Screams from the Pink Collar Ghetto: Eat, Pray, Love?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love?

Have I been subconsciously impacted by Eat, pray, Love? I was making folders to organize my holiday plans in Istanbul and India when I noticed I had four holiday destination folders: Iowa, India, Istanbul, and Italy. If Elizabeth Gilbert went to Italy to eat, India to pray, and Indonesia to love - what have I got? Iowa for family, Italy to eat, India to mourn, and Istanbul to breathe? Have I got a book deal here somehow????

3 comments:

Jessica2:00 PM
I would read it!! :) Very jealous of your future travels to Istanbul. Have you been before?
ReplyDelete
Replies
Libby12:13 AM
Your blog is already a better read than Eat, Pray, Love by about a thousands times..go for a book deal!
ReplyDelete
Replies
Diana Pittet8:43 PM
I concur with Libby! You write so beautifully and meaningfully.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

What is a Pink-Collar Ghetto?

Pink Collar Ghetto describes women stuck in certain jobs, mostly low-paying and usually because of their sex. “Pink Collar” denotes historically female jobs like maids, secretaries, waitresses, and nurses. "Ghetto" is where marginalized people are forced to live.

I chose this title for my blog from a book I started to write when I was 22 and working in South Carolina as a bartender (barmaid according to my mother) and a receptionist/ temp. As a feminist, I was worried that I would never break out of the pink-collar ghetto. I read Barbara Kingsolver's book "The Bean Trees" and it inspired me to leave SC and go back to school.

Now I am a feminist humanitarian working on gender-based violence in humanitarian settings. It's been a long way from that pink collar ghetto in South Carolina but I never forget my roots.