"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
There are tons others like it, but this one is especially obnoxious It's description says the group is "Dedicated to keeping Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office and in the kitchen." They're also selling t -shirts for their "cause."
But the most upsetting part of this was the large number of women who are members - just glancing at it, I would guess that at least twenty percent of members are women. Depressing.
Because of the huge volume of stuff we blog about here, we (regrettably) don't always have time to follow a story to its end or report on the variety of responses it garners around the blogosphere. In an effort to be better about that, here are a few updates to recent posts:
We blogged about Canadian doctors refusing to perform pap smears on single women (a story originally reported at RHRealityCheck) earlier this week. The key source for that article has a post up making clear that this is anecdotal, second-hand evidence. The story as she told it is absolutely true, she says, but this is obviously a call for more in-depth reporting on the subject. (No, Ms. Pedgehog, you're not being a bitch about this! It's a valid point.)
To clarify, the sports bra ads that we blogged about last week were spec ads, meaning they were created by a third party never approved by the company for public use.
Colorado state Rep. Larry Liston -- you remember him, the one who called teen moms "sluts" -- recently visited a school for teenage mothers. I highly recommend this account of his visit. After a long awkward conversation, he finally apologizes to them, face to face: "I uttered a word which I regret and I apologized for. It's a word I don't use. Scout's honor. I never use it. I regret it. I am sorry." Uh, except for that one very public time he used it? Seriously, though, the article is great: read the whole thing. (Thanks to Libby for the heads up!)
And finally, I mentioned in Sunday's Weekly Feminist Reader that our awesome feminist bloggy pal Sara at F-Words recently found out she has a brain tumor, and will be undergoing surgery to remove it. Please send prayers, thoughts, good vibes, etc. her way. And if you want to do something a bit more concrete for Sara, there's a donation button in the upper-righthand corner of her site.
I refuse to post the image of the newest horrific stunt that PETA managed to pull off in London yesterday. Instead, I'll go vintage sexism and give you the oldest ad that we have - Save the wild pussy!
Sometimes it seems that PETA's sexist bullshit will never cease to haunt us, so I thought it was about time we do something about it. I wanted to take the opportunity after this most recent heinous stunt to make a poll out of five of their most offensive ads/actions that we have and ask you which is your personal favorite (to hate, that is). So will it be:
And while we're collecting your responses, give PETA a new campaign idea like these that Ann suggested, "Vegetarianism is not sexism" or "Don't make women your meat substitute."
Hey there, we're back with our potty-mouthed vlogging for another installment of the Friday Feminist Fuck You. I recorded this week's edition, and since I lack video editing software, it's grainy and missing the fancy titles and logos that Jessica's version was sporting last week. But anyway, check it out:
For more on gender and the Academy Awards, see this op-ed from the Guardian.
PS 1, an affiliate of MoMA and the venue for ridiculously fun and famous summer parties (it's in mine and Jessica's hood in Queens), is holding "the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art. "
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution is running through May 12th, and it looks pretty damn cool. So if you're around the New York area, definitely check it out. I know I will.
The call to Idaho came in July to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho.
On the recording provided by The Advocate, an actor portraying a donor said he wanted his money used to eliminate black unborn children because "the less black kids out there the better."
Kersey laughed nervously and said: "Understandable, understandable. ... Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out."
You can read the whole exchange here and listen to it here; it was part of an anti-choice effort to "catch" abortion providers taking funds from obviously racist donors.
What so awful about this, in addition to Kersey's horrifying response on the call, is that this plays directly into anti-choice talking points about abortion and race.
Rebecca Poedy, CEO of PP of Idaho said, "A fundraising employee violated the organization's principles and practices when she appeared to be willing to accept a racially motivated donation...We apologize for the manner in which this offensive call was handled. We take full responsibility for the actions of the fundraising staff member who created the impression that racism of any form would be tolerated at Planned Parenthood. We took swift action to ensure that each of our employees understands their responsibility to communicate clearly with donors about the fact that we believe in helping all individuals, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation, make informed decisions about their reproductive health care."
