"I love feministing.com and always learn from it." Katha Pollitt, The Nation
"Many people need a morning "fix." For some, it's coffee. For others, it's "SportsCenter." For me, it's Feministing.com." Katie Stone, The Denver Post
"Feminism is fun again! Every bit as edifying as your women's studies books from college, but with a biting sense of humor that keeps things punchy, not preachy." Marie Claire, December 2006
On the serious harassment problems with a high school ROTC instructor in Tennessee: "Flash your breasts at the chief and you could smoke cigarettes on campus, students alleged in statements to investigators. Run topless in the gymnasium during an unauthorized sleepover and the chief turned a blind eye to drinking rum in a West High restroom."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decries the trend in his country of teenagers getting boob jobs.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye.
But is there a streak of feminist empowerment in your character's actions? A cop in the film says, "Women kill their friends, husbands, shit they love." You kill strangers in the street. Such a big part of the female psyche is that we hate inwards. What if there was a woman who said, "I'm not going to be that kind of victim. I'm not going to hurt myself, I'm going to hurt you." What would that feel like? This was no feminist design on my part -- although I call myself a feminist -- but that's exhilarating to women who see this movie.
A conference this weekend devotes itself to advancing the science for a male birth control pill.
Clarence Thomas says of Anita Hill, "She was not the demure, religious, conservative person that they portrayed. That's not the person I knew." In other words, that sexual harassment was totally warranted! If you're not demure, you can expect it.
Nothing pisses me off more than reporters misquoting sources to make the point that they want to, and not the truth. Such is the case with this article in today's Times Online which takes on the recent trend piece about men feeling "emasculated" by women making more money than them.
Reporter Tony Allen-Mills uses quotes from this post to try and make the point that I was actually arguing against.
The main question on Valenti’s website last week was whether the male ego can cope with the potentially emasculating strain of being out-performed and out-spent by the new breed of fast-rising female lawyers, doctors and architects.
Really? News to me. But here's my favorite deliberate misquoting:
It is a phenomenon that older men have long learnt to deal with – one 2005 study calculated that 8.3m American wives earn more than their husbands. But it appears to be more difficult for men in their twenties to deal with what Valenti described as “their hunter instincts”.
If I ever refer to men's "hunter instincts" in a non-sarcastic way, you have my full permission to take away my feminist card. What I actually said:
April Beyer says that women should never pay for dates while in the courting process and never ask men out. Cause it would interfere with their hunter instincts or some such shit.
I know I'm being a bit ranty, but is it so much to ask that reporters use quotes accurately? Sigh.
cack·le (kkl)
v. cack·led, cack·ling, cack·les
v.intr. 1. To make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen after laying an egg. 2. To laugh or talk in a shrill manner.
No, this isn't Rush Limbaugh or Fox News using a gendered description of her laugh. It's the nation's newspaper. Aren't journalists supposed to be better at finding original and creative ways of describing things? "Cackle" falls back on stereotypes. So does "giggle," which is another descriptor used in the article.
The article goes on to discuss how Hillary laughs at inappropriate moments. Wouldn't you, if you were trying to counteract the "ball-busting bitch" image bestowed upon you by both conservative commenters and the mainstream media? If she's all serious, all the time, she feeds the stereotype. But she can't seem to get ahead by trying to infuse more humor, either. She's addressed this herself, after she laughed at her own joke about her husband's infidelities, and reporters followed up with serious questions:
“You guys!” she said to reporters, chuckling, after the third question on the topic. “I thought I was funny. You guys keep telling me, lighten up, be fun. Now I get a little funny, and I’m being psychoanalyzed.”
No kidding. Psychoanalyzed and basically called a witch.
