cheers!

5/11 The Chocolate Room: Tea for two

5/11 Tea & Sympathy: Fare-thee-well tea

5/11 A Brit Tea

5/11 King Henry VIII & his wives

2011 Tea times to date

A Condensed History of our Tea Times

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

As I entered my senior year of college I realized that life was moving faster than before. A change was approaching and preparation was key: I needed a very particular type of attention and discussion, some sort of arena of expression, and I needed it fast. In this state-of-mind, with the world tilting forwards on me, I had a vision of my life as it exists from the bottom of a teacup.

Sliding, with nothing to hold onto, I dropped backwards and was, quite ironically, submerged by this idea of floating on the warmth of brewing conversation. I would invite other women to tea and we would talk about big, deep, impressive things. We would, over tea, change the world and enjoy our position as warm and cozy decision-makers. But how would I introduce my dream of this to the women I knew? Honestly, I have yet to. What came of our meetings was a form of subversive rebellion: we worry about how our brains – which were so thoroughly trained in history, literature, political science, media, and women’s studies - are being used on a daily basis in our cubicles, our absolutely mutual yet still partly concealed concerns over boyfriends, girlfriends, real friends and motherhood keep us awake at night and leave us restless during the day. I have no doubt that tea helps us all recover from hard weekdays. I do doubt that we talk enough, depending on how large the party is and what days we meet.

In August I wondered if I knew anyone who needed ladies tea as much as me. What has changed is that I now know that I am not alone and my world has become about planning when and where I will meet my ladies for tea: Up or Downtown? One girl invited another who invited another and the meetings grew. We don’t trust each other. We harbor our darkness, presenting only the lightest of our humors and the most talkable of our needs - we are often afraid. If someone else feels like this, she should share it soon. And so begins my journal.

I Choose Tea.

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

There were three of us at Cafe Lalo last night. Beet salad, mixed berries with zabaglione cream, and steamed mushroom-filled eggs were the dishes on the table. We were two original tea timers. One of us brought a friend. The topics ranged from Bikram yoga to crazy old apartments in NYC to the dramatic, life-altering changes we have made recently in our lives.

As young women in this highly mobile city, we all have a lot to juggle in the physical world, but our mental upkeep is intensely - almost necessarily - sharable. It is a relief to talk and a different sort of the same thing to listen. We love to be amazed and amused by each other. These are the moments that not only give us that opportunity, but also happen to be the “right” time to let each other know how we feel and what we think.

Talking and eating, we relished in the concept that we all lived in the same neighborhood. It crossed my mind – as I am constantly examing my adultness against that of my somewhat more mature girlfriends – that though we are mostly (as in most of us are) independent, the terms in which we were thinking could conceivably turn into us having playdates together in the near future. What a thought: to not have to give up play time, snack time, or even nap time as a twenty-one year old college graduate.

No Tea Tonight

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:00:00 -0400

There are thousands of others like our tea group. Some are centered around reading, others around art, science or bugs. Everyone has a story and a reason for spending time absorbed in latenight musings at our New York-based meetups. What follows is a somewhat brief rundown of our social anatomy as a continued introduction to the women who inspired me to write tonight.

Three of us have worked at UNICEF for over a year. Two of us are married. One of us is happily divorced. One of our long-time participants successfully runs her own media production company. One of the original tea timers graduated from college with a degree in women’s history. I graduated in May of this year from the Department of Culture and Media studies with a focus in gender and film.

As fate or social dictates or blind machismo would have it, none of us fully identify with feminism as a term, yet all of us feel uneasy when we hear the word “equality.” The girls at UNICEF know that the term is a safe cage to place our unflexibly difficult hopes for the future of our personal relationships and ambitions. One of the things that makes tea time conflicted for me is that I have no words with which to express my doubts and ingratuities to my so-called liberal social situation that have not been degraded. I would just love to develop a vocabulary for humanity the way we see it. I consider it an imperative that I test this vocabulary in as many and varied cultural situations as possible and absorb words so that the result is not only comfort but collaboration. I want to share tea, around the world, with anyone who has an exciting thought about humanity.

The Anatomy of our Tea Time

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

One brutally cold day in February 2011, a tea time attendee took her seat across the table from me and said “Hm. There is no tea here…” My response was backed by an echo of the following (paraphrased) ”a tea party involves participants, not just tea.” This is, indeed, the case. It is true that the image of ladies gathering for afterwork tea has a different feel than getting drinks after work. Still then, the atmosphere and buildup is different when, despite the beverages, we refer to our gathering as a tea party. So, I do.

Whether we meet at a tea house of sorts or on a patch of grass in one of the city parks, we retain a sort of pride by remembering our status as tea timers. The purpose of tea time is not just to sip tea - though we have generally stuck to this delightful habit - but to meet and represent ourselves on another level, as individuals. Tea represents the leisure we don’t yet have professionally (for the most part) and gives us a chance to conduct ourselves as we feel necessary: confident, excited, vulnerable, confused, happy, or somewhat lost. We can be any combination of things together over tea and everyone has a turn at expressing or even exposing what they will to the others.

There is, theoretically, nothing that would not fit into a conversation of this sort. Holding back is a personal decision and pretending to feel one thing while actually feeling quite differently is not shameful. The anatomy of our tea time is still in the making and I gather that it always will be a mere sketch of the whole.