Black man vs. white woman - The Boston Globe: "Hillary Clinton contends with gender stereotypes, and Barack Obama with racial ones. Which bias runs deeper in the American psyche? The answer does not bode well for Clinton." (Oppression Olympics defined. Just check out the graphic!)
Vaccinating Boys for Girls’ Sake? - New York Times: "Will parents of sons consent to a three-shot regimen that has been marketed as benefiting girls? How do you pitch that to Gardasil Boy’s parents? Think altruism. Responsibility. Chivalry, even? Oh, and yes: some explicit details about genital warts..." (Shocker: this is in the Styles section.)
Obama: First Female President? - Newsweek.com: "It has been a rarity in modern political life: a wide-open race for the nomination of both parties. But whatever happens from here on out, this campaign will always be remembered for the emergence of the first serious woman candidate for president: Barack Obama."
Never Too Young for That First Pedicure - New York Times: "One recent rainy afternoon, Eleanor LaFauci, 7, sat with her feet in open-toed foam slippers, admiring her toenails, freshly painted watermelon pink. 'Look, we’re reading an adult magazine,' Eleanor told her mother, gleefully waving a copy of People..."
Want the government to pay for your sex change? Go to Iran. - FP Passport: "Last fall, Passport noted that more sex-change surgeries are performed in Iran than in any other country except Thailand. Ayatollah Khomeini approved them for "diagnosed transsexuals" 25 years ago, and today the Iranian government will pay up to half the cost for those in financial need."
The Virginia Senate voted Wednesday to cut off state funding to Planned Parenthood of Virginia because it offers abortions, an action that could endanger hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid for women's health-care programs.
The decision, a major setback for the Senate's new Democratic majority, marks the first time in more than a decade that the Senate has decided against giving state aid to the organization because of its abortion-related activities.
Can someone say slippery anti-choice slope? Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) noted that, "Once we start down this road, there will be no stopping."
Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) pointed out that Planned Parenthood does a lot more than provide abortions - it provides affordable contraception!
"The irony is, Planned Parenthood probably prevents more abortions than any other organization in the country," she said. But of course, anti-choicers aren't concerned about preventing abortion - if they were, they'd be touting birth control - their real concern is limiting women's choices and rolling back our rights.
Thank you to the brave women of the feminist movement for making it normal for girls and women to entertain a range of career options. When my grandmother was young, she knew she could either be a teacher or a nurse. She chose teacher. When my mom was young, she thought she might be a secretary because she'd heard that if you did your work very quickly, you could read the rest of the day. She never thought she could go into publishing or be a writer or other fancy man jobs that involved books. Despite being brilliant and dynamic, she only saw a very narrow range of options open to her job-wise. (She later would become a superstar social worker/community activist).
By the time I was five-years-old I told my parents that I would like to be a part-time waitress and part-time doctor. Then it was ballerina. Then it was vet. Then it was lawyer (until my dad took me to work and made me watch him talk on the phone all frickin' day...it ain't no Law and Order people). Then it was, finally and forever, writer.
Does is matter if women identify as feminist or is just important that they live feminist values?
It's a question that has haunted the movement for ages. It came up quite a bit for me when I was teaching gender studies at Hunter College. I could see that I was reaching the young women in men in my class--that they were moved to think about race and sex as constructs, sexism in the workplace, rape, sexuality as a spectrum not a binary (in other words, they were really "getting it")--but few of them left my class wearing the feminist label proudly on their sleeves. Did I fail? Or was it enough that they were thinking and acting like feminists?
As I've been speaking at college campuses around the country about my book, I'm running into the same questions. I always argue that being involved in feminism is one of the solutions to the crisis of self-hatred and eating disordered behavior in this country (basically that having a systemic lens to apply to all of this personal suffering can be totally healing and liberating). And sometimes "the kids these days" seem to embrace my point. Some ladies at Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL (home of the first ferris wheel) started a feminist group on campus after I was there (yeahyeahyeah). Sometimes, they take their own creative spin on it...
