Hello, and welcome to warrior-princess.org.  I’m RK, mighty warrior princess in residence, and this is not a fansite for the X-woman. (Though I do love her dearly.) It is, rather, a home for my writing, which will take a critical look at media, culture, and earthly goings on through an intersectional feminist and sustainability-oriented lens. I’ve got a lot planned, and I’m very excited to share this project with you. But first, a little explanation for what I mean by “intersectional feminist and sustainability-oriented lens,” as reproduced from an earlier less awesomely named incarnation of this blog. I promise, it’s less dry than it sounds.

when I say ‘wife’… (originally posted @ rachelkatechel, 19th April 2011)

…it’s because I can’t find a better word 
for the way we be
but ‘wife’ sounds like your mortgage
and ‘wife’ sounds like laundry

- Jonathan Richman (always appropriate)

I know what Jonathan’s talking about. Sometimes a word whose meaning is, you know, meaningful, gets so overplayed that it gets watered down into mundane ubiquity, while the sexy thrill of the idea behind the letters is much harder to convey. That’s how I’m beginning to feel about sustainability. And it worries me, because if I can’t express what I mean by it, how can I convince anyone to join me in enacting it?

I came to sustainability, like most other things I love, by a bizarrely circuitous route. I started college thinking about majoring in history. History led me to the humanities — specifically, philosophy and religious studies — and from there, via an interdisciplinary course that met with an English class and a sociology class every Wednesday, I got into sociology. It was in this class that my professor Scott blew my mind with demography, The Population Bomb, and peak oil. The intersection between human behavior and natural resources? Don’t mind if I do. Sustainability: like the peal of a somber, world-saving bell.

And yet “sustainability” is limited, in a lot of lexical practice, to environmental studies. Don’t mistake me for a hater — I’m always down to hug a redwood, and I thoroughly enjoyed the environmental courses I’ve taken. But sustainability isn’t just about nature science. It’s about the big (sexy, thrilling) picture, and I wish more people could understand and embrace that.

It’s about birth rates, and how they go down when women are educated and have financial control. That means it’s also about reproductive rights, and the right to be a mother. That means it’s also about women’s rights, LGBT rights, and racial equality.

It’s about food, and how it was grown, and how far it travels before it gets to you, and who picked and packaged it, and what they were paid. Food deserts, poverty, corporations, and race (again!) tag along. And good luck separating food from religion, culture, and economy.

It’s about oil. Yeah: politics, war, revolution, news coverage, technology, and social media.

When I say “sustainability,” it’s because I can’t find a better word for “saving the world.” But don’t let that fool you. Sustainability is not just blue recycling bins, and it’s also not (but includes! — phosphates bad; unheated water good) just laundry.

You dig? Let’s do this.