2010 September Archive

Building with the big guys

No Country for Young Women has a very cool series going on about women working in architecture and construction–two fields that are wildly male-dominated. Sara Fox, an American property development consultant living in London, who was responsible for the construction of London’s iconic Gherkin building, had this to say:

Because construction is still, really and truly a male-dominated industry, the initial reaction is that as a woman I can’t possibly have any credibility. I can’t tell you the number of meetings I’ve attended where even though I was the most senior person present, because I was the only woman in the room, I was expected to serve coffee and tea. I have often found it’s just easier to offer, to ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

What We Missed.

Monica Potts at the American Prospect on the “Shame Game,” that is the online campaign, “No Wedding, No Womb.”

Jon Stewart on how the new GOP pledge is actually the old GOP pledge.

A teacher is on “trial,” because it has been discovered that she used to do some sex work.

Some notes on Melissa Harris-Lacewell’s keynote at Facing Race.

A deep and thought-provoking take on Pastor Eddie Long from Jelani Cobb who attended his church yesterday.

Monica Potts at the American Prospect on the “Shame Game,” that is the online campaign, “No Wedding, No Womb.”

Jon Stewart on how the new GOP pledge is actually the old GOP pledge.

A teacher is ...

By Rose • 13 years ago

Lil’ Wayne’s sexist and misleading song “Gonorrhea”

Lil’ Wayne’s new album that is being released digitally on iTunes today should be called “Women Aren’t Human Beings” instead of “I Am Not a Human Being.” His new song “Gonorrhea” captures how bad sexism in hip hop can really get. In the song’s verses he engages in the age-old strategy of vilifying an unknown opponent by likening him to a bitch, a word that has become a synonym for women for the umpteenth time. You see this tactic in a line like “you’s a bitch like zeta phi beta muthafucker,” a reference to members of the historically black sorority which includes greats such as Zora Neale Hurston or Violette Anderson, the first African American attorney.

While ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Electras talk back: responses to Susan Faludi’s Harper’s piece

Last week, Harper’s published an essay by Susan Faludi about intergenerational feminist tension, in which she examines how the “mother-daughter divide” damages the feminist movement. The way she sees it, younger women have “fallen into the 1920s trap of employing a commercialized ersatz ‘liberation’ to undermine the political mobilization of their mothers.” Amanda Marcotte, Emily Bazelon, and others have posted thoughtful responses to it, and we’re sure plenty of good dialogue has been going on in offline listserves and coffee shops alike. We mulled over how to respond most effectively here at Feministing, and have decided to publish a week-long series of responses from a diversity of young voices in our community, in addition to a ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

The confusing logic of, “Marriage is not a civil right. You’re not black.”

This past weekend Ann Coulter spoke at Homocon the inaugural party of GOProud, a gay conservative organization. After making a series of jokes about gay marriage, Coulter made the dangerous and false statement that gay marriage is not a civil right, because gay folks are not black.

In one of a series of racially insensitive remarks that pervaded her speech, Coulter added, “Marriage is not a civil right. You’re not black.” It was part of a larger argument on which she later elaborated, telling the crowd that the 14th Amendment only applies to African-Americans and that it does not, in fact, apply to women, LGBT people or other minorities.

via TPM.

Beyond the tragic insistence that women, LGBT people ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

CNN’s Don Lemon does courageous reporting on male sexual abuse

It is so rare to see sexual assault handled with respect in the mainstream media, and even rarer still to see it handled at all when it comes to male victims. Check out this rare and powerful example of reporting at its best–CNN’s Don Lemon interviews three current member and one former member of Bishop Eddie Long’s very successful New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop Long is defending himself against three lawsuits brought by young men who allege that he abused them. Lemon cuts through the hype surrounding these charges and, around minute 5, talks bravely about his own experience with sexual assault. It’s really quite something:

Thanks to Nancy for the heads up.

Related:
Pastor Eddie ...

It is so rare to see sexual assault handled with respect in the mainstream media, and even rarer still to see it handled at all when it comes to male victims. Check out this rare and powerful ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

The Feministing Five: Rebecca Traister

Rebecca Traister is a staff writer for Salon and author of the new book Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women. Traister covered the 2008 election for Salon, and the book explores how the campaigns, the candidates and the media coverage of the race represented a watershed moment in the history of gender in America. It has received rave reviews from the New York Times’ Sunday Book Review and Slate, and I highly recommend it.

One of the most fascinating parts of the narrative that Traister lays out is her own story in relation to the election. Traister started out as a Hillary Clinton detractor, but watching Clinton make history, and receive ...

By Miriam • 13 years ago

New project from Dan Savage: It Gets Better

Dan Savage (the man behind the Savage Love sex advice column and podcast) has started a new project, called It Gets Better. It was inspired by the suicide of gay teenager Billy Lucas, after he experienced much bullying.

About the project:

If you’re gay or lesbian or bi or trans, and you’ve ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, “Fuck, I wish I could’ve told him that it gets better,” this is your chance. We can’t help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don’t think they have a future—and we can help them….