Slate has a slightly better take on the coverage of Hillary's laugh, one that at least acknoweldges the sexism inherent in descriptions like "cackle" and "giggle":
Clinton's ideological enemies have had fun, too. Matt Drudge posted a sound clip of it, and Sean Hannity raised the pressing question of whether Clinton's laughter was presidential. Hannity should be reminded that George Bush's Beavis laugh was such an accurate imitation of the teenage cartoon reprobate he should have had to pay royalties. Like all aspects of the Clinton campaign, there's sexism in the giggle critique: Women can only laugh in certain preapproved ways. Historically, men have categorized women's laughter as a way to diminish them—they either cackle like a witch, or they titter like a schoolgirl.
No shit. If they weren't using witch or schoolgirl allusions to describe the laugh, they'd no doubt be calling it "mannish."
Below the jump, a video clip of what I'm now calling "The Laugh."
Ok, so I was clearly out of it this week and failed to notice that Steve Galson has been named acting surgeon general. Galson is the FDA official who said it was his personal decision to deny the application to sell Plan B over-the-counter without a prescription. Also, this:
The draft GAO report indicates that Galson voiced concerns in FDA meetings about how easier availability of Plan B would effect sexual behavior by girls.
That's the kind of talk that gets you promoted to act as "the nation's doctor" in this administration!
“In my mind the ‘acting’ is off the title. I am going to be the surgeon general and actively engage in policy and education,” he says.
Well, at least the nation's women and girls have that to look forward to. Galson takes over the post on Monday, as the Senate has not yet made a decision on Bush's surgeon general pick, James Holsinger.
And who's getting promoted at the FDA to replace Galson as director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research? Janet Woodcock, the FDA official who said that the over-the-counter availablilty of Plan B would lead to
“extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B.”
That's right: The infamous teen sex cults quote. Woodcock also said Plan B shouldn't be sold over-the-counter to teens -- not because of the science but "to appease the administration's constituents." Again, it's no wonder she's been promoted.
Ren Jender is a writer/performer who for eight and a half years was the host and founder of The Amazon Slam, a Boston-based all woman poetry slam that won "The Best Poll" of The Boston Phoenix from 1998-2003 and was named "Best of Boston" in Boston Magazine in 1999. Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, Bay Windows and Spare Change. She has been profiled in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Metro, The Boston Phoenix, Curve and Teen Voices. She was the co-curator/co-producer of the Lisa King Memorial show in Boston in May of 2006.
She's currently working on a new creative and community project. Here's Ren...
...Tauke wants a constitutional amendment recognizing "the personhood of the unborn." "When NARAL comes into the state," Tauke says, "I'm not going to sit back and take it."
NARAL apparently spent $100,000 to defeat Tauke. So is it really a coincidence that this man is policy chief of the only wireless company that (initially) refused to cooperate with NARAL?
(And this is a little off topic, but upon reading Tom Tauke's name, my first thought was, "The Indian feather guy?" As the National Review article mentions, his campaign used to hand out feathers on headbands (like this) at events. I actually remember seeing this at a parade when I was a kid in Iowa. Who knows? I may have even worn one. How retro and messed-up is that?)
During MSNBC's post-Democratic presidential debate analysis this week, Chris Matthews asked Sen. Chris Dodd:“Do you find it difficult to debate a woman?”
You know, because vaginas have special debate-blocking powers.
As a security measure, a school in upstate New York, has banned students from carrying bags (backpacks, purses anything). Unless you're a menstruating girl, that is. Need some clarification? So did I.
A student at Tri-Valley High School was called out of class by a security guard during a school sweep last week to make sure no kids had backpacks or other banned bags.
Samantha Martin, 14, had a small purse with her that day.
That's why the security guard, ex-Monticello cop Mike Bunce, asked her The Question.
She says he told her she couldn't have a purse unless she had her period. Then he asked, "Do you have your period?"
Samantha was mortified.
Apparently, there was a school rumor (not an actual rule) that girls could only carry small bags or purses if they had their periods. So security guards starting pulling girls out of classes, or questioning them in the hallways, about whether they were menstruating or not. Real appropriate.
What's heartening, though, is that the students aren't taking this crap without a fight.
