Share or Die

In the book Share or Die by Cory Doctorow it has story called “Thing’s as Which I’ve Been Asked to Dress”. Naturally with the word dress in the title I thought it would have something to do with fashion. Boy was I wrong. Granted had I read the sub heading that said “Life in the Nonprofit Industrial Complex” I probably would’ve gathered that. Instead it was about a woman who became a professional activist.

I wasn’t familiar with this term “professional activist” until I read this story. Nor did I know it was an actual career. This woman worked at a woman’s anti war organization. With there being so many different types of non-profits to give us a good mental picture of what type she worked for she called it the “crazy aunt”. That could also be used as a description for the jobs she had to do. She did many jobs most of us would call odd. Some of the things she said she has done include chaining herself to an oil barrel and building a blockade out of school desks. 

Those weren’t even the weirdest. For some protests she had to wear different costumes. One involved her wearing a dress with one nipple exposed covered by a pink peace-sign nipple pasty. To harass a congressmen who made comments about “social security, tits, and milk cows” she and a few others dressed as cows. As if those aren’t bad enough  to signify a media whore she wore a French maid lingerie costume with major news corporation logos covering her exposed parts of her body.
One of the mini stories that I found extremely interesting is when she attended an event where Hilary Clinton was speaking. She convinced security she was an intern and managed to get in the same room as Clinton then proceeded to yell that she was a war monger and was doing nothing for the women of Iraq but voting to keep bombing there homes. My first thought when I read that was "WOW!".  To do something like that is borderline crazy. But if you believe in what you are saying then kudos to you for being brave enough to say it.

She said in the beginning of the story that working in corporate America with the downtown offices and and people dressed in suits repulsed her. So this line of work seems to be right up her alley. To me this as a job would not be ideal. I am much more conservative and would not be comfortable with the assorted outfits or just being so outspoken about my opinions. But I do think it is cool that she is able to have a job that allows her to stand up for what she believes in. Although it may be odd to her it's much better than some average desk job.