I was at Princeton recently and one of my student guides was the fabulous and brilliant Chloe Angyal. Not only is she studying sociology and thinking about working in public health, but she had great cowgirl boots and an Australian accent (swoon). Anyway, we're new best friends. She sent me this link to a piece she wrote called "How to be a feminist without anyone knowing." In it, she claims that she is "a self-confessed raging feminist," that she doesn't "think anyone should be ashamed of the label." At the same time, she writes, "I can understand how many women are not quite ready for it yet." She then goes on to detail five great feminist mindsets/actions for the "I'm not a feminist but..." types that don't involve truly coming out as feminists.
Okay, so what do we think? Obviously the best case scenario is girls and women around the world embracing the term and being raging, out, joyful feminists. BUT, given that best case scenario isn't always possible, is this a good alternative perspective? Will thinking and acting like a feminist long enough lead closeted ladies into the light? Does it matter--really and truly--if they ever embrace the label as long as they're contributing to the movement? (I think it does, but I'm asking for fancy rhetorical effect).
There's this other book out, I don't know if you've heard of it, called Full Frontal Feminism. Um, obviously FFF is--in part--an argument for why young women should and need to embrace the label. And what a wildly successful argument it has been! I run into young women all the time who say that the book turned them into out feminists, that they named their clubs on campus "Full Frontal Feminism" in honor of their awakening etc. (Go Jess, go Jess, go go go Jess!)
But what about those gals who are still hanging out in the in-between? Must we convince them to take the label or is it enough that they're down for the cause?
Everyone should check out Ann's great piece up at The American Prospect Online about identity politics and this election. Among other things, she makes the salient and totally neglected point that every election is, in part, about identity politics--even when every candidate is white, old, and rich. I chuckled at this bit:
After all, Clinton and Obama and their supporters aren't playing "identity politics" any more than John Kerry's supporters did in 2004, or George W. Bush's did in 2000. It's absurd to suggest that the Andover-Yale-Harvard-bred Bush adopting a swagger and thickening his Texas accent, or John Kerry riding a borrowed Harley onto The Tonight Show set, was anything other than identity politics.
I turned the last page on this gut-twisting dystopic novel, authored by ex-politico Joe McGinniss Jr., yesterday while cramped in an airplane, headed west, and I felt trapped. I couldn’t get the amoral world of artificial sexuality and economic exploitation, set (surprise, surprise) in Vegas, out of my mind. And a question kept buzzing—like the neon found all over that rough city—in my brain: why do we read?
If we read, if I read, to learn something—than this novel has failed me. I learned nothing new about sex or the quarterlife crisis or exploitation. What I already knew was exaggerated and put in my face in freakish proportions, but it was not new (it may be new to an older reader). If we read to be inspired, uplifted, called-to-action then hot damn has this novel failed me. It was so depressing near the end that part of me wanted to just shut it and shove it in the seat pocket in front of me, not waste another precious minute of my life feeling so sad. But if we read to be moved, to feel something potently and undeniably, than the novel has succeeded.
Hey all! I just wanted to give a quick hello and let all you lovely readers know that I am still around, but you may have noticed I haven't written in a while. I recently had some unsavory circumstances which forced me to evacuate my apartment (I will explain all next week), along with being really sick a handful of times and I am finally recovering from a bout of strep throat! Boo!
But I wanted to say hello, in case you missed me, and let you know that I miss you (!) and I will be back in full blogging form next week.
Also, a cute video to lighten the pain of my absence.
Planned Parenthood of Idaho is taking (justifiable) heat after an employee 
Thank you to the brave women of the feminist movement for making it normal for girls and women to entertain a range of career options. When my grandmother was young, she knew she could either be a teacher or a nurse. She chose teacher. When my mom was young, she thought she might be a secretary because she'd heard that if you did your work very quickly, you could read the rest of the day. She never thought she could go into publishing or be a writer or other fancy man jobs that involved books. Despite being brilliant and dynamic, she only saw a very narrow range of options open to her job-wise. (She later would become a superstar social worker/community activist).
I turned the last page on