Girls have worn tampons on their clothes in protest, and purses made out of tampon boxes. Some boys wore maxi-pads stuck to their shirts in support.
After hearing that someone might have been suspended for the protest, freshman Hannah Lindquist, 14, went to talk to {Principal Robert] Worden. She wore her protest necklace, an OB tampon box on a piece of yarn. She said Worden confiscated it, talked to her about the code of conduct and the backpack rule — and told her she was now "part of the problem."
Yeah, girls who don't want creepy security guards knowing about their cycles are huge problems. Soon, they'll expect things like basic respect and privacy rights!
Happy Friday folks. If you're in the New York area and want to come to see me speak and read a bit from Full Frontal Feminism, I'll be at the West Side YMCA at 8pm. All the info is below.
And to get you revved up for whatever fun (hopefully feminist) plans you have tonight, please enjoy the above video of Le Tigre interpreted by Jem and the Holograms.
The Writer's Voice Visiting Author Series Presents:
Jessica Valenti “Full Frontal Feminism”
Friday, September 28, 2007
8:00 PM
Admission Free and Open to the Public
Reading/Discussion/Book Signing
West Side YMCA-- The George Washington Lounge
5 West 63rd Street (between Central Park West & Broadway)
Fired pregnant woman was told to "suck in" her belly
Be careful, bellies, you might scare the "beautiful" people!
Sometimes the jokes just write themselves. A plastic surgery office is being sued for discrimination after firing a pregnant secretary who was told to "suck in her belly so she wouldn't scare away patients."
[Erin] Griggle, who worked in the company's Cranberry, [Pittsburgh] office, said she was fired in December 2005, two weeks after telling her supervisors she was pregnant.
In the lawsuit, Griggle said she was told to keep "sucking her belly in" by Dr. Brian Vasser Heil, the company's president, so she didn't scare away patients who came to the office to look better.
Griggle was fired days later, despite having recently received a satisfactory performance review, the lawsuit said.
Yeah, but she's all pregnant and gross, and we wouldn't want the pretty people to have look at her bulging belly. I mean, that would be too real and shit.
Here's some good news to get you revved up for the weekend.
Roman Catholic bishops in Connecticut have agreed to let hospital personnel give emergency contraception to all rape victims, reversing their decision days before a new state law requires it.
Okay, so they were forced to comply. Whatevs. At least women in Connecticut can rest a little easier. But here's an interesting tidbit. Apparently, state church officials wanted to mandate an ovulation test for women seeking emergency contraception before they would dispense it. The idea being if a woman was ovulating there was a better chance of conception having taken place--and then they wouldn't give her EC.
And people have the nerve to argue that anti-choice shit isn't about controlling women's bodies?
Okay, I usually don't get gushy over celebs. But I'm here at The Clinton Global Initiative this week and the story above was one of the most touching I heard.
District Attorney Reed Walters (owner of a very selective memory) has decided not to try and charge Bell as an adult again after his conviction was overturned.
Bell still faces second degree battery and conspiracy charges in a juvenile court, but was released today on bail.
Did anyone else see this? You can watch now at MySpace (though it isn't working for me right now), and at MTV.com. Here's the thing. In theory, it was a great idea. Get a candidate to have a conversation with actual young people, and let other young people submit questions and their reactions online, all at once. The tool they used is called Flektor, which certainly sounds fancy enough.
The problem was, as one of the other bloggers who attended mentioned, is that the event really felt like the same old boring town hall meeting candidates have been doing forever. John Edwards can talk passionately about a lot of things, but today he kind of droned on until the last 10 minutes. if the point is getting a lot of information to the (ugh, terrible phrase) MTV generation, you have to be a little more interesting, and for the love of Gideon, brief. Though, he did end up with something like 93% approval from web viewers, so maybe I just have a sort attention span.
I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you that feminist issues were not a large part of the event. However, the word feminist was uttered. By a student talking about the need for more diverse authors in college curricula.
Now that I've talked a lot of shit about the event, let me tell you what I liked.
