2010 October Archive | Feministing

I am literally twiddling my f*&%ing thumbs

November 2nd is fast approaching, and early voting is already available in a bunch of states. So I have a question for you: What’s your fucking excuse for not voting?

You know that enthusiasm gap you’ve been hearing so much about? Don’t fall into it! And if you’re in a state with an candidate on the ballot who believes that a woman who gets pregnant as the result of rape or incest should be forced to carry that pregnancy to term – I’m looking at you, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado – well, you know what to do.

Twiddling your thumbs is not an acceptable excuse. Also unacceptable: “I’m fucking looking at paparazzi photos of Kim Kardashian’s cellulite” and “I’m getting a fucking ...

November 2nd is fast approaching, and early voting is already available in a bunch of states. So I have a question for you: What’s your fucking excuse for not voting?

You know that enthusiasm gap you’ve been ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

SPARK-ing a movement against the harmful sexualization of girls

I was sad to miss the SPARK summit last week, but happy to find that the always cogent Sarah Seltzer has a great summary over at Alternet. Here’s an excerpt:

At the SPARK summit and its constituent women’s organizations, leaders emphasize a subtle but crucial difference between “healthy” and “harmful” iterations of teen sexuality. A rigid, male-oriented, surface conception of sexuality being thrust upon girls a la the Pussycat Dolls is pernicious. But young girls taking charge of their own sexuality and making choices that are smart, healthy and feel good is fabulous. It’s a difficult line to delineate for the general public, especially considering the average American IQ on nuanced sexual issues, not to mention the average media-maker’s apathy ...

I was sad to miss the SPARK summit last week, but happy to find that the always cogent Sarah Seltzer has a great summary over at Alternet. Here’s an excerpt:

At the SPARK summit and its constituent ...

By Winter Trabex • 13 years ago

Pockets of Understanding

With all the attention focused on the Yale fraternity as of late, not much has been said about the positive issues that take place on campuses throughout the country. I’m writing this blog to talk about a very positive experience I’ve had today.

Hi, my name is Winter Trabex. I’m a transgender lesbian feminist who doesn’t eat meat. I currently go to Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. Shippensburg is a state school that has been around for a while, but doesn’t have a lot of national recognition. Having our grounds double as public property might have something to do with that.

For a while, the prevailing belief at Shippensburg was that no one wanted to get involved with anything. It was ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

In Iowa, homophobia on wheels

In July, I blogged about the Nation Organization for Marriage’s “One Man, One Woman” bus tour. The tour made stops around the country this summer, met by marriage equality supporters and homophobic signs along the way.

Now, NOM has a new bus: The Judge Bus. The title suggests the best reality TV show ever imagined: the nation’s nine most powerful justices drive around the country in a double-decker bus, completing a series of intense intellectual challenges. Every week, Congress votes on which judges will get to stay, and which judges will immediately return to the bus, take off their robes… and go home. Hosted by Mario Lopez and Tyra Banks.

Sadly, the actual Judge Bus way less fun than that. It’s ...

Now, ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski fights back as a write-in candidate

Everyone is talking about the midterm election, and for good reason. What happens on November 2nd will have a huge impact on all of us in this economically tenuous and culturally-divided time. One interesting race to watch is in Alaska, where one of the front runners is actually a write-in candidate. The New York Times reports:

Ms. [Lisa] Murkowski has defied conventional wisdom and her colleagues in the Republican establishment by waging a credible race as a write-in candidate. Analysts and Alaskans now say she could overcome the odds and logistical hurdles to win, something no senator has done since Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 1954.

Murkowski, an incumbent, was beat out by Joe Miller, a Sarah Palin protege, in ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

More magazine features “The New Feminists”

Here’s what I love about the new MORE Magazine article on “The New Feminists”: Their self-professed motivation was to halt the seemingly endless lament, “There are no young feminists,” and show some of them, listen to them, and highlight their work. Feministing is represented heartily (go Perez! go Jess! go me!). There is actually quite a range of thoughtful commentary in the various snippets collected–everything from birth rights to authentic masculinity to manga is covered. The cover is none other than Jane Lynch.

I missed the photo shoot, as did all the other Feministing editors featured, but Tracy Clark-Flory has an interesting reflection on it over at Salon. She writes:

Maybe 90 percent of the time was spent in hair, makeup and wardrobe. Faces were ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

On “The Assassination of Dr. Tiller”

It’s hard to say much about last night’s documentary because I think it largely spoke for itself. (For anyone who missed it, you can watch it online at The Rachel Maddow Show website.) But I do have to say a few things about why this documentary is so damn important.

First off, for Rachel Maddow to use her editorial power on a major cable news channel to address such a contentious issue as this in such a way — well, it’s just ground-breaking. When we talk about abortion on television, it’s either referring to some fictional television character that opts out of the abortion last-minute, or political pundits loudly debating about this word that loses its meaning. Because the ...

It’s hard to say much about last night’s documentary because I think it largely spoke for itself. (For anyone who missed it, you can watch it online at The Rachel Maddow Show website.) But I ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

Breastfeeding: It Does a Body Good (as in, makes it look better)

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Interesting how they succeed in mocking your run-of-the-mill diet commercial while still managing to say, as Sociological Images aptly put it: “[D]on’t ever forget, ladies: one of your main responsibilities as a new mom is to lose the weight as quickly as possible.”

Transcript after jump.

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Interesting how they succeed in mocking your run-of-the-mill diet ...