Where Babies = Arrows

No Longer Quivering (http://nolongerquivering.com/) is a blog started last year by Vyckie Garrison and her friend Laura, with the goal to bring attention to the dark underbelly of the Quiverfull movement based on their own experiences. Since then, it has also become a place for other women to tell their own stories of living through (and making it out alive!) patriarchal and fundamentalist religion by appearing as guest bloggers. While Laura hasn't been able to be around much anymore, Vyckie is still posting updates to her story (part one starts here) while also working on writing her book.

Until hearing about this blog I had never heard of the term "Quiverfull", though after reading about it realized that I knew of two families who fit the description from my old days at church. The Quiverfull movement is basically a lifestyle adopted by hardcore evangelical Christians who make it a mission to breed as much as humanly possible, all for the glory of God. This is based on the Bible passage of Psalm 127:3-5 "Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate."

Not only are women expected to constantly be pregnant in their mission to collect as many "arrows" as possible... but men are also the leaders and God-appointed heads of their household, mediators between God and the rest of the family. So, basically the men rule with an iron fist because God said so and the women are to dilligently bow down, with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. As you might guess, this opens the door for some frighteningly abusive relationships. But that's not my story to tell, many in the community at NLQ are bravely doing that themselves.

This leads me to what is one of my favourite parts about NLQ - the community. Comments for each blog post are posted on their message board, which I think is what encourages the strong sense of community they have going on. There is a real mixed bag of people from all different religious (and non-religious) backgrounds with different points of view to bring to the table. And much like us here at Buttercup, the bulk of the community is made up of women of all ages, but with a few brave men taking part as well. Though I mostly just lurk and have yet to really throw my two cents into any discussions it's still one of my favourite parts about the site.

I first heard about No Longer Quivering back in April of last year from a post in a Live Journal community that I follow, calledDark Christianity. However, No Longer Quivering gained a lot of attention from an article on Salon.com a month prior. Since then Vyckie has made a few television appearances, including a spot on the Joy Behar Show and being in an episode of The Secret Lives of Women.

You can follow Vyckie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NoQuivering

And there's even a Facebook fan page here.

Tasty Vulva Snacks

It's Love Your Vulva Month here at Buttercup so, logically, we're going to show you how to make edible vulvas (vulvae?). Now you too can eat pussy in the comfort of your own home!

For this recipe we decided to go with thumbprint cookies, but instead of a circle of jam in the center we modified the shape into a slit down the middle. Because I'm pretty much useless when it comes to working in the kitchen I enlisted the help of my fiance, Ronny, who works with baked goods for a living. I'm going to admit right now that if he hadn't been here to help me I would have given up part way through making the dough. Here's why:

I'm so awesome, I broke my dad's mixer.

There are a whole bunch of different recipes for thumbprint cookies out there and you can use whichever one you like best. I decided to go with the vegan recipe that I lifted off of Katie because it looked pretty simple, except I used regular milk and butter because that's what I had.

Thumbprint Cookies

1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sugar
½ cup nonhydrogenated vegan margarine
¹⁄3 cup vanilla soymilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. almond extract
1 cup seedless raspberry jam

1. Whisk together all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.
2. Beat sugar and margarine with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in soymilk, vanilla extract, and almond extract until combined. Beat in flour mixture until soft dough forms. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes, or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray. Roll dough into 1ı/2-inch balls, and place dough balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Press indentation in center of each ball with thumb.
4. Place jam in resealable plastic bag, close, and snip bottom corner with scissors. Squeeze jam into indentations in cookies. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are light brown. Transfer to wire rack with spatula, and cool.

Ronny and I might have had our proportions off a little as we ended up only making 1 sheet of 12 cookies and then using the rest of the leftover dough for a side project. We also probably should have flattened out the cookies a little bit because instead of taking the expected 12 to 15 minutes to bake it took about 20 minutes. Then again, we might not have actually needed to leave the cookies in to bake for quite that long. The insides of the cookies were nice and soft, almost kind of the texture of a scone or biscuit, but the outsides were just a tiny bit hard.

Once the cookies were out of the oven we carefully applied the cinnamon heart clits before the jam cooled so they'd stick. We let the cookies cool and moved them to a plate and, much to my amusement, the jam that had leaked over the edge of some of the cookies had cooled into place. I think it looks appropriate!

I think this is just one way to accomplish edible vulvas. If you had to get creative, how would you choose to make them?